13 of the Most Influential Horror Films
Erin Hoyles
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Halloween (1978):
While John Carpenter may not have been the first director to make a slasher flick, he certainly was responsible for inspiring a great majority of the classic slasher films that the 80’s became famous for. The movie focuses on Michael Myers, an escaped mental patient who terrorizes a neighborhood on Halloween night. Wearing a painted white Captain Kirk mask and some nondescript fall weather clothing, this antagonist was frightening in his simplicity. The great news is that this was not the first or the last of Carpenter’s genre-changing films.
Carrie (1976):
When Carrie White’s hand erupts out of her grave at the end of this film, it changed what audiences would expect from horror movies from that moment on. Before Brian De Palma executed his iconic “final jump scare,” horror movies often ended with some type of resolution. Instead, Carrie ended with audiences jumping out of their seats and forever wondering… is she really gone? Often cited by horror fanatics as the movie that introduced them to the genre, this classic film was based on a novel by Stephen King, an equally influential horror author responsible for inspiring many in the genre.
The Last House on the Left (1972):
Wes Craven’s wonderfully delicious revenge horror is exploitation cinema at its finest. Turning horror conventions on their head, Craven successfully turned protagonist into antagonist in this graphic and shocking movie about a gang of criminals who terrorize, rape, and murder two young girls. It could have ended there, but the gang members find themselves at the home of one of their victims, and a heady revenge ensues when the family figures it out. Its low budget, almost shakey-cam-like cinematography gives it a found footage feel, and Craven set the bar for how far a horror film must go to be considered “shocking.”
