Sci-Fi Films

A 1913 British silent science fiction film directed by J. Wallett Waller, based on the play by Richard Ganthony. According to the British Film Institute, it is the first British science-fiction film. A Martian named Ramiel is sentenced to visit Earth to cure Horace Parker, a wealthy and selfish young man. The Martian shows him poverty and suffering on the streets, and after rescuing a soldier's wife from a fire, Parker reforms and regains the esteem of his community. The play was previously filmed in 1903 and remade again in 1921.

Sci-Fi · Fantasy · Comedy

A Trip to the Moon (original French title: Le Voyage dans la Lune) is a 1902 French silent film directed by Georges Melies. Widely regarded as the first science fiction film, it follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a bullet-shaped capsule, encounter the Selenites (lunar inhabitants), and return to Earth. The film features Melies's most iconic image — the rocket landing in the Moon's eye — and pioneered numerous special effects techniques including superimposition, dissolves, and hand-painted color. The film is in the public domain.

Fantasy · Sci-Fi · Adventure

A 1960 Italian science fiction film directed by Antonio Margheriti (credited as Anthony Dawson), originally titled Space Men. In the 22nd century, reporter Ray Peterson (Rik Van Nutter) is assigned to cover events aboard an orbiting space station. When a malfunctioning spaceship controlled by a deranged electronic brain threatens to destroy Earth with its photon generators, Peterson joins a desperate mission to intercept it. Considered by many to be the best science fiction film from director Margheriti, distinguished by its almost-plausible plot and impressive special effects. Released in the U.S. as a double feature with The Phantom Planet (1961).

Sci-Fi

A 1960 Italian horror film directed by Anton Giulio Majano, originally titled Seddok, l'erede di Satana. When a singer named Jeanette Moreneau (Susanne Loret) is horribly disfigured in a car accident, scientist Professor Alberto Levin (Alberto Lupo) develops a serum called Derma 28 that restores her beauty. But the treatment is only temporary, and Levin — who has fallen in love with Jeanette — must kill young women to obtain the glandular transplants needed to make the cure permanent. Unable to continue killing without remorse, Levin uses his earlier failed serum Derma 25 to transform himself into a monstrous killer. Despite its American title, the film contains no actual vampire.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A 1965 science fiction compilation film produced for American television from installments of the Japanese Super Giant film series by Shintoho. Starman (Ken Utsui), the steel-bodied champion of the Emerald Planet's Peace Council, comes to Earth to stop the alien Meropolitans, whose agents have infiltrated the planet and plan to destroy it with a super-weapon. The original Japanese films were edited and dubbed by Walter Manley Enterprises for American syndication, with the hero renamed from Super Giant — the same treatment that produced Attack from Space and Evil Brain from Outer Space. The film is in the public domain.

Sci-Fi · Action

A 1965 science fiction compilation film produced for American television from two installments of the Japanese Super Giant film series by Shintoho. The superhero Starman (Ken Utsui), a steel-bodied being created by the Peace Council of the Emerald Planet, is sent to Earth to protect it from belligerent aliens from the Sapphire Galaxy. The Sapphireans kidnap Dr. Yamanaka and force him to use his spaceship against Earth, and it falls to Starman to save the scientist, his family, and the planet. The original Japanese films were edited and dubbed by Walter Manley Enterprises for American syndication, with Starman's character renamed from Super Giant.

Sci-Fi · Action

People begin disappearing in a backwoods swamp, and a game warden and a local doctor discover that giant, slug-like leeches are responsible. The creatures drag their victims down into the water and keep them alive to feed on slowly. Produced by Gene Corman for American International Pictures and released on a double bill with A Bucket of Blood, Attack of the Giant Leeches is a tight little creature feature that gets its mileage out of the swamp atmosphere and the underwater scenes of the leeches at work. The monsters are men in rubber suits, which is part of the charm. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal of its copyright.

