For one
issue only, this page has been commandeered in the name of...
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The
management feels that it would be a little unkind to present a
selection from this article without just a word of friendly
warning. We are about to unfold a mere one-tenth, just six of
our set of 60 instances of pure terror, distilled from the great
catalogue of TV and film Horror. These are some of the strangest
tales ever told. We think they may thrill you. They may shock
you. They might even horrify you. So if you feel that you don’t
want to submit your nerves to the strain, well… we warned
you!
Our chosen theme is... |
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The
Phantom of the Opera
(Rupert Julian 1925; with Lon
Chaney, Mary Philbin) “Feast your eyes, glut your
soul on my accursed ugliness!” Fledgling diva Christine
Daae finds her curiosity getting the better of her when she
tears off the mask of her shadowy mentor…
Mystery
of the Wax Museum
(Michael Curtiz 1932; with Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray)
Deranged sculptor Ivan Igor has captured the beautiful
Charlotte, intending to cover her with wax and exhibit her
in his museum. She smashes at Igor’s face, which
instantly splits, revealing the horror beneath…
Dead
of Night
(Alberto Cavalcanti 1945; with Michael Redgrave)
Ventriloquist Maxwell Frere has destroyed his dominant dummy
Hugo but, confined to a hospital bed, addresses well-wishers
in Hugo’s cracked castrato tones. |
The
Masque of the Red Death
(Roger Corman 1963; with Vincent Price, John
Westbrook)
The sybaritic Prince Prospero, outraged at the intrusion
into his masked ball of a mysterious red-robed figure,
snatches away its mask to reveal his own face. “Why
should you be afraid to die?” the Red Death asks him. “Your
soul has been dead a long time.”
Der
Student von Prag [The Student of Prague]
(Henrik Galeen 1926; with Conrad Veidt and Conrad
Veidt)
Having sold his soul to the Devil, the student Baldwin
finds that his mirror image has an independent life,
pursuing him wherever he goes. At the height of a storm,
with huge trees swaying wildly in the wind, Baldwin tries in
vain to kill his tormentor. When he flees to a nearby house
and raps desperately on the door, it is his implacable
shadow which answers it... |
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Le
Locataire [The Tenant]
(Roman Polanski 1975; with Roman Polanski, Isabelle
Adjani)
Having twice thrown himself from a window of his Paris
apartment block, ferrety outsider Trelkovski ends up prone
in a hospital bed and swathed in bandages except for one
exposed eye. His friend Stella comes to visit, and when
Trelkovski sees that the man accompanying her is himself,
his shriek of horror and despair is truly bone-freezing. |
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