Unsung Horror Movies

[Retro4Life]

Please list some lesser known horror flicks you feel are worthy of merit and discussion.

Here are some of mine:

1) The Black Cat (1934)

2) Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972)

3) Gargoyles (1972)

4) Prison (1988)

5) Pin (1988)

6) Near Dark (1987)

7) Island of Terror (1966)

8) WNUF Halloween Special (for anybody alive in the mid to late 80s, this is a real gem; I thought the ending was disappointing, but it's still worth it)

9) Isle of the Dead (1945) Horror only on a technicality, but still very good.

10) Dog Soldiers (2002)

[Torgo]

The Forgotten One (1989) Spooky haunted house movie. Great performances from Terry O'Quinn and Kristy McNichol.

Dementia (1955) Arthouse horror film. Zero dialogue. Dreamlike. A version was released with narration, but I prefer the original non-narrated version.

Eyes Of Fire (1983) Set in the 1700's. Some of the most creepy images. Irish folklore blended with Native American.

Equinox (1970) Started out as a showcase for not yet known effects artists Dennis Muren and David Allen. Some say an inspiration for The Evil Dead as it has college kids and an evil book. Fun giant monsters. Frank Bonner's first role.
The excellent DVD release features both versions of the movie- the original cut, and the 1970 cut with new footage added for theatrical release.

Witch's Night (2007) One of my favorite witch themed movies. Good 'ol fashioned fun. Likable characters.


Will add more later....

[Torgo]

Shallow Ground (2004) Really well done little supernatural horror film.


Lovely Molly (2011) Creepy film. Gretchen Lodge as Molly is one of the most underrated performances in a horror film. Written and directed by Eduardo Sánchez who co directed the original Blair Witch Project.



Poison for the Fairies (1984) Easily the most underrated of the evil child subgenre. One of the best Mexican horror films I've seen.


Screams Of A Winter Night (1979) Fun low budget anthology film. The wraparound story isn't just there to tie the stories together, it's as much a story as the segments. I also like how all of the actors in the wraparound play the parts in the stories they are telling.

[Svenfan1234]

Originally Posted by Retro4Life

Please list some lesser known horror flicks you feel are worthy of merit and discussion.

Here are some of mine:

1) The Black Cat (1934)

2) Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972)

3) Gargoyles (1972)

4) Prison (1988)

5) Pin (1988)

6) Near Dark (1987)

7) Island of Terror (1966)

8) WNUF Halloween Special (for anybody alive in the mid to late 80s, this is a real gem; I thought the ending was disappointing, but it's still worth it)

9) Isle of the Dead (1945) Horror only on a technicality, but still very good.

10) Dog Soldiers (2002)

I LOVE The Black Cat (1934), Gargoyles (1972) and Island of Terror (1966) since I've seen them on Svengoolie!

My favorite underrated horror movies are:
The Night Walker (1964)
The Uninvited (1944)--very good classic ghost story movie!
Kiss of the Vampire (1963)--one of my favorite Hammer horrors!
Curse of the Werewolf (1961)--my favorite Hammer horror!

[Penny Lane]

Originally Posted by Torgo

Shallow Ground (2004) Really well done little supernatural horror film.


Lovely Molly (2011) Creepy film. Gretchen Lodge as Molly is one of the most underrated performances in a horror film. Written and directed by Eduardo Sánchez who co directed the original Blair Witch Project.



Poison for the Fairies (1984) Easily the most underrated of the evil child subgenre. One of the best Mexican horror films I've seen.


Screams Of A Winter Night (1979) Fun low budget anthology film. The wraparound story isn't just there to tie the stories together, it's as much a story as the segments. I also like how all of the actors in the wraparound play the parts in the stories they are telling.

Torgo, I am constantly amazed at the movies you bring up! Most of them I have never heard of! Anyway, I have a question for you. I just purchased "The Visit" (2015)on amazon. Have you seen it and is it any good? It's about 2 kids left to stay with their grandparents, who are supposed to be weird or something. The review were pretty good .

[Torgo]

Originally Posted by Penny Lane

Torgo, I am constantly amazed at the movies you bring up! Most of them I have never heard of! Anyway, I have a question for you. I just purchased "The Visit" on amazon. Have you seen it and is it any good? It's about 2 kids left to stay with their grandparents, who are supposed to be weird or something. The review were pretty good .

