Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.

The title of this week’s chapter is a bit strange when you think about how niche horror films already are. There are cerebral ones, crazy ones, predictable ones, and more. What I tried to do with this list was create a selection of horror films that aren’t quite as popular as they should be or aren’t what some people would think of as horror films in general. A lot of these were either semi-popular or quickly forgotten. Like the list from two weeks ago, I also focused in on five films that I haven’t featured before in my 5 favorites article. This list is in celebration of the upcoming Halloween holiday, which is when all sorts of ghosts and ghouls descend on neighborhoods throughout the world. Now, let’s look at my five favorite horror films that aren’t for everyone.

April Fool’s Day (1986)

For fans of ’80s horror, there was plenty to choose from. Slaughters to the left, dead people to the right. Yet, nothing came as close to brilliance in the campiest way than this 1986 twist of a horror film. A group of old college friends are brought together to a remote island home where their friend Muffy St. John (Deborah Foreman) is hosting them. Among the victims are Back to the Future‘s Biff, Thomas F. Wilson, and TV regulars Ken Olandt and Amy Steel. While most horror films focused on high school teens or college-age folk, this settled on a post-college group of friends.

The film takes several twists on its way to its conclusion as various characters die gruesome deaths that are frequently left to the viewer’s imagination until their bloody corpses are later found. There are drownings, stabbings, dismemberments, and more. Yet, it’s the mystery of all the slayings that is the fun of this feature. For murder mystery fans who are also horror fans, this film is a dream adventure and you’ll never quite figure out what’s going on until the big reveal and, even then, there’s a bigger reveal behind it. This is a favorite film, but it’s not likely to please people who are just horror fans and will definitely displease mystery fans, which is why I say it isn’t for everyone.

No original review available.

Return to Horror High (1987)

For similar reasons is Return to Horror High not for everyone. Sure, it’s pure, unadulterated horror, but the snarky humor may put off some purists, but as a cult classic, this has to be one of the most fun. Although the title makes it sound like a sequel, it isn’t in the least bit. The name refers to events of the past where an unknown killer swept through a high school leaving teenage corpses in their wake. A film crew has decided to shoot a film about the legendary slaughters and invades the high school where the events actually took place. As the actors meander about the halls, they start disappearing. While the cast and crew don’t know what’s going on, we’re in on the re-emergence of the creepy killer, which is thought to be a janitor wheeling his squeaky mop bucket through the institution’s hallowed halls.

If you look back at it, you might recognize a few notable faces. Maureen McCormick, who played Marcia on The Brady Bunch, plays a young cop whose ineptitude is overcome by her obliviousness. A mid-80s George Clooney, then a little known actor, plays the lead in the film. Then there’s television mainstay and familiar face Alex Rocco who plays the sleazy film producer who wants tits and gore and doesn’t care if it undermines the project. Other names you might recognize if you’re familiar with 1960s and 1970s television include TV’s Ben Casey, Vince Edwards, and the son on diner sitcom Alice, Philip McKeon. None of these actors would likely rank this film as high on their list of favorite films, but it has an inventive premise, gets plenty of original slaughters, and is genuinely a fun movie to waste some time with even if it’s not incredibly well made.

No original review available.

The Cell (2000)

Although it’s described as a sci-fi psychological thriller, there are some horror elements in place, which makes it a solid candidate for this list, straddling the line between thriller and horror, much like Psycho did. The film stars Jennifer Lopez back when her star was ascendant and studios thought she could be a major box office draw. She plays a child psychologist who’s asked to use experimental technology to enter the mind of a comatose serial killer through virtual reality. There, she’s exposed to all manner of strange and horrific visions all while trying to locate and determine the fate of a missing woman.

This is the kind of film you have to see to believe simply because some of the elements are so insane. The killer’s psyche presents several twisted and unexpected scenes, but also establishes a potential emotional connection between the killer and Lopez’s psychologist. Director Tarsem Singh is an adept director at conveying complex emotional moments through bizarre scenery and events and it’s probably one of Lopez’s most human performances. That said, the film has its issues and the unexpected turns the film takes aren’t always cogent, but the visuals are splendid, which makes it a must-see.

No original review available.

Hard Candy (2006)

Starring Elliot Page and Patrick Wilson, Hard Candy is a tough narrative film that will make audiences uncomfortable. In it, Page plays a 14-year-old female vigilante who traps a man (Wilson) she thinks is a sexual predator and tortures him until he can confess to the charges she’s levied against him in her head. As the film progresses, sordid details come out about Wilson’s character and his culpability seems to increase with each passing moment. The cat-and-mouse game escalates throughout the picture as one setback after another puts Wilson in a power position only to find himself on the other end of the girl’s plans after each of his escape attempts is foiled.

What’s so uncomfortable about watching this film is the suggested violence. There are no bloody slayings, no mountains of victims, just a conscientious young woman willing to risk her own safety to bring down a man she believes to be a sexual predator preying on little girls. That dynamic, which escalates in tension as the film progresses, makes this a difficult film to watch and survivors of sexual assault may both feel sickened by the thought of such events happening again and relief as someone finally puts the screws to those types of perpetrators. Unlike the more recent Promising Young Woman, there’s little dark humor involved here. It’s difficult to watch not because it’s a bad movie. In fact, it’s a pretty terrific one. It’s difficult to watch just because how uncomfortable the situation makes the audience. In the end, it wants the audience to feel that tension just so they can understand just how horrific the kinds of acts perpetrated by this man can feel and just how easily said people are at excusing their behavior.

No original review available.

Hostel (2006)

After two films on this list with horror elements, but which aren’t officially described as horror films, we dig into one of the most horrific and gruesome of horror films. This film is one of director Eli Roth’s most successful, but it suffers from similar issues to his other films, a self-indulgence that feels unearned. After the success of Saw, torture horror became a staple of cineplexes and Hostel was one of the best of them. It’s not a great film, but it has enjoyable elements for certain types of horror fans. If you don’t care much for overly graphic features, then this one isn’t going to be for you.

The film follows two college students backpacking through Europe with an Icelandic friend who suggests that, instead of traveling to Barcelona next, they visit a Slovakian hostel purportedly filled with beautiful women. Upon arrival, their Icelandic friend disappears while they come across another woman looking for her compatriot. As the pair spend the evening, one of them goes missing, leaving the other to track him down, which leads to an old factory where he finds a horrific series of scenes where various young men and women are being tortured. There’s another plot underrunning the whole film, but its revelation is best left for someone watching the movie for the first time. Regardless of how creative or lacking the film is, those who get a thrill from young people being tortured and killed, more graphically than films did in the 1980s, this is a movie for them. Everyone else, not so much.

My Original Review