The 40 most popular 1950s horror movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Godzilla
1954 · 1h 36m · JP
Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Kyohei Yamane soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan, but the rest of the world as well.


House on Haunted Hill
1959 · 1h 15m · US
Frederick Loren invites five strangers to the party of a lifetime and offers each of them $10,000 if they can stay the night in the reportedly haunted house. Armed with a gun for protection, each guest arrives in a hearse and will either leave in it much richer…Or dead.


House of Wax
1953 · 1h 28m · US
A sculptor opens a wax museum to showcase the likenesses of famous historical figures, but quickly runs into trouble when his business partner demands the exhibits become more extreme in order to increase profits.


The Fly
1958 · 1h 34m · US
Industrialist François Delambre is called late at night by his sister-in-law, Helene, who tells him that she has just killed her husband. Reluctant at first, she eventually explains to the police that he invented a matter transportation apparatus and, while experimenting on himself, a fly entered the chamber.


Them!
1954 · 1h 34m · US
As a result of nuclear testing, gigantic, ferocious mutant ants appear in the American desert southwest, and a father-daughter team of entomologists join forces with the state police officer who first discovers their existence, an FBI agent and, eventually, the US Army to eradicate the menace, before it spreads across the continent — and the world.


Creature from the Black Lagoon
1954 · 1h 19m · US
When scientists exploring the Amazon River stumble on a “missing link” connecting humans and fish, they plan to capture it for later study. But the Creature has plans of his own, and has set his sights on the lead scientist's beautiful fiancée, Kay.


The Ghost of Yotsuya
1959 · 1h 24m · JP
In one of Japan's most frequently-told ghost stories, a murdered wife returns in an act of vengeance.


The Blob
1958 · 1h 22m · US
A drive-in favorite, this sci-fi classic follows teenagers Steve and his best girl, Jane, as they try to protect their hometown from a gelatinous alien life form that engulfs everything it touches. The first to discover the substance and live to tell about it, Steve and Jane witness the blob destroying an elderly man, then it growing to a terrifying size. But no one else has seen the goo, and policeman Dave refuses to believe the kids without proof.


Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1956 · 1h 20m · US
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.


Godzilla Raids Again
1955 · 1h 22m · JP
Two fishing scout pilots make a horrifying discovery when they encounter a second Godzilla alongside a new monster named Anguirus. Without the weapon that killed the original, authorities attempt to lure Godzilla away from the mainland. But Anguirus soon arrives and the two monsters make their way towards Osaka as Japan braces for tragedy.


Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
1956 · 1h 21m · JP
During an assignment, foreign correspondent Steve Martin spends a layover in Tokyo and is caught amid the rampage of an unstoppable prehistoric monster the Japanese call 'Godzilla'. The only hope for both Japan and the world lies on a secret weapon, which may prove more destructive than the monster itself.


The Thing from Another World
1951 · 1h 27m · US
Scientists and US Air Force officials fend off a blood-thirsty alien organism while investigating at a remote arctic outpost.


Dracula
1958 · 1h 22m · UK
After Jonathan Harker attacks Dracula at his castle, the vampire travels to a nearby city, where he preys on the family of Harker's fiancée. The only one who may be able to protect them is Dr. van Helsing, Harker's friend and fellow-student of vampires, who is determined to destroy Dracula, whatever the cost.


Teenage Monster
1957 · 1h 5m · US
In a little Western town, a boy is subjected to rays from a meteor. As a result, he grows into a teenaged, hairy, psychopathic killer. His mother hides him in her basement.


The Raven
1951 · 14m · AT
A short horror film based on Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven.


The Curse of Frankenstein
1957 · 1h 23m · UK
Baron Victor Frankenstein has discovered life's secret and unleashed a blood-curdling chain of events resulting from his creation: a cursed creature with a horrid face — and a tendency to kill.


