The Unsung, The Underapperciated & the Bizarre: the 'Other' HDC Top 100

[The Flayed One]

Les yeux sans visage (aka Eyes Without A Face) (1960)

This can be touted, arguably, to be one of the most realistic and bizarre horror movies ever made. The viewer will feel both revolted and fascinated alike, while the images of the 89 minutes roll by. And at the end of it all, he will leave feeling surreal and nightmarish, cajoling himself thinking that it was "just a movie." Yet, the memories stay on...and linger in the thoughts...

The plot is a mix of sympathetic love and grotesque mutilation. In one moment, it leaves a huge horrific impact on the mind, and in the next, it touches the heart softly and tenderly. The direction is sheer brilliance personified, and the lighting and cinematography remain as one of the best that the movie screen will ever share with its viewers. Anyone who hasnt seen Eyes Without a Face yet, needs to watch it. I promise you one thing...you wont forget it...ever! - ___V___


Otesanek (aka Little Otik) (2000)

The literal story here is very simple in nature. Woman wants baby. Woman can't have baby. Husband, trying to soothe her lamentation, brings her a substitute object to cheer her spirits.

Based on a German fairytale, the plot of the movie explores the supposed deeply ingrained primal instinct of females to be maternal and the unhealthy obsessive attachment they can have to a placebo, whether it be pets or an inanimate object. In this case, it's a tree stump.

The real story here, of course, is the brilliant surrealist stop animation by director Jan Svankmajer. His combination of live acting and what most to be considered a lost art weave a fantastic cinema experience for all to see. The original tale, like most older childrens stories, has a dark side unto itself. Svankmajer brings it all to life in front of you, intermingling black comedy and fantasy to make a charming little film that is refreshing and unique. - The Flayed One

Lord of Illusions



L'orrible segreto del Dr. Hichcock (aka The Horrible Dr. Hichcock) (1962)



L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo (aka The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) (1970)

[The Flayed One]

M (1931)

Many argue that M is the single greatest crime story to ever be filmed, and, when viewed, it's hard to disagree. So why the hell is it in a top 100 horror list?! Because it's terrifyingly realistic, and utterly unsettling. Produced in an awkward transitional period between silent films and talkies, this cold-hearted serial killer movie has a curiously powerful effect on viewers through its use of silence. Its shadowy atmosphere combined with Lorre's magnificently creepy performance create something that paunds an uneasy fear of the human race into our hearts...and sickly illustrates what a creature just like us can do to someone just like us. - alkytrio666

Kafka and Poe are two of the cornerstones of horror as we know it. Because of Poe, the Gothic ventured into more intimate territories, the realms of our own neurosis and inability to resist our evil urges, because of Kafka, horror became a lens through which to view oppressive and terrifying social circumstances. M combines Poe' s concerns with Kafka' s, saying that the evil in all men has the potential to make us all criminals, in the eyes of the law, in the eyes of the populace and in our own minds. Peter Lorre portrays a man whose sexual deviance turns him into a monster, but this is rendered no more frightening a prospect than what his reputation does to him. Lorre's Beckert is a man who a whole city is after, a man turned into a monster and hunted down like an animal by his acts. All the while, criminals scheme in gambling dens and the police threaten everyone's personal liberty. M asks us if it is worth compromising the things that make civilization civilized in order to capture those who violate its edicts. This movie only grows in power and relevance in a time where America is asking these questions and coming up with answers that might not be to everyone's liking. - Doc Faustus

Magic (1978)



C'est arrivé près de chez vous (aka Man Bites Dog) (1992)

Man Bites Dog is a masterpiece of epic proportions. It’s a black and white French Mockumentary about your average everyday guy….who just so happens to be a serial killer. This film combines shocks, character studies, and some of the most pitch black humor I have ever seen. Ever seen someone snuff out an innocent old granny and laughed at it?
One of the most interesting aspects of the film is the film crews’ relationship with the killer. Towards the beginning of the film they find themselves intimidated by him, but the more time they spend with him and the more atrocities they encounter, they become more comfortable with him. Eventually, the crew ends up sinking to his level, assisting him and becoming partners in crime. To this day Man Bites Dog shocks and provokes thoughts from the viewer. See it. - The Mothman


Du bi quan wang da po xue di zi (aka Master of the Flying Guillotine) (1975)

It’s a Frisbee… no it’s a hat…no it’s a flying guillotine!!! Let the decapitations begin! As an unofficial sequel to the Shaw Brothers’1974 martial arts classic Flying Guillotine and an actual sequel to Wang Yu’s One Armed Boxer, MotFG surpasses both predecessors in action, gore and flat-out ass-kickery.

