(Photo by United Film Distribution Company/Courtesy Everett Collection)
100 Best ’70s Horror Movies
Comb your porn ’stache, put on some vinyl (records or disco boots, your choice), and smell that lead in the gasoline – we’re heading back to the Me Decade with the 100 Best 1970s Horror Movies!
The ’70s were a decade of upheaval for the genre, transforming horror into a legitimate vessel for awards recognition (The Exorcist) and the birth of the blockbuster (Jaws). The reign of Hammer gothic horror had its last gasp here (Vampire Circus), giving way to the whodunit sleaze of Italian giallo (Deep Red), American realism (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and grindhouse (Last House on the Left). Meanwhile, legends-in-the-making made their name off horror: Steven Spielberg (Duel), Ridley Scott (Alien), David Lynch (Eraserhead), and John Carpenter (Halloween) to name a few.
Now that you’re keyed up, get down for some boo-gie nights as we get off on the best scary movies the 1970s offered!
84 Best ’80s Horror Movies | 40 Best ’90s Horror Movies
80 Best 2000s Horror Movies | 140 Best 2010s Horror Movies
200 Best Horror Movies of All Time | 50 Best New Horror Movies
#1
Critics Consensus: Compelling, well-crafted storytelling and a judicious sense of terror ensure Steven Spielberg's Jaws has remained a benchmark in the art of delivering modern blockbuster thrills.
Synopsis: When a young woman is killed by a shark while skinny-dipping near the New England tourist town of Amity Island,
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#2
Critics Consensus: Scary, suspenseful, and viscerally thrilling, Halloween set the standard for modern horror films.
Synopsis: On a cold Halloween night in 1963, six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister, Judith. He was
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#3
Critics Consensus: Made with obvious affection for the original, Young Frankenstein is a riotously silly spoof featuring a fantastic performance by Gene Wilder.
Synopsis: Respected medical lecturer Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) learns that he has inherited his infamous grandfather's estate in Transylvania. Arriving
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#4
Critics Consensus: Stunning visuals from Werner Herzog and an intense portrayal of the famed bloodsucker from Klaus Kinski make this remake of Nosferatu a horror classic in its own right.
Synopsis: Jonathan Harker is sent away to Count Dracula's castle to sell him a house in Virna, where he lives. But
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#5
Critics Consensus: The blood pours freely in Argento's classic Suspiria, a giallo horror as grandiose and glossy as it is gory.
Synopsis: Suzy (Jessica Harper) travels to Germany to attend ballet school. When she arrives, late on a stormy night, no one
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#6
Critics Consensus: A modern classic, Alien blends science fiction, horror and bleak poetry into a seamless whole.
Synopsis: In deep space, the crew of the commercial starship Nostromo is awakened from their cryo-sleep capsules halfway through their journey
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#7
Critics Consensus: Don't Look Now patiently builds suspense with haunting imagery and a chilling score -- causing viewers to feel Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie's grief deep within.
Synopsis: Still grieving over the accidental death of their daughter, Christine (Sharon Williams), John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura Baxter (Julie Christie)
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#8
Critics Consensus: Employing gritty camerawork and evocative sound effects, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a powerful remake that expands upon themes and ideas only lightly explored in the original.
Synopsis: This remake of the classic horror film is set in San Francisco. Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) assumes that when a
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#9
Critics Consensus: Carrie is a horrifying look at supernatural powers, high school cruelty, and teen angst -- and it brings us one of the most memorable and disturbing prom scenes in history.
Synopsis: In this chilling adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel, withdrawn and sensitive teen Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) faces taunting from
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#10
Critics Consensus: This intelligent horror film is subtle in its thrills and chills, with an ending that is both shocking and truly memorable.
Synopsis: Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) arrives on the small Scottish island of Summerisle to investigate the report of a missing child.
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#11
Critics Consensus: One of the most compelling and entertaining zombie films ever, Dawn of the Dead perfectly blends pure horror and gore with social commentary on material society.
Synopsis: As hordes of zombies swarm over the U.S., the terrified populace tries everything in their power to escape the attack
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#12
Critics Consensus: House is a gleefully demented collage of grand guginol guffaws and bizarre sequences.
