unknown horror movies

Hero

Scooby
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I'm a big fan of horror movies. Although, I've found that my interest in horror movies is weird. I seem to have an interest in horror movies that are really unknown. They were either showed on tv once and went to DVD or they just went straight to DVD. So, I find myself watching these slasher movies that no one knows about with no one to talk to about them.

Does anyone know of any unknown movies that went straight to DVD or were on tv once and disappeared?
 
There's an Australian (I think?) short called The French Doors, that I've seen twice on British Channel Four at about 2 am. It's a very little, and absolutely blindingly scary, movie about a man who installs some lovely glass panel doors in his new house. The next morning, he discovers that it's pitch black outside his doors, even though he can see the sun through his windows. I won't spoil the ending, but 'tis very Silent Hill, which is perhaps why I like it. 😀

Are you just a fan of slashers? I favour Ghost Story types myself, so I'm actually not as handy with Slasher movie recommendations as I should be. However, I do know that Urban Legend should be catapulted from the face of this planet, never to return. Scream sort of killed slashers for a while - although the films were great, they were a double edged sword. Yes, they made horror cool again, and yes, they gave us non-Dawson style teens back, but it wasn't until Wrong Turn and co. that the "Let's pretend we're Scream too!" genre died off again. Dunno if any of these are obscure enough, but here goes.

Are you into Asian Horror? Tale of Two Sisters is overrated, and utterly incomprehensible the first time through. Dark Water... well, it has a suspiciously similar central theme to Ringu, but with more water. The Eye is outstanding, but falls apart in the last act. The Grudge/ Ju-On is a little more scary than the American version, but manages to actually make less sense. God bless badly translated subtitles!

Ginger Snaps is sort of famous for being obscure, so it's not really any more, but it's possibly my favourite werewolf movie ever. It's got em... Well, it's got Cute Boy God from Joan of Arcadia. Gentlemen shy of the subject of... er... ladies concerns, may wish to avoid, however. Faith fans usually love Ginger Fitzgerald very much. Not least because she makes a point to refers to her younger, less insane, sister as B.

Dog Soldiers is the werewolf movie blokes tend to enjoy. It's got... em... Sean Pertwee... and... em... that Scottish Priest from Fr. Ted, who was in Trainspotting. Anyway. It's got squaddies, werewolves, lots of entrails, and relentless banter about football. Highly entertaining.

The Howling is not a wonderful film, but it's possibly the Eightiesest thing ever made, and as such is so unintentionally funny it's glorious. Think Knot's Landing, but with werewolf hippies.

Deathwatch and The Bunker are essentially the same idea from different perspectives. A group of British/ German soldiers are ordered to hold an abandoned trench/ bunker at all costs and until they receive further orders. Of course, there's a reason the trench/ bunker has been abandoned...

Speaking of Joan of Arcadia, sort of, Amber Tamblyn's dad Russ stars in the 1963 version of the Haunting. Forget the unspeakably bad Zeta Jones remake - the original Haunting stands up as one of the best horror movies ever made. M Night and Stanley Kubrick borrowed or echoed plenty from it, but believe me, it's lost none of it's edge as slow burn "- the hell IS THAT?!?!?!?" horror goes.

Oooh! The Hole! Not to be confused (Trust me...) with the Ring parody, the Hole has a very young Kiera Knightley and a very young What's-his-face, with the incredibly small mouth, from Wrong Turn. Ooh, it's also got Mis. Honey from Matilda. And despite all that, it is a genuinely cracking film.

The Last Broadcast. Horror fans like to show off by telling you how much Blair Witch ripped this off, but that means they've not seen it. TLB is social commentary first, horror film second, and the movie takes a very different turn to Blair Witch. Aside from surface similarities, they're entirely different films.

Phantoms is criminally underrated because it has Ben Affleck in it, but to his credit, he's quite good. It's also got a really, really, really young Rose McGowan. Also a bit Silent Hill-ish. A Doctor and her younger sis come back to a mountain town, only to find the place deserted... wo0o0o0o! Great atmosphere, but the ending is very patchy.

Don't Look Now has Joss Whedon's old friend (!Sarcasm!) Donald Sutherland in it. Everybody remembers it for a certain scene that was very, very blatantly ripped off in The Others. Bored me to tears (right up until said scene) but some people love it.

I'm nerdbound to mention Jacob's Ladder, though that isn't obscure at all. Tim Robbins is a Vietnam veteran who sees freaky-ass head shaking demons all over the place. The film is incredibly important, first of all, to understand the expression "The end was just like Jacob's Ladder" and second of all, because Silent Hill owes it's entire stylistic flavour to this movie. By now you've noticed the Jill Valentine Running Theme - she really, really likes Silent Hill, and is getting more and more Silent Hill obsessive as the movie gets closer to being made.

