The late 1970’s through the 1990’s was an amazing time for horror movies. During this time, new movies were being released constantly, with each one adding new aspects to the genre. However, despite these movies being groundbreaking for the time, a lot of time has elapsed since then. So do these movies hold up today?
Halloween: Halloween is a simple horror movie in the best way possible. While it has a story behind it, the movie never feels like it is bogged down by it. The killer in the movie, Michael Myers, is scary and intimidating without even saying a word, and is interesting to watch. This movie is the definition of “less is more” and is absolutely still worth the watch today.
Friday the 13th: Friday the 13th is a slow burn, building up to its kills while also building tension. However, while the visuals were great for their time, now they look nothing but dated. While the story has a twist ending, it falls flat due to it not being set up properly throughout the movie. An important note when discussing this movie is that Jason Vorhees is not in this movie in a meaningful way, meaning that the killer tends to be less interesting. Overall, this movie is not worth the watch today, and skipping it to get to the second one would likely be better.
Nightmare on Elm Street: Nightmare on Elm Street is a unique take on the horror movie genre, with a large aspect of the movie being about staying awake and not falling asleep. In addition to this, much of the movie doesn’t even have Freddy Krueger appear in it. However, this movie has some very creative kills that still look amazing to this day. This movie takes itself the perfect amount seriously, with the serious aspects being juxtaposed with the humor of Freddy Krueger without it ever being too much. Overall, this movie is definitely worth the watch today.
Scream: Scream is what one would expect of a classic slasher horror movie, however it is almost a parody of itself. Throughout the movie, characters are talking about what they should do based off of horror movies. However, once past that, the movie is good in other aspects. The pacing is good if not on the slow side, the killer is interesting, and the performances are great. The ending has a nice twist that is hard to see coming, but overall a solid movie and worth a watch.
It: The classic It movie is nothing short of an amazing movie. The story is absolutely phenomenal, especially the parts of the movie revolving around the children. The movie also has a large psychological aspect to it that comes from Pennywise using the children’s fears against them. The effects in this movie are inherently cartoonish, but it works extremely well for this movie and actually looks good even today. Despite the long watch time, the movie has great pacing, without ever dragging on one thing for too long. Overall, this movie is absolutely worth watching today, especially in one sitting.
While there are a lot of classic horror movies from the 70’s to the 90’s, the ones previously mentioned are all mostly great and worth the watch. While there are many horror movies out there today, nothing quite comes close to that feeling one gets when watching older horror movies.