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Best Horror Movies of the 1970s
#1 Alien (1979) · ★ 8.2 · 16,863 votes · 1h 57m · horror, science-fictionDuring its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containin…
#2 Jaws (1975) · ★ 7.7 · 11,886 votes · 2h 4m · adventure, thriller, horrorWhen the seaside community of Amity finds itself under attack by a dangerous great white shark, the town's chief of police, a young marine biologist, and a grizzled shark hunter em…
#3 The Exorcist (1973) · ★ 7.7 · 8,904 votes · 2h 2m · thriller, drama, horrorWhen a mysterious entity possesses a young girl, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.…
#4 Deep Red (1975) · ★ 7.7 · 1,630 votes · 2h 7m · thriller, horror, mysteryAn English pianist living in Rome witnesses the brutal murder of his psychic neighbor. With the help of a tenacious young reporter, he tries to discover the killer using very uncon…
#5 Halloween (1978) · ★ 7.6 · 6,386 votes · 1h 31m · thriller, horrorFifteen 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.…
#6 The Tenant (1976) · ★ 7.6 · 1,265 votes · 2h 6m · thriller, drama, horrorA quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in Paris where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.…
#7 Suspiria (1977) · ★ 7.5 · 3,251 votes · 1h 39m · horrorAn American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.…
#8 Dawn of the Dead (1978) · ★ 7.5 · 2,384 votes · 2h 7m · horror, science-fictionDuring an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter, and his television-executive girlfriend seek refug…
#9 Phantom of the Paradise (1974) · ★ 7.5 · 772 votes · 1h 32m · comedy, fantasy, dramaSinger-songwriter Winslow Leach seeks revenge on the nefarious music producer Swan, who steals both Winslow's music and his favorite singer for the grand opening of Swan's new rock…
#10 The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) · ★ 7.4 · 3,235 votes · 1h 40m · comedy, fantasy, horrorAfter getting a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, newly engaged couple Brad and Janet encounter the eerie mansion of the flamboyant, seductive Dr Frank-N-Furter and a variety of…
#11 The Omen (1976) · ★ 7.4 · 2,515 votes · 1h 51m · thriller, horrorImmediately after their miscarriage, the US diplomat Robert Thorn adopts the newborn Damien without the knowledge of his wife. Yet what he doesn’t know is that their new son is the…
#12 Carrie (1976) · ★ 7.3 · 4,454 votes · 1h 38m · thriller, horrorWithdrawn and sensitive teenager Carrie White faces bullying from her classmates and abuse from her fanatically pious mother. When she begins to suspect that she has supernatural p…
#13 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) · ★ 7.3 · 3,977 votes · 1h 23m · horrorFive 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 w…
#14 Eraserhead (1977) · ★ 7.3 · 2,845 votes · 1h 29m · fantasy, horror, science-fictionFirst-time father Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.…
#15 The Wicker Man (1973) · ★ 7.3 · 1,736 votes · 1h 33m · horrorPolice sergeant Neil Howie is called to an island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. The investigation is further complicated as Howie’s relig…
#16 Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) · ★ 7.3 · 1,130 votes · 1h 47m · drama, horrorA real estate agent leaves behind his beautiful wife to go to Transylvania to visit the mysterious Count Dracula and formalize the purchase of a property in Wismar.…
#17 House (1977) · ★ 7.3 · 823 votes · 1h 28m · comedy, fantasy, horrorHoping to find a sense of connection to her late mother, Gorgeous takes a trip with her friends to visit her aunt's ancestral house in the countryside. The girls soon discover that…
#18 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) · ★ 7.2 · 1,389 votes · 1h 56m · horror, science-fictionThe residents of San Francisco are becoming drone-like shadows of their former selves, and as the phenomenon spreads, two Department of Health workers uncover the horrifying truth.…
#19 Frenzy (1972) · ★ 7.1 · 1,061 votes · 1h 56m · thriller, horror, crimeLondon is terrorized by a vicious sex killer known as The Necktie Murderer. Following the brutal slaying of his ex-wife, down-on-his-luck Richard Blaney is suspected by the police…
