Only 4 Horror Movies Made Before 1960 Are Actually Scary

Talking about the best horror movies ever made and the scariest horror movies ever made will turn up some of the same titles, but there’s unlikely to be 100% overlap. To put it simply, plenty of great horror movies are more entertaining or even comedic than outright scary, and then various classics that have defined the genre (especially early on) might not be especially frightening all these decades later. Calling versions of Frankenstein and Dracula from the early 1930s not particularly scary, for example, isn't the same as disparaging them or saying they're bad horror movies. If they were scary about 100 years ago, then that can be celebrated. The influence they’ve had can be praised. The parts of the movie that aren’t necessarily scary can still be admired. But you're very unlikely to have anyone watch either of those movies in the 2020s and go to bed feeling like sleep is going to be less comfortable than usual specifically because of what’s just been watched.