Quote:
Originally Posted by BawonSamedi
There are 30s horror films with genuine chills to be had. Vampyr is one of those, The Black Cat, Island of Lost Souls and White Zombie all bring about a sense of profound disquiet at times and the psychosexual content of The Raven is really intense. Freaks is also a good example of legitimately scary 30s horror as well.
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Yes, there was something about the early 30s specifically that spawned some of the most haunting and memorable horror films.
1931 alone had Vampyr, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Frederic March, and of course, both Frankenstein
and Dracula.
There's something particularly disturbing about Island of Lost Souls, which hot of the heels of Freaks, also uses people with real physical deformities. I believe that many of the animal men in the film were microcephalic or 'pinheads'.
These films were some of the last before the censorship code in Hollywood was strictly enforced, which might explain the particular perversity and fearlessness that seemed to permeate around that time.