Hey everybody! Kevin here.
Halloween is right around the corner, and as Fay Wray's resident film geek, I'd like to help you all get into the holiday spirit, by recommending these six lesser known horror movies to help you rekindle your holiday spirit. If Freddy and Jason just aren't cutting it this year, give these babies a whirl.
1. Dead Alive (1992)
Before he got sidetracked on King Kong and the Lord of the Rings series, Peter Jackson was New Zealand's finest, goriest horror director
Jackson's Dead Alive is one of the most disgusting and hilarious zombie movies ever made. It has evil rat-monkeys, a karate-chopping Catholic priest, a lethal lawnmower and lots and lots of zombies.
And thats just the beginning. Just wait until you see the ending. Jackson's love of climatic battle scenes didn't start with The Lord of the Rings.
2. The People Under the Stairs (1991)
This early-90s gem from Wes Craven is one of the wildest adventures in the entire horror genre. It tells the story of Fool (Brandon Adams), a 13-year-old from the ghetto who is drafted by two of his neighbors to help burglarize their landlord's house, in hopes of being able to save his family from eviction.
Unfortunately for Fool and his associates, their landlords are extremely insane, and the would-be burglars find that the house they're trapped in is like a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Everett McGill and Wendy Robie steal the show as two of the most manic villains in cinema history, scurrying about their horrible house screaming, "Burn in hell!"
3. The Bad Seed (1956)
Rhoda Penmark (Nancy Kelly) was the original little girl whose smile and good manners belied the heart of a sociopath. Way before the kids from The Omen, Joshua or The Good Son were pushing people to their deaths and killing their grandmothers, Rhoda had already done it all.
The half-century since the film's release has dated the dialogue pretty badly ("I saw some mean little gals in my time, but you're the meanest!"), but that's all really beside the point. The film's camp only makes it all the more compelling and creepy. Think Leave it to Beaver gone horribly, horribly awry and you've got a basic idea of what I'm talking about.
4. Ravenous (1999)
According to legend (or, rather, according to this movie), the Wendigo is a Native American spirit that drives those who indulge in cannibalism insane. Guy Pearce finds this out the hard way in Ravenous. As Lt. Boyd, Pierce is sent to a remote outpost in California in the 1840s, where he and his companions have a violent encounter with the evil spirit.
Ravenous is equal parts dark comedy and horror, combining the more outrageous elements of Alfred Packer and Count Dracula, and director (and vegetarian) Antonia Bird milks her weird plot for all its worth. Robert Carlyle steals the show as an off-the-wall wanderer with a dark secret.
Good stuff. Also, keep an ear out for musical contributions from Gorrilaz frontman Damon Alburn.
5. Hour of the Wolf (1968)
The late great Ingmar Bergman only made one horror movie in his career of over 62 films, but Hour of the Wolf is creepy as fuck.
The film tells the story of Johan Borg (Max Von Sydow), a painter living with his pregnant wife Alma (Liv Ullmann) on a small desolate island in Sweden. Johan has come to the island for relaxation, but soon finds that the demons living in a nearby castle won't stop harassing him. Soon enough he starts to unravel and his wife finds herself in great danger.
The Borg's plight was clearly an allegory for Bergman's own artistic struggle, but no plot outline or interpretation can do justice to the bizarreness of this movie. The film's demons are a crew that would make David Lynch jealous, including a "birdman" who crawls on the ceiling and a lady whose face comes off when she takes off her hat.
Awesome.
6. Urban Legend (1998)
Remember the post-Scream late 90s? That time when slasher films flowed out of Hollywood like the mighty Mississippi? Remember the one where the killer terrorizes a college campus, slaying beautiful young actors and actresses in ways referring to common urban legends? That was Urban Legend.
Urban Legend has understandably slipped into obscurity. Its plot was negligible. Its scares were cheap and contrived. It was a blatant Scream rip off. And its name wasn't even as snazzy as I Know What You Did Last Summer.
But watching it now yields a certain nostalgia factor. It's cute to watch Jared Leto flatly deliver his canned lines and see Tara Reid looking preppy and contained. It's funny to look back on Michael Rosenbaum before he was Lex Luthor on Smallville and Joshua Jackson back when he was still on Dawson's Creek. Cameos from Robert Englund (Freddy Kreuger) and Brad Dourif (the voice of Chucky) also provide cheap thrills.
Urban Legend might not shake you to your core, but I'll be damned if this movie isn't entertaining as hell. And in the end, isn't that what it's all about?
So there's that. Oh yeah, and if you can find it, watch "Erotic Nights of the Living Dead". Its a black and white Italian movie that I watched when I was 15 without subtitles. Probably the wackiest and most wonderful horror film I've ever seen. If you track it down, lemme know.
love,
Kevin