1920’s Cinema

John Charet’s Top 100 Favorite Horror Films of All Time (2025 Edition)

by John Charet

-Introduction-

Last year around this time of year, I posted a blog entry regarding my Top 10 and 100 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time (read here and here). As for Halloween 2025, I have posted that big treat again, which comes in the form of my Top 100 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time. I have some new entries this time around 🙂 Now all of the films listed are not my only favorite horror films (I have an unlimited number), but this is a perfect start. I have decided to start with number 100 and work my way down to 01.

-The Opening Celebration-

First off, below are a few delightful links to check out 

Click here to watch the complete 1983 music video of late iconic singer Michael Jackson’s (a.k.a. The King of Pop) song Thriller

Click here to listen to a shortened version of the song

Have any of you dear readers out there heard of The Merkins? Check out their youtube channel here. They do horror parodies of songs and one of their running acts is The Slashstreet Boys (a spoof of The Backstreet Boys)  The band consists of Leatherface, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kruegger and Ghostface Below are three of my personal favorite parodies of theirs 

Click here to view their spoof of I Want It That Way entitled I’ll Kill You That Way

Click here to view their spoof of Larger than Life entitled Die By My Knife

Click here to view their spoof of Rock Your Body Right entitled Slashing Bodies

-A Few Words Before Reading-

Please be kind to the film at number 07 on this list because that one means a lot to me. Any comment expressing negativity towards number 07 will be deleted. So once again, please be polite 🙂

Now, without further ado, I present to you all:

-John Charet’t Top 100 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time-
(#100-01)

100.) The Spiral Staircase (1946) (Dir: Robert Siodmak)
99.) Blood and Black Lace (1964) (Dir: Mario Bava)
98.) Repulsion (1965) (Dir: Roman Polanski)
97.) The Exorcist (1973) (Dir: William Friedkin)
96.) The Changeling (1980) (Dir: Peter Medak)
95.) Jacob’s Ladder (1990) (Dir: Adrien Lyne)
94.) The Orphanage (2007) (Dir: J.A. Bayona)
93.) Halloween II (2009) (Dir: Rob Zombie)
92.) Under the Shadow (2016) (Dir: Babak Anvari)
91.) The Lighthouse (2019) (Dir: Robert Eggers)
90.) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) (Dir: Rouben Mamoulian)
89.) The Body Snatcher (1945) (Dir: Robert Wise)
88.) Rosemary’s Baby (1968) (Dir: Roman Polanski)
87.) Kwaidan (1964)(Dir: Masaki Kobayashi)
86.) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) (Dir: Tobe Hooper)
85.) Possession (1981) (Dir: Andrzej Zulawski)
84.) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) (Dir: John McNaughton)
83.) Dead Alive (1992) (Dir: Peter Jackson)
82.) The Descent (2005) (Dir: Neil Marshall)
81.) The Lords of Salem (2012) (Dir: Rob Zombie)
80.) Island of Lost Souls (1932) (Dir: Erle C. Kenton)
79.) Bluebeard (1944) (Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer)
78.) Horror of Dracula (1958) (Dir: Terence Fisher)
77.) Night of the Living Dead (1968) (Dir: George A. Romero)
76.) Kuroneko (1968) (Dir: Kaneto Shindo)
75.) God Told Me To (1976) (Dir: Larry Cohen)
74.) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) (Dir: Tobe Hooper)
73.) Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) (Dir: Francis Ford Coppola)
72.) Shaun of the Dead (2004) (Dir: Edgar Wright)
71.) Annihilation (2018) (Dir: Alex Garland)
70.) Nope (2022) (Dir: Jordan Peele)
69.) The Leopard Man (1943) (Dir: Jacques Tourneur)
68.) Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) (Dir: Terence Fisher)
67.) Onibaba (1964) (Dir: Kaneto Shindo)
66.) Halloween (1978) (Dir: John Carpenter)
65.) Inferno (1980) (Dir: Dario Argento)
64.) Evil Dead II (1987) (Dir: Sam Raimi)
63.) Cemetery Man (1994) (Dir: Michele Soavi)
62.) Let the Right One In (2008) (Dir: Tomas Alfredson)
61.) Twixt (2011) (Dir: Francis Ford Coppola)
60.) Sinners (2025) (Dir: Ryan Coogler)
59.) Haxan (1922) (Dir: Benjamin Christensen)
58.) The Old Dark House (1932) (Dir: James Whale)
57.) Cat People (1942) (Dir: Jacques Tourneur)
56.) Psycho (1960) (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock)
55.) Dawn of the Dead (1978) (Dir: George A. Romero)
54.) The Fly (1986) (Dir: David Cronenberg)
53.) Cronos (1992) (Dir: Guillermo del Toro)
52.) Martyrs (2008) (Dir: Pascal Laughier)
51.) The Babadook (2014) (Dir: Jennifer Kent)
50.) Pearl (2022) (Dir: Ti West)
49.) The Phantom Carriage (1921) (Dir: Victor Sjostrom)
48.) I Walked with a Zombie (1943) (Dir: Jacques Tourneur)
47.) The Birds (1963) (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock)
46.) Kill, Baby… Kill! (1966) (Dir: Mario Bava)
45.) Suspiria (1977) (Dir: Dario Argento)
44.) Dead Ringers (1988) (Dir: David Cronenberg)
43.) Cure (1997) (Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
42.) Rec (2007) (Dir: Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza)
41.) Under the Skin (2013) (Dir: Jonathan Glazer)
40.) Nosferatu (2024) (Dir: Robert Eggers)
39.) The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) (Dir: Jean Epstein)
38.) Freaks (1932) (Dir: Tod Browning)
37.) Dead of Night (1945) (Dir: Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer)
(Anthology Film)
36.) Night of the Demon (1957) (Dir: Jacques Tourneur)
35.) The Innocents (1961) (Dir: Jack Clayton)
34.) The Tenant (1976) (Dir: Roman Polanski)
33.) Ringu (1998) (Dir: Hideo Nakata)
32.) Inside (2007) (Dir: Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo)
31.) The Haunting of Hill House (2018) (Dir: Mike Flanagan)
(Miniseries)
(Streaming)
30.) The Shrouds (2024) (Dir: David Cronenberg)
29.) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) (Dir: Robert Wiene)
28.) Bride of Frankenstein (1935) (Dir: James Whale)
27.) The Uninvited (1944) (Dir: Lewis Allen)
26.) The Haunting (1963) (Dir: Robert Wise)
25.) Eraserhead (1977) (Dir: David Lynch)
24.) The Thing (1982) (Dir: John Carpenter)
23.) Audition (1999) (Dir: Takashi Miike)
22.) Pulse (2001) (Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
21.) Mother! (2017) (Dir: Darren Aronofsky)
20.) Angst (1983) (Dir: Gerald Kargl)
19.) Un Chien Andalou (1929) (Dir: Luis Bunuel)
(Short Cinema)
18.) The Black Cat (1934) (Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer)
17.) Isle of the Dead (1945) (Dir: Mark Robson)
16.) Peeping Tom (1960) (Dir: Michael Powell)
15.) Carrie (1976) (Dir: Brian De Palma)
14.) Videodrome (1983) (Dir: David Cronenberg)
13.) The Kingdom Trilogy (1994/1997/2022) (Dir: Lars Von Trier) 
(Danish Television)
12.) The Host (2006) (Dir: Bong Joon Ho)
11.) Climax (2018) (Dir: Gaspar Noe)
10.) Vampyr (1932) (Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer)
09.) The Shining (1980) (Dir: Stanley Kubrick)
08.) Nosferatu (1922) (Dir: F.W. Murnau)
07.) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) (Dir: David Lynch)
06.) The Devil’s Backbone (2001) (Dir: Guillermo del Toro)
05.) Midsommar (2019) (Dir: Ari Aster)
04.) The Seventh Victim (1943) (Dir: Mark Robson)
03.) Diabolique (1955) (Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot)
02.) Eyes Without a Face (1960) (Dir: Georges Franju)
01.) Don’t Look Now (1973) (Dir: Nicolas Roeg)

Honorable Mentions: Frankenstein (1931), The Invisible Man (1933), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Hour of the Wolf (1968), Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971), The Wicker Man (1973) and The Entity (1982)

Click here to see my exact same ranking on Letterboxd

P.S. I just added two links from this year’s blog entry regarding my Top 10 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time – a Kim Newman commentary link on number 3 and a documentary link on number 4. Click here 

Anyway, I hope all of you enjoyed reading my Top 100 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time list and last, but not least 🙂

Have a Happy Halloween
. .
U

John Charet’s Official Top 10 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time

by John Charet

Before I go further, I want to say that I am sadly still without a laptop. Either way, I plan on doing a blog entry for Steve (a regular visitor to this site) in November.

With the exception of the note below, this blog entry was originally published on here last year on October 24, 2024.

Note: This Friday, which is October 31st (Halloween), I will be posting a blog entry regarding my Top 100 Favorite Horror Films of All Time, so this is not the only Halloween post I will be doing this year 

This blog entry is dedicated to what I consider to be an official version of my Top 10 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time. Aside from some different choices (see numbers 4,5 and 6) this year, every film on here from last years remains intact. I know I have said it before, but it bears repeating – all lists (including my own) are subjective. Nevertheless, please be kind to number 7 on this list because that one means a lot to me, so once again please be polite  Also, any comment expressing negativity at number 7 will be deleted. Now, without further ado, I present to you all:

-My Top 10 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time-
(#10-01)

10.) Vampyr (1932)
Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Country: Germany/France
Color: Black and White
Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer’s only horror film was dismissed by critics as one of his lesser works during it’s initial theatrical release in 1932. Fast-forwarding ninety-two years later in 2024, many critics now consider Vampyr to be (in the words of former Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman) Dreyer’s most radical film. Given everything that came before and after it in Dreyer’s oeuvre, Hoberman’s view can not be stated any better. Intentionally emphasizing atmosphere and imagery over plot, when it comes to horror films produced after the advent of sound, Vampyr stands out as quite possibly the only one to truly resemble that of a nightmare.

