1974 / Italy / 93m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Cristina Galbó, Ray Lovelock, Arthur Kennedy, Aldo Massasso, Giorgio Trestini, Roberto Posse, José Lifante, Jeannine Mestre, Gengher Gatti, Fernando Hilbeck
“Even if judged on style alone, the film would be a triumph; though not much different from your typical lurching creeps, these zombies wheeze and moan like no other, a simple audio gimmick that is blatantly manipulative but absolutely creepy, not the least for its relative subtlety. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie artfully builds its atmosphere of spiritual (and social) unrest with its gliding cinematography, and the thrills pile up faster than any of its potential flaws or abandonments of logic. Though no Halloween or Carrie, this little gem is not unlike an undiscovered wine, long ripening and ready to be savored.” – Rob Humanick, Projection Booth
Genres: Zombie, Horror, Splatter
1974 / Canada / 88m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
John Marley, Lynn Carlin, Richard Backus, Henderson Forsythe, Anya Ormsby, Jane Daly, Michael Mazes, Arthur Anderson, Arthur Bradley, David Gawlikowski
“Part of the reason that Deathdream has captivated audiences throughout the last thirty years is the understated and creepy way in which it unfolds. Although evident from the first few scenes, the film never explicitly reveals that Andy is actually dead until more than halfway through, adding a level of ambiguity to his sinister actions. This charges the film with a sense of mystery and encourages the audience to piece together the plot themselves. Although effective as a flat-out horror film, Deathdream was also one of the first films to be critical of the Vietnam War, focusing on the lingering effects of the conflict on soldiers returning to America. The stress disorders and drug addiction that many veterans experienced are alluded to, but more importantly, this film is filled with sense that the war has changed not only Andy, but the entire country. Ormsby’s screenplay portrays Andy as the ultimate corrupted innocent, a survivor (although not in the strictest sense of the word) of an experience that literally left him dead inside.” – Canuxploitation
Genres: Horror, Zombie, Canuxploitation, Vampire, Psychological Horror
2005 / USA / 107m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon Zombie, William Forsythe, Ken Foree, Matthew McGrory, Leslie Easterbrook, Geoffrey Lewis, Priscilla Barnes, Dave Sheridan
“The Devil’s Rejects is a visceral little film that reverberates with nasty attitude, a knowing smirk, and a demented gleam of the eyes. That said, this is not a film for everyone. It’s a hard R, filled with disturbing imagery and f@#k laced spurts of dialogue, but it’s all part of the package and those who get it, however, will be treated to a high-octane thriller that operates on a much deeper level than your average slash-and-gore film. In the end it’s not only a perversely entertaining yarn, but a wickedly intelligent one, as well; a film that is destined to become a cult classic of the highest caliber.” – Spence D., IGN
Genres: Sadistic Horror, Hixploitation, Road Movie, Black Comedy, Vigilante
2000 / USA / 102m / Col / Black Comedy | IMDb
Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage, Chloë Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, Samantha Mathis, Matt Ross, Jared Leto, Willem Dafoe
“[American Psycho] regards the male executive lifestyle with the devotion of a fetishist. There is a scene where a group of businessmen compare their business cards, discussing the wording, paper thickness, finish, embossing, engraving and typefaces, and they might as well be discussing their phalli… It is their uneasy secret that they make enough money to afford to look important, but are not very important… I have overheard debates about whether some of the murders are fantasies (“can a man really aim a chain saw that well?”). All of the murders are equally real or unreal, and that isn’t the point: The function of the murders is to make visible the frenzy of the territorial male when his will is frustrated.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Genres: Black Comedy, Satire, Psychological Thriller, Crime, Slasher, Postmodernism
2009 / Denmark / 108m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Storm Acheche Sahlstrøm
“Antichrist is a boldly personal film, tossing all von Trier’s ideas about faith, fear, and human nature into an unfettered phantasmagoria, full of repulsive visions and fierce scorn. It’s also the most lush-looking movie von Trier has made in about 20 years. Antichrist starts with a gorgeous black-and-white prologue—spiked, in typical von Trier perversity, with explicit sex and operatic tragedy—then moves to woodland sequences where the edges of the frame look subtly distorted… Cinema’s leading Brechtian wouldn’t seem like the best choice for a visceral examination of real emotional pain, but von Trier makes Antichrist about how aesthetic control can be as impotent as therapeutic control when it comes to dealing with nature at its wildest.” – Noel Murray, A.V. Club
Genres: Psychological Horror, Psychological Drama, Folk Horror, Surrealism, Sadistic Horror, Family Drama, Body Horror, Natural Horror, Chamber Film
1992 / USA / 81m / Col / Comedy | IMDb
Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie, Richard Grove, Timothy Patrick Quill, Michael Earl Reid, Bridget Fonda, Patricia Tallman, Ted Raimi
“It would be wildly easy for this to turn into something sour and cynical, to the point where it would be almost unbearable to watch. The only reason it doesn’t is because of how much joy is going into the project: Army of Darkness is a movie’s movie, cheerfully referencing the great Jason and the Argonauts, and lingering over its vibrantly cheesy special effects with real, obvious love for the sets and monsters it evokes. I is a celebration of artifice and spooky atmospherics, refusing to take its content seriously mostly because it’s so pleased to have fun, and if that leaves it the shallowest of the Evil Dead trilogy, it is nonetheless maybe the most wholly charming.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Genres: Fantasy, Comedy, Adventure, Medieval, Horror Comedy, Slapstick, Supernatural Horror, Sword and Sorcery, Time Travel, Black Comedy, Stop-Motion, Siege Film, Absurdist Comedy, Action, Zombie
1997 / USA / 96m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson, Richard T. Jones, Jack Noseworthy, Jason Isaacs, Sean Pertwee, Peter Marinker, Holley Chant
“What saves Event Horizon from becoming some hokey Amityville Horror in space is the realistic performances of the cast—including Joely Richardson (Vanessa Redgrave’s daughter) and Apollo 13’s Kathleen Quinlan—and the strong element of psychological horror built into the script by first-time screenwriter Philip Eisner. Director Paul Anderson (Mortal Kombat) knows precisely when to insert action elements to beef up the film’s terror quotient, and its atmospheric art direction and meticulous production design—which is on a par with that of the great-looking Alien films—makes the spooks-in-space idea frighteningly believable.” – Steve Newton, Georgia Straight
Genres: Science Fiction, Cosmic Horror, Supernatural Horror, Space Exploration, Splatter, Psychological Horror, Body Horror, Mystery, Techno-Horror, Haunted House
2001 / USA / 100m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Matt O’Leary, Jeremy Sumpter, Luke Askew, Levi Kreis, Derk Cheetwood, Missy Crider, Alan Davidson
“A resoundingly old-fashioned and well crafted study of evil infecting an American family, “Frailty” moves from strength to strength on its deceptive narrative course. Though Brent Hanley’s script feels like it’s based on an account of white Anglo-Saxon serial killers run amok in middle America, it’s a genuine invention that has its cinematic roots in the rich soil plowed by such disparate works as Charles Laughton’s “Night of the Hunter” and Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Pic’s dark-night-of-the-soul mood derives from the former, while the latter inspired the notion that the family that kills together stays together. Final effect is of a timeless work that could have been made at any point in the past 20 years.” – Robert Koehler, Variety
Genres: Psychological Thriller, Southern Gothic, Psychological Horror, Family Drama, Drama, Low Fantasy, Vigilante
1994 / USA / 123m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Brad Pitt, Christian Slater, Virginia McCollam, John McConnell, Tom Cruise, Mike Seelig, Bellina Logan, Thandie Newton, Lyla Hay Owen, Lee E. Scharfstein
“For all its queasy scenes of rat-eating and throat-slashings, “Interview” isn’t a horror movie. It’s not meant to scare, because we’re asked to identify with the vampires, not their victims. The dramatic problem Jordan can’t quite surmount is that there isn’t a whole lot at stake. Can a murderer hold on to his scruples, or will he succumb to the emptiness of immortal vampire life? Yet I found myself admiring Jordan’s brave attempt to translate Rice’s kinky fatalism to the screen. This is not a movie that holds up under daytime logic. It’s about seduction, and either you succumb to its inky entrapments or you resist. When its mojo was working, I was happy to be had.” – David Ansen, Newsweek
Genres: Vampire, Drama, Southern Gothic, Gothic Horror, Period Drama
2006 / USA / 92m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Nathan Baesel, Angela Goethals, Robert Englund, Scott Wilson, Zelda Rubinstein, Bridgett Newton, Kate Miner, Ben Pace, Britain Spellings, Hart Turner
“Once Vernon gets into character and stalks his prey, he’s a force to be reckoned with, and no one will stand in his way. The last act plays out how we suspect, but we’re left wondering if it will play as Leslie hopes or in a completely different manner. You can pretend to know what’s coming, but you don’t know shit. Either way, we’re left with one final satisfaction; Glosserman has given us a surefire horror classic, and I couldn’t be happier. And for the love of god, stick around after the credits. As a hardcore fan of the slasher genre, “Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon” is a wet dream of a slasher re-construction that sets itself apart from every other slasher film ever made. Compared to this, “Scream” is pure child’s play, a wannabe that states the obvious. “Behind the Mask” is a pure horror film masterpiece, and slasher fans would be best to acknowledge it.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
Genres: Mockumentary, Slasher, Satire, Black Comedy, Postmodernism, Mumblecore
2005 / USA / 94m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eythor Gudjonsson, Barbara Nedeljakova, Jan Vlasák, Jana Kaderabkova, Jennifer Lim, Keiko Seiko, Lubomír Bukový
“Eli Roth’s “Hostel” is an agonizing experience to sit through – disheartening, unpleasant, bursting with torture, detached and harsh, and unrelenting in its passion for the horrific. To call it a challenge in the visual sense does not begin to explain its ability to completely rob you of the comfort of artifice; it so fully indulges in its reality that every cut, every bloodcurdling moment in which pain is inflicted on a number of unsuspecting victims, is felt rather than seen. That may rob the movie of repeat value even in the hands of audiences who willingly embrace this overzealous sub-genre of torture-driven horror, but it does provoke deeper considerations: in the hands of skilled filmmakers who know how to establish reason and perspective, can extreme visual depravity rise above its nature to merely sicken and appall?” – David Keyes, Cinemaphile
Genres: Sadistic Horror, Splatter, Thriller, Black Comedy
1972 / Spain / 101m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Lone Fleming, César Burner, María Elena Arpón, José Thelman, Rufino Inglés, Verónica Llimera, Simón Arriaga, Francisco Sanz, Juan Cortés, Andrés Isbert
