Stephen is a Classic Movies writer at Screen Rant. Formerly a reporter for The Irish Independent and The Sligo Champion, he has also been published in other outlets such as the Sunday World, Connacht Tribune, and Knewz.com. With experience covering crime, human-interest, politics, and social justice movements, pop culture and entertainment always stood out as his favorite stories to pursue. Stephen also writes, produces, and presents his own music podcast series on Spotify called Sound Thinking, which explores off-beat or underrepresented genres. This podcast takes a deep dive into the careers of different artists and bands, such as Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and The Kinks.
Sometimes being a genuinely good movie isn’t enough to achieve enduring popularity, and there are a lot of great horror movies that have been kind of left by the wayside. It might be sequels in long-running franchises that nobody gave a fair shot or box office duds that had a lot more to offer than first meets the eye.
While movie lovers are all aware of the greatest horror movies of all time, for every Exorcist or Halloween, there are just as many hidden gems waiting to be discovered. Occasionally, these overlooked films even take bigger risks or explore stranger ideas than their more celebrated counterparts.
It’s not just forgotten films of the past that deserve more recognition; plenty of modern horror releases come and go in a flash, falling out of the cultural conversation well before their time. Some of them only find their audience years later, once the initial hype cycle has long since passed, as they carve out reputations as secret cult classics.
Other times, horror lovers need to dig deep into acclaimed directors’ careers to find great movies that not enough people are talking about. Auteurs like John Carpenter may have solidified their legendary status with movies like The Thing, but even a celebrated filmmaker like him has some deep cuts that deserve far more praise.
The Psycho movies always had a tough time stepping out of the shadows of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1960 movie. While they might not all live up to those lofty expectations, Anthony Perkins continued to deliver amazing performances as Norman Bates in every subsequent sequel.
One installment that never got a fair shot was Psycho IV: The Beginning, a fascinating TV movie that served as both a prequel and a sequel, in which an older Bates tells the story of his adolescence by calling into a radio talk show. It’s not a perfect movie, but it’s endlessly fascinating, and it laid the groundwork for the later TV adaptation, Bates Motel.
Heretic received decent reviews when it was released in 2024, but it never got the credit it truly deserved for its thoughtful exploration of belief and delusion. With Hugh Grant playing against type as a disturbing older man who holds two teenage Mormons hostage, this was a rare horror movie that was equally clever and chilling.
With a claustrophobic premise, Heretic had a sharp script in which Grant’s Mr. Reed attempted to highlight the hypocrisy of his captive teenagers’ blind faith. However, in the process, he only showcased the fragility of his own ego in this deeply disturbing character study of a man whose intellectualism brings him to the brink of madness.
We all know Joe Kerry was the lovable Steve Harrington from Stranger Things, but in Spree, he showcases a whole new side to his acting talents. As the deluded Kurt Kunkle, Kerry portrayed a man obsessed with social media whose quest for fame and virality drove him to do anything for recognition, going on a wild, live-streamed, murderous spree.
What’s so effective about Spree is the way it lays bare internet sensationalism and uses a gonzo-satirical style to expose the darkest side of Gen Z culture. Spree had a solid premise but failed to make an impact at the box office, as, unfortunately, Kerry’s exceptional performance and name recognition didn’t translate into mainstream success.
Real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie starred in one of the strangest horror movies of 2025 with Together. This terrifying body horror examines the pitfalls of codependency as a couple moves to the countryside together, only to find that they’ve become a lot closer than they ever intended.
Together wasn’t a major success, but it received rave reviews and signaled writer-director Michael Shanks as a new name to watch in the horror movie sphere. An emotionally sticky story, Franco and Brie’s real-life romance helped add legitimacy to a story that leaned heavily into the type of grotesque horror made famous by David Cronenberg.
The found footage genre works incredibly well for horror movies, and while releases like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity cleaned up at the box office, it’s often more of a low-budget, understated affair. This was certainly the case for Creep, which told the story of a Craigslist encounter that turns into a total nightmare.
Mark Duplass starred as a man obstinately named Josef who hires a videographer to film a video diary for his unborn child. While Josef says he’s got an inoperable brain tumor and wants to give his boy something to remember him by, Creep’s slow-building tension soon reveals all is not what it seems, and his true intentions are far more malicious.
One actor we love to see let loose in full unhinged mode is Nicolas Cage, who delivered one of his most underrated performances in Mom and Dad. With Cage and Selma Blair playing two parents overcome with an unstoppable need to murder their own children, this black comedy horror was wild, chaotic, and entirely unrestrained.
On the one hand, Mom and Dad can be enjoyed as a clever metaphor for how parents screw up their kids, and on the other, as a nonstop showdown of carnage and bloodshed. While many Cage fans might point to The Wicker Man or Mandy as his wildest performance, they shouldn’t sleep on the over-the-top hysteria of Mom and Dad.
The success of Scream in 1996 helped launch a whole host of rip-off releases, and while movies like I Know What You Did Last Summer have earned a place in the cultural consciousness, Urban Legend was sadly forgotten. This was a real shame, as this stood out as a solid slasher with an intriguing premise.
Featuring future star Jared Leto, Urban Legend depicts a series of murders on a private New England university campus, all inspired by popular urban legends. Filled with clever kills and plenty of eye candy, Urban Legend gave the audience what they wanted, even if it hasn’t quite earned true classic status.
There have been so many great Stephen King adaptations over the years that it can be hard to keep track. One that definitely flew under the radar was 1408, which saw John Cusack star as an author investigating allegedly haunted hotels, only to confront his deepest, darkest psychological anxieties.
With elements of The Shining paired with Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, 1408 was solid horror that delved into the psychological tension of the supernatural. It was a box office hit at the time of its release, but it doesn’t get brought up enough these days and deserves more credit as a hidden gem among King adaptations.
There are many sequels in the Nightmare on Elm Street series, and most are rightfully disregarded derivative cash-ins. However, Freddy’s Revenge is a truly fascinating horror movie that provides unique insight into the cultural anxieties and unspoken undercurrents of 1980s notions of masculinity.
Looking back on A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, it’s clear that it’s far deeper than it initially seemed, and its hidden subtext explores Jesse’s identity as a repressed homosexual. With Jesse portraying the classic trope of the “final girl,” this was a film that turned horror tropes on its head and stands out as a gay cult classic as a result.
John Carpenter, the director behind Halloween and The Thing, delivered an incredible exploration of Lovecraftian horror with In the Mouth of Madness. Featuring Sam Neill as an insurance investigator whose sanity crumbles as the lines between reality and fiction start to blur, this intriguing 1990s hidden gem just worked.
In the Mouth of Madness stands out as one of the greatest forgotten horror movies of the 1990s, as Carpenter paired his unique style with that of one of the greatest short story writers who ever lived. As a cult classic that critics didn’t get at the time, In the Mouth of Madness was a great horror movie that deserved better than it got.
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