1970's Cult Car Race Movie Rated Best by Esqire
(Photo by United Film Distribution Company/Courtesy Everett Collection)
90 Best '70s Horror Movies
Comb your porn 'stache, put on some vinyl (records or disco boots, your choice), and smell that lead in the gasoline – we're heading back to the Me Decade with the 90 Best 1970s Horror Movies!
The '70s were a decade of upheaval for the genre, transforming horror into a legitimate vessel for awards recognition (The Exorcist) and the birth of the blockbuster (Jaws). The reign of Hammer gothic horror had its last gasp here (Vampire Circus), giving way to the whodunit sleaze of Italian giallo (Deep Red), American realism (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and grindhouse (Last House on the Left). Meanwhile, legends-in-the-making made their name off horror: Steven Spielberg (Duel), Ridley Scott (Alien), David Lynch (Eraserhead), and John Carpenter (Halloween) to name a few. The only stipulation for a movie to be considered for this list was a Fresh rating, before we sorted by a ranking formula that factors a movie's number of reviews and release year.
Now that you're keyed up, get down for some boo-gie nights as we get off on the best scary movies the 1970s offered!
80 Best 2000s Horror Movies | 140 Best 2010s Horror Movies
200 Best Horror Movies of All Time | Best Horror Movies of 2021
#95
Adjusted Score: 18954%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A frustrated pianist himself, music journalist Myles Clarkson (Alan Alda) is thrilled to interview virtuoso Duncan Ely (Curt Jurgens). Duncan,... [More]
#94
Adjusted Score: 44851%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A man (Zalman King) accused of murder tries to stop hairless people driven to kill by bad LSD in college.... [More]
#93
Adjusted Score: 60741%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The residents of a small Australian town survive by causing traffic accidents, stripping the cars and stealing the valuables. When... [More]
#92
Adjusted Score: 61463%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A hallucinating woman (Elke Sommer) flees to a mansion full of corpses and sees the devil (Telly Savalas) and other... [More]
#91
Adjusted Score: 38852%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A gay serial killer murders boys and feeds them to his fellow cannibals.... [More]
#90
Adjusted Score: 52903%
Critics Consensus: The Legend of Hell House makes up for its disappointing lack of outright scares with a top notch cast and a suitably macabre atmosphere.
Synopsis: Scientist Lionel Barrett (Clive Revill) and his wife, Ann (Gayle Hunnicutt), lead a team into the infamous Belasco House, supposedly... [More]
#89
Adjusted Score: 60549%
Critics Consensus: Jaws 2 never approaches the lingering thrills of its classic predecessor, but it's reasonably entertaining for a sequel that has no reason to exist.
Synopsis: Years after the shark attacks that left Amity Island reeling, Sheriff Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) finds new trouble lurking in... [More]
#88
Adjusted Score: 58446%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Victorian thrill-seekers kill the vampire's (Christopher Lee) helper; he seduces their daughters to get even.... [More]
#87
Adjusted Score: 55514%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A couple who inherited an old house learn they share it with small creatures determined to possess the wife's mind.... [More]
#86
Adjusted Score: 64428%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Enraged by rejection and a punk-rock band, an artist (Jimmy Laine) vents his anger on winos with a power drill.... [More]
#85
Adjusted Score: 64522%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Roger (Peter Fonda), his friend Frank (Warren Oates), and their wives (Lara Parker, Loretta Swit) are heading from San Antonio... [More]
#84
Adjusted Score: 49631%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Traveling performers take revenge against the Serbian villagers whose ancestors killed their leader 100 years ago.... [More]
#83
Adjusted Score: 55626%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A girl is kidnapped and buried alive by criminals demanding a fortune in diamonds from her father's jewelry store.... [More]
#82
Adjusted Score: 66120%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Dario Argento directs the tale of a rock musician who becomes entangled in a gruesome murder case.... [More]
#81
Adjusted Score: 64852%
Critics Consensus: Its visceral brutality is more repulsive than engrossing, but The Last House on the Left nevertheless introduces director Wes Craven as a distinctive voice in horror.
Synopsis: Teenagers Mari (Sandra Cassel) and Phyllis (Lucy Grantham) head to the city for a concert, then afterward go looking for... [More]
#80
Adjusted Score: 66005%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A bored housewife's life spins out of control after she dabbles in the occult. Written and directed by George A.... [More]
#79
Adjusted Score: 66117%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A boy (Lee Harcourt Montgomery) befriends a rat named Ben and forms an army of his rodent friends.... [More]
#78
Adjusted Score: 32574%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Furry Schlockthropus man wakes up after 20 million years and kills picnickers for their bananas.... [More]
#77
Adjusted Score: 30003%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: When Dr. Martin (Robert Powell) goes on a job interview at a British insane asylum, he learns that he must... [More]
#76
Adjusted Score: 55626%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A Victorian scientist (Peter Cushing) injects his daughter (Lorna Heilbron) with the just-add-water essence of evil.... [More]
#75
Adjusted Score: 66900%
Critics Consensus: When it's not bludgeoning the viewer with its more off-putting, cruder elements, The Hills Have Eyes wields some clever storytelling and a sly sense of dark humor.
Synopsis: Wes Craven's cult classic about cannibalistic mountain folk on the trail of stranded vacationers in the arid Southwest.... [More]
#74
Adjusted Score: 64973%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Deathly ill Count Dracula (Udo Kier) and his slimy underling, Anton (Arno Juerging), travel to Italy in search of a... [More]
#73
Adjusted Score: 33515%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A couple becomes the target of a vampires' seductions.... [More]
#72
Adjusted Score: 69696%
Critics Consensus: The Stepford Wives's inherent satire is ill-served by Bryan Forbes' stately direction, but William Goldman's script excels as a damning critique of a misogynistic society.
Synopsis: Joanna Eberhart (Katharine Ross) moves to the quiet town of Stepford with her husband (Peter Masterson) and children. The town... [More]
#71
Adjusted Score: 70346%
Critics Consensus: Love at First Bite could use some more warm-blooded barbs to liven up its undead comedy, but George Hamilton's campy charisma gives the prince of darkness some welcome pizazz.
Synopsis: When the government of Transylvania appropriates his castle, Count Dracula (George Hamilton) is obliged to relocate and decides to give... [More]
#70
Adjusted Score: 70670%
Critics Consensus: Tough and unpleasant, It's Alive throttles the viewer with its bizarre mutant baby theatrics.
Synopsis: Leaving their son, Chris (Daniel Holzman), with a family friend (William Wellman Jr.), Frank (John P. Ryan) and Lenore Davis... [More]
#69
Adjusted Score: 55915%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Maimed by bullies at a California high school, a new student (Derrel Maury) engineers acts of revenge.... [More]
#68
Adjusted Score: 61827%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: After several coeds are murdered at a college, a professor (Fabio Testi) who is involved with a student becomes a... [More]
#67
Adjusted Score: 70904%
Critics Consensus: The Crazies isn't top-shelf Romero, but its blend of genre thrills and social subtext should still be enough to satisfy discerning horror fans.
Synopsis: A nurse (Lane Carroll) and her husband (W.G. McMillan) try to get out of their infected town, but the Army... [More]
#66
Adjusted Score: 71017%
Critics Consensus: Performed with a wink and directed with wry self-awareness, Piranha is an unabashed B-movie with satirical bite.
Synopsis: Two people (Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies) unwittingly free a mad military scientist's (Kevin McCarthy) mutant fish near a summer camp... [More]
#65
Adjusted Score: 71737%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A schizophrenic (Susannah York) confuses her husband (Rene Auberjonois) with her lovers and her self.... [More]
#64
Adjusted Score: 71687%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A general (Peter Cushing) and a baron hunt a vampire named Carmilla (Ingrid Pitt) who seduces and bites their daughters.... [More]
#63
Adjusted Score: 72122%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A New York police detective (Tony Lo Bianco) ties a death rampage to a cult and its leader (Richard Lynch),... [More]
#62
Adjusted Score: 72947%
Critics Consensus: The rare slasher with enough intelligence to wind up the tension between bloody outbursts, Black Christmas offers fiendishly enjoyable holiday viewing for genre fans.
