“Hour of the Wolf” (1968)
An Ingmar Bergman horror movie. What more can be said? “Hour of the Wolf” is the closest to the horror genre Bergman has ever gotten. The film is an impressive achievement. A disturbing movie about the loss of sanity by a filmmaker who seems to very much be in a tormented state of mind here. Max von Sydow is Johan and his pregnant wife, Alma, is played by Liv Ullmann. They live on an isolated island where Alma made a concession to move so that Johan can have the peace of mind required to work on his paintings. Johan seems to be haunted by nightmares from his past that may or may not have happened, whatever the case may be, these visions continuously haunt him. They are the inner demons that imagination can create, a topic that has resonated throughout Bergman’s filmography and something that we all can relate to. The title is derived from the hour “between night and dawn,” which happens to be the hour when most people die, Bergman has described it as the hour “when sleep is deepest, when nightmares are more real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fears, when ghosts and demons are most powerful. The Hour of the Wolf is also the hour when most children are born.” The beautiful black and white cinematography from DP extraordinaire Sven Nyqvist serves mood well as it brings upon subtle shadows of Gothicism that might otherwise not be achieved with color. – Jordan Ruimy
“Carnival of Souls” (1962)
After a traumatic car accident occurs, Mary (Candace Hilligoss) is mysteriously drawn to an abandoned carnival. It doesn’t help that this woman has had to endure much heartache in the past year with the loss of important friends, her job, her shelter and now her car. As she enters the Carnival, she is stalked by a strange man who seems to appear out of nowhere and then disappears back into the darkness he came from, this all leads to a domino effect of horrors, seeped into a creepy atmosphere, enhanced by the grainy photography. Nobody in this film acts normally, in fact nobody really seems to have an identity in the unique world director Herk Harvey creates. There is no gore in his movie, neither is there much violence, instead Harvey decides to plumb the depths of atmosphere, aided by a chilling organ-driven score. This low-budget ($28,000) film more or less anticipated “The Sixth Sense” and “The Others,” but it’s no fair in revealing how or why. Mary seems to be between two worlds, but is gradually being pulled toward the carnival of souls, the world of the dead, where she seems to effortlessly belong to more and more than actual living life. Think of “Carnival of Souls” as a full-length episode of “The Twilight Zone” but done with a cheap budget and without the restraints that come with network TV. Harvey’s film might be small in budget but it is large in its visionary canvas. — JR
“Repulsion” (1965)
Director Roman Polanski turned on the screws of terror in his first English Language feature, the masterful “Repulsion.” Working as a manicurist at a beauty salon in London, Carol (Catherine Deneuve) lives with her sister in an apartment that seems to have dread at every corner. Her repulsion of men lead her to be a hermit, keeping to herself. But in a slow and subtle way, she starts to degrade. Despite being an attractive woman and having men wanting to take her out, she’s not interested. It doesn’t help that she can constantly hear her sister making love to her latest fling through the thinly-built walls of the apartment. As Sis hops on a weekend trip for a few days with a married guy, Carol is left alone in the apartment. Bad idea. Random visitors start knocking on the door and the mental breakdown begins, filled with disturbing visions of rape and violence. Hallucinations and paranoia kick in as well and the audience is left to do nothing but buckle up. The fact that our main heroine can no longer distinguish between reality and fantasy leads to a fascinating puzzle of a movie filled with surreal imagery Darren Aronofsky’s main inspiration for “mother!” is right here, keep an eye for the cracks on the wall and the hands reaching out of the wall among many other ripped off moments. “Repulsion” provides a case for how precarious and perilous the human mind can be when everything stops clicking at once. – JR
“What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” (1962)
Famous for igniting the infamous “hagsploitation” subgenre in Hollywood, there’s a very reasonable thesis to be made regarding whether or not Robert Aldrich’s unsettling, disturbing “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” inspired more harm than good. A high-strung melodrama centered around two disloyal former starlet sisters, Jane (Bette Davis) and Blanche (Joan Crawford) Hudson, and the depravity that ensues when bitter jealousy and petty squabbles burn too bright over far too many decades, “Baby Jane” and its darkly comedic sensibilities allow many to believe the joke is on Davis and Crawford, two Hollywood legends who struggled to retain their former glories before they worked their way onto this troubled set. But there’s also a lot to be said about the empathy, sympathy and pity found throughout Aldrich’s unexpected smash hit. Recently chronicled (and heavily dramatized) in FX’s “Feud: Bette and Joan,” the journey to script to scene wasn’t pretty for ‘Baby Jane,’ yet their tumultuous relationship does ultimately illuminate the prickly-yet-morbidly-fascinating film, a ruthless, poignant look at revenge and retribution. Davis and Crawford are perfectly cast in their individual roles, informing their individual characters with their over-the-top theatrics that truly speaks great volumes. It’s a fireworks display of vigorous cinematic magnitudes, one which startles and surprises you with its curiously and simultaneously caring and cruel perspective. It’s a captivating, astonishing achievement, a lightning rod of a film that only rarely works this well. There’s much to be made about “Baby Jane” and its undying influence, but the film still radiates. — Will Ashton
“Kwaidan” (1964)
Even the best horror anthologies feel somewhat slapped together, with some sections overpowering or outweighing the others, giving the sensation of unevenness and disappointment. One of the few horror anthologies without a single weak link, “Kwaidan” is a sprawling, three hour + epic that is equal parts philosophical meditation and scare-the-shit-out-of-you ghost story. Comprised of four stories that were based on popular Japanese folktales, they are all heartbreaking and eerie, largely having to do with a haunting of either the literal or figurative kind. “The Black Hair” is a tale of financial longing and romantic entanglements that ends with a kicker of a twist (a direct line can also be drawn from its ghostly imagery to modern Japanese horror like “The Ring“). Themes of economic and social mobility chart a course through other tales involve woodcutters and struggling musicians, with a final story that has a nifty meta-textual knowingness, as a writer conjures the story of a tormented samurai warrior. As directed by Masaki Kobayashi, most famous for his ten-hour rumination on pacifism and wartime “The Human Condition,” brings an uncommon sensitivity to pieces that could have, in the wrong hands, fallen into pulpy schlock. – Drew Taylor
