Top 10 Horror Movies: 1960s
Maybe we really do all go a little mad sometimes? Join http://www.WatchMojo.com as count down our picks for the top 10 horror movies of the 1960s. For this list, we're looking at those films that took the early cinematic groundwork in horror and expanded upon it, leaving behind the B-movie backlot, and entering the mainstream with major artists in front of and behind the camera. WARNING: Contains mature content.
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#10: “The Haunting” (1963)
A film like “The Haunting,” where a haunted house story is more effective in showing us the psychological deterioration of the characters and their fear, instead of monsters and ghosts, shows the mature direction of horror films in the ‘60s. Based on the classic Shirley Jackson novel “The Haunting of Hill House,” we follow an investigator who convinces a couple of colleagues to spend the night with him at Hill House for paranormal research. Without having to explicitly show us much, this movie is considered one of the most unsettling and terrifying ever made.
#9: “I tre volti della paura” (1963)
With the huge success of TV shows such as “Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits,” the ‘60s saw a rise in popularity of horror anthology productions, with this French-Italian film among its greatest examples. An early success by Italian shock-director Mario Bava, “Black Sabbath” presents us three short and creepy tales of insanity and otherworldly terror, all introduced to us by aged horror icon Boris Karloff. The international cast brings class to the trio of stories about ghosts, stalkers, and hunting undead creatures. America was not prepared for Bava’s extreme talent.
#8: “Village of the Damned” (1960)
Although audiences had experienced evil children before, as with the great film “The Bad Seed,” no one was prepared for an entire village of bizarre and demonic children to invade their movie screens. The now-famous plot follows a small village after all the inhabitants had lost consciousness for a short period of time. All the women wake up pregnant, and all give birth to creepy looking children that grow at an alarming rate, have telepathic powers, and harbor a thirst for blood and mayhem. With sci-fi undertones, these kids trigger the horror in every parent’s mind.
#7: “Peeping Tom” (1960)
The acclaimed classic British director of sweeping dramas such as “Black Narcissus” and “The Red Shoes” was attacked and later reviled by critics for this honest look at voyeurism and violence. A film about cinema itself, the eccentric story of a psychopathic cameraman and his unsettling violent and sexual needs urges us to watch as we go from his traumatic childhood to his unsettling adulthood. Despite its initial critical reception, the clever tale of murderous revenge and its uncomfortable subject matter is today hailed as a masterpiece and cult classic.
#6: “Les yeux sans visage” (1960)
A brilliant French surgeon is hiding a deadly secret in the basement of his secluded mansion. After his daughter’s horrific disfigurement, the rich doctor sets his eyes on some radical surgery to give her a new face...at any cost. The controversial film shocked European audiences, with its bizarre mix of poetic, haunting moods and ghastly violence, and was later released in America in a much edited, cheesier toned-down version called “The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus.” Despite this, the original cut went on to inspire countless films, and even the Billy Idol song, “Eyes Without a Face,” which is what the French title translates to in English.
#5: “The Innocents” (1961)
By the 1960s, Hollywood knew how to respectfully make some quality horror. Take a brilliant novella by Henry James, hire the great Truman Capote to help out with the script, bring in Hollywood royalty Deborah Kerr to star in it, and the Oscar-winning director of photography Freddie Francis for some gritty widescreen thrills, and you get this brilliant gothic nightmare. The story of a governess watching over two very creepy children in an even creepier house has us wondering along with her: is there something supernatural going on, or is she just going insane?
#4: “The Birds” (1963)
Suspense director Alfred Hitchcock had already established himself by 1963 as a living legend, but he wasn’t close to finished. Proving to the world that he could make anything scary, he brought the creature features of the ‘40s and ‘50s out of the Stone Age and into stark, mega-production, in-your-face terror with “The Birds.” Successfully doing what Steven Spielberg did for swimming a little over a decade later, Hitchcock’s avian masterpiece had people too terrified to look up at the sky, as audiences looked on in horror as birds of all kinds wreaked total havoc in the town of Bodega Bay.
#3: “Night of the Living Dead” (1968)
The little film that could; this indie masterpiece, with its do-it-yourself horroraesthetic, inspired the likes of Sam Raimi and countless other future back-yard home-movie filmmakers. And it also gave birth to a little something we call the modern zombie. With its deep social commentary and an original storyline that we’ve now heard hundreds of times, this sci-fi horror film sees the re-animated dead begin roaming the earth, looking to eat the flesh of the living. The main story revolves around a group of poor unfortunate souls that get trapped in a small farmhouse and are soon surrounded by the undead. Lock up tight.
#2: “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968)
Having already given us the shocking and disturbing “Repulsion” and the horror-comedy “The Fearless Vampire Killers” earlier in the decade, no one expected Roman Polanski to top it all off with his greatest masterpiece in 1968. One of the most atmospheric and poetically haunting horror films of all time, “Rosemary’s Baby” plays on a mother’s paranoia during her pregnancy. The Oscar-winning film follows Mia Farrow with these probing questions: Can I trust my neighbors? Is my husband out to get me? Will I give birth to a demon child? Questions every mother has asked herself … right?
Before we pull the sheet off our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
- “The Pit and the Pendulum” (1961)
- “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” (1962)
- “The Last Man on Earth” (1964)
- “Cape Fear” (1962)
#1: “Psycho” (1960)
This is a prime example of an established director taking on disturbing macabre material and turning it into gold. How does one follow up brilliant thrillers such as “Vertigo” and “North by Northwest”? Give the audience the shock of their lives. A stunning vision of unrelenting terror, Hitchcock went full-on horror for this twisted tale of mommy issues, brutality, abusive insanity and sexual violence, and yet it was all done with such style and grace. Checking in to Norman Bates’ Motel would be the most fatal mistake of your life; but it’s a must-watch horror film.
Do you agree with our list? What other classic images of terror from the 1960s can you think of? For more exciting top 10 lists published daily, make sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
