In the 1970s, everything was wilder, weirder, and more far-out—and horror movies were no exception. In North America, a new generation of maverick directors like Tobe Hooper (THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE), George A. Romero (THE CRAZIES), Wes Craven (THE HILLS HAVE EYES), Brian De Palma (SISTERS), and David Cronenberg (THE BROOD) responded to the decade’s heightened political anxieties and Vietnam War–era sense of disillusionment by pushing the genre’s psychological intensity and visceral violence to shocking new heights. Bringing together some of the decade’s most iconic slashers, chillers, and killer thrillers alongside low-budget cult rarities and camp-tastic oddities, this tour through the 1970s nightmare realm is a veritable blood feast of perverse pleasures from a time when gore, grime, and sleaze found a permanent home in horror.
Directed by Robert Altman • 1972 • United Kingdom
Starring Susannah York, Rene Auberjonois, Marcel Bozzuffi
In the midst of his remarkable 1970s creative run, Robert Altman made one of his boldest and most unique films. Susannah York won the best actress award at Cannes for her edgy performance ...
Directed by George A. Romero • 1972 • United States
Starring Jan White, Raymond Laine, Ann Muffly
Perhaps the most unclassifiable work by George A. Romero, SEASON OF THE WITCH sees the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD director returning to the realm of the supernatural for the bewitching tale of a house...
Directed by Brian De Palma • 1973 • United States
Starring Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning
Margot Kidder is Danielle, a beautiful model separated from her Siamese twin, Dominique. When a hotshot reporter (Jennifer Salt) suspects Dominique of a brutal murder, she becomes dangerously...
Directed by George A. Romero • 1973 • United States
Starring Lane Carroll, Will MacMillan, Harold Wayne Jones
When a plane carrying a secret biological weapon crash-lands in the vicinity of a rural town, the area descends into chaos. Infected with a virus that sends them into a homicidal frenzy,...
Directed by Tobe Hooper • 1974 • United States
Starring Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal
Nearly fifty years ago, five youths on a weekend getaway in the Texas countryside fell prey to a butcher in a mask made of human skin and his cannibalistic family, and horror cinema would never be ...
Directed by Bob Clark • 1974 • Canada
Starring Richard Backus, John Marley, Lynn Carlin
In this shattering variation on “The Monkey’s Paw,” grief-stricken suburban parents Charles (John Marley) and Christine Brooks (Lynn Carlin) refuse to accept the news that their son, Andy (Richard Backus), ha...
Directed by Matt Cimber • 1976 • United States
Starring Millie Perkins, Lonny Chapman, Vanessa Brown
Representing something of an anomaly in the career of director Matt Cimber (whose other credits include blaxploitation fare like THE CANDY TANGERINE MAN), THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA is an un...
Directed by Wes Craven • 1977 • United States
Starring Suze Lanier-Bramlett, Robert Houston, Martin Speer
The lucky ones died first . . . Horror master Wes Craven achieved critical and commercial success with the likes of SCREAM and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET—but for many genre fans, the director...
Directed by Colin Eggleston • 1978 • Australia
Starring John Hargreaves, Briony Behets
Nature fights back in a tense, terrifying Ozploitation classic with an urgent ecological message. Attempting to resurrect their failing marriage, Peter (John Hargreaves) and Marcia (Briony Behets) set out on a...
Directed by Abel Ferrara • 1979 • United States
Starring Abel Ferrara, Carolyn Marz, Baybi Day
In a career that has encompassed such controversial classics as MS. 45 and BAD LIEUTENANT, none of Abel Ferrara’s films have quite managed to match the shock, extremity, and downright notorious nature ...
Directed by David Cronenberg • 1979 • Canada
Starring Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle
A disturbed woman is receiving a radical form of psychotherapy at a remote, mysterious institute. Meanwhile, her five-year-old daughter, under the care of her estranged husband, is being terrorized by a...
