The late 1970s saw a reawakening of many genres of filmmaking, and horror was amongst them. Like animation, horror films have always been around, even since the early days; indeed, many horror classics date all the way back to the silent era. But the late 20th century saw an explosion of creativity and variety, to differing degrees of success and refinement. Many newer horror films are excellent compositions, but the following are some of the inescapable classics of the old-school genre that you should choose to kick into a bit this creep season.
“Frankenstein” (1931)
James Whale and Boris Karloff have become Hollywood legends — the kind whose personal trinkets are auctioned for small fortunes — mostly because of this classic film. Most horror from this era has proven simply too dated to sustain the kind of terror that is easy to conjure with today’s cinematography and special effects; in all honesty, “Frankenstein” is not exempt. But it is an excellent glimpse of the horror genre in its cradle, and filmmakers have since imbued more recent opuses with tinges that echo this masterpiece’s form. What is extraordinary about this film is perhaps not what is in it, but what is NOT absent from it. Much of why Mary Shelley’s novel is so powerful stems from the tribulation of the monster, who has a pain with which a reader can readily empathize, and Whale’s direction of Karloff proved perfectly suited to this aspect. “Frankenstein” might not keep you up at night, but you will be moved by how miraculously the ineffable torment is communicated, and without the kind of incumbent melodrama that was so seductive to early filmmakers trying to extend out of an era of silent films in which that would have been easily forgiven.
“Dead of Night” (1945)
The 1940s was a quiet time for horror films, and little originality emerged during much of the decade. “Dead of Night” is a notable exception, but it is less a film than a collection of creepy vignettes, assembled loosely as a series of stories told by guests at a party. It was produced by Ealing Studios and carries a British tone, but the suspense is hardly diminished for seeming almost too proper in some places. The running theme to the separate pieces, all of which were directed and produced separately before being synthesized into a contiguous whole, is an almost sci-fi persuasion of supernatural. An enchanted mirror erodes a housewife’s sanity, a possessed dummy tries to kill its ventriloquist master — all of them center on everyday themes that are turned pernicious by the intervention of an unseen but malicious force that is understood only peripherally. Even 60 plus years later, the perspective is fresh, and at least one of the segments is sure to keep you tossing in bed!
“Le Diaboliques” (1955)
Henri-Georges Clouzot had directed a compendium of masterpieces before he came to “Diaboliques” at the very pinnacle of his career, and his manifold practice cultivating suspense is manifest in this, arguably his greatest, film. Clouzot’s own wife Vera plays a disenchanted schoolteacher with a heart condition. She is married to the philandering principal and is seduced by his mistress into conspiring his murder. So far, so noir, but the horror blossoms when the disposed body of her callous husband disappears, and creepy things start to happen all around her. Is he dead and haunting her? Did he survive and begin taunting her? Clouzot seems intent on turning it into a sleuth mystery in the end, but “Diaboliques” still feels like the kind of terror Hitchcock achieved only late in his career with films like “Psycho.” There is nothing ultimately supernatural to the film, but it is the suggestion of such that foments all of the suspense.
“The Innocents” (1961)
Horror has always seemed to suffer a dilution of quality whenever popularity proved sustainable. Ever since the franchises of the 1930s, decent horror films always seem to spawn countless sequels that peter out only when the lowest common denominator has been most profitably engaged. So much for capitalism in Hollywood, but before the haunted house ball got rolling downhill, “Innocents” gave it a big push up. The theme will be familiar — a mansion is disturbed by an angry spirit, which can only be engaged by an intrepid quest to understand its pain. Sometimes the spirit is defeated, sometimes it is pacified and sometimes it loses patience and goes on a rampage. I won’t spoil the ending because this one is worth seeing. If you had given up on haunted house movies as predictable and worn out, give this one a shot. “Innocents” was made before the industry figured out how to mess them up.