Frailty is intensely overrated, but has some cracking ideas in it.

And for really, really, really obscure, a netquaintence of mine made a short zombie film called Detained. Whoever finds that wins the prize. 😀
 
Crap I just lost the longest post on this topic...grrr...


I really need to see Dog Soldiers, I've kept meaning to and not gotten around to it.

Totally agree about the Haunting - you don't see much, but it's all teh scary noises and stuff that makes it work.

So as I've been "researching" for a horror film I'm writing, I've been watching lots of horror lately. For a good gross out, check out the Japanese film the Audition (which I've only seen parts of, but it's on the list). Apparently it is extremely sick and disturbing (and from what I've seen, it is). Also Suspiria.

Hmm obscure obscure - oh, lol, Blood For Dracula and Flesh For Frankenstein. Not really scary but hysterically funny as only 70s horror films starring Udo Kier can be. Also Bloodsucking Freaks, which is majorly sick and disturbed. Tromeo and Juliet.

No obscure slashers coming to mind really...The George Romero living dead films hold a place near and dear to my heart as they were filmed in my hometown. Also the Halloweens are classic slasher, even the bad ones.

Will have a think on it though, for the slashers...

PS Is that Father Deegan from Father Ted in Dog Soldiers?

Oh I forgot I saw this majorly screwed up movie May with Jeremy Sisto lol. It was really bad, but the main character is really messed up and there's lots of blood lol.
 
C
captain peroxide
Dog soldiers,great british horror
I'm not sure if this applies to what you're talking about, but lately I've been thinking about a movie I watched when I was little. I'm not sure if it's horror, because all I can remember is a scene with 3 buddies drinking on a hill, one of them finishes his bottle and he falls over... Then another one laughs and tells him he just drank rat poison. And then at the dead guys funeral, the guy who killed him looks up at a big picture of the dead guy and does the loser sign... Uhhhhh I can't remember but it was a movie where they make it look like suicide... But nobody I ask remembers it.
 
I think you're right, Buffy Summers... I think she means The Curve or Dead Mans Curve. (i only know this movie because it's a matt lillard movie...)
The Curve about two guys who try to kill their room mate in order to get an automatic 4.0 that any student gets if their room mate commits suicide. Sound formilliar(sp?)
 
Lol, my bad, I wasn't clear enough. It is actually called the Curve. Dead Mans Curve was the origional title, but they changed it. Sorry, Buff!
 
ooh there was a really dodgy 'we want lottery funding' type british film.

for those who arnt in the know every now and a then you'll get a british film which is made purely for the forign market. and bares no resemberlence to british life what so ever!

i can't remember the title but that probabley for the best.

a group of hip young cool people from londonn decide to do a ougi board for a contrieved plot.

of course one of them is black (with perfect BBC pronounciation!) and one of them is scottish (with out)

anyhow they let out this demon they promply kills them off and one of them (who i beleaves has a VW camper van) just happens to find his dad didnt die in a car crash when he was young but did infact get put in a loony bin for killing the blokes mum. so he goes for a quick chat (at 3am) and promply learns that they (when the parents were hip young things with a black mate and a scottish mate and all the other things that all british kids have) just happened to do a ougi board and just happened to release the exact same stuff happened. WHAT A COINCEDENCE!!!

about now some bloke who knows exactly whats going on shows up to help but they get scared of him and run away.

anyone remember the title?
 
Jill Valentine - The French Doors doesn't sound that scary the way you described it. LOL. I guess it's something I have to see to be scared? Yeah, I agree. Urban Legends final cut was really bad. I think the first one was bad, but at least some what decent. The second one was just a train wreck. I have the Grudge and the Ring. They're pretty good, although I wasn't scared. The only thing that scared me in the Grudge was when Nikko went into the attic and the ghost lady thing was there. I've heard a lot about Ginger Snaps, but I've never seen it before. The Last Broadcast sounds interesting. I'll check it out.

buffy and morbid - i was just looking at that movie on imdb.com today. lol

Faldor - oh! i have that movie! i have it on tape i think! is it called Dead Above Ground by any chance? or something like that...
 
Hmm.. well I remember searching and scrounging for this older Dimension Films movie called "Nightwatch" starring Ewan MacGregor and I've just recently found out that it was actually an American remake--the original being Danish. The remake (though at the time I had no idea it was) was all right. I kind of want to see the original though.

