Britain has a long history of making impactive horror films, a tradition that stretches all the way back to Hammer, the studio responsible for films like Dracula and Frankenstein Created Woman and was the spearhead behind the British horror movement.
Continuing our ‘Best of British‘ series, Horror Geek Life takes a look at 9 British Horror Films The World Should Be Watching.
9. Inbred (Dir. Alex Chandon, 2011)
A group of young offenders are sent to a remote village in Yorkshire, along with there supervisors. But the village is not the sleepy little hamlet they expected. It’s a haven for inbred, murderous locals, who have no desire to be bothered by the troublesome youths. It remind me so much of the village I grew up in.
Inbred is incredibly violent, and totally unapologetic for this. It may not have the most original of plots but this seldom talked about splatter fest is an absolute must see British horror for genre fans all over the world.
8. Grabbers (Dir. Jon Wright, 2012)
Grabbers was a little seen horror, similar in nature to Tremors, in which a small island community is terrorized by a giant, tentacled creature, which has crash landed in a meteorite shower days earlier.
The creature survives by devouring living things and absorbing their blood and their water. When a local piss head manages to survive an attack, it is quickly realised that the only way to survive is to get blind drunk. That works for me!
The film was highly commended for it’s old school approach, and has been likened to the work of Roger Corman.
7. Kill List (Dir. Ben Wheatley, 2011)
It seems there is a general rule on the internet, and that is to say as little as possible about the plot of Ben Wheatley’s Kill List, and who are we to argue?
All we’ll say is it’s a film about an ex-British Serviceman who returns from time in Kiev, and becomes a contract killer. It may not sound like anything out of the ordinary, but it is. It really, really is.
6. Dog Soldiers (Dir. Neil Marshall, 2002)
I had no idea what to expect when I first sat down in my local cinema to watch Dog Soldiers. I mean, I had read the basic plot summary, but nothing could prepare me for just how bloody fantastic it would actually be.
The film follows a group of 6 British Army Soldiers, who have been dropped in the Highlands of Scotland on a training exercise. They had been scheduled to meet up with a SAS unit to engage in simulated combat, but instead find the unit – or rather parts of them – ripped to shreds in their campsite.
Something hungry is lurking in the woods, and our heroes only have training rounds in their weapons. Can they survive the night as the killers close in? Moreover, if they do, what will be left of them?
5. Colin (Dir. Marc Price, 2008)
The most notable thing about Marc Price’s festival darling of a zombie flick, was the budget. According to Price, the film cost him a mere £45 to film. That’s less than $60 for those who were wondering.
Don’t be put off by the mega-low budget though. Colin is an excellent little indie horror, in which a guy named Colin, who has recently been turned into a zombie, shambles around the streets of London, craving the flesh of the living but also stalking a young woman that reminds him of someone from his previous existence. It was a unique look at life as a zombie, as told through the eyes of the undead. Price later admitted that when he made the film he thought it was the first of it’s kind. After someone showed him I, Zombie, a 1998 film of the same ilk, he said he wish he hadn’t bothered. We’re glad he did.
4. Doghouse (Dir. Jake West, 2009)
I’ve never hidden my contempt for mockney wide boy Danny Dyer. I’ve written about it in great detail over the years. It kills me then, that he continues to star in films that I actually like. Could it be my hate has turned into … love?
Doghouse is just one of those films. I avoided it for a number of years before eventually succumbing to it a few years ago, and I have to admit, it was bloody great. It reminds me a lot of Shaun of the Dead, (another outstanding British horror) although in style alone. A group of “lads” head to a remote English town to help their mate get over his painful divorce, and instead find themselves battling hoards of man hating, cannibal women who have been infected with a virus.
3. Attack the Block (Dir. Joe Cornish, 2011)
My good buddy Curt has already covered Attack the Block here, and there’s not a lot I can add. It’s another film that really shouldn’t have worked, but ended up being completely awesome.
The plot centers on a group of inner-city youths who seek refuge in a block of flats when their local council estate is overrun by blood crazed alien monsters. It’s completely low budget, but never looks or feels cheap. Quite the opposite.
The film is now widely considered a cult hit, and has even won awards around the globe. It has even considered by some to be one of the best British horror movies of the last 20 years. Having Joe Cornish – who Brits will remember from the Adam & Joe Show – at the helm probably didn’t hurt.
2. Sightseers (Dir. Ben Wheatley, 2012)
You learn a lot about your other half when you go on holiday together for the first time. It’s usually that one of them snores like a pig, or talks about their secret love for Curt Oglesbee in their sleep. With Steve Oram and Alice Lowe’s young lovers it’s their contempt for all human life, especially those with bad manners, litterbugs, or those who would attempt to steal away the best camping spot at the caravan park. All pretty understandable justifications for homicide, we’re sure you’ll agree?
Sightseers has been described as Withnail and I meets Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer, and there’s no arguing with that really. A very British horror movie.
1. Shaun of the Dead (Dir. Edgar Wright, 2004)
Could we honestly have left this off a list of the British horror’s the world needs to be watching?
Shaun of the Dead could easily be described as one of the greatest British films ever made. It’s a heartfelt love story. It’s a hilarious comedy. It’s a Zombie movie. It’s a “Rom-Com-Zom”.
Sean Pegg plays the titular Shaun. He’s a thirty something nobody, who’s stuck in a rut. His work colleagues don’t respect him, his girlfriend has dumped him and his flat mate is pissed at him. If all that wasn’t bad enough, the Zombie apocalypse has just broken out too. Except he’d appreciate it if you didn’t use the Z word.
Armed with his trusty cricket bat, and best buddy Ed (Nick Frost), Shaun decides its time to finally sort his life out, and win back his girlfriend, all of which is no easy task when everyone you know is trying to eat your brains.
