The 1970s were a phenomenal decade for horror movies, but not every great scary film from the era has gotten its just desserts. From The Exorcist to the original Alien, the 70s were responsible for the genesis of some of the greatest horror movies of all time, creating franchise after franchise of blood-curdling stories. Yet the same era still offers many more films that have yet to get the widespread recognition they deserve as phenomenal masterpieces of the genre, going relatively unknown even today.
It's hard to say why these hidden gems were never able to reap the same benefits that the most iconic 70s horror films did. Like many of these peers, these films channeled the turbulent political climate of the time through some striking new visual effects capabilities and cinematic techniques to create ambitious works of art, projecting sheer terror onto their meager audiences. In a perfect world, every great scary movie of the decade would have the proper recognition, but as it stands, many of the 70s' best have fallen by the wayside.
10 Don’t Go In The House
1979
The slasher movie really began to come into its own in the 70s, with films like Black Christmas and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre setting the stage for later 80s franchise to sweep moviegoers up with fervor. But by the late 70s, clever variations on the simple slasher movie formula were already being made, with Don't Go in the House doing with flames and burns what slashers had already perfected with blades and cuts. The film follows a terrifying killer who, after being horrifically burned by his mother as a child, stalks and incinerates women with a flamethrower.
Don't Go in the House is often described as a particularly "nasty" movie, not pulling any of its gruesome punches regarding child abuse, Fruedian psychosexual trauma, or horrifying immolation scenes. In fact, the film made it to the elusive list of "video nasties" as determined by the censorship laws of Britain in the 70s, a testament to its shocking material. Even if it reads as something of a fiery version of Psycho, Don't Go in the House is well-worth watching for its unique blend of pyromania and bleak dissections of a troubled mind.
9 The Sentinel
1977
Demonic horror has been thoroughly-explored ground in modern years, with franchises like The Conjuring and Insidious establishing a firm pattern for the supernatural subgenre. However, in the 70s and late 60s, films like Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist were just beginning to unleash the demonic incursion of possession upon horror movie audiences. The Sentinel was an early iteration on this theme, telling the story of a young model who learns that her new apartment complex is harboring a gateway into Hell itself.
While the cast list of The Sentinel may not be household names by modern standards, it was quite star-studded for the time, with the likes of Martin Basalm, José Ferrer, and Ava Gardner all making up the apartment buildings' quirky residence. They all do a fantastic job selling the infernal reality of the film's premise, alongside some impressive hellish setpieces, particularly the scene in which the very armies of Hell terrorize the hapless protagonist. Even if it has to set up a lot of psuedo-Catholic lore, The Sentinel is worth a watch for its craftsmanship alone.
8 Phantasm
1979
1979 turned out to be a particularly rich year for horror fans, as proven by even fantastic releases like Phantasm falling by the wayside. On paper, the plot of Phantasm seems too absurd to work as a true horror classic, weaving the tale of the mysterious undertaker known as the Tall Man, who turns human corpses into dwarf zombies so they can be sold into slave labor on an alien planet. It's no wonder the film's child protagonist, Mike, has a difficulttime convincing his family of the being's threat.
The Tall Man and his deadly Sentinel orbs have left a horror influence behind that can only be described as quietly iconic, inspiring a whole series of Phantasm sequels. For what it's worth, the first movie is easily the best of them all, from the bizarre, nightmarish imagery to the eerie presence Angus Scrimm has as the otherworldly Tall Man. Combining childlike curiosity with scarring fear and a supernatural sense of dread, Phantasm's Tall Man deserves to stand among the most iconic horror movie villains such as Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees.
7 I Drink Your Blood
1971
The 70s are often associated with the hippie subculture, with peace signs, tassles, and long hair all being familiar pop culture iconography to the decade. It's hard to associate such imagery with something frightening, but I Drink Your Blood manages to examine the dark side of hippies, clearly from the perspective of those who saw them as alien or evil. After his sister is assaulted by a roving pack of satanic hippies, a small-town baker gets revenge by purposefully infecting them with rabies, only for the plan to go horribly awry.
I Drink Your Blood delivers shock value more proficiently than nearly any other horror film of the 70s, with even the very first opening moments being difficult to watch. The depravity only spirals out of control from the opening darkness as the Manson-like cult descends upon the town, killing, lovemaking, and distributing powerful hallucinogenic drugs. I Drink Your Blood certainly has faults, but its effective scariness certainly outweighs them.
6 Orca
1977
Ever since Jaws created the blockbuster movie in 1975, the horror scene has seen countless Jaws imitators come and go. One of the earliest, and easily the best of them, in 1977's Orca, which follows a hunter in pursuit of a terrifying killer whale seeking revenge on a local fishing hamlet for killing its mate. As far as aquatic horror villains go, Orcas are a great choice, being hauntingly intelligent and capable of easily taking down great white sharks in real life.
