Allied Artists Pictures

A 1959 American crime-mystery thriller directed by Crane Wilbur, starring Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead. Mystery novelist Cornelia van Gorder (Moorehead) rents a country mansion for the summer, only to find herself in the middle of a killing spree by a mysterious murderer known as "The Bat," who wears all black and slashes his victims' throats. Meanwhile, a million dollars has gone missing from the local bank, and the bank president has disappeared. As the bodies pile up in the mansion's secret passages, Dr. Malcolm Wells (Price) may hold the key to the mystery. Based on the 1908 novel The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart and the 1920 play The Bat, this is the fourth film adaptation of the story. Written and directed by Crane Wilbur, who also wrote House of Wax (1953).

Mystery · Thriller · Horror

A celebrated film noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis and photographed by the legendary cinematographer John Alton. Cornel Wilde plays Police Lieutenant Leonard Diamond, who obsessively pursues the sadistic gang boss Mr. Brown (Richard Conte) while harboring an infatuation with Brown's girlfriend Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace). The supporting cast includes Brian Donlevy, Lee Van Cleef, and Earl Holliman as Brown's enforcers. Alton's high-contrast chiaroscuro lighting has made the film a touchstone of noir visual style. The U.S. Copyright Office rejected the film's copyright notice in 2007, leaving it in the public domain.

Crime · Thriller

A 1964 American psychological thriller directed by Burt Topper, starring Victor Buono as Leo Kroll, a disturbed hospital lab technician who embarks on a serial killing spree of young women, particularly nurses. Inspired by his dominant, possessive mother, Leo is an overweight loner with low self-esteem whose hatred of women drives him to murder. When he meets Tally, a young woman who works at an amusement park, she briefly curbs his homicidal impulses — but his dark nature ultimately resurfaces. The film was inspired by the real-life Boston Strangler case and went into production while police were still attempting to solve the crimes. Buono, fresh off his Oscar-nominated performance in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, delivers a chilling performance as the tormented killer.

Thriller · Crime · Horror

A 1962 American low-budget science fiction film directed by Fredric Gadette, produced at the height of the Cold War. Deputy Sheriff Dan Colter (Seamon Glass) receives orders to block a rural road leading into an unidentified city as a nuclear attack appears to be underway. He detains a group of motorists — an elderly man and his granddaughter, a newly rich man and his alcoholic wife, a trucker, and a hitchhiker who turns out to be a psychotic murderer. As the countdown to the missile attack continues, the group desperately tries to convert a supply truck into an impromptu bomb shelter while civility and the deputy's sanity unravel. A genuinely disturbing film whose low-budget ineptitude unintentionally conveys the helplessness of facing atomic annihilation.

Sci-Fi · Drama