Fangoria's 101 Best Horror Movies You've Never Seen: A Celebration of the World's Most Unheralded Fright Flicks

by Adam Lukeman

A FEAST OF FRIGHTFUL FLICKS WAITING TO BE REDISCOVEREDAs the leading name in the world of horror, Fangoria magazine has been the source of information for fans of fright flicks for more than twenty years—covering feature films, video games, comic books, collectibles, and all aspects of horror entertainment. Working closely with Fangoria’s experts, including Editor in Chief Anthony Timpone, Adam Lukeman has compiled a must-have guide for casual horror fans and hardcore horror junkies with Fangoria’s 101 Best Horror Films You’ve Never Seen. With a brief synopsis for each of the included films, lists of cast and crew, “Terror Trivia,” and little-known facts about these lesser-known but must-see gems, Fangoria’s 101 Best Horror Films You’ve Never Seen offers a feast of gruesome information. Featured here are flicks that were dumped by their distributors or were initially flops, like Cherry Falls, Manhunter, and Pumpkinhead, foreign winners such as Cronos, The Vanishing, and Funny Games, and straight-to-video sleepers waiting to be discovered, including Shadowbuilder, Jack Be Nimble, and Nomads. There are even surprise entries directed by industry giants—movies like George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead, Brian De Palma’s Sisters, or Dario Argento’s Opera—that are frequently overshadowed by the filmmakers’ other, better-known works but are worthy of further examination. Entertaining and informative, Fangoria’s 101 Best Horror Movies You’ve Never Seen offers more than a hundred reasons to look beyond the often ho-hum Hollywood hype fests . . . when you’re really in the mood to feel your flesh crawl.

Genres: Horror, Nonfiction, Film

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 23, 2003

Reviews

[Octavio Villalpando · Rating 4 out of 5]

En tiempos donde el internet es la fuente más socorrida cuando de buscar información acerca de películas se trata, es un poco raro acudir a un libro de reseñas tratando de encontrar nuevo material para ver, y sin embargo, al menos en el caso de este libro, ¡es una decisión del todo ganadora!

El problema con los típicos listados que uno encuentra en internet "las 10 películas que de seguro no has visto" o títulos similares, es que la mayoría de las veces son hechos muy al vapor, y resulta que no encuentras nada original en ellos. Lo que si puedo decir de este libro, es que los títulos están bastante bien curados, y aunque he visto muchas de las películas que se incluyen, debo decir que si me ha tomado por sorpresa en varias ocasiones. Ya he buscado algunas de las recomendaciones que se incluyen en el texto y he podido ver algunas gemas bastante oscuras de las que no tenía idea de su existencia. Además, en su mayor parte, se trata de un libro bastante divertido de leer, ya que el estilo desgarbado de su autor consigue ser muy emocionante, y desde luego, tiene el sello de garantía de la Fangoria, que algo se han de saber del género del terror, jeje

La única objeción que le podría hacer, es que a veces sueltan demasiado la sopa sobre algunas películas y consiguen soltar spoilers que podrían arruinar la experiencia de quien se acerca a ells por primera vez. De esto me dí cuenta por las reseñas de películas que ya he visto, y solo espero que no me resulte en un desastre con aquellas que no conozco y que estarpe viendo próximamente.

Mi edición la encontré a un precio de saldo en un la sección de usados de una librería estadounidense. Es un típico "paperback" con hojas de la consistencia del periódico y una portada de cartón no demasiado sólida, además es en blanco y negro y no esta profusamente ilustrado. Es decir, como libro-objeto para coleccionar, probablemente no es la mejor opción, pero si uno va dispuesto a digerir la información que contiene, sin duda valdrá la pena.

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've watched 40 of the movies from this book and I have only disagreed with the inclusion of one film so far. Great for discovering spooky little gems like Let's Scare Jessica to Death or Lair of the White Worm. My main complaint is some of the movie summaries give away a little too much but so do most trailers.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lives up to its name, examines semi-obscure underrated horror movies such as "The Devil's Backbone," "Private Parts," "Black Christmas," "Cemetery Man," "Ginger Snaps," "Luther the Geek," "Paperhouse," "Santa Sangre," and "Session 9," to name a few. So far, so good.

[Tracy]

The title's promise held true for me - I have not seen most of these movies. The descriptions were intriguing, and I added quite a few to my list (the real list; not to be confused with the fake "sure I'll check that out" list). I especially enjoyed it when the author would allude to unusual endings or elements that made the film stand out from others in the genre.

[Ahimsa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The film entries read very casually, as in they were probably blog posts at first. It would be great to go into more than couple hundred synopsis for each of these. Also some of the movies (Day of the Dead, Black Christmas, etc) are certainly very heralded. But it's a great resource and I added more than 10 movies to my to-watch list.

[Dean Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, the library copy I looked at had many pages cut out. Whether by a roving censor or someone who wanted pictures for the wall, I will never know.

[Jessrawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I had seen many of these films before, this is a great resource if you’re looking for a few films off the beaten path (even though the authors do have their preferences).

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Lukeman, Fangoria's 101 Best Horror Movies You've Never Seen (Three Rivers Press, 2003)

The main criticism of this book is that, well, the target audience for this book is going to have seen a lot of these movies. Like every other reviewer I've read on this topic, I've seen the majority of them as well. But it's still refreshing to see some of these movies ending up on SOMEONE'S 101-best list, as they're entirely underrated (Wendigo, for example, or Day of the Dead) or suffered from little or no American distribution (Cronos, A Chinese Ghost Story, etc.).

Rather than a definitive compendium, look upon this book as a checklist of all those movies you saw once, liked, and forgot to re-rent, or the ones you forgot about. And if you want to keep true to the title, give your copy to one of your non-horror-loving friends with a list of where to start. (Start someone out with some of the movies in here and they'll never watch another horror flick again...) And then go write up your own list of the 101 best horror films no one has seen. We need more of them. *** ½

[Amanda Vermeal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was given to me as a gift from my friend Amanda, and I have to admit I was surprised by how well she knew me. Im a huge fan of B flicks, my favorites including Dead Alive, Evil Dead and The Boneyard.

This book is fun to flip through, it details a broad range of Fright Flicks most people haven't seen are spending the rest of their lives trying to forget they saw them.

[Kate Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has pointed me to a lot of great horror movies that are off the beaten path. I've seen several of them already ("Asphyx", "Aswang", "Baby Blood" -- all amazing!), and my Netflix cue is loaded with other recommended movies that I bet will be awesome.

[Emelda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing special. Just lists movies with plot reviews and fun facts. It was helpful in my research for more horror with people of color, but only in-so-much-as I had to google the cast. Still, it was a start.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome! I have tons of movies to add to my Netflix now! Some real gems, it looks like!

[Favio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book because the movie reviews are quick and has pictures, black and white.