So, A Quiet Place turned out to be a massive success, hitting a whopping $50 million this weekend on a $17 million budget. Horror continues to be a reliable moneymaker, and the horror community has embraced it along with mainstream audiences, which is cool considering how it mixes the experimental with the crowd-pleasing. In case you missed it, I had a great time with the film as well, and I recommend you go see it if you haven’t already.
If you have seen the film, and enjoyed it, I think you should seriously consider checking out actual silent films. A Quiet Place is able to make the most out of minimal dialogue and visual storytelling, and seeing how perfectly willing audiences are able to go with it should indicate that they have the patience and ability to appreciate the craft that films of old have already mastered.
I put together a list of ten silent horror films that I think you should check out. I tried my best to avoid some of the more obvious picks like Nosferatu, The Phantom of the Opera, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and various other films that most film aficionado would recognize. Obviously, see those if you haven’t already, but these are also ones that are absolutely worth your time. If you’re interested in any of them, they should all be available through various outlets online, many probably for free.
This is in no particular order, by the way.
Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages
This one is probably the most well known out of all of these, and even then, it’s not quite the household name in the same way something like Nosferatu is. I consider this one of my favorites, and it contains some of the most haunting images ever put to film. Released in 1922 from writer/director, Benjamin Christensen, this Swedish-Danish production plays like a documentary of sorts, telling stories about witches, superstition, and how certain beliefs can lead to hysteria.
It was an expensive film to make, and for its time, was considered very graphic in its depiction of nudity, and violence. My favorite detail is Christensen playing the Devil. The influence of this film is vast, and out of all the ones listed here, I would put this one as a priority. It’s truly something unlike you’ve ever seen.
The Man Who Laughs
The Man Who Laughs is one you also might have heard about, but mostly in the context of it being a huge inspiration to the character of The Joker. However, the film itself is wonderful, a tragic genre-bender that is part romance, part melodrama, part parable, with the horror aspect admittedly playing mostly as an undertone. It’s still an impressive watch to this day, and a lot of that goes to the central performance from Conrad Veidt.
Early reception was middling at best, but it actually took until the late 70s to 80s for it to achieve the support and acclaim it deserves. But even at release, it began to influence other films, specifically the Universal Monsters films that came out in the following years. This film was also a Universal release, and the head of makeup at the studio, Jack Pierce, not only did the makeup for this film, but went on to design the look of iconic characters like the Mummy, Frankenstein, and the Wolf Man, among many others.
The Cat and the Canary
What The Man Who Laughs shares with The Cat and the Canary is director, Paul Leni. This one came before The Man Who Laughs, and is quite different in many ways. This film is adapted from a stage play, and it is an early example of horror-comedy, though it does play very differently from what you would see in most modern horror-comedies. It’s essentially a classic “group of people are stuck in big spooky mansion” style of story (referred at the time as the “old dark house” genre), and it has gone to influence many films and filmmakers.
It was remade many times, most notably in 1939, featuring Bob Hope in one of his early film roles. I haven’t seen the other remakes, but the 1939 is a very good one, if you can get your hands on it.
The Phantom Carriage
It doesn’t take long before you realize what makes the 1921 Swedish film, The Phantom Carriage, so special. The imagery is spectacular, and nightmarish without being over-the-top. It’s a pretty daring production with a narrative that contains flashbacks within flashbacks, a dreamlike quality, and extensive special effects.
Ingmar Bergman has often cited it as an influence, and anyone who is a fan of The Shining will find a very familiar sequence involving a door and an axe. The fairy tale/fable like atmosphere is timeless, and thanks to Criterion, there’s a beautiful restoration available to watch.
The Unknown
This 1927 oddity stars the great Lon Chaney as a criminal hiding as an armless knife thrower (he uses his feet) who falls for the daughter of the ringmaster. It’s directed by Tod Browning, who later went on to make Dracula and the infamous Freaks, and he has collaborated with Chaney many time before and after.
The Unknown is a rather nutty film, but one that’s really engaging. I’d honestly rank it among Browning’s best. Fun fact about this film is that Browning was able to achieve a rather convincing effect of Lon Chaney using his feet for things by using a double with an actual armless sideshow performer, Paul Desmuke.
The Monster
The Monster is another horror-comedy on this list, and it also stars Lon Chaney as the delightfully deranged mad scientist, Dr. Gustave Ziska, who is performing experiments in an abandoned asylum. Something about exchanging souls between bodies, it gets really weird, but in a great way.
It might be the least essential out of all the films listed here, but if you’re able to get on this movie’s wavelength, it can be a ton of fun.
L’Inferno
Credited as the first feature length film in Italian cinema back in 1911, L’Inferno, (a loose adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy”) became a huge hit, taking over $2 million in the United States alone.
It’s hard not to see why. The film is visually striking, as if it took one of the many classic paintings inspired by the poem, and brought it to life. It’s basically an hour and eleven minutes of pure nightmare fuel and heavy metal covers. But fair warning to certain viewers, I recall it having a rather…unflattering…depiction of the prophet, Mohammed.
The Hands of Orlac
You wouldn’t be able to tell that The Hands of Orlac was made by Robert Wiene, since it deviates from the expressionist style of his early masterwork, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
This also stars Conrad Veidt, who has collaborated with Wiene many times, including Dr. Caligari. The premise is simple, and pulpy, a famous pianist loses his hands in a freak accident, and is given new ones. The only problem is those new hands…belonged to a murderer! Yeah, it’s good stuff.
A Page of Madness
Considered lost for the longest time, this 1926 Japanese film was rediscovered in 1971. It’s probably more avant garde than horror, but the unfiltered dive into pure insanity makes it an effective piece of horror filmmaking.
There’s no intertitles to give plot or dialogue details, so you are left at the mercy of the madness on screen. The director, Teinosuke Kinugasa, continued to make films over the years, but none really hit big with the exception of the 1953 film, Gate of Hell, which won two Oscars (an honorary Best Foreign release, and Best Costume Design).
Out of all the films listed here, this one is probably the most difficult watch for anyone who hasn’t delved into silent films before because it makes so many daring creative choices, but if it sounds like something up your alley, I say go for it.
The Haunted Castle
And last, but certainly not least, the oldest, shortest, and maybe most significant entry on this list. The Haunted Castle is an 1896 short from Georges Méliès, the man who brought special effects wizardry as we know it to cinema. Yes, it’s more amusing than frightening, but given the subject matter in the film, it has been considered to be among the very first horror films (and arguably first vampire film), if not the first.
You can watch the whole thing in the clip above, and I highly recommend watching as many Méliès shorts as you can. They’re as wondrous today as they were then, and plus, they’re all really short.
I hope you found this interesting. I thought it would be a fun thing to do. If you’ve seen any of these, have other suggestions, or any other thoughts, let me know in the comments below!