Favorite Underrated Films?

[Queequeg]

I was just thinking of this today.  What are your favorite films that you don't think gets the respect they deserve?

Night of the Hunter is far more respected than it was in it's initial release in 1955, but I think there's a real case that it is the greatest American movie, and one of the most influential.  Maybe my favorite movie.  Also, one of the great original soundtracks. 

Parallax View might be my favorite 70s thriller apart from The Conversation.  It's one of the bleakest films of a bleak decade, and is alternatively terrifying, dreamlike and brutally satirical.  The film isn't without it's faults, but the occasionally jarring or unlikely plot developments are disorienting enough that they somehow add to the atmosphere of disorientation.  Also one of my favorite soundtracks.   The test sequence is one of my favorite sequences in any film ever.

Shivers and The Brood.  I think Shivers, Cronenerg's first feature, is one of the most interesting 70s body horror films, and also one of the best horror-comedies ever made.  It's fantastically transgressive.  The Brood, however, is one of the best horror movies of the 70s, almost the equal of Alien. 

In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors are both fantastic, though I'm pretty sure everyone forgot about them after The Wicker Man.

The Carlos miniseries is going to either be one of the best films or the best television series of this decade. 

[Josquius]

Existenz.
Probally one of the few films to handle video games well. It really is very good. But nobody has heard of it.

[Sheilbh]

I think there's a few of British 'folk horror' films, like the Wicker Man that are overshadowed by it but some of my favourites.  Blood on Satan's Claw and Witchfinder General (which is particularly beautiful) are both unfortunately missed.

Peeping Tom is a film I love.  It's now very highly rated but the reception at the time more or less destroyed Michael Powell's career.

[Viking]

The Court Jester

[Duque de Bragança]

Dark City which got overshadowed by Matrix (really overrated specially the sequels).
Fassbinder's The World on a Wire which also inspired Matrix is even more obscure but at least it got a blu-ray release in France and in the US.

As for the movies quoted before:

Night of the Hunter is a classic, probably my favourite black and white movie since it was shot with it in mind.
Carlos has been quite popular actually since its release actually. Even got a small cinema release in some countries such as Germany.
Existenz by Cronenberg and with Jude Law is actually a pretty good ,if almost mainstream as known, movie to me.
All early Cronenberg is held in high regard even by the artsty-fartsy critics of Les Cahiers du Cinéma for instance but then so is Carpenter.
I thought Witchfinder General was pretty famous as a classic British horror movie. Got a release in France as well. Unlike Satan's Claw, it got referenced by the metal band Cathedral though
Peeping Tom is the forefather of the serial killer movie, no less...

[Eddie Teach]

Only the original matrix is overrated, the sequels are generally considered a disappointment.

[Martinus]

Does underrated only include well known films that are considered to be crap or also obscure films?

If the latter, I would include Velvet Goldmine in my list.

[Josephus]

The Changeling, not the recent one, but an older 70s horror film with George C. Scott. Always sends chills down my spine.

[Malthus]

The Changeling, not the recent one, but an older 70s horror film with George C. Scott. Always sends chills down my spine.

It's an excellent movie - one of my favorites in the genre - but I dunno if it is underrated: seems to me it is generally regarded as excellent.

[Josephus]

The Changeling, not the recent one, but an older 70s horror film with George C. Scott. Always sends chills down my spine.

It's an excellent movie - one of my favorites in the genre - but I dunno if it is underrated: seems to me it is generally regarded as excellent.

I never really hear people talking about it so much. But maybe you're right.

[Phillip V]

I am recently fond of this 2010 hardly-known vampire film: Stake Land

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stake_Land

[Queequeg]

Blood on Satan's Claw and Witchfinder General (which is particularly beautiful) are both unfortunately missed.

Wicker Man, Don't Look Now and Daughters of Darkness are all personal favorites, will have to look these up. 

Peeping Tom is generally considered a classic these days.  It's really, really good.  Like Psycho good. 

[Syt]

The Court Jester

I absolutely love that movie.

There's also Me And The Colonel with Danny Kaye.

[dps]

Offhand, the first film that springs to mind is Tremors.

[Josephus]

Tremors was quite the hit in its day.