Classic horror series at Stanford Theatre

To label producer Val Lewton’s incredible series of movies as “horror” is to miss the point. In nine films, from “Cat People” to “Bedlam,” Lewton explored our innermost fears, desires and idiosyncrasies. Not horror in the shock sense, but psychological mood pieces with an impending sense of dread, rich in emotional truth.

The Stanford Theatre will play all nine of Lewton’s RKO horror films in double features over the next five weekends. It begins Friday, March 31, with “Cat People” (1942), an out-of-nowhere box office hit that spoke to many — especially sexually frustrated women — in the early days of World War II; and the spooky “I Walked With a Zombie” (1943), a.k.a. “Jane Eyre” with zombies.

Both were directed by the great Jacques Tourneur, who helmed the first three Lewton films. The two, along with shadowy cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, created the template of effective, low-budget horror.

RKO 1942 Simone Simon stars in “Cat People,” which opens the Val Lewton series.