It's finally October and with Halloween around the corner, I felt it was time to take my list of top silent horror films and create a visual list of the top 28 of them. Not all the films on the list are technically classified in the genre of horror however they all possess the spirit of horror films. That being said, when it comes to silent films, the general feel of the atmosphere's aesthetics and the manner of acting alone create a more macabre mood. Another great thing about these films is that most of them are in the public domain making them easy to locate and watch for free.
Let's start the list with numbers 28 through 23.
#28: Ménilmontant:
A couple is brutally murdered in the working-class district of Paris. Following this, the narrative follows the lives of their two daughters who are both in love with a Parisian thug. The film was released in 1926 and was written and directed by Dimitri Kirsanoff .
#27: The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog:
This is Alfred Hitchcock's third feature film, first released on February 14, 1927 in London. The film stars Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney, June Tripp, Malcolm Keen, and Ivor Novello.
A couple take in a new lodger who is quiet, humble and pays a month's rent in advance. His mysterious and suspicious behavior soon has them wondering if he's the killer terrorizing local blond girls. Their daughter, Daisy, who is a model, is far less concerned, even though she fits the criteria of his victims assuming "he" is the killer. Her police officer and detective boyfriend becomes jealous ans attempts to uncover the lodger's true identity.
The film, and book it's based off of, is a lose adaptahe hunt for "Jack thetion of t Ripper".
#26: The Bat:
The Bat is a 1926 American silent film based on the 1920 Broadway show. The film follows a criminal who terrorizes the occupants of an isolated country mansion. This man is known as "The Bat" is a figure dressed as a bat, who murders Gideon Bell, owner of the "Favre Emeralds". The Bat then leaves a bat-shaped note for the chief of police to inform him of his future intentions.
It is said that "The Bat" was an influence in the creation of the fictional character Batman.
#25: The Hands of Orlac:
The Hands of Orlac is a 1924 Austrian silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene and starring Conrad Veidt, Alexandra Sorina and Fritz Kortner.
Concert pianist Paul Orlac loses his hands in a horrible railway accident. His wife convinces a surgeon to try and save Orlac’s hands. The surgeon does this by transplanting the hands of a recently executed murderer named Vasseur. This causes Orlac to obsess about the killer's hands and after finding a knife, like the one used by Vasseur, in his home, he finds himself overwhelmed by a desire to kill.
#24: Warning Shadows
Schatten:Eine nächtliche Halluzination, known in English as Warning Shadows, but directly translating to "Shadows: A Nocturnal Hallucination, is a 1923 German silent film directed by Arthur Robison.
During a dinner given by a wealthy baron and his wife, four of her suitors attend the 19th century German manor. A shadow-player rescues the marriage by giving all the guests a vision of what might happen if the baron stays jealous and the suitors do not reduce their advances towards his beautiful wife. This however appears to not be what actually takes place and is instead just a series of hallucinations.
#23: Destiny
Der müde Tod, which translates to "Weary Death" is also known as "Destiny" and originally released in the United States with the title "Behind the Wall". It is a 1921 silent German Expressionist fantasy romance film directed in Germany by Fritz Lang. The story follows the story of a woman who's fiancé disappears. "Death" gives her three chances to save him from his fate.
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