The Hunger (1983)
June 6, 2026
The film looks extraordinary. The Hunger earns its 6.5 the way a fashion shoot earns a magazine cover.
Tag: Gothic Horror
Gothic horror is atmosphere as architecture: decaying houses, buried secrets, and dread that seeps from the walls. This tag collects reviews of gothic horror in film and fiction, and the mood the tradition perfected.
2000sShadow of the Vampire (2000)
June 6, 2026
What if the actor in Nosferatu was a real vampire? The conceit is irresistible.
1920sNosferatu (1922)
June 6, 2026
Murnau's 1922 Nosferatu invented vampire cinema and still frightens a century later. The estate sued anyway and won, and a court ordered every copy destroyed.
1970sNosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
June 6, 2026
Werner Herzog remakes Murnau as a tragedy, and Klaus Kinski's Dracula is the genre's saddest monster. The vampire here is not merely frightening.
1960sThe Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)
June 6, 2026
Roman Polanski's affectionate Hammer parody is more gorgeous gothic fairy tale than laugh-out-loud comedy. The Fearless Vampire Killers earns its 6.5 as a beautiful, uneven oddity, a horror comedy that is more interested in atmosphere than in jokes and lands…
1950sDracula (1958)
June 6, 2026
Hammer's 1958 Dracula made the vampire physical, sexual, and bloody. Christopher Lee plays Dracula, and the performance redefined the role.
1930sVampyr (1932)
June 6, 2026
Characters appear and vanish. Vampyr earns its 8 as the strangest, dreamiest, and most genuinely uncanny vampire film ever made, a 1932 work by the Danish master Carl Theodor Dreyer that abandons plot and logic in favor of pure nightmare.
1960sThe Brides of Dracula (1960)
June 6, 2026
Hammer built a gorgeous sequel without Christopher Lee, and it may be better than the original. Christopher Lee, in a contract dispute, sat this one out, and Hammer built a sequel around a different vampire entirely, a charming young aristocrat…
1970sSalem’s Lot (1979)
June 6, 2026
Tobe Hooper made one of the finest TV horror productions ever, with a silent Nosferatu-style vampire and unforgettable scares. Salem's Lot earns its 7.5 as one of the finest pieces of television horror ever made and proof that the right…
2020sThe Invitation (2022)
June 6, 2026
A promising gothic premise about a sinister aristocratic family hiding a Dracula secret, sanded smooth for mass appeal. The film's fatal flaw is its caution.
2020sNosferatu (2024)
June 6, 2026
Robert Eggers brings obsessive period craft to the third great Nosferatu, with a ferocious Lily-Rose Depp at its center. Nosferatu earns its 8 as the most beautiful and uncompromising vampire film in years, Robert Eggers bringing his obsessive period craft…
1960sDracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
June 6, 2026
Christopher Lee returns as Dracula without a single line of dialogue, and the resurrection scene is among Hammer's best. Dracula: Prince of Darkness earns its 7 by bringing Christopher Lee back to the role that made him famous and surrounding…