Horror in the 1970s

The decade in context

Many of the genre's standard templates were set in the 1970s. Independent filmmakers working with small budgets found that rough textures and real locations could unsettle audiences more than polished studio sets.

Big studios also took horror seriously, producing prestige releases that earned awards attention and long theatrical runs. The decade ends with two films that defined, respectively, the slasher and the science fiction monster movie.

After the rating system arrived in late 1968, American horror could be openly adult, and the 1970s took advantage. Studios no longer had to submit scripts for approval to the Production Code Administration. Instead films were rated after the fact, and an R rating let a picture show violence and disturbing themes to older audiences. The result was one of the most productive and most argued-over periods in the genre, in which independent filmmakers and major studios were both trying out what could be shown and what viewers would pay to see.

The decade's most talked-about studio release was The Exorcist, directed by William Friedkin and released by Warner Bros. on December 26, 1973, from William Peter Blatty's 1971 novel and screenplay. The final cost reached roughly $12 million, much higher than the first estimate. It earned about $193 million in its original run, with lifetime figures higher after re-releases. Reviews were mixed, but audiences lined up in winter weather, and there were reports of viewers fainting or leaving the theater ill. It received ten Academy Award nominations, the first for a horror film in the Best Picture category, and won two: Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound. Several cities tried to ban it or keep children out. See The Exorcist.

At the other end of the budget scale was The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which premiered in Austin on October 11, 1974. Tobe Hooper directed, and he co-wrote the script with Kim Henkel. It was shot in the heat of a Texas summer, with temperatures reported as high as 110 degrees Fahrenheit, with crews working long days in an unventilated farmhouse. Estimates of its cost run to just under $140,000. The MPAA first assigned it an X, and after cuts it received an R. It was banned for periods in several countries, including the United Kingdom, where it was not certified until 1999 when it passed uncut. Over time it earned the status of a landmark, and the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 2024. See The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the franchise hub.

Canada produced a precursor to the slasher in the same year. Bob Clark's Black Christmas was shot in Toronto in spring 1974 on a budget of about $686,000 and opened in the Toronto area on October 11, 1974. Warner Bros. released it in the United States in 1975 under the title Silent Night, Evil Night before restoring the original name. It is considered one of the earliest slasher films, and John Carpenter's Halloween was reportedly inspired in part by a suggestion Clark made about what a sequel to it might be. The film is part of a Canadian story that also includes the work of David Cronenberg, covered in the Canada guide.

The slasher took definite shape with Halloween. John Carpenter directed from a script he wrote with Debra Hill, financed by Moustapha Akkad with a budget of about $300,000. It was shot in about 20 days in May 1978, partly with the Panaglide, an early imitation of the Steadicam, which let the camera glide through scenes without a dolly track. Carpenter composed and performed the piano theme, in a meter that made it feel off balance. The film opened in October 1978, ultimately earning about $47 million in the US and about $70 million worldwide, which made it one of the most profitable independent films ever made. It entered the National Film Registry in 2006.

Britain's story in the decade was one of transition. Hammer, the studio that had made gothic horror popular, tried adding more sexual content and modern settings in the early 1970s with films such as Dracula A.D. 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula, which performed poorly, and the company went into liquidation at the end of the decade. At the same time, other British films did something different. The Wicker Man, directed by Robin Hardy from a screenplay by Anthony Shaffer and produced by British Lion, was shot largely in the Galloway region of Scotland. It was released in early 1974 as the second feature in a double bill with Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973). It was recut and shortened, and it was left for dead commercially before becoming a cult favorite.

David Cronenberg began his run of horror features with Shivers in 1975, followed by Rabid in 1977 and The Brood in 1979. Shivers cost roughly $180,000, with the Canadian Film Development Corporation providing about $76,500, and it earned several million dollars. The money was part of a system that included a tax write-off for investors in Canadian films, which reached 100 percent in 1974. Cronenberg's films were controversial for their treatment of sex, infection and the body, and they established the idea of body horror. See David Cronenberg.

The decade ended with a science fiction film that was also a horror film. Alien, directed by Ridley Scott from a script by Dan O'Bannon, premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 24, 1979 and opened widely in the United States on June 22. The design of the creature and its environments came from the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, and the head was built by Carlo Rambaldi. The film's budget is estimated at between $8.4 and $14 million, and it grossed about $79 million in the United States. It won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and entered the National Film Registry in 2002. It introduced the The Xenomorph and made a star of Sigourney Weaver, whose Ellen Ripley became a model for the genre's survivors.

Germany had a late-decade moment too. Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) was a homage to Murnau's film, made in German and English versions with Klaus Kinski as the vampire, filmed in Delft and in what was then Czechoslovakia. It shows how the German tradition from the 1920s resurfaced in a new form, as New German Cinema looked to its own past. It is a useful pairing with Nosferatu for anyone interested in how a single story is reinterpreted by different generations.

The pattern across the decade is a shift in where horror came from. Grainy locations, handheld photography and small casts gave some films the feel of reality. Larger studios responded by supporting horror with serious budgets, prestige casting and awards campaigns. Underneath both approaches was a belief that horror could comment on contemporary life, whether the subject was family, religion, violence, technology or the body. The next decade took these ideas and multiplied them through a new medium, which changed who watched horror and how.

To explore the decade in the library, start with the films above and the pages for John Carpenter, the Alien franchise and slashers. The Movie Explorer can filter to the 1970s, and you can narrow further by country or style to see how the same decade looked from different angles. For what came next, read the 1980s guide.

Films from the 1970s