List of horror films of the 1940s explained

A list of horror films released in the 1940s. After the success of Son of Frankenstein (1939), Universal horror caught a second wind and horror films continued to be produced at a feverish pace into the mid-1940s. The early 1940s saw the debut of Lon Chaney Jr. and "The Wolf Man", both of which became fixtures in the Universal landscape. Meanwhile, Count Dracula and Frankenstein's monster appeared in numerous sequels, often together in what was colloquially called "monster rally" films.

Hoping to present a viable alternative to the Universal juggernaut, RKO decided to embark on a series of its own horror films, starting with Cat People in 1942. Led by producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur, this critically acclaimed series focused less on visible horrors and more on the psychological aspects of fear.

List

Horror films released in the 1940s

Title	Director	Cast	Country	Notes
	1940
	The Ape			United States	^[1]
	Before I Hang			United States	^[2]
	Black Friday			United States	^[3]
	The Devil Bat			United States	^[4]
	The Door with Seven Locks		Leslie Banks, Lilli Palmer, Romilly Lunge		^[5]
	Dr. Cyclops			United States	^[6]
	The Ghost Breakers			United States
	The Invisible Man Returns			United States	^[7]
	The Mummy's Hand			United States	^[8]
	Son of Ingagi	Richard Kahn		United States	^[9]
	You'll Find Out			United States	^[10]
	1941
	The Black Cat			United States		^[11]
	The Devil Commands		Boris Karloff, Richard Fiske, Amanda Duff	United States	^[12]
	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde			United States	^[13]
	Horror Island			United States	^[14]
	Invisible Ghost		Bela Lugosi, Polly Ann Young, John McGuire	United States	^[15]
	King of the Zombies			United States	^[16]
	Man Made Monster			United States	^[17]
	The Monster and the Girl			United States	^[18]
	Spooks Run Wild			United States	^[19]
	The Wolf Man			United States	^[20]
	1942
	The Boogie Man Will Get You			United States	^[21]
	Cat People			United States	^[22]
	The Corpse Vanishes			United States	^[23]
	Dr. Renault's Secret			United States	^[24]
	The Ghost of Frankenstein			United States	^[25]
	A Light in the Window			Argentina	^[26]
	The Mad Doctor of Market Street			United States	^[27]
	The Mad Monster			United States	^[28]
	The Mummy's Tomb			United States	^[29]
	Night Monster			United States	^[30]
	The Undying Monster			United States	^[31]
	1943
	The Ape Man			United States	^[32]
	Captive Wild Woman			United States	^[33]
	Carnival of Sinners		Antoine Balpêtré, Pierre Fresnay, André Bacque	France	^[34]
	Dead Men Walk			United States	^[35]
	Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man			United States	^[36]
	I Walked with a Zombie			United States	^[37]
	The Leopard Man				^[38]
	The Mad Ghoul			United States	^[39]
	The Mysterious Doctor	Ben Stoloff		United States
	The Return of the Vampire			United States	^[40]
	Revenge of the Zombies			United States	^[41]
	The Seventh Victim			United States	^[42]
	Son of Dracula			United States	^[43]
	1944
	The Climax			United States	^[44]
	Crazy Knights			United States
	Cry of the Werewolf			United States	^[45]
	The Ghost Catchers			United States
	House of Frankenstein			United States	^[46]
	The Invisible Man's Revenge	Ford Beebe		United States	^[47]
	Jungle Woman			United States	^[48]
	The Lady and the Monster			United States	^[49]
	The Man in Half Moon Street	Ralph Murphy		United States
	The Monster Maker			United States	^[50]
	The Mummy's Curse			United States	^[51]
	The Mummy's Ghost			United States	^[52]
	Return of the Ape Man			United States	^[53]
	The Tower of the Seven Hunchbacks			Spain
	The Uninvited			United States
	Voodoo Man			United States	^[54]
	Weird Woman			United States	^[55]
	1945
	La Fiancée des ténèbres			France	^[56]
	Dead of Night			United Kingdom	^[57]
	Fog Island			United States	^[58]
	House of Dracula			United States	^[59]
	Isle of the Dead			United States	^[60]
	The Jungle Captive			United States	^[61]
	The Picture of Dorian Gray			United States	Supernatural horror film^[62]
	The Vampire's Ghost			United States	^[63]
	Zombies on Broadway			United States
	1946
	The Beast with Five Fingers			United States	^[64]
	The Cat Creeps			United States
	The Catman of Paris			United States	^[65]
	The Devil Bat's Daughter		Rosemary La Planche, John James, Michael Hale	United States	^[66]
	The Face of Marble			United States	^[67]
	The Flying Serpent		George Zucco, Ralph Lewis, Hope Kramer	United States	^[68]
	House of Horrors			United States	^[69]
	The Mask of Diijon		Erich Von Stroheim, Jeanne Bates, William Wright	United States	^[70]
	She-Wolf of London			United States	^[71]
	The Spider Woman Strikes Back			United States
	Strangler of the Swamp			United States
	Valley of the Zombies			United States	^[72]
	1948
	Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein			United States	Horror comedy^[73]
	The Creeper			United States	^[74]
	1949
	Mahal			India	Romantic horror^[75]
	New Version of the Ghost of Yotsuya		Kinuyo Tanaka, Ken Uehara, Hisako Yamane	Japan

See also

• Lists of horror films

References

Bibliography

• Book: Hallenbeck, Bruce G. . 2009 . Comedy-horror films: a chronological history, 1914–2008 . Jefferson, N.C . McFarland . 978-0-7864-3332-2 .
• Book: Hardy . Phil . Phil Hardy (journalist) . 1995 . The Overlook Film Encyclopedia . 3 . . 0-87951-624-0 .
• Book: Prince, Stephen . 2004 . The Horror Film . Rutgers University Press . 0-8135-3363-5 .
• Book: Worland, Rick . The Horror Film: A Brief Introduction . . 2007 . 978-1-4051-3902-1 .

