402. (+132) Jigoku

Nobuo Nakagawa

AKA: The Sinners of Hell

1960 / Japan / 101m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Shigeru Amachi, Utako Mitsuya, Yôichi Numata, Hiroshi Hayashi, Jun ôtomo, Akiko Yamashita, Kiyoko Tsuji, Fumiko Miyata, Akira Nakamura, Kimie Tokudaiji

“Jigoku is a beautiful film. Its play with lighting effects, colour gels and jarring camera angles makes everything – both on earth and below – seem an off-kilter nightmare, while the soundtrack of jazz, wood percussion and theremin only adds to the sense of disorientation. Realism this is not, but Nakagawa is nonetheless concerned with depicting a society that has lost its moral balance, at a time when memories of war-time horror were still fresh in the Japanese mind, while post-war modernisation was engendering its own anxieties about over-permissiveness and the dissipation of traditional values.” – Anton Bitel, Eye For Film

404. (-149) Jeepers Creepers

Victor Salva

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

406. (+479) Wake in Fright

Ted Kotcheff

AKA: Outback

1971 / Australia / 109m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay, Jack Thompson, Peter Whittle, Al Thomas, John Meillon, John Armstrong, Slim DeGrey

“For decades, Wake in Fright (aka Outback in the UK and US) was cinema’s pre-Cern Higgs Boson particle, a theoretical keystone in the construction of the New Australian Cinema of the 1970s, and its gap-toothed relative, the Ocker Comedy. Released in the same year – 1971 – as Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout, Ted Kotcheff’s psychodrama has been variously cited as a precursor for Mad Max, a jumpstart for a national film industry, and, by the reckoning of Rex Reed and Nick Cave, the greatest Australian film ever made… John Grant’s odyssey, for all its excesses, forms a neatly symmetrical, perfectly Kafkaesque narrative.” – Tara Brady, Irish Times

408. (+196) The Stuff

Larry Cohen

1985 / USA / 87m / Col / Black Comedy | IMDb
Michael Moriarty, Andrea Marcovicci, Garrett Morris, Paul Sorvino, Scott Bloom, Danny Aiello, Patrick O’Neal, James Dixon, Alexander Scourby, Russell Nype

“The Stuff should be an awful film, it should cause anger and upset for wasting your time with an inconsequential plot and terrible characters. Liking a film because “it’s so bad it’s good” has become such an irritating ironic pastime these days, but it’s hard to knock when a film like The Stuff shuffles into view. It’s like the mad friend of a friend who shows up at your party, sicks up on the cat, knocks over the telly and wanders off. It’s stupid, badly put together, and often infuriating, but yet – somehow – oddly engaging and, well, entertaining.” – That Film Guy

410. (-130) Cabin Fever

Eli Roth

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

412. (-91) Race with the Devil

Jack Starrett

1975 / USA / 88m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Swit, Lara Parker, R.G. Armstrong, Clay Tanner, Carol Blodgett, Phil Hoover, Ricci Ware, Paul A. Partain

“What sets “Race with the Devil” apart from all the others of its ilk is that Starrett takes his time in developing the ensuing carnage between the cult and our helpless victims and takes a route very similar to “Duel” where no matter how far they run, their nightmares catch up with them. This leaves us with some truly memorable and freakish incidents involving the hanging of a cat and a slithery intruder that shrinks their world more and more as the time rolls on. They’re not sure who they can trust and that makes this more of a mystery since most of the cult remains faceless and without remorse. They’re truly vile villains who can be just about anyone they desire and they chase our foursome through county after county attempting to silence them. “Race with the Devil” is something out of the mind psychedelic storytellers since it’s such a tense and urgent piece of filmmaking with a talented cast who make us believe we’re being sucked in as they are.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed

414. (+404) Under the Shadow

Babak Anvari

2016 / Iran / 84m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi, Arash Marandi, Aram Ghasemy, Soussan Farrokhnia, Ray Haratian, Hamid Djavadan, Behi Djanati Atai, Bijan Daneshmand

