Movies
Our Favorite Under the Radar Horror Movies of 2023
If 2022 was the hurricane of great horror, 2023 was the whole monsoon season. And as everyone pens their favorite horror of the year lists, with the likes of Saw X, Skinamarink, Talk to Me, and When Evil Lurks topping them, I understand. I agree that they absolutely have earned the hype, and I still think Evil Dead Rise was my favorite theatrical release all year. But I need to give some love to the more slept-on titles that might have gotten some praise but never breached the smaller audiences that gave it credit; the hidden horror gems if you will! So, as in years past, I’ve made a list of the most underrated overperformers of last year to check out as we roll into 2024.
If 2022 was the hurricane of great horror, 2023 was the whole monsoon season.
And as everyone pens their favorite horror of the year lists, with the likes of Saw X, Skinamarink, Talk to Me, and When Evil Lurks topping them, I understand. I agree that they absolutely have earned the hype, and I still think Evil Dead Rise was my favorite theatrical release all year.
But I need to give some love to the more slept-on titles that might have gotten some praise but never breached the smaller audiences that gave it credit; the hidden horror gems if you will! So, as in years past, I’ve made a list of the most underrated overperformers of last year to check out as we roll into 2024. Let’s get into it with the
Honorable Mentions
Pretty Much Everything from Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2023
I’m not going to steal too much time from the other standouts in this article since most of these Brooklyn Horror Film Festival features have yet to get wide releases, but I’d be remiss not to mention these.
The festival puts on brand new smash-hit movies every year, and 2023’s selection was bangers on top of bangers; among all the independent film juggernauts, I can’t pick a favorite. I can only say I was especially fond of Monolith, Conann, and Cannibal Mukbang since each brought a one-of-a-kind viewing experience to BHFF that evoked terror, tragedy, and fun. If you haven’t seen our coverage yet, check out the reviews and interviews here. And keep your eyes peeled for them coming to a film festival near you!
Underrated Horror Movies From 2023 You Have to Watch
DARK HARVEST
A young man tries to replicate his older brother’s success in winning a gruesome annual competition: starving young men in the town and then cutting them loose to hunt down and eat a jack-o-lantern-headed monstrosity.
It’s hard to walk through Barnes and Noble recently and not notice the cover for the novel that inspired this film popping out on the shelf. A long-awaited adaptation of Norman Partridge’s 2006 book, Dark Harvest captures the perfect Autumnal vibes for any time of the year you’re craving a nasty dose of Halloween spirit.
In an October borderline swamped with big horror releases, I felt obligated to take a gander at the SECOND greatest Halloween horror movie that was snubbed in 2023 by just being released at the wrong time (the first, of course, being Cobweb). What resulted from watching it on a lark was the discovery of a seasonal instant classic; Dark Harvest has some of the best set design, costuming, and lighting choices I’ve seen in a film all year, and the synthesis of it all is a cohesive cinematography that’s slick and violently stylish in the vein of 2019’s Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark.
Pair that with a story ripped straight from The Twilight Zone, a cast of intriguing characters, top-tier effects, and a compelling story about manufacturing a monster? Just like Sawtooth Jack himself, it needs to be seen to be believed.
ZOM 100: BUCKET LIST OF THE DEAD
Akira Tendo has finally been cut loose, no longer worked to the bone by the abusive video production company he slaves away at—at the small cost of Japan being destroyed by a zombie apocalypse.
Japan’s offering on this list rounds out a trinity: with Shaun of the Dead and Anna and the Apocalypse, you now have the perfect trilogy about lovable losers who seize the day while the world is going to hell all around them. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is the live adaptation of the smash hit manga, but its anime counterpart took most of the wind out of its sails due to a simultaneous release.
With very few mentions of this charming film making it to the forefront, it only seems appropriate to talk about it. Zom 100 isn’t a technical masterpiece, but its directing captures the fun energy of a slice-of-life anime at the end of the world. It retains the classic story beats of your usual undead apocalypse fare but puts them in a new light, keeping them from getting boring. It also has an absolutely bonkers ending that I couldn’t believe even as I was watching it, so at the very least, watch it for the aquarium set piece in the final act.
It might not be as colorful visually as its animated sister series, but director Yusuke Ishida makes an endearing romp through zombie-ridden Japan come to life with a spirit of pure fun. Delivering some really visually interesting sequences, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is definitely greater than the sum of its more trope-filled parts; its campy, high energy, and at a whopping two-hour runtime, it surprisingly didn’t stop entertaining for a single second.
PROJECT WOLF HUNTING
South Korean criminals being extradited back to their home country take over the freighter transporting them, but in the process end up awakening a supernatural passenger that threatens everyone.
