The City of the Dead

Nan, a student researching witchcraft, goes on her professor's advice to a small Massachusetts town called Whitewood. The town sits under fog, the people are strange, and the woman at the inn seems never to age. What happens halfway through completely breaks the audience's expectations. John Llewellyn Moxey directed. Christopher Lee plays the professor, Patricia Jessel the innkeeper. It was shot in Britain but set in America; Whitewood was built entirely on a soundstage and covered in fog. That artificiality is its strongest quality. The structure contains a move that now feels familiar: killing the protagonist in the middle of the film. It arrived in the same year as Psycho, and the two were made independently of each other. It belongs to the strand of British horror outside Hammer, black and white and built on atmosphere. It later became a cult item and has been sampled by musicians. Who it is for: viewers who like black and white atmospheric horror and Christopher Lee. Who it is not for: anyone wanting fast scares; the film is slow and talkative.