Good international or Independent horror movies? Or possibly cult classics….

Define "lesser known". I mean, I'm a horror fan... so a lot of films that would be not well known to the general public are some of my most watched and loved films. So, are you speaking from an outsider of the genre, or someone who is a fan of the genre but is looking for niche/independent films?

I'm an outsider of the genre, I’m a film buff in general but tend to normally shy away from scary films for fear of getting nightmares. Plus the magazine is aimed at the hipster/Indi crowd who I imagine would prefer films less well known.





I normally watch the horror films that are bad because somehow I don’t get as scared (like the re-make of “Friday the 13^th”) this time around I’ll have to stick to the good films, though if you know of any so-bad-its-good films feel free to mention those.





In other words yes to the lesser known films, preferably non-Hollywood films, even better if they are from other parts of the world, reading subtitles is fine by me.

ZARKORR!!

(okay, it is a monster movie, not a horror movie, but still)

Give me (and Mal) a few hours and I'm sure we can come up with a pretty hefty list as both of us are horror fans.

Australian horror movies! Yeaaah!

Definitely look up The Cars that Ate Paris and Razorback. I've reviewed both of those on my online show and I quite enjoyed them. There's also Rogue, which I'm planning on reviewing at some point.

In the vein of so-bad-it's-good, I really like Johnny Sunshine: Maximum Violence. In the spirit of full disclosure, I used to game with the writer, so possibly a few in-jokes are what made me like it.

thanks thus far:) looking forword to more recs:) right now I'm using a few other movie sites but I;d love to hear from you all:)

thus far I have "Ginger Snaps" that I've added to my list alog with "Repulsion"

*twitch* Ginger Snaps... the movie all the little teen emo girls love.

Granted, it's not bad, but there are far superior werewolf movies out there. And yes, I am putting together a list... I'm just really super busy at the moment.

Max: not a prob, I'm only adding GS because its Canadian, is it really that emo?

Raine: I've bookmarked your review site, hope you dont mind [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Rae and Reepicheep-chan thanks for the recs [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

kelly wrote:

Raine: I've bookmarked your review site, hope you dont mind [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

:D Aww, thanks! Hopefully I'll be able to do more Aussie horror movies in the future.

Alrighty, I think I've come up with a decent beginning of a list. All of this is personal preference, of course, and while a couple of them might be "Hollywood" made, they are underwatched and older, so they may not be that well known anymore.

We'll start out with:

1.) The Call of Cthulu(2005): Made by the HP Lovecraft Historical Society, this film features one of the most famous Lovecraft stories ever, filmed as if it were 1926... aka, a silent film. It's classic horror done in a classic way, although some modern elements do peek through.
2.) Re-Animator(1985): A classic zombie film based on a story by HP Lovecraft (I've been on a Lovecraft kick lately, comes from listening to "A Shoggoth on the Roof" while driving back and forth to Rapid), it's a story of a college student who discovers how to reanimate dead tissue. Hilarity ensues (at least it was hilarious to me), including a sequence involving a head... giving head.
3.) High Tension(2003): Speaking of a head giving head, there's a French horror film (I know, the French make horror films? I was shocked) called "Haute Tension", or translated "High Tension". It's about a couple of co-eds who visit one of their families over break, and a serial killer obsessed with one of the co-eds follows. And yes, it does have a head giving head in it. Definitely a must-see.
4.) Dead and Breakfast(2004): On the campy side, we have Dead and Breakfast. It's, uhm, well, there's a redneck zombie band which does musical interludes (well, they don't start out zombies) inbetween shots, features Diedrich Bader and David Carradine, and has a really hilarious scene where a guy keeps slipping on blood. I wasn't very impressed at first, but it got really funny when it hit the 'slipping' scene I mentioned. Also, the macguffin for the dead coming back to life is a Buddhist box which grants the owner good luck, but if it's opened, lets the spirit of the box possess the person who opened it. I don't think I've ever heard of any Buddhist anything in a horror movie, so the macguffin was a nice switch.
5.) Audition(1999): This one WILL be known to horror freaks, I can almost guarantee it. And if it's not, it should be. HOLY FUCKING SHIT. This is one movie that made me cover my eyes and ears at one point (really damn hard, but I managed it somehow), and I'm pretty jaded when it comes to the horror genre. Just the look on her face with the piano wire... *shudder* It ventures a bit into the "torture porn" subset of horror, which in general I'm not fond of, but it's so unique and so horrifying... horror done right, the Japanese way. It's done by the director who did Ringu, and yeah. It's just... damn, holy fuck. Takes a while to get going though.
6.) The Hitcher(1986): My favorite movie of all time, it has to be mentioned here. Avoid the remake and sequel at all costs, though. Basically about a guy who's a dumb ass and picks up a hitchhiker while driving across the country. Bad things happen from there. This film is almost crazy in the theories it spawned as to how and why Ryder did what he did. It's an oldie, but a goodie.
7.) Near Dark(1987): Another oldie but a goodie, Near Dark is about the perfect vampire movie... and it never mentions the word vampire. The acting is awesome, the gore effects are good, and it features a really young Bill Paxton AND Adrian Pasdar, as well as Lance Henrickson. Probably my second favorite vampire movie of all time.
8.) Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon(2006): Ok, I didn't expect this to be any good, but it campy and kinda scary. It deconstructs the slasher genre by being a "documentary" about a serial killer. A film crew follows a budding slasher (along the lines of Freddy or Jason) along and shows how he builds his myth, chooses his hero girl, and even squees with delight when an "Ahab" (a doctor or other authority figure which follows the slasher around warning people about him... think Dr. Loomis in Halloween for a good example) shows up. It's funny and mildly scary. I thought it was awesome.
9.) The Signal(2007): I believe this is an indie, but I'm not sure. Horror films--unless they have the "big 3" in them, 4 almost now with Jigsaw--don't get a lot of promotion unless it's around Halloween. It was really fantastic though. I'm not sure if it was a zombie movie, though people got zombified mentally at least, or just a "everyone goes fucking crazy" movie, but it was awesome. The action starts nearly right away and there's no explanation, which I really love. Most movies spoonfeed the audience, but this one didn't. It just went right into the story BOOM.

