13 Weird Horror Movies
All horror movies should be scary, but being weird isn’t required. But sometimes the weird ones are the best, whether it’s weird plots, weird circumstances surrounding the production, weird reasons the movie was made, or weird (or unlikely) people involved in making the movies. The following 13 weird movies (listed in alphabetical order) span almost a century, from the silent era to the early 21st century.
The Call of Cthulhu (2005)
H.P. Lovecraft’s weird short stories have been turned into movies dozens of times, but fans will tell you that the results are often a disappointment. One of the better efforts was created by a group of ambitious filmmakers at the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. They made a movie about Lovecraft’s most famous creation, Cthulhu, “as it might have been seen in 1927.” The film is a silent black and white that pays homage to Lovecraft’s time and stays quite faithful to his original work.
The Creeping Flesh (1973)
This Tigon production looks and feels like a Hammer film. A Victorian-era science-gone-wrong tale, it was directed by Freddie Francis and stars Hammer favorites Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Cushing plays a scientist who witnesses his grown daughter (Lorna Heilbron) exhibiting the same behavior her late mother did before going insane. He tries to find a way to halt her descent into madness, but he accidentally creates a monster instead. Christopher Lee as the head of a local insane asylum gets involved, and chaos ensues. Most interesting visual: The daughter’s hair color turns gradually darker as her insanity grows.
The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001)
This Japanese film from Japan’s answer to Quentin Tarantino, Miike Takashi, is not Miike’s usual fare. It’s a musical remake of the 1998 Korean film The Quiet Family. The Korean version was a comedy, and while Miike keeps that in his film, he adds music to make it even stranger. The story involves a middle-class man who informs his family that they are investing their life savings in a new hotel at the foot of Mount Fuji. In addition to a potential location problem, the hotel is in danger of a publicity disaster when the first few paying guests die in their rooms. While not really a horror movie, the black comedy musical does have some zombies, as well as segments of weird animation, a volcanic climax, and a cute little dog (who doesn’t die.)
Homicidal (1961)
Despite having produced Rosemary’s Baby, William Castle is mostly remembered for directing silly horror movies that were accompanied by in-theater gimmicks, such as shutting off the lights in the middle of the movie and demanding that the audience scream to start it again. Castle knew he was no Hitchcock and he never tried to be, though the Master of Suspense was clearly an inspiration. Homicidal was made about a year after Hitchcock’s Psycho, and it does try to imitate the latter in more ways than one.
Set in the quaint little town of Solvang in the Santa Ynez Valley, the movie is California Gothic, and in some moments, it’s almost cozy. In town there’s a florist shop, a drug store, and a general small-town feel, but also, of course, there’s something ghastly going on in the big house up there on the hill. Joan Marshall stars as the film’s complicated antagonist. Saying much more would be a spoiler.
Incubus (1966)
One of the few movies ever filmed in Esperanto, Incubus stands as proof that William Shatner could learn lines phonetically and still act. The film is a bleak religious-themed story about good, evil, and sex.
Sometime in the distant past, Shatner’s Marc is seduced by Kia, who is a succubus: a female sex demon. To her surprise, and her sister demons’ horror, Kia actually falls in love with Marc. Disgusted by this pure love that has “corrupted” Kia’s evil soul, the sisters seek revenge on Marc via his beloved sister Arndis. They call up an Incubus, the male version of a succubus, to rape the virgin Arndis and destroy Marc’s world. Aside from possibly being the only Esperanto language movie you’ll ever see, the film has some strange demonic imagery and a general feeling of bleak horror throughout.
