[Editorial] Top 15 Best Horror Films of the 1970s

How could I get a decade full of glorious horror down to fifteen, you ask? I’m going to start off by saying this was tough, and you may hate me after or during for leaving off your favorites, so I’ll start you off on the right path with a hot take: Nutella is gross. There I said it. Hate away. 

The seventies were rife with excellent gore, kickass suspense, and masterful kills. In a tumultuous time of Vietnam War protests and human rights activism, it became a backdrop for societal upheaval, fringe outliers, class politics, mental and emotional warfare and of course the return of the Boogeyman and there’s no better escape from a frightening world than a horror movie. So, let’s escape:

15) Magic (1978)

Richard Attenborough’s Magic, penned by the eminently talented William Goldman, finds a lowly magician’s assistant, Corky, played deftly by Sir Anthony Hopkins, in the doldrums. Corky is gifted a ventriloquist dummy named “Fats” which kickstarts an illustrious career, but over time, “Fats” has developed his own mind and his own plans to squash any hope of Corky reuniting with a long-lost love, played by the smashing Ann-Margaret. 

Corky’s sanity is already delicate when we enter the film. Pressed by his manager, Ben (Burgess Meredith) to try the “big time” gig of television, Corky refuses, as a psychological evaluation is involved. Clinging to “Fats,” his partner in crime, Corky retreats back to his hometown and an old love and that’s where things go awry not to mention murderous. Corky’s personality splits and Fats takes over leaving Corky to choose between the dummy and his crumbling sanity and the woman he loves. 

Magic is a fantastic exploration of obsessive fixation and psychosis, and Hopkins hits the mark in extremely disquieting ways. And as art imitates life, it’s also not the first time we have seen a Ventriloquist experience an insane connection to his dummy. Edgar Bergen’s dummy, Charlie McCarthy, had his own bedroom in his mansion which was not to be entered by anyone but Edgar. When Edgar died, left his Charlie $10, 000. His daughter, television star Candice, was cut out of the will completely. 

14) Phantasm (1979)

Angus Scrimm playing the evil Tall Man in Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm, creeped the living daylights out of many of us. That wonky eye, that sadistic smirk and dear god not the silver balls. Mike, played by A. Michael Baldwin, is in desperate fear of losing his brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) after the tragic death of his parents. While attending the funeral, he spots the Tall Man handling an occupied coffin all on his own. Because most horror kids can’t leave well enough alone, Mike becomes a target for the Tall Man as he discovers his plan to use the deceased as shrunken slaves to take over the Earth. Teeming with hoke, schlock, schtick and a bunch of “oh come on’s!,” Phantasm stands the test of time with Scrimm’s unnerving demeanor and his uncanny ability to pop up virtually anywhere and the comic relief of Reggie the ice cream man.

13) Burnt Offerings (1976)

This film is stacked to the gills with Hollywood’s most famous and diabolically played cast. In this “house gone bad” fable, Ben and Marian Rolf, Oliver Reed and Karen Black, move into a large old mansion that holds a sinister power with their son. They’re given an incredible rental deal by the unnervingly creepy Roz and Arnold Allardyce played by Burgess Meredith and Eileen Heckart, a brother and sister team brimming with low bubbling mayhem and an “I know something you don’t” manic. The Rolfs are told a wild yarn about the house, its history and its current and permanent resident, Roz and Arnold’s mother Mrs. Allardyce, who’s not to be disturbed, only fed. When the Rolfs return the next day, the Allardyce siblings are gone, leaving a note that they are away on an emergency errand, leaving no forwarding number. What transpires in the house is a terrifying tale of possession and murder as the house devours the very soul of all its inhabitants. The incandescent Bette Davis shines in her role of Aunt Elizabeth and watching her terrifying ordeal with the sinister chauffeur is what nightmares are made of. This film got lost in the shuffle between the monumental releases of Carrie and The Omen, but it’s a definite must watch for lovers of possession horror. 

