The horror genre has often offered filmmakers the chance to explore bold new ideas and techniques, thought their creative endeavors may not always be appreciated in their time. Films that are considered classics today were often much maligned by critics when they premiered, leaving it up to audiences to turn them into cult hits in later years.
Occasionally, a horror film could produce elements so compelling that they became standard bearers for different genre subsets, and their content could inspire countless imitations. It's never easy being the first, or even the most distinct, but it does guarantee a certain amount of influence — often long overdue.
Halloween (1978)
Halloween has long been touted as the film that established the slasher as a popular subset of the horror genre. Without the indefatigable force of nature that was Michael Myers, other dogmatic icons like Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger may not have ever existed.
The 1978 film not only launched the career of actress Jamie Lee Curtis, it created the tropes that would become the mainstays of other slasher films. It inspired an enduring franchise, and director/composer John Carpenter also created the most spinetingling horror movie theme since Psycho.
Dracula (1958)
For decades Bela Lugosi defined the role of Dracula as an urbane lothario who politely nibbled on aristocratic ladies at dinner parties. It wasn't until 1958 when Christopher Lee starred as the Count in Dracula that the role would change vampires in film altogether. Prior to his involvement, the horror genre itself wasn't known for such an attractive package of dynamic physicality, sex, and violence.
Lee's Dracula was mysterious and aloof, but he could just as easily be unrestrained and chaotic. He was both seductive and sinister, always emphasizing that beneath his refined exterior beat the heart of a beast. The spirit of Lee's performance and the concept of the sex symbol in horror appears in everything from Bram Stoker's Dracula to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
one of the most graphic transformation sequences in horror, and from both a technical and aesthetic standpoint, it can still be appreciated today thanks to Rick Baker's special effects. The film also combines outstanding creature design with hilarious dialogue and chilling suspense in a way that still feels fresh.
Prior to its release most horror films that attempted a transformation as intricate as man to werewolf had to rely on simple editing and camera tricks to hide mistakes, not to highlight its progress with hypertrophied attention to detail. Even The Wolfman, released in 2010, failed to recapture the magic using the most up-to-date CGI.
Psycho (1960)
The public had never seen a film Psycho, and newspapers were full of reports of audience fainting and fleeing their cinemas in 1960. Though the Master of Suspense had already made several films by the time of its release, Psycho remains one of his most beloved.
Of the subset of horror films that focus on serial killers, it's sordid amalgamation of taboo subject matter and graphic violence made an investigation of the hidden pathology of the human mind that has inspired everything from American Psycho to The Cell to The Silence of the Lambs.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Whether horror fans love it or hate it, The Blair Witch Project's "found footage" style of filmmaking took the horror world by storm after its release in the late '90s. When the internet was still in its infancy and social media was non-existent, the "shaky cam" style was so effective that audiences couldn't tell if the film was real or not, and led to throngs of fans going into the woods to find their own Blair Witch.
Whenever horror films want to feel more authentic, they emphasize the found footage concept, and whether it's for the entire film or only a portion, it manages to make even the most low-budget film seem genuinely terrifying.
Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
Like the undead creatures in them, zombie movies are prolific in horror, but few of them rise to the level of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. His first entry into what would become a popular franchise would set the tone for not only zombie movies, but the survival horror genre.
The MPAA system hadn't taken full effect when it was released, allowing for children of any age to go to see it in theaters. Not only did it present the classic horror trope of "strangers banding together to face the monster," it also shocked audiences by having the hero die at the end. Unfortunately, the film was panned by critics until fans gave it the cult following it deserved.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
By the time that Freddy Krueger reappeared for Wes Craven's New Nightmare, even diehard fans were beginning to be a little burned out by the franchise. It holds a special place in the film series because of its meta tonal shift, accomplishing something that movies like Scream would later imitate and gain success from.
Since its release in the '90s, fans have argued that it's one of the best entries in the seriese, after the first and third film, providing something innovative to a long-standing franchise and proving that not every entry had to be tired and boring.
The Thing (1982)
Most sci-fi films from the '50s and '60s were creature features involving insects blown up using camera tricks to appear like towering extraterrestrials, but John Carpenter's The Thing focused on creating its own monster that was not only physically terrifying but also psychologically unnerving.
When it was released in 1982, sci-fi fans were watching E.T., and weren't in the mood for something so disturbing. Over the years The Thing's status as a maligned horror film has turned it into a cult classic piece of prestige cinema and one of Carpenter's greatest achievements outside of Halloween.
Alien (1979)
Like the horror blockbuster Jaws before it, Alien set out to prove that less was more when it came to showing its primary villain. With a Lovecraftian sense of psychological dread, Ridley Scott created one of the most terrifying antagonists in cinema history, though it wasn't always appreciated in its day.
With memorable art design by H.R. Giger, the technological and the biological came together to create a sci-fi thriller unlike anything seen before. It also ushered in the concept of action horror films that featured strong and resourceful female leads, found in everything from Terminator to Bird Box.
Videodrome (1983)
David Cronenberg may be an acquired taste as far as filmmakers go, but one of his most ambitious films, Videodrome, cannot be discounted due to his imaginative approach to people's addiction to television. In 1983, the subject of the public becoming increasingly dependent on the steady stream of sex and violence on their TV screens was dubbed too sensationalist.
With an endless supply of options on dozens of streaming platforms and services, horror fans today can get as much ocular stimulation as they can handle on every screen they own. The film may have been ahead of its time in the early '80s, but there would be no Black Mirror without it.
