Happy Halloween!

"We have no fear of you, silent shadows, who tread

The leaf-bestrewn paths, the dew-wet lawns. Draw near

To the glowing fire, the empty chair,—we shall not fear,

Being but ghosts for the lack of you, ghosts of our well-beloved dead."

A Happy Halloween to all

from Bob the Caretaker

at The Devil's Manor

Quote from 'Hallowe'en 1915' by Winifred M. Letts 

Warning Shadows (Schatten: Eine Nachtliche Halluzination) 1923

Director: Arthur Robison

A jealous husband, a philandering wife, a group of lustful party guests, and the scene is set. Enter a mischievous shadow player, who illuminates the repressed desires of those present for all to see... and the brighter the light, the darker - and more deadly - the shadow. 'A Nocturnal Hallucination' from the men behind Nosferatu.

Au Secours! 1923

This post published as part of the Speechless Blogathon at Eternity of Dream. Click on icon at right for more information.

Director: Abel Gance

"I would give a lot if there were in our midst a brave man who would not be afraid to spend just one hour in the castle."

1,000 francs just to spend an hour alone in a haunted castle? Oh Max, you're not going to fall for that old one are you? Here's what happens when French master of silent comedy Max Linder and world renowned director of Napoleon get together for a bet. But behind the freeform lunacy of Gance's camerawork, we get a glimpse of impending tragedy...

The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1923

This post published as part of the Speechless Blogathon at Eternity of Dream. Click on icon at right for more information.

Director: Wallace Worsley

"To the townspeople he was an inhuman freak, a monstrous joke of Nature -- and for their jeers he gave them scorn and bitter hate."

Two thousand extras, nineteen acres of Universal backlot, one and a quarter million dollars, and three and a half hours a day in make-up for the Man of a Thousand Faces. Big numbers abound in the film that made character actor Lon Chaney into a fully-fledged movie star.

Witchcraft Through The Ages (Häxan) 1922

Director: Benjamin Christensen

"Burn me at the stake, pious fathers! Can't you see what the Devil forces me to do??"

Copenhagen tabloid BT demanded, "Get This Film Off Our Screens!". Variety declared: "Wonderful though this picture is, it is absolutely unfit for public exhibition". This Swedish masterpiece of diabolism combines scholarly sobriety with twisted, hallucinatory imagery worthy of Goya or Bosch. "Cultural history lecture" or celebration of blasphemous perversity? You be the judge!

Nosferatu, A Symphony of Terror (Eine Symfonie des Grauens) 1922

 Director: F.W. Murnau

"NOSFERATU! Does this word not sound to you like the midnight cry of the Deathbird? Take care in saying it, lest life's images fade into shadows, and ghostly dreams rise from your heart and nourish themselves on your blood."

We love this film. F.W. Murnau's nightmarish masterpiece sees the loathsome Count Orlock bring fear and pestilence to the town of Wisborg. Here's everything you need to know about the troubled history of this first (unofficial) screen adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula and several reasons why, even after 90 years, Murnau's mythical vampire refuses to stay dead...

Danse Macabre, 1922

Director: Dudley Murphy

"Midnight in plague-ridden Spain -- Youth and Love flee from Death who follows their path --"

Time for some high culture, horror lovers! In this little-known short film, Saint-Saens' supernatural opus soundtracks dancer Adolph Bolm's fantasy of the archetypal conflict between Love and a mean-fiddlin' Death...

One Exciting Night, 1922

Director: D.W. Griffith

"Around this house a terrible mystery, that one might say rules the world - the mystery of FEAR. Fear that is nothing, and yet every man trembles at this invisible thing from the cradle to the grave..."

A storm is brewing at the Fairfax mansion which bodes ill for the assembled party guests. While young John Fairfax pursues his romantic ideal, others pursue the half-million dollars in bootlegger's bounty hidden behind a secret panel. In this comedy thriller by D.W. Griffith, sinister figures stalk the halls, and not everyone will live until morning....