And that's it for now. I've some more I'd like to list, but I need to get back to work.

EDIT: Ah, yes, and as for "Ginger Snaps", the two protagonists, Ginger and her sister, are like goth-emo chicks who take pictures of themselves in dead poses for a school project, and are "soooo misunderstood" by all the "preps". It made me roll my eyes really hard, because I just knew the chick who wrote "My Immortal" watched and loved this movie.

I forgot another link I can give you: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Rogerswan inspired me to do my reviews, and he was the one who made fall absolutely in love with Japanese horror movies. He unfortunately passed away at the start of this year, but his family have graciously left his Youtube profile up along with all his J-Horror reviews.

Killer Condom, a German film distributed in North America by Troma. It's weird and full of black humor and features creature design by H.G. Giger. If you're looking for a horror film/police movie/comedy/gay romance combo, this is definitely the film for you.

Tetsuo: the Iron Man is a very good cult indie J-horror flick. It's about a business man who slowly becomes a pile of scrap metal. It's also shot in 16mm.

I thought Ginger Snaps was supposed to be a parody about stupid teenage girls.

Sleepaway Camp: When you look up "80's slasher flick" in the dictionary, it just shows a promo-poster from this movie.

I'm not a fan of the horror genre myself, but if you don't mind older movies with minimal budget, try Coffin Joe's classics, At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964) and This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967).

Exodia's Right Leg wrote:

I'm not a fan of the horror genre myself, but if you don't mind older movies with minimal budget, try Coffin Joe's classics, At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964) and This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967).

I saw AVGN's Halloween review of that series and it honestly looked quite interesting.

Raine wrote:

Exodia's Right Leg wrote:

I'm not a fan of the horror genre myself, but if you don't mind older movies with minimal budget, try Coffin Joe's classics, At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964) and This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967).

I saw AVGN's Halloween review of that series and it honestly looked quite interesting.

There's a third movie, released in 2008. Embodiment of Evil is just as good as the other ones, but Joe doesn't look as scary as before with 40 extra years of age and a pot belly.

Maximilia wrote:

5.) Audition(1999): It's done by the director who did Ringu, and yeah.

Erm, perhaps you're a bit confused? As far as I know Hideo Nakata had nothing to do with Audition.

Although, I completely agree that it was quite horrifying at the end.

Yeah, you should definitely check out the Cinemassacres Monster Madness, available on Youtube, as it covers the
history of Horror (and does a Godzilla retrospective). Good reviews and good, quick education in the history of horrors

The more obscure films from the list (as well as a few that may be obscure to outsiders) include:

1) The Last Broadcast a proto-Blair Witch before it was cool, and first film done in Digital and broadcast by satellite to theaters IIRC.
2) The Cat People The original, more of a psychological thriller, but interesting from a film-making perspective.
3) The Tingler Saved only by Vincent Price's performance and the ballyhoo gimmick history that goes with it. Also the first LSD use in cinema. Outside PSAs that is.
4) The Monster Squad Horror fan kids fight the Universal Monsters in the 80s. Great Camp Value and a cult following.
5) Brain Dead a.k.a. Dead Alive Peter Jackson directs the BLOODIES MOVIE EVER. rather like Evil Dead II (see below). Comedy and horror just naturally go hand in hand.
6) Bubbah Ho-Tep More of a comedy, but it has Bruce Campbell and Ozzie Davis as elderly Elvis Pressley and ("Died Black") JFK fighting a life-sucking Mummy in cowboy boots and hat. Great break from darker things.
7/8 ) The Black Cat/The Raven - Bella Lugosi and Boris Carloff chewing scenery and being EVIL. Both are an hour long but fun if you can take the pacing of 30s films.
9) The Abominable Dr. Phibes - Vincent Price in a 70s horror flick where he murders doctors on a revenge quest.
10) Creepshow - A Horror Anthology with Steven King doing the writing and Tom Savini doing the FX.
11) Evil Dead II - WELL known to Horror fans, not so much the outside world. Invented the term "Splatstick" - or just "Bloody Hilarious".

