10 Best Gothic Horror Films

It could easily be argued that most of the modern gothic horrors on this list owe pretty much everything to 1963’s The Haunting. Why? Because it mixed all the best elements of gothic horror to come before and inspired new ideas that later films would go on to emulate.

Truly a horror and truly gothic, Shirley Jackson’s terrifying novel is transformed on screen into a delightfully spooky spine-tingler that still holds up today.

While the Netflix produced show The Haunting of Hill House is brilliant, and goddamn terrifying, it does fail to capture the otherworldly eeriness of the novel and 1963 adaptation.

Once again, we see supernatural goings on in a big old scary house but The Haunting uses pioneering special effects that make it feel far more modern than it has any right to. For example, gliding the camera along the banister of the twisting central staircase, to make the house feel as dizzying and incomprehensible as possible is an ingenious way to disorientate the viewer.

Whilst it also revolutionised movie tricks, it was also one of the first Hollywood films to have an openly lesbian character who wasn’t put there as a joke or something to be scared of. Rebelling against the system? Can’t get much more goth than that!

The Haunting wraps you up in suspense and becomes unbearably tense. When it finally tears away the cobwebs, it reveals both supernatural fear and the lingering threat of internal mental suffering. Given Jackon’s own difficult struggle with mental illness, the story carefully weaves this more frightening evil in amongst the ghosts and moving furniture.