5 Underrated Halloween Movies To Add To Your Marathon
Frightfully Overlooked!
Are you tired of watching the same movies every year for your Halloween marathon? Don’t get me wrong, Michael Myers and Art the Clown are lots of fun, but it doesn’t hurt to branch out once in awhile. If you’re looking for underrated Halloween movies to add to your viewing list this October, I’ve got you covered!
There are plenty of good horror movies for Halloween out there. Here are five underrated Halloween movies ranked. Each entry in this spooky quintet come from a different subgenre, so they’ll add a tasty mix to any seasonal horror movie marathon. Grab some candy and a pumpkin flavored beverage, and let’s get started on this monster mash!
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5. Hellfest (2018)
Final girl Natalie (Amy Forsyth) and her friends visit a horror theme park called Hellfest on Halloween night. Unfortunately a masked maniac, who is named “The Other” for some reason, has infiltrated the park. He is able to kill people in public because everyone thinks it’s part of the show.
The killer poses his victims so that they blend in with the park’s props. Natalie suspects that real people are being killed, but of course her friends don’t believe her. If you’re familiar with the conventions of slasher movies, you know how the rest of this story goes.
It has entertainment moments, but Hellfest doesn’t match the creepiness of the best Halloween horror movies in the haunt subgenre – films like Haunt, The Houses October Built, and the original Hellhouse LLC.
It’s a standard slasher in all respects. None of the characters are particularly memorable. That said, Tony Todd has a nice cameo as a carnival barker. Too bad he doesn’t get more screentime. You do hear his voice often, though.
What better time than the Halloween season for some cheap, mindless fun? If there’s any time of year that’s perfect for watching a movie like this, it’s October. Hellfest does a decent job of providing a spooky atmosphere. It helps that it was filmed in an actual theme park.
Most of my readers have probably already watched the aforementioned better-known haunt movies. If you’re hungry for something fresh in the same subgenre, Hellfest will do the trick. It’s not one of the very best Halloween horror movies, but it’s still worth watching.
Where to watch:
4. The Guest (2014)
Small town waitress Anna Peterson (Maika Monroe) and her family are grieving the loss of her older brother, Caleb, who died in combat. One day, a mysterious man named David shows up at their New Mexico home. He claims to have been close friends with Caleb and wants to get to know his family. A photograph appears to confirm that the two young men served together in Afghanistan.
Sexual tension quickly develops between the tall, handsome soldier and the beautiful blonde waitress. They’d make a photogenic couple, but I don’t think it’s a spoiler to tell you that their relationship, such as it is, doesn’t work out.
David (Dan Stevens) is polite and charming, but something seems off about him right away. At least, it does to us, the viewers. The Petersons take awhile to catch on. After David’s true background and motivations are revealed, it’s up to Anna and her nerdy little brother, Luke (Brendan Meyer), to stop him.
I’ll be honest, this is technically not a horror movie. It belongs to horror’s close cousin, the thriller genre. Halloween thrillers are rare, and I think this movie is worthy of inclusion in a seasonal marathon. Not all underrated Halloween movies are horror films.
I’m not sure why this movie is set around Halloween. It could have taken place at any time of year. We don’t get the traditional Autumn atmosphere in dry, sunny New Mexico. Still, a Halloween party and a seasonal funhouse carnival event play key roles in the story.
The Guest is boosted by strong performances by Stevens, Monroe, and Meyer. They make the cartoonishly over the top third act seem almost believable. This movie is flawed but fun.
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3.WNUF Halloween Special (2013)
Next on my list of underrated Halloween movies is one of the most unique found footage films I’ve ever seen. WNUF Halloween Special is presented as an unedited VHS tape recording of a local TV station’s October 31st, 1987, episode (complete with hilarious low budget commercials for local businesses!).
The central storyline involves Frank (Paul Fahrenkopf), a news reporter who enters a supposedly haunted house during a live broadcast. He is accompanied by his cameraman, two paranormal investigators, and a priest.
The group is investigating reports that the home is inhabited by murderous demonic entities. Frank plays up the supposed haunting on camera, but behind the scenes he is skeptical of the paranormal. A series of spooky happenings and surprising twists ensue. This broadcast definitely doesn’t meet FCC standards for public viewing.
