# What is the best horror movie of the 1970s?

> The 1970s were horror cinema's most fertile decade — raw, transgressive, and genuinely terrifying in ways slicker modern films rarely match. Which film defines the era?

*By YPB Team · Published June 1, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-horror-movie-of-the-1970s*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **The Exorcist**
   William Friedkin's 1973 terrifying landmark about the demonic possession of a young girl that defined an entire era of Hollywood horror.
2. **Jaws**
   Steven Spielberg's 1975 thrilling blockbuster about a great white shark terrorizing a beach town, widely credited with inventing the summer blockbuster.
3. **Halloween**
   John Carpenter's 1978 seminal slasher film introducing masked killer Michael Myers and establishing the modern horror template.
4. **The Texas Chain Saw Massacre**
   Tobe Hooper's raw and gritty 1974 nightmare about five friends who encounter a cannibalistic family in rural Texas.
5. **Suspiria**
   Dario Argento's 1977 visually spectacular Italian giallo about an American student uncovering a coven of witches at a German dance academy.
6. **Alien**
   Ridley Scott's 1979 claustrophobic sci-fi horror about the crew of a commercial spacecraft hunted by a lethal extraterrestrial organism.
7. **Carrie**
   Brian De Palma's 1976 Stephen King adaptation about a bullied high school girl with telekinetic powers who takes revenge on prom night.
8. **Don't Look Now**
   Nicolas Roeg's 1973 haunting psychological thriller following a grieving couple in Venice tormented by cryptic visions of their dead daughter.
9. **The Omen**
   Richard Donner's 1976 chilling supernatural horror about an American diplomat who discovers his adopted son may be the Antichrist.
10. **The Wicker Man**
   Robin Hardy's 1973 unsettling British folk horror about a devout Christian police officer investigating a missing girl on a pagan island.
11. **Phantasm**
   Don Coscarelli's 1979 dreamlike and bizarre horror about a teenage boy who uncovers a mortuary run by a supernatural grave robber.
12. **Rosemary's Baby**
   Roman Polanski's 1968 slow-burn paranoia horror — released just before the decade — about a young woman fearing a Satanic conspiracy around her pregnancy.

Tags: movies, 70s, horror, classics