First I should say I'm not the biggest M. Night fan. I've only liked about 2 of his films. Unbreakable is one, The Visit is the other. (Still have not seen Split) But I'm a big fan of found footage/documentary style films. I think it's really good, and the grandparents, well the grandmother is creepy!

[Penny Lane]

Originally Posted by Torgo

First I should say I'm not the biggest M. Night fan. I've only liked about 2 of his films. Unbreakable is one, The Visit is the other. (Still have not seen Split) But I'm a big fan of found footage/documentary style films. I think it's really good, and the grandparents, well the grandmother is creepy!

"Split" is good. I'm looking forward to watching The Visit. I love creepy Grandma's!

[JamesG]

Originally Posted by Penny Lane

I love creepy Grandma's!

[JamesG]

One of mine is The Ugly (1997)




New Zealand film about a psychologist trying to get inside the mind of a young serial killer to find out why he kills.

He says he is tormented by "The Uglies"; ghostly figures who drip black blood and force him to kill. Each victim of his becomes a new "Ugly".

[Torgo]

Originally Posted by Penny Lane

"Split" is good. I'm looking forward to watching The Visit. I love creepy Grandma's!

I'm going to watch that one eventually, M Night comes up with intriguing ideas, and also because Split ties in with Unbreakable.

Unfortunately this still seems to be a fairly untapped subgenre: There's Grandmother's House (1988)- but its actually the grandfather that is the creepy one, but in a way I guess she could be considered creepy because the actress played the role so grandmotherly.

Rabid Grannies (1988)- the title is misleading, it's two aunts. Probably not your type of horror film though, lots of over the top oozing gore.

Kill, Granny, Kill! (2014) was fun, grandmothers and cannibal cults!

Tales of the Third Dimension (1984) - one of the segments in this horror anthology Visions Of Sugar Plums has a boy staying with his grandmother over Christmas, his granny turns out to be a psychotic killer.

Not an evil-grandmother, but Cloris Leachman is fantastic as the grandmother in the 2011 horror film The Fields. I know everyone raves about her performance as the grandmother in Bad Santa, but all she did in that was sleep or ask if anyone wanted sandwiches. In The Fields though she turned in a very natural believable performance.

[Torgo]

Originally Posted by JamesG

Forgot about The Granny.

[Torgo]

The Baby (1973) One of my favorite quirky 1970's films. Ruth Roman is fantastic as Baby's mom.

Homebodies (1974) A rare horror film that features an almost all elderly cast.

Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural (1973) A true southern gothic. Great atmosphere.

Private Parts (1972) Directed by Paul Bartel. Offbeat characters. Great hotel setting. Lucille Benson is wonderful as the hotel owner.

The Haunting of M. (1979) Sadly underseen ghost movie.

Till Death (1978) Nice little creepy film about a widower who becomes trapped in the crypt with his late wife.

[Torgo]

The Locals (2003) - From New Zealand. Feels like a feature length Twilight Zone episode. Two friends on a road trip find themselves in a creepy small town.



Plague Town (2008) - More evil children, a whole town of them.



The Cottage (2008) Fun Bristish backwoods slasher with a great cast.



Doghouse (2009) British zombie flick. A town full of zombie women. Another with a great cast.



Charlie's Farm (2014) Australian backwoods slasher. In the vein of Humongous/Wrong Turn.



Lost After Dark (2015) Fun 1980's-retro slasher. Filmed to look like a a slasher from the 80's and not poke fun at them.



Husk (2011) One of the best of the 'killer scarecrow subgenre'.

[Torgo]

Originally Posted by Retro4Life

Please list some lesser known horror flicks you feel are worthy of merit and discussion.

Here are some of mine:

1) The Black Cat (1934)

2) Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972)

3) Gargoyles (1972)

4) Prison (1988)

5) Pin (1988)

6) Near Dark (1987)

7) Island of Terror (1966)

8) WNUF Halloween Special (for anybody alive in the mid to late 80s, this is a real gem; I thought the ending was disappointing, but it's still worth it)

9) Isle of the Dead (1945) Horror only on a technicality, but still very good.

10) Dog Soldiers (2002)

Watched WNUF a couple of years ago, really enjoyed it, will say I think I enjoyed the fake commercials almost more than the story itself.

