Letterboxd — Your life in film

Whilst I didn't find everything memorable, I'll be damned if that central reveal scene didn't shock me slightly. I love being shown up by 20s horror... well done, well done.

Quite a short film, this one, but effective. The final sequence, the short stretch of horror the entire film builds towards, was absolutely thrilling and remains impressive all these years later. 

Ah, so much old horror about how terrible it is to be "the nice guy."

Hysterical that this ends with a "please do not spoil the identity of the criminal" request... I guess spoilers predate film as a medium itself, but it still throws me off anyways.

Some absolutely beautiful (and actually eerie) use of shadows and silhouettes to characterise our titular villain. Before he was the uh fun superhero we know today, The Bat was suitably sinister. Underrated!

Really nothing to do with the Edgar Allen Poe story besides title alone. The Black Cat finds a poor couple (with a particularly faint-vulnerable wife) caught in the cross-hairs of a not-so-evil-ish Bela Lugosi and an extremely sinister Boris Karloff.

Surprisingly extreme in its horror (for the time) which, I'm assuming, is due to it being pre-code. Honestly quite a beautiful movie too — Karloff's character is an architect and they reflect that in the looming, almost isolating construction of his home. A fun time!

Adored the gradually escalating tension in this one, elevated further by the very sparse use of location (most scenes are just in the house.) Didn't surprise me at all that this was based on a stage play.

Not necessarily exclusive to the film, but I loved how accurately the title reflected the story. Night Must Fall. There's this palpable, looming sense that eventually all the horror left unattended to, those fears and secrets buried deep within our characters consciousness, burst through the veil of the day — living freely in darkness of the night.

Oh what a lovely, sweet, talented old lady! I do hope there's nothing deceptive or sinister going on...

It'd be interesting to look at this film through a couple different lenses (that I don't currently have time to), but my biggest take-away is that shrinking needs to come back to the horror genre in a big way. What for? Time will tell.

Got halfway through this one before realising this was absolutely NOT The Devil-Doll (1936). Should've clicked the first time they referred to the 1940s as the past.

Deeply ridiculous spooky doll/hypnotist movie with an occasionally quite eerie musical score. Would be significantly more iconic if the ending (or just second half) of the film was more interesting. As it is, Devil Doll is simply fine.

Boris Karloff was such a marvel in villainous roles — like what a screen presence. I'm glad we no longer (as frequently) lock up the mentally ill — and women — like animals whenever we feel like it. That being said, I'm not entirely sure we've progressed a whole lot past that.

It's almost a shame how relevant a 1946s horror/thriller movie still is... but at least I can still enjoy it.

If every historical drama was constructed like this, I'd be a fucking encyclopaedia.

I'm gonna be honest here — they meet Dracula a whole lot more. Either way, this would've been a banging crossover 1948. A cinematic event.

The recent B&W 4k for this was stunning — easily preferable over the standard colour edition.

Somehow even more disturbing on rewatch (especially one incredibly key part of the ending I entirely missed on first viewing). A strange, nihilistic parable about the consequences of our desire to self preserve and a testament to the stubbornly human reflex of creating conflict and fanning its flames — waiting until it engulfs us all.

Despite all love and connection, despite our resilience and our valour, ultimately our acts will be repaid. None are forgotten.

I don't care how much praise this one gets... somehow it's still underrated.