As for other films, I try to make an effort to see at least one at the International Film Fest, here in Toronto. The sucky part is that tickets are pricey, plus you might even end up watching the film in a crappy university auditorium. But at the same time, you may be watching a gem of a movie, since the ones shown are hand-picked from around the globe.

Last year I REALLY wanted to see one called "Creep" and it stars Franka Potente (from "Run Lola Run"). I didn't have a car at the time and all the horror films were playing at midnight or just before, so I was unable to watch it. (The subway's last train is at 1am.) Anyway, one day I vow to watch it.

There was another one that was interesting called "Dead Birds" I believe. The interesting thing is that it's a horror flick set in the times of the Civil War or something. I've seen a dvd for rental at the local video store so I plan on watching it.

The only other film that comes to mind that I wanted to watch was one called "Darkness" and part of the reason was because it took long for it to hit theaters. I think it had to do with 'them' being unsure if it should go straight to video or not. I heard it received bad reviews though.. but I think I'd still check it out.

By the way, that "French Doors" film sounds intriguing. I think I'll try to look for that one. (& Jill, I think Silent Hill is wicked! I remember in the first one, being so freaked out and afraid of what my cousins and I called the "shadow babies" that hurled themselves out at you! haha..I gotta replay that one.)
 
i think its the curve in america and dead mans curve in britain. mine is dead mans curve.
 
If I may continue my Silent Hill nerdin'. Hollywood Reporter has apparently confirmed the casting of

RHADA MITCHELL BABY!

This would make Jill very, very happy. At this point it's still uncertain, but all previous mutterings have been fanwishing about more recognisable names like Carrie Anne Moss and David B. There's also mutterings about Laurie Holden to play Cybil, but my "Made up crap!" alarm wails at that one. Laurie Holden, you'll recall, was Marita Covarrubias in the X Files. Incidentally, Cybil is definitely going to be the only game character in the movie, which suits me just fine. I think there'd be far to much temptation to soften James up or remove the nastier aspects of Heather's story for the benefit of a movie audience, and that would annoy me very much. I still wake up shrieking at what Resident Evil:Apocalypse did to Jill and Carlos.

jayj said:
Jill, I think Silent Hill is wicked! I remember in the first one, being so freaked out and afraid of what my cousins and I called the "shadow babies" that hurled themselves out at you! haha..I gotta replay that one

Gotta love them. The shambling monsters in the schools were initially supposed to be skinned children, but at the last minute the decision was made to change it, because Konami were worried that it might be a little uncomfortable post-Columbine. Their worries were justified actually, because Silent Hill found itself playing the role of prosecutor's evidence more than once. Because it's not too mainstream though, the media are far more likely to pick up on a Doom reference in a trial, or GTA or something. I think my favourite enemies were the walkers, in Silent Hill 2, simply because nothing should move like that.

Hero said:
The French Doors doesn't sound that scary the way you described it. LOL. I guess it's something I have to see to be scared?

Well... see, it's scary because of what happens to him once he walks through the doors, but if I told you that, I'd give it away, wouldn't I? 😀


Buffy Summers said:
PS Is that Father Deegan from Father Ted in Dog Soldiers?

Oh I forgot I saw this majorly screwed up movie May with Jeremy Sisto lol. It was really bad, but the main character is really messed up and there's lots of blood lol.

It is indeed, Father Deegan, the nervy unfortunate who gets stranded in Dunnes Stores' Lingerie Department. That episode, A Christmassy Ted, is notable because I believe it may be the only time I've ever heard my home county on television. ("I won the County Westmeath Priest of the Year Competition")

Keep meaning to see May, because the Ginger Snaps crowd love it, but haven't seen it anywhere.

jayj said:
Last year I REALLY wanted to see one called "Creep" and it stars Franka Potente (from "Run Lola Run"). I didn't have a car at the time and all the horror films were playing at midnight or just before, so I was unable to watch it. (The subway's last train is at 1am.) Anyway, one day I vow to watch it.

I love Franka Potente, and I liked the concept of the film, but I've heard universally bad things about Creep...

Hmm.. well I remember searching and scrounging for this older Dimension Films movie called "Nightwatch" starring Ewan MacGregor and I've just recently found out that it was actually an American remake--the original being Danish. The remake (though at the time I had no idea it was) was all right. I kind of want to see the original though.

The original is almost identical... I guess slightly creepier, since I didn't recognise the actors, so I couldn't predict who'd do what. A little more graphic about the resolution.

jayj said:
I've heard a lot about Ginger Snaps, but I've never seen it before.

Go! Go and see it! Now! Go on! All the reviews I've seen for Wes Craven's Cursed read something like "This is terrible! Go and see Ginger Snaps instead!"

