The 10 Best Horror Movies You’ve Never Heard Of

Horror isn’t just for Halloween anymore. Scary movies are released all year long, and consistently take the number one spot on opening weekends. According to Statista, in 2024, 55 horror movies were released in Canada and the United States. Horror movies also accounted for 10% of the box office, which is more than double what it was in 2013. 

With so many horror movies released both in theaters and on streamers, it’s hard to keep up with them. Even ones that may have been popular decades ago are forgotten. If scary movies are your thing, here are the 10 best horror movies you’ve never heard of and why you should watch them.

The gimmick behind Antrum is that it starts out as a documentary with experts and enthusiasts sharing the gory details of what makes this movie cursed. It’s a smart, unique approach to filmmaking in which the creators design a movie that looks like it was made in 1979 and share the horrid details of when the movie played at a single film festival, in which the festival director died soon after watching it. Then a fire broke out at the theater that played the movie causing more casualties.

The film went missing until the filmmakers of this movie found it, and now, for the first time - you can watch it too! Antrum then becomes the story of a young woman and elementary-aged boy who go into the forest to dig a hole to hell (what could go wrong?).

“They play a little slower, the camera is more often fixed on a tripod, [and we took cues from] specific framing and the more select use of close-ups. The rhythm of the suspense plays differently, compared to what you see in more modern films,” David Amito, co-writer/co-director shares in a Fangoria interview.

Watch this movie if… you like the idea behind movies like The Blair Witch Project as well as obscure and very independent style horror movies.

The 1970s were filled with unique, creative and strange horror movies. Messiah of Evil coincides with many of the hippie and odd elements of the 70s, including an eccentric therapist who has a strange approach to talking with patients, works of art, and the undead.

Six years after Night of the Living Dead, zombies were a monster that filmmakers started to use in their horror films, similar to the major resurgence it’s had throughout the 2000s. Messiah of Evil is about a young woman who travels to a remote California town looking for her father. With narration of the father via his diary, the woman continues searching for him while uncovering the strange cult-like zombies who reside in town.

Messiah of Evil is also notable because of its creators: Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, who co-wrote and co-directed the movie, and went on to write such classics as American Graffiti, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Howard the Duck.

Watch this movie if… you want to explore 1970s-style character-driven horror.

If Calvaire, a Belgian but French-language horror film, were set in the United States, it would likely follow a familiar trope: a woman traveling alone who meets a stranger in a remote area and ends up being kidnapped. However, Calvaire takes a different approach. It follows a male traveling entertainer whose van breaks down in the middle of nowhere. An old man initially offers help, but soon turns on him - burning his van, taking him hostage, and subjecting him to psychological and physical torment.

It's a film with a specific purpose.

“We wanted to make a horror film without any women with big breasts, just like a lot of the cliché horror films. Also, I really didn’t want to make a movie with music, because it’s too easy. So, I had so many constraints, and I tried to experiment with all the clichés,” director Fabric du Welz said in an interview with Eat My Brains! “I tried to find my own way, my own creativity, my own experiment, but, also, to reject all the pay-off, twists, the f***ing Hollywood conditioning.”

Watch this movie if… you’re interested in seeing how Belgian filmmaking style and pacing are applied within the horror genre.

Stalkers are always good fun in horror movies – they show up, become obsessed with the protagonist and cause a lot of stress and trauma. Alone is about a young woman who decides to drive across the country by herself (you already know this is going to turn bad) only to find herself the subject of a stalker.

As she travels deeper into the remote parts of the country, it becomes harder to find help, or even get a cell phone signal. At first, the stalker pretends to be friendly, but the woman can’t shake the feeling that something is off. Her instincts are right. Eventually, she’s kidnapped and must find a way to escape and get help before she becomes the next victim.

Watch this movie if… you want to see a new take on the stalker-horror genre and how the filmmakers use few characters and remote locations brilliantly.

If there’s one thing you’ll often find in 1970s horror, it’s the themes of fire and religion. Don’t Go in the House seems inspired by a mix of Psycho and Carrie. The film follows a disturbed man haunted by severe childhood trauma - his mother tried to punish him for being “evil” by burning his arms over a stove. 

