Horror of the 20s to 50s
As I'm going through IMDB looking for films to watch and rating things, I'll be adding any and all horror movies to this list. If you'd rather know which ones I enjoy, visit my Horror Favourites list.
See also:
See also:
List activity
113 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
92 titles
- DirectorTod BrowningKarl FreundStarsBela LugosiHelen ChandlerDavid MannersTransylvanian vampire Count Dracula bends a naive real estate agent to his will, then takes up residence at a London estate where he sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night.
- DirectorGeorge WaggnerStarsClaude RainsWarren WilliamLon Chaney Jr.Larry Talbot returns to his father's castle in Wales and meets a beautiful woman. One fateful night, Talbot escorts her to a local carnival where they meet a mysterious gypsy fortune teller.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsColin CliveMae ClarkeBoris KarloffDr Henry Frankenstein is obsessed with assembling a living being from parts of several exhumed corpses.
- DirectorKarl FreundStarsBoris KarloffZita JohannDavid MannersA resurrected Egyptian mummy searches Cairo for the girl he believes to be his long-lost princess.
- DirectorJack ArnoldStarsRichard CarlsonJulie AdamsRichard DenningA strange prehistoric beast lurks in the depths of the Amazonian jungle. A group of scientists try to capture the animal and bring it back to civilization for study.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsMax SchreckAlexander GranachGustav von WangenheimVampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.
- DirectorRouben MamoulianStarsFredric MarchMiriam HopkinsRose HobartDr. Jekyll faces horrible consequences when he lets his dark side run wild with a potion that transforms him into the animalistic Mr. Hyde.
- DirectorWilliam CastleStarsVincent PriceCarol OhmartRichard LongA millionaire offers $10,000 to five people who agree to be locked in a large, spooky, rented house overnight with him and his wife.
- DirectorEdgar G. UlmerStarsBoris KarloffBela LugosiDavid MannersAmerican honeymooners in Hungary become trapped in the home of a Satan-worshipping priest when the bride is taken there for medical help following a road accident.
- DirectorRobert FloreyStarsBela LugosiSidney FoxLeon AmesA mad scientist seeks to mingle human blood with that of an ape, and resorts to kidnapping women for his experiments.
- DirectorErle C. KentonStarsCharles LaughtonBela LugosiRichard ArlenA mad doctor conducts ghastly genetic experiments on a remote island in the South Seas, much to the fear and disgust of the shipwrecked sailor who finds himself trapped there.
- DirectorRobert WieneStarsWerner KraussConrad VeidtFriedrich FeherHypnotist Dr. Caligari uses a somnambulist, Cesare, to commit murders.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsBoris KarloffMelvyn DouglasCharles LaughtonSeeking shelter from a storm, five travelers are in for a bizarre and terrifying night when they stumble upon the Femm family estate.
- DirectorAndré De TothStarsVincent PriceFrank LovejoyPhyllis KirkAn associate burns down a wax museum with the owner inside, but he survives only to become vengeful and murderous.
- DirectorTod BrowningStarsWallace FordLeila HyamsOlga BaclanovaA circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsClaude RainsGloria StuartWilliam HarriganA scientist finds a way of becoming invisible, but in doing so, he becomes murderously insane.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsNancy KellyPatty McCormackGage ClarkeRhoda Penmark seems like your average, sweet eight-year-old girl. After her rival at school dies in mysterious circumstances at the school picnic, her mother starts to suspect that Rhoda was responsible.
- DirectorRupert JulianLon ChaneyErnst LaemmleStarsLon ChaneyMary PhilbinNorman KerryA mad, disfigured composer seeks love with a lovely young opera singer.
- DirectorTerence FisherStarsPeter CushingHazel CourtRobert UrquhartWhile awaiting execution for murder, Baron Victor Frankenstein tells the story of a creature he built and brought to life - only for it to behave not as he intended.
