I have known for years, many people will not watch black and white movies, of any kind. It has to be color and no older than 10 years, preferably movies made this year, or last year. I have had people look at me with astonishment when I tell them I not only watch black and white movies regularly but even silent movies. I’ve had people admit they didn’t know movies were being made in 1927, much less 1915.
So for this Hallowe’en, when movie geeks thoughts turn to scary movies here is my personal and eclectic list of great, old, scary movies, filmed in glorious black and white.
10. Nosferatu 1922
The Great Grand Daddy of all Dracula movies, and the template for every vampire movie ever made, the first, one of the best and still creepy, even if you’ve seen it repeatedly. A silent masterpiece by FW Murnau and with the incredible Max Schreck as Graf Orlock looking weasel faced and moving like a big rodent, this vampire is light years from Lugosi’s suave aristocrat or Christopher Lee’s super human woman magnet. Some of the camera tricks have not aged well, but there is nothing camp or silly about Nosferatu. Remade brilliantly by Werner Herzog with the incredible Klaus Kinski playing the Vampire King and the subject of Shadow of the Vampire, a movie about the making of Nosferatu that put forth the idea, what if Schreck was a real Vampire? But accept no substitutes. Radah and I got to see this at the Tampa Theater a few years ago for Hallowe’en, with live organ accompaniment, an unforgettable experience.
9. Haxan 1922
Another silent masterpiece Benjamin Christensen’s still controversial Haxan is deeply disturbing, still creepy and captured images unlike any other film made during the silent era, or any time later for the matter of that. Part documentary, part hallucinatory nightmare Haxan was recut and rereleased as Witchcraft Through the Ages with a music score and narration by the one and only William S Burroughs. Filled with nudity, demons, the very devil himself and horrifying scenes of accused witches on trial and being tortured into confessions, Haxan is one of a kind, and perfect for Hallowe’en.
8. Vampyr 1932
Only marginally a talking picture Vampyr is another one of a kind, deeply disturbing tale of Vampirism told in a hallucinatory, dream like way. Shot through gauze filters with a non actor in the lead role, Vampyr, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, is disorienting, creepy and leaves the viewer with a serious feeling of uneasiness. There are no jump out of your seat scares and yet, we are never really sure what in hell is going on; shadows dance on the walls without people being present, living person’s shadows get up and move on their own, point of view changes constantly, characters enter and exit without explanation. Most unsettling, we get an entire sequence of what it would feel like to be buried alive, the view from inside a coffin, while still alive, and being carried to a grave site, in the hypnotic thrall of a vampire. Be forewarned, some people don’t get it. Forest J Ackerman, editor of Famous Monsters of Film land, hated this movie, didn’t think it scary at all, or entertaining. It is referenced constantly throughout Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, good enough recommendation for me.
7. Island of Lost Souls 1932
In the 1930s Universal Studios was considered the major producer of horror films. Their movies, if you are a serious movie geek like me, are so familiar they are probably not scary at all anymore. Despite Universal’s dominance of the genre other studios put out some great productions. Paramount Pictures, known for classy musicals produced one of the most disturbing horror movies of the 1930s, Island of Lost Souls, a movie that packed such a punch on its original release it was banned in England and other countries for years. And it still has a powerful, painful effect. Directed by Earl C Kenton and the first film version of HG Well’s Island of Dr. Moreau (Wells hated the film) Island of Lost Souls features an incredible performance by Charles Laughton, obsessed with creating men out of animals and operating on them without using anesthetic. His island is populated with these half man half animal hybrids, among them, most unforgettably Bela Lugosi as Sayer of the Law “What is the Law? Are we not men?” and someone named Hans Steinke as Ouran, another unforgettable character. It is not just the horror in the house of pain or the monstrousness of the animal men, there is a queasy, oppressive atmosphere in the whole film, the jungle itself seems to be alive, even more so than in King Kong. Criterion’s blu ray is incredible, bringing out details, especially in the makeup I had never noticed before.
6. The Black Cat 1934
Another one of a kind horror movie, although made by Universal, the Black Cat is unlike any other film in their various franchises, or any other movie ever made for that matter. Rather than a gothic castle The Black Cat is set in a futuristic house,(it even has digital clocks, in 1934!) built on a fortress from WWI, in the Bauhaus style, and that house is inhabited by Boris Karloff playing a thinly disguised version of Aleister Crowley. Bela Lugosi arrives with a young couple in tow(David Manners and Julie Bishop) who get sucked into the vortex of Karloff and Lugosi’s poisoned history. Lugosi and Karloff were in eight movies together, usually with Karloff in the lead role, once, in The Raven, it was Lugosi’s movie. Here they stand as co equal characters, both of them dangerous, both actors at the top of their form. And masterfully directed by Edgar G Ulmer, who somehow made a movie that deals with necrophilia, cannibalism, Satan worship and God knows what else in 1934! I have watched The Black several times, usually around Hallowe’en and it never fails to make me feel very ill at ease. This is seriously creepy stuff, especially when Lugosi decides it would be a swell idea to skin Karloff alive.
4. Black Sunday 1960
The official first movie directed by Mario Bava (he had a hand in several other films, without credit) Black Sunday still has the power to horrify and frighten. A witch (Barbara Steele) is tortured and put to death in a blasted looking landscape, where the sun never seems to shine. She vows revenge and comes back years later, along with her walking dead servant and proceeds to wreck all manner of carnage and mayhem. Her main concern is taking over the life of her look alike descendant (also Steele). Bava has several masterpieces on his resume, this is one of them. Drenched in gothic atmosphere, as only Bava could produce, Black Sunday is still genuinely scary stuff. The servant Javutich crawling up out of his grave is still the stuff of nightmares.
3. Psycho 1960
A game changer is ever there was, Hitchcock’s film was not just the template for every psychotic slasher movie that came out over the years it changed the way we see movies. If it’s a scary movie we expect that no one is safe. No one had ever killed off the major character in any movie previously, certainly not from a major film maker. And Hitchcock’s genius shines in every frame, no matter how many times it is seen the shower scene still is shocking, the entire movie has an uneasiness, even the mundane scenes at the beginning have an edge. And the famous all strings music by Bernard Herrmann can still put you in a nervous frame of mind. A classic and still scary after all these years.
2. Carnival of Souls 1962
A one of a kind regional movie, made by people who made classroom and training films, on a very low budget with non actors, except for the lead actress Candice Hilligoss, (who is brilliant.) Carnival of Souls is not terrifying, but again, it will put you in an uneasy frame mind that can last for days. A major influence on George Romero Carnival is yet another movie, even if you know the ending, is worth revisiting many times. All of the scenes at the old Salt Air Pavilion in Utah are literally haunting. A text book example of what can be done on a low budget, if you have some talent. I first saw Carnival of Souls on Zone 2 in 1965, a local St. Louis tv show with a Horror Host played by Jack Murdock , scared me half to death.
1. Night of the Living Dead
The other game changer on this list. We have George Romero and his underpaid crew to thank for all the zombie movies that have come out since 1968, including the Walking Dead. And yet another regional film made by people who made industrial and corporate training films, as well as sports documentaries, Night of the Living Dead may shock you, it may horrify you, so if you are the least bit faint hearted, well, we warned you!
And, as I said this is a very personal list, I have to give honorable mentions to the original The Haunting, The Thing From Another World, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Brain that Wouldn’t Die, all of the Val Lewton series made at RKO in the 1940s, The Mummy’s Hand, Bride of Frankenstein and, what the hell, I love them all, whether they are still scary of not!
And a very Happy Hallowe’en to you all!
