The fifties: the drive-in classics
Start with Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Don Siegel's small-town nightmare of neighbours replaced by pod people, the B movie that turned out to be a masterpiece. Then It Came from Outer Space (1953) and Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), both by Jack Arnold, The Blob (1958) with a young Steve McQueen, and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958), sixty-six minutes of pure drive-in poster. Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) is Ed Wood's legendary sci-fi, beloved for every wobbling gravestone.
The sixties and seventies
The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), Roger Corman's two-day wonder with a man-eating plant and an early Jack Nicholson. Night of the Living Dead (1968), George A. Romero's black-and-white zombie film that invented the modern zombie. Death Race 2000 (1975), a cross-country race where pedestrians score points, with David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone. Piranha (1978), Joe Dante's gleeful answer to Jaws.
The eighties: the golden decade
The 80s B movies shelf is the heart of the list: The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II, Sam Raimi's cabin in the woods; Re-Animator, Stuart Gordon's Lovecraft; The Return of the Living Dead, punk zombies who want brains; Night of the Creeps; Critters; Killer Klowns from Outer Space; and John Carpenter's They Live, with its sunglasses that reveal the truth.
The nineties to now
Tremors (1990) sends giant underground worms after Kevin Bacon in a Nevada town, and Army of Darkness (1992) sends Ash back to the Middle Ages. Snakes on a Plane, Planet Terror, Machete, Iron Sky and Sharknado carry the flag into the new century.
The horror B movies
The B horror shelf picks out sixteen of the twenty-five for a horror night, from The Blob and Night of the Living Dead to Tremors and Sharknado.
