Lists make the world spin and, more importantly, keep the forum alert and healthy.

I'm looking for five horror films (feel free to use a broad definition if it makes your list look more compelling) that you believe haven't got the attention they deserve. Perhaps they've been misunderstood, even. Perhaps they aren't really horror movies -- not by the strictest defintion -- but you find them frightening all the same. Being John Malkovich, for example, is considered a terrifying horror film by one of my friends.

Some horror films I felt were overlooked:

Urban Legends:Final Cut
Identity
Gothika
Dracula 2000
Captivity
See No Evil
The Order
The Forsaken
Bless The Child
Midnight Meat Train
Train
Wrong Turn
Cabin Fever
Ghost Ship

I haven't compiled my list just yet, but I'll post this page as an invaluable resource.

Off the top of my head:

"The Other"
"Theater of Blood" (just as much a spoof)
"Black Christmas" (1974)
"Martin"
"Splice" (because it managed to pique my interest in a time where this genre is all but dead)

The Matrix is pretty terrifying. Imagine living in a world where the messiah has no compunction about gunning down innocent people because they might be used in the temporary service of the enemy.

That includes you--a peon who has no idea what's going on and is only trying to make it in this world.

This is an excellent example, exactly the kind of movie I had in mind when I started this thread. I was impressed with Martin when I caught it last year and went out looking for some under-the-radar horror titles for a brief spell. Demons, from 1985, was one I checked out during this phase. I'll check out the IMDB pages on some of the other titles under the assumption they made the company of the Romero flick for a reason.



Interesting choice. It paves the way for inclusion of many ostensibly non-horror outtings such as beloved Solaris, Memento and The Truman Show. Well played, sir.

Five? That's tough, man. I'll invert that digit and provide two:

1. James Gunn's Slither. I know you weren't a huge fan of Super but I'm really digging Gunn's work so far. I saw Slither shortly after it came out and it's definitely good stuff. Funny stuff too. And...and....? Oh! Nathan Fillion!

2. The Loved Ones

I remember your review of The Loved Ones and thank you for the re-mentioning. I'll make an earnest attempt at finding the film... eventually. It goes on the list, anyway.

Slither was okay. I liked the previously mentioned Cabin Fever a hell of a lot more.

No, they're not similar. Both are DTV-quality.

Along this line, I'd say the documentary "Jesus Camp" is probably the most frightening non-horror film I've ever seen. If there was ever a case to abolish religion, this would be it.

Book of Blood - I saw this and Dread after I saw Midnight Meat Train; all released relatively close to each other, and I think both of them are better than Kitamura's MMT
Dread
Candyman - The Bloody Mary / Candyman chant scared the crap out of me as a kid, and Tony Todd as Candyman is phenomenal. Big bonus is Philip Glass' score.
Hellraiser 2 - I think it improves on everything from its predecessor; more gore and not as dated.
The Ninth Gate - I don't agree with James' review of this. For some reason I simply can't articulate any better how I feel.
Frontière(s) - If the TCM remake was good, this would be it
La Horde - French zombie film. Not great, but an enjoyable 90 minutes

Definitely. According to this documentary, the Christian Right is a cult worshipping the Republican party. These people are so naiive and/or uneducated that they are blindly going where people tell them.

Consider the scene where the little girl starts evangelizing to the woman at the bowling alley. She and her pastor believe that it's God telling her to "save" this woman. But I've been in the same position before. It's great to feel like you're in a club. But using this little girl by manipulating her feelings is super sleazy.

The Forsaken? Really, Vex, are you feeling okay? That was one of the most boring, badly acted disasters I've ever seen (Schaech's attempts at acting are unbelievably bad).

I did like Ghost Ship though.

Well I thought it was pretty entertaining and the acting seemed fine to me, it was certainly a much better vampire film then that Twilight crap.

A thought just occurred to me.

Luke offered to bargain with Jabba and offered the droids as a token of his good will. Jabba didn't accept the bargain. This gave Luke no choice but to kill all the goons and save his friends.

What if Jabba had accepted the bargain? Luke would get his friends back, but he would be abandoning the droids--who are just as much his friends--in the hands of a vile gangster.

It's also possible that Luke had no real intention to bargain, that it was all a ruse to get himself into a position where the only way out was a cold-blooded massacre.

In short: either Luke really doesn't give a crap about 3PO and R2, or he'll contrive the flimsiest excuse to kill people in mass numbers.

Yeah, Luke Skywalker. Aspiring guardian of peace and justice. Kind of a dick.

Of course, Jabba is a very bad guy. Could he change his ways? Perhaps. But it would appear that the Skywalker felt that Jabba did not deserve fair treatment. Not sure if that's Jedi-ish behaviour.

Eh, Jabba's ego was his downfall. Like most powerful crime lords, he seemed to think he was invincible and paid the price for it. Luke tried to take care of the matter peacefully, but obviously he was talking to a brick wall. A bigger question would be why weren't Lando and Chewie able to just infiltrate the palace and take Han away in his slab in the middle of the night like they more or less said they were going to at the end of TESB?

Why did you post this in this thread anyway, Ken?

That once again, the messiah is a violent sociopath who thinks nothing of mowing down countless faceless background characters as long as he gets what he wants.

On topic: About overlooked horror movies. Not sure I understood the OP. Is it: five movies which are in fact horror movies but not advertised/gernerally understood as such - or ist is: five underrated horror movies? Well anyway: I think that the horror movie by default is a B-movie - and not taken as seriously as A-movies. I once was a fan of late 50s through 70s horror movies such as the Roger Corman (E. A. Poe) movies or the U.K. Hammer Horror movies (in fact anything resembling horror as long as Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing or Vincent Price is in it). Perhaps these are all kind of overlooked since I can't remember any of those being mentioned here, even though they launched many a career and inspired countless other filmmakers. But I'm sure you all know that.

Off topic (Re: Luke Skywalker - action heroes are actually sociopaths): yep, that is one of the reasons I liked the first Die Hard (even though it is hardly a pefect movie): John McClane actually thinks about his actions and seems to have a consciousness - at least in the beginning of the movie; he doesn't come out of nowhere Spaghetti-Werstern, 70s/80s revenge thriller or 80s action movie fashion. And that is also the reason the tv show Dexter (kind of) works for me: the "hero" actually IS a sociopath killer.

If Major ever stops by again and is still interested in some recommendations, here are three solid, under-seen horror films that I've watched in the past month or so:

Triangle: Frogster had high praise for this one a few weeks ago. I checked it out and found it to be a very interesting film. If nothing else, it's worth watching for its twisty narrative, which goes off in some completely crazy and unexpected directions. I'm not sure that the end result is as entirely satisfying as it could be, but it's definitely worth a watch. Currently streaming on Netflix Instant Watch.

Kill List: I wrote about this one more extensively in the Last Movie thread, but it's a film that has definitely stuck with me. It builds the tension slowly, creating a palpable sense of unease, before exploding in an absolutely insane final 30 minutes. I watched it through Cox On Demand, and I think it's still available there through early April.

My Little Eye: A horror film with a reality show premise. Like Kill List, it has its shocking moments, but it's more notable for the way it builds tension through atmosphere. This one is also currently streaming through Netflix Instant Watch.

I liked Triangle. It kind of fell apart in the end, but it was a fun ride until then.