The ’70s were a groundbreaking decade for horror and film in general, with franchises such as Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre debuting their first installments. Movies were adapting as the ’70s progressed and were starting to push to see what the audience could handle and what they wanted on the big screen.
Possessions, serial-killers, sharks, and alien life forms took over movie theaters and created mass amounts of hype for the horror genre. As the ’70s came to an end, and moved into the ’80s, filmmakers were more sure of themselves, as they got ready to unleash an entirely new decade of horror films, taking inspiration from the past 10 years. Let’s take a look at the top grossing horror films from each year of the 1970s, ranging from just over a million, to more than four hundred million.
1970 – House of Dark Shadows – $1.83 Million
It seems as though 1970 wasn’t that great of a year for horror, but the movie that came out on top for that year was House of Dark Shadows. This movie is far from scary and giving the audience a fright, but it’s still a solid vampire movie that deserves the recognition it got, not only from the television show, Dark Shadows, but also the cult status it has achieved.
The film follows a vampire named Barnabas Collins, which is a wickedly cool name for a vampire, and his search for a cure, so he can love a human. House of Dark Shadows is a very fun and otherwise lighthearted horror movie that the people in 1970 seemed to dig.
1971 – Willard – $14.5 Million
Willard is a horror film you’ll have to avoid if you have a problem with rodents and can’t handle a horde of rats on your screen, because although corny at times, it gets a bit gruesome. Willard is an awkward man who is mistreated by just about everyone in his life, until he starts to befriend a group of rats. As time goes on, the group of rats grows and grows until Willard has his own little army, and what he does with them is truly sinister. It’s a revenge tale that turns into a massacre as Willard’s fate is decided by the rats he once was friends with, and it’s a bitter end.
1972 – Deliverance – $46.12 Million
This film might not be for everyone, considering the content and act of rape that’s shown during a particularly long scene, but Deliverance brought in quite the crown in 1972, gaining over 46 million. A group of men decides that they’re going to go on a canoe trip in the deep South of Georgia, and run into some less than friendly mountain men on their journey.
The group of four gets separated into pairs, and Ed and Bobby get the worst of it, as Ed is tied to a tree and Bobby is sexually assaulted by one of the mountain men. As the movie goes on, several murders are committed, and you’ll be on edge as you wait to see how this plays out.
1973 – The Exorcist – $441 Million
There are a handful of horror movies that hold so much influence that years after their release, they’re still being referenced and parodied. The Exorcist is one of those films. When it was released, audiences were weary about the contents of the film, and some believed that what they were witnessing was based on a real event, and the exorcism drew a huge audience in to witness this horror.
There are so many great parts of this movie that stick with you long after you watch it, especially if you first saw this movie as a young kid. Everyone remembers where they were when Regan’s head did a 180, or when she spit the pea soup out; or even worse, when she crab-walked down the stairs. People like being scared, and The Exorcist pulled in $441 million at all box offices.
1974 – Young Frankenstein – $86.2 Million
This comedy-horror is far from giving the audience an actual fright, as other entries on this list did, and is instead a parody of other Frankenstein movies that came from the ’30s. It was written by both Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks, with Wilder starring as the main character, and the film is somewhat of a comfort movie, as it was filmed in black and white and pulled references from the previous movies.
When Frankenstein inherits property in Transylvania, he meets Igor, and the two quickly become a well-matched pair, as they take jabs at the original source material while still keeping it close enough to the story everyone knows.
1975 – Jaws – $476.51 Million
The year is 1975 and Steven Spielberg just released the biggest movie of the summer and the film that would change how people viewed sharks forever. The story was fresh and real enough to scare but compel the audiences to fill the theaters and watch this classic horror film. The characters were great and showed realistic reactions to Jaws; their fear was depicted wonderfully on the big screen.
Jaws managed to pull in more than $476 million, making it the highest profit on this list. You can only imagine that beach attendance was low that summer following the release of this huge film.
1976 – The Omen – $60 Million
When children are the main focus of a horror movie, it can make it that much scarier. Even more so when the child is the killer! In The Omen, the plot follows a young boy who’s adopted into a nice family that can’t necessarily have children of their own. Soon after the child starts living with them, strange and dark things start to happen, and in this case, the parents aren’t nearly as concerned as they should be.
As the film progresses, you’ll realize that not only is Damien extremely creepy, but he’s the antichrist! The ending shot of The Omen is classic and chill-inducing, leaving the audience with a slight sense of dread.
1977 – Exorcist II: The Heretic – $30 Million
People loved the first The Exorcist, as shown by how well it did at the box office, but the sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic, didn’t do nearly as well, and wasn’t fully accepted by critics and audiences alike. We catch up with Regan, the girl who was tragically possessed in the first one, four years later, and how she’s dealing with the aftermath of her exorcism.
Not only that, but the audience is following a priest who’s investigating the death of Father Lankester Merrin, who was killed by Regan in the original. Even though it doesn’t match up to the original, this sequel is still fun and creepy and worth the watch.
1978 – Jaws 2 – $208.9 Million
It’s always hard to tell how horror sequels are going to do at the box office, especially when the first film made such an impact. However, people wanted more Jaws, and they were eager to see what kind of havoc the shark was going to create. Jaws 2 was so celebrated because of how original the story was and how likable the characters were. Jaws 2 didn’t make as much as the original, which would have been extremely impressive, but it still managed to make a splash with $208.9 million.
1979 – Alien – $203 Million
To end this list, in 1979, Alien was released and quickly became one of the most talked about films featuring extraterrestrials. It took the concept of aliens and made it absolutely terrifying, twisting what you previously thought about the space creatures into something fifty times worse. One of the most well-known scenes in any horror or sci-fi movie is when the chestburster explodes through Mitch’s chest, and instantly kills him, leaving the audience in shock as to what they just witnessed.
Sigourney Weaver is everything we want in an action-packed movie such as this, and she quickly became a model for final girls. Alien is another horror movie where its influence has pushed on for decades and is still capable of pulling jump scares, even after your 10th watch.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
