901. (-61) Lo strano vizio della signora Wardh

Sergio Martino

AKA: Blade of the Ripper

1971 / Italy / 98m / Col / Giallo | IMDb
George Hilton, Edwige Fenech, Conchita Airoldi, Manuel Gil, Carlo Alighiero, Ivan Rassimov, Alberto de Mendoza, Bruno Corazzari, Marella Corbi, Miguel del Castillo

“‘The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh’ is not a beautiful film in the usual sense. There are no lavish shots of the breathtaking cities of Europe nor does one see any overt attempt to dazzle the viewer with aesthetic style. Instead, we are presented with a sleazy, bleak and repellent film brimming with atmosphere and brutality and from which one can take a vulgar sense of enjoyment. This is an example of repugnant beauty, the way in which a dark subject can be treated in such a manner that it becomes strangely absorbing. A few pacing problems aside, ‘The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh’ is a strong all-around offering for those interested in a slow-burn, mature mystery-horror movie.” – Chris Austin, Cult Reviews

Genres:

903. (-7) Katakuri-ke no kôfuku

Takashi Miike

AKA: The Happiness of the Katakuris

2001 / Japan / 113m / Col / Black Comedy | IMDb
Kenji Sawada, Keiko Matsuzaka, Shinji Takeda, Naomi Nishida, Kiyoshirô Imawano, Tetsurô Tanba, Naoto Takenaka, Tamaki Miyazaki, Takashi Matsuzaki

“Miike uses several cinematic resources to transport his viewers into a space of strange, and shifting realities. This fantasy-world mirrors the uncertainty and anxieties of its characters while signifying their buried strengths and untapped resources. The film is filled with strange pleasures, from a brief zombie sequence to a karaoke scene (complete with onscreen lyrics). That it has become a comfort movie for many of the lucky who have stumbled across it should come as no surprise, as its message of hope and resurrection in the midst of dire circumstances is one most should be able to appreciate.” – Matthew Pridham, Weird Fiction Review

Genres:

905. (-27) Jeepers Creepers 2

Victor Salva

2003 / USA / 104m / Col / Monster | IMDb
Ray Wise, Jonathan Breck, Garikayi Mutambirwa, Eric Nenninger, Nicki Aycox, Travis Schiffner, Lena Cardwell, Billy Aaron Brown, Marieh Delfino, Diane Delano

“An early image – an overhead shot of a yellow-haired boy running through a golden cornfield on a blazing summer day, while being chased by a black flying thing – is such a mix of earthly beauty and unconscious terror that it could make anyone a believer. Salva is no punch-up-the-soundtrack-and-kick-the-camera director of action. He’s a classicist. He builds a mood through compositions that register as eerie without our really knowing why… while the movie takes place in the daytime, we have a brilliantly filmed version of a typical horror script. Once night descends, the film descends with it. It becomes merely competent, and the flaws and the gracelessness of the screenplay – which Salva wrote – become more obvious.” – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Genres:

907. (-31) The Raven

Roger Corman

1963 / USA / 86m / Col / Comedy | IMDb
Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Hazel Court, Olive Sturgess, Jack Nicholson, Connie Wallace, William Baskin, Aaron Saxon

“It’s a breezy lark, funny without being brazenly hilarious, and feeling not at all like a Poe movie, though the contrast between Daniel Haller’s ubiquitous sets (and, once more that House of Usher fire footage) and the matinee silliness of the story is pretty damned appealing all on its own. The film manages to poke fun at the Poe movie formula without ever actually mocking it, a fine needle to thread; but Corman’s filmography is pockmarked by examples of self-lacerating light humor, though he is not customarily thought of in those terms. Anyway, it’s a charmingly off-kilter hybrid, not a comic masterpiece and not a Gothic classic, but hugely entertaining on its own very low-key terms.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy

Genres:

909. (-29) J’accuse!

