Halloween (of course)
Alien
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Black Christmas
Suspiria
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The Hills Have Eyes
The Sentinel
Burnt Offerings
Jaws
Alice, Sweet Alice
Carrie
Let's Scare Jessica to Death
Messiah of Evil
The House of the Laughing Windows
Long Weekend
Raw Meat
Phantasm
Jungle Holocaust
Zombi 2
Dawn of the Dead
Torso
Bay of Blood
Tourist Trap
Race with the Devil
I Spit On Your Grave
Halloween and Black Christmas.
I also like Alien and Jaws, but I'm not sure I would classify those as horror.
I personally would classify both as horror. Both were meant to scare audiences. Two of the best the genre has to offer, in fact.
I would add:
- The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971)
- Willard (1971)
- The Last House on the Left (1972)
- What Have You Done to Solange? (1972)
- The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)
- Ben (1972)
- Sssssss (1973)
- Deranged: Confessions of a Necrophile (1974)
- The Stepford Wives (1975)
- Deep Red (1975)
- Schizo (1976)
- Death Weekend (1976)
- Rabid (1977)
- Last House on the Beach (1978)
- Summer of Fear (1978)
- The Brood (1979)
- When a Stranger Calls (1979)
Guilty Pleasures:
- Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972)
- Squirm (1976)
- Creature from Black Lake (1976)
- Blood Stalkers (1976)
- Orca (1977)
- Piranha (1978)
[[[- Willard (1971)]]]
& it works due to Borgnine and especially Davison in the title role. He stretches out here and that stretch makes this character carry the film. He's just like a rat...left alone he's docile, introverted, etc. Forced into a corner he's just like the rat,,,lashes out, fights for his life and leaves a path of mayhem in his wake.
This movie stands proud. Fine citation, AZ.
---------
The remake uses the recording of "Ben" by Jackson & in a most ingenious way. This is not for cat lovers...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3iZOQfV0fo
[[[- When a Stranger Calls (1979)]]]
This is the goods. The psycho carries it, drives it, ends it. The murder weapon he employs is his bare hands. We're told this.
He's caught and institutionalized. They got a sound tape of him in the asylum that is played to great effect. It's frightening.
Charles Durning is fine here as the detective/the original case turned private detective to hunt and liquidate this psycho after he escapes the asylum.
"I'm going to use lock needles." --- he informs his friend Ron O'Neal/first res-ponder the night of the children's murder, now a big shot police administrator---advises him, after closing the door to his office. "Take your time, do it right."
The final denouement is something else again.
Sorry I stepped on your citation, AZ. This film lives in my heart.
This citation, your citation, AZ, gets a Direct Hit.
Bless your memory. Bless-your-heart.
Exorcist
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