A lot of older monster movies not featuring the Big Universal Names (IE: before 1940) can easily go on the list (Nosferatu being the exception).

Just to warn, I like bad movies, so many of these may be "Your Mileage May Vary" but I can only offer my own assessment and no other.

There's also Dog Soldiers. The third act is kinda weak, but the ride to it is good fun. It's also a modern Indie monster movie film that DOESN'T have a CGI Beastie and is BETTER for it.

I'd also mention IT! The Terror from Beyond Space. It's a B-Movie through and through, but of interest since it's basically a proto-slasher film and "Alien as done in the 1960s". As B-Movies go, it's not that bad (it ain't that good either, but at least its watchable).

Night of the Demon/Curse of the Demon is a 50s British horror flick that had the basic concepts of it taken for the Sam Raimi film Drag Me To Hell. Both are actually good and aside from plot similarities and one having a twist ending, are quite different in terms of theme, characters, directorial style and pretty much everything else making both decent contributions to the Horror genre.

The Blob gets mentioned for being one of the few horror films to get a Criterion collection DVD and to have a decent 80s remake. In the same vein of "Old film with good 80s remake" I'd also mention The Fly and I'd be remiss to not mention The Thing. Of the three, the last one stands out in that both films are absolute CLASSICS. In the other cases, the originals are more effective for one reason or more.

Hard to find a good copy of my next recommendation, but Daimajin is actually a pretty decent flick. Not horror in the strictest sense, but definitely fun monster stuff--AT THE VERY END. The first two acts of this movie are a Samurai story with a dash of rebellion thrown in, but the looming threat of the demon god Daimajin remains pretty present throughout. Daimajin is, of course, a Kaiju (like Godzilla, only not), but outright stated to be a god. When it is finally awakened in the final act, it is quite satisfying. It's like an episode of the 70s Incredible Hulk TV show. You're just waiting for the Hulk to show up and kick ass and are quite satisfied when he does.

Feast is another indie horror flick I found enjoyable--though it got some recognition as the product of "Project Greenlight". It flouts conventional horror film ethos HEAVILY.

Island of Terror is a Hammer production (a sign of fun to be had) featuring Peter Cushing. 60s era monster effects don't detract from the final scenes of the film which are VERY WELL DONE without a word of dialogue. One of my favorites and the concept of the monsters (the "Silicate") is still kinda scary.

Mosquito -- For a 90s (effectively) direct to video indie horror flick about 4ft long mutant mosquitoes--it's not that bad. Of course, it's still an direct to video horror flick from the 1990s about 4ft long mutant mosquitoes with some pretty goofy special effects (and some special effects failure). It also has the Gunnar Hansen, who played Leatherface in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Honestly, it's bad--but in a good way.

Slither is a nice millennial throwback to the goretastic 80s horror flicks. Staring Nathan Fillion, it's not that bad all things considered. It's gory and goofy, but good fun.

The Sound of Horror is a Spanish film, set in Greece about an invisible dinosaur terrorizing a group of treasure hunters in a house in the countryside. Yeah, it's not that good, but it presents an interesting contrast to the film Night of the Living Dead which takes its "Monster(s) outside trying to kill people"/"Locked Room movie" and instead of using the Vietnam war as its inspiration for style, goes to the threat of nuclear annihilation/lingering radiation for its metaphoric fun. Sadly, only available in a poorly dubbed DVD release stateside, hence my warning about not being that good.

Them! is actually pretty effective and well written. It's the movie that started the whole "Giant Radioactive Bugs" genre, and it has everything going for it except one thing. It has Atmosphere, it has a good script and it has great actors. Too bad the FX budget for the ants could only go so far. They're GREAT puppets for the 1950s, but today, they look rather quaint. I still love it. On that note, Tarantula is the only other giant bug movie even worth mentioning if only for having an epic soundtrack and some good direction (as well as Clint Eastwood's second big screen appearance. The first being Revenge of the Creature).

Finally, I want to mention Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein for its great combination of old school horror and comedy. It's a classic that more people need to be made aware of.

Yeah, I'm more of a monster movie than horror guy, and my recommendations show it. I'm sure you'd get more good stuff from everyone else.

Seconding Brain Dead, and if you like that, there's a brilliant Norwegian zombie film called Død snø (Dead Snow), which is about zombie Nazis. Or Nazi zombies. I wasn't entirely sure which.

Kremlin wrote:

Maximilia wrote:

5.) Audition(1999): It's done by the director who did Ringu, and yeah.

Erm, perhaps you're a bit confused? As far as I know Hideo Nakata had nothing to do with Audition.

Although, I completely agree that it was quite horrifying at the end.

You're completely right. There's been such an explosion of J-horror lately... he did Ichi the Killer (which I haven't seen yet, but it's on my queue) and One Missed Call, which was alright. Not brilliant, but it was ok.

*a quick ty ladies and gents, off to start my list. feel free 'em coming *