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List Of 1970s Horror Films – The 1970s was a decade of social and political upheaval, including the Nixon and Watergate scandals, the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement, the struggle for women’s liberation and civil rights, and a conservative backlash to the freewheeling counterculture that began in the 1960s. With so much happening on the cultural front, it’s no wonder the 70s were a peak time for cinema, and an incredible decade for horror films.
In the 70s, a number of maverick directors created what are still considered to be among the best and most influential horror films of all time. It was the decade that gave birth to both the slasher and the blockbuster, and gave birth to the last girl archetype.
List Of 1970s Horror Films
Given that the 10-year span includes several works from horror masters and several classics of the genre, it is extremely difficult to create a “best of” list. Any number of films could be considered the best, as many of the horror films of the era strike an elusive balance between technical and artistic achievement, with strong stories, themes, effects, legacies and, of course, the ability to scare us. But we have to rank them, so here are the best horror movies of the 70s without further ado.
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The 70s were a pretty psychedelic time, so it’s no surprise that some of the era’s best horror offerings would also be
Trippy. Bill Gunn’s “Ganja & Hess” (1973) is one of the era’s more phantasmagoric, a landmark blaxploitation arthouse horror film that is both a singular piece of cinematic art and a surreal fever dream.
The “Hess” in “Ganja & Hess” is anthropologist Hess Green (“Night of the Living Dead’s” Duane Jones), whose unstable assistant, George Meda (played by the film’s writer-director, Bill Gunn), stabs him with an ancient assistant. cursed dagger. Afterwards, Hess is forced to drink Meda’s blood, and when Meda’s beautiful widow, Ganja (Marlene Clark), shows up, the titular couple become vampire lovers. “Ganja & Hess” is a fascinating film that explores themes of sex, religion and African-American identity through a stylish mix of horror and fantasy. It remains a cult favorite.
Perhaps less psychedelic, but just as surreal, is Toshio Matsumoto’s expressionist-inspired nightmare, “Demons” (1971), a bleak, black-and-white affair that chronicles a vengeful exiled samurai’s descent into murder and madness.
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Less well-known than some of its “vengeful samurai”-centric counterparts such as “Kwaidan” (1964) and “Onibaba” (1964), “Demons” (aka “Shura”) nevertheless evokes serious feelings of darkness and horror as it follows the narrative of Gengobei (Katsuo Nakamura), an outcast warrior who aims to return to his clan’s good graces and join the 47 ronin samurai. His servant helps him collect the 100 ryō needed as an offering. However, Gengobei falls in love with Koman (Yasuko Sanjo), a geisha who tricks him out of the money. His desire for revenge consumes him, with horrifically gruesome results. Adapted from a 19th-century Kabuki play, the performances in “Demons” are similarly exaggerated. The deeply contrasting shadows add to the unsettling mood, making “Demons” an unforgettable dramatic work.
Another outstanding work of ’70s horror is Don Coscarelli’s cult favorite Phantasm (1979), a low-budget fantasy classic that has endured thanks to its unflinching visuals, unique nightmarish atmosphere and iconic villain, The Tall Man.
“Phantasm” revolves around Mike (Michael Baldwin), a 13-year-old boy who, after witnessing a series of strange events, begins to suspect that the town’s mortician, the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), is behind a series of murders . Things only get weirder as Mike recruits his older brother, Jody (Bill Thornbury), and the local ice cream man, Reggie (Reggie Bannister), to defeat the tall man. But first they must run away from his silver death sphere and the reanimated dead he conjures up as dwarves.
“Phantasm” mixes sci-fi, fantasy and horror in a story with themes centered around coming of age while confronting death, and the result is something truly unique and terrifying. /Film’s Jacob Hall calls it “Horror’s weirdest, wildest, dumbest crown jewel.”
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What would a list of 70s horror movies be without a rock opera in the mix? Brian de Palma’s “Phantom of the Paradise” is not just a rock opera. It’s a wildly energetic and campy gothic glam-rock black-comedy horror musical! Does it get any more 70s than that?