Synopsis: In an effort to avoid spending time with her father and his creepy new lover, young Gorgeous (Kimiko Ikegami) resolves
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#13
Critics Consensus: George A. Romero's contribution to vampire lore contains the expected gore and social satire -- but it's also surprisingly thoughtful, and boasts a whopper of a final act.
Synopsis: Young Martin (John Amplas) is entirely convinced that he is an 84-year-old blood-sucking vampire. Without fangs or mystical powers, Martin
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#14
Critics Consensus: Thanks to a smart script and documentary-style camerawork, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre achieves start-to-finish suspense, making it a classic in low-budget exploitation cinema.
Synopsis: When Sally (Marilyn Burns) hears that her grandfather's grave may have been vandalized, she and her paraplegic brother, Franklin (Paul
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#15
Critics Consensus: David Lynch's surreal Eraserhead uses detailed visuals and a creepy score to create a bizarre and disturbing look into a man's fear of parenthood.
Synopsis: Henry (John Nance) resides alone in a bleak apartment surrounded by industrial gloom. When he discovers that an earlier fling
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#16
Critics Consensus: Duel makes brilliant use of its simple premise, serving up rock-solid genre thrills while heralding the arrival of a generational talent behind the lens.
Synopsis: David Mann (Dennis Weaver), a mild mannered electronics salesman, is driving cross-country on a two-lane highway when he encounters an
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#17
Critics Consensus: The Abominable Dr. Phibes juggles horror and humor, but under the picture's campy façade, there's genuine pathos brought poignantly to life through Price's performance.
Synopsis: In a desperate attempt to reach his ill wife, organist Anton Phibes (Vincent Price) is horrifically disfigured in a car
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#18
Critics Consensus: Deliciously campy and wonderfully funny, Theater of Blood features Vincent Price at his melodramatic best.
Synopsis: Edward Lionheart (Vincent Price) is incensed that his last season of performances in Shakespearean plays did not win him a
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#19
Critics Consensus: Clever yet clearly indebted to the masters of the genre, Sisters offers an early glimpse of De Palma at his stylishly crafty peak.
Synopsis: Inquisitive journalist Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) is horrified when she witnesses her neighbor, fashion model Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder), violently
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#20
Critics Consensus: Combining a deadly thriller plot with stylized violence, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage marks an impressive horror debut for Dario Argento.
Synopsis: An American writer, Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante), is living in Rome with his girlfriend, Julia (Suzy Kendall). While visiting an
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#21
Critics Consensus: The Omen eschews an excess of gore in favor of ramping up the suspense -- and creates an enduring, dread-soaked horror classic along the way.
Synopsis: American diplomat Robert (Gregory Peck) adopts Damien (Harvey Stephens) when his wife, Katherine (Lee Remick), delivers a stillborn child. After
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#22
Critics Consensus: Brian De Palma's subversive streak is on full display in Phantom of the Paradise, an ebullient rock opera that rhapsodizes creativity when it isn't seething with disdain for the music industry.
Synopsis: After record producer Swan (Paul Williams) steals the music of songwriter Winslow Leach (William Finley) and gives it to one
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#23
Critics Consensus: The Exorcist rides its supernatural theme to magical effect, with remarkable special effects and an eerie atmosphere, resulting in one of the scariest films of all time.
Synopsis: One of the most profitable horror movies ever made, this tale of an exorcism is based loosely on actual events.
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#24
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Oliviero is a drunk, burned-out writer who amuses himself by hosting orgies and humiliating his wife. When a number of
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#25
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Reporter Kolchak (Darren McGavin) searches Seattle for a killer who seems to be strangling his victims every 20 years and
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#26
Critics Consensus: The kinetic camerawork and brutal over-the-top gore that made Dario Argento famous is on full display, but the addition of a compelling, complex story makes Deep Red a masterpiece.