“The film is not, of course, flawless; like just about every other genre film made on that continent in that time period, the plot is too flimsy to withstand even a slight breeze of scrutiny (there’s a whole entire subplot involving Virginia’s ultimate fate that is of nearly no value to the story whatsoever), and most of the characters are die-cut from cardboard, although Bet is surely a more rounded figure than we often see in these films, and reasonably well performed. But honestly, no sane person goes into a film like this for the story. They go for the atmosphere, the terror, and the zombies, and all three of those things are in peak form here. As the kick-off to the European zombie film, Tombs is just about the finest example of the form that I have ever seen.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Genres:
1988 / USA / 95m / Col / Body Horror | IMDb
Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith, Donovan Leitch Jr., Jeffrey DeMunn, Candy Clark, Joe Seneca, Del Close, Paul McCrane, Sharon Spelman, Beau Billingslea
“Isolationism and false security are as much the targets of the ’88 model blob as hobos and horny jocks. For Russell and screenwriter Frank Darabont (whose The Majestic probably could’ve used an extended cameo by the flesh-eating distention), all are red herrings, and all meaning ascribed unto the attacks is strictly external to the creature itself, which only wants to eat people, and messily at that; the film belongs to the spectacular end of a special-effects era prior to the advent of CGI, and the half-campy, half-terrifying blob attacks are invariably lurid fun. Its attacks are rationalized through the corrupt filter of organized religion, though the blob is still a biological phenomenon, much like the disease that inspired so many activists to wear pink and take to the streets in protest over a needlessly politicized epidemic. Yes, the movie is more overt fun than the others of its ilk, but it tellingly ends with a holy man all too thrilled to deliver credit for the scourge directly to God’s doorstep.” – Eric Henderson, House Next Door
Genres: Body Horror, Science Fiction, Alien Invasion, Splatter, Teen Movie, Black Comedy, Giant Monster
1980 / USA / 87m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Joe Spinell, Caroline Munro, Abigail Clayton, Kelly Piper, Rita Montone, Tom Savini, Hyla Marrow, James L. Brewster, Linda Lee Walter, Tracie Evans
“Lustig’s film depicts this lunatic in a somewhat compassionate light, making sure to complement Zito’s grisly slayings with moments of schizophrenic introspection as he mumbles to himself about the childhood abuse that scarred his psyche. Spinell and C.A. Rosenberg’s script, however, stops short of trying to elicit outright sympathy, a wise decision given Zito’s bloody habit of stabbing whores in seedy motel rooms – an act that, like so many of his killings, has an overt sexual component – and shooting lovers at point blank range with a shotgun (leading to horror make-up expert Tom Savini’s infamous exploding head cameo). Spinell’s committed performance as the slovenly, misogynistic fiend has a frenzied intensity that only somewhat compensates for the implausible plot, which eventually involves Zito’s relationship with a way-out-of-his-league photographer. But as a grimy snapshot of early ‘80s Manhattan and an unapologetically twisted study in pathological murderousness, Maniac still exhibits a hideous pulse.” – Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness
Genres: Horror, Splatter, Psychological Horror, Slasher
1985 / Italy / 88m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny, Fiore Argento, Paola Cozzo, Fabiola Toledo, Nicoletta Elmi, Stelio Candelli, Nicole Tessier, Geretta Geretta
“Sure, when you break it down nothing about this movie (co-written by Dario Argento) makes a lick of sense, but none of that matters at all because Bava throws so much unmitigated carnage, and havoc, and blood, and rage, and sheer terror at the screen that it just becomes a minute flaw. In the midst of these clawed, mindless, merciless, cunning monsters mutilating and tearing their poor human victims to pieces one is either too excited or horrified at the madness ensuing on screen that you never once stop to think “Wait–where is the goddamn story?” It doesn’t matter at all. Lamberto Bava is one of the few directors who have gotten away with creating a horror film with zero plot because the special effects and tension and mayhem are so well played and so brilliantly crafted that it becomes utterly irrelevant. For a low budget movie from the eighties, the make up is phenomenal and these monsters look absolutely bloodcurdling as if transferred from our worst nightmares and fears.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
Genres: Splatter, Supernatural Horror, Body Horror, Zombie
1983 / USA / 103m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Anthony Zerbe, Colleen Dewhurst, Martin Sheen, Nicholas Campbell, Sean Sullivan, Jackie Burroughs
“It makes for gripping supernatural drama, all the more notable because it wasn’t quite what any of the principals had done before or since. Walken rarely gets a chance to play Ordinary Guy like he does here, while Cronenberg’s penchant for the weird and obtuse is abandoned without losing the exquisite sensibilities that make him such a great filmmaker. Even King moved in a slightly different direction with this one, staying away from straight-up horror for one of the first times in its career. It kind of sneaks up on you. This is not a noisy film, and won’t attract the kind of spotlights that an evil Plymouth or rabid St. Bernard might. But it delves deeper than they do for its ideas, and travels much further as a result.” – Rob Vaux, Mania.com
Genres: Low Fantasy, Drama, Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Political Thriller, Psychological Drama
1976 / USA / 98m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Linda Miller, Mildred Clinton, Paula E. Sheppard, Niles McMaster, Jane Lowry, Rudolph Willrich, Michael Hardstark, Alphonso DeNoble, Gary Allen, Brooke Shields
“Alice, Sweet Alice conflates the angst of adolescent sexual development with the fury of Catholic retribution, suggesting at times an analog version of David Fincher’s Se7en. It’s a dangerous combo, and it’s all over the fierce confrontations between the film’s characters and director Alfred Sole’s surprisingly formalist compositions. Indeed, there isn’t a scene in the film that doesn’t suggest a face-off between man and God—by my count, there’s only a handful of shots that don’t have a cross or statue of Christ passing judgment from some wall or corner of a room. Possibly the closet American relation to an Italian giallo, the film is head-trippingly hilarious (Jane Lowry, as Aunt Annie, may be the nuttiest screamer in the history of cinema) and features some of the more disquieting set pieces you’ll ever see in a horror film.” – Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Genres:
1988 / Canada / 116m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold, Heidi von Palleske, Barbara Gordon, Shirley Douglas, Stephen Lack, Nick Nichols, Lynne Cormack, Damir Andrei, Miriam Newhouse
“[Cronenberg] clearly understands that a small amount of medical mischief can be more unnerving than conventional grisliness. Even the film’s opening credits, which present antiquated obstetrical drawings and strange medical instruments, are enough to make audiences queasy. Who, then, will be drawn to this spectacle? Anyone with a taste for the macabre wit, the weird poignancy and the shifting notions of identity that lend ‘Dead Ringers’ such fascination. And anyone who cares to see Jeremy Irons’s seamless performance, a schizophrenic marvel, in the two title roles. Mr. Cronenberg has shaped a startling tale of physical and psychic disintegration, pivoting on the twins’ hopeless interdependence and playing havoc with the viewer’s grip on reality.” – Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Genres:
1987 / Italy / 107m / Col / Giallo | IMDb
Cristina Marsillach, Ian Charleson, Urbano Barberini, Daria Nicolodi, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Antonella Vitale, William McNamara, Barbara Cupisti
“Opera is a violent aria of memory, bad luck, the artistic drive and the horror of the stare. Betty (Cristina Marsillach) is haunted by memories of her dead mother, once an opera diva herself. Argento’s flashback sequences are predictably opaque. Secret corridors and staircases run alongside both Betty’s apartment and the film’s opera house, evoking the secret recesses of the subconscious. An image of a pulsating brain (here, a visual signifier of the girl’s Freudian despair) precedes images of a killing spree that imply that the girl’s mother may have been more than a passive victim… [In the finale] it really looks as if the heroine has cracked. Take Opera as the last time the great Argento was cracked himself.” – Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Genres:
1972 / UK / 92m / Col / Anthology | IMDb
Ralph Richardson, Geoffrey Bayldon, Joan Collins, Martin Boddey, Chloe Franks, Oliver MacGreevy, Ian Hendry, Susan Denny, Angela Grant, Peter Cushing
“Subotsky bought the movie rights for all the E. C. horror titles from their publisher, William M. Gaines, and “Tales from the Crypt” is the first film made from the material. It’s put together something like the comic books, with the old Crypt Keeper acting as host and narrator… The five stories all work on the principle that an evildoer should be punished ironically by his own misdeed… The direction is by Freddie Francis, who has something of a cult following among horror fans, and the visuals and decor have been planned in bright basic colors and gray, so they look something like comic panels. One further note: If Santa Claus knocks at your door tonight, don’t answer.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Genres:
1984 / UK / 95m / Col / Werewolf | IMDb
Angela Lansbury, David Warner, Graham Crowden, Brian Glover, Kathryn Pogson, Stephen Rea, Tusse Silberg, Micha Bergese, Sarah Patterson, Georgia Slowe
“The movie is based on a novel and a screenplay by Angela Carter, who has taken Red Riding Hood as a starting-place for the stories, which are secretly about the fearsomeness of sexuality. She has shown us what those scary fairy tales are really telling us; she has filled in the lines and visualized the parts that the Brothers Grimm left out (and they did not leave out all that many parts). The movie has an uncanny, hypnotic force; we always know what is happening, but we rarely know why, or how it connects with anything else, or how we can escape from it, or why it seems to correspond so deeply with our guilts and fears. That is, of course, almost a definition of a nightmare.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Genres:
2006 / South Korea / 120m / Col / Monster | IMDb
Kang-ho Song, Hie-bong Byeon, Hae-il Park, Doona Bae, Ah-sung Ko, Dal-su Oh, Jae-eung Lee, Dong-ho Lee, Je-mun Yun, David Anselmo
“The mood shifts wildly between comedy, horror, serious drama, and action – but Bong always seems in control and by the end leaves one feeling satisfied (though not overstuffed) with the results as it’s both exciting and ballsy. Even our protagonists have an endearing everydayness about them which makes them easy to root for. In spite of its assorted lumpy bits, this is a far more successful monster movie than any creature feature Hollywood has churned out in a LONG time.” – Garth Franklin, Dark Horizons
Genres: Giant Monster, Drama, Black Comedy, Satire, Thriller, Family Drama, Natural Horror
1994 / USA / 112m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Jeff Davis, Heather Langenkamp, Miko Hughes, Matt Winston, Rob LaBelle, David Newsom, Wes Craven, Marianne Maddalena, Gretchen Oehler, Tracy Middendorf
“Ten years after ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ first scared the daylights out of audiences, Wes Craven returns to his now classic horror premise and takes it to a new dimension. With equal debts to Pirandello and P. T. Barnum, Mr. Craven brings his prize creation, Freddy Krueger, out of the realm of Halloween masks and into the so-called real world. Realism is fundamental to the “Nightmare” series. Mr. Craven does not deal chiefly in phantasmagoric demons; he deals in terrifying extensions of everyday experience, the stuff of which true nightmares are made.” – Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Genres:
