Near the opening of Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Marion Crane steals money from her employer and goes on the run. At a small motel off the beaten path, her guilt catches up with her, as does something considerably more threatening. Psycho deals with histories of wrongdoing and failure to Read More …
It didn’t take long for Swedish director Tomas Alfredson’s film Let the Right One In to earn a reputation as one of the greatest vampire movies ever crafted. Matt Reeves remade it almost immediately as Let Me In, which recreates the look and feel of the original, includes Read More …
G.K. Chesterton wrote that Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of Jekyll and Hyde was for us “a gargoyle of the greatest spiritual edification.” An exploration of a man using science to control his own fallen nature by giving it a conscience-free outlet, this film also illustrates Read More …
An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, F.W. Murnau’s Expressionist masterpiece imbues the figure of the vampire with dread and fascination, transcending nearly all later interpretations. Largely avoiding Christian iconography, Nosferatu contributed the deadly power of sunlight to vampire lore. Thanks in part to Max Schrek’s unclassifiable performance, Nosferatu’s Read More …
The indispensable link between the Catholic-inflected piety of Golden Age Hollywood and the world of latter-day horror, The Exorcist reflected deep unease in uncharted cultural waters. Loss of faith, casual dabbling in the occult, divorce and the therapeutic culture are all indicted in the growing nightmare of Read More …
A quiet little nightmare funneling images and shadows through dream logic, Dreyer’s creepy classic centers on a young man convinced of his inexorable and untimely demise: being buried alive. A creaky hotel plays host to vampire activity and creates an eerie atmosphere, where shadows dance Read More …
In the guise of a carnival barker, Dr. Caligari lures the people of Holstenwall into his tent for a glimpse of Cesare, a somnambulist who has been asleep for the past 23 years. Caligari invites the crowd to ask Cesare a question, for the somnambulist Read More …
Exploiting the tropes of both science fiction and horror, director Teshigahara explores the bonds of marriage in this existential film based on the novel by Kōbō Abe. When engineer Okuyama’s (Tatsuya Nakadai) face is disfigured in an accident, he volunteers for an experimental procedure: a Read More …
“I’m alone most of the time. All of the time, really,” confesses Emmi (Brigitte Mira), a German widow, to Ali (El Hedi Ben Salem), a much younger Moroccan she’s just met. “Ali much alone, too,” he confides. “Always working, drinking. Nothing else.” So begins a cross-cultural, Read More …
What is unexpressed is just as important as what is expressed in the exquisitely sad Le Mépris, in which unspoken words, lost moments, and failed connections lead to the collapse of a marriage. Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli), a screenwriter hired to adapt Homer’s Odyssey, uses his beautiful Read More …