Greatest British Horror Films?

[lambchopnixon]

I'm looking through the history of British film, trying to find all the worthwhile films and so far under horror Peeping Tom stands supreme, but it's so much more than a British horror. Then there's the Wicker Man, more representitive of the Brit. horror tradition, and the best representitive I can find. I also like Plague of the Zombies for resisting every cliche it seems about to copy. Would anyone recommend to me their favourites to look for?

[DB7]

Dead of Night, Night of the Demon, Dracula, Theatre of Blood, Queen of Spades or Witchfinder General.



A good book is English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema.

[Lord Brett]

Off the top of my head, I'd nominate Douglas Hicox's marvellous Theatre of Blood (1973), along with Hammer's first two Quatermass films, The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and Quatermass 2 (1956.) I must admit to finding the more critically lauded Quatermass and the Pit (1967) rather dull. There is an argument that these should properly be counted as Science Fiction, but Hammer certainly played up the horror aspects, particularly in Q2.



An honourable mention should also go to Arthur Crabtree's The Fiend Without a Face (1958) which overcomes its low budget with memorably effective stop motion and sound effects, along with an all-stops out ending which is oddly similar to one of Romero's Living Dead films.



The more I think about this, the more titles I come up with: Witchfinder General should certainly be in anyone's list, and I wonder if Roger Corman's British-shot Masque of the Red Death (1964) might count?



The book DB7 recommends is, indeed, excellent.

[dylan]

Dead of Night - Ealing supernatural omnibus with the famous Ventrioquist's Dummy story.



Village of the Damned - Film version of John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos.



Children of the Damned - sequel to the above.



The Damned - Joe Losey's tale of something nasty happening within Portland Bill.



Death Line - cannibals living in the London underground.

[Lord Brett]

BTW, beware the British DVD release of Fiend Without A Face, which has the worst image quality of any disc I have ever bought. It warns on the sleeve that this is due to the archival nature of the film, or some such rot, but this is certainly not the case. It appears to be some kind of interference pattern.



I am told that the American release of the film is much better quality.

[cosmic]

i wouldnt say its the greatest, but the recent 28 days later is pretty damn good too.

[mysteriesofedgarwallace]

Legend of Hell House (1973)



Horror is not really my cup of tea, but this one's a cracker.

[Marky B]

Dead of Night,without doubt. ghostly

[jbeef]

Dog Soldiers. Not the best of all time but certainly in the last few years.

[David Challinor]

It's not exactly horror, more supernatural - The Innocents (1958) - must be up there. Fantastic photography, excellent performances. Very errie, not least because it opens in darkness for about a minute with a child singing a melancholic song. A totally black screen ...which other film has had the nerve to do that! Otherwise the 1963 sound effects in The Haunting - esp banging doors adds to its spine-tingling scenes with poor old Julie Harris trembling...and who could forget her meeting with Hill House's stern housemaid : No one comes here in the dark, in the night. No one comes. In the dark. In the night.'' ....I know I'll be unpopular but I think The Wicker Man is so amateurly made it's laughable. Sorry.

[Helen]

Re: The Wicker Man, I know where you are coming from David, there were a few laugh out loud moments for me when I finally got around to watching it (Britt and her stand-in's 'arse' dance springs immediately to mind for some reason...).



IMHO it's still enjoyable though - but not scary. Probably because it's one of those films where I've seen lots of clips from it and the ending before I'd seen the whole film. But it is a great 'atmosphere' film, best watched in the early hours of the morning, when your brain isn't fully functioning, for maximum fuzzy headache potential.

[Third Man]

Hi,



any self respecting British horror aficionado would have to say that "Night of the Demon" and "Dead of Night" are imperative viewing but here are a few more that have not been mentioned above,that you might like to take a look at.



Don't Look Now, 1973 (very disturbing)

The Devils,1971 (heavily censored at the time of release now available uncut, truly a magnificent piece of work)

The Haunting,1962 (it's all in the sound affects)

Macbeth ,1970 (great Polanski take on Shakespeare)

Repulsion,1964 (definitive film on a woman’s decent into madness.)

Straw Dogs ,1971 (Peckinpah's often misinterpreted film, spot the real bad guy)

[lambchopnixon]

Anyone tried the DVD bonus disc of Wicker Man - wonderful! A five star set for extras culminating in the film with everything that still exists restored to the print. An even greater piece of work as a result. Horror that's far more than horror, the Wicker Man and even more so, Peeping Tom, for great films not simply quality horror.



Any other films not mentioned above that are 'more than' great horror, or that are simply quality horror, that haven't been mentioned yet?

[Sgt Dudfoot]

I always liked "Blood on Satan's Claw" sometimes known as "Satan' Skin". It's not the best, but it certainly has an air of authenticity, not unlike 'Witchfinder General'.

[Ascoyne D'Ascoyne]

Can we really afford to omit "The Curse of Frankenstein" or "The Brides of Dracula" from this list? The Hammer "Hound of the Baskervilles" also has a splendidly sinister atmosphere about it which might allow it as a contender.

I agree about "Night of the Demon"-why is this never shown on TV nowadays, I wonder?

[Steve Crook]

Or put those two together and you get Bride of Frankenstein (1935) with Elsa Lanchester and that lovely Marge Simpson hair with the white stripe.



Not a British Horror Film but it did have the lovely Valerie Hobson as Mrs Frankenstein.



Steve

[DB7]

SteveCrook:

Not a British Horror Film

I'm not really sure what categorises a British 'horror' as many tend to be gothic chillers or subtle dark thrillers as opposed to the more overt American slasher films (probably the nearest we came was the 70s (s)exploitation video nasties). Some of those mentioned like 28 Days Later, Village/Children of the Damned and the Quatermass films are more sci-fi with threatening situations.

[Ascoyne D'Ascoyne]

SteveCrook:

Or put those two together and you get Bride of Frankenstein (1935) with Elsa Lanchester and that lovely Marge Simpson hair with the white stripe.



Not a British Horror Film but it did have the lovely Valerie Hobson as Mrs Frankenstein.



Steve

And the even lovelier Ernest Thesiger as Dr. Pretorius. It also had a super music score by Franz Waxman; he later wrote the sickly "Peyton Place" theme music if anybody else is old enough to remember it!

[JamesM]

Somebody mentioned Joseph Losey's film The Damned. I would really like to see this get the Anchor Bay treatment as I have never seen tghis film

[Simon Bermuda]

Not sure if I'd call them two of greatest British horror films, but certainly two of the most fun are:



Circus Of Horrors (1960) in which Anton Diffring gets a rare chance to play something other than a Nazi officer, namely a demented plastic surgeon who seeks out shapely but facially disfigured girls, operates on them to restore their beauty, and then blackmails them into performing in his travelling circus. A sister film to Powell's Peeping Tom.



Scream And Scream Again (1969) which features all three horror legends Lee, Cushing and Price, but fails to make the most of their teaming. However, it's still great fun, especially Alfred Marks' hilariously down-to-earth copper.