The Best Horror Movies of the 1970’s

#horror

The 1970’s was the decade when horror really began to take center stage. And in the decade, we were gifted with some of the greatest horror films of all time.
So today, I want to go through the decade, year by year, and give my favorite movies.

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[thunderwarriorprods]

Appreciate you mentioning Hammer near the top. Would love to see a vid on your fave Hammer films.

[ryanandrew-allen]

In like 2001 I begged my dad to get me the Tales from the Crypt movie vhs from big lots thinking it was the show. I remember thinking that the young guy from the Valentines story was Elijah Wood lol

[zachhall]

To me, the 70s is the best decade for horror.

[DaveDoran]

Exorcist greatest ever 1973 yowshar carrie is amazing also, great review 😍

[LatrellMitchell-kz]

1979 Amityville Horror my favorite movie

[_themanofsteele]

Another great video brother. Keep up the great content! 🫡

[richardstange]

The all time best Dracula film is the 1931 Bela Lugosi classic. The Universal Classic Monsters are the GOATS.

My favorite movies from the 70s are:
1972: The Last House on the Left
1973: The Exorcist
1974: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
1975: Jaws
1976: The Omen
1978: Halloween
1979: The Amityville Horror

Hot take: Black Christmas is highly overrated. A better Christmas horror film is Silent Night, Deadly Night.

[JadenCHK]

1970: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
1971: Blood on Satan’s Claw
1972: Tales from the Crypt
1973: The Wicker Man
1974: Black Christmas
1975: Jaws
1976: Carrie
1977: Suspiria
1978: Halloween, however an extremely close 2nd is Dawn of the Dead
1979: Zombie, also extremely close 2nd is Phantasm

Also people that say Alien, Jaws and Silence of the Lamb aren’t horror films sound pretentious as fuck

[thebeastandhistemptress]

Great list dude:
Here’s mine…
1: THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1970)
2: THE DEVILS (1971) Honorable Mention THE BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW (1971)
3: DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972)
4: THE EXORCIST (1973)
5: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)
6: DEEP RED (1975) Honorable Mention JAWS (1975)
7: CARRIE (1976) Honorable mention THE OMEN (1976)
8: SUSPIRIA (1977)
9: HALLOWEEN (1978) Honorable mention DAWN OF THE DEAD & INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
10: ALIEN (1979) Honorable mention THE BROOD (1979)

[AHD]

70- the bird with the crystal plumage
71- a bay of blood
72- white dress for mariale
73- the exocist
74- the texas chainsaw massacre
75- inside amy
76- shadow of the hawk
77- Suspiria
78- the grapes of death
79- screams of a winter night

[acimagination]

i watch jaws every summer. I watch halloween(1978) every october. I need to find time to rewatch alien. I have seen that version of tales from the crypt once. I remember joan collins in it.

[Jaykilljoy-tttt]

The majority of my list is probably gonna be Italian or Spanish horror. Especially giallo movies, lol.
1970: Hatchet for the Honeymoon.
1971: The case of the scorpion's tail.
All giallo movies so far, lol.
1972: Don't torture a duckling.
1973: Damn, what a great many to choose from....kind of want to say eyes, no, Hunchback of, no, Ganja and...I'm gonna go with....Torso. Love Torso. My favorite giallo movie. Love Sergio Martino.
1974: ....again, hard to decide. Black Christmas.
1975: Jaws. Had to be Jaws.
1976: Carrie.
1977: Great year. Best year of the 70's by far. So this is gonna be a really hard one....Mart-, no...Rab-, no...I'll have to pick Suspiria. Love Suspiria.
1978: Dawn of the dead. Of course. One of the best zombie movies ever made. Sorry Halloween.
1979: Alien. It's like Jaws, one of the best horror films ever made.

Shout outs: Corruption of Chris Miller. Love, love this movie. Almost was my pick for 73. Nosferatu; love, love this movie. A total masterpiece of cinema. Love this 79 remake. Ganja and Hess. Almost made it as my pick for 1973. Great awesome vampire movie. Martin, love this movie. A serial killer/vampire movie by George Romero. Blue eyes of the broken doll. Love this movie. My favorite Paul Naschy movie. Hunchback of the Morgue, Alucarda, Kingdom of the spiders, Phase IV, Silent night bloody night, Rabid, The crazies, Autopsy, Jennifer; Jennifer being the best Carrie rip off. I love it. Grapes of death, Zombie, Let sleeping corpses lie, Shockwaves, Blue sunshine, Tentacles, J.D's revenge, Piranha, The killing kind, Frogs, The strange vice of Mrs. Wardh, Four flies on grey velvet, Tropic of cancer, Jungle Holocaust, Mountain of the cannibal god, Who saw her die? Knife of Ice, The case of the bloody Iris, Tombs of the blind dead.

I watched Let's scare Jessica to death last year....it was okay. I didn't think it was that great to be honest. I have thought about giving it a rewatch though.
This year, I watched Corpse grinders, which is considered a "really bad movie" but I actually liked it. I liked the overall gruesomeness. I liked the look of the film. I liked some of the lighting and gritty look to the film.

