Underrated Horror Movies

[JardinPrayer]

Wow, that's wild! Do you feel Suspiria inspired any of his subsequent work? I could see it in some of his more surreal sequences. Maybe some of the lighting and staging in films like Prince of Darkness or The Fog.

Absolutely, it did, but I'm not going to tell you what he shared with me on specifics. I will say he said it influenced how he thinks about the role of music score in film, though.

That sounds like something a younger Clive Barker would do. Sounds like a lot of fun! I was 12 when the first film came out, so the only thing I remember about it were the cutouts at the local video shop when it eventually went to video. When I started my horror phase in 91 or 92 I couldn't get my hands on enough Barker. He was my favorite author, and I loved the first two Hellraiser films. Unnecessary is a fair criticism, but that's true with a lot of horror. I feel he toned it down a bit for the sequel, which, again, was more fantasy than horror. I actually like the second film better than the first. They all go down hill with three. The short stories you're referring to are probably the ones that were collected into the Books of Blood series. I watched every film that he was associated with that I could get my hands on, including his earlier Transmutations and Rawhead Rex. I think I slowed down on reading his stuff with Sacrament. I rarely read fiction at all anymore, but I would like to check out The Scarlet Gospel which is supposed to be a show down between Pinhead and Harry D'Amour. I'd still love to watch a film based on his book Weaveworld which told the story of an entire civilization living between the complex weave of an Oriental Rug.

Loved Weaveworld.

Barker's a different man today. Have you seen his interviews in his home art studio where he discusses his paintings? They're on YouTube.

[Adrift]

Figure I'll add a few more to the list:

Grave Encounters. A better than average found footage film in the vein of Paranormal Activity. The film is pretty predictable if you've seen this sort of thing before, and it feels low-budgety, but I like it. It's got some good creepy moments, and is genuinely funny as it riffs on your average ghost hunting reality schlock. The sequel is not half bad either.



Delicatessen. Not even sure I should count this as horror, but it does sort of have a pretty creepy theme. This is a fantastic French fantasy film from the terrific minds of Jeunet and Caro who later brought us Amelie, A Very Long Engagement and ..ahem.. Alien 4. It's a post-apocalyptic type film about a circus performer who rents a room in an apartment filled with cannibals. It's also a love story, and it's hilarious. If you like this, you'll love Jeunet and Caro's follow-up, City of Lost Children.


Santa Sangre. Keeping with the circus theme, this is the surrealist director Alejandro Jodorowsky's foray into horror. There's a plot here someplace, but I've forgotten it. It's just an interesting film to look at. Probably not for everyone, but if you like Jodorowsky's films El Topo or Holy Mountain, chances are that you'll like this too.


Testuo: The Iron Man. Less a horror film, and more an industrial nightmare. This is the Japanese spirit-child of David Lynch's Eraserhead. If there's any plot at all, it's essentially about a businessman who becomes infected and turned into a machine? I guess? It's hard to follow. Very graphic, but very interesting to look at. Not one of those movies that's worth repeated viewing, but worth checking out once for the weird. It also inspired a couple sequels with something more in the way of a plot. I couldn't get past the first sequel, and never watched the third.


Cigarette Burns. Technically this is part of the Masters of Horror series, so I'm not sure if it counts, but this is a later Carpenter film that, despite The Ward, shows that he's still got it. It's basically about a horror film so scary or monstrous that people essentially lose their minds, and it plays on the the early silent era of filmmaking when riots or chaos would ensue because of some genius director's new film experiment. Audience reactions like that never or rarely happen anymore, at least, not in the Western world, but they were relatively common in the early days of cinema. Stars Udo Kier! The film is short, and sweet, and it's a theme that I really love. I remember watching one of those anthology TV series like Tales from the Darkside, or Outer Limits or the New Twilight Zone, and this same theme came up where people who listened to a particular radio broadcast became homicidal maniacs because the knowledge acquired in the broadcast was some mind-bending that it warped people. I think that's such a clever horror concept.


