Fisher was arguably one of the most influential horror directors of the second-half of 20th-century. He was the first to bring gothic horror alive in full Technicolor, and the gore and explicit horror in his films, while mild by today's standards, was unprecedented in his day. His first major gothic horror film was The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), which launched the careers of British stars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. He went on to film a number of adaptations of classic horror subjects, including Dracula (1958), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) and The Mummy (1959).

It is only in recent years that Fisher has become recognised as an auteur in his own right. His films are characterised by a blend of fairy-tale, myth and sexuality. They draw heavily on Christian themes, and there is usually a hero who defeats the powers of darkness by a combination of faith in God and reason, in contrast to other characters, who are either blindly superstitious or bound by a cold, godless rationalism.