There doesn't seem to be near as much interest in the 70's forum as the 80's (as witnessed by my own posts as well, mea culpa). But I do have lotsa love for this decade, as I was born in 71, and my first memories formed around 73-74 (as per psychological expectations of first solid memory formations). Anyway. . .
I think, and this may just be coloured by my experieces and perceptions as a child, that horror movies in the 70's were more scary than most of the 80's and 90's horror films. There was an experimental quality to 70's films which harkened back to films in the brith of cinema like Dreyer's "The Vampyre" where the idea of true terror and the feeling of horror and fear was better achieved by means of "suggestion" and "implication" and an overall "mood" than an in-your-face here's-the-guy-with-the-knife approach (which, I freely admit, when thought of in a real-life situation is horrifieing, but in the realtive "safety" of a theatre can be rather dull.
Anyway, there are a lot of, what I consider to be, quality horror films from the 70's, and I was wondering if anyone else had any to share (hopefully some I haven't seen and can watch and gain new experience from).
A bit inspired by the "Starsky And Hutch" thread, I really liked Tobe Hooper's tv-movie/mini-series of Steven King's "Salem's Lot" with David Sole in an amazing Emmy/Golden Globe worthy performance (not to mention Bonnie Bedelia, who, strangely and perhaps not coincidentally, also appeared in the theatrically butchered, but rather long and well done director's cut, of Steven King's "Needfull Things" in the 90's). The basic plot: a writer returns to the town of his youth, haunted by the memories of a haunted house where he had a vision, real or imagined, of a ghost, only to find real the and present evil of Mr. Barlow, a vampire who plans to make the town his feeding grounds.
Other scary and memorable 70's horror films on my random at the moment list:
"The Sentinal" (half-heartedly and loosely remade as "Resurected" in the 80's) Basic plot: an up-and-coming young fashion model, haunted by her 2 past suicide attempts and her loss of religion, rents an apartment in an old Brownstone in New York where she soon discovers her disturbing and eccentric neighbors may not be real at all, but rather ghosts, or even demons.
"Suspiria" (a truly amazing work of visual art and mood manipulation by the Italian horror maestro [often called the "Italian Hitchcock"] Dario Argento) Basic plot: an american ballette student arrives at a reknown ballet school in Germany and finds disturbing mysteries abound. . .are the teacher witches, have students been murdered, and is she next? (part one of Argento's "Mater" trilogy which has, thus far, never been completed, co written with his former wife, Daria, who, along with Dario Argento, is the parent of Asia Argento, award winning writer/director/star of "Scarlet Diva" but best known in the states as the love interest in the Vin Diesel film "XXX").
"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (mostly just funny and freaky with catchy retro 50's by way of the 70's [ala "Grease] tunes, there were some moments of really stop-you-cold horror moments [Dr. Frank N-Furter's ice pick murder of Eddie, the reveal of Eddie's mutialted corpse beneath the dinner table. . .]) Basic plot: boy meets, girl, boy gets girl, boy and girl find themselves in the castle of an alien from the planet Transexual and are subsequently perverted by his evil ways.
And last, but by no stretch of the imagination least, the made-for-tv but so scary it messed me up for life movie. . . "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark" . . .which, even today with computer effects scares the Charles Dickens out of me (okay, it is a bit funny after 30 years, but still, I remember how many sleepless nites I had worrying about those little midgette demons skulking about the shadows and the tiny hairs on my neck go up). Basic plot: a somewhat meek and bored housewife moves in, with her go-getter businessman husband, into her grandfathers old mansion, finds the lost key to her grandfathers long locked study, unbolts the bolts on the steel door to the old sealed fireplace, and unleashes an ancient evil of small demons who desire only to make her one of them.
Please, please, any and all of your memories, funny or not.
"We want you, Sally. We want you, Sally."
Posted by HipsterMom27 (Member # 2161) on :
Pup, I salute your cinematic knowledge...keep posting in the '90s forum along with Kash & moi. While you're both youngsters compared to someone who was a '70s teenager, I appreciate the way you guys think and write.