Since I could not find a youtube video link to an official theatrical trailer, click here to view a 90th anniversary trailer

Click here to view a youtube video link of British film critic Mark Kermode’s commentary on it as one of his BFI Player picks

Click here to watch the film on youtube

09.) The Shining (1980)
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Country: United States/United Kingdom
Color: Color
Author Stephen King may have been greatly disappointed over director Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his 1977 bestselling novel, but this has not prevented The Shining from eventually becoming (and deservedly so) a quintessential example of cinematic horror. Along with other Kubrick films, The Shining has only improved with time. Not unlike Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr, The Shining remains the only horror film within Kubrick’s oeuvre. Similar to the former, The Shining resembles the work of an idiosyncratic filmmaker. Here, we get now iconic scares ranging from the elevator of blood sequence to images of hacked up twins to the image of it’s lead actor Jack Nicholson exclaiming (through ad-libbing) Here’s Johnny!. As in all (or most) of Kubrick’s films since 1957’s Paths of Glory, The Shining has been open to all sorts of interpretations and neither one would be wrong.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

08.) Nosferatu (1922)
Dir: F.W. Murnau
Country: Germany
Color: Black and White
German director F.W. Murnau’s unauthorized silent adaptation of author Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula also happens to be my personal favorite version of the source material. Whereas other versions romanticized the aforementioned title character, Nosferatu depicts the vampire (named Count Orlok in this film) as a truly hideous monster in every single way imaginable. All of his mannerisms are expressed perfectly by it’s lead actor Max Schreck. As a masterpiece of both German Expressionism and cinematic horror, Nosferatu is driven less by scares and more by it’s eerie atmosphere.

Since I can’t find an official theatrical trailer for it, click here to view this youtube video link of it’s 100 Anniversary trailer

Click here to watch the film on youtube

07.) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
Dir: David Lynch
Country: United States/France
Color: Color
Critically savaged upon it’s initial theatrical release back in 1992, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me has since been reassessed as not only a misunderstood masterpiece, but also as one of director David Lynch’s major masterworks. As for myself, I will go one step further by citing Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me as the number one greatest American horror film of the 1990’s. A prequel to both the original series (1990-91) and 2017’s The Return, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me centers on the sad last days of Laura Palmer – acted with gusto by the immensely beautiful and talented Sheryl Lee. Aided by composer Angelo Badalamenti’s haunting music score, the result is every bit as surreal and nightmarish as it is ultimately tragic. British film critic/novelist Kim Newman once stated that the film’s many moments of horror demonstrate just how tidy, conventional and domesticated the generic horror movie of the 1980’s and 1990’s has become. I could not have stated it any better.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to listen to the soundtrack

Click here to watch author Scott Ryan’s introduction to the film at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre from last year

Click here, here, here, here and here to watch a Q&A with actress Sheryl Lee and actor Dana Ashbrook from a 2021 showing of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre

06.) The Devil’s Backbone (2001)
Dir: Guillermo del Toro
Country: Spain/Mexico
Color: Color
Along with the equally inventive Under the Shadow, The Devil’s Backbone is an inspired combination of the supernatural and the allegorical. When it comes to 21st century cinematic horror, both films serve as personal favorites of mine. As one may have deduced from this list, The Devil’s Backbone ranks very high for me. Set during the final year of the Spanish Civil War, The Devil’s Backbone is on the one hand, a subtly tragic ghost story and on the other, a quietly frightening antifascist historical drama. Now I love every single film of Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and the highly personal The Devil’s Backbone (my second favorite of his after Pan’s Labyrinth) is arguably the most insightful out of all the truly great horror films produced since the dawn of 2000.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view British film critic Mark Kermode’s commentary on it as one of his BFI Player picks

Click here to read Kermode’s Criterion essay for it

05.) Midsommar (2019)
Dir: Ari Aster
Country: United States/Sweden
Color: Color
Whereas Ari Aster’s directorial debut Hereditary resembled the work of a master filmmaker, it was his follow-up film Midsommar that officially cemented him as such. As a horror film, Midsommar’s masterstroke lies not so much in it’s atmosphere as in how it uses it. Like The Wicker Man before it, Midsommar’s unique emphasis on daylight is what makes the film all the more disturbing. In fact, everything about Midsommar still sends shivers down my spine. As it did during it’s initial theatrical release five years ago in 2019, Midsommar still hits close to home (metaphorically and otherwise) in more ways than one.

Click here to view the film’s original teaser trailer

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

04.) The Seventh Victim (1943)
Dir: Mark Robson
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
Out of the nine unique official (or unofficial) horror films produced by Val Lewton at RKO Pictures during the 1940’s, director Mark Robson’s The Seventh Victim stands out as my personal favorite of the group. Every single trademark that shapes a Lewton production reaches it’s peak here. While The Seventh Victim is similarly downbeat as Lewton’s other horror films, neither of them ended on such an explicitly bleak note as this one does. The film’s black-and-white color palette coincides perfectly not only with it’s urban setting, but also in it’s thematic elements relating to depression and satanism among other things. Mature subject matter like homoeroticism is even touched upon here in an intelligent and sensitive manner. In addition, The Seventh Victim features a quietly chilling shower sequence that predates Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho by seventeen years.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view TCM’s Eddie Mueller’s Noir Alley intro to the film from 2020

Click here to view TCM’s Eddie Mueller’s Noir Alley outro to the film from that same episode

Click here to view a Vimeo link to the 2007 documentary entitled Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows

03.) Diabolique (1955)
Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Country: France
Color: Black and White
Though Alfred Hitchcock is often credited for redefining cinematic horror with Psycho in 1960, with all due respect to the Master of Suspense, the aforementioned genre was actually redefined five years earlier in 1955 by French director Henri-Georges Clouzot with Diabolique. Coincidentally, not too long after the publication of Diabolique’s 1952 source material She Who Was No More, which was written by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, Hitchcock set out to option the rights to it. He changed course upon learning that Clouzot had obtained them serveral hours earlier, which enabled him to adapt it as Diabolique. As the film’s plot unfolds, Clouzot wastes no time in elevating the tension to completely unbearable heights and effortlessly keeps it going throughout. Culminating in one of the scariest twist endings ever conceived, Diabolique is a horror thriller that will ultimately make one’s heart stop.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view Alex Cox’s Moviedrome intro to the film 

Spoiler Alert: If you have not seen the film, I strongly advise you not to click on the link below
Click here to view British film critic/novelist Kim Newman’s analysis of Diabolique

02.) Eyes Without a Face (1960)
Dir: Georges Franju
Country: France/Italy
Color: Black and White
If French poet Jean Cocteau had directed a 1930’s Universal horror film, the result would have undoubtedly been Eyes Without a Face. While it may not possess the delightfully eccentric humor that shaped The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein among others, Eyes Without a Face does offer something every bit as inspired. Disturbing and poetic in equal measure, Eyes Without a Face is as much a horror film as it is a fairy tale. Dismissed by critics as one of his lesser films during it’s initial theatrical release in 1960, Eyes Without a Face has since been reassessed (and deservedly so) as not only French director Georges Franju’s most famous and influential film, but also his greatest one.

Click here to view what may or may not be the film’s French trailer

Click here to view British film critic Mark Kermode’s commentary on it as one of his BFI Player picks

Click here to view Kermode’s Kermode Uncut commentary on it

Click here to view Mark Kermode’s Cult Film Corner commentary on it

01.) Don’t Look Now (1973)
Dir: Nicolas Roeg
Country: United Kingdom/Italy
Color: Color
Now often hailed as one of the most influential horror films ever made, Don’t Look Now also happens to be my number one favorite horror film of all-time. Reportedly cited by it’s British director Nicolas Roeg as his exercise in film grammar, Don’t Look Now also stands out as quite possibly the most beautiful marriage between form and content. Accompanied by composer Pino Donaggio’s emotionally powerful music score, Roeg’s trademark unconventional editing style and it’s fittingly bleak, yet strangely lovely atmosphere, Don’t Look Now explores a tragedy’s impact on a married couple through the power of visual storytelling. Along with an explicit controversial sex scene between it’s two lead actors (Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland), Don’t Look Now is noted for featuring (like Diabolique before it) the scariest ending ever conceived in the history of cinematic horror.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view the film’s 2019 4K Restoration trailer

Click here to view British film critic Mark Kermode’s 2008 Culture Show interview with director Nicolas Roeg

Click here to view Kermode’s review of the 2019 4K Restoration of the film

Click here to view Irish documentarian Mark Cousins 2001 Scene By Scene interview with actor Donald Sutherland on the film

Click here to view Mark Cousins Moviedrome intro to the film

Click here to view Danish-Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier commentary on the film

Click here to listen to the soundtrack

Let me conclude this blog entry with two questions for my dear readers below

What are your top 10 favorite horror films of all-time?

What video links in my blog entry interested you the most?

John Charet’s 17 Romantic Film Recommendations (In Chronological Order)

by John Charet

-A Few Words Before Reading-

Please be kind to the film at number 11. Any comment expressing negativity towards number 11 will be deleted. So once again, please be polite 🙂

-Introduction-

Since I did not finish this in time for Valentine’s Day, I decided to just compose a list of 17 great romantic films. With the exception of number 15 (which I love dearly), every film on here ranked within the list of my first 100 favorite films of all time (read here). Once again, I have more than 17 favorite romantic films, but these are the ones that I wanted to start with.