Horror · Sci-Fi

Superman races to protect a train carrying a billion dollars in defense bonds from a gang of saboteurs who bomb the tracks, wreck a bridge, and commandeer the locomotive. The third of the Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · Sci-Fi

Ed Wood's belated follow-up to Glen or Glenda, and the closest he came to a conventional horror film. Bela Lugosi, in one of his final roles, plays Dr. Eric Vornoff, a mad scientist experimenting with atomic energy in a swamp-side laboratory, attempting to create a race of superhumans with the help of his brutish assistant Lobo (Tor Johnson). When a nosy reporter (Loretta King) investigates, she becomes Vornoff's next subject. The film features Wood's trademark blend of earnest ambition and staggering incompetence: a rubber octopus prop with visible wires, mismatched day-for-night footage, and dialogue that defies logic. Yet Lugosi gives it his all, delivering lines like "Home? I have no home. Hunted... despised... living like an animal!" with genuine pathos. The film is in the public domain.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A 1953 feature film edited from the 1939 Universal serial Buck Rogers, re-released for theatrical distribution. A 20th-century pilot named Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe) and his young friend Buddy Wade awaken from 500 years in suspended animation to find the world has been taken over by the outlaw army of Killer Kane. Buck joins the hidden resistance forces to defeat Kane and restore freedom. The original serial was directed by Saul A. Goodkind and Ford Beebe. The film entered the public domain via non-renewal of its copyright.

Sci-Fi · Action · Adventure

Colonel Bleep, the extraterrestrial envoy from the planet Futura, arrives on a remote Earth island to establish his headquarters alongside his friends Squeak the puppet boy and Scratch the caveman. An episode of the first color cartoon series made for television. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Sci-Fi · Family

Colonel Bleep, an envoy from the planet Futura, receives his first assignment on Earth and sets up his island headquarters with the help of Squeak the puppet boy and Scratch the caveman. The debut episode of the first color cartoon series made for television. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Sci-Fi · Family

A 1977 Italian science fiction film directed by Alfonso Brescia (credited as Al Bradley), originally titled Anno Zero - Guerra Nello Spazio. A strange signal arrives on Earth disturbing all communications. Captain Alex Hamilton (John Richardson) is sent with his spaceship and crew beyond the Solar System to find the source. They reach an unknown planet where a giant robot has enslaved a population of humanoids by taking their psychic energies. The crew pledges to help the inhabitants escape their enslavement and destroy the computer. The film is a low-budget Italian space opera typical of the post-Star Wars exploitation boom.

Sci-Fi · Adventure

Colonel Bleep, Squeak, and Scratch dive to the ocean-covered planet Aqualand, where the villainous Dr. Destructo and his giant octopus Octo have stolen the priceless pearls of the Frog Men. A Colonel Bleep episode directed by Jack Schleh. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Sci-Fi · Family

Colonel Bleep and his companions find their holiday turned perilous when danger threatens their island base, testing the futuristic envoy's futomic powers. A Colonel Bleep episode directed by Jack Schleh. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Sci-Fi · Family

The first great disaster movie. When unexplained earthquakes unleash a catastrophic storm and tidal wave that obliterates New York City — footage later recycled into serials and films for decades — lawyer Martin Webster (Sidney Blackmer) is separated from his family and left to survive in the ruins. On a devastated coast he meets swimmer Claire Arlington (Peggy Shannon), and the two must contend with looters and lawless survivors in a Hobbesian world. Produced by RKO and directed by Felix E. Feist, its miniature work and destruction sequences were astonishing for 1933. The film's copyright was not renewed; it is in the public domain in the United States.

Sci-Fi · Drama

A 1972 American science fiction film mostly filmed in 1967 under Herbert J. Leder's direction but completed years later without the original cast, costumes, or sets. Spies discover that the Red Chinese have built a "doomsday machine" capable of destroying the surface of the Earth, and plan to use it within days. The U.S. scrambles a mission to Venus, at the last minute replacing three male crew members with female ones to ensure repopulation. The film is notorious for its disjointed production history and marked Public Domain on Archive.org. Casey Kasem appears as the Mission Control Officer.

Sci-Fi

A 1962 American horror film directed by Arch Hall Sr. (credited as Nicholas Merriwether) and starring his son Arch Hall Jr. and Richard Kiel. While driving through the California desert, Roxy Miller (Marilyn Manning) nearly hits a giant caveman named Eegah (Richard Kiel). Her father, a writer of adventure books, heads into the desert to find the creature, but is captured and trapped in Eegah's cave. When Roxy and her boyfriend Tom (Arch Hall Jr.) come to rescue him, Eegah grows fond of Roxy and follows them back to civilization, leading to tragedy. Made on a budget of $15,000, the film was later featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and became a cult favorite.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A 2006 Dutch animated science fiction fantasy short film and the first "open movie" produced by the Blender Foundation. Directed by Bassam Kurdali, the film was created entirely with free and open-source software, primarily Blender. It tells the story of Emo and Proog, two characters exploring a strange and seemingly infinite machine. The elder, Proog, acts as a tour guide, showing off the sights and dangers of the machine to the increasingly skeptical Emo. The film, its production files, and all source assets (roughly 7 GB of data) were released under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license, allowing anyone to remake, remix, and re-purpose the film. The title references a Dutch tradition of abruptly ending children's bedtime stories with a sneezing elephant.

