… from the Vaults of the Classics
These days a film that qualifies as “scary” is really just a conglomeration of CGI, ridiculous oozing make-up and simply put – excess of every possible sort. Granted there have been a few here and there that have made many an audience leap out of their skins, but there are many old-school horror/thriller films that did the same thing with mere camera techniques, angles, lighting and ambiance. Not to mention that the stories themselves are worth watching as opposed to modern plots, which consist of blood spurting scene after blood spurting scene. So for your viewing pleasure here is a compilation of The Top Ten Best Classic Horror/Thriller films from before1950…
#10 The Mummy (1932): Not necessarily a sleepless night inducing scary film but it is a tradition in the collection of thriller/horror films. Karloff is at his best here without uttering a sentence. Lighting is everything, especially when the camera looks into the mummy’s soulless eyes, filled with pools of horrible vengeance in which to drown. This version is superior to the remake because you can smell the rotting flesh in its ancient wrap as the creature shuffles along.
#9 Wolfman (1941): An old gypsy woman looks into your hand and recoils in fear. She utters the following chiller:
“Even a man who is pure in heart
and says his prayers by night
may become a wolf when the wolf bane blooms
and the autumn moon is bright.”
How can you beat this?
#8 The Son of Frankenstein (1939): Horror/Thriller - Sounds silly, I know. I too did not believe this was worth watching merely by its title. Yet this movie has ambiance and atmosphere for days and is completed by its amazing cast, which includes Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff. The original Frankenstein (1931) followed the style of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and while its sequel The Bride of Frankenstein deviated from this style, Son of returns to it with large looming sets that create the great ominous shadows.
#7 Freaks (1932): Thriller - What you see (or in this case read) is what you get. Todd Browning’s film about a sideshow midget, Hans, who falls in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, Cleopatra, is quite disturbing. Even though it has a moralistic ending along the lines of “what goes around comes around,” it is revealed through the freakification of the trapeze artist. This film was quite controversial in its time as director, Browning, used real sideshow performers, but this is the element that makes the film a little more horrifying, it is grounded in real life.
#6 Island of Lost Souls (1932): Horror/Thriller - This is one of the many takes on the H.G. Wells novel “The Island of Dr. Moreau.” Unlike the others this one is actually worth watching, obviously, or it would not be on this list! Don’t watch the movie if you are hoping the film is a physical manifestation of the book, but do watch it for the wonderful element of fear that is provided by suggestion. That may sound lame, but the off screen screams of pain as the vivisection takes place is more effective than the now typical guts and blood.
#5 Black Cat (1934): Thriller - Bela Lugosi. Enough said – no really if this name is unknown to you, just walk away right now, rent, no better yet buy the black and white Dracula with Lugosi and watch flawless acting which is revealed in the subtleties of his performance. As for “Black Cat” … how can you beat Boris Karloff? He is the menacing leader of a satanic cult versus vengeance-minded Lugosi? Also, this all takes place in an old WWI fortress, which has been turned into a futuristic home.
#4 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920): Thriller - This film is an essential of German expressionist cinema, one that is very well known among film enthusiasts and truly a perfect Halloween treat as its opening line appears on the screen “There are spirits everywhere.” Talk about classic, this movie experiments with set, film angles and plot (for the time at least), producing an amazing film that ends with a rather unexpected twist. The elongated and jagged set highlights the eerie atmosphere and plays beautifully (I mean horrifyingly) alongside the dramatic lighting. Both elements, in addition to it being a silent film, play on your nerves and mind, making the viewer feel as if they are no longer in a traditionally quaint German village … or in reality at all.
#3 The Innocents (1961): Thriller - Did you see The Others with Nicole Kidman? Well this is where that movie got its idea, and as much as I enjoyed Kidman’s movie … “The Innocents,” with the always-lovely Debrah Kerr, is undeniably more chilling. Is this all the vision of a woman going mad? Or are the two children she has become governess of possessed by the spirits of two late staff members of the country home? Perfect scenes that incorporate shock and the slow unraveling of a mystery give this movie the necessary toe-curling, gnawing in the pit of your stomach you crave. Maybe it’s the haunting voice of the little girl singing that begins and frequents the film that does this, yes it is overused now, but then it was groundbreaking.
