#901-#1000
The 1,000 Greatest Horror Films: #901-#1000
901. (-51) Tôkyô zankoku keisatsu
Yoshihiro Nishimura
2008 / Japan / 110m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Eihi Shiina, Itsuji Itao, Yukihide Benny, Jiji Bû, Ikuko Sawada, Cay Izumi, Mame Yamada, Ayano Yamamoto, Akane Akanezawa, Kotoha Hiroyama
“Comic book gore and a plot exploited to provide maximum fighting time, Tokyo Gore Police succeeds in its bid to push the few boundaries it sets for itself to the limit. Namely trying to think of the most ghastly mix of organic and mechanic bodies, then have them destroyed with a bucket load of blood after they’ve killed a dozen expendable police officers. One for splatter-fest fans, it hits the spot magnificently if you can handle the onslaught. Think The Evil Dead on a rampage through Tokyo and you’re getting close.” – Mike Barnard, Future Movies
AKA: Tokyo Gore Police
902. (new) Scarecrows
William Wesley
1988 / USA / 83m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Ted Vernon, Michael David Simms, Richard Vidan, Kristina Sanborn, Victoria Christian, David James Campbell, B.J. Turner, Dax Vernon, Tony Santory
“With this nasty, lean little thriller, director William Wesley demonstrates two things: scarecrows are freakin’ scary, and he’s not afraid to exploit it… there is something distinctly sinister in how scarecrows hang there watching you… they’re also usually perched in fields in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but corn, the occasional bird and an abandoned farmhouse in the distance. That’s where Wesley takes us, and in a hurry. Purposely slim on story, his Scarecrows is efficiently told and very well paced. It takes him a speedy six or seven minutes to establish the characters and their predicament, just enough time for the opening credits to finish up. After that, he spends the next 75 minutes or so getting down to the business of scaring the pants off of us. He succeeds enough times to make this movie worth recommending.” – Bryan Pope, DVD Verdict
AKA:
903. (+39) Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
Danny Steinmann
1985 / USA / 92m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Melanie Kinnaman, John Shepherd, Shavar Ross, Richard Young, Marco St. John, Juliette Cummins, Carol Locatell, Vernon Washington, John Robert Dixon, Jerry Pavlon
“Setting the movie in and around a mental institute provides some freshness, plus an amusingly excessive early moment in which a twitchy inmate hacks up a fellow resident just for being fat and annoying. The “mystery” killer gets an array of sinister close-ups just in case we can’t guess for ourselves, and many characters are introduced for the purpose of having flares / meat cleavers / machetes shoved into their bodies. The deepest character development is to give one guy a stutter.” – Steven West, Horrorscreams
AKA:
904. (new) I Spit on Your Grave
Steven R. Monroe
2010 / USA / 108m / Col / Rape and Revenge | IMDb
Sarah Butler, Jeff Branson, Andrew Howard, Daniel Franzese, Rodney Eastman, Chad Lindberg, Tracey Walter, Mollie Milligan, Saxon Sharbino, Amber Dawn Landrum
“Butler is excellent in the lead, striking the appropriate balance between vulnerable victim and kick-ass revenge merchant, so that both seem convincing… The script is a vast improvement over the original film: the characters are better written, their interactions are more believable, there’s much more suspense in the build-up and there’s a hint of class conflict (in the smalltown paranoia/suspicion of “city types”) that adds an extra level to the attack. Similarly, Monroe goes out of his way to ensure that, unlike in the original film, the horrific rape scene is not exploitative… obviously, it’s upsetting to watch, but it’s handled well and serves its purpose in setting up the motive for the violent revenge to come.” – Matthew Turner, ViewLondon
AKA:
905. (-114) Fatal Attraction
Adrian Lyne
1987 / USA / 119m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Anne Archer, Ellen Hamilton Latzen, Stuart Pankin, Ellen Foley, Fred Gwynne, Meg Mundy, Tom Brennan, Lois Smith
“Years hence, it will be possible to pinpoint the exact moment that produced ‘Fatal Attraction,’ Adrian Lyne’s new romantic thriller, and the precise circumstances that made it a hit. It arrived at the tail end of the having-it-all age, just before the impact of AIDS on movie morality was really felt. At the same time, it was a powerful cautionary tale. And it played skillfully upon a growing societal emphasis on marriage and family, shrewdly offering something for everyone: the desperation of an unmarried career woman, the recklessness of a supposedly satisfied husband, the worries of a betrayed wife. What’s more, it was made with the slick, seductive professionalism that was a hallmark of the day.” – Janet Maslin, New York Times
AKA:
906. (-50) Tras el cristal
Agustí Villaronga
1986 / Spain / 110m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Günter Meisner, David Sust, Marisa Paredes, Gisèle Echevarría, Imma Colomer, Josuè Guasch, David Cuspinera, Ricardo Carcelero, Alberto Manzano
“Like the film’s characters, we find ourselves party to scenarios involving the most extraordinary fetishisation of suffering and death, horrors which invoke a troubling combination of impressions: they are sensual, grotesque, dreamlike, oddly beautiful, almost pornographic, usually painful to witness. But however horrifying the experience, Tras el cristal is bound to make for rewarding viewing. It is profoundly disturbing, potently evocative and easily one of the most lyrical nightmares ever concocted.” – Chris Gallant, Kino Eye
AKA: In a Glass Cage
907. (-94) The Last House on the Left
Dennis Iliadis
2009 / USA / 110m / Col / Rape and Revenge | IMDb
Garret Dillahunt, Michael Bowen, Josh Coxx, Riki Lindhome, Aaron Paul, Sara Paxton, Monica Potter, Tony Goldwyn, Martha MacIsaac, Spencer Treat Clark
“Craven’s original had a grungy no-budget tawdriness – the Benny Hill production values and incongruously bouncy music made it all the more disturbing. This time around, we’re braced for what’s coming, partly because director Dennis Iliadis escorts us down the altogether safer road of dark, rainy and ominous… The cast bring a level of reality to this that’s surprisingly impressive – both Goldwyn and Garret Dillahunt push their roles a couple of notches above protective dad and generic psycho, respectively. Where Iliadis botches things is with two moments of ridiculous excess, involving a garbage disposal and a microwave, which jut out of the scenario like shameless sops to the torture-porn dollar.” – Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph
AKA:
908. (+3) Bloody Birthday
Ed Hunt
1981 / USA / 85m / Col / Evil Children | IMDb
Lori Lethin, Melinda Cordell, Julie Brown, Joe Penny, Bert Kramer, K.C. Martel, Elizabeth Hoy, Billy Jayne, Andrew Freeman, Susan Strasberg
“Directed by Ed Hunt, you get the distinct impression that Bloody Birthday was stalking the same crowd that came out in droves for Halloween. Released just four years after Michael Myers broke loose, Hunt’s horror shares many of the same tropes, including Lethin’s final girl, the sexy being punishable by death and – in retrospect – a healthy dose of post-70s kitsch. Obviously, Bloody Birthday didn’t share the runaway success of John Carpenter’s classic but that doesn’t make it any less potent. Despite an undeniably flimsy back story for its killer kids, the way they conduct their bloody business is pretty memorable. The three terror tykes… are never short of an evil plan and turn out performances that implore you to hate them, adding to the film’s endurability for modern eyes.” – Simon Bland, HorrorTalk
AKA:
909. (-30) Lake Placid
Steve Miner
1999 / USA / 82m / Col / Nature | IMDb
Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson, Betty White, David Lewis, Tim Dixon, Natassia Malthe, Mariska Hargitay, Meredith Salenger
““Lake Placid” is smart enough to acknowledge that the monsters are usually the most interesting characters in monster movies, but – even better – it’s also smart enough to ensure that the people here are worthy of the monster. An usually witty creature feature, “Lake Placid” was a box-office flop: It was released when theatrical monster movies were out of fashion, and at a moment when old-school practical special effects were augmented but not yet replaced by computer-generated imagery. Thank goodness: It’s the obviously real physicality of the fake crocodile (created by Stan Winston’s studio) that gives this movie its heft, while the clever script by David E. Kelley – yes, the creator of “Doogie Howser” and “Ally McBeal” – gives it its bite.” – John Beifuss, Commercial Appeal
AKA:
910. (-94) The Terminator
James Cameron
1984 / USA / 107m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen, Rick Rossovich, Bess Motta, Earl Boen, Dick Miller, Shawn Schepps
“As an action film, The Terminator remains a surprisingly meditative work, its concentrated visceral bursts not unlike punctuation marks among something more brooding, even prayerful… It’s one of the most hopeful films ever made, and its one that we can yet take much from. Knowing what she does of the future, Sarah driving off into the coming storm in the films final shot is a profound acceptance of unimaginable responsibility, but the film argues further that every life is meaningful, even vital, in the final equation. Even on the eve of self-destruction, mankind is still worth saving, and the most complex machine can yet fall to the simplest.” – Rob Humanick, Slant Magazine
AKA:
911. (new) Gerald’s Game
Mike Flanagan
2017 / USA / 103m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Chiara Aurelia, Carel Struycken, Henry Thomas, Kate Siegel, Adalyn Jones, Bryce Harper, Gwendolyn Mulamba, James Flanagan
“Gerald’s Game is a single-setting thriller for the majority of its runtime, so Flanagan and his longtime cinematographer Michael Fimognari use constrictive camera shots and precise editing (which Flanagan also handled) to maintain a suffocating sense of atmosphere throughout the scenes set in Jessie and Gerald’s bedroom, in spite of the unchanging scenery… Gerald’s Game generates horror more through suggestion that onscreen imagery for much of its runtime, but be warned: when things do get explicit, the movie becomes rather graphic and very disturbing, very quickly.” – Sandy Schaefer, ScreenRant
AKA:
912. (new) Hell Night
Tom DeSimone
1981 / USA / 101m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Linda Blair, Vincent Van Patten, Peter Barton, Kevin Brophy, Jenny Neumann, Suki Goodwin, Jimmy Sturtevant, Hal Ralston, Carey Fox, Ron Gans
“Hell Night stays away from particularly explicit violence. Part of that, undoubtedly, was the culture: after the first rush of slasher films in 1980, the moral watchdogs started barking and most of the second-wave films in ’81 were toned down considerably (the quintessential example being, of course, Friday the 13th giving way to the comparatively chaste Friday the 13th, Part 2). Even by those reduced standards, though, Hell Night is a violence-averse film, so much so that I wonder if that’s part of why it doesn’t have more visibility among casual slasher fans. What it does have, though, is a fairly amazing degree of tension and atmosphere for a cheap genre quickie.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
AKA:
913. (+74) Deep Blue Sea
Renny Harlin
1999 / USA / 105m / Col / Nature | IMDb
Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Samuel L. Jackson, Jacqueline McKenzie, Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgård, LL Cool J, Aida Turturro, Cristos, Daniel Rey
““Deep Blue Sea” takes all the action cliches and introduces three big sharks to demolish them. Call it silly. Call it obvious — there’s nothing more obvious than a shark attack. But this is one of the few big-fish horror films that still has the power to surprise. Any one of a dozen movies out there shows actors chewing the scenery. “Deep Blue Sea” shows the scenery chewing the actors, and not just nibbling. In one particularly delightful shot, a shark starts chomping on a man, and another shark comes over and munches on him too… Jackson is the only marquee name, but the cast lacks for nothing in talent and appeal.” – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
AKA:
914. (-213) Dèmoni 2… l’incubo ritorna
Lamberto Bava
1986 / Italy / 88m / Col / Possession | IMDb
David Edwin Knight, Nancy Brilli, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Bobby Rhodes, Asia Argento, Virginia Bryant, Anita Bartolucci, Antonio Cantafora, Luisa Passega, Davide Marotta
