Giallo Movies
Italian crime thrillers that would usher in the age of slashers with their brutal murders, inept police, and beautiful women who were often the victims. The movies featured colorful titles that often made the films sound like the lurid pulp novels of the era. Notable films include Deep Red, The Cat o' Nine Tails, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, What Have You Done to Solange, and Black Belly of the Tarantula. Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, and Dario Argento are among the most well-known directors of this style of films.
Blacksploitation
Black exploitation movies were a trend of films made for a black audience often set in an urban environment with black heroes that often fought against local thugs and "The Man." The most successful films included Shaft, Blacula, Coffy, Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song, and Superfly. Pam Grier, Richard Roundtree, Fred Williamson, and Jim Brown were known for appearing in several Blacksploitation films.
Nazisploitation
Nazi Exploitation films were often set in brothels and death camps featuring women being tortured sexually by sadistic guards. The most famous film of this genre was Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, featuring a buxom dominatrix who seduced and tortured prisoners in the German Stalag she ran. Ilsa would inspire many other films, including a series of similar movies set in a Russian gulag and an oil sheiks harem.
Nunsploitation
Nun Exploitation films were set in remote convents with the nuns engaging in forbidden sexual activity with priests or other nuns. Notable films include Killer Nun, The Devils, School of the Holy Beast, and The Sinful Nuns of Saint Valentine.
Mexican Satanic Horror
A unique series of films from Mexico that were set in convents but featured the nuns or women in their charge praying to the devil. They often featured orgies and satanic rituals that were intended to defy the chaste attitudes of the catholic church. Notable films include Alucarda and Satanico Pandemonium.
Mondo Movies
Mondo movies were pseudo documentaries that exploited exotic customs and rituals of tribal societies in South America, Africa, and Southern Asia. These movies often feature violent scenes and would be a forerunner to deathsploitation films Faces of Death and Traces of Death. Notable MOndo movies include Mondo Cane, Shocking Asia, Africa Blood and Guts, and Good Bye Uncle Tom.
Women in Prison
Women in Prison movies became popular in the early 1970s with movies such as Women in Cages, The Big Doll House, Barbed Wire Dolls, and Bamboo House of Dolls. The movies often featured female nudity, lesbian activity, sexual assault, and rebellion against the prison authority.
Cannibal Movies
Cannibal movies became popular in Italy and Spain in the 1970s, often featuring extremely gory violence and graphic images of rape, cruelty to animals, and other taboo practices. Often these films featured Westerners traveling to the jungles of South America or Asia only to find themselves becoming the victims of the tribes they encounter. The most infamous film of this genre is Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust, other films include Cannibal Ferox, Eaten Alive!, and Man From Deep River.
Zombie Movies
George Romero's 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead would be followed by a sequel called Dawn of the Dead. In Italy, this movie would be released as Zombi, and soon after, studios in Italy began churning out movies featuring flesh-eating zombies. Lucio Fulci would direct a film titles Zombi 2 as an unofficial sequel to Dawn of the Dead, and the success of that movie would see the release of dozens of cheap knockoff movies that would feature zombies. This genre would carry over through the 1980s and remains a popular subgenre.
Rape and Revenge
This controversial genre of movies featured young women who were kidnapped, raped, and left for dead by their attackers. They would then face justice at the hands of the victims or their families. The most notable films include Thr Last House on the Left, Last Stop on the Night Train, and I Spit on your Grave.
Slasher Movies
Slasher movies would emerge from the 1970s with 1971's Bay of Blood being one of the first movies of this subgenre. Canadian horror film Black Christmas would follow and become one of the essential films of this genre as it utilized a hidden killer who was stalking a group of students in their home. Slasher movies would take over the horror scene with the release of 1978's Halloween and 1980's Friday the 13th. The slasher movie remains one of the most popular subgenres of horror to this day.
