Tag: USA

Directed by Roland West [Other horror films: The Monster (1925), The Bat (1926)]

One of the earliest-surviving full-talkie horror movies (assuming one doesn’t count 1929’s The Thirteenth Chair, or another oddball choice), The Bat Whispers stands up incredibly well, and ends up being a very enjoyable entry into the old dark house style of movie (despite being a remake of the 1926 silent The Bat, directed also by Roland West, as this film was).

First off, I have to talk about something I generally don’t, being the cinematography. There are some simply amazing shots and sequences throughout the movie. Just watch the first five minutes, and you’ll see what I mean. These pop up multiple times over the course of the film, and I’ve never seen something quite like it. I’m not sure exactly how to explain it, but it really makes this movie more unique than it otherwise probably would have been.

The story, about a master criminal trying to scare a bunch of people out of a house in order to look for some hidden money, isn’t overly unique, but it is done well. We have plenty of suspicious characters, and as the movie drags on, we find no less than three different parties contesting each other to find the money. Only a few people aren’t suspects, so the whole film has a fun vibe because of that.

Plenty of actors and actresses stand out. Gustav von Seyffertitz, playing a suspicious doctor, does well, though his character sort of becomes less important later on into the film. Chester Morris does pretty well playing Detective Anderson, a character with a few secrets himself, and really commands respect when on screen. Unfortunately, two of the characters, played by Charles Dow Clark and Maude Eburne (who did not have an unsubstantial role in The Vampire Bat, from 1933) were thrown in purely for comic effect. Luckily, one of the main characters, the lady of the house, played by Grayce Hampton, did fantastically. Her character never seemed to lose control or her cool, and was consistently solid throughout the whole movie, especially near the end.

I do wish the tone were a bit more consistent. As I mention above, there’s a few characters whose only purpose is comic relief, which is more than a little disappointing. That said, there’s plenty of more creepy scenes also. The Bat, with a sort of cloak that went on to influence Batman’s design, was pretty well-done, and his whispering (as the title alludes to) was moderately effective.

At the end, we have an actor from the film talking to us, the audience, about how The Bat would be disappointed if his identity got out, and implores us to not tell our friends, so that when they see the film, they too will find out with the surprise that we did. Is it corny? Sure, but is it fun? Hell yes.

The Bat Whispers is a very solid movie, especially for a talkie this early. Does it occasionally drag? Perhaps, but if you’re into old dark house mystery flicks like me, it’s no more or less than any other flick. Also worth mentioning, as I said, this is a remake of the 1926 The Bat, which was also pretty decent (though I’d need to rewatch it before really comparing the two). Also, in 1959, Vincent Price starred in a movie titled The Bat, which is another version of this story. That, of course, was very enjoyable (as almost every Price movie is). That said, I sort of doubt it could stand up to this 1930 adaptation.

If you’re into older horror and mystery flicks, I don’t think you’d be disappointed with this one. A solid rewatch all around, and one of the shining lights of the 1930’s, especially with those unique camera angles.

8.5/10

Directed by Jeremy Saulnier [Other horror films: Murder Party (2007), Hold the Dark (2018)]

This film is, while decently suspenseful and tense, a moderately forgettable fair.

There was quite a decent amount of hype when it came out, and to an extent, Green Room delivers. The story is pretty enjoyable, there’s good gore throughout, and many of the actors did their parts well (especially Patrick Stewart). It’s not all good, though, as the character of Amber, from my perspective, seemed to be a red herring for most of the film, and it was never really touched on. And near the end, a few scenes fall a bit flat, though the final scene with the dog was extremely well done, and more so, deeply sad.

Green Room’s a good, thrilling film with good gore, but ultimately, I don’t know how memorable it’ll be. For what it did right, overall, I think the movie’s just about average. Not much more to say on this one.

7/10

Directed by Ivan Kraljevic [Other horror films: N/A]

Well, The Harvesting didn’t yield all that much, truth be told.

In it, two tales are told, which dovetail near the end, being 1) an Amish teenager must battle the anger he feels after going through a tragedy and 2) a couple nearing divorce take their children to the country in an attempt to save their marriage. The main focus is the second story, which doesn’t help much as it was a slow, plodding story of increased annoyance and anger growing between the family members. In a way, it almost feels like a low quality Burnt Offerings (1976), the way family members are slowly becoming more and more unstable. Throw in a few Amish ghosts and an unspeakable evil force that pulls those who are angry toward it and you get The Harvesting.