[yes, I am a true New Yorker, we say "you guys" for everyone...but at least I don't pluralize it to "youse"...I am only Italian by heritage, I'm no guido-ette]
LOL: I recall "Salem's Lot" when it first ran on TV...my sister was a big Lance Kerwin fan ["James at 15...16]. It scared the beejeezus out of me so much that going to sleep at night with my bed facing a window was a frightening experience. I kept expecting the boy vampire to be scratching at the window. There was alot of stuff on TV during the '70s that was pretty scary: "Trilogy of Terror"...movies of the week. Wish I could remember them all, but I can think of one with Sally Field going back home to some family secret, being menaced by some unseen person who I think turned out to be an older sister. Gotta look that one up.
I follow Italian cinema as much as possible, at least the stuff that makes it to my local art house. FYI, not that it means anything, but my daughter is named Daria, not after Argento but I was going for an atypical Italian name to match a long last name.
Posted by Kash (Member # 297) on :
“I was luggin’ boxes at ‘bargain city’, which is more than I can say for youse guys”
Thank you Hipstermom, I too eagerly await your posts, both in the 80’s, the 90s (we practically own that board ) and here, Skinny’s pretty cool too, I seriously think we should open up a mutual appreciation society.
‘Salem’s Lot’ is an absolute classic, and yep, the “open the window” scene is up there with anything in ‘The Exorcist’, I think pups is right on the money here about ‘suggested’ horror being replaced by ‘slasher’ horror, personally, I think that creating a preponderant sense of dread and uneasiness throughout a movie is, cinematically speaking, far more effective than some dude in a hockey mask running around wielding a kitchen knife, both styles can work, but they create a different kind of fear in the audience.
Although not so much a horror as it is a satire, Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’ has some pretty unnerving moments, the gritty print is a tool in itself, Alex and his droogs on the rampage is kinda sick whilst the end (“I was cured alright!”) is disturbingly brilliant and marks another bravura performance by Malcolm McDowell (he’s still around, did a great movie with Paul Bettany called ‘Gangster No.1’ about three years ago).
And even though I’m not a huge fan of this movie, but I’m sure ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ would’ve been a lot scarier if people in the theatre didn’t insist of making jokes (to ease their nerves probably) throughout the whole film (even though it is essentially a very dark comedy, no seriously, it is; the grandfather sucking that girl’s finger, I mean com’n that’s a Sam Raimi scene waiting to happen) Hooper uses some of the same touches he bought back for ‘Salem’s Lot’: face in the moon, imploding sense of horror at the end and atmospheric cinematography to make ordinary places seem creepy.
I don’t get the current resurgence in Zombie flicks though, I mean maybe that genre was scary in the 50s or something, but now, it always ends up being unintentionally comedic, only ’28 Days Later’ worked in spates, anyway, back to the 70’s
your daughter's name is Daria, cool, like the Mike Judge cartoon, hey, there’s a tenuous link to ‘Office Space’ there. Posted by HipsterMom27 (Member # 2161) on :
LOL...when "Daria" was running on MTV she used to get razzed a lot...but she was named before the show was but a twinkle in Judge's eye. Good 'Kevin Bacon' link to "Office Space" on your part...LOL again.
I looked up that Sally Field movie-of-the-week...it was called "Home For the Holidays" and there was a menacing figure with a pitchfork tracking down this dysfunctional family who had gathered for the holiday...killed them all one-by-one...Sally running thru the woods...turns out it was her older sister gone wacky.
The old black-&white horror stuff from the '50s & '60s used to run on the weekend late-late show. Remember, I'm from the pre-cable era so this is what you had to choose from. I can remember being very scared by "The Birds", "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte", and one of my brother's very favorites: "Them!" [radioactive giant ants attack Los Angeles]. I still love watching that stuff.