Click here to listen to the late great Doris Day singing Move Over Darling

Click here to listen to Day also singing Dream a Little Dream

Now without further ado, I present to all of my dear readers:

-John Charet’s 16 Romantic Film Recommendations-
(In Chronological Order)

1.) Sunrise (1927)
Dir: F.W. Murnau
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
Renowned for it’s unique combination of expressionism and realism (read here), it is no wonder that Sunrise is often hailed as the pinnacle of artistic cinematic quality in the silent form and the end of an era as well (read here). Given that it is one of the earliest silent films to feature a synchronized music score and sound, it would not be far-fetched to view Sunrise as a transitional film in that regard (read here). Metaphorically, the silent and (then upcoming) sound era represent rural and city life respectively. An undisputed poet of German Expressionism, director F.W. Murnau was allowed carte blanche by Fox Film Corporation (now known as 20th Century Studios) founder William Fox to create his magnum opus. For example, the story’s large unnamed city was actually built from scratch. The film’s reported estimated budget of $200,000 confirms it. Along with Erich von Stroheim’s Greed, Sunrise is quite possibly the most technically audacious American masterwork of it’s era.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view the entire film

2.) The Docks of New York (1928)
Dir: Josef von Sternberg
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
With or without Marlene Dietrich, each and every film by Austrian-American director Josef von Sternberg remains visually dazzling. Not unlike F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise, what makes The Docks of New York so unique lies less in it’s fairly straightforward plot and more in it’s visual poetry. Sternberg’s utilization of Hans Dreier’s set designs and Harold Rosson’s cinematography goes a long way in not only effortlessly shaping the film’s mise en scene, but also it’s romantic drama and lead characters. The result packs an emotional wallop that is felt in every single frame.

Click here to view the entire film

3.) Lonesome (1928)
Dir: Paul Fejos
Country: United States
Color: Black and White (also color tinted)
If one subscribes to legendary film critic turned screenwriter James Agee’s notion that silent comedy was represented by four most eminent masters (read here), then director Paul Fejos Lonesome represents the Harry Langdon (i.e. the forgotten) of the four notable late silent era masterworks. The other three being F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise, Josef von Sternberg’s The Docks of New York and King Vidor’s The Crowd. Simultaneously, Lonesome is part-talkie. Considering that it was not until 2012 that Lonesome debuted on a home video format (Blu-Ray/DVD in this case), my aforementioned description of it stands out as an apt one. Now that this terrible wrong has long been corrected, we can all easily view Lonesome as an equal to those previously mentioned three films. The film’s use of camerawork, color tinting and editing makes for an exhilarating cinematic experience.

Click here to view the entire film

4.) City Lights (1931)
Dir: Charlie Chaplin
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
Though frequently hailed (and deservedly so) as the quintessential Tramp entry, for me, City Lights reputation has always rested upon so much more than that. Whereas The Kid established iconic director/producer/star Charlie Chaplin’s trademark combination of humor and pathos, City Lights unquestionably polished it. From the first to last frame, City Lights can only be described as the most beautifully realized comedy ever made. In addition, City Lights features a justifiably celebrated ending that is as poignant as it is perfect. Close to ninety-four years may have passed since it’s initial theatrical release in 1931, but City Lights still continues to impact audiences, critics and filmmakers alike as of 2025. As for myself, I define City Lights as the cinematic equivalent of poetry in motion.

Click here to view what may be the film’s original theatrical trailer or one of the re-released ones

Click here to view what is definitely a re-release trailer of the film

Click here to view the 2003 documentary Chaplin Today: City Lights

5.) Love Me Tonight (1932)
Dir: Rouben Mamoulian
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
Everything I always wanted to say about this cinematic masterpiece has already been summed up more eloquently than I ever could by two other writers. In his 1968 book Hollywood in the Thirties, John Baxter remarked that If there is a better musical of the Thirties, one wonders what it can be (click here). Aside from hailing it as a magical, rapturous, unique, charming, audacious, unforgettable, and, to beat a warhorse, masterpiece, film historian Richard Barrios also said that It remains less well-known than it warrants even as vastly inferior works are enshrined. . . . It is, after all, quite a provable truth: Love Me Tonight is a great film, and along with Singin’ in the Rain and a very few others it resides at the very pinnacle of movie musicals, and at the apex of art (click here). Not much more I can add except that If Charade is the best Hitchcock movie Hitchcock never made (read here), then Love Me Tonight is the best Lubitsch musical that Lubitsch never made.

Click here to view the original theatrical trailer for Love Me Tonight

Click here to view the entire film

6.) Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Dir: Leo McCarey
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
During an interview conducted by film critic turned director Peter Bogdanovich, legendary filmmaker Orson Welles cited Make Way for Tomorrow as the saddest movie ever made! (read here and here). Welles added that It would make a stone cry! Make Way for Tomorrow was reportedly Leo McCarey’s personal favorite of the films he directed. In fact, upon receiving the Academy Award for Best Director for the screwball comedy classic The Awful Truth, McCarey responded with something along the lines of Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture (read here). The picture he was referring to was of course Make Way for Tomorrow. The plot revolves around Barkley and Lucy Cooper (Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi), an elderly couple, who recently lost their home to foreclosure. This is relevant because Make Way for Tomorrow was made during the Great Depression. In the aftermath, the two must separate and live with one of their five grown children respectively. The result is an insightful, refreshingly nuanced, uncompromising and ultimately tragic social commentary on the relationship between parents, their offspring and society. Last, but not least, Make Way for Tomorrow is a film that never fails to bring tears to my eyes.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view the late Peter Bogdanovich’s commentary on it

Click here to view the late Robert Osborne’s intro to it on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) from 2014

Click here to view Osborne’s outro to it

Click here to view Dave Karger’s intro. to it on TCM

7.) Brief Encounter (1945)
Dir: David Lean
Country: United Kingdom
Color: Black and White
Though justifiably celebrated for epics like The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, British filmmaker David Lean proved that he was every bit as accomplished early on with smaller scaled works like Summertime and this generally acknowledged classic from 1945 entitled Brief Encounter. In adapting celebrated playwright Noel Coward’s 1936 play Still Life, director Lean adds a touch of cinematic poetry that goes a long way in making this low-key romantic drama come alive. Like the film itself, lead actress Celia Johnson’s blend of quiet dignity with pathos has been frequently equalled, but seldom surpassed.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view British film critic Mark Kermode’s commentary on it as one of his BFI Player picks

Click here to view Ronald Neame’s (also co-writer) fond memories of it

Click here to view an interesting take on one of the film’s memorable locations, which in this case is Carnforth railway station

Click here to view the entire film

8.) Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Dir: John M. Stahl
Country: United States
Color: Color
Extraordinary on every single level imaginable, Leave Her to Heaven also happens to be my number one favorite film noir of the 1940’s. As the first film noir shot in color (read here), Leave Her to Heaven is noted for uniquely blending elements belonging to that aforementioned subgenre with that of melodramas, romantic dramas and psychological thrillers. The result still stands out today as an American masterpiece in a class of it’s own. Though he made two other very excellent films that Douglas Sirk would later not only equal, but surpass (Magnificent Obsession and Imitation of Life), Leave Her to Heaven towers above them all as director John M. Stahl’s greatest film. Leon Shamroy’s gorgeous Technicolor cinematography and Kay Nelson’s stylish costume designs serve as only two of many aspects that shape Stahl’s dazzling mise-en-scene. For my money, the always sexy Gene Tierney delivers a performance for the ages as the cold-hearted and narcissistic Ellen Berent Harland, who simultaneously ranks as the sexiest and most complex femme fatale in cinematic history. Aside from ranking as the second highest grossing film of 1945 after The Bells of St. Mary’s, Leave Her to Heaven also reportedly ranked as 20th Century Studios (then 20th Century Fox) biggest box-office hit of the decade. Now that is something.

Click here to watch a youtube video link to TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Alicia Malone’s intro and outro to the film from a few years back

Click here to watch a youtube video link to master filmmaker Martin Scorsese’s introduction of the film at the 2007 New York Film Festival

Click here to watch a youtube video link to Scorsese introducing it again. Only this time it was from this year in 2024. The date he introduced it was on Sunday, November 10, 2024

Click here to watch a youtube video link to the entire film

Click here to watch another youtube video link to the entire film

Click here to watch a youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch another youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch another youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer

9.) Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)
Dir: Albert Lewin
Country: United Kingdom
Color: Color
Exquisite, sensual and surreal are the three words that best sum up this masterful 1951 romantic fantasy directed by Albert Lewin. Emphasized by John Bryan’s lush scenic designs, Jack Cardiff’s visually stunning cinematography and Beatrice Dawson’s elegant costumes, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman emerges as the cinematic equivalent of a beautiful dream. Last, but not least, as the sexy Pandora Reynolds (the film’s title character), Classical Hollywood icon Ava Gardner imbues her with an aura of glamour and mystery. If Charade is the best Hitchcock movie Hitchcock never made and Love Me Tonight is the best Lubitsch musical that Lubitsch never made (emphasis mine), then Pandora and the Flying Dutchman is the best Powell and Pressburger film that Powell and Pressburger never made.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view the film’s Restoration trailer

10.) Journey to Italy (1954)
Dir: Roberto Rossellini
Country: Italy/France
Color: Black and White
Notwithstanding the fact that a majority of it’s dialogue is in English, Journey to Italy remains my number one favorite foreign film of all time. On the surface, it stems from master Italian director Roberto Rossellini’s neorealist visual style, courtesy of location shooting. In the center, it comes from Rossellini’s modernist approach to drama and storytelling. The answer lies in how it forever changed the face of European cinema. By combining these two aforementioned elements together, Rossellini laid the groundwork for the French New Wave movement and Michelangelo Antonioni’s existentialist dramas, which emerged simultaneously at the tail’s end of the 1950’s into 1960. During the past nine years of the 21st century, Journey to Italy’s influence seems to have gradually expanded into the American cinema. For example, in director/writer Richard Linklater’s 2013 romance drama Before Midnight, (the third film in his Before Trilogy), Julie Delpy’s character references it. As a devotee of everything it influenced, maybe my enthusiasm for Journey to Italy is based on that? Either way, for me, watching Journey to Italy is like sipping a fine wine – the taste never ages.

