A few days ago, I shared the first 50 titles of this list, which is a 100-film sampler to celebrate our Horror Film Club celebrating 100 meetings. If you’d like to see the other films, which range from 1920 to 1944, follow the link above. The titles below are from 1945 until 1972.
Frozen Ghost (1945) A freak accident convinces a hypnotist that he can kill with his mind, so he goes into hiding at his friend’s wax museum. His presence, however, aggravates an already tense relationship between his friend’s niece and her creepy assistant.
House of Dracula (1945) Kindly Dr. Edelman attempts to cure a repentant Dracula of his vampirism, only to be betrayed and turned into a ghoul.
Pillow of Death (1945) Wayne Fletcher and his secretary are having an affair, so of course when his wife is found murdered, Wayne becomes the prime suspect. As the police investigate the murder, a psychic with questionable motives tries to contact the deceased woman and Wayne starts seeing visions of his wife, as well.
Strange Confession (1945) A scientist working on a vaccine for influenza is betrayed and blacklisted by his employer, then forced to release the untested drug early, with tragic results.
She-Wolf of London (1946) Upon learning of a string of grisly murders in her neighborhood, a young woman finds mounting signs that she might be the killer, acting under the influence of an ancient family curse that turns her into a wolf.
Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947) Detective Dick Tracy might face off against a diabolical villain who incapacitates his victims with a powerful nerve gas.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) Two bumbling baggage handlers become embroiled in a dastardly plot orchestrated by Count Dracula, involving the Frankenstein Monster and a beautiful female scientist.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff (1949) Two hotel employees investigate an on-site murder in which one of them is the prime suspect. When a suspicious swami tries to force a confession using hypnotism, the pair will need to discover who the killer really is before its too late.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) A man wrongly accused of murder hires two bumbling detectives to help him clear his name. In order to keep himself hidden, he employs an invisibility potion that starts making him crazy. As their charge’s behavior becomes more and more erratic, it becomes a race against time to clear his name before he loses his mind.
Bride of the Gorilla (1951) An unscrupulous plantation manager kills his boss in order to marry his beautiful wife. But, soon after the wedding, he finds himself cursed, turning into a rampaging gorilla each night.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Aliens land in Washington, D.C. with a dire message for the people of Earth: cease your violent ways or be destroyed as a threat to the galaxy.
The Man from Planet X (1951) Isolated on a remote Scottish island, a professor, his daughter, and his assistant watch a strange planet barely avoid collision with Earth. Soon after, they hear reports of a strange craft landing on the island. But, what is their visitor’s intentions?
The Strange Door (1951) A noble-born cad is tricked into a forced stay at an eerie manor by a evil madman who wants him to marry his niece in a complicated revenge scheme. But, when the prospect of marriage turns out to be appealing to both of them, the uncle turns to more unsavory methods of revenge.
The Thing from Another World (1951) Arctic researchers thaw out a strange craft containing a bloodthirsty alien organism that starts hunting them.
House of Wax (1953) Losing everything, including the use of his hands, when his wax museum burns down, a crippled artist reopens his business years later, but all of his sculptures bear an uncanny resemblance to recent murder victims.
It Came from Outer Space (1953) A stargazer and his girlfriend witness a ship crashing in the middle of the desert, but no one will believe them. When the townsfolk begin to disappear, only to return acting strangely, the pair suspects that there is something deeply sinister at work.
The Phantom from Space (1953) A crashed asteroid brings a strange alien visitor who is completely invisible.
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) While on a trip to study a potential “missing link,” a group of scientists are tormented by a prehistoric fish-man who falls in love with the lone woman on the expedition.
Rear Window (1954) A bored reporter recovering from a broken leg starts spying on his neighbors for entertainment. But, when he witnesses what he believes to be a murder, he must discover the truth from the confines of his wheelchair.
Them! (1954) Atomic testing in the New Mexico desert causes the ants there to grow to astronomical proportions. These gigantic insects then begin preying on humans.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) Two bumbling archaeologists accidentally come into possession of a rare amulet that can be used to control the mummy, Klaris.
This Island Earth (1955) Aliens come to Earth to recruit the world’s top scientist to help them in an interplanetary war.
The Revenge of the Creature (1955) The Gill-Man has been captured and brought to an aquarium in Florida. However, he soon becomes infatuated with one of the female scientists and escapes, kidnapping her in the process.
The Black Sleep (1956) In order to cure his wife of a malignant brain tumor, a scientist kidnaps victim and experiments on them using a drug known as the black sleep.
The Creature Walks Among Us (1956) For incomprehensible reasons, scientists decide to experiment on the Gill-Man, turning him into an air-breather. The creature of course, escapes, and sets out on a rampage of revenge.