Animation · Sci-Fi

A 1976 American science fiction horror film directed by Ralph Nelson, starring Rock Hudson. A scientist (Hudson) doing experiments on a human fetus discovers a method to accelerate the fetus into a mature adult in just a few days using a growth hormone. His creation, Victoria (Barbara Carrera), develops rapidly into a beautiful and brilliant woman — but soon begins to exhibit horrifying psychopathic tendencies. As she accelerates beyond his control, the scientist must confront the ethical and physical consequences of playing God. The film also features Diane Ladd and Roddy McDowall, with a cameo by psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers playing herself.

Sci-Fi · Horror

A 1965 science fiction compilation film produced for American television from three installments of the Japanese Super Giant film series. The evil genius Balazar from the planet Zemar has been assassinated, but his prodigiously overdeveloped brain has been preserved and now seeks universal conquest, starting with Earth. The High Council of the Emerald Planet sends Starman (Ken Utsui) to defeat Balazar's followers, who are using nuclear weapons and unleashing monsters with deadly diseases. Three self-contained Japanese stories were edited into a single 78-minute film by Walter Manley Enterprises, resulting in what has been called "an alternately mind-blowing and mind-numbing adventure" of nonstop chases, captures, rescues, and fight scenes.

Sci-Fi · Action

Felix the Cat blasts off into space and encounters bizarre alien worlds and cosmic perils in one of his later silent adventures. Animated by Otto Messmer and distributed by Educational Pictures. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Comedy · Sci-Fi

A 1940 American 12-chapter science fiction serial from Universal Pictures, co-directed by Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor, and the last of the three Universal Flash Gordon serials. A mysterious plague called the Purple Death ravages the Earth. Dr. Zarkov discovers a ship from planet Mongo seeding the atmosphere with dust — Ming the Merciless is up to his old tricks. Flash, Dale, and Zarkov return to Mongo to stop Ming, encountering the Rock People and the Arborians along the way. Buster Crabbe reprises his role as Flash, with Carol Hughes replacing Jean Rogers as Dale Arden. The serial entered the public domain via non-renewal of its copyright.

Sci-Fi · Action · Adventure

A 1956 unaired television pilot directed by Duke Goldstone, intended as a spin-off of the 1954 film Tobor the Great. Tobor ("robot" spelled backwards) is a nine-foot-tall robot controlled telepathically by Tommy Adams, a boy genius with one of the highest ESP quotients ever recorded. In the pilot episode "Tobor and the Atomic Submarine," Professor Adams and Tobor help the U.S. Navy find a missing nuclear submarine. Tobor flies in a rocket, recovers the submarine, and fights a gang of pirates. The series was not picked up, and only the pilot was filmed. The credits famously read "Tobor played by Tobor."

Sci-Fi

A 1972 Spanish-British science fiction horror film directed by Eugenio Martín, starring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and Telly Savalas. British anthropologist Alexander Saxton (Lee) discovers a frozen prehistoric humanoid in Manchuria in 1906 and boards the Trans-Siberian Express to transport it to Europe. But when passengers begin turning up dead — their brains drained of memories — Saxton and his rival Dr. Wells (Cushing) realize the creature is alive and possesses the power to absorb minds and control bodies. Telly Savalas appears in the final act as a Cossack captain. The film was shot in Madrid and marked Peter Cushing's first film after the death of his wife. The screenplay was by blacklisted writer Julian Zimet (credited as Julian Halevy). The film is marked Public Domain on Archive.org.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A 1967 American made-for-television horror science fiction film directed by Larry Buchanan for American International Pictures. A color remake of Roger Corman's 1956 film Day the World Ended, the title is borrowed from a short story by Jules Verne and his son Michael Verne, though the film bears no relation to that story. After a nuclear war wipes out most of Earth's population, a group of survivors holes up in a secluded valley protected from radiation by its geography. They must protect themselves from rising radiation levels, cannibalistic mutants with telepathic powers, and in some cases each other. The film entered the public domain because it was published without a copyright notice.

