Most Underrated & Overlooked Horror Films
by atlasuniverse-1 | created - 20 Nov 2011 | updated - 28 Feb 2012 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Reeker (2005)
Unrated | 90 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Strangers trapped at an eerie travel oasis in the desert must unravel the mystery behind their visions of dying people while they are preyed upon by a decaying creature.
Director: Dave Payne | Stars: Devon Gummersall, Derek Richardson, Tina Illman, Scott Whyte
Votes: 10,835
2. Wilderness (I) (2006)
R | 93 min | Action, Horror
Juvenile delinquents are sent to a small British island after a fellow prisoner's death, where they have to fight for survival.
Director: M.J. Bassett | Stars: Sean Pertwee, Alex Reid, Toby Kebbell, Stephen Wight
Votes: 10,347
3. Cabin Fever (2002)
R | 93 min | Horror
Five college graduates rent a cabin in the woods and begin to fall victim to a horrifying flesh-eating virus, which attracts the unwanted attention of the homicidal locals.
Director: Eli Roth | Stars: Jordan Ladd, Rider Strong, James DeBello, Cerina Vincent
Votes: 83,733 | Gross: $21.16M
4. Kill Theory (2009)
R | 85 min | Horror, Thriller
Whilst celebrating a graduation at a secluded vacation home, a group of college students find themselves targeted by a sadistic killer who forces them to play a deadly game of killing one another in order to survive.
Director: Chris Moore | Stars: Don McManus, Ryanne Duzich, Teddy Dunn, Daniel Franzese
Votes: 7,486
5. Wrong Turn (I) (2003)
R | 84 min | Horror, Thriller
Chris and a group of five friends are left stranded deep in the middle of the woods after their cars collide. As they venture deeper into the woods, they face an uncertain and bloodcurdling fate.
Director: Rob Schmidt | Stars: Eliza Dushku, Jeremy Sisto, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Desmond Harrington
Votes: 131,619 | Gross: $15.42M
6. Mimic (1997)
R | 105 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Three years ago, entomologist Dr. Susan Tyler genetically created an insect to kill cockroaches carrying a virulent disease. Now, the insects are out to destroy their only predator, mankind.
Director: Guillermo del Toro | Stars: Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Alexander Goodwin, Giancarlo Giannini
Votes: 55,700 | Gross: $25.48M
7. Dog Soldiers (2002)
R | 105 min | Action, Horror, Thriller
A routine military exercise turns into a nightmare in the Scottish wilderness.
Director: Neil Marshall | Stars: Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Emma Cleasby, Liam Cunningham
Votes: 65,669
8. High Tension (2003)
R | 91 min | Horror
Best friends Marie and Alexia decide to spend a quiet weekend at Alexia's parents' secluded farmhouse. But on the night of their arrival, the girls' idyllic getaway turns into an endless night of horror.
Director: Alexandre Aja | Stars: Cécile de France, Maïwenn, Philippe Nahon, Franck Khalfoun
Votes: 77,900 | Gross: $3.68M
9. Tamara (2005)
R | 98 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Tamara, an unattractive girl, who is picked on by her peers returns after her death as a sexy seductress to exact revenge.
Director: Jeremy Haft | Stars: Jenna Dewan, Katie Stuart, Chad Faust, Bryan Clark
Votes: 11,012 | Gross: $0.17M
10. DeepStar Six (1989)
R | 99 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
A team of navy personnel stationed at a temporary base at the bottom of the ocean and tasked with setting up nuclear missiles discovers a huge underwater cavern which houses a giant prehistoric creature.
Director: Sean S. Cunningham | Stars: Greg Evigan, Nancy Everhard, Taurean Blacque, Miguel Ferrer
Votes: 13,240 | Gross: $8.14M
11. Shocker (1989)
R | 109 min | Comedy, Horror, Thriller
After being sent to the electric chair, a serial killer uses electricity to come back from the dead and carry out his vengeance on the football player who turned him in to the police.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Michael Murphy, Mitch Pileggi, John Tesh, Heather Langenkamp
Votes: 17,718 | Gross: $16.55M
12. Lord of Illusions (1995)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A private detective gets more than he bargains for when he encounters Philip Swan, a performer whose amazing illusions captivate the world, but they are not really what everyone thinks.
