5 Horror Films Which You Probably Haven't Seen

Many clickbait lists of "Horror Films You Haven't Seen" come and go, but I'm almost willing to bet money that you haven't seen all of these movies.

As usual, I'm sticking primarily to the best rather than the cheap and nasty, no-budget "hobby horror" indie crap. Having said that, some of these movies aren't highly-rated by the unwashed masses, and I haven't put them in any particularly order. None of their stories are very original, and your enjoyment of them, sadly, may differ from mine.

(Because I'm lazy, all the synopses are taken from the IMDb. Yeah, I know. No big surprise there.)


1. Sector 7 (2011)

"Something awaits 2,500 meters under the deep sea off the southern tip of Jeju Island... Directed by Kim Ji-hoon and produced by JK Youn, the sci-fi action thriller Sector 7 revolves around an oil rig crew forced to battle a deadly creature at sea."

If you liked "The Host" (2006), this will fill in some time while you continue to wait for the official sequel. It's mainly all CGI with a few practical effects, but the monster is suitably nasty.

The girls in it are very beautiful, the men are a mixed bag of quirky and handsome, and the setting itself is exactly what you might expect of an oil rig in a fun action movie rather than being in any way realistic.

Similar to: The Host, Alien, Deep Blue Sea, Leviathan, and Deep Rising.

2. The Hotel!! (2002)

"Sarapee and Pun inherit a beach mansion from Luang Narubal, the husband and benefactor whom they betrayed and left to die in sorrow. The two now decide to move in and turn the mansion into a hotel in order to make some money. Twenty five years pass. Sarapee has died. Her two children from her marriage to Pun, Parinya and Patama, are now fully grown and they return from living abroad to take over the hotel. After renovating it, the mystery begins. Deaths occur over and over again, and sometimes Parinya and Pattama witness them. It isn't long before they are the only two people left to uncover the mystery and fight to stay alive. But who is the mysterious murderer?"

It's a Thai ghost story/murder mystery. The story lags in a few places, and overacting abounds, but the effects are surprisingly good considering the obvious low-budget.

There aren't too many scares, but there are a few grisly bits which might surprise you.

Similar to: Spectres, The Green Man, The Haunting of Seacliff Inn, and even parts of The Omen.

3. Blacker Than the Night (1975)

"When four women move into an old house left by one woman's aunt, strange things begin to happen. Bizarre voices, visions of ghosts, and mysterious noises lead them to discover the darkest powers of evil and a horror and agony beyond terror."

Another supernatural murder mystery which borders on being a slasher. It's Mexican and better known by its Spanish title of "Más negro que la noche".

Before anyone starts thinking that the word "negro" is racist, the title refers the colour of the black cat's fur in the movie. And yes, Becker the cat does play a very important part.

Considered a classic in some circles, harsher critics only rate "Blacker Than the Night" as average. Inevitably, it was remade (albeit by another Mexican director) last year. Although it also has its detractors, the remake is okay too.

Similar to: The Legacy, The Amityville Horror, The Woman in Black, and virtually any other haunted house movie.

4. See the Sea (1997)

"Sasha, a young British woman, is living with her baby daughter at Ile d'Yeu, a peaceful beach community. A stranger appears. Her name is Tatiana, she's passing through, and pitches her tent in Sasha's yard. The two women build an odd rapport, and tension builds as events unfold."

Originally called "Regarde la mer" (because it's French), this is a short one in that it's only 52 minutes long. Fortunately, it doesn't feel like a modern short, and for a low-budget movie, the production values and acting are very good throughout.

The story certainly isn't as predictable as you might expect. Some might even say that it's shocking. Either way, it's notable for being a kind of precursor to "À l'intérieur" (2007), but it's far more classy, believable, and memorable.

Similar to: Empty Cradle, À l'intérieur (aka Inside), and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.

5. The Dark Hours (2005)

"Dr. Samantha Goodman, an attractive psychiatrist in her thirties, joins her husband and sister for a weekend at a winter cottage when an unexpected guest arrives. Harlan Pyne, a violent sexual offender, is convinced that Samantha conducted unethical experiments on him while she was his doctor. With the assistance of his troubled yet eager protege, Harlan forces Samantha and her family to participate in a series of nightmarish games. On this night of terror, escape is not an option, truth guarantees nothing, and revenge will not necessarily be sweet."

