Collider ranks William Friedkin’s five 1970s films as a defining body of New Hollywood work, spanning crime, horror and socially significant drama. It argues that the decade produced his most influential and commercially successful films, while noting that even his least acclaimed entry took an unconventional approach to genre.

– The Exorcist is presented as Friedkin’s defining horror achievement and one of cinema’s most frightening films.
– The French Connection is highlighted as a landmark suspense crime film.
– Sorcerer is treated as an ambitious, tense thriller that has gained greater appreciation over time.
– The Boys in the Band is described as an important queer-cinema milestone despite elements now seen as dated.
– The Brink’s Job is ranked last: a flawed but distinctive working-class heist film based on the 1950 Brink’s robbery.