While the biggest franchises of all time, like James Bond, Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings. As a performer adept at playing both heroic leads and sinister villains, Lee’s horror movie filmography tapped into the vast array of spooky subgenres that included mystery, thrillers, and supernatural tales.

Lee first gained notoriety in the world of horror for playing Frankenstein’s monster in 1957’s The Curse Of Frankenstein, which opened the doors for a long and fruitful partnership with folk horror classics like The Wicker Man. As a performer boasting one of the most impressive careers Hollywood has ever seen, Lee was truly an icon of 20th-century horror movies.

10 Scream And Scream Again (1970)

Christopher Lee as Fremont

Three legends of horror came together for the serial killer story Scream and Scream Again, starring Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, and Peter Cushing. This was the second pairing of iconic Lee and Price with director Gordon Hessler following the Gothic horror The Oblong Box from the year before. Telling the story of a killer who drained the blood of his victims, Scream and Scream Again mixed crime thriller stylings with pure horror to create a minor cult classic that was overlooked during its initial release.

While it was exciting to see three legends of horror on the billing for a fast-paced, vampiric thriller, it was a shame that Lee, Price, and Cushing never all shared the screen in Scream and Scream Again, and Lee and Price only came together briefly during the film’s climax. Despite this missing opportunity, Scream and Scream Again was a fantastic 1970s sci-fi horror showcasing the best British scary movies during this era. While the blood-draining narrative may have hinted at Lee’s reputation as Count Dracula, this time, the roles were switched as he portrayed the UK Government officer, Fremont.

9 Corridors Of Blood (1958)

Christopher Lee as Resurrection Joe

In Corridors of Blood, Christopher Lee shared the screen with the actor best known for embodying his later role of Frankenstein’s monster during the 1930s, Boris Karloff. This fascinating horror was also known as Doctor from Seven Dials and featured Karloff as Dr. Thomas Bolton, a surgeon during the 1840s trying to experiment with using anesthetic gases to develop a process for painless surgery. However, a demonstration gone wrong led a patient to wake up under the knife, and Bolton was disgraced in his profession while also becoming addicted to anesthetic in the process.

This led to finding himself wrapped up in a gang of criminals, including Christopher Lee as the killer, Resurrection Joe. As the crooks blackmailed Bolton into g false death certificates, he found himself increasingly destroyed by this grim and tragic tale of exploitation and hardship. Corridors of Blood was a deeply atmospheric horror whose journey into the sinister hospital practices made for truly terrifying viewing. Lee’s characterization of Resurrection Joe even influenced the musician and future film director Rob Zombie’s 1998 song "The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa Whore.”

8 The Mummy (1959)

Christopher Lee as Kharis / The Mummy

Just one year after first portraying his transformative role in 1958’s Dracula, Lee continued his fruitful relationship with Hammer Horror to play yet another iconic monster in The Mummy. By merging plot points and ideas from two Universal horror movies of the 1940s, The Mummy's Hand and The Mummy's Tomb, and borrowing heavily from The Mummy’s Ghost, this successful reimagining took the best from previous depictions and resurrected this dormant series. Lee played Kharis, the high priest of Karnak, who was mummified as punishment for trying to revive his love, Princess Ananka, and forced to protect her tomb.

Like in all Mummy films, Lee’s character was unwittingly brought out of his deep slumber as archaeologists sought to find the tomb of Princess Ananka. This led to the creepiest depiction of this undead character as Lee’s dirty bandages and horrific presentation made this TechniColor showcase all the more engrossing. With romantic undertones and a melodramatic atmosphere, The Mummy managed to effectively elevate the character into more nuanced and three-dimensional territory.

7 The Whip And The Body (1963)

Christopher Lee as Kurt Menliff

The Italian auteur director Mario Bava was known as the Master of Macabre for a reason, as his visual flair and technical achievements helped add new depth and style to horror filmmaking. The Whip and the Body was no different as it told the story of Kurt Menliff’s (Christopher Lee) ghostly seeming attempts for revenge after his lover was unwillingly betrothed to his brother. With many bizarre supernatural occurrences, Menliff’s untimely murder led his family to believe he was haunting them from beyond the grave.

This deeply atmospheric murder-mystery horror showcased Bava's skill at blending different subgenres to create a stylistic language that was truly all his own. The fraught tension of this narrative was made all the more effective through Lee’s cruel and sadomasochistic performance, which foretold a world of emotion through simple facial expressions. Although The Whip and the Body may not be as well known as other Lee horror movies, it was certainly a standout performance in his filmography.

6 The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

Christopher Lee as Sir Henry Baskerville

Out of the countless adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories about Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles was truly one of the most compelling. This Hammer Films Production starred Peter Cushing as Holmes helping the wealthy heir Sir Henry Baskerville (Christopher Lee), whose family’s estate has been supposedly haunted by a supernatural hound. In typical Sherlock Holmes style, The Hound of the Baskervilles was a thrilling whodunnit horror that blended mystery with genuine fright.