Click here to view the entire film

Click here to view Janus Films 2013 restoration trailer of the film

Click here to view Roberto Rossellini’s intro to the film himself

Click here to view late Scottish novelist and film critic Gilbert Adair’s 1990 Film Club intro to the film

Click here to view master filmmaker Martin Scorsese’s 2014 video conversation on the films of Roberto Rossellini, which includes Journey to Italy

11.) Vertigo (1958)
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Country: United States
Color: Color
Former Chicago Reader film critic Dave Kehr eloquently praised Vertigo as One of the landmarks-not merely of the movies, but of 20th-century art. I am in total agreement with him. Coincidentally, Vertigo ranks as my number one favorite film of all time. For me, Vertigo not only stands out as the crowning achievement of Classical Hollywood cinema, but of filmmaking on a whole. No other cinematic masterwork has impacted me on so many levels than this 1958 American classic. Set to celebrated composer Bernard Herrmann’s unforgettable music score, Vertigo opens with a characteristically expressive title sequence designed by the legendary Saul Bass. After this, we are treated to one of the most atmospheric and visually stunning films ever made. In the center, Vertigo is two beautifully realized films for the price of one. What begins as a riveting mystery, suddenly turns into a haunting drama of sexual obsession. The result is every bit as erotic as it is disturbing and ultimately tragic. As directed by the iconic Alfred Hitchcock (a.k.a. The Master of Suspense), Vertigo is a masterpiece of form and content. More than that, Vertigo serves as Hitchcock’s magnum opus. Though renowned (and justifiably so) as a showman, Hitchcock also deserves to be lauded as an artist. This latter trait has never been more evident than in Vertigo. In that same review, Kehr summed up Vertigo as the most intensely personal movie to emerge from the Hollywood cinema. Kehr is totally right on that. For everybody involved, Vertigo represents the pinnacle of their careers. What else left is there for me to say except that Vertigo is (for myself) the greatest film ever made.

Click here to read former Chicago Reader film critic Dave Kehr’s review of Vertigo

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view the film’s 1996 Restoration trailer

Click here to view the film’s 60th anniversary 4K Restoration trailer

Click here to view legendary title designer Saul Bass masterful opening title sequence

Click here to view the film’s memorable psychedelic dream sequence

Click here to listen to Bernard Herrmann’s haunting music for the film

Click here to view the documentary on Vertigo’s 1996 Restoration from 1997 entitled Obsessed with Vertigo

Click here to read my 2024 blog entry entitled Vertigo (1958) – A Ten-Part Personal Essay Written By Me

Click here to read a 2024 blog entry regarding my viewing of it at the great Music Box Theatre

12.) Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
Dir: Alain Resnais
Country: France/Italy
Color: Black and White
Out of all the undisputed classics of world cinema, Last Year at Marienbad debatably stands out as the one whose greatness is difficult to put into words. Let me try to break it down as best as I can though. In what is quite possibly Left Bank director Alain Resnais most popular film, Last Year at Marienbad combines nonlinear storytelling and a fittingly fragmented editing style with a mise en scene visually resembling that of a dream. Sound familiar? If so, that is because whether it be in form, content or both, Last Year at Marienbad has been impacting filmmakers close to around the world ever since it’s initial release in 1961. Influencing everyone from Agnes Varda to Ingmar Bergman to Nicolas Roeg to Stanley Kubrick to David Lynch to Christopher Nolan and beyond, Last Year at Marienbad remains a timeless masterpiece of French cinema.

Click here to view what might be the film’s French trailer

Click here to view the 50th anniversary trailer for it, which is more or less similar to the French one, only their is English subtitles

Click here to view the film’s 55th anniversary trailer for it

Click here to view British director Edgar Wright’s commentary on it

Click here to view French/British film professor Ginette Vincendeau’s intro to it

13.) L’Eclisse (1962)
Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni
Country: Italy/France
Color: Black and White
When it comes to 1960’s Italian cinema, I always single out Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Eclisse as the crowning achievement of that decade. Yes, I rank it higher than 81/2 and The Leopard and those two equally magnificent films make up only two of many masterworks produced in that country from that era. Widely acclaimed American filmmaker Martin Scorsese has cited L’Eclisse as a step forward in storytelling. For him, it felt less like a story and more like a poem (read here). I echo his sentiments. For me, no other director has depicted alienation as poetically as Antonioni. Furthermore, L’Eclisse stands out for me as the most daring Italian film to come out of the 1960’s. Not unlike Journey to Italy before it, L’Eclisse dramatically and stylistically redefined narrative film for a future generation of cinephiles and filmmakers. Three examples of the latter include esteemed directors like the aforementioned Scorsese, Richard Linklater and Wong Kar-wai (read here and here). As for the former, I count myself among Jake Cole and Jonathan Rosenbaum (read here and here) as the three of many cinema enthusiasts championing L’Eclisse. As the third film in Antonioni’s trilogy on modernity and it’s discontents, L’Eclisse serves as his thesis. In this one, the alienated relationship between modernity and everyday society really hits close to home in every single way imaginable. Featuring one of (If not) the most talked about endings in cinematic history, L’Eclisse emerges as quite possibly the boldest Italian film of it’s decade.

Click here to watch a 50th anniversary trailer

Click here to watch Scorsese’s commentary on L’Eclisse

Click here to view the film’s 50th anniversary Restoration trailer

Click here to listen to Italian pop singer Mina’s L’Eclisse Twist

Click here to read my essay on the film

14.) Gertrud (1964)
Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Country: Denmark
Color: Black and White
If anything else, I would like to think that If there is one thing that me and other cinephiles share, it is the notion that one can’t go wrong with any film from esteemed Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer’s back catalogue. For me, it is Gertrud that stands out as Dreyer’s crowning achievement. Critically dismissed (implicitly or otherwise) as outdated during it’s initial release in 1964, Gertrud has since been reassessed as one of Dreyer’s many masterpieces. Additionally, in it’s refusal to adapt to what was then considered cinematically fashionable, Gertrud can definitively be viewed as the most stylistically radical film of the 1960’s. Dreyer’s characteristically slow, but steady pacing stood in sharp contrast to the French New Wave’s more contemporary approach to cinematic storytelling. Not unlike the film’s title character, Dreyer’s own vision can debatably be seen as his unapologetic response to the popularity of the latter. In other words, Dreyer could care less whether or not he is seen as uncompromising. Though not intended as his swan song (a film about Jesus Christ had been in the works), Gertrud nevertheless serves as a perfect film for Dreyer to bookend his career as a filmmaker on.

Click here to view a scene from Gertrud (I could not find a trailer)

Click here to view a trailer for a 2022 documentary about it Dreyer’s Gertrud

15.) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Dir: Jacques Demy
Country: France/West Germany
Color: Color
Not Unlike All That Heaven Allows before it, director Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg unfolds against a visually beautiful backdrop. Only here, the film’s bright use of color aligns with the mood as much as it stands in contrast to it. As a coming-of-age musical (all of the dialogue is sung), The Umbrellas of Cherbourg resonates with me on so many levels. The denouement never fails to bring tears to my eyes.

Click here to watch a Restoration trailer of it

Click here to watch a what I believe is a BFI 2019 trailer showing of it

Click here to watch a recent 4K Restoration trailer for it

16.) Three Times (2005)
Dir: Hou Hsiao-hsien
Country: Taiwan
Color: Color
As of 2025, Three Times remains my number one favorite foreign film of the 21st century. On a whole, Three Times is the most beautifully realized anthology film ever helmed single-handedly. In the case of Three Times, that would be renowned Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien. Shot in a series of elegantly composed long takes, the result consists of three romantic stories set during the past and the then present. Ranging from poignant to inspired to ultimately insightful, Three Times explores the human condition in rich and poetic ways. Like all truly great directors, Hsiao-hsien uses atmosphere, color and music to shape the film’s drama. These aforementioned elements may have been combined flawlessly in films before and after it, but never more effortlessly than in Three Times.

Click here to view what may or may not be the film’s Taiwanese trailer

Click here to view what may or may not be another Taiwanese trailer for it

Click here to view the film’s US trailer

17.) Certified Copy (2010)
Dir: Abbas Kiarostami
Country: France/Italy/Belgium
Color: Color
While it undoubtedly works as a subtle homage to some of the celebrated works of European directors like Roberto Rosseliini, Alain Resnais and Michelangelo Antonioni to name only three, late great Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s Certified Copy also stands on it’s own as a bona fide masterwork. Kiarostami’s trademark theme of role-playing within reality remains as inventive as always. Even when all is said and done, one wonders If the writer (William Shimell) and the woman (Juliette Binoche) will ever meet each other again in the future, regardless of their true feelings towards each other? Not unlike Binoche herself, Certified Copy is a film that engages us on an emotional and intellectual level.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view another trailer for it

Click here to view it’s director Abbas Kiarostami briefly talking about it

Click here to view Kiarostami briefly talking about it some more


Let me conclude this blog entry with two questions for my dear readers below:

What are some of your favorite romantic films of all time?

