Cinema Verité. The death-throes of the studio system.
Docu-dramas and New Age Woo conflated with UFOs, Bigfoot, The Loch Ness
Monster, the Bermuda Triangle, the pyramids, the Moth-Man, and a variety of
urban myths into a muddled roux of pseudoscience and fictionalized academic
speculation.
It was a great time for monsters. Or rather, it should have
been. Unfortunately, while the horror movies had a wealth of history and
tradition to draw on, they instead relied on quick camera cuts, shaky,
hand-held footage, and confusing storytelling to hide the fact that the mutant
bear was, in fact, only a guy in a suit, and not a very good suit, either.
There was a lot going on in the 1970’s, both at home and
abroad. Television had finally become ubiquitous in American households, and
the networks wasted no time showing everyone the horrors of the Viet Nam war,
the Manson children trials, the tragedy of the 1972 Olympics, and of course,
the Watergate investigation. People were protesting on campuses, and four of
them were killed at Kent State. The economy was in a recession and we were in
the midst of an energy crisis. Is it any wonder we needed to escape to the
movies?
Horror movies in this decade were largely reactive, and
carried a verisimilitude of realism that wasn’t quite an imitation of reportage,
but had enough leading headlines cobbled together to make it seem like the
events could have happened. All pretense of decency was abandoned, and with it
came shockingly realistic depictions of violence like what was shown (or
implied) in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The Exorcist
(1973). It’s not surprising that some of the most iconic and influential horror
movies of all time were from this decade.
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| Also known as Silent Night, Evil Night. Classy. |
5. Black Christmas (1974)
It’s Christmas time at the sorority house, and while all of
the young women are making plans for the holidays, or struggling to keep their
lives together, a faceless, unknown hulk climbs into their attic and waits… If
you’ve ever heard someone say by way of a quote, “The calls are coming from
inside the house!” here’s your movie, a blighted little suspense thriller with
all of the Christmas bells and whistles that define 70’s cinema: there is a
noticeable lack of artifice, an emphasis on ‘realism,’ and a nihilism that
would become a hallmark of Generation X’s trenchant cynicism.
This manic gem has a couple of interesting things going for
it; notably, director Bob Clark, who is today best known as the director of A
Christmas Story (1984). These two movies form the strangest bookends to
Clark’s career, especially since they share a similarly framed and shot ending.
Everyone will recognize Margot Kidder as the alcoholic loudmouth, of course, as
well as John Saxon is a what would become a string of law enforcement roles he’d
play throughout the seventies and eighties.
But what Black Christmas brings to the table is this:
it’s the start of the faceless killer stalking young co-eds. We’ve had murderers
and madmen before, but this was the first time we got to see things from the
Killer’s P.O.V. Halloween would make it famous, and Friday the 13th would
kick-start the slasher movies in earnest, but Black Christmas gets the
credit for getting there first. And while the movie has its lighter moments, it
really see-saws back and forth between genuinely funny character-driven bits of
business and crushingly depressing slice-of-life conversations. I mean, it’s
really uneven, and what does that say when you’re happy the killer shows up so
that the victims will stop talking about their sadness? If you don’t celebrate
Christmas for whatever reason, this will be your new go-to film during the
month of December.
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| The poster alone is nightmare-inducing. |
4. Tourist Trap (1979)
A friendly joy ride turns deadly as a flat tire sends Woody
to get it aired up, leaving Ellen to wait by the car. When Jerry and the girls
pull up a little later, they collect Ellen in her white summer dress and hat
(the other girls are wearing cut off jeans and tube tops) and go find Jerry. When
Jerry’s Volkswagon breaks down as well, they find they are right outside of an
old, abandoned Tourist Trap, run by Mr. Slausen. He offers them a ride up to
the museum, and offers to fix their vehicle. When the girls get impatient and
start exploring the place, that’s when they find Jerry…
You want to get weird? Let’s get weird. This is one of the
oddest and also creepiest movies you’ll ever experience, and if you hate mannequins
and killer dolls, well, then, this will trigger a panic attack. Chuck Conners
brings all of his gravitas and charm to the roll of old man Slausen, the guy
who just couldn’t catch a break. Tanya Roberts is instantly recognizable,
either from the many movies she starred in during the 1980s, or as Donna’s mom
on That 70’s Show.
Produced by Charles Band (who would later go on to direct
the Puppet Master films for Full Moon) and directed by David Schmoller
(another Full Moon alumnus), this this film gets by on sheer bombastic mannequin
action thanks to an out-of-control case of telekinesis, as the last gasp of the
New Age Unexplained Phenomenon fad petered out at the end of the decade. What a
way to go out, dancing with home-made love dolls.
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| Looks like a newspaper or a magazine story, right? That's on purpose. |
3. The Last House on the Left (1972)
A gang of murderous criminals happen upon a pair of teenage
girls (to be fair, it's the girls who stumble across the gang), whom they torture, rape, and kill. Later, their car breaks down right in
front of the home of one of the girls they butchered. This shocking, disturbing
movie has more trigger warnings than a Roy Rogers Fan Club meeting, as there is
so much to revile about this movie, starting with the whole torture/rape/kill
scenes. A truly horrific film, easily the most gruesome of the decade. This is
drive-in movie fare, grindhouse cinema verité’ and as such, is not for the
faint of heart. That sounds like a promotional line, but it’s not.