Synopsis: As winter break begins, a group of sorority sisters, including Jess (Olivia Hussey) and the often inebriated Barb (Margot Kidder),... [More]
#61
Adjusted Score: 76692%
Critics Consensus: Phantasm: Remastered adds visual clarity to the first installment in one of horror's most enduring -- and endearingly idiosyncratic -- franchises.
Synopsis: The residents of a small town have begun dying under strange circumstances, leading young Mike (Michael Baldwin) to investigate. After... [More]
#60
Adjusted Score: 74275%
Critics Consensus: Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom will strike some viewers as irredeemably depraved, but its unflinching view of human cruelty makes it impossible to ignore.
Synopsis: Four fascists kidnap young men and women and subject them to torture and perversion.... [More]
#59
Adjusted Score: 38468%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Reporter Kolchak (Darren McGavin) searches Seattle for a killer who seems to be strangling his victims every 20 years and... [More]
#58
Adjusted Score: 76458%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Favorite daughter Karen (Brooke Shields) is viciously strangled and set afire in church on the day of her First Communion,... [More]
#57
Adjusted Score: 77788%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Surgery leaves a Montreal motorcyclist (Marilyn Chambers) with a bloodsucking appendage in her armpit.... [More]
#56
Adjusted Score: 58738%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: An ancient intergalactic warrior arrives on Earth to put a stop to a demonic child's plot to reproduce Satan's next... [More]
#55
Adjusted Score: 78481%
Critics Consensus: Brian De Palma reins in his stylistic flamboyance to eerie effect in The Fury, a telekinetic slow burn that rewards patient viewers with its startling set pieces.
Synopsis: When a devious plot separates CIA agent Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) from his son, Robin (Andrew Stevens), the distraught father... [More]
#54
Adjusted Score: 66253%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A 19th-century witch hunter (Peter Cushing) cannot tell which of his twin nieces (Mary Collinson) Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas) has... [More]
#53
Adjusted Score: 79254%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Newlyweds stop at a posh French hotel on their way to England. They meet a beautiful red-lipped woman whom the... [More]
#52
Adjusted Score: 23843%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A reporter and a young woman investigate a series of child murders in a remote town.... [More]
#51
Adjusted Score: 41794%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Anger stemming from being abused as a child drives an alcoholic's daughter to kill as an adult.... [More]
#50
Adjusted Score: 81530%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Valerie (Jaroslava Schallerová), a Czechoslovakian teenager living with her grandmother, is blossoming into womanhood, but that transformation proves secondary to... [More]
#49
Adjusted Score: 82610%
Critics Consensus: The Cat O'Nine Tails is a solidly entertaining Argento outing elevated by a well-chosen cast and the director's distinctive visual style.
Synopsis: A newsman (James Franciscus) works with a blind puzzle-solver (Karl Malden) to catch a killer with mixed-up chromosomes.... [More]
#48
Adjusted Score: 71016%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Peter (John Hargreaves) and Marcia (Briony Behets), a bitter married couple teetering on the edge of divorce, take a camping... [More]
#47
Adjusted Score: 41135%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: When a Vietnam war casualty (Richard Backus) returns to his parents (John Marley, Lynn Carlin), he prowls in search of... [More]
#46
Adjusted Score: 83141%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Boston medical resident Susan Wheeler (Geneviève Bujold) becomes suspicious when her friend (Lois Chiles) is left in an irreversible coma... [More]
#45
Adjusted Score: 83489%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: After their father dies, young twin brothers Holland (Martin Udvarnoky) and Niles (Chris Udvarnoky) spend their summer playing around the... [More]
#44
Adjusted Score: 85550%
Critics Consensus: The Brood is a grotesque, squirming, hilariously shrill exploration of the bizarre and deadly side of motherhood.
