On July 5, 2023, the Horror Film Club will celebrate our 100th meeting! That means 100 sessions of classic chillers, every month! In celebration of our milestone, I wanted to celebrate by sharing 100 classic horror films with all of you! Some of these are films that we watched in the group, but some of them aren’t. My reasoning for not including a strict list of our viewing history is twofold: 1.) Many of the films we showed were borrowed from group members’ personal collections and aren’t actually available at the library. And 2.) We watched some of these films more than once, as new members joined the group and requested previously viewed titles. So, since a strict list of HFC-viewed titles that are available in our collection would be less than 100, I’ve padded the list with some other classic fare that is sure to entertain!
I’ve grouped all the titles by year, starting in the 1920s and moving up to the early 1970s. The list is absolutely massive, though, so I’ve broken it up into two separate posts–keep an eye out for part 2 in just a few days!
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) A hypnotist uses his powers of mesmerism to put his sleepwalking assistant into a murderous trance.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) A well-meaning scientist’s potion releases all the evil in his heart, turning him into a murderous scoundrel.
Nosferatu (1922) This classic silent film, once considered lost, is the first time Bram Stoker’s immortal Count made his appearance on the silver screen.
The Phantom of the Opera (1925) A disfigured madman living under the opera house falls in love with his beautiful protegee as he teaches her how to sing. In hopes of making her fall in love with him, he kidnaps her and brings her into his underground world.
The Lodger (1927) A landlady becomes increasingly concerned that her new lodger is actually a killer known as The Avenger, who has been targeting young women in the area.
Dracula (1931) A charismatic, handsome vampire steals away to England and sets his sites on the unsuspecting populous.
Frankenstein (1931) The Boris Karloff classic, featuring a man who created a monster out of corpses (and finds to his horror what happens when you play God).
M (1931) When a string of child murders brings an unwanted police presence, the criminal underworld rallies together to find the killer themselves.
The Island of Lost Souls (1932) After getting shipwrecked on a remote island in the South Seas, a sailor discovers the horrifying experiments his new host conducts on the island’s animals.
The Mummy (1932) An unearthed mummy returns to life and searches for the reincarnation of the lost love for whom he was buried alive.
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) A scientist trying to prove the kinship of humans and apes kidnaps young women to use in his horrible experiments. when his girlfriend is kidnapped, a young medical student must discover her whereabouts before its too late.
The Old Dark House (1932) A group of travelers become stranded in a storm and seek refuge in the house of the Femm family, not realizing the horrors that lurk within.
White Zombie (1932) Rich landowner Charles Beaumont falls in love with Madeline Short, and tries to woo her away from her fiance. When his attempts fail, he enlists the assistance of a local witch doctor, who turns Madeline into a mindless zombie instead.
The Invisible Man (1933) A brilliant scientist’s latest experiment turns him invisible, but starts to drive him mad. With no antidote to his condition, he must try and reverse the formula before he loses the last of his sanity.
Night of Terror (1933) Before getting married, a scientist wants to complete an experiment that involves being buried alive. Meanwhile, a murderous maniac has been spotted near the house, and the mysterious psychic on the household’s payroll believes that death will strike before the night is over.
Supernatural (1933) The ghost of a serial murderess takes over the body of a young woman during a seance in order to exact revenge on her former lover, a phony psychic, who betrayed her.
The Vampire Bat (1933) After multiple townsfolk are found dead from blood-loss, the survivors become determined to find the vampire responsible.
The Black Cat (1934) Two newlyweds befriend a doctor on their train ride and soon become entangled in his deadly revenge plot against a satanic priest.
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) In the second of the Frankenstein films, Henry Frankenstein has given up his experiments for good. But, the blackmailing scientist, Dr. Pretorius, forces him out of retirement in order to create a second monster.
The Raven (1935) An Edgar Allan Poe-obsessed doctor falls in love with a much younger woman and kidnaps her father to force her to marry him.
Werewolf of London (1935) After a tragic accident in Tibet, a botanist returns to England only to find that he transforms into a monster under the light of the full moon.
Dracula’s Daughter (1936) After the events of Dracula, a woman transformed into a vampire by the titular count seeks a cure from her own condition, but finds that the draw of blood is more powerful than the force of her will.
The Invisible Ray (1936) A scientist discovers the new element, Radium X, but the radiation drives him mad. Convinced that his business associates are plotting to take the credit for his discovery, he begins to kill them off, one-by-one, leaving glowing hand prints at the site of each death.
The Cat and the Canary (1939) Gathering for the reading of the will, a group of heirs find themselves caught up in a cycle of murder and madness.
