Medical Horror Movies

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Created - Nov 13, 2020 | Updated - Oct 3, 2026
| ◉ Public
Medical horror movies turn hospitals, clinics, laboratories and medical procedures into sources of fear. These films frequently feature mad doctors, sinister surgeons, unethical experiments, dangerous treatments, mental institutions and disturbing transformations of the human body. The genre often overlaps with body horror, psychological horror, science fiction and exploitation cinema, using medicine and surgery to explore anxieties about disease, bodily autonomy, experimentation and loss of control. Some stories focus on realistic medical environments, while others move into grotesque or supernatural territory. This list collects horror movies in which doctors, hospitals, surgery, medical experiments or healthcare settings play an important role in the terror.

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Showing 54 of 54 items
After Darkness
CH · 1985

After Darkness

104 min · Horror, Thriller

To salve his guilty conscience an elder brother removes his disturbed younger sibling from a mental institution after a suicide attempt and tries to bring him back to mental competency through one on one contact. Free of the institution he continues to be haunted by dreams of a lost twin and chants the eerie phrase "Do I stand before the king?" It is the elder brother that seems doomed to lose himself in his brother's insanity.

Alone in the Dark
US · 1982

Alone in the Dark

93 min · Horror, Thriller

A quartet of murderous psychopaths break out of a mental hospital during a power blackout and lay siege to their doctor's house.

Atrapados en el miedo

83 min · Horror, Drama

A mental patient detained in a psychiatric hospital escapes from confinement and is dedicated to roam the outskirts of Madrid. His mind is no more disturbed rationale to kill. After murdering two girls on the banks of a river, go stringing a series of murders each more repulsive, spreading terror in the place. José and Antonio, two good friends, prepare a fun weekend at the country house that Joseph's family owns on the outskirts of the city. Taking this opportunity to invite two beautiful sisters, Anne and Laura, who accept the invitation. Ana, the eldest, works as a secretary, unhurried live...

Biohazard
US · 1985

Biohazard

84 min · Horror, Science Fiction

A group of skeptical government officials headed by General Randolph are brought to a remote laboratory for a demonstration in "Psychic Materialization", a successful side effect of an experimental drug. But the project scientists had warned that not enough testing had been completed to access safety concerns. In a freak accident during the demonstration to the politicians, a vicious creature is created! Unable to contain the monster, it unleashes unbelievable havoc & destruction against mankind! Reproducing itself at an alarming rate, and all known weapons seemingly powerless against the crea...

Biotherapy
JP · 1986

Biotherapy

36 min · Horror, Science Fiction

"Biotherapy" is a fairly nasty Japanese gorefest about a group of Japanese scientists stalked and viciously butchered by a creepy-looking alien.

BrainWaves
US · 1983

BrainWaves

77 min · Horror, Science Fiction

After a traffic accident Kaylie is in coma for months and her doctors want to try a new procedure on her. To regain her consciousness, they stimulate her brain with the neural patterns of a woman who has just died. It works and Kaylie fully recovers. However, she begins to relive the dying moments of her donor and realizes that she was murdered! Along with her husband and mother, she tries to find out what happened.

Chiller
US · 1985

Chiller

104 min · Horror, Science Fiction

A man who has been dead and cryogenically preserved for ten years is miraculously revived, but with chillingly unexpected results.

Crawlspace
US · 1986

Crawlspace

80 min · Horror, Thriller

A man who runs an apartment house for women is the demented son of a Nazi surgeon who has the house equipped with secret passageways, hidden rooms and torture and murder devices.

Day of Wrath
SU · 1985

Day of Wrath

84 min · Horror, Mystery

Dr. Fiedler, in a secret underground laboratory located in the reserve, is working on experiments to create bestial creatures endowed with human intelligence. It would seem that contact with the beasts on an equal footing took place, but devoid of human morality and compassion, beast-like creatures rebelled against their creators. The journalist Battley, who learns about the monstrous rumors from the reserve, decides to conduct his own investigation and goes to the wilderness, where he encounters the products of Fiedler's terrible experiences.