What links or videos were your favorites?

John Charet’s 25 Christmas Film Recommendations (Alternative or Otherwise)

by John Charet

-A Few Words Before Reading-

Please be kind to not only the film at number 13, but also any other films I mention in my summary of that number. Any comment expressing negativity towards number 13 or any of the other films I mention in that summary will be deleted. So once again, please be polite 🙂

-Introduction-

Ah, the Christmas season 🙂 The celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth 🙂 Each year, I delight in putting up the Christmas decorations and the tree 🙂 It really makes my own house look so magical 🙂 Also, It is the one time of year (except for maybe one’s own birthday), where everybody arguably gets to open more than just a few presents 🙂 Christmas Day also happens to be my birthday 🙂 Yep, you heard it hear first my dear readers. December 25th is my birthday 🙂 Anyway, with all that being said, let us not forget one of the other most important aspects of the season 🙂 What is that one you might ask? 🙂 Watching Christmas films of course 🙂 I have admittedly eclectic tastes, though a few items on my list below are traditional entries 🙂 The 25 titles I am presenting to all of you are in chronological order as opposed to preferential 🙂 These are not my only favorites, just the ones I happen to watch during the season 🙂

Click here to listen to the late great Doris Day singing Christmas songs from her 1964 album of such 🙂

Also, click here to listen to Prim & Proper’s rendition of Here We Come A-Caroling

Also, click here to watch a video of TCM’s offerings this month with the above song playing in the background

Now without further ado, I present to all of my dear readers:

-John Charet’s 25 Christmas Film Recommendations-
(In Chronological Order)

01.) Hell’s Heroes (1929)
Dir: William Wyler
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
What Makes It a Christmas Film: A church celebrates Christmas near the end of the film.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: As much as I love John Ford’s 1948 remake Three Godfathers, director William Wyler’s 1929 version entitled Hell’s Heroes still remains unsurpassable. Dramatically and visually poetic, Hell’s Heroes is as masterful a western as those of Ford’s.

Click here to watch the entire film

02.) The Thin Man (1934)
Dir: W.S. Van Dyke
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
What Makes It a Christmas Film: The whole film is set during Christmastime.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: The delightful chemistry between it’s two lead stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as detective couple Nick and Nora Charles is one good reason. The witty dialogue is another. Last, but not least, The Thin Man is just so entertaining on a whole. Oh and let us not forget Nick and Nora’s talented dog Asta.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

03.) Remember the Night (1940)
Dir: Mitchell Leisen
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
What Makes It a Christmas Film: The film is set during the Christmas season.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: Released the same year that it’s screenwriter Preston Sturges made his directorial debut with The Great McGinty and his follow-up Christmas in July, Remember the Night is a fitting bookend to his career as a writer-for-hire. A genuinely funny comedy on the one hand and a touching drama on the other, Remember the Night serves as a perfect demonstration of Sturges talents as a writer. Plus, we get two lovable lead characters, who are played here by Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

04.) The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
What Makes It a Christmas Film: The whole film (or at least most of it) is set during the Christmas season and concludes on Christmas Eve.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: Along with Heaven Can Wait, The Shop Around the Corner ranks as celebrated German-American director Ernst Lubitsch’s purest expression of the human condition. As to be expected, the result is genuinely funny and touching.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

05.) The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
Dir: Orson Welles
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
What Makes It a Christmas Film: Watch the sleigh ride sequence.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: How does legendary director Orson Welles follow up one of the greatest directorial debuts in cinematic history? For him, he does it with this haunting adaptation of Booth Tarkington’s Pulitzer Prize winning 1918 novel of the same name. From start to finish, The Magnificent Ambersons remains a masterpiece of mise en scene.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to read an article about the continuing search for original 131-minute cut of Ambersons

Click here to view a short video about it

Click here to view a link to a 1993 book about Orson Welles original cut entitled The Magnificent Ambersons: A Reconstruction

Click here to view an excerpt from the 1982 documentary entitled The Orson Welles Story, in which Welles details how RKO sabotaged Ambersons

06.) Christmas Holiday (1944)
Dir: Robert Siodmak
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
What Makes It a Christmas Film: The present day sequence is set on Christmas Eve.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: Dark and tragic. These serve as only two of many traits that have characterized the film noir subgenre. Director Robert Siodmak obviously understood this when he helmed Christmas Holiday. Blend the two aforementioned elements together and you get a demonstration of why it is such a fitting combination.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch the entire film

07.) The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
Dir: Robert Wise
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
What Makes It a Christmas Film: Part of the third act is set during Christmas Eve.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: Against the wishes of producer Val Lewton and director Robert Wise, The Curse of the Cat People was wrongly marketed as a horror film in the same vein as it’s 1942 predecessor Cat People. In truth, The Curse of the Cat People plays out more as a psychological fantasy drama than a straight up scare picture. In fact, director Joe Dante once remarked that the film’s disturbingly Disneyesque fairy tale qualities have perplexed horror fans for decades. Late English-American film historian William K. Everson has implied that it is every bit as poetic as Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast. I could not have stated those aforementioned sentiments any better.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch this 2007 documentary entitled Martin Scorsese Presents: Val Lewton The Man in the Shadows

08.) Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Country: United States
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: One of the vignettes is set during Christmastime. Among other things, the film is noted for introducing the world to the celebrated holiday song Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: Even though I rank his melodramas and comedies higher, director Vincente Minnelli is still a master of musicals and Meet Me in St. Louis (my second favorite after The Band Wagon) may be the most charming of them all. Judy Garland’s rendition of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas never fails to move me.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch Judy Garland singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

09.) The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944)
Dir: Preston Sturges
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
What Makes It a Christmas Film: Part of the latter half is set during Christmastime.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: I think I may have finally answered my own question regarding what makes director/writer Preston Sturges so deservedly unique. The answer may be that his screwball comedies remain incomparable to all of the others. In The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, Sturges takes the subject of unwed pregnancy and turns it into a laugh out loud comedy with two lovable characters, who are played here by Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton. Long after concluding with a sidesplittingly hilarious surprise ending, one question inevitably remains on the minds of we the audience. How on earth did all of this hilarity get passed the Hays Office? For example, in the film, three characters have the last name Kockenlocker. Kindly figure it out for yourselves :)) Either way, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek still emerges as a bonafide comedy classic.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

10.) Black Narcissus (1947)
Dir: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Country: United Kingdom
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: One sequence revolves around a Christmas Eve mass.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: British-American film critic/historian David Thomson cited Black Narcissus as an erotic film about the fantasies of nuns. I could not have stated it any more eloquently. Plus, I just had to include a Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger film on here.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch a youtube video link of British film critic Mark Kermode’s commentary on it as one of his BFI Player picks

11.) Good Sam (1948)
Dir: Leo McCarey
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
What Makes It a Christmas Film: The third act is set during Christmastime.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: Director Leo McCarey’s unofficial counterpoint to Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life deals with some of the negative consequences that arise from altruism. Whereas the latter film has since been reassessed as a holiday classic, Good Sam has yet to receive this honor and for me, it is ripe for rediscovery.

Click here to watch the entire film

12.) All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Dir: Douglas Sirk
Country: United States
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: Two scenes stand out in particular here. The first is outdoors at what looks to be a Christmas Tree shop. The second features Jane Wyman’s character staring at the snowy outside.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: As directed by the master of melodrama Douglas Sirk, All That Heaven Allows bright color palette contrasts with the drama’s social commentary on suburban 1950’s conformity. The plot here revolves around the romance between an older woman (Jane Wyman) and a younger man (Rock Hudson). Along with Sirk’s other masterful melodramas, All That Heaven Allows is as visually expressive as it is subtly insightful.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch Mark Cousins Moviedrome intro to the film

13.) Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
Dir: Richard Quine
Country: United States
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: Part of the first act is set on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: Richard Quine’s career as a reliable director debatably rests on his four collaborations with actress Kim Novak. Pushover, Strangers When We Meet, The Notorious Landlady and this enchanting 1958 romantic comedy entitled Bell, Book and Candle. While their chemistry in Vertigo still stands in a class of it’s own, the onscreen pairing between lead stars James Stewart and Novak here remains every bit as (If not more) inspired.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch the entire film

14.) Blast of Silence (1961)
Dir: Allen Baron
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
What Makes It a Christmas Film: The film is set during the week of Christmas.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: When it comes to dream double bills consisting of a film noir and a neo-noir, the pairing of Irving Lerner’s Murder by Contract with Allen Baron’s Blast of Silence would be an ideal one. Not unlike that aforementioned earlier film, Blast of Silence can be best described as an existential crime drama with a Bressonian sensibility. Furthermore, I have a feeling that If Blast of Silence were made today (2024 in this case), everything about it would remain intact. In other words, as with Murder by Contract, Blast of Silence has aged like fine wine.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Eddie Muller’s intro to the film from his Noir Alley series

Click here to watch TCM’s (Turner Classic Movies) Eddie Muller’s outro to the film from his Noir Alley series

15.) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Dir: Jacques Demy
Country: France/West Germany
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: The conclusion is set outside a gas station on Christmas Eve.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: Not Unlike All That Heaven Allows before it, director Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg unfolds against a visually beautiful backdrop. Only here, the film’s bright use of color aligns with the mood as much as it stands in contrast to it. As a coming-of-age musical (all of the dialogue is sung), The Umbrellas of Cherbourg resonates with me on so many levels. The denouement never fails to bring tears to my eyes.

