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.

| Original Score: A | Nov 23, 2022

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

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

| Oct 30, 2021

Grandly entertaining.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 19, 2021

A fun, campy romp.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 30, 2020

It's a basic second-hand horror, a very irregular Whale film. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jul 16, 2020

The light and the shadows are wonderfully played, to achieve that desired effect of mystery, of terror. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Feb 28, 2020

Fight scenes in "House" become a living, breathing, essential part of the film's ability to terrify, which remains undiluted today.

| Feb 8, 2020

A marvellous horror film which still retains the same sense of creeping awe.

| Nov 8, 2018

The film is shot through in almost every scene by a wholly individual sense of comic timing and bizarre juxtaposition.

| Jul 6, 2018

The Old Dark House was Whale's second horror film after 1931's Frankenstein and his return to the genre sees the director leaning fully in to its gothic tropes.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 24, 2018

The brilliant cast, excellent set design and camerawork makes for something that verges on horror comedy in an unexpectedly delightful way.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 22, 2018

This is a horror film so perfect that anyone who wants to make them should watch it before they start.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 30, 2018

For vintage atmospherics, this is a wonderful curio.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 30, 2018

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

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 27, 2018

Great fun.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 27, 2018

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

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 27, 2018

It is performed with tremendous gusto and theatrical dash.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 27, 2018

A titter-inducing drawing-room farce (but deliberately so).

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 26, 2018

Watching it, the viewer will discover that the likes of The Cabin in the Woods, The Evil Dead, and more all had their start half a century before.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 25, 2018