Most people tend to agree that the 70's and the 80's were the Golden Age of Horror Cinema, while anything before that could be considered Classical instead. In these decades, the genre saw enormous amounts of quantity, but fortunately also a dozen amount of quality pictures.
Some of the greatest horror films to be released both critically and commercially include the often labeled first blockbuster Jaws(1975), the scariest movie ever The Exorcist(1973), the slasher in space Alien(1979), Kubrick's superior adaptation The Shining(1980) and the underrated The Thing(1982), amongst several others.
The slasher sub-genre in particular rose up through spectacular amounts of which I would not dare to guess how many were made and released in this era. Having already mentioned the three most famous serial killers in The Reigning Horror Icons of the 80's, these of course include Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. An early and personal favorite of mine however is Black Christmas(1974).
Gore-fests were also very well presented in various storylines, including Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell's The Evil Dead(1981)and Evil Dead II(1987),sci-fi zombie flick Re-Animator(1985), B-movie Bad Taste(1987), Romero's Dawn of the Dead(1978) and Day of the Dead(1985), extreme violence Cannibal Holocaust(1980) and sado-masochistic Hellraiser(1987) amongst others.
Experimental and supernatural horrors were also established throughout the Golden Age, including obviously Eraserhead(1977), the creepy The Entity(1981), body horror Videodrome(1983), beautiful Suspiria(1977), the underrated Bad Ronald(1974), the ultra violent The Last House on the Left(1972), the bizarre Phantasm(1979) and actually plenty more.
Truly, most of these were made before I was born, and yet, most of my favorite horror movies come from these two decades. There are so many notable ones to see once you have become a fan that it sometimes really feels like there are always hidden gems to discover for the 70's and the 80's.
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