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Blog · 4 Oct 2026

5 Films That Shaped My Love of Horror

Another Straight Off The Shelf — not “the five greatest,” but the five that shaped Dan’s love of horror. Named in the description:

Thumbnail: 5 Films That Shaped My Love of Horror
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  • The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
  • Halloween
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street
  • The Final Conflict
  • The Exorcist

Which one would he keep? That’s in the video — not guessed here.

Fact sheets for the five

Geeky fact sheet

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Year
1974
Director
Tobe Hooper
Principal cast
Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, Paul A. Partain
Budget (reported)
About $80,000–$140,000 (range reported)
Box office (reported)
About $30.9 million (reported)

Geeky trivia

  • Dirt-cheap independent nightmare that still looks hotter than most studio horrors.
  • Gunnar Hansen’s Leatherface is pure power-tool folklore.
  • Tiny budget, outsized cultural scar tissue.

Mistakes & goofs

  • Couldn’t find well-known, clearly documented goofs for this title in the usual public goof round-ups — shout if you’ve spotted a classic one.

Figures from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Texas_Chain_Saw_Massacre

Geeky fact sheet

Halloween (1978)

Year
1978
Director
John Carpenter
Principal cast
Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, P. J. Soles, Nancy Loomis, Nick Castle
Budget (reported)
About $300,000–$325,000 (range reported)
Box office (reported)
About $70 million (reported)

Geeky trivia

  • Jamie Lee Curtis’s feature debut as Laurie Strode.
  • Michael Myers’s blank face started as a painted Captain Kirk / William Shatner mask — a fact Dan & Rachael also fired into a Short from their Halloween quiz.
  • Carpenter’s synth score is 90% of the dread.

Mistakes & goofs

  • Continuity across the Myers house / street geography is a favourite rewatch sport; goof databases list shifting props and daylight mismatches.

Figures from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_(1978_film)

Geeky fact sheet

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Year
1984
Director
Wes Craven
Principal cast
Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Robert Englund
Budget (reported)
About $1.1 million (reported)
Box office (reported)
About $57.1 million (reported)

Geeky trivia

  • Freddy Krueger’s glove and sweater reinvented the dream-stalker villain.
  • Johnny Depp’s first film role — and a memorable exit.
  • Wes Craven turned sleep itself into the kill zone.

Mistakes & goofs

  • Couldn’t find well-known, clearly documented goofs for this title in the usual public goof round-ups — shout if you’ve spotted a classic one.

Figures from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nightmare_on_Elm_Street

Geeky fact sheet

Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)

Year
1981
Director
Graham Baker
Principal cast
Sam Neill, Rossano Brazzi, Don Gordon, Lisa Harrow
Budget (reported)
About $5–6 million (range reported; a surviving production budget document totals about £2.6M / ≈ $6.1M)
Box office (reported)
About $20.5 million in the United States and Canada (reported; worldwide not summarised the same way on Wikipedia)

Geeky trivia

  • Sam Neill as adult Damien — Antichrist in a suit.
  • Jerry Goldsmith returns on music duty for Omen continuity.
  • Dan lists it among the five that shaped his horror love — watch the video for which one he’d keep.

Mistakes & goofs

  • Couldn’t find well-known, clearly documented goofs for this title in the usual public goof round-ups — shout if you’ve spotted a classic one.

Budget/US-Canada gross from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Conflict_(film)

Geeky fact sheet

The Exorcist (1973)

Year
1973
Director
William Friedkin
Principal cast
Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller, Lee J. Cobb
Budget (reported)
About $12 million (reported)
Box office (reported)
About $441.3 million worldwide (reported)

Geeky trivia

  • Still the measuring stick for mainstream demonic horror.
  • Friedkin’s documentary-style intensity + practical effects = permanent trauma for a generation.
  • Selected for the US National Film Registry in 2010.

Mistakes & goofs

  • Multiple continuity and crew/equipment claims circulate; treat viral “cursed set” stories separately from logged film-frame goofs.

Figures from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exorcist

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