5. “The Wicker Man” (1973)
From 1968’s “Witchfinder General” to Ben Wheatley’s recent “Kill List” and “A Field In England,” one of our favorite horror genres is the pastoral English horror, films that dig into the terrors that lurk in the British countryside, and the undoubted apex of that particular sub category is ‘The Wicker Man.” Directed by Robin Hardy (who passed away earlier this year) and written by Anthony Shaffer, the film stars Edward Woodward as a puritanical British sergeant who travels to a remote Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, and finds a sinister pagan community led by Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee). It’s a slow-burner of a film: Hardy slowly hints that something is very wrong on Summerisle but holds his cards close to his chest until the devastating, horrific conclusion, while building in an almost novelistic level of texture to the characters and settings. Cross the street to avoid Neil LaBute’s dreadful remake: this is the real deal.
4. ”The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974)
For many, this Tobe Hooper “video nasty” was the first brush with truly transgressive filmmaking: it was shocking, grimy and violent enough to have become notorious, but a couple of decades later it was also accepted enough to be on the shelves of the local video store. So we might have gone in expecting the gore, the stomach-churning torture-iness of it all, and it didn’t disappoint, but the surprise remains its artfulness. Not that the film is aestheticized; in fact, Hooper’s skill is in shooting the gruesome action and grotesque locations (bone room, anyone?) so that they feel frighteningly possible, so real they’re almost banal. It’s a film brimming with the deeply taboo and phobic —amputation, mutilation, confinement, bondage, cannibalism, inbreeding— and though few of these are seen with anything like the kind of unblinking gaze we often get in more modern horrors, to this day few films feel as graphic as ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre.’
3. “Alien” (1979)
Nearly forty years and seven sequels and spin-offs on (including next year’s “Alien: Covenant”), Ridley Scott’s “Alien” remains the high watermark for space horror, in part because of how thoroughly it embraces both meanings of its title. There are surely other reasons: Sigourney Weaver’s brilliant performance as the humble warrant officer who faces off against the titular creature on board the ship the Nostromo; Scott’s meticulous direction and assured world-building; and that chest-burster scene. But what makes the film so indelibly terrifying (and it’s hard to remember now that the creature is an icon) is that it preys on that fear of the unknown, on the idea that this is something that genuinely no one has ever seen before and has no idea how to deal with, better than almost anything else. So often, an eventual reveal proves to be a letdown, but here, the thing lurking in the shadows is just as horrific as your imagination paints it to be.
2. ”Don’t Look Now” (1973)
There are not many horror films from any era that could challenge our number 1 pick for top slot, but if we were to shift the goalposts a little and factor things like “endless rewatchability” into the mix, Nicolas Roeg’s “Don’t Look Now” might pose a threat. The looping story of a couple (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, both career-best) who go to Venice in an effort to heal after the accidental drowning of their daughter, it’s an impressionist nightmare that builds its atmosphere so gradually that its lunge into all-out soul-clenching existentialist terror at the end is doubly devastating. Yet unlike many of the other films on this list, knowing its twists and its scares only makes it more compulsive, and the way its fragmentary, experimental and very Roegian flourishes (the intercut, before-and-after sex scene being the most famous example) never seem to give up all their secrets at once can easily lead to all-out cinephile obsession. It’s an absolute masterpiece.
1. “The Exorcist” (1973)
It’s back in the headlines thanks to the (pretty good but low-rated enough it may not be around for long) TV spin-off, but then “The Exorcist” has never really been out of the headlines. William Friedkin’s adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel about a young girl possessed by a demon is probably the most successful horror of all time (adjusted for inflation, it’s the ninth biggest movie in American history) and one of the most influential. But that’s not because of its taboo nature —the film still has enormous power to shock 43 years on. It’s because it’s simply beautifully crafted. Friedkin takes some pretty out-there material entirely seriously, emotionally as well as tonally, and the performances from Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller bring real humanity to the table. Sequels and rip-offs could have dulled its power, but it’s a testament to Friedkin and his team that it’s as terrifying and as textured as ever.
The 1970s were obviously a great decade for the genre, and there’s plenty more we could have included. Even excluding some films that aren’t quite horror enough, even though they have one foot in the genre, like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Jaws” and “Phantom Of The Paradise,” there are other movies from directors who have been featured, like “Rabid” or “The Crazies.”
We’d also mention “Daughters Of Darkness,” “The Abominable Dr. Phibes,” “Theater Of Blood,” the original “Phantasm,” “The Legend Of The Hell House,” “The Blood On Satan’s Claw,” “Let’s Scare Jessica To Death,” “The Vampire Lovers,” “Tales From The Crypt,” “Don’t Torture A Duckling” and “It’s Alive,” to name but a few. Any other favorites we’ve left off? Let us know in the comments.
