William Friedkin
In 1973 William Friedkin revolutionised the genre of horror with a film, still in the present day, regarded as the one of the greatest/scariest films of all time. This film is 'The Exorcist'. It was nominated for 10 Academy awards, which included best picture and best director. It ended up winning the best screenplay award.
In the 1970's the genre of horror was divided into two types. One type being the 'real life' terrors of the likes of 'Psycho' and 'Night of the living dead'. These films brought horror into the everyday - helping it become even more frightening. The other type were the outrageous more unrealistic horror from company's such as Hammer Studios in the UK and Mario Brava and Dario Argento in Italy. These films would contain explicit gore over a narrative logic.
The first film that attempted a union of the two types of horror was 'Rosemary's Baby' - however it seemed with this film that director Roman Polanski still had produced a film that was too surreal.
The first film to properly combine the two was 'The Exorcist'. This film then went on to inspire and change the genre of horror.
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