10 Movies that Will Spook Your Socks Off!

These are a string of movies that I think are either underappreciated or obscure and that I think are worth checking out. Whether it's something that manages to find a common-ground with absurdity and horror, strangely existential tones, or just weird, bizarre and transgressive films. These are a list of films that will surely spook your socks off (or mildly entertain you, I don't know.).

10. Hausu (1977)

Hausu is one of the most dazzling and visually inventive horror movies I’ve seen – and is a movie that’s pretty hard to really categorise other than it’s a haunted house film, and the whole thing exists in this heightened childlike realm where there’s heavy themes of trauma and abstract horrors that don’t quite make sense, but are psychologically disturbing nonetheless - balanced with this amazing sense of humour and absurdity which goes hand in hand with the horror.

Although there’s definitely something this film is getting at – where it’s not entirely meant to be a string of random visuals, and instead there’s a strong intent where it’s meant to capture this sense of childlike fears and anxieties – like there’s something that can’t quite be comprehended. There’s definitely strong and explicit themes to do with the bombings of Japan during World War II, and also where things such as watermelons, mirrors and cats take on distinctly superstitious but anxiety ridden connotations to them – all about elements of grief and like there’s something deeply wrong going on - but also something where it's very goofy and fun, making it all the more inexplicable.

Another thing to note about this film is that it has a strong cult following, yet it is only one film in director Nobuiko Obayashi’s extensive filmography – and it’s well worth seeking out his other films as well. A lot of similar themes pop up in his movies – namely with regards to capturing a strange sort of nostalgic headspace and the exploration of memories, also prevalent in movies such as His Motorbike, Her Island (1986) and The Girl Who Conquered Time (1983) – which I’d also highly recommend, although weirdly the availability of his other films is pretty sparse.

9. Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend (1989)

This was a very notorious film in its day – an anime film which pushed boundaries and then some in terms of horror and realms of just straight-up taste, some consider this movie to be pornographic – but there’s definitely an aspect to this film where it’s way more transgressive than anything. Funnily enough, this was also something that was often confused as a ‘kids’ movie – solely for the fact that this is an animated film, when it’s anything but – and is something that’s so explicitly nasty in terms of its violence, gore and sexual violence that it’s pretty damn disturbing.

Urotsukidoji banks itself really heavily off of this hypersexualised atmosphere – where there’s a lot to it in terms of nudity and in terms of its explicit violence, and really so much of the appeal of this movie just comes from the creature designs and about the fascinating but deeply disturbing body horror elements – all the while opening up this elaborate backstory of Beasts, Demons and Humans, hurtling towards this prospect of a giant, apocalyptic orgy threatening to doom mankind. This is something that kind of has to be seen to be believed. Likewise, another film on this list that’s to be seen to be believed is:

8. The Untold Story (1993)

The Untold Story is a bizarre Hong Kong Category III movie that pushes extremities and then some – somehow combining both this innate sense of slapstick comedy with extreme violence and depravity, essentially existing as a sensationalist retelling of the real life 1985 Eight Immortals Restaurant murders – where a bunch of detectives are up against a man who pretty obviously committed the murders, after he suddenly takes ownership of the restaurant. Did I mention that this movie is also a comedy movie? Yeah, it’s pretty weird.

However, there’s something about this movie which fundamentally works – and it’s almost like the experience of reading through a tabloid where they exaggerate pretty much every last feature of the crime, probably about as grinding and horrifying as it is very darkly comical. The insane mixture of extreme violence with slapstick comedy fundamentally works here though – if only because of how exaggerated the features of both the inept and corrupt detectives, and especially the manic performance from Anthony Wong – playing a killer who is just red-flags galore. A lot of this movie seems to dedicated to exaggerating the absurdity of human behaviour surrounding the screwed up actions – that there’s still an underlying creepiness that carries through with it all.

7. Last House on Dead End Street (1973)

Last House on Dead End Street is personal filmmaking at its scuzziest – something which has this extremely dirty tone, low production values but a craftsmanship to it that makes up for the myriad of technical errors that this movie has. Centring around a man named Terry Hawkins who decides to rebel against society by making a string of snuff films, the film documents him gathering together a small crew and roping people into his little games – determined to make these films, all the while the rest of the movie is dedicated to hurtling towards this surreal nightmare – as things become more uh… complicated.

There’s something about this movie that works in terms of its authenticity – more in terms of how it manages to portray a group of exhausted filmmakers, and a deeply evil person taking advantage of it – and how the filmmaking exercise is seen as this one giant ego-trip. Even when the stuff portrayed here is fake, there’s still something eerie about how this movie carries through the feeling of someone just delving straight into a violent but disorientated fantasy – really where a lot of the flaws here kind of help the movie in a way. It’s something that can’t quite be replicated if it weren’t for the background this movie has – where so much of it exists in this sort of legendary but exaggerated state (like a macabre rumour that a theatre was burned down after a showing of this movie) – but then stuff like that definitely adds to the feeling this movie creates.

6. Psycho III (1986)

Psycho II is often brought up as an underrated film – basically existing as this giant what-if scenario where Norman Bates is innocent and essentially it’s just someone screwing with his head the entire time, which then leads onto Psycho III – showing Norman Bates delving straight into insanity again. There’s something here that feels way more desolate than the previous movies – emphasising this lonely desert landscape, and of this surreal landscape where it feels like anything could happen – way more of an emphasis is put on the personal story of Norman Bates, drawing him as this distinctly unlikable and out-of-his-mind character.