Sci-Fi · Horror

A convicted killer known as "the Butcher" is executed in the gas chamber, but his body is sold to a scientist who accidentally revives him with an experimental serum, making him nearly indestructible and impervious to bullets. He sets out to take revenge on the partners who betrayed him. Lon Chaney Jr., in the late, diminished stretch of his career, plays the mute, brooding creature with almost no dialogue, stalking through Los Angeles landmarks like Angels Flight and the Bradbury Building. The film is a low-budget crime-horror hybrid that plays like a rough remake of Chaney's earlier Man Made Monster. It entered the public domain because its copyright was not renewed.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A 1973 American science fiction thriller directed by Denis Sanders from a screenplay by Nicholas Meyer (later director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). In a small California town, male scientists at a top-secret research facility begin dying after extreme sexual exertion. State Department agent Neil Agar (William Smith) investigates and uncovers a horrific plot: a mad scientist (Anitra Ford) is using radiation-mutated bee serum to transform women into queen bees who seduce men to death. Roger Ebert called it "the best schlock soft-core science fiction movie" of its era. The film is a cult favorite, praised as a stinging satire of 1970s sexual politics. It is marked Public Domain on Archive.org.

Sci-Fi · Horror · Thriller

A 1930 American pre-Code science fiction musical comedy directed by David Butler, notable for its imaginative portrayal of New York City in 1980. The film follows a man from 1930 (El Brendel) who is struck by lightning and revived by scientists 50 years later in a world where airplanes have replaced cars, numbers have replaced names, pills have replaced food, and babies come from vending machines. He befriends J-21 (John Garrick), who can't marry the girl of his dreams (Maureen O'Sullivan) until he proves himself on a rocketship expedition to Mars. The film was a lavish production for Fox, budgeted at over $1 million, and was one of the first science fiction musicals. The film entered the public domain via non-renewal of its copyright.

Sci-Fi · Comedy · Musical

A 1954 American science fiction film directed by W. Lee Wilder, brother of Billy Wilder. Peter Graves plays atomic scientist Doug Martin, who is presumed dead after his plane crashes on a reconnaissance flight following a nuclear test — then turns up alive, telling a story nobody believes: he was captured by aliens who plan to conquer Earth with an army of giant mutated insects and reptiles. Famous for its bug-eyed aliens (created with ping-pong balls) and liberal use of stock footage, the film features an uncredited early appearance by Coleman Francis. Its copyright was never renewed, and it has become a drive-in staple of public domain sci-fi collections.

Sci-Fi · Horror

Knight of Death is a 1957 Colonel Bleep cartoon from Soundac Studios, directed by Jack Schleh. From their earth headquarters on Zero Zero Island, Colonel Bleep, Squeak the puppet boy, and Scratch the caveman battle intergalactic villains — in this episode facing the Black Knight. Colonel Bleep was the first color cartoon series produced for television. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Sci-Fi · Family

A 1960 American science fiction film produced and directed by Roger Corman. Shady businessman Harold Gern (Antony Carbone), his wife Evelyn (Betsy Jones-Moreland), and his lawyer Martin Joyce (Robert Towne, in his screenwriting debut, credited as Edward Wain) are scuba diving off Puerto Rico when a mysterious temporary absence of oxygen kills everyone on the island — and possibly the world. When they surface, they find themselves the sole survivors of an unexplained apocalypse. As the three adjust to their new existence, the tension of being the last people on Earth — with only one woman — drives the two men into a deadly rivalry. Shot in Puerto Rico on a low budget, the film features an early screenplay by Robert Towne, who later won an Oscar for Chinatown (1974).

Sci-Fi · Drama

Man Hunt on the Moon is a 1957 Colonel Bleep cartoon from Soundac Studios, directed by Jack Schleh. From their earth headquarters on Zero Zero Island, Colonel Bleep, Squeak the puppet boy, and Scratch the caveman pursue villains across the solar system. Colonel Bleep was the first color cartoon series produced for television. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Sci-Fi · Family

In a vast future city, the wealthy live in pleasure gardens above ground while workers toil underground to keep the machines running. Freder, the son of the city's master, follows a woman into the workers' city and sees the human cost of his father's order. A robot built in the shape of Maria is set loose to destroy the workers' hope. Fritz Lang's film is one of the most influential ever made; its images echo through every science fiction film since, from the robot design to the towering cityscape. The film was cut down and re-edited for years after its premiere, and a near-complete restoration was assembled decades later from archives around the world. Thea von Harbou wrote the screenplay and the novel it is based on. The film is in the public domain as a pre-1930 work.

