Directed by John Carl Buechler. With Michael Moriarty, Shelley Hack, Noah Hathaway, Jenny Beck. A wicked troll king in search of a mystical ring that will return him. When Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan stepped off the moon in 1972 he left his footprints and his daughters initials in the lunar dust. Only now, forty years later, is. Looking for the best horror movies on Netflix Look no further with our Netflix horror movie listCult Horror Movies Moon Man Notorious KkkThe Exorcist 1. Its a rare film that can make you believe whatever it needs you to. William Friedkins power in the 7. The French Connection, The Exorcist, and Sorcerer was such that he got a nation to fear the devil for two hours. His filmmaking a mix of documentary derived immediacy and ruthless, cunning manipulation turned something outrageous into something rational. Friedkin presented the possession of a young girl Linda Blair as something so believable that the audience had no choice but to hope upon hope that her mother a never better Ellen Burstyn would cut the crap and find an exorcist and get the devil out of her already Friedkin and writer William Peter Blattys brainy approach to the cheesy subject matter brings out the nightmares of conventional medical treatment its been said many times that the invasive surgical procedures designed to get to the bottom of the possession medically are worse than any scares the film has on tap. And yet the scares are some of the most awe inspiring in all of cinema. The Wicker man 1. In a decade that gave us the most luxurious Hammer horror films Dr. Jekyll Sister Hyde, The Vampire Lovers, Hands of the Ripper and a whole host of folk British fright like Blood on Satans Claw, Tam Lin, and Death Line, it says something that The Wicker Man is the film we remember from the English horror boom. One of the earliest cult successes on DVD, The Wicker Mans legend had grown so much from its early premiere that very few people were aware that the film is essentially a musical. A straight laced religious detective Sergeant Howie the great Edward Woodward is called to a mysterious island for a missing persons case. Every single citizen belongs to a cult like pagan group that deeply upsets Howie. The people seem benign enough at first with their constant singing and dancing, but when days pass and no one seems willing to help, or even admit that the missing girl is missing, he begins to unravel. The Wicker Man builds to one of the most agonizingly stark finales, even in the famously bleak 1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 1. The eternally underrated Tobe Hooper went shopping one day in the early 7. In it, he picked up a chainsaw and cleared the crowds away instantly. That little idea morphed into one of the most successful and one of the most deeply troubling American independent films of all time. Think about it. Do you know anyone who doesnt on some level know what The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is Even if youve never seen it, youve heard those words. They fill you with images of rusty metal, sounds of unearthly shrieking, thoughts of unjust imprisonment, make you see the world through eyes that can do nothing but stare at images of hoary derangement. Five hippie teens traveling through Texas make the mistake of detouring at a rickety old house one afternoon. One by one they make their way to the big property across the yard to ask for gas or directions. Something sinister awaits them inside and it hasnt released its grip on the horror genre since. Its atmosphere of confusion and chaos mask the precision with which Hooper cut each of his camera movements and compositions. A perfect horror movie. Who Can Kill A Child As nasty and brutish a piece of work as youre likely to ever see, Narciso Ibez Serradors best film in a far too brief career is the crowning achievement of Spains eerie horror movement see also marvelous gems like Let Sleeping Corpses Lie and The Mansion of Madness. Honeymooning Brits take a jaunt out to a secluded Spanish coastal island and are curious as to where all the adults have gone. The place is mobbed with unruly children, none of whom are old enough to have hit puberty. A walk to the interior clarifies things. The adults are all gone because something has taken hold of the children a kind of virus or ill wind and caused them to murder every adult theyve come across. Filmmakers today could only dream of having had this idea when Serrador stumbled upon it. The slow descent of any moral objection to horror films has rendered most button pushing irrelevant. What can you show us now that you cant see on TV every night When Who Can Kill A ChildIt broke boundaries when those they still meant something. It was the ultimate kiss off to dying fascist dictator Francisco Franco, who had held Spain hostage for decade. Suspiria 1. 97. 7The 7. Phantasm, Lost Weekend, Mansion of Madness, Messiah of Evil, Swamp of the Ravens, Lets Scare Jessica To Death, The Abominable Dr. Phibes and many more were guided by a hazy dream logic, driven by the inexplicable, the impossible, and the flat out crazy, while looking like a washed out, drug induced fantasy. The queen of all of these baroque visions is Suspiriaby Dario Argento. After a string of truly excellent giallo The Cat ONine Tails, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Argento let reality slip away and gave in to an oppressive, candy colored fantasy. If we have a hard time as a culture appreciating Argentos others films and moving beyond Suspiria, its because his achievement is so potent and yet so totally indescribable. From the sweetly nauseating score by Goblin to the baroque set design and finely overwrought performances, everything suggests a descent into an opiate fugue state, only to be violently jolted awake by scenes of abject gore and suffering. And yet despite its vituperative, arhythmic assault on our senses, its one of the most beloved Italian horror films of all time. Argento found something universally spooky under all that artifice, and weve never been able to stop ourselves from returning to inhale Suspiria like a narcotic fume. Dawn of the Dead 1. If Dawn of the Dead has a flaw, its that its primary interests dont include scaring you the way most horror films scare you. Very few things jump out of the dark to get you, and when they do the music lets you know youre not being attacked. That flaw, however, explains why the film has unqualified staying power. George A. Romeros masterpiece works on you slowly over its run time. Its a film of insidious power that slowly infects your unconscious until you start to see that the death of the world is an existential problem more than a survival horror scenario. No one can give up their old obsessions, even when they lose all but sentimental currency. Zombie and man alike flock to a shopping mall in Pittsburgh after civilization collapses, because neither can get quit of the idea of the mall as consumerist paradise. He who has the most stuff when he dies wins, to paraphrase Lewis Black. Romero swoops in with help from make up guru Tom Savini and the ever dependable Goblin on the soundtrack to hammer home the tragedy of the American ego and its ingrown hunger for more property. The bad dreams will hit you without warning.