1997 / Canada / 90m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Maurice Dean Wint, David Hewlett, Nicole de Boer, Nicky Guadagni, Andrew Miller, Julian Richings, Wayne Robson
“When one slows down to consider the amount of energy and planning that had to go into setting up shots and piecing them together and focusing on just the right bits of the walls to make sure that scenes would flow right, and transition from one to the other properly, Cube can only be regarded as a titanic masterpiece of resource management. That’s just about the least sexy thing you could ever praise a filmmaker for doing, but making the movie this seamless required tremendous skill and attention, and at the level of pure craftsmanship, Cube is among the most genuinely impressive low-budget films that I have ever seen.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Genres: Science Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Death Game, Psychological Horror, Chamber Film, Survival, Prison Film
1960 / UK / 85m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Peter Cushing, Martita Hunt, Yvonne Monlaur, Freda Jackson, David Peel, Miles Malleson, Henry Oscar, Mona Washbourne, Andree Melly, Victor Brooks
“Terence Fisher proves just as adept at action in this film as he was with atmosphere and space in the original, resulting in a tremendously exciting climax with just enough imagination to leave us unconcerned about how much it borrows from other sources. Besides that, Brides is not just the equal of Dracula as a triumph of craftsmanship; in at least one important way, it’s a major step up. Though the film is still lighter than the modern viewer would think proper, it offers a much deeper collection of musty shadows than the first film had, and a crazy motif of colorful detail lighting that makes no sense in a strictly motivational way (i.e. there’s no reason that bright green lights should pour out of the inn’s back rooms), but serves a much greater purpose in showing just how off-kilter and nightmarish this whole Gothic world really is.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Genres:
1979 / USA / 117m / Col / Haunted House | IMDb
James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don Stroud, Murray Hamilton, John Larch, Natasha Ryan, K.C. Martel, Meeno Peluce, Michael Sacks
“The Amityville Horror has reached classic status not only among the “ghost story” freaks but among most horror freaks that I have had the pleasure of coming in contact with – and I believe it has earned that status. Even though the film is a little dated, The Amityville Horror stills succeeds in what the film makers set out to accomplish. It still gives you that creepy, eerie feeling that every good ghost story should create.” – Lee Roberts, Best Horror Movies
Genres: Haunted House, Psychological Horror
1929 / France / 16m / BW / Surrealism | IMDb
Simone Mareuil, Pierre Batcheff
“Not only was ‘Un Chien Andalou’ Buñuel’s first film, but also his first collaboration with Salvador Dali (with whom he worked again a year later on L’Âge d’Or). His stated intention was ‘to admit no idea, no image for which there might be rational, psychological or cultural explanation’ – and even if some of the film’s bourgeoisie-baiting and psycho-sexual imagery is far from opaque, Buñuel has created an enigmatic and uncanny stream of (sub)consciousness which continues even today to exert its influence on the dark imaginings of both cinemagoers and cinema itself. For, apart from showing filmmakers just how dreams can be realised on celluloid, ‘Un Chien Andalou’ is arguably the reason that we all dream in black and white. – Movie Gazette
Genres: Surrealist Movement, Experimental, Dada, Horror
1966 / UK / 91m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
André Morell, Diane Clare, Brook Williams, Jacqueline Pearce, John Carson, Alexander Davion, Michael Ripper, Marcus Hammond, Dennis Chinnery, Louis Mahoney
“Plague of the Zombies plays the sort of inventive games with the concept of zombification that you rarely see now that the zombie movie has become a fully-fledged sub-genre. Brought back to life by Caribbean witchcraft, the white eyed, grey skinned creatures of the title sit somewhere between the voodoo-revived corpses of 1940s Val Lewton and the living dead to come of George Romero and his imitators. The mystery here is not what is happening – a pre-title sequence confirms voodoo is at work in this small Cornish town and reveals who it’s being used on – but why local people are being systematically led to their deaths and transformed into undead shells of their former selves.” – Slarek, CineOutsider
Genres: Gothic Horror, Zombie, Voodoo Zombie, Supernatural Horror
1924 / Austria / 92m / BW / Psychological | IMDb
Conrad Veidt, Alexandra Sorina, Fritz Kortner, Carmen Cartellieri, Fritz Strassny, Paul Askonas, Hans Homma
“The larger brush strokes of the narrative are eminently engrossing and chilling, focusing on Orlac’s mental anguish and on the gathering mystery of a regularly reappearing figure who may or may not be the dead Vasseur. There is more to the story than first meets the eye, and while I expect opinions about the film’s ending may vary quite a lot, it is not lacking in ingenuity. The Hands of Orlac is not about story, though, it’s about mood, a quality which it has in abundance. The situation is disconcerting enough in itself, but it’s brought home by Wiene’s breathtakingly sinister images, which reek of dark mystery and corpselike pallor. The sets, despite their verisimilitude, are just strange enough to insinuate their way into being yet another component in the frightening atmosphere, often looking as though rooms and alleyways are suspended in blackest space, isolated and terrifying to anyone who dares enter.” – Anton Mistlake, Mistlake’s Blog
Genres: German Expressionism, Psychological Horror, Mystery, Body Horror, Psychological Drama
1983 / UK / 97m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, Cliff De Young, Beth Ehlers, Dan Hedaya, Rufus Collins, Suzanne Bertish, James Aubrey, Ann Magnuson
“It’s a largely sensual movie, in both senses of that word: it is about experiencing moments communicated through just about every means other than sensible character psychology. I can easily understand why somebody would find the movie accordingly hollow and annoying in its hip violence, but for horror to have this kind of impressionist impact, it must be doing something great, even if that something isn’t quite in line with the film’s intimations that it wants to be about human experiences of sex and longing (the “hunger” of the title”). It’s one of the most viscerally impressive horror movies of the ’80s, it plays the “tragic sexual vampire” card without defanging the monsters, and it’s consistently gorgeous – I can’t quite decide whether The Hunger is successful at being the exact film it sets out to be, but it is a very successful film of some sort, and that’s close enough.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Genres: Vampire, Romance, Gothic, Erotica, Gothic Horror, LGBTQ
1931 / Germany / 117m / BW / Crime | IMDb
Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke, Theodor Loos, Gustaf Gründgens, Friedrich Gnaß, Fritz Odemar, Paul Kemp, Theo Lingen
“Building its story on visual rhymes that are carried by dialogue that periodically turns into offscreen narration, and fusing the two great traditions of silent film–montage/ editing and camera movement/mise en scene–this astonishing movie represents an unsurpassed grand synthesis of storytelling. Lang himself correctly maintained to the end of his life that M was his best film–not so much for its formal beauty as for the social analysis that its form articulates.” – Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Genres: Crime, Thriller, Straßenfilm, Police Procedural, German Expressionism, Gangster Film, Film noir
1960 / USA / 79m / BW / Gothic | IMDb
Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey, Harry Ellerbe
“Price is his usual impressive self as the almost certainly incestuously inclined Roderick Usher who, having buried his sister alive when she falls into a cataleptic trance, becomes the victim of her ghostly revenge; but it is Corman’s overall direction that lends the film its intelligence and power. The sickly decadence and claustrophobia of the Usher household – which is both disturbed and temporarily cleansed by the fresh air that accompanies Damon’s arrival as suitor to Madeline Usher – is admirably evoked by Floyd Crosby’s ‘Scope photography and Daniel Haller’s art direction, the latter’s sets dominated by a putrid, bloody crimson. But Richard Matheson’s script is also exemplary: lucid, imaginatively detailed and subtle.” – Time Out
Genres:
2016 / South Korea / 118m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Yoo Gong, Soo-an Kim, Yu-mi Jung, Dong-seok Ma, Woo-sik Choi, Sohee, Eui-sung Kim, Gwi-hwa Choi, Terri Doty, Jang Hyuk-Jin
“Crucially, [director] Yeon has come up with a take on zombies that is rooted deep in the genre but still feels innovative. Like Romero’s undead, these are an inescapable evil spreading across the world to offer a sly commentary on our modern society… Yeon establishes himself as a gifted action director: one mid-journey stop at an apparently deserted station turns into a terrifying set-piece that’s among the year’s best. But it’s a slow struggle through carriages full of infected people to reach a stranded loved one that really stands out… In the end, Yeon goes back to the human story and delivers a surprisingly emotional climax. It may seem like a shift of tone, but maybe family ties were the point all along.” – Helen O’Hara, Empire Magazine
Genres: Zombie, Thriller, Survival, Epidemic, Horror, Train Movie, Action, Drama, Family Drama
1896 / France / 3m / BW / Haunted House | IMDb
Jeanne d’Alcy, Georges Méliès
“Le Manoir du Diable (The Devil’s Manor) is considered the first horror film ever produced. The debut of director Georges Méliès, it premiered in 1896 at the Theatre Robert Houdin on Christmas Eve… In the year 1896, the castle brimmed with cinematographic significance. Not only is the castle the perfect environment for horror elements to manifest, but it’s a fitting battleground for a confrontation between the cavaliers and Mephistopheles. Symbolically, their confrontation is much more than the conquest of good over evil. It represents the impact of monumental changes in technology on Western civilization, and the supremacy of Christian values against impending revolution. It also reduces the magnitude of its own symbolic importance as the first horror film to a comical satire–revealing its self-awareness and both reveling in and ridiculing the genre conventions.” – Gregory LaFata, Fear Central
Genres: Haunted House, Trick Film, Vampire, Gothic Horror, Comedy
2012 / USA / 110m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, Fred Dalton Thompson, James Ransone, Michael Hall D’Addario, Clare Foley, Rob Riley, Tavis Smiley, Janet Zappala, Victoria Leigh
“Put them all together and they make Sinister the horror film to beat this Halloween: scary and suspenseful without insulting our intelligence. The underlying concept proves sound, the development deftly avoids genre cliché, and the twist builds upon what came before instead of trying to blow our minds at any cost. It pulls threads from earlier horror movies like Ringu and The Shining, but remains beholden to none of them: creating an atmosphere that, while not completely original, remains resolutely its own. And good God, it actually comes from an original script. In an era (and a genre) littered with sequels, Sinister should be commended for standing by its ideas. It’s scary as fuck too: the only criteria that really matters for a movie like this.” – Rob Vaux, Mania
