50 Most Under Rated Horror Films
by TheThingFromBeyond | created - 11 Dec 2017 | updated - 05 Oct 2022 | Publicfrom most to least underrated 138 Greatest Horror Movies of All Time
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1. Metamorphosis: The Alien Factor (1990)
R | 98 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A virus from outer space transforms a bio-researcher into a blood thirsty monster. Chief researcher Dr. Vialini doesn't want the cops and public to know about this secret experiment. But he... See full summary »
Director: Glenn Takakjian | Stars: Matt Kulis, Patrick Barnes, Tara Leigh, Dianna Flaherty
Votes: 1,116
2. A Cat in the Brain (1990)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A horror film director is stalked by a mad psychiatrist/serial killer bent on killing people to model the killings after the director's gory death scenes from his movies.
Director: Lucio Fulci | Stars: Lucio Fulci, Brett Halsey, Ria De Simone, David L. Thompson
Votes: 3,769
3. Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)
R | 85 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
In the 22nd century, a scientist attempts to right the wrong his ancestor created: the puzzle box that opens the gates of Hell and unleashes Pinhead and his Cenobite legions.
Director: Kevin Yagher | Stars: Bruce Ramsay, Valentina Vargas, Doug Bradley, Charlotte Chatton
Votes: 24,546 | Gross: $16.68M
4. The Wizard of Gore (2007)
R | 94 min | Horror, Mystery
Montag the Magnificent (Glover) is a master illusionist who performs at underground venues, selecting female volunteers from his rave-like audiences. To their hysteria, it appears he's ... See full summary »
Director: Jeremy Kasten | Stars: Kip Pardue, Bijou Phillips, Crispin Glover, Jeffrey Combs
Votes: 2,942
5. Forbidden World (1982)
R | 77 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
In the distant future, a federation marshal arrives at a research lab on a remote planet where a genetic experiment has gotten loose and begins feeding on the dwindling scientific group.
Director: Allan Holzman | Stars: Don Olivera, Jesse Vint, June Chadwick, Linden Chiles
Votes: 6,284
6. The Kindred (1987)
R | 93 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A geneticist takes his assistants to his old family home to locate the deadly product of his late mother's revolutionary research into rapid human evolution--his monstrous, tentacled baby brother--before a mad scientist gets to him first.
Directors: Stephen Carpenter, Jeffrey Obrow | Stars: Rod Steiger, Kim Hunter, David Allen Brooks, Amanda Pays
Votes: 2,496 | Gross: $2.41M
7. Tell Tale (2009)
R | 93 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A man's newly transplanted heart leads him on a dangerous journey to find out who murdered its donor.
Director: Michael Cuesta | Stars: Josh Lucas, Lena Headey, Brian Cox, Bea Miller
Votes: 5,275
8. Harbinger Down (2015)
R | 82 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
While studying the effects of global warming on a pod of whales, grad students on a crabbing vessel and its crew uncover frozen Soviet space shuttle and unintentionally release a monstrous organism from it.
Director: Alec Gillis | Stars: Lance Henriksen, Camille Balsamo, Matt Winston, Reid Collums
Votes: 6,852
9. The Fly II (1989)
R | 105 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
The almost-human son of "Brundlefly" searches for a cure to his mutated genes while being monitored by a nefarious corporation that wishes to continue his father's experiments.
Director: Chris Walas | Stars: Eric Stoltz, Daphne Zuniga, Lee Richardson, John Getz
Votes: 24,685 | Gross: $20.02M
10. Silent Hill: Revelation (2012)
R | 95 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
When her adoptive father disappears, Sharon Da Silva is drawn into a strange and terrifying alternate reality that holds answers to the horrific nightmares that have plagued her since childhood.
Director: M.J. Bassett | Stars: Adelaide Clemens, Kit Harington, Sean Bean, Carrie-Anne Moss
Votes: 66,666 | Gross: $17.53M
11. Cabin Fever: Patient Zero (2014)
Not Rated | 91 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
When a group of friends enjoying a bachelor cruise in the Caribbean stumble upon a research facility on a remote island, a deadly virus is unleashed. The group must find a way to survive before the flesh eating virus consumes them all.
Director: Kaare Andrews | Stars: Sean Astin, Currie Graham, Ryan Donowho, Brando Eaton
Votes: 8,342
12. The Island of the Fishmen (1979)
R | 81 min | Action, Adventure, Horror
Aquatic creatures threaten the existence of a mysterious island.