- DirectorLewis AllenStarsRay MillandRuth HusseyDonald CrispA composer and his sister discover that the reason they are able to purchase a beautiful gothic seacoast mansion very cheaply is the house's unsavory past.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsBoris KarloffBela LugosiHenry DaniellA ruthless doctor and his young prize student find themselves continually harassed by their murderous supplier of illegal cadavers.
- DirectorMark RobsonStarsBoris KarloffEllen DrewMarc CramerOn a Greek island during the 1912 war, several people are trapped by quarantine for the plague. If that isn't enough worry, one of the people, a superstitious old peasant woman, suspects one young girl of being a vampiric kind of demon called a vorvolaka.
- DirectorRoy William NeillStarsBoris KarloffMarian MarshRobert AllenIgnoring an ancient prophecy, evil brother Gregor seeks to maintain his feudal power on his his Tyrolean estate by murdering and impersonating his benevolent younger twin.
- DirectorVictor HalperinStarsBela LugosiMadge BellamyJoseph CawthornA young man turns to a witch doctor to lure the woman he loves away from her fiancé, but instead turns her into a zombie slave.
- DirectorVictor HalperinStarsDorothy StoneDean JaggerRoy D'ArcyAn international expedition is sent into Cambodia to destroy an ancient formula that turns men into zombies.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsLionel AtwillFay WrayGlenda FarrellThe disappearance of people and corpses leads a reporter to a wax museum and a sinister sculptor.
- DirectorTerence FisherStarsPeter CushingChristopher LeeMichael GoughWhen Jonathan Harker rouses the ire of Count Dracula for accepting a job at the vampire's castle under false pretenses, his friend Dr. Van Helsing pursues the predatory villain.
- DirectorHenri-Georges ClouzotStarsSimone SignoretVéra ClouzotPaul MeurisseThe wife and mistress of a loathed school principal plan to murder him with what they believe is the perfect alibi.
- DirectorIshirô HondaStarsTakashi ShimuraAkihiko HirataAkira TakaradaAmerican nuclear weapons testing results in the creation of a seemingly unstoppable dinosaur-like beast.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsBoris KarloffElsa LanchesterColin CliveMary Shelley reveals the main characters of her novel survived: Baron Henry Frankenstein, goaded by an even madder scientist, builds his monster a mate.
- DirectorKurt NeumannStarsDavid HedisonPatricia OwensVincent PriceA scientist has a horrific accident when he tries to use his newly invented teleportation device.
- DirectorMark RobsonStarsKim HunterTom ConwayJean BrooksA woman in search of her missing sister uncovers a Satanic cult in New York's Greenwich Village and finds that they could have something to do with her sibling's random disappearance.
- DirectorJacques TourneurStarsFrances DeeTom ConwayJames EllisonA nurse is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island.
- DirectorGordon DouglasStarsJames WhitmoreEdmund GwennJoan WeldonThe earliest atomic tests in New Mexico cause common ants to mutate into giant man-eating monsters that threaten civilization.
- DirectorStuart WalkerStarsHenry HullWarner OlandValerie HobsonAfter botanist Wilfred Glendon travels to Tibet in search of a rare flower, the Mariphasa, he returns to a London haunted by murders that can only be the work of bloodthirsty werewolves.
- DirectorWilliam NighStarsBoris KarloffMaris WrixonGene O'DonnellDr. Bernard Adrian is a kindly mad scientist who seeks to cure a young woman's polio. He needs spinal fluid from a human to complete the formula for his experimental serum.
- DirectorWilliam BeaudineStarsBela LugosiLouise CurrieWallace FordA crazed scientist accidentally turns himself into a half ape, half human creature, and scrambles to find a cure.
- DirectorCrane WilburStarsVincent PriceAgnes MooreheadGavin GordonA crazed killer known as "The Bat" is on the loose in a mansion full of people.
- DirectorJohn S. RobertsonStarsJohn BarrymoreMartha MansfieldBrandon HurstDr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.
- DirectorEdgar G. UlmerStarsRobert ClarkeMargaret FieldRaymond BondAs a mysterious planet hurls itself toward Earth, an enigmatic extraterrestrial scout arrives on a remote Scottish island with unknown intentions.