Sci-Fi · Silent

A professor perfects a working television system and invites investors to a demonstration, only to die on camera when a mysterious ray intercuts the broadcast. Bela Lugosi plays a dual role — the professor's loyal assistant and a sinister European interloper — in a whodunit where the murder weapon is the new technology itself. Shot in 1935, when television was still laboratory speculation, the film treats live broadcast as exotic enough to carry a thriller. June Collyer plays the professor's daughter caught between suspects. Made by poverty-row outfit Cameo Pictures, it entered the public domain after its copyright was never renewed.

Mystery · Thriller · Sci-Fi

Nightmare is a 1957 Colonel Bleep cartoon from Soundac Studios, directed by Jack Schleh. From their earth headquarters on Zero Zero Island, Colonel Bleep, Squeak the puppet boy, and Scratch the caveman face a terrifying dream adventure. Colonel Bleep was the first color cartoon series produced for television. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Sci-Fi · Family

A 1953 science fiction film directed by W. Lee Wilder, brother of Billy Wilder. An alien spacecraft lands in Santa Monica, and when the visitor's spacesuit makes it look menacing, it kills two people who attack it — then removes the suit and becomes invisible while being pursued by federal agents. A group of scientists races to communicate with the creature before the military destroys it. A quintessential low-budget 1950s invader picture, notable for its early use of an "invisible alien" premise and its downbeat ending. The film is in the public domain.

Sci-Fi · Horror

Aliens resurrect the dead to stop humanity from developing a doomsday weapon. Bela Lugosi appears in a few minutes of footage shot before he died; the rest of his scenes are played by a taller man holding a cape over his face. Often cited as the worst film ever made, which is unfair. It is cheap and incoherent, but also earnest and fast-paced. Ed Wood wrote, produced, and directed it in a few days on a tiny budget. The film was not released until two years after it was made, and it was a commercial failure. It found its audience through television reruns in the 1980s.

Sci-Fi · Horror

Martian parents, worried that their children are sad and listless, decide the solution is to kidnap Santa Claus from Earth and bring him to Mars. Two Earth children get caught up in the scheme. A legendary low-budget holiday curio, infamous for its wobbly sets and a young Pia Zadora as one of the Martian kids. The missing copyright notice placed it immediately in the public domain.

Sci-Fi · Family · Comedy

Electric Earthquake is a 1942 Superman animated short from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. A Native American villain uses an electric ray device to threaten Manhattan with earthquakes, demanding the return of the island to his people. Superman must stop the destruction and save the city. The Fleischer Superman cartoons were noted for their art deco style, cinematic animation, and mature storytelling. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · Sci-Fi

The Arctic Giant is a 1942 Superman animated short from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. An expedition to the Arctic uncovers a frozen Tyrannosaurus Rex, which thaws and rampages through Metropolis. Superman must stop the prehistoric creature before it destroys the city. The cartoon is notable for its dinosaur sequence, which predates similar scenes in later films by decades. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · Sci-Fi

The Magnetic Telescope is a 1942 Superman animated short from Fleischer Studios, distributed by Paramount Pictures. A scientist invents a magnetic telescope that can attract meteors from space, but the device goes out of control and threatens Metropolis with a catastrophic comet impact. Superman must destroy the deadly projectile before it hits the city. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Animation · Action · Sci-Fi

An alien youth sent ahead of an invasion fleet to prepare Earth for colonization turns against his mission after experiencing human kindness, and tries to stop the giant lobsters his people intend to unleash. Tom Graeff wrote, directed, produced, edited, and scored this micro-budget curio. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Sci-Fi · Horror

A 1960 American science fiction thriller directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, starring Marguerite Chapman in her final feature film. Ex-Army major Paul Krenner forces scientist Dr. Peter Ulof to develop a radiation-based invisibility machine, planning to create an invisible army to sell to the highest bidder. He busts safecracker Joey Faust (Douglas Kennedy) out of prison and forces him to undergo the invisibility treatment to steal more radium. But Faust discovers an unexpected side effect of the treatment and begins to pursue his own agenda. Shot back-to-back with Beyond the Time Barrier in Dallas, Texas on a combined two-week schedule with a budget of approximately $100,000.

