Me too. Turner Classic Movies is a godsend. Good old-fashioned mysteries, noir, family drama. And occasionally some good old horror movies.
Back to the OP, we took the kids to a lot of drive-in movies, and that included horror. By the 70’s, monsters had died out. The scares were more personal. My daughter slept in her brother’s room for months after seeing They Came From Within and The Brood on a double feature, but the kids just laughed at Motel Hell, Flesh Feast, and Blood Mania.
Non-horror movies can be scary. I wish I could get Open Water and The Vanishing out of my head.
I wonder if any kids who saw that movie in a theater ever really forgot those three scenes? I sure didn’t.
Several years ago, curiosity compelled me to acquire Caltiki on DVD (apparently a 9th generation copy of old tape). Cheesy and silly as it now may be to this jaded old fart, “the scenes” still pack a tiny bit of a gross/disturbing punch.
The scuba diver scene in Caltiki scared the heck outta me when I was a kid–it’s one of the most horrifying moments of my B-movie watching career. On the other hand, the dance scene in the beginning is pretty hilarious.
I was afraid of the flying monkeys as a child, as well. Same goes for most of the B-movie monsters – I was a bit scared of the beasties, but enjoyed watching the movies!
My father tells me The Thing from Another World scared the hell out of him. He was 13 when it came out. My wife and I watched it about 10 years ago and found it quite dull and not at all scary.
You have to remember the 50s were a very different time in America. The Cold War, atomic bombs, missiles in the atmosphere, and even though Sputnik wasn’t launched until 57 there was talk of outer space. It was all brand new to the average American. If the scary Communists could invade then so could scary aliens. Atomic radiation really could be the source of monsters and mutants.
“The Moments” we’re talking about occur at
0:22:30 (start a minute earlier for proper creepout context; notice btw that the diver is still alive)
0:24:50
1:00:45
The summer of '63, I was eight and living in a hotel suite in Joliet, IL, with my dad and older brother for the summer.
For some reason, I was left alone one night until quite late, it must have been, because I watched a '50s flick that had to have come on TV around 10:30 or 11:00: A bunch of archaeologists find a cache of Spanish armor that’s remarkably well-preserved. That night, a bolt of lightning reanimates the corpse of a Conquistador buried in the same remarkable soil. He then proceeds to mutely terrorize the dig camp and nearby village.
How they eventually managed to kill him anew, I don’t remember. I DO remember how the movie absolutely scared the living daylights out of me! I was afraid to even get up and turn out the light in the kitchen, because I didn’t know what might be lurking around the corner!
I was never terrified by a movie, but there were a few that had a nice creepy-crawly vibe. “Qatermass and the Pit” had a tiny budget, laughable special effects, and a plot premise that did not bear even a moment of inspection, but some good acting and writing managed to overcome those handicaps to produce a definite sense of disquiet in parts of the film.
The original “Cat People,” despite a very tiny budget, managed to create a definite sense of creepiness, especially in the swimming pool scene. It did have topnotch cinematography and direction (Val Lawton and Jacques Tournier, IIRC).
“Curse of the Demon” also had some very creepy moments, this despite a laughably cheesy monster forced on the director (Jacques Tournier, I believe) by the studio (the movie would have been so much better without it).
So, no outright horror, but some good stuff out there.
Speak not ill of Nigel Kneale!
The movie of quatermass and the Pit actually came out in the late 1960s, but it had been a BBC TV serial in the 1950s (In the US, the film was realeased as Five Million Years to Earth). I disagree that the plot premise “did not bear even a moment of inspection”, as do a lot of critics. In fact, I thin it’s pretty damned good. The two earlier Quatermass efforts, both TV and movies made in the 50s, were the Quatermass Xperiment ("The Creeping Unknown in the US) and Quatermass 2 (AKA “Enemy from Space” in the US). Both v are definitely worth the watching. I haven’t much cared for later Quatermass efforts.
Imagine what future generations will say about us: “back in the 21st century, were they really scared by those cheap special effects? Such primitive technology!-- it was just a silly flat screen hanging on the wall—how did they expect it look realistic?”
This will be said by people whose home entertainment won’t be a television in a box–it will be a 3D holograph that moves freely around the room. And includes a 3d printer (fabricator) that will use nanontech to produce “real” effects—say,blood that flows along the floor at the murder scene.
(and then magically evaporates or cleans itself up, too:) )
Given the low budget nature of these films, they did the best they could. I will always remember the line from the movie “Edward wood”. Wood goes to see the head of one of those “B” movie studios, to see if he can get financing for one of his crazy ideas. the studio boss says to him “look, I make crap…but the crap I make makes money. Nobody will pay to see what you want to make”!
And yes, mostly these movies were a cheap way for horny teens to be able to make out in private, for a few hours.