“Those cracks in the ceiling are hiding a lot more than dry rot in “Under the Shadow,” a satisfyingly tense and atmospheric thriller set in a haunted Tehran apartment during the terrifying final days of the Iran-Iraq War. Slyly merging a familiar but effective genre exercise with a grim allegory of female oppression, Babak Anvari’s resourceful writing-directing debut grounds its premise in something at once vaguely political and ineluctably sinister; imagine an Asghar Farhadi remake of “The Babadook” and you’re halfway there… In its harrowing final moments, “Under the Shadow” reveals itself as a horror story rooted in the dreams and pathologies that mothers pass down to their daughters, and the defiant gestures it may take for cycles of persecution to be broken.” – Justin Chang, Variety

416. (-118) Mystery of the Wax Museum

Michael Curtiz

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

418. (-58) The Shout

Jerzy Skolimowski

1978 / UK / 86m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Alan Bates, Susannah York, John Hurt, Robert Stephens, Tim Curry, Julian Hough, Carol Drinkwater, John Rees, Jim Broadbent, Susan Wooldridge

“Bates’s brilliant performance certainly makes his character all the more enigmatic; his delivery and steely glances bring a charismatic strength to Crossley’s weirdness. The sound used is as present and important as another main character; every effect is surreal and distorted from the call of a peacock to the intense sound of Crossley’s shout – turn the volume right up when you watch. The flash forwards, quick cuts and flashbacks also serve to keep the audience guessing about what is really going on, embarking on a tense, mysterious and sometimes confusing narrative where we’re never really sure who is lying to who.” – Beth Squires, Screen Jabber

420. (+474) The Terminator

James Cameron

1984 / USA / 107m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen, Rick Rossovich, Bess Motta, Earl Boen, Dick Miller, Shawn Schepps

“As an action film, The Terminator remains a surprisingly meditative work, its concentrated visceral bursts not unlike punctuation marks among something more brooding, even prayerful… It’s one of the most hopeful films ever made, and its one that we can yet take much from. Knowing what she does of the future, Sarah driving off into the coming storm in the films final shot is a profound acceptance of unimaginable responsibility, but the film argues further that every life is meaningful, even vital, in the final equation. Even on the eve of self-destruction, mankind is still worth saving, and the most complex machine can yet fall to the simplest.” – Rob Humanick, Slant Magazine

422. (+154) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

John S. Robertson

1920 / USA / 49m / BW / Science Fiction | IMDb
John Barrymore, Brandon Hurst, Martha Mansfield, Charles Lane, Cecil Clovelly, Nita Naldi, Louis Wolheim

“John S. Robertson’s vision is not boggled down by repetition or clichés, and he breaks from the shackles of Stevenson’s immortal story in every detail. The scenes preceding the transformation have a light and delicate touch to them, but it is the dank and menacing scenes afterwards that seem to grab our attention the most. Most of the characters, during the transformation, are seen walking around in damp alleys, in which the light of a lamppost is the only relief from the shadows. One might even call these scenes early examples of the 1940s film noir. “Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde” is not just a movie about unleashing our dark sides, but controlling them.” – David Keyes, Cinemaphile

424. (+389) I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale

Sergio Martino

AKA: Torso

1973 / Italy / 89m / Col / Giallo | IMDb
Suzy Kendall, Tina Aumont, Luc Merenda, John Richardson, Roberto Bisacco, Ernesto Colli, Angela Covello, Carla Brait, Conchita Airoldi, Patrizia Adiutori

“So overloaded with red herrings that even Scandinavians would find it excessive, Torso is not the most complicated of whodunits. About an hour into the narrative, the identity of our villain is nothing more than a process of elimination. In essence, take whoever’s left alive, subdivide out the possible motives, and make with the Holmesian deductions. The answer, sadly, will seem pretty obvious. That doesn’t mean Martino can’t have a little frisky fun getting to the conclusion. If you like Me Decade ladies unclothed and submission, this movie is your ticket to titillation. Female mammaries are featured so often that they almost become a plot point. Similarly, Martino does his slasher genre best to handle every death from the killer’s bloody perspective. As the knife blade threatens another topless honey, it’s all so gratuitous and sleazy.” – Bill Gibron, Pop Matters

