A cool video was recently uploaded to Vimeo titled ‘A History of Horror’. It showcases a snippet from one influential horror film per year from 1895 until 2016.
The video runs about twelve minutes long, but it’s definitely worth a watch for all horror movie fans and those looking to discover some titles they may have missed.
The films featured in the video start from the year 1895 and some of those earlier films look terrifying – all that old filmmaking technology adds an extra element to the horror aspect of each film.
All the usual suspects are in the video, however there may be some that slipped under your radar.
Having seen almost all of the films listed in the video from about 1960 onwards, I would have to say Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) is probably the scariest of the lot.
Some films in the video that are possibly lesser known to mainstream audiences but that I can recommend and are absolute must-sees include the following:
Repulsion (1965 – Dir. Roman Polanski)
A sex-repulsed woman who disapproves of her sister’s boyfriend sinks into depression and has horrific visions of rape and violence.
They Live (1988 Dir. John Carpenter)
A drifter discovers a pair of sunglasses that allow him to wake up to the fact that aliens have taken over the Earth.
Cronos (1993 Dir. Guillermo del Toro)
A mysterious device designed to provide its owner with eternal life resurfaces after four hundred years, leaving a trail of destruction in its path.
Cube (1997 – Dir. Vincenzo Natali)
6 complete strangers of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily placed in an endless kafkaesque maze containing deadly traps.
The House of the Devil (2009 – Dir. Ti West)
During a night of 1983 with full lunar eclipse, Samantha Hughes takes a babysitting job surrounded by mysterious circumstances before she finds out her client’s terrifying secret.
The Skin I live In (2011 – Dir. Pedro Almodóvar)
A brilliant plastic surgeon, haunted by past tragedies, creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.
The Witch – (2016 – Dir. Robert Eggers, see my review here)
A family in 1630s New England is torn apart by the forces of witchcraft, black magic and possession.
All of the above are fantastic and fans of the genre should see them if they haven’t already.
Some of the earlier films featured in the video might be hard to come by these days, however there is a YouTube channel called Public Domain Full Movies which lets you watch popular movies in the public domain for free, and you should be able to find a handful or so of those old horrors to stream there.
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