Lesser known horror films
 

And even early works of horror by leading filmmakers.

It's a real shame we don't have a thread devoted to them, because most of the pioneers of horror who shaped the genre had some really good and solid lesser-known works and early flicks which were outright solid and awesome.

This thread will be devoted to discuss those films and also act as a sort of recommendation thread to other ardent horror fans keen to check out such films of great filmmakers.

Let's start with George Romero. We know all about his "Dead" films, but what of the rest?
Here's a brief list :-

Hungry Wives aka Season of the Witch (1972)

The Crazies (1973) (admit it - only after talks of the remake surfaced that people started to take some interest in the original)

Martin (1977)

Monkey Shines (1988) (gets shoved under the Romero radar a lot)

Two Evil Eyes (1990) [with Dario Argento]

The Dark Half (1991) (under-estimated as well)



Have you seen these? If yes, would you recommend them to others?

All this and more. Bring them to this thread, and discuss.

The only of the listed films I've seen was The Crazies, which was a cool little zombie-esque survival film.

I'm going to check out the rest of Romero's stuff in the very near future.

The Crazies is a fantastic film, very dark, very cynical. They're actually remaking that one and, like 'Dawn', they'll probably ignorantly miss Romero's message in favor of blatant carnage.

One fantastic lesser known work of horror by a big-name director is Cronenberg's The Brood. It's very moody, wicked weird and has intense theories about the psychological effects of divorce and other parental problems on children. I highly recommend this one.

Haven't seen this one, is it any good? I love the other ones you mentioned especially Martin. You forgot to mention Knightriders, its a really overlooked flick of his.

Gary Sherman's film Dead & Buried (scripted by Ronald Shusett & Dan O' Bannon) deserves a place in the tread. For such a great movie it gets very little recognition.

I liked all three of them. I think Monkey Shines is an excellent underrated horror thriller, saw it quite a long time ago on VHS, so surely I'm now very much like to go for a 2nd viewing on DVD. The Dark Half was a very favorite film of mine as I remember a very good friend of my told me the story first and I just instantly become a fan of it and later saw it on a TV channel. The funny thing was that time we didn't have a single idea about the director & his legacy in horror cinema.

Seconded, for sure.

Hungry Wives aka Season of the Witch (1972) - I really liked this for reason.

The Crazies (1973) (admit it - only after talks of the remake surfaced that people started to take some interest in the original) - Naw saw this back in the day. Even have an old Pre-vra VHS ex-rental of it. Great film - very depresssing and dark. I' suprised more people don't like this one.

Martin (1977) - Another great and original Romero film. haven't seen it in some time but again all I have is an old VHS ex-rental of it and no VHS player lol.

Monkey Shines (1988) (gets shoved under the Romero radar a lot) - this for me was the start of Romeros downfall. Its not bad but not great.

Two Evil Eyes (1990) [with Dario Argento] - Loved tis for the Harvey/Argento section - Romeros part was like a TV movie.

The Dark Half (1991) (under-estimated as well). Didn't like this at all.

Knightriders - Haven't seen this in years but I remember liking it. It a weird concept. I must try give it a wacth again.

Bruiser - This was bad beyond belief. Every thing about it sucked.

AGreed with Elvis about DEAD AND BURIED. There was a time it was on everyones top 10 list but it seems not a lot of people have forgotten about it.

Does every one like STREET TRASH or has this one started to dissappear?

FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM is a decent anthology film with Vincient Price in the framing device.

Street Trash definitely has its fans its quite popular over here these days.

From A Whisper To A Scream is great. I've got a great version of it with Price holding a severed head and a meat cleaver.

Alone In The Dark is another one to few people give props too. I love it, it'd be great if Jack Scholder put out some more flicks like that and The Hidden.

I really dig Body Parts a lot of people thought it was pretty lukewarm when it came out but I love the darkness of Eric Red's script.

since participating in horror forums ... its funny but i thought all those films were well known .. at least around here

YA thats what I thought.

Good call on ALONE IN THE DARK - I wastched again a month or 2 back to see if I still liked it and yeah its still a great film.

How about Jose Larrez' VAMPYRES?

maybe black candles, symptons or the coming of sin.


harry kümel's malpertuis

Blood and Lace (1971) is a pretty good example. A lot of people don't know of its existence or assume I'm talking about the Bava flick Blood & Black Lace

http://www.esplatter.com/images/bloodandlaceposter.jpg

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066848/

I've been meaning to put it onto disc for a couple of people for trades. Quite a quirky flick.

A lot of the D' Amato stuff seems to slip under the radar compared to the bigger guns like Argento, Bava and Fulci (perhaps due to it's execution?) . I guess its more for the hardcore cinema crowd than the casual horror fan.

Blood and Lace is a great film great twist too.

I always wanted to see Malpertuis - thats one about the gods/muses living in a house...

From my Avatar you can tell I'm a Fan of Ratman - weird film - don't think its doen the rounds much either.

Ratman is pretty out there and yeh it doesn't get much recognition apart from the cult fanatics.

People can rag on torrents/etc all they want but they've unearthed some killer flicks and got a buzz going about some forgotten gems.

Yep left it out on purpose because it isnt a horror flick. Good one though.

