The Phantom of the Opera (1925), played by Russ Peck

The perfect event for spooky season, The Phantom of the Opera marked the first adaptation of the 1910 horror novel by French author Gaston Leroux. Lon Chaney plays the titular character, a talented but deformed virtuoso who haunts the halls of the Paris Opera House as he attempts to make his protégé and love interest, Christine, into a star. In 2004, renowned film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 4 out of 4 stars, saying "The Phantom is invested by the intense and inventive Lon Chaney with a horror and poignancy that is almost entirely created with body language." On the popular review forum Rotten Tomatoes, the site reads, "Decades later, it still retains its ability to scare ? and Lon Chaney's performance remains one of the benchmarks of the horror genre." The film was added to the United States National Film Registry in 1998.