20 Most Underrated Horror Movies EVER

7. Absentia

Time for a serious deep cut now with Absentia - a 2011 micro-budget supernatural horror film which, while well-received on the festival circuit, rather quickly evaporated into obscurity.

Except, Absentia was the feature debut of Mike Flanagan, who of course spent the subsequent decade establishing himself as one of the most consistently brilliant genre auteurs working today.

Produced for a mere $70,000, Absentia's rough-hewn production values may be offputting to some, but the nuts and bolts of the filmmaking - the writing and the performances - make it well worth watching.

Centered around a pregnant woman (Courtney Bell) whose missing husband seemingly reappears after a seven-year absence, Absentia is, like most all Flanagan joints, a harmonious fusion of heightened supernatural fare with achingly human drama.

Everything that made Flanagan's subsequent films truly work is right there from the beginning, if only you can look past the low-fi production values.