Director: Clive Barker | Stars: Scott Bakula, Kevin J. O'Connor, J. Trevor Edmond, Daniel von Bargen
Votes: 19,283 | Gross: $13.29M
13. Deep Rising (1998)
R | 106 min | Action, Adventure, Horror
A group of heavily armed hijackers board a luxury ocean liner in the South Pacific Ocean to loot it, only to do battle with a series of large-sized, tentacled, man-eating sea creatures who had already invaded the ship.
Director: Stephen Sommers | Stars: Treat Williams, Famke Janssen, Anthony Heald, Kevin J. O'Connor
Votes: 40,804 | Gross: $11.20M
14. The Hidden (1987)
R | 97 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A cop and an FBI agent race for answers after law abiding people suddenly become violent criminals.
Director: Jack Sholder | Stars: Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Nouri, Claudia Christian, Clarence Felder
Votes: 22,623 | Gross: $9.75M
15. Body Snatchers (1993)
R | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A teenage girl and her father discover alien clones are replacing humans on a remote U.S. military base in Alabama.
Director: Abel Ferrara | Stars: Gabrielle Anwar, Meg Tilly, Terry Kinney, Reilly Murphy
Votes: 21,264 | Gross: $0.43M
16. Final Destination 2 (2003)
R | 90 min | Horror, Thriller
Death is stalking Kimberly Corman and multiple survivors of a deadly highway accident.
Director: David R. Ellis | Stars: A.J. Cook, Ali Larter, Tony Todd, Michael Landes
Votes: 182,086 | Gross: $46.96M
17. House of Wax (2005)
R | 113 min | Horror, Thriller
A group of teens are unwittingly stranded near a strange wax museum and soon must fight to survive and keep from becoming the next exhibit.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra | Stars: Chad Michael Murray, Paris Hilton, Elisha Cuthbert, Brian Van Holt
Votes: 134,065 | Gross: $32.06M
18. Splinter (I) (2008)
R | 82 min | Crime, Horror, Sci-Fi
Trapped in an isolated gas station by a voracious Splinter parasite that transforms its still-living victims into deadly hosts, a young couple and an escaped convict must find a way to work together to survive this primal terror.
Director: Toby Wilkins | Stars: Shea Whigham, Jill Wagner, Paulo Costanzo, Charles Baker
Votes: 40,954
19. Dracula 2000 (2000)
R | 99 min | Action, Fantasy, Horror
A group of thieves breaks into a chamber expecting to find paintings, but instead they release the count himself, who travels to New Orleans to find his nemesis' daughter, Mary Van Helsing.
Director: Patrick Lussier | Stars: Gerard Butler, Justine Waddell, Jonny Lee Miller, Christopher Plummer
Votes: 36,489 | Gross: $33.02M
20. Black Christmas (2006)
R | 95 min | Horror
On Christmas Eve, an escaped maniac returns to his childhood home, which is now a sorority house, and begins to murder the sorority sisters one by one.
Director: Glen Morgan | Stars: Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Lacey Chabert, Katie Cassidy
Votes: 30,646 | Gross: $16.24M
21. Shrooms (2007)
Not Rated | 84 min | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
A group of friends are stalked and murdered whilst looking for psilocybin mushrooms in the Irish woods.
Director: Paddy Breathnach | Stars: Lindsey Haun, Jack Huston, Max Kasch, Maya Hazen
Votes: 17,678 | Gross: $0.00M
22. The Ruins (2008)
R | 90 min | Adventure, Horror, Thriller
A leisurely Mexican holiday takes a turn for the worse when a group of friends and a fellow tourist embark on a remote archaeological dig in the jungle, where something evil lives among the ruins.
Director: Carter Smith | Stars: Shawn Ashmore, Jena Malone, Jonathan Tucker, Laura Ramsey
Votes: 84,347 | Gross: $17.43M
23. The Fog (2005)
PG-13 | 100 min | Horror, Mystery
A thick mist full of vengeful spirits haunts a prosperous island town off the coast of Oregon, as its inhabitants try to learn their town's dark secret in order to stop it.