Director: Sergio Martino | Stars: Barbara Bach, Claudio Cassinelli, Richard Johnson, Beryl Cunningham
Votes: 2,467
13. Swamp Thing (1982)
PG | 91 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
After a violent incident with a special chemical, a research scientist is turned into a swamp plant monster.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Louis Jourdan, Adrienne Barbeau, Ray Wise, David Hess
Votes: 16,297
14. Diary of the Dead (2007)
R | 95 min | Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A group of young film students run into real-life zombies while filming a horror movie of their own.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: Michelle Morgan, Joshua Close, Shawn Roberts, Todd Schroeder
Votes: 49,221 | Gross: $0.96M
15. Neon Maniacs (1986)
R | 91 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A group of teenagers in San Francisco discover a nest of homicidal monsters living in a tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, but when they try to tell authorities, no one believes them.
Director: Joseph Mangine | Stars: Clyde Hayes, Leilani Sarelle, Donna Locke, Victor Brandt
Votes: 3,006
16. Antibirth (2016)
Not Rated | 94 min | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
In a desolate community full of drug-addled Marines and rumors of kidnapping, a wild-eyed stoner named Lou wakes up after a wild night of partying with symptoms of a strange illness and ... See full summary »
Director: Danny Perez | Stars: Natasha Lyonne, Chloë Sevigny, Meg Tilly, Mark Webber
Votes: 3,610
17. Lurking Fear (1994)
R | 76 min | Action, Horror
The town of Leffert's Corners has been plagued by unearthly beings for decades, and now there is only a few people left... what everyone is not aware of are the humanoid creatures lurking underneath the holy grounds.
Director: C. Courtney Joyner | Stars: Jon Finch, Blake Adams, Ashley Laurence, Jeffrey Combs
Votes: 1,806
18. Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
R | 95 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Alice fights alongside a resistance movement to regain her freedom from an Umbrella Corporation testing facility.
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson | Stars: Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Michelle Rodriguez, Aryana Engineer
Votes: 150,006 | Gross: $42.35M
19. Blue Monkey (1987)
R | 96 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Detective Jim Bishop and Dr. Rachel Carson must find a way to stop a giant monstrous insect that's eating people in her quarantined hospital before it procreates and spreads a deadly infection it's carrying.
Director: William Fruet | Stars: Ivan E. Roth, Steve Railsback, Gwynyth Walsh, Don Lake
Votes: 1,311
20. Cannibals in the Streets (1980)
R | 96 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Mentally unstable Vietnam vets who were held captive by the Viet Cong come back to America after being rescued carrying a dangerous virus that turns people into cannibals when bitten.
Director: Antonio Margheriti | Stars: John Saxon, Elizabeth Turner, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Cinzia De Carolis
Votes: 4,296
21. Metamorphosis (I) (1990)
R | 96 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
An anti-aging serum is being developed by a scientist. When he loses his funding he uses it on himself with dire results.
Director: George Eastman | Stars: Gene LeBrock, Catherine Baranov, Harry Cason, David Wicker
Votes: 1,089
22. The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter (1992)
R | 104 min | Horror
A creature of demonic nature, too hideous to have a name, once again terrorizes the college kids that summoned it.
Director: Jean-Paul Ouellette | Stars: Mark Kinsey Stephenson, Charles Klausmeyer, Maria Ford, John Rhys-Davies
Votes: 1,163
23. Cellar Dweller (1987)
R | 77 min | Fantasy, Horror
A comic book artist Whitney Taylor is doomed to repeat history in a most grotesque way when she unleashes a demon after drawing it.
Director: John Carl Buechler | Stars: Yvonne De Carlo, Debrah Farentino, Brian Robbins, Pamela Bellwood
Votes: 3,020
24. The Rejuvenator (1988)
R | 90 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A rich actress who has gotten too old for leading roles employs a scientist who is working on a formula for eternal youth. The formula involves withdrawing certain fluids from the human ... See full summary »
Director: Brian Thomas Jones | Stars: Vivian Lanko, John MacKay, James Hogue, Katell Pleven
Votes: 689
25. Hell of the Living Dead (1980)
Unrated | 99 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
After an experiment gone wrong, a virus that turns people into zombies spreads throughout New Guinea. A female reporter and her cameraman, and a team of four commandos sent to investigate try to survive the onslaught.
Directors: Bruno Mattei, Claudio Fragasso | Stars: Margie Newton, Franco Garofalo, Selan Karay, José Gras
Votes: 5,900
26. The Nest (1987)
R | 89 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Horrifying shocker as a biological experiment goes haywire when meat-eating mutant roaches invade an island community, terrorizing a peaceful New England fishing village and hideously butchering its citizens.
