Being a fan of all things horror, I thought it high-time I showed some love for the genre on this site. Horror films are great because they appeal to our most base natures, but also because they are allowed to be as loopy and imaginative as they want...well, at lest they used to be. These days, imagination has been replaced by lots of gore and cheap 'jump-out-of-your-seat' shocks. Horror films no longer follow you home and haunt your dreams in the stillness of the night. So, here are ten great horror films that you've never seen before (I hope). They will provide you with a much needed antidote to the teeny-bopper and remake hell that we are stuck in today. More importantly, each one of these films is very imaginative and will provide you with the nightmares you've been lacking.
10. I, Madman
This twisted gem from the eighties owes a lot to Freddy Krueger, but is also original and creepy in its own way. Jenny Wright (Near Dark) stars as a mousy book worm who discovers a very strange novel in the back of the used book store where she works. The dimestore paperback is called "I, Madman" and tells the story of a lunatic scientist who falls in love with a beautiful woman. The woman tells him she can't stand the sight of his face, so he begins to slice it off piece by piece and replace it with the skin of his many victims. As Wright continues to read, events from the novel begin to happen in her real life and she starts seeing a strange man, dressed all in black and carrying a scalpel, everywhere she goes. The movie is creepy, but also great campy fun. It knows how silly it is and flaunts it. It also has much more fun with the premise of books coming to life than the much later, bigger budgeted In the Mouth of Madness from John Carpenter. The finale of the film is as wicked as it is hilarious and makes great use of classic stop-motion animation (which is still a hell of a lot creepier than the best CGI, in my opinion).
9. Sauna
This Finnish horror film moves at a delibarately slow pace, but is unsettling as all hell. It takes place in the 1400's and tells the story of two Finnish brothers who have just finished fighting a twenty-five year war with Russia. With the war over, they are tasked with meeting up with some Russian allies and mapping out the new border between the two countries. However, before they begin this task, the brothers commit an atrocious crime that I cannot reveal here. Once they begin mapping out the border, they come upon a remote village that has a sauna right in the middle of the woods. The villagers tell them that the sauna can wash away their sins 'without the presence of god'. Naturally, the two brothers step inside and begin to be haunted by ghosts and demonic images that may or may not be in their own heads. The movie never really answers that, but makes it clear that the viewer can take it either way. The movie is not concerned with explanations, so much with terrifying mood and atmosphere. It also deals quite nicely with themes of guilt, redemption, religion and what it means for a man to no longer have a purpose in life. One other unique thing about the film: it takes place almost entirely during the day and shows that the safe light of day can be as deceptive as the night. Also, how many horror films can you think of that take place in the 1400's?
8. Q-The Winged Serpent
Q really feels more like two films. One film is a rather average giant-monster police-procedural with David Carradine and Richard Roundtree playing detectives on the hunt for an ancient Aztec monster called Quezoctaol that is decpaitating and eating a lot of Chicago residents. It's a so-so monster movie in the tradition of Godzilla. The reason it's on the list is because of the other story the film tells. Early on, we are introduced to a character named Jimmy Quinn, played by Michael Moriarty. When we first meet him, he is having lunch with a bunch of mafia thugs and arranging to be their wheel-man for a heist. He tells them this as he smiles and inhales his food, all the while making terribles jokes, as they stare at him like he is the biggest bafoon they have ever met. Then, the job goes horribly wrong and Quinn rushes home to his girlfriend. They have an argument about nothing and then he starts beating on her, but you get the sense that she does not mind and that they do this a lot. This complete two-bit loser than gets chased by the mafia thugs and stumbles right into the nest of Quezoctoal. He feeds the mafia guys to the monster and many more of his enemies after that. Once that's all said and done, he blackmails the city for a ton of money and a fancy title in exchange for revealing the location of the monster. He is one of the most original protagonists in horror film history; self-obsessed, dumb as a rock, dirty, completely unmotivated and uninterested in the events going on around him. And yet, you're rooting for him every step of the way!! Moriarty's performance is nothing short of magnificent. He should have won an Oscar. It's the only film I've seen where a single performance makes the entire thing worth watching. So, when you watch this one remember that the 'Q' is for Quinn not Quezoctoal.
