Chronology of Old Dark House Movies

Stage Frights: Pre-1930

Most of the earliest Old Dark House movies were silent adaptations of popular Broadway comedy-thriller plays like Seven Keys to Baldpate, The Bat and The Cat and the Canary. (You can read more about these plays in Books, Plays and Silents: The Development of the Old Dark House Genre.) 

Ghost Breaker, The (1914, lost film)

Circular Staircase, The (1915, lost film)

Seven Keys to Baldpate, The (1916, lost film)

Seven Keys to Baldpate, The (1917)

Ghost Breaker, The (1922, lost film)

One Exciting Night (1922)
Monster, The (1925)
Bat, The (1926) 

Midnight Faces (1926)
Cat and the Canary, The (1927) 

London After Midnight (1927, lost film)
Terror, The (1928, lost film)

House of Horror, The (1929, lost film)

Last Warning, The (1929)
Seven Keys to Baldpate (1929)

Chuckles and Chills: 1930-1938

As the ‘talkies’ took off, Old Dark House movies grew in complexity and wit, producing shrewd and spooky spoofs, as opposed to the more serious horror popularised by 1931’s Dracula (itself a stage adaptation). But, by the time James Whale’s unusually sophisticated The Old Dark House was released in 1932, it was hard to tell where the fear ended and the fun began, and the genre’s unique blend of humour, mystery and atmosphere flourished. 

Bat Whispers, The (1930)
Cat Creeps, The (1930, lost film)

Gorilla, The (1930, lost film)

Laurel-Hardy Murder Case, The (1930)

La Voluntad del Muerto (1930, lost film)

Murder by the Clock (1931)
Phantom, The (1931)

Castle Sinister (1932, lost film)

Crooked Circle, The (1932)
Haunted Gold (1932)
Monster Walks, The (1932)
Old Dark House, The (1932)
Phantom of Crestwood, The (1932)
Tangled Destinies (1932)
Thirteenth Guest, The (1932)
 
Ghoul, The (1933)

Night of Terror (1933) 

Secret of the Blue Room, The (1933) 

Shriek in the Night, A (1933) 
Terror Aboard (1933)

Tomorrow at Seven (1933)
 
Black Cat, The (1934)

Double Door (1934)
Ghost Walks, The (1934)
Green Eyes (1934)
House of Mystery (1934)
Moonstone, The (1934)

Ninth Guest, The (1934)

Mark of the Vampire (1935) 

One Frightened Night (1935)
Raven, The (1935)
Seven Keys to Baldpate (1935)
While the Patient Slept (1935)
White Cockatoo, The (1935)

Charlie Chan’s Secret (1936)
House of Secrets, The (1936) 
Phantom of the Range, The (1936) 

Rogues Tavern, The (1936)
Someone at the Door (1936)

Sh! The Octopus (1937)

Mystery House (1938)
Terror, The (1938)

A New (Bob) Hope: 1939-1944

The genre was starting to burn out by the end of the decade, but a lavish 1939 remake of The Cat and the Canary, featuring a talented cast and fine production, ushered in a second golden age, which saw it reach new heights of popularity and style. 

Bulldog Drummond’s Secret Police (1939)

Cat and the Canary, The (1939)
Gorilla, The (1939)
Man They Could Not Hang, The (1939) 

Door with Seven Locks, The (1940)
Ghost Breakers, The (1940)
Ghost Train, The (1940)
Rebecca (1940)

Son of Ingagi (1940)

You’ll Find Out (1940)

Black Cat, The (1941)

Hold That Ghost (1941)
Horror Island (1941)
Invisible Ghost, The (1941)

Iron Claw, The (1941)
King of the Zombies (1941)
Murder by Invitation (1941)
Shadows on the Stairs (1941)
Smiling Ghost, The (1941)
Spooks Run Wild (1941)
Topper Returns (1941)
Whistling in the Dark (1941)
 
Boogie Man Will Get You, The (1942)
Corpse Vanishes, The (1942)
Hidden Hand, The (1942)
Living Ghost, The (1942)

Night Has Eyes, The (1942) 

Night Monster (1942)
Whispering Ghosts (1942)
Undying Monster, The (1942)
 
Black Raven, The (1943)
Ghost and the Guest, The (1943)
Ghosts on the Loose (1943)

Mystery of the 13th Guest, The (1943)
Revenge of the Zombies (1943)
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)

Black Magic (1944)
Charlie Chan and the Secret Service (1944) 
Girl Who Dared, The (1944)
One Body Too Many (1944)

Darker Houses: 1945-1960

Following WWII and the rise of film noir, thriller films began to deal more deeply in serious subjects like espionage, relationships and psychology. The Old Dark House genre morphed into a gothic exploration of the latter, before gradually giving way to experimentation and cartoonish parodies. The release of Hitchcock’s game-changing Psycho in 1960 effectively brought the cycle to an end, and horror cinema itself to a new level of maturity and explicitness. 

And Then There Were None (1945)
Fog Island (1945)
Frozen Ghost, The (1945)

House of Fear, The (1945)
If a Body Meets a Body (1945, short)

Jade Mask, The (1945)
Pillow of Death (1945)

Cat Creeps, The (1946)

Dangerous Millions (1946)

Spiral Staircase, The (1946)

Cry Wolf (1947)
Dragonwyck (1947)
Moss Rose (1947)

Scared to Death (1947)
Seven Keys to Baldpate (1947)

Strangler of the Swamp (1947)

Castle Sinister (1948)

Creeper, The (1948)

Three Weird Sisters, The (1948) 
Who Killed Doc Robbin? (1948)

Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949) 

Who Done It? (1949, short)

Ghost Chasers (1951) 
Mystery Junction (1951)
Third Visitor, The (1951)

Crow Hollow (1952) 

Maze, The (1953)

Scared Stiff (1953)

It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)
Screaming Skull, The (1958)
Terror in the Haunted House (1958)

Bat, The (1959)

Headless Ghost, The (1959)
House on Haunted Hill (1959) 

Black Sunday (1960)

City of the Dead, The (1960)

Fall of the House of Usher, The (1960)
Psycho (1960)