Synopsis: A mad doctor (Oliver Reed) tries psychoplasmic therapy on a raging woman (Samantha Eggar) soon to be a mother.... [More]
#43
Adjusted Score: 82572%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: After several high-profile newspapers fire him for his difficult attitude, investigative journalist Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) finds a job following... [More]
#42
Adjusted Score: 26598%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A Freudian psychiatrist (Eric Porter) covers up for his patient, the homicidal daughter (Angharad Rees) of Jack the Ripper.... [More]
#41
Adjusted Score: 70590%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A young biker gang leader makes a pact with the Devil and uses it to win himself eternal life. His... [More]
#40
Adjusted Score: 85742%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Following the murder of Countess Federica Donati (Isa Miranda), an heiress possessing a beautiful piece of beachfront property, members of... [More]
#39
Adjusted Score: 53061%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Baron Frankenstein (Udo Kier) dreams of restoring Serbia to glory, so he builds male and female monsters whose children will... [More]
#38
Adjusted Score: 85827%
Critics Consensus: Shivers uses elementally effective basic ingredients to brilliant effect - and lays the profoundly unsettling foundation for director David Cronenberg's career to follow.
Synopsis: After a scientist living in a posh apartment complex slaughters a teen girl and kills himself, investigators discover that the... [More]
#37
Adjusted Score: 86321%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Corky (Anthony Hopkins), a failed magician, adopts a new ventriloquist act with an abrasive dummy named Fats, and suddenly finds... [More]
#36
Adjusted Score: 84567%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: When a wandering man named Crossley (Alan Bates) insinuates himself into the lives of British composer Anthony Fielding (John Hurt)... [More]
#35
Adjusted Score: 86438%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A cop does not realize that those responsible for several murders are the living dead.... [More]
#34
Adjusted Score: 90117%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Germs from the stab of an ancient dagger turn two lovers (Duane Jones, Marlene Clark) into immortal vampires.... [More]
#33
Adjusted Score: 88366%
Critics Consensus: Brian De Palma's subversive streak is on full display in Phantom of the Paradise, an ebullient rock opera that rhapsodizes creativity when it isn't seething with disdain for the music industry.
Synopsis: After record producer Swan (Paul Williams) steals the music of songwriter Winslow Leach (William Finley) and gives it to one... [More]
#32
Adjusted Score: 70327%
Critics Consensus: Director Tobe Hooper and a devilishly charismatic James Mason elevate this television adaptation of the Stephen King novel, injecting the vampiric tradition with fresh blood and lingering scares.
Synopsis: Based on the Stephen King novel, Ben Mears (David Soul) has returned to his hometown of Salem's Lot to write... [More]
#31
Adjusted Score: 89245%
Critics Consensus: Clever yet clearly indebted to the masters of the genre, Sisters offers an early glimpse of De Palma at his stylishly crafty peak.
Synopsis: Inquisitive journalist Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt) is horrified when she witnesses her neighbor, fashion model Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder), violently... [More]
#30
Adjusted Score: 89600%
Critics Consensus: A rough-edged thriller that lacks the precision of Polanski's best work, but makes up for it with its skillful mounting of paranoia, dread, and dark themes.
Synopsis: In Paris, isolated Eastern European émigré Trelkovsky (Roman Polanski) rents an apartment in a spooky old building whose inhabitants regard... [More]
#29
Adjusted Score: 90365%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A police inspector (Donald Pleasence) discovers that descendants of survivors of a cave-in in the early 1900s are eating London... [More]
#28
Adjusted Score: 92522%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The same woman (Karen Black) appears in three tales as a blackmailed teacher, a tormented lover and opposite sisters.... [More]
#27
Adjusted Score: 90864%
Critics Consensus: The Abominable Dr. Phibes juggles horror and humor, but under the picture's campy façade, there's genuine pathos brought poignantly to life through Price's performance.