It’s become increasingly common for modern films to emulate the style of ’80s productions. WNUF is an example of analog horror, a rising subgenre that’s an offshoot of found footage movies.
Analog horror uses deliberately poor quality footage to simulate old media like VHS. Dead Mail, and to a lesser extent Night of the Reaper, are recent films I’ve reviewed in this subgenre.
WNUF Halloween Special looks like it was a ton of fun to make. It’s a deliciously entertaining watch that deserves recognition. As far as found footage goes, this is one of the best Halloween horror movies out there. WNUF has its share of eerie moments, and the ending is genuinely creepy.
The commercials are a brilliant idea. This concept is virtually never seen in other found footage movies.
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2. Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)
An ’80s television movie with minimal on-screen carnage couldn’t be one of the most underrated Halloween movies ever made, right? Wrong. What Dark Night of the Scarecrow lacks in gore, it makes up for in spades with atmosphere, interesting characters, and a spooky anti-hero in a scarecrow outfit.
Bubba (Larry Drake) is a mentally challenged young man living in the rural Deep South. He becomes friends with Marylee (Tonya Crowe), a young girl. Some townsfolk are uncomfortable with their friendship. They wrongly believe that Bubba has inappropriate feelings for Marylee.
When the girl goes missing, a group of vigilantes hunt Bubba down. He disguises himself with a scarecrow costume, but the men find and murder him for killing his friend. Marylee later turns up alive (oops!) and the vigilantes are acquitted of murder charges.
Later, the long arc (or pitchfork) of justice comes for the men. Bubba’s vengeful spirit returns sometime around Halloween. Now a silent, eerie avenger in a scarecrow costume, he attacks his killers one by one, with Marylee’s full support.
Scarecrows are inherently creepy. I wish they were used more often in horror works. Dark Night of the Scarecrow is the best of the small group of films that feature this common archetype in a central role.
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1. Satan’s Little Helper (2004)
Dougie, a demented nine year old boy, is obsessed with a videogame called Satan’s Little Helper. He spends countless hours playing the game in his room. The only thing that Dougie loves more than Satan is his older sister, Jenna, whom he plans to marry. Yes, really.
To be fair, his sister is drop dead gorgeous. She’s played by Katheryn Winnick, who went on to star in the History Channel series Vikings.
On Halloween, Dougie encounters a mysterious masked man. This guy is a serial killer who (like the dude in Hellfest) disguises his deeds by making his victims look like Halloween props. Dougie asks if the man is Satan. He responds with a nod (“Satan” never speaks) and Dougie is thrilled.
He requests that Satan kill his sister’s boyfriend so that he can have her for himself. Dougie’s videogame-obsessed mind has lost touch with reality (at one point he asks “Satan” how many points he earns for each kill). He doesn’t understand that real people are getting murdered.
Dougie makes the man promise not to scare his sister or his mother, Merrill (Amanda Plummer), but he’s fine with the maniac attacking everyone else. The killer also engages in shoplifting, vandalism, assault, and animal abuse, with Dougie loving every minute of it.
That’s the set up for one of the most gloriously tasteless and twisted Halloween horror movies you will ever see. This movie is a gazillion times better than it has any right to be. It’s both very funny and astonishingly creepy.
Kathryn Winnick and Amanda Plummer have great mother/daughter chemistry. I actually cared about their characters – a rarity in a cheesy horror flick like this. The villain’s costume is awesome. The best Halloween horror movies always have memorable outfits for the villain.
Joshua Annex, who plays the killer, does a great job with body language. I will even go so far as to compare his performance to David Howard Thornton’s work as Art the Clown in the Terrifier series.
Satan’s Little Helper is wildly inappropriate on multiple levels. It’s certainly not for anyone who’s easily offended. This movie is directed by Jeff Lieberman, an underrated horror filmmaker who also helmed the backwoods slasher film Just Before Dawn (1981). Both JBD and SLH have built small cult followings in recent years.
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Happy Halloween!
Like many of the films I’ve covered in my overlooked movies lists, these underrated Halloween movies are a colorful group. Their unique qualities make them challenging to market to a broad audience.
The best Halloween horror movies aren’t always the most well known. While none of these five films have blossomed into major franchises, they still deserve a place in the hearts of any fan of gory, chilling, and darkly amusing movies.
