A Viewer’s Guide to Made-for-TV Horror (1950s–2000s)
Before streaming, prestige cable, and “limited series,” horror found a strange and wonderful home on network television. These films were often made quickly, broadcast once, and then disappeared into late-night reruns or memory. What they lacked in budget, they made up for with atmosphere, restraint, and ideas that lingered. Below is a chronological guide to […]
Silent Screams: Where Horror Movies Were Born
Before jump scares, before gore, before sound itself, horror learned how to terrify audiences using nothing but shadow, movement, and imagination. Silent horror films didn’t rely on dialogue to frighten viewers. They relied on atmosphere. On distorted faces. On sets that looked like nightmares. On stories that crawled under your skin instead of shouting at […]
Häxan (1922)
Fictionalized documentary showing the evolution of witchcraft, from its pagan roots to its confusion with hysteria in Eastern Europe. Storyline Part history lesson followed by re-enactments with actors, this film depicts the history of witchcraft from its earliest days through to the present day (in this case,1922 or thereabouts). The result is a documentary-like film […]
Nosferatu (1922)
Wisburg, Germany-based estate agent Knock dispatches his associate, Hutter, to Count Orlok’s castle in Transylvania as the Count wants to purchase an isolated house in Wisburg. They plan on selling him the one across the way from Hutter’s own home. Hutter leaves his innocent wife, Ellen, with some friends while he is away. Hutter’s trek […]
Frankenstein (1910)
In this 1910 silent film, it is the first known movie about Dr. Frakenstein and his monster. Storyline Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée but on his wedding night he is […]