The Bride of Frankenstein, October 24 at SIFF

SIFF celebrates the spooky season by presenting their new “Dark Nights” series, a celebration of classic horror films made back in the days when thrills were generated more by interesting stories, skilled cinematography and strong directing than by the use of gory special effects, although many of the special effects in these films remain as strong to modern eyes as they were to the eyes of contemporary audiences at the time of their releases. The thirteen films in this series are each classics of one sort or another, original films that for better or worse inspired countless followers after them.

The series begins Friday night, October 24, with a Frankenstein double feature: Frankenstein stars Boris Karloff in the ironically unbilled role of the monster, the performance that rightfully established him as one of the brightest stars ever in the horror genre. His monster is both frightening and sympathetic. Frankenstein was one of the best known films of legendary director James Whale whose excellent film making skills are one of the reasons this movie remains one of the best made. It’s paired with its Whale-directed sequel, Bride of Frankenstein in which “The Monster demands a mate!”

Saturday the 25th it’s Claude Rains portraying another classic horror icon in a film directed by James Whale: The Invisible Man. A mysterious stranger, his body fully covered in bandages wrapped tightly around him, takes a room at an inn in a small English town and mayhem ensues. The story is suspenseful and and exciting, but what really makes the film are the special effects by John P. Fulton, John J. Mescall, and Frank D. Williams. Astonishingly novel at the movie’s 1933 release, they remain stunning today, cleverly accomplishing through a series of physical and camera techniques what would now be done on computer.

Sunday the 26th is a blood-sucking double feature: Bela Lugosi in his signature role as Dracula in the 1931 Tod Browning film that set the mold for just about every horror film that came after it. Thousands of imitations and parodies, both good and bad, have made Lugosi’s turn as the creepy count from Transylvania an important entry in the pop culture lexicon, but nothing can touch the original’s lasting power. It’s paired with the obscure official sequel, Dracula’s Daughter in which the title character begs vampire hunter Professor Van Helsing to cure her of her father’s curse.

Monday the 27th is an animalistic double feature with The Wolfman, starring Lon Chaney as the follicularly-cursed Larry Talbot and The Black Cat, the first film pairing of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in an eerie tale of bitterness, revenge, and satanic ritual with a scene ranked at #68 on Bravo TV’s “100 Scariest Movie Moments”.

Tuesday the 28th brings The Body Snatcher, another Karloff and Lugosi pairing, and I Walked With a Zombie, a schlocky title for a chilly thriller based loosely on plot elements from classic novel Jane Eyre and Stylus Magazine’s “fifth best zombie movie of all time”.

If you’ve ever seen the 1982 remake of Cat People, I’m very sorry: you can wash the bad taste from your mouth on Wednesday the 29th by taking in the 1942 Jacques Tourneur original, a film noir sort of horror that gains more power from what you don’t see than from what you do.

Thursday the 30th is a special presentation of The Cabinet of Dr. Calagari featuring a talk by Germany’s Gunter Buchwald who will provide a live soundtrack for the silent classic on piano and violin.

Celebrate Halloween night with Tod Browning’s controversial Freaks. Heavily edited at the time of release and banned in many places for decades afterwards, Freaks went on to become a cult classic, popular not just for the murder scheme that forms its primary plot but for its looks at the lives of the actual sideshow performers cast as the “freaks” of its title. Win tickets to this movie! One lucky Metblogs reader will get a chance to see the movie for free, courtesy of SIFF. Enter to win by sending an e-mail to seattle.metblogs@gmail.com by Monday, October 27. The movie plays again on November 1st.

The series concludes with a six-day run of Rosemary’s Baby in which Mia Farrow discovers that the neighbor from hell just might be exactly that.