“Lamberto Bava returns to gore territory in this bloody, but dimwitted sequel to his surprise 1986 video hit… Putting aside the simplistic plot, lousy dialogue, and atrocious acting, Demons 2 is watchable for one reason: the bloody mechanical and makeup effects by Sergio Stivaletti. Most of his dripping, drooling transformation sequences are first-rate with highlights including a nasty little boy who actually “births” a monster that resembles one of the title creatures from Gremlins. This Gremlin-demon is a lousy effect, but makes for a few intended laughs. This film marked the acting debut of the young Asia Argento” – Patrick Legare, AllMovie
AKA: Demons 2
915. (-42) My Bloody Valentine
Patrick Lussier
2009 / USA / 101m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Betsy Rue, Edi Gathegi, Tom Atkins, Kevin Tighe, Megan Boone, Karen Baum, Joy de la Paz
“Most of the three-dimensional effects are precisely what you would expect, with everything from pickaxes to tree limbs to various body parts coming out of the screen. It’s undeniably hokey, but also giddily effective, turning what might otherwise be a routine slash-and-hack job into a ridiculously gory theme park ride (the fact that “3-D” is part of the film’s official title is a clue as to how important it is to its effectiveness). Director Patrick Lussier plays everything to the hilt, taking additional license with the third dimension to goose the audience with both old-school make-up special effects and digital trickery that, in the movie’s first true shock moment, puts an eyeball right in your lap.” – James Kendrick, QNetwork
AKA:
916. (new) Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
Jon Knautz
2007 / Canada / 85m / Col / Comedy | IMDb
Robert Englund, Trevor Matthews, Daniel Kash, David Fox, Dean Hawes, Rachel Skarsten, James A. Woods, Ashley Bryant, Stefanie Drummond, Chad Harber
“A midnight screening classic in the making, Jon Knautz’s film is a winning marriage of schlocky horror and comedy. It’s the story of Jack Brooks, a plumber with a short fuse who has been suffering from emotional rages since the grizzly death of his parents at a tender age… When Brooks is confronted with a monster attack at a night class (he’s trying to better himself), he makes the decision to fight back rather than run away and the result is a glorious 20-minute murderous rage of a finale full of zombie-like monsters, gushing geysers of bodily fluids and a monster who looks like a cross between Jabba the Hutt and paper mache.” – Marina Antunes, Row Three
AKA:
917. (-83) Bat sin fan dim: Yan yuk cha siu bau
Herman Yau
1993 / Hong Kong / 96m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Danny Lee, Emily Kwan, Chun Hung Cheung, Si Man Hui, James Ha Jim-Si, Eric Kei, Joh-Fai Kwong, Dave Lam Jing, King-Kong Lam
“While labeled as one of the most shocking Asian horror films, The Untold Story is surprisingly not as graphically gory as one would expect with such title; the shock and the horror originate not from what’s seen, but from what takes place in off-screen. Directors Danny Lee and Herman Yau build up a disturbing atmosphere, very much in tone with the unbalance mind of Wong. Employing a stylish narrative, directors Yau and Lee cleverly orchestrate the grotesque details of the crimes in such a harrowing, powerful way that, no matter that the actual act takes place off-screen, the horrific effect is still felt.” – J Luis Rivera, W-Cinema
AKA: The Eight Immortals Restaurant: The Untold Story
918. (new) Fright Night
Craig Gillespie
2011 / USA / 106m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, Toni Collette, David Tennant, Imogen Poots, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Dave Franco, Reid Ewing, Will Denton, Sandra Vergara
“Scripted by Buffy alum Marti Noxon and directed by Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl), the film is packed with obvious but effective metaphors, plenty of laughs, digs at post Twilight vampirism and a couple of genuine scares. Throw in a great cast delivering performances that range from steadily dramatic to hilarious and unexpected, and Fright Night is a funny, savvy and suspenseful horror-comedy with plenty of entertaining bite.” – Tom Clift, MovieDex
AKA:
919. (+66) Nightmare
Romano Scavolini
1981 / USA / 97m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Baird Stafford, Sharon Smith, C.J. Cooke, Mik Cribben, Danny Ronan, John L. Watkins, Bill Milling, Scott Praetorius, William Kirksey, Christina Keefe
“I’ve seen other films from the Video Nasty list and always wondered what the hell was wrong with them that they ended up on that list in the first place. Nightmare may be the first Video Nasty that I’ve seen where I can totally see where they’re coming from. There are some insane scenes of blood and brutality. I think what makes it so uncomfortable for me is the fact that it seemed very much like a Texas Chainsaw type of film. The violence just happens, almost matter of factly, and you have to deal with it. It isn’t built up or so over the top that it’s laughable. It’s just there and the reality of it made my skin crawl at times.” – Will Brownridge, The Film Reel
AKA:
920. (new) Body Bags
John Carpenter & Tobe Hooper & Larry Sulkis
1993 / USA / 91m / Col / Anthology | IMDb
John Carpenter, Tom Arnold, Tobe Hooper, Robert Carradine, Alex Datcher, Peter Jason, Molly Cheek, Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, David Naughton
“Broadcast on Showtime in 1993 as a one-off horror anthology film, Body Bags bears more than a passing resemblance to HBO’s EC Comics-inspired Tales from the Crypt, not only for its reliance on a cast cannily salted with seasoned heavyweights eager to play against type, but also for its unabashed depictions of splattery violence. Body Bags is also notable for bringing together two of modern horror’s best-known names, John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper, as co-directors… That Body Bags largely succeeds, despite the perceptible lack of novel material, can be attributed to the strength of the assembled performances as well as the filmmakers’ attention to the dynamics of visual storytelling.” – Budd Wilkins, Slant Magazine
AKA:
921. (-179) Return of the Living Dead III
Brian Yuzna
1993 / USA / 97m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Kent McCord, James T. Callahan, Sarah Douglas, Melinda Clarke, Abigail Lenz, J. Trevor Edmond, Jill Andre, Michael Decker, Billy Kane, Mike Moroff
“While it isn’t as gleefully excessive as the previous year’s Dead Alive, Return of the Living Dead III is an incredible display of body horror and splatter. Yuzna’s always been a sort of poor-man’s Cronenberg, but he’s hit some incredible highs during his career, with this being one of them. Not content to merely create nondescript, shambling zombies, Yuzna embraces the franchise’s legacy of unique designs. Tarman might be absent, but he’s not completely missed, as Yuzna conjures up a fun array of creatures, including one that has an elongated spine after his head is almost severed from its body. The accompanying eviscerations, impalements, and, (of course) brai(iiiiii)n eating are messy and gooey, so it’s a great practical effects showcase.” – Brett Gallman, Oh, The Horror
AKA: Return of the Living Dead Part III
922. (new) Snowtown
Justin Kurzel
2011 / Australia / 119m / Col / Crime | IMDb
Lucas Pittaway, Bob Adriaens, Louise Harris, Frank Cwiertniak, Matthew Howard, Marcus Howard, Anthony Groves, Richard Green, Aaron Viergever, Denis Davey
“It’s Australian director Justin Kurzel’s first feature, and on the basis of this, he’s not only remarkably assured at telling a story as economically as possible through images, but also knows how to conjure up an authentic sense of place — in this case, the working-class milieu of Adelaide, Australia’s northern suburbs—and come up with the right visual shorthand to vividly evoke mood and reveal character. Kurzel also seems to have a sure touch with actors, judging by the utterly natural performances he elicits from a mostly nonprofessional cast. All of this helps to make The Snowtown Murders an indubitably unnerving experience; as a horror film about an innocent teen who somehow becomes an accomplice to a band of serial killers, Kurzel’s film is grimly, viscerally effective.” – Kenji Fujishima, Slant Magazine
AKA:
923. (new) The Poughkeepsie Tapes
John Erick Dowdle
2007 / USA / 81m / Col / Found Footage | IMDb
Stacy Chbosky, Ben Messmer, Samantha Robson, Ivar Brogger, Lou George, Amy Lyndon, Michael Lawson, Ron Harper, Kim Kenny, Iris Bahr
“It’s a mockumentary, minus the comedy and satire. It’s a mockumentary that houses a two-pronged attack of brutally accurate portrayals of torture, murder and dismemberment seamlessly interwoven with expert analysis and the thoughts and memories of those who were affected by the killers rampage, and those who were hunting him down. In fact, it’s not too far removed from what the Discovery channel and TLC show on a daily basis… The writing leaps off the screen, as the Dowdle brothers concoct a credible, highly intelligent, innovative killer and sets him loose in the “Anywhere, USA” suburbs of Poughkeepsie, New York.” – Alex Seda, Midnight Showing
AKA:
924. (new) Bijitâ Q
Takashi Miike
2001 / Japan / 84m / Col / Black Comedy | IMDb
Ken’ichi Endô, Shungiku Uchida, Kazushi Watanabe, Jun Mutô, Fujiko, Shôko Nakahara, Ikko Suzuki
“Despite this mayhem’s stunning, pornographic inappropriateness, Visitor Q eventually reveals itself to be both a sly critique of reality TV as well as a conservative statement about the decay of the Japanese family – and the necessity of traditional familial roles – during which each character reassumes his or her “proper” place in the household (father/provider, mother/nurturer, son and daughter/dutifully loyal offspring). But social commentary or not, any film brazen enough to interrupt a sex scene between a man and a dead woman with a joke about fecal matter is, to put it bluntly, the shit.” – Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness
AKA: Visitor Q
925. (-11) Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Rob Hedden
1989 / USA / 100m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Todd Caldecott, Tiffany Paulsen, Tim Mirkovich, Kane Hodder, Jensen Daggett, Barbara Bingham, Alex Diakun, Peter Mark Richman, Ace, Warren Munson
“Directed by Rob Hedden, Jason Takes Manhattan is the one installment that I have a love/hate relationship with. I hate that I love it because it’s probably one of the weakest installments in the entire franchise but yet, there are so many great moments too including the rooftop boxing match between Jason and Julius, Jason knocking over the thugs boombox, the scene in the diner with a future “Jason”, and sewer-face Jason at the end… Overall, as a horror fan, even the weakest of movies can still hold a place in my heart and Jason Takes Manhattan is definitely one of them. I mean, taking the serial killer and putting him on a boat isn’t the silliest thing you could do — you could always send him to space.” – Heather Wixson, Dread Central
AKA:
926. (new) Prometheus
Ridley Scott
2012 / USA / 124m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, Emun Elliott, Benedict Wong
“Prometheus is a strongly acted, superbly designed movie, an exciting and at times emetic experience. Some surprises might have been anticipated with a little thought, others not. It’s a weightier undertaking than Alien, an existential horror picture that didn’t attempt to raise the big religious, cosmological and teleological issues that are thrashed out here. Some may find it pretentious, and the title, suggestive of hubristic man confronting the gods, has the film flaunting its ambition. But the action moves so swiftly that for most of the time I wasn’t aware, as I usually am, of it being in 3D, and the final couple of minutes are as gut-wrenching as anything in the Alien cycle.” – Philip French, The Observer
AKA:
927. (new) Baskin
Can Evrenol
2015 / Turkey / 97m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Mehmet Cerrahoglu, Görkem Kasal, Ergun Kuyucu, Muharrem Bayrak, Fatih Dokgöz, Sabahattin Yakut, Berat Efe Parlar, Sevket Süha Tezel, Seyithan Özdemir, Sevinc Kaya
“Baskin’s narrative flagrantly rejects coherence over an intoxicating collapse into sensory chaos, and time and space coils around itself Ouroboros-style with punishing results. Compounding the film’s brutality is its very real affinity for old-school gore, recalling the best (or, if you prefer, the worst) of Lucio Fulci in particular … In its own unique colour-drenched, frenzied and determinedly incomprehensible way, Baskin returns to the Freudian premise its opening nightmare suggests, but in a far more brutal, complex and meaningful way: it is a film about the simultaneous subversion, horror and glory of destroying patriarchy. Baskin at its heart both reveals and revels in the self-defeating, inescapable rituals of masculinity, and the visceral, inescapable horrors that can accompany them.” – Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, 4:3