External links

• Horror films of the 1940s on Internet Movie Database

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Ape. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Binion, Cavett.
2. Web site: Before I Hang. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
3. Web site: Black Friday. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
4. Web site: The Devil Bat. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Binion, Cavett.
5. Web site: The Door with Seven Locks. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
6. Web site: Dr. Cyclops. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Binion, Cavett.
7. Web site: The Invisible Man Returns. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
8. Web site: The Mummy's Hand. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
9. Web site: Son of Ingagi. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Brennan, Sandra.
10. Web site: You'll Find Out. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
11. Web site: The Black Cat . Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
12. Web site: The Devil Commands . Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
13. Web site: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Review. Allmovie. August 17, 2011 . Butler, Craig.
14. Web site: Horror Island. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Brennan, Sandra.
15. Web site: The Invisible Ghost. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
16. Web site: King of the Zombies. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Brennan, Sandra.
17. Web site: Man Made Monster. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
18. Web site: The Monster and the Girl. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
19. Web site: Spooks Run Wild. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Wollstein, Hans J.
20. Web site: The Wolf Man. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
21. Web site: The Boogie Man Will Get You. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
22. Web site: Cat People. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
23. Web site: The Corpse Vanishes. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Wollstein, Hans J.
24. Web site: Dr. Renault's Secret. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Brennan, Sandra.
25. Web site: The Ghost of Frankenstein. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
26. Rist, Peter H. Historical Dictionary of South American Cinema. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, pp. 324
27. Web site: The Mad Doctor of Market Street. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Brennan, Sandra.
28. Web site: The Mad Monster. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Wollstein, Hans J.
29. Web site: The Mummy's Tomb. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Wollstein, Hans J.
30. Web site: Night Monster. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Huey, Steve.
31. Web site: The Undying Monster. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
32. Web site: The Ape Man. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Binion, Cavett.
33. Web site: Captive Wild Woman. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Wollstein, Hans J.
34. Web site: La Main du Diable. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
35. Web site: Dead Men Walk. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Binion, Cavett.
36. Web site: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
37. Web site: I Walked with a Zombie. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
38. Web site: The Leopard Man (1943) - Jacques Tourneur | Synopsis, Movie Info, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie .
39. Web site: The Mad Ghoul. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
40. Web site: The Return of the Vampire. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
41. Web site: Revenge of the Zombies. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
42. Web site: The Seventh Victim. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
43. Web site: Son of Dracula. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
44. Web site: The Climax. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
45. Web site: Cry of the Werewolf. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Wollstein, Hans J.
46. Web site: House of Frankenstein. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
47. Web site: The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944). American Film Institute. July 8, 2020.
48. Web site: Jungle Woman. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Binion, Cavett.
49. Web site: The Lady and the Monster. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
50. Web site: The Monster Maker. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
51. Web site: The Mummy's Curse. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Binion, Cavett.
52. Web site: The Mummy's Ghost. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Wollstein, Hans J.
53. Web site: Return of the Ape Man. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Brennan, Sandra.
54. Web site: Voodoo Man. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
55. Web site: Weird Woman. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Wollstein, Hans J.
56. Web site: La Fiancee Des Tenebres. Allmovie. February 16, 2024. Blaise, Judd.
57. Web site: Dead of Night. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Blaise, Judd.
58. Web site: Fog Island. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Binion, Cavett.
59. Web site: House of Dracula. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
60. Web site: Isle of the Dead. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Wollstein, Hans J.
61. Web site: Jungle Captive. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Binion, Cavett.
62. Web site: The Picture of Dorian Gray. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
63. Web site: The Vampire's Ghost. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
64. Web site: Blaise, Judd . The Beast with Five Fingers. Allmovie. August 7, 2011.
65. Web site: The Catman of Paris. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
66. Web site: The Devil Bat's Daughter. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Brennan, Sandra.
67. Web site: The Face of Marble. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Brennan, Sandra.
68. Web site: The Flying Serpent. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Binion, Cavett.
69. Web site: House of Horrors. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Binion, Cavett.
70. Web site: The Mask of Diijon. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Hobart, Tana.
71. Web site: She-Wolf of London. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erlewine, Iotis.
72. Web site: Valley of the Zombies. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
73. Web site: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
74. Web site: The Creeper. Allmovie. August 7, 2011. Erickson, Hal.
75. Web site: Michael Blyth Updated: 22 May 2015 . 10 great romantic horror films . BFI . 22 May 2015 . 30 March 2016.