Genres: Supernatural Horror, Mystery, Haunted House, Found Footage Horror, Psychological Horror, Crime, Snuff Film, Analog Horror, Digital Horror
2010 / South Korea / 142m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Byung-hun Lee, Min-sik Choi, In-seo Kim, Seung-ah Yoon, San-ha Oh, Chun Ho-jin, Bo-ra Nam, Kap-su Kim, Jin-ho Choi, Moo-Seong Choi
“I SAW THE DEVIL is a shockingly violent and stunningly accomplished tale of murder and revenge. The embodiment of pure evil, Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. On a freezing, snowy night, his latest victim is the beautiful Juyeon, daughter of a retired police chief and pregnant fiancée of elite special agent Soo-hyun. Obsessed with revenge, Soo-hyun is determined to track down the murderer, even if doing so means becoming a monster himself. And when he finds Kyung-chul, turning him in to the authorities is the last thing on his mind, as the lines between good and evil fall away in this diabolically twisted game of cat and mouse.” – Gabriel Chong, Moviexclusive
Genres: Thriller, Crime, Vigilante, Sadistic Horror, Neo-Noir
2008 / USA / 85m / Col / Found Footage | IMDb
Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Annable, Anjul Nigam, Margot Farley, Theo Rossi, Brian Klugman
“Reeves, who’s been near anonymous in the pre-release hype, is masterful at choosing shots without appearing to do so. We view this unlovely goliath from all angles – a fleeting leg here, full-length in crafty helicopter shots on news footage there – but he’s even more effective as an unseen presence. There’s equal, if not more, dread in hearing furious roars as our band cowers in a side street, watching the military throwing everything they have uselessly at the beast. This is as much a triumph of sound design as of seamlessly blended CG and unsettling camerawork. Wise to the fact that the most frightening attack is the one without apparent reason, Cloverfield never chooses to explain its monster’s arrival. It’s suddenly there and, as one soldier notes, “it’s winning”. It intends to scare, not educate. The constant air of panic is so pervasive that it’s easy to miss the skilful creation of the sequences, which include a rescue from a collapsing skyscraper and a tunnel sequence so butt-clenching you’ll crap diamonds for a week.” – Olly Richards, Empire Magazine
Genres: Giant Monster, Disaster, Found Footage Horror, Thriller, Alien Invasion, Action, Cosmic Horror
2009 / USA / 88m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Amber Heard, Bill Murray, Derek Graf
“You could argue that the film is really about ‘family’ or ‘friendship’ or ‘romance’ or ‘finding acceptance’, because these are the elements that make up life, and thus, are the building blocks of most stories. But, life in Zombieland isn’t exactly life at all. Our four protagonists struggle to find normalcy in their situation, and although they succeed to a certain degree, it is only once they learn to accept (and enjoy) the disemboweling of their undead enemies. No, this film is not some Michael Haneke-esque lecture condemning audiences for enjoying the violence within. It is a celebration. It’s nice to see a movie in which the very fabric of society falls apart, yet humanity still soldiers on; not through feats of extreme bravery or powerful self-sacrifice, but through a sense of humour.” – Simon Miraudo, Quickflix
Genres: Zombie, Comedy, Road Movie, Post-Apocalyptic, Action, Horror Comedy, Epidemic, Black Comedy, Survival
2007 / USA / 116m / Col / Musical | IMDb
Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jamie Campbell Bower, Laura Michelle Kelly, Jayne Wisener, Ed Sanders, Gracie May
“In lesser films, songs can prove to be an alienation device by emphasising the constructed artifice of the film, foregrounding the performance aspect and losing the audience’s belief in the onscreen events. Here, they fit in seamlessly as part of the cohesive and bold direction from Burton. The calibre of acting is uniformly sublime from the veteran thespians to the younger performers. Depp and Bonham Carter complement each other well as the devious couple, their sunken eyes often saying more than several pages of script. Similarly, Burton’s expressionistic landscapes also convey a great deal, with the rare flashes of bright colour serving a narrative function by transporting us into the warmer memories of Barker/Todd. They also highlight the brutal barber’s potential for compassion and good, eroded by the injustices of humanity.” – Ben Rawson-Jones, Digital Spy
Genres:
1982 / Italy / 101m / Col / Giallo | IMDb
Anthony Franciosa, Christian Borromeo, Mirella D’Angelo, Veronica Lario, Ania Pieroni, Eva Robin’s, Carola Stagnaro, John Steiner, Lara Wendel, John Saxon
“The film synthesizes all the familiar Argento motifs (psycho killers, bloody violence, convoluted plot twists, pulse pounding music) into an almost perfect symphony of fear that overcomes many of his traditional shortcomings (credibility and characterization). The truly impressive achievement of this movie is that it is not just a collection of outrageous set pieces, tied together by an off-the-wall plot; it is a compact, tightly structured unit that attacks the viewer’s comfort zone with all the precision of a deftly wielded scalpel.” – Steve Biodrowski, Cinefantastique
Genres: Giallo, Psychological Thriller, Horror, Splatter, Crime
1973 / UK / 95m / Col / Haunted House | IMDb
Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, Gayle Hunnicutt, Roland Culver, Peter Bowles
“Relying upon suggestion and anxious anticipation over violence, “The Legend of Hell House” earns a fair share of chills, many of them dealing in the expert use of shadows (one on the ceiling, another silhouetted through a shower curtain) to depict the mind games played by its encroaching apparitions. As spiritually open communicator Florence Tanner, Pamela Franklin is a standout among the above-average cast, charismatic, vulnerable and emotionally riveting in equal measure. Drenched in atmosphere and fog (and little exterior moonlight, as every nighttime establishing shot oddly appears to have been shot in the middle of the day), the film is adeptly made, if noticeably laid-back.” – Dustin Putman, The Movie Boy
Genres:
1989 / Japan / 67m / Col / Body Horror | IMDb
Tomorowo Taguchi, Kei Fujiwara, Nobu Kanaoka, Shin’ya Tsukamoto, Naomasa Musaka, Renji Ishibashi
“Though it may just seem like one big geek show gross out, Tetsuo: The Iron Man is actually a movie about revenge. It’s about man’s revenge against man, technology’s revenge against humans, nature’s revenge against technology and the neverending revenge between elements of karma and the primal forces of the universe. It’s a sick, cyclical meditation on physicality, mixing imagery both derivative and disgusting. It plays tricks with cinematic convention, drops narrative in favor of nastiness, and always manages to make sense, even if it is in its own obtuse, offensive way. It’s part comic book, part alien autopsy, and all visual violence, laced with enough wicked cinematic style to make other wannabe cyberpunks pale in comparison.” – Bill Gibron, DVDTalk
Genres: Body Horror, Surrealism, Cyberpunk, Experimental, Techno-Horror, Pixilation, Psychological Horror
2006 / Canada / 95m / Col / Body Horror | IMDb
Don Thompson, Nathan Fillion, Gregg Henry, Xantha Radley, Elizabeth Banks, Tania Saulnier, Dustin Milligan, Michael Rooker, Haig Sutherland, Jennifer Copping
“It’s no surprise that the majority of laughs are ably captured by Fillion, showing off the knack for deadpan delivery previously tapped by Joss Whedon in Serenity. As Pardy, he fills out the role of an unlikely hero dealing with extraordinary events, bringing bumbling affability to a part that could so easily have been lost to square jaws, steely eyes and other clumsy stereotypes. Tipping its hat at everything from the original Puppet Masters to bargain-bin trash like Ted Nicolaou’s TerrorVision, Slither is a carefully crafted parody (the Predator nod in particular will bring a smile to your face). But this is the scalpel to the Scary Movie series’ bludgeoning sledgehammer, skirting cheap imitation in favour of affectionate irreverence and managing to produce a genre hybrid that’s far more than the sum of its pilfered parts.” – James Dyer, Empire Magazine
Genres: Body Horror, Zombie, Alien Invasion, Comedy, Horror Comedy, Science Fiction, Splatter, Black Comedy
1986 / USA / 85m / Col / Body Horror | IMDb
Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ted Sorel, Ken Foree, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Bunny Summers, Bruce McGuire, Del Russel, Dale Wyatt, Karen Christenfeld
“From Beyond is an updated adaptation of an old H. P. Lovecraft tale about those malignant creatures that share our world, unseen, existing in their fourth dimension just waiting to get back into ours. With the help of computer technology and something called a ”resonator,” Dr. Pretorious has provided the means by which these beings can return… The film’s most spectacular moments belong to the sebaceous cyst school of special effects, pioneered in ”Alien” and in the films of David Cronenberg: lumps, on or in various parts of the body, which swell up and then burst to reveal something oozily unspeakable within.” – Vincent Canby, New York Times
Genres:
1978 / USA / 101m / Col / Rape and Revenge | IMDb
Camille Keaton, Eron Tabor, Richard Pace, Anthony Nichols, Gunter Kleemann, Alexis Magnotti, Tammy Zarchi, Terry Zarchi, Traci Ferrante, William Tasgal
“Man and nature are both all-consuming in Meir Zarchi’s landmark horror film I Spit on Your Grave, seamlessly surrounding attractive young novelist Jennifer Hills (Camille Keaton) as she drives deep into the New York countryside to escape the hustle and bustle of urban life. It’s hard not to admire Zarchi’s disavowal of substantive character traits and narrative foundation for thematic shock and awe. His film oozes with aggression from all sides, taking form in the sharp reds, blacks, and greens of the film diverse chromatic scale. One can’t mistake I Spit in Your Grave for anything other than a raging political text, a rigorous reminder to the power of a disturbed imagination, be it victimizer or victim.” – Glenn Heath Jr, Slant Magazine
Genres:
1986 / USA / 88m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Jason Lively, Steve Marshall, Jill Whitlow, Tom Atkins, Wally Taylor, Bruce Solomon, Vic Polizos, Allan Kayser, Ken Heron, Alice Cadogan
“The film builds up slowly and inevitably explodes in to a zombie free for all that’s still boiling with terror and incredible scenes of gore and grue. The performances are fantastic, especially by Tom Atkins as Detective Cameron, and Steve Marshall as the quick witted JC. “Night of the Creeps” is an almost forgotten eighties gem, and one that sports a sick and twisted ending that deserves to be seen, mainly because it lays seeds for a great sequel that we never saw. Still a ball of a zombie film, director Fred Dekker offers his own take on the zombie, while also paying tribute to fifties science fiction and slasher films along with a clever script, and original concept. “Night of the Creeps” is an entertaining horror romp and one that deserved a sequel.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
Genres: Zombie, Teen Movie, Comedy, Science Fiction, Alien Invasion, Horror Comedy, Body Horror, Black Comedy, Splatter
1977 / USA / 92m / Col / Haunted House | IMDb
Chris Sarandon, Cristina Raines, Martin Balsam, John Carradine, José Ferrer, Ava Gardner, Arthur Kennedy, Burgess Meredith, Sylvia Miles, Deborah Raffin
“With an impressive cast list, and some visuals that bring up memories of Lucio Fulci, The Sentinel is a great classic that everyone should watch. There’s something very dirty and disturbing about a lot of horror films from the 70s. Typically, they aren’t as violent as horror movies can be now, but they frequently have a skin crawling effect that is currently lacking in the genre. The Sentinel is uncomfortable for most of its running time. From the very strange neighbours in Alison’s new apartment building, to her terrible memories of the past, to an ending that you just won’t expect, almost every moment will leave you with chills.” – The film reel
