I love horror movies. I wouldn’t call myself a horror movie buff – I haven’t spent the manhours watching as much B-movie horror as possible – but I do have an appreciation for a good horror flick. Whether that’s a zombie movie (my personal favorite), an old classic like Poltergeist, or modern interpretations, horror is something I won’t say no to. Since Halloween is right around the corner, I thought I’d dig up a few of my favorite horror movies that aren’t exactly mainstream. You won’t find Halloween on this list! But you will find some great movies to watch this Thursday – just be sure to leave a light on!
Set in New England, City of the Living Dead opens with a priest committing suicide in a cemetery. This somehow allows the gates of hell to open and the dead to walk the Earth. Our intrepid heroes must race to find a way to close the gates before All Saints Day, or dead all over the world will rise and kill the living. I first saw this movie in my early 20s. My housemate worked for a video rental place that specializes in obscure movies, and we spent several months on a horror kick thanks to that place. City of the Living Dead is memorable for the effects, which were gruesomely realistic for the time the movie was released. Featuring live maggots and regurgitated intestines, the effects were disgusting enough that you couldn’t look away.
This might be cheating a bit, since the movie got a major box office release and features one of The Avengers, but I’m still counting it! The Cabin in the Woods is the perfect combination between dark comedy and gruesome horror. Sending up as many horror movie tropes as possible while still paying homage to the drama, Cabin in the Woods makes you roll your eyes just as often as it makes you cringe in terror. If you love horror, you have to watch this movie, if only to cheer and take a drink at every horror movie trope you spot.
This might lean more toward comedy, but since it features zombies I’m counting it. The movie looks like it was made and released in the late 1980s, but actually came out in 1999. Featuring the Japanese rock band Guitar Wolf, the movie tells the story of how an alien spaceship caused the dead to rise. The movie is part musical, in that the music plays an active role in moving the story along. But if you ever wanted to see a guitar transform into a katana, this movie is for you.
I’m finishing up with another Fulci film, because one just isn’t enough. Funny story about the title – it isn’t actually a sequel to anything, but the original Dawn of the Dead came out in the US shortly before Zombi’s release date. So to tie it to the huge success of the American movie, the studio renamed it Zombi 2, hoping audiences would flock to a presumed sequel. They also added prologue and epilogue scenes shot in New York, just to give that supposed tie more weight. Despite studio shenanigans, this movie is pretty amazing. It tells the story of a zombie plague on a tropical island, features terrible pronunciations of the word “conquistador,” and happens to have my favorite scene in any horror movie ever. What scene is that, you ask? That would be the fight scene between a shark and a zombie. You read that right. Zombi 2 has a choreographed fight scene between a zombie and a real shark, and it is amazing.
So now I’ve given you a few options for your Halloween viewing. And since I always love getting movie recommendations, share your favorite cult flick in the comments! Happy Halloween!
Image Credit: Robert Forto