Obscure but Good Horror Movies, do you know some?

[Krazzman]

After watching a Youtube video about "5 Creepy/Scary Movies - you probably haven't seen"

I began to ask myself are there other good ones that I haven't seen yet. In fact on that List I didn't watch any but I am thinking of maybe Buying Grave Encounters 1 and 2 and maybe a "Zombie Flick" called Splinter.

So I ask you what most likely unknown but good horror flicks have you seen. Maybe with a distinct differentiation between creepy and jumpscares.

I sadly don't know any "obscure" ones. I think the one that is the farthest off was The Grudge or The Eye for me. But please enlighten me with other flicks I could/should watch.

[Olinser]

My favorite horror movie, that fewer and fewer people have seen these days, is most definitely "The Thing", 1982 with Kurt Russel.

I'll go ahead and assume you've heard of such classics as 'Silence of the Lambs', 'Evil Dead', 'Night of the Living Dead', 'Halloween' and whatnot.

Other movies that I've always liked, but aren't necessarily 'obscure', but aren't really that well known out of their own fan communities:

'Freaks' - 1932
'Hellraiser' - 1987 (sequels aren't that great, first one is the best)
'Event Horizon' - 1997
'The Haunting' - 1963
'Stay Alive' - 2006 (terrible guilty pleasure of mine. It's a terrible, campy movie, but I love it)

[Tragak]

Audition. The single greatest horror movie of all time. Granted, it's Japanese, so American audiences would need to be able to read at a third grade level :smallwink: but it's worth it.

It's about a widower who wants to start dating again, his friend (a TV producer) tell him about a show he's running auditions for, and lets the widower pretend to be one of the judges so that he can flirt with the actresses who don't get the part. And then the one he falls for turns out to be a serial killer.

It's a super slow burn that works absolutely perfectly: the first hour sort of pretends to be a romantic comedy, but it's already very obvious that something is very very wrong with her; the next half hour is a very tense missing-person thriller; the final half hour is the most brutal, messed up assault to the idea of human sanity that I have ever seen in my life. Would highly recommend.

It's not shown in European horror film festivals anymore after it inflicted a record number of walk-outs, vomits, and pass-outs.

Blair Witch, Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal were very good movies, but they didn't scare me. Hellraiser, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Blair Witch 2 were pretty good movies, but they didn't scare me. This movie scared me.

[Olinser]

Audition. The single greatest horror movie of all time. Granted, it's Japanese, so American audiences would need to be able to read at a third grade level :smallwink: but it's worth it.

It's about a widower who wants to start dating again, his friend (a TV producer) tell him about a show he's running auditions for, and lets the widower pretend to be one of the judges so that he can flirt with the actresses who don't get the part. And then the one he falls for turns out to be a serial killer.

It's a super slow burn that works absolutely perfectly: the first hour sort of pretends to be a romantic comedy, but it's already very obvious that something is very very wrong with her; the next half hour is a very tense missing-person thriller; the final half hour is the most brutal, messed up assault to the idea of human sanity that I have ever seen in my life. Would highly recommend.

It's not shown in European horror film festivals anymore after it inflicted a record number of walk-outs, vomits, and pass-outs.

Blair Witch, Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal were very good movies, but they didn't scare me. Hellraiser, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Blair Witch 2 were pretty good movies, but they didn't scare me. This movie scared me.

Silence of the Lambs didn't scare you? Certainly it doesn't make you jump, but to me, it was much scarier from a psychological perspective: the idea that yes, there are people in this world that are completely, irredeemably, unashamedly evil.

[Grinner]

I'll give Sling Blade a strong recommendation.

[Olinser]

I'll give Sling Blade a strong recommendation.

I'll second it, that was a good movie.

[Man on Fire]

Vanishin on the 7th street wa good, but for some reason seems very obscure to me.

[Wolf_Haley]

Xtro
Night Breed
Mulberry Street
Universe of Fear

All pretty good and underrated horror movies. Also heard good things about the Session and Troll Hunter.

[Kyberwulf]

I am hesitant to call it a horror. But "Dog Soldiers," is one of the greatest werewolf movies out there.

