A Timeline of Horror Movies-- Part 5: Giant Bug, "Here's Johnny," Scary TVs

1979--  "ALIEN"--  Alone in outer space with a huge ugly, smart buglike creature which only desires to kill you or plant another xenamorph inside you?  That's horror.  Nowhere to go.  When that thing burst out of the guy's stomach, another really frightening, gross moment.

1980--  "THE SHINING"  "Friday the 13th"--  Two sides of horror.  "The Shining" is a psychological thriller, a haunting in a hotel that chronicles a man's descent into madness.  "Here's Johnny!!"

There's no psychology to "Friday the 13th."  It was all physical as the mother of Jason Vorhees killed any of the campers that happened to trespass in Camp Crystal Lake.  Another good reason teens ought not to have sex.

1982--  "POLTERGEIST"--  The haunted house film was represented a few years earlier in 1979 with "The Amityville Horror," but "Poltergeist," with its cute little girl, scary clown and voices in the TV took the subgenre to near heights.

And when that huge skull came out of the closet, had my friend's wife been sitting next to me, she would have been repaid for "Halloween."  That REALLY SCARED me.

Scared to Death.  --DaCootScream