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The early 2000s horror scene was more than just torture films and endless sequels. We're digging up 10 forgotten horror movies from the era that were left by the wayside but deserve a second look.
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00:00Horror in the early noughties was complicated.
00:03Not that it wasn't successful, far from it.
00:06Movie franchises like the Saw films dominated to the point of being regarded as a Halloween
00:11tradition.
00:12But it wasn't all torture porn and scary movie sequels, thank God, as there were quite
00:17a few hidden gems buried amongst the schlock.
00:20While many of them have long since been exhumed and appreciated fully by the public, or managed
00:25to eke out a kind of success upon release, many were left to the wayside.
00:29So, with that in mind, I'm Ellie for WhatCulture and here are 10 forgotten horror movies from
00:34the early 2000s.
00:36Number 10.
00:37Elvira's Haunted Hills.
00:38The first horror host to be syndicated nationally, Elvira, the Mistress of the Dark, has earned
00:45her spot in the halls of horror royalty.
00:48Naturally, such an iconic character has had a few forays into film, most famously with
00:53Elvira, Mistress of the Dark in 1988.
00:56The film was practically destined for cult status, as was its sequel in 2001, Elvira's
01:03Haunted Hills.
01:04Upon its release, critics tore the movie apart for, well, for just not making most of them
01:10laugh, frankly.
01:11But Haunted Hills is a wonderfully cheesy good time, just like the previous Elvira film.
01:16Cassandra Peterson's Elvira has always been one of the most amusingly magnetic presences
01:22in horror history, and that doesn't change in Haunted Hills.
01:26The humour, for the most part, has aged shockingly well, and while a few gags could be more tightly
01:31written, it's a solid 6 out of 10 horror comedy.
01:34If you love The Mistress of the Dark, and really, who doesn't, Haunted Hills is right up your
01:40dark, decrepit alley.
01:429.
01:42Creep
01:43The London Underground is one of those perfect horror settings.
01:47Although most Londoners are bark on it as part of their daily commute, that doesn't take
01:51away this overwhelming eeriness it has, especially at night.
01:55Creep is one of the, well, creepiest explorations of the anxieties inherent to The London Underground,
02:02a film that moves and behaves less like a narrative, and more like a nightmare you can't wake up
02:07from.
02:07The set-up is that a woman has got blackout drunk on her way to a party, and contrary
02:12to every anecdote from Londoners who have been in this girl's exact scenario, wasn't
02:17thrown out onto the street by security come closing time.
02:20She wakes up in the underground, alone, with nothing to do but wait until morning.
02:25Which would be fine, if she were alone.
02:29Even when the film stays in the brightest lit sections of the underground, the dizzyingly
02:33bright lights just feel uncomfortable, and when it moves into the tunnels, it's replaced
02:37with an oppressive, suffocating darkness.
02:40Not to give too much away about what happens next, but suffice it to say, you won't forget
02:45it, and you'll definitely be thinking twice before taking the tube at night.
02:488.
02:50Willard
02:50If you have moosophobia, welcome to your worst nightmare.
02:552003's Willard, a remake of the 1971 horror classic, starred everyone's favourite gonzo
03:01weirdo, Crispin, what is it, Glover.
03:03It tells the story of the eponymous Willard, a beaten down young man who finds out he has
03:08an unnatural connection to the many, many rats that haunt his late father's old estate.
03:13He proceeds to use this power to exact revenge on the people who have wronged him.
03:192003's Willard ditches the original's early 70s faux realism in favour of being closer
03:24to an origin movie for an obscure Batman villain.
03:28Everything from the music, to the cinematography, to the way the film frames Willard and his rat,
03:33you keep expecting the picture to cut away from him and reveal the plucky superhero who
03:37will be our actual protagonist.
03:39The fact that that never happens is what transforms this into a horror movie.
03:43While the film is deeply flawed, its unique energy more than picks up the slack, making
03:48for a fun late night watch with friends.
03:51Unless you're scared of rats.
03:52Number 7, Cherry Falls.
03:55Slasher flicks were a different breed in the wake of Wes Craven's Scream, constantly fighting
04:00to attain the same level of self-aware scares that the 90s classic achieved and made look
04:05so effortless.
04:07Cherry Falls was one of many pretenders to Scream's throne, but deserves to be looked at
04:12on its own merits as a fun, sick thrill ride.
04:14The story centres around a small town that's being terrorised by a serial killer who, in
04:19a twist on the usual slasher targets, only goes after virgins.
04:23Brittany Murphy stars as Jodie Markin, the daughter of the town's sheriff, determined to
04:28find the truth behind the murders.
04:30As the body count climbs higher, Jodie uncovers the dark secret of her family and their connection
04:35to the killer.
04:37As Scream clones go, Cherry Falls has the leg up of actually understanding that the fun
04:42of Scream was how it subverted slasher tropes, instead of just inserting snarky teenage leads
04:47in a story that otherwise plays the hits.
04:49Having the killer exclusively target the character trope that's typically the last one out in
04:54your usual slasher fare makes for a fun gimmick to build a solid 7 out of 10 movie on.
04:596.
05:00Joyride
05:01Ever wanted to know what would happen if one of the early Fast and Furious movies got invaded
05:06by the truck from Duel?
05:07Well, you should check out 2001's Joyride.
05:10Joyride is a different kind of horror movie for the time.
05:13While many were still following the slasher template of being trapped in a single place
05:17with an entity that desperately wants you dead, this picture went for the angle of nowhere
05:22being safe, because the entity in question has an 18-wheeler, and you don't.