Dead Inferno
US · 2014

Dead Inferno

80 min · Horror

Doctor Carter losts his wife and devotes his life to resurrecting her. However, every test of his C-900 formula creates hungry, flesh-eating zombies. Then, his daughter Cara contracts the virus and she and her sister strive to obtain the anti-serum.

Death Warmed Up
AU · 1985

Death Warmed Up

78 min · Horror, Science Fiction

A kid is hypnotized by a scientist to kill his parents and ends in a mental institution. As a grown up he returns to seek revenge over the scientist.

Demon Is on the Island

102 min · Horror

An epidemic of appliance madness unrelated to discount sales strikes an island off the coast of France: the islanders are being murderously attacked by ovens and refrigerators acquired in the same department store. Enter the young Dr. Gabrielle Martin (Anny Duperey), who arrives here to escape her own personal tragedy and instead lands in the middle of the kitchen mania. She tracks down the cause of the rapidly spreading epidemic to another doctor on the island — quite as insane as any of the kitchen appliances (if the comparison could be made) — and finds that the villainous doctor and the ap...

Doctor Butcher M.D.
IT · 1980

Doctor Butcher M.D.

89 min · Horror
★ 1.8

After Malukan immigrants engage in a string of corpse mutilations at various New York City hospitals, a doctor and a morgue assistant travel to the Maluku Islands to investigate.

Doctor Lerne, Subgod

98 min · Horror, TV Movie

A mad scientist, Dr. Lerne, performs organ transplants not only between humans and animals, but also with plants and even machines ...

Frankenstein 90
FR · 1984

Frankenstein 90

100 min · Horror, Comedy

French cybernetics genius Victor Frankenstein carries on the work of his notorious ancestor and creates a monster, albeit one with a penchant for philosophy, etiquette and occasional bouts of murderous rage. But when the creature develops a hunger for l'amour, Frankenstein and his understanding fiancé use a cache of freshly murdered strippers to build the creature a beautiful yet dutiful bride. Can the undead find true love in a cold world, or will the French ways of passion unleash some monstrous surprises upon them all?

Geek Maggot Bingo or The Freak from Suckweasel Mountain

74 min · Horror, Comedy

From the warped mind of underground auteur Nick Zedd comes this campy horrorfest that follows screwy scientist Dr. Frankenberry as he attempts to resurrect the dead, aided by his hunchbacked minion. Adding to the twisted fun are Donna Death as bloodsucking temptress Scumbalina, Richard Hell as punk-rock cowboy crooner the Rawhide Kid and Tyler Smith as Frankenberry’s monstrous two-headed creation, Formaldehyde Man.

Ghost Nursing
HK · 1982

Ghost Nursing

Horror

Jackie is a young woman determines to reverse her bad luck. She consults the God of Gold, who advises her to "nurse a ghost". She is given a small figure to worship, and the worship includes dripping three drops of her own blood every three days. At first, all goes well and she falls in love. But this new happiness causes Jackie to forget to worship the figure, and the spirit doesn't like it. With good intentions, her new boyfriend, Raymond, discovers Jackie's strange predicament and attempts an exorcism which goes horribly wrong. The spirit takes over Raymond, who starts doing nasty things.

Hellhole
US · 1985

Hellhole

96 min · Horror, Thriller

An unlucky woman’s mother is murdered by a scarf-wielding killer named Silk, leaving the woman injured, traumatised and suffering from amnesia. She’s committed to a mental institution, where Silk follows her, looking for the papers he was trying to get from her mother. And Silk’s only the beginning of her problems, since the asylum is run by a mad doctor, performing experiments in chemical lobotomies!

Horror Hospital
GB · 1973

Horror Hospital

90 min · Horror, Science Fiction

Following his forced retirement from an appalling rock band, Jason decides to vacation at Brittlehouse Manor, a health farm run by the leather-gloved, ex-Nazi scientist Dr. Storm. Along the way, Jason meets Judy, also on her way to Brittlehouse Manor to visit her aunt, who married Dr. Storm some years ago. Once they arrive, the pair realise rather quickly that something is wrong, probably because the other guests have had their brains surgically removed, or all the blood pouring from the sink, or possibly just because the creepy midget keeps telling them to brush their teeth.

