Nosferartu (1979)

In his 1979 remake of the 1922 original film, Werner Herzog brings sound and colour to the story, which helps him achieve his usual painterly, mesmerizing style, but he also takes the opportunity to align the story much more closely with Bram Stoker's Dracula, which of course is exactly what Nosferatu is - Dracula with the title and character names changed after a copyright challenge from Stoker's widow, Florence Stoker.

★★★★☆

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Murder by Decree (1979)

There's only one way the Jack the Ripper mystery can be resolved in a movie without history being completely upended, so don't expect too many surprises here, but expect a gripping mystery drama that has Sherlock Holmes (Christopher Plummer, who bewilders with his simpering, "feely" portrayal of the great detective) investigating the notorious Jack the Ripper murders and, once he's talked to, among others, Donald Sutherland's psychic and John Gielgud's parliamentarian, Holmes arrives at a solution that any audience member even half interested in the grisly episode will have come across before.

★★★★☆

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The China Syndrome (1979)

A morning news presenter of puff pieces (Jane Fonda) with aspirations for harder-hitting investigative stuff hits the jackpot when an incident occurs at the nuclear power plant that she and her cameraman (Michael Douglas) happen to be visiting, but how critical was the event, how can they get their story to air on a corrupt news network, and how can the slow-burn thrills end without the movie simply snapping suddenly to black, are the questions that ratchet up the tension to meltdown-levels in this solid thriller.

★★★☆☆

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The Amityville Horror (1979)

Except that it's hard to get past the fact this movie, the book it is based on, and the movie series it spawned are all the products of loons and their lawyers (slash literary agents, apparently) cashing in on a real-life case of family massacre by paranormalising the events and the killer's motives, this 1979 classic is effective, understated horror - there's restraint; the object isn't simply to bombard with special effects and jump scares - and on offer is a lot of Margot Kidder, James Brolin dagging around in his y-fronts, some creepy scenes involving flies and black goop, and other scenes that beg the interesting question,  "Who copied who - Stephen King and/or Stanley Kubrick from The Shining camp, or Anson and/or Rosenberg from the Amityville camp?

★★★☆☆

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My Brilliant Career (1979)

Fierce and intelligent and packaged off to live with relatives like an Australian Anne of Green Gables, Sybylla (Judy Davis, in her first lead role) waves off anatopic turn-of-the-century British sensibilities and as much as possible determines her own irreverent way through her Australian bush life, juggling family responsibilities and personal endeavours with a blossoming romance with dashing landowner Harry Beecham (Sam Neill in his first lead role).

★★★★☆

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Alien (1979)

Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley became the archetypal kickass heroine after her introduction in this original Alien movie, essentially a pick-them-off-one-at-a-time horror like many American slasher flicks full of teens camping in remote locations with masked evil hunting them down, but Alien transcends its genre with its muted, echoey spaceship campground, its otherworldly Jason always kept at a distance, never seen fully extended, always in shadow and so not just masked but unfathomable, and the movie is rich in other details - robot crew members, extraterrestrial remains, slumber pods - that have been developed into a detailed mythology across four sequels to date (and happily counting!).

★★★★★

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The Lady Vanishes (1979)

This 1979 Hammer Films remake of the 1938 Hitchcock classic is an unnecessary film greatly inferior to the original but it is camp fun with Cybill Shepherd cast perfectly as the badly behaved heroine who discovers a fellow trans-European train passenger, Miss Froy, has mysteriously disappeared - or perhaps she was never on board at all.

★★★☆☆

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