Our Favorite Gothic Horror Movies

The Innocents

A high-strung Victorian governess (Deborah Kerr) believes her two young charges are possessed by the ghosts of two former servants in The Innocents, a psychological adaptation of Henry James's "Turn of the Screw." Is she imagining things or are the children really under the spell of evil?

The Haunting

The brooding, massive, labyrinthine Hill House is a major character in the subtle horror classic The Haunting. Paranormal researchers, including sensitive, shy Eleanor (Julie Harris), slowly unravel as Hill House's many ghosts make their malevolent presence known. Avoid the terrible 1999 remake!

The Orphanage

In the spooky Spanish film The Orphanage, a woman buys the orphanage where she grew up, intending to raise her sickly adopted son Simón and other handicapped children there. She's troubled when Simón makes an unseen friend, Tomás, and becomes inconsolable when Simón disappears.

House of Usher

In this Hammer classic, the House of Usher is a decaying Gothic mansion where morbidly oversensitive Roderick Usher (a blonde Vincent Price) and invalid sister Madeleine (Myrna Fahey) linger under the supposed curse on the family.

The Haunted Palace

Based on an H.P. Lovecraft story: The Haunted Palace stars Vincent Price as a man who inherits a palatial house from his great-great-grandfather, who he learns was burned to death by angry villagers. Soon, he begins to take on the sinister characteristics of his ancestor, to whom he bears a remarkable resemblance.

Suspiria

In Suspiria, Italian horror master Dario Argento's most dazzingly visual film, Jessica Harper plays Suzy, a new student at a German ballet school whose arrival coincides with the murder of another student. She soon learns the school is home to an ancient coven of witches.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Johnny Depp is at his grim best in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as the Victorian barber who swears vengeance on society after being falsely imprisoned. He cuts his hapless customers' throats, and his macabre partner (Helena Bonham Carter) turns them into meat pies in this Oscar-nominated adaptation of the Broadway musical.

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Dracula, Francis Ford Coppola's lush adaptation of the Bram Stoker classic, has its detractors. But its snapshot of Victorian England and Gary Oldman's ever-morphing Dracula make it well worth your time.

Jane Eyre

As Gothic as romance gets, Charlotte Brontë's swooning tale Jane Eyre might not technically count as horror, but it does have a mad woman in the attic who likes to set fires. Orson Welles is perfect as the brooding Rochester, and Joan Fontaine makes a sympathetic Jane Eyre.

The Awakening

Set in the aftermath of World War I, The Awakening follows Florence (Rebecca Hall), a woman who works to debunk supernatural hoaxes. But during an investigation at an boarding school, where a ghost is blamed for a boy's death, she can't explain away the strange occurrences.

The Others

Set after World War II, The Others relates the story of a widow (Nicole Kidman) who takes her two children to a remote country house in England. She is vigiliant about protecting them from the sun, to which they are deathly allergic. The house has its secrets, and she's not sure she can trust her creepy Irish housekeeper (Fionnula Flanagan).

The Hound of the Baskervilles In this version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, Peter Cushing stars as Sherlock Holmes, and Christopher Lee is Sir Henry Baskerville, who is under the curse that's claimed the rest of his bloodline: death by an unearthly black dog who roams the moors. It's one of many classic movies from horror specialists Hammer Films, the revered British production company that was founded in 1934 and recently relaunched in 2007.