Chronological Horror Watch Rankings from 2023
Life continues to be busy, and Sci-Fi Saturdays are basically on hold until I have the time and mental bandwidth to engage in unpaid cinema musing. (Especially because I want to write stuff that's actually thoughtful and interesting.)
However, if you follow me on Twitter or BlueSky, then you know I have been commenting on the horror films I have been watching to mark Spooky Season.
I watch and read about horror all year long, but Halloween is an excuse to mainline them. Last year I sk/tweeted my way through a chronological watch of Pre-Code/1930s horror cinema.
Here's how I ranked the 25 films I watched, from worst to best, with my sk/tweet commentary:
25. Murders in the Zoo (Dir. A. Edward Sutherland, 1933): The premise is good, but the film is either a delight or dud, depending on how funny you find Charles Ruggles' character, and how much you know about eating patterns of large reptiles.
24. Thirteen Women (Dir. George Archainbaud, 1932): I want to like this Bechdel Test passing tale of a mixed-race woman killing off the white women who bullied her as a child, but the yellow face, Orientalism and racism present disgusts me too much.
23. Murders in the Rue Morgue (Dir. Robert Florey, 1932): Bela Lugosi's screen presence and Karl Freund's cinematography keep this Edgar Allen Poe adaptation from true mediocrity. For a better 1930s movie with a killer ape watch "King Kong."
22. Svengali (Dir. Archie Mayo, 1931): Is this truly a horror movie? Film scholar William K. Everson thought so. Svengali is a hypnotic, abuser of young women, like Dracula. The actual horror is that manipulative abusers are so prevalent in real life.
21. Werewolf of London (Dir. Stuart Walker, 1935): Werewolf of London plays like a variant on The Invisible Man minus James Whale's artistry. The seed of a good concept is in this film, however, and would eventually inspire better werewolf films.
20. The Invisible Ray (Dir. Lambert Hillyer, 1936): Boris Karloff's antisocial scientist pursues Radium "X" research to the point of self destruction, but makes the mess he made of his reputation and relationships everyone else's problem.
19. Dracula's Daughter (Dir. Lambert Hillyer, 1936): For happening moments after Dracula ends, it's odd that the Sewards are never mentioned in Dracula's Daughter. At least Countess Zakeska being outright bisexual diverts from this plothole.
18. Dracula (Dir. Tod Browning, 1931): Is it a good adaptation of the source novel? Not really. Did Tod Browning really leave most of the direction to cinematographer Karl Freund? Probably. Is Bela Lugosi nevertheless charismatic and iconic as Dracula? YES!
17. Freaks (Dir. Tod Browning, 1932): Given how some of the performers were exploited, I feel a bit guilty for how much I enjoy Freaks. I love stories of outsiders creating found family (as well as revenge narratives), so I keep coming back to this unique film.
16. Drácula (Dir. George Medford, 1931): A Spanish language version of Dracula exists because reshooting the main scenes in a different language was easier than dubbing or subtitling films in 1930. The resulting film is overall better than Tod Browning's.
15. White Zombie (Dir. Victor Halperin, 1932): Part of the "Bela Lugosi Has Weird Makeup" and "A Woman Being Hypnotized is A Man's Problem Actually" Pre-Code subgenres. Of greater note, this film says a lot more about colonialism than probably intended.
14. The Black Cat (Dir. Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934): The Black Cat is a film where aesthetics and shock value are the attraction over story. Bela Lugosi gets to be handsome, Boris Karloff gets to be stylishly sinister, and the two pair well together.
13. The Raven (Dir. Louis Friedlander, 1935): Bela Lugosi's Edgar Allen Poe obsessed neurosurgeon seems to be taking revenge on Boris Karloff for his character's sins against Lugosi's in The Black Cat. Granted, his character is also a sadist.
12. The Most Dangerous Game (Dir. Irving Pichel and Earnest B. Schoedsack, 1932): Shot on many of the same sets as King Kong (1933) and featuring 2 of its stars, The Most Dangerous Game looks like an adventure story and plays out as suspenseful horror.
11. Island of Lost Souls (Dir. Erle C. Kenton, 1932): The compulsion to include love interests in adaptations of literary sci-fi/horror like Island of Lost Souls, adds interesting dimension to their themes, even as they remain narratives centering men.
10. The Mummy (Dir. Karl Freund, 1932) The plot is mostly a rehash of Dracula (1931), but its heroine has more agency. Jack Pierce's makeup and Boris Karloff's performance are equal to, if not better than, their work in Frankenstein.
9. Doctor X (Dir. Michael Curtiz, 1932): Shot in expressive two-color Technicolor and featuring pre-Code scream queen Fay Wray, Doctor X packs an amazing amount of horror, sci-fi, comedy, and mystery elements into 76 minutes.
8. The Bride of Frankenstein (Dir. James Whale, 1935): Despite being made after the Production Code went into effect, the body count is higher in this film than Frankenstein. The Bride herself, meanwhile, only appears on screen for less than 5 minutes.
7. Mystery of the Wax Museum (Dir. Michael Curtiz, 1933): Michael Curtiz, Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray and Technicolor teamed up a second time for Mystery of the Wax Museum. But it's fast talking, reporter Glenda Farrell who keeps the plot moving and together.
6. Mad Love (Dir. Karl Freund, 1935): Maybe it's the presence of fellow expatriate Karl Freund behind the camera, but Peter Lorre's performance in Mad Love is nuanced, captivating, and one of his best. The film is otherwise middle of the road for the era.
5. The Old Dark House (Dir. James Whale, 1932): Need a Gothic meditation on the Lost Generation but with black humor and queerness? James Whale is your director! The film is a fairly accurate adaptation of its source novel, Benighted by J.B. Priestley, too.
4. The Invisible Man (Dir. James Whale, 1933): James Whale's horror films, including The Invisible Man, have more character than their contemporaries. Claude Rains' manic, darkly comic performance is as strong as the visual effects.
3. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Dir. Rouben Mamoulian, 1931): Karl Struss' dynamic, creative cinematography makes this adaptation of the oft filmed Robert Louis Stevenson novella stand out. Unfortunately, Hyde's abuse of Ivy is trigger warning warranting disturbing.
2. Vampyr (Dir. Carl Th. Dreyer, 1932, France/Germany) It's not a Hollywood film, so Vampyr probably shouldn't be on this list, but this trippy, technically sound but aesthetically silent, art film fits the timeline, so I used that as an excuse to watch it.
1. Frankenstein (Dir. James Whale, 1931): Like Dracula, Frankenstein is a loose adaptation of its source novel, but has defined the iconography of its central monster. It's also a damn great film, period. Its influence on horror and sci-fi is justified.