So here's the first half of my 24 hour horror marathon. I've decided to not simply note the movies that scared me the most (Jaws, Halloween, the Shining) or the movies that I think are the best/most important (Bride of Frankenstein, Night of the Living Dead, The Thing, Don't Look Now, The Haunting, Eyes Without a Face, The Shining) but go with representatives from all eras, styles and studios and pick out movies that are less likely to have been seen. So a list that might be useful if you want to see something new for Halloween.
1. The Unknown (1927)- From the silent era one of Lon Chaney's (Sr.) most creepy and disturbing films. Body horror, masochism, mutilation, love-gone-wrong. It's just seriously fucked up. Also features a young Joan Crawford. Note to ita: This movie was a big influence on Santa Sangre.
2. The Island of Lost Souls (1933) - my pre-code pick is this adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau featuring Charles Laughton, and Bela Lugosi as Sayer of the Law. From this movie we get both "Are we not men?" (Devo) and House of Pain. Mad doctor, inhuman experiments, ungodly screams, sexy panther girls. What more do you need?
3. White Zombie (1932) - another pre-code movie. Sort of like an AU version of a Universal Horror movie since they shot it on leftover sets on the Universal lot. A controversial pick, as many find the acting stilted, and Lugosi's eyebrows laughable. I think it's one of Lugosi's best performances, and the middle section when one of the main characters is zombified is dreamlike and horrible and unlike any other movie I've seen.
4. The Mummy (1932) - both pre-code and an actual Universal Horror film. This movie basically grafts the Dracula storyline onto the then current fascination with Egypt. Karloff gets to do a version of a smoldering-yet-damned lover and he's wonderful. Some of it is very stagey and slow, and the female lead is a stiff, but the good parts....Well, I'll let Pauline Kael describe its virtues: ""...this inexpensively made film has a languorous, poetic feeling and the eroticism that lives on under Karloff's wrinkled parchment skin is like a bad dream of undying love."
5. The Black Cat (1934) - One more from Universal in the thirties. A fascinating and horrifying duet between Karloff and Lugosi. Directed on the cheap by Edgar Ulmer and you can't believe you're watching a scene where a man gets flayed alive.
6. The Seventh Victim (1943) - I'm always blathering on about Val Lewton so I'll skip the usual recs on I Walked With a Zombie and Cat People and go to this movie, with its deep, ceaseless dread. Unbelievably tense scene as a Satanic sect tries to convince someone to commit suicide. When the movie is over you'll feel gut-punched.
7. The Body Snatcher (1945) - Another Lewton movie, one of his later collaborations with Boris Karloff. Karloff is such a good actor - miles better than Lugosi - and gives a sinister turn as the grave robber in this. Some heartbreaking scenes in this one, some quite macabre and a thoughtful dramatization of the ethics of the situation.
8. Night of the Demon (1957, aka Curse of the Demon) - I pimped this recently but I'll give it another push. So many classic scenes in this movie, which was directed by Jacques Tourneur (who had worked under Val Lewton): the hypnosis scene where the victim is made to remember his encounter with the demon, being chased through the forest, confronting the Satanic leader at a children's party when he's dressed up as a clown to do party tricks for the kids (and what happens after), the tense Hitchcockian bits on the train.
(to be continued)
