About the Film

Directed by James Whale — one of early Hollywood’s few openly gay filmmakers — The Old Dark House is a macabre comedy of manners disguised as a haunted house thriller.

 

Boris Karloff plays the monstrous, lumbering butler Morgan, but the real chills (and laughs) come from the eccentric Femm family: Ernest Thesiger as the fussy and flamboyant Horace, Eva Moore as the fire-and-brimstone Rebecca, and a cast of oddballs who make the stormy night feel both terrifying and absurd.

 

Equal parts spooky and sly,

Whale’s film brims with wit, camp, and a queer sensibility that was decades ahead of its time. The Old Dark House isn’t just an essential entry in the Universal horror cycle — it’s a gorgeously strange experience that comes alive when shared with an audience.