[Jar Jar Stinks]

Shock Theater (marketed as Shock!) was a package of 52 pre-1948 classic horror films from Universal Studios released for television syndication in October 1957 by Screen Gems, the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures. The Shock Theater package included Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man and The Wolf Man as well as a few non-horror spy and mystery films. A second package, Son of Shock, was released for television by Screen Gems in 1958, with 20 horror films from both Universal and Columbia.

Shock Theater stimulated interest in the classic horror films and actors, evidenced by the launching of Forrest J Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine in early 1958.

Since 1957, Shock Theater has become a generic term, referencing either late-night television showings of horror films in general or the genre of early horror films with their emphasis on spooky mood and implied horror, as opposed to the explicitly graphic horror films that followed.

Shock Theater Press Kit


Titles currently on Blu-ray are linked below.

Shock Theater

• The Black Cat (1934)
• Calling Dr. Death (1943)
• The Cat Creeps (1946)
• Chinatown Squad (1935)
• Danger Woman (1946)
• A Dangerous Game (1941)
• Dead Man's Eyes (1944)
• Destination Unknown (1933)
• Dracula (1931)
• Dracula's Daughter (1936)
• Enemy Agent (1940)
• Frankenstein (1931)
• Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
• The Frozen Ghost (1945)
• The Great Impersonation (1935)
• Horror Island (1941)
• House of Horrors (1946)
• The Invisible Man (1933)
• The Invisible Man Returns (1940)
• The Invisible Ray (1936)
• The Last Warning (1929)
• The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942)
• The Mad Ghoul (1943)
• Man Made Monster (1941)
• The Man Who Cried Wolf (1937)
• The Mummy (1932)
• The Mummy's Ghost (1944)
• The Mummy's Hand (1940)
• The Mummy's Tomb (1942)
• Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)
• The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935)
• The Mystery of Marie Roget (1942)
• Mystery of the White Room (1939)
• Night Key (1937)
• Night Monster (1942)
• Nightmare (1942)
• Pillow of Death (1945)
• The Raven (1935)
• Reported Missing! (1937)
• Sealed Lips (1942)
• The Secret of the Blue Room (1933)
• Secret of the Chateau (1934)
• She-Wolf of London (1946)
• Son of Dracula (1943)
• Son of Frankenstein (1939)
• The Spider Woman Strikes Back (1946)
• The Spy Ring (1938)
• The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (1942)
• Weird Woman (1944)
• Werewolf of London (1935)
• The Witness Vanishes (1939)
• The Wolf Man (1941)

Son of Shock

• Before I Hang (1940)
• Behind the Mask (1932)
• Black Friday (1940)
• The Black Room (1935)
• The Boogie Man Will Get You (1942)
• Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
• Captive Wild Woman (1943)
• The Devil Commands (1941)
• The Face Behind the Mask (1941)
• Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
• House of Dracula (1945)
• House of Frankenstein (1944)
• The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944)
• Island of Doomed Men (1940)
• The Jungle Captive (1945)
• The Man They Could Not Hang (1939)
• The Man Who Lived Twice (1936)
• The Man with Nine Lives (1940)
• The Mummy's Curse (1944)
• Night of Terror (1933)