To celebrate the spookiest season of the year, here at GATA we’ve unpacked some of the coldest cult classics to emerge from the underground film scene. Deranged butchers, sci-fi/slasher hybrids and enough blood to corrupt even the purest of minds. You’ll need to take a bath after watching these gory classics.

The Undertaker and His Pals (1966)

T.L.P. Swicegood

This 1966 American cult classic is one of those so-bad-it’s-good films that is actually so campy that you’ll end up forgiving the filmmakers for how bad the film actually is.

Fun, humorous and quite gory for the time - The Undertaker and his Pals is a grim splatter comedy about an undertaker and his two restauranteur friends who come up with the brilliant business plan of murdering people via a badass motorcycle gang and then using the body parts for stew at the restaurant. Ching ching!

Accompanied by an awesome and eclectic soundtrack (a gothic barbershop quartet, rebel go-go music and burlesque music), The Undertaker and His Pals is a great romp that’s a bit reminiscent of Herschell Gordon Lewis’ and Ray Dennis Steckler’s work in the sixties.

Anguish (1987)

Bigas Luna

A bizarre Spanish horror film from 1987 by acclaimed art-house director Bigas Luna, the plot centers around a controlling mother who uses telepathy to send her son on a wild killing spree.

Angustia is a brilliant meta-study as it contains a film within the film: the heroes are a group of audience members in a theatre, watching a fictional horror film about a murderous optometrist. During the film, they get stalked by the aforementioned son who acts out some kind of anti-Oedipal rage in his own autiste way.

See also: Grotesque (1988), a B-horror film starring Linda Blair which also contains some inexplicable meta madness, as well as Targets (1966), the prescient “meta” crime thriller by Peter Bogdanovich, wherein a spree killer rampages in a drive-in theatre.

Truth or Dare? (1986)

Yale Wilson

Another bizarre film from the 80s, this absolute stinker of a film went straight to video in 1986. Despite its various cinematic inadequacies, Truth or Dare? has become a cult favourite among horror and cult fans—especially in the VHS collector community.

This deranged low-budget film which was shot on video, follows a man who catches his best friend in bed with his wife and proceeds to go on a demented hellride of murder and self-mutilation, playing twisted games of “truth or dare”.

See also: Clean, Shaven (1992), the art-house classic distributed by the Criterion Collection which also follows a raving lunatic rampaging on the road.

Brainscan (1994)

John Flynn

This 90s sci-fi/slasher classic, rocks some of the most amazing art, music and style direction in the history of cult cinema.

Our old heartbreaker Edward Furlong plays a surly goth-adjacent teenager who has the dream room of any alternative-leaning teenager growing up in the 90s. Of course, he loves to play video games.

One day he stumbles upon an interactive game called Brainscan, where you enter the body of a stir-crazy murderer who slaughters innocent victims. Soon, the murders start to become real.

Rocking an awesome grunge and metal soundtrack as well as having one of the best main themes of all time, Brainscan is a perfect watch for your Halloween evening.

See also: The Lawnmower Man (1992), the completely ridiculous 1992 sci-fi/horror starring Pierce Brosnan as a mentally retarded man who turns into a superhuman via the Frankenstein-esque wonders of science.

Edge of Sanity (1989)

Gérard Kikoïne

This bizarre late 80s classic starring Anthony Perkins from Psycho just received a beautiful re-release on Blu-Ray which is sure to liven up your creepy, calm evening.

Containing enough dutch angles to make you feel sea-sick, Edge of Sanity is a fun take on the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story, where the mind-altering drug aspect is the main focus. Dr. Jekyll goes crazy on a mad search for blow, hookers and opium. “The police can’t catch him - he has nothing to lose but his mind…”

This sleazy, foreign-produced film was made in America, directed by a French woman who seems to have mostly worked in soft-core porn and features Anthony Perkins delivering a brilliant, over-the-top performance in one of the most unhinged films of all time.

See also: The Addiction (1996), the black-and-white vampire classic by Abel Ferrara, where vampirism is depicted as doing similar damage to one’s body as heroin.

Vampyr (1932)

Carl Theodor Dreyer

Speaking of vampires - the German expressionist classic Vampyr from 1932 was so well made that even today it still feels like a fresh, new film. Directed by Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer, Vampyr creates one of the most compelling atmospheres in film ever.

Based on elements from the 1872 horror anthology In a Glass Darkly, the film follows a young student of the occult who enters a village cursed by a vampire. A feat of DIY filmmaking, Vampyr bombed at the box office at the time but has thankfully been receiving its due laurels over the last few decades.

Also see the classic The Passion of Joan the Arc (1928) by Dreyer, which was lost for decades - only to be discovered in a janitor’s closet in a mental asylum in Norway in 1981.

Dog Soldiers (2002)

Neil Marshal

Enough with the vampires - what about the damn werewolves?

Dog Soldiers from 2002 is a British film that was a sleeper hit at the time among horror fans. Named after the Cheyenne military societies who often spoke of shapeshifters, Dog Soldiers is an action-packed lycanthropic classic that follows British soldiers on a search mission in the Scottish Highlands which quickly becomes deadly. Quite the hairy situation, if you will!

Dog Soldiers was the directorial debut of Neil Marshall, who also pleased horror/thriller fans with the 2005 literally underground classic The Descent, which received more attention than Dog Soldiers for whatever reason.

May (2002)

Lucky McCee

Another horror sleeper released in 2002, May is a turn-of-the-century goth classic that goes down in film history as a must-see for all the loners and stoners.

May follows a socially awkward girl who grew up getting bullied because of her lazy eye. When she encounters a boy with “perfect hands”, things start to turn sour as May develops a depraved and obsessive crush.

May is a compelling and viscerally disturbing film that should warm the heart of anyone who’s been considered an outcast in society.

See also the classic Ginger Snaps from 2000, an amazing goth girl take on the werewolf motif.

The Beyond (1981)

Lucio Fulci

Although an accomplished director in many genres, Italian director Lucio Fulci is best remembered for his horror classics. 1981’s The Beyond is arguably his greatest work, although Zombie Flesh Eaters from 1979 seems to be more memorable in the collective memory of cult/horror fans.

The Beyond is a dreamy and stylistically stunning Giallo about a young woman who inherits a haunted mansion in New Orleans, which seems to contain a portal to the netherworld.

Packed with gore, psychedelia and a slapping soundtrack by Fabio Frizzi, The Beyond is a brilliant take on Créole mythology.

See also: The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), the cursed classic by Wes Craven, based on the botanical study of zombies in Haiti, shot during a civil war!

The Believers (1987)

John Schlesinger

Another witchy classic, The Believers is one of the few great films that cover the topic of Santería magic.

Written for the screen by Mark Frost (Twin Peaks), The Believers follows Martin Sheen, a psychiatrist in New York who encounters a cult of brujería and soon starts to fear for his son’s life, as the cult seems to practice child sacrifice.

Based on the classic book The Religion, the film is a great example of “The Other” as a motif in horror, where a foreign terror mystifies a white non-believer.