Scary Seventies! Best horror movies from 70's (or at least my opinion)

by neal66 | created - 16 Oct 2011 | updated - 08 Jan 2019 | Public
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1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

R | 83 min | Horror

90 Metascore

Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.

Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain

Votes: 183,709 | Gross: $30.86M

Brutal and terrifying film!"

2. Black Christmas (1974)

R | 98 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

65 Metascore

During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.

Director: Bob Clark | Stars: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon

Votes: 48,368 | Gross: $4.05M

Yuletide fear

3. Tourist Trap (1979)

PG | 90 min | Horror

A group of young friends stranded at a secluded roadside museum are stalked by a masked assailant who uses his telekinetic powers to control the attraction's mannequins.

Director: David Schmoeller | Stars: Chuck Connors, Jocelyn Jones, Jon Van Ness, Robin Sherwood

Votes: 12,874

supreme creepfest

4. Halloween (1978)

R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller

90 Metascore

Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.

Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran, Nancy Kyes

Votes: 306,869 | Gross: $47.00M

The night He came home! no list would be great without this film.

5. The Omen (1976)

R | 111 min | Horror, Mystery

62 Metascore

Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son?

Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Stephens, David Warner

Votes: 132,617 | Gross: $4.27M

"rise of the antichrist! the best devil movie"

6. Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)

PG | 97 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

In rural Arizona, countless killer tarantulas are migrating through a farm town, killing every living thing in their path. The town's veterinarian will do everything in his power to survive the onslaught.

Director: John 'Bud' Cardos | Stars: William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode, Lieux Dressler

Votes: 6,177 | Gross: $17.00M

"A web of flesh-crawling terror! this is the movie that arachnophobia should had been!"

7. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

PG | 115 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

75 Metascore

When strange seeds drift to earth from space, mysterious pods begin to grow and invade San Francisco, replicating the city's residents one body at a time.

Director: Philip Kaufman | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright

Votes: 69,886 | Gross: $24.95M

"most frightening sf film ever made!"

8. Messiah of Evil (1974)

R | 90 min | Horror

69 Metascore

A young woman goes searching for her missing artist father. Her journey takes her to a strange Californian seaside town governed by a mysterious undead cult.

Directors: Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz | Stars: Michael Greer, Marianna Hill, Joy Bang, Anitra Ford

Votes: 5,840

supremely creepy zombie movie

9. The Dunwich Horror (1970)

R | 90 min | Horror

Wilbur Whateley travels to the Arkham Miskatonic University to borrow the legendary Necronomicon. But, little does anyone know, Whateley isn't quite human...

Director: Daniel Haller | Stars: Sandra Dee, Dean Stockwell, Ed Begley, Lloyd Bochner

Votes: 5,180 | Gross: $0.45M

chilling Lovecraft film

10. The Return of Count Yorga (1971)

R | 97 min | Horror

Count Yorga continues to prey on the local community while living by a nearby orphanage. He also intends to take a new wife, while feeding his bevy of female vampires.

Director: Bob Kelljan | Stars: Robert Quarry, Mariette Hartley, Roger Perry, Yvonne Wilder

Votes: 1,523

Yorga returns to chill the blood

11. Frightmare (1974)

R | 88 min | Horror

After escaping a death sentence for her hideous crimes, a seemingly rehabilitated woman settles in an isolated farmhouse with her husband, only to ache, once more, for blood, and a crash-course in surgery. Is, indeed, her old self back?

Director: Pete Walker | Stars: Rupert Davies, Sheila Keith, Deborah Fairfax, Paul Greenwood

Votes: 2,658

"a family that slays together stays together. a British family with a taste for human flesh!

12. Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)

GP | 89 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery

58 Metascore

A recently institutionalized woman has bizarre experiences after moving into a supposedly haunted country farmhouse and fears she may be losing her sanity once again.

Director: John D. Hancock | Stars: Zohra Lampert, Barton Heyman, Kevin O'Connor, Gretchen Corbett

Votes: 9,313

Is Jessica insane or is something out to get her? Watch this eerie film and find out!

13. The Devil's Rain (1975)

PG | 86 min | Horror

28 Metascore

A satanist cult leader is burnt alive by the local church. He vows to come back to hunt down and enslave every descendant of his congregation, by the power of the book of blood contracts, in which they sold their souls to the devil.

Director: Robert Fuest | Stars: Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino, William Shatner

Votes: 5,099

great occult chiller

14. Phantasm (1979)

R | 89 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

72 Metascore

A teenage boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber, known only as the Tall Man, who employs a lethal arsenal of unearthly weapons.

Director: Don Coscarelli | Stars: A. Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Reggie Bannister, Kathy Lester

Votes: 41,279 | Gross: $11.99M

creepy and imaginative shocker!"

15. Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)

PG-13 | 93 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror

A couple invites a Count from Hungary, who recently immigrated to America, to conduct a seance for the woman's recently deceased mother, oblivious to the fact that he is actually a vampire.

Director: Bob Kelljan | Stars: Robert Quarry, Roger Perry, Michael Murphy, Michael Macready

Votes: 3,097 | Gross: $0.21M

vampire shocker set in modern day California

16. Alien (1979)

R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

89 Metascore

The crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright

Votes: 951,193 | Gross: $78.90M

"the movie that made space a frightening place to be!"

17. Shriek of the Mutilated (1974)

R | 87 min | Horror

A group of college students are led by their professor into the mountains in search of the Yeti. The students start to be killed off one by one.

Director: Michael Findlay | Stars: Alan Brock, Jennifer Stock, Tawm Ellis, Michael Harris

Votes: 1,163

the Hunt for Bigfoot leads to terror in this twisted film

18. The Fury (1978)

R | 118 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

64 Metascore

A former CIA agent uses the talents of a young psychic to help retrieve his telekinetic son from a shadowy secret government agency.

Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, Charles Durning

Votes: 17,329

gripping combination of conspiracy and the supernatural! Unforgettable climax and great comeuppance for the villian!"

19. The Child (1977)

R | 82 min | Horror

A newly hired housekeeper arrives to her employer's house in the countryside. She slowly discovers that the only child in the house, an eleven-year-old girl, hides a deadly secret.

Director: Robert Voskanian | Stars: Laurel Barnett, Rosalie Cole, Frank Janson, Richard Hanners

Votes: 1,440

evil little girl and her zombie friends.

20. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973 TV Movie)

Unrated | 74 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

A young couple inherits an old mansion inhabited by small demon-like creatures who are determined to make the wife one of their own.

Director: John Newland | Stars: Kim Darby, Jim Hutton, Barbara Anderson, William Demarest

Votes: 4,115

this movie scared the crap out of a seven year old boy (me) one of the scariest tv movies.

21. Burnt Offerings (1976)

PG | 116 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

48 Metascore

A family moves into a large old mansion in the countryside which seems to have a mysterious and sinister power over its new residents.

Director: Dan Curtis | Stars: Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Burgess Meredith, Eileen Heckart

Votes: 13,614

chilling haunted house film

22. Damien: Omen II (1978)

R | 107 min | Horror

45 Metascore

Damien the Antichrist, now about to turn thirteen years old, finally learns of his destiny under the guidance of an unholy disciple of Satan. Meanwhile dark forces begin to eliminate all those who suspect the child's true identity.

Directors: Don Taylor, Mike Hodges | Stars: William Holden, Lee Grant, Jonathan Scott-Taylor, Robert Foxworth

Votes: 35,895 | Gross: $3.88M

Son of Satan returns in this sinister film!

23. Shivers (1975)

R | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

58 Metascore

The residents of a suburban high-rise apartment building are being infected by a strain of parasites that turn them into mindless, sex-crazed fiends out to infect others by the slightest sexual contact.

Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, Lynn Lowry, Allan Kolman

Votes: 23,592

erotic and chilling venereal horror movie.

24. Rabid (1977)

R | 91 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

56 Metascore

A young woman develops a taste for human blood after experimental plastic surgery, and her victims turn into blood-thirsty zombies, leading into a city-wide epidemic.

Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore, Terry Schonblum, Joe Silver

Votes: 21,393

Cronenberg's second chilling venereal shocker

25. Race with the Devil (1975)

PG | 88 min | Action, Horror, Thriller

53 Metascore

Two couples vacationing together in an R.V. from Texas to Colorado are terrorized after they witness a murder during a Satanic ritual.

Director: Jack Starrett | Stars: Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Swit, Lara Parker

Votes: 7,339 | Gross: $12.64M

the hitcher meets Rosemary's baby!

26. The Toolbox Murders (1978)

R | 93 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

35 Metascore

A ski-masked maniac kills apartment complex tenants with the contents of a toolbox.

Director: Dennis Donnelly | Stars: Cameron Mitchell, Pamelyn Ferdin, Wesley Eure, Nicolas Beauvy

Votes: 4,928

brutal and disturbing shocker

27. Warlock Moon (1973)

PG | 89 min | Horror, Thriller

A college girl meets a reporter, they take a trip to the country, and they wind up meeting a creepy old woman who lives in a closed-down resort.

Director: William Herbert | Stars: Laurie Walters, Joe Spano, Edna MacAfee, Harry Bauer

Votes: 530

ghosts and cannibal witch are the order of this eerie chiller!

28. Satan's Blood (1978)

82 min | Horror

A young couple are tricked into going into a sinister house where a coven of devil-worshipers waits for them.

Directors: Carlos Puerto, Juan Piquer Simón | Stars: Ángel Aranda, Sandra Alberti, Mariana Karr, José María Guillén

Votes: 1,269



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