4 Underrated Horror Films

Over the past three years, thanks to the marvelous selection of films on Netflix, I have had the opportunity to come upon works that have been flying under the horror radar. Having already seen the classics (The Shining, Nightmare on Elm Street) I was ready to see the stuff you don't' normally hear about. Here's a list of 4 obscure films that deserve a little more notice than they've received.

1. Carnival of Souls (Heck Harvey, 1962): A church organist who survived a fatal car accident grapples with mysterious hallucinations involving a nearby abandoned carnival. The film is light on special effects, instead relying on the main character's own horror as she increasingly experiences periods where she doesn't seem to exist in the real world, invisible and deaf to those around her. All the while, the carnival beckons to her, becoming an obsession. The creepy organ soundtrack stands out in this haunting little film.

2. A Tale of Two Sisters (Ji-woon Kim, 2003): Two sisters (imagine that!) return from a stay at a mental hospital where they must face their distant father and nightmarish stepmother. However, this topsy-turvy fairytale becomes unravels even more when we discover that the younger sibling, Soon-yeon, is dead and the elder sister, Soo-mi, has been dreaming her up ever since her return home. Some of you may gripe at me for putting in a plot spoiler, but I promise you that's just the first discovery. Because there is something supernatural living in their house and it's angry. The result is a genuinely scary brain twister that reminds us of the power of imagination, and of the fact that many fairytales don't have a happy ending.

3. Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000): "Could you kill your best friend?" asks the film's foreboding tagline. The story takes place in a future Japan and focuses on 40 normal high school students who find themselves part of a sick government policy. Dumped on a remote island they hear a chilling order: they must kill each other off in three days until there is only one student left alive, otherwise they'll all be killed. Suddenly, no one can be trusted. Friends turn on each other. Some students decide to play the game while others try to get off the island. Battle Royale was never released in American theaters: it was simply too reminiscent of Columbine for comfort. Despite its controversial topic, this film doesn't necessarily advocate violence; it instead presents an answer to its own tagline.

4. The Haunting (Robert Wise, 1963): Don't watch this at home alone; at least make sure that someone else is in the house. In my opinion, this film is the very best of all haunted house movies, although probably not half as famous as the horrendous 1999 remake. We meet Eleanor Lance, a fragile young woman who comes to Hill House to participate in a study on supernatural phenomena. Hill House has a history of tragedy and death from its creation and for years no one has been able to live on the estate for more than a few days. Now, the scientific experiment has been more successful than they bargained for. At night a presence in the house bangs on the walls, searching for inhabitants, scrawled messages to Eleanor appear on the hallway walls, things seem to move out of corner of your eye, and Eleanor sinks deeper and deeper into the house's madness. It's a masterful work that stays with you after the movie's over even as you try to get to sleep with the lights still on.