The film is a simple revenge tale in which the one-armed boxer is the object of revenge at the hands of a blind (but no less deadly) master of the flying guillotine. It’s all very paint-by-numbers chop-sockey, but the centerpiece of the film is an international martial arts competition that brings out absurdities of the highest magnitude, including a yogi whose arms can extend to freakish lengths. It is this eye for the bizarre that pushes MotFG from fun action to glorious lunacy. One of the many direct influences on Kill Bill this one is not to be missed by any fan of the genre. - Roderick Usher

The Monster Squad (1987)

[The Flayed One]

The Most Dangerous Game (1932)



Night of the Creeps (1986)



Night of the Demon (aka Curse of the Demon) (1957)



Nightbreed (1990)



Onibaba (1964)

[The Flayed One]

Paperhouse (1988)

Bernard Rose, who also directed the original Candyman, adapts Catherine Storr's novel. This intelligent and haunting meditation on childhood and dreams was called by some critics 'the thinking man's Nightmare on Elm Street' when it debuted in 1988. This label is partly true. While Paperhouse has none of the wit or gore of Craven's film, it is a deeply thoughtful and genuinely eerie film. The plot follows a young mysteriously sick girl named Anna who slowly finds that a picture of a lonely house she has drawn seems to actually exist in her dreams. The blurring of the lines between dream and reality build until the film reaches a surprising but not entirely unsatisfying climax. - zero

Peeping Tom (1960)

Voyeurism. We all do it. Movies in general are nothing if not voyeuristic. We are allowed to sit back anonymously and watch all manner of spectacle that we might otherwise never see. But in 1959, Michael Beohm’s portrayal of painfully shy newspaper photographer, Mark Lewis, took the concept a step further…and a step too far according to the critics and censors of the day. Lewis likes pornography… and he likes to kill beautiful women. Okay, we’ve seen that before. And he likes to film them as he kills them. Now’s it’s getting a little kinky. What’s more, he likes his victims to see themselves being killed – thanks to a mirror attached to the front of his movie camera. Forcing a victim to be a voyeur to her own death was a concept too deviant, too depraved for the audiences of the day. The film was savaged by the critics. Director Michael Powell’s career was ruined. Actor Carl Boehm’s career suffered similarly. Twenty years after its release, Martin Scorsese hailed the film as a lost masterpiece after his editor (and Powell’s widow) Thelma Schoonmacher screened a print of the film for him. Bathed in the sleezy, lurid glow of primary colors and populated by prostitutes, smut peddlers and an angel-faced murderer; Peeping Tom is still a powerful and provocative film. Watch. Enjoy. Repeat. - Roderick Usher

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

This 1975 film from Australian master director Peter Weir (Galipoli, The Truman Show) is all about atmosphere and imagery. The plot is simple: On Valentine's Day in 1900, a girl's school takes a field trip to Hanging Rock. Three students and a female teacher disappear. The film follows the aftermath of this event on the lives of the others. However, what makes Picnic so powerful is the haunting images, the way that the repressed sexuality of the girls resonates with the harsh, wild and untamed wilderness in the rock. For those who like their films to crash, bang and bleed all over the screen, this is not the film for you. But, for those who like to feel followed out of the theater by a film and to spend days trying to shake a feeling of dread for days afterwards - then pack up your basked and head to Hanging Rock - zero

Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante (2001)

Plaga Zombie: Mutant Zone is one of the best no budget, unheard of horror comedies of all time. It is a Spanish film, and it is loaded with everything a hilarious trash film could possibly need. Loads of gore and creative kills, likeable characters and a fun plot. Plaga Zombie: Mutant Zone, along with its prequel, Plaga Zombie, are the best and funniest films to fall under the radar - The Mothman

La Posesión (aka Possession) (1981)

[The Flayed One]

Ravenous (1999)

Ravenous is a tasteful combination of survival, legend, and cannibalism seasoned with dark humor. Guy Pearce plays an Army captain who is transferred to a fort in the Sierra Nevada foothills which is home to a motley crue of soldiers and Native Americans. Soon thereafter, Robert Carlyle shows up with a frightening tale of a traveling party who was stranded in the mountains. It’s a very well scripted movie and easy to get caught up in the insanity.

