30 Best Hidden Gem Horror Movies Perfect For Halloween
Bored of putting on Michael Myers yet again? We have you covered with some spooky hidden treats.
The foggy season of Halloween is impending, a spooky time that's rife with chances to dress in gnarly cosplay, fill yourself with sugary treats, and decorate your house with various severed limbs.
That said, what better way to celebrate throughout October than to cosy up on a couch, in a dimly lit room, with some snacks and plenty of creepy movie-watching material? But then a greater fear arises - what to watch?
Of course, the classic go-to choices are plenty - Halloween, The Exorcist, Jaws, Alien, etc. - but unlike the Christmas season, where decent viewing is limited, the horror genre holds such a vast array of titles that it gives you the chance to discover something brand new, without having to lean on the same old crutch every single year.
There lies the whole concept behind this list, spanning an array from overlooked foreign films, to unfairly judged sequels, to neglected titles in a famous horror director’s filmography - all meant to point you towards some lesser-known gems that might just end up becoming your go-to favorites in the many years to come.
30. Dead Silence
At present, there is no bigger name in horror than James Wan. Not only is he responsible for kickstarting three of the most successful modern horror franchises - the Saw, Insidious, and Conjuring series - but he also runs one of the genre’s most profitable production companies, Atomic Monster. Yet, for a brief moment, he was seen as a one-hit wonder.
After taking the world by storm with his debut, Saw (2004), Wan and collaborator Leigh Whannell attempted to step away from the graphic “torture-porn” craze of the mid-noughties they helped popularise, making a double bill of films with a very different tone that both flopped. One was the cracking Death Sentence, an ode to grimy Death Wish-style revenge thrillers, and the second, Dead Silence, a slow-burn, old-fashioned chiller that leans into Wan’s love for creepy ghost stories and the visual aesthetics of Argento and Bava.
The plot follows True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten, who receives a ghoulish ventriloquist’s doll in the mail and, in a gripping opening sequence, becomes a widower soon after. What follows is a return to his ominous hometown to figure out what has pulled him into this dark vortex. Thick atmosphere, tense set-pieces, and elaborate visuals ensue, capped by an absolute killer final twist.