12) House (1977)

There’s weird and then there’s House. Written by Chiho Katsura and directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, based on a story by his daughter Chigumi Obayahsi, this haunted house tale takes so many twists, turns and trailways that you have to see what happens next. Oshare aka Gorgeous (Kimiko Ikegami), spurned by the fact her father has remarried, decides not to join him and his new wife Ryoko in his summer villa but instead takes off to her aunt’s home in the country. After inviting her six friends who round out the character archetypes quite nicely; the jock, the brain, the music geek, the sweetheart, the glutton, and the daydreamer, Gorgeous plans to have an excellent summer. Until her aunt’s home begins to attack. A teen gore film: riddled with ass-biting severed heads, jars full of teeth, man-eating pianos, cat portraits spewing blood and much, much more, is a hell of a ride and a ton of fun.

11) The Brood (1977)

A movie (selfishly) near and dear to my heart is this David Cronenberg special, peppered with body horror, excellent kills, and maniacal doctors. Frank (Art Hindle) is embroiled in a custody battle for his daughter Candy against his wife Nola (Samantha Eggar) now at Somafree Institute after her alleged nervous breakdown. The psychotherapist on staff, Dr. Hal Raglan (Well, hello again, Oliver Reed!) is in high gear with a treatment of convincing his patients to let go of their suppressed emotions by physically manifesting them through a technique called “psychoplasmics.” Raglan’s methods, wildly unorthodox, have drawn ire from previous patients, whose physical manifestations of emotional damage aren’t going away, slowly deforming and killing them. It’s after one of her visits with her mother that Candy arrives home with bruises. Frank rushes to Somafree Institute to confront Dr. Raglan only to find him strongly opposing Frank, telling him that disrupting Nola’s treatment would be detrimental to her health. Beside himself, Frank vows to get to the bottom of things and leaves Candy in the care of Nola’s mother, Julianna. And that’s when things, get, shall we say, weirder and bloodier. Small creatures filter into Julianna’s home wreaking havoc and homicide and if you think that’s where the lore and bloodshed end, you’re sorely mistaken. Cronenberg is an expert in dread, panic, and nimbly handled demises. Do check this out if you love psychological horror with a heavy dose of slash. 

10) The Amityville Horror (1979)

Based the book of the same title by Jay Anson and on sort of, maybe kind of true events, this film denotes the plight of the Lutz family and their supernatural experience within the former home of the victims of murder by Ronnie DeFeo Jr.. The Lutz’s now newlyweds, Kathy Lutz (Margot Kidder) with three children from a previous marriage and George (James Brolin), all move into a beautiful Dutch colonial home in Amityville, NY. Concerned with the house’s past, Kathy enlists Father Delaney (Rod Steiger) to bless the home, but the house has other plans for the priest. Through violent stomach pains, an insect swarm and an otherworldly voice telling him to leave the house immediately, Father Delaney decides to stay on and help. Heck of a guy, eh?

As the days pass, the family experiences strange happenings, a peculiar new imaginary friend appears, blood oozes from the walls and George is a man possessed in a mix of what the house wants and the terror inside his mind and as the horror culminates, the house has a way of purging its unwanted guests in the most gruesome ways possible. The real murder and man behind it make a natural terror baseline for this film. There’s a nice take on the haunted house angle and of course a little religion thrown in always boosts a seventies horror. 

9)The Wicker Man (1973)

Based on the David Pinner novel, The Ritual, adapted for screen by Anthony Schaffer, is a missing children case gone horribly and heinously awry. Puritan Police Sergeant Neill Howie (Edward Woodard) is in search of Rowan Morrison, a young girl reported missing via a mysterious letter. Howie travels to Summerisle and is stonewalled by most of the village, even by May Morrison, proposed mother of Rowan, who states she’s never had a daughter by that name. Realizing strange and insidious dealings are afoot, Howie contends with the man at the head of the town, Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee, of course) who is not only sinister incarnate but in charge of the “free-wheeling” practices  that exasperate the straight laced and God-fearing Sergeant Howie. Drawn into a web of Pagan practices, ritual killings and open sex, Howie becomes desperate to find Rowan but stumbles into Summerisle’s trap and may never return again. I absolutely love this movie because EVERY character no matter how minor has an assumed trick up their sleeve and Woodard and Lee are unmatched in the genre. And in a match of “good” vs “evil” the ending is wholly haunting. 

