10. Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) - A Bucket Of Blood (1959)
The archetypal loser who realizes he can get what he wants through violence, Walter Paisley anticipates the likes of Carrie White and Seymour Krelborn (from The Little Shop Of Horrors), to name a few. Working as a waiter by day, serving beatniks who refuse to say anything twice because repetition is death, Walt moonlights as a sculptor by night, but lacks the skill to create anything saleable. When he accidentally kills his cat (dont ask), he covers it in clay and sells it as an art piece called, simply enough, dead cat. The critics fawn over his work, and Walt becomes the darling of the art world for 15 minutes, then as their loyalties shift to another artist, he attempts to get back into their graces. This time, he resolves to create a bigger, better, more realistic work of art using a human subject.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