Click here to watch a Restoration trailer of it

Click here to watch a what I believe is a BFI 2019 trailer showing of it

Click here to watch a recent 4K Restoration trailer for it

16.) Female Trouble (1974)
Dir: John Waters
Country: United States
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: The early parts of the film’s first half. I usually watch this one shortly before or after Thanksgiving.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: Quite possibly one of the few (If not the only) genuine trash classics that can be watched and enjoyed during Christmastime. For me, Female Trouble is the film I will watch on the last day of November to kick off my Christmas viewing marathon. Before hitting the mainstream somewhat with Polyester, Hairspray and Cry-Baby, iconoclastic director/writer John Waters was making delightfully trashy 16mm underground films like Pink Flamingos, Desperate Living and this one in between the two. In Female Trouble, the late great Divine (a then Waters regular) plays bad girl Dawn Davenport, who embarks on a life of crime when she does not receive her beloved Cha Cha Heels for Christmas. A ridiculous premise no doubt, but only Waters could write such trash and make it charming at the same time. I hate you, I hate this house, and I hate Christmas! is just one of many truly hilarious lines that can be found in the film. Click here to see more examples.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch a TCM interview with John Waters from earlier in the year

Click here to view John Waters Top 10 Favorite Films of 2024

Click here to watch one video of an actress reaction (I won’t spoil) from his number one choice’s reaction

Click here to listen to all of the songs from his album of Christmas songs (I believe it was from 2013) entitled A John Waters Christmas

17.) Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Dir: Ingmar Bergman
Country: Sweden/France/West Germany
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: The opening sequence is set during Christmastime.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: Every once in a while, Fanny and Alexander gets wrongfully dismissed as Ingmar Bergman’s sellout film, but as a huge fan of the aforementioned Swedish director myself, I can assure all of you dear readers that it is anything but. Fanny and Alexander is undoubtedly more optimistic than his then more recent films, but standing on it’s own, it remains every bit as emotionally and intellectually stimulating as the rest of Bergman’s work. At the heart of it, Fanny and Alexander is a semi-autobiographical period drama of Bergman’s upbringing as a child. In fact, the latter title character is based (loosely or otherwise) on Bergman himself. One can’t get more personal than that. Though I still rank Persona, Wild Strawberries, Cries and Whispers and Saraband above it, Fanny and Alexander still remains a grand late period cinematic achievement that I never tire of watching.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch a BFI 40th anniversary trailer for it

Click here to watch a youtube video link of British film critic Mark Kermode’s commentary on it as one of his BFI Player picks

18.) A Christmas Story (1983)
Dir: Bob Clark
Country: United States/Canada
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: Everything about it basically.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: What do you know, a traditional comedic Christmas classic. What else can be said about A Christmas Story that has not been said yet? The vignettes for one thing. Whether it be the licking of a school flagpole in one episode to the presence of a leg lamp clad in fishnet stockings, it is nothing but pure hilarity from start to finish. Last, but not least, who can forget the lead child protagonist’s wish of a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle for his Christmas present. Almost everybody’s response to it is the inevitable you’ll shoot your eye out.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

19.) The Dead (1987)
Dir: John Huston
Country: United Kingdom/United States/West Germany
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: The story is set during a dinner party celebrating the Epiphany.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: If anything else, The Dead not only resembles the work of a seasoned veteran, but also that of a born-again director. For his intended or unintended swan song, Huston adapts James Joyce’s title story that first appeared in the aforementioned celebrated author’s 1914 book of shorts entitled The Dubliners. Huston’s refined touch fits perfectly with the elegantly written drama, which is penned by his son Tony. The result is every bit as intimate as it is profound.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

20.) Die Hard (1988)
Dir: John McTiernan
Country: United States
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: The entire film is set on Christmas Eve night.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: Along with A Christmas Story, this recommendation is for all of you normies out there. Admittedly, I wrestled back and forth as to whether or not I should include Die Hard on this list. Make no mistake, I love the film and I do watch it four times each year with December marking one of those occasions. Taking all of that into account, I just decided to put it on here anyway. What else can be said about this action-packed masterpiece that has not been said before? Aside from featuring a suave villain played with relish by late great British actor Alan Rickman, Die Hard made a superstar out of a then low-profile Bruce Willis, who at the time was only known as one of the two leads (the other being Cybill Shepherd) on the ABC television series Moonlighting. In contrast to all of the Ramboesque type action heroes at the time, Willis John McClane is a wisecracking everyman (a cop in this case) and to feature such a character at the time was a breath of fresh air when the action genre was showing a slight (just slight) case of wear and tear. All in all, in the words of the immortal McClane, Yippie-Ki-Yay motherf**ker.

Click here to watch the first original theatrical trailer for it

Click here to watch the second trailer for it

Click here to watch the third trailer for it

Click here to watch a 30th Anniversary trailer for it

Click here to watch a hilarious trailer in the style of a Christmas themed film :))

21.) The Long Day Closes (1992)
Dir: Terence Davies
Country: United Kingdom
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: Along with a child staring at a window (it is snowing outside), we get a poetic image of a family (all dressed up) sitting at a table for Christmas Eve dinner. This film is full of many other such images.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: In contrast to the bleakness and existential dread that powered the late great British director Terence Davies Children, Madonna and Child, Death and Transfiguration (his three early short films) and Distant Voices, Still Lives (his first feature-length film), The Long Day Closes is driven more by a beautifully realized combination of gentleness and melancholia. In The Long Day Closes, the grimmer aspects of those previous films are limited to the surface. This time around, it is jubilation and togetherness that take center stage. One of many standout images is set in a packed movie theater and the camera gazes in the center top at a young boy (the film’s protagonist), who has a look of joy on his face at what he is watching. As with it’s predecessor, The Long Day Closes is an autobiographical film for Davies. In fact, Davies love for Classical Hollywood cinema (it is set during the mid-1950’s) is emphasized by excerpts from numerous films of that era peppered throughout. I too share his passion. The Long Day Closes is as much a celebration of cinema as it is the cinematic equivalent of a poem.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch a short video about the use of dissolves and memory in the film

Click here to watch this 1992 documentary on Terence Davies (one of the joys here comes at the 3:00 mark of the video featuring him lip-synching to Doris Day)

Click here to watch Terence Davies insightful analysis on Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers from a 1990 episode of Channel 4’s Movie Masterclass

Click here to watch Terence Davies 1989 BBC Film Club into to Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove

Click here to watch Terence Davies 1989 BBC Film Club into to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey

Click here to watch a video entitled In Conversation: Terence Davies

Click here to watch a video of Terence Davies talking about Ealing Studios

Click here to watch a video of Terence Davies appreciation of The Ladykillers

22.) Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Country: United Kingdom/United States
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: The whole film is set during the holiday season. For example, we see Christmas lights displayed in various places.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: Along with Barry Lyndon, Eyes Wide Shut is legendary director Stanley Kubrick’s most mature film to date. A fitting achievement for a debatably unintended swan song. Here, Kubrick takes the early 20th-century Vienna setting of Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 novella Traumnovelle (the film’s source material) and interestingly updates it to the then present day New York City of the 1990’s. With the exception of one or two establishing shots, Eyes Wide Shut was filmed entirely in the United Kingdom (England in this case). This blends perfectly with the film’s dreamlike quality. The result is simultaneously disturbing and sexy.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch another trailer for it

23.) The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Dir: Wes Anderson
Country: United States
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: Vince Guaraldi’s Christmas Time Is Here is played in the film. Enough said.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: As to be expected from director/co-writer Wes Anderson, beneath The Royal Tenenbaums stylized surface, lies at the center, a deadpan and poignant comedy/drama effortlessly acted by it’s ensemble cast. The now retired Gene Hackman stands out especially as flawed family patriarch Royal Tenenbaum. Like Anderson’s other films, The Royal Tenenbaums is set to a distinctive soundtrack of popular songs.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

24.) Bad Santa (2003)
Dir: Terry Zwigoff
Country: United States
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: The film is set during the Christmas season.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: Delightfully tasteless comedies like Bad Santa are in short supply compared to the endless number of tasteful ones, which is why I always gladly welcome something like this. Lead actor Billy Bob Thornton’s performance as the irreverent title character (named Willie T. Soke here) is worthy to that of the late great W.C. Fields.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

25.) Carol (2015)
Dir: Todd Haynes
Country: United Kingdom/United States
Color: Color
What Makes It a Christmas Film: The first half is set during the Christmas season.
One of the Many Reasons Why I Love It: If Carol is not the greatest LGBTQ romance drama ever made, then it certainly comes close. Adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel The Price of Salt (under the pseudonym Claire Morgan), Carol is like a collaborative match made in heaven. On the one hand, Carol is helmed by gay director Todd Haynes and on the other, it is written by lesbian screenwriter/playwright Phyllis Nagy. When it comes to content, the two complete each other so effortlessly, one is tricked into thinking that the whole production must have been a cakewalk. As a period piece set during the early 1950’s, we are treated to beautifully evocative Super 16mm cinematography and costume designs courtesy of Ed Lachman and Sandy Powell respectively as well as Carter Burwell’s expressive music score. Last, but not least, who can forget the standout performances of it’s two lead actresses, which in this case are Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara? In Carol, Blanchett and Mara imbue their respective characters with grace and pathos. Carol is also noted for featuring one of the most tender lesbian sex scenes ever depicted in an English-Language film.

Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to watch the film’s second trailer

Click here to listen to composer Carter Burwell’s entire score for Carol

Let me conclude this blog entry with two questions for my dear readers below:

What Christmas films do you love to watch during the season?