Director: Rupert Wainwright | Stars: Tom Welling, Maggie Grace, Selma Blair, DeRay Davis
Votes: 39,188 | Gross: $29.51M
24. Doom (2005)
R | 105 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Space Marines are sent to investigate strange events at a research facility on Mars but find themselves at the mercy of genetically enhanced killing machines.
Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak | Stars: Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Dwayne Johnson, Deobia Oparei
Votes: 118,762 | Gross: $28.21M
25. Dark Water (2005)
PG-13 | 105 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A mother and daughter, still wounded from a bitter custody dispute, hole up in a run-down apartment building, where they are targeted by the ghost of a former resident.
Director: Walter Salles | Stars: Jennifer Connelly, Ariel Gade, John C. Reilly, Tim Roth
Votes: 65,393 | Gross: $25.47M
26. Scream 3 (2000)
R | 116 min | Horror, Mystery
While Sidney and her friends visit the Hollywood set of Stab 3, the third film based on the Woodsboro murders, another Ghostface killer rises to terrorize them.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Liev Schreiber
Votes: 164,146 | Gross: $89.14M
27. Cube²: Hypercube (2002)
R | 94 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Eight strangers awaken with no memory, in a puzzling cube-shaped room where the laws of physics do not always apply.
Director: Andrzej Sekula | Stars: Kari Matchett, Geraint Wyn Davies, Grace Lynn Kung, Matthew Ferguson
Votes: 70,410
28. Terminal Invasion (2002 TV Movie)
R | 84 min | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Aliens in human disguise commandeer a rural airport during a snowstorm. To survive, the people trapped inside must determine which of their own is not of this Earth.
Director: Sean S. Cunningham | Stars: Bruce Campbell, Chase Masterson, C. David Johnson, Kedar Brown
Votes: 2,333
29. Boy Eats Girl (2005)
R | 80 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A boy declares his love for his girlfriend, only to die the same night. He is brought back to life by his mother as a flesh-craving zombie, who sires more teen undead while trying to control his, er, appetite for his beloved.
Director: Stephen Bradley | Stars: Samantha Mumba, David Leon, Tadhg Murphy, Laurence Kinlan
Votes: 4,009
30. What Lies Beneath (2000)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
The wife of a university research scientist believes that her lakeside Vermont home is haunted by a ghost - or that she is losing her mind.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Katharine Towne, Miranda Otto
Votes: 135,786 | Gross: $155.46M
31. Mirage (1990)
85 min | Action, Horror, Thriller
A smiling, sadistic and seemingly demonic young killer in black, who drives a black pick up truck, is hunting three young couples who came to the desert to drink, party and have sex.
Director: Bill Crain | Stars: Jennifer McAllister, Todd Caldecott, Kenny Johnson, Kevin Masterson
Votes: 449
32. Candyman (1992)
R | 99 min | Horror, Thriller
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.
Director: Bernard Rose | Stars: Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd, Kasi Lemmons
Votes: 100,203 | Gross: $25.79M
33. The Haunting (1999)
PG-13 | 113 min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
Dr Marrow enlists Theo, Luke and Nell for a study of sleep disorders at the Hill House. As soon as the terrifying truth about the mansion is revealed, everyone is found fighting for their lives.
Director: Jan de Bont | Stars: Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson, Lili Taylor
Votes: 80,507 | Gross: $91.41M
34. House on Haunted Hill (1999)
R | 93 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
An amusement park mogul offers a group of diverse people $1,000,000 to spend the night in a haunted house with a horrifying past.
Director: William Malone | Stars: Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher
Votes: 60,161 | Gross: $40.85M
35. Urban Legend (1998)
R | 99 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A college student suspects a series of bizarre deaths are connected to certain urban legends.
Director: Jamie Blanks | Stars: Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Michael Rosenbaum
Votes: 71,513 | Gross: $38.07M
36. House IV (1992 Video)
R | 94 min | Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
Roger Cobb (William Katt) is killed in a car accident. His family must move into the house that has haunted him for several years. Soon the family begins to experience scary and unexplained phenomena.
