50 Unmissable Horror Movies
21. The Wicker Man (1973)

10 Best The Wicker Man Moments
By the time he passed away in 2015, Sir Christopher Lee had been in a lot of films. He was Dracula, he was Count Dooku, he was Saruman… and yet when asked about the best film he had ever been in, he would always tell people it was a film about a pagan community on the island of Summerisle off the coast of Scotland; a film about a policeman who was sent to investigate the disappearance of a girl under mysterious circumstances. The film was, of course, The Wicker Man.
Along with 1968’s Witchfinder General and The Blood on Satan’s Claw from 1971, The Wicker Man would form the final corner of the unholy trinity of classic folk-horror.
Taking place mostly during the day, the subtle dread that a small community only a few miles away from the long arm of Christian law could be taking part in pagan rituals slowly consumes its devout Sgt Howie (Edward Woodward). Christopher Lee’s turn as Lord Summerisle is the perfect counterpart, and seeing Lee in makeup and a dress, dancing down the street of a small island town, is enough to get anyone’s hackles up.
Any folk horror film made since The Wicker Man owes it a debt. It is impossible to make a film of this type without either leaning into it, or deliberately trying to avoid it. Creepy masks, occult practices, the feeling that everyone is in on a secret that will reveal itself only when it’s too late, the horror of rurality; all of it is perfectly encapsulated in director Robin Hardy’s 1973 classic. Most horrifying of all is that folk horror is the horror of folk, of people – this is a film about faith, and specifically the power and the weakness of blind belief. KJ
22. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

In the early 1970s, director Tobe Hooper needed an idea for a film. At a department store, he absent-mindedly picked up a chainsaw, and noted that everyone around him, very subtly, moved away. A seed formed in the back of his mind. Drawing upon the real-life case of cannibal Ed Gein (a figure that Psycho had previously drawn on, and one that The Silence of the Lambs would also use later), he crafted a tale of five teenagers journeying into the depths of Texas, only to come across a clan of cannibals. One of them, as their favourite killing tool, wields a chainsaw, and has a mask made of leathery human skin.
Shooting The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) was reportedly horrific. Temperatures reached 100 degrees, there was very little money, and the production worked seven days per week. Food rotted in the heat, costumes were unwashed and reused, and lead actress Marilyn Burns screamed for days on end. The resulting film had a grimy power impossible to deny. From the opening crawl suggesting the film was based on a true story (a novelty marketing ploy at the time), to the shot of Gunnar Hansen’s Leatherface dancing in a mad craze with his chainsaw held aloft, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is designed not only to make us wince, but to feel dirty both inside and out.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was shot with surprisingly little blood in the hope that it would secure the film a better age rating classification. It didn’t help. The MPAA rated the film R, and it was either severely cut or entirely banned in many other countries. Several cinemas pulled it entirely due to complaints.
One of two films from that year (along with Bob Clark’s Black Christmas) that would help to set the eventual slasher subgenre going along nicely, it gave the world one of the first true slasher icons in Leatherface. The film inspired Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and was an influence on Alien (1979). Sometimes cinema needs to be subtle and poetic and beautiful, and other times it should hit you like a sledgehammer to the head. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is certainly the latter KJ.
Recommended for you: Texas Chainsaw Massacre Movies Ranked
23. Jaws (1975)

A great white shark terrorises the small island community of Amity as Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), ichthyologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), and local shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw), join forces to track it down. It is a film about fear of the unknown, about the conceitedness of humankind, and the awesome power of nature. The ripples it left in the film industry can still be felt today.
Jaws shot Steven Spielberg into the stratosphere. It is widely believed to be the first-ever summer blockbuster, even holding the Guinness World Record for this achievement. The cultural importance of Jaws was instant and enduring – its impact goes beyond the movie industry, sparking an almost universal fear of water and a vilification of sharks. Shark populations shrunk as hunting increased, and attitudes towards the creatures were worsened tenfold in the aftermath of Jaws’ release. The fable that Jaws was to become taught us the culture myths about sharks that are still being discredited by experts today.
Its influence is clear in many films, not only the shark films that followed, but in all thrillers, horrors, and tentpole studio films. Its now-famous build of tension, the anticipation that goes with not seeing the monster, and the frequent return to humour, have become staples of the contemporary Hollywood movie. The entire film industry changed their distribution patterns and marketing campaigns thanks to the success of Jaws; a film frightening and awe-inspiring in its time, but everlasting in its impact upon the horror genre and cinema at large. ML
Recommended for you: Six Decades of Spielberg
24. Carrie (1976)