A lot of this movie also hinges heavily on this sense of absurdity – lots of really inexplicable and strange moments, and a tone that feels like something out of a giallo film with influences from movies like Blood Simple and treats the Bate’s Motel like this place where just a string of inexplicable encounters all happen there. This movie is almost on the verge of being a black comedy – especially with much of the macabre humour surrounding Bates, and how people don’t notice the obvious ways he’s cracking up. It’s kind of amazing that there were two sequels to Psycho where the did their absolute best to stand-out on their own and not just exist as a Hitchcock imitation – well worth seeking out both of these movies.

5. Butcher, Baker Nightmare Maker (1982)

This was listed as one of the infamous ‘Video Nasties’ but it’s honestly one of the best made of the bunch – centring around a repressed teenager living with an aunt trying to control every aspect of his life, up to an including a point of murdering people. Meanwhile, there’s all of these underlying tensions resulting from a homophobic police detective who comes to his own bizarre conclusions – suspecting the murders of being part of a gay love triangle between him, his coach Tom and a repairman named Phil. The rest of this movie has a feeling where it just builds on this anxiety ridden tension of disturbing violence and all of these compartmentalised horrors which just unfold.

The best aspect about this film comes from the intersection of anxieties revolving around homophobia – and just about playing with the theme of bigotry, repression and the bizarre assumptions surrounding gay people, and it’s one of those movies that really challenges assumptions – all the while taking the form of a bizarre and inexplicable horror story. Regarding Billy’s sexuality – I think that the case isn’t so much that he is gay (or at least out of the closet), so much as he’s someone that becomes a conduit of all these underlying prejudices – and in a strange way manages to effectively convey what those feelings are like.

4. Phase IV (1974)

This movie was strangely riffed on by MST3K – even despite the fact that it’s not exactly a bad movie, more just a movie that’s incredibly strange and pretty damn solid throughout asides from a weak non-ending (there was an original ending that is actually pretty good but remains missing from most releases) – centring around a small research group facing off against an entire colony of hyperintelligent killer ants, whose motives remain really unclear asides from domination over mankind.

Phase IV works in the way that much of the horror is suggested – and just about how so much of it is well-photographed, often alternating between a look like out of a nature documentary (lots of beautiful deep-focus shots of ant colonies in this movie) – and some sort of psychedelic look, and especially the puzzling nature of the ants – who somehow seem to have the ability to adapt to intelligent human behaviour. There’s a strange speculative angle to this movie, more so with how it’s about human beings who are trapped and isolated – all the while being relayed about information about how humanity is increasingly becoming more screwed by the minute.

3. The Resurrected (1991)

Dan O’Bannon only directed two movies which were this movie and the brilliant but more well known Return of the Living Dead (1985), whilst The Resurrected is a bit more obscure – much more slow at points and based off of one of the more bizarre H.P. Lovecraft stories “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.”, very rich in atmosphere but something that builds towards something clearly more horrific towards the end, with a strange and exaggerated comic sensibility to it all.

Infamously, this was a movie that was basically taken away from O’Bannon’s hands and re-edited – where his original version had more in the way of dark comedy. However, this is one of those movies that really captures what’s so great about Lovecraft’s work – especially with themes of body horror, slowly and inexplicably losing your mind, a mystery surrounding an explicable string of gruesome murders – all the while building towards a bizarre ending, and really great in the way of special effects. Even in a sort of butchered version – there’s still something here that really works.

2. Bad (1977)

Bad is the sort of weird combination you’d get with combining a John Waters film with something that feels a bit more polished and focused more on characters who are casted way more as evil rather than rejects – and is notable for being the last film produced by Andy Warhol (known for his painting, but who had a career producing strange exploitation and experimental films during the 1960s and the 1970s.), about a hairdresser who operates a side business providing clients with assassinations against targets of their choice – no questions asked.

Bad is definitely more focused on being a black comedy than anything else, although there’s enough transgressiveness here where it pushes itself heavily into a territory of horror – and is kind of remarkable with how it’s such an unrestrained study of some completely terrible people. A lot of the hit jobs are done for incredibly petty reasons – and there’s really something here where it’s horrific just on the basis of how much people dehumanise each other, both blackly comic but something that feels especially queasy whilst you’re watching it.

1. May (2002)

May is another great horror movie that makes terrific usage of the absurd – all centring around feelings of loneliness and the feelings like someone is going to crack up, centring around a perfectionist but shy veterinarian descending into depravity after trying to build a friend out of a doll. A lot of this movie hinges on satirical elements – both where it’s used to build up this feeling of awkwardness, and portions of this movie that almost feel like they’re in a realm of black cringe comedy – only that it very much adds to the underlying feelings of sadness and loneliness underneath it all.

Something about this movie just feels persistently uneasy – especially with just how closely we follow the character of May, at equal parts where we feel both sympathetic of the character but are also unnerved by just the level of depravity she descends to in this movie – it has a feeling where horrifying actions are casually accepted and facilitated, and a string of moments where it reveals the underlying disparities behind the behaviour. It works with how there’s such a control between the satirical and horror elements of this movie – not verging out into a realm of outright parody, which makes the underlying dread behind this movie all the more unnerving.