Director: Terence H. Winkless | Stars: Robert Lansing, Lisa Langlois, Franc Luz, Terri Treas
Votes: 3,018
27. Twixt (2011)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A struggling horror writer visiting a small town on a book tour gets caught up in a murder mystery involving a young girl. That night in a dream, he is approached by a mysterious young ghost named V.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Val Kilmer, Bruce Dern, Elle Fanning, Ben Chaplin
Votes: 11,686
28. Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)
R | 97 min | Horror
An investigative reporter must send the newly unbound Pinhead and his legions back to Hell.
Director: Anthony Hickox | Stars: Terry Farrell, Doug Bradley, Kevin Bernhardt, Lawrence Mortorff
Votes: 35,002 | Gross: $12.53M
29. Virus (1999)
R | 99 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
After outrunning a typhoon at sea, a strong-willed tugboat navigator and her crew discover a high-tech alien life form that's taken control of a Russian research vessel and aims to destroy on a massive scale.
Director: John Bruno | Stars: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Sutherland, William Baldwin, Joanna Pacula
Votes: 29,909 | Gross: $14.01M
30. Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002 Video)
R | 89 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
After a car crash, a shady stockbroker suffers from amnesia. This leaves him in a hazy limbo of sex and murder. But, as in a predestined journey, he unmistakenly takes the bait and follows the marked-out clues all the way to Pinhead.
Director: Rick Bota | Stars: Dean Winters, Ashley Laurence, Doug Bradley, Rachel Hayward
Votes: 14,449
31. Scream 3 (2000)
R | 116 min | Horror, Mystery
While Sidney and her friends visit the Hollywood set of Stab 3, the third film based on the Woodsboro murders, another Ghostface killer rises to terrorize them.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Liev Schreiber
Votes: 163,888 | Gross: $89.14M
32. Isolation (2005)
R | 95 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
On a remote Irish farm, five people become unwilling participants in an experiment that goes nightmarishly wrong.
Director: Billy O'Brien | Stars: John Lynch, Essie Davis, Sean Harris, Marcel Iures
Votes: 7,978
33. C.H.U.D. (1984)
R | 88 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A bizarre series of sudden disappearances on the streets of New York City seems to point toward something unsavory living in the sewers.
Director: Douglas Cheek | Stars: John Heard, Daniel Stern, Christopher Curry, Kim Greist
Votes: 13,957 | Gross: $4.65M
34. The Dead Pit (1989)
R | 95 min | Horror
The arrival of an amnesiac patient in a psychiatric hospital somehow frees a mad doctor, who was shot and entombed with his fiendish experiments in an abandoned wing of the asylum 20 years before.
Director: Brett Leonard | Stars: Jeremy Slate, Cheryl Lawson, Stephen Gregory Foster, Danny Gochnauer
Votes: 2,909
35. Mother of Tears (2007)
R | 102 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
An American art student in Rome accidentally triggers the return of Mater Lachrymarum - the Third Mother - and must use her latent magical powers to end the witch's reign of terror.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Asia Argento, Cristian Solimeno, Adam James, Moran Atias
Votes: 11,124 | Gross: $0.06M
36. Dead Space (1991)
R | 72 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A deadly virus attacks the crew of a Saturn space station.
Director: Fred Gallo | Stars: Marc Singer, Laura Mae Tate, Bryan Cranston, Judith Chapman
Votes: 1,525
37. Strange Behavior (1981)
R | 87 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A scientist is experimenting with teenagers and turning them into murderers.
Director: Michael Laughlin | Stars: Michael Murphy, Louise Fletcher, Dan Shor, Fiona Lewis
Votes: 2,407
38. The Dentist (1996)
R | 92 min | Horror, Thriller
An extremely successful dentist goes off the deep end after he catches his wife cheating on him.
Director: Brian Yuzna | Stars: Corbin Bernsen, Linda Hoffman, Michael Stadvec, Ken Foree
Votes: 10,493
39. TerrorVision (1986)
R | 85 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
"TerrorVision" is a 1986 horror / science fiction movie; telling the tale of when a family's new satellite television system starts receiving signals from another planet, and soon it becomes the passageway to an alien world.
Director: Ted Nicolaou | Stars: Diane Franklin, Mary Woronov, Gerrit Graham, Chad Allen
Votes: 7,756 | Gross: $0.32M
40. Black Mountain Side (2014)
Not Rated | 99 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
At a cold, desolate, northmost outpost in Canada, an archaeological discovery is made. A specialist arrives Nov. 1. Strange things happen. All contact with the outside world is down.
