I love older horror films, especially from the late 1970’s/early 1980’s. While a lot of them are kitschy, and sometimes cult-y, oftentimes the story-lines manage to hit that sweet spot somewhere between horrific and gleefully garish.

Below are 5 favorite 1970’s/1980’s horror movies guaranteed to make you yearn for the days when less CGI meant more plot and circumstance.

Terror Train [1980]

Those who haven’t seen Terror Train are in for a real treat. It stars Jamie Lee Curtis, who came on board right after filming Prom Night. The film also features Hart Bochner [The Starter Wife], Sandee Currie, Ben Johnson and a very young David Copperfield.

The set-up is simple: College kids decide to throw a costume party on a moving train. They’re drunk, dressed up, and dying… one by one.

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Happy Birthday to Me [1981]

Melissa Sue Anderson departs from her days of life in the Little House on the Prairie to move off to the big city and hang with the popular kids in an exclusive private school. While Happy Birthday to Me doesn’t have any famous co-stars most of us would easily recognise – other than Anderson and actor Glenn Ford – it does offer some familiar faces, such as Lawrence Dane [Bride of Chucky, Scanners], Frances Hyland [The Changeling, Never Talk to Strangers], and Tracey E. Bregman [The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful].

The set-up is sinister: A killer on the loose, and a birthday party where the guests are dying to get an invite. On the bright side, there’s enough cake for everyone!

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When a Stranger Calls [1979]

Starring a young Carol Kane [Gotham, Taxi], and the talented Charles Durning [Rescue Me, Evening Shade], When a Stranger Calls would be considered lame and tame by today’s standards, especially since you wont find any blood splatter or gory guts. It was suspense that kept the audience hooked and reeled them right in. Fourteen years later, Kane and Durning reprised their roles for When Stranger Calls Back, a made for TV continuation of the original, which aired in 1993.

The set-up is sweet pop culture: Urban legend has it that a babysitter is terrorized by phone calls as the children left in her care sleep peacefully upstairs, only to realize later that the children have been savagely murdered – no doubt all while the babysitter had been busy answering the phone all night.

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The Funhouse [1981]

Directed by the iconic master of horror, Tobe Hooper, The Funhouse was one of his earliest movies. It was released about six years after The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and one year before Poltergeist.

The Funhouse stars Elizabeth Berridge [Amadeus], Cooper Huckabee [True Blood, Django Unchanged], and a cast who appears to have completely dropped out of the industry.

The set-up is scary: Four teens decide to go to the local carnival, where they decide to spend the night in the funhouse for kicks and giggles. While exploring the dark corners of the eerie attraction, they stumble upon a monster, a murder-in-progress and maniacal madness.

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The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane [1976]

Not long after filming Freaky Friday, actress Jodie Foster signed on for The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, her first full feature horror movie at age 13. Since Foster was uncomfortable filming sex scenes and appearing nude on camera, her older sister Connie was cast as her stand-in. Look for Martin Sheen, Scott Jacoby and Alexis Smith to round out the main cast.

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is based on the book of the same name, written by Laird Koening.

The set-up is shocking: A precocious teenage girl lives in a house big enough to keep all of her secrets.

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What’s your favorite old school thriller?