Five Classic Horror Films for Halloween

House of Wax, Haunted Hill, Haunting, Psycho, Arsenic and Old Lace

Oct 21, 2009

Classic horror films such as House of Wax, The House on Haunted Hill, The Haunting, Psycho, and Arsenic and Old Lace are perfect for watching around Halloween.

Horror movies have been made since the beginning of the film industry, from the classic Phantom of the Opera to modern slasher flicks. There are many classic horror films, from haunted house movies such as The House on Haunted Hill and The Haunting, to murder movies such as House of Wax and Psycho. Even Frank Capra made a kind of scary movie with his comedic Arsenic and Old Lace. These classic horror films still give chills to viewers, and are perfect for Halloween viewing.

Starring Vincent Price (Prof. Henry Jarrod), Phyllis Kirk (Sue Allen), Charles Bronson (Igor), Paul Picerni (Scott Andrews)

In this remake of the 1933 classic The Mystery of the Wax Museum, Vincent Price stars as the talented Professor Jerrod, who makes very lifelike wax figures for his museum. But when his partner burns down the museum for the insurance money, Jerrod is badly injured and presumed dead. When he reappears a few months later he has begun to build a new wax museum, featuring creepily realistic figures. At the same time, a deformed man is terrorizing the town, and bodies are mysteriously disappearing from the morgue. House of Wax features Vincent Price in one of his most famous roles, both charming and slightly unsettling as the mysterious and intense Professor Jerrod.

Starring Vincent Price (Frederick Loren), Carol Ohmart (Annabelle Loren), Carolyn Craig (Nora Manning), Richard Long (Lance Schroeder)

Another classic horror movie with the legendary Vincent Price, House on Haunted Hill features Price as the sadistic millionaire Frederick Loren, who has arranged a creepy house party for his wife. Held at a supposed haunted house, each guest will get $10,000 if they can just stay the night. But frightening and dangerous things happen right away, from a pool of acid in the basement to ghost sightings to a dangerous “accident.” In the meantime, Loren hates his wife and accuses her of trying to kill him, but she is the one who is found hanged. Many in the party suspect murder, and they must find out what happened before dawn.

Starring Richard Johnson (Dr. John Markway), Julie Harris (Nell Lance), Claire Bloom (Theodora), Russ Tamblyn (Luke Sanderson)

Based on Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, this classic horror film features a haunted house, mysterious happenings, and unstable guests. The movie begins with the history of Hill House and the tragic deaths of the people who have lived in it. Now, an anthropologist specializing in the supernatural wants to investigate this supposed “real” haunted house. To do so he invites Nell, who has been tormented by poltergeists, and Theodora, who has ESP, in the hopes that their sensitivity to the supernatural will bring the house alive. The group hears strange noises, finds odd writing on the wall, and experiences weird feelings, all leading to more tragedy in this house that some say was born evil.

Starring Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates), Janet Leigh (Marion Crane), Vera Miles (Lila Crane), John Gavin (Sam Loomis), Martin Balsam (Milton Arbogast)

Based on the Robert Bloch novel, this is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous and most horrifying movies. After Marion Crane steals $40,000 from her employer so she can run away with her fiancé, she unwisely stops at the Bates Motel for the night. She meets troubled owner Norman Bates, and senses that his disturbed mother keeps him trapped there. That night, she is brutally murdered in the infamous Psycho “shower scene.” When Marion’s sister, fiancé, and a private detective come looking for her, they also sense something odd is going on at the Bates Motel, and there is another murder before they discover who the psycho is.

Starring Cary Grant (Mortimer Brewster), Priscilla Lane (Elaine Harper), Raymond Massey (Jonathan Brewster), Peter Lorre (Dr. Einstein), Josephine Hull (Abby Brewster), Jean Adair (Martha Brewster)

This Frank Capra-directed classic is far more comedy than horror movie, but the Halloween-night setting and multiple murders make it a perfect choice for people who like their scares light-hearted. Cynical critic Mortimer Brewster has just gotten married to the sweet girl next door and just wants to take his new bride on their honeymoon. But first he checks in on his sweet old aunts, when he makes the startling discovery that they have just poisoned a man, the last in a long line of victims whom they’ve killed out of pity. While trying to hide the body, Mortimer also decides to have his brother, who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, committed. In the midst of this mayhem, Mortimer’s other brother, the criminally insane Jonathan, comes home with his own corpse and his crazy plastic surgeon. Mortimer must get the right people committed and locked up, all while keeping the cops at bay and trying to appease his wife. Arsenic and Old Lace is a classic comedy, featuring Cary Grant and Raymond Massey at their comedic best.

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Oct 22, 2009 9:04 AM

Barry M. Grey :

Nice piece.

I would like to point out that while Chaney's Phantom in 1925 was certainly a prominent horror film, it was by no means the first. The earliest one I know of was the Edison production of Frankenstein in 1910, in which the monster is played by an actor named Charles Ogle. (Only a fragment of it remains.)

And Chaney himself made a fair number of films prior to 1925 that can be considered horror movies, most notably his 1923 Hunchback of Notre Dame, A Blind Bargain (1922)and a few others that straddle the fence between horror and melodrama.