_____V_____
11-11-2008, 09:46 PM
Welcome to Part 2 of a 5-part, decade-wise exploration of the finest Horror cinema. Last time, we did the 60's. This, and the following lists, look not just at the most acclaimed horror films of the decade, but the ones with the most impactful cultural footprint. I hope you enjoy the show, and go back to your classic DVDs with a smile on your face.
(All credit goes to the original author who wrote the initial descriptions. I put forth my choice of movies only. The Blurbs have been taken from the Stickied Top 100s and related threads.)
Ah, the disco seventies.
Afros. The Bee Gees. Bellbottoms. Watergate. The death of JRR Tolkien. Punk Rock. Feminism. Studio 54. Donna Summer. The death of Chairman Mao. David Bowie. Stephen Hawking. The Grateful Dead. All In The Family. Stephen King. Women's Lib. Lava lamps. The World Trade Centre. Happy Days. Bob Marley. Saturday Night Fever. Platform shoes. The Sex Pistols. Idi Amin. Stevie Wonder. Margaret Thatcher. Miles Davis goes electric. Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon. Nadia Comaneci. Erich Segal's Love Story. The Beatles break up. NAM war comes to a close.
After the freewheeling sixties, the seventies were mostly a period of culture regaining its balance. Creativity was balanced with consumerism as pop-culture gave birth to marketable trends. And cinema changed as the Video Cassette Recorder entered the modern home.
Even as home viewers became increasingly important, theatregoers too made themselves count: blockbusters were born. Characters like Darth Vader and Rocky Balboa became icons in their own right, popularising American cinema internationally while German directors like Wim Wenders established their own New Wave movement.
Horror cinema became a powerful genre with films like The Omen and The Exorcist. Asia rose to cinematic strengths with Bruce Lee taking the Kung-Fu genre heavily into the global mainstream.
While this very ambitious list thankfully looks only at horror films, the conflict this decade involved was deciding between massive hits and more relevant cinema, between prescient visionary filmmakers and astonishing entertainers. There's no way to make this list unanimous, and here -- in chronological order -- are ten Horror films that make us love the 70s.
01 - The Exorcist (1973)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41lS4Q0JC4L._SS500_.jpg
Projectile vomiting, spinning heads, levitating demon girl...what more could you ask for in a movie. An intense horrific experience that had people fainting in the aisles, The Exorcist tells the story of little Regan MacNeil, who had a nasty case of demon possession and wasn't quite sure where to "put" that crucifix. Father Merrin [who had dealings with this demon in the past] comes to call with "Doubting" Father Karras in tow, to drive it out.
Great movie that still holds up very well. I suggest you rush to see this one...just watch your step on those stairs. Also get the DVD version with the "spider-walk" scene...that's some freaky shit!
02 - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Zutoq-G7L._SS500_.jpg
In many ways Tobe Hooper's low-budget shocker is the most amazing and influential film in the history of American horror. This simple tale of a quintet of young people drifting through south Texas and their encounter with a cannibal family helped to set the stage for the hugely popular slasher films of the 1980s. But, beyond the film's capacity to horrify (something it achieves through intensity and an unflinching camera's eye rather than graphic effects) and the controversies that erupted surrounding its release in the US and UK, TCM is a highly intelligent look at the brutality of American capitalism and the twisted distortions of the American family in the midst of the economic stagnation of the mid-1970s.
This is one of those movies that fucked me up. I desperately wish I could go back and re-experience it for the first time. Everything about this picture oozes terror. The creepy production design to the sweaty environment to the unsettling sound design/score all enhance the very natural fear everyone should feel when faced with a human flesh-wearing psychopath with a chainsaw and his lunatic cannibal clan. Power tools have never been the same, ever since TCM hit the big screens.
03 - Jaws (1975)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BHQ%2Bn918L._SS500_.jpg
Roy Scheider plays NYC cop, Martin Brody who enters his first summer as Chief of Police on Amity Island. Everything is going 'swimmingly' until the remains of girl washes up on shore. Brody battles the town's mayor to label it a shark attack and in the mean time the body count rises. Enter - Matt Hoper (Richard Dreyfuss) and Quint (Robert Shaw), joining Brody in a 'motley crew' of a fishing carter, given the task of hunting down and killing the 'rogue' shark.
With great performances from the three actors and ambitious directing from a 26-year old Steven Spielberg, Jaws is an entertaining thriller from start to finish.
04 - The Omen (1976)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DJsMUE2rL._SS500_.jpg
A creepy, goosebump-inducing film that literally had me on the edge of my seat!
Shadowed as cheesy horror fare, The Omen has been skipped upon viewings by so many people. But, I'm here to say that The Omen is one of the few movies to ever scare me (and fear a name). It sent chills up and down my spine, and didn't give up until the credits rolled.
05 - Carrie (1976)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51dosfK38cL._SS500_.jpg
"“They’re all going to laugh at you!”
Sure high school was tough, but none of us had it as bad as young Carrie White. Made to feel insignificant by her bible-thumping mother (played deliciously by Piper Laurie) and relentlessly picked on by the cool kids in school, Carrie is the walking definition of pitiful... until she realizes she has the power to control objects with her mind. When a dream date to the prom turns into a nightmare of humiliation, Carrie snaps and uses her powers to exact revenge in vibrant DePalma color.