#2 Phantom of the Opera (1925): Lon Chaney is the definitive Opera house Stalker in this story which is now quite familiar, romanticized, and not as scary as it once was. But one look at this face tells you that this creature is not romantic, in fact, it’s . . . ghastly. How’d you like to feel his fetid breath on your neck as he loops a noose for you in a dank, shadowy vault? Pleasant dreams!
P.s. IMDB reveals to you all of the amazing things Chaney did to portray the Phantom, but I highly recommend you wait until AFTER you see the movie
And finally the #1 Horror Film!!!!!
#1 Nosferatu (1922): Horror - Want scary vampires? Here you go. You really cannot get much better than a silent black and white where you truly cannot hear the evil coming. No sucking breath of the monster around the corner, no footsteps … it’s all camera angles and never knowing where anything is. Sickeningly fanged teeth and eyes tell the tale of their satanic existence and are essential to the fear that this film elicits, not to mention the aptly named lead, Max Schreck. I still can’t look at pictures from the film without sufficiently creeping myself out. 
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0 responses so far ↓
1 dylan // Oct 31, 2007 at 3:51 pm
what?
heres my top horor movie you havent seen….
Session 9
2 alexandra // Oct 31, 2007 at 5:32 pm
While your suggestion is noted and has been put on a list of movies to see …
it failed to meet one aspect of the criteria for my list.
I purposely avoided anything after the early 1950’s as a point to remind people that simplicity can be just as unnerving as modern horror movie techniques.
3 m4 // Oct 31, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Dracula-Nosferatu photo is from the 1979
Werner Hertzog, remake starring Klaus Kinski
4 Cubro // Oct 31, 2007 at 10:25 pm
That would be a still from the remake of Nosferatu with Klaus Kinski, not the original.
5 M // Oct 31, 2007 at 10:25 pm
The picture you have here isnt from the original movie, but the “Nosferatu” version done by Werner Herzog.
6 Hmmm... // Oct 31, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Obviously an homage to the older flicks, which all happen to pale in comparison to the films from the 60’s-80’s.
7 Louis // Oct 31, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Hey. Unlike m4, Cubro and M, I’d like to point out that the still you used for Nosferatu is actually a picture of Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski circa the late 70s, possibly at Studio 54.
8 Clinton // Oct 31, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Last House On The Left?
Am I wrong?
9 Jostua // Oct 31, 2007 at 11:10 pm
I hate to be another person poking holes in your list, but The Innocents with Deborah Kerr was done in 1961, not 1943. A great movie, for sure, just it doesn’t fall inside your timeframe. However, you could put in its place the 1932 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Rouben Mamoulian. A very good telling of the story, and a Mr. Hyde scary enough to be included among the many films that inspired the Catholic Legion of Decency to push enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934.
10 alexandra // Nov 1, 2007 at 12:56 am
My sincere apologies for the holes:
- The picture thing is being fixed, it was simply a misjudgment on my behalf.
I blame being too freaked out to actually spend more than a millisecond staring at the pictures.
- Secondly, I have no idea how I got 1943 for The Innocents but Jostua is right, it is 1961.
That said, I am leaving it there and as my ONE anomaly, because I did really enjoy the heebie jeebies the movie gave me.
Though I do very much appreciate the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde suggestion!
11 jim // Nov 1, 2007 at 1:16 am
I have ever seen a movie topic on largesingle.com. It lists over 50 horror films. But ‘Phantom of the Opera’ is positioned on the top.
12 Alan Riaso // Nov 1, 2007 at 2:39 am
After you watch Nosferatu watch “Shadow of the Vampire” (2000, http://imdb.com/title/tt0189998/), a dramatized “making of” Nosferatu, with John Malkovich and Eddy Izzard.
Strange man that Max Schrek!
13 Jimmy // Nov 1, 2007 at 3:18 am
The classic “Dead of Night” from 1945 should surely qualify. Probably one of the first “vignette” films, certainly one of the best and worth it alone for the final segment with the ventriloquist’s dummy.
14 matt // Nov 1, 2007 at 3:32 am
the house that dripped blood
15 Chris Gray // Nov 1, 2007 at 4:57 am
I agree with the first comment, Session 9 was unbelievably good, although Danvers did much of the work on it’s own.