[Wolf_Haley]

Yeah Dog SOldiers was really good. Spoon was dat dude.

[Doc Kraken]

'Event Horizon' - 1997

Seconded, especially if you like your sci-fi mixed with horror.


I am hesitant to call it a horror. But "Dog Soldiers," is one of the greatest werewolf movies out there.

And thirded! Love that movie. The director also did The Descent, which is a bit more straight horror than Dog Soldiers and one of the scarier things I've seen.

[HandofShadows]

My favorite horror movie, that fewer and fewer people have seen these days, is most definitely "The Thing", 1982 with Kurt Russel.

Wow, would think people would see this more often. Especially since they did a prequal a little while ago. Now I can see people not watching the original The Thing from Another World from 1951. (Starring James Arnes as the monster. :smallcool:)



'Event Horizon' - 1997

A lot of people think that the movie takes place in the Warhammer 40K universe. :smallamused:

[Grinner]

Xtro
Night Breed
Mulberry Street
Universe of Fear

All pretty good and underrated horror movies. Also heard good things about the Session and Troll Hunter.

Mulberry Street is pretty cool. The story is a little weird, since they spend so much time developing one character only to switch suddenly to a different survivor. Great characters altogether, though.

[Bhu]

http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1193.0 My list of films for Halloween parties. Not all of them are obscure, and the ones recommended are intended for disparate audience types but you should be able to find something.

[Mx.Silver]

'Ginder Snaps' was reasonably decent, as I recall. Has a somewhat unusual take on the werewolf concept too (its lycanthropy is linked to a different 28-day cycle).

[McStabbington]

Frailty (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264616/?ref_=sr_1) is second only to The Descent on the list of top horror movies of the last fifteen years or so, but it never gets its due. It's a masterful gothic horror, and the idea behind it is absolutely brilliant: a good, gentle and loving father wakes his children up one night and tells them that an angel came to him in a vision and told him that demons had infested the world in the guise of people, and he had been called upon to kill the demons. With an axe. What do the children do?

It's well acted, an excellent script, and the final turn of the screw is worthy of The Twilight Zone. It's an exceptional film, top to bottom, and I cannot recommend it enough.

[Dragoa]

The Loved Ones is pretty good. Don't really want to give a plot or link to a trailer since I find it gives a little too much away and kind of ruins the nice slow burn they have in the first little bit.

American Mary is also really good. It's about a med student who gets into 'underground' surgery.

You're Next is a fairly good slasher.

High Tension is another pretty solid slasher(but it's french, so subtitles rear their head again).

Let the Right one In is interesting, but not really scary horrorish(more of supernatural romance). The original is...Sweedish I think? And they did do an American Remake, but I haven't seen it so I can only speak to the original.

I feel like there's a few more I'm missing but nothing is coming to mind.

[Cat Dungeon]

Trick r Treat is pretty good.

[Legend]

The Serpent and the Rainbow 1988. Not necessarily obscure, it was a Wes Craven pic starring Bill Pullman after all. But it was an interesting departure from Craven's slasher pic style into a more creepy, chilling wierd style, somewhat.

[JoshL]

Lots of good suggestions (and a longer cut of Nightbreed due out on DVD this year!) Depending on your tastes regarding older horror films, Legend of Hell House, Tombs of the Blind Dead and Susperia are all must-see films. They are all pretty dated though.

Speaking of dated, I assume you've seen the Exorcist (many parts of that film have not held up over the years!), but have you seen Exorcist 3? Highly underrated film.

Oh and seconding the earlier Hellraiser recommendation, the second is pretty solid too. However, 3 and 4 are particularly bad, so stay away unless you are in bad-movie-mode. They get hit or miss after that.

[Carry2]

Many good suggestions, but I'll second The Descent and The Thing.

I'll add Demon Seed and The Fly. The latter has some of the creepiest body-horror imagery one could conceive, and the former features a chilling HAL-alike with some terrific lines.

[Komodo]

Noroi: The Curse.

