The Howling
The first inkling I ever had of The Howling was hearing the opening notes of Pino Donaggio’s score sampled in the Primal Scream song “Pills,” produced by Dan the Automator. When I finally saw the movie years later (my adolescent music nerd phase predated my obsession with VHS horror), I was scandalized.
Blackout
The premise, like the ambient air of fatalism, owes as much to film noir as it does horror. A man wakes in a place he can’t remember arriving at, his body bearing the ravages of some misadventure, his memories a dense fog yielding no clues save a lingering sense of grave culpability.
Silver Bullet
There’s so much to love about ’80s horror, especially for those of us raised on the films of that era. They routinely feature endearingly predictable plot twists, spooky synth soundtracks, characters who do the stupidest possible thing at the worst possible moment, corny comic relief, secondary antagonists taken out by the killer, and awesome movie monsters created with old-school, non-CGI effects.