Every year, even though I swear I’ll stop before I get to the bad ones, I go through all the Universal and Hammer cycles. Then I go through all the AIP-Corman classics and into Vincent Price’s horrors before doing the handful of other classics like the Lewton films, 30’s horrors, 56 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Don’t Look Now, The Wicker Man and Karloff/Lugosi vehicles etc.
I also watch the classic silent horrors such as Nosferatu, Phantom etc but many are only borderline horror such as Hunchback and Man Who Laughs.
The absolute essentials though are these for me:
Dracula
Frankenstein, Bride, Son
The Wolf Man and most of FMTWM
The Invisible Man, Returns
The Old Dark House
The Mummy, Mummy’s Hand
Horror of Dracula, Brides
The whole Hammer Frankenstein series
The '59 Hammer Mummy and their Hound of the Baskervilles
Masque of the Red Death, Witchfinder General, Theatre of Blood
I still need to see the more obscure Hammers and perhaps finally venture into Amicus since I’m a huge Cushing and Lee fan. Later on I need to make a dedicated list for this year.
And yes I groan every time I get to stuff like Satanic Rites or Mummy’s Curse.