Decade
1950s Horror
The horror that defined the 1950s — ranked by Crypt Score, from era-defining classics to the deep cuts worth resurrecting.
151 titles
It! The Terror from Beyond Space
›NR1958 · Science Fiction, Horror · 69m · Marshall Thompson, Shirley Patterson, Kim Spalding
The first manned expedition to Mars is invaded by an unknown life form, which stows away on the rescue ship.
Fiend Without a Face
›1958 · Horror, Science Fiction · 74m · Marshall Thompson, Kynaston Reeves, Kim Parker
An American airbase in Canada provokes resentment from the nearby residents after fallout from nuclear experiments at the base are blamed for a recent spate of disappearances. A captain from the airbase is assigned to investigate, and begins to suspect that an elderly British scientist who lives near the base and conducts research in the field of mind over matter knows more than he is letting on..
X: The Unknown
›1956 · Horror, Science Fiction, Mystery · 81m · Dean Jagger, Leo McKern, William Lucas
Army radiation experiments awaken a subterranean monster from a fissure that feeds on energy and proceeds to terrorise a remote Scottish village. An American research scientist at a nearby nuclear plant joins with a British investigator to discover why the victims were radioactively burned and why, shortly thereafter, a series of radiation-related incidents are occurring in an ever-growing straight line away from the fissure.
Not of This Earth
›NR1957 · Science Fiction, Horror · 67m · Paul Birch, Beverly Garland, Morgan Jones
An alien from planet Davanna, whose population has developed a terminal blood disease caused by nuclear radiation, is sent to Earth to acquire fresh human blood for his people.
4D Man
›NR1959 · Science Fiction, Horror · 85m · Robert Lansing, Lee Meriwether, James Congdon
Two brothers, scientists Scott and Tony Nelson, develop an amplifier which enables a person to enter a 4th dimensional state, allowing him to pass through any object. Scott experiments on himself and discovers that each time he passes through something he ages rapidly. He begins killing people, sucking out their life energies and regaining his youth as a result.
Man in the Attic
›1953 · Thriller, Crime, Horror · 82m · Jack Palance, Constance Smith, Byron Palmer
London, 1888: on the night of the third Jack the Ripper killing, soft-spoken Mr. Slade, a research pathologist, takes lodgings with the Harleys, including a gloomy attic room for "experiments." Mrs. Harley finds Slade odd and increasingly suspects the worst; her niece Lily (star of a decidedly Parisian stage revue) finds him interesting and increasingly attractive. Is Lily in danger, or are her mother's suspicions merely a red herring?
Jack the Ripper
›NR1959 · Mystery, Crime, Horror · 84m · Lee Patterson, Eddie Byrne, Betty McDowall
A serial killer is murdering women in the Whitechapel district of London. An American policeman is brought in to help Scotland Yard solve the case.
The Black Sleep
›NR1956 · Horror, Science Fiction · 82m · Basil Rathbone, Herbert Rudley, Patricia Blair
In 19th century England, a noted brain surgeon rescues a former student from being hanged on a false conviction for murder, and spirits him away to an ancient, repurposed abbey far in the countryside. There, he connives his pupil into assisting him in mapping the functions of the various parts of the human brain, using living subjects who are under a terrible animation-suspending drug called "black sleep". Subsequently, the student, along with the daughter of one of the subjects, discover that most of these subjects have survived but are being kept in a dungeon-like cellar, in various stages of physical and mental derangement...
Curse of the Undead
›1959 · Horror, Western · 79m · Eric Fleming, Michael Pate, Kathleen Crowley
A mysterious epidemic has struck an Old West frontier town and young girls are falling deathly ill. Doc Carter, his lovely daughter Dolores, and preacher Dan Young have their hands full caring for the infirm. When one of the patients dies unexpectedly, Dan notices two puncture wounds on her neck. His investigation leads him to the strange gunslinger Drake Robey, who always seems to be slower on the draw than his opponents, but who—despite being outdrawn, and even shot—always manages to survive these deadly encounters. Dan soon discovers that Drake also has an aversion to crucifixes, sleeps in coffins, and cannot tolerate sunlight...
The Colossus of New York
›NR1958 · Horror, Science Fiction · 70m · John Baragrey, Mala Powers, Otto Kruger
A brilliant surgeon encases his dead son's brain in a large robot body, with unintended results...
