{"id":209478,"date":"2025-12-29T11:20:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T11:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/209478\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T11:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T11:20:11","slug":"8-cult-classic-horror-movies-greater-than-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/209478\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Cult Classic Horror Movies Greater Than ‘House’"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to single out the quintessential cult classic horror movie out there, but House<\/a> is for sure a contender. Helpfully, it\u2019s remained within the realm of \u201ccult classic,\u201d become more well-known in the decades since its 1977 release, sure, but not so well-known that it\u2019s pulled a Blade Runner<\/a> or The Rocky Horror Picture Show<\/a> kind of thing and elevated itself from \u201ccult classic\u201d to just an outright\/normal classic.<\/p>\n

House is about a crazy house that forever changes the lives of a group of young women who have the misfortune of staying there. It\u2019s an absolute fever dream of a movie, and probably more of a surreal comedy than a horror film, but it\u2019s great. Anyway, the following films might well be even better, or even if you’re a die-hard House fan, maybe you’ll agree that these are equally good. Most of them scratch the same itch, too, being either comedy\/horror movies or horror films with a good deal of camp and\/or general weirdness.<\/p>\n

8 <\/p>\n

‘Suspiria’ (1977)<\/p>\n

\"A
\n Suzy Bannon (Jessica Harper) sits soaking wet in the back of a taxi on a rainy night, basked in a rich red light in the opening scene of ‘Suspiria’ (1977).Image via\u00a0Produzioni Atlas Consorziate<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t deny the sheer style and visual spectacle on offer throughout Suspiria<\/a>. Maybe that overwhelming part of it is so at the forefront that little else really matters in the same way, but style over substance is okay if the style is sufficiently stylish. So, Suspiria is about a dance academy where bad things happen<\/a>, but whatever, because what really matters is how the bad things happen, not why, nor necessarily \u201cwhat\u201d bad things happen.<\/p>\n

Also, the score of Suspiria is perfect, composed by the singular progressive rock band Goblin<\/a>, and it\u2019s firing on all cylinders on a technical front to the point where it stands tall as perhaps Dario Argento\u2019s single greatest film<\/a>. It\u2019s most certainly a cult film, too, because it\u2019s not going to be everyone\u2019s cup of tea entirely, though the great stuff here could well make it everyone\u2019s cup of tea partially. Does that make sense? Maybe not, but neither does much of Suspiria.<\/p>\n

7 <\/p>\n

‘Gozu’ (2003)<\/p>\n

\"A
\n A cow sticking its tongue out and attempting to lick a man in the horror-comedy movie Gozu (2003)Image via\u00a0Raku Film<\/p>\n

Even compared to various other cult classic horror movies<\/a>, Gozu<\/a> is a lot to take in, and an all but impossible film to actually summarize. There\u2019s a mystery introduced early on after a recently deceased man\u2019s body suddenly goes missing, which prompts the murderer \u2013 a gangster \u2013 to go looking for it, but then this puts him on a super strange odyssey that gets progressively more surreal and unsettling as things go along.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Gozu is a pretty twisted film, and also not one for the faint-hearted<\/a>. You will see things that cannot be unseen, though if you’re in the mood for something that\u2019s pretty much tailor-made for sickos, then there is \u2013 thankfully (?) \u2013 a lot here to be sickened by. It\u2019s a horror movie and a bunch of other genres all at once, but that sense of the unexpected is, funnily enough, often to be expected when the director is Takashi Miike.<\/p>\n

6 <\/p>\n

‘An American Werewolf in London’ (1981)<\/p>\n

\"David
\n David Naughton as David Kessler in the werewolf transformation scene in An American Werewolf in London.Image via Universal Pictures<\/p>\n

While it is both a horror movie and a comedy, An American Werewolf in London<\/a> might well work a little better as the former than the latter, especially as it goes along. It makes werewolves genuinely quite frightening, particularly the whole \u201ctransforming into one\u201d thing, which is done with some unnervingly good special effects here that still hold up and sell the horror of the moment brutally well.<\/p>\n

Before then, though, yeah, it\u2019s kind of a comedic road trip movie that\u2019s a little eerie, and things get more violent\/horror-focused when the inevitable werewolf attack happens, but then the real intense stuff comes later on<\/a>, with the transformation and then the finale, too. An American Werewolf in London works a whole lot better than you might expect, and it\u2019s up there quite comfortably as one of the easiest-to-recommend cult classic horror movies out there, and of all time.<\/p>\n

5 <\/p>\n

‘Near Dark’ (1987)<\/p>\n

\"Bill
\n Bill Paxton in ‘Near Dark’Image via\u00a0De Laurentiis Entertainment Group<\/p>\n

Near Dark<\/a> has held up remarkably well<\/a> as the years have gone on, to the point where it might well be more compelling for those checking it out for the first time nowadays than it would\u2019ve been in 1987. Maybe that\u2019s an indication that it was ahead of its time, or something else, but whatever the case, it really is one of the best \u2013 and most underrated \u2013 vampire movies of all time.<\/p>\n

