Off-beat Horror Movie Review

My selections aren't necessarily my favorite horror movies. These are movies which I found disturbing and good at what they set out to do. A few of these are reputably some of the most disturbing ever made, though that's a subjective estimation. Some are great movies in general, horror or not. Most of these are relatively off-beat and worth a Netflix selection.

"Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer"

While not technically in the horror genre, this is a horrifying movie. The movie's violence is repugnant, but it's not the violence itself that gives this movie its edge, it's the way it's presented. There are no embellishments, no excess blood and guts, only the blackest humor and a realistic presentation. Stylized horror movies are great, movies by Dario Argento come to mind, but when horror is presented in a mockumentary type style it carries more weight as far as generally disturbing. Oddly enough, it's not the fact that Henry and a friend murder an entire family that gives me chills, it's the fact they tape it and watch it back in their apartment.

"Next Door" This is a movie -a real movie. Not a summer blockbuster or a blood-and-guts frightfest, or an art house film, or any other pigeon-hole. This is just a good movie. It's subtle, it keeps you guessing and throws constant curve balls, but it delivers at the end. The ending is a great capstone to the whole story. It ties everything up perfectly, while leaving enough up in the air to reward re-watchers. It's also unsettling. Not so much blood and guts slasher. Think David Lynch directing, "Repulsion." Giving anything away would be a disservice, but a young man whose girlfriends just left him gets intertwined in the lives of the girls next door. This sounds like the plot of a bad soap opera, but this movie is smart. The frights come from the realizations about what you are capable of.

"Inside"

"Inside" is a bit like "Rosemary's Baby," if John Cassavettes came at Mia Farrow with a pair of kitchen shears. It's Christmas Eve, and a pregnant woman is in her bed when a women comes to her door, demanding her baby. There are a number of horror movies about child birth, but most of them involve either a demon baby, zombie baby or the like, this one is realistic. A madwoman breaks into your house to perform a forced C-section with a pair of scissors, killing anyone who attempts to rescue you. Its not entirely impossible. This could happen. Keeping things just within the realm of possibility is what makes this movie so cringe-worthy. That and the crotch-scissors interface in scene 16.

"Cannibal Holocaust" Part of the late 70s move in Italian horror to present a mixture of documentary and found footage as fact. This movie follows an expedition of documentary filmmakers into the Amazon, researching cannibal tribes. It opens with a professor sent to the Amazon to locate the missing filmmakers. After finding their lost footage among a tribe of "tree people," the rest of the movie is the footage shown during a meeting of TV executives. The movie makes use of real documentary footage and simulated scenes of torture to present a very negative and stereotypical version of other cultures, however, the movie is good at what it sets out to do -make grindhouse audiences squirm. Not to say that this is a racist movie, of course. The real cannibals are the producers who make plans to broadcast the torture and murder of the four filmakers on Public Broadcast Service.

"Audition"

There aren't a lot of movies like this one anymore. Where the whole movie is a build up to the last half hour. The movie opens with a depressed man whose wife has died, and his son encourages him to date again. Naturally, the man sets up a series of auditions for a female part in a nonexistent movie. The auditions for the part are actually a way for him to gauge potential mates. He auditions a shy girl who strikes his fancy, and after proceeding as a romantic comedy for the first hour or so, the movie suddenly turns a few shades darker than "Fatal Attraction." Honestly, that movie has nothing on "Audition." This movie gradually transforms into a thriller/mystery, then into a full-on horrifying experience that was too much for even Rob "Cut-Off-Your-Husband's-Face-And-Wear-It" Zombie.