Categories
Reviews Top Horror

Top ten underrated horror movies from the 2000s

1- Exhibit A (Dom Rotheroe, 2007) 

Exhibit A is a bleak, depressing exercise into nihilistic terrain as the film follows the King family, whose patriarch spirals after failed promotions and financial burdens. The film’s timely release circa the mid-late 2000s speaks to the detrimental economic climate the world was experiencing at the time. In this sense, Exhibit A delivers a cold, callous look into the societal landscape of the era, but with the guise of horror, adding a gritty, affective touch of dramatisation to the mix. Found footage has been around for decades (and then some more), and it seems that Exhibit A goes continuously unrecognised on a larger scheme, donning this chilling feature as an underrated gem. 

2- Alexandra’s Project (Rolf de Heer, 2003) 

Although Alexandra’s Project’s labelling as a ‘horror’ might be pushing the lines for those with strict definitions of the genre, it is undeniable that this Australian thriller makes for a horrifying watch. The film chronicles the breakdown of a man who seemingly has it all: a stellar career, adorable children and a supposed loving wife. However, the bliss is soon interrupted when he comes home one day and finds a barren house with a mysterious tape waiting to be played. The particularities of the film are a deliberate conundrum as the convoluted, non-linear, layered story unravels with such complexity, eventually breaking down everything you thought you knew about the world of this disturbing film. 

3- Taxidermia (György Pálfi, 2006) 

Describing this Hungarian horror comedy as anything less than bizarre, obscure, and a grotesque circus ride would be a disservice. This surrealist film embodies a chaotic fever dream that follows a parodic yet utterly unnerving retelling of Hungary’s political, cultural and social journey from WW2 to the contemporary period. The overtone of reciting the landscape of history may sound fairly intriguing, making for a potentially complex and possibly informative watch; however, Taxidermia offers a whole lot more than what its synopsis purports. The film is rife with some of the grossest body horror cinema has to offer; think if Cronenberg, Lynch and the whole of Troma Entertainment colluded to create one of the gnarliest visions they could ever conjure. 

4- Subconscious Cruelty (Karim Hussain, 2000)

With a title as brazen as Subconscious Cruelty, it is rather obvious what to expect throughout this extreme art house horror. This film is on the borderline of being quite difficult to sit through, what with the frame constantly being filled with graphic violence and torture that rivals the likes of the August Underground trilogy and the controversial and lovingly named Slaughtered Vomit Dolls (2008). The categorisation of Subconscious Cruelty, an anthology horror, bodes well to complement the twisted and maniacal nature of the content, offering the film somewhat of a layered aesthetic that allows some viewers to view the visuals in a more philosophical light. For instance, in each segment, aspects of nature, mother earth and religion are explored under the costumery of horror. Whichever opinion is formed after watching, one thing is certain – Subconscious Cruelty is completely thought-provoking. 

5- Creep (Christopher Smith, 2004) 

While the title Creep may immediately ring bells for fans of the 2014 Patrick Brice film, in this case, the ‘creep’ proprietary belongs to the 2004 British horror directed by Christopher Smith. The film follows a woman trapped with a monstrous humanoid on the London Underground after falling asleep, leading to a barrage of bloodied antics in the fight for survival. Although it may seem like a detriment, Creep is not necessarily a trailblazer in the genre, but it most definitely is a blast of frightening fun to watch, akin to that of nostalgic cinema where one can expect plenty of gory buffooneries and a tense battle to the death. 

6- Visitor Q (Takashi Miike, 2001)

Takashi Miike is no stranger to horror, with films such as Audition (1999), Ichi the Killer (2001), and One Missed Call (2003) lining his filmography. Nevertheless, as with any creator whose titles surpass 115 directorial credits, there is bound to be an entry that is a hidden treasure – for Miike, this feature is Visitor Q. The film details the lives of the Yamazaki family and their truly disorderly attitudes to life, graphically exhibiting depravity in the most vile ways possible. This standout Japanese horror is not for the faint and not to be missed. 

7- The Hamiltons (Michael Altieri and Phil Flores, 2006)

Michael Altieri and Phil Flores, also known as ‘The Butcher Brothers’ mid-2000s horror film The Hamiltons thrives on the dark secrets beyond the walls of Hamilton’s family home, with the film taking a gradual approach in revealing the big mystery as to why the brood feels a little strange. Whilst the intrigue around what skeletons lie in the closet best remains a secret for potential viewers, what can be commented on is the film’s rather emotive approach to what is quite a grizzly flick. The Hamiltons rides the waves of uniqueness, often going against the grain within its subgenre and offering a refreshing yet visceral journey into the plentiful frenzied events. 