Director: Nick Szostakiwskyj | Stars: Shane Twerdun, Michael Dickson, Carl Toftfelt, Marc Anthony Williams
Votes: 6,190
41. Hellraiser: Deader (2005 Video)
R | 88 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A journalist uncovers an underground group who can bring back the dead and slowly becomes drawn into their world.
Director: Rick Bota | Stars: Kari Wuhrer, Ionut Chermenski, Hugh Jorgin, Linda Marlowe
Votes: 11,864
42. They Bite (1992)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Sea creatures come to shore and attack and mate with humans.
Director: Brett Piper | Stars: Donna Frotscher, Nick Baldasare, Christina Veronica, Charlie Barnett
Votes: 441
43. The Unnamable (1988)
R | 87 min | Horror
College students check out a haunted house where in the 1800's an ugly monster called "the Unnamable" was trapped in a vault.
Director: Jean-Paul Ouellette | Stars: Charles Klausmeyer, Mark Kinsey Stephenson, Alexandra Durrell, Laura Albert
Votes: 3,164
44. Primal Rage (1988)
R | 91 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A scientist at a Florida University accidentally creates a "rage virus" while conducting experiments to restore dead brain tissue in baboons. The virus soon spreads.
Director: Vittorio Rambaldi | Stars: Patrick Lowe, Cheryl Arutt, Sarah Buxton, Mitch Watson
Votes: 1,391
45. Cooties (2014)
R | 88 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
A mysterious virus hits an isolated elementary school, transforming the kids into a feral swarm of mass savages. An unlikely hero must lead a motley band of teachers in the fight of their lives.
Directors: Jonathan Milott, Cary Murnion | Stars: Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, Alison Pill, Jack McBrayer
Votes: 28,514 | Gross: $0.06M
46. Paganini Horror (1988)
82 min | Horror, Music
When a female rock band uses an infamous old piece of sheet music to record their new album in an old mansion, they accidentally open a portal to hell.
Director: Luigi Cozzi | Stars: Daria Nicolodi, Jasmine Maimone, Pascal Persiano, Maria Cristina Mastrangeli
Votes: 1,352
47. Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005 Video)
R | 91 min | Horror
Gamers playing a MMORPG based on the "Hellraiser" films find their lives endangered after being invited to a rave, the host of which intends to show them the truth behind the Cenobite mythos.
Director: Rick Bota | Stars: Stelian Urian, Katheryn Winnick, Anna Tolputt, Khary Payton
Votes: 12,951
48. Frightmare (1983)
R | 86 min | Comedy, Horror
When his loyal fans decide to steal his fresh corpse from the mortuary to party with it all night long, a true horror film star returns from the grave as a ghastly blood-sucker, bent on revenge. At least, will he spare his followers?
Director: Norman Thaddeus Vane | Stars: Ferdy Mayne, Luca Bercovici, Nita Talbot, Leon Askin
Votes: 1,741
49. Progeny (1998)
R | 98 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
An unsuspecting woman is impregnated by aliens who are experimenting on the human population.
Director: Brian Yuzna | Stars: Arnold Vosloo, Jillian McWhirter, Brad Dourif, Lindsay Crouse
Votes: 1,731
50. L'altrove (2000 Video)
70 min | Horror
Baghdad 1571. Dr. John Dee asks the philosopher Al Caleb to translate some pages from the book "Necronomicon" from old Arabic to English. Arkham 500 years later: a copy of Necronomicon, the... See full summary »
Director: Ivan Zuccon | Stars: Emanuele Cerman, Laura Coratti, Giuseppe Gobbato, Roberta Marrelli
Votes: 110
51. Project: Metalbeast (1995)
R | 92 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
In 1974, an unhinged CIA agent injects himself with the werewolf blood he found. After a killing spree, his body is put in suspended animation, then thawed out 20 years later by his crazy boss and a team of unsuspecting doctors.
Director: Alessandro De Gaetano | Stars: Kim Delaney, Barry Bostwick, Kane Hodder, John Marzilli
Votes: 1,217
52. Hard Rock Zombies (1984)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Horror, Music
A freshly-out-of-the-grave band of Hard Rock Zombies is thirsting to take their sweet revenge, as they give the performance of a lifetime.
Director: Krishna Shah | Stars: E.J. Curse, Geno Andrews, Sam Mann, Mick McMains
Votes: 1,775
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