12 Most Underrated Horror Movies From The 2000s

Remember Billy Connolly's zombie movie? Didn't think so.

By Ian Watson /

Not only is time a great healer, but it edits out all the rubbish films and enables you to look back fondly on a time that was otherwise hellish to live through. Between 2000 and 2009, Hollywood had the anti-Midas touch €“ everything they touched became a coiled and steaming mess. Not content with taking a wrecking ball to the Star Wars, Superman and Indiana Jones franchises, they decided to remake every horror movie from the 70s and 80s, most of which weren€™t that great in the first place. Fortunately, there were plenty of decent horror films that weren€™t sequels or reboots. Unfortunately, outside of the festival circuit, most of them never received a proper theatrical release. While Michael Dougherty€™s superior Trick R Treat got dumped on DVD, the Lovecraftian horror that was Michael Bay€™s remake of The Hitcher somehow managed to sneak onto cinema screens. Movies are treated in a very American way €“ those with money behind them will go far, and everyone else can go fish. If the Dougherty and Bay films were people, then Trick R Treat would be the physics graduate who works in McDonald€™s while The Hitcher is the gibbering mongoloid who gets to run for President. In the name of equality, here are 12 horror pictures that should€™ve been treated with dignity but were instead made to feel like fry cooks.

12. Staunton Hill

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Maybe it€™s the lack of production polish, but Cameron €œSon Of George€ Romero€™s film feels more like a grindhouse movie than Grindhouse did, and despite an obviously low budget it€™s a more credible period horror film than the Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot. Set in 1969, Staunton Hill could be TCM redux as a group of stranded teens arrive at an isolated farmhouse where they encounter the murderous Staunton clan, who run a different kind of slaughterhouse. Because it€™s a small world, the head of the family is played by Kathy Lamkin, who had a very similar role in Chainsaw. Staunton Hill isn€™t for everyone: it€™s a grim, downbeat movie without heroes, where the lack of budget contributes to the claustrophobic sense of impending dread. Originality may not be its strongest suit, but it makes up for it by not pandering to the lowest common denominator.