It wasn’t a great film at all. Honestly, the first hour did next to nothing for me, and the ending only made it better due to a twist which, ignoring everything else, was actually pretty fun. But as decent as the final twenty minutes were, it wasn’t worth sitting through the first hour to get there. And on that topic, the final scene of the film made no sense whatsoever. Nowhere in the film was an ending like what was implied suggested. *sigh* Overall, this is a slow film with not much to offer save an interesting twist. There’s little to no gore, no outstanding actors, and little to remember. The story itself wasn’t that shabby, but it wasn’t executed that well. I wouldn’t recommend the Harvesting – it’s in the lower class crop of film. 😛

5.5/10

[Worth noting, I saw this film in 2016 or 2017. I don’t have the exact date at hand, unfortunately. IMDb used to have this film dated as ‘2015’, which is what my entry at Fight-Evil has the movie listed as. Why is was changed to 2019, I don’t know, but I know that I saw the film at least a year before it’s ‘official’ release. As I do use IMDb’s listing as the final authority, I’ll list this one as a 2019 film, but I wanted to point this discrepancy out.]

Directed by Jimi Jones [Other horror films: N/A]

I saw this movie once before many, many years ago, and there was only a single scene I remembered. In the scene, a recently blinded woman is given a stick to defend herself against what amounts to little more than a ghost.

That’s a microcosm of how much sense this movie makes.

Which isn’t to say that, based off the plot and some of the ideas touched upon in the movie, it didn’t have potential. Crazy Eights could have been, despite it’s moderately low quality, a cult classic if done right. But instead of really tying things together, what does the ending do? Gives us some nonsense scene which I couldn’t make head or tails of, and based off what others online have said, I’m not at all alone.

For the most part, the movie’s fine. It’s not really good, and I had very little fun watching it, but for it’s budget, it was somewhat well done (how’s that for tepid praise?). The problem is, because the plot wasn’t fully formed and there’s still plenty of questions in our heads after the credits start rolling, things just feel sort of incomplete.

The cast was a mixed bag. With six main characters, we weren’t over-inundated with new faces, but it did take a little bit for each of the individuals to really stand out from the crowd (and one of them never really did). Gabrielle Anwar, due to the nature of her character, seemed to be drugged out 95% of the movie. Frank Whaley may have a more impressive resume, but his character was a whiny, annoying bitch throughout all of the film.

Dan DeLuca (who appeared a bit in The Wire) never really had much to do, and ended up being one of the more inconsequential characters. Traci Lords, much like Whaley, played a pretty annoying character, and due to that, was pretty unlikable. George Newbern, who played a priest, was pretty fun overall, though pulled a potential solution to the problem out of his ass near the end. Slightly less consistent was Dina Meyer (Starship Troopers, Saw), as she sort of lost it at the end (as did the film), but she was still mostly solid.

The thing is, even the better cast members, being Newbern and Meyer, didn’t make the film fun. I chuckled a bit at some of Whaley’s ridiculous lines, but I felt just sort of ‘there’ when watching this, and not at all interested in what was unraveling on the screen.

For what little gore we got, it was okay. I felt that, as multiple deaths were off-screen, we could have been thrown a bit more in that department, but apparently the creators hoped the story would stand up for itself, which was a bit of a failure on their part.

In all honesty, though I’ve not said many nice things about it, Crazy Eights isn’t a terrible movie. It really did have a somewhat interesting idea that they just failed to realize, and they had some themes they failed to pull together when it counted. It’s not a good movie, but it’s not awful either. I’d give it at least one go, and maybe you’ll end up liking it. For me, it had a shot, but didn’t quite make the hoop.