La Residencia (The House that Screamed) (1969)
Set in France, filmed in Spanish, and dubbed in English, La Residencia is set in a 19th-century reform school for girls. New girl Teresa discovers how things work rather quickly upon her arrival: The stern headmistress Miss Fourneau (Lili Palmer) has certain favorites who are allowed to mete out punishments to rule breakers. But behind Fourneau’s back, these alpha girls also control a social system among the students. Meanwhile, one student is carrying on a secret romance with Fourneau’s teenage son (John Moulder-Brown); another chooses to endure severe physical punishments rather than obey simple rules, and head girl Irene decides whose turn it is weekly to skip needlework class for a tryst in the barn with the boy who brings the firewood. And then, there are the murders. While later movies would suggest that serial killers prey on sexually promiscuous teens. La Residencia seems to blame sexual repression, perhaps, as the cause of all the trouble.
The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
Yes, you know this one, the cute musical from the 80s starring Rick Moranis and a plant that eats people. But years before that, The Little Shop of Horrors began life as a non-musical, very intentional comedy horror from legendary horror director Roger Corman. The story is the same as the one you know: A guy discovers a man-eating plant and winds up committing murders to keep it fed, all while trying to charm a girl and keep his horrible secret. Roger Corman made this movie on a dare, and he never meant for it to be taken seriously. It’s an hour-long freak show, featuring Corman regulars Jackie Joseph and that guy, Dick Miller. Jack Nicholson, pre-fame, has a bit part as a man who is not at all afraid of the dentist.
Mad Monster Party (1967)
Rankin-Bass, who made all those claymation Christmas shows like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Year without a Santa Claus, offered this for Halloween in 1967. The story sees Dr. Frankenstein planning for his retirement by hosting a party at his castle, during which he will choose a replacement. The candidates include every classic monster you can think of and one ordinary guy. Like all Rankin-Bass shows, it has a lot of song (and dance) numbers, a few famous people doing voices, and a lot of voice actors doing imitations of famous people. Protagonist Felix sounds a lot like Jimmy Stewart, though he is voiced by Allen Swift, who also provided the voices of the majority of the characters in the movie. Dr. Frankenstein really is voiced by Boris Karloff, while Phyllis Diller voices the Frankenstein monster’s wife. Rounding out the cast is Gale Garnett as Francesca, Felix’s sultry love interest and lover of bats. The whole show is fun, if not a little goofy, but then, that’s what Rankin-Bass is here for, always.
The Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
This Brian De Palma film never caught on in the United States, but it was wildly popular in France after its release. To get an idea of what this movie is about, picture this: Horror rock musical that combines The Phantom of the Opera with the Faust story, and features a gay rock star; a band that looks alternately like KISS and The Beach Boys; and stars Paul Williams as the devil.
What was De Palma thinking? The story is about a hapless composer named Winslow (William Finley) who sells his soul to the devil, who in the late 70s was going by the name Swan and working as a record producer. Winslow is signed to Swan’s label, Swan Song Death Records (Led Zeppelin sued over the original name), but Swan double-crosses him and steals his music. The leading lady of the film is played by Jessica Harper, who would later star in de Palma’s Suspiria.
Spider Baby (1967)
Explaining the title of this movie is hard. The year it was made, or released, is in question as well. What matters is that it is generally called Spider Baby, it was written and directed by Jack Hill, and it was finally released sometime around 1967 after sitting on a shelf for four years. It stars Lon Chaney, Jr., and Sid Haig, and it’s a crazy great film.
When TCM started airing Spider Baby, usually in October, it started getting attention after being virtually unknown for years. Someone eventually turned it into a musical, and it routinely winds up on horror movie lists like this one.
A comic horror in the California Gothic tradition, it involves a family that consists of three “children” who suffer from — let’s just say it — the mental degradation that comes from inbreeding. But this is not the usual inbred clan we would come to see in later horror movies. Although cannibalism is hinted at, they keep that in the family too. The weirdness that strangers, as well as distant relatives looking for their inheritance, see, is generally morbid, spooky, weirdly (but tamely) sexual, and just plain bizarre. Lon Chaney, Jr. plays the family’s caretaker, Bruno, who explains to a lawyer that family members with the “curse” or disease they all have are relatively normal as children, but then become progressively demented as they get older. The eldest kid, played by Sid Haig, is really far gone. The youngest and most “normal” daughter Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn) is often left in charge when Bruno has to go out. Some of the film’s best scenes involve the middle child, Virginia, played by Jill Banner, a young actress who could ooze innocence and sexiness at the same time, and in this movie, a good dose of psycho goth vibes as well. Wednesday Addams had nothing on Virginia Merrye.