Genres:
1981 / USA / 92m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers, Jeffrey Kramer, Lance Guest, Pamela Susan Shoop, Hunter von Leer, Dick Warlock, Leo Rossi, Gloria Gifford
“Actually, ”Halloween II” is good enough to deserve a sequel of its own. By the standards of most recent horror films, this – like its predecessor – is a class act. There’s some variety to the crimes, as there is to the characters, and an audience is likely to do more screaming at suspenseful moments than at scary ones. The gore, while very explicit and gruesome, won’t make you feel as if you’re watching major surgery. The direction and camera work are quite competent, and the actors don’t look like amateurs. That may not sound like much to ask of a horror film, but it’s more than many of them offer. And ”Halloween II,” in addition to all this, has a quick pace and something like a sense of style.” – Janet Maslin, New York Times
Genres:
1982 / USA / 125m / Col / Haunted House | IMDb
Barbara Hershey, Ron Silver, David Labiosa, George Coe, Margaret Blye, Jacqueline Brookes, Richard Brestoff, Michael Alldredge, Raymond Singer, Allan Rich
“Although this ‘dramatisation’ purports to be an accurate record of the events as they occurred, that doesn’t mean it can’t also wallow in the sheer sensationalism of it all. With a pumping soundtrack by Charles Bernstein accompanying the entity’s gratuitous attacks, and some early prosthetics from Stan Winston depicting invisible fingers groping at Carla’s more tender bits, The Entity dispenses with all subtlety in favour of shock value. But when you’re dealing with facts, how far is too far? Technically proficient, visually impressive and frequently scary, The Entity remains a highly entertaining bit of widescreen eighties hokum that delivers some genuine jolts, an over-earnest performance from Barbara Hershey, and a premise that’s so outrageously unbelievable it must be true!” – Nigel Honeybone, HorrorNews
Genres:
1990 / USA / 96m / Col / Monster | IMDb
Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire, Robert Jayne, Charlotte Stewart, Tony Genaro, Ariana Richards, Richard Marcus
“With a tip of the hat towards its ’50s forefathers, this canny genre entry exploits its novel subterranean threat to the max, the ingenious situations being orchestrated with considerable skill by first-time director Underwood. Bacon and Ward project a wonderful low-key rapport, based initially on jokey ignorance before giving way to terse apprehension. It’s great to hear authentic B movie talk again, especially when the cast takes it upon itself to name the monsters, only to come up with ‘graboids’ by default, and to debate their probable origin: ‘One thing’s for sure…them ain’t local boys’. This is what a monster movie is supposed to be like, and it’s terrific.” – Time Out
Genres: Giant Monster, Comedy, Natural Horror, Horror Comedy, Horror, Buddy, Action, Siege Film
1999 / UK / 101m / Col / Western | IMDb
Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, David Arquette, Jeremy Davies, Jeffrey Jones, John Spencer, Stephen Spinella, Neal McDonough, Joseph Runningfox, Bill Brochtrup
“From the moment Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn’s tinny, non-traditional score rises, there’s a, “Wait, did they mean to do that?” quality to the film. Ravenous doesn’t sound or look like other movies—for better and for worse. That eccentricity helps once it becomes clearer that Ravenous is meant to function as a historical/political allegory, using the “survival of the fittest” plot as an analogue to the way the U.S. gobbled up land throughout the 19th century. The movie is really about Boyd’s ethical crisis as he realizes that being a soldier—and a cannibal—means swallowing things he finds distasteful. Bird and Griffin aren’t shy about making that point; Ravenous openly declares its meaning over and over during its final half-hour. But the rest of the film is so entertainingly odd that the lack of subtlety doesn’t seem so egregious. Whatever the circumstances that led to the cast and crew of Ravenous feeling abandoned and aimless, from scene to scene, they did their best to make something distinctive.” – Noel Murray, The Dissolve
Genres: Cannibal, Revisionist Western, Thriller, Weird West, Survival, Folk Horror, War, Black Comedy, Northern
1982 / USA / 91m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Kevin Van Hentenryck, Terri Susan Smith, Beverly Bonner, Robert Vogel, Diana Browne, Lloyd Pace, Bill Freeman, Joe Clarke, Ruth Neuman, Richard Pierce
“With so much of the movie occupying this kind of borderline-ethereal state of random violence, the interruptions of deep dark perversity are all the more shocking, because while we’ve been ready since the first moments for perversion, we’re expecting the robust nastiness of an exploitation film, not the thick dollops of incestuous body horror that the film plays with by the end. Make no mistake, the film is exploitation after a fashion – Duane visits a grind house in one scene, a neat meta-moment acknowledging that this grimy, tawdry film is in every inch of frame destined for the exploitation circuit – but even exploitation films rarely have this degree of crazed invention that borders on dangerousness. Henenlotter’s grotesquerie is something else entirely, and its singularity makes it far more valuable than any number of movies made at an ostensibly higher level of quality.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Genres:
1972 / UK / 84m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Alberto de Mendoza, Silvia Tortosa, Julio Peña, Ángel del Pozo, Telly Savalas, Helga Liné, Alice Reinheart, José Jaspe
“Full of quaint, old-timey racism—there are lots of conniving Chinamen—and 70’s style sexism—Wells’ assistant is smart “for a woman”—”Horror Express” is ridiculous and cheesy. The characters jump to wild conclusions with no proof or even clues, and everyone simply accepts the outlandish claims, because why the hell not? There are clunky metaphors, and the whole thing is a mishmash of zombie, monster, and religious horror with elements of science fictions. All of this adds up to a schlocky, tacky, raucously entertaining time that I thoroughly enjoyed this from beginning to end. “Horror Express” is a blast.” – Brent McKnight, Beyond Hollywood
Genres:
1985 / Italy / 116m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Jennifer Connelly, Daria Nicolodi, Fiore Argento, Federica Mastroianni, Fiorenza Tessari, Dalila Di Lazzaro, Patrick Bauchau, Donald Pleasence, Alberto Cracco
“Phenomena’s paranormal obsessions are unlike anything you’ve ever seen—a retro-mystical tableaux of pulsating synthesizers and flying insects ready to do the bidding of their human master. When Jennifer is taunted by her fellow classmates, Biblical hordes of black bugs gather outside her school’s window. The girls cringe in fear as Jennifer whispers, “I love you all.” This is the extent of Jennifer’s love for all of God’s creatures. Argento frequently cuts to an insect’s point of view, splitting his frame into six or eight segments. However obvious these flourishes may seem, Argento once again showcases his obsession with the eye and elements of sight and sightlessness. In the end, Phenomena’s greatest weakness may be that it doesn’t demand active spectatorship as much as it seemingly muddles our expectations.” – Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Genres:
2001 / USA / 90m / Col / Monster | IMDb
Gina Philips, Justin Long, Jonathan Breck, Patricia Belcher, Brandon Smith, Eileen Brennan, Peggy Sheffield, Jeffrey William Evans, Patrick Cherry, Jon Beshara
“Throughout, Salva’s skill as a director keeps the movie afloat, helping to propel us through some of the dodgier narrative stumbles (the “let’s go back to the obvious death trap for no reason other than to facilitate a horror film!” moment, or a weird, stretched-out, yet excellently tense confrontation with a crazy cat-lady played, distractingly, by Eileen Brennan), and making the best moments sing. Every inch of the sequence inside the pipe is carried off brilliantly, and not just Darry’s half: as Trish stands guard outside, there’s a truly breathtaking false scare that uses an out-of-focus depth of field in a profoundly clever, subtle manner; as indeed, the film consistently makes outstanding use of hiding details in corners of the frame where, because of composition or focus, we don’t necessarily expect to look.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Genres:
1981 / Canada / 103m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Jennifer O’Neill, Stephen Lack, Patrick McGoohan, Lawrence Dane, Michael Ironside, Robert A. Silverman, Lee Broker, Mavor Moore, Adam Ludwig, Murray Cruchley
“Part conspiracy thriller, part political tract, it is Cronenberg’s most coherent movie to date, drawing a dark (but bland) world in which corporate executives engineer human conception to produce ever more powerful mental samurai. And he punctuates it with spectacular set piece confrontations which really do dramatise the abstract, ingenious premise. As always, there’s a nagging feeling that the script is not quite perfectly realised on screen, but Patrick McGoohan’s bizarre cameo performance, and the extraordinary moral and sexual ambiguity of the final scanning contest, more than make up for it.” – Derek Adams, Time Out
Genres: Science Fiction, Thriller, Canuxploitation, Body Horror, Splatter, Psychological Thriller, Spy
2010 / USA / 108m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder, Benjamin Millepied, Ksenia Solo, Kristina Anapau, Janet Montgomery, Sebastian Stan
“By the end, resentment has entered a psychotic dimension, and melodrama has morphed irretrievably into horror movie. Of course the possibility of it has been there, perhaps from the very first minutes when we saw Nina at home in her mother’s bedroom, plastered with self-portraits, a shrine to herself. If you think it all sounds overblown – nuts – you’d probably be right. But The Red Shoes was nuts, too, and it’s still a masterpiece. Black Swan dances itself dizzy in its urge to overwhelm us, but Aronofsky’s boldness and Natalie Portman’s exquisite, raw-nerved performance make the surrender very enjoyable.” – Anthony Quinn, The Independent
Genres: Psychological Thriller, Psychological Drama, Psychological Horror, Dance Film, Body Horror, Ballet
1986 / USA / 120m / Col / Mystery | IMDb
Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Hope Lange, Dean Stockwell, George Dickerson, Priscilla Pointer, Frances Bay, Jack Harvey
“The most brilliantly disturbing film ever to have its roots in small-town American life. Shocking, visionary, rapturously controlled, its images of innocence and a dark, bruising sexuality drop straight into our unconscious where they rest like depth charges. Lynch has become a master at giving form to what is not permitted – rage, revulsion, our darkest imaginings – and by making them tangible, lets us acknowledge them… “Blue Velvet” takes us behind the working-class American facade, beneath the Technicolor grass, literally underground to the churning turmoil of black, shiny beetles below.” – Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times
Genres:
1970 / Italy / 98m / Col / Giallo | IMDb
Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi, Umberto Raho, Renato Romano, Giuseppe Castellano, Mario Adorf, Pino Patti, Gildo Di Marco
“Now king of the spaghetti slasher, Argento made his directorial debut with this tightly constructed thriller in which an American writer is witness to an attempted knife attack, and then finds himself obsessed with tracking down a serial killer whose next victims could be himself and his lover. There are some extravagant false leads, but tension is well sustained with the aid of Vittorio Storaro’s stylish ‘Scope photography and a Morricone score. Particularly effective are the opening attack, viewed through a maze of locked windows, and a scene with the victim caught on a stairway suddenly plunged into darkness. Certain elements seem to have been an influence on Dressed to Kill and The Shining, but Argento himself zoomed into more and more abstract shock effects, neglecting the Hitchcockian principles observed here.” – Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Genres:
1992 / USA / 135m / Col / Mystery | IMDb
Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Mädchen Amick, Dana Ashbrook, Phoebe Augustine, David Bowie, Eric DaRe, Miguel Ferrer, Pamela Gidley, Heather Graham
“The film is alarmingly dark. It isn’t especially funny, or quirky, or even much in keeping with the spirit of the series. But in its own singular, deeply strange way, Fire Walk With Me is David Lynch’s masterpiece… Laura’s world is morally confused, and Lynch presents it as basically illegible: the only way he can show us the truth is by articulating it in code, shrouding it in fantasy and mystery and conspiratorial intrigue. It’s why the film seems, at times, like a puzzle. The contrasting halves of the film’s bifurcated narrative find two worlds crashing together, the first a plane of frustrated desire and inscrutable mystery, the second a void into which a young woman is swallowed up. The procedural elements of the first are fundamentally disconnected from the tragedy of the second, suggesting that, in the final estimation, we can’t really on institutions to protect us. They’re solving the wrong case.” – Calum Marsh, Village Voice
Genres:
1980 / Italy / 93m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Carlo De Mejo, Antonella Interlenghi, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Daniela Doria, Fabrizio Jovine, Luca Venantini, Michele Soavi, Venantino Venantini
“With its fog-shrouded settings and doomy score by Fabio Frizzi (built on a heartbeat-aping bass throb, and more than a little reminiscent of the soundtrack of Dawn Of The Dead), this is a tremendously atmospheric film. And the gore setpieces are simply jaw-dropping – particularly the one where that dead priest’s baleful gaze causes a young woman to spew up all her internal organs (at length) – that’s one hell of a Paddington Bear hard stare. Watching actress Daniela Doria with her mouth jammed full of sheep guts, you understand how Fulci gained something of a reputation for having a sadistic attitude to his cast. Whilst not as outlandish as The Beyond, undoubtedly Fulci’s finest fever-dream, City Of The Living Dead is still startlingly crackers.” – Ian Berriman, SFX Magazine
Genres:
2002 / UK / 105m / Col / Werewolf | IMDb
Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Emma Cleasby, Liam Cunningham, Thomas Lockyer, Darren Morfitt, Chris Robson, Leslie Simpson, Tina Landini, Craig Conway
“One of the best all-out, no-apologies, hell-bent-for-leather horror films to emerge from the beginning of the 21st century—a modestly-budgeted, action-packed effort that pits British soldiers against local werewolves with a taste for human flesh. DOG SOLDIERS is derivative of any number of previous films (reduced to its essence, one might call it a hybrid of THE HOWLING and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD), but it works on its own tongue-in-cheek terms, fillings its dialogue with references to its antecedents.” – Steve Biodrowski, Cinefantastique
Genres: Werewolf, Horror, Action, Siege Film, Splatter, Black Comedy, War
1972 / UK / 87m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington, David Ladd, Sharon Gurney, Hugh Armstrong, June Turner, Clive Swift, James Cossins, Heather Stoney, Hugh Dickson
“Deathline is also very violent (the spade in the head segment), extremely nasty (just about any scene featuring “the man”), funny (take another bow, Mr Pleasance), frightening, touching and off-the-wall (the two minute pointless inclusion of Christopher Lee for no good reason other than he was around that day). There’s even some spectacular camerawork on display (take a trip with the special effects men as they seamlessly move from the underground charnel house to the bustling Underground station above).” – Chris Wood, British Horror Films
Genres:
1970 / UK / 91m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Ingrid Pitt, George Cole, Kate O’Mara, Peter Cushing, Ferdy Mayne, Douglas Wilmer, Madeline Smith, Dawn Addams, Jon Finch, Pippa Steel
“What really makes this a good film, however, is the treatment of the supernatural presence. Whereas all of Hammer’s previous vampire movies were about very physical creatures, the fresh type of vampire presented here has a far eerier ambience and gives the sense of a ghostly otherworldliness that helps the picture immensely. These are beings who command through their minds and their sexual charisma, and only rarely through physical strength. At times they vanish like specters, at times they – maybe – turn into cats. It’s a wholly different take on the vampire, and one that achieves the combination of allurement and fearsomeness which most vampire tales strive for but fail to reach.” – Anton Mistlake, Mistlake’s Blog
Genres:
2009 / Australia / 84m / Col / Black Comedy | IMDb
Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy, Victoria Thaine, Jessica McNamee, Richard Wilson, John Brumpton, Andrew S. Gilbert, Suzi Dougherty, Victoria Eagger
“An Australian horror picture in the tradition of New French Extremism, Sean Byrne’s The Loved Ones adheres to the principle that if you delve into full-tilt repulsiveness wholly enough, the rest will just sort of take care of itself. You could call it “torture porn,” as many critics have since it was released in its native Australia two years ago, but then this isn’t exactly Hostel either; its tone is too light, its manner too cavalier, to be bogged down by the kind of portentous posturing that made Eli Roth’s film reek of self-importance. Byrne, a first-time director, has a lot of fun with what is essentially rote slasher material, endowing it with the kind of blackly comic wit and levity that virtually guarantee its entry into the contemporary midnight-movie canon.” – Calum Marsh, Slant Magazine
Genres: Sadistic Horror, Black Comedy, Teen Movie, Ozploitation, Psychological Horror
1973 / UK / 104m / Col / Comedy | IMDb
Vincent Price, Diana Rigg, Ian Hendry, Harry Andrews, Coral Browne, Robert Coote, Jack Hawkins, Michael Hordern, Arthur Lowe, Robert Morley
“The magnum opus of Vincent Price’s film career, this stylish, witty comedy horror boasts an irresistible premise, an inspired ensemble cast, fabulous music and first-rate production values. In a part he was born to play, Price is classically trained actor Edward Lionheart, who murders theatre critics using famous death scenes from Shakespeare’s plays as payback for being dismissive of his talents. Aided by his faithful daughter Edwina (Diana Rigg) and a group of tramps, Lionheart plans each killing with elaborate inventiveness and cunning disguise. Price does a superior job portraying an inferior actor and mines every nuance of tragedy and comedy with triumphant brilliance and delicious gusto. The result is enormously enjoyable.” – Alan Jones, Radio Times
Genres:
1997 / USA / 134m / Col / Mystery | IMDb
Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, John Roselius, Louis Eppolito, Jenna Maetlind, Michael Massee, Robert Blake, Henry Rollins, Michael Shamus Wiles, Mink Stole
“In a way, most of Lynch’s films have always been about fantasy, art or some other equivalent thereof wringing out truths of our human nature… What Lost Highway does is tie that theme directly to film noir, and cinema in general, revealing how the tropes and archetypes of the genre and the medium are interlinked with human truths like guilt, sexual frustration, love, heroism, etc… but Lost Highway‘s melding of elements from other genres like science-fiction, fantasy, psychological thrillers, and more make it beyond subversive and downright ahead of its time. And Lost Highway is only the first movie of Lynch’s to incorporate the cinematic language into his stories.” – Christopher Runyon, Movie Mezzanine
Genres:
1962 / UK / 90m / BW / Supernatural | IMDb
Peter Wyngarde, Janet Blair, Margaret Johnston, Anthony Nicholls, Colin Gordon, Kathleen Byron, Reginald Beckwith, Jessica Dunning, Norman Bird, Judith Stott
““Burn, Witch, Burn” maintains both its tone and the line of ambiguity about whether the witchcraft actually works. Wyngarde is fantastic in a finely nuanced performance. He comes off as a good person but flawed; he’s not always the nicest human being and with that ego comeuppance is assured. Still, this is Hayers’ ship, and he steers it flawlessly. The film is never less than gripping, and past a certain point, you have no idea where this movie is going. With neither the budget nor the technology for flashy effects, the filmmakers had to fall back on quality acting, writing, directing, and editing. They succeeded.” – Ron Wells, Film Threat
Genres:
1970 / Czechoslovakia / 77m / Col / Surrealism | IMDb
Jaroslava Schallerová, Helena Anýzová, Petr Kopriva, Jirí Prýmek, Jan Klusák, Libuse Komancová, Karel Engel, Alena Stojáková, Otto Hradecký, Martin Wielgus
“Jaromil Jires’s overripe 1970 exercise in Prague School surrealism. The 13-year-old title heroine, who’s just had her first period, traipses through a shifting landscape of sensuous, anticlerical, and vaguely medieval fantasy-horror enchantments that register more as a collection of dream adventures, spurred by guiltless and polysexual eroticism, than as a conventional narrative. Virtually every shot is a knockout—for comparable use of color, you’d have to turn to some of Vera Chytilova’s extravaganzas of the same period, such as Daisies and Fruit of Paradise. If you aren’t too anxious about decoding what all this means, you’re likely to be entranced.” – Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Genres:
1974 / USA / 91m / Col / Body Horror | IMDb
John P. Ryan, Sharon Farrell, James Dixon, William Wellman Jr., Shamus Locke, Andrew Duggan, Guy Stockwell, Daniel Holzman, Michael Ansara, Robert Emhardt
“The proudly independent Larry Cohen finally struck it rich in the mainstream with this unnerving tale of a monstrous baby that puts a novel twist on the concept of being brought into the world kicking and screaming. As the marketing campaign for the film declared, the only thing wrong with Frank and Lenore Davies’s second child is that it’s alive, and, after being received with horror by the rest of the world, it does not hesitate to defend that life to the utmost. One part allegory on familial tensions and one part commentary on environmental and biological poisoning, It’s Alive is a multi-layered work that is at the same time starkly clear and chillingly precise in its observations.” – Josh Vasquez, Slant Magazine
Genres:
1987 / USA / 113m / Col / Mystery | IMDb
Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet, Charlotte Rampling, Stocker Fontelieu, Brownie McGhee, Michael Higgins, Elizabeth Whitcraft, Eliott Keener, Charles Gordone
“In a sense, William Hjortsberg’s ‘Falling Angel’ remains one of the great unfilmed novels, this in spite of the fact that Alan Parker did a pretty good job here of transforming the horror noir into a motion picture. The problem is that, in turning ‘Falling Angel’ into Angel Heart, the British writer-director decided to ditch the New York locations of the book in favour of the seedy, occult-inflected environs of New Orleans… Although New York rather than New Orleans would have added to the atmosphere and originality of Parker’s picture, Angel Heart is still a cut above your average 1980s horror movie… Rourke’s performance is such that Angel Heart stands out from the necromancy movie crowd.” – Richard Luck, Film4
Genres:
1963 / USA / 67m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
William Kerwin, Mal Arnold, Connie Mason, Lyn Bolton, Scott H. Hall, Christy Foushee, Ashlyn Martin, Astrid Olson, Sandra Sinclair, Gene Courtier