This is one of those rare films that truly transcends the genre and is a great piece of cinema enjoyed by old and young alike.
(Contd.)
(All credit goes to the original author who wrote the initial descriptions. I put forth my choice of movies only. The Blurbs have been taken from the Stickied Top 100s and related threads.)
Ah, the disco seventies.
Afros. The Bee Gees. Bellbottoms. Watergate. The death of JRR Tolkien. Punk Rock. Feminism. Studio 54. Donna Summer. The death of Chairman Mao. David Bowie. Stephen Hawking. The Grateful Dead. All In The Family. Stephen King. Women's Lib. Lava lamps. The World Trade Centre. Happy Days. Bob Marley. Saturday Night Fever. Platform shoes. The Sex Pistols. Idi Amin. Stevie Wonder. Margaret Thatcher. Miles Davis goes electric. Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon. Nadia Comaneci. Erich Segal's Love Story. The Beatles break up. NAM war comes to a close.
After the freewheeling sixties, the seventies were mostly a period of culture regaining its balance. Creativity was balanced with consumerism as pop-culture gave birth to marketable trends. And cinema changed as the Video Cassette Recorder entered the modern home.
Even as home viewers became increasingly important, theatregoers too made themselves count: blockbusters were born. Characters like Darth Vader and Rocky Balboa became icons in their own right, popularising American cinema internationally while German directors like Wim Wenders established their own New Wave movement.
Horror cinema became a powerful genre with films like The Omen and The Exorcist. Asia rose to cinematic strengths with Bruce Lee taking the Kung-Fu genre heavily into the global mainstream.
While this very ambitious list thankfully looks only at horror films, the conflict this decade involved was deciding between massive hits and more relevant cinema, between prescient visionary filmmakers and astonishing entertainers. There's no way to make this list unanimous, and here -- in chronological order -- are ten Horror films that make us love the 70s.
01 - The Exorcist (1973)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41lS4Q0JC4L._SS500_.jpg
Projectile vomiting, spinning heads, levitating demon girl...what more could you ask for in a movie. An intense horrific experience that had people fainting in the aisles, The Exorcist tells the story of little Regan MacNeil, who had a nasty case of demon possession and wasn't quite sure where to "put" that crucifix. Father Merrin [who had dealings with this demon in the past] comes to call with "Doubting" Father Karras in tow, to drive it out.
Great movie that still holds up very well. I suggest you rush to see this one...just watch your step on those stairs. Also get the DVD version with the "spider-walk" scene...that's some freaky shit!
02 - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Zutoq-G7L._SS500_.jpg
In many ways Tobe Hooper's low-budget shocker is the most amazing and influential film in the history of American horror. This simple tale of a quintet of young people drifting through south Texas and their encounter with a cannibal family helped to set the stage for the hugely popular slasher films of the 1980s. But, beyond the film's capacity to horrify (something it achieves through intensity and an unflinching camera's eye rather than graphic effects) and the controversies that erupted surrounding its release in the US and UK, TCM is a highly intelligent look at the brutality of American capitalism and the twisted distortions of the American family in the midst of the economic stagnation of the mid-1970s.
This is one of those movies that fucked me up. I desperately wish I could go back and re-experience it for the first time. Everything about this picture oozes terror. The creepy production design to the sweaty environment to the unsettling sound design/score all enhance the very natural fear everyone should feel when faced with a human flesh-wearing psychopath with a chainsaw and his lunatic cannibal clan. Power tools have never been the same, ever since TCM hit the big screens.
03 - Jaws (1975)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BHQ%2Bn918L._SS500_.jpg
Roy Scheider plays NYC cop, Martin Brody who enters his first summer as Chief of Police on Amity Island. Everything is going 'swimmingly' until the remains of girl washes up on shore. Brody battles the town's mayor to label it a shark attack and in the mean time the body count rises. Enter - Matt Hoper (Richard Dreyfuss) and Quint (Robert Shaw), joining Brody in a 'motley crew' of a fishing carter, given the task of hunting down and killing the 'rogue' shark.
With great performances from the three actors and ambitious directing from a 26-year old Steven Spielberg, Jaws is an entertaining thriller from start to finish.
04 - The Omen (1976)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DJsMUE2rL._SS500_.jpg
A creepy, goosebump-inducing film that literally had me on the edge of my seat!
Shadowed as cheesy horror fare, The Omen has been skipped upon viewings by so many people. But, I'm here to say that The Omen is one of the few movies to ever scare me (and fear a name). It sent chills up and down my spine, and didn't give up until the credits rolled.
05 - Carrie (1976)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51dosfK38cL._SS500_.jpg
"“They’re all going to laugh at you!”
Sure high school was tough, but none of us had it as bad as young Carrie White. Made to feel insignificant by her bible-thumping mother (played deliciously by Piper Laurie) and relentlessly picked on by the cool kids in school, Carrie is the walking definition of pitiful... until she realizes she has the power to control objects with her mind. When a dream date to the prom turns into a nightmare of humiliation, Carrie snaps and uses her powers to exact revenge in vibrant DePalma color.
This is one of those rare films that truly transcends the genre and is a great piece of cinema enjoyed by old and young alike.
(Contd.)