Sci-Fi · Crime · Thriller

Bela Lugosi at his most committedly absurd: Dr. James Brewster, a scientist whose experiments with ape glands have turned him into a stooped, shaggy ape-man who must harvest human spinal fluid to stay alive. Wallace Ford and Louise Currie play the reporters who stumble onto the story, and Henry Hall wanders through as the creepiest character in the picture — a mysterious man who keeps appearing to comment on events. Shot in a week for Monogram under William Beaudine, it is cheap even by poverty-row standards, but Lugosi plays the degradation with real conviction, and the final twist is genuinely strange. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal of copyright.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A 1963 American science fiction horror film also known as Monstrosity, directed by Joseph V. Mascelli. A wealthy elderly woman, Mrs. March (Marjorie Eaton), funds the experiments of Dr. Otto Frank (Frank Gerstle), who uses an atomic reactor in her basement to transplant brains between bodies. Mrs. March wants her brain transplanted into the body of a beautiful young woman, and three European girls are lured to the mansion as candidates. The experiments go horribly wrong — one woman receives a cat's brain, another becomes a zombie — and the film culminates in the destruction of the laboratory. The film was shot in 1958 but not released until 1963 after the production company went bankrupt. It was later featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Sci-Fi · Horror

A defecting Russian scientist, fleeing through the Nevada desert, is caught in a nuclear blast and transformed into a mindless, murderous creature. Tor Johnson, the Swedish wrestler best known for his work with Ed Wood, plays the beast, lurching through the flats and strangling anyone who crosses his path. The film is essentially a silent picture told through narration, with almost no dialogue between characters. Coleman Francis wrote and directed it for an estimated thirty-four thousand dollars, and it is widely regarded as one of the strangest and most incoherent films ever made. Its reputation was sealed by Mystery Science Theater 3000. It entered the public domain and circulates widely on budget labels.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A surgeon crashes his car and saves his fiancée by keeping her severed head alive in a tray of fluid in his laboratory. While she grows increasingly unhinged and telepathically commands a monstrous experiment locked in the closet, he scours the city's nightclubs and back alleys for a body to attach to her. The Brain That Wouldn't Die is a sleazy, low-budget cult film that became a staple of late-night television and was later mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Its mix of mad-science horror and exploitation is pure early-1960s B-picture. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal of its copyright.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A giant lizard terrorizes a rural Texas community, and a hot-rod-building teenager becomes the town's unlikely hero when the adults fail to stop the creature. The Giant Gila Monster was shot in Texas on a tiny budget and released on a double bill with The Killer Shrews, produced by the same team. The monster is played by a real Gila monster filmed on a miniature set, which gives the film a different texture from the men-in-suits creature features of the era. Don Sullivan, as the singing, car-fixing hero, performs a couple of songs along the way. The film entered the public domain and became a television staple.

Horror · Sci-Fi

John Carradine, whose entire role consists of narrating from a chair and never meeting the rest of the cast, sends four scientists down in a diving bell that snaps its cable and sinks into a subterranean cavern — a glowing "petrified world" where the survivors bicker, pair off, and dodge stock footage until they find a volcanic vent to ride back to the surface. Made by Jerry Warren, one of the true minors of 1950s exploitation, from a script padded out around underwater footage shot in Santa Catalina's real submarine gardens. It is exactly as slow and threadbare as that sounds, which is why it remains a fixture of public domain sci-fi collections and late-night movie marathons. The film is in the public domain.

Sci-Fi · Horror · Adventure

A boat captain delivering supplies to an isolated island is trapped there by a hurricane and finds a group of scientists holed up in a compound. Their experiments to shrink humans and solve world hunger have instead produced giant, venomous shrews that are eating through their supplies and closing in. The Killer Shrews is a compact creature feature from the late 1950s, shot on a small budget with the giant shrews played by dogs in shrew costumes. It was double-billed with The Giant Gila Monster and became a staple of television and later Mystery Science Theater 3000. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal of its copyright.

Horror · Sci-Fi

Vincent Price plays Dr. Robert Morgan, the apparent sole survivor of a plague that has turned the rest of humanity into vampire-like creatures. By day he hunts them and stakes them; by night he barricades himself inside his home while they swarm outside, calling his name. The film is the first adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend, which later inspired The Omega Man and the Will Smith version. Matheson worked on the screenplay but was unhappy with it and took a pseudonym. Shot in Rome on a low budget, it leans on Price's weary, haunted performance to carry the isolation. The film entered the public domain in the 1980s and is widely considered the most faithful of the novel's adaptations.

