20 Underrated Horror Films
Instead of listing strictly 'underrated' films, I decided to list films that I've most often heard dismissed without actually being seen; I think they're all fantastic. 10 American horror films, 10 from Europe.
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- DirectorRobert SiodmakStarsLon Chaney Jr.Robert PaigeLouise AllbrittonWhen Katherine, a beautiful Southern girl obsessed with thoughts of eternal life, invites Count Alucard to come to her mansion in the U.S., she unleashes a Pandora's box of horror on unsuspecting relatives and neighbors.Look past the campy, albeit passionate/desperate lead performance of Lon Chaney Jr. (or embrace it utterly) and you'll find an atmospheric carnival of a movie, courtesy of the brilliant Siodmak brothers, complete with gilded camerawork, art direction and special effects.
- DirectorJohn SherwoodStarsGrant WilliamsLola AlbrightLes TremayneRocks from a meteor which grow when in contact with water threaten a sleepy Southwestern desert community.Ten or fifteen minutes in you won't believe that THAT is the premise of this horror film - but it is(!) - and it works. There's great tension in this film, and the performances are that much better when you know the actors are having to convey fear of a rock.
- DirectorEdward L. CahnStarsMarshall ThompsonShirley PattersonKim SpaldingThe first manned expedition to Mars is invaded by an unknown life form, which stows away on the rescue ship.THE (along with Bava's PLANET OF THe VAMPIRES) main inspiration for ALIEN. A fantastic sci-fi/horror film where the small crew of a space ship with limited resources struggles to fight off a seemingly indestructible monster. Plus it stars cocky/dreamy genre icon Marshall Thompson - he's such a sensitive butch.
- DirectorJack ArnoldStarsArthur FranzJoanna MooreJudson PrattThe blood of a primitive fish exposed to gamma rays causes a benign research professor to regress to an ape-like, bloodthirsty prehistoric hominid.Despite the title this is one of the last gems of the era. Giant bugs, grizzly (off-camera) murders, and a great lead performance by Arthur Franz. A wonderful premise that has a lot of ties to ALTERED STATES, albeit with a lot less nudity, less schizophrenia, and no visceral-Catholic sex-vision sequences.
- DirectorTerence FisherStarsPeter CushingSusan DenbergThorley WaltersAfter being reanimated, Baron Frankenstein transfers the soul of an executed young man into the body of his lover, prompting her to kill the men who wronged them.One of the great films of Hammer Horror, and arguably the most undermentioned. My favorite Anthony Hinds script, without a doubt, and one of the late, great Peter Cushing's finest performances. Just thinking of the end gives me a knot in my gut.
- DirectorMario BavaStarsStephen ForsythDagmar LassanderLaura BettiA cleaver-wielding bridal designer murders various young brides-to-be in an attempt to unlock a repressed childhood trauma.One of many horror films that turns the genre on its ear, but one of the few that successfully pulls it off. You know who the killer is from 'go', so just sit back and enjoy the wild ride. Bava was commenting on the limitations of genre, and his own limitations within it, but by going there he unknowingly pushed himself into heretofore unseen realms of perversion.
- DirectorLeón KlimovskyStarsPaul NaschyGaby FuchsBarbara CapellElvira and her friend Genevieve travel through the French countryside in search of the lost grave of a medieval vampire, Countess Wandesa.I love Paul Naschy. The man LOVED horror movies, and no one has loved, is loving, or will love horror movies more than Naschy did. Within the world of Euro-Horror this film is highly respected, but more people need to see it. Get over the cheesy acting already, silly American. Just have fun and enjoy Naschy's passion (and the slow-motion jigs of the lesbian undead).
- DirectorAmando de OssorioStarsLone FlemingCésar BurnerMaría Elena ArpónMedieval knights executed for their black magic rituals come back as zombies to torment a group of vacationing college kids.The only film in the Blind Dead series worth seeing (no pun intended). Creepy, creepy, and creepy.
- DirectorBill GunnStarsDuane JonesMarlene ClarkBill GunnAfter being stabbed with an ancient, germ-infested knife, a doctor's assistant finds himself with an insatiable desire for blood.One of the most daring films I've ever seen. Not only a great vampire film, but a relentless attack/allegory against Christianity. Perhaps, ultimately, a feminist film as well.
- DirectorCurtis HarringtonStarsAnn SothernJohn SavageRuth RomanA young Terry Lambert returns home after serving a prison sentence for a gang rape he was forced to participate in. He seeks revenge on his lawyer and the girl who framed him.Curtis Harrington is the patron saint of the underrated and undermentioned; this is his best horror film. Wonderful performances from Ann Southern and John Savage, and for you torture-lovers, one of the most shocking murder scenes I've ever seen on film, and I've seen a lot (like the rest of you).
