Top Ten Underrated Horror Flicks

[son of brain hammer]

THE BOOGEYMAN (1980)



The rare Ulli Lommel flick that doesn't suck. This is an unholy combination of pantyhose, brutal murder, broken mirrors, and a malevolent spirit that possesses a telekenetic talent for supernatural SLASHING! I have been a fan of this one since I was a wee Brain Hammer. It still stands up today. The premise is interesting and the death scenes are excellent. The screwdriver and scissor deaths are two of my favorites! If you haven't seen this one you are really missing out.

[Andrew]

I'm digging this thread.  I need to check some of these out.

[42nd Street Freak]

Hmmmm.......Here's 9 anyway (but in no order)


"Halloween 3" - The ever welcome Tom Atkins, great gore FX, top notch set-pieces, a fine score, nice visual and musical nods to Carpenter's original and a memorable ending.  Some plot holes for sure...but the rest is gold.  Myers or not.


"Don't go in the Woods" - For some reason this gets ripped into even by Slasher fans.  Why?  Barmy script tat is full of camp gems, tons of lovely gore, a fun, no nonsense, killer, a stonking final twist and a HUGE bodycount!
Add to this a wonderful rendition of "The Teddy Bear's Picnic" to close the film on and we have a trashy, Grindhouse tinged, Slasher winner.


"Day of the Dead" - Now not exactly high on the underrated chart, but it's still a film that failed to do the business it deserved at the cinema and still gets a lot of negative views now.
I for one think it's wonderful.  I love the script and dialogue, love Bub, love all the characters (all acted to perfection), love the music, love the gore...don't really love the way the ending is handled I admit...but that's a small point compared to all the positives.


"Tower of Evil" - Pretty much dismissed when it is even noticed.  As again 70's Brit horror is wrongly maligned.
It's a sleazy, violent, psychedelic horror ride that mixes the more explicit contents of 70's Exploitation, with that wonderful 30's style 'classic' Horror, fog drenched,  atmosphere.


"Slaughterhouse" - Bags of drive-in/backroads exploitation atmosphere and styling mixed with a Slasher sensibility, some good gore and violence, some top black humour and a great psycho partnership.
Not so much wrongly disliked as simply ignored.


"Son of Frankenstein"
For me the best of the Universal series.  Lugosi is brilliant and gives one of his best performances, Rathbone is in top form in a pretty complex role, Karloff still does the business, the set-pieces are good and the film is perfect;y paced.
Out of the 'classic' 3 first films...this is the one I return too and puts the overrated "Bride of..." in its place.


"The Love Butcher" - Who? What?  Exactly.  This Grindhouse psycho flick is only to be found on long OOP rental VHS.  amazingly.  But it delivers all the blood, fun and insanity you could hope for.
We have a quirky killer with 2 personalities (Caleb and Lester), black humour and nasty moments of violence all mixed to 70's perfection.

SEE! Caleb go to his one room home and have arguments with himself!
SEE! Caleb shout abuse at his 'Lester wig' as it sits on a featureless clothes dummy smoking a cigar!
SEE! Lester shout abuse at 'Caleb's glasses'!
SEE! Lester blow a kiss at himself in the mirror and whisper "You, you're beautiful"!
SEE! Lester walk like he's wet his pants as he closes in for the kill!


"Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell" - I hate the dismissal that happens to 70's Hammer films!  They are actually some of the best Hammer ever made.
As with the final Dracula film (see below) the final Frankenstein film gets little of the respect it earns magnificently.

Cushing is superb as he makes the aged, driven, tragic Frankenstein a real mixture of the  genuinely cold-blooded and ruthless with genuine sympathy.
The rest of the cast is in good form, the monster is great looking, the sets superb and atmospheric, the gore great.
Hammer doing what it does best; Stylish, full blooded, camp, technically brilliant and drenched in a classic gothic atmosphere.
British horror does not come much better than this.


"The Satanic Rites of Dracula" - The most undervalued "Dracula" film of them all is in fact one of the best.

The much criticized plot (mostly by critics who never really listen carefully) of Dracula's to wipe out Mankind, is actually extremely nasty and effective as he plans to release the flaming Hell of the Plague.
And it's also backed up in some great dialogue that explains why he wishes to wipe out his 'food source', and gives the viewer an horrific image of what his plans would mean.

Cushing is in good form and despite his (and the characters) age he still has a strong physical presence, fighting back against being held by Dracula's 'helpers' and slapping some sense into Freddie Jones's tarnished Scientist Professor Keeley and still doing a fine one-on-one with Dracula in their inevitable, (and well crafted) final confrontation.

And Freddie Jones is simply amazing.
He delivers some choice lines with absolute mastery. His physical work here is also excellent. As he drifts off into the realms of dark pleasure as he utters great lines like "You need to feel the thrill of disgust. The beauty of...obscenity" we see his whole composure change.

While Lee's Dracula may not be as active as usual, this is made up for by him actually having some kind of character. Lee actually has LINES of dialogue!
Shock! Yes Lee has a chance to act as Dracula rather than just mime.
His speech to Van Helsing near the end is powerful stuff. And his put on accent as 'D D Denhem' (Dracula's alias) is also a great bit of Lugosi humour added to the dark proceedings and a clever take on Lee never giving Dracula the accent of Lugosi, the other most famous Count.

