10 Public-Domain Horror Movies to Watch Free This Halloween

By Abdullah Al-Janoubi. Last updated: 27 October 2026

Quick answer

You can legally stream Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Night of the Living Dead and seven more horror classics for nothing, because they're in the US public domain. The silent ones are old enough to be free by date. The 1960s ones slipped out of copyright through a missing notice or a renewal nobody filed. Every film below links to a full copy on the Internet Archive.

Halloween is on Saturday, and you don't need a subscription to get a proper scare. If you've already seen our Night of the Living Dead watch guide or our review of The Last Man on Earth, this list picks up where those left off: ten films, the reason each one is free, and a link you can open tonight. I checked every Internet Archive item again on 27 October before publishing.

The ten films at a glance

Film	Year	Why it's free in the US
Nosferatu	1922	Published before 1931
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari	1920	Published before 1931
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	1920	Published before 1931
Häxan	1922	Published before 1931
The Phantom of the Opera	1925	Published before 1931; copyright also not renewed
Night of the Living Dead	1968	Copyright notice dropped when the title changed
Carnival of Souls	1962	US prints had no valid copyright notice
The Last Man on Earth	1964	Fell into the public domain in the 1980s
The Little Shop of Horrors	1960	Roger Corman never copyrighted it
The Bat	1959	Listed by Wikipedia as public domain

Why these films are free to watch

Copyright runs out. On 1 January 2026, works from 1930 joined the US public domain, according to Duke Law's Center for the Study of the Public Domain, so anything published in 1930 or earlier is now open to all. Another year joins every January.

Later films can be free too. Duke explains that works by US creators once had to follow "formalities" to keep their protection: publish with a copyright notice, then renew after 28 years. Miss either step and the film could fall out of copyright decades early. That's how a 1968 zombie film ends up on the same list as a 1922 vampire.

Two cautions. Duke's guide covers US law only, and the rules in Saudi Arabia, the UK or the EU can be different. And a new restoration can carry its own copyright if it adds original material, even when the film underneath is free. The Archive copies I've linked are the ones their uploaders marked as public domain.

The silent era, 1920 to 1925

1. Nosferatu (1922)

F. W. Murnau's unofficial Dracula gave us Max Schreck as Count Orlok: bald, rat-faced, all long fingers and slow movements. Bram Stoker's widow sued, and a court ordered every copy destroyed. Some prints survived anyway, which is the only reason you can watch it at all. Orlok's shadow creeping up the stairs is still one of the most copied shots in horror. If you only have time for one film from this list, make it this one. It plays right here.

Why it's free: it was released in 1922, so it's public domain in the US by date. Wikipedia adds that it entered the public domain worldwide in 2019.

Full film streamed from the Internet Archive, where it's marked Public Domain Mark 1.0. If the player doesn't load, open it there.

2. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

Robert Wiene's film premiered at the Marmorhaus in Berlin on 26 February 1920, and it still looks like nothing else. The sets are painted, with crooked walls and shadows drawn straight onto the floor. Werner Krauss plays the showman Caligari and Conrad Veidt is Cesare, the sleepwalker he puts on display. The story comes from a narrator you probably shouldn't trust, and its ending has been borrowed for a century.

Why it's free: released in 1920. Watch it on the Internet Archive.

3. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)

John Barrymore's first change into Hyde is done with no make-up at all. He twists his face and body until he looks like a different man, and only then does the heavy make-up take over. John S. Robertson directed it for Famous Players-Lasky. If you think silent films are slow, start here.

Why it's free: released in 1920. Watch it on the Internet Archive.

4. Häxan (1922)

Benjamin Christensen's Swedish-Danish film is closer to an essay than a normal horror movie. It walks through the history of witch hunts, partly based on his own study of the Malleus Maleficarum, and argues that many "witches" were probably people with mental or neurological illness. The staged scenes of devils and torture were shocking for 1922. Wikipedia says it was the most expensive Scandinavian silent film made up to that point. The tinted, subtitled copy linked here is the easy way in.

Why it's free: released in 1922. Watch it on the Internet Archive.

5. The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Lon Chaney designed his own make-up for the Phantom, and the moment the mask comes off is still one of the great reveals in film. The Paris Opera set needed to hold hundreds of extras, so Universal built Stage 28 as its first soundstage with steel girders set in concrete. The set was put into storage when that stage was finally torn down.

Why it's free: it's from 1925, so it's covered by date. Wikipedia also notes that Universal didn't renew the copyright in 1953. Watch it on the Internet Archive.

