101 Horror Movies - Part One. · 9:05pm Jun 21st, 2023
I picked up a book titled "101 Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die" yesterday. I will break up my thoughts into a series of posts.
The book is set up by decades, so today I’ll cover every film it mentions from before the 1930s. (The copyright of the book is 2009.)
The 1910s and 1920s:
The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari (1919) – Starting off with a major piece of cinematic history. This film hasn’t just influenced decades of horror cinema, but cinema overall. The German Expressionism visuals are a definite recommend.
The Golem (1920) – Also a German film. I haven’t seen this one yet.
Nosferatu (1922) – Yet another landmark film in cinema, not just horror cinema. Also, another German film.
Haxan (1922) – This film is listed as being From Denmark and Sweden. It’s subtitle is "Witchcraft Through The Ages". It’s a pretty wild film, especially for being a century old. It is presented like a documentary, mostly.
The Phantom Of The Opera (1925) – This is the first really iconic ‘Universal Monsters’ film. (Yes, "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame" came out in 1923.) This is my second favorite film using ‘The Phantom’ story. I love "The Phantom Of The Opera" story as well. Not quite as much as "Robin Hood" though.
And there we are, the Silent Era of the book is covered. I consider having seen four out of the five to be pretty good. How many have y’all seen? What do you think of the ones you have seen?
