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Back in 1973, reports of theater-goers vomiting and fainting from screenings of The Exorcist helped to propel the controversial film to a bonafied blockbuster smash. Director William Friedkin’s adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s horror novel of the same name became the first horror film to be ever nominated for an Academy Award. And it’s for good reason: over 50 years on, The Exorcist still manages to be scarier and more disturbing than most modern horror releases. When young Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) begins exhibiting disturbing behavior, her mother (Ellen Burstyn) calls in every doctor in the book to try diagnosing what ails her. After numerous tests and experiments, they are no closer to understanding when a local priest gets involved, believing that the girl’s horrible transformation may be the work of demonic possession. In the sleepy town of Haddonfield, Illinois, teenager Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) finds herself the unwitting target of an escaped mental patient. After being locked up in captivity for 15 years after the murder of his sister, Michael Myers (Tony Moran) escapes on Halloween and descends upon his hometown, in search of his next victims. Simple but effective, it takes one watch of Halloween to understand why it’s considered to be such a foundational text in the horror genre. Moody, dark and thrillingly tense, John Carpenter’s film relies on clever filmmaking techniques over excess blood and gore. The camerawork, minimalist music (composed and performed by Carpenter himself) and editing are surprisingly effective over 40 years later. “In space, no one can hear you scream” is what the tagline for Alien read back in 1979, and it’s become one of the most famous movie taglines of all time. Because it is indeed true that there is a lot of screaming happening in outer space in Ridley Scott’s terrifying, chilling horror-sci-fi triumph — but when you watch the film, you’ll be screaming at home as well. The crew of a commercial space ship are in cryo-sleep, heading back to Earth when their slumber is interrupted by a distress signal. The crew wakes up and answers the call at an alien vessel, where they accidentally encounter a malevolent alien beast that infects a member of the crew. But the worst is still yet to come, and when the crewmember falls into a coma, something is waiting within him to escape and hunt everyone down. Though it was meant as a critcism by Roger Ebert at the time, Alien really is a haunted house film in space in the best way. Maestro of Italian “Giallo” horror cinema Dario Argento created his lurid masterpiece Suspiria in 1977, and it has become a cult classic of eurohorror. The surreal, dreamy and stylistically gorgeous film is light on plot but makes up for it with sufficient gore, unbeatable production design and a chilling atmosphere that feels like moving your way through a nightmare. A 2018 remake helmed by Challengers director Luca Guadagnino starred Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton. When American dancer Susy Bannion (Jessica Harper) moves to Germany to attend a prestigious ballet school, she quickly realizes that there is something not quite right there — especially when she sees a student fleeing on the night she arrives. Through careful sleuthing, Suzy comes to understand that the school has a sinister history, and its teachers are witches with dark plans for their students. A group of teenagers on a road trip pick up a seemingly innocuous hitchhiker, who quickly begins exhibiting bizarre behavior towards them. When the hitchhiker attacks them and kicks them out of their van, they explore the nearby houses and discover one that one is a house of horrors wherein resides a family of psychopathic killers and the ruthless Leatherface. Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a quintessential slasher film, having inspired many of the elements that would come to define the genre such as the use of power tools as weapons, the masked killer and the concept of the Final Girl. Beyond instigating a successful franchise, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is both a deliciously gruesome horror film and an undeniable work of cinematic art. Eraserhead is the film that put surrealist director David Lynch on the map: a confounding but profoundly evocative art-house horror film that found its audience on a midnight movie circuit during the 1970s. While the filim received a number of bad reviews from critics upon release, the film also had many supporters (including Stanley Kubrick), and the orginality of Lynch’s vision wasn’t lost where it mattered. Eraserhead fan Mel Brooks helped fund Lynch’s next feature, which was nominated for an Academy Award. Henry (Jack Nance) lives in an industrialist hellscape and lives alone, but his world is turned upside-down when a brief fling, Mary X (Charlotte Stewart), falls pregnant and gives birth to a horrific mutant baby. As if Henry’s life wasn’t difficult enough, he begins seeing visions of a woman who lives inside his radiator, and embarks on an affair with a beautiful woman who lives next door. As if becoming a parent wasn’t complicated enough! Body horror master David Cronenberg infused some thorny feelings about his own then-recent divorce into this disturbing film about parenthood, marriage and mental illness. While the film wasn’t received overwhelming warmly by critics upon release (it did do well at the box office), it gained a cult following and has attracted scholarly interest from film theorists regarding its portrayal of mental illness and motherhood. Dr. Hal Raglan (Oliver Reed) seeks answers in regards to his ex-wife, who has been sequestered by a controversial therapist who uses unconventional methods of psychotherapy. Parallel to Raglan’s investigating, a hoard of mutant children begin committing a series of brutal murders, and the two things may be connected. Outcast teenager Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is tormented by her peers at school and emotionally abused by her domineering, fanatically religious mother (Piper Laurie). But everything seems to change when she’s asked to go to the prom with popular boy Tommy Ross (William Katt). As Carrie lets her guard down, she unknowingly opens herself up to more bullying — but Carrie wields supernatural powers that can get ugly quickly. Brian De Palma’s lauded adaptation of Stephen King‘s novel of the same name is notable for being the very first on-screen adaptation of a King work. Frequently regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever made, the film has been overwhelmingly influential to popular culture. It is a dark but empathetic look at high school cruelty that features what might be the most iconic prom scene of all time. Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi created this absurd, funny and spellbinding work of fantasy-horror magic back in 1977. It was a hit at the box office in Japan though it didn’t do so well with critics, but in the years since its release it has gained a passionate following and critical reevaluation as a classic of surrealist horror. Blending hand-drawn animation with unique filmmaking choices, House is instantly unforgettable. A young girl named Gorgeous (Kimiko Ikegami) travels to her aunt’s remote mansion with six of her closest friends in tow, as a bid to avoid her creepy father and his new girlfriend. However, when Gorgeous and her friends arrive at the estate, a bevy of supernatural occurrences begin taking place, and a feline portrait seems to possess a malevolent force. One by one, the house seems to be swallowing the girls up. Black Christmas is perhaps most famous for being one of the earliest and most influential films of the slasher subgenre, serving as a direct influence on John Carpenter’s Halloween. While the plot is outwardly simple, the film’s villain remains terrifying in how elusive he is and also the ominous note the film ends on. It has even been reexamined in the modern age as a feminist text. At the outset of winter break, a group of sorority sisters starts receiving a series of sexually explicit phone calls from an anonymous caller. He eventually turns his obscene words into overt theats, and things become far more dire when one of the girls goes missing and another local girl is murdered. While they suspect a connection with their caller, they have no idea just how close he really is.