05:28Joyride sees Paul Walker playing a dude going on a cross-country road trip to meet the girl
05:32of his dreams, and due to typical arsehole horror movie protagonist shenanigans, ends up pissing
05:38off the wrong truck driver.
05:39Rusty Nail, as he calls himself over the CB, proceeds to torment and hunt down Walker and
05:45all of his friends on the road.
05:47While other horror movie killers like to be sneaky, Rusty Nail stands out for being 18
05:52wheels of unsubtle death, and the fact that we never really see his face while costing him
05:57that sweet, sweet horror iconography makes him even more terrifying.
06:02Check this one out if you're looking for something a little bit different in your slasher thrillers.
06:06Number 5. Death Watch. You'd think it would be rather pointless to make a World War I horror
06:12movie. World War I being such a horrific chapter in human history already, adding ghosts and
06:17ghouls into the mix? Well, who'd notice, frankly? And indeed, Death Watch feels like a war movie
06:23that took a wrong turn at Transylvania and stumbled into horror by accident. Fortunately, Death Watch
06:28is aware of this and plays into it to add to the horror. The best part of Death Watch is
06:33the
06:33scale and detail in its portrayal of the war on such a measly budget. The opening scene
06:39manages through clever lighting and editing to make a few dozen soldiers feel like hundreds.
06:44When the movie settles into the trenches that will be the setting for the rest of the film,
06:48the startling attention to detail gives the viewer such a cold, wet, dreary sense of place.
06:54What makes the film so effective is that you're never given all the answers on whether there
06:58is something evil in the trenches with these men, if the shell shock of the war has just driven them
07:03all crazy, or if they all died in the opening and this is their purgatory. Death Watch is a bleak,
07:09stark look into the bowels of human nature, like all great World War I movies, but with that extra
07:15horror twist to make it stand out. Not perfect, but definitely worth a watch.
07:20Number 4. Frailty. No list about horror movies is complete without at least one religious trauma movie.
07:27Quite literally in Frailty's case as the film centres on a father who is hopelessly convinced
07:32that an angel has visited him to order him to commit a lot of murder. What makes Frailty really
07:38work are the performances. Bill Paxton, who also directed the film, plays the part of the father with
07:44a mix of brutality and shocking nuance, an otherwise good man utterly lost in the maze of his hallucinations
07:51and dragging his two sons down with him, even as he's convinced he's doing the right thing.
07:56Powers Booth also stars as the FBI agent hearing all of this second hand from Paxton's son,
08:02giving an instantly memorable performance as the determined investigator out to find the God's Hand
08:08Killer. Telling any more would be giving away the twists and really you should just go see it for
08:12yourself. Frailty is a fantastic bit of horror, suspense and mystery. Number 3. May. Loneliness is and has
08:20always been one of those emotions that our brains just aren't equipped to handle for very long,
08:25so it's no wonder a lot of cinematic killers share intense isolation as a notch in their backstory
08:30bingo cards. 2002's May takes that idea and bolts with it into abject depravity. May can be easily
08:38compared to Stephen King's Carrie, indeed none other than Roger Ebert did just that when the film
08:43released, in that both are about deeply troubled souls that have been hurt by a society that refuses
08:49to understand them. But while Carrie paired that with metaphorical and incredibly dangerous psychic
08:54powers, May remains terrifyingly grounded. This story of a woman with a lazy eye being mistreated
09:01and betrayed by everyone in her life until her mind unravels didn't receive the recognition it
09:05deserved when it first came out. But if this kind of sick, swing for the fences kind of movie is
09:10your jam, 2003's loss can be your gain. Number 2. Bubba Hotep. Bruce Campbell is a national treasure
09:18and among his fans, one film stands out, even amongst his magnum opus of the Evil Dead pictures. Bubba
09:24Hotep. Bubba Hotep is a monster movie set in a retirement home and starring two senile old men. One is
09:32convinced he's Elvis, the other is convinced he's JFK. Whether they are or not is left vague as part
09:37of the joke, as these two have to defend their retirement home and the people who live there
09:42from the eponymous Bubba Hotep, an Egyptian mummy bent on killing them all. Bubba Hotep is one of the
09:48funniest horror comedies out there, which makes the fact that it went under-seen and under-appreciated
09:53upon release a travesty. Bruce Campbell plays Elvis with just the perfect amount of comedy and nuance,
09:59keeping the tragedy of the character alive while also maintaining the hilarity of the King of Rock
10:04now being a senile old codger. If you're looking for a good laugh to go along with your scares,
10:09then you can't go wrong with Bubba Hotep. Number 1. Bones. The most slept on horror film of the early
10:162000s is without a doubt the criminally under-seen Bones. Sabotaged out the gate by awful distribution
10:23by New Line Cinema, Bones is basically a Jordan Peele movie, a full decade and a half before Get
10:29Out, a racially and politically charged horror movie starring Snoop Dogg. While not the scariest movie out
10:36there, even by the standards of the other films on this list, Bones is easily the most interesting.
10:41The story sees a murdered community leader, the eponymous Jimmy Bones, coming back as a demon to
10:47wreak terrible vengeance on the people who destroyed him. His targets include a cop who introduced drugs
10:53into the community to rot it from within, and the treasonous friends who aided in the scheme to better
10:58themselves. A story seeked in the history of the American government's many violent crimes against
11:04black communities, embodying centuries of anger in one righteous ghost, whom Snoop Dogg gives brilliant
11:10life and nuance. Bones may not be the scariest horror flick you can put on for movie night, but it
11:16makes
11:16up for it by being a compelling story rooted in history with an awesome cast, more than worthy of
11:22the top spot on this list.
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