Lemora. Another fantasy horror film. Sort of a take on Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz, but with vampires, kinda. Very grungy. You feel kinda dirty after watching it, but not necessarily because of the content (it's relatively graphic-less for a 70s horror film), but mostly for the atmosphere. It feels like a cheap, gritty, grindhouse horror film. It's weird. I liked it at anyrate.


Creating these lists I always feel that I'm leaving off some of the more terrifying stuff that I've watched. Things that kept up nights for days. Maybe they're too obvious, or maybe too obscure. I don't know. I always feel dissatisfied that I haven't listed the best. This'll have to do for now.

[Adrift]

Have you seen his interviews in his home art studio where he discusses his paintings? They're on YouTube.

I haven't really been keeping up with him for awhile now. He seems a lot more mellower than he was. Wasn't he sick or something for a bit? I figured that did it. He always held some very interesting spiritual views as well. I think he was Catholic or something. Not sure if faith plays a role in his life anymore. I'll have to check out the interviews.

[JardinPrayer]

I haven't really been keeping up with him for awhile now. He seems a lot more mellower than he was. Wasn't he sick or something for a bit? I figured that did it. He always held some very interesting spiritual views as well. I think he was Catholic or something. Not sure if faith plays a role in his life anymore. I'll have to check out the interviews.

Yes, nearly died from Toxic Shock. Raised Catholic and still seems to hold some form of faith, though his lifestyle must present some inner conflicts, I imagine.

Kudos for bringing Delicatessen to the party! I haven't thought about these foreign films in years. I appreciated that one for sheer weirdness. On the other hand, Santa Sangre is rated NC17 and IMBD rates it 10/10 on violence and gore. Gonna have to pass on that one.

Hardly underrated, but perhaps not well known in the U.S., I submit Let The Right One In.

[Adrift]

Yes, nearly died from Toxic Shock. Raised Catholic and still seems to hold some form of faith, though his lifestyle must present some inner conflicts, I imagine.

Kudos for bringing Delicatessen to the party! I haven't thought about these foreign films in years. I appreciated that one for sheer weirdness. On the other hand, Santa Sangre is rated NC17 and IMBD rates it 10/10 on violence and gore. Gonna have to pass on that one.

Hardly underrated, but perhaps not well known in the U.S., I submit Let The Right One In.

Weird that Santa Sangre has such a severe rating. I don't remember it being particularly gory, but I've probably become desensitized to these things. It's got a couple scenes that are pretty nasty, but more in that 70s/80s Argento style where the acting is terrible, and the blood is a little too red. Nothing at all like the type of realistic gore we see in more recent slasher films today. But, yeah, ultimately it's not very edifying either way I suppose, and I can understand why people won't dig it.

Glad to know about more Delicatessen fans! I'm always pushing that and City of Lost Children on people, but it doesn't go over too well. Too many folks afraid of subtitles...

Let the Right One In is very well done. I thought that and Let Me In were both very watchable. Different enough to not be too redundant. Something about them reminds me of that old Romero film Martin. Maybe it's just vampire kids.

[JardinPrayer]

Yeah, folks need to get over subtitle phobia. They're missing a universe of great cinema. Because my tinnitus is getting worse, I've recently taken to using my closed captioning option as a rule. Reading is just part of the experience for me.

[Zymologist]

Subtitles > dubbing

[rogue06]

Yeah, folks need to get over subtitle phobia. They're missing a universe of great cinema. Because my tinnitus is getting worse, I've recently taken to using my closed captioning option as a rule. Reading is just part of the experience for me.

I often used closed captioning during the Summer when I have several fans running which makes it hard for me to understand conversations, especially softly spoken ones, without cranking up the volume. It's just that I have to keep hitting replay -- a lot -- so that I can then see what I missed while I was busy reading. That's why I always preferred my animes dubbed rather than subbed. It just takes so blasted long to watch/read them.

