I was listening to a podcast and they were discussing horror movies (it is a horror podcast, if I can remember the name) and they were mentioning the popularity of horror versus the under the radar, you need to be a bit of a cinephile kind of horror movies that the general public doesn’t know about. And that got me thinking, what movies would I suggest that I consider to be low tier, deep dives?
And if I did, what would be my criteria? Harder to find? A hidden gem among a horror director’s works that people don’t talk about often or at all? The black sheep of franchises? An original that gets shafted for a remake?
So I made a quick list from all the movies I watched from 2020 (maybe 2019) to present, even looking back at what I’ve seen many, many years ago to make a list of about 25-ish. I didn’t want to go up to 30 but not up to 20, that didn’t seem fair so we have a sweet spot of 25 deep dives in the genre that I think you should check out.
These are just typed out as is, I’ll include in year so you can see the ranges of older to current if that’s your thing so let’s get started!
Basket Case (1982)
Stephen King’s Silver Bullet (1985)
Carnival of Souls (1962)
Ganja & Hess (1973)
Tourist Trap (1979)
One Dark Night (1983)
Body Bags (1993)
Host (2020)
Cat People (1942)
A Bay of Blood (1971)
April Fool’s Day (1986)
Chopping Mall (1986)
The Nest (1988)
Stage Fright (1987)
Blue My Mind (2017)
The Void (2016)
The Mimic (2017)
Bliss (2019)
Night of the Demon (1957)
Terrified (2017)
It’s Alive (1974)
The Stuff (1985)
Little Witches (1996)
The Monster Squad (1987)
Waxwork (1988)
Looking at what I suggested, I see a big theme of 80s movies. However, that decade is so over saturated from a lot of the bigger franchises coming out of that period (Friday, ANOES, Hellraiser, Child’s Play, even Halloween 2+) But the decade has these great hidden gems of one offs and experiences of fun or wtf moments.
I am an advocate of pre-70s horror and I am happy to see that I provided some that, to me, are the launching boards of what the genre would become in the future. 
We are now seeing “elevated horror” or more modern, glossy, clean, sophisticated or smart horror emerging and seeing how far the genre has gone is quite cool. But we shouldn’t forget that horror is still looked down upon in some people’s eyes, the genre will remain underrated no matter how great we’re seeing it grow. We gotta remember the early stages of horror from the 1920s and really appreciate it.
Have you seen any of these movies mentioned? What would you add to the list? Leave a comment and let’s talk!
Shots of Horror 