If the shelves in the DVD and Blu-Ray aisles are anything to go by, you’d think that the British horror industry was in full bloom at the rate that new UK horror movies are being released each week. The problem is that very few of them are actually good and most are simply knock-offs of bigger-budgeted and more successful films.
Here, though, are some exceptions.
Staying away from some of the bigger box office successes of the last few years (like The Woman In Black, for example) and avoiding the straight-to-DVD sequel market, what follows is ten of the most underrated, little-seen and actually really rather great horror movies from the United Kingdom in the last ten years.
10. Severance
It pains me to give any coverage to a film featuring Danny Dyer but the fact that I’m doing so should go some way to indicating just how solid it actually is. Directed by Christopher Smith, who’s going to feature heavily in this list, the film carves its own three-act structure into three distinctly different parts that shouldn’t mesh well together but somehow do, although many a film critic is quick to suggest that one of Severance’s flaws is that it all comes undone by its final act. Up until that point though, you’re treated to a fitfully amusing dark comedy, an atmospheric and surprisingly tense conventional slasher flick and, finally, a balls-to-the-wall gory piece of absurdist nonsense involving war criminals, naked women, bear-traps and rocket-launchers.
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12 Comments
I don’t think “Kill List” is underrated, is it? It has a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes and dozens of publications gave it five star reviews.
Of the descriptor “underrated, little-seen and actually really rather great horror movies” I’d probably say it’s more the latter two, yes. I’d still say it deserves way more attention then it’s had.
I’m sorry, but I think Kill List is very, very overrated. I understand what it is trying to do, but for me its a meandering mess with far, far too many plot holes no matter how you try and interpret the film and its narrative. Not for me (I am looking forward to Sightseers, though).
I was really looking forward to Sightseers too. Well, I sort of still am if I’m honest. But a couple of critics I really respect have come out with festival write-ups of it that have caused me to dilute my expectations a little bit.
I got to see Sightseers at TIFF and absolutely loved it. In my top 5 of the yr for sure. I liked but didnt love Kill List.
Expected to see Heartless somewhere in this list…Haven’t seen all of these.Those I have seen are decent enough except for Creep.I hated that film
Interesting and well-written feature – and bound to provoke disagreement, of course! Count me also among the Kill List haters: a terrible film which promised much but turned out to be just a random cluster of horror cliches. Still, it got a lot of attention and critical applause among both cult and mainstream reviewers so I don’t think it can really be counted as either “under-rated” or “little seen.” Chris Smith’s stuff is great (including Black Death) but while Triangle didn’t set the world alight, Creep and Severance both got good distribution, plenty of publicity and generally very good reviews so again I’m not sure how under-rated or little-seen they are. Similarly Eden Lake – that’s definitely among the ten or so best-known and most successful (critically and commercially) British horror films of recent years.
Some other good titles in there though: F is great and The Last Wilderness has a curious charm. For my money no.1 should have been The Dead, easily the best recent British horror film but largely ignored by the media. I would also suggest, from the past ten years, that Resurrecting ‘The Street Walker’, The Living and the Dead, Outpost, Unhappy Birthday, Wishbaby, The Devil’s Music, Mum and Dad, The Devil’s Chair, Vampire Diary, The Cottage, Wilderness, Dead Man’s Shoes, The Last Horror Movie, Blood and London Voodoo are all under-rated and little seen. If you’ll excuse a small plug, most of these will be featured in my book Urban Terrors later this year.
My biggest beef is your claim that you’re “avoiding the straight-to-DVD sequel market” because I don’t know what you mean. The Descent Part 2 and 28 Weeks Later both played cinemas, Outpost 2 and 3 haven’t been released yet. And the only other British horror sequel of the pst decade was The Zombie Diaries 2 which was actually a theatrical sequel to a straight-to-DVD original!
Thanks for the very kind feedback. Interestingly enough, you raise a couple of issues that were at the heart of great inner-debate when I was writing this – namely a) whether The Dead was a British film or not (a friend of mine had me doubting myself!) and b) whether to include Dead Man’s Shoes in this feature when it is fairly central to the other one I’m working on for the site.
I guess the aim I was trying to go for with my pick of underrated films were ones that were a good enough mixture of well-loved by critics but little seen by audiences and widely seen but critically ignored.
Until walking into the comments section of this very site, I hadn’t come across many who’d seen Kill List or disliked it when they had so I had no idea it would receive the backlash that it has. It’s very interesting to me and is definitely going to be something I take into account next time I watch it.
Heartless should have been included in this list- it’s absolutely fantastic!
I loved Eden Lake, but it’s not something I’ll be watching again for a while, it’s disturbing how well it portrays the youth of our country.
I have an absolute aversion to Jim Sturgess which probably explains why Heartless has completely passed by my radar. I should maybe check it out I guess.
Hmmm, There are so many people that like bad films.Fan boys who are easily impressed enough to over look the bad parts of a film that they have no real clue about making an unbiased opinion.
Films such as BoonDock Saints. Which many consider (because of its huge following) to be the worst movie ever made.
I always pick what the writer puts down as his Genius number 1 film and do research. Yours is Kill List. IMPD the Mecca of Peoples movie reviews gives it a 6.2 Thats not a good score.
It doesn’t make it a bad film but 90% of the time, the people are close.
Usually if its a debatable great film(one which isn’t aimed at all audiences to get it) you will see a score between 6.7 and 6.9 by the people.
Only films that have a fanatical following will go over board and counter all the 4′s and 5′s which many gave Boondock and retard the score by giving it a 10(a very rare example)
I’m just glad that that Piece of Crap Duffy is having a hard time finding a way to direct film after BoonDebacle 2. (watch the doc on the guy if you don’t know what i mean)
It’s all subjective but if there was 10 great horror films out there that I haven’t seen. I would have had to be in a coma for the last 20 years. I mean 30 Years. as there hasn’t been 10 great Horror films in that time period(and I love me some good horror)
But If I ever can jump into that Hot Tub Time Machine and go back to when I was 16. I definitely will keep your list in mind.
:) Thank you so much for including Christopher Smith; his films are almost never mentioned, and they deserve to be. Fantastic.