Abel Gance

AKA: I Accuse

1938 / France / 104m / BW / War | IMDb
Victor Francen, Line Noro, Marie Lou, Jean-Max, Paul Amiot, Jean-Louis Barrault, Marcel Delaître, Renée Devillers, Romuald Joubé, André Nox

“This is a powerful film that leaves quite an impression. Gance told the French government that the film could be used as a recruiting tool, so they allowed him to film at the front (he captured part of the Battle of St. Mihiel) and the footage was used in the movie. He was also able to use soldiers on leave as extras in the climactic scene where the dead come back to life. Most of the men used in this scene were in the army and were tragically killed weeks later. Still, they had seen battle in the trenches of France and you can tell by the looks on their faces that they weren’t acting so much as reacting to what they had experienced.” – John Sinnott, DVD Talk

Genres:

911. (-19) 4 mosche di velluto grigio

Dario Argento

AKA: Four Flies on Grey Velvet

1971 / Italy / 104m / Col / Giallo | IMDb
Michael Brandon, Mimsy Farmer, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Bud Spencer, Aldo Bufi Landi, Calisto Calisti, Marisa Fabbri, Oreste Lionello, Fabrizio Moroni, Corrado Olmi

“The little-seen Four Flies on Grey Velvet is perhaps most remarkable for it’s unusual spiritual underpinnings and Dario Argento’s deft attention for sexual signifiers. The title of this third and final film in Argento’s “animal trilogy” is as egregious as the weird science that literalizes the eye as a photographic camera… If Argento’s signature use of a black-gloved killer is noticeably absent, this is compensated by the presence of [Michael] Brandon himself, whose striking features recall those of the giallo director’s. There isn’t much to Four Flies on Grey Velvet besides pent-up rage though much of the film’s sexual frenzy prefigures themes from Deep Red.” – Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

Genres:

913. (-15) The Vault of Horror

Roy Ward Baker

AKA: Further Tales from the Crypt

1973 / UK / 87m / Col / Anthology | IMDb
Daniel Massey, Anna Massey, Mike Pratt, Erik Chitty, Jerold Wells, Terry-Thomas, Glynis Johns, Marianne Stone, John Forbes-Robertson, Curd Jürgens

“One of the last of Amicus’ portmanteau horror movies, The Vault of Horror was, like Tales from the Crypt before it, based on the popular but at the time controversial comics from William Gaines’ 1950s E.C. line. The originals were marked not simply by their gruesome traits, but by their black sense of humour as well, yet the glee with which they were presented was somewhat lacking when producer and writer Milton Subotsky brought his adaptations to the screen – in fact, they were a little dry. There’s nothing wrong with the stories themselves, as they all have decent set ups and fitting punchlines, it’s just that a more than a modicum of jokiness could have lifted them above the routine. As it is, they are more quietly amusing than all-out thrill rides.” – Graeme Clark, The Spinning Image

Genres:

915. (-33) Happy Birthday to Me

J. Lee Thompson

1981 / Canada / 111m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Melissa Sue Anderson, Glenn Ford, Lawrence Dane, Sharon Acker, Frances Hyland, Tracey E. Bregman, Jack Blum, Matt Craven, Lenore Zann, David Eisner

“One of the strongest entries in the 80s splatter canon, Happy Birthday to Me is both quite simplistic and unusually sophisticated for a slasher. On the one hand, it’s clearly driven by the petulant, juvenile pangs of youth and will resonate with anyone who was ever jilted on their birthday by a group of friends (hopefully it doesn’t resonate too much because things will get awkward and bloody in a hurry). But on the other hand, this one sets itself apart from its contemporaries by spinning one hell of a yarn around this concept, as it’s lined with enough twists and turns that would even make giallo masters blush. In many ways, Happy Birthday to Me is a perfect stopgap between that genre and the standard issue American body count flick; it really can’t be claimed as either, which makes it all the more intriguing.” – Brett Gallman, Oh, The Horror

Genres:

917. (-23) Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday

Adam Marcus

AKA: Friday the 13th IX

1993 / USA / 87m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
John D. LeMay, Kari Keegan, Kane Hodder, Steven Williams, Steven Culp, Erin Gray, Rusty Schwimmer, Richard Gant, Leslie Jordan, Billy Green Bush

“Many faithful Friday advocates refer to this as the series’ lowest ebb and hold New Line contemptible for slaughtering their beloved franchise. On one hand they have a point. It’s unfocused, often inane, and disrespectful to its roots which could be viewed as unforgivable. Despite numerous failings and such a distinct departure from vintage Friday values, it still forms a decent double-bill with Freddy vs. Jason if you’re that way inclined… Taken on its own merits, Jason Goes To Hell is one of the easier Fridays to revisit. It’s not big, certainly not clever, and not particularly respectful of its once great heritage, but it’s 91 minutes of passable fare” – Richard Charles Stevens, Rivers of Grue