“When asked in a 1982 interview if he’d ever been offended by a film, John Carpenter opined, “Yes, I have. There was a movie called ‘Blood Feast’…” This notorious item, the work of cult favorite and “Godfather of Gore” Herschell Gordon Lewis, was the first real American splatter film (of course, foreign movies ranging from 1960’s Jigoku to the Hammer films all the way back to Un Chien Andalou had been distributing plasma for years). As such, it enjoys an avid following that has nothing much to do with its quality ? or lack thereof; in fact, its fans treasure its very dearth of professionalism.” – Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
Genres:
1977 / Canada / 91m / Col / Body Horror | IMDb
Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore, Joe Silver, Howard Ryshpan, Patricia Gage, Susan Roman, Roger Periard, Lynne Deragon, Terry Schonblum, Victor Désy
“Much more than just another zombie movie, this is really about epidemics and the fear of disease, and the scene where a train full of commuters realise there are infected people among them is one of the most riveting depictions of mass panic ever recorded. When he made Rabid, Cronenberg was not an auteur with a reputation to defend. He’d barely even established himself as a cult favourite. What he delivers, then, is unrestrained by any such concerns – he never expected it to win fans or make money, so it follows his own vision, raw and uncompromising. Its disorganised nature is entirely appropriate to the story it tells, so that whilst it may drag in places, whilst there are plot inconsistencies and loose ends, the overall effect is very powerful. It was an unforgettable calling card signalling the start of a unique career, and it’s well worth looking back on now.” – Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film
Genres:
1967 / USA / 108m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Jack MacGowran, Roman Polanski, Alfie Bass, Jessie Robins, Sharon Tate, Ferdy Mayne, Iain Quarrier, Terry Downes, Fiona Lewis, Ronald Lacey
“An almost-forgotten but mainly delightful entry in the Roman Polanski filmography, this is a beautifully-designed, subtly subversive parody of the 1960s Hammer films. Best remembered for the gag in which Jewish vampire Alfie Bass laughs off a peasant girl’s brandished crucifix, this is a rare spoof that works less for its laugh-out-loud moments than for a delicate, genteel rearrangement of the clichés of genre. Polanski himself is the earnest disciple of a mad old vampire hunter (Jack MacGowan) who sets out to destroy the coven of dignified Count Von Krolock (Freddy Mayne), but our sympathies wander from the supposed heroes to the fey, irritating, elegant vampires.” – Kim Newman, Empire
Genres:
1928 / France / 63m / BW / Gothic | IMDb
Jean Debucourt, Marguerite Gance, Charles Lamy, Fournez-Goffard, Luc Dartagnan, Abel Gance, Halma, Pierre Hot, Pierre Kefer
“What was theoretical in Epstein’s The Three-Sided Mirror is here freer, more lucid and ethereal, and from its first image of a visitor with busy fingers wading through a tangle of trees and branches to the final orgy of poetic destruction, the director intensely considers the push-pull relationship between life and art—the precarious soul-suck between the two and the chaos their battle risks. When Debucourt’s Usher looks at his painting, he is both staring at the visage of his elusive wife’s representation and the audience itself. Epstein treats celluloid not unlike Usher’s canvas—a delicate, fragile thing to draw on (slow or fast, sometimes twice, thrice, four times over)—and to look at the screen of this film is to witness a portal into a complex, heretofore unknown dimension of cinematic representation.” – Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Genres:
1946 / USA / 83m / BW / Mystery | IMDb
Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore, Kent Smith, Rhonda Fleming, Gordon Oliver, Elsa Lanchester, Sara Allgood, Rhys Williams, James Bell
“With its stark expressionistic design and cinematography, to say nothing of its atmospheric Gothic set, The Spiral Staircase hss not just the feel but the actual living substance of the darkest nightmare. The enormous swathes of shadow which drape the sinister mansion interior and dwarf the protagonists resemble the talons of some gigantic night beast that is constantly on the verge of striking. From the very first shot to the very last, there is a sense of menace and anticipation that is both spellbinding and terrifying, slowly building to a dizzying climax in the final nerve shattering ten minutes. No wonder the film shocked audiences when it was first released – it has much the same impact today, particularly if you watch it alone, with the lights turned out – preferably in a dark old house…” – James Travers, French Film Site
Genres:
1987 / Hong Kong / 98m / Col / Comedy | IMDb
Leslie Cheung, Joey Wang, Ma Wu, Wai Lam, Siu-Ming Lau, Zhilun Xue, Jing Wong, David Wu, Ha Huang, Yau Cheung Yeung
“Truly a classic, and a film any fan of Hong Kong cinema needs to have seen. Its energy is boundless but never overwhelming or out of control. It does not depend on its special effects or wild choreography and instead remains faithful to the central romance even when the most insane stuff is happening and Wu Ma is being attacked by a giant tongue. Joey Wong may have glided elegantly off into retirement, but for a whole generation of film fans, and hopefully for generations yet to come, the image of her sitting amid the silks streaming across an otherworldly pavilion remains one of the great, iconic images from the heyday of the Hong Kong New Wave.” – Keith Allison, Teleport City
Genres:
1913 / Germany / 85m / BW / Supernatural | IMDb
Paul Wegener, John Gottowt, Grete Berger, Lyda Salmonova, Lothar Körner, Fritz Weidemann, Hanns Heinz Ewers, Alexander Moissi
“One of the earliest films to leverage the camera, and film technology more generally, as means of expression in their own right (as opposed to ‘passive’ recording devices), The Student of Prague indicated a radical shift in the conception of the cinematic medium. The film brought to the screen a central motif of nineteenth-century fantastic literature, namely the figuration of the uncanny doppelganger as the embodiment of anxieties associated with the disintegration of a unified ‘self’ in a rapidly modernising world. In representing fears of psychic and social fragmentation and relating them to filmic reproduction, The Student of Prague scrutinises the uncertain status of modern subjectivity and acknowledges the cinematic medium as part of that very predicament.” – Katharina Loew, German Cinema: A Critical Filmography to 1945
Genres:
1944 / USA / 84m / BW / Thriller | IMDb
Merle Oberon, George Sanders, Laird Cregar, Cedric Hardwicke, Sara Allgood, Aubrey Mather, Queenie Leonard, Doris Lloyd, David Clyde, Helena Pickard
“If “The Lodger” was designed to chill the spine—as indeed it must have been, considering all the mayhem Mr. Cregar is called upon to commit as the mysterious, psychopathic pathologist of the title—then something is wrong with the picture. But, if it was intended as a sly travesty on the melodramatic technique of ponderously piling suspicion upon suspicion (and wrapping the whole in a cloak of brooding photographic effects), then “The Lodger” is eminently successful.” – The New York Times
Genres:
2002 / USA / 93m / Col / Body Horror | IMDb
Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, James DeBello, Cerina Vincent, Joey Kern, Arie Verveen, Robert Harris, Hal Courtney, Matthew Helms, Richard Boone
“Cabin Fever establishes its terror alert early on — contamination! eek! — and treats it lightly while taking it seriously. The comedy here is not the reflexive sort, wherein the characters have all seen this movie before. It comes out of the realistic reactions a group of none-too-bright underclassmen might have when faced with blood-spewing doom. Filled with gratuitous gore (at one point, an entire jeep drips with the stuff) and sex (a comely female character muses that she should be grabbing the nearest guy and having a last bout of we-who-are-about-to-die-have-sex activity; cut to her jumping the bones of the nearest grateful guy), the film is solidly of a subgenre I over-reference, but it fits: the beer-and-pizza flick.” – Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic
Genres:
1935 / USA / 61m / BW / Crime | IMDb
Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lester Matthews, Irene Ware, Samuel S. Hinds, Spencer Charters, Inez Courtney, Ian Wolfe, Maidel Turner, Anne Darling
“In ‘The Raven’, Lugosi gives one of his very best performances – the image of his maniacally laughing face, looking down through a grate as a traumatized and newly disfigured Karloff is confronted by a series of mirrors is one of the most memorable of the era. His ice cold, simple declaration of “Yes. I like to torture,” is absolutely bone-chilling and despite a great and relatively understated showing by Karloff, it remains Lugosi’s show and the fact that he was given second-billing is something of a travesty. Thankfully Bela’s performance is so strong and has such impact that no mere credits will affect viewer’s perception of who the true star of this movie really is. All in all, while it may lack a marquee monster at its center, ‘The Raven’ is completely unmissable for any fan of classic horror.” – Michael Rose, Mysterious Universe
Genres:
1983 / USA / 84m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Felissa Rose, Jonathan Tiersten, Karen Fields, Christopher Collet, Mike Kellin, Katherine Kamhi, Paul DeAngelo, Thomas E. van Dell, Loris Sallahian, John E. Dunn
“The combination of edgy themes, a shocking twist, appropriately nasty violence, and some humorously amateurish moments of filmmaking make Sleepaway Camp kind of fun, even though it’s by no means a great work of art. Rose, Tiersten, and Fields all give good, authentic performances, and the twist ending really is surprising. Sleepaway Camp ends with that twist, freeze-framing on an image that has become iconic to hardcore horror buffs everywhere. The movie won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but for those with a strong interest in cinematic scares, it is most definitely a gutsy picture that deserves to be seen and discussed.” – Mike McGranaghan, Aisle Seat
Genres: Slasher, Teen Movie, Mystery, Black Comedy
1955 / UK / 82m / BW / Science Fiction | IMDb
Brian Donlevy, Jack Warner, Margia Dean, Thora Hird, Gordon Jackson, David King-Wood, Harold Lang, Lionel Jeffries, Sam Kydd, Richard Wordsworth
“Other fine moments, such as an ill-fated car ride with his wife, make The Quatermass Xperiment a little more haunting than you may expect. Though it’s set up as a standard creature feature, it doesn’t capitulate to that mode until the very end, when the monster is finally revealed. It probably looks a little silly to modern audiences, and the film itself is certainly quite tame, this was the stuff of an “X” rating in its heyday (which also explains the odd spelling of the film’s title, which is a marketing ploy). Most of its terrors at the time would have been the psychologically unnerving sort, as audiences were only a decade removed from atomic horrors and UFO hysteria was about to reach manic heights. Guest’s film definitely taps into all of that, though it still works as a brisk, cool horror movie without those subtexts.” – Brett Gallman, Oh, the Horror
Genres:
1924 / Germany / 65m / BW / Anthology | IMDb
Emil Jannings, Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss, William Dieterle, Olga Belajeff, John Gottowt, Georg John, Ernst Legal
“Don’t let the lack of horror chops deter you from this; after all, it is close enough, plus it has an early treatment of the Jack the Ripper story that’s been mined dozens of times for the genre. Plus, the technical display is quite astonishing; this was a huge production for the age, and it shows in the elaborate set design, especially in that first segment. Taking us from Arab streets to lavish palaces to dingy, humble abodes, Leni masterfully transports us through a fancifully realized land that recalls the whimsy of the Arabian Nights tales. Toss in some dazzling color tinting and you’re basically treated to an Expressionist feast.” – Brett Gallman, Oh, the Horror!