Infection
JP · 2004

Infection

98 min · Horror, Science Fiction

Infection takes place in a dark, isolated hospital, where one doctors mistake has led to dire consequences for a patient. In a hospital death is just a breath away.

Madhouse
US · 2004

Madhouse

91 min · Horror, Thriller

A young psychiatric intern unearths secrets about the mental health facility in which he works.

Man with the Transplanted Brain

80 min · Horror, Science Fiction

Professor Marcilly is a famed brain specialist who, following in-depth and extended research work, is now able to perform brain transplant surgery. One day, he finds himself in the presence of a young car accident victim for whom the only hope of survival would be a brain transplant. Marcilly, who has a heart condition and is terminally ill, decides to become the "donor". The operation is a success. But who is actually the patient discharged from the hospital: a young fellow with the brain of a young man or an old man in the body of a young one?

Meatcleaver Massacre

85 min · Horror

Four crazed killers, butchered his wife, son and daughter. From his hospital deathbed he called upon the power of the occult for revenge... And he got it, he really got it!

Nightmare Weekend
GB · 1986

Nightmare Weekend

86 min · Horror, Science Fiction

A female scientist performs experiments on three college girls that turn them into drooling, murderous mutants.

Night of Terror

90 min · Horror, Action

A man attempts to gaslight his wife and lock her in an asylum in order to get her money. He plans to use this money to further his research into brain surgery experiments. Meanwhile, random footage from the film FROZEN SCREAM is cut in at random, because why not.

Nurse 3D
US · 2013

Nurse 3D

84 min · Horror, Thriller

Abby Russell, a beautiful, dedicated nurse with a sinister side, has a secret life in which she targets and punishes dishonest men.

Nurse Sherri
US · 1978

Nurse Sherri

88 min · Horror
★ 3.0

A hospital nurse is possessed by an evil spirit, and proceeds to kill off the hospital's patients.

Panic
IT · 1982

Panic

90 min · Horror, Science Fiction

A scientist's experiment with a deadly bacteria goes awry and leaves him horribly deformed. The monstrous man then runs amok in his town.

Paramedics
US · 2016

Paramedics

98 min · Horror

Two brothers posing as paramedics kidnap their victims and harvest their organs for the black market. That is until they kidnap a woman they find impossible to kill and it turns out she has more power over them than they over her.

Patrick
AU · 1978

Patrick

112 min · Horror, Science Fiction

A comatose hospital patient harasses and kills though his powers of telekinesis to claim his private nurse as his own.

Pituitary Hunter
HK · 1990

Pituitary Hunter

87 min · Horror

Someone's on a pituitary gland binge. Pituitary glands first go missing from corpses and the criminal theft escalates to living people..

Psycho Girls
CA · 1985

Psycho Girls

92 min · Horror, Comedy

A woman breaks out of an insane asylum, accompanied by two crazed inmates, to kill her sister.

Revenge in the House of Usher

93 min · Horror

Upon arriving at the dilapidated estate of his mentor, Dr. Harker finds his former professor, Dr. Usher, radically changed. Instead of the reasoned scholar he once knew, a paranoid man is in his place and he's spiraling into madness.

Silent Madness
US · 1984

Silent Madness

93 min · Horror

A homicidal maniac is accidentally released from a hospital because of a computer error and heads to the site (a sorority) of his past murders to continue his penchant for mayhem.

Spine
US · 1986

Spine

72 min · Horror

A madman stalks nurses, brutally stabbing them to death. In his fevered mind, he believes his victims to be a woman from his past named Linda. Police struggle to apprehend him before he can murder and mutilate again.

Swamp Thing
US · 1982

Swamp Thing

91 min · Horror, Science Fiction
★ 6.0

Dr. Alec Holland, hidden away in the depths of a murky swamp, is trying to create a new species - a combination of animal and plant capable of adapting and thriving in the harshest conditions. Unfortunately he becomes subject of his own creation and is transformed. Arcane, desperate for the formula, attempts to capture the Swamp Thing. An explosive chase ensues that ultimately ends with a confrontation between Holland and a changed Arcane...

