10 Best Gothic Horror Films

Another year, another Halloween been and gone. There is a pumpkin shaped hole in our hearts for another 365 days or so, and I hope there is a little sympathy in you for the goths. We spend so much of the year thinking about Halloween only for it to be gone in the blink of an eye (an eye usually weighed down with eight layers of eyeliner). But it’s not all doom and gloom, well actually it is! But in the good way, I promise.

Just because Halloween is over doesn’t mean that we are without horror movies to keep us going. Specifically, those that dance with death, love and brooding melodrama. Gothic horror as a genre has been around for almost three hundred years now and has been adapted into film to tell some truly ghoulish stories.

For this list, we’ll be taking a look at some of the best of the bunch. Whether they feature ghosts, werewolves, vampires or just tortured human souls, these gothic horror features perfectly capture the grim atmosphere and the emotional terror that was so popular in the literary genre.

Of course, Tim Burton had to feature on this list. A career that was built on creepy, beautiful and oddly touching stories went on to define the DVD shelf of anyone who listened to The Cure even once. And whilst Edward Scissorhands gave teenage goth girls the dreamboat of their dreams, Sweeney Todd is the quintessential Tim Burton gothic horror.

Based on the Stephen Sondheim musical of the same name, Sweeney Todd tells the terrible tale of a barber pushed to murder and cannibalism after going through a pretty rubbish time.

Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman and Helena Bonham Carter cope masterfully with the hugely challenging music whilst bringing something entirely new to the table. Despite it being far less fantastical than many of his other tales, Sweeney Todd carries that unmistakable whiff of Tim Burton charm. Corpse-like characters hang sorrowfully on every corner and dark whimsicality paints each musical number in an oddly charming way.

Oh, and it’s insanely gory. Each slice of the straight razor is followed by a fantastic fountain of blood, all while everyone keeps on singing away quite happily. It is moving in equal parts, and the ending will tug at your heartstrings and roast them in a pie.

And, to top it all off, there’s Sacha Baron Cohen in a skintight bright blue bodysuit thing. What more could you want out of a film?!