AKA:
928. (new) The Ritual
David Bruckner
2017 / UK / 94m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier, Sam Troughton, Paul Reid, Matthew Needham, Jacob James Beswick, Maria Erwolter, Hilary Reeves, Peter Liddell
“The Signal director David Bruckner’s deft adaptation of Adam Nevill’s acclaimed novel is an effective serving of woodland terror laced with psychological depth and eerie creature-feature spectacle, and proves old-school horror can be upgraded in a chillingly relevant way. After the violent murder of their best friend, four mates go on a hike of remembrance in northern Sweden’s mountain terrain. Taking an ill-advised shortcut through dense forest, they stumble on a derelict cabin where their pagan nightmares truly begin. Commandeering imagery from The Wicker Man, Troll Hunter and the Blair Witch franchise, Bruckner pulls off merciless tension between the well-played-out bickering to get up an uncommonly spooky head of scream.” – Alan Jones, Radio Times
AKA:
929. (-226) The Neon Demon
Nicolas Winding Refn
2016 / USA / 118m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Elle Fanning, Karl Glusman, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Desmond Harrington, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, Charles Baker, Jamie Clayton
“For all its shimmery surface modernity, this story about the commodified consumption of youth is as old as the hills, a carefully choreographed carnival of voyeurism in which corruptible beauty is “the only thing” and every look comes with daggers. Motel rooms are stalked by beasts both real and metaphorical (Keanu Reeves giving good creep) and photographers are indistinguishable from serial killers (shades of Eyes of Laura Mars). But while Jesse may faint like Sleeping Beauty, with rose petals falling around her goldie locks, it’s her own image that grabs her by the throat. Mirrors are everywhere, to be stared into, scrawled upon, kissed and smashed. And the more Jesse looks, the more she sees nothing but herself…” – Mark Kermode, Guardian
AKA:
930. (-77) Pitch Black
David Twohy
2000 / USA / 109m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Keith David, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Claudia Black, Rhiana Griffith, John Moore, Simon Burke, Les Chantery
“Weirdly cool, coolly weird, assembled with throwaway flair from cast-off sci-fi-thriller pistons and gears… Pitch Black is so jaunty, so limber, and so visually self-assured that art peeks through where crap has traditionally made its home… Rarely has the unknown looked so grubby and yet so beautiful; rarely have crash landings felt so visceral. Besides, the movie’s outlaw aesthetics liberate relatively unknown actors to make the most out of characters sketchier than guests on the Enterprise.” – Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
AKA:
931. (+20) Vampires
John Carpenter
1998 / USA / 108m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
James Woods, Daniel Baldwin, Sheryl Lee, Thomas Ian Griffith, Maximilian Schell, Tim Guinee, Mark Boone Junior, Gregory Sierra, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
“All the while Carpenter does his best with the pretty bad script from Dan Jakoby who fills the movie with forced cheesy dialogue often spouted by Woods whose one-liners tends to fall flat on their backs, not to mention the plot has almost zero exposition in to the origins of the black cross and its functions. Regardless, Carpenter does create a very entertaining film around the almost hackneyed script and answers fan’s questions about his dabbling in to the vampire genre with pure popcorn fare and does like he does it best, with style. All in all, Carpenter does a good job with this stylish and scary vampire movie, giving us a great leading hero and a great villain.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
AKA:
932. (new) Absentia
Mike Flanagan
2011 / USA / 87m / Col / Mystery | IMDb
Katie Parker, Courtney Bell, Dave Levine, Morgan Peter Brown, Justin Gordon, James Flanagan, Scott Graham, Doug Jones, Ian Gregory, Connie Ventress
“Director Flanagan is a man who almost seems aware of what he is capable of doing and what he simply can not do on-screen and it shows in what is a very artistically self-aware indie gem that works as an enduring yet complex character study and a truly harrowing horror film. “Absentia” provides so many layers of subtle characterization, gentle exposition, and gripping back story that affords just enough depth for our protagonists to earn our sympathy without seeming as if we’re being manipulated in to caring for them. And that’s thanks to the absolutely mesmerizing performances from the entire cast, all of whom bear a strong importance to the end result of Mike Flanagan’s horror film that is utterly reliant on competent performances from a cast who has to sell not only the sheer terror of this situation that grows more and more maddening with each waking hour, but in the logical sense of loss and grief at the notion that they’re losing the battle to a force of evil they can barely comprehend let alone battle.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
AKA:
933. (+11) Requiem for a Dream
Darren Aronofsky
2000 / USA / 102m / Col / Drama | IMDb
Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Christopher McDonald, Louise Lasser, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Janet Sarno, Suzanne Shepherd, Joanne Gordon
“Director Darren Aronofsky, fortunately, is addicted to images. He has put together a phantasmagoria of self-destructive obsession that is so visually astounding it becomes its own saving grace. Otherwise, we might not be able to bear it… Feverish hallucinatory moments and shocking “prequel” flashes of a character’s imagination are only the beginning of Aronofsky’s visual repertory. He finds a way to make a scream of despair visible. Other screams will make the screen rattle. He splits the screen, horizontally and vertically, and – addictively – repeats flashing close-ups of pill-popping, snorting and shooting up. The dreamy effects of the drugs circle upward. Their less-dreamy effects make refrigerators throb, and the screen distorts. The camera moves relentlessly across an apartment as the figure within frantically jumps and darts.” – Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle
AKA:
934. (new) Patrick
Richard Franklin
1978 / Australia / 112m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Susan Penhaligon, Robert Helpmann, Rod Mullinar, Bruce Barry, Julia Blake, Helen Hemingway, María Mercedes, Walter Pym, Frank Wilson, Carole-Ann Aylett
“Director Richard Franklin (Psycho II) eventually lets Patrick’s powers go haywire, but the first half of the film combines sinister atmosphere-building with a justified faith that an immobile killer is still an ever-present threat. The spitting is a shock every time—and when Patrick starts getting some feeling back in his lower regions, that’s plenty creepy too—but there’s tension every time Kathie or another hospital worker blithely works the monitors or adjusts the sheets around him. He’s like a coiled rattlesnake ready to strike, and taking a cue from the Italians, Franklin focuses heavily on Thompson’s baby blues, sensing not only life behind his eyes, but a kind of chilling, crystal-ball omniscience.” – Scott Tobias, The Dissolve
AKA:
935. (+31) Wild Zero
Tetsuro Takeuchi
1999 / Japan / 98m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Guitar Wolf, Drum Wolf, Bass Wolf, Masashi Endô, Kwancharu Shitichai, Makoto Inamiya, Haruka Nakajo, Shirô Namiki, Taneko, Yoshiyuki Morishita
“Anyways, for Wild Zero, you can easily see the influences of George A. Romero’s Trilogy of the Living Dead movies throughout this film – from the way the zombies behave and look to some familiar scenes and ideas being thrown up. Unlike Romero’s films, this one does not have any type of satire or social commentary, but just plain craziness, brainless action and Rock ‘n’ Roll! You can expect an abundance of over-the-top action sequences, gore, explosions, tacky situations, lame dialogue, clichés, computerised zombie blasting, dazzling special effects and flamboyant characters! There really is never a dull moment to be had. So just switch off your brain and enjoy the ride!” – Scum Cinema
AKA:
936. (new) Child’s Play 3
Jack Bender
1991 / USA / 90m / Col / Evil Doll | IMDb
Justin Whalin, Perrey Reeves, Jeremy Sylvers, Travis Fine, Dean Jacobson, Brad Dourif, Peter Haskell, Dakin Matthews, Andrew Robinson, Burke Byrnes
“More than ever, the kills are played for a laugh at the sound of Chucky cackling. This one is much closer in tone to the sequel than to the original because the doll is fully shown and lit. He can still pull a shiver, but he’s getting harder to take seriously… If you accept to trade chills for fun, cheese and one-liners, Child’s Play 3 might meet most of your expectations. Sure, it’s the laziest in the trilogy, takes a couple of shortcuts when it needs to move its characters from one place to another, and the finale is implausibly rushed, but as long as you suspend disbelief, you should enjoy yourself. If animatronics don’t do it, the body count will.” – Steve Hutchison, Tales of Terror
AKA:
937. (new) The Love Witch
Anna Biller
2016 / USA / 120m / Col / Witchcraft | IMDb
Samantha Robinson, Gian Keys, Laura Waddell, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Jared Sanford, Robert Seeley, Jennifer Ingrum, Randy Evans, Clive Ashborn, Lily Holleman
“LA film-maker Anna Biller achieves an ecstasy of artificiality in this amazing retro fantasy horror, delivered with absolute conviction. It’s designed, produced, written, directed and generally auteured by Biller herself, and lit and photographed by M David Mullen – apparently without digital fabrication. The Love Witch goes beyond camp, beyond pastiche; it ignites the pulpy surfaces of its tale and produces a smoke of bad-dream sexiness and scariness. It’s a B-movie with A-grade potency. But you have to stay with it, you have to understand its absolute seriousness before getting the comedy and the satire of the transactional politics in sex.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
AKA:
938. (-13) Kim Bok-nam salinsageonui jeonmal
Chul-soo Jang
2010 / South Korea / 115m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Yeong-hie Seo, Seong-won Ji, Min-ho Hwang, Min Je, Ji-Eun Lee, Jeong-hak Park, Jang-hun Ahn, Su-yeon Ahn, Su-ryun Baek, Shi-hyeon Chae
““Bedevilled” is a far more morally complex and challenging film than this synopsis might suggest, and is by no means a straightforward revenge thriller in the traditional sense. Similarly, despite its setting, the film isn’t an exercise in exploitative backwoods fear, nor is it an overtly feminist rant, with Seoul being portrayed as a bleak place full of random violence, and with the island being run by a monstrous matriarchy whose members are every bit as bad as Bok Nam’s male abusers, reinforcing oppression and ignorance. The film also eschews a typical revenge narrative or indeed the usual patterns of victims and abusers as protagonists, beginning with Hae Won as the main character, and later shifting to Bok Nam, only for things to be turned on their head when she turns devilish aggressor.” – James Mudge, Beyond Hollywood
AKA: Bedevilled
939. (-245) Fritt vilt
Roar Uthaug
2006 / Norway / 97m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Rolf Kristian Larsen, Tomas Alf Larsen, Endre Martin Midtstigen, Viktoria Winge, Rune Melby, Erik Skjeggedal, Tonie Lunde, Hallvard Holmen
“Roar Uthaug’s debut feature is a conventional but nicely handled slasher pic that makes good use of spectacular mountain range locations. Widescreen lensing format and above-average perfs add a touch of class to the tale of five snowboarders who take shelter in the wrong mysteriously abandoned (or is it?) ski lodge… Likeable characters are given more personality than the usual genre cannon fodder, and, while the basic premise is routine, pic orchestrates its scares with brute effectiveness. The only letdown is the killer himself, a generic “Halloween”-y faceless ghoul in goggles and heavy winter wear.” – Dennis Harvey, Variety
AKA: Cold Prey
940. (new) The Haunting
Jan de Bont
1999 / UK / 113m / Col / Haunted House | IMDb
Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson, Lili Taylor, Bruce Dern, Marian Seldes, Alix Koromzay, Todd Field, Virginia Madsen, Michael Cavanaugh