Sumpah Pontianak
1958 · 1h 26m · MY
The original "Pontianak" was made in 1957 directed by B.N. Rao and starred Maria Menado.The film was such a hit that in quick succession, two sequels were made "Dendam Pontianak" aka "Revenge of Pontianak" later in the same year (1957) and "Sumpah Pontianak" aka "The Curse of Pontianak") in 1958,both with Maria Menado."Dendam Pontianak" started the trend of introducing more than one supernatural being into the story,the other character being an old witch Nenek Kebayan(The Old Woman of the Forest)and by the time "Sumpah Pontianak" was made that had increased to four-female vampire Pontianak,an Orang Hutan(Wild Forest Man),a kind of bird-lizard creature and a Hantu Raya or "King Ghost"."Sumpah Pontianak" is an entertaining Malay horror movie with cheap special effects.The main female character Comel is infected by been infected with sumpah pontianak,the curse of the vampire and the villagers begin to die!


The Incredible Shrinking Man
1957 · 1h 21m · US
A dangerous combination of radiation and insecticide causes the unfortunate Scott Carey to shrink, slowly but surely, until he is only a few inches tall. His home becomes a wilderness where he must survive everything from spiders living in the cellar to his beloved cat.


The Bad Seed
1956 · 2h 9m · US
Air Force Colonel Kenneth Penmark and his wife, Christine, adore their daughter Rhoda, despite her secret tendency for selfishness. Christine keeps her knowledge of her daughter's darker side to herself, but when a schoolmate of Rhoda's dies mysteriously, her self-deception unravels.


Plan 9 from Outer Space
1957 · 1h 18m · US
In California, an old man grieves the loss of his wife, and dies the day after she is buried. However, the space soldier Eros and his mate Tanna use an electric device to resurrect them both, alongside the strong Inspector Clay, who was murdered by the alien-controlled dead couple. When the populations of Hollywood and Washington D.C. see flying saucers on the sky, a colonel, a police lieutenant, a commercial pilot, his wife, and a policeman try to stop the aliens.


Night of the Demon
1957 · 1h 36m · UK
American professor John Holden arrives in London for a conference on parapsychology only to discover that the colleague he was supposed to meet was killed in a freak accident the day before. It turns out that the deceased had been investigating a cult lead by Dr. Julian Karswell. Though a skeptic, Holden is suspicious of the devil-worshiping Karswell. Following a trail of mysterious manuscripts, Holden enters a world that makes him question his faith in science.


The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1956 · 1h 55m · FR
In 1482 Paris, Frollo, Chief Justice of benevolent King Louis XI, becomes infatuated by the beauty of Esmeralda, a young Romani girl. The hunchback Quasimodo, Frollo's protégé and bell-ringer of Notre Dame, lives in peace among the bells in the heights of the immense cathedral until he's involved by the twisted magistrate in his malicious plans to free himself from Esmeralda's alleged spell, which he believes to be the Devil's work.


The Hound of the Baskervilles
1959 · 1h 27m · UK
When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.


The Alligator People
1959 · 1h 14m · US
Under therapeutic hypnosis, a seemingly well-adjusted young woman tells a fantastic story, verified by lie detector, of her forgotten marriage to a man who disappeared on the day of their honeymoon, and of her search for him which takes her to a lonely mansion in a remote section of swampland tenanted by snakes, alligators, a drunken one-armed lout, a mysterious doctor, and a cold-hearted elderly woman who lives alone in a brooding manse.


It Came from Beneath the Sea
1955 · 1h 19m · US
A giant octopus, whose feeding habits have been affected by radiation from H-Bomb tests, rises from the Mindanao Deep to terrorize the California Coast.


Dendam Pontianak
1957 · MY
After the success of Pontianak, Balakrishna Narayana Rao (B. N. Rao) directed and released a sequel to his horror film – Dendam Pontianak. It came out in the same year as Pontianak, and Menado reprised her role in this sequel.


The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
1953 · 1h 20m · US
The controlled explosion of an atomic bomb in the Arctic Circle awakens a frozen dinosaur that will wreak havoc in New York City.


