October is horror month and to help celebrate a few of us have decided to sit down each week and discuss our favorite horror films. This week we touch on films from the 1970s.
Jeff: In the spirit of Halloween, we’re here to talk horror, specifically 70s horror. And if we’re going to talk essential 70s horror, shall we address the elephant in the room right off the bat? You know what I’m talking about. Don’t even pretend you don’t.
Don: What’s that, The Exorcist?
Jeff: Eeeeasy there. The Exorcist is great and deserves mention, but there can be only one. The movie that started the modern era of horror. Chris knows of what I speak.
Chris: Halloween, of course.
Jeff: Yeah, I think it sent the entire horror genre on a trajectory that it followed for at least the next decade. And there are still many remnants of Halloween’s impact today. Plus, is there really a better movie to watch on Halloween? Or that many better horror movies, period? That mask. That music. That creeping dread. The way Carpenter made The Shape linger in nearly every frame.
Don: Ah, for some reason, I always regard Halloween as an 80s movie, I forget it came out in the late 70s. Halloween was really something special, and resonates with me every holiday season in October.
Chris: Not just late 1970s. 1978, where all good things were born. Like me.
Jeff: Ha, well, that’s still up for debate. I forgot to mention the last 20 minutes of the film, which take it from a slowly building sense of dread to a roller coaster cat-and-mouse chase between our heroes and villain. I swear, when I was a kid, I would watch the climax of that film over and over, fast-forwarding to it after the first few times I viewed Halloween in its entirety. It was a quick thrill ride for me.
Don: Jeff, you really hit every nail on the head for Halloween. That music, specifically, is still some of the most memorable music to me, alongside classic jingles like the original Super Mario Bros. music.
Jeff: Carpenter’s score is simply amazing. It gives Halloween its personality. It added a layer of atmosphere to a film that was already drenched in it.
Chris: Halloween is fantastic in nearly every regard, and I don’t think we get the great slasher films of the 1980s without it. That said, there are some other great 1970s horror classics out there, and maybe we should touch on some of them. Like maybe the one Don mentioned previously.
Jeff: THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU!!!
Don: I may have mentioned it, but one of the few classics I could never really get into is The Exorcist. I’m not sure if it was the slow build, or what, but every time I tried to watch the movie, I would just grow bored. I don’t like admitting that, either, mind you, as it is rather sad.
Jeff: I think there are very powerful, terrifying moments in The Exorcist. But as a kid, I had a problem with its slow pace and maturity. It grew on me with subsequent viewings as I got older. But some scenes were just scary as hell to watch as a kid.
Chris: It certainly has a slow pace and it is more mature than most of the other films we are probably going to talk about but I think it bears mentioning. So many films tried to emulate its success and there is something amazingly creepy about Linda Blair’s performance in that film. I personally find it to be utterly terrifying at points, maybe it was my Catholic upbringing, but after watching that film, I believed.
Jeff: I agree, Catholics are terrifying. It’s interesting to me that we (or at least Don and I) had problems with its pacing when Halloween is pretty deliberately paced. I think I had trouble tackling the subject matter as a kid, whereas I understood the bogeyman.
Don: As I was mentioning the slow pace above, it occurred to me what Jeff just said. It is kind of strange, because Halloween, a slow-build movie, is one of my favorite movies. Period. Another favorite in the genre for me has that same sort of pacing, The Omen. I loved that movie growing up, but it has that same sort of issue. Yet, it doesn’t bother me, and I actually appreciate the pacing in that movie.
Chris: Now that is a movie I just could never get behind. While you guys found The Exorcist slow and maybe a bit boring as a kid, The Omen was that movie for me. Snooze-arama.
Jeff: I fucking love The Omen, always have. I don’t know what it is about The Exorcist. I think that I had trouble relating to the adult themes and serious drama in it as a kid. But like I said, I really like it now. As for The Omen, how dare you!?!?!