It's Canadian (so it borrows from all over the place like most Canadian horror movies) and has great acting.

I have nothing new to say about "The Dark Hours" because I've already reviewed it. It's nice that you can get it for only 50c at Amazon now though.

Similar to: Identity, Sublime, Frailty, Cheap Thrills, and Would You Rather.

So there you have it. I was initially going to list ten movies, but it's too hot today, and as I said previously, I'm far too lazy.

I chose mainly foreign language movies because, let's face it, the slew of crappy American horror has had nothing good to offer anyone outside of the "noobs" and "nyuk-nyuk-nyuk brigade" for many years.

You can buy most of these movies from Amazon or rent them from Netflix. You'll also find them on YouTube, Hulu, Vudu, and other video streaming sites.

Tracking these movies down should keep you occupied, and hopefully, they will stop some people from constantly complaining that there's "nothing to watch".

Beneath (2013)

"Six high school seniors celebrating with day's excursion find themselves on rowboat attacked by man-eating fish and must decide who must be sacrificed as they fight their way back to shore."

As much as I would like to write "Beneath" off as nothing but a load of bickering teenagers who you've never heard of (plus Mark Margolis in a creepy cameo) being menaced by a more evil version of the big fish from "The Singing Ringing Tree" (1957), I really can't. For what it is, which is another highly sanitised Chiller TV movie, "Beneath" is far more entertaining than most of the sources it homages, but not in a good way.

Essentially, what director Larry Fessenden has done is rip-off the only good segment of "Creepshow 2", throw in a healthy dollop of "Lifeboat" (or "Lifepod"), and then stir-it all up with some pop culture references, a little bit of social commentary, and even some trendy GoPro camera product placement. All this without any nudity or swearing too! The guy is clearly a genius! Or not, as the case may be.

The biggest problem, other than the ridiculously ginormous piranha-style fish, is that the script isn't very good. The characters are so poorly written that even though you can see that everyone is trying their hardest to act and take it all seriously, there's nothing much for anyone to work with. As a result, there's not one likeable character, and the story becomes little more than a "slasher in water" as you just wait and hope for each annoying idiot to meet his or her demise.

All of them are toast fish food.

The great thing about "Beneath" is that it isn't a comedy. Of course the giant fish is one of the most poorly realised practical creature effects in any movie about giant fish since "Jaws", but as the story progresses, it becomes easier to accept its existence than to believe that the teenagers are really teenagers or were ever friends with each other. Their reactions are more wooden than the bored hosts who used to take the boats of tourists round the "Jaws" ride at Universal Studios, which, alas, is no longer a future employment option for anyone involved in this production.

The gore is surprisingly good for a hypocritical American TV movie with various cuts, bites, slashes, and dismembered limbs oozing blood all over the place. It's not to the same standard as "Piranha 3D", but "Beneath" obviously didn't have the same $24,000,000 budget to play with. I'd be amazed if this movie had even a third of the $1,000,000 budget that The Asylum sets as a maximum for each of their mockbusters.

As with every low-budget abomination nowadays, the camerawork isn't exactly brilliant, and the oh-so-important GoPro inserts make things look even worse. If you can get past that, there's barely any tension in the teenagers' predicament either. There is some, but it's mostly ruined by the stupidity of their childish behaviour. A different director might have got a better balance, but it is what it is. I've got a feeling that Larry Fessenden knew exactly what he was doing. I just can't prove it.

If you're a grumpy old misanthropist like me who is always on the look-out for something else to hate about people, "Beneath" has a lot to say about smartasses, snarkiness, white knighting, entitlement issues, relationships, cliques, and, basically, how disgustingly selfish today's teenagers are. It's almost as good as reading through the online dramas on horror message boards! The only difference is that everyone gets what they deserve this time! And it's glorious! Absolutely glorious!

"Das singende, klingende Bäumchen" has a lot to answer for!

Lost Lake (2012)

"A young couple travels to a deserted town to try and find their mysterious uncle, only to discover that ghosts are real and very dangerous."

I'm a little bit flummoxed about how to review "Lost Lake". It's not that I've forgotten how to review movies to the extent that I need to MacDougall one from somebody else, but I can barely scrape together enough enthusiasm to put one word after another after watching this turd.

