In honor of reaching the pivotal milestone of making 40 trips around the sun, I look back on the macabre tales that demonstrates why the 1970s—the decenium of my birth—was the greatest decade for film in horror, and the subsequent strange and unusual subgenres.

The 1970s was a decade known for many things. Marginalized groups continued to fight for equality and protestors continued their anti-war movement stemmed from the 1960s. President Richard Nixon was reelected and then resigned following the infamous Watergate scandal, and the great divide between liberalism and conservatism continued expansion.

Environmentalism became mainstream, and modern computing and gaming was born. This era birthed the hippie movement out of the counterculture (fight me but there’s a reason I separate the two). There was a rise in cults and serial killing sprees, and was considered a violent time in our country. It ushered in an era of spiritual narcissism through the New Age and the Western bastardization of sacred Eastern practices by way of “positive orientalism.”

Generation X kids (not all but enough to be a pattern) that were “raised” by returning vets during this era, got unleashed upon them their own personal boogeyman, thanks in part to receiving no mental health support from the country they served. Oh, and let's not forget about the saturation of macrame. So. Much. Macrame.

The 1970s also gave us the greatest era of music in my humble opinion. Disco and funk was on the rise, and punk continued to thrive. Rock music took center stage in America, as well as the subgenres of glam, hard, progressive and heavy metal.

Ok, so what in the hell does any of this have to do with horror films? Well, art imitates life, right? Perhaps as a result of the pivotal shifts occurring in American culture—Americans experimented with expressions of personal liberation through art of all forms. This might explain why the horror films created during this decade that historians refer to as a "pivot of change" were foreboding and rich in atmosphere, visually enticing and repelling, and expressed taboo-themes intentionally designed to force viewers to confront the uncomfortable—changing the course of horror films and unleashing subgenres within the category never-before seen.

Whether you're wanting to stroll down nostalgia lane, or looking to discover something you've missed seeing before—the following are some of the great horror films to come out of the 1970s, rounded up for your viewing pleasure. Not all the films listed are American films, but still convey the sign of the pop-cultural times that would later gain immense cult following in the States.