1968–1979
Vietnam-era dread turned living rooms and rural roads into battlefields, using grainy, handheld shooting and brutal practical effects to mirror a country burned out by war and mistrust—think Night of the Living Dead's urban panic and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre's collapse of community. Expect low-budget realism, moral ambiguity, and endings that offer questions instead of comfort; these movies trade tidy catharsis for raw unease.