Underrated Horrors/Thrillers

1. Session 9 - Okay, so maybe David Caruso was a bigger joke in 2001 than he is now with his stoic performance on CSI:Miami, but this is still a scary movie. Five construction workers are in an abandoned mental hospital cleaning it of asbestos, when strange occurrences happen and one of them becomes obsessed with the audio tapes of a patient. This movie was never destined to be a big hit, which is why the main critics didn't review it and it was basically forgotten.

2. Eye See You - The history behind this movie is probably more infamous than the movie itself because it was considered one of the biggest studio mistakes ever after $60 million had been spent and the movie was shelved. Then came The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Originally titled De-Tox and released in Europe theatrically, and in the U.S. on DVD/Video, this movie has the stigmata of being a mistake. It actually is a thriller about an alcoholic cop chasing a serial killer, only to find the killer has trailed him to an Wyoming mountain retreat in the dead of winter. The question is who is the killer and who will he strike next. This movie isn't a slasher movie like Mindhunters. Many of the cops at the retreat live. While not one of the best movies of Stallone's career, it is nice scary movie to watch.

3. Paradise Lost 2: Revelations - While many people remember Paradist Lost, a documentary about the brutal killing of three children and West Memphis, AR and suspected witchhunt of three teens for the crime, this documentary is more of a follow-up than a sequel. John Mark Byers, father of one of the murder children, is a walking contradiction. Even though all three teens are in prison for the rest of their lives, he still harks on the murders as if he's gotten something to hide. A hypocrite, he shows the same theatrics we've seen in Susan Smith. One of the most chilling scenes is where he returns to the scene of the crime and burns the ground (maybe wanting to destroy evidence that could implicate himself.) The movie ends with no conclusion. It just shows us that some people get away with things. Byers is singing badly to a gospel song and the titles show he has since been arrest for drugs. Hannibal Lecters scared me because he could have been real. John Mark Byers is a real person.

4. The Challengeling - Hard to believe at the end of 1970's at a time where Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist and Halloween were changing horror, one ghost movie, a lot better than The Amityville Horror, would be scarier than hell. George C. Scott plays a musician who's suffered the lost of hiw wife in daughter in a traffic accident and moves into an haunted house. Reportedly inspired by true events in 1960's, the scene of the girl seeing the drowning boy in her bedroom floor is one of the scariest images ever on screen.

5. The Village - Why do people hate this movie? Maybe, it's because they expect a twist and what they get is a frightening look at a society not much different from our own. Sure, the dialogue is silly. The acting is low key. Two Academy Award winners. Two Academy Award nominees and Opie Cunningham's daughter upstages them all. And I could have done without the celebration scene in which we view another period movie where people dance. But the true horror of "Those Who We Do Not Speak" is that they are really monsters. They are human beings with the best intentions and despite all their efforts to invoke fear for peace, there is still violence regardles. The elders of the town are some rotten people. Doesn't William Hurt's character remind you of Bush-Cheny-Rumsfield in how he pooh-poohs Joaquin Phoenix's request to do changes. Is Brendan Gleeson's character inspired by Colin Powell. This movie could have been considered a companion to Fahrenheit 9/11, but every critic decided to blast it, because it wasn't real. Neither was The Wizard of Oz and people love that fucking movie. Here, they feel they have been bamboozled by a pseudo-thriller. Maybe how we've been bamboozled by a pseudo-President. The truth hurts.