Top ten Boris Karloff performances

Karloff shows his incredible range in this movie. There is a look that he gives when he knows he has to kill again that will break the heart, but then he pulls a 180 and becomes very creepy only to become human again when we learn that he only blackmails because it's all he has and if he didn't, he would just be a lowly cab driver. A wonderful character in a marvelous and underlooked film.

Goes without saying

Karloff adds speech to his already fantastic monster performance. I prefer Karloff in the first film though, because it's more amazing to see him emote through pantomime.

Another iconic role as the sympathetic mummy Im Ho tep.

Boris Karloff practically plays himself and considering that it's one of his final film roles, it's very honest and tugs at the heartstrings.

I'd go so far as to say that this is the most evil character that Karloff ever portrayed.

Karloff plays the head physician at an insane Asylum and is truly a petty, deplorable creation.

A deliciously vile and often comical character. The image of Karloff's Manchu leering over the man as he tortures him is an everlasting haunting image in my mind.

Val Lewton casts Karloff as another multi dimensional character. This time he plays a superstitious general who does everything to protect his people from a wurdulak(a vampire) in the time of a plague outbreak.

This time Karloff plays the Wurdulak in the "Wurdulak" segment of this anthology horror film. It's the silent moments that are the scariest and with Mario Bava's lighting, it's the most bone chilling role that he ever played.