The Craft of Writing Horror: The Horror Film List
The 1960’s and 1970’s
1960: 13 Ghosts
1960: Black Sunday
1960: Eyes Without a Face
1960: The Fall of the House of Usher
1960: The Little Shop of Horrors
1960: Peeping Tom
1960: Psycho
1960: Village of the Damned
1961: The Innocents
1962: Carnival of Souls
1962: Mondo Cane
1962: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane
1963: At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul
1963: The Birds
1963: Black Sabbath
1963: Blood Feast
1963: The Haunting
1964: Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte
1964: Kwaidan
1964: Two Thousand Maniacs
1965: Dr Terror’s House of Horrors
1965: Repulsion
1968: The Rape of the Vampire
1968: Night of the Living Dead
1968: Rosemary’s Baby
1968: Spider Baby
1968: Witchfinder General
1971: The Abominable Dr. Phibes
1971: Twitch of the Death Nerve
1971: Vampyros Lesbos
1972: Blacula
1973: The Exorcist
1972: The Last House on the Left
1972: The Man from Deep River
1973: Sisters
1973: The Wicker Man
1974: Black Christmas
1974: Deathdream
1974: It’s Alive
1974: Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
1974: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
1975: Jaws
1975: The Rocky Horror Picture Show
1975: Shivers1975: The Stepford Wives
1976: Carrie
1976: The Omen
1977: The Hills Have Eyes
1977: Suspiria
1978: Dawn of the Dead
1978: Faces of Death
1978: The Fury
1978: Halloween
1978: I Spit on Your Grave
1979: Alien
1979: The Amityville Horror
1979: Phantasm
1979: When a Stranger Calls
Next: The 1980’s and 1990’s
The Craft of Writing: Why Strong Female Characters Matter (And Why Most Writers Still Get Them Wrong)
The Craft of Writing: Beyond the Heroine — Writing Nuanced Female Antagonists
John Risner
John Morgan Risner is a screenwriter, novelist, and story analyst, and the founder of Screen Writer Ink. With over a decade of experience teaching screenwriting and filmmaking at the university level, he has helped writers develop stronger stories through a focus on character, structure, and cinematic storytelling. His work spans multiple genres, including thriller, horror, and mystery, with an emphasis on character-driven narratives. He is also a film historian with a deep knowledge of classic and modern cinema, including the James Bond films and novels. Through Screen Writer Ink, he provides writers with practical, experience-based insight into the craft of storytelling—helping them move beyond theory and write with clarity, purpose, and control.