Not a fan of Hause.

Now some films I mentioned. Kingdom of the spiders. I watch it every now and then as a summer time movie. It has William Shatner in it. It is at times pretty funny. They keep mentioning DDT, which was banned. Clearly inspired by Jaws. I love the scene where the female scientist calls the mayor "stupid" straight to his face. Phase IV, a great creature feature, horror, scifi movie. It's about highly intelligent ants in the desert. Best killer ant movie ever. Blue sunshine, a horror thriller. It's about the "dangers" of LSD. Rabid, a unique take on vampires and zombies. I watched it as part of my 2020 pandemic movie marathon. Was really good. I know a lot of people like Cronenberg's other film before this Shivers. I've watched Shivers twice, can't get into it. Rabid is far better in my opinion. No idea why people remember Shivers but nobody has seen Rabid. Tombs of the blind dead; a spanish movie about blind zombies attacking people. Not a fan of the sequels, but the 4th and final movie Night of the seagulls is decent. Part 3 is absolutely atrocious. The first movie though is really good. Just the blind zombie's look, with their cloaks and all that is pretty damn creepy and terrifying. Tentacles, an italian Jaws ripoff. Really like/love this movie. It's about a killer Octopus. I watch it every 2-3 years around summer time. Stars Shelley Winters, who I've become a fan of. Let sleeping corpses lie, awesome great creepy zombie movie that takes place in Manchester Englund. Another film about the fear of pollution and chemicals, etc. Pretty damn brutal and gory in the zombie devouring department. Ray Lovelock is great as always. Great ending. Love some of the dialog.
Cop: And you hate the police, don't cha?
Ray Lovelock: You make it easy...

Oh and I even like some of the Herschel Gordon Lewis films, like The gore gore girls and The wizard of gore.
I got to say...if people think Corpse grinders is a bad movie, then they've obviously never seen a Herschel Gordon Lewis movie.
The gore gore girls in particular is absurdist comedy mixed with an extremely over the top gore slasher movie. Has some of the worse acting ever put on screen. The killer's death is directed so incompetently that it's shocking.

[brendenkillough]

1970-Bird With The Crystal Plumage
1971-Duel
1972-Last House on the Left
1973-The Exorcist
1974-The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
1975-Jaws
1976-Carrie
1977-Suspiria
1978-Halloween and Dawn of the Dead
1979-Alien

[therhapsodist]

Alien is not only a tried-and-true horror flick but a high-concept slasher movie to boot.

[capkronos]

Great video and choices. You made me LOL with your Alien commentary, but I totally agree. A lot of times when a great horror film comes out people try to remove it from the genre and call it something else. People tried to retroactively re-brand Psycho and Jaws as "thrillers" instead but failed for the most part. And The Silence of Lambs was denied a horror tag for the longest time because it was critically acclaimed but now most people consider it horror. Just because Alien has a futuristic setting doesn't mean it can't also be horror. Anyone who says otherwise is dumb as hell.

Here are my three favorites from each year:

1970 - The Honeymoon Killers / Le boucher / The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
1971 - Let's Scare Jessica to Death / The Devils / Bay of Blood
1972 - A Warning to the Curious / Private Parts / La cabina
1973 - The Exorcist / The Wicker Man / The Tenderness of Wolves
1974 - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre / Phase IV / Homebodies
1975 - Jaws / Deep Red / Salò
1976 - Carrie / The Omen / Who Can Kill a Child?
1977 - Martin / Suspiria / The Hills Have Eyes (maybe Eraserhead but I need to re-watch it)
1978 - Dawn of the Dead / Halloween / Piranha
1979 - Alien / Vengeance Is Mine / El caminante (aka: The Devil Incarnate)

[therhapsodist]

I prefer Death Dream over Black Christmas, but Bob Clark is the man no matter what.

[izzyalivevideo]

Yo nictk! I'd love to do this as a series on my channel too, its such a great concept. I just don't want to feel like I'm ripping you off. I dont think i could do the 70s, i have not seen yhe majority of the horror films from the first half of the decade.

[quentinlovestrainsandhorro]

My Favorite Horror Movies from the 70s are
1970: Count Dracula
1971: Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde
1972: Moon of the Wolf
1973: The Exorcist
1974: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Black Christmas
1975: Jaws
1976: The Omen
1977: The Car
1978: Halloween
1979: The Amityville Horror

[suspiria]

Good ranking Nick. For the most part, I agreed with the picks for all the years. A few honourable mentions would have to be "Burnt Offerings", "The Manitou", "Piranha", "The Sentinel", "Rabid" and "Dawn of the Dead". P.S: How's the hair doing? 😆

[Thecatdrums]

70: deadlock
71: a clockwork orange
72: don’t torture a duckling aka non si sevizia un paperino
73: the candy snatchers
74: black Christmas
75: deep red aka profondo rosso
76: the little girl who lives down the lane
77: house
78: slithis aka spawn of slithis
79: zombie aka zombie 2 aka zombie flesh eaters