The End of the Silent Films: 1925-1929
Holy fuck, we finished the silent horror films. I can be a normal fox again.
So, we barreled through the rest of the 20s over the weekend and Monday. It was a wild time, and it was so draining. We couldn't watch any movies yesterday. But as usual, I'll give a short review of each film, and I'll discuss Sin's and my favorite at the end.
1925
The Phantom of the Opera: So apparently, the author of the novel had a strong hand in helping with the writing of this show, which is pretty impressive. They had someone who worked on art design for the Opera House helped, too. This was a Lon Chaney, Sr. film, and he did a great job. It's interesting looking at how his own makeup design worked from Hunchback to this film. I had read the book, and I've seen the recent musical film (which I had issues with), but I think I liked elements of this movie way better than the musical one. It made the Phantom more realistic. It focused more on the criminal elements of the Phantom, as opposed to the supernatural. It wasn't super hard to follow this film actually. I enjoyed it more than Sin just since I know the book so well, I think. Not scary by a long shot, but I can imagine how Chaney's appearance itself would have been shocking.
Wolfblood: "First werewolf film," my ass. Look, there was a werewolf in Nosferatu. Get over yourself, Wikipedia. "Most film historians call Wolfblood the oldest surviving werewolf film." There's about as much transformation in this as there was in Nosferatu: none. This film wasn't a horror film. Wasn't much of a good film. Fuck Wolfblood.
1926
The Magician: This starred the same actor as the golem in The Golem. Apparently, the actor was obnoxious (in many ways the same as Chaney, Sr.), and many of the cast and crew hated him. I could get those vibes throughout the film. But it was a mostly dull film. I don't think we were able to finish this one. It just lost its intrigue very quickly.
Page of Madness: This was our first Asian horror film, and it was one of the better ones. In many ways, it's simply an experimental film about insanity. I think it's very Lynchian in nature. But the masked dances near the end were very nightmarish. It's something I'd recommend despite its length and its oddness.
1927
The Cat and the Canary: This is largely a mystery film, but it's basically a model for CLUE later. It was a hilarious film. It had its creepy moments, I suppose. But again, largely a whodunnit. The creepy ambience was fun all the same. The painting that falls. The candles everywhere. The creepy "Ms. Danvers" style character. I enjoyed it.
The Unknown: So, this is a film by Tod Browning set in a circus "freak show." Chaney plays knife thrower Alonzo who is supposedly armless but is actually faking it. There were moments of potential horror, but it never went that far. Has occasional body horror elements though.
1928
The Man Who Laughs: This was a frequently recommended film online because of the uncanny visuals of the man who can't stop laughing. In isolation, these visuals are admittedly creepy...but...with this light, flowing classical music in the background, it wasn't even slightly off-putting in the movie.
Alraune: This one also had the actor from The Golem and The Magician. This was another science/magic horror film. It merged these tropes with sexuality, having a woman born with mandrake magic, which makes her sexually "deviant," bringing many men to ruin. This was another hard to finish film. It just didn't have many interesting moments for me.
The Fall of the House of Usher: Apparently, there were two of these films in the same year. Both were fairly experimental, but neither of them were well made. The experiments make it a more distracting experience rather than immersive, like Lynch films. So, even the shorter of the two, thirteen minutes, was one I couldn't finish.
Despite most of the films being dull, there were some definite gems. My favorite, the one I'd recommend from these five years was The Cat and the Canary. It was genuinely an enjoyable story and fairly comedic, even if not very horrific. Sin says, "I have two. Phantom of the Opera for its attention to detail, the camera work, everything about it was great. And I loved the story of The Unknown. Just a very simple story, but it's just so good."
And that's it for the silent films! It might be a while before the next post. I think we have around 35 horror films from the 30s to get through. As I'm writing this, we are watching the next Browning film Freaks. I'm so relieved the films talk now~
Comment question of the day: what's your favorite horror comedy movie?
So, we barreled through the rest of the 20s over the weekend and Monday. It was a wild time, and it was so draining. We couldn't watch any movies yesterday. But as usual, I'll give a short review of each film, and I'll discuss Sin's and my favorite at the end.
1925
The Phantom of the Opera: So apparently, the author of the novel had a strong hand in helping with the writing of this show, which is pretty impressive. They had someone who worked on art design for the Opera House helped, too. This was a Lon Chaney, Sr. film, and he did a great job. It's interesting looking at how his own makeup design worked from Hunchback to this film. I had read the book, and I've seen the recent musical film (which I had issues with), but I think I liked elements of this movie way better than the musical one. It made the Phantom more realistic. It focused more on the criminal elements of the Phantom, as opposed to the supernatural. It wasn't super hard to follow this film actually. I enjoyed it more than Sin just since I know the book so well, I think. Not scary by a long shot, but I can imagine how Chaney's appearance itself would have been shocking.
Wolfblood: "First werewolf film," my ass. Look, there was a werewolf in Nosferatu. Get over yourself, Wikipedia. "Most film historians call Wolfblood the oldest surviving werewolf film." There's about as much transformation in this as there was in Nosferatu: none. This film wasn't a horror film. Wasn't much of a good film. Fuck Wolfblood.
1926
The Magician: This starred the same actor as the golem in The Golem. Apparently, the actor was obnoxious (in many ways the same as Chaney, Sr.), and many of the cast and crew hated him. I could get those vibes throughout the film. But it was a mostly dull film. I don't think we were able to finish this one. It just lost its intrigue very quickly.
Page of Madness: This was our first Asian horror film, and it was one of the better ones. In many ways, it's simply an experimental film about insanity. I think it's very Lynchian in nature. But the masked dances near the end were very nightmarish. It's something I'd recommend despite its length and its oddness.
1927
The Cat and the Canary: This is largely a mystery film, but it's basically a model for CLUE later. It was a hilarious film. It had its creepy moments, I suppose. But again, largely a whodunnit. The creepy ambience was fun all the same. The painting that falls. The candles everywhere. The creepy "Ms. Danvers" style character. I enjoyed it.
The Unknown: So, this is a film by Tod Browning set in a circus "freak show." Chaney plays knife thrower Alonzo who is supposedly armless but is actually faking it. There were moments of potential horror, but it never went that far. Has occasional body horror elements though.
1928
The Man Who Laughs: This was a frequently recommended film online because of the uncanny visuals of the man who can't stop laughing. In isolation, these visuals are admittedly creepy...but...with this light, flowing classical music in the background, it wasn't even slightly off-putting in the movie.
Alraune: This one also had the actor from The Golem and The Magician. This was another science/magic horror film. It merged these tropes with sexuality, having a woman born with mandrake magic, which makes her sexually "deviant," bringing many men to ruin. This was another hard to finish film. It just didn't have many interesting moments for me.
The Fall of the House of Usher: Apparently, there were two of these films in the same year. Both were fairly experimental, but neither of them were well made. The experiments make it a more distracting experience rather than immersive, like Lynch films. So, even the shorter of the two, thirteen minutes, was one I couldn't finish.
Despite most of the films being dull, there were some definite gems. My favorite, the one I'd recommend from these five years was The Cat and the Canary. It was genuinely an enjoyable story and fairly comedic, even if not very horrific. Sin says, "I have two. Phantom of the Opera for its attention to detail, the camera work, everything about it was great. And I loved the story of The Unknown. Just a very simple story, but it's just so good."
And that's it for the silent films! It might be a while before the next post. I think we have around 35 horror films from the 30s to get through. As I'm writing this, we are watching the next Browning film Freaks. I'm so relieved the films talk now~
Comment question of the day: what's your favorite horror comedy movie?
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