Cole Haddon,
Oct 31, 2007
There is little that can get my loins a' tingling the way low-grade
B-movies can, which is probably why I'm one of the few who ardently
championed Grindhouse
earlier this year. But my affection for classic horror is almost as,
um, thrilling to my nether-regions. Now, I'll be the first to admit
most horror from the '20s through the '50s fails to hold up today, but,
oh, that certainly doesn't mean all. There are a few titles that can
get your heart racing a lot faster than most modern horror, and that's
not because modern horror sucks (though it mostly does).
Here's a list of five classic horror films you should check out this
Halloween or anytime you feel like having a scare.
1.) The
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Director William Castle arguably sabotaged most of his movies by
incorporating theatrics into screenings like flying skeletons, seat
buzzers, and life insurance in case you should die from fright, but he
should have had more faith in his movies. The House on Haunted Hill
is his best, and might just be the best haunted house movie ever made.
Vincent Price plays a millionaire with ulterior motives behind inviting
five diverse strangers to stay the night in a mansion that's already
killed seven occupants. The remake starred Geoffrey Rush in Price's
role and his character's name was even changed to Price as an homage to
the great actor. But it didn't work; the movie still sucked.
2.) The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Rob Zombie fans will likely find this silent German classic familiar,
since the shock rocker-turned-director's video for "Living Dead Girl"
was inspired by it, including many of the same expressionistic
techniques that make Caligari one of the most surreal acid trips you'll
ever experience. Every scene is like wandering through a shared
nightmare by Salvadore Dali and M.C. Escher. The movie, about a showman
and his murderous somnambulist, also features, as near as I can tell,
cinema's first twist ending - and it's a doozy.
3.) I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
This is the second of three collaborations between '40s low-budget
horror super-producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur. It's
also the best of their work together, a re-imagining of Jane Eyre
in the Caribbean with a wife who is not bonkers, but under a voodoo
spell that leaves her, gasp, one of the walking dead. Well, not really
dead, but she's a zombie, like they were before George Romero
reinvented them with Night of the Living Dead 25 years later.
Long story short: Tourneur's stylized direction is all about
superstition, atmosphere, and mounting dread. Watching it is guaranteed
to burn the calories, as your heart rate will no doubt be elevated the
majority of the time.
4.) Nosferatu the Vampire (1922)
You might recall a Willem Dafoe movie from 2000 called Shadow
of the Vampire, in which he played an actor who took his role
as a vampire a little too seriously? Well, that was based on the making
of Nosferatu, which itself was based on Bram Stoker's novel Dracula
- and by "based upon," I mean the filmmakers blatantly stole Stoker's
masterpiece and passed it off as an original idea. Count Orlok was thus
born, a fearsome, alien-looking thing that crept eerily through the
night and had more in common with the recent 30 Days of
Night's vamps than Bela Lugosi's Dracula.
5.) The
Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
It's almost a waste to pick just one out of the early Hammer Films
catalog, since so much of what they released between the mid-'50s and
late '60s was pretty damn awesome. But, if I have to start somewhere,
it should be Hammer super-director Terence Fisher's reinvention of
Frankenstein's monster as a patchwork of decomposing corpse remains.
Dr. Frankenstein, the mad scientist more interested in playing God than
playing with the hottie he just married, is portrayed by none other
than Grand Moff Tarkin, or at least the guy who played him -- Peter
Cushing. The actor, with his sunken, skeletal cheeks, somehow manages
to make reanimating the dead seem... well, sexy. Weird, I know.
