The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

This one is properly old, made in Germany in 1920, and it still doesn't look like anything else on a horror shelf. A hypnotist keeps a sleepwalker under his control, and that poor man is sent out to do the hypnotist's dirty work while the town sleeps around him.

The fear here isn't jump scares. It's the sets: walls that lean the wrong way, shadows painted straight onto them, streets that seem to fold in on themselves. Everything looks slightly wrong, and after twenty minutes your brain starts agreeing with it. That's a particular kind of unease, and it creeps rather than shouts.

Put this on for a quiet night when you want something strange rather than something loud. It rewards patience and a dim room, not a big bowl of popcorn and chatter. Director Robert Wiene built a look that filmmakers were still borrowing from decades later, and you can feel it even now.

Dim the lights and let the crooked streets do their work.