The Human Monster (1939) A doctor enlists the help of his murderous blind assistant to kill men in order to collect their life insurance policies.
Son of Frankenstein (1939) Returning to his ancestral home after his father’s passing, Wolf Frankenstein discovers that the monster Henry Frankenstein had created is still alive.
The Devil Bat (1940) A beloved doctor becomes convinced that he was cheated by his business partners so he concocts a plan to kill them all, by gifting each one a sample of a special aftershave lotion that attracts his giant killer bat.
The Invisible Man Returns (1940) Falsely accused of killing his brother and thrown into prison, the owner of a coal mining operation injects himself with the original Invisible Man’s serum in order to escape and prove his innocence. But, the drug begins to drive him mad.
The Invisible Woman (1940) Destitute and desperate, a young model takes on a job as the assistant to a mad scientist, who turns her invisible. While the effects last, she decides to take advantage of her newfound powers to settle a few scores.
The Mummy’s Hand (1940) A group of archaeologists digging up the tomb of Princess Ananka accidentally incur the ire of the mummy, Kharis, who guards her tomb in death. (HFC’s 100th meeting film!)
The Wolf Man (1941) A young man returning to his ancestral home from America is bitten by a wolf while visiting a gypsy camp. Soon, he starts to transform into a wolf himself.
The Corpse Vanishes (1942) In order to keep his wife alive and young, a scientist kills young women to steal their bodies and extract a special fluid from their glands.
Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) After the failure of his father and brother, Ludwig Frankenstein is visited by the hunchbacked Ygor, who asks his help in resurrecting the monster again.
The Invisible Agent (1942) The Invisible Man’s grandson is the only person who knows the secret of invisibility. He uses his power to act as a spy against Nazi Germany.
The Mummy’s Tomb (1942) An Egyptian high priest travels to America with his living mummy, Kharis, in tow, in order to kill those who desecrated the tomb of the princess Ananka thirty years before.
Ape Man (1943) In an experiment gone horribly wrong, a crazed scientist turns himself into a creature that is half human and half ape.
Calling Dr. Death (1943) After a weekend’s worth of missing time, a doctor awakens to learn that his beautiful, but cruel wife has been murdered. As he had motive and no memory of his goings-on before her death, he believes he might be the killer and asks his assistant to hypnotize him to learn the truth.
Captive Wild Woman (1943) A scientist performs studies in glandular research, attempting to turn a female gorilla into a human woman.
Dead Men Walk (1943) A kindly small-town doctor secretly murdered his devil-worshiping twin brother. But, his brother returns from the grave seeking vengeance.
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man seeks the help of Dr. Frankenstein, believing that he has the skills and knowledge to lift the werewolf curse.
Son of Dracula (1943) Katherine, a beautiful Southern belle obsessed with the occult invites a strange new visitor to her estate, the mysterious foreigner, Count Alucard.
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) On his wedding day, a theatre critic learns that his sweet old aunts are serial killers, and that his psychotic brother, Jonathan, has just escaped from prison.
Dead Man’s Eyes (1944) After a freak accident leaves him blind, an artist’s father-in-law promises him his eyes upon his death. But, when the father-in-law ends up dead quite suddenly, and under mysterious circumstances, the police suspect foul play.
House of Frankenstein (1944) Dr. Niemann and his assistant escape from prison and seek revenge on those who put them there, using a complex and diabolical plot that includes Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster.
The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944) Despite having the best of intentions, a scientist’s plans to test his invisibility formula on an escaped fugitive go horribly wrong, as the crook uses his newfound power to seek revenge on his former teammates.
The Lodger (1944) A landlady becomes increasingly convinced that her eccentric new tenant might actually be Jack the Ripper and that her beautiful niece is in danger.
The Mummy’s Curse (1944) The mummy Kharis is shipped to Louisiana and roams the bayou, tormented by his love for the princess Ananka.
The Mummy’s Ghost (1944) Kharis the mummy is given a potion that grants him eternal life, allowing him to seek further reincarnations of his lost love, despite the curse that haunts them both.
The Uninvited (1944) Two siblings purchase a beautiful seaside mansion for a pitifully cheap price, but soon learn the reason for securing such an excellent deal was the house’s unsavory past.
Weird Woman (1944) A professor falls in love with a beautiful native woman while on a South Seas trip and marries her. But, upon their return to his home, he expresses frustration that she won’t abandon her “superstitious ways,” especially as her people believed her to be some sort of supernatural being.
Well, that’s all for today, my fiends. Come back in a few days for the second half of our list!