Genres:
1986 / USA / 101m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Jim Siedow, Bill Moseley, Bill Johnson, Ken Evert, Harlan Jordan, Kirk Sisco, James N. Harrell, Lou Perryman
“”The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” is as potent a follow-up as one could expect from the series, unapologetically traveling in fresh directions while serving up audiences the gory goods. The cinematography by Richard Kooris is vibrant and alive, taking full advantage of the locations and making particularly effective use of the neon colors at the radio station and the rainbow-colored Christmas lights strung along the walls of the Sawyers’ underground hell. The soundtrack is also superb, with choice cuts from The Cramps, Oingo Boingo, Timbuk 3, Concrete Blonde, Lords of the New Church, and Stewart Copeland nicely complementing the action. When it comes to humor-laced horror that isn’t an outright spoof, there are few films that work quite as well (or with the same amount of bravado) as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.”” – Dustin Putnam, The Movie Boy
Genres:
1996 / New Zealand / 110m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace, Jake Busey, Chi McBride, Jim Fyfe, Troy Evans
“The Frighteners, which starts out like a screwball comedy with ecotoplasm, then deepens into a movie about redemption, is directed by Peter Jackson, best known for 1994’s marvelous Heavenly Creatures. But viewers who loved that film’s air of quiet menace may be put off by the cranked-up pace and volume of The Frighteners; this movie is much more like Jackson’s wacky 1992 horror film Dead Alive. Which is to say, the relentless Frighteners is overloaded with jokes… and unsettling special effects (the villain surges through walls, mirrors, and rugs with shocking speed). The Frighteners is also that rare horror film that actually gets better as it proceeds; this scare machine has a heart and a brain.” – Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly
Genres:
2017 / USA / 135m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hamilton, Jake Sim
“I’m no expert on Stephen King, and I leave it to other writers to weigh up this movie’s faithfulness to the canon from which it derives. But a look into the grief of children can only come across in a movie that’s been put together well, and this one has. Go expecting jump scares, and you will be rewarded handsomely. But you’ll also find a well-crafted meditation on the pain that communities refuse to see and the effect that pain has on the young and powerless. It is study in trauma to match the best of them.” – Josephine Livingstone, The New Republic
Genres: Supernatural Horror, Coming-of-Age, Psychological Horror, Cosmic Horror, Evil Clown
2011 / USA / 95m / Col / Home Invasion | IMDb
Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Margaret Laney, Amy Seimetz, Ti West, Rob Moran, Barbara Crampton
“Given its title, you can be forgiven for assuming that Adam Wingard’s home-invasion thriller will be just another blood-soaked body-count flick. But You’re Next is better than that… The relentless violence does get to be a bit much, but what juices this bare-bones premise and lifts it above the weekly slew of run-of-the-mill splatterfests is Wingard’s canny knack for leavening his characters’ gory demises with sick laughs and clever Rube Goldberg twists (razor-sharp piano wire hasn’t been used this well since 1999’s Audition). It’s like Ordinary People meets Scream… It’s so deliciously twisted, it will make you walk out of the theater feeling like you just endured a grueling, giddy workout.” – Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly
Genres: Slasher, Home Invasion, Splatter, Black Comedy, Sadistic Horror, Mumblecore, Siege Film, Family Drama
1967 / Soviet Union / 77m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Leonid Kuravlyov, Natalya Varley, Aleksey Glazyrin, Nikolay Kutuzov, Vadim Zakharchenko, Pyotr Vesklyarov, Vladimir Salnikov, Dmitriy Kapka, Stepan Shkurat, Georgiy Sochevko
“Running a tight 72 minutes, this film never overstays its welcome and wisely leaves the viewer wanting more. The second and third witch attacks are among Ptushko’s finest work, as the witch rides her coffin in circles through the air, monsters pour from the walls, giant hands erupt from the floor, and “Viy” himself makes an appearance for the grand finale. The rest of the film is a skillful example of the balance between wonder and dread, with religion playing a prominent role from the opening moments to the final, ironic closing lines.” – Mondo Digital
Genres:
2009 / USA / 123m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder, Jimmy Bennett, Margo Martindale, Karel Roden, Aryana Engineer, Rosemary Dunsmore, Jamie Young
“Spaniard Jaume Collet-Serra’s wickedly entertaining, if slightly over-stretched, variation on the familiar ‘evil child’ scenario displays an unusually complex grasp of twisted psychology… Producer Joel Silver regularly specialises in routine horror remakes, such as Collet-Serra’s previous ‘House of Wax’. But here, courtesy of an insidious screenplay by David Leslie Johnson, we are in more disturbing territory. More of a psychological thriller than a horror movie, ‘Orphan’ does contain explosions of shocking, though not especially graphic, violence.” – Nigel Floyd, Time Out
Genres: Psychological Thriller, Mystery, Horror, Family Drama, Psychological Horror, Evil Children
1982 / USA / 98m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O’Herlihy, Michael Currie, Ralph Strait, Jadeen Barbor, Brad Schacter, Garn Stephens, Nancy Kyes, Jonathan Terry
“Was it a cheat that Halloween III skipped out on more Michael Myers mayhem? Well, it certainly was annoying that the advertising didn’t let audiences know that little fact in the teasers and trailers. And a great many fans are still pissed about that to this very day… But, to be frank, people need to lighten up about this third entry because Season of the Witch is actually a pretty terrific little midnight movie, in keeping with John Carpenter’s other chillers of the era, specifically The Fog and The Thing. On many levels, the films kinda play like an eerie trilogy of haunting ghost stories, filled with monsters, mad men and vengeful ghouls… Season of the Witch has grown in popularity over the years as fans have healed from the initial sting and gave the film a second chance.” – R. L. Shaffer, IGN DVD
Genres:
2010 / USA / 89m / Col / Black Comedy | IMDb
Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden, Jesse Moss, Philip Granger, Brandon Jay McLaren, Christie Laing, Chelan Simmons, Travis Nelson, Alex Arsenault
“High-concept horror comedies that actually work are a rare breed, yet Tucker & Dale vs. Evil manages to continually make the comedy-of-errors shtick work. Props should go not only to Labine, but Tudyk as well, who bears the brunt of the comic violence heaped upon the clueless duo. Thankfully, the laughs are evened out with a heaping of gore that’ll please the horror hounds in the crowd. Amazingly, even the unbelievable romance between Allison and Dale comes off as rather sweet. In its own pleasantly blood-soaked way, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil delivers a whole lot more than just a one-joke concept, making it a very worthy watch for genre devotees.” – Jeremy Wheeler, TV Guide’s Movie Guide
Genres: Black Comedy, Buddy, Parody, Splatter, Horror, Horror Comedy, Hixploitation, Slapstick, Teen Movie, Romance
1987 / Canada / 89m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Terry O’Quinn, Jill Schoelen, Shelley Hack, Charles Lanyer, Stephen Shellen, Stephen E. Miller, Robyn Stevan, Jeff Schultz, Lindsay Bourne, Anna Hagan
“So what is so memorable about a movie where a knife-wielding psycho kills in order to obtain a perverse ideal attainable only in his mind? It’s all about the manner in which it’s presented and that’s where The Stepfather separates itself from not only its timely peers, but also many similar genre efforts. Director Ruben deserves a hefty chunk of credit for keeping things moving at such a fierce clip that the audience is always on edge when it comes to Blake. The opening scene, which dually establishes the titular character while providing a genuinely unnerving and chilling moment, sets the audience at the edges of their proverbial seats before the main story is even underway. There’s a fair degree of subtlety, too. Ruben wisely avoids delving into the backstory of the killer. Sorry, modern audiences, you don’t get to learn why the Stepfather does what he does. It doesn’t matter. But we’re given several interesting character pieces along the way without being smacked over the head with them.”
Genres:
1990 / USA / 192m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Jonathan Brandis, Brandon Crane, Adam Faraizl, Tim Curry, Emily Perkins, Marlon Taylor, Seth Green, Ben Heller, Harry Anderson, Dennis Christopher
“Stephen King creates the ultimate boogeyman and he happens to be a clown who is neither man nor monster. Though “Stephen King’s It” is filled with the usual King doldrums of a small town, hidden demons in the town, and at least one character that wants to be an author, director Tommy Lee Wallace’s adaptation is a very good bit of nostalgia, and a perfectly good horror film. All things considered. It gets a lot of flack for straying from the original novel greatly, but it is a 1990 television movie, so for the resources director Wallace is given, it offers up a creepy and spooky tale about the past coming back to haunt you.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
Genres: Supernatural Horror, Evil Clown
1987 / USA / 96m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Heather Langenkamp, Craig Wasson, Patricia Arquette, Robert Englund, Ken Sagoes, Rodney Eastman, Jennifer Rubin, Bradley Gregg, Ira Heiden
“After the misstep of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge, New Line resolved to make a better sequel, calling in series creator Wes Craven (with Wild Palms writer Bruce Wagner) to craft a more elaborate storyline (and set-piece bad dreams), casting more interesting up-and-comers as Freddy fodder (Patricia Arquette, Laurence Fishburne) and giving director Chuck Russell something like an effects budget… the film delivers amazing scenes in spades, bringing to life the sort of bizarre images which used to be found only on comic book covers: a boy’s veins are pulled from his limbs and used as strings to puppet-master him towards death, an antique tap grabs a girl’s hand and sprouts Freddy’s razornails, a victim is literally tongue-tied… It’s always a pleasure to see obnoxious American teenagers slaughtered like dogs, but it’s especially nice to see them wiped out in such surreally imaginative ways.” – Kim Newman, Empire Magazine
Genres:
1988 / USA / 86m / Col / Monster | IMDb
Lance Henriksen, Jeff East, John D’Aquino, Kimberly Ross, Joel Hoffman, Cynthia Bain, Kerry Remsen, Florence Schauffler, Brian Bremer, George ‘Buck’ Flower
“When Pennsylvanian country-dweller Ed Harley’s kid gets (accidentally) killed by a group of marauding young townies on motorbikes, the aggrieved father (Henriksen) seeks justice, or more precisely, vengeance. Aided by the mythically wizened old crone from Black Ridge (Schauffler), he invokes the rampaging form of Pumpkinhead, a 15-foot monstrosity who doesn’t believe in penal reform and with whom one does not mess lightly. From there on it’s stiff-city for the unfortunate kids, as well as some hellish rewards for Harley himself.” – MK, Time Out
Genres:
1997 / USA / 120m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Neve Campbell, Liev Shreiber, Timothy Olyphant, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy, Jerry O’Connell, Laurie Metcalf, Jada Pinkett Smith, Omar Epps
“It would be unfair to reveal too many twists, but the windy plot allows Wes Craven to demonstrate again just how good he is at punching your scare buttons, employing sharp editing and a superb sound mix to make even the hokiest sudden-appearance-out-of-the-dark a moment guaranteed to spill your popcorn. In-joke fans will especially relish the extracts from Stab, in which – as she feared in the first film – Sidney is played by Tori Spelling. In Stab, key moments from Scream are done again with caricature cheap horror movie twitches that pile up on what were already essays in textbook genre-making. Clever parody of the sequel trend; once again we are treated to a movie mocking its own conventions.” – Kim Newman, Empire
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1933 / USA / 77m / BW / Mystery | IMDb
Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, Frank McHugh, Allen Vincent, Gavin Gordon, Edwin Maxwell, Holmes Herbert, Claude King, Arthur Edmund Carewe
“Compared to other horror movies of the same vintage, the thing one primarily notices about Mystery of the Wax Museum is that it doesn’t spare anything: right from the images of wax models melting in a grotesque parody of human decay and rotten, near the very start of the film, the filmmakers pile on images that are more concerned with scoring fast knockouts than sidling around behind us to be creepy and subdued. Mystery of the Wax Museum has many wonderful characteristics, but not subtlety. The camerawork is often heavily artificial and exaggerated, a clear and rather exciting attempt to bring the discordant angles and geometry of Germany Expressionism into the by-necessity well-lit interiors and florid colors of red-green Technicolor. Farrell’s performance, which I find absolutely captivating, has all the grace and insinuation of a machine gun nest.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
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1987 / USA / 102m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Donald Pleasence, Jameson Parker, Victor Wong, Lisa Blount, Dennis Dun, Susan Blanchard, Anne Marie Howard, Ann Yen, Ken Wright, Dirk Blocker
““Prince of Darkness,” while still the same trapped in a house formula, manages to hold up as a creepy and dread soaked horror film that Carpenter is able to direct with immense flair. Carpenter is a genius about confining stories to one setting and building an incredible narrative from it. “Prince of Darkness” garners a considerably low budget, but the terror and urgency is so present, you can’t even care. The characters are stuck in the church with no holy presence, and trapped by possessed armies of the homeless that tear anyone apart who dares to attempt escape. Meanwhile, there is no one aware they’re in this church, so they’re an island in an urban setting, along with zero hope. Much of “Prince of Darkness” is based around mounting dread and an ultimate pay off, and Carpenter builds every scene to a great crescendo.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed
Genres: Cosmic Horror, Science Fiction, Supernatural Horror, Siege Film, Mystery, Body Horror
1980 / Italy / 107m / Col / Giallo | IMDb
Leigh McCloskey, Irene Miracle, Eleonora Giorgi, Daria Nicolodi, Sacha Pitoëff, Alida Valli, Veronica Lazar, Gabriele Lavia, Feodor Chaliapin Jr., Leopoldo Mastelloni
“Inferno is at its core a haunted house movie, with a succession of increasingly supernatural encounters as various characters investigate the strange happenings, both in New York and Rome. Very much a mood piece, trying to decipher Argento’s ‘riddles’ is a futile exercise and one that actually detracts from the principal appeal of soaking up the incredible atmosphere and suspense filled set-pieces. This isn’t a mystery to solve, it’s one to surrender yourself to. Resist the urge to question motivations and non sequiturs and you quickly become immersed in the theatrically lit sets and mesmeric photography. Some key scares are masterfully built up too – an underwater scene early on will have you rubbing your feet for security.” – James Dennis, Twitch
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