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Best Horror Movies of the 1930s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
61 horror films from the 1930s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is King Kong (1933), at 7.9 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 6.9. Biggest split between audiences and critics: The Raven, 6.8 on IMDb against 44 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | King Kong '1933 | Fantasy / Horror | 7.9 | 97% | 92 | 7.6 | Merian C. Cooper |
| 2 | Bride of Frankenstein '1935 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 7.8 | 97% | 95 | 7.5 | James Whale |
| 3 | Freaks '1932 | Drama / Horror | 7.8 | 95% | 80 | 7.8 | Tod Browning |
| 4 | Frankenstein '1931 | Drama / Horror / Sci-Fi | 7.7 | 94% | 91 | 7.5 | James Whale |
| 5 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame '1939 | Drama / Romance / Horror | 7.8 | 93% | - | 7.3 | William Dieterle |
| 6 | The Invisible Man '1933 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 7.6 | 95% | 87 | 7.5 | James Whale |
| 7 | The Old Mill '1937 | Animation / Thriller / Musical / Horror | 7.7 | - | - | 7.3 | Wilfred Jackson |
| 8 | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde '1931 | Horror / Sci-Fi / Drama | 7.6 | 91% | 88 | 7.2 | Rouben Mamoulian |
| 9 | Vampyr '1932 | Horror / Fantasy / Mystery | 7.4 | 98% | - | 7.2 | Carl Theodor Dreyer |
| 10 | Lonesome Ghosts '1937 | Animation / Comedy / Horror | 7.5 | - | - | 6.9 | Burt Gillett |
| 11 | The Hound of the Baskervilles '1939 | Mystery / Crime / Horror / Thriller | 7.4 | 91% | - | 7.1 | Sidney Lanfield |
| 12 | Dracula '1931 | Horror | 7.3 | 96% | 71 | 7.2 | Tod Browning |
| 13 | Island of Lost Souls '1932 | Sci-Fi / Horror | 7.3 | 88% | - | 6.9 | Erle C. Kenton |
| 14 | The Mad Doctor '1933 | Animation / Comedy / Horror | 7.6 | - | - | 7.2 | David Hand |
| 15 | Mad Love '1935 | Horror / Thriller | 7.2 | 100% | - | 7.0 | Karl Freund |
| 16 | Son of Frankenstein '1939 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 7.1 | 95% | - | 6.7 | Rowland V. Lee |
| 17 | Minnie the Moocher '1932 | Musical / Animation / Comedy / Fantasy / Horror | 7.3 | - | - | 6.6 | Dave Fleischer |
| 18 | The Most Dangerous Game '1932 | Thriller / Horror / Action | 7.1 | 100% | - | 6.9 | Irving Pichel |
| 19 | The Cat and the Canary '1939 | Comedy / Horror / Mystery | 7.1 | - | - | 6.9 | Elliott Nugent |
| 20 | Bimbo's Initiation '1931 | Comedy / Animation / Musical / Horror | 7.3 | - | - | 7.0 | Dave Fleischer |
| 21 | Pluto's Judgement Day '1935 | Animation / Comedy / Horror | 7.2 | - | - | 6.7 | David Hand |
| 22 | The Old Dark House '1932 | Drama / Horror / Thriller | 7.0 | 97% | - | 6.7 | James Whale |
| 23 | The Devil-Doll '1936 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 7.0 | 79% | - | 6.8 | Tod Browning |
| 24 | Drácula '1931 | Horror | 7.0 | 100% | - | 6.8 | George Melford |
| 25 | The Sign of Death '1939 | Comedy / Horror / Mystery | 5.8 | - | - | 6.4 | Chano Urueta |
| 26 | Swing You Sinners! '1930 | Animation / Horror / Musical | 7.6 | - | - | 6.9 | Dave Fleischer |
