Top 10 Best Gothic Horror Movies
#10: “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992)
From the unauthorized silent adaptation, “Nosferatu,” to Universal’s renowned 1931 version, “Dracula” brought the trappings of gothic horror to the big screen. Over the years, the story had gone through so many incarnations it had become stale. Francis Ford Coppola’s maximalist take revived many of Bram Stoker’s most ambitious set pieces and scares. It also reintroduced the heavily erotic elements of the original novel, which would have been far too graphic for earlier adaptations. With its sumptuous set design and lurid images straight out of a penny dreadful, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” injected the romanticism, elegance, and danger back into a well-worn story.
#9: “Crimson Peak” (2015)
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Guillermo del Toro clearly took his inspiration from a lot of the other movies on this list. “Crimson Peak” is his twisted and diabolical take on stories like “Jane Eyre” and “Rebecca,” with a young female protagonist having to reckon with the secrets her new husband is hiding. Like many gothic horror offerings, it’s a bombastic and exaggerated melodrama which exploits its historical setting for maximum visual beauty. What Del Toro adds to it is his own streak of grotesque terror. Despite the expensive and artful interiors, his horror is not for the faint of heart.
#8: “House of Usher” (1960)
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Through the early 1960s, exploitation maestro Roger Corman made eight Edgar Allan Poe adaptations with many starring Vincent Price. The first in the series, “House of Usher,” set the standard for the series. Starring as the heir to the evil and cursed Usher family, Price delivers his character’s long and florid monologues with his distinctive and menacing sophistication. While the production is slightly more expensive than Corman’s usual movies, “Usher” employs colorful lighting and a moody, groaning soundtrack to make up for its visual limitations. It’s an effective and efficient example of gothic horror on a budget.
#7: “The Black Cat” (1934)
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One of Universal’s last horror movies released before the Hays Code became strictly enforced in Hollywood, “The Black Cat” is an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation in name only. Director Edgar G. Ulmer famously fooled censors by adding more racy and violent content than intended so that some of his more boundary-pushing scenes would look tame by comparison. The theatrical cut was still a challenging watch for contemporary audiences. It drew big crowds despite, or maybe because of, its morbidly sexual themes, torture, and human sacrifice. The scene in which Bela Lugosi’s character gets his revenge on Boris Karloff’s is still frequently cited as one of the scariest scenes in classic horror.
#6: “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920)
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On the surface, it’s a silent movie about a fairground showman with complete control over a homicidal sleepwalker named Cesare. But with its genre-defining innovations and German Expressionist style, nothing is as it seems in “Dr. Caligari.” Reality and physical spaces are so off-kilter that it’s hard to trust anything you see on the screen. While it’s not the traditional look we often associate with the genre, its use of shadows and mind-bending visuals would be copied by the foundational American horror films of the 1930s. Its innovative style and creep factor would later inspire critic Roger Ebert to call it the first true horror film.
#5: “The Others” (2001)
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With spooky, pale children, mysterious servants, and a haunted country house, you couldn’t make a more gothic movie if you tried. It’s set against the backdrop of the immediate aftermath of World War II, where a mother and her two light-sensitive children wait for the father to come from the war. Featuring a tour de force performance from Nicole Kidman, this old-fashioned ghost story found ways to innovate on the most basic horror formula. “The Others’” enthralling narrative is replete with atmospheric images, clever jump scares, and ingenious foreshadowing that pays dividends in its final act.
#4: “The Haunting” (1963)
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This Shirley Jackson adaptation chronicles the experiences of a group of people participating in a study on the existence of the supernatural. Things inevitably get freaky from there. Hill House is a character in itself, with its ornate moldings and dizzying floor plan, but its threat may be more psychological than anything else. Are these people letting their paranoia get to them, or is the house actively pitting them against each other? Later remakes have their own ideas, but like the novel, this paranoiac and urgent haunted house movie chooses to leave most of the supernatural occurrences up to the viewer’s interpretation.
#3: “Rebecca” (1940)
Alfred Hitchcock helmed the highly acclaimed 1940 film of this Daphne Du Maurier story. The Best Picture winner finds a young woman marrying into a wealthy man’s household, only to find the imposing memory of his first wife looms large. While some may contend it’s not a horror film, “Rebecca’s” concern with ghostly presences, real or imagined, and its twisting narrative are pretty strong stuff for a psychological thriller. Whether the threat comes in the form of the devoted servant, Mrs. Danvers, or in the secrets that could turn a marriage into a nightmare, “Rebecca” delivers on dread. Despite its melodramatic flourishes, it’s still an effective watch today.
#2: “The Innocents” (1961)
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Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw” recently found new life in Netflix’s “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” but this atmospheric and spine-tingling 1961 adaptation is a beloved classic. Actor Deborah Kerr plays the governess entrusted with the care of two troubled children who may be the target of a spiritual possession. Like many gothic stories, the movie wrings much of its horror out of its protagonist’s repressed sexuality and hysteria. While it remains ambivalent about the reality of the supernatural, there’s no denying its power to terrify its audiences as much as it moves them. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
“The Old Dark House” (1932)
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“Sleepy Hollow” (1999)
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“Interview with the Vampire” (1994)
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“The Orphanage” (2007)
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“The Phantom of the Opera” (1925)
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#1: “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935)
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While the original terrified its audiences, “Bride of Frankenstein” doubled down on everything that made it unforgettable. Its gothic style is more fantastical, its body count is higher, and its humor is impossible to miss. James Whale’s fine-tuned ear for dark comedy and metaphor is on full and garish display in this sequel. Karloff’s Monster stalks the expressionistic countryside and haunts graveyards in his quest to find companionship in a world that fears him. With its castles lit by candlelight, social commentary, and gleeful wickedness, it’s a perfect example of gothic horror. Critics continue to rank it at the very top of the genre, if not the entire horror genre.
