The Scariest Movies of the '70s

Summary

• The 70s marked a horror turning point with new subgenres like slashers and zombies finding popularity.
• “Halloween” reshaped horror with the rise of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, defining the slasher genre.
• “The Omen” and “Jaws” introduced chilling characters that added depth to horror narratives, impacting the genre.

Trigger Warning: This article discusses topics of torture and graphic violence.

The 1970s hold up as one of the most terrifying decades of the horror genre, giving rise to slashers and bringing a commercial appeal to the terrifying stories filmmakers had to tell. Following the success of movies such as Night of the Living Dead and Rosemary’s Baby in the late ’60s, the ’70s marked a turning point for the genre because it gave it plenty of room to innovate. Shying away from classical monsters and standard thrillers, the rise of underground horror found its fanbase, and horror started to find a wider audience.

One of the most memorable horror movies of the ’70s, Jaws, happens to be the first blockbuster ever. Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film had a small budget and was plagued with behind-the-scenes issues. Yet the movie still managed to strike gold at the box office. Simultaneously, the scariest horror subgenres were starting to take shape in the hands of prominent filmmakers such as John Carpenter and George A. Romero, from slashers to zombies.

10 Halloween Introduced Two Unforgettable Horror Icons

It’s difficult to say something about John Carpenter’s Halloween that hasn’t already been said: it’s one of those horror movies so attached to the era in which they came out that every horror film that comes after it carries something of it along. Carpenter’s original plan was to release a new Halloween-themed film every year or two, but Michael Myers and Laurie Strode’s saga is so compelling that viewers found themselves just wanting more and more of it.

Halloween completely reshaped the horror genre at a time when slashers were still taking form. It gave birth to two of the most memorable horror icons of all time—Michael Myers and Laurie Strode—setting the path for slasher killers to receive a supernatural aura around them and solidifying a tradition of final girls in horror. Most importantly, the film understands how an immersive build-up is often the key to a terrifying climax, resulting in a handful of chilling sequences.

9 Carrie is the Definitive Victim-Fights-Back Horror Movie

As Stephen King’s first book, Carrie showed clear signs of an author still struggling to find his creative voice. The work lacked consistency, but the substance of its most harrowing moments hit just the right notes. In that sense, Brian De Palma effectively refined the source material by finding the right balance between the audience’s relatability with Carrie as a victim and the monster that the young girl was about to unleash.

The result is the definitive victim-fights-back horror film, where innocents and victims lose their meaning amid a catastrophic event. Carrie plays out like a conventional high-school thriller, constantly suggesting that something darker is about to happen as the titular character has a secret supernatural ability. As a result, when the iconic prom night massacre starts, the movie switches to a disturbing portrayal of teenage angst given the most disturbing life imaginable. The audience may know exactly what’s about to unfold, yet it’s impossible not to be caught off guard by the hopelessness of De Palma’s imagery.

8 The Omen Features the Creepiest Evil Child of the ’70s

When it comes to stories about evil children, it’s difficult to top what Richard Donner did with The Omen: a hazy, highly unnerving tale about evil’s upbringing in the form of an eerie young boy. Damien is the son of the devil incarnate, and it doesn’t take long before his adoptive family begins to suspect he’s behind the strange events happening in and around their house.

Gregory Peck delivers a solid performance as an American diplomat on the brink of desperation, but it’s Harvey Stephens who truly steals the show as the so-called Antichrist. Few child performances in horror movies are as genuinely unsettling as this one, making great use of silent, suggestive malice. The Omen does a great job of exploring its dark symbolism, occasionally resorting to exploitative violence that will shock even those who aren’t easily impressed.

7 Jaws Introduced the Horror Genre to Commercial Success

Jaws isn’t just a great horror movie: as Jordan Peele once stated, Jaws is “debatably the greatest movie of any genre.” The film perfectly showcases Steven Spielberg’s range and his talent for crafting nail-biting sequences. The opening sequence alone is enough to establish an alarming atmosphere that lingers until the end. Jaws also happens to be the first-ever summer blockbuster, introducing horror to commercial success and showing studios how good creative choices can result in great financial returns.

That said, Jaws wouldn’t have performed so well at the box office if it weren’t for how well its intense moments work. What makes the movie so scary isn’t necessarily the shark attacks but rather the moments the viewers and the characters don’t see the creature. It’s under the constant threat of imminent danger that the story unfolds, with the vastness of the ocean standing out as another villain worth taking into account.

6 Last House on Dead End Street Feels Painfully Real

In Last House on Dead End Street, a failed filmmaker fresh out of prison recruits a new crew to punish old friends by making a movie out of their slow, painful deaths. The film’s cheap, granulated visuals, added to the chaotic editing, sure give the impression of a genuine snuff film, especially when the story’s violent appeal reaches unforeseeable extremes of onscreen brutality.