The one flick I would have liked to see make your list is Night of the Hunter (Robert Mitchum) which is also great, but borderline thriller/horror.
And to the poster who said that 60’s and 80’s horror is better - gorier perhaps, but the writing and casting went out the window. There are a few gems, but by and large the earlier films irrefutably stand the test of time.
16 Geoff // Nov 1, 2007 at 6:17 am
The Haunting (the original B&W version) which is the movie adapted from The Haunting of Hill House Book. Much better than the movie with Catherine Zeta-Jones a few years ago.
17 Jeffrey Max // Nov 1, 2007 at 6:36 am
Excuse me, but you forgot about these:
- A Night to Dismember (1983)
- Blood & Roses (1960)
- Premutos: Lord of the Living Dead (1997)
18 DAVE ID // Nov 1, 2007 at 7:06 am
What? This is the list? Old School classics? No obscure foreign classics? SIGH
19 Hex // Nov 1, 2007 at 8:01 am
What about the classic ‘Isle of the Dead’ with Boris Karloff? Very stifling and has great atmosphere. I think it was done in ‘43 or ‘45 by RKO. Check it out.
20 Dirk // Nov 1, 2007 at 8:24 am
Saw all of them, most when I was about 9 years old for the first time. Hell anyone with a tv and that would stay up somewhat late on Friday would have seen 3/4 of them just doing that.
Poor list.
21 Mark // Nov 1, 2007 at 8:41 am
It’s sad that most of these are on a list of films people probably haven’t seen.
22 Jensen Wright // Nov 1, 2007 at 10:10 am
As Jostua noted above, “The Innocents” was made in the sixties. However, for me that’s possibly the creepiest horror film I’ve ever seen — I highly recommend it.
As for pre-1950’s films, one worth checking out is 1944’s “The Uninvited” — a very effective haunted house story.
23 Annie // Nov 1, 2007 at 10:32 am
Geoff, I second that. Robert Wise’s “The Haunting” is much much better than that atrocity that came out a few years ago (even with its cast of usually great actors). The 1963 version is very spooky, and the score is impeccable. I’d also recommend the basis for the two movies, “The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson.
24 cornel // Nov 1, 2007 at 11:23 am
Dirk, which of the movies on the list makes the list ‘poor’? I agree with Chris Gray, Annie, Hex, and Jensen, but the list is just a list, not the master compendium. I grew up with these films when you could catch them on a Saturday afternoon. Their quality is above reproach and yes, will stand the test of time.
25 Abner // Nov 1, 2007 at 1:14 pm
It may not be overly scary but another great film is The Seventh Seal. It is vaguely reminiscent of some scenes in Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey.
26 John // Nov 2, 2007 at 4:13 am
Sorry, already seen them all.
Plus another good creepy one is the famous old B/W film ‘The Lodger’.
One of Alfred Hitchcock’s first films, silent but boy does it help build the tension.
John.
27 dylan // Nov 2, 2007 at 10:49 am
i went and checked out the wikipedia entry for session 9…..since it was filmed in an old mental hospital, everyone on the set was creeped out which must have contributed to the uneasy vibe that come through on film- a palpably uneasy vibe.
28 Louis // Nov 2, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Someone actually recommended Session 9 to me at the video store on Halloween… sadly, it was rented out.
Was it one of you?
29 Chris Gray // Nov 2, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Not I, though I did work in a video store for four years when I was 16-20 - plus I’m in Australia so I doubt we crossed paths.
Definitely worth checking out, as is Brad Anderson’s subsequent flick, The Machinist. A director to keep your eye on.
30 Mara Wills // Nov 4, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Nosferatu with Klaus Kinski, then “Shawdow of the Vampire”.
31 Movie Review Guy // Nov 14, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Amazingly, I’ve actually seen several of these. Freaks is awesome, and of course Nosferatu is a classic.
32 georgina // Nov 17, 2007 at 9:41 am
I am surprised the Tingler isn’t in the mix. when this was first screened the seats were wired so the audience got a little electric shock just to add to the experience. 1959 so not a really early one but still its gets Vincent Price a mention!
33 Lancifer // Mar 28, 2008 at 7:24 am
Great list of flicks, are there really people out there who have not seen these though?
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