Orca demonstrates as much by including a scene in which the titular whale viciously kills a shark, almost touting its superiority over its clear inspiration. While Orca doesn't quite reach the same heights of greatness as Jaws, it's more of a worthy follow-up than any of the Jaws sequels are, including Jaws 4, which hatches a similar plot featuring vengeful predators. Richard Harris is excellent as the salty Captain Nolan, and the black-and-white food chain topper he squares off against is even more terrifying than a single shark could ever hope to be.
5 Late Night Trains
1975
Movies that take place entirely within a single confined space, commonly referred to as bottle movies, make great hunting grounds for horror movie villains, who can weaponize the claustrophobic quarters of the setting to their advantage. Enter Late Night Trains, whose narrative unfolds over the course of a train ride from to Italy. The Italian-made revenge film ramps up the scares as it introduces a trio of criminals who brutalize the traveling female protagonists along the way, only to end up in their family homes.
Taking clear pointers from both Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring and Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left, Late Night Trains has some of the most sickening instances of sexually motivated violence ever portrayed on a projector. The film is particularly bleak due to the fact that it largely uses its antagonists as viewpoint characters, introducing victims only to unceremoniously kill them off as the story progresses, much like its obvious predecessors. A sickening experience through and through, Late Night Trains is horrifying in the true sense of the word.
4 Martin
1977
Even the scariest movie vampires are beholden to some intricate rules of the undead curse in one form or another, but Martin takes quite the refreshing approach to a blood-letting villain. Rather than actually being a vampire, the titular antagonist of Martin merely believes he is, with the film itself remaining unambiguous as to the truth of his supposedly supernatural affliction. The story follows Martin in his efforts to ingratiate himself into "human" society despite his thirst for blood.
The question as to whether or not Martin is an actual vampire quickly becomes irrelevant as his reprehensible actions become more and more audacious. Legendary horror director George A. Romero pilots dizzying hallucination sequences and blood-curdling crimes with ease, culminating in a visually engrossing story that Romero himself claims to be his personal favorite of his own filmography. Martin's ultimate fate serves as a warning to those who might wish to live vicariously through myths and stories.
3 Alice, Sweet Alice
1979
The female slasher villain is something of an endangered species, and that goes double for those that have yet to reach puberty. Alice, Sweet Alice presents a haunting case for a murderer that checks both boxes, resulting in one of the most alarming children in cinematic history. The film centers around the murder of the eponymous child's younger sister. As unlikely as it may seem, the supposedly innocent young girl is the prime suspect of the killer's identity, leading to a trepidatious investigation into the series of stabbings that follow.
The sense of mystery and melodrama that Alice, Sweet Alice is able to build is nothing short of world-class, sucking the viewer in to its depraved, Gothic trappings. The reveal of the murderer's true identity is nothing short of shocking, helped by the authentic dialogue and character development of the film, particularly strong for a straightforward slasher movie. Profaning religious institutions and the innocence of childhood alike, no line is too far for Alice, Sweet Alice to cross in the name of delectable psychological horror.
2 Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
1978
While Invasion of the Body Snatchers bears quite the recognizable title, in truth, most people think of the 1956 science fiction classic when they see it. In truth, the 1978 remake of the same name deserves far more recognition as the best version of the story. Just like in the original, Invasion of the Body Snatchers describes an insidious alien invasion in which extraterrestrials slowly kidnap and assume the identities of their victims, despite obvious changes in personality.
Among the various Invasion of the Body Snatchers films, the 1978 installment is easily the strongest, with chilling performances that sell the inhuman malice behind the eyes of the mysterious "pod people." Whereas the first film was a metaphor for the Red Scare and the infiltration of communist paranoia into American society, the remake instead deals with the isolation fast-paced life in a big city can bring, leading to intense societal isolation. The stomach-churning special effects of the embryonic pods and the half-formed clones that emerge from them makes the reboot doubly as effective as a scary movie, too.
1 Sisters
1972
Sisters is a cutting psychological horror film reminiscent of the works of Alfred Hitchcock, making several overt references to Hitchcock's other films over the course of its runtime. The movie centers on a pair of adult coned twins who were recently surgically separated, with one of them ing away while under the knife. It soon becomes apparent that this may have been a lie as the demure Danielle covers for the psychotic and bloodthirsty Dominique.
Loosely based off a real-life case of coned twins, Sisters may not be the most finely-aged film in of its demonization of medical conditions. However, the filmmaking mastery on-display is hard to onish, with genius split-screen compositions and a generous score by Bernard Herrmann, the mind behind the infamous theme of The Twilight Zone. Bearing a genuinely surprising payoff to its mystery and some gut-wrenching gory setpieces, Sisters deserves far more recognition as one of the best horror movies of the 70s.