Genres:

919. (+32) 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

Genres:

921. (new) The Tell-Tale Heart

Ted Parmelee

1953 / USA / 8m / Col / Gothic | IMDb
James Mason

“Surprisingly tense, this cartoon immediately achieves a gripping quality that most horror movies would gladly kill to attain. Its deft little script moves with startling immediacy throughout Poe’s narrative, reaching mad climax and sweaty calm with equal aplomb. Each measured minute of it seems both an exciting realization of Poe’s vision and a testament to the talents of the little-remembered UPA animation studios that produced it. Given its sheer singularity, it must have seemed doubly shocking to its contemporary audiences. Really, though, the film’s undeniable strength lies in its visual design. Chock full of surrealist imagery, the look of the movie feels like what would result when Salvador Dali had a nightmare. Undeniably painterly, but no less disturbing for it, the short still looks distinctive today. The unremittingly subjective camera angles place the audience directly in the mind of the killer, and the look of the short feels appropriately askew as a result, with angular character designs, and deep, inescapable shadows.” – Jeremy Heilman, Movie Martyr

Genres:

923. (-28) Begotten

E. Elias Merhige

1989 / USA / 72m / Col / Experimental | IMDb
Brian Salzberg, Donna Dempsey, Stephen Charles Barry, James Gandia, Daniel Harkins, Michael Phillips, Erik Slavin, Arthur Streeter, Adolfo Vargas, Garfield White

“Few motion pictures have the power to jolt an audience with the fury, imagination, and artistic violence of Begotten, a 1991 tour de force from Elias Merhige currently debuting on home video. This cryptic independent production is a film of eccentric brilliance, skillfully balancing the glorious and the grotesque in an unforgettable work of art. Perhaps the most striking aspect of Begotten is its cinematography. Filmmaker Merhige photographed his work on 16-mm black-and-white reversal film and then rephotographed the footage frame by frame on black-and-white negatives through density filters, a four-year labor that required 10 hours of work for each minute of the 78-minute film. The result is a visual work unlike any other – one that looks like an ancient ritual filmed on the scene thousands of years ago and only recently dusted off for viewing.” – Phil Hall, Wired

Genres: Experimental, Horror, Surrealism, Sadistic Horror, Slow Cinema, Religious Film, Splatter, Gothic

925. (-9) 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

Genres:

927. (-22) 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

Genres:

929. (-26) 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

Genres:

931. (-46) Eight Legged Freaks

Ellory Elkayem

2002 / USA / 99m / Col / Natural Horror | IMDb
David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scott Terra, Scarlett Johansson, Doug E. Doug, Rick Overton, Leon Rippy, Matt Czuchry, Jay Arlen Jones, Eileen Ryan

“Decidedly goofy, Eight Legged Freaks is a modest horror comedy reminiscent of the campy B-movie creature flicks of yesteryear. Armed with cheesy humor and a tongue-in-cheek story, it offers light-hearted entertainment fit for a sci-fi monster movie marathon… Ultimately, Eight Legged Freaks is too polite to be a classic in its genre. But as horror comedies go, it’s breezy fun that recognizes its limitations and revels in its own absurdity. With that rare quality of self-awareness, it puts itself considerably above ill-conceived peers that take themselves too seriously.” – Andrew Manning, Radio Free Entertainment

Genres:

933. (-11) 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

Genres:

935. (-3) 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

Genres:

937. (+39) 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

Genres:

939. (-20) 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

Genres:

941. (-18) 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

Genres:

943. (-7) Child’s Play 3

Jack Bender

1991 / USA / 90m / Col / Slasher | 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

Genres: Slasher, Supernatural Horror, Black Comedy, Puppetry, Evil Doll

945. (-16) 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

Genres:

947. (-21) 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

Genres:

949. (-37) 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

Genres:

951. (-17) 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

Genres:

953. (-23) 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

Genres:

955. (new) Sette note in nero

Lucio Fulci

AKA: The Psychic

1977 / Italy / 95m / Col / Giallo | IMDb
Jennifer O’Neill, Gabriele Ferzetti, Marc Porel, Gianni Garko, Ida Galli, Jenny Tamburi, Fabrizio Jovine, Riccardo Parisio Perrotti, Loredana Savelli, Salvatore Puntillo

