I select a thematically appropriate horror movie for each day of the year and tell you about it.
Why?
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
How do you get to decide what qualifies as a horror movie and where each one goes on the calendar?
I am the Mayor of Horror Movies.
Are all these movies good?
Oh gosh no. But I recommend all of them to the adventurous viewer.
What’s with the CWs?
In horror movies, disturbing material is part of the entertainment package. But for some viewers, elements like sexual violence or bigotry ruin the fun. For those folks, I include content warnings. That said, the warnings are based on my personal reactions and should not be expected to cover all potential cinematic skeeviness, so proceed with caution.
Who are you, aside from the mayor?
I’m Shaenon K. Garrity. I’m mostly a cartoonist. I watch a lot of scary movies while I draw cartoons.
This is possibly the scariest damn movie ever. The first time I saw it was in college. I had to walk home alone, at night, through the woods. I was not a happy camper
There’s so much in this film that should be cheesy as hell, but isn’t. Like when the Nosferatu comes to get not-at-all-Lucy and all you see is the shadow of his hand moving up her sleeping form to her heart. Then it clenches into a fist and she spasms and arches her back. It shouldn’t work, it should be stupid, but damn!
That’s at least partly due to Max Schreck being really good at playing Orlok as a seriously creepy motherfucker. Fitting for a dude whose last name translates into English as “Terror”.
Oooh, not only is this movie a horror classic, it’s also a cult classic as well! There was a 1970’s remake with Klaus Kinsky that wasn’t nearly as good as the original (having seen both, I can say that once again, the original is MUCH better!).
Also, a bit of classic film trivia: Florence Stoker (Bram’s widow) successfully sued Murnau for plagiarism and won, and the courts ordered every copy of the movie destroyed. Unlike London After Midnight, however, someone held on to their copy and made copies of it so we could enjoy this classic.
Still more useless trivia: Clan Nosferatu from the RPG Vampire: The Masquerade owes not only its existence but also its gruesome appearance to this movie. If you look through any edition of the core rulebook, all of the depictions of the Nosferatu are all pretty much derived from Max Schreck’s frightening appearance. Gotta respect those classics! ^_^
There’s also 2000’s Shadow of the Vampire about the filming of the movie, which posits that Schreck really was a vampire. I’m not sure if Willem Dafoe or Klaus Kinski comes closer to Schreck’s monster.
This is possibly the scariest damn movie ever. The first time I saw it was in college. I had to walk home alone, at night, through the woods. I was not a happy camper
There’s so much in this film that should be cheesy as hell, but isn’t. Like when the Nosferatu comes to get not-at-all-Lucy and all you see is the shadow of his hand moving up her sleeping form to her heart. Then it clenches into a fist and she spasms and arches her back. It shouldn’t work, it should be stupid, but damn!
That’s at least partly due to Max Schreck being really good at playing Orlok as a seriously creepy motherfucker. Fitting for a dude whose last name translates into English as “Terror”.
Oooh, not only is this movie a horror classic, it’s also a cult classic as well! There was a 1970’s remake with Klaus Kinsky that wasn’t nearly as good as the original (having seen both, I can say that once again, the original is MUCH better!).
Also, a bit of classic film trivia: Florence Stoker (Bram’s widow) successfully sued Murnau for plagiarism and won, and the courts ordered every copy of the movie destroyed. Unlike London After Midnight, however, someone held on to their copy and made copies of it so we could enjoy this classic.
Still more useless trivia: Clan Nosferatu from the RPG Vampire: The Masquerade owes not only its existence but also its gruesome appearance to this movie. If you look through any edition of the core rulebook, all of the depictions of the Nosferatu are all pretty much derived from Max Schreck’s frightening appearance. Gotta respect those classics! ^_^
There’s also 2000’s Shadow of the Vampire about the filming of the movie, which posits that Schreck really was a vampire. I’m not sure if Willem Dafoe or Klaus Kinski comes closer to Schreck’s monster.
Kudos to you for mentioning ‘Shadow of the Vampire’. It was a moderately cheesy concept, but IMO it was handled well – and it was a fun flick.
I keep hoping Pittsburgh-area native George Sabol will reprise his live performance of his original and (mostly) metal guitar score for Nosferatu.