Plot: Family man Matt Winslow accepts a new job in Silicon Valley and quickly finds that his associates are obsessed with a mysterious local country club whose manager, Jessica Jones, holds sway over the community.

KBZ’s Take: An early Wes Craven directorial effort that was made for TV (so don’t expect normal Craven R-rated themes and scenes). However, as a film, it’s an interesting oddity where a community club has a ‘hot springs’ which is actually an entrance to Hell. It’s not a great film, but it does have some iconic moments such as Robert Ulrich donning a space suit and using the suit’s facial recognition to determine who is human or not. Recommended for fans of the subgenre.

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Plot: An executive in charge of a nuclear power plant in the Mid-East must stop his son – who turns out to be the anti-Christ – from blowing it up.

KBZ’s Take: Holocaust 2000 (aka The Chosen) is one of the numerous clones of The Omen (1976) but the best of the clones. There’s enough originality in this film (apart from the Son of Satan shtick) that makes it worth a watch. Where it diverges from The Omen is with the nuclear power plant plotline, multiple scenes at a hospital and Simon Ward’s performance as Angel Caine. This film won’t set the world on fire, but it’s well worth a watch for fans of the subgenre – especially fans of The Omen.

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Plot: After a tragic accident, a man conjures up a towering, vengeful demon called Pumpkinhead to destroy a group of unsuspecting teenagers.

KBZ’s Take: What this film lacks in plot it more than makes up for with a chilling demonic creature design. If you grew up in the 80’s and read Fangoria magazine regularly, you knew this was one of the most anticipated creature designs from Stan Winston (and his directorial debut). While the film isn’t a horror classic, it’s still a decent film that spawned 4 sequels. It’s also developed a cult following over the years so if you’re a fan of Lance Henriksen or the subgenre, it’s worth checking out.

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Plot: The accidental unearthing of Satan’s earthly remains causes the children of a 17th-century English village to slowly convert into a coven of devil worshipers.

KBZ’s Take: This isn’t a pure subgenre film as it also has elements of other horror subgenres including Folk Horror and The Occult & Witches. However, it’s one of the more unique films within the subgenre with some great performances – especially from Linda Hayden.

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Plot: A frustrated pianist himself, music journalist Myles Clarkson is thrilled to interview virtuoso Duncan Ely. Duncan, however, is terminally ill and not much interested in Myles until noticing that Myles hands are ideally suited for piano. Suddenly, he can’t get enough of his new friend, and Myles wife, Paula, becomes suspicious of Duncan’s intentions. Her suspicions grow when Duncan dies and Myles mysteriously becomes a virtuoso overnight.

KBZ’s Take: This film would fall more into the Drama genre and Mystery subgenre with Horror themes – so some subgenre fans might find it slow and not scary. However, it’s a good subgenre film that delves more into Satanic cults and pacts with the Devil. There’s also the matter of the satanic rituals allowing transference of consciousness into other bodies, but we won’t ruin the film by going into that too much. If you’re a fan of the subgenre, you should definitely seek this out and at least give it to the third act which picks up quite a bit (with an interesting ending).

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Plot: A New York City model with a troubled past, Alison Parker (Cristina Raines) decides to make some changes in her life. Breaking up with her boyfriend, Michael (Chris Sarandon), Alison relocates to an apartment in a brownstone building where the only other tenant is a withdrawn blind priest (John Carradine). After experiencing strange occurrences, Alison begins to realize why the holy man is present – the building has an evil presence that must be kept in check at all costs.

KBZ’s Take: This film is based on Jeffrey Konvitz’s novel (of the same name) and he co-wrote the screenplay. Having read both the novel and seen the film, we can say much of the weirdness and insanity found in the novel makes it way to screen. For people who have not seen the film yet, it will seem derivative of Rosemary’s Baby (1968) at first. However, if you stick with the film, it’s much different with a unique and horrific storyline. It also has one of the strangest and iconic scenes from 70’s horror towards the end of the film as the demonic horde attempts to escape Hell. Highly recommended for fans of the subgenre.

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Plot: Down-and-out private detective Harry Angel is ordered by the mysterious Louis Cyphre to go on a mission to find a missing person. His routine failure soon leads to a bloody spar with himself, as he goes on a supernatural journey into his own soul.

KBZ’s Take: For our money, this is one of Robert DeNiro’s top 10 roles as Louis Cyphre (Lucifier). He gives a human yet menacing demeanor to Satan that has rarely been matched in other subgenre films. For the film itself, it’s dark, interesting Noir film led by an in-his-prime Mickey Rourke (before he pursued his interest in Boxing). This is one of the more well-known films from the late 80’s within the subgenre, but given it’s been lost to time a bit, we wanted to highlight it on our list here.

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Plot: A couple attempts to unravel a sinister plot within the English countryside estate of a dying man who has gathered an eclectic and notable group of house guests.

KBZ’s Take: This is one horror film we always recommend to younger horror fans who want to see some lesser-known horror films from the 70’s. While the film is dated and not all that scary to audiences nowadays, it still has a very creepy atmosphere and some unforgettable scenes including a chicken bone, indoor swimming pool, and crossbow. We don’t want to ruin the film, so won’t discuss the plot in detail, but it is definitely a subgenre film dealing with Black Magic and Satan.

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Plot: A research team finds a mysterious cylinder in a deserted church. If opened, it could mean the end of the world.

KBZ’s Take: We’ll start off by saying we struggled quite a bit on whether to list this film or not. Any horror fan or subgenre fan has likely seen this film and considers it one of the best films of the subgenre. However, after mentioning the film to some younger Horror fans, we were surprised at how many of them have not seen this yet. Most of these younger fans had seen John Carpenter’s classic The Thing (1984) but somehow have not seen this classic film from Carpenter’s “Apocalypse Trilogy” (which also includes In the Mouth of Madness (1991)).

For the film itself, it’s one of the most unique films about Satan and Hell you’ll see. And it will scare the living daylights out of you. John Carpenter is a master of horror for a reason, and this film is a perfect blend of technology, the Apocalypse, demonic possession and Satan. Even with the film being dated a bit, the scares within the film have stood the test of time. You won’t soon forget the lasting ‘broadcast’ from the end of the film.

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Plot: A group of people are trapped in a West Berlin movie theater infested with ravenous demons who proceed to kill and possess the humans one-by-one, thereby multiplying their numbers.

KBZ’s Take: Yes, this gory, demon-led splatter fest is our #1 film on our list. Like Angel Heart and The Prince of Darkness, we assume most hardcore horror and subgenre fans (especially older fans) have seen it. However, for reasons we listed those films, we’re using the same rationale for listing this as our top film. We will also admit to some nostalgia bias with respect to Demons ranking, but it’s still an iconic film of the subgenre and second only to The Evil Dead (1981) as a pure Demons subgenre film.

We have had a chance to re-watch this film a few times over the years (while trying to remove a nostalgic lens) and we’ll readily admit the film comes off a bit dated and cheesy – especially with the English dub of the film. However, what still scared any kid of the 80’s remains true today – Demon / Zombie horror with some repulsive gore, people trying to escape a confined space and who can you trust before they turn into a Demon. Like other classic horror subgenre films, there are scenes you likely won’t forget from this film which makes it that much easier to highly recommend to younger fans of the subgenre.

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