1978: the first "Halloween" was some scary sh** (or sh**e for you, right?)...I guess because my teenaged babysitter years winding down then, I was still greatly affected by the vulnerable-teen-protecting-kid-while-parents-are-away theme. Especially when Michael Meyers disappears at the end!
Posted by mamamiasweetpeaches (Member # 1715) on :
Halloween, The Shining, Carrie...theres so many. The ones that really scared me as a kid were The Exorcist and The Other.
Posted by Beet (Member # 2471) on :
Alien!!!
Okay I know this isn't the "typical" horror movie but it was genuinely the scariest crap I have ever seen when I saw it. I was about eight years old and went to a party with my parents. I didnt have anything to do as there were no kids so the host gave me a lot of tapes... and somehow "Alien" ended up in the VCR. So I watched it alone in the dark and damn... By the end when she's in the escape module with the alien my heart was racing! I was having nightmares for weeks after that. I was always afraid that I would start barfing up blood and this alien would come busting out of my stomach. Then I saw Alien 2 and that was arguably worse.
But the 3rd one sucked.
Posted by isis9968 (Member # 1780) on :
I was so afraid of the picture they had in the TV Guide of the boy floating to the top of the window, in Salem's Lot, I don't think I have ever watched that movie, because the previews, and just what I imagined it to be as a kid, scared me to bad, to this date I still can't watch that movie. It was like the trailor to The Shining, when I heard it coming on, I was petrified to even change the channel on the tv, I would run out in our laundry room, and cover my head, and wait until I was absolutely sure it was over.
1 scary movie to me is Death Weekend, with Brenda Vacarro, it is so real, and seems like something that could happen.
The Last House on the Left-is scary-but they play this weird music in it, that makes it kind of goofy in places, but I hated watching it.
Deliverance scares the crap out of me.
The early 80's- He Knows your Alone has got to be the scariest movie of all time to me, and Silent Scream, those 2...I have never heard others talk about, but they use to play on HBO all the time, and I was terified of them.
The Legacy, scared my brother so bad, he would not go under water in our swimming pool for the whole one summer.
I have never watched The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, because the previews, and the subject of it, are too disturbing to me.
A friend of mine gave me Suspiria and I watched the first 20 minutes, and it scared me so bad, I stopped it.
My favorite 70's horror movie is Piranha, it is very scary to me, and so realistic, I watched it for the first time last year, and it just blew me away that I had never seen it before. You can get it on DVD for like $5.99
Posted by mamamiasweetpeaches (Member # 1715) on :
Im really feeling like I KNOW you,Isis. That LEGACY pool scene has ruined swimming for me!
Posted by HipsterMom27 (Member # 2161) on :
I saw "Jaws" at the first showing on opening day...it was at one of the old single screen movie theaters [yes, there once was such a thing]...we came out and the line was wrapped around the building...everyone in line was dying to know how it was.
It scared the pants off of me...I had a hard time swimming in the ocean ever since!
Posted by sam hain2 (Member # 1964) on :
When talking about 70's horror one has to put Halloween, Jaws and The Exorcist at the top of their lists. all 3 were very scary when they first came out and all 3 have withstood the test of time. Personally I never thought Texas Chainsaw Massacre was as scary as people made it out to be, but maybe by the time I saw it I had seen so many horror movies that I was desensitized by then.
Posted by mamamiasweetpeaches (Member # 1715) on :
I'll disagree with that. While I feel Im totally desensitzed by horror movies TEXAS CAHINSAW MASSACRE really makes my skin crawl. "Go get Grampa!" ugh. Its hard to call it one of my favorite horror movies cuz it leaves me feeling raw, but it definatly delivers the creeps.
Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
Regarding HipsterMom27's post:
Is Jaws considered a "horror" movie? I thought it to be more like in the area of suspense, instead of horror. There's quite a difference.
In the Summer of 1975, my family and I visited Hawaii and had a good time. I didn't spend much time at the beach, and I guess that's partly because I saw Jaws just a few weeks before we left!
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
) and here, Skinny’s pretty cool too, I seriously think we should open up a mutual appreciation society. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)