- DirectorIrvin S. Yeaworth Jr.Russell S. Doughten Jr.StarsSteve McQueenAneta CorsautEarl RoweAn alien lifeform consumes everything in its path as it grows and grows.
- DirectorChristy CabanneStarsBela LugosiGeorge ZuccoMolly LamontFrom a slab in the morgue, a dead young woman tells the bizarre tale of how she got there, through a maze of murder involving a hypnotist, a midget and a mysterious figure in a green mask.
- DirectorBernard L. KowalskiStarsMichael EmmetAngela GreeneJohn BaerAn astronaut is killed on reentry to Earth, but his body is seeded with rapidly gestating aliens.
- DirectorRoger CormanStarsRichard GarlandPamela DuncanRussell JohnsonScientists become trapped on a shrinking island with intelligent, murderous giant crabs.
- DirectorRoger CormanStarsSusan CabotAnthony EisleyBarboura MorrisThe head of a major cosmetics company experiments on herself with a youth formula made from royal jelly extracted from wasps, but the formula's side effects have deadly consequences.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsJulian WestMaurice SchutzRena MandelA drifter obsessed with the supernatural stumbles upon an inn where a severely ill adolescent girl is slowly becoming a vampire.
- DirectorPaul LeniStarsMary PhilbinConrad VeidtJulius MolnarWhen a proud noble refuses to kiss the hand of the despotic King James in 1690, he is cruelly executed and his son surgically disfigured.
- DirectorRobert WieneStarsConrad VeidtAlexandra SorinaFritz StrassnyA world-famous pianist loses both hands in an accident. When new hands are grafted on, he doesn't know they once belonged to a murderer.
- DirectorKarl FreundStarsPeter LorreFrances DrakeColin CliveIn Paris, a demented surgeon's obsession with a British actress leads him to secretly replace her concert-pianist husband's mangled hands with those of a guillotined murderer with a gift for knife-throwing.
- DirectorTod BrowningStarsLionel BarrymoreElizabeth AllanBela LugosiWhen a nobleman is murdered, a professor of the occult blames vampires, but not all is what it seems.
- DirectorCharles BrabinCharles VidorStarsBoris KarloffLewis StoneKaren MorleyEnglishmen race to find the tomb of Genghis Khan before the sinister Fu Manchu does.
- DirectorMichael CurtizStarsBoris KarloffRicardo CortezEdmund GwennAfter hapless pianist and ex-con John Elman is framed for murder, he is resurrected by a scientist after his execution.
- DirectorLew LandersStarsBoris KarloffBela LugosiLester MatthewsA brilliant surgeon with a morbid obsession for instruments of torture grows dangerously obsessed with a young socialite whose life he's saved.
- DirectorTod BrowningStarsLionel BarrymoreMaureen O'SullivanFrank LawtonAn escaped convict uses miniaturized humans to wreak vengeance on those who framed him.
- DirectorKurt NeumannStarsMari BlanchardJack KellyAlbert DekkerDoctors Scott and Bach inject the dying Kyra Zelas with a formula which saves her life - but also renders her almost immortal and wickedly evil.
- DirectorRené ClairStarsFredric MarchVeronica LakeRobert BenchleyA beautiful 17th-century witch returns to life to plague politician Wallace Wooley, descendant of her persecutor.
- DirectorGene Fowler Jr.StarsMichael LandonYvonne LimeWhit BissellA hypnotherapist uses a temperamental teenager as a guinea pig for a serum which transforms him into a vicious werewolf.
- DirectorJacques TourneurStarsDana AndrewsPeggy CumminsNiall MacGinnisAmerican professor John Holden arrives in London for a parapsychology conference, only to find himself investigating the mysterious actions of Devil-worshipper Julian Karswell.
- DirectorJacques TourneurStarsSimone SimonTom ConwayKent SmithAn American man marries a Serbian immigrant who fears that she will turn into the cat person of her homeland's fables if they are intimate together.
