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Best Horror Movies of the 1940s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
59 horror films from the 1940s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), at 7.8 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 6.6.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meshes of the Afternoon '1943 | Mystery / Horror | 7.8 | 100% | - | 7.6 | Maya Deren |
| 2 | The Legend of Sleepy Hollow '1949 | Animation / Horror / Comedy | 7.7 | - | - | 7.4 | Jack Kinney |
| 3 | The Picture of Dorian Gray '1945 | Drama / Horror / Fantasy | 7.5 | 94% | 65 | 7.1 | Albert Lewin |
| 4 | Dead of Night '1945 | Horror / Thriller | 7.5 | 96% | - | 7.2 | Alberto Cavalcanti |
| 5 | The Time of Their Lives '1946 | Comedy / Fantasy / Horror | 7.5 | - | - | 7.2 | Charles Barton |
| 6 | Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein '1948 | Horror / Comedy | 7.3 | 90% | 69 | 7.1 | Charles Barton |
| 7 | The Spiral Staircase '1946 | Horror / Mystery / Thriller / Drama | 7.3 | 86% | - | 7.0 | Robert Siodmak |
| 8 | The Body Snatcher '1945 | Horror / Thriller | 7.3 | 86% | 74 | 7.0 | Robert Wise |
| 9 | The Wolf Man '1941 | Horror / Drama | 7.2 | 91% | 72 | 7.0 | George Waggner |
| 10 | Cat People '1942 | Mystery / Horror / Romance | 7.2 | 92% | 85 | 6.9 | Jacques Tourneur |
| 11 | The Uninvited '1944 | Mystery / Horror | 7.2 | 95% | - | 6.9 | Lewis Allen |
| 12 | Hold That Ghost '1941 | Comedy / Horror | 7.2 | 100% | - | 6.8 | Arthur Lubin |
| 13 | The Dark Mirror '1946 | Thriller / Mystery / Horror | 7.1 | 78% | - | 7.0 | Robert Siodmak |
| 14 | The Queen of Spades '1949 | Drama / Fantasy / Horror | 7.1 | 96% | - | 6.5 | Thorold Dickinson |
| 15 | Carnival of Sinners '1943 | Fantasy / Drama / Horror | 7.3 | - | - | 6.7 | Maurice Tourneur |
| 16 | Fireworks '1947 | Horror / Drama | 7.0 | - | - | 6.0 | Kenneth Anger |
| 17 | The Face Behind the Mask '1941 | Crime / Drama / Horror | 7.1 | - | - | 6.5 | Robert Florey |
| 18 | The Lodger '1944 | Thriller / Mystery / Horror | 7.0 | - | - | 6.5 | John Brahm |
| 19 | The Ghost Breakers '1940 | Comedy / Mystery / Horror | 7.0 | 88% | - | 6.5 | George Marshall |
| 20 | I Walked with a Zombie '1943 | Mystery / Horror / Drama / Fantasy | 7.0 | 85% | - | 6.8 | Jacques Tourneur |
| 21 | Witch's Cradle '1944 | Horror | 6.4 | - | - | 6.7 | Maya Deren |
| 22 | House of Horrors '1946 | Horror / Crime / Thriller | 6.1 | - | - | 6.1 | Jean Yarbrough |
| 23 | Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff '1949 | Comedy / Horror / Mystery | 6.7 | - | - | 6.6 | Charles Barton |
| 24 | The Amazing Mr. X '1948 | Thriller / Horror | 6.4 | - | - | 6.2 | Bernard Vorhaus |
| 25 | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde '1941 | Drama / Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.8 | 58% | - | 6.5 | Victor Fleming |
| 26 | The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad '1949 | Horror / Fantasy / Animation | 6.8 | 89% | 74 | 6.5 | Clyde Geronimi |
| 27 | The Beast with Five Fingers '1947 | Mystery / Horror | 6.5 | 95% | - | 6.4 | Robert Florey |
