We’ve all got cinematic skeletons in our closet. You know, the movies and TV shows that you desperately hope your friends and family don’t come across in the Recently Watched section of your Netflix account. My dirty little secret just happens to be… slasher movies.

I’m not even talking about the socially acceptable flicks that fall under this category, like the Scream movies, or Nightmare on Elm Street, or even Halloween and its many sequels. I’m talking about the nasty, gory, plot-less, mindless trash that your weird 30-year-old-cousin-who-still-listens-to-Creed wouldn’t watch. I recently stumbled across a revolting little gem called Shadow, in which four strangers are tortured by an inexplicably shirtless sadist in the middle of the Albanian wilderness. I watched all of that garbage. Twice.

Part of the reason I continue to feed my sick addiction is that, if you sift through the refuse long enough, you will stumble across a few that are surprisingly good. Not Oscar fodder or anything, but better than you would expect. My personal favorite is Behind the Mask: the Rise of Leslie Vernon. It’s pretty meta, so if that’s not your flavor then you might want to take a pass, but if you like self-referential horror movies then this one is totally worth your time.

There! I said it. I gotta admit, it feels good to come clean. Now excuse me, I gotta go watch some co-eds get sliced open by a psycho. A gore junkie’s work is never done.

-Whitney