Monster Movies

The ABCs of 100 Monster Movies:

(I have seen the 37 movies in bold.)

Includes my top picks for 13 monsters of Spooktober – the 31 days of October leading to Halloween, plus two more days to add the Day of the Dead, November 2.

• • Imbolc (Candlemas) – February 1
  • Spring Equinox (Ostara) – March 20/21
  • St. George’s Eve – April 22
  • Walpurgisnacht (Saint  Walpurgis Night) – April 30
  • Beltane (May Day) – May 1
  • World Dracula Day – May 26
  • Summer Solstice (Midsummer / Litha) – June 20/21
  • Lughnasadh (Lammas) – August 1
  • Autumn Equinox (Mabon) – September 20/21
  • Devil’s Night – October 30
  • Halloween – October 31
  • Samhain (All Hallows) – November 1
  • Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) – November 2
  • Winter Solstice (Midwinter / Yule) – December 20/21

A: Animals

• 1. Them! (1954)
  2. Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963)
  3. Stephen King’s Cujo (1983)
  4. Arachnophobia (1990)

B: Brute/Mad Scientist

1. 1. Universal’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1913)
   2. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
   3. Universal’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
   4. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

C: Clown/Carnival

1. 1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
   2. Carnival of Souls (1962)
   3. Batman (1989)
   4. Dark Knight (2008)

D: Demon

1. 1. The Seventh Seal (1957)
   2. The Exorcist (1972)
   3. The Amityville Horror (1979)
   4. The Ninth Gate (1999)

E: Evil Killer

1. 1. Fritz Lang’s M (1931)
   2. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
   3. Carrie (1976)
   4. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

F: Frankenstein’s Monster

• 1. Universal’s Frankenstein (1931)
  2. Universal’s Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
  3. Universal’s Son of Frankenstein (1939)
  4. Hammer’s The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

G: Ghost

1. 1. Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999) (Washington Irving’s The Headless Horseman 1820 short story)
   2. The Phantom of the Opera (2004) (Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera 1909 novel)
   3. House on Haunted Hill (1963) (Vincent Price) (Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House 1959 novel)
   4. The Shining (1980) (Stephen King’s 1977 novel)

H: Hybrid Humanoid

• 1. Island of Lost Souls (1932) (H.G. Wells’ 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau)
  2. Captive Wild Woman (1943) (Universal’s Cheela The Ape Woman)
  3. The Fly (1986) (George Langelaan’s 1957 short story The Fly)
  4. Splice (2009)

I: Invisible Man

1. 1. Universal/H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man (1933)
   2. John Carpenter’s Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992)
   3. The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
   4. Universal’s The Invisible Man (2020)

J: Jewish Folklore – Golem

• 1. The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920)
  2. The Golem: The Legend of Prague (1936)
  3. The Limehouse Golem (2016)
  4. The Golem (2018)

K: Knife Killer (Slasher)

• 1. Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
  2. Jack the Ripper (1959)
  3. Halloween (1978)
  4. Friday the 13th (1980)

L: Lycan/Werewolf

1. 1. Universal’s The Wolf Man (1941)
   2. Hammer’s The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
   3. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
   4. Cursed (2005)

M: Mummy

• 1. Universal/Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Mummy (1932)
  2. Hammer Horror’s The Mummy (1959)
  3. Universal’s The Mummy (1999)
  4. Universal’s The Mummy (2017)

N: Nightmares

1. 1. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
   2. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
   3. New Nightmare (1994)
   4. The Cell (2000)

O: Orcish

(Gremlin, Goblin, Ogre, Troll, etc.)

1. 1. Gremlins (1984)
   2. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
   3. Troll (2022)
   4. Troll 2 (2025)

• • Twilight Zone “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (1963)

P: Poltergeist

• 1. Poltergeist (1982)
  2. Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)
  3. Poltergeist III (1988)
  4. Poltergeist (2015)

Q: Cthulhu/H.P. Lovecraft’s Necronomicon

• 1. The Haunted Palace (1963)
  2. Re-Animator (1985)
  3. Necronomicon (1993)
  4. Call of Cthulhu (2005)

R: Red Death and other Edgar Allan Poe

• 1. Universal’s Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)
  2. Universal’s The Black Cat (1934)
  3. The Raven (1963)
  4. The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

S: Skeleton

• 1. Ray Harryhausen’s Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
  2. The Creeping Flesh (1973)
  3. Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness (1992)
  4. Skeleton Man (2004)

T: Titan

• 1. Hammer Horror’s The Gorgon (1964)
  2. Ray Harryhausen’s Clash of the Titans (1981)
  3. Clash of the Titans (2010)
  4. Wrath of the Titans (2012)

U: Underwater Menace

• 1. Universal’s Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
  2. Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1956)
  3. Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975)
  4. The Host (2006)

V: Voodoo

• 1. Sugar Hill (1974)
  2. Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
  3. Eve’s Bayou (1997)
  4. The Skeleton Key (2005)

W: Witch

• 1. Benjamin Christensen’s Häxan (1922)
  2. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (1996)
  3. The Craft (1996)
  4. The Witch (2015)

Y: Yeti

(Sasquatch, Bigfoot, & Abominable Snowman)

• 1. The Abominable Snowman (1957)
  2. The Legend Of Boggy Creek (1972)
  3. Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
  4. Exists (2014)

Z: Zombie

1. 1. William Seabrook’s White Zombie (1932)
   2. George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968)
   3. 28 Days Later (2002)
   4. Train to Busan (2016)

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See also: Vampire Movies