Director: Lewis Abernathy | Stars: Terri Treas, William Katt, Scott Burkholder, Denny Dillon
Votes: 3,064
37. Disturbing Behavior (1998)
R | 84 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
The new kid in Cradle Bay, Washington stumbles across something sinister about the town's method of transforming its unruly teens into upstanding citizens.
Director: David Nutter | Stars: James Marsden, Katie Holmes, Nick Stahl, Tobias Mehler
Votes: 25,300 | Gross: $17.41M
38. Man's Best Friend (1993)
R | 87 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A genetically engineered dog escapes from the science facility where it was created. A family takes it in unaware of its deadly instincts which soon emerge. The scientist who created the dog tries to find it before its too late.
Director: John Lafia | Stars: Ally Sheedy, Lance Henriksen, Robert Costanzo, Fredric Lehne
Votes: 4,895 | Gross: $12.97M
39. The Blob (1988)
R | 95 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A deadly entity from space crash-lands near a small town and begins consuming everyone in its path. Panic ensues as shady government scientists try to contain the horrific creature.
Director: Chuck Russell | Stars: Shawnee Smith, Kevin Dillon, Donovan Leitch Jr., Jeffrey DeMunn
Votes: 43,552 | Gross: $8.25M
40. Scanners (1981)
R | 103 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A scientist trains a man with an advanced telepathic ability called "scanning" to stop a dangerous Scanner with extraordinary psychic powers from waging war against non scanners.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Jennifer O'Neill, Stephen Lack, Patrick McGoohan, Lawrence Dane
Votes: 61,798 | Gross: $14.23M
41. Shivers (1975)
R | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
The residents of a suburban high-rise apartment building are being infected by a strain of parasites that turn them into mindless, sex-crazed fiends out to infect others by the slightest sexual contact.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, Lynn Lowry, Allan Kolman
Votes: 23,599
42. The Beyond (1981)
R | 87 min | Horror
A young woman inherits an old hotel in Louisiana where, following a series of supernatural "accidents", she learns that the building was built over one of the entrances to Hell.
Director: Lucio Fulci | Stars: Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck, Cinzia Monreale, Antoine Saint-John
Votes: 25,335 | Gross: $0.12M
43. Tenebrae (1982)
R | 101 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
An American novelist visiting Rome to promote his latest book is stalked and harassed by an obsessed fan who is committing a string of murders that appear to be tributes to his work.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Anthony Franciosa, Giuliano Gemma, John Saxon, Daria Nicolodi
Votes: 27,451
44. Trauma (1993)
R | 106 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A young man tries to help a teenage girl find the serial killer who murdered her parents before the killer comes after them.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Christopher Rydell, Asia Argento, Piper Laurie, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 8,070
45. The Seventh Sign (1988)
R | 97 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Abby Quinn is eagerly awaiting childbirth but is haunted by dreams where she suffers a miscarriage. When she decides to rent a room to a mysterious stranger, she realizes a chain of events that will unleash the end of humanity.
Director: Carl Schultz | Stars: Demi Moore, Michael Biehn, Jürgen Prochnow, Peter Friedman
Votes: 15,686 | Gross: $18.88M
46. They Live (1988)
R | 94 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
They influence our decisions without us knowing it. They numb our senses without us feeling it. They control our lives without us realizing it. They live.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, George 'Buck' Flower
Votes: 145,619 | Gross: $13.01M
47. I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
R | 101 min | Horror, Thriller
An aspiring writer is repeatedly assaulted, humiliated, and left for dead by four men she systematically hunts down to seek revenge.
Director: Meir Zarchi | Stars: Camille Keaton, Eron Tabor, Richard Pace, Anthony Nichols
Votes: 31,225
48. Sisters (1972)
R | 93 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A small-time reporter tries to convince the police she saw a murder in the apartment across from hers.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning, William Finley
Votes: 20,711 | Gross: $0.35M
49. The Deadly Spawn (1983)
R | 81 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Alien creatures invade a small town and four teenagers, along with a young boy, attempt to escape from them.
Director: Douglas McKeown | Stars: Charles George Hildebrandt, Tom DeFranco, Richard Lee Porter, Jean Tafler
Votes: 5,358
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