5.5/10

Directed by Dustin Ferguson [Other horror films: Terror at Black Tree Forest (2010), The Legacy of Boggy Creek (2010), Silly Scaries (2011), Escape to Black Tree Forest (2012), Silly Scaries 2 (2012), Slumber Party Slasherthon (2012), Black Tree Forest III (2012), Die Sister, Die! (2013), Doll Killer (2013), Gloved Murderess (2014), Cheerleader Camp: To the Death (2014), Invitation to Die (2014), Silent Night, Bloody Night 2: Revival (2015), Demon Dolls (2015), Meathook Massacre (2015), Blood Claws (2016), Camp Blood 4 (2016), Camp Blood 5 (2016), Tales for the Campfire (2016), Night of the Clown (2016), The Dummy 2 (2016), Grindsploitation 2: The Lost Reels (2016, segment ‘Satan’s Gang’), The 12 Slays of Christmas (2016), Tales for the Campfire 2 (2017), Meathook Massacre II (2017), Penny Pinchers: The Kings of No-Budget Horror (2017), Wrong Side of the Tracks (2017), Amityville: Evil Never Dies (2017), Trashploitation (2018), 2 Die For (2018), Grindsploitation 4: Meltsploitation (2018), A Taste of Phobia (2018), Die Gest: Flesh Eater (2018, segment ‘Bad Apples’), House of Pain (2018), Grindsploitation 666 (2018, segment ‘Satanica: The Devil’s Mistress’), Conjuring Curse (2018), Schlock-O-Rama (2018), Runaway Nightmare (2018), 60 Seconds 2 Die: 60 Seconds to Die 2 (2018), Drive-In Grindhouse (2018), Conspiracy X (2018, segments ‘Operation: Fist of God’ & ‘The Skunkape Slumber Party’), Moon of the Blood Beast (2019), Meathook Massacre: The Final Chapter (2019), Direct to Video: Straight to Video Horror of the 90s (2019), Home Videos 2 (2019), Penny Pinchers 2 – Scenes from the Underground (2019), Axegrinder 2 (2019), Celluloid Slaughter (2020), Tales from the Campfire 3 (2020), Frames of Fear 3 (2020, segment ‘Cooking With Jenni Caroline’), 5G Zombies (2020), Axed to Pieces (2020), Angry Asian Murder Hornets (2020), The Beast Beneath (2020), Clowns of Halloween (2020), Stale Popcorn and Sticky Floors (2020), I Drip Blood on Your Grave (2020), Bootleg Death Tape II (2020), Arachnado (2020), Bootleg Death Tape III (2020), VHS Violence II: VHS and KILL (2020), Tales from the Grave: The Movie (2020, segments ‘Crawling Chaos & ‘Deadly Doll’), Found Footage of Fear (2020), Creepypasta: Deathnet (2020), Asylum of the Devil (2020), Rattlers 2 (2021), Zombi VIII: Urban Decay (2021), Ebola Rex Versus Murder Hornets (2021), Bubba’s Dead: The Final Massacre (2021), Jaws of Los Angeles (2021), Ebola Rex (2021), Mondo Shock 2 (2021), Faces of Dying IV (2021), Doll Killer 2 (2021), Hell of the Screaming Undead (2021), Amityville in the Hood (2021), VHS Violence (2021), Not for the Faint of Heart (2021), Faces of Dying III (2021), Faces of Dying II (2021), The Worst of Faces of Dying (2022), Night of the Clown (2022), Dying Scenes (2022)] & Mike Johnson [Other horror films: N/A]

At an hour and six minutes (though really, 58 minutes, as everything afterwards are credits), this low-budget movie was able to fit a decent, and surprisingly dark, plot in.

The premise is simple enough. Celebrating his 50th birthday with his children, Mark, after unwrapping a toy monkey, slowly becomes influenced into butchering his children and their relations. For such a short film, there was no lack of additional relations to butcher.

Mark, being the good Catholic that he is, has five children. Two of the children have a significant other. And that’s not mentioning Mark’s mother, who also lives with him, or his late wife’s sister and daughter, who are also visiting. So this movie has more than a few characters shoved in. But you know what? It manages to work despite that.

Though surprising, I was mostly able to keep each character separated, for the most part, which really helped out in the second half of the film. Speaking of which, given the fact the movie’s quite short, most of the action doesn’t occur until there’s just twenty minutes left, so things tended to feel a bit rushed. The idea of a father going on a rampage and killing his children and others in the house was a fun one, though not the best executed on the budget constraints they had. That said, I actually rather enjoyed this one.

An ultra-low quality film, and one that’s not likely to appeal to most, but I don’t see how it’s much worse than many other films.

7/10

Directed by Paul Leni [Other horror films: Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (1924), The Cat and the Canary (1927), The Man Who Laughs (1928)]

Much like Paul Leni’s previous mystery/horror, The Cat and the Canary, The Last Warning takes a moderately cliché plot (even for the time) and dresses it up in a way that makes the movie a special and enjoyable treat.

While this film contains some comedic portions (just as The Cat and the Canary did), I feel it’s noticeably toned down, and for most of the film, I think the plot’s played pretty straight. Which is only a positive, as this mystery, boasting no less than something like ten possible suspects, has a lot of potential from the beginning, and too much comedy would bring it down. Luckily, that didn’t happen.

