Children of the night, sad as it is to say, Film Forum’s Tod Browning festival concludes this evening with Dracula (duh). We bow in gratitude. But please, adventurous programmers: Let’s one day have a complete Browning retro of newly struck prints. Even though it’s somewhat creaky, 1931’s Dracula deserves props as the first thriller superproduction—an extremely atmospheric one. Of course, Bela Lugosi casts a superb warp on the film. (If you’ve been watching these Browning movies, imagine Lon Chaney in the role; rumors persist that he would have played the Count had he not died the year of shooting.) Dracula is the beginning of Hollywood’s golden age of horror and an essential for any viewer. And if you remember Martin Landau’s advice in Ed Wood, it’s also very romantic. Date movie!

We just can’t stop mouthing off about this sick Tod Browning stuff. Once again, people: There’s a great old-Hollywood cult director to be discovered on Monday nights at Film Forum. Last week I went to see The Unknown with a pal and we couldn’t help but be floored by all the psychosexual awfulness intended for our enjoyment. (The crowd went nuts.) Tonight’s dark gem, 1928’s West of Zanzibar, is a favorite of retro auteur Guy Maddin. What’s in store? Two competing magicians! One paralyzes the other from the waist down! But there’s revenge to come—in colonialist Africa! Also, a daughter…and a brothel! (Seriously, those exclamation points are merited.)

Dolls in general: creepy or cute? Discuss. They’re either unbearably sad (especially in black-and-white movies) or possessed. And do I have to bring up the evil clown from Poltergeist? Didn’t think so. Anyway, you probably know what you’re getting into when the film is called The Devil Doll. To be completely accurate, it’s a shrinking-serum story; the sweet old lady in this photo is actually an escaped convict in drag (Lionel Barrymore) who sends little people out to commit murder. You so want to see this movie tonight; Film Forum’s spooky Tod Browning fest rolls on. Here’s a little background on the notorious Hollywood cult director.

Don’t even begin to tell us you haven’t seen Freaks. We accept you anyway. It plays tonight at Film Forum as part of a new Monday series devoted to the strange, anxiety-ridden filmography of director Tod Browning. Browning is the kind of mysterious legend who attracts a crazy cult. Born in 1880, he ran off to join the circus as soon as it was humanly possible. Vaudeville followed, then Hollywood in 1913, at that time a wide-open town. Two years later, he crashed his car in a horrifying accident that required two years of secret surgery and convalescence. Subsequently, many of Browning’s films concern personal catastophe; he bonded with star Lon Chaney, made a truly upsetting revenge movie about a limbless romantic (The Unknown) and hit it huge with 1931’s Dracula. The best Browning films have that scary, musty feel of Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard: hauteur and entitlement cut short by awful fate. See as many of these as you can.