“Audition” tells the tale of widower Shigeharu Aoyama as he hesitantly reenters the dating world. After some trouble getting started, his friend sets up a fake audition, calling in many beautiful young women for Shigeharu to meet. He falls head over heals for Ms. Asami Yamazaki, and, despite their age difference, they hit it off. But after Asami begins showing strange behaviors and the audience begins to experience her true psychotic mind, it’s only a matter of time before the film reaches a gory, mind-cringing climax. Integrating the slow shivers of Japanese horror with trippy psychological directing and almost too-real performances, “Audition” will have you screaming at Netflix on a chilly October night.
Troll 2 (1990) by Nick Korger
Ever watch a movie and think, “Man, I could act better than that”? Chances are you’d be telling the truth after watching “Troll 2.” With special effects reminiscent of your days in the high school AV club, “Troll 2” highlights a family pursued by creatures that wish to turn them into a planty-goo substance so they can eat them. With acting of the quality of a Sunday school nativity play and a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the scariest thing about this movie is that it was actually produced. And of course, who can forget the legendary line, “OH MY GODDDDDDD!”?
Birdemic (2011) by Adelaide Blanchard
“Birdemic” was recommended to me by a worker at Four Star Video after he informed me there were no copies of “The Room” left. If you like bad movies, he said, you’ll like “Birdemic.”
The premise is exactly what the title would suggest: There are hundreds of killer birds with a taste for human blood, and the main characters travel around making feeble attempts to dodge them. The acting is awful, it’s an hour too long and the special effects were most likely ripped directly from some stock image library. It is an awful movie which is entertaining in spite of itself.
“Birdemic” was supposed to instill terror into its viewers’ hearts, but ended up being a hilarious embarrassment. If you’re a bad movie aficionado, you cannot miss it.
Trollhunter (2010) by Reggie Young
Most foreign scary movies are … well, typically subpar. Trolljegeren, or “Trollhunter,” however, sets the bar for obscure foreign movies. While not as scary as most Hollywood horror movies, the Norwegian film is like a foreign Blair Witch Project. It follows three university students making a documentary on recent bear killings that turn out to be much more than bear killings. It features quality, believable graphics that bring the fairy tale world to life. If you’re looking for a great Halloween movie you and your friends haven’t heard of, this is the one.
Eraserhead (1977) by Kristin Prewitt
“Eraserhead” is so twisted, movie theaters would only screen it after midnight. This bizarre black-and-white film flits between the protagonist’s sub-consciousness and consciousness, offering images of a menstruating chicken at dinner, a decapitated head turned into erasers at a factory and a tap-dancing Lady in the Radiator who sings songs about heaven as she crushes replicas of alien fetuses. This movie will leave you baffled, repulsed and intrigued. Perhaps the most disturbing and unnerving film directed by cinematic auteur and denizen of Madison’s own Le Tigre bar David Lynch, “Eraserhead” is a beautiful, psychological mind-fuck.