A Japanese film that must be watched with subtitles. The story concerns a paranormal investigator who starts by looking into a creepy neighbor, and moving on to a number of different plot threads that connect back to an ancient bit of lore. It might be called a japanese Blair Witch. The buildup is excellent, with a tense atmosphere and some very interesting characters. You can find this one available free on YouTube.

[Jyrnn]

Trick r Treat is pretty good.

I second this. It has the merit of having a little of everything. Great cast too.

[Gnoman]

I found a film at the video store recently called The Ghost Maker which was quite good.. It involved an antique coffin that was designed to temporarily gave the occupant a near-death experience, allowing them to walk around as a ghost. It's impossible to describe further without giving away anything, though.

[Brother Oni]

Oh and seconding the earlier Hellraiser recommendation, the second is pretty solid too.

Agreed on the second, particularly when they give a patient suffering from delusional parasitosis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusional_parasitosis) a razor blade and let him out of the straight jacket.

I quite like R-Point (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-Point), which is a South Korean movie set during the Vietnam War about a platoon of SK soldiers sent to find a missing patrol.
As typical for Korean horror films, it has this odd mix of humour and horror.

On a less scary note and more just plain weird:

Mr Vampire - action horror/comedy where a Chinese undertaker has to deal with a reanimated corpse. Stock full of Chinese mythology, it may come as a bit of a culture shock, particularly how strange our ghosts and vampires are compared to western ones.

Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind - another action horror/comedy with Sammo Hung. Starts off with Sammo trying to escape from two hungry ghosts (one of whom manages to take a bite out of him in graphic detail) and just goes strange from there.

[turkishproverb]

Obscure, you say? I can do obscure.

The Landlord-A weird Horror-comedy about a guy who is a (TITLE HERE) in a building that is possessed.

Paranoia-A good psychological Thriller. Starts with a guy's wife leaving him while a serial killer is loose in town, and things start to unravel as he gets an unexpected visitor.

[Bhu]

How about obscure but upcoming?

I'm looking forward to seeing these:

http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3246117/tiff-13-trailer-rammbock-directors-the-station-bleeds-red/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BloodyDisgusting+%28Bloody+Di sgusting%29

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1925435/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1117671683/harbinger-down-a-practical-creature-fx-film

http://roberthood.net/blog/index.php/2010/05/09/what-lurks-beneath-the-bleak-sea/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1975159/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2018136/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2716062/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2811690/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1649443/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1830713/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2673854/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2620736/

I'm hoping at least a couple of them don't suck (or are at least good 'bad' movies).

[MalicTheKobold]

My favorite horror movie, that fewer and fewer people have seen these days, is most definitely "The Thing", 1982 with Kurt Russel.

Seconding that a lot, and also adding "Prince of Darkness" and "In the Mouth of Madness" by the same director. "The Thing" is John Carpenter's second film in his Apocalypse Trilogy. While I don't think the other two films really measure up to "The Thing" they both work really well as horror films.

Additionally I would recommend:

"Cube" a rather strange film in which a number of strangers find themselves trapped in a seemingly infinitely large Rubik's cube of death.

"Triangle" a slasher killer movie with some time travel thrown in.

"Videodrome" and "eXistenZ" both by Cronenberg who did the previously mentioned 80s "The Fly" remake. Both of them have a lot of well done body horror and have themes of disconnecting from reality and the problems that manifest from it.

[thubby]

Silence of the Lambs didn't scare you? Certainly it doesn't make you jump, but to me, it was much scarier from a psychological perspective: the idea that yes, there are people in this world that are completely, irredeemably, unashamedly evil.

in my book that's only unsettling once, when you're first exposed to it and your world view has to shift a bit.

the ruins is one of the more disturbing body horror films that isn't well known. not great story wise but the visceral horror really hits.

[.rec] is decent. it's a "discovered footage" thing like grave encounters. the sequel is abysmal.

the mist is a blatant rip-off of the fog but it performs admirably.

white noise is a personal favorite of mine. it has a lot of flaws, but the one thing it does right is that it makes you feel unsafe. like there really could be monsters in your closet.

not movies, but an episode of doctor who featuring the weeping angels. one of the coolest concepts for a monster ever.

