20 Most Underrated Horror Movies EVER

19. In the Mouth of Madness

The concluding entry in John Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy - preceded by The Thing and Prince of Darkness - In the Mouth of Madness was a critical and commercial miss in 1994, no matter that it's actually one of the smartest and most creative entries in Carpenter's entire filmography.

For one, Sam Neill is typically magnificent as an insurance investigator who finds his own grasp on reality slipping while investigating the disappearance of a famed horror author.

Cosmic horror is a tough nut to crack, but Carpenter was positively ahead of his time here by so cheekily tearing down the fourth wall - something audiences of the time were decidedly less willing to accept.

Watched today in our more meta-happy present, In the Mouth of Madness is a near-masterpiece of existential horror that takes the audience on an utter trip across its pacy 95 minutes.

It may not be Carpenter's best film, but it does nevertheless feel like the filmmaker working at his most fiercely unrestrained.