What links (video or otherwise) interested you the most?

John Charet’s Top 100 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time

by John Charet

-Introduction-

Last year around this time of year, I posted a blog entry regarding my Top 10 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time. As all of my dear readers are probably aware, I posted this year’s entry one week before Halloween (click here). As for Halloween 2024, I have posted a big treat, which comes in the form of my Top 100 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time. Now all of the films listed are not my only favorite horror films (I have an unlimited number), but this is a perfect start. I have decided to start with number 100 and work my way down to 01.

-The Opening Celebration-

First off, below are a few delightful links to check out 🙂

Click here to watch the complete 1983 music video of late iconic singer Michael Jackson’s (a.k.a. The King of Pop) song Thriller

Click here to listen to a shortened version of the song

Have any of you dear readers out there heard of The Merkins? Check out their youtube channel here. They do horror parodies of songs and one of their running acts is The Slashstreet Boys (a spoof of The Backstreet Boys) 🙂 The band consists of Leatherface, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kruegger and Ghostface 🙂 Below are three of my personal favorite parodies of theirs 🙂

Click here to view their spoof of I Want It That Way entitled I’ll Kill You That Way

Click here to view their spoof of Larger than Life entitled Die By My Knife

Click here to view their spoof of Rock Your Body Right entitled Slashing Bodies

-A Few Words Before Reading-

Please be kind to the film at number 07 on this list because that one means a lot to me. Any comment expressing negativity towards number 07 will be deleted. So once again, please be polite 🙂

Now, without further ado, I present to you all:

-John Charet’t Top 100 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time-
(#100-01)

100.) The Lighthouse (2019) (Dir: Robert Eggers)
99.) Frankenstein (1931) (Dir: James Whale)
98.) The Spiral Staircase (1946) (Dir: Robert Siodmak)
97.) What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) (Dir: Robert Aldrich)
96.) Kwaidan (1964) (Dir: Masaki Kobayashi)
95.) The Exorcist (1973) (Dir: William Friedkin)
94.) The Changeling (1980) (Dir: Peter Medak)
93.) Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) (Dir: Francis Ford Coppola)
92.) The Orphanage (2007) (Dir: J.A. Bayona)
91.) Under the Shadow (2016) (Dir: Babak Anvari)
90.) The Invisible Man (1933) (Dir: James Whale)
89.) The Body Snatcher (1945) (Dir: Robert Wise)
88.) Kuroneko (1968) (Dir: Kaneto Shindo)
87.) Rosemary’s Baby (1968) (Dir: Roman Polanski)
86.) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) (Dir: Tobe Hooper)
85.) God Told Me To (1976) (Dir: Larry Cohen)
84.) The Entity (1982) (Dir: Sidney J. Furie)
83.) Jacob’s Ladder (1990) (Dir: Adrian Lyne)
82.) Halloween II (2009) (Dir: Rob Zombie)
81.) Annihilation (2018) (Dir: Alex Garland)
80.) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) (Dir: Tobe Hooper)
79.) Twixt (2011) (Dir: Francis Ford Coppola)
78.) Bluebeard (1944) (Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer)
77.) Horror of Dracula (1958) (Dir: Terence Fisher)
76.) Island of Lost Souls (1932) (Dir: Erle C. Kenton)
75.) Onibaba (1964) (Dir: Kaneto Shindo)
74.) Night of the Living Dead (1968) (Dir: George A. Romero)
73.) Halloween (1978) (Dir: John Carpenter)
72.) Dead Alive (1992) (Dir: Peter Jackson)
71.) The Descent (2005) (Dir: Neil Marshall)
70.) The Lords of Salem (2012) (Dir: Rob Zombie)
69.) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) (Dir: Rouben Mamoulian)
68.) The Leopard Man (1943) (Dir: Jacques Tourneur)
67.) Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) (Dir: Terence Fisher)
66.) Blood and Black Lace (1964) (Dir: Mario Bava)
65.) The Tenant (1976) (Dir: Roman Polanski)
64.) Inferno (1980) (Dir: Dario Argento)
63.) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) (Dir: John McNaughton)
62.) Cemetery Man (1994) (Dir: Michele Soavi)
61.) Shaun of the Dead (2004) (Dir: Edgar Wright)
60.) The Phantom Carriage (1921) (Dir: Victor Sjostrom)
59.) Cat People (1942) (Dir: Jacques Tourneur)
58.) Psycho (1960) (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock)
57.) Kill, Baby… Kill! (1966) (Dir: Mario Bava)
56.) Suspiria (1977) (Dir: Dario Argento)
55.) Possession (1981) (Dir: Andrzej Zuwalski)
54.) The Fly (1986) (Dir: David Cronenberg)
53.) Cronos (1992) (Dir: Guillermo del Toro)
52.) Let the Right One In (2008) (Dir: Tomas Alfredson)
51.) The Babadook (2014) (Dir: Jennifer Kent)
50.) Nope (2022) (Dir: Jordan Peele)
49.) Haxan (1922) (Dir: Benjamin Christensen)
48.) The Old Dark House (1932) (Dir: James Whale)
47.) I Walked with a Zombie (1943) (Dir: Jacques Tourneur)
46.) The Birds (1963) (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock)
45.) Dawn of the Dead (1978) (Dir: George A. Romero)
44.) Evil Dead II (1987) (Dir: Sam Raimi)
43.) Cure (1997) (Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
42.) Martyrs (2008) (Dir: Pascal Laughier)
41.) The Haunting of Hill House (2018) (Dir: Mike Flanagan)
(Miniseries)
(Streaming/Television)
40.) Pearl (2022) (Dir: Ti West)
39.) The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) (Dir: Jean Epstein)
38.) Freaks (1932) (Dir: Tod Browning)
37.) Dead of Night (1945) (Dir: Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer)
(Anthology Film)
36.) The Innocents (1961) (Dir: Jack Clayton)
35.) The Wicker Man (1973) (Dir: Robin Hardy)
34.) Dead Ringers (1988) (Dir: David Cronenberg)
33.) Ringu (1998) (Dir: Hideo Nakata)
32.) Rec (2007) (Dir: Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza)
31.) Under the Skin (2013) (Dir: Jonathan Glazer)
30.) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) (Dir: Robert Wiene)
29.) Bride of Frankenstein (1935) (Dir: James Whale)
28.) The Uninvited (1944) (Dir: Lewis Allen)
27.) Night of the Demon (1957) (Dir: Jacques Tourneur)
26.) The Haunting (1963) (Dir: Robert Wise)
25.) Eraserhead (1977) (Dir: David Lynch)
24.) The Thing (1982) (Dir: John Carpenter)
23.) Audition (1999) (Dir: Takashi Miike)
22.) Inside (2007) (Dir: Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo)
21.) Mother! (2017) (Dir: Darren Aronofsky)
20.) Un Chien Andalou (1929) (Dir: Luis Bunuel)
(Short Cinema)
19.) The Black Cat (1934) (Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer)
18.) Isle of the Dead (1945) (Dir: Mark Robson)
17.) Peeping Tom (1960) (Dir: Michael Powell)
16.) Hour of the Wolf (1968) (Dir: Ingmar Bergman)
15.) Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971) (Dir: John Hancock)
14.) Videodrome (1983) (Dir: David Cronenberg)
13.) The Kingdom Trilogy (1994/1997/2022) (Dir: Lars Von Trier)
(Danish Television)
12.) Pulse (2001) (Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
11.) Climax (2018) (Dir: Gaspar Noe)
10.) Vampyr (1932) (Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer)
09.) The Shining (1980) (Dir: Stanley Kubrick)
08.) Nosferatu (1922) (Dir: F.W. Murnau)
07.) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) (Dir: David Lynch)
06.) The Devil’s Backbone (2001) (Dir: Guillermo del Toro)
05.) Midsommar (2019) (Dir: Ari Aster)
04.) The Seventh Victim (1943) (Dir: Mark Robson)
03.) Diabolique (1955) (Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot)
02.) Eyes Without a Face (1960) (Dir: Georges Franju)
01.) Don’t Look Now (1973) (Dir: Nicolas Roeg)

P.S. I just added two links from this year’s blog entry regarding my Top 10 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time – a Kim Newman commentary link on number 3 and a documentary link on number 4. Click here 🙂

Anyway, I hope all of you enjoyed reading my Top 100 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time list and last, but not least:

Have a Happy Halloween
. .
U

John Charet’s Official Top 10 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time

by John Charet

Note: Next Thursday, which is October 31st (Halloween), I will be posting a blog entry regarding my Top 100 Favorite Horror Films of All Time, so this is not the only Halloween post I will be doing this year 🙂

This blog entry is dedicated to what I consider to be an official version of my Top 10 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time. Aside from some different choices (see numbers 4,5 and 6) this year, every film on here from last years remains intact. I know I have said it before, but it bears repeating – all lists (including my own) are subjective. Nevertheless, please be kind to number 7 on this list because that one means a lot to me, so once again please be polite 🙂 Also, any comment expressing negativity at number 7 will be deleted. Now, without further ado, I present to you all:

-My Top 10 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time-
(#10-01)

10.) Vampyr (1932)
Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Country: Germany/France
Color: Black and White
Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer’s only horror film was dismissed by critics as one of his lesser works during it’s initial theatrical release in 1932. Fast-forwarding ninety-two years later in 2024, many critics now consider Vampyr to be (in the words of former Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman) Dreyer’s most radical film. Given everything that came before and after it in Dreyer’s oeuvre, Hoberman’s view can not be stated any better. Intentionally emphasizing atmosphere and imagery over plot, when it comes to horror films produced after the advent of sound, Vampyr stands out as quite possibly the only one to truly resemble that of a nightmare.

