10 B-Horror Movies That Deserve To Be Called Classics – Screen Rant

B-horror movies deserve way more credit than they get. There are plenty in the subgenre that deserve attention for their influence and achievements.

The B movie is a staple of any genre, but horror movies revel in them. A low-budget and absolutely no compunction about it generally makes for terrible movies, but every once in a while, a diamond in the rough emerges. Some of the best horror movies of all time would generally be considered B movies, thanks to their budgets and box-office performances.

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Horror movies have been making the most of the least, going back decades, and they've produced a long list of films from every era that deserve more attention than they've received.

Vincent Price is a fantastic actor, with one of the most famous voices in Hollywood. He's also been in tons of bad movies. The horror icon starred in The Pit And The Pendulum, based on the Edgar Allen Poe classic story, which had no budget at all.

Price didn't need it to make it an exercise in horror. Though it's not one of his best movies, it certainly should be considered among his best roles. Price always elevated the material he was in, even if he sometimes winked at the camera.

Night Of The Comet is a mostly forgotten movie that didn't do well in its debut in the 80s. But it should have and it deserves a second look. Earth passes through the tail of a comet and everyone turns to orange dust. Just about everybody.

Two sisters survive, thanks to being indoors, and struggle to stay alive in a world crawling with mutated zombie-like people. The movie is a pitch-perfect love letter to its moment and also a classic example of a low-budget movie with big ideas.

Sleepaway Camp is a small B-movie that turned into an unlikely franchise and the first film in the series remains one of the best.

A basic slasher movie that follows very closely in the footsteps of the Friday The 13th franchise (the two franchises are in fact so similar they could share a universe), the movie features a group of teens at a camp trying not to die at the hands of a serial killer. The thrills are cheap and the production minimal, but it's a good time, all around.

Dead Alive, known as Braindead elsewhere in the world, is one of director Peter Jackson's early horror efforts. Despite the lack of money, the movie is an excessive splatterfest. A plague-infested rat bites everybody it comes across and turns them all into rabid flesh-eating monsters.

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The movie is as gross as it is fun, with the kind of goofy humor Jackson is known for. The 1992 movie is definitely one of thebest horror films from the 90s that didn't do well at all at the box office.

Them! is a 1954 sci-fi B-movie, infamous for its low-budget giant killer ants. The shots of the actors screaming in terror in front of rear projection screens of normal-sized ants blown up to huge proportions is worth the price of admission.

What sets the movie apart from the rest of the B-movie shlock that filled theaters during this period is its modest attempt to invest the story - such as it is - with themes related to the fears of atomic bombs and Soviet Russia in the 50s.

Dawn of the Dead is generally considered one of the best zombie movies ever made, but even that sells it a bit short. The 1979 original by George Romero overcomes its lack of money and practical effects to deliver a film that not only terrifies its audience, but delivers a message, as well.

The movie is a subtle critique of consumer culture that is still sadly relevant today. Zombies stand in for a mindless horde of shoppers who consume everything in their path, all losing their minds in the process.

The Brood is an early and great example of the outstanding and terrifying mind of director David Cronenberg. Despite this, the 1979 film is generally overlooked in his catalog.

With a lower budget and profile than many of his more famous movies, like The Fly, the movie flies underneath the radar of many horror fans, and it definitely shouldn't. More psychological in nature, the movie collapses from a story about a divorced couple in therapy to outright blood and murder.

Killer Klowns from Outer Spaceis about as B movie as it gets, and it's glorious. This 1988 movie, directed by the Chiodo Brothers (their only movie), features an alien race of invading small-town America. It sounds like sci-fi, and it is, a little, but the aliens look like circus clowns and it's all kind of funny (its biggest and best weapon is a popcorn gun).

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The budget is low but the body count is high. Gory, silly, and indulgently bad, this movie deserves a reputation beyond even the one it has as a good 'bad' movie.

The Blob, like Them!, is a classic example of low-budget sci-fi horror. The 1958 movie became a fixture on television in the decades after its premiere and the target of a lot of jokes for its low-fi villain.

The strange and powerful gelatinous blob that threatens rural Pennsylvania looks a little silly, in retrospect, but the movie maintains its cult following for its considerable influence on culture. It inspired many films after it and has been the subject of a lot of academic consideration relative to the Cold War hysteria of the time in which it was made.

The Hills Have Eyes is an early and great effort from horror director Wes Craven. It's also quintessential B-movie material. The concept is as spare as the budget for this 1977 movie. An average family, the Carters, get trapped in the Nevada desert and have to run for their lives from a pack of deadly cannibals.

Gory and brutal, the movie proved a modest enough hit at the time to propel Craven on to his amazing career. It's considered a cult classic now but it is worth more attention than it has received since its debut over 40 years ago.

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Darby Harn is a contributor for Screenrant, CBR.com, The Things, Star Wars News Net, and Movie News Net. His sci-fi superhero novel EVER THE HERO debuted in January. His short fiction appears in Strange Horizons, Interzone, Shimmer, and other venues.

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10 B-Horror Movies That Deserve To Be Called Classics - Screen Rant