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 Harry Kümel • 1971 • Belgium
Starring Delphine Seyrig, Danielle Ouimet, John Karlen
The vampire myth gets a disturbingly seductive psychosexual spin in one of the most exquisitely mesmerizing adult horror films ever made. International screen icon Delphine Seyrig stars as Elizabeth B...
Directed by Michael Winner • 1971 • United Kingdom
Starring Marlon Brando, Stephanie Beacham, Thora Hird
Marlon Brando brings considerable menace to this chilling prequel to Henry James’s classic tale of psychological terror THE TURN OF THE SCREW. He plays Quint, the gardener at an eerie English...
Directed by Gary Sherman • 1972 • United Kingdom
Starring Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington, David Ladd
Two years before THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, this lesser-known but equally harrowing cannibal shocker brought flesh-eating mayhem to the screen with gruesome ferocity. When a prominent poli...
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 Robin Hardy • 1973 • United Kingdom
Starring Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee
This legendary cult favorite was released to relatively little fanfare but has gone on to be regarded as one of the most disturbing and audacious horror films of all time. A young girl’s disappearance br...
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 Bob Clark • 1974 • Canada
Starring Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder
In 1974, a low-budget nightmare filmed in Toronto was unleashed upon theaters and revolutionized horror cinema. A now-legendary film among genre aficionados, the groundbreaking BLACK CHRISTMAS was not only t...
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 David Cronenberg • 1975 • Canada
Starring Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, Lynn Lowry
Canadian auteur David Cronenberg has spent much of his career mining our fears about sex, technology, and corporeal existence, but this breakout feature is perhaps the most shocking of all his body-horror ...
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 David Cronenberg • 1977 • Canada
Starring Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore, Joe Silver
David Cronenberg cemented his reputation as one of the most daring directors of his generation with his deeply disturbing second foray into the body-horror genre. After undergoing radical emergency su...
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...