Chris: To be fair, when I first watched it, it was on network TV and I just found it to be a poor man’s Exorcist. I like the concept, I just couldn’t handle the rather cheesy acting in it. Which is funny because I like cheesy acting in many things.
Don: The acting wasn’t the best, I can’t argue with you there, but I think it was the subject matter that grasped me more. The anti-Christ and whatnot, is a theme I was more familiar with. Also, it was another movie that just had gripping music at all the right moments.
Chris: I mean, what the hell do I know, it spawned what, three sequels and a remake? People obviously liked it.
Jeff: I didn’t even know there was a remake, but I actually remember mildly enjoying the sequels. The Omen had some great scenes. The animals going crazy in the zoo. The nanny telling Damien that she was killing herself for him. Stuff like that.
Don: The cross coming down after being struck by lightning and piercing the priest. Epic.
Jeff: Ah, the memories. Okay, I have one for you. One which I didn’t view until I was an adult, but I think it is an essential 70s horror film for any serious fan/student of the genre. The Wicker Man.
Don: I’m out on this one. I’ve heard of it, but haven’t seen it.
Chris: My fondest memory of The Wicker Man is Nicolas Cage screaming about the bees. I sadly haven’t seen either the original or its supposedly awful remake.
Jeff: A single tear just slipped out of the corner of my eye. You guys are missing out. It’s sooooo weird, but for the most part plays out as a mystery about a missing girl. This cop guy goes to this island to find her, and very weird things happen. And the end is just horrifying. I don’t know how else to sell it, but it is essential.
Chris: I’ll give it a go. I’ll watch just about anything and October is a great month to sample unseen horror.
Don: Back to essential horror though, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? I liked the original, albeit being rather short and poor quality, but think it’s still a staple to the genre.
Jeff: That was the second movie that came to my mind when we decided on 70s horror, right behind Halloween. I don’t think it’s poor quality at all. The aesthetics of the film reflect the feeling it’s trying to give you, and I think it’s intentional. Hooper is a capable director, and even with a low budget, he could have made it feel more polished. The cinematography and (almost non-existent) music add to the sickening feeling that movie gives you, which is quite an accomplishment considering it’s not extremely gory.
Don: By poor quality, I should clarify; I just remember the audio being terrible quality, but it was from the 70s. Though I don’t remember having that issue with other movies from that era. *shrug* But you make a good point.
Chris: Regardless of audio/visual quality, I think it goes without saying Tobe Hooper’s classic is one of the defining moments for the genre. Michael Myers might be the icon to really come out of the 70s but Leatherface was the one that kind of paved his way.
Don: Oh, certainly. Despite what I mentioned, I think it is still a gem, and spawned one of my favorite remakes ever. That chase scene at the end was just pure intensity.
Chris: I think you are in good company in regards to liking the remake. But as for the original, I think what is so amazing about it, is that, as Jeff said, its not really that gory but it invokes this great sense of terror and people come away from watching it, sickened and thinking it was this gigantic gore fest.
Jeff: I remember seeing it for the first time at my uncle’s, and the opening credits are playing, and they are showing these dug-up bodies in a graveyard. Just quick glimpses of them, accompanied by this grating sound effect. I was eating a hot dog, and I put it down and didn’t finish it.
Chris: Sound design is so important and can make or break a horror film.
Jeff: Think of when we first see Leatherface, and he grabs that guy and drags him into the that room and slams the metal door. The sound effect in that scene makes it absolutely terrifying.
Chris: I think, if we are going to talk the all-time greats in the genre from the 1970s, we can’t leave without discussing, Dawn of the Dead. Still considered by many to be one of the best, if not the best, zombie film ever made.
Don: Night of the Living Dead is my personal favorite, and Romero’s following movies tend to blend together for me, but I guess I have neglected to watch that one for one reason or another. Certainly not on purpose, because I love a good zombie movie.
Chris: More than any other of Romero’s works, I think Dawn of the Dead works to really show off his thoughts on society in general. The entire mall sequence works as a damning piece of social commentary on consumerism and while maybe not terrifying from a horror standpoint, it is so from social one. That said, I think I side with you on Night of the Living Dead being my favorite of his works.
