But I grew up in the era of three TV channels and two duplex movie theaters \u2013 there was a lot I missed because it wasn\u2019t available. Even if a movie made it to TV it was often preceded by three terrible words: edited for television. Aggressive censors cut out profanity, violence, sex, and nudity. Especially sex and nudity. And the edgier movies never made it to TV in any form.<\/p>\n
Now I\u2019m an adult, living in an era of a zillion streaming services, some of which carry old and obscure movies. Revenge is mine.<\/p>\n
These are the Top 10 horror movies I couldn\u2019t watch as a kid. I never heard of most of them when I was growing up, but I would have enjoyed them if I had been able to see them. To fit the requirements of the title, there are two rules.<\/p>\n
First, the movie has to be from the 1960s or 1970s. Anything older than 1960 likely wouldn\u2019t have been censored (or rather, it was already censored by the Hays Code<\/a>). By 1980 I was an adult and could see what I wanted, if I could find it.<\/p>\n Second, it can\u2019t be a movie on my 2016<\/a> or 2019<\/a> Halloween movie lists. So none of Vincent Price\u2019s Edgar Allan Poe films (some which I did see on Shock Theatre<\/em>), Hammer\u2019s Dracula<\/em> series, or The Vampire Lovers<\/em> (which I definitely did not see as a kid). There are a lot of good movies on those lists, but I don\u2019t want to duplicate them here.<\/p>\n Not everything here was or would have been censored. That\u2019s not the point. The point is that I couldn\u2019t watch them then, but I can watch them now.<\/p>\n All of these are good movies \u2013 some are better than others. The rankings are my subjective opinion \u2013 not how \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cinfluential\u201d they are, but simply how much I enjoyed them, all things considered. Your rankings may be different \u2013 these are mine.<\/p>\n Movies come and go on streaming services \u2013 you may not be able to see them in the same places I saw them. IMDb<\/a> is usually \u2013 but not always \u2013 a reliable guide for what\u2019s where.<\/p>\n Also known as Crypt of the Vampire<\/em>, it was made in Italy and originally titled La cripta e l\u2019incubo<\/em>. It stars Christopher Lee as Count Karnstein, who is not a vampire but who fears his daughter may be possessed by the spirit of a witch his ancestors killed centuries ago.<\/p>\n Terror in the Crypt<\/em> is loosely based on Carmilla<\/em> by Sheridan Le Fanu (1872), with a dose of Mario Bava\u2019s Black Sunday<\/em> (1960) mixed in. The story is good, the mystery is preserved until the end, and the supernatural elements aren\u2019t explained away. It\u2019s a good black and white gothic horror film.<\/p>\n Technical note: the version for rent on Amazon Prime is an old print formatted for pre-HD TV (4:3 aspect ratio). I found a much better copy in the original widescreen on YouTube.<\/p>\n I was a 10-year-old boy in 1972, but I was a 10-year-old boy who listened and paid attention. The themes of bored suburban housewives and the need for women\u2019s empowerment in Season of the Witch<\/em> were very familiar. Joan (Jan White) is abused and unappreciated \u2013 and then she discovers witchcraft. Unlike so many movies of this era, this one contains some real witchcraft.<\/p>\n In her 2018 book Bell, Book and Camera<\/em> (updated in 2021 as Lights, Camera, Witchcraft<\/em><\/a>) Heather Greene says \u201cJoan moves from a point of powerlessness to a point of power through sexual liberation and witchcraft. As such, the film is a product of its time and comes the closest to a true feminist witch narrative in any film.\u201d It\u2019s directed by George Romero, better known for Night of the Living Dead<\/em>.<\/p>\n This movie was originally titled Jack\u2019s Wife<\/em> and then Hungry Wives<\/em>. There are at least three different cuts, one running 2:10, one running 1:44, and one \u2013 the one I found on both Amazon Prime and Tubi as Season of the Witch<\/em> \u2013 at 1:29. The shorter version doesn\u2019t appear to be missing anything of importance.