8 Best College Campus Horror Movies You've Never Heard Of

Thesis is a 1996 Spanish thriller which, very aptly for this list, was actually made whilst director Alejandro Amenabar was studying at university in Madrid.

The story follows Angela, a uni student planning her thesis on the impact of audiovisual violence on families. She wants to find the most violent videos available on the university’s video system, and also enlists the help of a fellow student with an exhaustive collection of violent and pornographic videos.

After viewing a snuff film featuring the torture and murder of a previous student, Vanessa, Angela begins to worry that something very dark is being hidden at the university.

As a web begins to grow around her, involving campus buildings, professors and fellow students alike, Angela is thrown into a world of horrors that her thesis never could have predicted.

Being made by a film student about other media-focussed students, the film was bound to be a little meta. Critics noted that it comments on the state of the Spanish film industry and the issues around violent, slasher-like films.

As humans we are naturally drawn toward violence, and this film is unafraid to both appeal to and critique that nature.