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) Extraterrestrials contact an Earth scientist to enlist his help in enslaving his own planet.
The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) A doctor discovers to his horror that his friends and neighbors are being replaced by emotionless replicas that hatch from alien pods.
The Blob (1958) An asteroid brings with it a strange blob-like being with a taste for human flesh. As the creature grows to epic proportions, a group of teens must figure out how to stop it before it eats them, too.
The Curse of the Faceless Man (1958) After discovering a stone-encrusted body at Pompeii, anyone left alone with the corpse are soon found dead, with their skulls crushed.
Horror of Dracula (1958) Jonathan Harker rouses the ire of Count Dracula after he accepts a job at the vampire’s castle under false pretenses. When the Count discovers Harker’s real intention was to kill him, he turns the young man into one of the walking dead and goes on a bloody rampage. Harker’s friend, Dr. Van Helsing might be the only one who can stop the murderous vampire.
I Bury the Living (1958) The director of a cemetery accidentally marks a purchased grave plot with a black pin, instead of a white one, designating the plot as not only owned, but occupied. When the new plot owner suddenly falls down dead, the director becomes convinced that he can kill people by marking their unoccupied graves as “occupied”.
The Screaming Skull (1958) Newlyweds Eric and Jenni move into Eric’s house, which is still maintained in the memory of his dead wife, Marianne. Jenni, who has a history of mental illness starts seeing strange things around the estate, including a mysterious, screaming skull.
The Bat (1959) Mystery writer Cornelia Van Gorder rented “The Oaks” since it was the site of a series of grisly murders and she’s hoping for inspiration for her latest book. But, the house soon becomes the site of more mysterious murders, after a bank president hides his embezzled money in the house.
A Bucket of Blood (1959) A busboy accidentally kills his landlady’s cat and covers the body in plaster to hide what he did. When his “sculpture” is shown to the public, everyone thinks that he’s an amazing sculptor, and he must continue to kill in order to find more bodies to cover in plaster and turn into statues.
House on Haunted Hill (1959) A group of strangers are invited to a haunted house party with the promise of a cash reward if they can spend the entire night. But soon after dark, the doors are locked, and the guests, all armed with pistols, are killed off, one by one.
The Killer Shrews (1959) When a hurricane prevents him from taking to the seas again, a sailor making a routine supply delivery to a remote island becomes trapped in the home of the island’s inhabitants while giant, man-eating shrews roam around the island and try to break in.
The Tingler (1959) Convinced that the source of the “tingling” in a person’s spine when they experience fear is caused by a living organism, a doctor conducts experiments with LSD and fear in order to discover the existence of the creature.
The Wasp Woman (1959) Desperate to restore her fading youth, the head of a cosmetics company experiments on herself with a serum made from royal jelly extracted from wasps–which comes with a horrifying and unexpected side-effect.
Hypnotic Eye (1960) A mysterious hypnotist is suspected by the police of being responsible for a wave of female mutilations.
Psycho (1960) A secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer’s client and goes on the run, checking in at a remote motel run by a shy young man and his domineering mother.
Mr. Sardonicus (1961) A sadistic Baron, whose face has been frozen in a hideous grin hires a prominent London physician and holds him hostage in order to force him into fixing his face.
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) A young man tries to discover the secret of his sister’s death after she married the son of the most sadistic of all the Inquisition torturers. While her husband claims that she died of a blood disease, her brother suspects that she was actually buried alive.
The Birds (1963) A wealthy socialite pursues a potential boyfriend in a small town. But, suddenly, all of the birds in the town seem to go mad and attack everyone.
The Terror (1963) Separated from his unit, French officer Lt. Duvalier receives help from a mysterious woman. But, when he follows her back to the castle of Baron Von Lepp, he discovers that she had died twenty years ago.
Twice Told Tales (1963) This anthology-style film combines three tales of terror from the imagination of Nathaniel Hawthrone.
The Last Man on Earth (1964) After a horrible disease turns most of the world’s population into bloodthirsty ghouls, a doctor, believing himself to be the only survivor, dedicates his life to tracking down the monsters and killing them during the day, while they try to break into his home and eat him during the night.
I Saw What You Did (1965) A series of prank phone calls goes horribly wrong when two teens unsuspectingly call a man who has just killed his wife and tell him “I saw what you did and I know who you are!”
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) A typesetter with dreams of being a reporter agrees to spend the night in a creepy haunted house that was the site of a double-murder twenty years before.
Night of the Living Dead (1968) Tensions rise as a group of strangers try to survive the night holed up in an abandoned farmhouse while cannibalistic ghouls try to force their way inside.
Night Stalker (1972) An abrasive reporter thinks he’s found his next big scoop when he discovers that a string of murders were committed by a vampire. But, when no one will believe him, he decides to take out the vampire on his own.