The fact that Last House on Dead End Street gives pseudonyms to the whole crew in the end credits and had a limited VHS distribution when it came out helped the film gain a disturbing reputation, and many viewers were convinced the atrocities onscreen were real. Its most gruesome moments include a woman’s graphic disembowelment and a man having his eye gouged out with a power drill; long, hard-to-watch scenes that immediately give the film an oppressively darker tone, scaring audiences with how real they look.

5 Don’t Look Now is a Terrifying Meditation on Grief

Don’t Look Now opens with an ordinary family enjoying the idyllic countryside on a beautiful day until their youngest daughter tries to retrieve her ball from the nearby lake and falls into the water, dying in her father’s arms. This tragedy will go on to haunt the couple, Laura and John, on their business trip to Venice, where they encounter two mysterious psychic sisters who insist they have a message from the beyond.

Don’t Look Now is a movie that completely understands the intimacy of a grieving couple and uses it as the catalyst of an alarming descent into madness. In the film, the past comes dangerously close to the main characters, projecting eerie images that disrupt reality. Laura and John, though grieving together, are both enveloped in a distinctive loneliness. The story pays off with a gut-wrenching finale that will stay with viewers long after the credits begin to roll.

4 Dawn of the Dead Changed the Zombie Subgenre Forever

Although George A. Romero wasn’t the one who created the zombie subgenre, it was he who came up with all the contemporary tropes surrounding the flesh-eating monsters. He introduced the post-apocalyptic and widespread potential of zombies, and Dawn of the Dead was the film that expanded this mythology: the world is infested with zombies, huge hordes march across the cities, and no one is safe.

However, what makes the film special is how such a global-scale threat is explored within the confines of a shopping mall, where a diverse group of humans must fight the differences between them and keep their minds straight as the planet collapses outside. Dawn of the Dead features the creepiest zombie transformation ever: the infection sucks all the life out of one of the main characters as his body completely collapses in a grotesque fashion. While the hordes of zombies surrounding the mall are scary enough, Romero also makes sure to remind the audience how humanity’s evil nature can lead to humans representing an even deadlier threat.

3 What Have You Done to Solange? is a Bleak Giallo with Gruesome Deaths

Giallos consist of stylized murder mysteries produced in Italy, featuring all sorts of gruesome yet inventive deaths that rely on erotism and creative camerawork to establish a distinctive dreamlike atmosphere. However, What Have You Done to Solange? goes in the opposite direction. It rejects glamour and gives in to a bleak, darkly-lit, and oppressive moodscape and gets as disturbing as a Giallo can get.

In the film, a teacher becomes the primary suspect after multiple college students are brutally murdered. When his college lover witnesses one of the murders, a chilling conspiracy comes to light. The final 30 minutes of What Have You Done to Solange? are pure nightmare fuel, offering the kind of shocking twist that made Giallos dominate the horror scene in the ’70s. In addition, the film excels at alternating between graphic violence and equally unnerving suggestive brutality.

2 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Delivers Evil in its Purest Form

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre gave rise to a wave of slasher and exploitation horror movies that featured America’s teenage wasteland condemned to hell. The film is centered around a group of five young friends who stumble upon a deserted house on the road harboring harrowing secrets. Out of the darkness comes a maniac armed with a chainsaw and the deranged family that controls him.

The fact that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre introduces a set of unlikable characters rejects any chance of retribution. Amid violence and chaos, Sally Hardesty stands out as the only pure soul in a land overtaken by evil. Tobe Hooper’s breakout movie is raw, vicious, and unforgiving, delivering what is to this day one of the most unsettling depictions of what it’s like to be in the presence of a serial killer. The final shot is nearly cathartic, as Leatherface swings his chainsaw in the air almost as if in an otherworldly dance.

1 The Exorcist is a Nightmare From Beginning to End

Over 50 years later, The Exorcist still holds up as one of the scariest movies of all time. Father Damien Karras is a tormented priest struggling to come to terms with his faith. When 12-year-old Regan MacNeil begins to act as if she’s possessed by a demon, Father Karras comes face to face with the profane, engaging in an incessant battle against the supernatural.

Curiously, there’s no better word to describe The Exorcist than exhaustion. Despite the bluntness of the film’s violent tone, what’s so terrifying about Regan’s possession is how viewers get to witness the gradual degradation of her body as the film progresses. There’s very little of that innocent girl from the beginning of the film once it enters the final act, and the violations perpetrated by the demon are difficult to grasp. Alternatively, the process of carrying out Regan’s exorcism is equally debilitating; it’s possible to see the fatigue in Karras’ eyes and his faith struggles to fight back. At the end of the day, The Exorcist remains the most unsettling depiction of the fight between faith and the profane.