Metal and horror go hand in severed hand. With that in mind, we've asked former White Zombie bass player Sean Yseult — who, since White Zombie, has played with numerous bands including the Cramps, Star & Dagger and, it's rumored, Ghost, and launched a new career as a designer and photographer — to pick her favorite fright flicks, and she was happy to weigh in. See her top five picks below.
1. Frankenstein
My all-time favorite monster and horror movie, hands down. The horrifying beauty of the monster, the laboratory, and the cinematography, in glorious black and white, are just a few things that make this great. Not to mention the nod to the common practice of grave robbing by doctors for cadavers back in the day, and the gore of assembling various corpses together. It's also not often that you identify with the monster and feel compassion for it — or is that just me?
2. At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
The world this demonic man concocts could not be more sinister: sadistic, evil, and full of graveyards, murders, and torture. This mortician beats the shit out of people with his cane just for laughs! This is the first Brazilian horror movie ever made, and the first in a trilogy. Truly twisted and demented, star Coffin Joe is no joke — I met him on his home turf in São Paulo, Brazil, and having his claws next to my eyeballs while laying in his coffin did nothing to alleviate my fears!
3. Spider Baby
What's scarier than an incestuous family that all mentally deteriorate at a certain age, regressing to cannibalism and murder (and more incest)?! How about two age-inappropriate young girls flitting about in slips, simultaneously trying to seduce their uncle and then kill him? The family story gets weirder. A must-see — again, in glorious black and white!
4. Suspiria
Argento and Goblin — aaah, the glory!!! A haunting and beautiful film from one of the best directors in horror, with my favorite band creating the soundtrack. Not to mention the plot: a ballet academy run by a coven of witches? Sounds like my childhood upbringing!
5. The Shining
The idea that a place can consume you is terrifying in itself. Add a crazed Jack Nicholson with an axe, a haunting bartender, two beckoning little girls, a possessed little boy, a waterlogged corpse that comes to life, and you've got a party. Next stop? Blood-filled elevators!