If I had my druthers (as they say round here), I'd be writing a review of "The Conjuring" right now instead of this one. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances and the heat, I still haven't gone to the movie theatre since "The Conjuring" started playing, and it's starting to annoy me that I've fallen behind everyone else this time. The worst case scenario will be that I wait for the DVD to be released. I'm bound to buy it based on the very positive buzz that's already flying around the internet, so it's not as if you actually need a review of "The Conjuring" from me anyway.

Just to tide everyone over until I'm back on track, I was looking for other ghostie movies to watch yesterday and came across "Lost Lake" on Amazon. Although I'm sure a lot of people have watched it, nobody seems to have had very much to say about it online. Thus, to redress the balance, I thought I'd give it a try. I thought, "It's only 80 minutes long, it's about ghosties, so what could be the harm in watching it?" Little did I know that it was going to be one of the longest 80 minutes of my life.

For a low-budget movie, "Lost Lake" starts off extremely well. I have to admit that the first jump scare is so well-timed that it actually got me. That rarely happens nowadays so I thought I was really going to enjoy everything which followed. As I was watching the movie "cold" with only a vague awareness of the subject matter and no idea about who was in it, it was all a case of "Thrill me!" and "Let's see what you can do!" rather than the predominantly negative way that I've been approaching "indie" dreck recently. After all the multipack reviews I did a few weeks ago, you can't blame me for being jaded, but I honestly wanted to like this movie.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, everything went downhill from the moment I saw the lead characters. It's not that they are the typical pretty teens in trouble, but bald-chested John Shartzer (who plays Jeff) looks about 12 years old, and I initially thought that his character was incestuously in bed with his older sister or something. When the next scene had him playing on the floor with a toy robotic arm, it took a while for it to sink in that he was supposed to be a nerdy student rather than a mentally retarded pervert. It was only when I scrutinized Katie Keene (who plays Tricia) more closely that I realised she was equally young. I doubt that she is more than 18 or 19, and it kind of made me feel like a dirty old man for ogling her as the story progressed. Katie Keene is very photogenic though.

The next thing which gave me pause was the intentional misdirection about Uncle Vern's identity which could have been good if it hadn't caused me a moment of total confusion and an unresolved question which remained with me for a few minutes after the movie ended. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but once you've seen "Lost Lake" for yourself, feel free let me know in the comments section if you get what I'm talking about. The motivation for a lot of things which happen in this movie is so poorly explained that I don't think there even is a good answer. The realisation of whatever clever ideas evidently went into the script sucks, and it's very frustrating.

A more outstanding example of ineptitude is when what should be a scary supernatural scene just isn't. As the leads investigate an abandoned grocery store, it's a time when some imaginative jump scares could make a lasting impression. For whatever reason, possibly budgetary, the gags aren't even set-up enough to fall flat, so ultimately, this botched non-event adds nothing but a decoy for possessed Uncle Vern (Ezra Buzzington) to do something important which we don't find out about until later. It's a plot contrivance for sure, but it could have been handled so much better.

While the camerawork and acting are fairly decent, it's not only the plot but the lack of horror action which really lets "Lost Lake" down. Apart from a severed finger and some realistic reactions to it, nothing much happens at all gore-wise. When it does, the bits you want to see are either off camera or too dark.

Contrarily, an unneccessary bit of animal cruelty involving a white mouse and a snake is something that I didn't want to see. Yes, I know that there are weirdo reptile owners who have to feed their pets as nature intended, but this scene is both gratuitous and superfluous. I may understand what writer/director Marcus Nash was trying to do, but I don't approve of it.

Filmed in Trona, California, a desolate place which I was intigued enough by to look up on Wikipedia, "Lost Lake" is all about a location which struggles to lift everything a couple of notches higher than the horrible storytelling will allow. Apart from a few tell-tale signs which give away that it isn't really a ghost town, including the electricity still being connected and a physical sign for "Free Wi-Fi" on one of the buildings, I wanted to believe that the setting was real. Well, the town is real, obviously, but you know what I mean.

I suppose that's all I really want to say about "Lost Lake". It wasn't the ghost story that I expected it to be, and I found the ending very disappointing. Suffice it to say that there's something about witchcraft to "Lost Lake" as well, so it's probably best to classify the movie as a below average "possession from beyond the grave" with slasher clichés and leave it at that.