Synopsis: A psychic medium (Macha Méril) is brutally murdered, and musician Marcus Daly (David Hemmings) feels a need to solve the
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#27
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A social worker (Anjanette Comer) tries to save a teen from his mother (Ruth Roman), who keeps him in diapers
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#28
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Quiet, withdrawn 13-year-old Rynn Jacobs (Jodie Foster) lives peacefully in her home in a New England beach town. Whenever the
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#29
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Germs from the stab of an ancient dagger turn two lovers (Duane Jones, Marlene Clark) into immortal vampires.
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#30
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The same woman (Karen Black) appears in three tales as a blackmailed teacher, a tormented lover and opposite sisters.
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#31
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A Scotland Yard inspector (John Bennett) learns how four tenants of a country house met macabre fates.
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#32
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A police inspector (Donald Pleasence) discovers that descendants of survivors of a cave-in in the early 1900s are eating London
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#33
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: When people in a tourist group get lost within ancient catacombs, they meet the sinister Crypt Keeper (Ralph Richardson), who
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#34
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Peter (John Hargreaves) and Marcia (Briony Behets), a bitter married couple teetering on the edge of divorce, take a camping
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#35
Critics Consensus: Director Tobe Hooper and a devilishly charismatic James Mason elevate this television adaptation of the Stephen King novel, injecting the vampiric tradition with fresh blood and lingering scares.
Synopsis: Based on the Stephen King novel, Ben Mears (David Soul) has returned to his hometown of Salem's Lot to write
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#36
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Baron Frankenstein (Udo Kier) dreams of restoring Serbia to glory, so he builds male and female monsters whose children will
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#37
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: After several high-profile newspapers fire him for his difficult attitude, investigative journalist Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) finds a job following
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#38
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A Freudian psychiatrist (Eric Porter) covers up for his patient, the homicidal daughter (Angharad Rees) of Jack the Ripper.
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#39
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: When a wandering man named Crossley (Alan Bates) insinuates himself into the lives of British composer Anthony Fielding (John Hurt)
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#40
Critics Consensus: Thanks in large part to Anthony Hopkins' layered performance, Magic is an unusual albeit creepily effective experience.
Synopsis: Corky (Anthony Hopkins), a failed magician, adopts a new ventriloquist act with an abrasive dummy named Fats, and suddenly finds
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#41
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A cop does not realize that those responsible for several murders are the living dead.
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#42
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Following the murder of Countess Federica Donati (Isa Miranda), an heiress possessing a beautiful piece of beachfront property, members of
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#43
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A young biker gang leader makes a pact with the Devil and uses it to win himself eternal life. His
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#44
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A man (Zalman King) accused of murder tries to stop hairless people driven to kill by bad LSD in college.
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#45
Critics Consensus: Shivers uses elementally effective basic ingredients to brilliant effect - and lays the profoundly unsettling foundation for director David Cronenberg's career to follow.
Synopsis: After a scientist living in a posh apartment complex slaughters a teen girl and kills himself, investigators discover that the
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#46
Critics Consensus: A rough-edged thriller that lacks the precision of Polanski's best work, but makes up for it with its skillful mounting of paranoia, dread, and dark themes.
Synopsis: In Paris, isolated Eastern European émigré Trelkovsky (Roman Polanski) rents an apartment in a spooky old building whose inhabitants regard
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#47
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: After their father dies, young twin brothers Holland (Martin Udvarnoky) and Niles (Chris Udvarnoky) spend their summer playing around the
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#48
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A girl is kidnapped and buried alive by criminals demanding a fortune in diamonds from her father's jewelry store.
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#49
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A Victorian scientist (Peter Cushing) injects his daughter (Lorna Heilbron) with the just-add-water essence of evil.
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#50
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A reporter and a young woman investigate a series of child murders in a remote town.
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#51
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Newlyweds stop at a posh French hotel on their way to England. They meet a beautiful red-lipped woman whom the
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#52
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Anger stemming from being abused as a child drives an alcoholic's daughter to kill as an adult.
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#53
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Valerie (Jaroslava Schallerová), a Czechoslovakian teenager living with her grandmother, is blossoming into womanhood, but that transformation proves secondary to
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#54
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Boston medical resident Susan Wheeler (Geneviève Bujold) becomes suspicious when her friend (Lois Chiles) is left in an irreversible coma
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#55
Critics Consensus: The Cat O'Nine Tails is a solidly entertaining Argento outing elevated by a well-chosen cast and the director's distinctive visual style.