Son of the Vampire
1958 · 1h 43m · MY
"Anak Pontianak" aka "Son of Pontianak' in 1958 starring the Shaw studio's leading lady Hashimah Yon and its male heartthrob Jins Shamsuddin. This horror film also featured a host of supernatural beings,besides the Pontianak and her werewolf son there was also a Polong (in the film the creature was shown as a kind of Mr Hyde alter-ego of one of the characters) and a Hantu Ular (Snake Ghost).


Return of the Fly
1959 · 1h 20m · US
Fifteen years after his father's experiments with matter transmission fail, Philippe Delambre and his uncle François attempt to create a matter transmission device on their own. However, their experiments have disastrous results, turning Philippe into a horrible half-man, half-fly creature.


The Man Without a Face
1950 · 1h 31m · MX
A faceless killer who hunts women can only be stopped by a detective with a disturbing past.
Ligeia
Ligeia
1959 · AR
Edgar Allan Poe's short story adapted as a TV-Movie in Argentina.


It Came from Outer Space
1953 · 1h 20m · US
Author and amateur astronomer John Putnam and schoolteacher Ellen Fields witness an enormous meteorite come down near a small town in Arizona. Putnam becomes a local object of scorn when, after examining the object up close, he announces that it is a spacecraft, and that it is inhabited...


The Mummy
1959 · 1h 28m · UK
One by one the archaeologists who discover the 4,000-year-old tomb of Princess Ananka are brutally murdered. Kharis, high priest in Egypt 40 centuries ago, has been brought to life by the power of the ancient gods and his sole purpose is to destroy those responsible for the desecration of the sacred tomb. But Isobel, wife of one of the explorers, resembles the beautiful princess, forcing the speechless and tormented monster to defy commands and abduct Isobel to an unknown fate.


Gorilla at Large
1954 · 1h 23m · US
At a carnival called the Garden of Evil, a man is murdered, apparently by a gorilla...


Revenge of the Creature
1955 · 1h 22m · US
In a tributary of the Amazon, a monster – half-man, half-fish – is captured and placed in a reservoir in a Florida national park to be observed by scientists.


Rodan
1956 · 1h 12m · JP
Mining engineer Shigeru investigates the disappearance and death of his fellow coworkers when prehistoric nymphs are discovered emerging from the mines. After an attack on the local village, Shigeru heads deeper into the mines only to make a more horrifying discovery in the form a prehistoric flying creature. Soon a second monster appears as the two converge in Fukuoka.


The Abominable Snowman
1957 · 1h 25m · UK
A kindly English botanist and a gruff American promoter lead an expedition to the Himalayas in search of the legendary Yeti.


Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy
1955 · 1h 19m · US
Bud and Lou, two stranded American archaeologists, run afoul of an Egyptian cult with big plans to resurrect the mummified corpse of Klaris, guardian of his Princess Ara's treasure-filled tomb. When Lou accidentally eats the cursed medallion needed to find the ancient treasure, the two become targets of the cult's leader, his goons, a mysterious femme fatale, and the mummy of Klaris himself!


The Mad Magician
1954 · 1h 12m · US
Don Gallico is an inventor of stage magic effects who aspires to become a star in his own right. Just before his first performance his act is shut down by capricious manager Ross Ormond who wants Gallico's brilliant buzz saw effect for the act of The Great Rinaldi, an established star. With this defeat, and the humiliation of having already lost his wife Claire to Ormond, Gallico decides it is time to take matters into his own hands.


Fright
1956 · 1h 8m · US
A woman believes herself to be the reincarnated spirit of an ancient prince's lover. Meanwhile, a murderer turns out to be the reincarnated spirit of the prince himself.
1950s cinema fought television with everything it had: widescreen formats, colour, and spectacle. Underneath the scale, it was also the decade of Japanese cinema's international breakthrough and the birth of the modern art film.
Horror is cinema's most reliable laboratory — cheap to make, endlessly reinvented, and unusually good at smuggling in subtext. Every few years a national wave redefines it: Italian giallo, Japanese J-horror, the Korean thriller, American indie horror.