The Best Made-for-TV Horror Movies

The 1970s and ’80s were fertile ground for made-for-broadcast-TV horror movies, featuring famous directors in the making, launch pads for new series, and one of the best-adapted novels of America’s most popular literary bogeymen. Here are 10 (well, 11) of the best.

 10. TIE: The Day After (ABC, 1983); Threads (BBC, 1984)

The Day After (Uploaded to YouTube by Hollywood Land)

There’s no conceivable way to make a made-for-TV horror movie list without including two of the most traumatizing tales to ever hit the tube. The Day After and Threads both realistically dealt with the aftermath of a nuclear exchange between East and West when Cold War tensions were especially high. Bucking the normal broadcast conventions against graphic body horror, both films went all in on presenting the horrific effects of radiation burns and sickness. Threads pushed things a bit further for the theater of the mind, hitting audiences with the implied, but not shown, image of what a newborn might look like after its mother lived through months of fallout. The films remain two gut-punches that are so sizeable, monsters are almost a relief.

9. The Midnight Hour (ABC, 1985)

The Midnight Hour (Uploaded to YouTube by Gen X TV Memoires)

Jack Bender’s has directed many episodes of classic TV, such as The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Alias, Felicity, Beverly Hills 90210, and 36 episodes of Lost, including the series finale. Among all of that greatness rests a dusty gem with a hardcore horror cult following. The Midnight Hour is a made-for-TV comedic horror film with a heavy emphasis on the music of the 1960s; it additionally features one song by The Smiths (“How Soon Is Now?,” which became a horror staple) and an original number, “Get Dead.” The movie’s unique tone combines music, witchcraft, zombies, vampires, friendly 1950s ghost cheerleaders, and teen comedy. It’s not to everyone’s taste, but it’s definitely an early indication that Bender was capable of making fantasy elements work on screen.

8. Gargoyles (CBS, 1972)

Gargoyles (Uploaded to YouTube by Groovy Movies)

The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies ran 90-minute made-for-TV films from 1971 to 1974. The constant churn allowed room for multiple genres, including horror. It marked the debut of budding special effects and make-up genius Stan Winston, and he and his teammates collected the 1973 Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Makeup. The movie depicts people stumbling across a hidden tribe of the titular creatures in New Mexico and the chaos that follows. Building a mythology that includes a larger winged and horned gargoyle as king, the movie also draws loose connections between how humans treated the monsters in comparison (not favorably) to how white people treated the indigenous people of the area, with much of the conflict instigated by a researcher removing a sacred skull. The look of the piece is pretty incredible for a 1972 TV budget, and Winston and squad outdid themselves on the creature designs.

7. The Night Strangler (ABC, 1973)

The Night Strangler (Uploaded to YouTube by Spindrift Productions)

The sequel to the TV film that comes in at #5 on our list, The Night Strangler continues the adventures of Carl Kolchak, intrepid reporter who just can’t stop stumbling across supernatural cases. The first film, The Night Stalker, was based on a then-yet-unpublished novel by Jeff Rice. Horror master Richard Matheson wrote the screenplay for both The Night Stalker and this original follow-up, while Rice wrote the novelization for this sequel. Set in Seattle, the story follows Kolchak as he tracks down a super-strong strangler who leaves bits of rotting flesh behind. The success of the two TV films would lead to a short-lived but fondly remembered Kolchak: The Night Stalker TV series.

6. Someone’s Watching Me! (NBC, 1978)

A clip from Someone’s Watching Me! (Uploaded to YouTube by Scream Factory TV)

To say that 1978 was a big year for writer-director John Carpenter would be a bit of an understatement. He wrote the made-for-TV film Zuma Beach and the theatrical film Eyes of Laura Mars while also releasing our #6 made-for-TV movie and a small-budget theatrical film called . . . Halloween. Someone’s Watching Me! featured Lauren Hutton and Adrienne Barbeau (whom Carpenter would marry the following year and cast in his films The Fog and Escape from New York). A high-tension exercise in urban paranoia that follows a TV producer dealing with a stalker, Someone’s Watching Me! deploys some of the devices (clever use of shadows, a character’s slow realization they’re being watched) that would send Carpenter into the suspense stratosphere.