“In “The Haunting,” the moviemakers succeed in something very difficult: creating a haunted house with real personality and terror. There probably aren’t very many times when you’ll actually feel like applauding a movie for its production design. But such an impulse may well seize you when you see the spectacular interior Hill House sets in director Jan De Bont’s big, splashy horror picture…. This new movie has the advantage of modern technology to realize any effect that Jackson could have imagined — and many more as well. The technology itself is amusing, especially when the house begins stalking its inhabitants or throwing tantrums.” – Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
AKA:
941. (-307) I Drink Your Blood
David E. Durston
1970 / USA / 83m / Col / Exploitation | IMDb
Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury, Jadin Wong, Rhonda Fultz, George Patterson, Riley Mills, John Damon, Elizabeth Marner-Brooks, Richard Bowler, Tyde Kierney, Iris Brooks
“Energetic, sloppy and entirely watchable (especially if you’re sitting down with bong and/or beer), David Durston’s I Drink Your Blood is true-blue camp all the way. Plus it’s vicious, violent, and frequently fall-down funny. Clearly created with a grindhouse-style audience in mind, IDYB doesn’t worry too much about the quality of what’s onscreen, but the quantity of outrageous shit it can pull off before the end credits hit the scene. Frankly you haven’t lived until you’ve seen a gang of Satanist hippies massacre a house full of rats before chowing down on rabid dogmeat and flying into a mega-murderous rage. Before it’s all over, I Drink Your Blood has turned into a decidedly stupider version of Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead, but the thing whizzes along like a really bad hit of acid. And while it’s highly unlikely to ever be considered a “good film” (by any definition of the phrase), there’s little denying that I Drink Your Blood delivers on its promise of wild, weird and frequently wacky material.” – Scott Weinberg, DVD Talk
AKA:
942. (-265) A Clockwork Orange
Stanley Kubrick
1971 / UK / 136m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke, John Clive, Adrienne Corri, Carl Duering, Paul Farrell, Clive Francis, Michael Gover
““A Clockwork Orange” is about the rise and fall and rise of Alex in a world that is only slightly less dreadful than he is… Yet Kubrick has chosen to fashion this as the most elegantly stylized, most classically balanced movie he has ever made–and not, I think, by accident… It seems to me that by describing horror with such elegance and beauty, Kubrick has created a very disorienting but human comedy, not warm and lovable, but a terrible sum-up of where the world is at. With all of man’s potential for divinity through love, through his art and his music, this is what it has somehow boiled down to: a civil population terrorized by hoodlums, disconnected porno art, quick solutions to social problems, with the only “hope” for the future in the vicious Alex.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times
AKA:
943. (new) And Soon the Darkness
Robert Fuest
1970 / UK / 99m / Col / Mystery | IMDb
Pamela Franklin, Michele Dotrice, Sandor Elès, John Nettleton, Clare Kelly, Hana Maria Pravda, John Franklyn, Claude Bertrand, Jean Carmet
“Half of the film’s beauty stems from is very ability on the part of both writer and director to allow the viewer to come to these conclusions themselves: nothing is explicit, and everything is ambiguous. Thus, unlike some, equally great films which more or less make the killer’s identity known from the start by leaving EXTREMELY obvious clues (Deadly Strangers, Assault, I Start Counting, Scream And Die! and Schizo all spring to mind) lying around, Clemens, Fuest and Nation really do provide us with a brainteaser, in which ANY one of the principal protagonists could be the culprit if one gives time to stop and consider it. These subtleties are further underscored by the dialogue, which is still central to the plot but sparser than one would find in many films of the period, allowing the scenery- or rather the characters’ perception of it- to tell the tale.” – Drewe Shimon, Brit Movie
AKA:
944. (-209) Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth
Anthony Hickox
1992 / USA / 97m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Kevin Bernhardt, Lawrence Mortorff, Terry Farrell, Ken Carpenter, Sharon Ceccatti, Paula Marshall, Robert C. Treveiler, Christopher Frederick, Lawrence Kuppin, Sharon Percival
“Pinhead is clearly the star of “Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth,” but unlike many cult horror heroes, he’s clearly in service to the devil of a plot. Though Clive Barker is merely the executive producer this go-round, writer Peter Atkins has remained faithful to Barker’s themes and there’s nothing here to violate the narrative logic established in the film’s predecessors… It’s hardly a surprise that Bradley steals the film — Atkins provides him with some great dialogue, to which the classically trained actor does justice… Genre fans will appreciate the blood flow and the gore, and director Anthony Hickox keeps things moving so that there’s never a dull moment — or dull blade. Consider Hell raised.” – Richard Harrington, Washington Post
AKA:
945. (new) Stigmata
Rupert Wainwright
1999 / USA / 103m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Pryce, Nia Long, Thomas Kopache, Rade Serbedzija, Enrico Colantoni, Dick Latessa, Portia de Rossi, Patrick Muldoon
“Stigmata is a collection of moments that speak to the rapture of religion. Not Catholicism, but the cult of personality and perhaps the cult of film as well. It’s a voyeur’s shrine–the pictures we keep of beautiful people and profound images that don’t tie into any throughline save for some feeling of engagement with the universe of the self… deeply felt and faux-profound at once and, like all great Theater of the Absurd, able to highlight the extra-textual consequence of that tension. It’s a film of its time, more explicable as a marker of a digital moment and part of a contemporary sociological conversation; it works best freed from the responsibility to make literal sense.” – Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
AKA:
946. (-175) Wai dor lei ah yat ho
Ho-Cheung Pang
2010 / Hong Kong / 96m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Josie Ho, Juno Mak, Hee Ching Paw, Michelle Ye, Hoi-Pang Lo, Eason Chan, Ying Kwan Lok, Norman Chu, Kwok Cheung Tsang, Chu-chu Zhou
“”Dream Home” is a ghastly, disturbing and, in its depiction of a person who can’t seem to get ahead in a competitive, unforgiving economic climate, surprisingly melancholy horror show. Unspooling out of sequence for a reason, with Sheung’s killing spree interlaced with the telling of the events that have led her to such drastic measures, the film does not condone her actions, but does show how someone could be pushed in such an extreme direction. Indeed, Sheung has a passable apartment as it is, but her obsession with moving up in status turns her into a monster who will stop at nothing to get what she thinks she deserves.” – Dustin Putnam, The Movie Boy
AKA: Dream Home
947. (new) Phase IV
Saul Bass
1974 / USA / 84m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Michael Murphy, Nigel Davenport, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton, David Healy
“Perhaps the most memorable aspect of the film is Bass’ intricate miniature photography, in which he gets us right up close to the ants in their habitat. This footage is stunning in its own right, a glimpse of the insect world on its own level, but Bass takes it further. Long scenes go by with no dialogue or narration, as we simply watch the ants go about their business. Inventive editing helps create the illusion of intelligence and cunning: intertwined shots of a worker ant and a queen play as a wordless (telepathic?) conversation, and our imaginations fill in their possible plans.” – David Cornelius, DVDTalk
AKA: Phase Four
948. (-133) Mirrors
Alexandre Aja
2008 / USA / 110m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Kiefer Sutherland, Paula Patton, Cameron Boyce, Erica Gluck, Amy Smart, Mary Beth Peil, John Shrapnel, Jason Flemyng, Tim Ahern, Julian Glover
“Some credit for this stylish screamer goes to Sutherland, forming his doughy-handsome features into an emotional punchbag. More credit goes to Nemec, sowing a harvest of dark invention in the vast spaces. Sinister armies of singed mannequins, wild flourishes of art deco, huge cindery pillars, blackened floors and ceilings. Team Nemec actually built the set, then torched it. Then, with no daylight permitted by the story, cinematographer Maxime Alexandre somehow lit it. You cannot beat Hollywood when it sets its mind on honouring an average story with above-average production values.” – Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
AKA:
949. (new) As Above, So Below
John Erick Dowdle
2014 / USA / 93m / Col / Found Footage | IMDb
Perdita Weeks, Ben Feldman, Edwin Hodge, François Civil, Marion Lambert, Ali Marhyar, Cosme Castro, Hamid Djavadan, Théo Cholbi, Emy Lévy
“This is a tidy little horror film heavy on mood, light on gore, and bursting with a refreshing originality of story line. Fans of alchemy will find much to reward them here, including the true meaning of vitriol. Fans of the Lovecraftian school of weirdness will also find much to enjoy. Plus, there’s a dash of Dante, and a hint of Templars that make the mix of hubris and guilt that much more piquant… AS ABOVE SO BELOW gifts us with a lively history lesson on the catacombs of Paris, the history and practice of alchemy, and some nifty insights into ancient engineering practices even as it makes our pulses races. It’s a fun flick that is clever, surprising, and satisfyingly well-executed.” – Andrea Chase, Killer Movie Reviews
AKA:
950. (-225) Matango
Ishirô Honda
1963 / Japan / 89m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Akira Kubo, Kumi Mizuno, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kenji Sahara, Hiroshi Tachikawa, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Miki Yashiro, Hideyo Amamoto, Takuzô Kumagai, Akio Kusama
“Honda portrays the way in which the rapid economic growth of Japan has resulted in a population divorced from these cultural and natural origins. The rigid mechanical efficiency of a modern society is revealed to be merely illusionary, as the hierarchy crumbles steadily the further this ship of fools is removed from it. Carried away by the forces of nature on a freak ocean tide, the film’s irreversible conclusion is that of evolution turning full circle; man becomes mushroom as he reverts back to the primordial sludge.” – Jasper Sharp, Midnight Eye
AKA: Curse of the Mushroom People
951. (new) Images
Robert Altman
1972 / UK / 104m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Susannah York, Rene Auberjonois, Marcel Bozzuffi, Hugh Millais, Cathryn Harrison, John Morley
“Altman’s direction is faultless; he ratchets up the tension, teasing details and weaving backstories into the narrative, whilst always keeping the audience on a knife edge. Vilmos Zsigmond’s cinematography is equally stunning, using the near-mythic Irish countryside to great effect and making the house a disorienting and labyrinthine prison for Cathryn. John Williams also delivers one of his most experimental scores although collaborator, Stomu Yamashta, may be the biggest influence on the Japanese influenced arrangements. Haunting, eerie, hallucinatory and exquisitely crafted; Images is a film that demands greater attention.” – Man With a Movie Blog
AKA:
952. (-195) La horde
Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocher
2009 / Germany / 90m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Claude Perron, Jean-Pierre Martins, Eriq Ebouaney, Aurélien Recoing, Doudou Masta, Antoine Oppenheim, Jo Prestia, Yves Pignot, Adam Pengsawang, Sébastien Peres
““La Horde” thankfully knows where its audience lies and its sole intent is to bring us as much gore and grue as possible while delivering on the action set pieces, and both counts are thankfully plentiful, which is why “La Horde” is one of the more memorable zombie romps I’ve seen in the past few years. It’s an action horror film with its head in the right place, and I loved it for that. For folks who can appreciate the modern take on the zombie culture, “La Horde” is an entertaining action horror film with thrills, chills, and gut munching that will whet the appetites of anyone looking for a good time. While it’s no masterpiece, it’s filled with tension and terror and a solid execution that will keep it on the good side of zombie enthusiasts all the way through.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
