Horror has kind of always been the genre that all of cinema keeps tucked away in a dank basement somewhere, despite the fact that it definitely has its fans and there have been plenty of films that have legitimized the genre to a more or lesser extent. That being said, it's pretty easy to understand why in the eyes of the general public, horror is vilified.
In fact, there are a decent amount of horror films that are still legally banned in and a few other countries that are fairly heavy on censorship. In the UK, there was an official list of banned films which are referred to as "Video Nasties". That being said, tons of these films aren't able to hold a candle to modern gore, despite the controversy they caused upon release, including the following.
Night Of The Living Dead
Night Of The Living Dead was very controversial upon its release and has a very storied history. The film was a low-budget pipe dream that George A. Romero had which evolved into a phenomenon. The film is in the public domain at this point and not because it gave in to the time constraints.
The movie actually got ed under the wrong name, meaning the copyright on the film was never valid. Aside from that, the film was extremely controversial as a result of the gore used, which was chocolate sauce and meat from a local butcher. That being said, the gore is fairly modest.
Freaks
Tod Browning was extremely happy to have achieved success with the Universal classic monster movie Dracula, probably the most recognizable role that Bela Lugosi has had. Now that he had established himself as a capable horror director, he wanted to take more creative control over his next project which would turn out to be Freaks, a horror film released in 1932.
The movie was controversial for the use of actors and actresses with physical disabilities and featured tons of violence people weren't quite ready for, with one of the able-bodied characters in the movie being melded with the body of a chicken as a bit of retribution for a plot that went awry.
Silent Night, Deadly Night
The case of Silent Night, Deadly Night is rather strange, thanks to the fact that the advertising campaign saw it landing in some hot water as a result of the fact that it was a horror movie framed in the context of Christmas. The film stars a character who dresses as Santa Claus, which a lot of parents back then weren't particularly keen on.
Strangely enough, it wasn't the first horror film to be set around Christmas, which isn't particularly surprising considering tons of slashers patterned themselves on holidays thanks to the success of Halloween. The film has pretty much the normal amount of gore for a slasher released in 1984.
Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry is a neo-noir film that came out in 1971 and had a good few sequels, in addition to doing so well that it influenced tons of later police films that would follow in its footsteps. The movie takes notes of the murders of real-life serial killer The Zodiac, which was pretty fresh in the mind of the general populace since it only happened a few years prior.
The classic "Do I feel lucky? Well, do you punk?" line is used so frequently in other forms of media that most people know the misquoted version commonly used. The film represented the point of view held by a lot of the public at the time which was that police should be free of the law and is pretty graphic for the time.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The original film in the franchise and Tobe Hooper's first movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was nothing if not groundbreaking upon release. The thick atmosphere of the film has been noted as a selling point, as well as the Southern Gothic vibe of the setting and plot of the film.
Tobe Hooper has since stated that the film is actually intended to be a comedy, although we're not entirely sure if we buy that. There's really not even that much gore in the film, although there are a few violent sequences. Perhaps it was the fact that the film was released as if it was based on a true story that's to blame for all the controversy.
Black Christmas (1974)
Black Christmas has been the subject of a few Hollywood remakes. The director, Bob Clark, also has another Christmas movie under his belt, strangely enough, a well-loved holiday classic pretty much everyone is familiar with, A Christmas Story. He also directed the classic 80s sex comedy Porky's, which was influential on a bunch of other teen movies later.
Black Christmas was his first big film which unfortunately received pretty mixed reviews upon release. Luckily, it's been reappraised and is considered one of the best horror movies of all time, and is regarded as one of the first slashers. While it's not too crazy today, it does feature a pretty grisly trashbag kill.
The Evil Dead
Sam Raimi, director of a (questionably) good Spider-Man trilogy and Drag Me To Hell, got his start with a little film called The Evil Dead. This movie was followed by The Evil Dead 2 and Army Of Darkness. It stars Bruce Campbell, who Raimi picked because he thought he was the most attractive of his friends.
The movie features a few incredibly gruesome scenes, most of which were adapted in the 2013 remake of the film. While the whole movie is pretty campy and a lot of the gore looks fairly unrealistic, it's a really neat little horror film that's been hugely influential since the day it was released.
Taxi Driver
Martin Scorcese's Taxi Driver stars a pretty young Robert DeNiro as Travis Bickle, a taxi driver who (from his point of view) sees that the world around him is in a state of moral decay.
The film follows him through some interesting encounters with people from a few different walks of life, causing him to take the law into his own hands when he's presented with crimes he can't forgive. The movie is hugely influential in tons of different genres, including the recent Todd Phillips film Joker. The violence in the film isn't too shocking altogether, but at the time it was released, people kind of freaked out.
The Exorcist
William Friedkin's The Exorcist was a tour-de-force of special effects, with religious themes that would probably shock the most hard-line atheist that would go to see the film when it came out.
The film has pretty much everything a genre film fan could want in a movie about demonic possession, and it does a great job at balancing the psychological and supernatural elements we see so often in horror. This film really hasn't been topped yet in of possession films. The movie still holds up but isn't anywhere near as outrageous as it had been.
Child's Play 3
Child's Play 3 is obviously the 3rd film in the franchise, but it's also the last one in the series to maintain a very dark tone throughout. Most of the films that would follow it in the franchise make a distinct move over to being much more on the level of horror comedies rather than the straightforward horror of the past, probably as a result of how commonplace killer dolls had gotten.
The film caused quite a stir upon release after it was claimed a child murder had been influenced by the film, although the children involved hadn't seen the film. This is what caused most of the stir although the movie is fairly violent.