The protagonist/psychopath uses fire to burn his victims to a crisp, that is after he finds ways to lure them back to his house. Meanwhile, he hears voices in his head from the burnt corpse of his mother who sits in his living room like Mrs. Bates in a fruit cellar.

Like many other lessons in horror: don’t talk to strangers.

Watch this movie if… you want to see how you can make the villain a protagonist in a horror movie, and bring the audience along for the ride.

Hollywood isn’t shy about borrowing successful ideas and creating a version that’s a little more low-budget. Inseminoid is a b-movie version of Alien (which came out in 1979). The movie follows a team of interplanetary archaeologists who must try to survive after one of the team members is impregnated by an alien creature who then begins hunting them down. I mean, she only wants their blood to help feed what’s inside her - is that so wrong? 

Watch this movie if… you’re interested in how you can take a successful idea and give it your own twist. 

Directed by the renowned Italian filmmaker Lucio Fulci (though nowhere near as gory as efforts like Zombie and The Beyond), The Psychic includes some gory elements but is more focused on lingering psychological impact than outright scares. The film begins with young Virginia having a vision of her mother’s suicide by stepping off a cliff—an event that later proves to be true. After establishing Virginia’s psychic abilities, the story jumps nearly 20 years ahead. Now played by actress Jennifer O’Neill, Virginia arrives at her husband’s house and discovers a skeleton hidden behind one of the walls. Determined to solve the murder and clear her husband’s name, she sets out to uncover the truth.

Watch this movie if… you like your horror a little more on the thriller/slow burn side.

Killer mutant babies! What’s not to love? It’s Alive goes into the pantheon of films about the joys of parenting, right alongside The Omen, Children of the Corn, and Rosemary’s Baby. The movie gets going with Lenore and Frank on their way to the hospital – Lenore is in labor. Since this is the 1970s, the father stays in the waiting area while the wife goes off and gives birth. But when one of the nurses comes out covered in blood, Frank rushes in to find everyone but Lenore dead. Oh, and the baby is missing.

Now, they must track down the demon baby that continues to wreak havoc in the city as it goes on its killing spree. Can they stop it?

It’s Alive was written and directed by famed filmmaker and screenwriter Larry Cohen (The Stuff, Maniac Cop, Phone Booth) and was such a hit at the time of its release that it spawned two sequels. 

Watch this movie if… you hear “demon baby that lives in the sewer and goes around killing people” and you think, yes, I have to see that!

Horror films from the early 1960s don’t have the same level of blood and gore as modern movies (or even those from the 1970s). However, Carnival of Souls combines an eerie Twilight Zone atmosphere with mystery. The story follows a woman who is the sole survivor of a car crash and wants to move on from the traumatic event. She relocates to a small town in Utah, but soon begins having visions of a strange, ghostly figure. At the same time, she notices odd behavior from the locals. Her curiosity eventually leads her to a carnival, where she may finally uncover the truth behind the unsettling experiences.

Watch this movie if… you want to see how they made some creepy movies back in the day. It also shows how the idea of few characters and minimal locations has been a part of horror movies for decades.

There was a time when people feared computers, worrying they could be used for dark and dangerous purposes (thankfully that never came to fruition). Evilspeak is probably a movie you should have heard of as it has all the pieces of a vengeance-fueled horror movie like Carrie. Clint Howard stars as a bullied military student who finds he has the power to summon evil and seek revenge on those he wishes all through his computer.

Watch this movie if… you appreciate the classic horror movies of the late-1970s and early-1980s like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street.

Horror movies are endless and constantly evolving, from exorcism stories to masked killers to religious nightmares. Diving into these subgenres isn’t just fascinating; it’s a powerful way to learn how storytelling adapts to different fears and styles. If you’re a screenwriter, studying horror can sharpen your skills and inspire fresh ideas for your own scripts. Good luck getting to sleep after diving into these chilling tales!