AKA: The Horde
953. (new) Matka Joanna od Aniolów
Jerzy Kawalerowicz
1961 / Poland / 110m / BW / Drama | IMDb
Lucyna Winnicka, Mieczyslaw Voit, Anna Ciepielewska, Maria Chwalibóg, Kazimierz Fabisiak, Stanislaw Jasiukiewicz, Zygmunt Zintel, Jerzy Kaczmarek, Franciszek Pieczka
“Kawalerowicz is making a defining statement with the way he has shot Mother Joan of the Angels. By allowing the lens to act as the eye of God, he opens up the film from being a standard work of witchy horror, and rather allows it to become a statement about filmmakers, filmmaking, and the way art can capture things that could go otherwise unseen by the world and each other. Furthermore, what if characters in film were presented so plainly and cleanly with the face of God; what would it reveal? The vitality of its imagery and the immediacy of its actions suggest a director who seeks a more powerful truth even in a folly as potentially silly as possessed nuns, allowing it to take on a bigger, bolder, grander importance.”- Glenn Dunks, Glenn Dunks, Writing
AKA: Mother Joan of the Angels
954. (new) Altered
Eduardo Sánchez
2006 / USA / 88m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Adam Kaufman, Catherine Mangan, Brad William Henke, Michael C. Williams, Paul McCarthy-Boyington, Misty Rosas, James Gammon, Joe Unger, John William Wright
“Seven years since making a splash around the world with The Blair Witch Project, director Eduardo Sánchez is back for this interesting flick which reminds me quite a lot of Dreamcatcher only with more gore and icky bits… Acting is also a strong point here with a bunch of relative unknowns having to deal with the weakly written characters but managing to turn out strong, believable and occasionally comic and tragic performances… Altered deserved better when it was released. It looks like a full budget film, is more sharply written than 90% of horror crap that gets released in the cinema and has a nasty creative streak running through it” – Andrew Smith, Popcorn Pictures
AKA:
955. (-295) The Deadly Spawn
Douglas McKeown
1983 / USA / 81m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Charles George Hildebrandt, Tom DeFranco, Richard Lee Porter, Jean Tafler, Karen Tighe, James L. Brewster, Elissa Neil, Ethel Michelson, John Schmerling, Judith Mayes
“The Deadly Spawn is one underrated horror movie that most fans of B-horror films will love. It is like a mixture of a 1960s sci-fi flick and a splatterflick akin to The Evil Dead. The puppets and gore effects are great to behold and there is plenty of blood to spread around. Despite a few hiccups in sound and acting skills the story will hold most viewers until the end. And the movie is worth it alone for the attack of the mini-spawns on the grandma’s luncheon party. If your looking for something fairly mindless and fun then The Deadly Spawn may be just the ticket.” – Noah Patterson, A Slice of Horror
AKA:
956. (-142) Otesánek
Jan Svankmajer
2000 / Czech Republic / 132m / Col / Surrealism | IMDb
Veronika Zilková, Jan Hartl, Jaroslava Kretschmerová, Pavel Nový, Kristina Adamcová, Dagmar Stríbrná, Zdenek Kozák, Gustav Vondracek, Arnost Goldflam, Jitka Smutná
“Little Otik is a rich and deeply textured movie that could be understood in many ways. You could view it as Eraserhead re-imagined as a black comedy (who’s worse off: Henry, the abandoned single parent of a mutant baby, or Karel, who has a crazed wife to oppose his every attempt to fix the situation?) Although the film is obviously a black satire of “baby fever,” Otik and has voracious appetite could also be seen as an indictment of consumerism and consumption, an interpretation that’s bolstered by a running joke involving the ruthless commercials Alzbetka’s father is constantly watching on the television (“the rest are all poisonous rubbish…” a spokeswoman hypnotically intones during a spot for chocolates). But, at its core Otik is a fairy tale; a fairy tale that becomes self-aware of its own status as folklore when Alzbetka realizes that the mythological events of “Otesánek” are repeating themselves in the real world.” – 366 Weird Movies
AKA: Greedy Guts
957. (new) The Void
Jeremy Gillespie & Steven Kostanski
2016 / Canada / 90m / Col / Body Horror | IMDb
Aaron Poole, Kenneth Welsh, Daniel Fathers, Kathleen Munroe, Ellen Wong, Mik Byskov, Art Hindle, Stephanie Belding, James Millington, Evan Stern
“This throwback to John Carpenter/Clive Barker horror films is completely insane, horribly acted, and totally great for anybody who likes their horror served up with a side of cheese… the style of the movie, which features schlocky special effects, and both over- and under- acting, makes the whole mess work in an effective horror revival sort of way. If you hate horror films full of blood and puss where skinless doctors are bellowing devilish incantations, this one isn’t for you. If you are a fan of the recent Stranger Things and the Carpenter fare of old, this one will satisfy you.” – Bob Grimm, Reno News and Review
AKA:
958. (new) Gui da gui
Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
1980 / Hong Kong / 102m / Col / Martial Arts | IMDb
Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Fat Chung, Lung Chan, Ha Huang, Po Tai, Ching-Ying Lam, Ma Wu, Siu-Ming To, Billy Chan, Suet-Mei Leung
“Cult classics don’t come as any more clear-cut than Encounter of the Spooky Kind, an off-beat kung fu-comedy-horror flick which is sort of like Enter the Dragon meets The Evil Dead. Responsible for kick-starting a whole slew of Hong Kong cinema in the 80s, Encounter of the Spooky Kind is a crazy ride right from the opening scene until the classic showdown at the end. Mixing comedy, horror and martial arts in equal measure, director and actor Sammo Hung crafts a wonderfully ludicrous tale of hopping vampires, black magic and possession… It’s hard to find a film which is as all-round fun and entertaining as Encounter of the Spooky Kind. If you have any sort of interest in any of the three major genres this film mixes together, then you should check this out.” – Andrew Smith, Popcorn Pictures
AKA: Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind
959. (-170) Dans ma peau
Marina de Van
2002 / France / 93m / Col / Body Horror | IMDb
Marina de Van, Laurent Lucas, Léa Drucker, Thibault de Montalembert, Dominique Reymond, Bernard Alane, Marc Rioufol, François Lamotte, Adrien de Van, Alain Rimoux
“It’s mostly the suggestion of what Esther is doing to herself that worms its way into your mind and won’t leave you alone, and that’s what people were finding so uncomfortable that they couldn’t continue to watch the film. Being confronted with a sudden boundary between “me” and “my body” isn’t something many of us have dealt with, and our innate inclination for self-preservation tells us to run from the suggestion that such a thing is possible. That might make In My Skin the ultimate horror movie, one the proposes that, given the right stimulus, we ourselves could be our own worst mortal danger.” – MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher
AKA: In My Skin
960. (new) Lovely Molly
Eduardo Sánchez
2011 / USA / 99m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Gretchen Lodge, Johnny Lewis, Alexandra Holden, Field Blauvelt, Camilla Zaidee Bennett, Kevin Murray, Katie Foster, Doug Roberts, Bus Howard, Josh Jones
“Since scaring the living daylights out of audiences with Blair Witch, writer-director Eduardo Sanchez has rather been left behind in the found-footage stakes thanks to the likes of Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity. Here he returns to the concept (as Molly gets increasingly frazzled she captures it all on a camcorder) with a truly disturbing sequence of events that rely on a rumbling sound design and the occasional big bang to keep audiences teetering on the brink… We could have probably done without the libidinous preacher and the running time could do with a trim, but this succeeds thanks to Lodge’s extraordinary central performance, a terrifyingly mesmerising study of a woman in diabolic torment” – Tim Evans, Sky Movies
AKA:
961. (new) Idi i smotri
Elem Klimov
1985 / Soviet Union / 142m / Col / War | IMDb
Aleksey Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Lauciavicius, Vladas Bagdonas, Jüri Lumiste, Viktor Lorents, Kazimir Rabetsky, Evgeniy Tilicheev, Aleksandr Berda, G. Velts
“Directed for baroque intensity, Come and Seeis a robust art film with aspirations to the visionary—not so much graphic as leisurely literal-minded in its representation of mass murder… The film’s central atrocity is a barbaric circus of blaring music and barking dogs in which a squadron of drunken German soldiers round up and parade the peasants to their fiery doom. A final title informs that this is one of 628 Byelorussian villages massacred and burned during the war… There are few images more indelible than the sight of young Alexei Kravchenko’s fear-petrified expression. By some accounts the boy was hypnotized for the movie’s final scenes — most viewers will be as well.” – J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
AKA: Come and See
962. (-96) Maximum Overdrive
Stephen King
1986 / USA / 98m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, Yeardley Smith, John Short, Ellen McElduff, J.C. Quinn, Christopher Murney, Holter Graham, Frankie Faison
“Stephen King had big problems with filmmakers, who’d often “ruin” his great books/stories with all the terrible adaptations of his short stories and books coming out, so what does he do? Writes and directs his own, which got hailed as King’s worst film ever, though I think “Graveyard Shift” and “Mangler” were the worst ones. I really enjoyed this one however. It’s a real stinker if you are expecting good horror and a decent film, but otherwise, if you’re looking for a fun, ridiculous, campy b-movie to watch with the friends to crack up at, you’re sure to enjoy this one… the pace doesn’t move fast and the film runs out of steam in the last half hour, but otherwise, this is a great b-movie that provides a 98 minute laughfest.” – Andrew Borntreger, BadMovies.org
AKA:
963. (-11) Il profumo della signora in nero
Francesco Barilli
1974 / Italy / 103m / Col / Giallo | IMDb
Mimsy Farmer, Maurizio Bonuglia, Aldo Valletti, Mario Scaccia, Jho Jhenkins, Nike Arrighi, Lara Wendel, Aleka Paizi, Renata Zamengo, Ugo Carboni
“Camera angles are too acute, making everything seem sinister; much of the blocking feels overtly staged and aritifical. It’s a beautifully lit and appointed world in the film, but the deeper we go, the more we feel that we can’t trust it or even know for sure what’s going on. And having that lack of certainty, following along with Sylvia as her grip on reality ebbs and flows, makes The Perfume of the Lady in Black one of the most tense, and delectably unfathomable Italian horror films ever made. It’s as pure as any cinematic depiction of descent into insanity that I’ve seen, and it surely ranks with the most successful.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
AKA: The Perfume of the Lady in Black
964. (new) Saw IV
Darren Lynn Bousman
2007 / USA / 93m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Betsy Russell, Lyriq Bent, Athena Karkanis, Louis Ferreira, Simon Reynolds, Donnie Wahlberg, Angus Macfadyen
“Killing off its serial killer villain, Saw III left the franchise with a major headache; how to make a Saw movie without Jigsaw? The answer: don’t. Instead, flashbacks show us the making of Bell’s monster, a lost family, cancer and car wreck turning him into Jigsaw, the twenty-first century’s first bona fide horror icon… With two sequels already on his resume, helmer Darren Lynn Housman nails the series’ dank, yellowing aesthetic once again. He sticks us in a truly miserable world so lacking in human kindness it could be set in ’80s, pre-Giuliani, New York. It’s deeply unsettling; just like a horror movie should be. True, the labyrinthine plot makes little sense… but then Saw’s always been about sensation: an assault on the the stomach, not the brain.” – Jamie Russell, BBC
AKA:
965. (new) Dance of the Dead
Gregg Bishop
2008 / USA / 87m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Jared Kusnitz, Greyson Chadwick, Chandler Darby, Carissa Capobianco, Randy McDowell, Michael Mammoliti, Mark Lynch, Justin Welborn, Mark Oliver
