Filmmaker William Malone is the next master of horror to pick out a handful of films that you’ll want to check out on our Screambox streaming platform. (Sign up now and get 30 days free!)

Malone is the director behind The House on Haunted Hill, the 1999 Dark Castle remake of Vincent Price and William Castle’s classic from 1959. He also helmed Scared to Death (1980), Creature (1985), Feardotcom, and Parasomnia, not to mention episodes of everything from “Freddy’s Nightmares” to “Tales from the Crypt” and even “Masters of Horror” (S1 & S2 are both now streaming on Screambox).

As you know, Bloody Disgusting recently took the reigns on the newly-relaunched Screambox, a subscription-based streaming platform loaded with movies that also hosts our live channel, BDTV. We have such sights to show you over the next year, but we kicked it off with five films Barbara Crampton is watching on Screambox and followed it up with six from veteran horror director Mick Garris and another handful selected by Joe Dante.

Today, we’re digging deep into our catalog with William Malone, who curates five films he’d have pulled straight off the video store shelf!

Go straight to William’s picks here. And read his write-ups for each of the films below!

VAMPYR

Made in 1932, Vampyr is a slow burn. It’s one of those films that at first viewing you’re not exactly sure how you feel about it but the next day you’ll find the images flooding back to haunt you in a most wonderful way. Begun as a silent film, the director Carl Theodor Dreyer was convinced that it needed to have sound to find an audience. The added dialog in the film is sparse, to say the least, and has the sound being mic’d from another room. This combined with soft and intentionally murky photography leaves you the feeling that you’re in a dream that you can’t wake up from… nor do you want to.

The story centers around a student of the occult who has traveled to a small town in France that he soon finds infested with vampires. Sybille Schmitz is a stand-out as a young girl slowly turning into one of the undead. There is one shot of her transformation that is absolutely chilling. The fluid camerawork was way ahead of its time. Unappreciated when it was made, Vampyr is truly a masterpiece and one of my top favs.

SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT

This film for me is a sleeper. I can’t honestly call it a masterpiece, but it has a tone that my friend Robert Parigi and I refer to as “the Swoon”. It’s a certain something that just carries you away. Clearly, director Theodore Gershuny wanted to make an arthouse horror. I think he succeeded. The plot is at times muddled but the overall tone and timbre of the film has a creeping dread that’s oddly compelling.

Lovely Mary Warnonov lives in a small town that’s haunted by the escape of psychotic mental patients who raped and murdered the doctor and nurses at the local clinic. A lawyer, played by Patrick O’Neal has come to buy the old house that used to be the mental institution (Hmmmm this is starting to sound familiar). O’Neal and his very hot mistress (Astrid Heeren) are suddenly and brutally murdered at the house… Warnonov is suddenly visited by a twitchy stranger who claims to be part of the family who owned the house… Well, you can see where this is going. Still, Silent Night, Bloody Night is a creepy, cool movie that I think deserves another look and a good deal more love.

THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN’T DIE

“Jan in the pan”, as this film is often referred to. Beautiful Virginia Leith is amazingly good as the beheaded girlfriend of surgeon Jason Evers. After a car crash rips the head from Ever’s girlfriend Jan (Leith), he places her head on a medical pan in the basement of his country house, keeping her head alive with various fluids and gadgets. He then proceeds to hit the local strip clubs in search of a new and unwilling victim for a new body. This part of the film is weirdly evocative and ultimately sad as he sizes up various girls to use as a hot replacement body for Jan. Apparently, he’s been experimenting before with stitching body parts together. One of his previous experiments is in the basement with Jan and locked in the closet. Whatever it is is not happy. This film is pure pulp fun and not to be missed. TWO MUTATED THUMBS UP!

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

Made in lavish style and at enormous expense in 1925, Lon Chaney’s portrayal of Eric in Phantom of the Opera is still the best. There have been many attempts to top this but this is still the standard by which the others are judged. Lon Chaney’s performance is truly amazing and heartbreaking. I should also mention Mary Philbin, who is luminous as Christine the object of the Phantom’s desire. Many are unaware that there is a long full-color 2-strip Technicolor sequence in the middle of the film that is gorgeous. I actually met Carla Laemmle, who played the lead dancer in the film. She told me how Mary Philbin actually passed out cold on seeing Chaney’s self-created make-up for the first time. If you are someone who has shied away from silent films, put this on your list along with the film that inspired The Joker, the wonderful film The Man Who Laughs. Do yourself a big favor – go silent… there are things in there undreamt of in your philosophy.

CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI

Many of you know this classic silent film. Made in 1919 and released in 1920, Conrad Veidt plays a somnambulist, (a sleepwalker) controlled by a carnie showman named Dr.Caligari. This is one of the first serial killer movies… and one of the best. Caligari precedes Frankenstein by more than a decade and you can see its many influences in that film. Its tropes are still echoing through horror films today. This is German Expressionism at its best with its skewed sets and theatrical style. It’s a psychological thriller with one of the first great twist endings. Incidentally, Conrad Veidt would later play the evil Major Strasser in Casablanca (1942). In later interviews, he always said the Caligari still haunted him and loved the role. If you haven’t seen The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari… where the hell have you been?… and you call yourself a horror fan…

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