Since I could not find a youtube video link to an official theatrical trailer, click here to view a 90th anniversary trailer

Click here to view a youtube video link of British film critic Mark Kermode’s commentary on it as one of his BFI Player picks

Click here to watch the film on youtube

09.) The Shining (1980)
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Country: United States/United Kingdom
Color: Color
Author Stephen King may have been greatly disappointed over director Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his 1977 bestselling novel, but this has not prevented The Shining from eventually becoming (and deservedly so) a quintessential example of cinematic horror. Along with other Kubrick films, The Shining has only improved with time. Not unlike Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr, The Shining remains the only horror film within Kubrick’s oeuvre. Similar to the former, The Shining resembles the work of an idiosyncratic filmmaker. Here, we get now iconic scares ranging from the elevator of blood sequence to images of hacked up twins to the image of it’s lead actor Jack Nicholson exclaiming (through ad-libbing) Here’s Johnny!. As in all (or most) of Kubrick’s films since 1957’s Paths of Glory, The Shining has been open to all sorts of interpretations and neither one would be wrong.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

08.) Nosferatu (1922)
Dir: F.W. Murnau
Country: Germany
Color: Black and White
German director F.W. Murnau’s unauthorized silent adaptation of author Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula also happens to be my personal favorite version of the source material. Whereas other versions romanticized the aforementioned title character, Nosferatu depicts the vampire (named Count Orlok in this film) as a truly hideous monster in every single way imaginable. All of his mannerisms are expressed perfectly by it’s lead actor Max Schreck. As a masterpiece of both German Expressionism and cinematic horror, Nosferatu is driven less by scares and more by it’s eerie atmosphere.

Since I can’t find an official theatrical trailer for it, click here to view this youtube video link of it’s 100 Anniversary trailer

Click here to watch the film on youtube

07.) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
Dir: David Lynch
Country: United States/France
Color: Color
Critically savaged upon it’s initial theatrical release back in 1992, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me has since been reassessed as not only a misunderstood masterpiece, but also as one of director David Lynch’s major masterworks. As for myself, I will go one step further by citing Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me as the number one greatest American horror film of the 1990’s. A prequel to both the original series (1990-91) and 2017’s The Return, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me centers on the sad last days of Laura Palmer – acted with gusto by the immensely beautiful and talented Sheryl Lee. Aided by composer Angelo Badalamenti’s haunting music score, the result is every bit as surreal and nightmarish as it is ultimately tragic. British film critic/novelist Kim Newman once stated that the film’s many moments of horror demonstrate just how tidy, conventional and domesticated the generic horror movie of the 1980’s and 1990’s has become. I could not have stated it any better.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to listen to the soundtrack

Click here to watch author Scott Ryan’s introduction to the film at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre from last year

Click here, here, here, here and here to watch a Q&A with actress Sheryl Lee and actor Dana Ashbrook from a 2021 showing of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre

06.) The Devil’s Backbone (2001)
Dir: Guillermo del Toro
Country: Spain/Mexico
Color: Color
Along with the equally inventive Under the Shadow, The Devil’s Backbone is an inspired combination of the supernatural and the allegorical. When it comes to 21st century cinematic horror, both films serve as personal favorites of mine. As one may have deduced from this list, The Devil’s Backbone ranks very high for me. Set during the final year of the Spanish Civil War, The Devil’s Backbone is on the one hand, a subtly tragic ghost story and on the other, a quietly frightening antifascist historical drama. Now I love every single film of Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and the highly personal The Devil’s Backbone (my second favorite of his after Pan’s Labyrinth) is arguably the most insightful out of all the truly great horror films produced since the dawn of 2000.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view British film critic Mark Kermode’s commentary on it as one of his BFI Player picks

Click here to read Kermode’s Criterion essay for it

05.) Midsommar (2019)
Dir: Ari Aster
Country: United States/Sweden
Color: Color
Whereas Ari Aster’s directorial debut Hereditary resembled the work of a master filmmaker, it was his follow-up film Midsommar that officially cemented him as such. As a horror film, Midsommar’s masterstroke lies not so much in it’s atmosphere as in how it uses it. Like The Wicker Man before it, Midsommar’s unique emphasis on daylight is what makes the film all the more disturbing. In fact, everything about Midsommar still sends shivers down my spine. As it did during it’s initial theatrical release five years ago in 2019, Midsommar still hits close to home (metaphorically and otherwise) in more ways than one.

Click here to view the film’s original teaser trailer

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

04.) The Seventh Victim (1943)
Dir: Mark Robson
Country: United States
Color: Black and White
Out of the nine unique official (or unofficial) horror films produced by Val Lewton at RKO Pictures during the 1940’s, director Mark Robson’s The Seventh Victim stands out as my personal favorite of the group. Every single trademark that shapes a Lewton production reaches it’s peak here. While The Seventh Victim is similarly downbeat as Lewton’s other horror films, neither of them ended on such an explicitly bleak note as this one does. The film’s black-and-white color palette coincides perfectly not only with it’s urban setting, but also in it’s thematic elements relating to depression and satanism among other things. Mature subject matter like homoeroticism is even touched upon here in an intelligent and sensitive manner. In addition, The Seventh Victim features a quietly chilling shower sequence that predates Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho by seventeen years.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view TCM’s Eddie Mueller’s Noir Alley intro to the film from 2020

Click here to view TCM’s Eddie Mueller’s Noir Alley outro to the film from that same episode

Click here to view a Vimeo link to the 2007 documentary entitled Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows

03.) Diabolique (1955)
Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Country: France
Color: Black and White
Though Alfred Hitchcock is often credited for redefining cinematic horror with Psycho in 1960, with all due respect to the Master of Suspense, the aforementioned genre was actually redefined five years earlier in 1955 by French director Henri-Georges Clouzot with Diabolique. Coincidentally, not too long after the publication of Diabolique’s 1952 source material She Who Was No More, which was written by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, Hitchcock set out to option the rights to it. He changed course upon learning that Clouzot had obtained them serveral hours earlier, which enabled him to adapt it as Diabolique. As the film’s plot unfolds, Clouzot wastes no time in elevating the tension to completely unbearable heights and effortlessly keeps it going throughout. Culminating in one of the scariest twist endings ever conceived, Diabolique is a horror thriller that will ultimately make one’s heart stop.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view Alex Cox’s Moviedrome intro to the film

Spoiler Alert: If you have not seen the film, I strongly advise you not to click on the link below
Click here to view British film critic/novelist Kim Newman’s analysis of Diabolique

02.) Eyes Without a Face (1960)
Dir: Georges Franju
Country: France/Italy
Color: Black and White
If French poet Jean Cocteau had directed a 1930’s Universal horror film, the result would have undoubtedly been Eyes Without a Face. While it may not possess the delightfully eccentric humor that shaped The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein among others, Eyes Without a Face does offer something every bit as inspired. Disturbing and poetic in equal measure, Eyes Without a Face is as much a horror film as it is a fairy tale. Dismissed by critics as one of his lesser films during it’s initial theatrical release in 1960, Eyes Without a Face has since been reassessed (and deservedly so) as not only French director Georges Franju’s most famous and influential film, but also his greatest one.

Click here to view what may or may not be the film’s French trailer

Click here to view British film critic Mark Kermode’s commentary on it as one of his BFI Player picks

Click here to view Kermode’s Kermode Uncut commentary on it

Click here to view Mark Kermode’s Cult Film Corner commentary on it

01.) Don’t Look Now (1973)
Dir: Nicolas Roeg
Country: United Kingdom/Italy
Color: Color
Now often hailed as one of the most influential horror films ever made, Don’t Look Now also happens to be my number one favorite horror film of all-time. Reportedly cited by it’s British director Nicolas Roeg as his exercise in film grammar, Don’t Look Now also stands out as quite possibly the most beautiful marriage between form and content. Accompanied by composer Pino Donaggio’s emotionally powerful music score, Roeg’s trademark unconventional editing style and it’s fittingly bleak, yet strangely lovely atmosphere, Don’t Look Now explores a tragedy’s impact on a married couple through the power of visual storytelling. Along with an explicit controversial sex scene between it’s two lead actors (Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland), Don’t Look Now is noted for featuring (like Diabolique before it) the scariest ending ever conceived in the history of cinematic horror.

Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer

Click here to view the film’s 2019 4K Restoration trailer

Click here to view British film critic Mark Kermode’s 2008 Culture Show interview with director Nicolas Roeg

Click here to view Kermode’s review of the 2019 4K Restoration of the film

Click here to view Irish documentarian Mark Cousins 2001 Scene By Scene interview with actor Donald Sutherland on the film

Click here to view Mark Cousins Moviedrome intro to the film

Click here to view Danish-Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier commentary on the film

Click here to listen to the soundtrack

Let me conclude this blog entry with two questions for my dear readers below

What are your top 10 favorite horror films of all-time?

What video links in my blog entry interested you the most?

My Favorite Dorothy Arzner Films (2024 Edition)

by John Charet

Some of these films I saw online and one of them on an old VHS tape.

* * * * (Out of * * * *)

  1. Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
  2. Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)
  3. Working Girls (1931)
  4. The Bride Wore Red (1937)
  5. Craig’s Wife (1936)
  6. First Comes Courage (1943)
  7. Honor Among Lovers (1931)
  8. Anybody’s Woman (1930)
  9. Get Your Man (1927)
  10. Christopher Strong (1933)
  11. The Wild Party (1929)
  12. Sarah and Son (1930)
  13. Nana (1934)
    (co-directed with George Fitzmaurice)