Go big or go home with these ten horror movies that dial the crazy up to the max…
The horror genre is experiencing a boom right now with plenty of popular films destined to be cult favourites. You can have subtle, atmosphere-driven horror, folk, mind-bending cerebral horror and more. You can also have a horror film that decides subtlety is overrated and throws it out the window in favour of cranking up the crazy to eleven. From bizarre creatures to gore-filled carnage to insane finales, here are ten crazy horror movies you need to see.
Hiruko The Goblin
Shinya Tsukamoto definitely knows how to do crazy having risen to fame in Japan with his breakout grindhouse masterpiece, Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Specialising in shoestring budgeted, but visceral genre films, he made a bizarre but creatively vibrant horror film, Hiruko The Goblin. Elements of Sci-fi, body horror and folk horror fuse together with some delightfully weird special effects.
A Goblin comes to Earth to behead students in this farcical comedy horror. There’s long been a predilection in Japanese horror for the utterly bizarre, and Hiruko is right up there. The unforgettable image of a goblin head running around on spider legs has made this iconic.
House
There’s crazy Japanese horror and then there’s House. It’s a wild, often baffling ride where narrative coherence gives way to visceral, eye-popping and hallucinatory mayhem.
A group of girls face their worst nightmares in a remote country house. It’s a simple launching point that goes to unexpected places and an unrestrained explosion of ideas that Nobuhiko Obayashi throws at the screen.
Possession
What can you say about Possession? Love it or loathe it, this psychological creature horror hammers home its allegory with a lump hammer. A film about the breakdown of a marriage made by a director having just gone through a bitter divorce. It’s at times creepy and unnerving and teasingly ambiguous, anchored by Isabelle Adjani’s astonishing performance.
Where the film goes particularly crazy is in the addition of a monstrous alien creature which controls her and becomes the object of her affection, driving her estranged husband, and her lover equally insane. From a grotesque love scene to Adjani’s unforgettable subway scene, Possession is a ride that, whether it repels you or not, you’ll never forget.
Nightbreed
Clive Barker’s sophomore feature as a director is best described as an indulgent and chaotic mess that is filled with incredible visuals, amazing creature fx and make up and features a magnificent Danny Elfman score.
Having made the unforgettable Hellraiser (based on his own book), Barker adapted his novel Cabal and armed with a heftier budget delivered Nightbreed. A critical and commercial failure, the film has grown a legion of cult followers in years since built on a mythology that invites interpretation. Barker throws us in the deep end from the off, leaving us often baffled until the film shapes up as a battle between adjacent worlds. It’s rednecks vs underworld mutants, with Craig Sheffer as a Neo-esque leader in waiting and David Cronenberg starring as a nefarious Doctor who has ulterior motives.
Even if you get lost by the frantic nature of the narrative, you’re likely to get hooked in by the visual whimsy and probably astounded by a final act that is relentless and stuffed with exceptional practical FX and a blissfully excessive use of pyrotechnics.
Mandy
The beginning of the Cagenaissance and a film that announced Panos Cosmatos as a horror visionary in the making. The film begins as a contemplative and ethereal thriller with Red (Cage) and Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) living a peaceful existence, brutally shattered by a travelling cult.
At the point Mandy is slaughtered in front of Red the film flips, beginning with a classic Cage explosion of grief before turning into a fantasmagorical gorefest. The incredible primary heavy neon-soaked visuals almost bleed out of the screen.
Xtro
Shot for peanuts, this rough and slightly slipshod film isn’t the greatest thing you’ll see. It borders on incoherent at times with ideas pelted at the screen like rotten tomatoes at a terrible 17th-century comedian. Among the baffling happenings, this unabashed hit and hope of horror ideas nails several great moments.
The roughness of some of the creature FX almost adds something and the film, not unlike Species, features plenty of E.T fornication as an alien impregnates a woman who gives birth to a man who was previously abducted. The birthing scene alone is worth the price of admission for this bonkers B movie.
Society
Society is a horror film that touches upon class perhaps without the subtlety you might see from a more refined A24-styled horror, but builds nicely to a final act that beautifully epitomises a glorious period of incredible practical effects and penchant for grotesque body horror.
Sure the payoff is undoubtedly better than the lingering build-up, but Brian Yuzna definitely keeps enough intrigue before delivering a cracking payoff. It’s a film about an orgy cult, so you better believe this one gets crazy.
Lair of the White Worm
Ken Russell rarely does subtlety, but even by his standards, Lair of the White Worm (loosely based on a Bram Stoker story) might just be his craziest film. Featuring a young Peter Capaldi and Hugh Grant, and reteaming Russell with Amanda Donohoe, it’s a film that certainly in the case of Grant has been stricken from their memory banks.
However, whilst it was eviscerated by critics and largely missed by audiences, the film has found its era as audiences more readily vibe with the sheer lunacy on screen. Donohoe shines as a vampiric lady of the manor and it’s fair to say Capaldi and Grant improved over time. The distinct regional British setting (Derbyshire) makes this one feel unique with some shades of folk horror laced with the absurdity of the visuals.
Titane
Body horror seems to be back in vogue of late and Julia Ducournau’s bizarre film, Titane is a film best watched with your jaw scraping the floor. A woman with a metal plate in her head and a sexual fetishization of cars poses as a fire captain’s long-lost son. She also happens to be a serial killer.
Ducournau’s film is a shocking and bizarre film loaded with off-the-wall body horror, automotive sex scenes and great performances from Agatha Rouselle and Vincent Lindon.
Infinity Pool
Brandon Cronenberg has followed in his father, David’s footsteps as a specialist in body horror. Infinity Pool teams Alexander Skarsgard with the scream queen of the era, Mia Goth. Skarsgard stars as a struggling writer on vacation right next to a dangerous exclusion zone, where he becomes drawn to a group of hedonists led by Goth. Of course, they have a dark secret that he’ll undoubtedly discover.
It’s a film that touches upon classism and human nature but doesn’t hold back in striking horror imagery. You’d expect nothing less from a Cronenberg. The mesmeric Goth is as good as ever.
Honourable Mentions:
Braindead
From Beyond
The Void
Body Melt
The Fly
What’s the craziest horror film you’ve ever seen? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth or hit me up @jolliffeproductions…