Synopsis: A newsman (James Franciscus) works with a blind puzzle-solver (Karl Malden) to catch a killer with mixed-up chromosomes.
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#56
Critics Consensus: The Brood is a grotesque, squirming, hilariously shrill exploration of the bizarre and deadly side of motherhood.
Synopsis: A mad doctor (Oliver Reed) tries psychoplasmic therapy on a raging woman (Samantha Eggar) soon to be a mother.
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#57
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Presumed dead in Vietnam, a young soldier reappears at his parents' home, but tensions grow within the family as his
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#58
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Hauntings occur after a Japanese peasant woman (Kazuko Yoshiyuki) conspires with her young lover (Tatsuya Fuji) to kill her older
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#59
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Traveling performers take revenge against the Serbian villagers whose ancestors killed their leader 100 years ago.
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#60
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Maimed by bullies at a California high school, a new student (Derrel Maury) engineers acts of revenge.
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#61
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A 19th-century witch hunter (Peter Cushing) cannot tell which of his twin nieces (Mary Collinson) Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas) has
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#62
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A New York police detective (Tony Lo Bianco) ties a death rampage to a cult and its leader (Richard Lynch),
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#63
Critics Consensus: Brian De Palma reins in his stylistic flamboyance to eerie effect in The Fury, a telekinetic slow burn that rewards patient viewers with its startling set pieces.
Synopsis: When a devious plot separates CIA agent Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) from his son, Robin (Andrew Stevens), the distraught father
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#64
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: An ancient intergalactic warrior arrives on Earth to put a stop to a demonic child's plot to reproduce Satan's next
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#65
Critics Consensus: Its gruesome scares may nauseate more than thrill, but Rabid bites into its story with distinct sophistication and thought-provoking themes.
Synopsis: Surgery leaves a Montreal motorcyclist (Marilyn Chambers) with a bloodsucking appendage in her armpit.
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#66
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Favorite daughter Karen (Brooke Shields) is viciously strangled and set afire in church on the day of her First Communion,
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#67
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A general (Peter Cushing) and a baron hunt a vampire named Carmilla (Ingrid Pitt) who seduces and bites their daughters.
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#68
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Furry Schlockthropus man wakes up after 20 million years and kills picnickers for their bananas.
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#69
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A schizophrenic (Susannah York) confuses her husband (Rene Auberjonois) with her lovers and her self.
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#70
Critics Consensus: Phantasm: Remastered adds visual clarity to the first installment in one of horror's most enduring -- and endearingly idiosyncratic -- franchises.
Synopsis: The residents of a small town have begun dying under strange circumstances, leading young Mike (Michael Baldwin) to investigate. After
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#71
Critics Consensus: Performed with a wink and directed with wry self-awareness, Piranha is an unabashed B-movie with satirical bite.
Synopsis: Two people (Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies) unwittingly free a mad military scientist's (Kevin McCarthy) mutant fish near a summer camp
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#72
Critics Consensus: Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom will strike some viewers as irredeemably depraved, but its unflinching view of human cruelty makes it impossible to ignore.
Synopsis: Four fascists kidnap young men and women and subject them to torture and perversion.
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#73
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A couple who inherited an old house learn they share it with small creatures determined to possess the wife's mind.
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#74
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: After several coeds are murdered at a college, a professor (Fabio Testi) who is involved with a student becomes a
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#75
Critics Consensus: The Crazies isn't top-shelf Romero, but its blend of genre thrills and social subtext should still be enough to satisfy discerning horror fans.
Synopsis: A nurse (Lane Carroll) and her husband (W.G. McMillan) try to get out of their infected town, but the Army
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#76
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A couple becomes the target of a vampires' seductions.
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#77
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Roger (Peter Fonda), his friend Frank (Warren Oates), and their wives (Lara Parker, Loretta Swit) are heading from San Antonio
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#78
Critics Consensus: Love at First Bite could use some more warm-blooded barbs to liven up its undead comedy, but George Hamilton's campy charisma gives the prince of darkness some welcome pizazz.