- DirectorJacques TourneurStarsDennis O'KeefeMargoJean BrooksA seemingly-tame leopard used for a publicity stunt escapes and kills a young girl, spreading panic throughout a sleepy New Mexico town.
- DirectorNobuo NakagawaStarsToshio HosokawaMidori ChikumaYuriko EjimaThe descendant of the servant of a cruel and vicious samurai returns to the town where she was born, only to find that a cat who is possessed by the spirits of those murdered by the samurai is trying to kill her.
- DirectorChristian NybyHoward HawksStarsKenneth TobeyMargaret SheridanJames ArnessScientists and American Air Force officials fend off a bloodthirsty alien organism while at a remote arctic outpost.
- DirectorArch ObolerStarsWilliam PhippsSusan Douglas RubesJames AndersonThe world is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. Only five Americans survive, including a pregnant woman, a neo-Nazi, a black man and a bank clerk.
- DirectorWilliam Cameron MenziesStarsHelena CarterArthur FranzJimmy HuntA young boy learns that space aliens are taking over the minds of earthlings.
- DirectorRon OrmondHerbert TevosStarsJackie CooganAllan NixonRichard TravisA mad scientist named Arana is creating giant spiders and dwarfs in his lab on Zarpa Mesa in Mexico. He wants to create a master race of superwomen by injecting his female subjects with spider venom.
- DirectorRonald V. AshcroftStarsRobert ClarkeKenne DuncanMarilyn HarveyA gang of crooks has kidnapped a rich heiress come up against a beautiful, but lethal alien who has crash-landed her spaceship on Earth.
- DirectorJohn SherwoodStarsJeff MorrowRex ReasonLeigh SnowdenA scientist captures the Creature and turns him into an air-breather, only for him to escape and start killing.
- DirectorJack ArnoldStarsJohn AgarLori NelsonJohn BromfieldMen capture the Creature from the Black Lagoon and make him an aquarium attraction, from which he escapes.
- DirectorRoger CormanStarsAntony CarboneBetsy Jones-MorelandRobert TowneA crook decides to bump off members of his inept crew and blame their deaths on a legendary sea creature. What he doesn't know is that the creature is real.
- DirectorCurt SiodmakStarsBarbara PaytonLon Chaney Jr.Raymond BurrThe owner of a plantation in the jungle marries a beautiful woman. Shortly afterward, he is plagued by a strange voodoo curse which transforms him into a gorilla.
- DirectorTom GraeffStarsDavid LoveDawn BenderBryan GrantA young alien and a teenage earthling fall in love, and plot to stop the alien's race from using Earth as a food-breeding ground for giant lobsters from their planet.
- DirectorW. Lee WilderStarsPeter GravesJames SeaySteve PendletonAn atomic scientist claims he was abducted by aliens after being injured in a plane crash.
- DirectorW. Lee WilderStarsTed CooperTom DalySteve ActonWhen an asteroid crashes, the search begins to track down the mysterious aliens.
- DirectorJean YarbroughStarsDick PurcellJoan WoodburyMantan MorelandOn a spooky island, three stranded travelers find an evil doctor working with foreign spies and in control of zombies.
- DirectorAlbert LewinStarsGeorge SandersHurd HatfieldDonna ReedA corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.
- DirectorHerbert L. StrockStarsSandra HarrisonLouise LewisGail GanleyUnder hypnosis, a young woman turns into a vampire.
- DirectorArthur CrabtreeStarsMichael GoughJune CunninghamGraham CurnowA frustrated thriller writer wants accurate crimes for his next book so he hypnotizes his assistant to make him commit the required crimes.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsGene TierneyRex HarrisonGeorge SandersIn 1900, a young widow finds her seaside cottage is haunted and forms a unique relationship with the ghost.
- DirectorLambert HillyerStarsOtto KrugerGloria HoldenMarguerite ChurchillWhen Countess Marya Zaleska appears in London, mysterious events occur that lead Dr. Von Helsing to believe that the Countess must be a vampire.
