They are...
Psycho
Night Of The Living Dead
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Each one seemed to mark a pivot point in the genre. All three highly influential. The first two are generally more highly praised than the third, yet chainsaw is my personal favorite of the three.
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I agree. For me TCM the original one is a template on how an effective horror movie should be made. No horror movie with all the gore and cgi have made me feel the dread and horror I felt as i watched this movie. A true masterpiece of filmmaking.
shareI agree, but would add Halloween to the list. No strictly "horror" film since 1978 has come close to those four. And I don't include "Silence of the Lsmbs" because I don't consider that a horror-genre film. It's really in a class by itself.
shareCabinet of Dr Caligari?
Exorcist?
Peeping Tom?
Black Christmas?
Frankenstein (James Whale)?
Of course, were also only talking English Language/silent and vaguely Hollywood.
Also :
The Shining
The Thing
What did The Thing do? Fuck all. It flopped at the box office and isn't well known to casual movie fans, it didn't influence jack shit. Oh did I mention it's a remake!! The only thing it has going for it is modern reappraisal.
A cornerstone is something impactful. Psycho and Night of the Living Dead are two great examples.
What about Frankenstein? Talk about influential
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I did sixty in five minutes once...
Agree!
Dracula and Frankenstein established a style that's still being imitated, and forever changed the public's perception of the characters. Without these two, there'd be no Mummy, Wolf Man, Bride of Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Hammer's horror films, The Munsters, Young Frankenstein, Monster Squad, Hotel Transylvania... the world would be a very different place.
For me, it seems like almost every year of the '70s has an all time classic horror movie that is still widely influential. You have The Last House on the Left, The Exorcist, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Jaws, Carrie, The Omen, Dawn of the Dead, Halloween, and The Amityville Horror. It was such a huge decade for horror movies and I don't think any other decade will ever be as important to the genre as a whole.
shareThe Amityville Horror is not worthy of being in the company of the other films you named!
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