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
Revenge of the Zombies
›1943 · Horror, Comedy · 59m · John Carradine, Robert Lowery, Gale Storm
When Dr. Von Altermann's wife Lila dies mysteriously at his spooky mansion her relations suspect murder. They also suspect the doctor is turning her into a zombie, to join the army of living dead he hopes to devote to the Nazi cause. However, Lila, though dead, has developed a will of her own.
The Mummy's Ghost
›1944 · Horror, Fantasy · 60m · Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, Robert Lowery
An Egyptian high priest travels to America to reclaim the bodies of ancient Egyptian princess Ananka and her living guardian mummy Kharis. Learning that Ananka's spirit has been reincarnated into another body, he kidnaps a young woman of Egyptian descent with a mysterious resemblance to the princess. However, the high priest's greedy desires cause him to lose control of the mummy...
The Mummy's Curse
›1944 · Horror, Fantasy · 60m · Lon Chaney Jr., Peter Coe, Virginia Christine
After being buried in quicksand for the past 25 years, Kharis is set free to roam the rural bayous of Louisiana, as is the soul of his beloved Princess Ananka, still housed in the body of Amina Mansouri, who seeks help and protection at a swamp draining project.
Ghosts on the Loose
›NR1943 · Comedy, Mystery, Horror · 67m · Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan
The East Side Kids try to fix up a house for newlyweds, but find the place next door "haunted" by mysterious men.
The Monster Maker
›1944 · Horror, Science Fiction · 62m · J. Carrol Naish, Ralph Morgan, Tala Birell
Mad scientist injects his enemies with acromegaly virus, causing them to become hideously deformed.
The Mummy's Tomb
›1942 · Horror, Fantasy · 61m · Lon Chaney Jr., Dick Foran, John Hubbard
A high priest of Karnak travels to America with the living mummy Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) to kill all those who had desecrated the tomb of the Egyptian princess Ananka thirty years earlier.
Dead Men Walk
›1943 · Horror, Mystery · 64m · George Zucco, Mary Carlisle, Nedrick Young
When a small town doctor buries his twin brother, a practitioner of the black arts, he believes him dead; but subsequent events force him to realize that his brother has, in fact, returned from the dead as a vampire and is seeking revenge on the doctor, who had killed him in self-defense.
The Ape Man
›NR1943 · Horror, Science Fiction, Crime · 64m · Bela Lugosi, Louise Currie, Wallace Ford
A scientist is turned into an ape man.
The Ape
›NR1940 · Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction · 62m · Boris Karloff, Maris Wrixon, Gene O'Donnell
Dr. Bernard Adrian is a kindly scientist who seeks to cure a young woman's polio. He needs human spinal fluid to complete the formula for his experimental serum. Meanwhile, a vicious circus ape has broken out of its cage, and is terrorizing the townspeople. Can there be a connection?
Scared to Death
›NR1947 · Horror, Mystery, Thriller · 68m · Bela Lugosi, George Zucco, Nat Pendleton
A woman is married to the son of a doctor, the proprietor of a private sanatorium, where she is under unwilling treatment. Both the son and the doctor indicate they want the marriage dissolved. Arriving at the scene is a mysterious personage identified as the doctor's cousin who formerly was a stage magician in Europe. He is accompanied by a threatening dwarf.
The Brute Man
›1946 · Horror, Thriller, Crime · 58m · Rondo Hatton, Tom Neal, Jan Wiley
A facially disfigured and mentally unhinged man wreaks his revenge on those he blames for his condition.
Black Dragons
›NR1942 · Thriller, Mystery, Horror · 64m · Bela Lugosi, Clayton Moore, Joan Barclay
It is prior to the commencement of World War II, and Japan's fiendish Black Dragon Society is hatching an evil plot with the Nazis. They instruct a brilliant scientist, Dr. Melcher, to travel to Japan on a secret mission. There he operates on six Japanese conspirators, transforming them to resemble six American leaders. The actual leaders are murdered and replaced with their likeness.
The Corpse Vanishes
›NR1942 · Science Fiction, Horror · 63m · Bela Lugosi, Luana Walters, Tristram Coffin
A scientist keeps his wife young by killing, stealing the bodies of, and taking the gland fluid from virgin brides.
She-Wolf of London
›1946 · Mystery, Horror, Thriller · 61m · Don Porter, June Lockhart, Sara Haden
A young heiress finds evidence suggesting that at night she acts under the influence of a family curse and has begun committing ghastly murders in a nearby park.
The Mad Monster
›NR1942 · Horror · 77m · George Zucco, Anne Nagel, Johnny Downs
A mad scientist changes his simple-minded handyman into a werewolf in order to prove his supposedly crazy scientific theories - and exact revenge.