The writer director has a done a couple of movies I'm interested in seeing, one being Call Girl of Cthulhu , I try to see anything tied to Lovecraft.

[Torgo]

From the 80's....


The Territory (1981) A small group of well-to-do vacationers go on a hiking trip into the woods. Foolishly unprepared to deal with Mother Nature and their situation, they wander around lost for days and weeks, becoming more and more fatigued, hungry, and desperate.
Has the same creepy slow-burn vibe as Long Weekend (1979)


The Enchanted (1984) Royce Hagan returns from the sea to claim and inhabit a 2000 acre ranch in one of the last wild places left in central Florida. An old family friend, Booker T Robertson, welcomes him, then warns him not to get "too close" to a strange family living in the woods nearby. Royce falls in love with Twyla, the oldest daughter, and discovers the bizarre secret of the Hole in the Wall and the enchanted people who live there.


The Black Room (1982) A room gets put up for rent following the mysterious murder of its previous tenant. When an apartment-hunting man sees the deal the brother and sister landlords are offering, he immediately puts down the first month's rent and starts spending his days there, even though he has a home to spend his nights at with his wife. When he comes home, he tells his wife about the fantasies he has of having sex with various women each day in his new apartment. His wife goes along with it for a while, but when she discovers that her husband's stories are much more than just fantasies, she starts to do some investigating.


Next Of Kin (1982) In a rest home for elderly people, a daughter reads her mother's diary. Soon events that are mentioned in the mother's diary begin to happen to the daughter.


Celia (1989) An imaginative and somewhat disturbed young girl fantasizes about evil creatures and other oddities to mask her insecurities while growing up in rural Australia.


The Scarecrow (1982) aka Klynham Summer Neddy Poindexter's sister, Prudence, has turned sixteen and is the prettiest girl in Klynham. Neddy can't protect her from the men in town, but can he protect her from the killer on the loose?


Mr. Wrong (1984) Meg moves out of her parents' home and buys a beautiful old Jaguar in a bid for independence. She begins to get strange feelings about the car. It seems to have a presence beyond the usual "personality" attributed to eccentric old cars. Slowly she uncovers the shocking history of the car's previous owner, but not before the car exerts some tragic influence in her life.


The Nesting (1981) A writer suffering from agoraphobia rents an isolated house so she can concentrate on her writing. She doesn't know that the house is a former brothel, and is inhabited by the ghosts of dead prostitutes.


Sounds Of Silence (1989) An American family inherits a mansion in Sweden, but soon find themselves being visited by the ghosts of children from a close by orphanage.


Sommarens tolv månader (1988) aka The Twelve Months Of Summer Roger and Lars are family men who live a life as a traveling construction workers on large sites worldwide. They are offered a very generous contract they can't turn down. One-years work for a ten year salary. All they have to do is sign and honor the contract. But they don't know where they are going or what they are supposed to build. Blindfolded they are brought to a place with summer the year round. At this strange place they meet fellow workers. Together, they realize that there is something very wrong in this paradise.


Deadline (1984) A screenwriter loses the ability to distinguish between his fantasy world and the real world, with disastrous consequences. As he ruminates on his place in any world and loses his grip, he also loses his wife and his children's respect, and critics tear him apart. The final undoing of this screenwriter is a deadline that must be met at all costs, costs that perhaps are too great.


Zeder (1983) Stefano, a young journalist, buys a used typewriter and accidentally sees that some text is still readable on the ribbon. He manages to reconstruct the story of a scientist, Paolo Zeder, who in the 1950's discovered that some types of terrain have the power to revive the dead that are buried in them. Stefano's investigations bring him in contact with a group of renegade scientists that are still making experiments to prove Zeder's theories.


Kuutamosonaatti (1988) A female fashion model Anni Stark takes leave from the fashion business and goes to Finland's Lappland (a wilderness region in Northern Finland, better known as the home of Santa Claus) for a vacation. Little does she know that there's a totally lunatic bunch of local hillbillies living in a nearby farmhouse. The plot thickens as one of the residents begins to harass Anni, who is left alone in the wilderness with only her dog to protect her.


Ghostkeeper (1981) A group of three friends on a snowmobiling trip find themselves stranded at an abandoned lodge isolated in the mountains. They discover that an old woman resides in the hotel, along with an evil entity that she is keeping in the basement.