A solid cast and a unique soundtrack (that truly enhances the movie) make this a very overlooked film and a must see in my opinion. - cactus


Repulsion (1965)

Few films can capture the circumstances under which existence itself becomes terrifying. In the paranoid, silent realm of our nightmares, the last spoon in a drawer or a can of soup on an empty counter can become terrifying, sad or awe inspiring. Repulsion is like Evil Dead without the zombies; trial after trial, act of violence after act of violence as life becomes a source of sheer horror. Being a Holocaust survivor, Polanski knows that life, limb and sanity are harder to retain than people think they are, and that in many cases they are prizes to be earned and not things to be taken for granted. Repulsion does not just show things that are frightening, it shows what it means to be frightened. Catherine Deneuve gives a transcendent performance in what I believe to be Roman Polanski' s best film. A must for students of atmospheric and psychological horror. - Doc Faustus


Lik wong (aka Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky) (1991)

Oh yes, its cheesy, but thats the beauty of it. What's cooler than your hero getting his tendons sliced, tying them back together, and going back to fight some more? Riki-Oh is the story of a martial arts master who is sent to jail for brutally murdering the men who kidnapped his girlfriend, but in the corrupt prison when his fellow inmates start getting killed, things get personal, and its time for Riki-Oh to take out the trash. Impressive fight scenes (considering the budget), shallow but fun and perfectly cheesy characters, and downright rediculous amounts gore makes this film an absolute riot, and quiet frankly one of the most fun to watch films of all time. Based off of a graphic novel from japan, Ngai Kai Lam makes sure that Riki-Oh stays as comic-book like as it possibly can, and it suceeds. in spades. - The Mothman


Yin ji kau (aka Rouge) (1987)



Santa Sangre (aka Holy Blood) (1989)

An elephant funeral. A demolished church with a pool of blood. An armless saint. A man haunted by his mother. All snapshots from Alejandro Jodorowsky's grandiose masterpiece, Santa Sangre. It's a movie grounded in the circus, but it has more grand, epic spectacle and grotesque absurdity than any circus you're ever bound to see. Jodorowsky's vision is huge, on the scale of Buñuel, Fellini, and even Tim Burton. Dealing with a man taken over by the conscience of his dead mother, Santa Sangre is something on the same narrative spectrum as Psycho, but far on the other end; both a playful and powerful statement on the importance of identity and the turmoil that can occur in trying to fight for ourselves. Auteurs like Jodorowsky typically experience creative ebbs and flows throughout their careers. After losing some of his vision after El Topo, Santa Sangre is his return to form. Not a hushed whisper of a master rediscovering his vision, but the roaring declaration of a man remembering why he makes films, tapping into vision and inspiration with glorious, unabashed fury. - Fortunato

[The Flayed One]

Sei donne per l'assassino (aka Blood and Black Lace) (1964)



Shadow of a Doubt (1943)



Sleepaway Camp

Hiltzik's 1983 shocker worked for the low-budget, low-brow horror genre a bit like 'Don't Look Now' did for the art film. What it establishes and what it ultimately unveils need not necessarily work together; along the way there are plenty of twists and turns to keep viewers on their feet and guessing, and there is a constant aura of anxiety, as if the audience is supposed to know they're in for a big surprise and is left to frantically piece clues together before it's too late. The film carefully and immediately typecasts itself as a trashy slasher film. But nothing you've seen before can prepare you for the film's finale, a startling and disturbing bang which is left on the screen just long enough to haunt our dreams and just short enough to make us question what we've seen. - alkytrio666



Spider Baby, or The Maddest Story Ever Told (1968)



Society (1989)

[The Flayed One]

Spoorloos (aka The Vanishing) (1988)



The Stink of Flesh (2005)



Street Trash

This film has one of the largest cult followings out of any underground horror film made in the 80's. It takes place in a ghetto in New York, located in a used car lot. It's about a society of poor people who happen to stumble upon an old alcoholic drink known as "Viper" which when consumed makes you...well, it makes you melt. One of the best things about this movie is how shockingly politically incorrect it is. The way women, race and the poor are shown is one that is quite insulting, and not to mention quite funny. All this and some rediculous gory melting deaths make this movie what it is today. This movie pushed the limits of horror in the eighties. - The Mothman

