The efficacy of a horror movie can be found in its capacity to frighten the audience. Different types of horror emanate different types of fright, from the highly efficient jump scare to the more sophisticated shock experience. The ability to create an atmosphere of terror, an atmosphere that facilitates the state of fear in the audience, is what sets apart noteworthy horror movies.

This list focused on black-and-white horrors because of the greater difficulty of creating such an atmosphere. From eternal classics like Nosferatu and Vampyr to courageous contemporary movies like A Field in England and The Lighthouse, the list explores those that most successfully created an atmosphere of fear while mesmerizing the audience with gorgeous visuals. A feast of amazing shots and fearsome visuals is awaiting.

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10 A Field in England

     Film4

A Field in England is set during the English Civil War in the seventeenth century and was directed by Ben Wheatley and written by Amy Jump. An alchemist’s assistant named Whitehead (Reece Shearsmith) is saved from his superior by a soldier called Cutler (Ryan Pope). After meeting the defectors Jacob (Peter Ferdinando) and Friend (Richard Glover), the four embark on a journey to escape the war but find themselves in a field full of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

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A Field in England is characterized by monochromatic cinematography that features a soft blend of grays and muted blacks. This particular choice gives an ethereal filter to the movie that perfectly matches the psychedelic development of the plot. At the same time, it concurs in disorienting the spectators the same way the magic mushrooms confuse the characters, ultimately catapulting the viewers into that field. A magic cult.

9 Carnival of Souls

     Harcourt Productions

Carnival of Souls was produced and directed by Herk Harvey, who also played a character in this psychological horror. Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) has an accident while driving, and her car falls into a river in Kansas. After miraculously surviving, she moves to Salt Lake City to start her new job as a church organist. But something is off, and Mary starts having visions of a demonic man (Herk Harvey).

Carnival of Souls was made with a low budget and mainly went unnoticed when released in 1955. Decades later, it started to be rediscovered, and it attracted many estimators thanks to its dream-like, nightmarish sequences and superb cinematography. The black is very deep and dark, while the white and gray tonalities are mostly sharp, increasing the contrast. Lastly, the shadows created by the high contrast contribute to the nightmare-like atmosphere of Carnival of Souls. Underground beauty.

8 Eyes Without a Face

     Champs-Élysées Productions

Co-written and directed by Georges Franju and based on the homonymous novel by Jean Redon, Eyes Without a Face stars Édith Scob as Christiane, a woman who wears a face-like mask to cover her disfigurement after a car accident. Her plastic surgeon father (Pierre Brasseur) is responsible for the accident and uses his medical knowledge to try to reconstruct Christiane’s face.

Eyes Without a Face stands out for its poetic and gore mixture of images, perfectly portrayed through the essential photography by Eugen Schüfftan, a veteran of the German Expressionism era. The lights are impressive in rendering this odd mix, capturing the most intense horror sequences and the most lyrical ones. At the same time, Schüfftan’s contribution can be seen in the lighting of Christiane’s mask, rendering this simple prop as frightening as intended. Eyes Without a Face cannot be forgotten.

7 The Addiction

     Fast Films

Directed by Abel Ferrara and written by frequent collaborator Nicholas St. John, The Addiction is a stylish vampire movie that features Lili Taylor as Kathleen Conklin, a philosophy student who gets her neck bitten by a woman. Soon after, Kathleen develops a deep thirst for blood and repulsion for sunlight. Despite the box office’s low performance, The Addiction became a true cult with a hidden meaning.

Ken Kelsch is the person behind the cinematography and what a cinematograph is. This horror has a lot in common with many golden age noirs: the same use of intense black mixed with different shades of gray is present, while small white accents illuminate and add details to the visual composition. The Addiction shows how an injection of arthouse sensibility into genre movies can sometimes boost the aesthetic without compromising their essence. Slick.

6 Tetsuo: The Iron Man

     F2

Shinya Tsukamoto is the mastermind behind Tetsuo: The Iron Man. This underground Japanese horror has become a cult classic over the years for its visionary aesthetic of metal and flesh. After a metal fetishist (Shinya Tsukamoto) is killed by a businessman (Tomorowo Taguchi), the latter is haunted by a mysterious curse that transforms body tissue into iron. Tsukamoto wrote, produced, edited, and contributed to the cinematography in conjunction with Kei Fujiwara.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man is a masterpiece that combines experimental film and body horror aesthetics. The cinematography is characterized by a beautiful high contrast between rich tones of black and white highlights and is expressed through an expressionist sensibility. At the same time, the stop-motion sequences utilized due to the low budget are superbly constructed and shot. Tetsuo: The Iron Man brought Shinya Tsukamoto to the fore for good reasons. Undisputed cyberpunk assault.

