10 Massively Underrated Horror Movies
Let Michael, Jason and Freddy have a night off.
Horror is often overlooked at the Academy Awards, but a number of the genre's finest have gotten the plaudits they deserve, with the likes of The Omen, An American Werewolf in London and Rosemary's Baby taking home Oscars.
Other fright fests may not have gongs, or even commercial success, to their names, yet have still managed to attract glowing write-ups and garnered a cult fanbase through word of month alone.
Somewhere in between are the massive horror series which are basically critic-proof. You won't find many Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Halloween sequels that are certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, but these franchises still rake in big bucks at the box office and have proven as undying as their masked protagonists.
Michael Myers and Leatherface don't require any additional PR, as their army of fans is almost on par with their kill counts, but there are horror movies out there that both need and deserve some extra fanfare: the underappreciated gems that have done more than enough to earn their chance to scare this Halloween.
Not all of the films on this list made a critical or commercial splash, but in a genre where quality often drowns in quantity, they're worth a look if nightmare-free slumber isn't your thing.
10. House Of The Devil
Ti West's House of the Devil works as both a homage to vintage '70s and ‘80s horror, and an unsettling supernatural-slasher hybrid in its own right. The film was shot using 16mm film to give it a stylish, old-school look and is chock full of great scares.
Although the setup is generic, involving a financially struggling college student who takes on an ill-fated babysitting job, the movie shuns gratuitous gore and brash jump-scares in favour of slow-burning suspense and palpable tension.
It's Hitchcockian in its build-up and effortlessly straddles the line between the slasher and haunted house subgenres, while evoking memories of classic films from both.
The characters are complex and their motivations fleshed out, but the vintage cinematography is the star of the show in House of the Devil, making it one hell of a love letter to the glory days of contemporary horror.