The 1970s were a golden era in horror and films ran the gamut from revenge (I Spit on Your Grave) to cults (I Drink Your Blood) to slasher (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) often reflecting the tumultuous political and social conditions of the time. With so much variety, not every release received the fanfare that it deserved. So in an effort to remedy those oversights, here are my picks for the most underrated horror films of the 70s.
When I was eight years old, my mother made the very unfortunate decision to let me watch Fatal Vision (1984), a made for television movie recounting the suspected murder of a pregnant woman and her two children by her Green Beret husband. To call the experience traumatic would be a vast understatement. Not only did I hide all the kitchen knives much to my grandmother’s chagrin, but I also made it a point to sleep under a wall of stuffed animals thinking that they’d provide the necessary protection should a family member decide to gut me in the middle of the night. My lingering psychosis aside, there is something about watching on the small screen a classically constructed horror film with clearly defined television tropes that makes the horror feel more intimate. Here is my list of the top 10 scariest, most tingle inducing made for television movies ever to air on American broadcast television.
taking horror seriously so you don't have to