“It’s difficult if not damn near impossible to really pull off homage. You have to forgo the obvious and create a living breathing entity that can stand wholly on its own. If you don’t do that, you’ve cut off half of your audience before they ever see the first five minutes of your magnum opus. What writer Joe Ballarini and Director Gregg Bishop (THE OTHER SIDE) accomplish is the very nearly impossible—a fully functional film that delivers the laugh-a-minute but heartfelt humor of AMERICAN PIE with the furious gore of 28 DAYS LATER. The film never gives up it’s horror to service its comedy and in the same respect it waters down the laughs in order to up the tension.” – David Harley, Bloody Disgusting
AKA:
966. (new) Night of the Demons 2
Brian Trenchard-Smith
1994 / USA / 96m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Cristi Harris, Darin Heames, Robert Jayne, Merle Kennedy, Amelia Kinkade, Rod McCary, Johnny Moran, Rick Peters, Jennifer Rhodes, Christine Taylor
“Whereas the original Night of the Demons offered a scenario straight out of The Evil Dead, the sequel takes some of its cues from the gonzo school of splatter comedy in the vein of Peter Jackson where the more the messier. The demons in this film are treated more accordingly to the rules of vampire lore, easily dispatched with holy water and melting down into puddles of goop… Your enjoyment of the film depends ultimately upon your nostalgic reserves for the adolescent T&A comedies and/or the equally puerile Video Nasties from the 1980s. Brian Trenchard-Smith doesn’t exactly come close to either Peter Jackson or Stuart Gordon in his disreputable hand, but he doesn’t stand in the way of the cheap thrills and is all the more respectable for it.” – John Bishop, Mind of Frames
AKA: Night of the Demons: Angela’s Revenge
967. (new) Doctor Sleep
Mike Flanagan
2019 / USA / 152m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Cliff Curtis, Zahn McClarnon, Emily Alyn Lind, Selena Anduze, Robert Longstreet, Carel Struycken, Catherine Parker
“It’s typical King stuff, really, with small-town intrigue, sharply drawn and instantly recognizable players, and enough chewy New England accents to fill Boston Garden. But from the opening shots and synth notes — which build a bridge between the tone of “The Shining” and Flanagan’s own, thoughtfully constructed edifice — to a spectacularly chilling closing scene, “Doctor Sleep” makes a convincing case for its own greatness. Part of that is allowing the characters to breathe as they rapidly develop from one ominous scene to the next. “Doctor Sleep” may be a terrifying reminder that the world is a hungry place, that the darkness wants nothing more than to swallow up the light. But the wordless moments of humor and heart in the quieter scenes show Flanagan’s deft way with storytelling.” – John Wenzel, The Denver Post
AKA:
968. (-232) From Hell
Albert Hughes & Allen Hughes
2001 / USA / 122m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Johnny Depp, Heather Graham, Ian Holm, Robbie Coltrane, Ian Richardson, Jason Flemyng, Katrin Cartlidge, Terence Harvey, Susan Lynch, Paul Rhys
“The Hughes brothers take a lush, atmospheric approach to the tale, positing an engaging whodunit beneath a gorgeously realized London. They do a fine job realizing the tale’s romantic aspects – the fog-shrouded streets, the haunted moon, the Ripper with his bag and top hat – without overwhelming the mystery. Strong supporting performances from some fine British actors (topped by Robbie Coltrane as Abberline’s keeper/assistant) round out the lovely visuals. From Hell has a good eye for historical detail, contrasting nicely with story’s sensationalist aspects. The plot here is pure fantasy, and yet fits the facts… The brothers do an admirable job of balancing myth with fact, and keep their story neatly ensconced with the historical details of the case.” – Rob Vaux, Flipside Movie Emporium
AKA:
969. (new) Mo
Chih-Hung Kuei
1983 / Hong Kong / 105m / Col / Martial Arts | IMDb
Somjai Boomsong, Tien-Chu Chin, Phillip Ko, You-hsing Lai, Wai Lam, Hak Shun Leung, Chih Tai Lin, Xiaoyen Lin, Chun Liu, Han-yuan Ma
“The Boxer’s Omen is a hell of an experience and it should really be right up there with the likes of Evil Dead 2, Hausu, Phantasm, Suspiria, and anything Jodorowsky made, but it’s still relatively obscure. Director Kuei Chih-Hung’s filmography is made up mostly of crime-thrillers, but his 70s/80s work consists of sick horrors like brutal Snakesploitation shocker The Killer Snakes (1975), Corpse Mania (1981) and Bewitched (1981), which I was surprised to find that The Boxer’s Omen was actually a sequel to. There is a strong visual flair throughout the movie, especially during the more magical scenes that enhance the surrealism and make you believe in what you’re seeing — even if what you’re seeing is clearly a cheap rubber spider biting into somebody’s face.” – Chris Purdie, Mondo Exploito
AKA: The Boxer’s Omen
970. (-17) Tales from the Darkside: The Movie
John Harrison
1990 / USA / 93m / Col / Anthology | IMDb
Deborah Harry, Christian Slater, David Johansen, William Hickey, James Remar, Rae Dawn Chong, Matthew Lawrence, Robert Sedgwick, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore
“Director John Harrison doesn’t do too much wrong here, but he’s helped immensely by three decent stories, a fun wraparound, and a collection of great actors in the main roles […] There’s plenty of dark humour, there’s just enough gore to keep fans of the red stuff happy, and there are some enjoyable practical effects (some enjoyable for being good, and some enjoyable for being amusingly fake). It’s also perfectly paced, coming in at about 90 minutes, therefore preventing any one tale from outstaying its welcome.” – Kevin Matthews, For It Is Man’s Number
AKA:
971. (new) Jaws 2
Jeannot Szwarc
1978 / USA / 116m / Col / Nature | IMDb
Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Joseph Mascolo, Jeffrey Kramer, Collin Wilcox Paxton, Ann Dusenberry, Mark Gruner, Barry Coe, Susan French
“Jaws 2 gets an unfair rap as a sequel, mainly because the following sequels were atrocious. Jaws 2 seemingly gets lumbered in with them when people talk about the follow-ups but it’s actually a rather decent sequel which is far better than it has any right to be. Though still a troubled production like its predecessor, Jaws 2 manages to deliver decent suspense, another solid performance (if better) by Roy Scheider and, of course, some plentiful shark action. The main problem is that it tries to replicate the original but without the best parts.” – Andrew Smith, Popcorn Pictures
AKA:
972. (-54) Dread
Anthony DiBlasi
2009 / USA / 108m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Jackson Rathbone, Hanne Steen, Laura Donnelly, Jonathan Readwin, Shaun Evans, Vivian Gray, Carl McCrystal, Derek Lea, Siobhan Hewlett, Kieran Murphy
“It really helps when you feel genuinely sorry for the victims in a horror film, but when you have an anti-hero like Quaid whose sadistic actions are creative enough that you look forward to what he’ll do next, you are kind of forced to be a hypocrite as a viewer. I’m sure DiBlasi was well aware of this when writing the screenplay. The result is a conflicting moral dynamic that works extremely well as an ongoing narrative hook. Dread is a solid genre effort with great production values. It’s got a definite mean streak and it’s not the kind of film that lets the viewer off easy at the end, but it’s balanced out with characters who you get to know and actually give a shit about, so the toll of the experience is rewarding even if it’s shocking, upsetting, and not exactly what I’d class as cathartic.” – Paul McCannibal, Dread Central
AKA:
973. (new) It Comes at Night
Trey Edward Shults
2017 / USA / 91m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo, Riley Keough, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Griffin Robert Faulkner, David Pendleton, Mikey, Chase Joliet, Mick O’Rourke
“Like many of the current crop of art horror films, director Trey Edward Shults’s film has a strong social subtext. Like most zombie movies, it’s about what happens when society fails and it’s every man and woman for themselves. But by removing the zombies from the equation, its solutions to the question become much more stark. What happens in a hypercapitalist society where everyone is heavily armed, resources are scarce, and cooperation is taboo? It looks something like Travis’ nightmares, which provide the spooky counterpoint to the brutal, bloody realism of the rest of the film. What is the frightening “it” that comes at night? It’s us.” – Chris McCoy, Memphis Flyer
AKA:
974. (new) Murder Party
Jeremy Saulnier
2007 / USA / 79m / Col / Comedy | IMDb
Chris Sharp, Kate Porterfield, Tess Porterfield Lovell, Puff Snooty, Damon Lindsay, Macon Blair, Stacy Rock, Skei Saulnier, Paul Goldblatt, William Lacey
“Murder Party proves that horror films can be intelligent and being horrific does not always mean that blood and guts have to fly. Anchoring on strong and sharp dialogue through most of the film Saulnier’s script exposes the irony and ugliness of the New York art scene, any art scene, and society as a whole for that matter. What we see is an aspect of society and a culture of one-upmanship that is ultimately hypocritical as success is beaten down… And as their insecurities are exposed the only way they know to level the playing field is to tear down the esteem of one of their own. Then does the retaliation and resulting blunt force trauma begin and conclude with a blood soaked finale.” – Andrew Mack, Twitch
AKA:
975. (new) Rare Exports
Jalmari Helander
2010 / Finland / 84m / Col / Black Comedy | IMDb
Onni Tommila, Jorma Tommila, Tommi Korpela, Rauno Juvonen, Per Christian Ellefsen, Ilmari Järvenpää, Peeter Jakobi, Jonathan Hutchings, Risto Salmi
“This is a story about the true meaning of Christmas, old-style. Its 15 certificate is no accident, though unfortunate, as there’s little here that’s really inappropriate for younger viewers – it’s just that it’s so damn scary. There’s a creepiness here from the outset and no amount of dark humour can alleviate it; as the tension escalates grown adults will also find themselves hiding behind the seats. It successfully captures the sense of something otherworldly, mixing snowflakes and fairy lights with something that might have been written by Dennis Wheatley or HP Lovecraft. Yet despite this, it is at its core a classic children’s adventure.” – Jennie Kermode, Eye For Film
AKA:
976. (new) Dementia
John Parker
1955 / USA / 56m / BW / Psychological | IMDb
Adrienne Barrett, Bruno VeSota, Ben Roseman, Richard Barron, Ed Hinkle, Lucille Rowland, Jebbie VeSota, Faith Parker, Gayne Sullivan, Shorty Rogers
“This mostly ‘silent’, black and white film opens with a high-angle, night-time shot of a neon-lit street, when, after being invited by the narrator to come with him, ”into the tormented, haunted, half-lit night of the insane”, we are drawn slowly through an open window into a young lady’s bedroom, á la Orson Welles. On the bed lies the sleeping beauty squirming and clutching her bed-sheet tightly. Is she having a nightmare… or an erotic dream? Of this the audience is kept guessing, and from here on in, the tone is set for a private view into the young lady’s twisted and perverse psyche. After wakening from her dream-state, she takes a flick-knife from the drawer and ventures out onto the streets, where she encounters all forms of low-lives, debauchery and sexual depravity, all tied together by hallucination sequences that even have the viewer questioning ‘what is reality/ what is fantasy?’.” – Tony D’Ambra, Filmsnoir
AKA:
977. (new) Antropophagus
Joe D’Amato
1980 / Italy / 90m / Col / Cannibal | IMDb
Tisa Farrow, Saverio Vallone, Serena Grandi, Margaret Mazzantini, Mark Bodin, Bob Larson, Rubina Rey, Simone Baker, Mark Logan, George Eastman
“The hapless bunch come face to face with “the monster” and all chaos ensues in one of the scariest, most atmospheric, jump out of your seat, Suspiria-ish movies you will ever see. The tension is very high as are the atmospherics in the setting, not to mention the suspense. The back-story builds up wonderfully as we make sense of it all and realize that this “monster” is, or at least used to be, all too human. This villain must truly be seen to be believed… he is very odd. I would be leaving an important aspect out if I did not mention the certain… ahem… underground notoriety of Anthropophagus. This film is known in some circles as the ultimate gross-out movie, primarily due to one scene involving the pregnant woman that I wont delve into here, as well as a couple of other extremely gory YIKES scenes. Yes, this is an extremely gory and sometimes shocking movie, but it also has a huge story and so much more.” – Ronnie Angel, Best Horror Movies
AKA: Man Beast
978. (new) X
Ti West
2022 / USA / 105m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, Kid Cudi, Martin Henderson, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure, James Gaylyn, Simon Prast, Geoff Dolan