In director Brian De Palma’s 1976 supernatural horror film Carrie, based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a repressed and lonely teenager who endures relentless bullying at school due to her strict religious upbringing by her fanatical mother, Margaret (Piper Laurie). When Carrie gets her period in gym class and doesn’t understand what’s happening, she becomes the target of increased harassment by her schoolmates, with the popular and ruthless Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen) leading the charge along with Sue Snell (Amy Irving). The onset of Carrie’s period triggers another change inside her, and she soon discovers she has telekinetic powers. As Carrie experiments with her newfound strength, Sue gets her boyfriend Tommy Ross (William Katt) to ask Carrie to prom in an attempt to make amends for her actions. But Chris and her boyfriend Billy (John Travolta) have other plans for Carrie, and it is not long before destruction reigns and Carrie is pushed too far.
“Carrie” was the first Stephen King novel to be adapted to the screen and is often considered one of the best adaptations of his works. Hazy, dreamlike, and cloaked in gothic imagery, Carrie is still as atmospheric and unnerving as it was when it was initially released almost more than four decades ago. Through visual prowess and a mastery of suspense (along with Pino Donaggio’s nail-biting score), director Brian De Palma ensures that Carrie transcends a bare-bones script by Lawrence D. Cohen to become an iconic and ever-influential horror staple.
Carrie is among the few horror films to be recognized by the Oscars, with Sissy Spacek earning a Best Actress nomination for her performance and Piper Laurie winning Best Supporting Actress at the 49th Academy Awards. The climactic prom scene remains one of the most recognizable images in pop culture, and the use of supernatural powers as a metaphor for puberty, especially in teenage girls, can be seen in other horror films like Ginger Snaps (2000) and Jennifer’s Body (2009). MR
Recommended for you: Original vs Remake: Carrie vs Carrie
25. Suspiria (1977)

Coming off the back of multiple successful giallo films, such as The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) and Deep Red (1975), filmmaker Dario Argento was a known commodity in Italy. Dubbed ‘The Italian Hitchcock’, he stepped away from the straight giallo into something much more surreal for his 1977 release Suspiria. Blending the now-traditional gloved murderer with a vibrant, dreamlike world, Suspiria tells of Jessica Harper’s Suzie, an American studying at a respected dance academy in Europe, unknowingly walking into a psychedelic series of murders.
Suspiria isn’t so much a plotted film as an experience with a vague storyline as an excuse to be creative. Some of the most lavish sets ever put to film appear here, with colours splashed with frantic abandon across the props and scenery. The lighting, perhaps the most famous aspect of the film, is deliberately trippy, designed to give you the feeling of floating through the film on some very powerful substances. Goblin’s iconic score adds to the confusion. Throw in some death sequences which have the ability to transcend violence and become somewhat beautiful, and you have a film that blurs the line between outright horror and transcendent art.
The combination of its visual style and soundtrack have made it a staple influence on many filmmakers and musicians. Multiple rock and heavy metal bands are named after the film, and feature samples or extracts from Goblin’s soundtrack. Guillermo Del Toro directed one of his early short films, Geometria, specifically to play around with the red and blue lighting that Suspiria made use of. It started Argento off on a trilogy of films known as ‘The Three Mothers’, and gained a worthy remake in 2018 by Luca Guadagnino. You don’t understand Suspiria; you feel it. KJ
Nice work everyone. Next year: 50 MORE unmissable horror films.
What a list, truly something for every horror movie lovers’ taste!