25 underrated horror movies

A man goes home with a French girl and discovers she has a twin. Just his luck! Well, not exactly...That twin happens to be a part of the girl's imagination, a doppelganger who stabs him to death while a neighbor watches from her window.  Part Hitchcock, part Antonioni and 100% Brian De Palma, this is a movie that needs more love.

If your therapist is running a cult in the woods, we recommend you get the heck out of there. Luckily, we have David Cronenberg to back us up on that wisdom, as you could guess by this story of a wife whose therapy sessions become a reality. She wants her mother dead? Her daughter kidnapped? Her husband on the run? All these things happen in Cronenberg's visceral, body-horror classic. 

Guess who's coming to dinner? A psycho who is about to kill everyone! This slow-burn thriller is one of those movies that should have more fans at the table.

Vampire movies are often about old dudes withering away in their castles. They're lonely, depressed and want someone to eat. In Thomas Alferdson's vampire movie, however, we get to see the disease from a child's perspective. Eli is a girl who falls for the boy next door, helping him face the kids who bully him at school. It's a cute-yet-vicious take on the genre that has real bite. 

The first ever jump scare comes in this 1942 horror flick, in which a bus makes you jump out of your seat. It's what Cat People is known for, but we recommend you stick around for the metaphor on sexuality, as our female protagonist turns into a panther when aroused. Val Lewton produced many movies in the 1940s, but this one had claws.  

How do you turn horror into poetry? You put it in the hands of Georges Franju, who turns the story of a serial killer into one of the most beautiful movies ever made. As a surgeon skins the faces of his victims and places them on his daughter, who was wounded in a car accident, you may find tears rolling down your cheek. 

One of the more underrated films from Roman Polanski, this movie centers on a man who moves into the wrong apartment. His neighbors accuse him of stealing, his room is dirtier than it looks and the walls are closing in on him. It's a reminder to view places before moving in, especially in Polanksi movies. 

In a bloody mix of vampires and Blacksploitation, Dr. Hess murders his assistant and moves into his house. His main objective is to...well, I don't what his main objective is. But this movie is worth watching, even if the plot doesn't make sense. 

Never buy an apartment from Roman Polanski. He made the tenant go insane in The Tenant, the couple go berserk in Rosemary's Baby and the loner go cuckoo in Repulsion. In this chronicle of mental collapse, Catherine Deneuve plays a single woman who starts to show cracks. In her personal life, she starts dating the wrong guy, which is nothing compared to what's going on in her place upstairs.

No, not the Werner Herzog version. Come on now. The first Nosferatu is the one you want to see, with all the moody shadows and creepy characters you could ask for. 

Set in 1970's Venice, this spin on the Dead Child movie centers on a couple who see visions of their son. It's a look at the cracks in a broken heart, made literally through the twisty canals of Venice and the spots of red that director Nicolas Roeg painted around town. It's considered one of the best British films of all time, for good reason. It's hard to think of a more atmospheric film than this one. 

Enys Men is about a woman who lives on an island alone, where she charts the growth of flowers on a cliff. It's about as simple as stories get, but then comes the madness. Mark Jenkins has made one of the most ambitious, inventive, and spellbinding movies of the year--a descent into madness that is literally insane. 

Speaking of insane, this movie has a bunch of midgets made out of ice cream. Don Coscarelli started a trend in horror that saw directors put as many crazy things on screen as possible. Flying saucers? Space midgets? Severed fingers in a box? It's all here in Phantasm!

Was the title Psycho taken? Actually, it wasn't. Both Hitchcock's classic and Michael Powell's movie came out the same year, and both are about lonely men going insane. They both resort to violence, but Powell's movie is much more meta and colorful. His character's weapon is a camera, which makes for a pretty sharp metaphor on the power of cinema to cut deep.  

If Scarlett Johansson asked you to get in her car, would you do it? Obviously, you would, which is what makes her casting in Jonathan Glazer's movie so perfect. She lures men into her car, then eats them alive in her dungeon. She's an extraterrestrial with an extra-large appetite, and horror fans will find plenty to chew on as well. 

The best movie of the past few years, period. From the magical shots of a headless monster to the mythical landscape of King Arthur's village, The Green Knight does what no other art form can. It places you in a world of moving images, visceral sounds and fleshed-out characters that grow more real as the movie progresses. 

Prepare to have the rug pulled out from under you in Barbarian, which follows an Airbnb throughout three generations. Along the way, a creepy guy turns out to be nice, a nice guy turns out to be creepy and a hidden room turns out to be bad for real estate. No other movie subverts our expectations quite like this one. 

Dario Argento has made two types of films in his career: crazy ones and crazier ones. Inferno lands in the "crazier" camp, with more gonzo moments than in his past work, which wasn't really grounded, to begin with (see: Suspiria). The movie follows a tenant who discovers strange things happening next door. It's not a spoiler to say that blood and guts ensue.

The movie sees a group of girls disappear on their trip to Hanging Rock, where they leave no marks behind. It's the greatest mystery you've never heard of, with some of the most dream-like images ever put on film. It's a staple of the Australian New Wave, which saw directors explore the Outback through the stories of missing people. Now's your chance to lose yourself in the scenery as well. 

Another interesting take on the vampire movie sees a family of bloodsuckers live out of a van, split up at night and then add a boy to their group. He's got a crush on one of the vamps, but don't go in expecting romance. Near Dark is one of the more haunting titles on our list--a movie with more atmosphere than scares. 

Another vampire! This time the bloodsucker is a girl who rides a skateboard and roams around Iran. She's not your everyday vampire, but then again, Ana Lily Armipour isn't your everyday director. She's a young artist who only seems interested in old techniques. 

Continuing our vampire marathon, Vampyr offers a take on the genre even more different than our last two titles. Carl Theodore Dryer was known for turning images into dreams, which he does better than almost anyone here. You'll have to go along with this story of a man visiting a haunted village, even if the plot fades into a dreamy, expressionistic fog. 

Oh, how the tables have turned. That jello you used to eat is now coming to eat you! Director Irvin Yeaworth's monster movie is pure schlock. It's not good, it's not well-acted and it's definitely not well-crafted. But hey, it's entertaining!

There are both great moments of terror and icky moments of exploitation in Tod Browning's 1927 chiller. If you can look past the fact that Browning put deformed people into a circus, you can find a movie that was ahead of its time. It's a movie that knows where to put the camera and how to frame scares, which is impressive given the look of most Hollywood movies at the time. 

The Night of the Hunter may be the greatest horror movie ever made. It follows two kids as they try to outrun a fake priest. Along the way, they pass by open fields, expressionistic shadows and some of the best set pieces ever put on film. Accompanied by a lullaby score and a lyrical setting, you may find yourself lost in their ethereal world.