Synopsis: In a desperate attempt to reach his ill wife, organist Anton Phibes (Vincent Price) is horrifically disfigured in a car... [More]
#26
Adjusted Score: 90625%
Critics Consensus: The Omen eschews an excess of gore in favor of ramping up the suspense -- and creates an enduring, dread-soaked horror classic along the way.
Synopsis: American diplomat Robert (Gregory Peck) adopts Damien (Harvey Stephens) when his wife, Katherine (Lee Remick), delivers a stillborn child. After... [More]
#25
Adjusted Score: 91482%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: When people in a tourist group get lost within ancient catacombs, they meet the sinister Crypt Keeper (Ralph Richardson), who... [More]
#24
Adjusted Score: 91383%
Critics Consensus: The Exorcist rides its supernatural theme to magical effect, with remarkable special effects and an eerie atmosphere, resulting in one of the scariest films of all time.
Synopsis: One of the most profitable horror movies ever made, this tale of an exorcism is based loosely on actual events.... [More]
#23
Adjusted Score: 92543%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A Scotland Yard inspector (John Bennett) learns how four tenants of a country house met macabre fates.... [More]
#22
Adjusted Score: 92458%
Critics Consensus: George A. Romero's contribution to vampire lore contains the expected gore and social satire -- but it's also surprisingly thoughtful, and boasts a whopper of a final act.
Synopsis: Young Martin (John Amplas) is entirely convinced that he is an 84-year-old blood-sucking vampire. Without fangs or mystical powers, Martin... [More]
#21
Adjusted Score: 92575%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Quiet, withdrawn 13-year-old Rynn Jacobs (Jodie Foster) lives peacefully in her home in a New England beach town. Whenever the... [More]
#20
Adjusted Score: 90398%
Critics Consensus: House is a gleefully demented collage of grand guginol guffaws and bizarre sequences.
Synopsis: In an effort to avoid spending time with her father and his creepy new lover, young Gorgeous (Kimiko Ikegami) resolves... [More]
#19
Adjusted Score: 88589%
Critics Consensus: This intelligent horror film is subtle in its thrills and chills, with an ending that is both shocking and truly memorable.
Synopsis: Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) arrives on the small Scottish island of Summerisle to investigate the report of a missing child.... [More]
#18
Adjusted Score: 62361%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A social worker (Anjanette Comer) tries to save a teen from his mother (Ruth Roman), who keeps him in diapers... [More]
#17
Adjusted Score: 92349%
Critics Consensus: Duel makes brilliant use of its simple premise, serving up rock-solid genre thrills while heralding the arrival of a generational talent behind the lens.
Synopsis: David Mann (Dennis Weaver), a mild mannered electronics salesman, is driving cross-country on a two-lane highway when he encounters an... [More]
#16
Adjusted Score: 94313%
Critics Consensus: Thanks to a smart script and documentary-style camerawork, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre achieves start-to-finish suspense, making it a classic in low-budget exploitation cinema.
Synopsis: When Sally (Marilyn Burns) hears that her grandfather's grave may have been vandalized, she and her paraplegic brother, Franklin (Paul... [More]
#15
Adjusted Score: 95463%
Critics Consensus: Deliciously campy and wonderfully funny, Theater of Blood features Vincent Price at his melodramatic best.
Synopsis: Edward Lionheart (Vincent Price) is incensed that his last season of performances in Shakespearean plays did not win him a... [More]
#14
Adjusted Score: 95494%
Critics Consensus: Combining a deadly thriller plot with the stylized violence that would become his trademark, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage marked an impressive horror debut for Dario Argento.
Synopsis: An American writer, Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante), is living in Rome with his girlfriend, Julia (Suzy Kendall). While visiting an... [More]
#13
Adjusted Score: 95928%
Critics Consensus: David Lynch's surreal Eraserhead uses detailed visuals and a creepy score to create a bizarre and disturbing look into a man's fear of parenthood.