8-  Bug (William Friedkin, 2006)

Despite having the legendary William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist (1973), at the helm of Bug, the film has gone under the radar over the years. This psychological horror presents the story of a couple who become convinced that their entire beings and surroundings are infected by bugs that have been deployed by the government to infest and infect as spies. The maddening concept is only the tip of the iceberg. Friedkin exacerbated the terror by incorporating a claustrophobic atmosphere into the film and enlisting brilliant and powerful performances from the leads, Michael Shannon and Ashley Judd. 

9- In My Skin (Marina de Van, 2002) 

French horror, particularly that from the New French Extremity reign, has come to be known as an entirely engrossing yet nauseatingly brutal and bloodied division of genre cinema. Marina de Van’s independent film In My Skin is no exception to this rule. As a baseline, the film follows de Van as the lead character who develops an obsession with self-mutilation, which eventually escalates into autocannibalism. In My Skin has received a cordial reputation amongst many, but it has yet to receive the wide acclaim and recognition that it so desperately deserves. 

10- Session 9 (Brad Anderson, 2001)

Session 9 defines itself as one of those horrors which can only be described as bone-chillingly unsettling, with the aura and atmospheric tone completely taking over the film and commanding a formidable power over the viewer. Not too heavy on jumpscares and boding its tension through engaging frights is a film which follows an asbestos cleaning crew who are faced with a job in an abandoned mental hospital, only to discover that the building’s poison runs far deeper than anyone could ever imagine. Session 9 thrives on the premise of isolation and eerie loneliness within the self, both through the film’s impressively intimidating setting and through the compelling performances from David Caruso, Stephen Gordon, Josh Lucas and Peter Mullan.

Want more top horror lists and reviews? Check out our blog here..

Categories
Curiosity Corner Reviews Top Horror

Top ten mind-boggling horror movies

1- The Wolf House (Cristobal León and Joaquin Cociña, 2018)

Kicking off this mind-twisting list is the Chilean stop-motion film The Wolf House. Directed by Cristobal León and Joaquin Cociña and co-written by Alejandra Moffat, is the animated, surreal fairytale that takes the viewer through a mirage of labyrinth-like settings and worlds in a desolate house. The film’s visual incoherence is a guise that shelters and replicates the intense and complex meaning behind the story—inspired by the troubling Colonia Dignidad, a colony established in Chile post WW2 where various acts of torture were committed. The Wolf House’s myriad of madness is captivatingly gruesome, with each scene being near impossible to decode at first glance; for instance, as the meaning behind the house unravels within the story, the bones of its foundations experience a metamorphosis where objects become people and people become animals. 

2- Possum (Matthew Holness, 2018)

Akin to the backwards world of British TV series The League of Gentlemen (1999-2002) and infused with a touch of Ben Wheatley’s Neo-folk filmmaking style is the utterly fantastic and incredibly dark Possum. From the mind of director Matthew Holness is the story of a child puppeteer, Philip (Sean Harris), who returns home where he is confronted with his past trauma. The film was adapted from Holness’s short story of the same name that was influenced by the works of Sigmund Freud. Considering this, Possum is brimming with the uncanny, whether that be through the offensively disturbed arachnid puppet that features throughout, or the cold, dismal world that the film takes place in. Possum is one of those films that may be watched a dozen times before one can truly get to grips with every single detail of great emotional significance that seeps throughout every frame. 

3- House (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977)

House is a kaleidoscopic fever dream that emulates psychedelia with a pungent extremity, with its ethereal quality coming off as both haunting and unreasonably excessive. The hallucinatory facets within House derive from director Nobuhiko Obayashi’s wanting to create a film that goes beyond human understanding, or more accurately, adults’ understanding of the logical world. In creating the script, Obayashi enlisted his daughter’s help where he observed that a child’s imagination conjures the most fascinating of concepts that traverses far beyond the mundanity of what the mature mind summons. With this, House takes aspects of childhood nightmares of colourful monsters and nonsensical scenarios to create a film that is wildly ambitious and genuinely startling. 