Teenagers From Outer Space (1959)

And now, on to a movie with a less serious tone. 'Teenagers' is a film to be taken very, very lightly. If watched under the right conditions, it can bring oodles of laughs and a great, cheezy time. The effects are startlingly horrible, and the acting even worse. Obviously influenced by The Blob, and other low-budget sci-fi cheese from the 50s, 'Teenagers' doesn't concentrate on being scary, believable, or even good. It aims to entertain, and succeeds triumphantly. - alkytrio666


The Bat (1959)

[The Flayed One]

The Blob (1958)



The Brood (1979)

The Brood is quite simply one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Without a doubt it is the most underrated horror film to come out of the 70s. It's slimy, disturbing, scary, inhumane, and shocking. Cronenberg also takes his usual psychological route, exploring the power of our bottled-up emotions, and the shocking effects that a parent's issues can have on a child. This is one of those rare little surprises that many horror fans may not have discovered yet...and if not, they're in for a deliriously terrifying treat. - alkytrio666


The Dark Backward (1991)



The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil's Bride) (1968)



The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

While the late 50s found England re-inventing the classic horror film with Horror of Dracula & Evil of Frankenstein, in America Jack Arnold & Richard Matheson were creating the ultimate modern horror tale, in which the horror derives from the existential loss of self. Hammer Studios looked toward the feudal past of Barons & Counts and evil monsters. There are no monsters in The Incredible Shrinking Man- just the terrifying fear of the ultimate loss- the annihilation of self.

The Incredible Shrinking Man is a masterpiece of storytelling and a masterpiece of cinematic art. How could it miss- it was written by one of the greatest sci-fi/horror writers ever, and directed by a director who gave us many of the best genre films of the era. Richard Matheson wrote the script from his novel. Matheson may be the most underappreciated writer in the field of horror & sci-fi. While he's generally known for some of his major works- this film, as well as Jaws 3-D and Twilight Zone The Movie, and I Am Legend, which has been filmed several times. He also wrote the best of Roger Corman's Poe adaptations, including Pit and the Pendulum, House of Usher, Tales of Terror and The Raven. He also wrote one of the greatest horror comedies ever, The Comedy of Terrors - the only movie to feature Karloff, Price, Lorre & Rathbone. The movie that launched Speilberg's career- Duel, was Matheson's work. 16 episodes of the Twilight Zone were written by Matheson- more than anyone save Serling himself. He wrote extensively for television, including episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Show, Night Gallery, Star Trek, Amazing Stories, and the TV movies The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler. His credits are nearly endless. He may be the single most influential writer of modern horror.

Director Jack Arnold has also given us many films considered some of the best - Creature From the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, Tarantula, It Came From Outer Space, as well as the seminal high school melodrama High School Confidential and cold war comedy The Mouse That Roared. He always directed with a clear naturalistic style that served him well in the myriad of television work he did- directing many episodes of classic TV series of many genres- Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, Perry Mason, Rawhide, Mr. Terrific (a lost classic that really needs a DVD release), Love American Style, Love Boat, and on and on. Together these two masters gave us that's as clearly a product of its times as is Invasion of the Body Snatchers. While Invasion of the Body Snatchers dealt with cold war fears of invasion from within our society, Incredible Shrinking Man deals with an even more primal fear: What happens when your own body becomes your enemy? When average guy Scott Carey (Grant Williams) is engulfed by a radioactive cloud and later exposed to some pesticides it proves an unfortunate combination, as Carey begins to shrink. Fear of technology, particularly radiation and chemicals, was high in the Fifties- resulting in some iconic films such as Godzilla, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Amazing Colossal Man, Tarantula and Them! In movies radiation or exposure to chemicals usually results in abnormal GROWTH, perhaps a metaphor for cancer. But Carey is shrinking- a doctor in the film even calls his condition an "anti-cancer." This is what makes the film so unique.

