Criteria:
Horror film or film with many horroresque elements
Made between 1940-1949
But before that, a little backstory...
As the 1930's drew to a close, horror was already growing kind of stale. Despite some great new actors emerging, most notably Lon Chaney, Jr. (who, like his father, became a horror icon), most of the trends of the 1930's had been tired out. It was now that they started doing a crossover movies, such as Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman or even comedy crossovers like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. It marked a time when a film like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was getting a remake, one that basically just rehashes the same story without the same grit or shock value (after all, it came from the director of The Wizard of Oz). It was also now that the genre began distancing itself from Gothic literature and more towards the horrors of the mind.
Producer and writer Val Lewton produced what is considered one of the best films ever made: Cat People, a psychological thriller with hints of the supernatural. He also produced some other great films, more focused on human killers or nontraditional subject matter for horror films, such as an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Body Snatcher, and I Walked with a Zombie. These were produced outside Universal Studios, rather being made by RKO Pictures, a smaller company, although these films brought them some good revenue. The same studio had produced some other big hits, such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, King Kong, and Citizen Kane, which are still considered classics today, the latter two being considered in the top twenty films ever made.
The List:
6. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948): Despite the title suggesting otherwise, there is more than just Frankenstein's Monster featured in this film. Dracula and the Wolf Man also appear. This marked the beginning of the "Abbott and Costello Meet (Blank)" cycle of horror and the end of the Golden Age of the Universal monsters movies. It's obviously played more for campy laughs than actually intending to scare the audience, and it's very dated, but it's ultimately still enjoyable as a tribute to a dying genre.
5. The Leopard Man (1943): Val Lewton produced this chilling movie that was the first film portrayal of a realistic serial killer, but that term wasn't used yet. This film is especially dark for a film made at the beginning of the 1940's, one of the tamest decades in cinema. The main performance Dennis O'Keefe is sympathetic and likable. Like other Lewton-made psychological thrillers, there's a strange connection with animals, which motivates the killer in some way, and that adds a layer of uneasiness to this mystery story: you're not exactly sure if the leopard at the zoo has gotten lose and begun mauling women or if there is a killer trying to use the leopard's escape as a scapegoat to cover his tracks.
4. I Walked with a Zombie (1943): Another exceptional Lewton production. This time, more focused on the supernatural subculture of Haitian voodoo. Possibly the best of the original zombie films, it's got some great performances by James Ellison, Tom Conway, and Frances Dee. It's sad to think this is sort of a forgotten classic, and I think more people should check it out, just remember: this isn't the same type of zombie that's prevalent today.
3. Dead of Night (1945): This British anthology film is one of the better in the subgenre, and has one of the best "living dummy" stories ever told, starring Michael Redgrave. This segment is probably why the film is so well-remembered. It was even censored when it was originally released in the U.S. because of one of the segments involves a children's Christmas party being attacked by a ghost. Even today, it's considered one of the eeriest films of the decade.
2. Cat People (1942): Another Val Lewton film (I promise, it's the last one), and it's his masterpiece. A dark psychological horror film playing on the fear of promiscuity and women's sexuality in the 1940's, it follows a young foreign woman who fears she turns into a flesh-eating cat creature when sexually aroused. While that sounds like a dumb B-movie, the way it's executed is very impressive. It holds back and tries to not show the monster, and keeps the mystery going: is she actually some sort of shapeshifter, or is she just going crazy? That's something I'll let you find out on your own, but this movie is often considered one of the best thriller films ever made, especially for it's time.
1. The Wolf Man (1941): The only Universal film to make the list is the one that made Lon Chaney Jr. into a star. Far more successful than 1935's underrated Werewolf of London, this film has a lot of great, iconic scenes, and a sympathetic main character. Funny enough, we never see the transformation scene in this movie (at least not fully), the Wolf-Man strangles his victims (not mauling them, like you'd expect), and there's no shots of a full moon. But even with all those elements missing, the movie remains a classic of the genre and inspired countless other great werewolf films.
(Images: Wikipedia)Runner-ups: The Body Snatcher, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Phantom of the Opera.
No comments:
Post a Comment