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

XX. It's a collection of horror shorts all by women, written, directed, etc. There were some familiar storylines, but the way they were retold was a nice change. I don't really remember specifics, I just remember being overall happy with the watch. 

ABCs of Death, there's a couple of them. They're a collection of short horror films, some good some not so good.

Holidays (2016). That's the title, not sure if it's still on Netflix or not, but again, another compilation, but this one is holiday themed. Most of the major ones are represented, but Father's Day and Mothers Day are some of the better shorts. 

For a different kind of creepy, Rumpelstiltskin and snow white both had decent live action versions made in the 90s. Ok acting, good creep factor, moderate violence. Snow White featured Sigourney Weaver as the evil step mother, very dark, very believable.

Nobody has mentioned Leprechaun though? The first one with Jennifer Aniston? Then the more horror comedy follow ups like Leprechaun in Space, and Leprechaun in the Hood? Great, and underrated movies. 

I'd also like to give a nod to the 90s version of Roald Dahls "the witches". For a kids movie it's actually pretty scary. Witches, with square toes, that turn little boys into mice. It was a favorite as a kid, and watching it with mine reminded me how good it is. 

Have we mentioned “Creature From the Black Lagoon?”

How about “They Live?”

Not necessarily cheesy/campy/obscure, but definitely spooky:
I've been making a habit of celebrating the season by reading a classic horror novel in its original form and then reviewing film adaptations of it to compare and contrast. 

Last year, I read Dracula (shout out to draculadaily) and watched Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) and Netflix's Dracula (2020), both of which I enjoyed for different reasons. This year, I also watched the 1932 Dracula film, which strayed from the original text for the sake of fitting the gist of the story into a form that audiences of the time would enjoy (disapointing, but understandable).

This year, I read Frankenstein and have so far watched Frankenstein (1931), which had the same problems as Dracula (1932) but to a much larger extent, drastically oversimplifying the plot, ignoring the main point of the story to create a marketable "monster" film and radically rearranging characters' names and roles. I also watched Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) which was a somewhat more faithful adaptation of the source material but suffered from Hollywood's general inability to adapt a text as-written without adding extra things for no apparent reason (and at times to the detriment of the original story). IMHO I also wish Coppola had stayed on as director and made it a companion piece to Bram Stoker's Dracula instead of handing it to Keneth Branagh, whose stylistic fingerprints end up distracting from the plot. Robert De Niro's portrayal of the Creature was the highlight of that one for me.

In the vein of actually campy, I've seen Young Frankenstein many times and plan to watch it again before the season is over, but I am extremely disappointed in myself for not knowing about the existence of Dracula: Dead and Loving It until VERY recently, and obviously that has to be next on my watchlist.

In reply to Nicole Suddard :

there are also a couple versions of Nosferatu online, but only if you REALLY like organ music. It does not stop.

In reply to j_tso :

I've yet to dive into the Nosferatu cinematic universe, so I'll have to check those out. It looks like there's a new adaptation coming out in December, too.

If we're discussing Nosferatu, don't miss Shadow Of The Vampire, from about 2000.  Very entertaining.

David S. Wallens said:

How about “They Live?”

https://www.youtube.com/embed/g4XiKChyK7A?rel=0

 

I'm literally wearing a "They Live" T-shirt right now! It just has the two newscasters as the skeletons and says "Watch TV"

"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."

SV reX said:

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!

I haven't seen the 2nd one yet. I absolutely LOVE the first one and still watch it a few times per year.........just one of those movies I never thought needed a sequel. 

This one was always a Saturday afternoon UHF favorite:

We found a true cheesy, over the top gem last night. 

"Meth Gator"

It's a gigantic Alligator that eats a bunch of meth and goes on a rampage in a small Florida town. 

We just watched The Thing a couple nights ago. 



Somehow, this was my first time watching it. How I missed it, I don't know. I thought it was great, but the wife thought it was dumb. I'm usually a big fan of John Carpenter movies, especially ones with Kurt Russell as the star, so it's no surprise that I enjoyed it. And I had no clue that Wilford Brimley was in it! 



Didn't recognize him without the iconic mustache. The scariest part of the whole thing is that Brimley was only 5 years older than I am now when this was filmed. 

Great practical effects for the time, cool premise, and a real SOB for a monster. I can see why it is considered to be such a classic. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

I got to see The Thing in a small local theater in Tulsa years ago. Super cool to see it on the big screen.