5 Nosferatu

     Prana Film

Directed by F. W. Murnau and based on the iconic novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, Nosferatu stars Gustav von Wangenheim as Thomas Hutter, a real estate employee sent to Transylvania to talk to a new client, the mysterious Count Orlok (Max Schreck). The Count wants to buy a house close to Hutter’s residence. As time goes by, however, Hutter is more and more convinced that Orlok is, in reality, a vampire. Almost destroyed entirely due to copyright issues, some copies of Nosferatu survived and made possible the recognition of this movie as a masterpiece.

At the hands of Fritz Arno Wagner and Günther Krampf, Nosferatu’s cinematography is characterized by intelligent use of shadows and minimal lighting during the horror sequences. This inability to see completely elevates the state of fear and contributes to the mysterious aura of Count Orlok. The history of horror in front of your eyes.

4 The Lighthouse

     A24

Co-written, co-produced, and directed by Robert Eggers, The Lighthouse stars Robert Pattinson as Ephraim Winslow, a man who arrives at an island off New England’s coast to be a lighthouse keeper. He is supervised by Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe), the other island inhabitant and seasoned keeper. Featuring impressive performances by the Pattinson-Dafoe duo, The Lighthouse is an esthetical masterpiece that presents a 1.19:1 aspect ratio, reminding with its squared look the cinema of the 1930s.

The Lighthouse is one of those movies where every shot is meticulously crafted, and nothing is out of place. The aspect of the film is also fundamental because the reduced image on screen gives a sense of claustrophobia that is in line with the plot; simultaneously, the crew intelligently used the natural landscapes to frame and settle the characters in the shot. A work of art.

3 Vampyr

     Carl Theodor Dreyer-Filmproduktion

Co-written, co-produced, and directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, Vampyr stars Nicolas de Gunzburg as the occult student Allan Gray. The student arrives near Courtempierre and decides to spend the night at an inn near the village. He doesn’t know that a vampire (Marguerite Chopin) wanders the place and that the daughter of the inn’s owner has been bitten. After receiving mixed reviews upon its release, Vampyr will later become an early horror masterpiece.

This Danish horror is characterized stylistically by an atmospheric and gloomy cinematography. The washed-out hazy effect produced by holding a gauze in front of the camera contributes to creating a dream-like visual, and it is an intelligent reminiscence of the dreadful fog that is present in the movie. Vampyr is an exercise of fear, an eerie vision that haunts the spectators, and an achievement that imposes itself as a horror milestone to this day.

2 The Night of the Hunter

     Paul Gregory Productions

The Night of the Hunter was directed by the actor Charles Laughton in his first and last movie behind the camera. Based on the homonymous novel by Davis Grubb, the film features Robert Mitchum as the ruthless Reverend Harry Powell, a minister who marries and kills widows for their money. During a quick stay in prison, he hears about an inmate’s hidden treasure of $10,000, and after the prisoner dies and is released, Powell will do everything to get the riches.

The Night of the Hunter is one of the most beautiful movies of the 1950s and features an expressionist tone that originates in 1930s German movies. At the same time, the night scenes are shot with incredible use of deep blacks and light accents that make this noir feel and look like a horror. An exercise of beauty.

1 Black Sunday

     Galatea-Jolly Film

Black Sunday was written, photographed, and directed by Mario Bava, and it’s based on Viy by Nikolai Gogol. One of the highest peaks in the Master of the Macabre’s filmography, this 1960 horror features flawless and impressive cinematography and a gothic undertone. Since its release, Black Sunday has been revered worldwide and has become a reference source for many horror directors.

Mario Bava made his bones in the Italian film industry as a cinematographer and special effect artist before making his official debut as a director with this horror. Black Sunday is beautifully lit, with a high contrast of light and shades that perfectly suit the gothic character of the story. Moreover, with its perfect camera movements and funereal lights, the opening scene is one of the greatest incipits of all time. Mario Bava is the king of Italian Horror, and this movie is the proof.