What Do You Think Was The Best Underrated Horror Film?

Front Line Assembly sampled heavily from 'In the Mouth of Madness' on their album 'Hard Wired', so that movie scores big points in my book if for no other reason than that.

My personal vote would be for 'Invasion!'; it combined horror, science fiction, and intensely stupid comedy in a fashion that rocked my world.

Nah, it was a crap-tastic little no-budget flick I caught on Showtime a while ago; I couldn't stop laughing at how absurd the whole thing was. If I could find it on DVD, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

I love the aptly titled The Unseen.

'House', with William Katt. It started scary, underwent a major tonal shift about halfway through, and wound up a decent little horror-comedy.

In the Mouth of Madness was the first film that TRULY scared me. I agree heartily with your vote. Even though, I'd like to point out that it hasn't aged that brilliantly.

The only other film that comes to mind is Event Horizon. It's just a shame that Paul Anderson's career went in such a way that it's now considered some sort of travesty admitting that you actually liked one of his films. Either way, apart from maybe Alien, EH is the first film that truly captured the claustrophobia of space.

I don't know if it's totally underrated, but I think it is:

PHANTASM

Nice call. I haven't seen that flick since the 80's, but it was pretty damn entertaining back then.



I'll go with "Event Horizon" as well. It generally gets a bad rap, but I still thought it was a great blend of sci-fi and horror. With all the Kubrick homages in camera work and imagery, it remans a better "Hellraiser in space" flick than "Hellraiser: Bloodline" could hope to be.

Sam Neil is a recurring theme of underrated films. "Event Horizon", "In the Mouth of Madness" and "Memories of the Invisible Man" (yes - the one with Chevy Chase) are great little flicks.

I'm not sure if it's so much underrated as unknown, but one of my favorite flicks it The Innocents. It's a 60's British flick based on The Turn of the Screw that's one of the few movies that creeped me out, bad. It's like the original Haunting in that it manages to do so much and show so little.

Another similarly unknown classic is Massacre at Central High. I loved that movie growing up, and still have a bootleg I swiped from a video store (hey, the flick's hard to find!) It's a 70s slasher/exploitation movie that was so much more- focusing a lot on high school politics and one kid's attempt to destroy all the cliches in it. It's an amazing movie, if you can find it.

Massacre at Central High, they used to show that one on the local UHF channels all the time. Definitely a forgotten flick.

I'm going to have to go with Alone in the Dark, no, not that one, the early 80's slasher team up pic with Martin Landau, Jack Palance, Donald Pleasance, and Dwight Schultz. It's really good stuff, especially for the time period.

House of Wax. If it weren't for the Paris Hilton nonsense, more people would have noticed that it was a really brutal movie.

House of Wax was awful, with or without Paris Hilton. It's nice to see In The Mouth Of Madness get some love though. I remember seeing it in the theater and being creeped out immensely. Having watched it again recently I think it's aged just fine.

One film I think is unfairly maligned is Halloween 4. Most people mindlessly throw it into the "all sequels suck" category, but it has so many homages to the original and successfully tries to keep a similar tone to the first Halloween. I love it.

I agree with House and Event Horizon. EV is the one Anderson movie that just works for me...even though i will admit it is flawed. But when I saw that in the theatre, i was actually disturbed by what i was seeing...and so was everyone else.

I agree with House, but i don't think it is an underrated film. For a horror movie that actuallyt came out theatrically, it did pretty well and developed a strong following...and how many sequels? So i don't know if that one really qualifies for the list. but i like seeing it mentioned.

my choices would be, The Boogens, obviously. What a cool little flick. simple, goofy looking monsters, and eerie mine shafts. I think it still works well today.

The original Humanoids From the Deep. Even with its Alien-rip off ending, this is still a very effective horror movie. The effects are great, and often lit by bright sunlight, so kudos there. And for a corman movie, there is actually some pretty good acting.

My last vote would be one that most people have never seen. The Final Terror, directed by Andrew Davis (The Fugitive!) is a pretty interesting spin on all the friday the 13th copies that came out after it's success. SPOILERS...For one thing, most of the film takes place during the day, which is really odd yet still very effective. Also, it breaks away away from the typical, let's kill everyone except for one girl thing. The group of people trying to survive actually stay together and work to...survive. it has its flaws, to be sure, but in the world of splatter ripoffs, it is one of the few to be seen...i think.

Of Unknown Origin. Peter Weller vs. a large, vengeful rat in his upscale Manhatten apartment. Much better than it sounds.

Hardware.

man, that really needs to come out on dvd.

I think you should give it another shot. There's no accounting for taste, but the violence in House of Wax is surprisingly brutal for a mainstream horror film, and the last act is great. Any horror film where the female protagonist gets de-fingered by bolt cutters deserves some kudos. It's a movie that was unfairly maligned and was fashionable to dislike, but was actually pretty damn good.




Also, In The Mouth of Madness gets plenty of love, especially around these parts. If I were to pick an underrated Carpenter film (from the same apocalypse trilogy, no less), I'd go with Prince of Darkness. I think we can officially bump up Madness to "rated" status at this point.