“What makes The Psychic such a unique film is its atmosphere. This is neither your typical giallo nor your typical Lucio Fulci movie. Unlike Bava or Argento, who are well known for the array of eye-catching color in their films, Fulci has painted a canvas of grim darkness; the director went for a stripped-down, no-B.S. aesthetic in making The Psychic. You have none of the flashy, eye-gouging gore effects of Zombi 2, except for a brief pre-credits sequence; here the horror is more cerebral than visceral. Fulci doesn’t find it necessary to throw blood and entrails all over the place in this film, and so his genius for nauseating effects is sublimated into suspense.” – Lindsey Churosh, Classic-Horror

Genres:

957. (-18) Fritt vilt

Roar Uthaug

AKA: Cold Prey

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

Genres:

959. (0) Dans ma peau

Marina de Van

AKA: In My Skin

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

Genres:

961. (-46) 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

Genres:

963. (-38) 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

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965. (-28) 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

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967. (-40) 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

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969. (-29) 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

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971. (-36) 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

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973. (new) An American Werewolf in Paris

Anthony Waller

AKA: American Werewolf 2

1997 / UK / 105m / Col / Werewolf | IMDb
Tom Everett Scott, Julie Delpy, Vince Vieluf, Phil Buckman, Julie Bowen, Pierre Cosso, Thierry Lhermitte, Tom Novembre, Maria Machado, Maria Machado

“John Landis’ hip, gruesomely inventive American Werewolf in London made a pretty vivid impression on early-Eighties horror fans bored half-crazy by some of the tiredest hack & hurl garbage ever produced by the genre. British director Anthony Waller (Mute Witness), who was only 12 when the AWIL movie came out, obviously appreciated and internalized the unique elements that have kept Landis’ semi-classic of lycanthropic lore alive in the hearts of its fans. Almost inevitably, his sequel falls a blood-flecked whisker or three short of the model in terms of originality, but this is still a fast-paced, entertaining homage that recaptures a fair amount of the old lunatic energy and subversive humor.” – Russell Smith, Austin Chronicle

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975. (+23) Kamera wo tomeruna!

Shin’ichirô Ueda

AKA: One Cut of the Dead

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

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977. (-19) Gui da gui

Sammo Hung Kam-Bo

AKA: Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind

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

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979. (-15) 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

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981. (-50) 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

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983. (-17) Night of the Demons 2

Brian Trenchard-Smith

AKA: Night of the Demons: Angela’s Revenge

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

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985. (-23) 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

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987. (-14) 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

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989. (-29) 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

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991. (new) The Abominable Snowman

Val Guest

1957 / UK / 91m / BW / Science Fiction | IMDb
Forrest Tucker, Peter Cushing, Maureen Connell, Richard Wattis, Robert Brown, Michael Brill, Wolfe Morris, Arnold Marlé, Anthony Chinn

“The remarkable The Abominable Snowman (sometimes with of the Himalayas tacked on) doesn’t enjoy the reputation it deserves. Few reviewers have had much to say about it. Monster fans aren’t charmed by its reluctance to show its title characters. Hammer aficionados would rather discuss that company’s Technicolored horrors. But this Nigel Kneale adaptation of his own story and teleplay, like his earlier Hammer Quatermass series, is a superior science fiction film of rare sophistication and power… Instead of creating the cardboard villains seen in most ecologically themed films… Kneale makes all of his characters basically decent… Their values are just unenlightened and Kneale doesn’t suggest that an appreciation of a ‘correct’ point of view is going to redeem either of them.” – Colin Covert, DVD Talk

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993. (-39) 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

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995. (-20) 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

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997. (-25) 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

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999. (new) The Man Who Changed His Mind

Robert Stevenson

1936 / UK / 66m / BW / Science Fiction | IMDb
Boris Karloff, John Loder, Anna Lee, Frank Cellier, Donald Calthrop, Cecil Parker, Lyn Harding

““The Man Who Changed His Mind” is perhaps one of the most intense horror films from the 1930s that I’ve come across. From the first time Boris Karloff’s chain-smoking mad scientist crosses paths with Anna Lee’s brilliant and independent-minded surgeon, you know things are going to end badly for more than one of the film’s characters. But even with that knowledge, you’re not going to guess how badly and for whom until the story is all but done unfolding. Even after nearly 75 years, this is a horror film that countless modern-day filmmakers need to study and emulate’ their films would be far better for it.” – Steve Miller, Shades of Gray

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