The 10 Best Horror Films of the 1950s

Evil reindeers! Evil flies! Chess!

Index to Best of Horror by Decade.

The 1950s in horror was an era of creature features and can-do American communities banding together against dangerous outsiders—as in Howard Hawks’ The Thing From Another World, The Creature From the Black Lagoon, or The Blob. The best films of the era though captured the seduction of the subversive and occasionally even had some sympathy for their monstrous others. Order is generally restored, but it wouldn’t be horror if chaos, with all its tentacles, didn’t at least occasionally have a fighting chance.

10. Dracula (1958)

Christopher Lee performed as Dracula in sequels into the 70s, but his debut in the role is the one to see. Director Terence Fisher’s colorful, racy Dracula helped define the Hammer horror style. The setting is bric-o-brac outside time, with gothic settings, glorious Victorian clothing for the women, and 20^th centuryish attire for the men. The chronal chaos seems a fitting setting for the gouts of eroticism, in the form of luscious vampire brides, but also in the person of Christoper Lee himself, who is one of the horniest and cruelest Counts on the screen. Melissa Stribling as Mina practically throws herself at him, neck and quivering bosom first. The film feels like the sixties arrived early, eager to groove around Van Helsing (in the form of Peter Cushing) and past all those staid crosses and garlic.