Welcome to Day 2 of OkGoreberfest 2025’s 30-day Horror Challenge! Today’s challenge, as mentioned on the original post from October 1st, is “Favorite Horror From Before 1960.”
There are a great number of solid hits from the years before 1960. The films from the silent era like “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” and “L’Inferno,” films from the “Golden Era” of the 40’s and 50’s like “Dracula” and “Frankenstein” and “The Invisible Man,” or from mid-century horror films like “The Fly,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and “Godzilla.” I have not one but probably five favorites from this expansive time period, but the one I choose for blogging’s sake is 1955 French horror “Les Diaboliques.”
It’s an absolute horror classic that not everyone is familiar with, despite it being one of the better known horrors of the era. It’s a movie that inspired filmmakers and screenwriters like Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Bloch, Stephen King, Brian DePalma and Stanley Kubrick. Alfred Hitchcock tried to acquire the rights to create this movie, but was outbid by Henri-Georges Clouzot (with a margin of just a few hours), so he later would film “Psycho” specifically as a means to outdo his rival filmmaker.
I saw this as a child at my grandparents’ house, and remember the end scene creeping me out when I was 8 or 9. I’ve since seen way creepier movies but Les Diaboliques is one of those movies that lay my horror foundation for me.
Les Diaboliques is a psychological horror filmed noir-style, in black and white. It’s in French, so yeah – you’re gonna have to read your movie. Clouzot’s wife Vera recommended he read the book “She Who Was No More” and by the morning after he optioned the rights to make it into a movie. He changed up a few things in the story, not the least of which being that he changed the gender of the killers so that his wife could have a leading role in the film (what a guy!). Side note, Vera played a woman with a heart condition in this movie, but would herself develop a severe heart condition around this time, from which she would die only five years later.
Clouzot changed the story pretty liberally, when going from book to movie, only keeping key points intact, which was generally his style. His style would also have him be a complete bastard to work for. He was surly and disagreeable on set, and had no problem with slapping his cast when he was unhappy with their performance. For the scene where the students and staff are served spoiled fish, Clouzot reportedly forced the actors to eat genuine, rotten fish to get an authentic reaction. What a… guy!
The film was more or less the pinnacle of Clouzet’s success. The critics would find him less and less interesting as time went on, and the death of his wife left him in a state of depression that he never fully recovered from. It’s a solid movie, ranks pretty high on many of those “100 Best/Greatest/Scariest/Inluentialiest” type lists, it won a bunch of awards and it’s still highly regarded to this day.