The 50 Best Horror Movies You've Never Seen

The 50 Best Horror Movies You've Never Seen (2014)

*** (out of 4)

P.J. Soles hosts this two-hour and twenty-minute documentary taking a look, as the title tells you, the fifty best horror moves you've never seen. Countless critics, actors, writers and directors show up to talk about the movies in question and why they love them so much.

Look, whenever a list like this is put together it's mainly for debate. People will take a look at the list and argue about the ranking or argue about what film was left off. These lists are just made to stir up a conversation and more times than not there's not too much thought put into them. As far as this list goes, I'm curious as to who this documentary was aimed at because the majority of the films on here are extremely well-known titles that even your marginal horror fan is going to know about. The film might be beneficial to those who really are unaware of anything outside of HALLOWEEN, Friday THE 13TH or THE Texas CHAIN SAW MASSACRE but everyone else is probably going to know of the films.

With that said, the list of films is a little.....over the map I guess you'd say. At first it seems like the list is going for titles from the past thirty years then they quickly do an old Hammer but then there's really nothing else "old" until we get THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and REPULSION. Some might argue these aren't even horror movies but I think the bigger argument is who hasn't heard of these movies? Then you've got stuff like BASKET CASE, BLACK Christmas, THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE, THE HUNGER, HALLOWEEN III, WHEN A STRANGER CALLS, RE-ANIMATOR, PUMPKINHEAD and AUDITION. Again, most of these titles are very well known.

With that said, seeing something like THE FOOD OF THE GODS making the list is a bit of a head-scratcher. Either way, THE 50 BEST HORROR MOVIES YOU'VE NEVER SEEN is a mildly entertaining documentary that horror fans should enjoy even though they're not going to stumble across anything they probably haven't already seen or at least heard of.

1) The title needs to be taken at face value. It's not a list of the 50 best horrors you've never heard of, or the 50 best horrors period. It's the 50 best horrors you haven't seen.

2) Clearly some people are going to have seen many or even most of these movies. In the Internet Age, it's pretty much impossible to find gems that nobody has seen. The title is a bit of puffery, but a reasonable viewer should accept that it's meant to convey a certain set of parameters, not )a literal description.

3) It's clearly aimed at people who aren't voracious horror fans. Voracious horror fans can certainly enjoy it for the discussion possibilities (rankings. what got left out, what were you pleasantly surprised to see, etc) but the basic aim of the show is to discuss horror that isn't Halloween/TCM/Saw/Poltergeist/etc. So they're offering alternatives to the ones most everyone can name even if they haven't seen any of them. This is a valid and useful service being offered.

Horror (or any genre, for that matter) fans have to remember that there's a big old world out there, and most of it doesn't share your drive to learn all you can about your genre. It's perfectly okay to reach out to the casual fans too, and teach them a little more about horror films.

Honestly this entire list is a bunch of annoying actors pretending the bad horror movies they appeared in once are actually worth watching. They're not.

Most of the people talking about these are annoying, hard to like, conceited, or eye rolling at how bad they're trying to pat themselves on the back for creating, seeing, or being in a bunch of B-grade shock.

This feels like Tubi put it together to aid trick watchers into checking out some of their God awful content... I don't know IF Tubi even make it, but it's currently on Tubi and so are most of these horrible horrors.

It's slightly better than the "50 Worst Movies" documentary, but not by much. It gives little to no insight about the films either, just some nobodies nostalgia memories that any sane person couldn't give a rats behind about.

A list by people who know nothing for those who wish to stay ignorant. The title is so misleading. Half of these had large releases. And the narrator's? So boring as to be coma inducing. The only way a viewer hasn't seen at least half of these is if they were born in the last decade.

I'll get to the contents of the film's list in a second, but overall, I enjoyed this stroll down horror's memory lane. For me, I've seen the vast majority of these movies. And those I haven't, for one reason or another, I have no desire. The doc moves at a nice pace and the "experts", fans, and insiders are interesting enough. There's no much to complain about the way things are presented. If I had to pick one negative with the way things are presented it would be with some of P J Soles commentary. It's a bit groan-inducing in spots.

It's difficult to put together one of these lists and make everyone happy. What you call a hidden gem, I might have seen a dozen times. Or something you love, I might find retched. So, here are a few of my arguments and agreements with the list of 50 movies presented:

• I'll start with a few of the films I completely agree with. These are films that would easily appear on a similar list if I put one together: When a Stranger Calls, Motel Hell, April Fools Day, Lemora (shocked to see it here), Exorcist III (very underrated), Alice Sweet Alice, Repulsion, Audition (probably my top ranked movie on the entire list), The Descent, and Night of the Hunter (even though I'm not sure it's really horror).

• A few movies I would never put on this list: Valentine (hated it!), The Brides of Dracula (it's good, but there are better, equally obscure Hammer films I would include), Halloween III (who doesn't know about this movie), Tourist Trap (fun enough, but not as good as this doc would have you believe), and Food of the Gods (really?).

I'll end this with a list of 20 films I would add to the titular 50. It's a non-US heavy list, but I've tried to stay away from the better known movies from the likes of Bava, Argento, or Fulci. In no real order:

1. The House with Laughing Windows 2. Eyes Without a Face 3. The Island of Lost Souls 4. Mad Love 5. Le Boucher 6. Onibaba 7. The Curse of the Crying Woman 8. The Plague of the Zombies 9. Spoorloos 10. Alucarda 11. The Black Pit of Dr. M 12. Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter 13. Mill of the Stone Women 14. Shock Waves 15. The Queen of Spades 16. The Ninth Gate 17. Mark of the Devil 18. Race with the Devil 19. A Tale of Two Sisters 20. Scream of Fear