Talking about the all-sequels suck category, I'm going to bring up Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. It's mostly maligned as the first of the series that turned Freddy into a wisecracking clown, but for my money it has pretty much the most innovation and coolness seen in the entire Elm Street series, apart from the first - probly resulting from the fact that it was written by Frank Darabont and directed by Chuck Russel. The sequence where Freddy controls the sleepwalker using his veins like some marionette still freaks me out to this day.

I also love A Nightmare On Elm Street 3. Part 4 is a lot of fun as well, even if Freddy is in full-on clown mode. But as a special effects spectacle directed by a pre-fame Renny Harlin, it's a blast to watch. It's certainly a lot better than The Covenant, which I sadly know for a fact.

As for House of Wax, the gore and brutality of the kills were nice, but not enough to sustain the movie for me. For one thing it takes about an hour before anything interesting happens, which would be fine with a well-crafted horror flick that was using that time to build tension. But watching Paris Hilton and WB stars wander around a deserted town was more sleep inducing than fear inducing.

70's: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. A made-for-TV movie that went far in shaping future fright buffs. Many folks don't recall it, but when you start describing it, "old house, little humanoids that hate light, woman who sees them but everyone thinks she's crazy..." they often say "Oh yeah! I remember that! Scared the shit outta me!"

80's: Return of the Living Dead. I love this movie so much my nips get hard when I think about it. One of the few fusions of horror and comedy that function effectively on both levels. Just brilliant in every way, from start to finish.

90's: Ginger Snaps. Just a really terrific teen angst/werewolf movie. Not as horrific as it could've been, but all the aspects worked well for me, and the lead actresses did great jobs.

Overseas: Ghostwatch. A British production, their version of the Orson Welles War of the Worlds panic. Known and respected TV journalists put on a Halloween program investigating a haunted home, and things start going awry, both inside the house and out. Many Brits tuned in not knowing it was fiction, and started freaking out; it hasn't been shown in Britain since. Available on DVD, and I cannot recommend this program highly enough.

[SPOILERISH] Fun fact: There's a part of the program where people are calling the studio describing weird events going on in their homes; during this part, the lights at my friend's house turned on all by themselves. We turned them off, and they went on again a few minutes later. Spooky!!!

Do a quick forum search for "In the mouth of madness". Some time back in 2005 there was a 'most underrated' feature article, and ITMOM made the list. It's generally regarded as one of his better works around here when it's discussed.

While Prince of Darkness is definitely the least of the three apocalypse movies, It's possible to enjoy it simply for its tone. It's not that bad, especially when compared to Carpenter's more recent works. Cigarrette Burns, I'm looking in your direction.

Prince of Darkness deserves props if only for trying to do something different with the whole apocalypse/Satan theme.

Both fun, fantastic little films.

You know what? I'm going to throw myself in the line of fire here, and say that Jason Goes to Hell is underrated. It deserves props for the opening sequence and the fact it ties up all the previous sequels into a coherent continuity (comic book-style, with retcons ahoy!), and the ending is one of the great geekgasms of cinema.

Flame away.

I've mentioned this before, but Mr. Frost (1990) starring Jeff Goldblum and Kathy Baker; easily one of the best "Satan on Earth" movies you've never seen. It's smart, funny, tense, creepy as hell and all without a single effects shot to its name.

Good call on Event Horizon, everyone; that movie gave me the chills when I first saw it. I felt it used suspense masterfully (which is why so many people I know hated it - they thought it was boring), and I've always been a sucker for the 'people disappear under mysterious circumstances and a team is sent in to find out what happened' plot device. The original cut of the film is over three hours long, and goes into much greater detail on how the hyper-space drive works. I sooooooooo wish they'd release that sucker on DVD (Anderson says he has no intention of ever doing so; damn him!)

I'd also put Halloween 3: Season of the Witch on here - I don't care if it didn't have The Shape in it, it still worked as an eerie horror flick in its own right, and the twist at the end actually did catch me by surprise. Love that film.

As far as I'm concerned, the only real misstep in JGTH is the fact that it loses Jason for most of the running time. I get they were trying to do something new, but the movie had some of the best kills in the entire series. I mean, this thing had some nasty, gory kills. Would've looked cooler with Jason standing there instead of George Washington Duke from ROCKY V. (I love that kill where the girl gets skewered while riding her boyfriend.)

My standard answer to this kind of question is SESSION 9. We know about it around these parts, but it's not really even a cult film. It wasn't designed as some huge mainstream vehicle, but it's brilliant, and Peter Mullan gives one of the great horror movie performances.

And since it's in my head because I just watched it again the other night, THE EXORCIST III. Blatty's certainly not a gifted director, but it has a few GREAT jump scares and the story's surprisingly engrossing.

I'm gonna say Basket Case is a bit underrated.

Awesome call. As is Frankenhooker. Hennenlotter on a whole is underrated.

Can't forget Brain Damage either.

