From time to time I like to share my weird and wonderful love of old movies with you as recommendations. You can check out my articles:
Classic spooky movies to watch on a cold long weekend
3 Old ghost movies for a comfy Saturday night!
With Halloween right around the corner, many use it as an excuse to indulge in not just the spooky, but the horror genre. I don't need to wait for Halloween to do that (and neither do you), but they are often easier to find around this time on your local streaming services. With that in mind, I want to recommend to you 3 Classic B Grade Horror Movies for Halloween. They are campy, cringy, bad but oh so good!
The Wasp Woman (1959)
I came across this one recently on Amazon Prime. I had heard about it but never actually watched it. A lot of theatres would actually play a double feature of this with Beast from Haunted Cave. When it was released for television, it had 11 minutes added in. More recently, I often see this advertised at theatres overseas that play it alongside The Fly which is another one of my favourites (The Vincent Price version as well as The Fly 2 where he features more). The story is pretty simple. An aging woman who is the owner of a beauty company starts experimenting with jelly from Queen Wasps to reverse the aging process. While she de-ages, she also starts to turn into ...... a wasp! Bet you didn't see that coming (cringe). I enjoyed this movie SO much I watched it twice in 2 days. This is great for a rainy day with some snacks. It is available on Amazon Prime and also on YouTube for free!
House of Wax (1953)
I couldn't not include a Vincent Price movie and this just so happens to be my favourite Vincent Price movie I have loved since I was a kid. I used to rent this out of the video store almost every week. (I don't know why I never just bought it). Vincent Price stars as a wax artist whose business partner wants to move into the area of 'chamber of horrors' with gruesome wax figures which was becoming popular at the time. Price's character would rather sculpt relics of the past. His business partner decides to burn the museum down with Price still inside so he can collect an insurance check. Price pops up again with a new museum and now bound to a wheelchair. Finally embracing a chamber of horrors, his museum is the most popular in town mainly due to his fast recreation of local murders which intrigue and horrify the town. Maybe it is a little too convenient that a masked murderer roams the town and the very people who are murdered end up being replicated in the Wax Musuem. It has Vincent Price so I don't really need to say anymore!! Except I will, it was also filmed for 3D which was a popular concept at the time! If you like this movie, you will also enjoy The Mad Magician with Vincent Price. It is a very similar vibe except instead of a Wax sculpture he is a magician who is also a master impersonator. Also, check out The Bat for lots of Vincent Price campiness! The House of Wax and Mad Magician you will have to buy on digital, but The Bat is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
The Premature Burial
My husband and I recently went on a bit of Ray Millard binge after loving his performance in Dial M For Murder and the Lost Weekend. My hubby found it quite amusing that in Dial M for Murder he wanted to kill his wife because she wouldn't let him play tennis (he also likes to play tennis). Well that wasn't the only reason. We soon found out that in his later years, he was in a ton of horrible horror including Terror in the Wax Museum which is almost an identical story to Price's House of Wax above, but not nearly as good. Premature Burial is also directed by Roger Corman who was behind The Wasp Woman so maybe there is a bit of a theme here. He is B Grade horror movie royalty. Millard's character is absolutely petrified of being buried alive. It consumes his daily life to the point of creating a tomb that has various fail-safes should he be accidentally declared dead. This is based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe. It is ridiculously bad but I just loved it and I gotta say, maybe he had a reason to be so paranoid. This one I had to buy on digital. If you like Ray Millard also check out The Man with the X Ray eyes. I don't think it needs much of an explanation.
So there you have it. Add in there some Universal Monster movies and some bad Sci Fi and you have a really indulgent fun weekend to fill! What are your favourite so bad they are good classic B Grade Horror movies?
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