Synopsis: When the government of Transylvania appropriates his castle, Count Dracula (George Hamilton) is obliged to relocate and decides to give
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#79
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A bored housewife's life spins out of control after she dabbles in the occult. Written and directed by George A.
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#80
Critics Consensus: The rare slasher with enough intelligence to wind up the tension between bloody outbursts, Black Christmas offers fiendishly enjoyable holiday viewing for genre fans.
Synopsis: As winter break begins, a group of sorority sisters, including Jess (Olivia Hussey) and the often inebriated Barb (Margot Kidder),
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#81
Critics Consensus: The Stepford Wives's inherent satire is ill-served by Bryan Forbes' stately direction, but William Goldman's script excels as a damning critique of a misogynistic society.
Synopsis: Joanna Eberhart (Katharine Ross) moves to the quiet town of Stepford with her husband (Peter Masterson) and children. The town
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#82
Critics Consensus: When it's not bludgeoning the viewer with its more off-putting, cruder elements, The Hills Have Eyes wields some clever storytelling and a sly sense of dark humor.
Synopsis: Wes Craven's cult classic about cannibalistic mountain folk on the trail of stranded vacationers in the arid Southwest.
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#83
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: When Dr. Martin (Robert Powell) goes on a job interview at a British insane asylum, he learns that he must
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#84
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A gentleman photographer (Robert Stephens) in Victorian England tries to trap the human spirit at the moment of death.
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#85
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Deathly ill Count Dracula (Udo Kier) and his slimy underling, Anton (Arno Juerging), travel to Italy in search of a
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#86
Critics Consensus: Tough and unpleasant, It's Alive throttles the viewer with its bizarre mutant baby theatrics.
Synopsis: Leaving their son, Chris (Daniel Holzman), with a family friend (William Wellman Jr.), Frank (John P. Ryan) and Lenore Davis
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#87
Critics Consensus: The Legend of Hell House makes up for its disappointing lack of outright scares with a top notch cast and a suitably macabre atmosphere.
Synopsis: Scientist Lionel Barrett (Clive Revill) and his wife, Ann (Gayle Hunnicutt), lead a team into the infamous Belasco House, supposedly
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#88
Critics Consensus: Its visceral brutality is more repulsive than engrossing, but The Last House on the Left nevertheless introduces director Wes Craven as a distinctive voice in horror.
Synopsis: Teenagers Mari (Sandra Cassel) and Phyllis (Lucy Grantham) head to the city for a concert, then afterward go looking for
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#89
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The residents of a small Australian town survive by causing traffic accidents, stripping the cars and stealing the valuables. When
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#90
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Enraged by rejection and a punk-rock band, an artist (Jimmy Laine) vents his anger on winos with a power drill.
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#91
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A frustrated pianist himself, music journalist Myles Clarkson (Alan Alda) is thrilled to interview virtuoso Duncan Ely (Curt Jurgens). Duncan,
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#92
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A gay serial killer murders boys and feeds them to his fellow cannibals.
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#93
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Dario Argento directs the tale of a rock musician who becomes entangled in a gruesome murder case.
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#94
Critics Consensus: Eyes of Laura Mars hints at interesting possibilities, but they're frittered away by a predictable story that settles for superficial thrills.
Synopsis: Laura Mars (Faye Dunaway) is a renowned New York City fashion photographer who features sensual and violent images in her
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#95
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A boy, Danny, befriends a rat named Ben and forms an army of his rodent friends in the city drains.
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#96
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Child psychologist Susan Harris (Julie Christie) lives with her husband, Alan (Fritz Weaver), in a home operated by a computer
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#97
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The sinister Dr. Phibes (Vincent Price) has returned and is once again determined to resurrect his deceased wife. Assisted by
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#98
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A man washes ashore in England after a shipwreck and is found by Mina Van Helsing (Jan Francis). The man
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#99
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A hallucinating woman (Elke Sommer) flees to a mansion full of corpses and sees the devil (Telly Savalas) and other
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#100
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Frankenstein's son (Ralph Bates) seizes his father's castle and housekeeper (Kate O'Mara) and builds his own monster.
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