Carey's first reaction to his situation is befuddlement- can this possibly be happening? But it clearly IS happening and Carey is forced to believe his own senses. The question is why is this happening to him, but there's no answer to that question, so Carey lashes out at the world around him. There are so many issues at play in this expertly scripted story-body-consciousness, gender politics, an individual’s relationship to the world around him, isolation, power politics and more. Many reviews of this film comment on how mean Scott becomes in reaction to his situation, but I think they're missing a lot. There are shots of Carey that reveal a vulnerability. A simple shot of a diminutive Scott perched on the edge of a couch that is now far too big for him says much. He's alone in a world that once made sense to him- and now he's alone, rapidly losing his power, and nothing makes sense any more. What is seen by some as misogyny when Scott lashes out at his wife, can also be seen as a desperate man seeking some way, any way, to assert dominance in a frightening world.

Scott Carey naturally loses his job, and with that goes even more self-respect, as he's no longer able to do anything to provide for his family. In desperation he finally gives in to repeated requests to buy his story, and then regrets that as it only makes his status as a freak more pronounced. He finds temporary acceptance and comfort with a troupe of circus dwarves, finding a bond with a young female in the troupe. That relief is short-lived however, as he continues to shrink and cannot face the midget who is now taller than he is.

Soon he is living in a doll house inside what used to be his house, his castle. What solace that brought is even shattered when his pet cat discovers him one day and decides the mouse size man might make a delicious snack. What follows is a harrowing flight from the monstrous feline. Scott no longer has the luxury of existential angst- he's now fighting for existence, pure and simple. He escapes to the basement and now he's truly alone - his wife believes him dead and he's incapable of getting back up the stairs from the basement. He's along now in body and spirit, leading a kind of Robinson Crusoe existence, fashioning clothes from scraps of fabric, creating tools from pins and attempting to extricate bits of cheese from a mouse trap. Things only get worse when he discovers he isn't alone in the basement after all. There's a spider. A hungry spider. His battle with the spider is an exciting action sequence on par with other giant insect battles of the time. Much of the basement sequence is done in silence- emphasizing Carey's isolation, and also adding to the tension. Grant Williams' performance is superb, and Jack Arnold's direction is exciting.

I've not told the entire plot here, but enough to intrigue potential viewers, I hope. I have spent a lot of time dealing with philosophical matters in this review but that doesn't mean the film is a dry and boring experience. It's an engrossing, engaging movie with plenty of action to keep you interested.

This is a unique film that deals with the very core of existence- what is existence? Where do we fit into the world around us? What can we do if we find ourselves suddenly in a situation we can't change, and may ultimately result in our extermination? As Scott Carey continues to shrink- into nothingness, as he knows he must, we hear his thoughts, as we have many times throughout the film, a touch that further serves to paint him as an isolated individual with only his own thoughts to sustain him. And so they do, as he shrinks down to molecular level:

"But suddenly, I knew they were really the two ends of the same concept. The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet - like the closing of a gigantic circle. I looked up, as if somehow I would grasp the heavens. The universe, worlds beyond number, God's silver tapestry spread across the night. And in that moment, I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of man's own limited dimension. I had presumed upon nature. That existence begins and ends in man's conception, not nature's. And I felt my body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing. My fears melted away. And in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation, it had to mean something. And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something, too. To God, there is no zero. I still exist!" - neverending

[The Flayed One]

The Keep (1983)



The Killer Shrews (1959)



The Last Man On Earth



The Leopard Man (1943)



The Other (1972)

[The Flayed One]

The Seventh Victim (1943)



Time After Time (1979)



Tras el cristal (aka In a Glass Cage) (1987)



Trilogy of Terror (1975)


Videodrome (1983)

“Don’t sit too close to that TV, you’ll ruin your eyes!”

Seems Cronenberg took this little bit of motherly hysteria to heart in crafting his mind-bending tribute to the Cathode Ray Tube. James Woods plays Max Renn, program director for a lowest-common-denominator cable channel. His relentless pursuit of smut and extreme video leads him to a broadcast signal that plays ultra-realistic torture and snuff. But something else is being broadcast along with the images, a buried signal that… oh, I won’t ruin it for you.

Hallucinations, madness and murder all follow as Renn tries to track tdown the elusive originator of the Videodrome signal, Brian O’Blivion – who (like the great and powerful Oz) will only appear projected on a television screen. It’s Marshall McLuhan’s worst nightmare as the medium becomes not only the message but also becomes a replacement for reality. Sexual perversion, media manipulation, spontaneous tumor growth, Debbie Harry and a man-gina – this one’s got it all! - Roderick Usher