10 Classic Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die

3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper's low-budget horror classic, is one of those movies that can make you feel ill from the name alone. Here's a film that feels so bound to its own intoxicating atmosphere, that it's hard to believe that what we're watching isn't real - this hellish vision, directed through what feels like a layer of grease, offers up one of cinema's most relentlessly terrifying experiences.

Taking its inspiration from the antics of infamous serial killer Ed Gein, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre abandons its cast of unprepared characters into the wilds of the American outback, and has them facing off against a family of grotesque freaks who want nothing more than to string them up and bleed them to death. The grubby tone makes for chilling viewing, and the subtext - Hooper's own disillusion with America after Watergate and Vietnam - renders it a classic.