The 50 Best Horror Movies You've Never Seen

Well, after what seems like a half-hour of a bunch of Millennials talking quick sound bites about a kaleidoscope of films, we actually get into the countdown. Then we get rapid-fire clips of the movies very generously intermingled with headshots of the Millenials making like, you know, totally Millennial comments about them. Good idea, but poorly executed. Get some serious people who are experts in the genre to narrate the films. We don't need to see their faces every five seconds.

The main issue regarding this documentary is the title "The 50 Best Horror Movies You've Never Seen". Most of the movies are well known and if you are a horror buff you've probably watched most of them.

The doc should be called "The 50 Best Horror Movies You Have to See" or just "50 Horror Movies You Have to See". Though I don't agree with every movie in the list, it's a good list.

This was a documentary that caught my attention when looking for something to watch at work. I was curious coming in as to the number I had seen and if I hadn't, did I at least know of that movie? I'll give my totals, but this was an intriguing doc along with the people that were interviewed.

Where to start though would be assessing the list, I had seen 40 of the 50 movies. Of the 10 that I hadn't, I think only one of them was one that I hadn't heard of. One that I hadn't was Joshua from 2007, that was a completely new one. There were ones like Grace, The Fury, Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural and Burnt Offerings, that I knew of, just hadn't seen yet. They're all on my high priority list for one reason or another. I do think that including the original Wrong Turn, Wishmaster or the original Black Christmas on this list are a disservice. There are more obscure movies that would benefit talking about more. I will credit though the ones that I hadn't seen as well as ones like Alone in the Dark or Tourist Trap that are just oddball ones that need to be seen more.

There are also a solid group of people here, from talking heads to filmmakers and actors. There is like Arnold T. Blumberg, Arielle Brachfeld, Brian W. Collins, Heidi Honeycutt, Kim Morgan, and Brad Miska to name experts/historians in the field. They interviewed scream queens Michelle Bauer, P. J. Soles, Brinke Stevens and Linnea Quigley. I also recognized John Gulager, Brea Grant, Ryan Turek and Philippe Mora as well.

What I'll also say is that this isn't going as in-depth as it could. They give good information, present the film and reactions people have to the work. I like that this one scratched beneath the surface a bit more than others. This runs two hours long and it flew by. I'm not saying that this one is great, but I think it works for what they're doing to offer up less talked about horror gems, for the most part.

My Rating: 8 out of 10.

Another weak horror documentary that mainly focuses on relatively well known horror, even hugely popular horror films. No Mario Bava, Dario Argento, Lucia Fulci, Norman J. Warren or Pete Walker films get a mention, hidden cult classics. I could imagine as these are popular directors for horror fans why these wouldn't be mentioned but considering the largely well known movies listed it seems like this was just a poorly produced list, even though P.J. Soles is always wonderful. The real kick in the teeth was hearing someone describe Trilogy of Terror (1975) as one of the earliest anthology horror films when Dead of Night (1945) was the true kick off when it comes to horror anthologies/portmanteaus which then led to many Amicus produced anthology films - Dr Terror's House of Horrors (1965), Torture Garden (1967), The House that Dripped Blood (1971), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972), Vault of Horror (1973), From Beyond the Grave (1974) all prior to the weak Trilogy of Terror. A really sloppy documentary with questionable choices, if you are already a fan of horror you won't find anything new here and if you're new to horror this is a terrible place to start.

I'll get to the contents of the film's list in a second, but overall, I enjoyed this stroll down horror's memory lane. For me, I've seen the vast majority of these movies. And those I haven't, for one reason or another, I have no desire. The doc moves at a nice pace and the "experts", fans, and insiders are interesting enough. There's no much to complain about the way things are presented. If I had to pick one negative with the way things are presented it would be with some of P J Soles commentary. It's a bit groan-inducing in spots.

It's difficult to put together one of these lists and make everyone happy. What you call a hidden gem, I might have seen a dozen times. Or something you love, I might find retched. So, here are a few of my arguments and agreements with the list of 50 movies presented:

• I'll start with a few of the films I completely agree with. These are films that would easily appear on a similar list if I put one together: When a Stranger Calls, Motel Hell, April Fools Day, Lemora (shocked to see it here), Exorcist III (very underrated), Alice Sweet Alice, Repulsion, Audition (probably my top ranked movie on the entire list), The Descent, and Night of the Hunter (even though I'm not sure it's really horror).

• A few movies I would never put on this list: Valentine (hated it!), The Brides of Dracula (it's good, but there are better, equally obscure Hammer films I would include), Halloween III (who doesn't know about this movie), Tourist Trap (fun enough, but not as good as this doc would have you believe), and Food of the Gods (really?).

I'll end this with a list of 20 films I would add to the titular 50. It's a non-US heavy list, but I've tried to stay away from the better known movies from the likes of Bava, Argento, or Fulci. In no real order:

1. The House with Laughing Windows 2. Eyes Without a Face 3. The Island of Lost Souls 4. Mad Love 5. Le Boucher 6. Onibaba 7. The Curse of the Crying Woman 8. The Plague of the Zombies 9. Spoorloos 10. Alucarda 11. The Black Pit of Dr. M 12. Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter 13. Mill of the Stone Women 14. Shock Waves 15. The Queen of Spades 16. The Ninth Gate 17. Mark of the Devil 18. Race with the Devil 19. A Tale of Two Sisters 20. Scream of Fear