Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, what do all these titles have in common? They’re instantly recognizable. These are titles you’ll probably be familiar with even if you don’t consider yourself a huge horror movie fan.
But if you do, there might be movies you’ve still missed out on due to the fact they didn’t receive wide-scale recognition or top-of-the-line marketing. Lots of movies get ignored because they’re lower-budget or simply not made by a major production company. Here are some of the most underrated horror movies from the last 20 years.
Green Room (2016)
Green Room was a surprisingly horrifying film released in 2016. A punk rock band lands a gig at a unique venue. The venue is in a lesser-known area and instantly puts the band members on edge when they arrive.
The band happens to witness violence by some of the bar patrons and then become targets due to their new witness status. They’re targeted by a gang of skinheads who want to ensure all traces of evidence have been eliminated at any cost. Anton Yelchin, Patrick Stewart, Imogen Poots, and Alia Shawkat star.
House of the Devil (2009)
What would you do to make money? Desperate times call for desperate measures, right? Sam Hughes is eager to move into a new apartment and start her leap into independence while at college. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of job opportunities in the area so she agrees to a strange babysitting job.
What makes the job weird? Well for starters, there’s no child to look after. Instead, Sam is charged with looking after her employer’s mother. It quickly becomes apparent that the real reason for the job is far more sinister than anything she could have imagined.
Evil Dead (2013)
Jane Levy stars in this remake directed by Fede Alvarez. If you’re a fan of the original Evil Dead films starring Bruce Campbell, you should give this one a chance. Remakes can be hit-or-miss but the 2013 film is genuinely impressive. It’s a total gorefest. But Alvarez wanted to retain the spirit of the original movie so a majority of the effects, even the grisly ones, are done with practical effects.
Levy plays Mia, a drug addict who wants to quit. Her brother and his friends drive Mia to a remote cabin in the woods to try and help her through withdrawal. But then one of them stumbles on the legendary Necromonicon and makes the mistake of reading an incantation out loud that awakens an ancient demon.
Oculus (2013)
The name Mike Flanagan commands far more respect now than it did in 2013. Flanagan is responsible for bringing us the recent Netflix series, The Haunting of Hill House, which has become incredibly popular. But Oculus has mostly been forgotten about despite its genuinely creepy premise.
The movie stars Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites as siblings trying to work on their relationship after their parents violent deaths. Kaylie (Gillan) believes the antique Lasser Glass is responsible for all the horrific things that have happened in their lives due to it containing a supernatural force.
Hush (2016)
Another Mike Flanagan film ranks on this list with the 2016 movie, Hush. The film stars Haunting of Hill House lead, Kate Siegel, who played Theo on the series.
Hush is a Netflix horror film that follows a young deaf woman who is forced to fight against an killer that attempts to invade her home. It’s a tense survivalist thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time.
Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
This Korean horror film follows the dark and sordid story of two sisters, Su-mi and Su-yeon. Su-mi is released from her long stay at a mental hospital to return to her family hom ealong with her sister.
The siblings find that things have changed since they left. Their father has remarried and the girls aren’t exactly fond of his new wife. Slowly, they begin to realize something is terribly wrong in their old house.
The Invitation (2015)
The Invitation isn’t a movie that will riddle you with jump scares or gore, but it will keep you tense and on edge the entire way through. Logan Marshall Green plays the main role in this film as a man who attends a dinner party at his old home.
He begins to feel as if his ex-wife and her new spouse have ulterior motives for inviting all these people to their house. You’ll be shocked at just how intense this movie is. It’s excellent at building the suspense.
As Above, So Below (2014)
Some people are fans of found-footage films as they tend to be bad more often than they are good. But As Above, So Below is a true stand out in the found-footage format. The series follows a documentary crew trying to find the infamous Philosopher’s Stone.
They decide to embark on a dangerous underground mission into the Catacombs of Paris. But once down beneath the surface, the crew is horrified to discover what is waiting for them.
Funny Games (2007)
Funny Games is perhaps one of the most intense and brutal movies you will ever watch. It’s difficult to watch because of its unrelenting cruelty excecuted by the main antagonists.
A family is taken hostage by two men who decide to toy with them by making them do terrible things to one another and themselves. It sounds like a typical torture film but it comes with some truly groundbreaking plot twists you won’t see coming from a mile away.
V/H/S (2012)
V/H/S is also a found-footage film but it’s truly a unique concept with how the movie executies its storytelling. The film is a horror anthology. While watching, you’ll find that it is sort of like watching a bunch of different short horror films from various sub-genres.
V/H/S became relatively popular but is often overlooked when people refer to some of the best horror movies from the past 20 years. There are three films in the series. Some segments are better than others but you’ll get everything from monsters to demons to serial killers across the variety of stories told here.