The first 2/3s is terrific, and any dialogue between Ginger and Brigitte is gold.
It slumps badly once the wolf itself makes an appearance - the budget was miniscule, so the wolf is quite, quite lame - but the ending is outstanding. Ginger Snaps boasts the most obscure cameo ever. Lucy Lawless provides the voice on the school intercom.

There's a sequal and a prequel too. They're even more obscure, and as far as I know they both did indeed go straight to DVD. Ginger Snaps Back has the baffling premise of like... I dunno, previous incarnations of Ginger and B back in colonial America. Ginger Snaps: Unleashed is sort of... Brigitte Snaps, but that would suck as a movie title. I've heard they're pretty good.
 
Jill_Valentine said:
Keep meaning to see May, because the Ginger Snaps crowd love it, but haven't seen it anywhere.

It happened to be on tv here last week, but I've seen it at our video stores (the cover freaks me out lol). Not sure if it's available in Region 2 though.

Frankly I didn't think it was that good, except that you find yourself saying, "That is majorly f-d up" frequently.
 
Yea, I've seen the Ginger Snaps videos, but I get confused... I can't remember which one is which... 😛 But yea, I really liked them, and thought they were pretty awesome for such a minisule budget 😉
 
* Smilingly and proudly polishes his wall plague, "Obscure Horror Movie Master - Level 8" *


Ahh yes, obscure horror movies, the gems of the genre. Hero, you're a man after my own heart, son. I love the stuff. Perhaps you've heard of such unsung fare like:


DUST DEVIL [uncut version] (1992) - A creepy tale about a cowboy clad, shape-shifting serial killer in South Africa. The natives believe him to be the incarnation of a desert demon they call the "Dust Devil", whose stock and trade is to roam the earth preying on lonely people. On the trail of this being is a homicide detective who is aided by an African shaman. Haunting and atmospheric. This one delivers.


DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (1973) - A young couple inherit an old mansion from her deceased, demon-worshipping grandfather. Years before, the grandfather summoned demons to our world in the basement, and unable to control them he imprisoned them in the fireplace down there, at the cost of his own life and soul. In the present day, the granddaughter unknowingly sets the creatures free, and now they stalk and terrorize her nightly through the house, unseen, looking to make her pay severely for the grandad's deeds. No one believes her, of course.
A chilling little tale, with a very downbeat ending.


LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH (1971) - A young married woman just released from a mental hospital moves with hubby to a house in the country, where they encounter a strange teenage girl who has been squatting in the formerly empty house. Weird happenings occur in and around the house, as well as in town, that only the wife is privy to, causing her to think that perhaps she is having another nervous breakdown. It turns out that the strange girl that is now living with them is an unusual creature that is an amalgamation of a ghost and a vampire.


DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (1981) - A mentally-challenged young man is accused of the murder of a little girl which he did not commit.
He attempts to hide from his accusers by dressing up as a scarecrow and propping himself up in a cornfield.

A search posse is organized and they eventually hunt him down and shoot him in the cornfield.

Afterwards....the members of the search party are hunted and killed one by one by a mysterious scarecrow. I won't spoil the rest of it for ya.

This movie may sound like your standard cheesy horror fare, but this is in fact a well done production. And the ending of this movie will leave you thinking for a long while.


FROM BEYOND (1986) - Based on the H.P. Lovecraft story of the same name, this story concerns two scientists, Doctors Crawford Tillinghast and Edward Pretorious, who invent a device called the Resonator.
This device is supposed to stimulate the pineal gland, believed to be the center of the much-theorized "sixth sense" in humans.
However, the device turns out to be more powerful than expected. It is capable of opening a door to a strange new dimension of perception....one inhabited by weird and dangerous creatures that co-exist in our reality, but that we are unable to see under normal circumstances. The Resonator meshes the two realities, making us aware of these creatures around us, but it also makes THEM aware of US, unfortunately.
The first activation of the device causes the death of one of the scientists, leading authorities to believe Dr. Tillinghast (played by genre fave Jeffery Combs) to be responsible for the murder. Now in a mental hospital, he is forced to go back to the house where the experiment occured under the supervision of a detective and a psychologist (played by Ken Foree and Barbra Crampton, respectively) to find out exactly what happened there.
This movie is from the same film makers that brought us the cult horror hit "The Re-Animator". It's an underrated gem.


More to come later................
 
J
Jill_Valentine
Wall plague? ;p Terrific post. Time to hurt my wallet again, it seems.
C
captain peroxide
Drat and double drat*he steals in darstardly manor*
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