The Body Snatcher

A horror film set in nineteenth-century Edinburgh. Doctor MacFarlane runs a medical school and teaches anatomy. Bodies are needed for the lessons and cannot be obtained legally. Gray is the man who supplies them. He goes to the graveyards at night, takes the bodies out and brings them to the school. There is an old tie between him and the doctor, and Gray uses it as a threat: he knows the man's past and reminds him when he needs to. As demand rises Gray starts finding shorter routes. The tension comes not from a creature but from that relationship. The conversations between the two men are at the centre and the balance of power shifts at every meeting. The source is Robert Louis Stevenson's story. Boris Karloff plays Gray and Henry Daniell the doctor; Bela Lugosi is also in the cast. It was the last film in which Karloff and Lugosi appeared together. Val Lewton produced; it belongs to the series in which he worked by implying horror rather than showing it. Robert Wise directed. Among the best of its kind for anyone who likes classical horror and atmosphere-driven storytelling. For a viewer expecting showy horror, the film mostly leaves the frightening thing off screen.