Possibly, but not for the casual horror fan who knows that Romero is restricted to only the "Dead" films. This would be a good way to inspire them to look for other stuff of his. :)


And some very good recs already being discussed.

How about Fulci :-

Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)
Dont Torture A Duckling (1972)
The Psychic aka Seven Notes in Black (1977)
The Black Cat (1981)
Manhattan Baby (1982)
Murder-Rock: Dancing Dead (1984)
Aenigma (1987)
Touch of Death (1988)
A Cat In The Brain (1990)
Demonia (1990)
Voices From Beyond (1991)

**BUMP**

Ahem...

Why is Don't torture the ducking called Don't torture the ducking - thats the real question...

Haven't got around to watching a lot of Fulci stuff - I've seen Bentrice Cenci/Colt Concert/Devils' honey/Cat in the brain as well as the usual ones..

think i have them all bar the psychic :o

a cash in on the other "animal" giallos of the time me thinks

devil's honey - been years since i saw that.....sax sex :D

Cool.

How did you like them? One line descriptions for each, please. :)

Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971) - good early thriller
Dont Torture A Duckling (1972) - one of fulci's best movies
The Black Cat (1981) - david warbeck, patrick magee & al cliver - wasted opportunity
Manhattan Baby (1982) - yikes
Murder-Rock: Dancing Dead (1984) - fame meets giallo
Aenigma (1987) - snails ffs
Touch of Death (1988) - enjoyable nonsense
A Cat In The Brain (1990) - great poster :cool:
Demonia (1990) - so many better "nun" movies
Voices From Beyond (1991) - not awful, not good



sodom's ghost - yuh
house of clocks & sweet house of horrors - better than lenzi's contribution, not saying much

Thanks, Z.

Now it would be interesting to hear what Elvis thinks of them. He is a pretty big Fulci fan.

damn! I have seen very few Luci films..his mostly talked about movies as follows The Beyond, Zombie 2, House by the Cometary and New York Reaper.

But I hope soon I'll have a chance to watch somewhere The Psychic aka Seven Notes in Black.:cool:

The Fulci I've seen other than the big 4 (Zombie, City of the living dead, The Beyond and House by the Cemetery) are:

New York Ripper- Not really my bag. I enjoy some of the gore and the duck voice killer is good for a couple of quizzical laughs. The seedy NYC milieu is impressively conveyed, but I felt it to be a little listless overall.

Aenigma- I was pretty drunk when I watched this, but I remember it having a great deal more of the old school Fulci visual sensibility than most of his other latter work. Very dark and mysterious film. The snail scene is excruciating!

Manhattan Baby- Great opening, then right down the toilet. Nonsensical, goreless and featuring more Giovanni Frezza than I could handle.

Conquest- Sub-par but very amusing Conan knock off. One of his worst looking films. It's so gauzy I would almost belive the whole thing was shot with a thin veneer of silk over the camera.

The Psychic- This is a masterfully executed little mystery film. It's the first time Fulci collaborated with screenwriter Dardano Sachetti and cinematographer Sergio Salvati, the duo who would go on to contribute so much to his golden era.

The Black Cat- Well shot, cool movie. No amazing gore really, but full of atmosphere and a really bizarre performance from the dude Alex beat up in A Clockwork Orange. Really fun stuff. Great cat filming!

House of Clocks- El cheapo TV garbage with Al Cliver. Kind of interesting, but not really.

Cat in the Brain-Sleazy, disjointed and plagiaristic(even of himself!). A lot of gorehounds act like this is some brilliant dissertation on Fulci the artist, I just think he was a crabby, sick old man trying to scrape together a movie with footage from older ones. Still fun though.

I own Perversion story and Duckling, but haven't watched them yet.

What about Four Of the Apocalypse and Conquest?

They are not horror, ergo not included.

And thanks for the wonderful descriptions, shloggs.

I forgot to put Demonia in the list I wrote, which should serve as an indication of how memorable it is. A poorly executed, yet amusing scene of a guy ripped apart is all I can recall.

I recently got and watched Horrible AKA Absurd AKA Grim Reaper 2 AKA about a million other titles. I'm a big Anthropophagous fan, but this film was pretty much a letdown. Anthro was slow and meandering and had bad acting and effects, but it also had atmosphere and power and shock value. Eastman was a sight to behold despite the crudity of his makeup job. Horrible has some gore, but nothing as shocking and tasteless as in Anthro. The atmosphere is nil due to terrible lighting and dull locations. The movie seems to have been shot in a broom closet, the producers house and on a service road. Even good ol' Luigi Montefiorre's presence is somewhat muted by the decision to have him go sans makeup wearing blue jeans and what appears to be a dickies work shirt. Rather uninspired.

The ending was kinda fun though.

Also, thanks V for the kind words!

don't start listing joe's movies


and certainly not mr franco's

:eek:

how about big stars in unknown horror films ?


- tom hanks : He Knows You Are Alone
- Kevin Costner - shadows run black



hmmm cant think of anymore (unknown films being the key)

I won't. It certainly wouldn't end well!:D

I liked Absurd a lot more than Anthropophagous :)

I hear what you're saying tho I just thought Absurd was a better crafted film especially it pace and acting. I dug how the killer wasn't dressed up like a monster because it made the story a little more believable. I think it's a solid slasher.