4- Begotten (E. Elias Merhige, 1989)

Back in the mid 1980s E. Elias Merhige developed an idea for a piece of experimental theatre where live music and dance would be performed against a story of mythology, religion and the disgrace of humanity. Whilst traction was aligned with the project and the concept blossomed, Merhige realised that the production as a live piece of theatre would be too costly, leading to his concept becoming a film. With the knowledge that Begotten’s corpus derived from experimental theatre, it becomes easier to mentally digest the final product, which is by all intents and purposes a complete deluge that resembles a total exodus of reality. The  hellish imagery consists of the self-disembowelment of God whose mutilated remains gives birth to Mother Earth before conceiving the ‘Son of Earth’ and going on a surreal, nauseating path of destruction and discovery. Take this rambunctious idea and now imagine it paired with the film’s obtrusive score that runs throughout which features nothing but insect-like squirming noises over a ‘thu-dum’ heartbeat sound. Begotten obliterates normality and acts a sporadic experience from beginning to end. 

5- Koko-di Koko-da (Johannes Nyholm, 2019)

Koko-di Koko-da is another Groundhog Day story that chronicles a grieving couple that are stuck in a time loop by nursery rhyme characters. The complex and structurally intricate storyline deliberately never makes sense or fully acknowledges its strangeness, it is just accepted by the cinematic universe, making every confused and disjointed emotion extracted from the viewers all the more disturbing. Paired with the absurdity of the events, there is an overall aggravation towards the antagonising characters. The beings terrorising the couple strive through with a morbid happiness that seems whimsical until we are reminded that this is very much a horrific story. 

6- Uzumaki (Higuchinsky, 2000) 

Based on the Junji Ito manga of the same name is Uzumaki, a film where atmosphere, aura and an unhinged narrative take over to create a boggling adaption. Uzumaki has received a decent share of criticism over time, partially due to its off-kilter humour that sporadically features throughout, which seems quite out of place. However, it is this strange placement of slapstick comedy that pierces the tension and makes the film an untamed watch where the entire direction of the film is consistently unprecedented. Adding to the peculiarity is the film’s central focus surrounding the spiral pattern and how it essentially drives the characters to the brinks of their psyche. The Fibonacci spiral hysteria twists and turns the story in the most unexpected of ways, leaving for the most memorable of watches.

7- Society (Brian Yuzna, 1989)

The magnificence of body horror is forever in debt to Brian Yuzna’s Society. Yuzna’s epic exploration into the potentials of depravity is an exercise in the brilliance of cinema that doesn’t take itself too seriously, with plenty of amalgamated bodies that fuse flesh to flesh and limb to limb to create a gigantic creature formed by body parts. The aspect of anthropomorphism plays a large role in Society with the monstrosity of the final act being a repulsive feast for the senses. For fans of excessive gore and stomach churning terror, this film is not to be missed! 

8- Resurrection (Andrew Semans, 2022)

Despite the brilliance of the leads, Rebecca Hall and Tim Roth, Andrew Semans Resurrection is criminally underrated. Whilst many absurd films tackle obscene comedy to further the surreal nightmarish quality of mind-boggling horror, Resurrection takes a much more gloom-ridden route where the calamitous nature of the film shines alongside the unearthly and bizarre plot points. Whilst the story is best left as an enigma for first time watchers, what can be revealed is that Resurrection follows the disciplined business woman Maggie (Hall), whose life implodes when a strange figure (Roth) from her past comes back to haunt her. The words brutal and cold rings strong throughout this relentless shocker. 

9- Visitor Q (Takashi Miike, 2001)

Hmm… where to begin with horror legend Takashi Miike’s Visitor Q? Not for the faint hearted and certainly not a family film is this utterly barbaric and gut-wrenchingly twisted tale of nihilistic dread following the perverted Yamazaki family as they fall apart at the hands of their own lewdness. Themes of incest, voyeurism, sadio-masochism, torture, necrophilia, coprophilia, lactophilia (and copius other ‘philia’ related terms) all take centre stage throughout the film, leaving any seasoned viewer affected, let alone an unsuspecting spectator. However, whilst there is a lot to be said about its extremity, Visitor Q is a fascinating watch, particularly due to its stylistic output. The film mimics documentary footage with the camera acting as a fly on the wall for most scenes, creeping up where you’d least expect it and bringing us uncomfortably close to the experimental action. 

10- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920)

German expressionism roots its origins within Berlin circa 1920s as a reflection of the turmoil during that era. Notable films from the period include the likes of Nosferatu (1922), Faust (1926) and most importantly in this case, Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The film is renowned for its graphic style and striking aura that is straight from the dark underbelly of horror thematics. The set’s were purposefully built to create a dizzying effect where the walls were angled and floors were tilted, where featured trees would appear diagonal and staircases would be spiralized messes. It was a radical decision to portray such a frenzy that still pays off over 100 years later. 

Want more top horror lists and reviews? Check out our blog here..

​​