Horror Films

Horror is where public domain cinema gets interesting. The genre was not always taken seriously by studios, which meant lower budgets and less attention to copyright renewal. The result is a collection that runs from German expressionist landmarks like Nosferatu through 1930s haunted house pictures, 1940s monster movies, and low-budget 1960s independents. A lot of the best-known public domain horror films are here because their producers went out of business or forgot to file paperwork, not because anyone intended them to be free. That accident of survival is what makes the collection what it is.