Loosely based on “The Phantom of the Opera” and inspired by “Faust,” “Phantom of the Paradise” stars Pual Williams as the evil record producer Swan (Paul Williams), who has long since sold his soul to the devil. Swan decides to steal the music of songwriter Winslow Leach (William Finley) and use it to launch his new rock palace, The Paradise. A disfigured Leach dons a mask and cape to exact revenge and stop Swan from harming the beautiful singer Phoenix (Jessica Harper).
An early example of Brian de Palma’s directorial panache, “Phantom of the Paradise” is a fun and boundary-pushing extravaganza that could only have happened in the 1970s.
The 70s gave us two incredible horror comedy musical extravaganzas. Next on the list is “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1974), the better known cousin of “Phantom the Paradise”.
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Adapted by Richard O’Brien and Jim Sharman from their original theatrical production “The Rocky Horror Show,” which itself was an homage to older B-grade horror and sci-fi movies (and, of course, “Frankenstein”) , “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” chronicles the strange journey of Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon), a naïve young couple who stumble upon the estate of mad scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry) a dark and stormy night after they are taken with an apartment. They soon learn that the doctor is a “cute transvestite” from the planet Transsexual (in the Transylvania galaxy, to be precise). Soon they engage with a whole host of wild characters, including butler Riff Raff (O’Brien), his sister Magenta (Patricia Quinn), groupie Columbia (Nell Campbell) and Frank N. Furter’s muscular blond male creation, Rocky (Peter). Hinwood).
The ultimate cult classic, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is a celebration of the weird and a landmark cultural work in the realm of sexual liberation. The movie has done “The Time Warp” and delighted midnight audiences for nearly half a century.
It’s hard to believe that the beloved director of “Superman” and “The Goonies” first broke through with a terrifying film about the devil. “The Omen” catapulted Richard Donner into the limelight after it became one of the highest-grossing films of 1976. It stars Gregory Peck as an American diplomat who secretly adopts a baby, only to later discover that the boy, Damien ( Harvey Spencer Stephens), is actually the Antichrist. Gosh!
Lee Remick plays Damien’s mother, and David Warner appears as a photographer who helps determine that Damien’s arrival signals the coming of the apocalypse. Clues include the arrival of a creepy nanny, an attack by a random pack of Rottweilers, and the untimely deaths of nearly everyone involved. Oh, and then there’s the creepy theme song, “Ave Satani,” which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song (composer Jerry Goldsmith took home an Oscar for Best Original Score).
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Nobuhiko Obayashi’s wildly psychedelic Japanese cult classic, “Hausu” (also known as “House”), is a work of mad genius: part fantasy, part horror, part comedy and pure mayhem. It tells the sad story of a girl named Gorgeous (Kimiko Ikegami), who along with six of her friends are eaten by the titular haunted house while visiting her aunt (Yōko Minamida), who turns out to be a demon who wants to steal the girls’ youth and beauty.
At a basic level, “House” is a tale of innocence versus evil, infused with the anti-war themes that are a hallmark of Obayashi’s work. With its hypnotic, inventive mix of childish hilarity, grand guignol style and deliberately low-tech effects, it works as a demented supernatural adventure and a haunted house movie of the strangest kind, with memorable highlights like a bloodthirsty piano and a grinning, blood-spitting, ghostly cat .
“Eraserhead” is David Lynch’s surreal, nightmarish vision of fatherhood and domesticity. Although somewhat difficult to describe, the plot generally revolves around Henry (Jack Nance), a shock-haired young man who has an alien-like baby with his girlfriend Mary X (Charlotte Stewart), a situation he’s neither excited about nor equipped for. to handle.
There are other elements to the plot. Henry is visited by a mysterious, smiling lady (Laurel Near) who lives inside a radiator. He is tempted by the alluring woman who lives across the hall (Judith Roberts). His head is chopped off and used to make erasers (hence the film’s title). But as a whole, it’s up to the audience to decipher all of the film’s troubling metaphors.
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Using black and white cinematography, industrial sounds and images, grotesque practical effects and uncomfortable scenarios, Lynch’s first film unnerves and disturbs with an avant-garde style. “Eraserhead” became a highly influential work, with Stanley Kubrick reportedly having the cast and crew of “The Shining” watch it for inspiration. Jack Nance would later become a series regular on “Twin Peaks,” another David Lynch project about parenthood gone wrong.
Director Bob Clark clearly took a sardonic view of
