The 25 Creepiest Scenes from 1970s Horror Films. In this series of horror-themed articles, we’ll be reviewing the creepiest scenes from horror films by decade. These articles will showcase some of the subtle (yet terrifying) scares that gave you nightmares as a child and goosebumps as an adult.
Our first article will cover a decade that was unparalleled when it came to slow burn scenes of horror – the 1970s. This decade mastered the art of creepiness with slow motion terror, background danger and odd horror scenes that would make your nightmares that much scarier. The 1970s were truly a unique decade where horror was often implied and not reliant on jump scares. So, join us on our journey as we look at the 25 Creepiest Scenes from 1970s horror from The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) to Salem’s Lot (1979).
After we get through each decade, we’ll have a cumulative article with the 25 Creepiest Horror Scenes of All Time and you can find each article below as we post them over the following months:
- The 25 Creepiest Scenes from 1970s Horror Films
- The 25 Creepiest Scenes from 1980s Horror Films
- The 25 Creepiest Scenes from 1990s Horror Films
- The 25 Creepiest Scenes from 2000s Horror Films
- The 25 Creepiest Scenes from 2010s Horror Films
- The 25 Creepiest Scenes from 2020s Horror Films
- The 25 Creepiest Horror Scenes of All Time
For our rankings we’re going to use some criteria to help define and refine our list. First, what is considered ‘creepy’ is often subjective. What might be creepy to some people might come off as boring to others. For the list we’ve compiled, we narrowed down the Top 25 scenes that genuinely scared the older members of KBZ (when they were younger) to scenes that still had that creepiness factor 50 years later for younger viewers (who often saw the specific scene for the first time).
Second, we also had to differentiate between creepy horror and shock horror. A film such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) is an example we’ll use here. While the film is a horror classic and inarguably one of the scariest films of all time, the film relies more on ‘shock’ horror than any subtle scenes of creepiness. As a result, the film did not make our Top 25 list though it doesn’t make the film any less frightening.
Third, we also had to exclude films that had a creepy scene that would spoil the plot. These tended to be films where there was a creepy reveal towards the end of the film. Don’t Look Now (1973) has one of the creepiest scenes of the 1970s, but to show the scene would ruin the film for people who haven’t seen it yet. So, we unfortunately cannot list it here though we highly recommend you check it out if you’re a fan of the other films that made our list.
Fourth, we’re going to try something new with our lists by embedding BlueSky video posts of the scenes. You won’t need an account with BlueSky to view the videos, but there are some great film and horror buffs you can follow on the social network on hashtag feeds MovieSky and FilmSky. You can also follow KBZ Film on BlueSky here.
And fifth, we had to follow our rule for all of KBZ’s film listings where we only list films that have a 4.0/10 or higher rating.
As we mentioned above, we’ll be releasing additional lists of the creepiest horror films from various decade over the next few months. You can refer to our schedule above or subscribe to our newsletter to get updated as we release each new article.
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The 25 Creepiest Scenes from 1970s Horror Films
#25 The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Scene: The children perform a Black Mass
#24 Neither the Sea Nor the Sand (1972) Where to Stream / Buy: YouTube
Scene: Hugh appears ‘different’
#23 The Manitou (1978) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Scene: The spirit appears
#22 Messiah of Evil (1973) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Scene: The theater
#21 Sssssss (1973) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Scene: The snake man
#20 Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Scene: The spiders’ victim
#19 The Shout (1978) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Scene: Crossley performs ‘the shout’
#18 Deep Red (1975) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Scene: The mechanical doll appears
#17 The Legacy (1978) Where to Stream / Buy: YouTube
Scene: Maria becomes trapped in the swimming pool
#16 Bug (1975) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Scene: The bug in the kitchen
#15 The Sentinel (1977) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Scene: Father Halliran confronts Michael
#14 Shivers (1975) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Scene: A parasite exits Nick’s mouth
#13 Demon Seed (1977) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Scene: Proteus begins experiments on Susan
#12 The Brood (1979) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Scene: The brood appear in Candice’s school
#11 House (1977) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Scene: Fantasy finds Mac’s head