Horror · Sci-Fi

An expedition led by the bombastic Professor Challenger ventures to a remote South American plateau where dinosaurs still roam. The film adapts Arthur Conan Doyle's novel and is most remembered today for Willis O'Brien's stop-motion animation, a direct ancestor of his work on King Kong (1933). The brontosaurus rampaging through London at the climax is the sequence everyone cites. Wallace Beery glowers his way through the lead, and the supporting cast includes Bessie Love and Lewis Stone. The effects were astonishing for 1925 and remain a key milestone in the history of visual effects. Published in 1925, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Adventure · Fantasy · Sci-Fi · Silent

A 1978 American made-for-television science fiction film directed by David L. Hewitt and Kenneth Hartford. An intelligence agent (Robert Vaughn) discovers a Nazi plot to revive the Third Reich by replacing world leaders with obedient clones. The film follows his efforts to convince the authorities that surviving Nazis are using cloning technology to infiltrate global governments. The film features Keenan Wynn, Merrie Lynn Ross, and Aldo Ray in supporting roles. It is marked Public Domain on Archive.org.

Sci-Fi · Thriller

The Mad Monster is a 1942 horror film directed by Sam Newfield and produced by Sigmund Neufeld for Producers Releasing Corporation. George Zucco plays Dr. Lorenzo Cameron, a discredited scientist who injects his simple-minded handyman Petro (Glenn Strange) with a serum derived from wolf's blood, transforming him into a werewolf. Cameron unleashes his creation on the colleagues who ruined his career, while reporter Tom Gregory (Johnny Downs) and Cameron's daughter Lenora (Anne Nagel) close in on the truth. A quickie knock-off of Universal's monster pictures, it gave Glenn Strange an early turn as a screen monster before he played Frankenstein's creature at Universal. The film is in the public domain through non-renewal.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A mad scientist becomes obsessed with a concert pianist's daughter and, when she rejects him, injects the pianist with a serum that causes acromegaly, the glandular disease that hideously enlarges the face and extremities. He offers the cure only in exchange for the daughter's hand. J. Carrol Naish plays the villain with relish, and the film uses the real, disfiguring effects of the disease as its horror rather than a fictional monster. A cheap, brisk PRC production from the prolific director Sam Newfield, it is a solid example of 1940s Poverty Row horror. The film is in the public domain.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A 1929 American part-talkie science fiction film directed by Lucien Hubbard, based on Jules Verne's 1874 novel. Photographed largely in two-color Technicolor, the film follows Count Andre Dakkar (Lionel Barrymore), a benevolent scientist who has built a submarine on his volcanic island near the kingdom of Hetvia. When the despotic Baron Falon overruns the island, Dakkar's daughter Sonia and her fiancé Nicolai Roget pilot the submarine on its maiden voyage. Pursued by Falon in a second submarine, both craft dive to the ocean floor and discover a strange land populated by dragons, giant squid, and an undiscovered humanoid race. The film was a lavish MGM production budgeted at over $1 million, with additional direction by Maurice Tourneur and Benjamin Christensen.

Sci-Fi · Adventure · Fantasy

Atomic-age creature feature from the dawn of AIP. Bodies are washing up on a California beach, glowing with radiation, and oceanographer Dr. Ted Stevens (Kent Taylor) goes undercover to find out why. The trail leads to Professor King's coastal lab, a stolen stash of uranium on the seabed — and the scaly, glowing-eyed mutant that radiation has spawned to guard it. Made by the Milner brothers for pennies and released by the fledgling American Releasing Corporation, it is quintessential 1950s drive-in sci-fi: stiff dialogue, rubbery monster, and a curiously effective finale. Its copyright was not renewed; it is in the public domain in the United States.

Sci-Fi · Horror

A 1961 American science fiction film directed by William Marshall, starring Dean Fredericks and Coleen Gray. American astronaut Capt. Frank Chapman is forced to land his spaceship on a mysterious asteroid after investigating the disappearance of a Pegasus rocket. Upon opening his space suit, he is miniaturized by the planet's atmosphere and captured by a race of tiny people ruled by Sessom. Chapman becomes entangled in their world — caught between the affections of Sessom's daughter Liara and the mute Zetha — while helping the tiny kingdom defend itself against the Solarites, an ancient enemy. The film features the first credited appearance of Richard Kiel as the Solarite monster. Released as a double feature with Assignment Outer Space (1960).