You might say, “Hey, but this was a 2022 release in South Korea?”, to which I would say, “It released VOD in America this year, so it definitely counts, also don’t sass me in my own roundup article”.
I don’t like making reductive “X meets Y” comparisons of movies very much, but if it helps an audience that needs to see this find it, so be it. Project Wolf Hunting is Riki-Oh meets Friday the 13th, filled with base, wild carnage, and fantastic fight choreography that doesn’t let up until its final scene. This film is the best action horror of the past decade, and it’s so criminal that it didn’t become an international hit when it came out. I can see this getting a fan following as big as The Raid, and hopefully, our hero behind the camera Kim Hong Sun gets to make a sequel delving into the juicy lore set up in this first entry.
The aesthetic appeal of Project Wolf Hunting is mainly because it has the splatter film sensibilities of more modern grindhouse fare like Planet Terror. The narrative appeal comes from how it makes a delightful send-up of both prison exploitation films and old-school monster movies (Korean character actor Choi Gwi-hwa puts in a crazy good performance as the gruesome creature Alpha who just steals the show in the second half with all the kills).
For people looking for a movie where the weight in fake blood is equal to the weight of the story’s stakes, you’ll be happy to find this one. I’m not kidding when I say the SFX team had to have been spraying a firehose of red and staining everything in corn syrup to get half of these frames on the reel.
EL CONDE
Augusto Pinochet is a literal vampire. Wackiness ensues.
The most serious entry on this list (despite the above description), El Conde is another one of those films I expected to blow a hole through Twitter for a week and cause endless discourse due to its controversial main character, but this movie surprised me in every way.
Augusto Pinochet was, and I say this with all due disrespect, a festering rotten little worm of a person, which is why I dreaded watching El Conde. Talking about what Pinochet did to Chile and its people, verbalizing his very special brand of evil without giving him the respect of infamy is incredibly hard. But Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín (of Spencer, Jackie, and Neruda fame) does just that, while still pulling off some bloody excellent filmmaking and chronicling the worst of humanity with the best kind of humor.
This is an off-the-wall pitch-black comedy helmed with excellent directing, the cinematic language of which translates exactly how pathetic Pinochet and his ilk were and makes a gorgeous mockery of them. A film that beautifully expresses disdain and constantly throws endless barbs at its subjects, El Conde rarely misses in delivering its commentary with a laugh.
Its comedy can catch you off guard completely and nail you right in the head at times, but it’s also just a great horror film out of context thanks to its visuals and more gruesome moments. This one is due for a surge in popularity in a few months once everybody can catch up on the myriad of films that got swallowed in the release schedules of 2023.
BROOKLYN 45
A tight-knit crew of World War 2 veterans come together at Christmas time to console a grieving friend, but end up trapping themselves in a quickly closing circle of madness.
It’s the best ghost film of the year, made by one of my all-time favorite horror directors. What more could I have asked for?
Released on Shudder earlier in June after premiering at SXSW, Ted Geoghegan’s Brooklyn 45 quickly wormed its way into my heart as an all-time favorite. It’s on par with his previous work, We Are Still Here, which is one of my top-ten horror films of all time. It’s sincerely an emotional and quietly horrifying film about mourning, which excels at making you contemplate its message while still telling a damn good ghost story (which I discuss more in the review of it here).
Geoghegan’s directorial spirit is impossible to miss, and the way he pulls together the look and feel of Brooklyn 45 is impeccable. By decking out a cast of acting all-stars with bespoke costumes, handing them a heartbreaker of a script, and placing them on an uncomfortably warm stage that only turns up the heat every few minutes, how could you lose? You get a dramatic horror expedition to the other side entirely captured in one room, and delivers on its emotional premise. This is the platonic ideal of horror bottle films, and I can only praise it.
With layered, emotional characters primed for analysis and an ending that tastes truly bittersweet once the credits roll, Brooklyn 45 might be the best hidden horror gem of 2023.
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Did I miss anything that you think should be on here? Tell us on Twitter and Instagram @HorrorPressLLC with any of your underrated horror recommendations. After all, the more the merrier right? And for more news on all horror, big and small, throughout 2024, stay tuned to Horror Press!
The Coffee Table hit the U.S. streets in 2024 and imprinted itself on the brains of Horror fans (I am Horror fans). If you have not seen it, I can guarantee it’s like nothing you’ve seen before. The film follows a couple, Jesus and Maria, who have just become parents, and decide to buy a new coffee table. This decision has unexpected consequences. I highly recommend checking out this movie; you will be changed. You can catch it streaming (at the time of this article) on Tubi, AMC+, Shudder, and VOD. When I watched it for the first time, I rented it, and it was worth every penny.
