Recent Underrated Horror Movies - by Keith Simanton, Managing Editor

“ Director Carter Smith plausibly spins the tale of a group of tourists who visit a secret Mayan temple, slowly discovering the reason it has remained a secret so long. Though it stars Jenna Malone it is the numbed, terrified performance of Laura Ramsey, as a putatively dumb blonde who gets the brunt of the cursed place, that stands out. Watch the original ending for the best resolution of this creepy (and creeping) tale. ”

“ Writer/director Neil Marshall made a name for himself with some outlandish gore-fests such as Dog Soldiers but he created a truly scary and memorable film about a group of women who go caving in an unexplored caverns, but end up fighting for their lives when they discover that they're not alone down in the dark. Most interesting, however, is the group dynamic of the women with a fierce performance by Shauna Macdonald. Watch the UK version for, again, the best ending. ”

“ Okay, okay, it's not *really* a horror film, it's more of a sci-fi film with suspenseful moments but director Joe Cornish's film, Attack the Block, manages itself as an homage to '80s alien films such as Tremors while simultaneously injecting a fresh, exhilirating take on the sub-genre. A group of unlikeable thugs begin to find their purpose when their housing development (their "block") is invaded by some hairy, nasty and tooth-filled creatures. Lead John Boyega is one of the finds of the year. PS, this isn't an ad but it's available on DVD/Blu on 10/25. ”

“ Another Stephen King adaptation, another unexpectedly great set of unnerving frights. John Cusack is Mike Eslin, a writer who visits "haunted" locations and debunks them. But Eslin meets his match at the Dolphin Hotel (when the manager is the imperious Samuel L. Jackson, you should know better than to check in) and the room in question. 1408 pulls a neat real-time trick as an hour elapses between the time that the room puts Eslin (and us) through the wringer. ”

“ Fan-boys were horrified that Matt Reeves dared to remake Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In, but Let Me In is a solid adaptation of the original. I’d argue that, in some ways, it’s an improvement. It takes the best elements of the original, changes them very little, and dispenses with some of the lankier and odder sections; if you’ve seen the original there’s a scene with a bunch of cats, and a trip to a cabin that don’t make it in, and I didn’t miss them. It’s much bloodier, gorier, and much more vicious film yet doesn’t back too far away from the deeply creepy notion of a 12-year-old (Chloe Grace Moritz, excellent as usual) arrested before puberty and how that affects those around her. ”

“ Never mind that both pre-Avatar Sam Worthington and pre-Alice Mia Wasikowska appear in Greg Mclean's giant Outback-crocodile epic. It's his smart direction that makes this thoroughly enjoyable and suspenseful. A river-rafting tour goes too far upriver and runs into a super-croc that likes to grab its victims and keep them later for snacking. ”

“ You know something is amiss in Triangle from the outset. A very depressed woman, extremely well-played by Melissa George , is convinced to come on a boating excursion. When a freak storm capsizes their boat they head for what appears to be an abandoned freighter. What they find on board is a mind-twist in this film by Christopher Smith (Severance , Black Death ) ”

“ People avoided Devil because it was touted as being "from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan," which wasn't exactly a clean bill of mental health. Devil should have been a for-TV movie as it feels small and is small, in scope, in ambition yet has a crisp script and some fine bit-part acting that makes it entirely watchable. ”

“ Okay, it's too old to be considered "recent" but this 1988 film has a first hour that is part small-town memoir and part extremely effective ghost story (though it gets more uneven near the end). Lucas Haas plays Frankie Scarlatti a bullied child who gets locked in the school coat closet. Little does he know that a murder took place in that elongated room and that the ghost is coming back on the night of the killing. ”