Been listening to a lot of horror podcasts, reading horror articles, and watching movies and it got me thinking; what’s the most important horror flick by decade starting with the 70s?
Not saying the best or your favorite, but what truly changed the game and innovated and created a lot of copycats in its wake.
For me, it goes like this.
70s: Halloween. I thought about the exorcist or Texas chain saw, and they have their imitators, but Halloween was the one that said horror could come to you. And it could be simple and unrelenting. In the exorcist it’s all about religion and spirituality, which can be hard for some to grasp if they don’t believe in that. It’s also a movie clearly about triumphing over evil.
Texas chain saw is simple but the horrorific things happen because our main characters leave home. Had they not been on the road then nothing bad would’ve happened to them.
Halloween says that you just chillin in your neighborhood on your own block makes you a potential victim. And that in the end, evil won’t be defeated, just slowed down a bit. But it will get you. Plus without Halloween, no Friday the 13th or the slew of other imitators like April fools day, silent night deadly night, New Years evil, etc etc
80s: This ones tough too but I’m going with A Nightmare on Elm St.
If Halloween said evil could come to your home, nightmare said it could get you in your sleep. It created the template for mashing together the mundane and the supernatural, while setting up a bad guy with character. After Freddy, every horror franchise wanted their own Freddy. A bad guy you could put on lunchboxes and pajamas who was sometimes a lot more interesting than the people he killed and had more personality than anyone else.
No Freddy? no pinhead or leprechaun, or Chucky. And I’m sure I’m forgetting some.
90s: Scream. I don’t even think I need to explain this one. An argument could be made for Blair witch, but scream is easily the most important of the decade and truly changed everything after it.
00s: Saw. It’s not my fav movie of the decade but it’s the most influential, most lucrative, and changed everything after it. Before Saw, horror was in a timid spot. All the scream imitators were so focused on recapturing that vibe they forgot to make it grissly and it became very WBish. Saw announced it was cool to be gory again and really visceral.
And it also had some serious commentary about how we viewed violence post Iraq and compared with the images we were getting on tv. Without Saw, no hostel, no collector, shyt no anything from that decade for the most part.
10s: I wanted to say paranormal activity but that’s acrually 09 and the more I thought about it, it’s probably a tie between insidious and the conjuring. Both ushered in the era of James wan, insidious put Blumhouse on the map, and the conjuring universe thing they’re doing is the most successful horror we’ve got going today and in quite some time. A long time.
But those are my feelings. Add on
Not saying the best or your favorite, but what truly changed the game and innovated and created a lot of copycats in its wake.
For me, it goes like this.
70s: Halloween. I thought about the exorcist or Texas chain saw, and they have their imitators, but Halloween was the one that said horror could come to you. And it could be simple and unrelenting. In the exorcist it’s all about religion and spirituality, which can be hard for some to grasp if they don’t believe in that. It’s also a movie clearly about triumphing over evil.
Texas chain saw is simple but the horrorific things happen because our main characters leave home. Had they not been on the road then nothing bad would’ve happened to them.
Halloween says that you just chillin in your neighborhood on your own block makes you a potential victim. And that in the end, evil won’t be defeated, just slowed down a bit. But it will get you. Plus without Halloween, no Friday the 13th or the slew of other imitators like April fools day, silent night deadly night, New Years evil, etc etc
80s: This ones tough too but I’m going with A Nightmare on Elm St.
If Halloween said evil could come to your home, nightmare said it could get you in your sleep. It created the template for mashing together the mundane and the supernatural, while setting up a bad guy with character. After Freddy, every horror franchise wanted their own Freddy. A bad guy you could put on lunchboxes and pajamas who was sometimes a lot more interesting than the people he killed and had more personality than anyone else.
No Freddy? no pinhead or leprechaun, or Chucky. And I’m sure I’m forgetting some.
90s: Scream. I don’t even think I need to explain this one. An argument could be made for Blair witch, but scream is easily the most important of the decade and truly changed everything after it.
00s: Saw. It’s not my fav movie of the decade but it’s the most influential, most lucrative, and changed everything after it. Before Saw, horror was in a timid spot. All the scream imitators were so focused on recapturing that vibe they forgot to make it grissly and it became very WBish. Saw announced it was cool to be gory again and really visceral.
And it also had some serious commentary about how we viewed violence post Iraq and compared with the images we were getting on tv. Without Saw, no hostel, no collector, shyt no anything from that decade for the most part.
10s: I wanted to say paranormal activity but that’s acrually 09 and the more I thought about it, it’s probably a tie between insidious and the conjuring. Both ushered in the era of James wan, insidious put Blumhouse on the map, and the conjuring universe thing they’re doing is the most successful horror we’ve got going today and in quite some time. A long time.
But those are my feelings. Add on
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) just makes it 
for me. Salute.
, The Exorcist, Omen
, The Thing 
, Silence of the lambs
, The VVitch, The Babadook 