“It is a film that kills both in its comedic sensibility and gruesome inclinations. At my screening, you could both feel the audience release all their pent-up energy and hear them exclaim in joy at these moments. It all reveals how West is completely in control, both narratively and formally, as he wrenches the maximum amount of payoff out of every single moment he can. From the way the headlights of a car change color in an extended violent outburst to a more reserved subsequent scene where a character remains asleep, everything is impeccably attuned to create maximum impact. It makes for one of the most fully realized pieces of horror cinema in recent memory that never sets a wrong foot even as its characters do nothing but. It is a dynamic, deadly work of filmmaking that achieves all its lofty ambitions and then some to become an absolute masterwork.” – Chase Hutchinson, Collider
AKA:
979. (-78) Westworld
Michael Crichton
1973 / USA / 88m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin, Norman Bartold, Alan Oppenheimer, Victoria Shaw, Dick Van Patten, Linda Gaye Scott, Steve Franken, Michael T. Mikler
“In the 1970’s, writers were still being inspired by the technology of the Disneyland theme park attractions… The machines start breaking down in a pattern that spreads like a disease, thus predicting the computer virus, but calling it a “central mechanism psychosis”. Of course, this plot device was recycled for Jurassic Park… The long final act with the unstoppable robot with infra-red vision anticipates elements of The Terminator, Predator (right down to a crucial plot point), even the robo-vision of Robocop. In fact, the American Cinematographer articles about Westworld… point out that the gunslinger’s electronic viewpoint was the first [film] sequence to use actual computer imaging” – Mark Hodgson, Black Hole DVD Reviews
AKA:
980. (-297) The Flesh and the Fiends
John Gilling
1960 / UK / 97m / BW / Gothic | IMDb
Peter Cushing, June Laverick, Donald Pleasence, George Rose, Renee Houston, Dermot Walsh, Billie Whitelaw, John Cairney, Melvyn Hayes, June Powell
“While many films from the sixties have quickly become dated thanks to modern filmmaking, this film actually seems to be just as fresh as if it were written only last year. Sure, there are some lengthy dialogue passages indicative of the era and a few of the performances have that acting feel common to most films prior to the seventies, but I can think of very few films from that period of time whose script could easily be re-submitted today to a major Hollywood studio and filmed for contemporary audiences just as it appeared on the page. Iím not sure if that has a little something to do with the fact that the film is filled with uncharacteristically large amounts of nudity and violence that were common only to grindhouse films of the time, but it is absolutely amazing how well this film still stands up over forty years later.” – The Deuce Grindhouse Cinema Database
AKA: Mania
981. (new) The Nanny
Seth Holt
1965 / UK / 91m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, Jill Bennett, James Villiers, William Dix, Pamela Franklin, Jack Watling, Maurice Denham, Alfred Burke, Harry Fowler
“THE NANNY is a bit of an oddity, even amongst the rest of the studio’s Hitchcock/Clouzot output: most of the horror is implied rather than supplied (not that that’s a bad thing- it did Jacques Tourneur proud until the producers got their hands on him) and most of the suspense, save for one or two visual sections, is actually executed through conversation rather than action. Furthermore, whilst it may have a central (juvenile) male protagonist, who in turn has a close female ally, it has absolutely no hero or heroine. Rather, it relies on the simultaneous subtlety and immenseness of Bette Davis’ performance (OK, and Pamela Franklin’s legs) to carry the viewer through.” – Drewe Shimon, Brit Movie
AKA:
982. (new) Wind Chill
Gregory Jacobs
2007 / UK / 91m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Emily Blunt, Ashton Holmes, Martin Donovan, Ned Bellamy, Ian A. Wallace, Donny James Lucas, Chelan Simmons, Darren Moore, Linden Banks, Caz Odin Darko
“The most effective part about Wind Chill is the whole atmosphere of the film functions as a living ghost. The ghosts that haunt the road they are stranded on are uniquely realized with makeup, oftentimes being effectively utilized. The result is eerie and unnerving, making Wind Chill a memorable ghost story and a spooky psychological holiday watch… Wind Chill was filmed around the same time as [Emily Blunt’s] breakout role in The Devil Wears Prada, and you can see the making of a star in her performance here.” – Jason McFiggins, Morbidly Beautiful
AKA:
983. (-21) The Gore Gore Girls
Herschell Gordon Lewis
1972 / USA / 81m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Frank Kress, Amy Farrell, Hedda Lubin, Henny Youngman, Russ Badger, Jackie Kroeger, Nora Alexis, Phil Laurenson, Frank Rice, Corlee Bew
“The Gore-Gore Girls has got to be the most eccentric, bizarre gore film Herschell Gordon Lewis ever conceived or created. Looking at the insane, inspired list of actors, characters, and idiosyncrasies used to pad the storyline with comic confections, one becomes airplane glue goofy with unintentional delight. Would you believe Henny Youngman as a one-liner dropping flesh peddler? A fussy Nero Wolfe wannabe who is an ascot short of being straight? A fruit mashing ex-marine named Grout who pulverizes produce as a peacekeeping pastime? A snorting bartender who’s every word is accented with a sniffle? Or a daffy cocktail waitress who keeps Eva Gabor in wig merchandizing heaven? Together, they combine to make The Gore-Gore Girls Lewis’ funniest film. It is also one of his most brutal. In the long line of mutilations and murders Lewis has lensed, these are the bloodiest, most violent and visceral slices of carnage ever depicted.” – Bill Gibron
AKA:
984. (new) Shocker
Wes Craven
1989 / USA / 109m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Michael Murphy, Peter Berg, Mitch Pileggi, Sam Scarber, Camille Cooper, Ted Raimi, Keith Anthony-Lubow-Bellamy, Heather Langenkamp, Virginia Morris, John Tesh
“With its freewheeling mixture of gore, surrealism and Freud, it will do almost anything to grab attention. The basic gimmick of the story is that the killer, via black magic, can remain immortal in spirit by repeatedly electrocuting himself with television sets. Through electrical contact, he can also enter the bodies of others and turn them into hissing fiends. The only way to stop him is to turn off the power. If the movie’s metaphors are as obvious and as portentous as the heavy metal music that punctuates the action, ‘Shocker’ at least has the feel of a movie that was fun to make. Just when you think that every trick has been thrown in but the kitchen sink, it goes in too, along with stove and the refrigerator.” – Stephen Holden, New York Times
AKA:
985. (-10) Bordello of Blood
Gilbert Adler
1996 / Italy / 87m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
John Kassir, Dennis Miller, Erika Eleniak, Angie Everhart, Chris Sarandon, Corey Feldman, Aubrey Morris, Phil Fondacaro, William Sadler, Kiara Hunter
“If you’re craving a strong story and drawn out characters, look elsewhere. If you’re in the mood for some good laughs, a couple of creamy tits, lots of zany (and well done) visual effects, some quirky side characters, a midget, some hints of lesbianism (always a good thing), lots of ketchup, a holy water squirt gun vampire massacre, Angie Everheart looking like my last solo fantasy and Corey Feldman making an ass of himself, this is the right whore house to smuggle into.” – The Arrow, Joblo.com
AKA:
986. (new) Slugs, muerte viscosa
Juan Piquer Simón
1988 / USA / 92m / Col / Nature | IMDb
Michael Garfield, Kim Terry, Philip MacHale, Alicia Moro, Santiago Álvarez, Concha Cuetos, John Battaglia, Emilio Linder, Kris Mann, Kari Rose
“Slugs is a bit of a forgotten gem in the subgenre of nature-attacks horror, and that’s a shame because it’s actually good, gory fun. Spanish director Juan Piquer Simón (aka JP Simon) makes a solid-looking film on a budget and as with his earlier classic, Pieces, he never shies away from gratuitous entertainment in the form of gross practical effects and exposed flesh. Slugs lacks the wit of Pieces, but it still manages to succeed on gore and action alone.” – Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects
AKA: Slugs: The Movie
987. (new) Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält
Michael Armstrong
1970 / Germany / 90m / Col / Exploitation | IMDb
Herbert Lom, Udo Kier, Olivera Katarina, Reggie Nalder, Herbert Fux, Johannes Buzalski, Michael Maien, Gaby Fuchs, Ingeborg Schöner, Adrian Hoven
“Whilst it has been over shadowed a little by Michael Reeves’ equally outstanding Witchfinder General (1968) Mark of The Devil stands as something of a companion piece to that film. Both approach the subject matter with a historical eye and are arguably not horror films in the strictest sense of the word. But where Reeve’s film is now an acknowledged classic, Mark of The Devil has the reputation of being a sleazy, violent exploitation film. To some extent this is a fair criticism as director Michael Armstrong is wholly unafraid to linger on the slow, unpleasant torture of those accused of consorting with The Devil. There is also no escaping the garish and gloatingly manipulative marketing campaign used by Hallmark on its original release. However, for all its horror, the film retains an integrity and intelligence that lifts it far above the simple minded gore films that would begin to flood the market as the 1970’s progressed.” – Stuart Smith, UK Horror Scene
AKA: Mark of the Devil
988. (new) Hounds of Love
Ben Young
2016 / Australia / 108m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Emma Booth, Ashleigh Cummings, Stephen Curry, Susie Porter, Damian de Montemas, Harrison Gilbertson, Fletcher Humphrys, Steve Turner, Holly Jones, Michael Muntz
“Hounds of Love is a reminder that men can make feminist films. Like recent indie movie Berlin Syndrome, Young’s offering boasts a male psychopath and a resourceful victim (not to mention a protective mother). Yet the movies are poles apart. While Cate Shortland’s heroine is never more than the sum of her much-ogled parts, Young’s has a point of view that can’t be ignored. The result is psychologically impressive and fiendishly involving. Everything — from the flawless cast to the malnourished decors and oppressive, electronic soundtrack — hooks us into the teen’s fight for survival.” – Charlotte O’Sullivan London Evening Standard
AKA:
989. (new) Môjû
Yasuzô Masumura
1969 / Japan / 86m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Eiji Funakoshi, Mako Midori, Noriko Sengoku
“Given the rather static nature of the mise-en-scène, Masumura must be admired for stretching out such an elementary idea to feature length, yet the most overwhelming impression of this film is its deliciously overwrought visual style, conjuring up such a vivid and endlessly interesting, self-contained cinematic world inside the claustrophobic confines of Michio’s studio. Yes, The Blind Beast really is as outlandish as it sounds, and must rank as one of the most powerful and potently disturbing horror films ever conceived.” – Jasper Sharp, Midnight Eye
AKA: Blind Beast
990. (new) Undead
Michael Spierig & Peter Spierig
2003 / Australia / 104m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Felicity Mason, Mungo McKay, Rob Jenkins, Lisa Cunningham, Dirk Hunter, Emma Randall, Steve Greig, Noel Sheridan, Gaynor Wensley, Eleanor Stillman
“But for all its mood swings and intermittently self-defeating tonal shifts, Undead sure isn’t boring. Indulgent and silly, loud and obnoxious, joyously juicy and pretty darn insane, yes — but never boring. And it’s always great to see a colorfully crazy horror-type flick emerge from other shores. Just in the past few months I’ve been treated to gory delights […] and it’s consistently fun to see the numerous horror conventions tweaked, teased, and touched up from young filmmakers all over the globe. Apparently we all grew up watching the same exact horror flicks, and these young filmmakers, though perhaps a bit rough around the edges, clearly possess a deep, passionate, and appropriately irreverent affection for the genre. Undead might be a huge, loud, stonking mess, but for the most part it is oddly entertaining — and the splatter moments (the ones that avoid the usage of CGI, that is) are suitably, sloppily satisfying.” – Scott Weinberg, DVDTalk
AKA:
991. (new) C.H.U.D.