As aforementioned, the cast of this film is rather large, all the more to make the mystery identity of the killer more fun to figure out. It wasn’t uncommon to see five, six, as much as ten or eleven, characters all in a single shot. Of course, trying to keep track of everyone throughout the film is close to impossible, but it still helped out the feeling of pandemonium, especially toward the end (during a deeply enjoyable chase sequence).

Laura La Plante (who also starred in The Cat and the Canary) didn’t get as much screen-time as you might hope, but still played her character sympathetically (which, given how unlikable she was at the beginning, was sort of necessary). Her love interest, played by John Boles (who later appeared in Frankenstein), was quite competent in his role. As most of the cast members were. In fact, all of the follow actors and actresses stood out positively as their roles: Montagu Love, Margaret Livingston, Roy D’Arcy, Burr McIntosh, Mack Swain, Bert Roach, and Carrie Daumery. Perhaps, out of all these names, the true standouts are Love, Livingston, and McIntosh.

Perhaps one of the reasons I like this film as much as I do (when I first saw it years back, I was quite happy, and luckily this rewatch hasn’t changed that) is because of the large amount of suspects. True, given the film is only an hour and 17 minutes, there’s not enough time to flesh out every single character and potential motivation (which, while in theory would be welcomed, it more likely than not would come out dull), but still, it’s the thought that counts. The mystery was fun, more fun than many old dark house flicks (since this film takes place in a dilapidated theater house, the setting made it even more unique), and certainly still comes across as strong.

The most common print for this movie is far from perfect, with a very scratchy feel, and general lack of great preservation, but at the same time, in this case, I think it helps give the movie additional character. It does help, though, that the score is mostly solid, without any real issues.

The Last Warning is a favorite of mine from the silent era, and sadly, I think it’s mostly overlooked. The Cat and the Canary and Waxworks are both far more widely-known Leni films, and how many other silent flicks are more well-known than this one? From Nosferatu to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, from The Phantom of the Opera to The Bat, The Last Warning has sort of been overlooked (not as badly as 1926’s Midnight Faces, sure, but The Last Warning is, at least, a Leni movie), which is a great shame. Leni died in 1929 due to blood poisoning, and did fantastic things for the genre, and his final movie is no less a great addition to horror.

8.5/10

Directed by John Carpenter [Other horror films: Halloween (1978), Someone’s Watching Me! (1978), The Thing (1982), Christine (1983), Prince of Darkness (1987), They Live (1988), Body Bags (1993, segments ‘The Gas Station’ & ‘Hair’), In the Mouth of Madness (1994), Village of the Damned (1995), Vampires (1998), Ghosts of Mars (2001), The Ward (2010)]

John Carpenter’s Halloween is a true classic, and one of my favorite horror flicks of all time. The Fog is not far behind.

An almost flawless movie, there’s very little to gripe about when talking about The Fog. The score is fantastic, there’s a plethora of great actors and actresses, you get a fun story, great visuals, and often a feeling of claustrophobic suspense.

It’s amazing how well-done some of Carpenter’s early horror work is (Halloween being his first horror movie, and The Fog being his third, the television film Someone’s Watching Me! popping up between them). This film had an atmosphere to kill for, and the score ranks up there with the Halloween theme as one of the creepiest scores around.

Of course, the highest awards, as far as the cast goes, are awarded to Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Tom Atkins. Barbeau hadn’t really done horror before this (she was in two television horror films, one being the aforementioned Someone’s Watching Me! and the other being The Darker Side of Terror), but she does wonderfully here. Her silky voice is certainly soothing and memorable, and just as memorable, her line, “There’s something in the fog.” Always a chilling scene.

Curtis, of course, was in Halloween (and in 1980, not only was she in this movie, but also appeared in both Prom Night and Terror Train), and does pretty fair here, though it’s worth noting her character doesn’t really have that much to do. Still, she’s a nice presence. As for Atkins (aside from this one, his biggest additions to the genre are Halloween III, Night of the Creeps, and Maniac Cop), his persona is fun, and again, while he’s not all that consequential to the plot, it’s still enjoyable seeing him run around trying to save people from the fog.

