It the spooky time of year, whose got cheesy/campy/bizarre/obscure horror movie recommendations?

Duke said:

slantvaliant (Forum Supporter) said:

Basketcase

Reanimator

Both the above are recommended for horror cheeze.

Reanimator includes one of the best / worst gratuitous sex scenes in horror history.

Honestly, if you're looking for terribly entertaining scary movies, almost any horror made in the '80s will bring the goods.

Here's a few more for the list:

Pet Sematary - the original with Fred Gwynne and the Ramones theme

Fright Night - Chris Sarandon develops his Princess Bride character as a vampire

The Gate - kids accidentally open a portal to Hell in their basement

House - a forgotten '80s classic, featuring the Greatest American Hero versus Bull from Night Court

The Creeping Flesh - a Vincent Price classic

Trilogy Of Terror - has anybody mentioned the best Karen Black vehicle ever made yet?

 

I watched The Gate a lot as a kid. That movie still creeps me out. Good stuff.

I'm surprised there's been no mention of Duel. Traveling salesman in a Plymouth Valiant gets stalked up and down the California highways by a deranged truck driver in a rusty Peterbilt? Roadside Rattlesnake attractions? Directed by Steven Spielberg? 

Seriously, what's not to like?

IMDb link for Duel

Ran across this, seems to be a few good suggestions. 

https://kotaku.com/best-halloween-movies-disney-scary-spooky-1851654060

10001110101 said:

The Stuff. Think man eating killer yogurt.

"Mom's all cut up and dad's got this harpoon thing in his neck and they're getting bigger!"

In reply to Recon1342 :

Duel is rather suspenseful. (Not saying that it doesn’t count, but it’s what you can’t see that scares you.)

Watched Phantasm recently. Holds up.

Not quite on target but this popped into one of my feeds and thought it might be close enough to qualify:
The Horror Podcast

It replays vintage radio horror shows.

David S. Wallens said:

In reply to Recon1342 :

Duel is rather suspenseful. (Not saying that it doesn’t count, but it’s what you can’t see that scares you.)

Another one, like the 1981 Salem's Lot, that was also a TV movie that was waaaaay better than it needed to be be.

We're in a really strong age of top-notch TV production, but there were certainly some absolute rockets in the '70s and '80s as well.

Has anyone mentioned "A boy and his dog" (1975)? Darkly hilarious apocalyptic story about the adventures of a boy who can telekintically speak with his dog. DO NOT watch it with a female friend or partner unless they have a high tolerance for dark humor with misogynistic undertones.

Anyone mentioned "Attack of the Killer Tomatos"?

In reply to bobzilla :

Yeah, I did.

A Boy And His Dog is good but I didn't really have it in my own personal spooky genre so I didn't think to post it.  Starring a very young Don Johnson, and based on a novella by Harlan Ellison.

There is some pretty solid Netflix-produced horror in with the crap.  For a long time I skimmed right over anything branded with the red N, but these are pretty good:

• Apostle with Michael Sheen
   
• The Ritual with Rafe Spall

Some other titles I'll recommend:

• The Babadook - scary, but an actual story rather than genre horror
   
• The VVitch - disturbingly atmospheric; slow pace suits the story
   
• Hereditary - genuinely scary
   
• Midsommar with Florence Pugh - increasingly, disturbingly weird; made by the same writer / director as Hereditary
   
• The Blackcoat's Daughter (also sometimes known as February) with Emma Roberts - written and directed by Osgood Perkins, Anthony Perkins's son; this is also a slow burn, but trust me, the atmosphere is worth it, and stuff is going on even when it may not seem like it

Maybe not scary but it has plenty of monsters: Freaked. 

For massive amounts of cheese:

Plan 9 From Outer Space - Often bad movies have no sense of pacing and risk boring the audience to death. Somehow the only mistake Ed Wood didn't make with this one was having a good sense of pacing and what would be building tension if you weren't laughing so hard at bad editing and moronic dialog. Also, it's Bela Lugosi's final movie... for all of one scene.

Night of the Lepus - You just can't generate terror with these "monsters", no matter how hard you try. And the movie tries way too hard.

If that's too much cheese for you:

Nosferatu - The original silent one, and a way different take on Dracula compared to Bela Lugosi. There's one with a Type O Negative soundtrack out there too.

We’ve been watching the original Twilight Zones, starting with S1 E1. Good stuff. I enjoy the pacing and short form. 

The other night’s was “Perchance to Dream.” I think I have seen that one before as I have been watching these since the year of the flood. Anyway, the premise will keep you awake.

Then there’s the movie from the ’80s: “Wanna see something really scary?”

We watched From Dusk Till Dawn last night and man does it hold up well. It just plays like absolutely everyone involved was having the time of their lives making it. And also adds validity to my theory is that some of Quentin Tarantino's best work is when he's either writer or director but not both (True Romance, Jackie Brown, this).

In reply to David S. Wallens :

more good OG Twilight Zone for Halloween in addition to Nightmare at 20,000 Feet:

The Invaders

The Hitchhiker

Caesar & Me

The Living Doll

The Howling Man

Here's one for bizarre: Incubus (1966)

it's got Shatner and there's some plot about witches but the whole film is in Esperanto. It was apparently badly spoken according to enthusiasts of the language.

I came upon this years ago late night on TCM, wasn't sure if I was asleep at that point.

3 pages in and no one mentioned Beatlejuice Beatlejuice???

Get thee to a movie theatre!

36 years later Michael Keaton reprises his role at the age of 72!

In reply to j_tso :

I own Incubus. It's as bizarre as everyone says it is.

Even not knowing Esperanto, I can tell that Shatner speaks it with a French Canadian accent.

j_tso said:

In reply to David S. Wallens :

more good OG Twilight Zone for Halloween in addition to Nightmare at 20,000 Feet:

The Invaders

The Hitchhiker

Caesar & Me

The Living Doll

The Howling Man

All good with The Howling Man definitely up there–not creepy but one that makes you think about the root of many of our conflicts. 

I’d put my favorite episode as “Deaths-Head Revisited.”