4. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Plot: A group of friends who fall innocent tortured victims to a cannibalistic family.
How it changed horror: Tobe Hooper swoops in slasher/murderer genre to what it is considered one of the greatest horrors of all cinema history. Here started another unleashed legend of sequels, remakes, a prequel, comic books and even videogames. It’s credited for the slasher elements of power tools for murder and the now famous “skin mask “. Tobe Hooper reinvented slasher horror with one of the most distinguishable characters of all time.
3. The Shining
Plot: A small family (Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd) become the caretakers on an off-season for a isolated hotel. Soon, the family becomes trapped by a recent snowstorm and Jack (Nicholson) enters slowly into madness.
How it changed horror: Stanley Kubrick has changed and influenced film in many ways but here he sets to change horror for the first time. Many film critics, viewers, fans, actors, directors and writers have praised this film for it’s heightening extraterrestrial presence. Jack Nicholson gives one of his most awarded performances that are still praised to this day. This film is gory, monumental, shocking, vibrating with horrific delight and striking to the core of horror and film.