Even some of the smaller actors and actresses stand out, though. Janet Leigh (from, of course, Psycho) did her character extremely well, and despite never having much screen-time, was always a pleasure to behold. Nancy Loomis (also from the first three Halloween‘s) got some good lines in, playing Leigh’s sardonic assistant. And Hal Holbrook (who I recognize most from the fantastic, yet underrated, Rituals from 1977, along with a few appearances in The West Wing) does beautifully as the often-drunk Father Malone.

Much like Halloween, gore wasn’t this movie’s strong point, but then again, it really didn’t need it. The atmosphere alone is worth much applause. The slow, creeping fog covering the whole of Antonio Bay is always good fun to view. Combine that with the score, and the lack of gore goes by pretty much unnoticed.

Really, aside from a few of the characters not having much to do, I’m having difficulty finding flaws to this movie. From the atmosphere to the acting, most everything about this movie is solid. Even the story is decently fun. Seen this plenty of times before, and I’ll see it plenty of times in the future.

9.5/10

Directed by Ti West [Other horror films: The Roost (2005), Trigger Man (2007), The House of the Devil (2009), The Innkeepers (2011), V/H/S (2012, segment ‘Second Honeymoon’), The ABCs of Death (2012, segment ‘M is for Miscarriage’), The Sacrament (2013), X (2022), Pearl (2022), MaXXXine (2024)]

I sort of wanted to like this movie, if for no other reason, to erase the taste of the first from my mouth. But while this movie had some pretty decent effects and disgustingly heavy gore, I felt extraordinarily lukewarm toward it as the credits began to roll.

Let’s get the good out of the way, which won’t take too long. I liked both Noah Segan and Alexi Wasser in their roles. I thought they played a cute couple, despite not really being a couple until perhaps the end. Neither one has been in much I’ve particularly seen, but they did well here with what they had. The idea behind the film, in which contaminated water spreads the skin-eating disease past the perimeters of the original, was fun. I just don’t think it was executed well.

Lastly, the gore was moderately top-notch. There were two scenes that were frankly difficult to stomach (keywords being “fingernail” and “dick”), and though I felt repulsed, I can’t deny those scenes’ efficacy. The problem is, I expected a bit more during the prom sequence. Sure, every other person was throwing up blood, but come on, that’s it? No body parts falling off? No grisly face melts? It just felt toned down, which could probably be explained by the fact they hadn’t been exposed to the disease long enough for those extreme effects to be seen, but even so, it was disappointing.

Also disappointing was the pretty unexciting first half of the movie. I don’t mind a little high school drama, but come on, get to something good. Occasionally showing us the party cop from the first movie doesn’t do it for me. And while we’re at it, I was pretty disappointed in Giuseppe Andrews’ story-line in the movie. I was hoping for some type of redemption from his actions in the first, but instead, he sort of goes nowhere.

Speaking of useless sequences, though, the final ten minutes, starting in the strip club, didn’t strike me as necessary at all. What did we learn from that? The disease is spreading still? As if that was supposed to take us by surprise…

The animated opening and finale was sort of interesting, but this movie didn’t do much at all for me. I was hoping (though not seriously expecting) a more serious tone, but again, it wasn’t to be. Did I enjoy Spring Fever more than the first movie? Probably, yes, but it’s not by much, and much like the first movie, I really can’t see myself deciding to give this one a re-watch for the enjoyment of it.

5/10

Directed by Sean Byrne [Other horror films: The Loved Ones (2009)]

This is a simple, digestible, yet highly intense and enjoyable, horror flick.

Directed by Sean Byrne (his first full-length movie being 2009’s The Loved Ones, another very solid movie), The Devil’s Candy is pretty straight and to the point, with a moderately short run-time and not all that many characters to play around with. Luckily, this low-fi approach doesn’t much hinder the movie, and in fact, makes the whole thing play out much more intense than I suspect it otherwise would have.

Music, be it heavy metal or deafening ambient, is used to fantastic effect throughout the film. Early on, the metal that daughter Zooey (played by Kiara Glasco) and her father, Jesse (Ethan Embry) bond over really humanizes them as characters, and who can’t help but smile at the mother’s (Shiri Appleby) amusement at the scene? It’s a good way to introduce the main characters of the film, and I think it gives them strong characterization from the off-set. Heavy ambiance is used to additional fantastic effect, especially toward the end – a loud boom, a few seconds pause, another loud boom. That alone assisted in ratcheting up the intensity.

And make no mistake, this movie is intense. While not all that gory, The Devil’s Candy certainly possesses a brutality to it, but also isn’t afraid to throw in some subtle, uncomfortable scenes. Much of the success of this is due to the actor’s fantastic performances.