7. God Told Me To
This movie actually shares the same writer-director as Q, b-movie mogul Larry Cohen. Cohen is most known for It's Alive, about a monstrous baby, but Q and this film are really special. Originally titled Demon, it stars Tony Lo Bianco as a New York detevctive investigating a series of random murders for which all the culprits make the same claim when asked why they did it: 'God told me to'. Now, that's creepy enough, but is really just the icing on the cake. Cohen throws in religious cults, kinky sex, the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ, and space aliens. Not everything works, but you got to give the man points for ambition. I also believe that the blueprint for The X-Files was created with this film. Also noteable: this is the first actual film appearance of Andy Kaufman, something Man on the Moon failed to mention.
6. 13 Tzameti
This Georgian thriller can best be described as 'Saw without the bullshit'. It concerns a young man who begins work as a carpenter for a real estate tycoon. After the job is done, the tycoon dies and our young hero is unable to get paid. So, he steals a secret invitation to a a special 'game' that the old man had recieved in the mail. The invitation gives very complex directions on how to get to the secure location of the game. Half the film is a great mystery asking just what the game is and who controls it. The other half is the payoff where you find out what the game entails. I can't tell you exactly what that is, but I can say that it's far more creepy and intense than a thousand of Jigsaw's traps.
5. The Pit
Ha. Ha. Ha. This movie just makes me laugh. The main character is a demented little boy named Jamie. Jamie is picked on in school by bullies, his only companion is a Teddy Bear that might just be possessed by Satan, and he has discovered a pit in the woods behind his house that is filled with little gremlin-monsters. You can guess what he begins to do with the school bullies. The movie is cheesy as hell and the monsters are little more than midgets in suits, but goddamnit if there isn't something creepy about them! And that fucking Teddy Bear is the scariest goddamn stuffed animal in the history of cinema.
4. Martin
George Romero's long forgotten fourth film deals with vampires in a way that no one ever has before or since. The titular character is a troubled young man who has moved in with his superstitious uncle. During the night, Martin sneaks out and seduces women. He then drugs them, slices their wrists with razor blades, and drinks their blood. The film keeps the mystery going right up until the last shot of whether Martin actually is a vampire or a serial killer with severe hallucinations. It's sad, brooding, and very quietly creepy. Plus, the ending sneaks up on you big time.
3. Phenomena (AKA Creepers)
Dario Argento is probably most known for Suspiria, which is quite a good movie (And is being remade, big surprise), but I think this film is his true masterpiece. It stars a pre-Labyrinth Jennifer Connelly as a young girl newly arrived at a boarding school. The other students don't take well to her because her father is very wealthy, but also because she seems to have the ability to communicate with bugs. She can make them do her bidding and becomes quite fond of sicking them on her tormentors. Toss in a deranged serial killer and a kindly entomologist (played by Donald Pleasance) and you've got the fixings for a great, creepy, disgusting ride. Jennifer uses the bugs to help her find the victim's corpses and everything comes together at an old mansion in one of the creepiest climactic showdowns ever. There's also a terrifying reveal of the twisted killer. Argento often misses the mark and just goes for gore, but here he lets the gore assist him in weaving a living nightmare.
2. Repulsion
And talking of living nightmares, Roman Polanski's Repulsion is a horrifying experiment in madness. Everyone has seen Rosemary's Baby, but seem to forget this one, which is odd because this is ten times scarier. It stars Catherine Deneuve, who at the time was considered the most beautiful woman in the world, as a very shy young lady who lives with her sister. When the sister and her boyfriend take off for a weekend, Deneuve is left alone for the first time in her life and she does not adjust well to the experience. The film is really little more than slowly watching this woman go completely mad. The walls around her begin to crack and hands reach out for her from under the floor. She also recieves two visitors who only send her further down the spiral of insanity. When the film first came out, it was deemed as a look at a person with a scizophrenia or a metaphor for sexual repression, but it's so much more than either of those. Polanski and Deneuve create the sensation that this could happen to anybody at any time, that is, if you let the walls close in on you.
1. Don't Look Now
No film has ever filled me with such a sense of growing dread as Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now. From the opening shots of Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie at their lake house, you do not feel the least bit safe. They play a wealthy couple who lose a child and then relocate to Venice to try to put their lives back together. Fat chance of that. First of all, the beautiful city of Venice has never looked so ominous. There's also a serial killer on the loose, Sutherland keeps seeing their dead daughter everywhere he goes, and the two keep running into a pair of old ladies who claim to be psychic and warn them of terrible things to come. There's also the suggestion that Sutherland himself is psychic but is too stubborn and American to admit it. The dread keeps building throughout and as the film moves on, you don't know if you are watching a dream, reality, or a bleak vision of the future. It all builds to the most terrifying reveal of a serial killer I have ever seen. That image ( you'll know the one I mean if you see the film) haunts me to this very day.
