(Photo by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors / Courtesy Everett Collection. Peeping Tom.)
The 70 Best 1960s Horror Movies
The latest:“WHY CAN’T ANYBODY HEAR ME?!”Carnival of Souls joins our list of best films from the 1960s.
Unearth the best 1960s movies ever and you’ll see the decade started off screaming. Psychotitillated audiences showing Janet Leigh in a bra before serving up one of the most shocking death scenes ever committed to screen – it still shocks some 60 years later. Both Psycho and Peeping Tom released the same year and both share comment on voyeurism, with the latter going as far as implicating the viewer in its POV murder shots. Introducing such a lurid concept was enough to get Peeping Tom pulled from theaters, and all but killed director Michael Powell’s career.
By 1968, the Hays Code (which delineated what violence, sex, and themes could be depicted on American screens) was all but gone, and that same year The Night of the Living Dead birthed a new age of independent cinema and the zombie genre itself. Speaking of birth: Rosemary’s Baby also came out in ’68, capping a decade of memorable psychological thrillers like The Innocents, What Ever happened to Baby Jane?, Persona, and Seconds.
To compile this list of ’60s horror, we took every critically-approved genre movie of the decade, and then ranked them by Tomatometer score, with Certified Fresh films first! Now, read on for the best 1960s horror movies!
Critics Consensus: Infamous for its shower scene, but immortal for its contribution to the horror genre. Because Psycho was filmed with tact, grace, and art, Hitchcock didn't just create modern horror, he validated it.
Synopsis: Phoenix secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), on the lam after stealing $40,000 from her employer in order to run away [More]
Critics Consensus: A frightening tale of Satanism and pregnancy that is even more disturbing than it sounds thanks to convincing and committed performances by Mia Farrow and Ruth Gordon.
Synopsis: A young wife comes to believe that her offspring is not of this world. Waifish Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and [More]
Critics Consensus: A horrific tale of guilt and obsession, Eyes Without a Face is just as chilling and poetic today as it was when it was first released.
Synopsis: Dr. Génessier (Pierre Brasseur) is riddled with guilt after an accident that he caused disfigures the face of his daughter, [More]
Critics Consensus: George A. Romero's debut set the template for the zombie film, and features tight editing, realistic gore, and a sly political undercurrent.
Synopsis: A ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls [More]
Critics Consensus: Proving once again that build-up is the key to suspense, Alfred Hitchcock successfully turned birds into some of the most terrifying villains in horror history.
Synopsis: Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) meets Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a San Francisco pet store and decides to follow him [More]
Critics Consensus: Chilling performances and a restrained, eerie atmosphere make this British horror both an unnerving parable of its era and a timeless classic.
Synopsis: One day the peaceful village of Midwich is cast into a mysterious sleep for several hours, but with no obvious [More]
Critics Consensus:What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? combines powerhouse acting, rich atmosphere, and absorbing melodrama in service of a taut thriller with thought-provoking subtext.
Synopsis: Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) is an aging child star left to care for her wheelchair-bound sister Blanche (Joan Crawford), also [More]
Critics Consensus: Exquisitely designed and fastidiously ornate, Masaki Kobayashi's ambitious anthology operates less as a frightening example of horror and more as a meditative tribute to Japanese folklore.
Synopsis: Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai [More]
Critics Consensus:Carnival of Souls offers delightfully chilling proof that when it comes to telling an effective horror story, less can often be much, much more.
Synopsis: Mary Henry ends up the sole survivor of a fatal car accident through mysterious circumstances. Trying to put the incident [More]
Critics Consensus: Scary, strange, and maybe a little silly, House of Usher represents an early high mark for Vincent Price and a career triumph for director Roger Corman.
Synopsis: Based on the classic story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe and directed by legendary [More]
Critics Consensus: Featuring dazzling, disorienting cinematography from the great James Wong Howe and a strong lead performance by Rock Hudson, Seconds is a compellingly paranoid take on the legend of Faust.
Synopsis: Banker Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) gets a call one day from a friend he thought was dead. It turns out [More]
Synopsis: A traveler's (Peter Cushing) tarot cards tell how an architect, musician, doctor (Donald Sutherland), gardener and critic (Christopher Lee) will [More]
Critics Consensus: Ingmar Bergman makes a successful foray into horror with Hour of the Wolf, infusing the demons that spring from creativity with his trademark psychological curiosity.
Synopsis: On a remote island, a troubled artist (Max von Sydow) feels his mind slipping away from him. Troubled by disturbing [More]
Critics Consensus: A startling directorial debut by Peter Bogdanovich mixes an homage to Boris Karloff horror films with a timely sniper story to create a thriller with modern baggage and old school shock and awe.
Synopsis: After unhinged Vietnam vet Bobby Thompson (Tim O'Kelly) kills his wife and mother, he goes on a brutal shooting spree. [More]
Critics Consensus: Mario Bava's official narrative debut is a witchy nightmare steeped in gothic splendor, shot in chiaroscuro black and white and punctuated with startling gore.
Synopsis: Burned at the stake, a vampire witch princess (Barbara Steele) wakes up centuries later with her undead henchman. [More]
Critics Consensus: By turns lurid and disturbing, The Man with the X-Ray Eyes is a compelling piece of sci-fi pulp and one of Roger Corman's most effective movies.
Synopsis: Intent on enhancing mankind's ocular ability, the brilliant Dr. James Xavier (Ray Milland) invents a formula that allows him to [More]
Critics Consensus: Three auteurs descend on the works of Poe, each putting on a ghoulish show -- adapting The Tomahawk Man's tales of dreams and fright, with Fellini's segment particularly out of sight.
Synopsis: In one chapter of this three-in-one feature inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's tales, a countess (Jane Fonda), shunned by a [More]
Critics Consensus: Never veering too far from the usual Hammer trappings, Dracula, Prince of Darkness casts an effectively vicious vampire yarn with its chilling atmosphere and spirited cast of characters.
Synopsis: Four tourists dine and spend the night at Dracula's (Christopher Lee) castle; two escape and warn a monk (Andrew Keir). [More]
Synopsis: After meteors enter Earth's atmosphere, blinding much of the planet's population in the process, plantlike creatures known as Triffids emerge [More]
Synopsis: Young college student Nan Barlow (Venetia Stevenson) arrives in the sleepy Massachusetts town of Whitewood to research witchcraft. Nan's stay [More]
Critics Consensus: This uneven but amiable 1967 vampire picture is part horror spoof, part central European epic, and 100 percent Roman Polanski, whose signature sensibility colors every frame.
Synopsis: Vampire hunter Professor Abronsius (Jack MacGowran) and his faithful assistant, Alfred (Roman Polanski), are traveling across Transylvania when they stop [More]
Synopsis: The United Nations conducts a global survey on child development, identifying six children with exceptional intelligence. All were born under [More]
Synopsis: Dr. Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) returns destitute to his home village to recommence his experimental research into the reanimation of dead [More]
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