I contacted Casas’ team and sent over a few questions about his inspiration for The Coffee Table and a memory with his dad. Please note that the responses have been translated from Spanish to English.
An Interview with Director Caye Casas
Jazzmin Crawley: What was your inspiration for The Coffee Table?
Caye Casas: I hadn’t filmed anything in five years, and I hadn’t come up with any projects. I thought I’d never be able to make another film. But I wanted to try to make one last film, one that would be powerful and that anyone who saw it would never forget.
I had the script for The Coffee Table in a drawer, written years ago. I knew I could do it on a tight budget, and a friend let me use her apartment for free, so we dove in and shot it in only 10 days. I wanted to tell a great tragedy with touches of dark humor, and based on some real news stories about these types of accidents, so we wrote the film.
We wanted to make a terrifying film, but not a typical horror film. Here, there’s only a dining table and a cruel fate, and a tragedy that can happen to any of us.
What was your favorite part of making this film?
My favorite part was getting back to filming after so much time. It’s something I needed at the core. I always say that having a passion for filmmaking is a curse, since it’s so hard to get the money, and life goes by, and you shoot very little. And if you ask me specifically about this film, my favorite part was shooting the kitchen sequence with Maria’s (Estafanía de los Santos) laughter. It was very funny, and I think it’s a sequence of cruelty and dark humor.
The design of the coffee table is interesting! Was it created for the film, or was it something you found? Is there a story behind this design?
We didn’t have the money to create a table, but we knew we wanted it to be kitsch, ugly, and different. Luckily, an antique dealer friend had this table in his warehouse. We asked him if he’d sell it to us at a good price, and he gifted it to us! We painted it gold, added the “unbreakable” glass, and it became the star of the movie.
Now I have it in my house, but without the glass.
I’m writing this article for Father’s Day. Do you have a memory with your dad you’d like to share?
Honestly, my best memory of my dad is when he used to take me to Camp Nou to watch FC Barcelona play. I’m a huge Barça (short for FC Barcelona) fan, and that’s thanks to my dad. My greatest passions are Barça, movies, and retro toys…in that order!
You have a history of working in the comedy and horror genres. Why do you like this medium?
Dark humor is my brand; it’s what defines me. I like to mix genres and put dark humor into a great tragedy, like life itself. Life isn’t just one genre, it’s many. I always use the example that sometimes you’re at a funeral, and humor comes up. Life can be contradictory, and the same thing happens in my films.
That’s why I’m passionate about mixing those two genres; for me, it’s really fun.
What would be your dream project?
Shooting the next film! I have various scripts written, and I’m looking for financing. There are multiple projects. Aside from that, I’m developing a script for a U.S. film. I hope something comes out of all this! You never stop chipping away at the stone in this business, at least in my case. My dream project is to make films for a living.
If you can talk about this, what’s next for you?
As I’ve told you, I have my own projects, some commissions, but nothing’s confirmed. We’re working on it, looking for money, investors, you know, that tedious phase of looking for money under every rock. But I assure you, the films made will be as talked about, if not more so, than The Coffee Table.
End of Interview
It was great to get an opportunity to ask Casas questions and get insight on this darkly funny project. The Coffee Table will live rent-free in the minds of Horror fans everywhere. We must fund and support independent filmmakers. If Casas could make something like The Coffee Table on such a small budget, imagine what he could do given ample funding.
Independent filmmaking is where some of the most unique ideas live. I hope we are able to see what Casas has in store next. If we want to see new and refreshing films, we have to support the teams behind them.
Movies
This Queer 2015 Slasher Desperately Deserves A Cult Following
Dive into “You’re Killing Me,” a 2015 queer horror slasher that’s equal parts romance, comedy, and bloody thrills. Follow Joe, a budding serial killer, as he navigates love and West Hollywood’s apathetic social scene in this vibrant, satirical coming-out allegory. A must-watch for queer horror fans!
This Pride Month on Horror Press, one of our main missions is to spread the word about queer horror movies that have actually, explicitly queer characters. Throw your queer theory textbook out the window today and put away those notes about the subtext of Fright Night. Today we’re diving deep into an example of one of my favorite movie genres (slasher) that features one of my favorite human genres (queer people). That’s right, we’re here to talk about 2015’s You’re Killing Me, a movie that celebrates the 10th anniversary of its OutFest premiere in July and desperately needs to have developed a proper cult following by the 20th anniversary, if there is any justice in the universe. Or the 15th anniversary. Or hell, the 11th.
