Now Scream This: 10 Horror Blindspots We Finally Got Around To Seeing

(Welcome to Now Scream This, a column where horror experts Chris Evangelista and Matt Donato tell you what scary, spooky, and spine-tingling movies are streaming and where you can watch them.)Matt: Chris and I write "Now Scream This" with our audience in mind (that's you!), but I'm eternally grateful for my own continued horror education. While I'd someday adore consideration as a "master," I'm still but a mere student. Chris' recommendations have pointed me towards future favorites and enjoyable first-time watches. All this to say, yes Chris. I finally watched In The Mouth Of Madness. You were right. That John Carpenter sure has a future in this Hollywood business.Chris: This was tough for me. Not because I've seen everything there is to see, but rather because I often neglect doing the work to seek out stuff I haven't seen. I should do it more often, I know, I know. But more often than not, I find myself returning to titles I've already seen, as if I'm seeking out comfort food. But there are still some blindspots I stumble upon from time to time, and thank god for that, or else I wouldn't have much to contribute this week. 

Matt: Cats are a**holes. They knock objects off high shelves, drink all your milk, and are waiting for you to croak so they can nibble away your flesh until only bones remain. No movie understands this more than The Uncanny, a 1970s horror anthology about, you guessed it, evil cats. Cats who murder on behalf of deceased grannies. Cats who paw at shrunken children after the usage of black magic. Cats who cause havoc on film sets. Peter Cushing, Ray Milland, and other faces of classic cinema unite to reveal the sinister nature of feline foes and their nine inhuman lives. Still not as horrifying as Cats (2019), but nonetheless a delightfully feisty period horror piece that maximizes the "gimmicky" concept beyond fur-brained expectations.Chris: I've heard much about this film, and seen several screenshots of one of the cats. But I have yet to see it for myself. 

Matt: My appreciation of special effects has, no doubt, influenced my favorite genres of horror—the gnarlier, the better. Especially when displaying the technical wizardry of cadaver connoisseurs. Herschell Gordon Lewis' Blood Feast is a slice of splattergore history, which accomplishes visual disgust with 1960s technology that still disturbs to this day. Saw, Hostel, and so many other subgenre-specific meat grinders are indebted to Blood Feast. A film that gets in and out with trimmed-fat precision at roughly sixty minutes in length, which is a dream in today's Hollywood system where Fantasy Island can approach almost two infuriating hours.Chris: This movie made me want to take a shower. 

Matt: Chris, this took far too long. My apologies. Maybe my mind was thrown by "literary horror," given how In The Mouth Of Madness tracks how one author's fantasy becomes Sam Neill's hellish reality. In John Carpenter I should always trust. As puzzle pieces fit together and tentacles slither under doorways, insanity becomes a universal language. Carpenter's reliance on the unbelievable suspends us in a constant state of guessing that ends with a pitch-perfect shot of Neill's character cackling like a crazed loon, watching the cinematic adaptation of his projected mental deterioration. In less words than more, oh hell yeah.Chris: One of my all-time favorite Carpenter flicks. I can rewatch this again and again, and never get sick of it. 

Matt: I'm no professed Dario Argento completionist. I'd say I'm a bit of an amateur. Deep Red is the Argento title that pushes me to keep churning through the Italian maestro's filmography, so I offer it as a starting point for those in my same position. Maybe not outright horror as compared to Suspiria, but in my opinion, far more accomplished and suspenseful and haunting. Plus, Goblin's "Profondo Rosso" musical score is some of the best cinematic accompaniment you can find. That first "Mad Puppet" track gets the juices flowing, and sounds even better on vinyl. Apologies, my hipster is showing, but I couldn't give less of a bother.Chris: Prime Argento right here. So much blood, and style, and also a puppet-doll-thing. 

Matt: Those who've read my genre-related content around /Film might already have indulged my "Sunny Scary" deep-dive into all things ray-blasted and horrifying. The Wicker Man, in these terms, is a classic adopter of the idea that terror can profess itself in broad daylight just as maliciously as under the shadow of nightfall. Between ceremonial pastels, floral decorum, and confidential cultism, scenes are nothing but festive springtime glee as our mind perceives overt seasonal clues. Of course, we witness the blossoming of exquisite horror as "The Wicker Man" reveals its purpose that's been under our noses—hidden by the comforts of normalcy, where fear can best lay in wait.Chris: Sadly, Matt did not pick the Wicker Man remake, where Nic Cage dresses up like a bear and punches a woman, and then gets stung by bees. 

Chris: This somehow escaped me for years, but I'm glad I finally caught it! Not only is Eyes of Laura Mars an American take on the giallo genre, it also comes from a story by none other than John Carpenter, right before Halloween made him a legend. Faye Dunaway is a hot-shot photographer who takes risque pics depicting sex and murder. One day, out of the blue, she begins having visions of her friends being murdered, their deaths staged like her own photographs. Is she the next victim?? Look for a young Tommy Lee Jones with a killer unibrow and a young Brad Dourif doing his thing. Matt: One of my isolation purchases is Criterion Channel access, and I have no idea where to start. Looks like I've got a suggestion!

Chris: Noroi: The Curse is a little uneven, but it does a great job conveying a sense of creepiness via found footage trappings. Rather than just be a straightforward faux documentary, Noroi is almost like an epistolary novel, assembled from various bits and pieces of footage from different sources, all of it centering around a demonic entity, and the missing paranormal investigator caught in the middle of it all. This movie wasn't even on my radar until I saw someone tweet about it. Matt: Noroi: The Curse is early found footage in my eyes (2005), and one of the better examples of the start of a subgenre that quickly found itself suffering from exhaustion.

Chris: I've heard nothing but raves about One Cut of the Dead, from pretty much everyone! I finally got around to watching it recently, and I am pleased to report it is indeed a treat. I don't think I loved it as much as everyone else, but I certainly dug what was on display. The first 37 minute of this film present themselves as a rather low-budget zombie pic, and you'll spend that time wondering just why the hell everyone loves this thing. Then Once Cut of the Dead suddenly turns into something completely different, and that's where the real fun begins. If you haven't seen this yet, go in as blind as possible. Matt: I liked this movie! I didn't love it! Apparently that makes me a monster in some circles.

Chris: The Entity was one of my blindspots until the folks at Scream Factory put out a new Blu-ray release. Reportedly based on a true story, the film follows a single mother (Barbara Hershey) who finds herself repeatedly sexually assaulted by something supernatural. Is a ghost? A demon? Or is it all in her mind? Needless to say, a film with this subject matter is going to be more than a little icky. But Hershey is so committed to her performance, and the film goes to such weird places, that it ultimately works. Matt: Sure, I'll trust Chris that "The Entity" is a movie and not the most generic title he could think up on the spot.

Chris: Yet another title that was a blindspot until a Blu-ray release – in this case, from Arrow Video – Alice Sweet Alice is a skeezy, weird, disturbing proto-slasher about a young girl who becomes the prime suspect in a series of grisly murders. There are twists a plenty, and some rather memorable kills. Also: a very, very young Brooke Shields briefly shows up!Matt says: I have too many blind spots. It's official.