The Black Cat is a little black bonbon. It's a totally self-contained, neat, tidy little exploration that's about as easy to experience as it is hopefully to talk about. And I think there's a surprising kind of simplicity to the telling of a very strange and very convoluted story.
The Old Dark House (1932)
THE OLD DARK HOUSE is the progenitor of every scary dark house movie that's ever been made. Since JANE EYRE and THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO, haunted houses and lunatics locked behind doors have pretty much been a staple of gothic literature. And of course, with silent films like THE BAT or THE CAT AND THE CANARY, these stories began to be explored in a new medium. But with this film, James Whale amplified everything, dialing it all up to eleven.