Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety

CLEOPATRA

1963

Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Written by Ranald MacDougall, Sidney Buchman, and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (based on The Life and Times of Cleopatra by Carlo Maria Franzero, plus Plutarch and that whole gang)

Spoilers: N/A

American Gothic Week: No longer of God's making, but the monstrous offspring of man's depraved fancy, glowing with only an evil mockery of beauty

TWICE-TOLD TALES

1963

Directed by Sidney Salkow

Written by Robert E. Kent (based on the stories "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" and "Rapaccini's Daughter" and the novel The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne)

Spoilers: moderate

American Gothic Week: From a mere eccentricity to a dark mania

THE HAUNTED PALACE

1963

Directed by Roger Corman

Written by Charles Beaumont (based on the novella "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" by H.P. Lovecraft plus eight lines of the poem "The Haunted Palace" by Edgar Allan Poe)

Spoilers: moderate

American Gothic Week: Poe boys

THE TERROR

1963

Directed by Roger Corman with Francis Ford Coppola, Dennis Jakob, Jack Hill, and Jack Nicholson

Written by nobody till after it was over, and credited to Leo Gordon and Jack Hill

Spoilers: moderate

American Gothic Week: When we are alone for a long time, we people space with phantoms

DIARY OF A MADMAN

1963

Directed by Reginald Le Borg

Written by Robert E. Kent (based on the stories "Diary of a Madman" and "The Horla" by Guy de Maupassant)

Spoilers: moderate

American Gothic Week: Forgotten lore

THE RAVEN

1963

Directed by Roger Corman

Written by Richard Matheson (with several lines taken from the poem by Edgar Allan Poe)

Spoilers: moderate

Walt Disney, part XXII: A dark age indeed, one big medieval mess

THE SWORD IN THE STONE

More like Bored In the Stone, and that's still funnier than 90% of the gags in the film.

1963

Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman

Written by Bill Peet (based on the novel by T.H. White)

Spoiler alert: he's the once and future king, bud

It's the Mesoamerican way

KINGS OF THE SUN (1963)

Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Written by Elliott Arnold and James R. Webb
With Yul Brynner (Chief Black Eagle), George Chakiris (King Balam), and Shirley Anne Field (Ixchel)

APOCALYPTO (2006)

Directed by Mel Gibson
Written by Farhad Sarfinia and Mel Gibson
With Rudy Youngblood (Jaguar Paw), Dalia Hernandez (Seven), Morris Birdyellowhead (Flint Sky), Jonathan Brewer (Blunted), Raoul Trujillo (Zero Wolf), Gerardo Taracena (Middle Eye), and Ricardo Diaz Mendoza (Cut Rock)

Spoiler alert: moderate for Apocalypto, high for Kings of the Sun