Lee and Cushing worked well together as Holmes' eager and forceful nature butted up against Baskerville’s convincing portrayal. With dark undercurrents that can often be missing from other Sherlock Holmes adaptations, the addition of an actor as ominous as Lee gave his character extra depth that left viewers constantly questioning his true nature and intentions. While Lee had already made a name for himself as Count Dracula by the time The Hound of the Baskervilles was released, his role here as a good guy was a nice change of pace in a career filled with antagonistic horror performances.

5 The Devil Rides Out (1968)

Christopher Lee as Nicholas, Duc de Richleau

While Christopher Lee was mostly known for playing terrifying villains in horror movies, one of Lee's greatest heroic roles came in The Devil Rides Out. This story of devil worshippers converting new victims was one of director Terence Fisher’s crowning achievements and an astounding adaptation of the 1934 novel by Dennis Wheatley. As a grand battle of good versus evil, The Devil Rides Out was a stylish showcase of spectacular setpieces with a solid script by screenwriter Richard Matheson.

Set in the south of London in 1929, Lee played Nicholas, Duc de Richleau, investigating the strange action of his protégé and son of his late friend. The Devil Rides Out was a foreboding journey in the world of occultism as the dark underbelly of Satanism soon began to rear its ugly head. With a far more serious tone than many other Hammer Horror productions, The Devil Rides Out saw the savant of Nicholas trying to overcome the evil forces that were corrupting the more impressionable younger characters.

4 Taste Of Fear (1961)

Christopher Lee as Doctor Gerrard

The British horror Taste of Fear was released under the title Scream of Fear in the United Kingdom and was influenced by recent horror hits exploring issues of psychological suspense, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. As the story of a wheelchair-bound woman returning to her estranged father’s estate on the French Riviera; despite being told he’s away, she’s continually plagued by visions of his dead body. With a chilling atmosphere and plenty of twists and turns, Scream of Fear was the type of movie that was more effective the less viewers knew about it going in.

Christopher Lee played the ing role of Doctor Gerrard. According to Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes’ book The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films (page 61), Lee considered Taste of Fear the best Hammer Horror movie he was ever in. Lee said, “the best director, the best cast and the best story” of all his Hammer releases. Packed with chilling mystery, a moody black-and-white aesthetic, and an era score by Clifton Parker, Taste of Fear was a must-watch for lovers of 1960s British horror.

3 The City Of The Dead (1960)

Christopher Lee as Alan Driscoll

The classic trope of a small town with a mysterious past informed the British horror The City of the Dead, also known as Horror Hotel. As the directional debut of John Moxey, who would later make a name for himself directing television episodes for series like Magnum, P.I., this story of witchcraft and secrecy was truly one of Christopher Lee’s most underappreciated roles. With Venetia Stevenson as Nan Barlow, a history student traveling to Whitewood, Massachusetts, t

o study the small town's 1600s association with witchcraft, she soon learned this eerie connection was not just a thing of the past.

Lee played Alan Driscoll, a history professor later revealed to be a secret member of Whitewood's coven. As the young and innocent student, Nan was the perfect virgin human sacrifice to appease a long-standing witch’s curse on the town, The City of the Dead became increasingly disturbing and truly sinister. This old-fashioned horror leaned into the same suspenseful tension that made Psycho such a hit the same year as the horrific fate of Nan Barlow acted as the British equivalent of the untimely demise of Marion Crane.

2 The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957)

Christopher Lee as The Creature

Christopher Lee’s first film for Hammer Film Productions was also one of his most iconic as he portrayed Frankenstein’s monster in The Curse of Frankenstein. As Hammer’s first color horror film, the success of The Curse of Frankenstein was instrumental in the development of later releases like Dracula and The Mummy, which would turn Lee into a bona fide icon of Gothic horror. With a chilling presence, Lee’s characterization of the Creature made this release a major success and led to six sequels featuring different monsters.

The Curse of Frankenstein was notable as one of the first color horror movies to feature gory depictions of blood and violence. A controversial release during its time, The Curse of Frankenstein helped usher in a new, more abrasive era in horror filmmaking as the audience’s sensitivities were pushed to their limits. While Lee’s association with horror began with this film, it would be far from his last as he continued to be associated with the genre throughout his entire career.

1 The Wicker Man (1973)

Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle

The British folk horror The Wicker Man featured Christopher Lee in one of his most iconic horror roles as Lord Summerisle. This eerie and atmospheric story explored Sergeant Neil Howie’s visit to the isolated Scottish island of Summerisle in search of a missing girl, where he soon found the island’s inhabitants had abandoned Christianity in favor of Celtic paganism. With a slowly unraveling narrative that culminates in plans for a ritualistic human sacrifice, The Wicker Man was a true classic of 1970s British horror.

Lee’s characterization of Lord Summerisle, the village's dangerous king and priest in one, was central to The Wicker Man’s esteemed reputation as one of the best horror movies of all time. Dubbed “the Citizen Kane of horror movies” by Lee wasn’t paid for The Wicker Man as he waived his fee to participate in the film and overcome the tendency for Christopher Lee to be typecast as monster characters like Dracula, the Mummy, and Frankenstein’s monster.

Sources: The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films, Cinefantastique