I wish I had some highly intelligent argument against Daughters of Darkness. The problem comes that on a certain level, the film succeeds. It is an unsettling, mind-screwing horror film, getting under your skin and making you uncomfortable. From the long discussions of death and torture, to the various sequences of the evil lesbians staring in at the blushing bride through the window, this movie just unsettles your stomach.  But the failure comes that this horror is neither thought-provoking nor in any way truly enjoyable.
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Since its release in 1929, Un Chien Andalou has remained one the best and most famous examples of surrealist cinema.  It does exactly what surrealist works are supposed to do: sequence random images and events so as to touch its audience in a way that logic cannot.  Though it is not a horror film per se, in which the viewer is threatened by a monster, a madman, or some other tangible force, the film does contain a number of horrific images, and its dreamlike construction can at times instill a fear beyond rationality. Director Luis Buñuel and artist Salvador Dalí compile images and scenes that will make you cringe, laugh, vomit, and cock your head - and they compact them into seventeen unforgettable, never-boring minutes that constantly seem to draw from the most hidden depths of our unconscious. Put succinctly, Un Chien Andalou is a masterpiece.
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