This classic piece of German expressionism is pretty much a retelling of Dracula with different names and an altered plot to appease Stoker’s widow. Now I know what you’re thinking, “This was made in the old days. It’ll be tame and crappy and campy more than funny.” Well this is partly true; some of the acting is deliciously campy and over the top. But there are two great reasons to see the movie that still make it scary and unsettling to today’s modern audience. The first one is the performance of Max Schreck as the title character. The actor (whose name, clumsily translated, means “Maximum Terror”) becomes the character completely. From the elfin ears to the seemingly foot-long fingernails, he conveys a horrifying image of a bloodsucker completely different from Lugosi’s playboy-like Dracula. A shot of him taken from an oblique angle on
If you liked this, you might also like Dracula, Frankenstein, or Shadow Of The Vampire which presumes that Max Schreck really was a vampire slowly killing off the crew of Nosferatu.
I’ve always found this movie much scarier (if not technically better) than Hitchock’s Psycho if only because we are never given an explanation of why the birds are attacking at will. We follow Melanie (Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith’s mother) and Mitch (Rod Taylor) as they find the seaside town they’re visiting suddenly overwhelmed by birds. It starts simply with a single one attacking Melanie on a boat but soon escalates to being attacked at the town diner and then they finally lay siege to the home where our heroes are staying. Hitchcock lets us know by the middle of the film that any of the characters, no matter how “major”, could be killed at any point. This not only escalates the uneasiness of the situation, but also the sheer terror. Watch the
If you liked this, you might also like Pyscho or Them!.
The movie that gave us the unseen terror decades before The Blair Witch Project. Filmed in glorious black and white this story is of four people who have all shown an ability for ESP being called together at a house where “there are no ninety degree angles.” That one phrase gives you an idea of the sheer eerie qualities of the film. Julie Harris, an accomplished stage actress, is spectacular as Eleanor, the character that the other spirits seem to take to. Her fragile gentility is overwhelmed by a house that seems to want to kill her, but is fascinated that so many spirits would choose her over the other people there. Have you ever wanted to be horrified by bumps in the night and doors that bend? This is the movie for you.
If you like this, you might also like The Others, The Blair Witch Project, or the 1999 remake also titled The Haunting. The remake sacrifices the unseen for the seen but the visuals are fantastic.
The movie that made the world possible for multiple sequels that get progressively inferior. It is the high point and death of the schlocky, cheaply-made horror films. It’s a simple plot and a simple carryout that has Jamie Lee Curtis running away a lot from her brother in a hockey mask. I must say that when I saw it, it didn’t scare me that much, but that was because a lot of the new things involved in its production have now become common-place in the horror film industry. But hey, Jamie Lee Curtis is a fantastic screamer and the wild-eyed Donald Pleasance plays demented quite well.
If you liked this movie, you might also like Halloween: H20, A Nightmare on Elm Street, or Friday the 13th.
Well, the horror genre was pretty much dead by the time this flick came around and boy did it rejuvenate the genre. From an early, gruesome demise of a main character to a bunch of self-aware teenagers spouting off pop-culture references, this became a hit of surprising proportions. What’s even more impressive is that even though the film is primarily a comedic homage to the genre, it still manages to be scary and nerve-wracking. As we grow to know Sydney (Neve Campbell) and her friends right before they start dropping like flies, we actually care about them like we don’t in any normal horror film. The scene stealing by Jamie Kennedy as the film geek who informs everyone of the “rules” is also a great character in the annals of horror history. And let’s
If you liked this movie, you might also like Scream 2 (not Scream 3), I Know What You Did Last Summer, or The Faculty.