1970's Horror Films (Part 1)

1970's Horror:

Countless splatter horror films were released in the 1970's, including Three on a Meathook (1972); The Hills Have Eyes (1977), I Spit on Your Grave (1978) and Tourist Trap (1979). Horror director David Cronenberg took the splatter film to a different place, and in three films explored the horrors of the human body and its betrayal by forces beyond human control in Shivers (1975), Rabid (1977) and The Brood (1978). It’s Alive (1974) and Dawn of the Dead (1978), George Romero’s sequel his subversive 1968 horror film 'Night of the Living Dead', are other typical examples of the 70s fascination with gore, although the latter may be more memorable for its satire of modern consumer culture, graphic disembowelments notwithstanding.

In addition, the occult horror film was also a popular genre in the 1970s. Major studios were more likely to finance these films because of hugely successful predecessors, like Roman Polanski’s 'Rosemary’s Baby[/b]' (1968). These films often featured big-name stars and higher production values. The most infamous of these, William Friedkin’s story of a young girl possessed by a demon, The Exorcist (1973), featured head-twisting special effects, sophisticated make-up and excellent sound techniques. Brian de Palma’s Carrie (1976) featured Sissy Spacek as an abused girl with telekinetic powers, and Hollywood legend Gregory Peck fought the Antichrist in The Omen (1976). The Amityville Horror (1979), the film version of the best-selling pulp novelization of one family’s allegedly true-life escape from a house haunted by demons, updated the haunted house story. Other entries in this genre include The Wicker Man (1973) and Audrey Rose (1977).

The horror genre was so commercially successful in the 1970's that it spawned blaxploitation versions of classics, such as Blacula (1972) and its sequels, and comedic spoofs like The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and Love at First Bite (1979). Possibly the greatest horror film of the decade, Alien (1979), adapted many elements of all 70's films, with 'last girl alive' Sigourney Weaver battling a terrifying alien creature rather than deranged human.