8) Jaws (1975)

One of my favorite “when animals attack” horror alongside Cujo (1983) and Cat People (1982). The film opens with the tragic death of one half of a skinny-dipping couple on Amity Island Beach, Chrissie Watkins (Susan Backlinie). Amity Island Beach is a harmonious and family friendly spot in the summer with folks flocking from all around to enjoy it, and it’s a cash cow for Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton). So, you can imagine when the remains of shark attack victim Chrissie, and the calling of the beach closed for the summer by Chief of Police, Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), ruffles the old boy’s self-serving feathers. Vaughn pressures Brody to not close the beaches just yet. And as tourists flood the island a young boy is brutally attacked by the shark in front of dozens of witnesses. The mother of the boy offers a reward to anyone that can catch the shark prompting Brody to team up with salty dog local fisherman Sam Quint (Robert Shaw) and shark expert Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) from the Oceanographic Institute. The shark kills are too many to list here but it’s sheer brutality and unpredictable nature of the shark that’s the most terrifying. As humans we admire control and being at the top of the food chain, but there’s nothing like a shark to take you down an arm and a leg, and the gross rapacity of Mayor Vaughn is palpable where its money over people. But none of us are familiar with any politician doing that…..ever…right?

7)The Omen (1976)

Historically, depending on who you ask, The Omen is up there with one of the most cursed films of all time. Murder, horrific accidents, and horrible happenstances orbit this film and its stars. The film follows Robert (Gregory Peck) and Katherine Thorn (Lee Remmick), an idyllic couple enjoying life and each other but who are also melancholy regarding their quest to have children. When Katherine delivers a still born child while in Italy, Robert is cajoled into taking a healthy child of a mother who died in childbirth. Without telling Katherine, Robert agrees. 

As Damien grows in his new home in the UK, terrifying things begin to happen. The infamous nanny scene where Damien’s caregiver hangs herself out of a third story window during his birthday sets the pace for the grisly deaths to follow. Concerned for his wife Katherine’s well-being, who is now with child, Robert consults Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton) who warns him of his adopted son’s evil and meets one of the most inventive kills in cinematic history. The ending of this film is heartbreaking and hard to watch as Robert struggles to find the right action to take. If you’re curious about the myriad rumors and catastrophes surrounding this film, do check out Cursed Films Season One, Episode Three on Shudder.

6) Suspiria (1977)

Writer and Director Dario Argento has given us some of the most beautiful horror films around. 1977’s Suspiria tops my list of Argento’s uncanny ability to use color to terrify and is written along with Daria Nocolodi.

 American ballet student, Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) who hopes to attend the prestigious Tanz academy, soon realizes that the school houses a strange cast of characters with malevolent intentions. Arriving at the school and turned away in a rainstorm, Suzy spots a young girl fleeing the school on foot. The same girl is found dead and when Suzy arrives at the school the following day she is accepted with open arms, as questioning by police is taking place. Suzy shares what she knows about what she’s seen. It’s disclosed that Suzy is a legacy student, her aunt Carol attended the school in the past and Suzy is coddled by Mrs. Tanner (Alida Valli) and Madame Blanc (Joan Bennett) and becomes embroiled in the mayhem, murder and sacrifice that swirls under the surface of the school. Teeming with brutal kills, psychological traps, and that incredible dance sequence, Suspiria meanders deep within secret society culture and an eye for an eye mentality. I prefer this film much more than the remake due to the use of color and style as well as the looseness of dialogue and the spiraling monologues that Argento characters are famous for. 

