The Old Dark House (1932)

Genre: Breakdown, Psychological

Source: Rental (Netflix)

Grade: A-

  This movie is truly all in the title, except it has nothing at all to do with Haunted Houses, Curses, or Ghosts as the poster and title might suggest at a first glance. No this movie is rather along the lines of a house full of weird unique characters living in an old dark house in Wales. Who unexpectedly end up hosting yet another group of unique but not scary characters  from a violent thunder storm.
     
        I liked the movie`s story for what it was worth, especially since i`m a big fan of "Old Dark House" style horror movie`s. Now one thing this movie is rich in was  its atmosphere, yep this movie was thick with that Dark Eerie Atmosphere that its director James Whale was so good at. The variety of odd, yet just wonderful characters in this movie  was also a huge plus, for example the 102 year old patriarch who was a man in the movie but played by a women, because apparently director James Whale couldn`t find anyone old enough lookig for the part who was a man. Then one of my favourite actors Charles Laughton  played on of the "guests" he had some delightful and hilarious one liners and just the way he performed in the movie, was perfect, Ernest Thesinger plays another quite memorable character who I don`t really know what to call I guess you could call him the man of the house. Anyway`s his character is very creepy at times, and Thesingers face  literally looks like a bare skull in a few scenes, and probably most notably of all you had the huge, bearded,and mute butler Morgan played perfectly by Boris Karloff. There are of course a few other rather colourful characters I havent mentioned already but I wouldn`t want to spoil anything for you, now would I?
 
         On top of all that good stuff in the movie such as an awesome cast, a phenomenal job in directing from James Whale, and a well written script. The movie has  top notch set designs, I mean this stuff is incredibly authentic looking, so mixed with its dark shadow direction this set had to be one of the best sets for a horror movie i`ve ever seen.
       
         To sum it all up all my thoughts on James Whales 1932 horror movie, I felt it was a well directed and performed movie. That I would truly recommend to any fans of the horror genre.