<\/p>\n Filmed as Danza Macabra<\/em> in Italian, this movie centers around a skeptical journalist interviewing Edgar Allan Poe in London. He\u2019s approached by Lord Blackwood, who bets him that he can\u2019t spend tonight \u2013 November 1st<\/sup>, the \u201cNight of the Dead\u201d \u2013 in his abandoned castle. After a few typical haunted house scares, he realizes the castle isn\u2019t abandoned and he\u2019s joined by two beautiful women\u2026 who don\u2019t seem to like each other. As the night progresses, more and more people come and go. Are they alive? Ghosts? Vampires? Will our journalist make it till dawn and win his bet?<\/p>\n The opening credits say Castle of Blood<\/em> was adapted from a story by Edgar Allan Poe, but while it is very Poe-like, he wrote nothing that directly corresponds to this movie. And while Poe lived in England when he was a boy, he returned to the United States at age 11 and never went back.<\/p>\n This is an early 60s horror movie \u2013 despite the title, there is very little blood. However, this is the only movie on this list where I feel obligated to provide a content warning. A snake is killed on camera and it wasn\u2019t a special effect. You expect to see humans and human-like creatures treating other humans badly in horror movies. I wasn\u2019t expecting to see this.<\/p>\n That aside, for atmosphere and suspense Castle of Blood<\/em> is excellent.<\/p>\n There are numerous cuts of this movie \u2013 some of them are quite bad. I found two versions on YouTube that are close to original, one in Italian with subtitles and one dubbed in English.<\/p>\n Count Mitterhaus drains one too many women and children, so the villagers finally storm the castle and stake him. As he\u2019s dying, he curses them. Fifteen years later, the village is struck by a deadly plague and is quarantined by armed guards. Somehow a circus gets through the roadblocks and brings a bit of joy to the town. Unbeknownst to them, the circus is full of vampires, including a relative of Count Mitterhaus intent on avenging him \u2013 and resurrecting him.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen all nine Hammer Dracula<\/em> movies, most multiple times. I\u2019ve seen their Karnstein Trilogy (which isn\u2019t really a trilogy, but the three movies are still worth watching) several times. But I never even heard of Vampire Circus<\/em> until I went looking for old movies to stream. Perhaps that\u2019s because it has none of Hammer\u2019s usual stars: no Christopher Lee, no Peter Cushing, no Ingrid Pitt. It does have a young \u2013 and shirtless \u2013 David Prowse as the circus strongman.<\/p>\n Vampire Circus<\/em> is enough like the other Hammer vampire movies to feel familiar, and it\u2019s different enough to feel unique. That makes it perfect for this quest for streaming revenge.<\/p>\n The first line of director Jes\u00fas Franco\u2019s Wikipedia page<\/a> says he\u2019s \u201cknown as a prolific director of low-budget exploitation and B-movies.\u201d Eugenie<\/em> qualifies as all of the above. It\u2019s based on La philosophie dans le boudoir<\/em> (1795) by the Marquis de Sade, about a woman and her brother who set out to corrupt a young girl (she\u2019s 15 in de Sade\u2019s story \u2013 Marie Liljedahl was 19 when she played Eugenie).<\/p>\n Is it a horror movie? It\u2019s definitely psychological horror, and I found the ending to be rather frightening \u2013 and unpleasant. It has Christopher Lee in it, playing a role obviously inspired by de Sade himself. In this interview clip<\/a>, Lee said he had no idea what the movie was about until after it was finished.<\/p>\n I discovered it because the band Blood Ceremony created a song about it for their new album The Old Ways Remain<\/em><\/a>. Even if you don\u2019t watch Eugenie<\/em> the movie, check out \u201cEugenie\u201d the song.<\/p>\n![\"photo](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2023\/09\/Streaming-Revenge-780x439-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>10. Terror in the Crypt (1964)<\/h2>\n
9. Season of the Witch (1972)<\/h2>\n
8. Castle of Blood (1964)<\/h2>\n
7. Vampire Circus (1972)<\/h2>\n
6. Eugenie (1970)<\/h2>\n