Sci-Fi

A 1934 Universal science fiction serial directed by Lew Landers, spanning 12 chapters. Stanley Stanfield (Onslow Stevens) invents the Vanishing Ray, a wearable device that renders the user invisible — though his shadow remains visible. He seeks the help of Professor Carl Van Dorn to eliminate this side effect, but his plans to finance the invention by selling inherited bonds bring him into conflict with Wade Barnett (Walter Miller), the corrupt businessman who hounded Stanley's father to his death. When a struggle at the stockbroker's office ends in accidental death, Stanley is accused of murder and must use his invisibility device to clear his name and expose Barnett. The serial features what is believed to be the first appearance of a hand-held ray gun in film, along with robots and a "Destroying Ray." Added as the full 12-chapter serial (Chapter 1: "Accused of Murder").

Sci-Fi · Action · Adventure

The head of a cosmetics company, worried that her aging face is hurting sales, agrees to injections of an experimental wasp-enzyme serum from a discredited scientist. The treatment restores her youth, but the side effects turn her, at intervals, into a murderous wasp-like creature. Roger Corman directed The Wasp Woman quickly and cheaply, recycling the theme of beauty obsession and scientific hubris he had used in earlier films. Susan Cabot plays the lead with a brittle intensity that lifts the material above its budget. The film is in the public domain and has circulated widely on budget home video.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A 1936 British science fiction film produced by Alexander Korda, directed by William Cameron Menzies, and written by H.G. Wells from his own novel The Shape of Things to Come. A landmark in production design, the film spans a century of future history: beginning on Christmas 1940 in Everytown as world war erupts, it follows decades of conflict, plague, and social collapse until a rationalist state rebuilds civilization and attempts space travel. Raymond Massey stars as the visionary John Cabal, with Ralph Richardson as "The Boss," a Mussolini-like warlord who seizes power in the post-apocalyptic ruins. England's first million-dollar picture, the film features groundbreaking special effects and monumental sets. Ralph Richardson modelled his character explicitly on Mussolini, who responded by banning the film in Italy.

Sci-Fi · Drama

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

A low-budget creature feature directed by Richard Ashe and written by Bill Finger, co-creator of Batman. Mineralogist Paul Carlson (Chase Cordell) is struck in the head by a meteorite fragment during a meteor shower, embedding itself in his skull. Under the light of the full moon, Paul transforms into a reptilian monster that prowls the New Mexico desert, killing anyone it encounters. His girlfriend Kathy and Professor "Johnny Longbow" Salinas race to find a cure before the next full moon. Shot in Albuquerque in 1972 on a $300,000 budget, the film features local non-actors as extras and a performance of the song "California Lady" by Frank Larrabee and his band, who happened to be staying at the same hotel as the crew. The film was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. The film is in the public domain.

Horror · Sci-Fi

A 1968 American science fiction film directed by Peter Bogdanovich (credited as Derek Thomas) for producer Roger Corman. The film is a re-edit of the 1962 Soviet science fiction film Planeta Bur (Planet of Storms) by Pavel Klushantsev, with new English-dubbed footage and additional scenes starring Mamie Van Doren as Moana, leader of a band of blond Venusian women. Astronauts landing on Venus encounter dangerous prehistoric creatures and unknowingly kill a pterosaur-like creature that is worshipped as a god by the Venusian women. In revenge, the women attempt to kill the astronauts, who eventually make an emergency blast off from Venus — leaving behind their damaged robot, which the women adopt as their new god. Bogdanovich also narrated the film. The Venusian women do not appear in the original Soviet film.

Sci-Fi · Adventure

A 1966 American made-for-television horror science fiction film directed by Larry Buchanan and starring John Agar. A low-budget 16mm color remake of Roger Corman's It Conquered the World (1956), the film follows Dr. Keith Ritchie, a NASA scientist who secretly communicates with an alien from Venus named Zontar. Believing Zontar will solve humanity's problems, Ritchie enables the creature's arrival on Earth via a fallen laser satellite. But the three-eyed, bat-winged, skeletal creature has a hidden agenda: it causes global power outages and takes control of people's minds using flying "injecto-pods" that sprout from its wings. Only after his wife is killed does Ritchie realize Zontar has come as a conqueror, not a savior. Filmed around White Rock Lake in Dallas, Texas on a budget of $22,000.

Horror · Sci-Fi