"Gateway" films - those you suggest to "noobs"

Let me explain if it is not clear - each of us tends to gravitate to a genre or subgenre of films which can be largely unappreciated by others...so what films do you suggest to people to get them to consider that specific genre?

For me its championing Asian horror/thriller films

I would suggest the following - these are by NO means a list of the BEST films more as a kind of interface to more "Asian" movies

Tales Of The Unusual - actually I think this is possibly the best movie to introduce people to Asian horror...its an anthology so if a person gets bored theres always the next story in 25 minutes or so...and it covers a good mix of sub-genres a bit of mindfuck, bit of ghost story, a silly comedy scifi thing and some drama

One of the biggest problems of Asian horror is that there are few counterparts to typical Western horror cliches/standards/monsters and almost an over reliance of the long haired avenging ghost girl but I will try to list a few similar areas

So if you like

Vampires - Thirst is essential

Zombies - Stacy Attack Of The Zombie Schoolgirls is gory stupid fun and Zombie 108 is a very interesting mess, plus Wild Zero

Creature features....I suggest The Host

Cannibals - Ebola Syndrome well vaguely

Torture Porn - definitely Grotesque

Cartoon like violence - Gothic Lolita

Serial killers and slashers....hmmm NOT really done at all in Asian horror...the closest is probably Dream Home

Frankensteins monster, werewolfs and mummys...not really done at all...perhaps werewolves...one area to research

Esoteric/abstract stuff - Kings Game or Kairo (Pulse)

Mindfuck/reality benders - Perfect Blue, Paprika, Spider Forest, Bloody Reunion

WTF type of flicks - Tetsuo The Iron man, 964 Pinnochio

Arty films - Epitaph, Moebius

Found footage - Noroi The Curse,Occult The Unidentified

Scifi - Silk is possibly a good one

Anthologies/collections of shorts - Tales From The Dark, Rampo Noir

Some areas that are NOT really touched upon by Western/US/UK films - suicides, bullying, curses and cults...it would be very hard to imagine a film like Norikos Dinner Table ever being made outside of Asia


I've rambled too much

You know, when you have a genre or type of film that you refer to as a "WTF type of flick" I would say you aren't recommending stuff to "noobs" or using them as gateway films.