An Introduction to Black and White Horror Movies

Classic movies are like classic books. Everyone’s heard about them, and they might even know some facts about them, but a lot of people have never read or watched them. Film buffs love to smugly reference older films, their stars, and the behind-the-scenes trivia that comes with their viewings and study.

But the casual viewer can also get a lot from these films, particularly horror fans. What these movies lack in color, they make up for in storytelling, visuals, and famous performances. Below is an introduction to black and white horror movies for those who have never or rarely watched them.

Start with the monsters

The first thing you think of when you think of black and white horror movies is Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, all of those classic Universal monsters who started in 30’s. And in my opinion, that’s the best place to start.

Even if you’ve read the books, the movies are far different, but the gist is the same, even simpler. A vampire terrorizes the residents of his new town. A mad scientist brings a corpse back to life. While out in the woods, a man is bitten by a creature and becomes a wolfman. Each monster has tons of sequels, and within those sequels, you start to see all of the different tropes and plot points that are attributed to these monsters.

A word of warning, though these movies are short, usually just over an hour, they can be slow starting with a ton of exposition and muffled dialogue that you have to strain to hear. But once it gets going, you get all of those classic visuals from The Mummy’s stiff movements to the Bride of Frankenstein’s goose-like hiss.

Take in the castles on the hill, the brilliant portrayals of its stars, and appreciate what passed for true terror nearly 100 years ago. You’ll start to see the same actors pop up in different roles and learn their, usually unusual, names. They are their own, exclusive branch of Hollywood royalty, a group of misfits who love playing make believe in makeup and wigs.

Backtrack to the silent films

Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the golden age of horror, you can then backtrack to its prologue: silent horror. These are your classics like Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Those classic characters have had many incarnations, but their silent iterations are still remembered, featured, and parodied today.

The black and white color palette really highlights the brilliant makeup work and makes shadows an effective tool in the storytelling. Of course, these aren’t movies that you can watch while scrolling through your phone. They require the discipline of your attention so that you can follow along with the cue cards and the pantomime-style of acting required of its era of stars.

You get to meet Lon Chaney, the man of a thousand faces, and watch him mold himself into these various monsters. View the creativity of the day’s filmmakers loosely adapting classic books and legends into some of the first onscreen portrayals of these stories. And compare them to the more modern translations.

Watch the bad ones

There’s a beloved pastime among old horror fans to seek out terrible horror movies and have a blast watching and making fun of them. Bad is also good in the horror world, and it’s really easy to make a bad horror movie. Whether it’s its low budget look, bad acting, or cheesy dialogue, there are a lot of elements that you can find to hate on.

It might sound mean to make fun of someone else’s hard work, but it’s actually a sincere form of horror filmmaker flattery. It’s completely acceptable to laugh at the awfulness of a final product, and watching the film supports the filmmaker’s art, which is always something that creatives appreciate. Bad black and white horror movies are particularly a good fit for scaredy cats who might not be looking for more effective horror but still want to familiarize themselves with the genre or at least not be forced to sit through anything too scary by a bigger horror movie fan.

If you’re up late at night and can’t sleep or are spending a Saturday night in with friends or family, seek out a channel that plays reruns of old horror movies. Some even include horror hosts like Elvira or the guys/robots from Mystery Science Theater who will poke fun along with you either in between commercial breaks or during the movie itself. Have fun pointing out the plot holes, mimicking line deliveries, or adding your own funny dialogue to the already awful plots.

Modernize

As films progressed from monsters to giant nuclear animals to aliens, the cheesiness started to subside, and horror became more grounded and more terrifying as a result. Low budget no longer meant bad. It meant stripped down stories that focused on strong performances and fascinating concepts about what scares us.

From what’s widely regarded as the first slasher film, Psycho, to the reinvention of the term “zombie” in Night of the Living Dead, the 60’s made room for black and white films, and they were successful despite their lack of color. The blood may not be red, but it’s still there, and it’s still effective in its liquidity black state.

As the decades progressed, black and white films became a bold way to pay tribute to their predecessors. Mel Brooks made Young Frankenstein in black and white, a risky move considering that he was making a comedy for a 70’s audience. But the black and white adds authenticity to the story and takes nothing away from the jokes.

Tim Burton’s 1994 film Ed Wood, about the famous B-movie director, whose movies you might watch during one of your bad horror movie nights, is also shot in black and white. Though not a horror movie, it is a biopic about the horror industry and even features a portrayal of an elderly Bela Lugosi (the 1930’s Dracula) and fills audiences in on 1950’s filmmaking. It’s a great guide to B movies and some of the lesser known but still iconic characters who worked in the business, such as the Los Angeles horror movie host Vampira, The Amazing Criswell, and pro-wrestler turned actor Tor Johnson.

Watch them in color to see the difference

Many classic black and white films do end up with a color treatment in some form. So, if the black and white hurts your eyes or you think you’d pay better attention if the movie was in color, consider picking up a color version of these classic films. It’s not cheating or wrong. There is no wrong when it comes to watching horror movies.

My personal copy of Night of the Living Dead (1968) is in color, and, having first watched it several times in black and white, it’s funny to see how the color version meets or subverts your expectations, from the colors of the cars the characters drive to the hue of their eyes. Whether or not it’s accurate is another question, but color film can make for a more engaging experience. Still, I always suggest watching the black and white version first, just so you can say you have watched it in its purist form.

Recommended films to start with

Dracula (1931)

Frankenstein (1931)

Freaks (1932)

White Zombie (1932)

King Kong (1933)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

The Wolf Man (1941)

The Corpse Vanishes (1942)

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Night of the Hunter (1955)

The House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Psycho (1960)

Eyes Without a Face (1960)

Black Sunday (1960)

The Innocents (1961)

Carnival of Souls (1962)

The Haunting (1963)

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

What are your favorite black and white films? Which are you most interested in watching? Leave your answers in the comments below!

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