50 Unmissable Horror Movies
6. White Zombie (1932)

Many will know White Zombie as the name of Rob Zombie’s band in the 1990s rather than the title of this influential 1930s film, but Victor Halperin’s movie is vastly important in the history of horror cinema due to its influence on zombie films.
Based on both William Seabrook’s novel “The Magic Island”, and the Kenneth Webb play “Zombie”, the film takes place in Haiti, where a mysterious Voodoo master known as ‘Murder’ Legendre (played by the iconic Bela Lugosi) commands an army of braindead slaves known as ‘zombies’. At the home of plantation owner Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer), Legendre convinces Charles to turn bride-to-be Madeline (Madge Bellamy) into a zombie to take her from her fiancé, Neil (John Harron), with horrifying consequences.
Before zombies were the shambling hoards of the undead, they were resurrected by voodoo magic, brought into the Western consciousness as a result of being transplanted from the African continent as slaves to sugar plantations. This aspect remains intact in the film, very much part of the overt racial themes it presents. Often described as the first feature-length zombie film, the voodoo traditions are what zombies would be based on for decades to come. The acting might not be the best thanks to an impossibly low budget forcing the whole film to be shot purely at night over 11 days on reused sets and with reused props, but when you throw in Lugosi’s penetrating, hypnotic gaze, it’s a must-see for any horror historian, and its influence on the horror genre cannot be understated. KJ
7. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

There’s a longstanding tradition that horror sequels are worse than the original films, and Bride of Frankenstein is the exception that proves the rule; the 1935 film is the perfect second half of what was always meant to be the full story. Picking up where the first Frankenstein film left off, Bride of Frankenstein follows what is left of Mary Shelley’s original novel, giving the monster a voice, bringing him back to his creator, and presenting him asking for a second of his species, a bride, like the one his creator has.
The first of the Universal monster movie sequels, Bride of Frankenstein is more faithful to the original “Frankenstein” book, putting back in what the first film omitted. It brings back most of the same cast and crew, including director James Whale, which gives it a tangible sense of continuity, and gives us one of the most iconic characters, and hairstyles, in the whole of cinema, in the form of Elsa Lanchester’s Bride. Only seen for a brief period, her look of terror when she comes around truly captures the body-horror nature of the story.
The thematic terror of the creation of monstrous life in the imitation of man is perfect. The sets are great. The performances are incredible. The score is a proper classic horror film score. When you put both sides of the Frankenstein coin together, you can see that Whale, Karloff, and Laemmle Jr made a legacy to last centuries. KJ
Recommended for you: Universal Monsters Movies Ranked
8. Cat People (1942)

Many horror films are created as a result of low budgets. When a film producer doesn’t have the money to splash out on lavish sets, expensive effects, and heavily-populated battle sequences, they have to think smaller, to keep everything tight and atmospheric. They often choose to set their films in the modern day so they don’t have to spend too much money on sets and wardrobe – in the case of Cat People, the producers gave the film a noir-look with lots of light and shadow. Most impressively of all, they invented the jump scare.
The Val Lewton-produced picture was made for a modest budget ($135,000) compared with other films of the time, such as the previous year’s The Wolf Man ($180,000). It presents the story of a young woman, Irena (Simone Simon), who is concerned that she’s a descendant of a village of women who transform into panthers if passionately aroused. Calling off a marriage for fear that she’ll violently transform and kill, her former fiancé Oliver gets close to his assistant, Alice. That’s the type of passion that Irena could do without, and her fears continue to grow as strange occurrences happen throughout the city.
Releasing to mixed reviews at the time, Cat People has gone on to become a classic. It drips with dread and fear in almost every scene.
The two most iconic moments – a swimming pool scene and a bus scene – have gone on to become some of the most celebrated sequences in all of horror cinema, both perfectly capturing the fear and paranoia of both Alice and the viewer. We’re never sure whether what we’re seeing, or hearing, is quite the truth. This immersive structure, added to the creation of the jump scare quite by accident by editor Mark Robson (who would then use it on every Val Lewton film and termed it the ‘bus’), ensures that Cat People remains a gem of supernatural noir; a film that has inspired dozens of women-are-monsters copycats, and thousands of scares throughout the decades. KJ
9. Gojira (1954)

In 1951, Ray Bradbury published a short story titled “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms”, about a dinosaur called to the sound of a lighthouse’s foghorn once a year. Two years later, a film of the same name was released, featuring dinosaur stop-motion by legendary special-effects creator Ray Harryhausen (Bradbury would rename his story “The Foghorn” afterwards, causing much confusion). On the poster for The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, the dinosaur is seen breathing smoke and fire, though it never does in the film. Across the Pacific, Japan decided it wanted its own version. Toho studios hired Ishirō Honda, delved into its own national history with nuclear radiation, and put Haruo Nakajima in a rubber suit. The resulting film became the kaiju film to tower above all kaiju films: Gojira (aka Godzilla).
In Gojira, the giant, the king of the monsters, rises from the waves, spewing atomic breath. Japan is on the defensive, rallying tanks and machine guns and scientists and anything else they can think of to try and stop the destruction the monster brings to Tokyo. Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and the nuclear tests of the 1940s and 50s in the Pacific ocean, are all part of the Godzilla metaphor, and impossible to miss. This is the ghost of the war brought back in terrifying fashion.
With 38 films in the franchise and countless spinoffs, related media and crossovers, Gojira began the longest-running continuous film franchise of all time. The king is a hero in his native Japan, and has set the template for how to create a kaiju monster movie. If you want a beast to leave a trail of destruction in its wake, on the side of good or evil, on his own or teaming up with other great beasts of Earth or beyond, it is Godzilla you call upon. The original film, with wondrous miniatures, groundbreaking effects, genuine terror, and terrifying reveals, is still a cut above the rest seven decades later. KJ
Recommended for you: Showa Era Godzilla Movies Ranked (1954-1975)
10. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers Review
In 1950s America, Communism was presented as a ginormous threat. The people of the nation were told that spies were everywhere, and could be anyone – each emotionless clones ready to destroy all individuality and reduce the patriotic person to a lifeless shell of their former self. The concepts of individual aspiration, of rising above your competitors, of democracy, of capitalism, was said to be under attack. The McCarthy trials were in full swing and so-called communist sympathisers in Hollywood were being blacklisted (no longer allowed to work). Imitation narratives were all the rage at this time, and the 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers remains possibly the most potent.
Adapted from John Finney’s 1955 novel “The Body Snatchers”, Dr Miles Bennett returns to his small town of Santa Mira to discover that everyone is claiming that their relatives aren’t really them. Slowly but surely, this idea begins to consume the whole town, and when Bennett and his friends discover giant seed pods growing blank clones of themselves, the threat becomes real. If the people of this community go to sleep, the alien life force will remake them in its own vision.
The film manages to draw you in to its subtly evolving terror. Whilst your eyes are on the main characters, the world falls around behind you. By the time the characters realise what’s going on, its almost too late.
It’s one of the bleakest films of the time. Its ideas, sense of growing dread, and stark terror in the final moments, have influenced countless remakes, imitators, and fans. The term ‘pod person’, as a shorthand, is understood instantly, even without knowing its origin. The remakes try to capture this version’s chilling vision, but even the 1978 version never quite manages it. KJ
Nice work everyone. Next year: 50 MORE unmissable horror films.
What a list, truly something for every horror movie lovers’ taste!