Great call. Goldblum was fantastic in this, although I wished they had left it completely ambiguous at the end on if he was Satan or just psychotic.


And other good calls on "Don't be Afraid of the Dark". I've said it on more than one occasion that it was the best made for TV horror film ever made. It and "Mr. Frost" need DVD releases immediately.

Another great underrated horror movie is the classic Trick or Treat. Used to absolutely love it. But I haven't seen it in a while, so I'm not sure how well it's aged.

Does Sleepaway Camp count? Not sure if it's underrated or underseen.

I've got to go with Below. Although most everyone on this site has probably seen it(and most like or love it), I get blank stares whenever I mention it to non film nuts. It's a really solid "little" film.
I hope Twohy's career is still okay after Riddick's box office performance, because he's really good at these pleasantly surprising mid-to-low budget sci-fi/horror/action flicks. I even dug the Arrival. I saw the second one recently, and it wasn't nearly as fun as I remember it as a kid(go figure). In fact, it wasn't very good. It does have a really fun John Ratzenberger extended cameo though.

I'm also gonna add The People Under the Stairs. It's one of the weirdest horror movies I've ever seen, and the best Wes Craven movie ever bar none.

Also, and I'm not that sure it's underrated in the CHUD community, but Society is a pretty cool little flick too.

Fuck, I hate saying it publicly, but I have to agree with the House of Wax love. Definitely a guilty pleasure, and I do mean guilty, but it's a pretty mean spirited film with some brutal moments. At times it feels like it's disguised as a multiplex mall movie that is really a big middle finger to the WB teen audience. Agreed that it takes too long to get moving and the final battle in the melting house is pretty silly, but that middle chunk - wow.

Hardware is another guilty pleasure. Most people hate it, but I've always loved it. Most of the things I love about it are spoilery, so I'll just shut up.

Event Horizon is a good call too. It's not perfect, but it's far better than it gets credit for.

People Under the Stairs has a great first fifteen minutes or so and then it turns into unintentional self-parody. It ends with a Red Head Kingpin song. That says it all. It's in the top five of my most hated horror films ever.

You are clinically insane.

HOUSE OF WAX was a fun 80-minute B-movie that somehow blew up to almost two hours in length. I like the gore and some of the art direction, but there's so much dead space in there that I can't say I'd recommend the movie as a whole.

Both of those films, in addition to being neat little horror flicks, work pretty well as social satires. The only other film I can think of that's in their class is They Live (although that's more sci-fi than horror).

I'm going to add Richard Stanley's Dust Devil to the mix. An Argento western by way of Tarkovsky, there's been nothing like it before or since.

I really dig that film... actually saw it in theaters, along with around 5 other people. I remember CHUD giving it a good push back then.

As for House 2, the best part of that film was the subtitle- The Second Story. C'mon, that's classic.

Dagon is fine. It's not a classic, but very eerie in parts. For Lovecraftian, I also highly recommend the videogame Dark Carners of the Earth: Call of Chtulu, which features the most intense escape ever put in a videogame. Heard Clive Barker's Undying should also be very good.

Back to movies, how about the Nightwatch remake with Ewan McGregor? Never seen the original but this is definitely worth a rent. Another good one: Polanski's Repulsion. The claustrophobic silent rape nightmares are very heavy, if you can find yourself into that girl (pun).

Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse is another weird flick. What about Motel Hell? I read this inspired the showdown of Manhunt.. with Piggsy.

Don't get me started on From Beyond.

House of a 1,000 corpses. Crazy film. I loved it!!

I think the term "underrated" is starting to lose its meaning here. Hard to define what that even means on a message board filled with fellow horror geeks, monster freaks, and gorehounds.

Underrated by the general public? This year's BO-ignored Slither. Dumbasses just want When a Stranger Calls remakes.

In '82, it was The Thing (now considered a classic, or atleast a cult classic).

Are we judging what's underappreciated by the ignorant unwashed masses? F**k em. We know quality. And as long as the film-making lovers of the genre still put out a gem for us fans, I'll be happy.

Underrated by horror fans in general? That's a tougher question. Really got dig around to find a deserving flick that doesn't have much of a cult following or fansite already (these days on the internet).

Some of my favorite unheralded horror flicks (forgotten flix from the 80's) that don't get many mentions: The Gate, Critters 2, House 2, Howling 3, Night of the Creeps

Props to the people up North!

90's: Ginger Snaps. Just a really terrific teen angst/werewolf movie. Not as horrific as it could've been, but all the aspects worked well for me, and the lead actresses did great jobs.

A good film and since it is heavily into the "goth girl" thing, a wonder that it is not more popular. The two sequals ( or 1 sec and 1 pre) are actually better with fusing the prison break film with the second one and the third film being a good flashback with a great set.

The Ginger Snaps trilogy was pretty great (and offered something different with all 3 entries). But the true measure of was is an underappreciated horror flick? Has it been released on the prolific format of DVD?

I submit the Fred Dekker double-feature of Monster Squad & Night of the Creeps. Where the hell are my dvd releases?