So, why is it on this list? Because it’s effective and
compellingly watching in that “from-between-the-fingers-covering-your-eyes”
kind of way. Wes Craven’s first movie (yes, that Wes Craven) is a tour-de-force
that earns its place at the table by going through hell to get there. The actors are largely unknowns and stage
veterans, and they were paid very little for the work. It was a grueling shoot,
with imprecise camera work and hand held footage to add to the ‘realism.’ And
let’s talk about that for a second. From the first minute the criminals show
up, they are written like caricatures of terrible people, more asshole than
psychopath. This trend can be seen through most films in the 1970s and 1980s.
They are unsympathetic, of course, but also unbelievable in just how completely
unrepentant and devoid of humanity they are. Only the heroin addict seems to not like what he and the
gang are doing; just not enough to put a stop to it.
It’s clear that The Last House on the Left is leaning
heavily on the reputation the Manson family murders that dominated the
conversation for several years thereafter. Their crime spree is wild, chaotic,
and ultimately pointless, and to grown-ups in the early seventies, who were
already living in a world that didn’t make much sense anymore, these man-made
monsters were exactly the kind of thing the nightly news told them was waiting
for them in the dark of the night.
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| The house talking has become a cliche of horror movies. |
2. The Amityville Horror (1979)
A man murders his family out in the boondocks of Long
Island. A year later, newlyweds James Brolin and Margot Kidder move their
family in, and even though they knew about the murders, they still seem a
little surprised when the house tells the priest to “Get Out.” Incident upon
incident piles up until all hell breaks loose and the family has to make a run
for it.
That’s the movie, and there are two reasons why it’s on this
list: first off, it was a legitimate phenomenon when it came out, thanks to the
ad campaign that intentionally blurred the line between the facts and what
constituted the phrase “based on a true story.” And second, this nutty little
mess of a movie became the template for nearly every haunted house movie that
followed, up to and including Poltergeist (1982). It manages to be scary
thanks to all of the Catholic priests wigging out, and of course, Brolin’s
descent into madness is pretty cool, too. Margot Kidder is great in the film;
it’s a nice piece of horror cinema that has been made infamous by
misinformation.
There were a lot of horror movies in the 1960s and 1970s
that were “based on true events,” which gave the filmmakers a license to swipe
from the newspapers and also make up whatever they wanted. I mean, Psycho
and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre are both based on real serial killers,
in a glancing sort of way. This was no different. The movie was based on Jay Anson’s
book The Amityville Horror, which purported to be a “true story,” as
well, and even though over the years massive chunks of the original account
have proven to be false, greatly altered, or non-existent altogether, people
still believe it to be true to this very day. The book came out during the time
that people were reading Chariots of the Gods? and other similar books
from the late New Age/Esotericism movements so you have to consider the time
and place that this occurred. The Amityville Horror has now become a
franchise, spawning a handful of sequels and remakes, all of which flogged the “true
story” angle to death. If The Exorcist was the horror movie that kicked
off the decade, then The Amityville Horror was the horror movie that
ended it.
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| None of this happens in the movie, but who cares? This poster is awesome. |
1. The Legend of Hell House (1973)
A dying millionaire named Deutsch decides to throw a lot of
money to prove the existence of life after death by having a group of strangers
investigate his new real estate purchase, a creepy mansion named the Belasco
House, which is said to be haunted beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. The group
contains a couple of psychics and a physicist, who aims to debunk the house and
chalk it up to bad electromagnetic energy. Rounding out the cheerful group is
the physicist’s wife, who has a basket full of problems including a troubled
marriage. Sounds like a nice, relaxing staycation, doesn’t it? Well, it would
be, only the place is called “Hell House,” and naturally, it’s haunted to the gills.
If that set-up sounds a lot like The Haunting (1963), well, you wouldn’t
be the first person to point it out.
However, the author of the book and the screenplay, Richard
Matheson, made sure that aside from the broad strokes of the story, i.e. a
group of people investigate a haunted house, that the two movies are vastly different.
Mostly. Matheson’s Belasco house, unlike Shirley Jackson’s Hill House, is the
real deal and makes no apologies. The scares and the screams come pretty fast
as each team member is challenged and eventually unravels (or worse). In the
end, the ghost is hoisted on his own petard as the psychic figures out they each
had a piece of the puzzle all along; it’s a novel ending, one you won’t see coming.
These modern adults, with their modern sensibilities, are
quintessential 1970’s protagonists with feet of clay. Roddy McDowall is the
guy you’ll immediately recognize as the beleaguered psychic and survivor Ben
Fischer. But it’s the physicist, played by Clive Revill, that’s the most baffling.
Oh, he believes the psychic activity, all right, but not the ghosts, you see, and he spends
the entire movie pissing everyone off as a result. The pacing is brisk, and it’s a great
haunted house movie at a time when there weren’t that many being made. The scares
are mostly of the “jump” and “scream” variety, but it’s still quite effective, thanks to the location shooting which can't help but bring to mind every Hammer horror film from the 1960s. The
Legend of Hell House is a minor classic.
