70's horror can't touch it.

IMO some of the genuinly scariest horror movies were made in the 70's. Having said that I watched The Conjuring the other day which was released last year. For a modern horror film it was pretty good. Well made and some original camera work. Scared me enough to wake up a few times in the middle of the night looking around my room when I heard a noise LOL.

I don't know what it is about films like the Excercist, Carrie, and the Amityville Horror which somehow gets under my skin. Maybe its the look of the movie, the clothes worn in that period or the disturbing soundtrack but horror directors back then knew what they were doing. Its not like they were working with the budget directors work with today or the special effects but whatever they had they used to great effect. Movies like Don't look now a real atmospheric horror are somewhat disturbing and shows the direction of film makers back then. They never used cheap scare tactics that modern directors use like in all the lame Paranormal activity movies which are apparently scary

I think the 70's decade hit the nail on the head. They wanted the audience to be scared long after watching the movies.

The 20s and 30s weren't bad decades for horror either. Was freaked out by quite a few of the 70s ones (apart from Amityville Horror - a bit disappointing apart from the "get out!" scene and the caption "the last night" or whatever it was) but that's probably more to being a gullible kid whereas now I'm more likely to be looking for holes in the plot. Did develop a bit of a phobia about Japanese kids after the spate of Japanese horrors around the turn of the millennium. You're being a bit harsh on Paranormal Activity, the first one was quite good.

Watched 'I spit on your grave' the other day. made in 1978. Not sure if it's a horror but was pretty good.

The Texas Chainsaw massacre gets to me, as it was apparently based on a true story.

first film to generally scare me was in the eighties ,not a film but series . after growing up with Christopher lee dracula in hammer house of horror films (yawn) then suddenly come across Stephens king salams lot . frightened my teen life to death . seen it recently tho not the same

Salem's Lot certainly did the trick in its time.  The Master's first appearance knocked the stuffing out of me.

I'm sure its a lot tamer today if watched.

But I think the real beauty of 70s/80s horror was the Steven King sense of a gothic America.  Normal neighbourhoods or cute little towns suddenly ravished by gruesome horror.  That same theme that came all the way from Washington Irvine and his Sleepy Hollow.

There is a sense of community/family/school friendship warmth that was portrayed so much better in the 70s and 80s than now and therefore the shock of something horrific breaking into something cozy is a sensation I feel is lost in modern horror to a great extent.

Salem's lot seems so dated now........good then though.............

Hated the Amityville horror................

But Jaws, Suspiria, Halloween, Black christmas,The Bird with the crystal plummage, Dawn of the dead, Deviation, Alien, The omen, Escalofrio, ..................

Mean that ONETWO is finally right about something.

Ahhh, those cheesy, tacky 60's Hammer Horror films, all made in the same house and often involving sets that moved more than the actors. But they were wonderful if you were a nipper at that time, and was watching them on the grainy old black and white TV on a Friday night after everybody had gone to bed.

Christopher Lee as Dracula. Excellent, and getting him topped by a cross made out of a pair of candlesticks. Inspired. Peter Cushing made a far classier Van Helsing than Hugh Jackman.

Quatermass movies. More sci-fi than horror but still a cracking good watch.

One movie from the 60's though, that seems to have been largely ignored from this era, was The Fearless Vampire Killers starring and directed by Roman Polanski, with Alfie Bass and Sharon Tate (who married Polanski after they became an item whilst making the film)

The film didn't know whether it was meant to be a comedy or a horror or a cross between the two, but somehow managed to be all three. I still chuckle when I think of Alfie Bass as a Jewish bloodsucker being confronted by Polanski holding a crucifix and, brushing it aside, exclaiming "Oi vay, did you ever pick the wrong vampire."

Magic.

The Fourth Lion wrote:

One movie from the 60's though, that seems to have been largely ignored from this era, was The Fearless Vampire Killers starring and directed by Roman Polanski, with Alfie Bass and Sharon Tate (who married Polanski after they became an item whilst making the film)

The film didn't know whether it was meant to be a comedy or a horror or a cross between the two, but somehow managed to be all three.  I still chuckle when I think of Alfie Bass as a Jewish bloodsucker being confronted by Polanski holding a crucifix and, brushing it aside, exclaiming  "Oi vay, did you ever pick the wrong vampire."

Magic.

A beautiful film. Kinda like a Sergio Leone Western only with snow instead of hot sun and vampires instead of gunslingers. Beautiful fantasy snowland...that really only the 60s cinematographers seem to have been able to evoke.
As you say.... I watched it as a boy many years ago and found it magical.