Much of Near Dark plays out like a neo-Western, too, but with a supernatural spin, and that\u2019s inherently fun. It\u2019s heightened, and a bit over-the-top, yet not exactly comedic; there\u2019s a certain intensity to much of it, sort of in line with Kathryn Bigelow\u2019s other<\/a> (admittedly, not horror-related) movies. Also, cast members Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton are giving career-best performances here, and considering those two are pretty great in just about anything they appear in, that\u2019s really saying something.<\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

‘Dead Alive’ (1992)<\/p>\n

\"Dead
\n Image via\u00a0Trimark Pictures<\/p>\n

If you want entertainment out of the zombie movies you watch<\/a>, above anything else, then Dead Alive<\/a> is required viewing. It\u2019s pretty silly stuff, so you’re not likely to be particularly frightened watching it, though there is some unpleasantness and horror here on account of just how far it goes with its gross-out elements. It\u2019s so bloody, gruesome, and chaotic that even with most of it being comedic, it\u2019s still a lot.<\/p>\n

The plot here is business as usual for a zombie movie, albeit with that New Zealand sort of sense of humor, on account of this being an early Peter Jackson movie. Dead Alive is great<\/a>, though. It\u2019s hard to demonstrate its greatness without just reiterating how beautifully bloody it all is, and you kind of have to see that to believe it, but it really is something to behold, so long as your stomach\u2019s sufficiently strong and all.<\/p>\n

3 <\/p>\n

‘The Hitcher’ (1986)<\/p>\n

A movie that\u2019ll effectively make you never want to pick up a hitchhiker again (if that was something you still wanted to do, for whatever reason), The Hitcher<\/a> is one of those quintessential \u201cthings going from bad to worse\u201d horror movies. It\u2019s incredibly intense<\/a>, to put it mildly, and has what could well be the best performance Rutger Hauer ever gave in a movie that wasn\u2019t Blade Runner.<\/p>\n

He gives a remarkable villain performance here, and proves to be a big reason why The Hitcher remains so nerve-wracking and engaging<\/a> throughout. It\u2019s got a toughness and grittiness to it that might well make it something of an acquired taste, and probably not the best movie to watch if you just want to relax or sink into something escapist, yet as far as underrated white-knuckle horror\/thriller movies from the 1980s go, this really is one of the very best.<\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

‘Evil Dead II’ (1987)<\/p>\n

\"Ash
\n Ash and three others looking ahead with scared expressions in Evil Dead II (1987)Image via Rosebud Releasing Corporation<\/p>\n

You could put any of the original Sam Raimi-directed Evil Dead movies<\/a> here, and there\u2019s an argument to be made that all three of them should\u2019ve been here, but also, maybe the person writing at the moment is kind of lazy and only wants to include one, because time is finite and precious and a top 8 can be written faster than a top 10. Honesty is a good thing, right?<\/p>\n

Evil Dead II is the most Evil Dead of all the Evil Dead movies, since it gleefully rides a line between the horror found in The Evil Dead (1981) and the absurd comedy found in Army of Darkness (1992).<\/p>\n

Anyway, here\u2019s Evil Dead II<\/a>, which is the most Evil Dead of all the Evil Dead movies, since it gleefully rides a line between the horror found in The Evil Dead<\/a> (1981) and the absurd comedy found in Army of Darkness (1992). It\u2019s the best of both worlds, and it\u2019s uniquely bizarre and compelling. It\u2019s also got one of the wildest endings of any horror movie<\/a>, and one that perfectly sets up the absolutely wild \u2013 and aforementioned \u2013 Army of Darkness, which is as unconventional as it is oddly satisfying, as a trilogy capper.<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1978)<\/p>\n

\"David
\n David Emge as Flyboy in Dawn of the DeadImage Via\u00a0United Film Distribution Company<\/p>\n

Okay, Dead Alive was mentioned before as being a pretty great zombie movie, but Dawn of the Dead<\/a> is essentially the zombie movie<\/a>. If, for whatever reason, you were only allowed to watch one, then the original Dawn of the Dead is your best bet, since it takes the core\/expected premise (there are some survivors and they have to go somewhere to survive, here picking a shopping mall) and does everything right with said premise.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a certain amount of fun to be had with Dawn of the Dead<\/a>, since you can easily put yourself in the shoes of the main characters and see how, initially, there would be something liberating about having an entire mall as a playground of sorts. There\u2019s humor inherent there as well, but then when Dawn of the Dead wants to get a little grittier and more serious<\/a>, it succeeds on that front, too. It\u2019s incredibly well-balanced for something so sprawling and varied on an emotional front.<\/p>\n

\"0192158_poster_w780.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tDawn of the Dead
\n\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Release Date<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSeptember 2, 1978<\/p>\n

Runtime<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t127 minutes<\/p>\n

\"Cast<\/p>\n

David Emge<\/p>\n

\n Stephen “Flyboy” Andrews\n <\/p>\n

\"Cast<\/p>\n

Ken Foree<\/p>\n

\n Peter Washington\n <\/p>\n


\n \"amazon01_logo-1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

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