Virginia is apparently the Spider Baby the title refers to. The movie was almost called Cannibal Orgy, and as Spider Baby it usually carries the subtitle The Maddest Story Ever Told.
Targets (1968)
Peter Bogdanovich’s Targets is almost two movies in one. Part of the story is about an aging horror movie icon, played by real-life aging horror icon Boris Karloff (who was 80 at the time), who is struggling to accept the fact of his age and the inevitable end of his career. Meanwhile, a clean-cut young Vietnam vet in the Los Angeles suburbs buys a gun, kills his family, and then goes on a shooting spree. In the climax, the shooter and the old movie star cross paths at a drive-in theater. Half Hollywood story, half suburban story and all horror, executive producer Roger Corman made a wise choice in hiring the then-unknown Bogdanovich to direct. Corman insisted on Karloff being cast, and advised Bogdanovich to “direct like Hitchcock.” The result is a nostalgic but terrifying movie that has a lot to say about Vietnam, suburbia, 60s culture, and generational attitudes.
The Unknown (1927)
This silent film directed by Tod Browning (who would later direct Bela Lugosi in Dracula and direct Freaks) stars Lon Chaney and a very young Joan Crawford. Chaney plays a circus knife thrower named Alonzo, with Crawford as Nanon, the girl he throws knives at. Nanon is also the daughter of the man who owns the circus. She doesn’t know it, but Alonzo is in love with her. But Nanon has a problem: She is afraid of men, and particularly afraid of being touched by male hands. This works in Alonzo’s favor in one way, because he is a knife thrower who throws knives with his feet. He’s billed as “The Armless Wonder.”
But what neither Nanon, nor her father, realizes, is that the whole “armless” thing is a con. Alonzo and his sidekick are the only ones who know that Alonzo does indeed have arms, which he keeps hidden and bound with bandages while he’s performing. When Nanon admits her attraction to the circus strong man, Alonzo knows it’s time for him to express his feelings for her or risk losing her forever. He knows that being armless would give him an advantage with this girl over the muscle-bound competition, if only he really didn’t have arms…
This creepy, 63-minute film is punctuated with a fantastic soundtrack that was added many years after it was made. The climax is not as good as everything leading up to it, but overall this movie is a weird and wonderful way to spend an hour.
When Michael Calls (1972)
Terror in the afternoon is being a kid and stumbling upon this as the 4 O’clock Movie on a Tuesday, then being afraid of the phone ringing for the next two weeks. Also known as Shattered Silence, ( though that title isn’t nearly as effective), When Michael Calls stars Elizabeth Ashley, Ben Gazzara, and a young Michael Douglas in one of his earliest movie roles. This movie was made-for-TV, but in the 70s, that was saying a lot, particularly when it came to horror.
Helen and her ex-husband have an amicable relationship and a young daughter. It’s nearing Halloween, and the October vibe is so strong in this film you can almost smell the burning leaves. But the real terror for Helen happens whenever the phone rings. She’s getting what are chalked up to crank calls at first from her dead nephew, Michael. She knows the caller is imitating Michael because he calls her “Auntie My Helen,” the odd nickname nobody but Michael called her. In fact, she can’t figure out how anyone else would even know that he called her that. The caller sounds eerily like Michael and knows the details of Michael’s death. Then they start predicting the deaths of other people. Is there a murderer in town, or is Helen going crazy? The final answer is perhaps predictable, but the idea of being contacted by a dead child is scary enough to make you feel for Helen and want that phone to just stop ringing.
