What Do You Think Was The Best Underrated Horror Film? - Page 2

Bruiser.

Yeah, that's what makes these types of threads hard for me to judge too. I'm always thinking that if you're posting on a board like CHUD, you have a whole different idea of what overrated means. Other people read it and think in terms of what Mr and Mrs Mall Movie are overlooking. I see a nomination like Basket Case and think "Who doesn't know Basket Case is great?", but the average movie viewer doesn't.

Anyway, let me add Street Trash.
I'm tempted to recommend Redneck Zombies, but I haven't seen it in fifteen years and every time I watched it, I saw it while I was stoned. Therefore, my fond memories may not hold up to scrutiny.

That scene where the guy's tripping while examining the body is perfect for a stoned audience.

The movie doesn't exactly hold up, but it's still a helluva lot of fun. If you can get over the fact that it was shot on videotape.

One thing I do like about these horror list threads (although list threads in general are becoming stale) is that they become like a box taken from the attic of your childhood home that gets shook out onto the living room rug. Something new or forgotten is bound to come out after a few shakes. I had completely forgotten about House, and The Gate is the great.

Oh, am I allowed to ask when in the the hell From Beyond is getting its DVD release? CHUD ran an article about a year ago, but I can't find anything about it anywhere.

Anyone remember a flick from around maybe 1988 called PULSE? It starred Joey Lawrence, Roxanne Zal and the immortal Cliff DeYoung. It was actually a surprisingly well made little flick, where a family's electrical products slowly start to attack them. There's a really effective sequence near the end where Zal is "attacked" by the hot water heater when she's trapped in the shower.

ALICE, SWEET ALICE also comes to mind.

You can get bootlegs of it off ebay for around $9.
I was once very eager to check it out. Well, I'm here to tell you now, having just seen it in a theater during a Lovecraft film festival with Barbara Crampton in attendance, and also owning one of those bootlegs myself, it ain't a good film no matter what anyone says.

A few more names I'd add...
The Call of Cthulhu silent movie is the finest, most faithful adaptation of Lovecraft to the screen, and not seen by nearly enough people.
The Ugly is a nice little New Zealand psychological horror which no-one besides myself appears to have seen. Ever.

On the critically panned front, I have soft spots for both Freddy vs. Jason and Silent Hill. Particularly Silent Hill, which reminded be rather of Hellraiser 2 without the silly bits.

It should be. I received this in CHUD's gift exchange last year, and it's one of my favorite movies. It's both lovingly crafted and genuinely scary. In fact, it's the best Lovecraft adaptation out there.

Agreed, Call of Cthulhu was great, and I too have a soft spot for Freddy vs. Jason. Haven't seen Silent Hill yet, but I think F vs. J gets alot of shit for being what it's not, when the fact is the movies it comes from really aren't that great in the first place, no matter how you shake it. Except for Dream Warriors. That kicked ass.

I have a soft spot for Silent Hill also.
It's one of those weird movies though... when it's good it's really good. When it's bad, it's awful. That said, the good parts(in my mind) are awesome enough to watch it. It has some fantastic imagery, stellar CGI, and amazing creepy mood, not to mention one of the best kills I've seen in a long time. You just have to deal with some shitty acting, a lot of character's stupid actions that might have you screaming at the screen, and a poor script that has almost zero plot for the entire film then BAM, nothing but exposition for what feels like an eternity.
My 2 cents anyway.

I agree with pretty much everything you said, except that the bad ended up tipping the scale for me and not the good. Twenty to thirty minutes into this I'm thinking people were really offbase in their hate for this. By the time I got to the end of the endless recounting of what caused all of this, I wanted to kick in my TV screen.

Agreed on the SH sentiments. Started great (creepy, atmospheric), ended lousy (REE-HEE-DICULOUS).

Can't for the life of me find a copy of Call of Cthulhu on dvd. Netflix, Blockbuster online don't have it. Deepdiscountdvd lists teh video game (with an incorrect Call of Duty cover FYI).

Edit: Did google search and found this: http://www.cthulhulives.org/store/st...?1=product&2=8
It's worth it huh?

I can't believe I didn't review that movie yet.

Yes, it's worth it! Amazing flick. I'm going to try and work on an article for it, but it's definitely something a Lovecraft fan needs in their collection.

A day in which I introduce people to Call of Cthulhu is a good day.
The cthulhulives.org link posted is the site of the people who created it, which is where I obtained my copy. They don't charge a lot for international postage, and it's region-free.

I will readily admit that Silent Hill had its rough patches (the witch burning scene is almost painful in how much the dialogue degenerates), but there was some lovely imagery. If Pyramid Head had been used just a tad more, I think the film would have held together far better- he provided a focal menace the rest of it lacked.
Plus, it's still the only horror I've seen that actually makes CGI work for it rather than look silly.

Cool thanx for the reco, guys.

I've gotta chime in with some love for House Of Wax, that flick was indeed very brutal for a studio pic. I've been defending that movie for quite some time whenever it's brought up in a discussion, and someone says that it was crap. In The Mouth Of Madness was great, saw it with my dad when i bought the dvd, in August, and he loved it. Event Horizon was great as well. I bought the new deluxe dvd of it earlier in the year, and it still holds up as an awesome "haunted house" flick.

I'll throw in 2 Nightmare sequels, Freddy's Revenge, and The Dream Child, and the Argento produced Demons flicks.

The two Nightmare sequels seem to garner the most hate, but in retrospect, they're not that bad, especially Freddy's Revenge, he was still that dark humorless villain, and he looked downright freaky as well. I just caught it on cinemax last week, at my friends house after not having seen it in 3 years, and it's still a decent little flick. I guess to many folks focus on the gay undertones, but those aside it's still cool. There are some unintentional comic bits though, like when Mark Patton screams after he sees that he's killed the coach, and his "dance" scene. Those 2 scenes aside, it's an underrated horror flick.

The Dream Child, I remember reading somewhere that it failed, because they tried to bring back the darker Freddy, and that's not what everyone wanted. I remember seeing the film way back when I was a kid, and it frightend me, much like Freddy's Revenge, and the first Nightmare. I still dig it, and the death of the boyfriend is still a great visual effects piece.

Demons and Demons 2 are two great little mindless horror flicks that in typical Argento fashion put plot second and action and scares first. The first has that awesome bike scene in the theater, not to mention the great effects throughout, and the second channels a bit of Videodrome in the beginning, and has a great fight in the car lot. These flicks have some pretty big plot holes, but they're great nonetheless.

I actually found the gay erotocism theme provided most of the entertainment value of the film, myself, primarily because it didn't appear to be intentional.

I don't remember it being mentioned, but if it was, I apologize, but as long as we're throwing sequels out there, I have a serious case of unnatural affection for Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. I actually prefer it to the first one. I don't know how fellow Chewers feel, but around these parts that's considered blaspheme.

I going to have to say Night of the Demons. It's one of the most entertaining horror movies ever made.