By: Stephanie Perez
OwlFeed Journalist

Horror movies have been around since 1923 and continue to grow in their gore, theatrics, effects, and so much more.

From zombies to ghouls to ghosts to regular ol’ serial killers, there is so much variety in horror movies, even by genre of horror! In the horror realm it seems the top scarers are the original scarers like Freddy, Jason, and Michael; but there are hidden gems in the horror genre that I want to bring to the light.

In this top ten I’ll be breaking down the top ten most underrated horror films to give you a good scare or two.

The Collector and The Collection
(2009 and 2012)

Sometimes being in the wrong place at the wrong time can REALLY be bad. Arkin, desperate for money to pay off his enormous debt, sets his sights on a wealthy family’s home and plans to break in and steal a valuable gem. He soon learns that he picked the wrong night to carry out his heist, for a leather masked psycho has gotten there first, imprisoned the family, and lined the mansion with deadly traps that would make Jigsaw proud!

The continuation of The Collector series follows a new protagonist, Elena. Elena sneaks out one night to attend an underground mixer with her friends unaware of the horror that will soon envelop her and all the partiers. In a matter of minutes all the party-goers, including Elena’s friends, are ripped to shreds by The Collector’s handmade “mower”. Elena, the only survivor, seeks helps but finds all the exits are sealed. Seemingly helpless, Elena seeks a place to hide from the madman behind all this only to find a strange leather trunk.

You’re Next
(2011)

Ever been on a family vacation that you thought was boring? Well, this family vacation is just killer! This film follows the Davidsons, an extremely wealthy but very distant family.  In an attempt to mend their broken family ties, husband and wife Aubrey and Paul Davidson decide to celebrate their wedding anniversary by inviting their four children and their children’s significant others to their weekend estate deep and secluded in the woods. The celebration starts off tense as usual until animal masked assailants carrying weapons rig the home with traps, entrapping the family inside. The Davidsons are left to fight together or die against these animal masked killers.

As Above So Below
(2014)

Do you hate tight spaces? Well then this movie is for you. Archaeologist Scarlett Marlowe has devoted her entire life to finding one of history’s greatest treasures: Flamel’s Philosopher’s Stone, a stone her father had been chasing his entire life as well. When she learns that the stone is hidden underground in the Catacombs of Paris, she builds a crew to guide and document her historic journey. When they begin their journey, the team has no way of knowing that they are entering their own personal hells. Soon, a mind-bending journey of psychological torture ensues for the group of excavators.

The Belko Experiment
(2016)

Office jobs are total hell for some people, mindlessly staring at the clock tick in a tiny cubicle could drive anyone mad! An ordinary day at the office becomes a horrific fight for survival when 80 employees at the Belko Corp. in Bogotá, Colombia, learn that they are the newest subjects in a murderous game of survival of the fittest. Trapped inside their building, a voice over an intercom tells the frightened employees that two workers must be killed within 30 minutes or else…Can they do it?

Circle
(2015)

If you had to decide between 50 strangers who should die, would you be able to? In this twisted movie, 50 strangers are put up against each other to selectively execute one person at a time leaving only one person to live.

The Green Inferno
(2013)

Fun fact: did you know that human flesh was described to taste like chicken or pork? After this movie you might have a new apetite. College student Justine meets a student activist named Alejandro when he goes on a hunger strike on behalf of underpaid janitors. Falling for his good looks, Justine agrees to help Alejandro undertake his next project: to save the Amazon. She soon regrets her decision when their plane crashes in the Peruvian jungle and she and the rest of their group are taken captive by an unknown tribe of cannibals.

Although I found the gore superb, critics of the movie didn’t find the movie’s plot as high quality. Variety News said the movie was almost parody-like to them: “This stomach-churning imagery — extreme enough to make one question the R rating — sets expectations the rest of the film can’t quite deliver on, and gorehounds may wind up disappointed that The Green Inferno ultimately isn’t as transgressive. Instead, auds are in for relatively perfunctory throat-slittings and survival shenanigans, laced with a hearty helping of juvenile humor.” It is true some of the plot points weren’t exactly as grand as the gore but I still believe the gore delivery itself is what puts it on this list.

Mom & Dad
(2017)

Sometimes when you and your friends are in deep in a bad deed, you’ll hear the phrase “Oh my god, my parents are gonna kill me!” Well this movie really takes that line to an extent! Siblings Carly and Josh must try to survive a wild 24 hour mass hysteria that’s causing parents to snap and try to murder their own children!

Sleepaway Camp
(1983)

The phrase an oldie but goodie really comes to play in this teen scream with one of the most shocking movie twists in American cinema. After an accident kills her family, Angela moves in with her eccentric aunt Martha and her cousin Ricky. One summer, Angela is sent to Camp Arawak with Ricky per aunt Martha’s request. Soon after their arrival, a chain of wild and increasingly violent accidents begins to kill off campers, but just who is behind all these murders?

Although having a REALLY shocking twist, being a late 80’s teen slasher film it does have a slow development. From AIPT, a review of 8/10 places Sleepaway Camp as a good film but can be kinda contradicting. “At first, Sleepaway Camp not only fails to impress, it is pretty bad. The majority of the cast are children expected to exude a range of emotions that range from flirtatious to fear. It is a task that is too much and ends up impacting the movie. For example, there is scene that requires the children to do nothing but play softball and have fun. Unfortunately, the poor kids sound like they were forced to say their lines.”  

Besides the poor acting in areas that can be forgiven as the whole cast consists of low experienced teens, the movie itself has such a great twist I really encourage it to be watched.

Last Shift
(2014)

Late night shifts can be a total killer, especially as your mind starts to wander. Rookie cop Jessica has been assigned to wait for a Hazmat team to pick up bio-hazardous waste from the station’s armory. Unbeknownst to Jessica, an infamous cult leader has haunted the department ever since he and two of this followers committed suicide a year ago to date. As Jessica begins to seemingly lose her mind during the wait, the paranormal and psychological torture begins.

The Pyramid
(2014)

Father-daughter archaeologists Miles and Nora Holden discover a unique pyramid that has been buried beneath the Egyptian desert for 5,000 years. Accompanied by a newswoman and her team, the group enter the tomb and evidently become trapped. Hopelessly lost within the pyramid’s labyrinthine structure, they unlock the horrific secrets buried within, and soon realize they aren’t just trapped, but are being hunted.