Ethan Embry and Shiri Appleby both do a really good job, especially Embry during his more intense scenes when he’s spaced out. While both are solid, though, despite not having played all that many noteworthy roles, the true stars are both Kiara Glasco and Pruitt Taylor Vince. Glasco has had some roles in a few television shows (Bitten and Copper, though I’ve seen neither one), and does amazingly here, as we feel her urgency and desperation toward the end. She’s a lovable kid, her love of metal fun, and is a very memorable character. Glasco did very well with her portrayal. Vince is a known quantity, perhaps best known for his role in 2003’s Identity, and here, he’s appropriately creepy, menacing, and brutal.

What helps The Devil’s Candy out the most is the solid cast, and because that cast does so well, what on the surface might seem a simple movie is really an intense ride from start to finish. Because it’s a bit on the shorter side, nothing seems out of place or slow, and everything is paced well. Like I said, it’s a digestible movie that deserves all the praise it can get. One of the best horror movies I’ve seen from the last five years or so.

9/10

Directed by Paul Leni [Other horror films: Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (1924), The Cat and the Canary (1927), The Last Warning (1928)]

Directed by Paul Leni, The Man Who Laughs is a masterfully moody, occasionally tragic, piece of melodrama, with a few spices of horror thrown in.

The historical nature of the plot did the movie well, as the set pieces and costumes all looked rather authentic. The pbrooding nature of the story was well-done too, helped by the score, which, while not perfect, felt as though it could have been the score when first this movie came out, over ninety years ago.

It’s the actors who should get the most accolades, though; Conrad Veidt, Mary Philbin, Brandon Hurst, Cesare Gravina, and George Siegmann all make this movie a film well worth watching.

Veidt, by this point, may need no introduction. He was in a plethora of silent horror classics, including Furcht (or Fear), Unheimliche Geschichten (Eerie Tales), Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), Orlacs Hände (The Hands of Orlac), Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (Waxworks), Der Student von Prag (The Student of Prague), and The Last Performance. That’s not even counting the unfortunately-lost Der Januskopf (The Head of Janus), which was an unauthorized version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (much like Nosferatu was to Dracula).

Conrad Veidt got around, and it’s clear, from this movie, to see how. He possessed an extraordinarily emotional range, and his character, the tragic figure of Gwynplaine, was very well-acted. Throughout the film, Veidt’s performance is truly a treat to watch.

Philbin wasn’t in all that many films, but she did co-star in the 1925 Phantom of the Opera, with Lon Chaney, and again, with Veidt, in the 1929 The Last Performance. Here, she plays a beautiful blind woman, named Dea, who is deeply in love with Gwynplaine, despite never having seen his disfigured face. Playing her role convincingly, Philbin stood out strong.

Brandon Hurst, who had small roles in various early horror flicks (such as 1932’s Murders in the Rue Morgue, 1923’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1920’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and 1932’s White Zombie) gets credit for playing one of the slimiest silent characters with his portrayal of Barkilphedro. Sinister, yet suave, Hurst did well in showing the sleaziness of his character throughout the whole of the film, and from his very first scene, you can’t help but hold Barkilphedro in abhorrence.

Gravina isn’t much known outside of this movie. He had a few uncredited roles in classics like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera (1923 and 1925), and mainly dabbled in early Italian shorts. Here, he doesn’t get a whole lot of screen-time, but during one scene in particular, his performance broke my heart. Such sad, moving scenes generally aren’t what I’d expect from silent films, but that one just killed me.

Siegmann, who I spoke about also in my review for The Cat and the Canary, isn’t that big a name insofar as horror is concerned, though he did appear in the 1909 short The Sealed Room and 1914’s The Avenging Conscience. Here, he played Dr. Hardquanonne, a rather sadistic individual who disfigured Gwynplaine. I wish that he got more screen-time than he did, because like Hurst, he was a dark force to be reckoned with, but still, this being his final role before his early death, Siegmann did quite well.

The cast of this movie is amazing, and the film, as a whole, is an atmospheric, moody piece of art. While it would be unfair to call it a horror film in the purest definition, The Man Who Laughs is a dark classic, and while the ending is not nearly as tragic as one might expect, there are plenty of sad scenes throughout. I didn’t really appreciate this when I first saw it, and even now, it makes a better drama film than a horror film, without a doubt, but even so, this Leni classic is one that any movie fan should look out for.

8.5/10