Here’s a classic update for Halloween 2022 (movies from before 1990). More (somehow) to come (October ain’t done with me yet).

1920 – The Golem: How He Came Into the World – a pretty impressive German silent about a rabbi who sculpts a golem out of clay to save his people… until it runs amok. Great bit of film history and a pretty impressive production (even if the golem really needs a better haircut).

1925 – The Phantom of the Opera – The Lon Chaney original with an unmasking scene I’ve seen a dozen times but never the movie itself. Lavish and well shot, this is a genuinely suspense-filled silent film… a story told dozens of times so it’s remarkable I was this engaged.

1928 – The Man Who Laughs – a pretty impressive silent film that clearly influenced The Joker (and was itself influences by The Phantom of the Opera). A boy is surgically mutilated to have a permanent smile and grows up to be a popular clown. But he turns out to be royal and soon political agents are at work. A good drama, romance, and adventure film full of impressive silent movie sets and crowds.

1935 – The Raven – Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff team up in a weird Edgar Allen Poe Appreciation Society movie.  Not based on the poem The Raven, but more based on Lugosi’s character being a Poe fanboy. Kind of an unfocused film… I kind of liked it but kind of wished it had found a point earlier on.

1949 – The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad – somehow I never saw this in full. Pretty sure maybe saw bits of the Headless Horseman chase over the years, but was shocked recently when I learned that was only part of a complete movie. I could have lived a full life without seeing the Mr. Toad bit but was fun seeing the full Sleepy Hollow one (even if it was only five short minutes of spookshow fun).

1960 – Eyes Without a Face – Oh my goodness, I’m watching a 60 year old movie that’s actually making me horrified by its level of clinical gruesomeness. What must this have been like for an audience in the 1960s if it’s turning the stomach of a guy who’s seen it all?  A pretty good movie otherwise, but that surgery scene. Ugh. The flick is about a doctor doing involuntary face transplants to give his daughter her life back. The whole movie is clinical and cold, dispassionate… which is both good and bad.

1967 – The Fearless Vampire Hunters – a movie title I love so much I sometimes slip it into reviews of other vampire flicks. But I’d never seen it… and when I did, I realized it was a comedy. Who knew? Directed by and starring the excellent filmmaking (and pathetic human being) Roman Polanski. And it’s dreadful. So gapingly unfunny I wasn’t sure it was really a comedy at all. Like… were those jokes? I did manage to laugh on rare occasions, I suppose.

1968 – Dracula Has Risen from the Grave – a pretty standard Hammer/Christopher Lee Dracula flick from what I’ve seen… the blood flows (bright) red, the cape game is solid, and Drac really needs some Visine. Gets a little saggy in the middle when Drac has risen from the grave but hasn’t yet gotten around to terrorizing the townsfolk. Pretty decent flick.

1976 – Eaten Alive – Tobe Hooper’s follow-up to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre isn’t as sleazy, grungy, and disturbed as that movie… but it tries. It’s a pretty sordid little bit of swamp horror about a innkeeper who likes to chuck his guests into the front yard to get et by a gator. Why? Reasons! There’s a lot of moving parts for such a simple premise, almost like they were trying to pad the runtime. But it’s good sick fun if you’re into that sort of thing.

1976 – To the Devil… a Daughter – a sluggish and somewhat confusing Satanic cult movie co-starring Christopher Lee as an excommunicated priest turned Satanist. Needlessly convoluted plot involving an 18 year old nun unknowingly growing up in the cult and a separate baby being born that is somehow hers or will become hers… I dunno. I was bored.

1980 – Maniac – a sleazy, disgusting, filthy little slasher movie that could only have been filmed in the late 70s. I really didn’t enjoy any of it… besides maybe the handywork of Tom Savini. He does good gore and the movie had that much at least.

1981 – The Beyond – A Fulci Italian splatterflick that I thought was really good, as long as you don’t expect a plot or things to make sense. A woman inherits a hotel in Louisiana that has a few unfortunate problems… a lot of water damage, a gateway to hell, a bunch of tarantulas (some real, some fake), and even more zombies. The blood bags spurt, faces are rended (rent?), and all sorts of nasty, gnarly, gory stuff goes down. Not for everyone, to put it mildly.

1982 – Tenebre – Dario Argento doing the usual Dario Argento thing… though this time with a more conventional murder mystery plot. It’s – for a giallo – fairly accessible story but still with the usual fountains of bright red blood and other standards. I like this one… the end gets crazy.