The Queer Classic That Is You’re Killing Me
In brief, You’re Killing Me is a romantic comedy about social misfit Joe (Matthew McKelligon) meeting George (Jeffery Self). The pair fall in love and Joe insinuates himself with George’s West Hollywood friend group, including George’s co-star in his online videos, Barnes (Bryan Safi). It’s all very sweet, except for one wrinkle. Joe is a budding serial killer, and every time he talks about coming into his own as a murderer, his new boyfriend – who is too busy thinking about his favorite subject, himself – just assumes that he’s kidding.
Not only is You’re Killing Me a movie jam-packed with queer characters, it tells an entirely unique queer story through the allegory of Joe’s murders. Its true intentions may be hidden behind rivulets of blood, but it’s a coming-out story, too. It’s a rather unique “hero killer” story (to steal a phrase referring to movies that have their killer as the protagonist from Brian Collins, who may – in all fairness – have stolen it from somebody else). While the story does have a strong dash of Dexter to it, it’s got a much more focused coming-out metaphor, about trying to self-actualize and live one’s truth while surrounded by people who aren’t pushing back but rather could not give a shit about anything beyond the surface level of a person or a situation.
A Slasher With Heart
While the movie clearly has a lot of affection for the characters that it is lovingly satirizing, it harshly critiques their inability to connect with Joe properly, and their punishment for not listening to him is an increasingly deadly rampage. Joe mistakes their lack of processing as actual encouragement, and his self-actualization is allowed to spin wildly down a destructive path. However, by making the scenes where Joe commits his murders more lush, colorful, and beautiful than everything else, the movie hints that the character is much more alive than the dead-eyed WeHo-ites who surround him, by dint of actually living his truth.
While I’m not saying the movie justifies murder, per se, it definitely calls out the evil inherent to apathy, and that’s another way that it is much more queer and textured and interesting than the average slasher movie. So why isn’t it a cult classic just yet? You tell me! It just boils the blood. But I’m trying to build said cult here, so allow me to continue my pitch.
The Queer People Behind You’re Killing Me
As much as there is ample queerness to be seen in You’re Killing Me, there is just as much offscreen. Just like the West Hollywood culture the movie heavily satirizes, this group of gay people has a strong tendency to trend white, cis, and male (though longtime ally and LGBTQ+ advocate Mindy Cohn is also floating around the cast!), which, sure, could be a knock against it, but let’s take a quick journey through who we have here!
Director/Co-Writer/Producer Jim Hansen
Jim Hansen (not to be confused with the muppet pioneer of almost the same name) is primarily known for his work in the costume department of various major projects, including being the costume designer for Another Gay Movie and a costumer for Bring It On, Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2, and Wizards of Waverly Place.
He is also the co-creator of The Chloe Videos, which feature Drew Droege (who also appears in You’re Killing Me) in drag as Chloë Sevigny. Currently, You’re Killing Me is his final directorial feature, because the moral arc of the universe does not bend toward justice. However, his career is still ongoing, and more recently he has been the costume supervisor for shows like One Day at a Time, Bunk’d, and Happy’s Place.
Co-Writer/Star/Producer Jeffery Self
Comedian, actor, and writer Jeffery Self is best known to me as Liz’s gay cousin from 30 Rock, but he has a wide range of credits under his belt. Star of Search Party, author of the young adult novel A Very Very Bad Thing, host of the MTV aftershow Scream: After Dark, writer of salacious Fire Island recaps where he details the fact that he used to date one of the stars… this man has done it all. He’s also currently in theaters playing a supporting role in Christopher Landon’s Drop!
Notably, his Self-insert character (so to speak), George, is perhaps the most wicked person in this movie about a serial killer. This speaks to a willingness to make oneself the butt of the joke that is refreshing in screenwriters providing parts for themselves.
Star Matthew McKelligon
McKelligon is a mainstay of YouTube web series turned Logo TV web series turned Netflix series EastSiders, which was created by Kit Williamson and co-starred Constance Wu!
Star Bryan Safi
Actor and general man-about-town Bryan Safi played a major role in You season 3, but he is perhaps best known as the co-host (with Erin Gibson) of the LGBTQ+/women’s news comedy podcast Attitudes! (formerly Throwing Shade).
Supporting Cast
In addition to Drew Droege, of course, You’re Killing Me also features notable queer supporting players including Matthew Wilkas (star of Gayby and thus former onscreen love interest for Adam Driver, as well as being a former real-life love interest for gay Olympian Gus Kenworthy), Jack Plotnick (who has lived the gay dream, starring in both Gods and Monsters and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and Sam Pancake (gay character actor extraordinaire who you’ve seen everywhere from Friends to Arrested Development to Search Party to Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde).
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