5. The Night Stalker (ABC, 1972)

The Night Stalker (Uploaded to YouTube by Spindrift Productions)

The Night Stalker, the predecessor to our #7 entry, has long been praised as one of TV’s finest horror films. Produced by Dan Curtis, creator of Dark Shadows, the movie depicts reporter Carl Kolchak investigating murders that lead him to one inexorable conclusion: The killer is a vampire. Though vampires would soon become part of the modern entertainment world, this film predates ‘Salem’s Lot and Interview with the Vampire by three and four years, respectively. Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, pointed to the film as a massive influence on his own series. As Kolchak, Darren McGavin essays a perfect synthesis of cynical journalist forced to become a believer by the evidence of his own eyes. And actor Barry Atwater is as terrifying as TV would allow as vampire Janos Skorzeny (a name that the Fox TV series Werewolf would cheekily steal for its own villain in the 1980s).

4. Dark Night of the Scarecrow (CBS, 1981)

Dark Night of the Scarecrow (Uploaded to YouTube by YouTube Movies & TV)

Based on a script by J.D. Feigelson, Dark Night of the Scarecrow was directed by Frank De Felitta, best known as the author of resurrection thriller Audrey Rose and the grueling ghost-assault film The Entity. A bit of a horror spin on Of Mice and Men, the story traces the events stemming from the lynching of a mentally challenged man (Bubba) who is falsely accused of a assaulting the little girl who was his only friend. Bubba tries to hide in a scarecrow disguise, but is murdered by four townsmen. Not long after, a scarecrow begins meting out supernatural vengeance. Incredibly well-shot and acted, the film featured Larry Drake as Bubba and the always reliable Charles Durning as the primary villain, Otis P. Hazelrigg. The little girl, Marylee, was played by Tonya Crowe, best known as Olivia Cunningham through a decade of Knot’s Landing and its reunion mini-series.

3. Duel (ABC, 1971)

Duel trailer (Uploaded to YouTube by Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers)

Duel achieved a rare distinction shortly after its television airing; it was jumped up to a theatrical release. This might have had a bit to do with the skill of its director, a young up-and-comer named Steven Spielberg. Spielberg, directing from a Richard Matheson screenplay based on his own short story (yes, big 1970s for him, too), puts together a fast-moving, incredibly effective thriller that has Dennis Weaver’s motorist pursued by a mostly unseen tanker truck driver. A Swiss watch of suspense, Duel keeps you on the edge of your seat for almost its entire runtime. There’s been debate over whether this falls in action or thriller or horror, but it definitely has scares and is a most excellent indicator that this Spielberg guy might have the goods.

2. Salem’s Lot (CBS, 1979)

Salem’s Lot (Uploaded to YouTube by YouTube Movies & TV)

Picking the top two came down to one major factor: nightmare fuel. And, wow, it is extremely clear that untold millions were traumatized by “Ralphie Glick at the window” from Tobe Hooper’s mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot. King came up with the idea of his novel when he was teaching Dracula in an English class and mused about what might happen if the Count moved to a small town in America. For the mini-series, Hooper assembled some top-notch talent, including David Soul as Ben Mears, James Mason as the diabolical Straker, Bonnie Bedelia as Susan Norton, and Lance Kerwin as pubescent monster-fighter Mark Petrie. Austrian actor Reggie Nalder cut a memorable figure (in scant minutes of screen time) as master vampire Kurt Barlow. Writer Paul Monash deftly adapted the complex novel into a successful adaptation while Hooper and company pushed the bounds of what could effectively done on television. Remarkably, this still largely holds up in the very crowded field of King adaptations.

1. Trilogy of Terror (ABC, 1975)

Trilogy of Terror (Uploaded to YouTube by DDF: Reel Films)

Directed by Dan Curtis (yep, him again) from three short stories by, you guessed it, Richard Matheson, Trilogy of Terror takes the unusual approach of casting Karen Black as the lead in each of its three unrelated segments. The first two segments (“Julie” and “Millicent and Therese”) are coiled thrillers of a fine vintage. But it’s the final segment, “Amelia,” that gave this film its lasting legacy. In it, Black is pursued about her apartment by a nightmarish Zuni fetish doll come to life. That little (expletive deleted) has haunted Gen X nightmares for five decades, and earns a special shout-out to puppeteer Erik von Buelow. Claustrophobic and nerve-wracking, the final segment unleashes real scares and visceral jolt of a conclusion.