Since 2002 Mill Creek Entertainment, brainchild of Ian Warfield, has been releasing DVD box sets aimed at fans of various genres. Before 2007 I’d never heard of them, but when perusing my local Borders’ Horror DVD section, I came across a box set of 50 “Horror Classics”, I grabbed it. Seeing the low price--I believe I got the entire thing for maybe $20--and then seeing some of the movies included (THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, WHITE ZOMBIE, DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE), I knew I couldn’t pass it up.

Hailed as an “instant library of some of the greatest Horror Classics ever to come out of Hollywood” . . . well, that’s a bit much. Yes, there are some definite classics here, like THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN’T DIE or THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, but I think to get some true classics, Mill Creek would have had to shell out some money to whoever owns the copyright on DRACULA or THE WOLFMAN. As it is, instead of Lugosi as the Count, we get Lugosi as the butler in ONE BODY TOO MANY, and instead of Chaney as Larry Talbot we get Chaney as the silent INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN. Both of those movies sucked.

Another shame in this collection is the talented Boris Karloff not showing up as the truly classic Frankenstein’s Monster and instead appearing as Mr. Wong in not one but two mysteries from the 1940s, THE FATAL HOUR and DOOMED TO DIE.

But as any horror fan knows, it’s not all about the big three back then. We’ve also got all those wonderful mutated creature movies from the 50s and 60s, and those are represented very well here with ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES, THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, and ATTACK OF THE KILLER SHREWS, all three very entertaining movies in their own right, even if they were made on budgets less than my quarterly income.

Roger Corman is well-represented with a SLEW of movies to his name in this set, which baffles me because, while Corman’s name is indeed legendary in the cheesy horror movie genre, some of the choices here are far from horror. His directorial debut SWAMP WOMEN is included and anyone who’s seen this film is going to wonder what the hell it’s doing on a list of horror movies? Telling the tale of 4 escaped female cons on a trek through the jungle to their hidden diamonds it’s more crime than anything else. But that seems to be a problem among several of the movies in this set; mis-labeling. We’ve got a dozen or so crime and mystery features, a few sci-fi offerings, but I was expecting 50 horror movies. Granted for only $20 . . . I’d have paid that just for NOSFERATU, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and METROPOLIS, but still.

The movies are presented on 12 2-sided dvds, each packaged in a cardboard sleeve with the titles and a short description of each film as well as the star, the run time, the year it was produced, whether it’s presented in b/w or color, and it’s rating.

There are a number of true forgotten classics, like MANIAC and WHITE ZOMBIE, movies that had their impact back in the day, but were eventually forgotten and overshadowed by the bigger productions. It’s nice to see movies like these and realize just how far moviemakers were willing to go even in the 30s. It’s also shameful to see certain repeated trends through some of the movies with the bigger named stars, like Boris Karloff in THE APE and Bela Lugosi in THE GORILLA. Also, especially in some of the 30s and 40s movies, it’s interesting to note most of the main characters were widowed men with single daughters or nieces who lived with them in their mansions while the boyfriend or some plucky reporter discovered the culprit and saved the day.

I found myself wondering several times throughout the series just who was in charge of determining what was considered a classic, especially since I counted 4 movies I reviewed with only 1 star. Only 3 received 5 star reviews from me, and the average for the set came out to 2.96 stars, but we’ll call it 3. So for a set calling itself 50 Horror Classics, the average rating is 3 stars? That doesn’t seem like classics to me, more like 35 Horror Movies You’ve Never Heard of, 5 You’ve Always Wanted to See, and A Few More That Aren’t Horror but Star Actors Famous for Their Roles in True Classic Horror Movies. That would have been a more appropriate title.

The DVD transfers are from old VHS copies and in some cases it’s clear they weren’t the most well-maintained videotapes. Several times during PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES, the picture became shaky as if the tape were about to give out and I kept expecting just that very thing to happen even though I was watching a DVD.

On the other hand, it IS 50 movies for $20. Where else can you get a deal like that? I’ve seen other bargain packages like this that contain only 4 or 5 movies, for half the price of this set. So what if some of the movies were bad, they were short also. 23 of these movies are 71 minutes or less, so it’s not like you’re losing a lot of time watching trash, plus these movies really give you a good look at old time Hollywood aside from the big name movies like FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA. Lugosi and Karloff probably starred in more movies in their time than John C. Reilly, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Anthony Anderson combined, but they’re only known by the general public for 2 of those movies.

You won’t like every movie in this collection--you may not even like most of them--but when you do come across that shining moment of true classic horror, it more than makes up for THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS or THE TERROR. I definitely recommend this set to horror fans as it gives you some of those true classics and reminds you there was a time when horror mattered. Thanks to Mill Creek for adding to my general fund of horror knowledge. I am in your debt.

The Individual Movies:
Carnival of Souls
Atom Age Vampire
Creature from the Haunted Sea
Nightmare Castle
Black Dragons
The Invisible Ghost
One Body Too Many
White Zombie
Attack of the Giant Leeches
The Screaming Skull
The Beast of Yucca Flats
The Terror
Revolt of the Zombies
The Giant Gila Monster
The Fatal Hour
Dead Men Walk
The Mad Monster
Maniac
Metropolis
The Vampire Bat
The Ape
The Monster Maker
The Killer Shrews
The Brain that Wouldn’t Die
King of the Zombies
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Bluebeard
The Corpse Vanishes
Night of the Living Dead
Doomed to Die
Phantom of the Opera
The Indestructible Man
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Nosferatu
Swamp Women
The World Gone Mad
The Little Shop of Horrors
Tormented
The Monster Walks
Monster from a Prehistoric Planet
The Gorilla
A Shriek in the Night
Bloodlust
The Amazing Mr. X
Last Woman on Earth
The Bat
The House on Haunted Hill
The Last Man on Earth
Dementia 13
Phantom from 10,000 Leagues