lets all soil our bvds along with grandpa: rolling pre-1970 horror movie thread

one step closer to completing the set. also, this is your opportunity to clown me for never getting around to watching Carnival of Souls until a couple days ago, which makes me an idiot that was wasting his life. you srsly can not overevangelize for that movie, its that goddamn good. wow.

thinking i might roll out masque of the red death next, unless people say it sucks.

what oldster stuff u been watching?

(plz note: i am old so plz take no offense old peoples)

ah good thing you started this

i just saw EYES WITHOUT A FACE recently and it freaked me right out.

well it's kind of dull and flat in the way that all "old movies" seem to be, except the titular character (a girl in a mask) who is kind of unsettling.

but then there's this one scene that is really long and kind of orture-tay orn-pay, if you get me

Masque of the Red Death does not suck.

Carl Dreyer's Vampyr is as creepy and surreal as horror films get btw

oh and where do people sit on witchfinder general - one of my generally reliable local horror stans was hating on it but ive heard lots of good things so

xpost oh man thats another one i keep meaning to get to, along with peeping tom

i like Witchfinder General a fair bit but i'm not sure it has the mechanics of a horror film really. lots of cool cinematography. Reeves' film of the year before, The Sorcerers is better I think. weirder anyway. I can't think of many pre-70 movies that can actually scare me now, they're more intersting in other ways?

man idk, carnival of souls was way way spookier/scarier than i expected - chock full o lynchian eye of the duck skin creeping stuff that always works on me.

the best part of this is that 90% of this stuff is on netflix streaming, and if not probably rolled into one of those 50 FILMS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT $4 dvd monstrosities

i think i think of "scare" differently to "creep out" or "unsettle", like "scare" means "make me jump"

or rather "scare" is something that happens in the moment but there are other aspects of a film that sneak up on you later

yeah fair enough - there are some jump scares in COS, but i think the modern ones are so perfectly timed and positioned and engineered that a creepy floating head in the window doesnt probably have the effect it did in the 60s.

carnival of souls is one of my top 5 movies, maybe top 3, glad ya dug it

Glad you've started this thread. I've really been getting into the early 70's and late 60's horror (esp. Hammer) films lately.

A few good ones, I've just recently watched:

Witchfinder General
The Last Man on Earth
The Masque of the Red Death
The Innocents
Black Sabbath

if u can get a copy of the lugosi dracula with philip glass score, that is fun in a lol philip glass kind of way

also i saw on netflix: nosferatu with some kind of latter-day rivethead sdtrk, which you might enjoy

"Eyes Without a Face" is ace. Also been loving "Night of the Demon" lately, an excellent Jacques Tourneur joint which may as well be an honorary Val Lewton joint as well.

[i]http://www.lonchaney.org/photos/a_unknown.jpg[/img]

dangit

The Innocents is an all-timer for sure.

lotta fun with Bava Box 1 lately

Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly (aka Girly) is on Instant!

wow, love where this thread is going. 2nd carnival of souls, les yeux sans visage (EWAF) and masque of the red death. eyes is a bit slow, yeah, but so damn spooky, the image of the girl in the porcelain mask! and carnival of souls is just one of the best horror movies ever made. other favorites:

dementia (aka "daughter of horror") - a super creepy, lynch-like POV odyssey shot through the eyes of a woman suffering from ... dementia. surreal, symbolic, erotic and visually astounding, hard to think lynch didn't rip a few ideas. only a little over an hour long. "daugher of horror" adds an unnecessary voice-over.

repulsion - polanski at his malevolent best, a patient, well-designed creepout documenting an innocent girl's unraveling in the face of urges she can't comprehend. smart, elegant and ruthless in equal measure.

hour of the wolf - ingmar bergman taking a whack at the tone and imagery of classic gothic horror and hitting it out of the park. with max von sydow, liv ullman and some of the most unsettlingly bizarre imagery you'll ever see. less a plotbound story than a slow, inevitable nightmare. so great. goes head to head with the likes of dementia and the night of the hunter among my very favorite films.

the bride of frankenstein - gorgeous james whale flick, superior in every way to its predecessor. so strange, inventive, touching and beautiful. a nearly perfect film.

the black cat - karloff & lugosi together for the first time in this decidedly offbeat edgar g. ullmer thriller. genuinely creepy, with oddball details galore and one of the most fantastic "weird house" location/sets ever constructed.

the night of the hunter - discussed a fair amount recently, probably due to the criterion edition, this may be my favorite movie of all time. wildly original and eerie as all get out, with breathtaking sets & photography and one of the all time great horror villains in robert mitchum's harry powell.

blood and black lace - no shortage of wonderful bava flicks prior to 1970, but i'll take this one. an astonishing, insanely florid killer thriller that anticipates both italian giallo and american slasher movies. full of jaw-dropping shots and color schemes, reminiscent of brian depalma and dario argento's finest 70s and 80s work.

the testament of dr. mabuse - a horrific supernatural (?) mystery from fritz lang, much closer to genre territory than M. the romance subplot is a waste, but everything else is incredibly inventive. so many unforgettable scenes and moments. and that face!

Have we discussed Manster on these threads yet?