- DirectorRichard BlackburnStarsLesley TaplinCheryl SmithWilliam WhittonA young girl who returns to her hometown to see her dying father finds herself being drawn into a web of vampirism and witchcraft.Like many films on this list, LEMORA is a low-budget phenom. What the filmmakers were able to do with barely any money is just startling. I'm a sucker for a dark fairytale, in particular one with monsters, and LEMORA more than delivers in the darkness department. There's also something very tawdry about this film, but it's hard to pinpoint - it's as though there's a very fine layer of immorality on the entire movie.
- DirectorBob KelljanStarsWilliam MarshallDon MitchellPam GrierThe vampire Mamuwalde (a.k.a. Blacula) is resurrected by voodoo and forced to kill again.I think better than the original in every way, but for some reason it simply does not get its due. Pam Grier's star was on the rise with this one, with (I believe) SBS made right after COFFY, but before FOXY BROWN. A great story of love, revenge, voodoo, and baadasssssedness. When Mamuwalde (aka Blacula) gathers a vampire army at his stately manor it's a gruesome sight indeed.
- DirectorJorge GrauStarsCristina GalbóRay LovelockArthur KennedyA cop chases two hippies suspected of a series of Manson family-like murders; unbeknownst to him, the real culprits are the living dead, brought to life with a hunger for human flesh by ultrasonic radiation being used for pest control.The dead are being brought back to life by a radiation device that's meant to target crop-killing bugs. Two strangers brought together by circumstance are forced to confront the horror head on. Arthur Kennedy as the gruff police inspector almost ruins it, but everything else in the film is simply a treasure. The scene of the first zombie's appearance is in my 'canon of terrifying sequences', as is the scene in the subterranean tomb. If you can find it, Jorge Grau's film about Bathory, BLOOD COUNTESS, is fantastic as well.
- DirectorPaul MaslanskyStarsMarki BeyRobert QuarryDon Pedro ColleyWhen her boyfriend is murdered by mobsters, Sugar Hill decides not to get mad, but BAD. She asks the voodoo priestess Mama Maitresse to summon Baron Samedi, the Lord of the Dead, to help her gain a gruesome revenge. In exchange for Sugar's soul, the Dark Master raises up a zombie army to do her bidding. The bad guys who think they got away clean are about to find out that they are DEAD wrong.Sugar Hill, a woman whose man was killed by THE MAN, turns to voodoo to enact a vicious revenge. Sugar returns to her ancestral home, reclaims her beliefs, and enacts a bargain with hunky Voodoo god, Baron Samedi. In exchange for her soul, Baron Samedi lends her the use of his zombie hit men. A fantastic film, hands down. Arguably, SUGAR HILL is one of the greatest films in blaxploitation, going further than most in its depiction of the universal wickedness of Whitey.
- DirectorArmando CrispinoStarsMimsy FarmerBarry PrimusRay LovelockA young pathology doctor interning in a morgue tries to cope with a wave of suicides. A woman she just met kills herself, but she suspects someone close to her might have killed her.A hot mess in many ways, but something brilliant simmers beneath the surface of this film. Somebody please watch it and tell me what this 'something' is. The set piece in the museum is one of the best I've ever seen, and the opening nightmare-hallucination in the hospital is super-creeps.
- DirectorJean RollinStarsMarie-Georges PascalFélix MartenSerge MarquandA young woman discovers that the pesticide being sprayed on vineyards is turning people into killer zombies.Zombies on the loose in the wine country of France. If the undead apocalypse is indeed nigh, best to have a nice beaujolais nearby, yes? The late, great Jean Rollin is perhaps THE acquired taste of Euro-Horror, being either reviled or loved. THE GRAPES OF DEATH is one of his best, keeping his penchant for gratuitous sex and nudity to a minimum, and creating one hell of a disturbing atmosphere at the same time.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsOliver ReedSamantha EggarArt HindleA man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist's therapy techniques on his institutionalized wife, amidst a series of brutal murders.One of Cronenberg's best ideas, and that's saying something. Forgot about the terror tied to the nightmare-reality-potentialities of SCANNERS, or the over-rated (IMHO) VIDEODROME, here is where the real terror of the future is going to lie - in people being able to physically manifest their strongest emotions. And ones that once manifest are beyond the control of the creator. Scary indeed.
- DirectorJoe D'AmatoStarsTisa FarrowSaverio ValloneSerena GrandiA group of friends and a hitchhiker become stranded on a tourist island where they are stalked by a disfigured cannibalistic killer who is prowling the island after killing its residents.Just see it. There are moments are pure terror. Like the 9-month pregnant woman having her fetus yanked out of her and devoured before her very eyes. Take that pro-lifers!
- DirectorPeter MedakStarsGeorge C. ScottTrish Van DevereMelvyn DouglasAfter the death of his wife and daughter in a car crash, a music professor staying at a long-vacant Seattle mansion is dragged into a decades-old mystery by an inexplicable presence in the mansion's attic.One of the scariest movies I know.
- DirectorBigas LunaStarsZelda RubinsteinMichael LernerTalia PaulA controlling mother uses telepathic powers to send her middle-aged son on a killing spree.Like a spiral layer-cake made of eyeballs, pigeon blood and popcorn. Basically, delicious.