The Old Dark House

Directed by JAMES WHALE

Starring BORIS KARLOFF MELVYN DOUGLAS CHARLES LAUGHTON

1932

Released 21 MAY

Blu-ray

If you had to locate the cinematic ur-text of haunted house movies,, would likely be in contention. Enough time had passed for the conventions of the genre to be gently skewered, but the conceit was still ripe enough to be taken in a number of new and exciting directions. It begins as it should, on a rain-lashed evening in Wales. Three travellers are braving the road to Shrewsbury, but a landslide blocks their path and forces them to seek refuge in a sinister-looking country stack. After initially being turned away by catatonic and deformed butler, Morgan (Boris Karloff), they are invited in by Ernest Thesiger’s wiry fusspot Horace Femm and his mad-eyed older sister, Rebecca (Eva Moore).