- DirectorHenry CassStarsDonald WolfitVincent BallBarbara ShelleyIn 1870s Transylvania, scientist Dr. Callistratus is put to death by villagers who wrongly believe he's a vampire. However, his horribly disfigured henchman, Carl is on hand to orchestrate a life-saving heart transplant.
- DirectorTod BrowningStarsLon ChaneyMarceline DayHenry B. WalthallThe abandoned home of a wealthy man who supposedly committed suicide five years earlier is taken over by ghoulish figures - could they be vampires?
- DirectorFrank R. StrayerStarsLionel AtwillFay WrayMelvyn DouglasWhen corpses drained of blood begin to show up in a European village, vampirism is suspected to be responsible.
- DirectorFrank R. StrayerStarsRalph MorganPedro de CordobaMaxine DoyleAfter a series of unsolved murders, a man finds out that his mother was bitten by a vampire bat during her pregnancy, and he believes that he may be the vampire committing the murders.
- DirectorSam NewfieldStarsGeorge ZuccoMary CarlisleNedrick YoungThe twin of a kindly small-town physician returns from the grave for vengeance against his brother, who secretly killed him because the twin served Satan.
- DirectorEdward DeinStarsEric FlemingMichael PateKathleen CrowleyWhile a malady is claiming the lives of young women in a Western town, a sinister gunslinger-for-hire Drake Robey is really a vampire, and it's up to Preacher Dan to save the town and girlfriend Dolores Carter.
- DirectorRiccardo FredaMario BavaStarsGianna Maria CanaleCarlo D'AngeloDario MichaelisParis. Young girls are found dead, drained from their blood. A journalist investigates these murders while the beautiful Gisele, from a noble family, tries to seduce him.
- DirectorStenoStarsRenato RascelSylva KoscinaLia ZoppelliA baron down on his luck has to sell his family castle to pay off his mounting debt. After the castle is turned into a hotel, he's hired as a bellboy. But all is not lost, as he discovers he has a rich uncle; unfortunately, he's a vampire.
- DirectorLesley SelanderStarsJohn AbbottCharles GordonPeggy StewartIn a small African port, a tawdry bar is run by a man named Webb Fallon. Fallon is actually a vampire, but he is becoming weary of his "life" of the past few hundred years.
- DirectorRichard E. CunhaStarsJohn AshleySandra KnightDonald MurphyDr. Frankenstein's insane grandson attempts to create horrible monsters in modern-day L.A.
- DirectorRafael PortilloStarsRamón GayRosita ArenasCrox AlvaradoExperimenting in hypnotic regression to past lives, Dr. Almada discovers that his fiancée, Flor, is the reincarnation of an Aztec maiden who was put to death for loving an Aztec warrior, her body placed at the entrance to a hidden chamber in the Great Pyramid of Yucatan where the treasures of the Aztecs were hidden, and her lover mummified but cursed to remain alive and guard the treasure. With her recovered memories, Flor is able to lead Almada, his wimpish assistant Pincate, and her father to the now-skeletal remains of the maiden. Attached to them is a golden breastplate with a map detailing the route to the treasure. But to their horror, the party is intercepted by the mummified warrior, Popoca, and flee with the breastplate back to Mexico city. Popoca follows. In the meantime, Prof. Krup, an unscrupulous colleague of Almada's, recruits a gang of thugs, whom he leads from behind a mask and known only as "The Bat". Both Krup and his gang, and the mummy, converge on Flor's house to retrieve the sacred breastplate, which is in her possession...
- DirectorErle C. KentonStarsCedric HardwickeLon Chaney Jr.Ralph BellamyDr. Frankenstein's plans to replace the brain of his monster are hijacked by his scheming and malevolent assistant Ygor.
- DirectorEdward L. CahnStarsChester MorrisTom ConwayCathy DownsA mysterious hypnotist reverts his beautiful assistant back into the form of a prehistoric sea monster that she was in a past life.