5) Alien (1979)

There’s something so visceral and even in the most grandiose theories, horrifying about Sci-Fi horror. Even in far-fetched planets and atmospheres, human behavior still rings true: we want to know what’s out there and is it coming to get us? And if “In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream” isn’t the most kickass tagline for a Sci-fi Horror, I don’t know what is. Ridley Scott’s take on Dan O’ Bannion and Ronald Shusett’s story and screenplay throws us right into the middle of the Nostromo, a commercial spaceship with a travel-weary crew making their home voyage when an odd distress signal changes their course. The crew locks in and lands on the desolate moon in search of the source signal. When all that can be found is a colony of an unknown life form, the crew must search and destroy, all while fighting for survival. The crew arethe unmatched John Hurt as Executive Officer Kane, Yaphet Kotto (Parker) and Harry Dean Stanton (Brett), main engineers of the ship, by-the-books Captain Dallas (Tom Skeritt), Science Officer Ash, the steadily insidious Ian Holm, Navigator Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) and certainly not least, the tenacious Warrant Officer Eleanor Ripley played by Sigourney Weaver. This rescue mission gone wrong tale shows so much in-depth analysis on birth and rebirth, death, honor, and espionage.

 Essentially, space truckers are tasked to rescue a barely traceable signal and are drawn into the depth of a house of destruction encased in a battle-worn ship. As the lifeform they encounter infiltrates its crew, they’re tasked to kill or be killed, and Ripley soon finds a hole in Ash’s fabric and determines the real cause of the signal. The film’s dinner scene is the most iconic, featuring the chest buster xenomorph for the first time and scaring the living daylights out of the crew, whose reactions on film are the honest reactions of a cast kept in the dark of proceeding events. The alien lifeform’s blueprint, pulled from H. R. Giger designs, are hideously terrifying. The wetness and gasping screams are the stuff of nightmares. And Ripley, the quintessential Space Horror Final Girl makes her way into our little black horror hearts as the heroine of the first installment of the franchise. 

4) Carrie (1976)

Nothing speaks to the intense trauma of strict religion, societal exile, and suppression quite like Brian de Palma’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie. Carrie White, played ingeniously by Sissy Spacek, is a shy, friendless outcast held under thumb by her fire and brimstone mother Margaret, the bloody terrifying Piper Laurie and terrorized at school. Carrie finds herself the butt of a vulgar prank set up by the school’s elite, causing a volcanic eruption within her and putting her power of telekinesis on full display. 

There’s so much at play here. Take the high school caste system, the horrific torture from the haves to the have nots have had us all in a stranglehold at one time or another and the worthlessness and struggle with self is frightening, top that with abuse at home by suppressive parental units that don’t allow us to reach our full potential out of fear or loss of control, to acting out and being explosive out of rage bubbling over. Betty Buckley, Miss Collins the P.E. Teacher, seems to be Carrie’s only lifeline and witness to the abuse she receives from Nancy Allen’s Chris Hargenson, Amy Irving’s Sue Snell, and P.J. Soles’ Norma. Coaxed into taking Carrie to the prom by a guilty-feeling Sue, Tommy (a pre-Great American Hero William Katt) takes a shine to Carrie and begins to feel bad for tricking her. Chris and the pretty boy doofus, Billy (John Travolta) devise a plan to ruin her forever setting Carrie’s rampage on fire, literally. The way Spacek’s eyes speak volumes in the last 20 minutes of the film is haunting in itself and the jump scare at the end never fails. 

3) Halloween (1978)

The Shape became the world’s new boogeyman this decade. No clear motive, no speed, no maniacal laughter, or evil monologue- just sheer terror. John Carpenter and Debra Hill’s Halloween is the story of evil incarnate. Fifteen years after murdering his sister Judith on Halloween, Michael Myers escapes an institution before a competency hearing and returns to Haddonfield, IL to kill anyone he can…. FOR NO REASON! The lack of why is one of the scariest character engine of Michael Myers, who is only referred to as The Shape in the script which I wholly love. Played here by the indelible Nick Castle, in the far shot, Debra Hill and for about five seconds by Tony Moran…groan. In her first ever role, Jamie Lee Curtis shines as innocent Laurie Strode, our heroine. On his tail is Doctor Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance) hoping to catch Michael in Haddonfield and return him to the institution. Best of luck, Loomis. Hanging out with her friends from school, Lynda (P. J. Soles from Carrie…this poor girl keeps getting killed…. spoiler), Annie (Nancy Loomis) and Lindsey (Kyle Richards), Laurie keeps seeing a man in a mask, that we now know is Michael Myers, at school, behind a bush and as a freak in the sheets in her neighbor’s yard. Laurie offers to babysit for young Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews) and his sister (Alone! I would still be upset about the freak in the sheets). And as we see Michael begins to pick off her friends one by one in various places around Haddonfield, Halloween night deftly and quickly (with superhuman strength I might add) and of course, comes after Laurie who holds her own in protection of the Doyle siblings. Over and over, Laurie “kills” Michael, only for him to thwart every attempt and finally disappearing after a fall that surely should’ve finished the job. With more franchise films than any timeline should allow, this is the movie that started it all for the final girl trope and the deep lore slasher movies.

2) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Tobe Hooper has a lot of horror under his belt and Hooper and Kim Henkel’s screenplay goes down in history as one of the most disturbing films of the decade. Banned in several countries and having its showings halted in many theaters in the US, audiences simply weren’t ready for this slasher that became an ultimate horror classic. Lauded as “based on a true story,” the brutal antagonist called “Leatherface” is based on the murderer Ed Gein who used his victim’s skin as trophy accessories around his home. We open the film with Franklin (Paul A. Partain) and Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns), who fear the grave of their grandfather may have been desecrated as a rash of vandalism has hit his cemetery. Upon arriving at the cemetery and finding things undisturbed the siblings join their friends Jerry (Allen Danziger), Sally’s boyfriend, her best friend Pam (Teri McMinn), and Pam's boyfriend Kirk (William Vail) and head to the old family property, now abandoned. After picking up a strange hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) and getting warned by a gas attendant (Jim Siedow) not to head to the property, the teens still decide to make a day of it. 

One by one, they are picked off by the local “family” living in the area, by maniacal skin-bound and chainsaw-wielding Leatherface (lunatic dance man Gunnar Hansen) and his meat hooks, sledgehammers, and giant freezer. Sally is the last surviving teen and makes a near escape only to repeat it all again. With a getaway and ending shot that will leave you cheering and a chainsaw dance that will leave you chilled, it’s no wonder this film not only became a cult classic, but also, one of too much to bear. 

1)The Exorcist (1973)

We’ve talked about cursed films and banned films so we can’t end our journey without the one that has both of those credits. The Exorcist has had the most buzz out of any film in that decade. It played on mass hysteria with its marketing, and even got the Pope involved. Centering the film around 12-year-old Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair), a young girl simply living the life of a preteen as best she can while surrounded by the crumbling marriage of her mother (Ellen Burstyn) and her father, currently in Europe. Her mother’s work schedule makes it difficult for them to bond and as the days go on Regan begins to exhibit strange behavior and confesses she’s been playing with a Ouija board. Regan takes a steep dive into indecent and terrifying territory: from ruining a dinner by urinating on the carpet and cursing the guests to that pesky issue of her mother’s boyfriend Burke (Jack MacGowran) “falling” out of a window. 

An underlying story is one of Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller), a young priest on the verge of questioning his faith and elderly priest Father Lancaster Merrin (Max Von Sidow), an expert on exorcism but quite gun-shy from the last one he performed. After finding out Regan is responsible for the death of her boyfriend in a (ahem) “cross-bearing” episode, she frantically consults Father Karras to come by. Famous scenes like the pea soup vomit, rotating head and that simple skip down the stairs backward (available in the extended 2000 version) are just a few of the many unsettling moments in this film. In essence, a non-denominational woman, gaslit by medical professionals and law enforcement alike, is forced to turn to the Catholic church to save the soul of her daughter. Unless it’s a murder house or a hotel, possession is most always a girl or woman’s game in horror cinema. It can be seen as a way to take away our agency and regain control of our bodies, and Chris fights passionately and fearlessly for her daughter here. This movie took number one for the sheer nature of evil depicted on screen, things we wouldn’t expect of a child actor, for showing us the absolute limitless heights that horror can go and that it’s quite alright that horror can make you feel safe and uncomfortable.

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