| 27 | The Man They Could Not Hang '1939 | Sci-Fi / Horror / Crime | 6.8 | 71% | - | 6.6 | Nick Grindé |
| 28 | The Mummy '1932 | Horror | 6.9 | 90% | - | 6.7 | Karl Freund |
| 29 | The Black Room '1935 | Horror / Crime | 6.9 | - | - | 6.5 | Roy William Neill |
| 30 | A Night on Bald Mountain '1933 | Animation / Fantasy / Horror | 6.9 | - | - | 6.3 | Alexandre Alexeieff |
| 31 | The Black Cat '1934 | Horror / Thriller | 6.9 | 89% | - | 6.7 | Edgar G. Ulmer |
| 32 | Tower of London '1939 | Drama / Horror | 6.6 | 83% | - | 6.1 | Rowland V. Lee |
| 33 | Svengali '1931 | Drama / Horror / Romance | 6.8 | 80% | - | 6.3 | Archie Mayo |
| 34 | The Raven '1935 | Horror / Crime | 6.8 | 79% | 44 | 6.6 | Lew Landers |
| 35 | Mystery of the Wax Museum '1933 | Horror / Mystery | 6.8 | 93% | - | 6.5 | Michael Curtiz |
| 36 | Song at Midnight '1937 | Horror / Drama / Musical / Romance | 6.1 | - | - | 6.0 | Weibang Ma-Xu |
| 37 | The Man Who Changed His Mind '1936 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.6 | - | - | 6.1 | Robert Stevenson |
| 38 | The Phantom of the Monastery '1934 | Horror / Mystery | 6.9 | - | - | 6.4 | Fernando de Fuentes |
| 39 | The Walking Dead '1936 | Crime / Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.6 | - | - | 6.3 | Michael Curtiz |
| 40 | The Invisible Ray '1936 | Sci-Fi / Horror / Thriller | 6.5 | 63% | - | 6.3 | Lambert Hillyer |
| 41 | Murders in the Zoo '1933 | Crime / Horror | 6.4 | 71% | - | 5.9 | A. Edward Sutherland |
| 42 | Scrooge '1935 | Drama / Fantasy / Horror | 6.4 | - | - | 6.1 | Henry Edwards |
| 43 | Supernatural '1933 | Mystery / Thriller / Horror | 6.1 | 50% | - | 6.1 | Victor Halperin |
| 44 | Doctor X '1932 | Horror / Thriller / Mystery | 6.4 | 83% | - | 6.0 | Michael Curtiz |
| 45 | The Bat Whispers '1930 | Mystery / Comedy / Crime / Horror / Thriller | 6.3 | 67% | - | 6.6 | Roland West |
| 46 | The Dark Eyes of London '1939 | Horror | 5.7 | - | - | 5.8 | Walter Summers |
| 47 | Murders in the Rue Morgue '1932 | Horror / Mystery / Crime | 6.3 | 79% | - | 6.0 | Robert Florey |
| 48 | The Mask of Fu Manchu '1932 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.2 | 78% | - | 5.4 | Charles Brabin |
| 49 | Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street '1936 | Drama / Crime / Horror | 5.8 | - | - | 5.7 | George King |
| 50 | Mark of the Vampire '1935 | Mystery / Horror | 6.3 | 86% | - | 6.2 | Tod Browning |
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 1930s
Action of the 1930s Animation of the 1930s Comedy of the 1930s Crime of the 1930s Drama of the 1930s Fantasy of the 1930s Musical of the 1930s Mystery of the 1930s Romance of the 1930s Thriller of the 1930s War of the 1930s Western of the 1930s
Directors on this list
James Whale Tod Browning William Dieterle Wilfred Jackson Rouben Mamoulian Carl Theodor Dreyer Burt Gillett Erle C. Kenton David Hand Dave Fleischer Irving Pichel Roy William Neill
Actors on this list
Robert Armstrong Fay Wray Boris Karloff Charles Laughton Cedric Hardwicke Claude Rains Fredric March Miriam Hopkins Walt Disney Clarence Nash Basil Rathbone Bela Lugosi