GUEST BLOG: Kymm Zuckert on four classic hidden horror gems

The Old Dark House (1932, directed by James Whale) Haunted house films are a staple of Halloween movie delights. They are sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying, with interesting ensembles. They span from the earliest of recorded cinema (look for The Haunted Castle from 1896 on YouTube, it’s  tons of fun) all the way up until yesterday. One of the earliest spooky house movies was James Whale’s wonderful The Old Dark House (1932), where the house is less filled with ghosts as with weirdos and atmosphere. Whale is best remembered for his classics Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein, but The Old Dark House is his masterpiece. You may think you don’t know it, but as you watch it, you think, “Wait a minute, is that a light over at the Frankenstein place?” because it was the inspiration for The Rocky Horror Picture Show.It is a dark and stormy night, of course, and a bickering couple, (the youngest Raymond Massey and Gloria Stewart that you ever did see), and their more laid-back friend (an equally baby-faced Melvyn Douglas), are driving to Shrewsbury, soaked through and lost. They get blocked by a landslide and are forced to stop at the titular Old Dark House, which is filled with extremely creepy people.The first person they see is Boris Karloff, a scarred and mute butler, and he is scary enough, but then they meet Horace Femm, played by the glorious Ernest Thesiger (Dr. Pretorious from Bride of Frankenstein), and his sister Rebecca (Eva Moore), who are both extremely peculiar. They are joined by the equally stranded Charles Laughton and Lilian Bond, and pretty soon everyone starts to wonder if flooding and landslides are preferable to these weird siblings and their terrifying servant and who knows what else in this awful house. The Old Dark House is a terrific part of the classic Universal horror films of the 1930s, one of the few that weren’t monster-based, and a wonderful Halloween treat to catch up on, if you have never seen it, or re-discover if you have. But watch it in the daylight, just to be on the safe side.

The Uninvited (1944, dir by Lewis Allen) is a charming and funny, though also eerie, film about a brother and sister, Rick and Pamela, (Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey), who buy a surprisingly cheap mansion in Cornwall because they believed the owner, Commander Beech, (Donald Crisp), when he assures them that the house, where his daughter died tragically, wasn’t haunted. Never a good thing when that question is answered before it is asked. They move in and discover a cold room where flowers wilt and feelings of despair wash over them, and their adorable, squirrel-obsessed dog won’t go upstairs, and neither will the cook’s cat. They are not suspicious, they are from London and cannot read these giant flashing signs. Rick immediately decides to set up his studio in the cold room in order to compose. These city folk, I swear. Rick and the Commander’s granddaughter, Stella, (Stella Meredith), start to become friendly, but the Commander wants desperately to keep Stella away from the house, as he fears the house is dangerous for her. He professes that it isn’t haunted and he doesn’t believe in ghosts anyway. He isn’t wrong, as Stella, after only a few minutes in the cold room, tries to throw herself off the cliff in the same spot where her mother died. Later she feels a warm presence of love. Is the house haunted? By whom? Is there a malevolent spirit who wants to harm Stella, or a warm presence who wants to protect her? You’ll have to watch to find out.

The Haunting (1963, dir by Robert Wise) Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House is one of the scariest books ever written, and the 1963 movie version, Robert Wise’s The Haunting, is a fitting adaptation. Of the 1999 remake, let us never speak. Hill House is a house that has known nothing but tragedy, and thus may well be filled with ghosts. Or so Dr. Markway (Richard Johnson) wants to find out. He brings several assistants who have had psychic experiences: Eleanor (Julie Harris), who has been under her family’s thumb her entire life and is desperate to break free. Theo (Claire Bloom), a free-spirited psychic lesbian with outfits by Mary Quant. And Luke (Russ Tamblyn), the nephew of the owner who is there to look after the property that will be his someday. Eleanor and Theo hear terrifying pounding in the night, and screams of laughter. But Dr. Markway and Luke when lured outside by what they think might be a dog, don’t hear a thing. The next morning, they find Eleanor’s name written in chalk on the wall. But who wrote it?It seems that the house wants Eleanor, and also that Eleanor is desperate to escape her unhappy life. It is a match made in Heaven? Or, far more likely, hell? Julie Harris was a national treasure, and this is undoubtedly one of her greatest film performances as poor, nervous, yearning Eleanor. She is not alone, the whole cast is outstanding, this film is all of their finest hours on film. If you haven’t seen it, treat yourself this Halloween to a truly terrifying classic.

The Legend of Hell House (1973, dir by John Hough), is not a remake of The Haunting (of Hill House), no matter how similar the bones of it may seem, but rather an adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel, Hell House. As in The Haunting, two men and two women, lead by a scientist, enter a famously haunted house to get down to the bottom of the whole ghost situation. But this time the scientist, Dr. Barrett (Clive Revill), is both a parapsychologist and a skeptic. His companions are his wife, Ann, (Gayle Hunnicutt), and two mediums, Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin), and Ben Fisher, (Roddy MacDowall). Ben is the only survivor of the previous attempt to prove the existence of ghosts at the Belasco House, aka Hell House, twenty years before. They all think, entering this house, that they are in control, that they know what they are up against, and that either their belief in science or in the power of their minds can hold sway over whatever lives within these walls. But quite soon, the spirit or spirits figure out how to set them apart from and against each other- through their desires and needs-until everything is as insane as the mind of the man who built this house in the first place. How many of them can survive Hell House? I have seen this movie a myriad of times, as Roddy MacDowall was my favourite actor ever since I was ten years old, but I hadn’t seen it in years, and remembered it as being a little corny, especially the ending (no spoilers). But it was far more atmospheric and well-made than I remembered, and the score is terrific. It’s not The Haunting, a nearly perfect haunted house film, but it is certainly a very strong offering in the genre, and absolutely worth seeking out. 

Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents  would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” @Kymmz on Facebook, Twitter, and Letterboxd.