#20 The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) · ★ 7.1 · 862 votes · 1h 36m · thriller, horror, mysteryAn American writer living in Rome witnesses an attempted murder that is connected to an ongoing killing spree in the city and conducts his own investigation, despite him and his gi…
#21 Black Christmas (1974) · ★ 7.0 · 983 votes · 1h 38m · thriller, horror, crimeAs the residents of the Pi Kappa Sigma sorority house prepare for the festive season, a stranger begins to harass them with a series of obscene phone calls.…
#22 Don't Look Now (1973) · ★ 6.9 · 1,230 votes · 1h 50m · thriller, drama, horrorWhile grieving a terrible loss, a married couple meet two mysterious sisters, one of whom gives them a message sent from the afterlife.…
#23 The Brood (1979) · ★ 6.7 · 846 votes · 1h 32m · horror, science-fictionA man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist's therapy techniques on his institutionalised wife, amidst a series of brutal murders.…
#24 Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) · ★ 6.7 · 697 votes · 1h 31m · horrorAfter an abandoned boat sails into New York harbor with a zombie aboard, a reporter teams up with the daughter of the boat's missing captain to investigate the island where he was…
#25 Phantasm (1979) · ★ 6.5 · 814 votes · 1h 29m · horror, science-fictionA 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.…
#26 Damien - Omen II (1978) · ★ 6.4 · 851 votes · 1h 47m · thriller, horrorSince the sudden and suspicious deaths of his parents, young Damien has been in the charge of his wealthy aunt and uncle and enrolled in a military school. Widely feared to be the…
#27 Shivers (1975) · ★ 6.4 · 737 votes · 1h 28m · horror, science-fictionThe residents of a suburban high-rise apartment building are infected by parasites that turn them into mindless nymphomaniac fiends.…
#28 Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1976) · ★ 6.3 · 2,376 votes · 1h 57m · drama, horror, warFour corrupted fascist libertines round up 9 teenage boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of sadistic physical, mental and sexual torture.…
#29 The Amityville Horror (1979) · ★ 6.3 · 1,073 votes · 1h 58m · horrorGeorge Lutz, his wife Kathy, and their three children have just moved into a beautiful, and improbably cheap, Victorian mansion nestled in the sleepy coastal town of Amityville, Lo…
#30 King Kong (1976) · ★ 6.3 · 952 votes · 2h 14m · fantasy, adventure, horrorAn oil company expedition disturbs the peace of a giant ape and brings him back to New York to exploit him.…
#31 Rabid (1977) · ★ 6.3 · 583 votes · 1h 31m · horror, science-fictionA young woman develops a taste for human blood after experimental plastic surgery, and her victims turn into bloodthirsty zombies, leading into a city-wide epidemic.…
#32 The Hills Have Eyes (1977) · ★ 6.2 · 1,038 votes · 1h 30m · thriller, horrorTaking an ill-advised detour en-route to California, the Carter family soon run into trouble when their RV breaks down in the middle of the desert. Stranded, they find themselves a…
#33 Jaws 2 (1978) · ★ 6.0 · 2,194 votes · 1h 57m · thriller, horrorPolice chief Brody must protect the citizens of Amity after a second monstrous shark begins terrorizing the waters.…
#34 The Last House on the Left (1972) · ★ 6.0 · 814 votes · 1h 24m · thriller, horror, crimeOn the eve of her 17th birthday, Mari and friend Phyllis set off from her family home to attend a rock concert in the city. Attempting to score some drugs on the way, the pair run…
#35 Piranha (1978) · ★ 6.0 · 780 votes · 1h 34m · comedy, horror, science-fictionWhen flesh-eating piranhas are accidentally released into a summer resort's rivers, the guests become their next meal.…
#36 Day of the Woman (1978) · ★ 6.0 · 751 votes · 1h 41m · thriller, drama, horrorA young, beautiful career woman rents a backwoods cabin to write her first novel. Attacked by a group of local lowlifes and left for dead, she devises a horrific plan to inflict re…
#37 Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) · ★ 4.5 · 821 votes · 1h 58m · thriller, drama, horrorBizarre nightmares plague Regan MacNeil four years after her possession and exorcism. Has the demon returned? And if so, can the combined faith and knowledge of a Vatican investiga…