Decade
1940s Horror
The horror that defined the 1940s — ranked by Crypt Score, from era-defining classics to the deep cuts worth resurrecting.
87 titles
Dead of Night
›NR1945 · Horror, Thriller · 103m · Mervyn Johns, Roland Culver, Mary Merrall
An architect, visiting an English country house, realizes the other guests are familiar from his recurring nightmare. When they share their tales of the supernatural, he is filled with a growing dread.
Hold That Ghost
›NR1941 · Comedy, Horror · 86m · Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Richard Carlson
Two bumbling service station attendants are left as the sole beneficiaries in a gangster's will. Their trip to claim their fortune is sidetracked when they are stranded in a haunted house along with several other strangers.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
›NR1945 · Drama, Horror, Fantasy · 111m · Hurd Hatfield, George Sanders, Donna Reed
A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.
The Spiral Staircase
›NR1946 · Horror, Mystery, Thriller · 83m · Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore
On a stormy night, the mute servant to an ailing matriarch is stalked by a serial killer.
The Uninvited
›NR1944 · Mystery, Horror, Fantasy · 99m · Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Gail Russell
A pair of siblings from London [Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey] purchase a surprisingly affordable, lonely cliff-top house in Cornwall, England. Only to discover that it actually carries a ghostly price, and soon they’re caught up in a bizarre romantic triangle from beyond the grave. Rich in atmosphere, The Uninvited, directed by Lewis Allen, was groundbreaking for the seriousness with which it treated the supernatural, haunted house genre, and it remains an elegant and eerie experience, featuring a classic score by Victor Young. A tragic family past, a mysteriously locked room, cold chills, bumps in the night - this gothic Hollywood classic has it all.
Cat People
›NR1942 · Mystery, Horror, Romance · 73m · Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway
A Serbian émigré in Manhattan believes that, because of an ancient curse, any physical intimacy with the man she loves will turn her into a feline predator.
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein
›1948 · Horror, Comedy · 83m · Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney Jr.
The Wolf Man tries to warn a dimwitted porter that Dracula wants his brain for Frankenstein monster's body.
The Body Snatcher
›NR1945 · Horror, Thriller · 78m · Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell
Edinburgh, 1831. Among those who undertake the illegal trade of grave robbery is Gray, ostensibly a cab driver. Formerly a medical student convicted of grave robbery, Gray holds a grudge against Dr. MacFarlane who had escaped detection and punishment.
Lured
›NR1947 · Mystery, Crime, Thriller · 102m · George Sanders, Lucille Ball, Charles Coburn
Sandra Carpenter is a London-based dancer who is distraught to learn that her friend has disappeared. Soon after the disappearance, she's approached by Harley Temple, a police investigator who believes her friend has been murdered by a serial killer who uses personal ads to find his victims. Temple hatches a plan to catch the killer using Sandra as bait, and Sandra agrees to help.
The Queen of Spades
›NR1949 · Drama, Fantasy, Horror · 95m · Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans, Yvonne Mitchell
A czarist captain stops at nothing to learn the secrets of a countess rumored to have sold her soul to the devil in order to always win at cards.
The Time of Their Lives
›NR1946 · Comedy, Fantasy, Horror · 82m · Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marjorie Reynolds
Two ghosts, who were mistakenly branded as traitors during the Revolutionary War, return to 20th century New England to retrieve a letter from George Washington which would prove their innocence.
The Wolf Man
›NR1941 · Horror, Drama · 70m · Lon Chaney Jr., Claude Rains, Ralph Bellamy
After his brother's death, Larry Talbot returns home to his father and the family estate. Events soon take a turn for the worse when Larry is bitten by a werewolf.
I Walked with a Zombie
›NR1943 · Mystery, Horror, Drama · 69m · James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway
A nurse in the Caribbean turns to voodoo in hopes of curing her patient, a mindless woman whose husband she's fallen in love with.
The Dark Mirror
›1946 · Thriller, Mystery, Horror · 85m · Olivia de Havilland, Lew Ayres, Thomas Mitchell
A sister and her disturbed twin are implicated in a murder and a police detective must figure out which one's the killer.
The Ghost Breakers
›NR1940 · Comedy, Horror, Mystery · 85m · Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, Richard Carlson
After intrepid working girl Mary Carter becomes the new owner of a reputedly haunted mansion located off the Cuban coast, a stranger phones warning her to stay away from the castle. Undaunted, Mary sets sail for Cuba with a stowaway in her trunk—wise-cracking Larry Lawrence, a radio announcer who helps Mary get to the bottom of the voodoo magic, zombies and ghosts that supposedly curse the spooky estate.
The Seventh Victim
›1943 · Horror, Mystery, Drama · 71m · Kim Hunter, Tom Conway, Jean Brooks
After young Mary Gibson discovers that her older sister Jacqueline has disappeared, she leaves her boarding school and heads to New York City to track down her sibling. But Mary gets drawn deeper into the mystery.
Topper Returns
›1941 · Comedy, Fantasy, Mystery · 88m · Joan Blondell, Roland Young, Carole Landis
Topper is once again tormented by a fun-loving spirit. This time, it's Gail Richards, accidentally murdered while vacationing at the home of her wealthy friend, Ann Carrington, the intended victim. With Topper's help, Gail sets out to find her killer with the expected zany results.
The Curse of the Cat People
›1944 · Fantasy, Drama, Horror · 70m · Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph
Amy, the young, friendless daughter of Oliver and Alice Reed, befriends her father's late first wife and an aging, reclusive actress.
The Leopard Man
›NR1943 · Horror, Mystery, Crime · 66m · Dennis O'Keefe, Margo, Jean Brooks
When a leopard escapes during a publicity stunt, it triggers a series of murders.
The Spider Woman
›NR1943 · Mystery, Crime, Thriller · 63m · Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Gale Sondergaard
Sherlock Holmes investigates a series of so-called "pajama suicides". He knows the female villain behind them is as cunning as Moriarty and as venomous as a spider.
The Face Behind the Mask
›NR1941 · Crime, Drama, Horror · 69m · Peter Lorre, Evelyn Keyes, Don Beddoe
A kindly, enthusiastic, newly-arrived American immigrant from Hungary is forced to turn to a life of crime after his face is badly disfigured in a hotel fire.
Isle of the Dead
›1945 · Horror, Drama, Mystery · 72m · Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Marc Cramer
On 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—suspects a young woman of being a vampiric demon.
The Lodger
›1944 · Thriller, Mystery, Horror · 84m · Merle Oberon, Laird Cregar, George Sanders
In Victorian era London, the inhabitants of a family home with rented rooms upstairs fear the new lodger is Jack the Ripper.
Black Friday
›1940 · Science Fiction, Crime, Horror · 70m · Stanley Ridges, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi
University professor George Kingsley is struck by gangsters while crossing the street, leaving him with brain damage and one of the gangsters, Cannon, paralyzed. Kingsley's friend Dr. Sovac attends to both men, and when Cannon offers him a reward for aiding his recovery, Kovac transplants part of Cannon's brain into the dying Kingsley's skull, creating a dual personality.