10 British Horror Films You've Probably Never Seen
It may only be a small island, but British cinema is big on scares.
With the release of recent UK produced chillers such as Ghost Stories, staring Martin Freeman, Apostle from The Raid director Garath Edwards and the Netflix indie The Hole In The Ground, British horror movies could not be in better shape. Later this year, Edgar Wrights highly anticipated Last Night in Soho is due for release, so now is the perfect time to look back at what British horror cinema has to offer.
What are those hidden gems, lost in the vaults? Which horror greats have remained tucked away over the years, condemned to bargain DVD bins or lost in some midnight screening on an obscure TV channel?
Here are 10 Brit flicks which may not be well known, but these movies should all be well loved.
10. Dead Of Night
Ealing Studios are most famous for their classic British comedies such as The Ladykillers and Kind Hearts and Coronets, but the studio made one attempt at a horror film and it’s a classic.
From 1945 Dead of Night, is perhaps the earliest example of the portmanteau style horror movie made popular in the 1970s by titles such as Tales From The Crypt. The six story segments are shared between four different directors. Perhaps the best known of these is Charlie Crichton, master of the Ealing comedy and director of the 80s comedy classic, A Fish Called Wanda staring John Cleese and scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis. The cinematographer was Douglas Slocombe famous for his later work of the first three Indiana Jones movies.
Dead of Night manages to creates chills with stories which include premonitions of disaster and a haunted mirror, which still works today. The film is at its best in the final segment, ‘The Ventriloquist Dummy’ and still has the ability to frighten. Dead of Night only goes to show that scary dolls in horror movies are nothing new. Quintessentially British, quintessentially spooky.