The Best 22 Horror Movie Trailers from the 70s & 80s

While working on my mashup for Digital Storytelling (ds106) I found working through trailers on YouTube was the easiest way to come up with ideas (which I must admit was pretty difficult). I stumbled upon a 4-part series that collects the so-called “best” 22 horror movie trailers from the 70s and 80. And if you are familiar with the bava, you’ll know why I really couldn’t resist. Not only did I watch them through (and I’m glad to say the only two films I haven’t seen are Shock Waves (1977) and The Beyond (1981)), but I asked myself which of the following twenty two film trailers are actually scary. And so I picked what I think were the five scariest trailers of the lot (in order): 1) Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) Halloween 3) The Omen 4) Zombie 5) Evil Dead.

Fact is, most of these trailers weren’t really scary at all (though The Exorcist is downright high art), but the truly great horror films (namely Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween) are downright horrifying. I mean these trailers probably couldn’t be made today, they give you pretty much everything but the gore. And Evil Dead gives you that, kinda wild. Not to mention that both Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre may be two of the legitimately scariest films ever made.

Here are a list of the trailers in this four part collection:

• Salem’s Lot (1979)
• Zombie 2 (1979)
• Suspiria (1977)
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
• The Fog (1980)
• The Omen (1976)
• Friday the 13th (1980)
• Amityville Horror (1979)
• Evil Dead (1981)
• The Exorcist (1973)
• The Beyond (1981)
• The Dawn of the Dead (1978)
• Shock Waves (1977)
• Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
• Hellraiser (1987)
• Creepshow 2 (1987)
• Demons (1985)
• Halloween (1978)
• The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
• Re-Animator (1985)
• Rabid (1977)
• The Car (1977)

And here are the coming attractions: