The Old Dark House

Released Oct 20, 1932

1h 11m

Horror

Comedy

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The Old Dark House: Re-Release Trailer 1

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97%

Tomatometer

30 Reviews

70%

Audience Score

2,500+ Ratings

Driving through a brutal thunderstorm in Wales, three travelers take refuge in an eerie house owned by the Femm family. Reluctantly admitted by Horace Femm (Ernest Thesiger), the three sit down to a strange dinner. Horace is neurotic; mute butler Morgan (Boris Karloff) is an alcoholic; and Horace's sister, Rebecca (Eva Moore), raves about chastity. When the storm brings in an industrialist and chorus girl Gladys DuCane Perkins (Lilian Bond), Morgan's lust and Rebecca's ire are ignited.

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Critics Consensus

A deft blend of well-chosen ingredients, The Old Dark House is a delightfully scary horror comedy that benefits from James Whale's suspenseful direction.

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Donald Clarke

Irish Times

Spanking digital restoration of James Whale's funniest, most subversive horror film.

Rated: 5/5

Apr 27, 2018

Full Review

David Jenkins

Little White Lies

A chilling romp - expertly orchestrated scares with a humorous camp undertow.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 27, 2018

Full Review

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

It is performed with tremendous gusto and theatrical dash.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 27, 2018

Full Review

Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

James Whale’s wry send-up of the popular horror plays of the time actually has moments that put today’s so-called horror films to shame.

Rated: A

Nov 23, 2022

Full Review

Nadine Smith

them.

The Old Dark House is much more explicit than horror films in the years to follow, dripping with provocations and innuendos, with a daring sensibility befitting a director whose own personal life flew in the face of convention.

Oct 26, 2022

Full Review

Sean Axmaker

Stream on Demand

Whale combines marvelous stylistic flourishes and witty drawing room dialogue with campy indulgence, creating a film both macabre and sardonic.

Oct 30, 2021

Full Review

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Jess

Excellent film! Spooky old house on a dark and stormy night, filled with an assortment of colorful and creepy characters. Perfect blend of genuine chills and dashes of humor.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/31/23

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g j

A very promising and engaging first act abruptly peters out into tedium. Its well acted and well shot, but pretty dull.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/10/24

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S R

Unusual and bizarre, but ultimately harmless. Fun cast and interesting. Saw on tubi.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/10/24

Full Review

DanTheMan 2

Spooky Season is upon us again, rather than starting out this year with a movie I was already familiar with, I thought I'd take the plunge with something completely unknown to me. Having deeply enjoyed James Whale's Univeral Monster movies, I knew I had to give another of his films a go this year and finally settled on The Old Dark House. Dripping with atmosphere and hilariously grim, Whale manages to parody the conventions of the haunted house horror genre as he creates them, in many ways managing to craft a film that puts many modern horror films to shame. Packed to the brim with thrills, chills and gallows humour, The Old Dark House combines Whale's marvellous stylistic flourishes and outstanding direction with witty drawing-room dialogue and campy theatrical indulgence.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

10/01/23

Full Review

Matthew B

James Whale's film was not the first ‘old dark house movie', but it was the quintessential contribution to this particular sub-genre, even if it was considered a lost movie until its rediscovery in the 1950s. In The Old Dark House, Whale established or reinforced the conventions of this enjoyably creaky form of mystery thriller, adding lashings of horror and comedy. Typical features of these films would include murders, a doomed family, a large and empty house, often with secret passageways (though not this time) and various sinister goings-on. Whale invested his film with the trademarks of his style, which often worked to make the films seem more like a parody of the genres to which they belonged, rather than a reverent treatment of them. He made use of a cast given to camp and over-ripe performances, such as Boris Karloff, Ernest Thesiger, Eva Moore, Charles Laughton and Raymond Massey. The director devoted much time to creating the right creepy atmosphere. The old dark house is dimly-lit, and filled with shadows and flickering lights. The walls are pockmarked, and one corridor contains a perpetually billowing curtain. A bedroom has a distorted mirror that seems to belong in a funhouse. This seems to reflect the distorted worldview of the woman who inhabits it. The banister posts on the stairway are topped by strange-looking creatures. None of this makes any logical sense. These elements exist to create a mood – eerie and sinister perhaps, but with a certain sense of mischievous fun. If we laugh at such details, I suspect it is because Whale intends us to laugh. The Old Dark House was based on a J B Priestley novel, which the author intended as a social commentary on the British class structure following World War 1. Whale stops short of preaching any overt political message, but his film does seem to have a satirical tinge that is directed against these bizarre wealthy people. Whale fills the movie with atmospheric flourishes. A game of shadow puppetry is interrupted by another, more menacing shadow. The scarred hand of Morgan seizes the door held by Margaret, and Whale provides several staccato close-ups of Morgan's ugly face, each shot closer to Morgan's face than the last, as the butler looms over the young wife. At other times there is a deliberate use of bathos. Think of the hand on the banister and the insane cackle that precedes the appearance of Saul. When he emerges, he looks like a frightened old man of diminutive stature, but even this proves illusory. The more he talks the more dangerous Saul begins to sound. The Old Dark House is more of a fun movie than one which has any serious message. Nonetheless Whale pushes the story towards something resembling art by his gift for great visuals, and his sly, subversive humour that subtly places a mine under the bastions of respectable society. I wrote a longer appreciation of The Old Dark House on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2022/06/17/the-old-dark-house-1932/

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

09/05/23

Full Review

Michael C

In order for a movie to be worth seeing, you need more than just a terrific cast. I was interested in seeing the original version of "The Old Dark House" mainly because it starred the late horror legend Boris Karloff (Though I knew his role was minor.) and a pre-"Titanic" Gloria Stuart. While I was for the most part impressed with the production design and the overall good performances by the cast, in the end the movie felt incomplete and rather flat. The movie is very slow moving. It felt to me like the studio wanted the film to be a certain running time so the movie was padded with slow, drawn out scenes that did not seem to contribute anything to the plot. In my opinion the late Melvyn Douglas gives the best performance in the film. His scenes with the late Lillian Bond were well done. They had good chemistry and they played off one another very well. also. That being said in the end "The Old Dark House" is not a terrible movie, but it is dull. Very interesting thing to say about a horror movie.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

05/01/23

Full Review

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James Whale

Director

Boris Karloff

Morgan

Melvyn Douglas

Penderel

Charles Laughton

Sir William Porterhouse

Gloria Stuart

Margaret Waverton

Lilian Bond

Gladys

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The Old Dark House: Re-Release Trailer 1

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Synopsis

Driving through a brutal thunderstorm in Wales, three travelers take refuge in an eerie house owned by the Femm family. Reluctantly admitted by Horace Femm (Ernest Thesiger), the three sit down to a strange dinner. Horace is neurotic; mute butler Morgan (Boris Karloff) is an alcoholic; and Horace's sister, Rebecca (Eva Moore), raves about chastity. When the storm brings in an industrialist and chorus girl Gladys DuCane Perkins (Lilian Bond), Morgan's lust and Rebecca's ire are ignited.

Director: James Whale
Screenwriter: Benn W. Levy
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Production Co: Universal Pictures
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 20, 1932, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Oct 6, 2017
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 24, 2017
Runtime: 1h 11m

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