6. Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
With a screenplay by John Carpenter, Eyes of Laura Mars is a wonderfully entertaining, at times very creepy, film which borders between horror and thriller. Starring Faye Dunaway as a photographer working in the fashion world who finds herself all of a sudden capable of witnessing murders from the perspective of the killer, it’s one of those genuinely intriguing stories which pulls you straight in and has you guessing the whole way through.
Cleverly directed by Irvin Kershner, Eyes of Laura Mars is enhanced by its cast and the superb performances they all give. Dunaway is in her 70s peak here, delivering a strong and sturdy effort as Laura, the woman trying to unravel the mystery of her unexpected abilities. On the side, we are treated to multi-faceted and often very lively portrayals by the likes of Raul Julia and Brad Dourif, while Tommy Lee Jones is in rare love interest mode, though even he might not be what he seems to be.
Though a hit at the time, today Eyes of Laura Mars is not quite as well well known as it should be, though it has a healthy cult following. Highly original, one wonders what the movie might have been like had Carpenter directed it himself, but as it is the film hits all the right notes and leaves the viewer satisfied, if not a little distressed at times, by what they have just seen. A real 70s gem.
7. The Brood (1979)
David Cronenberg made some of the finest body horror films of the 70s and 80s, As much as these films were in the field of horror, much of his work also veered into thriller territory while also making some valid points about society (think Scanners and Videodrome).
The Brood, his 1979 offering, stars Oliver Reed as a radical psychotherapist named Dr Raglan, who puts his patients through a strange technique known as psychoplasmics. Samantha Eggar is a mentally unstable woman whose husband (played by Art Hindle) takes her into Reed’s treatment, who reveals some darkness from her past. While it turns out the psychoplasmics have some unexpected side effects, people start getting killed by strange asexual dwarf children, and naturally links are made between Raglan and the murders.
All of Cronenberg’s work is disturbing on some level, but The Brood is perhaps the most unsettling of all – though Rabid is hardly pleasant family fun either. Given that Cronenberg wrote and directed the film following his divorce, and there is literally no light relief or humour in any of it, you might read The Brood as a cathartic exercise for the director, while some have even read it as a meditation on parenthood and the fears of responsibility. Either way, it’s a brilliantly made, and highly unsettling, film which works as both a tense, suspenseful thriller and a horrific horror nightmare. The cast are brilliant of course, but in many ways the film belongs to Cronenberg who supplies both intellectual and aesthetic thrills.
Among Cronenberg’s least appreciated films today, The Brood is a lost gem in one of the most important filmmaking canons in cinema history. It deserves more appreciation, though it has to be said it’s certainly not for the faint-hearted.
8. The Killer Inside Me (1976)
For me, one of Stacy Keach’s strongest performances of the 1970s came with The Killer Inside Me, a buried gem directed by Burt Kennedy. Scripted by Edward Mann and Robert Chamblee from Jim Thompson’s book, the film stars Keach as Lou Ford, a popular and well liked small town sheriff who, beneath his friendly exterior, is actually a sociopathic sicko with a penchant for violence and rough sex. His public persona could not be more different to the man he really is, but after he gets involved with a local hooker (played brilliantly by Susan Tyrrell, Keach’s co star in Fat City) the truth becomes to slowly come to the foreground.
Keach gives his performance his all, a very intelligently played, complex portrayal of a man who lives a double life. As the jovial, light law-man, Keach is utterly convincing in every scene, which makes his inner darkness, which becomes more clear as the plot goes on, all the more chilling. In my view one of the great lost performances of seventies American cinema, it was another brave choice for Keach at a time when he could have easily gone for more straightforward, conventional parts.
Remade in 2010, but far less successfully in my view, this version is essential viewing for any 70s movie buff – and of course Stacy Keach fans, who gives a brooding, fearless tour de force as a man who proves, quite literally, that you never really know people like you think you do. A psychological thriller that will haunt you as much as it will intrigue.
9. All the Kind Strangers (1974)
All the Kind Strangers (1974) is one of these once lost films which now has a loyal following. Originally an ABC Movie of the Week at the end of 74, it has subsequently enjoyed a long and healthy life on home video and DVD. Oddly, it was once released on tape as Evil in the Swamp, but it’s fair to say that All the Kind Strangers is a more fitting, and let’s face it, better title.
In this instantly intriguing drama, directed by Burt Kennedy, Stacy Keach plays a photojournalist named Jimmy Wheeler. One day when out driving in his topless convertible, he picks up a young boy, out walking in the sticks with a bag of groceries. He offers to give the kid a lift home, and on their journey they start to talk. He learns the lad has no mother, which obviously makes Wheeler feel sorry for him.
When the trail to the boy’s home leads them down an increasingly muddy and traitorous path, it’s clear that something is not quite right. When the pair eventually get to the house, it’s run by seven orphans, and the one woman there is clearly being held against her will (she is played by Samantha Eggar). Wheeler now finds himself in a most unsettling house where he himself has been “adopted”, though he has no choice in the matter. When he tries to escape, the pack of wild hounds make it very clear that it won’t be an easy task.
All the Kind Strangers is a very well executed light thriller. The child actors are brilliant, instantly making you uncomfortable from the very first sight of them onwards. This is a clan who stick together and snub out anyone who doesn’t wish to go along with their rules. Eggar is wonderfully suppressed as the “mother”, while John Savage is effective as Peter, the oldest boy who is very protective of his siblings. Keach is fantastic, very much the straight forward, ordinary, relatable guy who has suddenly found himself in too deep with the weirdest family on earth.
Though obscure, the film is thankfully easy to track down these days and is definitely worth a viewing.
10. The Crazies (1973)
Just as Night of the Living Dead defined the modern zombie movie and started off decades of imitations and reimaginings of the slow moving undead scenario, The Crazies single handedly invented the highly popular panicky apocalyptic pandemic movie. Without The Crazies, there’d be none of those high paced fright fests consisting of fast moving, foamy mouthed infected fiends out to feast upon you and tear you limb from limb.
In a world without The Crazies, there’s no Rabid, no Shivers, no 28 Days Later, no Cabin Fever; the list goes on. But while Night of the Living Dead’s mighty influence is voiced time and again in both horror and mainstream circles, widely recognised by even the most casual of horror fans as the singular daddy of the zombie flick, The Crazies’ appeal is more cult, underground, and as Romero himself would have said, trollish. It might have made only a small dint of impact at the time of its release, but The Crazies is another one of Romero’s terrifying, traumatic gems.
This chilling thriller follows the premise of a plane crashing in Pennsylvania, releasing a mysterious virus which gets into the water supply (Cabin Fever anyone?) and begins to turn the town’s folk utterly mad and homicidal in their urges. Back in the early 70s, what with the Cold War and Vietnam still very much clogging up the air, The Crazies must have been a distressing film to watch. But now, a time where we are constantly on our toes waiting for the next horrifying news items of bloody terrorism and mass hysteria, it’s hardly a pleasant watch. It’s bleak, claustrophobic, and totally plausible too.
Though the 2008 remake is an enjoyable slice of horror, there is a raw urgency to Romero’s original which makes it a more harrowing experience, because quite simply at times it feels like you are watching a news flash. Brilliantly directed once again, this is both a brilliantly executed thriller and a fine example of how strong a director Romero really was.