Later films that slipped out of copyright

6. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

George A. Romero's first feature invented the modern zombie. Strangers hole up in a Pennsylvania farmhouse while the dead close in, and Duane Jones leads the cast at a time when a Black lead in a horror film was rare. The crew rented a condemned farmhouse they could wreck during the shoot. The ending is still brutal. Our full guide to the film has the backstory.

Why it's free: Image Ten put a copyright notice on the title frames under the original name, Night of the Flesh Eaters. When the distributor, the Walter Reade Organization, changed the title, the notice went with it, and under the law at the time the film went into the public domain on release. Watch it on the Internet Archive.

7. Carnival of Souls (1962)

Herk Harvey made industrial and educational films in Lawrence, Kansas, and he shot this one for $33,000 in Kansas and Salt Lake City. Candace Hilligoss plays Mary Henry, who walks away from a car crash and takes a job as a church organist. She keeps seeing a pale figure, credited as "The Man", and keeps getting pulled back to an abandoned pavilion on the Great Salt Lake. It plays more like a bad dream than a shocker, and that's why it sticks.

Why it's free: Wikipedia says the US release prints didn't include a copyright notice. A director's cut made in 1998 was copyrighted separately, so the free version is the original. Watch it on the Internet Archive.

8. The Last Man on Earth (1964)

Vincent Price is Robert Morgan, alone after a plague has turned everyone else into weak, vampire-like creatures. By day he hunts them and burns the bodies. By night he sits behind his boarded windows while they come for him. It was shot in Rome as a US-Italian production, and it's the first of three films based on Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend, ahead of The Omega Man (1971) and the 2007 I Am Legend. I wrote more about it in our Last Man on Earth review.

Why it's free: Wikipedia records that it entered the public domain in the 1980s. Watch it on the Internet Archive.

9. The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

Roger Corman's horror comedy is about a skid-row florist's assistant, Seymour, whose odd little plant turns out to want blood. Corman shot it on sets left over from A Bucket of Blood, with three days of rehearsal and then two days and a night of filming. A young Jack Nicholson has a small part as Wilbur Force, and later home video releases made a lot of noise about it. The story went on to become a stage musical and the 1986 film.

Why it's free: Wikipedia says Corman didn't think it would earn much after its first run, so he never copyrighted it. Watch it on the Internet Archive.

10. The Bat (1959)

Vincent Price again, this time with Agnes Moorehead as Cornelia Van Gorder, a mystery writer who rents a summer house called The Oaks. Somewhere in the story is over $1 million in stolen bank securities, and a masked killer known as the Bat wants it. It's an old dark house mystery with very little blood, a good pick if someone in the room hates gore.

Why it's free: Wikipedia says it's now in the public domain. Watch it on the Internet Archive.

Coming in 2027: Dracula and Frankenstein

Universal's Dracula premiered in New York on 12 February 1931, and Frankenstein followed later that year. Wikipedia's pages for both say they enter the US public domain on 1 January 2027. Until then they're still under copyright, so don't expect free legal copies this Halloween.

WorldScope embeds the Internet Archive's own player and doesn't host any film.

Which one to watch tonight

New to old horror? Start with Night of the Living Dead or Carnival of Souls. Both have sound and both feel more modern than their age. Nosferatu and Caligari are short and strange to look at, and they're good with friends because you can talk over them without missing dialogue. The Little Shop of Horrors is really a comedy. The Bat is a whodunit. Save Häxan for the friend who likes history and odd documentaries.

If you'd rather swap horror for a thriller, our Charade (1963) review covers a Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn film you can also stream free. Everything else we've published is in the All Articles index.

FAQ

Is it legal to watch these films for free?

In the United States, yes, because they're in the public domain there. Other countries have their own rules, so check yours if you're outside the US.

Why is Night of the Living Dead public domain?

The copyright notice disappeared when the title changed from Night of the Flesh Eaters before the 1968 release. Under US law at the time, that put the film in the public domain.

When will Dracula and Frankenstein be public domain?

Both are 1931 films, so they enter the US public domain on 1 January 2027.

Are restored versions free too?

Not always. Duke notes that a restoration can be copyrighted if it adds original material, so stick to copies marked public domain.

How we checked this

I took the public-domain rule from Duke Law's Public Domain Day 2026 page and each film's reason from its Wikipedia article, linked below. On 27 October 2026 I opened every Internet Archive item and its metadata record to make sure it still exists and plays. Most are tagged public domain by the uploader. I haven't checked the law outside the US, or whether music added to a particular upload has its own copyright.

Sources

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