Douglas Cheek
1984 / USA / 88m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
John Heard, Daniel Stern, Christopher Curry, Kim Greist, Laure Mattos, Brenda Currin, Justin Hall, Michael O’Hare, Cordis Heard, Vic Polizos
“Director Douglas Creek does a great job building up the anticipation of the monsters. We barely see them at all until the third act, building the up the terror little by little, disappearance after disappearance. It’s not the same, but this could have easily been an episode of The X-Files. Ok, so the plot gets a little messy the longer it goes and things end up a bit too standard issue by the end, but C.H.U.D. is a stupidly great example of what a quality B movie can be: gory, overtop, and socially aware.” – Ryan Doom, Arrow in the Head
AKA:
992. (new) La casa sperduta nel parco
Ruggero Deodato
1980 / Italy / 91m / Col / Exploitation | IMDb
David Hess, Annie Belle, Christian Borromeo, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Marie Claude Joseph, Gabriele Di Giulio, Brigitte Petronio, Karoline Mardeck
“The House on the Edge of the Park, while by no means an imaginative or original piece of work, is an exploitation triumph. Gritty, grimy and thoroughly repugnant, director Deodato mostly eschews visual flair for a more matter-of-fact realisation of the events at this titular abode. Overt sexualisation, both consensual and not, is likely to make many a viewer very uncomfortable, and mostly earnest performances from the cast evoke an authentic level of fear and unpredictability. The script also toys with the audience’s allegiances, repeatedly switching roles between victim and perpetrator – whether it’s the unwitting Ricky being ridiculed or the socialites facing the blade of Alex’s razor. As both sides partake in acts that make them worthy of loathing, before (or after) being placed in the position of the victim, The House on the Edge of the Park will constantly toy with you, evoking a level of emotional disquiet that isn’t quickly forgotten.” – Gareth Jones, Dread Central
AKA: House on the Edge of the Park
993. (+3) You Better Watch Out
Lewis Jackson
1980 / USA / 100m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Brandon Maggart, Jeffrey DeMunn, Dianne Hull, Andy Fenwick, Brian Neville, Joe Jamrog, Wally Moran, Gus Salud, Ellen McElduff, Brian Hartigan
“Beautifully photographed, extremely well-acted and accompanied by a truly unnerving avant-garde sound design that is inclusive of a score that’s full of warped nerve frazzling Christmassy melodies played on toy instruments but mixed in with discordant synthesiser atmospherics, Christmas Evil is a class above most of its peers, but sometimes gets little credit from those expecting a more conventional ‘slasher’ approach. It is indeed very deliberately paced, and concludes with what continues to rank as a gloriously ludicrous conceit; but for me it completely works and weaves its own demented spell.” – Nothing But the Night
AKA: Terror in Toyland
994. (new) Sei mong se jun
Oxide Pang Chun
2004 / Japan / 101m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Race Wong, Rosanne Wong, Anson Leung, Michelle Yim, Cub Chin
“The Pang brothers — best known in North America for The Eye — are back and they’re as visually inventive as we’ve come to expect. Directed by Oxide Pang, Ab-Normal Beauty is, first and foremost, a fascinating film about a fascinating character. Obsessive, exacting, and perverse, Jiney would much rather photograph people than get to know them. Unlike your average, everyday, emotional human being, Jiney needs to see pain and suffering, in order to be satisfied with her work. Watch for the intense, panicked sense of discovery that crosses her face when she first decides to add blood to an otherwise ordinary nude portrait. It’s a chilling moment.” – Jonathan Doyle, DiscLand
AKA: Ab-normal Beauty
995. (-144) Homicidal
William Castle
1961 / USA / 87m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, Eugenie Leontovich, Alan Bunce, Richard Rust, James Westerfield, Gilbert Green, Joan Marshall
“Despite its obvious flaws, however, Homicidal comes across today as a reasonably enjoyable cult film, primarily because all its ludicrous elements add up to such silly fun. Plus, though the primary plot twist is far too easy to guess, the hidden secret behind this twist comes as a genuine surprise. If you forget that Homicidal was ever meant as a serious rival to Hitchcock’s masterpiece, you’ll probably get a kick out of its enjoyably campy approach to sibling rivalry, gender, loyalty, and murder.” – Film Fanatic
AKA:
996. (new) La terza madre
Dario Argento
2007 / Italy / 102m / Col / Witchcraft | IMDb
Asia Argento, Cristian Solimeno, Adam James, Moran Atias, Valeria Cavalli, Philippe Leroy, Daria Nicolodi, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Udo Kier, Robert Madison
“As for the horrific elements, Argento is less interested here in scaring us per se as he is in unnerving us with moments of sudden and shocking imagery that jolts us so unexpectedly that we can never get comfortable enough to figure out what he is going to come up with next. More importantly, after seeing countless horror films that claim that they are fiercely original and are pushing the envelope in every scene, only to wind up giving us just another helping of the same old thing, this is a film that keeps managing to top itself throughout in terms of sheer outrageousness.” – Peter Sobczynski, eFilmCritic
AKA: Mother of Tears
997. (new) Waxwork
Anthony Hickox
1988 / USA / 95m / Col / Comedy | IMDb
Zach Galligan, Jennifer Bassey, Joe Baker, Deborah Foreman, Michelle Johnson, David Warner, Eric Brown, Clare Carey, Buckley Norris, Dana Ashbrook
“Waxwork is like a warped cross between a slasher film, featuring a group of 80s caricatures being picked off one-by-one in a strange place, and a loving homage to the classic horrors of old. Never scary in the slightest and filled with so much camp, it would make a drag queen blush, Waxwork defines the 80s comedy-horror to a tee… Nothing really makes much sense but then the film feels like a dozen films all rolled together anyway so just sit back and enjoy Waxwork, a great slice of 80s comedy-horror with a large side-order of ‘fun’ slapped into it. It’s an enjoyable cult film which is sadly hampered from total greatness by a weak plot and disappointing finale.” – Andrew Smith, Popcorn Pictures
AKA:
998. (new) Kamera wo tomeruna!
Shin’ichirô Ueda
2017 / Japan / 96m / Col / Comedy | IMDb
Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Harumi Shuhama, Kazuaki Nagaya, Hiroshi Ichihara, Mao, Sakina Asamori, Takuya Fujimura, Ayana Gôda, Manabu Hosoi
“ONE CUT OF THE DEAD is as much fun as any movie in memory while it’s playing out, and as a bonus, it elicits a different kind of admiration when it’s over. Thinking back, you realize what an insane logistical challenge it must have been for Ueda and co. to pull this off, and are amazed at how natural and easy they make it look. Similarly, everyone in the cast gives their parts their all (Hamatsu’s multifaceted turn is especially memorable, as is Harumi Shuhama, as a makeup artist who undergoes a transformation of her own), and yet their performances seem even more impressive upon reflection on the circumstances in which they were delivered. ONE CUT OF THE DEAD is such a marvelously good time, and made with such clockwork precision, that after you’ve seen it, it’s hard to decide whether to watch it again or seek out a documentary on how it was made.” – Michael Gingold, Rue Morgue
AKA: One Cut of the Dead
999. (new) Due occhi diabolici
Dario Argento & George A. Romero
1990 / Italy, USA / 120m / Col / Anthology | IMDb
Adrienne Barbeau, Ramy Zada, Bingo O’Malley, Jeff Howell, E.G. Marshall, Harvey Keitel, Madeleine Potter, John Amos, Sally Kirkland, Kim Hunter
“Two Evil Eyes began life as an anthology horror film to end all anthology horror films, but ended up an occasionally interesting shadow of two genre titans’ best work… This proto- Masters of Horror would’ve featured Argento, Romero, Michele Soavi, Steven King and Richard Stanley as writer/directors. When that fell through, Argento and Romero teamed up near Pittsburg to shoot their own short Poe films, which would be awkwardly stuck together in the form of the final film… Minus one gruesome finale Valdemar is a pretty anaemic film, but effects expert Tom Savani (who has a small role as a homage to ‘Berenice’) gets to pull out the stops for Black Cat, including a horrifically realistic pendulum victim, a toothless corpse, an unnerving hatchet murder, a super icky decayed body, and more fake cats than you can shake a fake dead cat at.” – Gabriel Powers, DVDActive
AKA: Two Evil Eyes
1000. (new) Død snø 2
Tommy Wirkola
2014 / Norway / 100m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Vegar Hoel, Ørjan Gamst, Martin Starr, Jocelyn DeBoer, Ingrid Haas, Stig Frode Henriksen, Hallvard Holmen, Kristoffer Joner, Amrita Acharia, Derek Mears
“The smartest thing returning director-writer Tommy Wirkola and co-writers Hoel and Stig Frode Henriksen do to avoid the whiff of rehash is broaden the original film’s mix of dark gore and bleak laughs to victim-rich, vulnerable neighboring towns, including the outlandish notion of World War II grudges resettled as zombie melees. The “Red” of the subtitle isn’t a blood-color reference. There’s also a sweetly funny tweak of geekdom in the form of an American trio of movie-zombie nerds — led by Martin Starr — who fly to embattled northern Norway to see and fight “real” zombies in the (rotting) flesh. As bad-taste splatter comedies go, “Dead Snow 2″ is one of the more charitably nutty ones, less about gorging on gore than reveling in how silly the whole genre can be.” – Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times