The Maze
›1953 · Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction · 80m · Richard Carlson, Veronica Hurst, Katherine Emery
A Scotsman abruptly breaks off his engagement to pretty Kitty and moves to his uncle's castle in the Scottish highlands. Kitty and her aunt follow Gerald a few weeks later, and discover he has suddenly aged. Some mysterious things happen in a maze made from the hedges adjoining the castle.
Cult of the Cobra
›1955 · Horror · 82m · Faith Domergue, Richard Long, Marshall Thompson
While stationed in Asia, six American G.I.'s witness the secret ritual of Lamians (worshipers of women who can change into serpents). When discovered by the cult, the High Lamian Priest vows that "the Cobra Goddess will avenge herself". Once back in the United States, a mysterious woman enters into their lives and accidents begin to happen. The shadow of a cobra is seen just before each death.
The Vampire
›NR1957 · Horror, Science Fiction · 76m · John Beal, Coleen Gray, Kenneth Tobey
A small town doctor mistakenly ingests an experimental drug made from the blood of vampire bats which transforms the kindly medic into a bloodthirsty monster.
It Came from Beneath the Sea
›1955 · Science Fiction, Adventure, Horror · 79m · Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, Donald Curtis
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.
The Return of Dracula
›NR1958 · Horror · 77m · Francis Lederer, Norma Eberhardt, Ray Stricklyn
After a vampire leaves his native Balkans, he murders a Czech artist, assumes his identity, and moves in with the dead man's American cousins.
The Werewolf
›NR1956 · Horror, Science Fiction · 79m · Steven Ritch, Don Megowan, Joyce Holden
The arrival in a small mountain town of a dissheveled stranger launches a series of murders committed by some sort of animal. As the town doctor and his daughter attempt to help the stranger, the sheriff investigates the murders; and they uncover a sinister experiment involving two rogue scientists, a car accident victim, his wife and children, and a serum that causes a man to turn into a ravaging werewolf.
The Monster That Challenged the World
›NR1957 · Horror, Science Fiction · 84m · Tim Holt, Audrey Dalton, Hans Conried
Giants Mollusks are released from the earth by an earthquake and start killing people.
Monster on the Campus
›1958 · Horror, Science Fiction · 77m · Arthur Franz, Joanna Moore, Judson Pratt
A college paleontology professor acquires a newly discovered specimen of a coelacanth, but while examining it, he is accidentally exposed to its blood, and finds himself periodically turning into a murderous Neanderthal man.
Macabre
›1958 · Horror, Thriller, Mystery · 72m · William Prince, Jacqueline Scott, Jim Backus
After his wife and her blind sister have died under his care, a doctor's young daughter is kidnapped and reported as buried alive, leaving him with mere hours to find and rescue her.
The Magnetic Monster
›NR1953 · Science Fiction, Horror · 76m · Richard Carlson, King Donovan, Leo Britt
The Office of Scientific Investigations tracks down the source of increased magnetism and radioactivity in Los Angeles, and discovers that a man-made isotope is consuming available energy from nearby mass every few hours, doubling its size in the process. Although microscopic, it will soon become big enough to destroy Earth; and how to stop it is yet to be determined. The film's Deltatron special effects footage is taken from the 1934 German sci-fi film GOLD.
Donovan's Brain
›1953 · Science Fiction, Horror, Thriller · 83m · Lew Ayres, Nancy Reagan, Gene Evans
A scientist takes the brain of dead man and revives it via electrodes as it lays suspended in a tank of liquid. Soon, the brain grows to possess enormous psychic powers and inflicts its personality upon the doctor who saved it, creating a "Jekyll and Hyde" paradigm.
Gigantis, the Fire Monster
›1959 · Action, Horror, Science Fiction · 78m · Hiroshi Koizumi, Setsuko Wakayama, Minoru Chiaki
A prehistoric monster called Gigantis emerges alongside another creature named Angurus.
The Girl in Black Stockings
›1957 · Crime, Drama, Mystery · 75m · Lex Barker, Anne Bancroft, Mamie Van Doren
Residents at a posh Utah hotel become suspects when a girl is found murdered during a pool party. Local sheriff Jess Holmes takes charge of the investigation and must discover who among the terrified guests and staff -- including bodacious vixen Harriet Ames, the hotel's bitter, crippled proprietor, visiting lawyer David Hewson and his secretary, Beth -- is the culprit, even as murders continue to take place.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy
›1955 · Adventure, Horror, Comedy · 79m · Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marie Windsor
Stranded in Egypt, Bud and Lou find themselves in the buried tomb of a living mummy.