10 underrated horror movies. Part 2

5. Leviathan.  This is one of many many “Alien” knock off, but honestly, this one is pretty much my favorite.  It’s about a mining team on the body of the ocean, that’s being lead by Robocop.  (ok, it’s just Robocop actor Peter Weller, but that just sounds way more funny and awesome.)  They find a sunken Russia battleship and on board is an experiment in human genetics to make a race of fish people… Really.  All hell breaks loose and it’s up to Robocop, Winston from “Ghostbusters” and a cute British woman to bring down the evil fish man creature before it can make it to the surface.  Yeah it sounds silly, but the movie actually takes itself pretty seriously, and that’s always welcome.  Yeah, if you’re petty you’ll just thumb your nose and dismiss this movie as an “Alien” clone, and yeah, it pretty isn’t hiding that, but at the same time it’s a really good monster flick.  The main attraction here is some above par acting, and really really good special effects from the late great Stan Winston.  Seriously, this movie is available to stream on Netflix, and it is well worth the hour and a half, you will not be disappointed.

4. The Burning.  This to me is the best straight forward slasher movie.  It has a great set up, in the form of Cropsy, a man burned in a prank gone wrong.  It has very likable characters including a VERY young Jason Alexander of “Seinfeld” fame, great make up effects from the make up genius Tom Savini.  It does that one thing you almost never see in the typical slasher movie, it gives you very VERY likable characters.  These characters actually feel like real people, and seeing them get killed actually makes you feel so sorry for them.  It’s how I’d like them to always be done.  It’s well paced, fun, interesting and it has a great story idea.  As a slasher movie, it’s really hard to find anything wrong with it.  IT just working really well and you should give it a look.

3. Opera.  I’m am a HUGE HUGE fan of Dario Argento’s older work.  His newer stuff has been pretty hit or miss with me, but back in the day, he made some damn good ones.  Opera is one such movie, think of it as kind of a version of “Phantom of the Opera” where the psycho is stalking the young singer… and then forcing her to watch him kill people.  No, I’m not even kidding about the forcing part, one of the most horrific images ever, he tapes sewing needles to her eye lids, so she can’t look away.  Added to that the music is really impressive, and it does one of the better takes on the classic story.  If you’re looking for a something kind of weird, but still awesome, “Opera” is that movie.  Pick it up, it’ll make a great double feature with “The Abominable Dr. Phibes”.

2. The Exocist 3.  This movie is just great.  No, I’m not kidding.  This movie is simply amazing.  It’s a great character study, at the center of which is the always amazing George C. Scott.  Brad Doriff, plays an imprisoned mental patient.  The movie has a great mystery at the center of it.  And holy shit, I cannot stress how hauntingly beautiful this movie is.  Taking place after the original “The Exocist”, this installment has had a somewhat a checkered past.  IT was written and directed by original author William Peter Blatty, who based most of the plot off his novel “Legion”  (Yes, like that terrible Paul Bettany movie I’ve previously reviewed.  Don’t even go there.)  However, during production, the producers figured, ‘Hey, this is a sequel, but it doesn’t have an exorcism in it… WE NEED TO FIX THAT!’  And to whatever idiot thought that, you deserve whatever is waiting for you in the dumb ideas circle of hell.  That aside, and the fact that the exorcism at the end comes pretty much out of nowhere, this movie is still amazing.  People want an unheard of horror movie?  THIS ONE!  It’s just a freaking amazing.  The only thing keeping it from number one, is that, well, most critics put it as there number one.  Because it’s being more and more discovered thanks to that, I’m giving it the second spot.  I feel that if I’m making an underrated list, I should give number one to a movie that I keep hearing people haven’t even HEARD of.  So without further ado…

1. Dog Soldiers.  This is a great horror movie.  It’s about a group of British soldiers that get ambushed by werewolves and have to hold up in an isolated cottage.  This movie has everything.  It’s that rare movie that is self aware, but in a good way.  Everytime the guys come up with an idea that might save them, something come up that keeps it from happening.  This movie is just amazing.  It has awesome effects, a fun story, and some seriously, SERIOUSLY good acting.  It’s just perfect.  It’s fun, it can be scary when it needs to be, and it just leaves you feeling so good after seeing it.  Seriously, if you can’t have fun seeing a movie that has a hard core commando guy getting into a fist fight with a werewolf, I don’t ever want to know you.  This should be the top of your list if you haven’t seen it yet.  It’s just awesome.

So that's my list, and it was hard to simply narrow it down.  Maybe next year I"ll do more movies next year.  Next time though, the bad news.  I count down the 10 worst horror movies I've ever seen.  Stay tuned!