The original bump in the night, The Old Dark House is a neglected horror classic that’s never quite stepped out of the shadow of director James Whale’s landmark frighteners Frankenstein and The Invisible Man. Even in 1932 its plot was vaguely hackneyed: a group of weary (but ever so droll) travellers shelter from a storm in a ramshackle Welsh mansion complete with a drunken, Neanderthal butler (Boris Karloff) and lots of skeletons in the family closet. The battered print – once considered lost – only adds to the atmosphere of claustrophobic terror as the wind whistles, thunder rolls and flickering candles illuminate the walls with ghastly shadows.
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