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Best Horror Movies of the 1920s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
39 horror films from the 1920s are in our catalog; the 39 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Faust (1926), at 8.1 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.0.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Faust '1926 | Fantasy / Drama / Horror | 8.1 | 91% | - | 7.9 | F. W. Murnau |
| 2 | The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari '1920 | Drama / Horror / Thriller / Crime | 8.0 | 96% | - | 7.9 | Robert Wiene |
| 3 | The Phantom Carriage '1921 | Drama / Fantasy / Horror | 8.0 | 100% | - | 7.7 | Victor Sjöström |
| 4 | Nosferatu '1922 | Horror / Fantasy | 7.8 | 97% | - | 7.6 | F. W. Murnau |
| 5 | The Unknown '1927 | Thriller / Romance / Horror | 7.7 | 100% | - | 7.5 | Tod Browning |
| 6 | Un Chien Andalou '1929 | Fantasy / Thriller / Horror | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.4 | Luis Buñuel |
| 7 | The Man Who Laughs '1928 | Drama / Romance / Horror | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.4 | Paul Leni |
| 8 | Häxan '1922 | Documentary / Horror | 7.6 | 93% | - | 7.6 | Benjamin Christensen |
| 9 | The Skeleton Dance '1929 | Animation / Musical / Comedy / Horror | 7.6 | - | - | 7.4 | Walt Disney |
| 10 | The Phantom of the Opera '1925 | Horror / Musical | 7.5 | 90% | - | 7.1 | Rupert Julian |
| 11 | A Page of Madness '1926 | Horror / Drama | 7.3 | - | - | 7.3 | Teinosuke Kinugasa |
| 12 | The Fall of the House of Usher '1928 | Horror | 7.2 | 100% | - | 7.1 | Jean Epstein |
| 13 | The Golem: How He Came into the World '1920 | Fantasy / Horror | 7.2 | 100% | - | 7.0 | Carl Boese |
| 14 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame '1923 | Romance / Drama / Horror | 7.2 | 93% | - | 6.5 | Wallace Worsley |
| 15 | The Cat and the Canary '1927 | Comedy / Horror / Mystery | 7.1 | 94% | - | 6.9 | Paul Leni |
| 16 | There It Is '1928 | Horror / Comedy / Animation / Mystery | 7.0 | - | - | 6.9 | Charles R. Bowers |
| 17 | The Hands of Orlac '1924 | Horror / Thriller / Mystery | 7.0 | 91% | - | 6.9 | Robert Wiene |
| 18 | The Lost World '1925 | Fantasy / Drama / Romance / Horror / Sci-Fi / Thriller | 7.0 | 100% | - | 6.7 | Harry O. Hoyt |
| 19 | The Last Warning '1928 | Horror / Mystery / Thriller | 6.9 | - | - | 6.7 | Paul Leni |
| 20 | Au secours ! '1924 | Comedy / Horror | 6.8 | - | - | 6.7 | Abel Gance |
| 21 | Maciste in Hell '1925 | Fantasy / Horror / Drama | 6.8 | - | - | 6.7 | Guido Brignone |
| 22 | The Fall of the House of Usher '1928 | Horror | 6.8 | 100% | - | 6.8 | Melville Webber |
| 23 | The Student of Prague '1926 | Horror / Drama | 6.9 | - | - | 6.6 | Henrik Galeen |
| 24 | The Haunted House '1921 | Comedy / Horror | 6.9 | - | - | 6.5 | Edward F. Cline |
| 25 | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde '1920 | Horror / Sci-Fi / Drama | 6.9 | 92% | - | 6.7 | John S. Robertson |
| 26 | The Haunted House '1929 | Animation / Comedy / Horror | 7.0 | - | - | 6.6 | Walt Disney |
| 27 | A Daughter Of Destiny '1928 | Drama / Fantasy / Sci-Fi / Horror | 6.2 | - | - | 6.4 | Henrik Galeen |
| 28 | The Magician '1926 | Drama / Horror / Fantasy | 6.7 | - | - | 6.1 | Rex Ingram |
| 29 | Waxworks '1924 | Fantasy / Horror | 6.6 | - | - | 6.4 | Leo Birinski |
| 30 | Warning Shadows '1923 | Drama / Horror | 6.6 | 60% | - | 6.6 | Arthur Robison |
| 31 | Salomé '1923 | Drama / Fantasy / Horror | 6.6 | 67% | - | 6.3 | Charles Bryant |
| 32 | Hell's Bells '1929 | Animation / Horror / Musical | 6.8 | - | - | 6.5 | Ub Iwerks |
| 33 | The Bat '1926 | Comedy / Mystery / Thriller / Horror | 6.5 | - | - | 6.5 | Roland West |
| 34 | London After Midnight '1927 | Horror / Mystery | 6.6 | 75% | - | 6.5 | Tod Browning |
| 35 | The Monster '1925 | Comedy / Horror / Mystery | 6.2 | - | - | 5.7 | Roland West |
| 36 | Leaves from Satan's Book '1920 | Drama / Fantasy / Horror | 6.6 | - | - | 6.1 | Carl Theodor Dreyer |
| 37 | Haunted Spooks '1920 | Comedy / Horror | 6.6 | - | - | 6.3 | Hal Roach |
| 38 | The Haunted Castle '1921 | Drama / Mystery / Crime / Horror | 6.1 | 40% | - | 6.3 | F. W. Murnau |
| 39 | Genuine: The Tragedy of a Vampire '1920 | Horror | 5.9 | - | - | 5.5 | Robert Wiene |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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Other genres in the 1920s
Animation of the 1920s Comedy of the 1920s Crime of the 1920s Drama of the 1920s Fantasy of the 1920s Romance of the 1920s
Directors on this list
F. W. Murnau Victor Sjöström Tod Browning Luis Buñuel Walt Disney Jean Epstein Abel Gance Edward F. Cline Ub Iwerks Roland West Carl Theodor Dreyer Hal Roach
Actors on this list
Emil Jannings Werner Krauss Conrad Veidt Lon Chaney Walt Disney Lewis Stone Buster Keaton Virginia Fox John Barrymore Harold Lloyd Mildred Davis