Don: Night of the Living Dead was just so..real. It lacked the overly cheesy-cheesiness of the onslaught of zombie movies that followed it. Night of the Living Dead made me really fear zombies at a young age, whereas every movie that followed just made me chuckle a little (excluding Dawn of the Dead, of course, as I have only seen the remake and not the original).
Jeff: Dawn of the Dead is by far my favorite Romero film. The social commentary is as smart as anything in GTA, especially regarding consumerism. I cared about all the characters in that film, loved many individual moments (chopper blade, the ending, the biker attack), the makeup work by Savini is incredible, and there was one other thing: there are fun, light-hearted moments that get you closer to the characters. One of my childhood fantasies was running amok in a mall, utilizing (stealing) everything in it, and we get that in Dawn of the Dead. There are some really fun sequences with the characters just exploring the mall.
Chris: That explains why you like Dead Rising so much. Anyway, Don, you should take some time to see it because it is really one not to be missed for fans of the zombie sub-genre. However, we are going on and on, and we probably could all night and into tomorrow because there are so many great 70s horror films but I think we should touch on one or two more and close this out. And I think Carrie needs to be one of them.
Jeff: Thank you. I almost forgot. Another one that doesn’t really feel like a horror film throughout most of it but instead a serious high school drama about a girl who gets viciously bullied. I was trying to think of a word to describe it earlier tonight, and the one that stuck out to me was: elegant.
Chris: Elegant is a good word for it. Sissy Spacek plays such a tortured soul in the film and her character is bullied by not just her classmates but also by her mother. It is downright creepy in many aspects and often times hard to watch because of the subject matter. But the payoff is so, so sweet.
Jeff: I love that film, and I think it’s probably DePalma’s best. I think it still holds up very well, but I’m interested to see the remake, strangely enough. I like the cast in the remake, even if I’m not sure Moretz looks like a Carrie.
Don: Sadly, I only remember bits of Carrie. I saw it once years ago, and haven’t since.
Chris: The remake looks so good, but Don, you should make time for the original, it is well worth it. Do we have any others? I feel we are leaving so much out, Alien, The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left, Jaws…
Jeff: Alien was the last one I felt like we needed to touch on. Another amazing film that holds up so well. When you think about it, the 70s were a really powerful decade for the genre with all these classics. The 80s still has my heart, and many more favorite 80s horror flicks instantly spring to mind for me, but after talking about these films from the 70s, I’m beginning to think that decade had some of the scariest movies ever made. But as for Alien…
Chris: Well it is one of my favorites. I love a good sci-fi tale and add horror into the mix and you’ve got me hooked. I mean, it had nearly everything one would want from a horror film, a great monster, dark and moody lighting, creepy music and as a bonus it came with some damn fine performances from the entire cast.
Jeff: Not to mention unsurpassed set and creature design. Dear Lord. And Sigourney Weaver running around in her undies. Chris, I think you described it once to me as a haunted house movie in space, which I think I would agree with. Or at least a slasher movie in space, but with much better production values than most slasher movies from any decade.
Don: I really have nothing constructive to add to that little back and forth between you two. I always preferred Predator (argument for another day), and never gave Alien much of a chance. Though I should, and I realize that before you guys banish me from Critically Sane. 🙂
Jeff: That’s just… horrifying.
Chris: Very, I think we need to sit Don down, A Clockwork Orange style, and make him watch some of these classics he’s missed.
Don: I did just recently watch the Indiana Jones movies…
Jeff: There’s no redeeming you at this point. Chris, strap him down!
Chris: I will, but we need him next week for 80s horror so we might have to let him go at some point.
Jeff: You know what? I know he liked Halloween III, so we can let him live. Until next week.
Chris: Jesus, there is going to be a five paragraph back and forth on that film isn’t there. I may take a nap then.
Don: YES!
Jeff: It’s almost time, kids! Get your masks!
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