Op-Ed: Halloween horror movies, sometimes the classics are the best

As Halloween approaches, the number of horror movies on TV tends to rise. Whether you are a classic horror movie fan, or enjoy the more modern horror films, you are sure to find one to suit your taste.

I prefer the classic horror films. There is only so much "blood and guts" I care to watch, and the classics can still be scary without the need for an over abundance of bloody scenes. The 1922 German film, Nosferatu, is a silent movie based Bram Stoker's Dracula. It was the Nosferatu movie that first introduced the idea that vampires are killed by sunlight. Unlike the Dracula movies, victims in Nosferatu do not turn into vampires, they are actually killed. The rash of deaths is blamed on the plague which is ravaging the town. The 1931 Frankenstein movie, staring Boris Karloff, was based on Mary Shelley' book of the same name. One particular scene involving a young girl was very controversial for its time. The second part of the scene was cut by state censorship boards in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York. Many also objected to the scene where Dr. Frankenstein shouts ""It's alive! It's alive! In the name of God! Now I know what it feels like to be God!", calling it blasphemous. Blasphemous or not, it is still one of my favorite horror movies. The movie can be seen in it's entirety on YouTube. I am also a huge Alfred Hitchcock fan. I have always admired how he could use suspense to build up tension, fear and a palatable sense of dread without the need to show gory, blood-soaked scenes. Rear Window is my all time favorite Hitchcock movie and one movie that I will make sure I watch any time I can find it on TV. Although it probably would not be considered a horror movie by today's standards, Jimmy Stewart plays the part of the voyeuristic wheelchair bound photographer perfectly. Grace Kelly, well, she is Grace Kelly, and her Lisa Carol Fremont character helps to feed Stewart's imagination and convince him that his neighbor is indeed a murderer. Everyone has their own particular preference when it comes to horror movies. But for me, the suspenseful classics will win out over the modern horror film every time.