Terminal Choice
CA · 1985

Terminal Choice

97 min · Horror, Thriller

A patient in an hospital dies under mysterious circumstances. The attending doctor Frank Holt gets under suspect - he'd been fired already from his last position due to malpractice. For his defense he investigates with help of doctor Anna Lang. Soon they find out that half of their colleagues were betting on the patient's diagnosis - was someone trying to increase his chances? But when Frank's friend, dissector Mary Connor, becomes deadly sick, he suspects there's even more to it.

The Brain Machine
US · 1977

The Brain Machine

85 min · Science Fiction, Thriller

Several people volunteer for a scientific experiment about mind-reading and memory, but the experiment goes horribly wrong.

The Bride
US · 1985

The Bride

114 min · Horror, Drama

After years of research Doctor Frankenstein finally succeeds in creating the perfect woman, who gets the name "Eva".

The Deadly Intruder
US · 1985

The Deadly Intruder

86 min · Horror

A serial killer escapes from a mental hospital and hides out in a small town. A local cop must catch him before he starts on another killing spree.

The Dead Pit
US · 1989

The Dead Pit

102 min · Horror

The arrival of an amnesiac patient in a psychiatric hospital somehow frees a mad doctor, who was shot and entombed with his fiendish experiments in an abandoned wing of the asylum 20 years before.

The Omega Man
US · 1971

The Omega Man

98 min · Horror, Science Fiction

Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only human survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. Besides him, only a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people remain - sensitive to light, and homicidally psychotic.

The Passing

96 min · Horror, Science Fiction

The lives of two men, an elderly WWII vet and a young death row prisoner, intersect when the vet enrolls in a program to have his consciousness transplanted into a younger body...and the prisoner is forced to provide the body.

The Slavers

96 min · Horror

Jim Carmody responds to a newspaper ad concerning a reward for information on the whereabouts of a missing woman, Sharon Dalby. Jim eventually comes to discover that Sharon has been kidnapped by a deranged Professor and his sexually deviant assistants and is being held captive in a remote country retreat. The Professor has developed a scheme whereby young women are kidnapped, raped and tortured, subjected to drugs and subsequently brainwashed to obey commands before being sold for sexual slavery.

Three Days in November

Horror, Mystery

Paralytic Alicia is sent by her father to a bizarre clinic to be cured and soon begins to suspect sinister things are occurring upstairs (which the staff claim is uninhabited).

Underworld
GB · 1985

Underworld

103 min · Horror, Science Fiction

When high class hooker Nicole is kidnapped from her brothel, Rich businessman Hugo Motherskille hires her ex love Roy Bain to find her. Investigating the disappearance, he eventually finds traces that lead to Dr. Savary, who has produced a strange white powder that's coveted by a race of deformed human beings who live in the underworld in the sewers below the city.

Vampires
US · 1986

Vampires

80 min · Horror

The students at a private girls' school are unaware that the school's doctor is secretly using a machine to extract the energy from the young girls.

Variola Vera
YU · 1982

Variola Vera

104 min · Horror, Drama

An Albanian pilgrim, infected with an unknown disease, is on his way back to Belgrade from the Middle East. When doctors realize that it is a disease that has been considered eradicated, it is already too late - variola vera begins to languish and the hospital is quarantined.

Witchdoctor of the Livingdead

80 min · Horror, Fantasy

An evil witch doctor terrorizes an innocent village. He has the ability to change into a goat, and calls up an army of zombies to destroy anyone who stands in his way. The good priest and his allies must try to stop him.

Zombie Flesh Eaters
IT · 1979

Zombie Flesh Eaters

91 min · Horror
★ 5.0

On the Caribbean island of Matul, white doctor David Menard is trying to stem the tide of cannibal zombies that are returning from the dead. Arriving on the island are Anne and reporter Peter West who are looking for Anne's missing father. The pair soon find themselves under attack from the zombies.