The Horrible Dr. Hichcock
The Horrible Dr. Hichcock is a 1962 film from Italy, directed by Riccardo Freda, running 88 minutes. reelscum files it under euro-gothic.

- Year
- 1962 · 1960s films
- Country
- Italy
- Runtime
- 88 min
- Director
- Riccardo Freda
- Updated
- 10 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (39/100)
- Also known as
- The Horrible Dr. Hichcock · The Terror of Dr. Hichcock · The Horrible Doctor Hitchcock
Defined in the glossary: Euro-gothic
Barbara Steele married to a necrophile surgeon, and Freda smuggling it past the 1962 censors on innuendo alone.
A respectable London surgeon has a private habit his second wife is much better off not learning about, and the polite Victorian surface of the film is holding down the single most taboo subject in horror. Riccardo Freda, hiding behind the name Robert Hampton, shot it fast and made it look expensive, all candlelit corridors and lush gothic dread. Barbara Steele plays the new wife who really should not have moved into this house, using those enormous eyes to carry scenes the script only dares to imply. It is one of the foundation stones of Italian gothic, and it gets away with far more than a 1962 release has any right to.
Trailer
The numbers
Nobody has rated this yet. Be the first to make a claim you'll have to defend.
Your call
Where to watch
Legal options in USA
Links open in a new tab (↗). Availability data via TMDB and changes constantly, so confirm on the service. Legal options only. Checked 8 Nov 2026. All options ↗
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this film already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, plot detail, or where to find a copy.
The cycle in depth
- Fantaterror: the Spanish horror boom, 1968 to 1976
Two cuts of every film, one for the censor in Madrid and one for the drive-in. Democracy killed the trick in two years.
On these lists
- Euro-gothic for the giallo graduate
The graduate course after the giallo: cobwebbed castles and a dead woman who will not stay buried, lit by Bava like nobody since.
Filed alongside
Alucarda
The most hysterical nunsploitation film ever made. A convent, two possessed girls, and constant screaming.
The Blood Spattered Bride
Spanish Carmilla adaptation with an unusually pointed anger about marriage.
99 Women
Franco doing the formula early, with Mercedes McCambridge as the warden.
The Grapes of Death
Rollin does an outbreak. A pesticide turns wine-country villagers into oozing killers.
Kill, Baby... Kill!
A ghost child with a white ball. Fellini and Scorsese both stole from it.
A Virgin Among the Living Dead
Franco at his dreamiest. Distributors added zombies later without telling him.
Lisa and the Devil
Bava's most personal film, and his strangest. Telly Savalas as the devil, holding a lollipop.
Castle of Blood
Barbara Steele in a haunted house on a bet. Better than it sounds.
Baron Blood
A resurrected torturer stalks his own castle. Bava on more commercial autopilot, still gorgeous.
The Shiver of the Vampires
Rollin with a fuzz-guitar band and a vampire who lives in the clock. His most fun.
Succubus
Franco's arthouse credentials, such as they are. Fritz Lang liked it.
Maciste in Hell
A muscleman drops into a full gothic hell. Peplum crossbred with a haunted-castle picture, and it looks it.