DISCLOSURE: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS, WHICH MEANS WE MAY RECEIVE A COMMISSION IF YOU CLICK A LINK AND PURCHASE SOMETHING. PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR DISCLOSURE POLICY FOR MORE DETAILS.
#5 – “Bad Taste” (1987)
Trailer for “Bad Taste”
Aliens come to Earth to open an interstellar fast-food chain, and humans are the food! While you won’t recognize any of the actors in this film, you may recognize its director; Peter Jackson went on to direct the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy as well as “King Kong.” “Bad Taste” lives up to its title with tons of over the top gore and humor, and the special features on the two disc special edition give you some insight on Jackson’s beginnings as a filmmaker. (For example: the aliens heads weren’t as long as Jackson would have liked because the mold he originally created was too long to fit in his mum’s oven for baking!)
Check price on Amazon
#4 – “Bio-Zombie” (1998)
Trailer for “Bio-Zombie”
What happens when you cross “Mallrats” with “Dawn of the Dead” and throw in some “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” for good measure? You get the horror comedy “Bio-Zombie” which has tons of laughs and plenty of zombie goodness. A film that doesn’t take itself seriously at all, which is even apparent in the DVD audio setup: there are options for English, Cantonese, or “Engrish.” (No we’re not kidding.)
Check price on Amazon
#3 – “Liquid Sky” (1982)
Trailer for “Liquid Sky”
“Liquid Sky” has been called the “funniest, craziest, most perversly beautiful science fiction movie ever made” and we couldn’t agree more. Set in New York during the early 1980’s, “Liquid Sky” chronicles the story of Margaret and Adrian: Margaret sells drugs and performs at the local club, and Adrian models. Both have their lives turned sideways when an alien that feeds on the chemical in the brain that is produced during climax or drug use lands on their roof, and starts to feed in a very strange way.
Check price on Amazon
#2 – “Rawhead Rex” (1986)
Trailer for “Rawhead Rex”
Based on the short story by Clive Barker in Volume 3 of his “Books of Blood” series, “Rawhead Rex” is about an ancient demon who is awakened and then proceeds to rampage and murder across the Irish countryside. While not as gory as some the other films in this list, “Rawhead Rex” delivers on shock value and brutality.
Check price on Amazon
#1 – “The Keep” (1983)
Trailer for “The Keep”
Set in 1941 “The Keep” is the story of a fortress in the Romanian Alps and the dark apocalyptic force imprisoned within. Directed by Michael Mann and starring Jurgen Prochnow, Gabriel Byrne, and Ian McKellan “The Keep” was originally almost three hours long but was edited by Paramount Pictures to a short 93 minutes. The screenplay for the film is based on the book of the same title by F. Paul Wilson (the first book in the “Adversary Cycle”). “The Keep” has a haunting and dreamlike score that was created by Tangerine Dream.
“The Keep” was once available on laserdisc, but has never been released on DVD. Fans have sent repeated requests to Paramount Pictures and to Michael Mann for a director’s cut DVD, and to date have been unanswered. (The creator of “The Keep” fansite has all but dedicated his professional and personal life to the film.) We feel this is a terrible shame. After 25 years this film still has life and a large fan base that wants to see the original vision of “The Keep” that Michael Mann intended – us included!
We hope you enjoyed our Top Five list of rare horror and science fiction films. Did we leave your favorite film off the list? Let us know in the comments below!
How about “Nice Girls don’t Explode”? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093617/
Just to pick nits… Margaret is the model, Adrian performs at the club and deals drugs. “Liquid Sky” is one of my favorite movies of all time, it’s great to know that other people have seen it, besides the people who I forced to watch it.
A classic rarely seen film i like is Return to Salem’s Lot. About a man who with his estranged son returns to Salem’s Lot, a little town in Maine where he visited his Aunt as a child. But he soon discovers that it’s really a town full of Vampires, and they want him to write a book about them!
I dont like these types of movies, these are so disgusting to me.
bio-zombie, i always thought no one ever knew that movie, i own it, its so awesome!
Would absolutely love to see a restored directors cut of The Keep. Saw it first as a teenager and I seem to remember more dialog scenes between Molosar and Cuza than are in the version I currently own. There is a site called Kingdom Chronos and the guy on there who reviewed the keep claims to have actually seen the directors cut of the film which he says he actually downloaded from a torrent on the net. I find this claim dubious but I believe that there was a vhs available for a time which contained more scenes from the original cut.My local video shop had a vhs tape which did contain one or two scenes that arent in the version I own at the moment. One scene was at the end with glenn scott surviving the confrontation with Molosar and fleeinhg on a boat at the end.Of more interest, there was another scene when Molosar and Glaeken come face to face near the end of the movie. This scene is near the end of the movie where both Gleken and Molosar appear in the same frame, for the very first time in the film, Molosar starts to back off Eva and her father when he sees Glaeken and retreat back into the rear of the keep. As both characters are come within a couple of feet of each other, there is a shot where, as i said, both appear in the same frame for the first time and Molosar seems to point back behind Gleken to Eva cuza(this is visible in most versions of the film, albeit it is hard to see because of the lighting and quality of copies available today). Glaeken looks back over his shoulder at Eva, at this point, in the version I saw, Molosar speaks, as he points to Eva and I seem to remember the dialog consisted of Molosar saying that he can see Evas essence was all over Glaeken or,(and) “you care for her?!?!” or something to that effect, which cues Glaeken to look back at her over his shoulder. There is then further dialog between the two where Molosar references what Glaeken spoke about earlier in the film to EVa Cuza about how when Molosar goes, he goes and Molosar attempts to convince Glaeken that there is no need for confrontation and that he can have the woman(Eva). In the version of the film I currently own, the sequence of dialog is totally missing, although you do see Molosar point back at Eva and you do see Glaeken take one last mournful look over his shoulder before the “duel”, the dialog is utterly gone. Why, is anyones guess, but I am quite sure that I saw that scene on that old vhs in my local videoshop. I dont believe the cut I saw was a directors cut but it definately contained some different scenes to the one I currently have, which seems to be the most widely seen and the most incoherent. I specifically remember that Glaeken and Molosar did speak to each other just befor they fought at the end of the movie. I also remember how Molosar was reluctant to fight with Glaeken and I remeber him trying to talk him out of it and using Eva to bait Galeken, there is a moment of hesitation on Glekens part but he is resigned to his mission in the end.I wish now that I had never returned that video tape but at the time I didnt know that it would become so hard to find these days. I also seem to remember that there were more scenes with Cuza and Molosar talking to each other than the one short scene whewre Cuza initiates his pact with Molosar but I dont remember the details of them.