70s horror movie posters — The Phantom Killer from *The Town That Dreaded Sundown*. Photo: American International Pictures

Many of history’s most influential horror movies were released during the 1970s. The decade was filled with bloody exploitation fare, demonic possessions, blaxploitation flicks, monster movies, and iconic horror movie posters. In the ’70s, the movie theater industry was still a sprawling wild west of drive-ins, grindhouses, and independent complexes. These venues were not above (gasp!) showing unrated and X-rated films. Let’s take a look at some of the best 70s horror movie posters.

A consistent trend was the tremendous number of retro horror movie posters depicting women who are being threatened or assaulted. This type of poster content was common in the ‘70s and earlier. Unfortunately, and probably unintentionally, these posters helped bolster the perception in some circles that horror movies were inherently misogynistic.

Today, the genre has largely shed this stigma. Many female filmmakers make horror movies and plenty of women are fans of the genre. In any case, the posters below are illuminating depictions of the art and sensibilities of a bygone era.

The ten most terrifying 70s horror movie posters

10. Suspiria (1977)

retro horror movie posters — Produzioni Atlas Consorziate

Suspiria is an Italian movie about an American living in Germany. A naïve young ballet student enrolls in a prestigious Freiburg dance school. After a series of strange experiences, the aspiring ballerina learns the terrifying truth about the mysterious people who run the academy.

The poster does an excellent job building up mystery and hype without giving anything away. Many horror movie posters go over the top and reveal too much. This one takes the opposite tack.

9. piranha (1978)

Piranha was one of the many Jaws rip-offs that came out in the late ‘70s. A school of bloodthirsty flesh-eating fish attacks and devours the patrons of a summer resort. “Piranha” is known for its high body count and cheap special effects.

This retro horror movie poster was slightly ahead of its time. Its cartoonish style, featuring a scantily clad woman menaced by comically large piranhas with razor-sharp teeth, is akin to the artwork in many ‘80s movie posters. Piranha was followed by a sequel, Piranha II: The Spawning, which was directed by James Cameron of all people.

8. The Town That Dreaded sundown (1976)

The Town That Dreaded Sundown is based loosely on the true story of the Phantom Killer, an unidentified serial murderer who terrorized the rural town of Texarkana. The movie’s daytime scenes are mostly bland. Several awkward attempts at comic relief fall flat.

But when darkness falls, and a mysterious hooded figure goes on the prowl, the movie becomes surprisingly creepy. This is probably the only movie where a trombone is used as a murder weapon. It is also one of the few horror films in which the killer is never identified or apprehended.

The poster’s image of the Phantom Killer looming above Texarkana at dusk is an effective depiction of the killer’s omnipresence in the minds of the townsfolk.

7. Invasion of the Blood Farmers (1972)

“Invasion of the Blood Farmers” is an obscure drive-in splatter movie. It’s about crazy farmer cultists who want to use their victims’ blood to resurrect their leader. It’s safe to assume that the people who made this movie were using lots of drugs.

But the poster is memorable. A pitchfork-wielding farmer stands above a would-be victim amidst a background littered with corpses and gravestones. Who could resist a movie with a tagline like “They planted the living and harvested the dead”?

6. Dawn of the Dead (1978)

In 1978, filmmaker George Romero’s ultra-gory unrated zombie flick Dawn of the Dead played in major theaters across the United States and racked up substantial profits. The era of large homogenized theater chains had not yet commenced. A few years later, Romero’s acclaimed satire of modern consumerism would have been chopped to pieces to get an R-rating, or face certain doom at the box office.

The film features hordes of undead infiltrating a shopping mall. Malls were peaking in popularity in the ‘70s. Dawn of the Dead earned critical acclaim for satirizing shopping centers as paragons of commercialism and greed. Of course, malls are much less popular these days. Someone should do an updated version where hungry zombies invade a mall but only find abandoned stores and dead plants.

The blood-splattered head of a zombie in front of a pink sky is an unforgettable image. This poster also has one of the best taglines in all of horror: “When there is no room left in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth.”

5. Eyeball (1975)

If you thought the lady in the Piranha poster was having a tough time, check out this poor girl. Yikes. Eyeball is an Italian giallo film about a group of American tourists who are stalked by an eyeball-gouging maniac.

The red-hooded starry-eyed skeletal figure in the poster seems to be offering the eyeball to us. I don’t think we should take him up on that. A stabbing nightmare becomes a living terror!

4. Alice Sweet Alice (1976)

This poster has a nice trifecta of creepiness – a knife, a mask, and the film’s title written in blood. It fits well with the film’s eerie atmosphere.

In Alice Sweet Alice a Catholic family disintegrates after the eccentric elder daughter is falsely accused of killing her sister at communion. A mysterious figure, whose face is hidden behind the disquieting mask seen in the poster, is stalking the community.

Can Alice’s mother discover the killer’s true identity before it is too late? The film is one of the few pre–Halloween slasher movies.

3. Tourist Trap (1979)

A group of friends who discover an unusual wax museum. What starts as a mild diversion turns into a day of terror as they realize that the museum is not what it seems. Soon, they are hunted by a mysterious masked killer with telekinetic abilities.

Tourist Trap has it all – eerie wax figures, grotesque mannequins, and a telekinetic serial killer. The poster depicts a creepy figure holding a camera with a screaming girl reflected in the lenses (or is she somehow trapped inside the camera?). Neither the poster nor the film makes much sense, but they are certainly entertaining.

2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is about a family of cannibals from, you guessed it, Texas. This iconic horror movie poster is an immortal classic of grindhouse cinema.

Leatherface, the film’s infamous chainsaw-wielding villain, is on the verge of dismembering a victim. The famous tagline, “Who will survive and what will be left of them,” is featured prominently. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre kickstarted a convoluted long-running franchise of sequels, prequels, and remakes.

1. Halloween (1978)

iconic horror movie posters — Compass International Pictures

Halloween is the best out of all the great 70s horror movie posters. The famous knife/jack-o-lantern combo is iconic and unforgettable. The black background and the knife glint add extra atmosphere.

After he inexplicably stabs his sister to death on Halloween 1963, six-year-old Michael Myers is remanded to a mental institution. Exactly fifteen years later, the now-grown Myers escapes from the institution and returns to his hometown for another rampage on, as the tag line says, “the night HE came home.”

Halloween is one of the most influential horror movies in history and kicked off a huge franchise. The poster was undoubtedly one of the major elements in the film’s success.