Classic, Unknown Horror Films

[Mr_Vindictive]

So, I'm curious as to what horror films you guys consider classics that most have not seen?  I'll start the thread off with a very dark one:

Don't Go In The House (1980)

Rented this one on a whim last year and I must say that I'm surprised I haven't heard more about it. 

The film is about a guy named Donny who lives with his mother despite being around 30 years old or so.  He is fascinated by fire as his mother would burn his arms over the stove whenever he did anything wrong or had an impure thought. 

One day he comes home from work to find his mother dead.  She died of old age, and instead of telling anyone, he keeps her in her room as if she were still alive.  He then turns the basement into a metal room which he uses to set women on fire with a flamethrower.

This film is one of the creepiest and strangest exploitation films to come out of the early 80s.  Dan Grimaldi from the Sopranos, puts in a great performance as Donny and really sells the character.  Throughout the film, Donny is fighting with himself about his deeds and it is fascinating to watch. 

I highly recommend the film if you are in the mood for something strange.  Like I said previously, the film really surprised the hell out of me as I had not heard much about it before renting it.



So, what are some horror films that you guys love yet most of us have probably not seen?

[The Burgomaster]

I saw DON'T GO IN THE HOUSE during its original drive-in theater run.  I can't say I'm a big fan, but I agree that it does have a creepy edge to it.

[Mr_Vindictive]

It's not one of the best but it's certainly an experience.  It is seriously overlooked.

[Dave M]

The Mask, Canadian 3-D horror. This archeologist has an Aztec mask and a compulsion to put it on and trip out once in awhile. When he hears a voice say "put the mask on now", that's when you put on the 3-D glasses for the trippy part, then he always comes to holding a bloody knife or something.

[RCMerchant]

"PUT THE MASK ON NOW!" Hahaha! I have a vhs copy of that...it came with a pair of red and blue 3-d glasses! I agree...a great movie!!! Quite surreal!

[Scott]

I was up late a couple nights again around 2 a.m. and TCM was playing a Japanese film called GOKE, BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL (1968) . I watched the first 20 minutes till just after the plane crash. Really wanted to finish the film, but had to get some rest. I was having a good time watching this Alien/Vampire film. Hope it comes on again at a more reasonable hour, so far it's not rescheduled.

http://www.tcmdb.com/title/title.jsp?stid=631359

[RCMerchant]

I was up late a couple nights again around 2 a.m. and TCM was playing a Japanese film called GOKE, BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL (1968) . I watched the first 20 minutes till just after the plane crash. Really wanted to finish the film, but had to get some rest. I was having a good time watching this Alien/Vampire film. Hope it comes on again at a more reasonable hour, so far it's not rescheduled.

http://www.tcmdb.com/title/title.jsp?stid=631359

I saw it on TCM too,last winter. One of the more bizzare and enjoyable films from Japan...minus giant monsters yet!

I must recommend Mario Bava's KILL BABY KILL! One of the scariest ghost movies ever! And the music is truly haunting!
Also...MONILITH MONSTERS- A 50's sci-fi movie in which features odd stonesfrom space that, when wet, grow to skyscraper size and smash sh!t! Very good!

[Mr_Vindictive]

Great choices here guys, and as I had hoped, I haven't really heard of most of these.  Keep them coming.

[Derf]

I'll have to try to find Goke. But (sorry, RC), Monolith Monsters bored me even more than Day of the Triffids. "Oh, no! Rocks! How can we ever get away!!!" Maybe I'd appreciate it more now that I'm older, but when I saw it as a young man, it just didn't work for me.

As far as a contribution to this topic, I'll throw in Zombie Honeymoon. I posted on it here before. I don't know that I'd call it a classic, but it is definitely better than it could have been, and better than the box makes it sound.

[Scott]

I've been wanting to see MONOLITH MONSTERS for a long while now.

KILL BABY KILL is excellent.

You've probably seen Skaboi, but SPIDER BABY is a good one.

[Raffine]

A couple of my favorite 'unknown' horror films:

THE HONEYMOON KILLERS (1970) Based on the real life Lonely Hearts killings from the 50's, this ultra-low budget sleezefest stars the incredible Shirley Stoler as Martha Beck and Tony Lo Bianco as Raymond Fernandez. After meeting though a Loney Hearts club, they lured lonely women into romance with Fernandez in order to rob and (sometimes) murder them.

First (and only) time director Leonard Kastle was a classical conductor by trade. At first glance thoroughly exploitive and sleezy, the film features some wicked black humor, great b&w photography, some completely terrifying moments, brilliant performances, and a terrific score drawn from the symphonies of Gustav Mahler.

THE FIRST MAN INTO SPACE (1959) Made by the same folks who brought us FIEND WITHOUT A FACE, this seems like it could be just another rather boring low budget sci-fi flick. But when the newly minted vampire-monster starts ripping cows and people apart with its meteor-encrusted claws you know this is something really different!

This was scared me a lot when I was a kid, and I was pleasantly surprized when I recently saw it again and STILL found it a pretty creepy experience.

[horseshoe crab]

It's not traditional horror, but there's a film from 1990 called The Reflecting Skin that I very rarely ever see mentioned anywhere. It's about a boy experiencing a handful of unsettling and sinister things out in Wyoming, I think, in the 40s. It's not amazing - in fact some of the acting is on the poor side - but it's extraordinarily odd and keenly aware of how children interpret things, and I've never seen anything quite like it. The easy comparison is Lynch, but I don't think that fits so well. If I got all philosophical about it, I'd say it's like a nightmare that takes place in an Andrew Wyeth painting.

[Trevor]

 

South Africa's Jannie Totsiens ~ a truly frightening film with a dash of midnight black humour.

[Joe the Destroyer]

Scream Bloody Murder would be one that I recall, though I don't know if you could call it a classic.  I mean with a line that went something like, "I give you things, I take care of you, I kill for you, and this is the thanks that I get?" 

[trekgeezer]

Horror House on Highway 5 (1985) - I posted about this a little while back . I had never heard of it before, but it is an odd little horror movie about a homicidal ex-Nazi rocket scientist.   He runs around in a Richard Nixon mask.   The dialogue and the characters are very odd and it's hard to tell if the director was doing this on purpose or that it just turned out that way.


It's certainly worth a watch.