[Brother Oni]

not movies, but an episode of doctor who featuring the weeping angels. one of the coolest concepts for a monster ever.

Blink is interesting from the low key horror aspect, Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone is the big budget (but no less terrifying in places) version.

Seriously, stopping angels by illuminating them in the brief muzzle flash of burst fire rates up there as one of the tensest scenes ever in my book.

[GolemsVoice]

Pan's Labyrinth, while not outright horror, is certainly a good movie and has many elements of a dark, twisted fairytale. And the bottle scene.

Also good is The Uninvited, a remake of the Korean A Tale of Two Sisters. I've seen the American remake, and while it's not the most original thing ever, it was suspenseful and had a twist that was surprising.

[Serpentine]

the mist is a blatant rip-off of the fog but it performs admirably.What? :smallconfused:
I can only assume you're thinking of a different The Mist and/or The Fog than me... The Mist I know is based on a Stephen King novella about a monster-filled mist that overwhelms a town, trapping the occupants. The Fog I know is a pretty mediocre movie starring Superman about, like, ghost pirates or something, and I believe is a remake of a much older movie.
The Mist I really liked (and it's almost word-for-word in step with the novella, except for the ending). The Fog not so much.

I really like Trick R Treat. It's a series of short Halloween stories, all woven loosely together (I only just picked up on one connection last time I watched it... For those who have seen it - and ONLY for those who have seen it:I missed that the "vampire" in the Red Riding Hood story was the principle in the candy one. I'm not sure how.). Definitely no Infant Immortality in that one.

A couple of obscure zombie movies:
Undead is a really weird Australian zombie comedy-horror movie. Bit of trivia: one of the main characters swears almost constantly all the way through it, just about every second word. In the original script, he didn't swear once. The actor just threw it in for funsies... Makes him a lot more distinct.
Pontypool is an Indie Canadian sort-of zombie movie. All about atmosphere and philosophy. Quite cool.

It wouldn't be my sort of thing, but I've heard good things about Wolf Creek - it's a very gory Australian horror movie very loosely based on a real case.

I'm a big fan of J- and K-horror. I caught the end of the prequel to Ring, and I found it really disturbing. I also really, really like Hansel and Gretel and A Tale of Two Sisters. One Missed Call has my favouritest death ever.

The Host is a fun monster movie. The creator said he was sick of monster movies that tease you the whole way through and don't let you see the actual monster until right at the very end - in Host, you see the whole dude right from the start.

[Lvl45DM!]

The Conjuring is the old haunted house story told particularly well with good suspense and awesome jump scares. Note those last three words. Yes they can be awesome if done right!

[Tragak]

in my book that's only unsettling once, when you're first exposed to it and your world view has to shift a bit. Plus, I'd already "shifted my worldview" by reading about real life serial killers, so just the descriptions of pure evil doesn't surprise me as much as the things that actually happen to the good guys, and Audition was much more surprising.


the mist is a blatant rip-off of the fog but it performs admirably. Well, the gimmick might have been similar, but the plot was the difference between a monster movie (about people who become driven to villainy by the monsters who might kill them) and a revenge movie (about humans who start out driven to villainy by the people who did kill them).


not movies, but an episode of doctor who featuring the weeping angels. one of the coolest concepts for a monster ever. Bingo.

[Serpentine]

The only similarities between The Mist and The Fog that I know of are that they both feature opaque water vapour...
The Conjuring is the old haunted house story told particularly well with good suspense and awesome jump scares. Note those last three words. Yes they can be awesome if done right!Not exactly obscure, though. It's only just come out, and there's advertising for it fricken everywhere - Hell, I'd say Pacific Rim's more obscure, since I've hardly seen any advertising for it at all and the first I heard about it was from people who'd already seen it.

[Doc Kraken]

Pontypool is an Indie Canadian sort-of zombie movie. All about atmosphere and philosophy. Quite cool.

I forgot about that one! Pretty creepy, yeah. The concept was pretty creative and that scene with the infected radio techy after the main characters lock themselves in was fairly terrifying. Got to second that recommendation.