Synopsis: Henry (John Nance) resides alone in a bleak apartment surrounded by industrial gloom. When he discovers that an earlier fling... [More]
#12
Adjusted Score: 95152%
Critics Consensus: The kinetic camerawork and brutal over-the-top gore that made Dario Argento famous is on full display, but the addition of a compelling, complex story makes Deep Red a masterpiece.
Synopsis: A psychic medium (Macha Méril) is brutally murdered, and musician Marcus Daly (David Hemmings) feels a need to solve the... [More]
#11
Adjusted Score: 96794%
Critics Consensus: One of the most compelling and entertaining zombie films ever, Dawn of the Dead perfectly blends pure horror and gore with social commentary on material society.
Synopsis: As hordes of zombies swarm over the U.S., the terrified populace tries everything in their power to escape the attack... [More]
#10
Adjusted Score: 97078%
Critics Consensus: Employing gritty camerawork and evocative sound effects, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a powerful remake that expands upon themes and ideas only lightly explored in the original.
Synopsis: This remake of the classic horror film is set in San Francisco. Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) assumes that when a... [More]
#9
Adjusted Score: 98580%
Critics Consensus: The blood pours freely in Argento's classic Suspiria, a giallo horror as grandiose and glossy as it is gory.
Synopsis: Suzy (Jessica Harper) travels to Germany to attend ballet school. When she arrives, late on a stormy night, no one... [More]
#8
Adjusted Score: 100120%
Critics Consensus: Stunning visuals from Werner Herzog and an intense portrayal of the famed bloodsucker from Klaus Kinski make this remake of Nosferatu a horror classic in its own right.
Synopsis: Jonathan Harker is sent away to Count Dracula's castle to sell him a house in Virna, where he lives. But... [More]
#7
Adjusted Score: 70477%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Oliviero is a drunk, burned-out writer who amuses himself by hosting orgies and humiliating his wife. When a number of... [More]
#6
Adjusted Score: 98538%
Critics Consensus: Carrie is a horrifying look at supernatural powers, high school cruelty, and teen angst -- and it brings us one of the most memorable and disturbing prom scenes in history.
Synopsis: In this chilling adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel, withdrawn and sensitive teen Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) faces taunting from... [More]
#5
Adjusted Score: 101009%
Critics Consensus: Made with obvious affection for the original, Young Frankenstein is a riotously silly spoof featuring a fantastic performance by Gene Wilder.
Synopsis: Respected medical lecturer Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) learns that he has inherited his infamous grandfather's estate in Transylvania. Arriving... [More]
#4
Adjusted Score: 101489%
Critics Consensus: Don't Look Now patiently builds suspense with haunting imagery and a chilling score -- causing viewers to feel Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie's grief deep within.
Synopsis: Still grieving over the accidental death of their daughter, Christine (Sharon Williams), John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura Baxter (Julie Christie)... [More]
#3
Adjusted Score: 104058%
Critics Consensus: Scary, suspenseful, and viscerally thrilling, Halloween set the standard for modern horror films.
Synopsis: On a cold Halloween night in 1963, six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister, Judith. He was... [More]
#2
Adjusted Score: 106327%
Critics Consensus: Compelling, well-crafted storytelling and a judicious sense of terror ensure Steven Spielberg's Jaws has remained a benchmark in the art of delivering modern blockbuster thrills.
Synopsis: When a young woman is killed by a shark while skinny-dipping near the New England tourist town of Amity Island,... [More]
#1
Adjusted Score: 108955%
Critics Consensus: A modern classic, Alien blends science fiction, horror and bleak poetry into a seamless whole.
Synopsis: In deep space, the crew of the commercial starship Nostromo is awakened from their cryo-sleep capsules halfway through their journey... [More]
1970's Cult Car Race Movie Rated Best by Esqire
Source: https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-1970s-horror-movies/