Carriers (2009)

A post-apocalyptic road movie. Its not really a "good" movie per say. The acting isnt very good, the writing isnt very good, the editing isnt very good, there just generally is not a lot of "good" things. But in the end what this is, is a movie about paranoia and as cast reaches its destination, you watch the thin veils of trust fall from them until the last scene. A film that begins with a group in the desert, ends with individuals on a beach.
The premise is that there's a virus that is passed through direct contact with an infected person. Be it a person's blood, skin, or breath, if you touch it you get sick and die. Technically, I think its like a zombie virus, but luckily the movie never really addresses that. If there's one thing I'd be happy to never see again, it's a zombie movie. Anyway, the film begins with a group of four people in an expensive car driving across the country to get to the beach. Why the beach? Because its eden for two of the main characters. The movie is propelled along by these two characters wanting to get to the beach. Wanting to return to paradise. But in there way is Chris Meloni and his infected daughter, a squad of cleansuit survivalists, and the groups own growing distrust of each other.
Thats where the film shines. As people around them get sick and as quarantines get broken, the lines of dialog break down between the characters. Dialog becomes sparse and stilted, tensions and tempers flare, and it gets cool almost in spite of itself.

House of the Devil (2009)

Hey, remember when I said that Dead End was trying to recreate an aesthetic that you cannot recreate twenty years later? House of the Devil did it. House of the Devil accomplished the impossible: It made an excellent late 70s-early 80s satanic horror movie in 2009. This movie is amazing in so many ways. A love letter to a very specific genre of movie, its clear the director has a passion for this very unique, and incredibly beautiful, space of cinema history. House of the Devil is the period piece to end all period pieces. House of the Devil is the horror throwback to beat, but I have my doubts that any movie could ever manage to nail the aesthetic as absolutely perfectly as House of the Devil did. If you have ever seen a satanic horror movie, you owe it to yourself to watch House of the Devil and then be put into a coma from it. Your system will not be able to handle the shock of seeing a 2009 copyright date on this film, and that's the best compliment it could ask for.

Audition (1999)

By this point it should be clear that I love Takashi Miike and he can do no wrong et cetera. But at first, while watching Audition, I wondered in the tags on netflix werent incorrect. This isn't a horror movie, its a slightly unsettling romance. But no, I was wrong, it is a horror movie and it is incredible and Takashi Miike can do no wrong.

Dead End (2003)

This movie. This dang movie.
This is a film where nothing happens for almost an hour and a half. Its a movie where the last scene undermines the rest of the movie in an unfulfilling way. Its a movie where no one can act and everything everyone says is ridiculous and hilarious. This movie is the quintessential "Hey its the 21st century, lets make a Modern B-Movie!" movie. Its a movie where everything is stilted because of the creative Powers That Be trying to recreate an aesthetic that its almost impossible to emulate today.
Thats why I love it. Its not a good movie by any means, but it tries to hard to be bad that its flailing limbs are entertaining. Ray Wise is legitimately hilarious in it.

Pulse (2001)

Full disclosure: I saw the (2005?) American remake with Kristin Bell way before I saw this movie. I actually enjoyed the remake, unlike literally everyone else who saw it, so I came into this with a little bit of skepticism. If I liked the movie everyone hated, then i should hate the movie everyone liked.
I was completely wrong.  This movie blew me away. Its every bit as compelling and nervewracking and terrifying as any other horror masterwork and has the strong, solidly stated yet still stylistic political statement underlying it that really proves the wheat from the chaff. This movie is one of those golden films I mentioned in the Dark Remains post. This movie is great. It is absolutely nothing like the remake in anyway. Even like thematic elements dont carry over at all. Don't watch the remake.

Tokyo Gore Police (2008)

Gory. Political. Silly. Stupid. Violent. Crazy. Hilarious. Perverse.
Rad.

The Signal (2006)

Okay, so, apparently this movie was made by three different directors each directing one act. It shows re: the first act is just exposition, almost Fight Clubby in its execution, the second is slapstick and legitimately pretty funny in parts, and the third is screaming "Am I David Lynch yet???" at the top of its lungs. None of the three parts ever really feel that disconnected from each other and the film does come together to make a super entertaining, cohesive whole. Its really open ended and incredibly isolated so, like, don't come into this expecting a 28 Days Later style movie I guess. I really feel like I have to give the directors a lot of credit for this, considering how difficult it is to make something really actually funny and also something that really screws with your head and this film manages to do both in satisfactory fashion.

Infection (2005)

A severely understaffed and collapsing hospital is forced to put aside lingering tensions and antagonism to deal with a bizarre corpse brought in under weird circumstances. The corpse disappears and nurses/doctors start going mad and murderous. And then of course there's a twist ending that Really Makes You Think About Things (no it doesnt it doesnt make you think its just dumb.)
A thing i have with foreign films is like, im afraid that I dont have the required amount of cultural context to really Get what the director is going for, but with Infection that problem doesnt really exist. Its disgustingly misogynist and insulting to anyone who has ever seen a horror film, on top of being disgustingly boring. I've seen slasher movies with more substance and less hatred of women than this literal garbage.
The only good thing I can say about it is the lighting was pretty cool in a lot of places and the setting was neat. Its a real shame that you have a film like this, one that feels almost claustrophobic and busy in its tedium, set in a place like a huge near-abandoned hospital. Seems like a waste.

Ichi the Killer (2001)

I don't care if this doesnt count as a horror film. This is my new favorite, non-Clue, movie. Violent, silly, poignant, absurd, surreal, yet grounded in a way that makes it Even More Surreal. Just so brilliant. I struggle to think of something else to say about it. Even with that list of adjectives up there, none of them really describe it. When someone says Black Comedy, they usually are referring to something that generally isn't very dark and isn't very funny. Ichi the Killer satisfies both and then takes it to the next level. Kakihara is fascinating and his power struggles, within and without, are incredibly compelling. in the end, the movie comes down to societal condition as applied to sado-masochism and Ichi the Killer gives you all the pieces inside a hyper-violent, sometimes melancholy, sometimes hilarious, always entertaining shell.

The Midnight Meat Train (2008)

This was a way cool Americanized Japanese horror film based on a Clive Barker story. Violent in a cool/silly way, bizarre in its development/resolution, and just really a fun time. Vinnie Jones plays the part of silent, sadistic Mahogany in a brutal, almost haunting way and everyone else was at least competent so it has that going for it. The most important part though, was in a scene when Mahogany begins stalking a party on the titular train. He hits Ted Raimi in the back of the head with a meat tenderizer so hard his eyes pop out of his head and bounce off the camera.