[Darth Executor]

Carnival of Souls, which is now in the public domain so you can get it for free. There is no gore and the atmosphere it builds up is fantastic. It's also black and white, and it's a pity nobody makes black and white movies anymore since horror movies benefit greatly from it.

[Adrift]

Carnival of Souls is pretty decent. I had a friend who loved that film, and hyped it up big for me, so by the time I actually got around to seeing it I was like "eh, it's okay". I should watch it again. She also hyped up Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, and I thought that was just OK as well.

[Jesse]

Creating these lists I always feel that I'm leaving off some of the more terrifying stuff that I've watched. Things that kept up nights for days. Maybe they're too obvious, or maybe too obscure. I don't know. I always feel dissatisfied that I haven't listed the best. This'll have to do for now.

I love your lists though. You have shared a lot of films I didn't know existed. Will help me possibly find more underrated gems.

Hardly underrated, but perhaps not well known in the U.S., I submit Let The Right One In.

I never saw Let The Right One In. But I did see Let Me In and thought it was good. Someone let me know if the Swedish version is better or on par with that one.

[Jesse]

I often used closed captioning during the Summer when I have several fans running which makes it hard for me to understand conversations, especially softly spoken ones, without cranking up the volume. It's just that I have to keep hitting replay -- a lot -- so that I can then see what I missed while I was busy reading. That's why I always preferred my animes dubbed rather than subbed. It just takes so blasted long to watch/read them.

That has been my problem too with subs. It takes me out of the movie if I have to read it, then I miss what is going on on screen. I am not very good at multitasking.

[Adrift]

I love your lists though. You have shared a lot of films I didn't know existed. Will help me possibly find more underrated gems.

Oh thanks man! I'll see what more I can come up with then.

I never saw Let The Right One In. But I did see Let Me In and thought it was good. Someone let me know if the Swedish version is better or on par with that one.

In my opinion Let the Right One In is slightly better, but they're actually not that far apart from one another in quality, which I wasn't expecting. Typically American horror remakes feel a bit redundant, but in this case it's not hard to enjoy both.

[Adrift]

That has been my problem too with subs. It takes me out of the movie if I have to read it, then I miss what is going on on screen. I am not very good at multitasking.

Honestly you get used to it after awhile. Often times good actors and direction can translate a scene better than the actual words, and you don't need to do anything more than skim through the dialogue, but yeah, it can be a bit of a chore. Still, Jardin was correct that you are missing a world of great cinema if you check out on subtitles altogether. Especially for niche genres like the horror genre.

[Jesse]

Oh thanks man! I'll see what more I can come up with then.

Looking forward to it.

In my opinion Let the Right One In is slightly better, but they're actually not that far apart from one another in quality, which I wasn't expecting. Typically American horror remakes feel a bit redundant, but in this case it's not hard to enjoy both.

I have heard that from a few people. I have been on the fence on whether it's different enough that it's worth seeing the original (my sub bias is showing).

And I wonder why American remakes of foreign horror movies are so bad? I remember seeing the American remake of The Ring and thinking it was alright. Then I saw the Japanese original and it was like a totally different experience. The remake lost almost all of the atmosphere the original had. I don't know why that gets lost in translation.

Honestly you get used to it after awhile. Often times good actors and direction can translate a scene better than the actual words, and you don't need to do anything more than skim through the dialogue, but yeah, it can be a bit of a chore. Still, Jardin was correct that you are missing a world of great cinema if you check out on subtitles altogether. Especially for niche genres like the horror genre.

That is true. It does just seem like a chore. I had no problems with the subs in The Raid movies and Dead Snow (good movie BTW). But that might be because there wasn't too much dialog in those. JardinPrayer is right that those of us that do not enjoy subs are missing out on a lot of good movies. And this is why I cry myself to sleep at night.