| 28 | The Curse of the Cat People '1944 | Fantasy / Drama / Horror | 6.7 | 88% | - | 6.2 | Gunther von Fritsch |
| 29 | Isle of the Dead '1945 | Horror | 6.5 | 91% | - | 6.0 | Mark Robson |
| 30 | The Leopard Man '1943 | Horror / Mystery / Crime | 6.7 | 90% | - | 6.5 | Jacques Tourneur |
| 31 | The Seventh Victim '1943 | Horror / Mystery | 6.7 | 96% | - | 6.4 | Mark Robson |
| 32 | Dr. Cyclops '1940 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.4 | 79% | - | 6.2 | Ernest B. Schoedsack |
| 33 | Man-Made Monster '1941 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.1 | - | - | 6.1 | George Waggner |
| 34 | The Invisible Man Returns '1940 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.5 | 87% | - | 6.3 | Joe May |
| 35 | Black Friday '1940 | Sci-Fi / Crime / Horror / Mystery / Drama | 6.3 | 100% | - | 6.0 | Arthur Lubin |
| 36 | The Black Cat '1941 | Comedy / Horror / Mystery | 6.1 | - | - | 6.4 | Albert S. Rogell |
| 37 | The Return of the Vampire '1943 | Horror | 6.2 | 86% | - | 6.1 | Lew Landers |
| 38 | Bluebeard '1944 | Crime / Thriller / Horror | 5.9 | 100% | - | 5.5 | Edgar G. Ulmer |
| 39 | Voodoo Man '1944 | Horror / Mystery | 5.3 | - | - | 5.0 | William Beaudine |
| 40 | Phantom of the Opera '1943 | Horror / Romance / Musical | 6.4 | 77% | 63 | 6.2 | Arthur Lubin |
| 41 | The Invisible Woman '1940 | Comedy / Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.0 | 67% | - | 5.7 | A. Edward Sutherland |
| 42 | Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man '1943 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.4 | 25% | 51 | 6.2 | Roy William Neill |
| 43 | The Mummy's Hand '1940 | Horror / Fantasy | 6.0 | 60% | - | 5.7 | Christy Cabanne |
| 44 | House of Frankenstein '1944 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.2 | 55% | - | 6.1 | Erle C. Kenton |
| 45 | Invisible Agent '1942 | Horror / Sci-Fi / War | 5.9 | 67% | - | 5.8 | Edwin L. Marin |
| 46 | The Invisible Man's Revenge '1944 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 5.7 | 40% | 46 | 5.6 | Ford Beebe |
| 47 | The Ghost of Frankenstein '1942 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.1 | 73% | - | 5.8 | Erle C. Kenton |
| 48 | Son of Dracula '1943 | Horror | 6.0 | 57% | 47 | 5.8 | Robert Siodmak |
| 49 | King of the Zombies '1941 | Horror / Comedy | 5.2 | - | - | 5.2 | Jean Yarbrough |
| 50 | She-Wolf of London '1946 | Mystery / Horror / Thriller | 5.2 | 17% | - | 5.6 | Jean Yarbrough |
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 1940s
Action of the 1940s Animation of the 1940s Comedy of the 1940s Crime of the 1940s Drama of the 1940s Fantasy of the 1940s Musical of the 1940s Mystery of the 1940s Romance of the 1940s Sci-Fi of the 1940s Thriller of the 1940s War of the 1940s Western of the 1940s
Directors on this list
Maya Deren Jack Kinney Charles Barton Robert Siodmak Robert Wise Jacques Tourneur Arthur Lubin Maurice Tourneur Kenneth Anger Robert Florey George Marshall Jean Yarbrough
Actors on this list
Bing Crosby Pinto Colvig George Sanders Bud Abbott Lou Costello George Brent Boris Karloff Bela Lugosi Lon Chaney Jr. Claude Rains Ray Milland Olivia de Havilland