Summary

• Gothic horror movies intermix romance, horror, and fiction to create ethereal and scary narratives with common plot points like female protagonists, dangerous estates, and themes of sexual repression.
• "The Woman in Black" is a ghost story with a vengeful spirit killing children, while "Nosferatu" and "The Black Cat" revolutionized the vampire genre with their gothic horror elements.
• "The Devil's Backbone" expanded the parameters of gothic horror movies by balancing fantasy elements with historical fiction, while "Frankenstein" remains the definitive film adaptation, influencing subsequent gothic horror films.

Gothic horror movies have dominated cinema for a long time. Pioneered by Horace Walpole back in 1764 with his classic novel A Gothic Story, many other iconic names like Mary Shelley and Edgar Allen Poe have invested their creativity into creating gothic masterpieces. While many of these stories have made their way into cinema in later years, a lot of original ideas, scary Southern gothic movies, and re-imaginings of classic gothic horror stories/movies have helped reignite the spark in gothic horror movies in recent years.

Gothic horror movies usually intermix the ideas of romance, horror, and fiction to create something ethereal and scary. While there are monsters in some gothic horror movies, the more common plot point involves a female protagonist, exquisite production design, a dangerous estate, themes involving sexual repression, and the presence of romance mingled with supernatural tragedy. While there are many brilliant gothic horror romances and gothic horror movies to consider, some movies are essential and should be at the top of every cinephile’s list.

30 The Woman In Black (2012)

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Daniel Radcliffe traded in his wizard's wand and magical powers for a gothic horror movie based on the novel The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. The story has Radcliffe star as Arthur Kipps, a young widowed lawyer who is sent to visit the Eel Marsh House after the owner there died to retrieve any documents left behind. Much like the best gothic horror movies, this includes the creepy mansion in an isolated landscape, this time a remote village on the coast of England.

This is a ghost story with a vengeful spirit killing children in the town in revenge, and it is up to Arthur to stop her before she comes for his son next. The movie had positive reviews and a sequel was released three years later.

29 Nosferatu (1922)

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In the 1910s and 20s, German Expressionist cinema ruled in the world of movies. These included horror stories that introduced the world to everything from the iconic Golem to the first major depiction of Dracula, albeit with a different name. Since F.W. Murnau couldn't get the rights to Bram Stoker's Dracula, he just renamed the vampire Nosferatu, made some changes to the story, and made his movie anyway. What resulted was the vampire classic Nosferatu, a movie that stands the time of history alongside the latter released Dracula (1931) as the two gothic horror movies that revolutionized the vampire genre.

28 The Nun (2018)

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Most of the movies in the Conjuring universe are basic possession and exorcism films. However, in 2018, The Nun added a little something extra to it and what resulted was a new addition to the gothic horror movies genre. In this case, a demon has begun terrorizing a monastery in Romania and the Vatican sends two people there to investigate. This is a prequel to The Conjuring in a way, with Sister Irene and Lorraine Warren connected. The movie was a success, making a huge box office take and warranting a sequel.

27 The Black Cat (1934)

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Released in 1934, The Black Cat was a strange Universal Horror movie in the era of the famous monsters arriving on the big screen. Instead, this film was about a cult where a couple ends up in the middle of a revenge plot and a cult planning a ritual sacrifice. What does connect this gothic horror movie to the Universal Monsters is the actors. Boris Karloff (Frankenstein) is the leader of the cult while Bela Lugosi (Dracula) is the World War I veteran looking for vengeance. While it didn't contain the monsters fans had grown to love, it still remains a beloved horror classic.

26 Black Sabbath (1963)

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Mario Beva is one of the masters of gothic horror movies, and one of his most famous works is the 1963 movie Black Sabbath. This was the movie that the rock and roll legends Black Sabbath named their band after. The anthology movie has three different stories, each with an introduction by Boris Karloff. These include The Telephone, where a woman is tormented by a stalker, The Wurdulak, where a man (Karloff) returns home after killing a monster, and The Drop of Water, where a nurse steals a ring from a corpse and ends up haunted by its ghost. The movie was a box office bomb but has since found itself elevated into a horror masterpiece.

25 Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

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Jim Jarmusch's best movies show he's a director who hasn't allowed himself to be cornered into a genre. However, with his 2014 fantasy horror drama Only Lovers Left Alive, he created what is basically identified as a gothic horror movie. The film stars Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as two vampires who have been married for centuries and survive on good blood provided to them by local suppliers. However, Adam is suicidal and Eve wants to convince him he still has something to live for. It received critical acclaim and remains one of the best gothic horror movies of the 2010s.

24 Gaslight (1944)

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Gaslight has one distinction to its legacy in history. This is the movie that helped coin the term gaslighting, as the plot of this movie has a man who begins to torment his wife, stealing her things and accusing her of forgetting where she put them, while also creating sounds around the house and making her believe she is losing her mind. This is a psychological thriller that doubles as a gothic horror movie, as Gregory does everything he can to make the home he and Paula live in as haunting and disturbing as possible. The movie picked up seven Oscar nominations and Ingrid Bergman won for Best Actress.

23 The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari (1920)

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One of the earliest and most successful of the German Expressionist horror movies of the silent era, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari arrived two years before Nosferatu (although it was seven years after the critically acclaimed The Student of Prague). The movie tells the story of a hypnotist who uses a somnambulist to commit murders. This movie really leaned into expressionistic filmmaking, with slanted angles and dark shadows in every shot and scene. The movie helped popularize horror cinema and film noir.

22 Night Of The Demon (1957)

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Night of the Demon was a 1957 gothic horror movie that was based on an M.R. James story called Casting the Runes. The movie is about a British cult and a man who is in the middle of a curse that involves ing a parchment on to another person, and the person who has it dying. The movie is very similar to later horror movies like The Ring and It Follows, where a person can avoid death by ing the cursed item off to another person. However, at the same time, this veers into gothic horror movies as it takes the story into the realm of old homes and ancient artifacts in England.

21 Kill, Baby, Kill (1966)

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Kill, Baby, Kill is a Mario Bava gothic horror movie from 1966. One of the better gothic horror movies in his catalog, Kill, Baby, Kill features a small Carpathian village in the early 1900s, terrorized by the ghost murderous young girl. The movie was an interesting release, made for much less money than Bava usually had at his disposal, much of the dialogue improved, and even used stock music to save money. However, even with the cost-cutting measures, it ended up making more money than Bava's previous three movies and received universal positive reviews. It remains one of the best movies of the director's career.