Vintage Horror Movie Trailers from the 1950s

This B-movie "were-gorilla" tale stars a young Raymond Burr as a Sounth American plantation manager who falls under a voodoo curse that causes him to turn into a gorilla each night. Lon Chaney Jr. plays a policeman investigating the mysterious animal attacks.

Bride of the Gorilla trailer

This hit creature feature (loosely based on a story by Ray Bradbury) about a dinosaur awakened by nuclear testing set the stage for future nuclear monster movies like Godzilla and Them! It's also notable as the solo debut of the legendary Ray Harryhausen as visual effects supervisor.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms trailer

The last in the line of great 20th century Universal monsters was introduced in this creature feature that also had the distinction of being one of the first hit 3-D movies.

Creature from the Black Lagoon trailer

In this acclaimed French thriller (remade in 1996 with Sharon Stone), the wife and the mistress of the abusive head of a boarding school hatch a plot to murder him.

Diabolique trailer

Ray Harryhausen's follow-up to The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms features a giant octopus terrorizing the West Coast -- including an iconic attack on the Golden Gate Bridge.

It Came From Beneath The Sea trailer

The third and final film in Universal's Creature from the Black Lagoon series, this entry finds the Gill-man evolving to a more human-like state in captivity. ut it's still a "creature" at heart. Unlike the previous two films, this one wasn't released in 3-D.

The Creature Walks Among Us trailer

This Americanized version of the influential original 1954 Japanese Godzilla movie, Gojira. The original Japanese footage was dubbed into English, and new footage was shot with Raymond Burr starring as an American reporter investigating a series of sunken ships off the coast of Japan. Little does he know it's a gigantic reptilian monster.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters trailer

Influential and often remade, Invasion of the Body Snatchers evokes (unintentionally) the politics of the 1950s with its story of emotionless alien "Pod People" taking the place of citizens.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers trailer

An American geologist investigates a volcanic eruption in Mexico that unleashes giant prehistoric scorpions in this cheesy fare that has gained a cult following after being featured on the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Willis O'Brien, the stop-motion animation pioneer who worked on King Kong and Mighty Joe Young, lent his talents to this production, but he had a severely limited budget to work with, and it shows.

The Black Scorpion trailer

This rushed follow-up to the hit I Was a Teenage Werewolf reworks the classic Frankenstein tale with a younger-looking monster going on a rampage. The film fed into the cinematic trend of teen-centric films like by Rebel Without a Cause and the later beach party movies.

I Was a Teenage Frankenstein trailer