Schlock Horror

There was a definite phase sometime in early-mid nineties where I went through a big horror watching phase. This wasn’t so much your full-on Nightmare On Elm Street-style horror, though (although i did watch those). No, I’m talking more your over-the-top, gross-out, gore-filled, horror-comedies - the sort of films with lots of practical latex-based prosthetics and buckets of slime, blood, gore and ooze. I’ve touched on this briefly before, talking about such “classics” as Ghoulies and Killer Klowns From Outer Space, but those were fairly lightweight compared to this little lot.

Let’s delve into some of the weird and wonderful schlocky horror shows out there, shall we?

Basket Case
In which a young man carries around a basket containing his deformed and murderous conjoined twin (of course, because why wouldn't he?). Followed up by two sequels, which amped up the ludicrousness and comedy elements, this original is a proper grubby, over-the-top horror comedy. Director Frank Henenlotter went on to make the similarly bonkers Brain Damage and Frankenhooker (yep, I’ve seen both of those too).

Bad Taste & Braindead*
Probably the pinnacles of gross-out horror, brought to you by the director of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Yes, before he was making multi-million dollar fantasy epics, Peter Jackson was cutting his film-making teeth making low-budget horror comedies. Zombie babies, exploding sheep, re-animated intestines - they’re a surprising difference in tone for those only used to his Middle-earth films. Definitely worth a watch (although, as a lifelong Henson fan, I can’t decide if his obscene take on the Muppets, Meet The Feebles, is just too grotesque; it’s certainly unique, I'll give it that).

Society
A very weird film in which a young teen as part of Beverly Hills high society begins to suspect that there’s something very wrong with his family and friends. It has some really twisted body horror moments including one memorable scene that it really wouldn't do justice to describe. (Interesting note - the director, Brian Yuzna, who also worked on the Re-Animator films, was the screenwriter for Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.)

Special Mention - Troma Films
You can't really talk about pulpy B-movie schlocky horror films without mentioning Troma who pumped out such classics as The Toxic Avenger, Class Of Nuke ‘Em High, Surf Nazis Must Die and Stuff Stephanie In The Incinerator. I’ve seen a fair few of these but have to say that in most cases the films themselves rarely lived up to the insane promise of the titles.

So, if you fancy some disgustingly amusing cheap and cheerful horror films, those are good places to start. I would say “enjoy” but that somehow doesn’t feel like quite the right word….

(*DeadAlive for some reason if you're American)