We also have the best 'Brides' of Dracula sequence in any 'Hammer' "Dracula".
The sequence in the cellar where the Female Vamps crawl from their crate coffins, pawing and hissing at their would be victim, is highly effective.
Add to all this the wonderfully cheesy, nicely nude and bloody Satanic Ritual to the entertainment on show here, as well as one of Dracula's most seductive 'bite scenes' on a soon to be 'Bride' and the film never fails to hold the attention.

Highly underrated.

[Andrew]

Hell yeah.  I think Day of the Dead is my favorite Romero movie. 

[son of brain hammer]

Satanic Rites Of Dracula is excellent! I'm also a fan of Day Of The Dead (obviously), Halloween 3, Don't Go In The Woods, and Slaughterhouse. Those are all great flicks. I haven't seen the others on your list. 

[Andrew]

Everyone sticks their nose up at Bride now cause too many people like it.  It sucks. 

[42nd Street Freak]

Ah...Number 10...


"The Island" -

Utterly barmy idea about modern descendants of Jolly Roger pirates living almost undiscovered on a tropical island who pop out in their boats now and again to rob luxury yachts and freighters.
Michael Caine and his arrogant girly-boy Son get kidnapped and thrown back into time as they chill out with the pirates and plot their escape.

A whole bucket load of top class British TV/support players make up the bulk of the pirates, with David Warner as their leader.  It has some great set-pieces (a scary opening boat slaughter with many unsuspecting sleepers waking up to find their throat's slit freaked me as a kid), a Kung Fu yacht owner, funny 'ye olde' pirate lingo, great scenery, a smattering of blood and violence, a few breasts, and a groovy machine gun fuelled finale.
It's big budget trashy craziness but it delivers tons of entertainment...

And again, where the hell is any kind of easy to get and affordable DVD release for this?  An expensive German release is all I have found.
The VHS is as rare as chocolate oven gloves and it no longer turns up on TV either.
Thank god for my old rental tape!

[son of brain hammer]

Ah...Number 10...


"The Island" -

Utterly barmy idea about modern descendants of Jolly Roger pirates living almost undiscovered on a tropical island who pop out in their boats now and again to rob luxury yachts and freighters.
Michael Caine and his arrogant girly-boy Son get kidnapped and thrown back into time as they chill out with the pirates and plot their escape.

A whole bucket load of top class British TV/support players make up the bulk of the pirates, with David Warner as their leader.  It has some great set-pieces (a scary opening boat slaughter with many unsuspecting sleepers waking up to find their throat's slit freaked me as a kid), a Kung Fu yacht owner, funny 'ye olde' pirate lingo, great scenery, a smattering of blood and violence, a few breasts, and a groovy machine gun fuelled finale.
It's big budget trashy craziness but it delivers tons of entertainment...

And again, where the hell is any kind of easy to get and affordable DVD release for this?  An expensive German release is all I have found.
The VHS is as rare as chocolate oven gloves and it no longer turns up on TV either.
Thank god for my old rental tape!

That kid was such a little douche! Hardly worth the effort. I haven't seen this one in ages, but I used to watch it on cable all the time back in the day.

[Larry]

Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell really is fantastic.  I've loved that one since I was a kid.  Also, Captain Cronos: Vampire Hunter and Vampire Circus.  2 Hammer flicks that I think are underrated.

[Andrew]

Hell yeah!  Captain Cronos FTW!

I'm trying to think of some underrated stuff.  Blue Monkey comes to mind.  Has anyone ever seen that?

[Johnny Truant]

I still love how the director is like "This movie sucks, but it still pissed a bunch of people off, so whatever." 

Oh man.  It really pissed my mom off when she rented it for me when I was a kid.  She thought it'd be like an ET type deal, and the movie box said the movie was rated PG.  Get that?  PG!  Someone fucked up.  lol.  Yeah about thirty minutes into the movie, she was angry as hell and taking it back to the drug store we rented it from wanting a refund.

Here is my list, in no particular order:

A Bell From Hell
Dario Argento's Trauma
Halloween 4
Lisa & the Devil
In the Mouth of Madness
April Fool's Day
Death Bed -- The Bed that Eats
Mother's Day
Freaked!
Tombs of the Blind Dead

[NightmareManiac]

I got a few, no particular order...


Night of the Scarecrow


The Mutilator


Devon's Ghost: Legend of the Bloody Boy


Mausoleum


Ghost Dance


Midnight Movie


Cut


Sleepaway Camp


The Hand that Rocks the Cradle


Cannibal: The Musical



NightmareManiac

[Johnny Truant]

I used to have Mausoleum on VHS when I was a kid.  I always thought the part where the guy gets the shit beat out of him with the bat at the beginning was great!

[son of brain hammer]

Mausoleum is great...but the double feature dvd with Blood Song SUCKS because the print looks like dogshit AND it's heavily edited to boot.

The sweet head explosion in the graveyard - gone. 

[NightmareManiac]

I used to have Mausoleum on VHS when I was a kid.  I always thought the part where the guy gets the shit beat out of him with the bat at the beginning was great!

I still got it on VHS, I love it.  My favorite part is the garden rake/sex murder, but I've always liked the bitch getting torn open in the air, ala Nightmare on Elm Street, too.

The sweet head explosion in the graveyard - gone.

That is a damn shame, I'm glad I didn't give up my VHS to transfer to DVD.



NightmareManiac