gothic horror

Queen of Schlock! Actual Gothic Horror

Oh Hi! Yes, I’m back. I was going to continue my blogging break until the new year… but, a blog post, listing top 10 Gothic Horror movies, stirred something up. Ticked me off. Confused me.

I’m not going to post the article or any of the others I looked at afterwards {to see if they had similar entries — sadly, they mostly did}. This will only create an angry mob. You know torches, pitchforks, and all that jazz. This happens when you see a list that contains only a few actual Gothic Horror movies. Instead, I am going to list some of my all time favourite Gothic Horror movies.

{I included full movies when possible.}

As I mentioned, I’m confused by the other lists. I’m not an expert by any means, but… there were some very obvious choices that were omitted. How could they have missed most of Barbara Steele’s movies {one list has zero}, not included a single Hammer film… or any Italian, Spanish or Mexican movies? How? It leaves me wondering if they watched any of the movies or were paid to create a list and used what they googled. 😦

Below is a very small list of my all time favourite Gothic Horror movies. If I listed everything, I would need to create 100 parts to this blog post. Maybe in the near future, I will post some more.

Nightmare Castle (1965)

Castle of Blood (1964)

Premature Burial (1962)

Invasion of the Vampires (1963)

The Pit and The Pendulum (1964)

Terror in the Crypt (1964)

The Mask of Red Death (1964) Trailer

Black Sabbath (1963)

EVERY SINGLE HAMMER MOVIE EVER MADE! Not one single Top 10 list I read, had a Hammer movie as an entry! HOW? There are sooooo many of them!

We also can’t forget the original classics such as Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstien, Dracula, The Wolfman, White Zombie, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde and The Bat. These should automatically be on everyone’s list. Yes, I know, I know, they can put what ever THEY want on their own lists, but… if you are making a top 10 list of Gothic Horror… maybe have more than three Gothic Horror movies on your list and do a little bit of fact checking.

What are some of your favourite Gothic Horror movies?

Each month I run a b-movie night called Killer B Cinema. Join Lizzie Violet & Zoltan Du Lac for a monthly evening of b-moves from the 1950s to 1990s! Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook!

Spookytown! My Halloween Traditions

Welcome to Spookytown! A weekly blog post about, you guessed it… all things spooky. Ghost stories, books, hauntings, movies, music, history and so much more!

Ever since I was a kid, there were several things that would happen as part of the lead up to Halloween. Figure out our costumes, go with our Mom to buy the Halloween candy, figure out where Mom hid the Halloween candy (which we never found, she was really good at hiding it. I’m sure she still has to), help Mom bag the candy while trying to steal some of the candy and watch lots and lots of Halloween cartoons. Of course my Dad had a tradition of raiding our candy as soon as we went to bed after Trick or Treating. “Reeses Peanut Butter Cups… no kids, you didn’t have any of those in your Halloween candy…” Anyone else’s parents do that? I’m sure all families have one parent that does.

That feeling I had as a kid has never left me… ever. Each year I do a bunch of things starting October 1st. I already mentioned that I still watch cartoons (in this post), especially, It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, I also like to watch several movies leading up to the night, but for a really, really long time viewing Carrie the Halloween Eve tradition, along with The Exorcist, and Halloween.

A few other cartoons/animation I didn’t mention in my previous post are Mad Monster Party (I highly recommend this one), The Nightmare Before Halloween and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

I also love to read gothic horror throughout the month October, starting with my all time favourite Edgar Allan Poe. I still read The Raven, every single year!

I also still love to plan my costume and dress up, even if we aren’t going to a party. Heck, one of my all time favourite things to STILL do, is walk around my neighbourhood to see all of the decorations and check out what the kiddies are dressed up as. I’ve lived in apartments for such a long time, that I haven’t given out candy for decades. Maybe one day we will finally be able to afford our dream house, a spooky Victorian, then I can dress it up and give out bags of sugary loot! A ghoul can dream!

Another tradition growing up, was to carve a pumpkin! (then leave it out for the local critters to munch on afterwards) Another down fall from living in an apartment is I had no where to put our orange art piece. I’m considering carving a few this year and leaving them out front anyway. Considering the year we’ve been having, I need to ramp up a bit this year for my favourite day.

Another tradition, has been to take a stroll or two in a cemetery. I haven’t been able to do it for the last few years and I really miss it. Two years ago, we got married in October, so we were a bit busy, then last year we were in Japan for the month of October. I’m hoping this year we can squeeze a walk in. I’ve mentioned it in a few other posts, but our good friend runs the Toronto Cemetery Tours and she will be doing a few walks over the next month.

I’m looking forward to our Halloween traditions and to adding a few new ones. What are your Halloween traditions?