SEAN KELLER'S TOP 10 CINEMA OBSCURITIES

This month's top ten cinema obscurities was selected by screenwriter extraordinaire Sean Keller, and features a stunning selection of titles. This jack-of-all-trades genre writer not only scribbles about mammoth uprisings with the film Mammoth, but can take on mythical creatures with his scripts for Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep & Gryphon. And to top it all off for you horror freaks, he's worked with Dario Argento himself! Sean wrote Argento's most recent film Giallo, starring Adrien Brody, and is currently blazing a trail through Hollywood with a ton of other projects. Give his list a peek, and I'm certain you'll find a new favorite.

1. Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages: Danish director Benjamin Christensen delivers the most iconic witchcraft/devil worship imagery ever captured on film in this silent classic. The 1963 version narrated by William S Burroughs brings another level of weirdness to an already twisted film. A must watch on Halloween and Witch’s Night!

2. Otesanek (Little Otik): This would-be heartwarming tale of parental love trumping logic is creepy beyond belief. Director Jan Svankmejer shows just how effective and unsettling stop-motion animation can be.

3. No Blade of Grass : This 1970 apocalyptic famine film from England clearly inspired MAD MAX and others. The opening scene of a lush feast in the foreground with African famine on the television in the background sets a deliciously subversive tone that never lets up.

4. The Brood : Not exactly obscure, but surely underappreciated, this gem of body horror from David Cronenberg features murderous mutant kids (I’m in already) psychoplasmics and Oliver-fucking-Reed!

5. Frailty: Why this film isn’t more widely known and loved is beyond me. Bill Paxton directs and stars in a wonderfully serious take on the destructive power of religious faith and the unthinkable nightmare that the fundamentalists might just be right.

6. Wild Zero : I could choose any one of a hundred small, violent, bizarre films from Japan, but this one takes the cake for me. Not only is it full of awesome music and attitude from the real band "Guitar Wolf" it also features zombie action and a transgender love story. Don’t ask, just watch.

7. The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (Let Sleeping Corpses Lie): So you’ve seen all the classic zombie films and are dying for more? This Italian/Spanish gem is superior to many of its contemporaries because the characters are actually engaging, the scares come from well-crafted suspense beats and the zombie uprising has an explanation that almost makes sense.

8. Quatermass and the Pit: Construction on the Hobbs Lane subway station is halted when a pre-human skull is found and it turns out to be… well, just watch it! British SciFi meets horror in a very weird and very cool film. It isn’t as obscure as others on this list, but it is woefully underappreciated. Bonus – it was written by Nigel Kneale who went on to write Halloween III: Season of the Witch!

9. Combat Shock: Not strickly speaking a horror movie, but a horrific tale of the degeneration of a Vietnam Veteran’s psyche that leads to shocking violence.

10. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon : Scott Glosserman’s film may very well be the smartest slasher film ever. It is so clever and so wonderfully crafted that it actually elevates lesser entries in the genre. Nathan Baesel’s nuanced, confident performance as the titular villain would go down in slasher history – if only more people would watch this film.