10 Classic Movie Monsters That Will Haunt Your Dreams

By Clare Simpson /

Monsters. I am such a sucker for monsters. Ever since childhood I have been frightened by them out of all proportion. I had monsters under the bed, in the wardrobe - even in the toilet (Thank you Ghoulies 3!). And that is what a good monster should do - it should frighten the crap out of you, otherwise what's the point? The list below mixes the best of classic oldie and classic modern monsters to produce a cavalcade of nightmare inducing fiends who are wont to sneak into your dreams when you least expect it and give you an absolute blinder of a nightmare. Trust me, I have had these characters frequent my dream time on several occasions and well, you just have to ask my psychiatrist what effect it has had on my poor tortured mind... All joking aside, welcome to my world of nightmares: 10 classic movie monsters that will haunt your dreams.

10. The Mummy - The Mummy (1932)

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Inspired by then in trend Egyptology and the opening of Tutankhamun's coffin in 1922, Universal Studios were encouraged to produce The Mummy with Boris Karloff starring as our be-bandaged friend. Karloff plays Imhotep, an ancient perished Egyptian priest whose tomb is subject to a bit of grave robbing and black magic. Thus is he resurrected. Imhotep is on the hunt to revive an ancient princess he once loved. This causes a bit of a stinker where he falls in love with a modern day woman who looks identical to the princess. He tries to kill her so he can resurrect her but at the last moment she remembers an ancient prayer that saves her. The Mummy Imhotep crumbles to bits and she is saved. Not especially scary, the first Mummy film is important only as the progenitor of the Mummy films. Hammer did a much better job with their version The Mummy in 1959, directed by genius Terrence Fisher, which was very scary and was widely acknowledged to be better than its predecessor. It also starred horror film acting gods Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. In this film, the Mummy is an authoritative, menacing figure rather than the milquetoast version of 1932. I still wouldn't fancy either versions popping up in my dreams though...