426. (-12) Seconds

John Frankenheimer

1966 / USA / 106m / BW / Science Fiction | IMDb
Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John Randolph, Will Geer, Jeff Corey, Richard Anderson, Murray Hamilton, Karl Swenson, Khigh Dhiegh, Frances Reid

“Frankenheimer and his cinematographer James Wong Howe (who justifiably won the Oscar) are operating in full baroque mode from the shadowy, off-kilter crowd scenes in Grand Central. Wong’s canted, expressionist angles and lusciously dark and pinprick-sharp depth of focus become even more overpowering in the film’s third act, as Arthur is kicked back into the company’s infernal machinery. He failed to remake himself as an all-new kind of American and so is now meant for the scrap heap like every other worn-out cog in the machine. Within a few years, the capitalist and consumerist critique that Seconds put to such thrilling use would be more commonplace in a film industry desperate for counter-cultural cachet. But unlike many of those rebel statements against the mainstream, Frankenheimer’s film understood that there were no easy answers to Arthur’s kind of despair.” – Chris Barsanti, PopMatters

428. (+231) The Curse of the Cat People

Gunther von Fritsch & Robert Wise

1944 / USA / 70m / BW / Fantasy | IMDb
Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, Ann Carter, Eve March, Julia Dean, Elizabeth Russell, Erford Gage, Sir Lancelot

“Though very different in purpose and tone to Cat People, Val Lewton’s ‘sequel’ is far more closely tied to its predecessor than is commonly believed. For one thing, all the main characters remain very much the same as they were in the earlier film, to which there are many specific references; for another, both films concern the way that guilt, fear and fantasy can arise from isolation and misunderstanding. In this case, it’s a small girl, lonely and repeatedly scolded by her parents and shunned by her friends for indulging in day-dreaming; when she populates her solitary world with the ghost of her father’s dead first wife (Simon, heroine of Cat People), her imagination (or is it?) gets her into serious trouble. Far from being a horror film, it’s a touching, perceptive and lyrical film about childhood, psychologically astute and occasionally disturbing as it focuses entirely on the child’s-eye view of a sad, cruel world.” – Geoff Andrews, Time Out

430. (+79) Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

Tom McLoughlin

1986 / USA / 86m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, Renée Jones, Kerry Noonan, Darcy DeMoss, Tom Fridley, Alan Blumenfeld, Matthew Faison, Ann Ryerson

“The previous FRIDAY films were one-note affairs; this time out, a slightly new tune is being played (this is literally the case: composer Henry Manfredini’s familiar theme music is augmented with a couple songs performed by Alice Cooper (including “He’s Back: The Man Behind the Mask”). Whatever its weaknesses, JASON LIVES is a reasonably fun attempt at remaking the franchise into an old-fashioned monster movie, and fans of Frankenstein, the Mummy, and other creatures of the walking dead may find it appealing.” – Steve Biodrowski, Cinefantastique

432. (-107) The Last Man on Earth

Ubaldo Ragona & Sidney Salkow

AKA: Naked Terror

1964 / USA / 86m / Col / Post-Apocalyptic | IMDb
Vincent Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Umberto Raho, Christi Courtland, Antonio Corevi, Ettore Ribotta

“Human ugliness is more than skin-deep here, and Morgan’s ultimate foes aren’t the undead but rather a group of infected-but-treated men and women who consider him an enemy—ironic, considering they’re the only ones left with the capacity for reason and communication. Morgan’s solitude was bad enough when it was thought that his was the last mind capable of such things, and the revelation of these semi-humans’ intent to dispose of him further amplifies it. The Last Man on Earth is indeed about both life and death, creation and destruction, and the fact that each facet is as grim and uninviting as the next is its most chilling statement on the way things once were and the way they might one day become.” – Michael Nordine, Not Coming to a Theater Near You

434. (+40) Ugetsu monogatari

Kenji Mizoguchi

AKA: Ugetsu

1953 / Japan / 96m / BW / Jidaigeki | IMDb
Machiko Kyô, Mitsuko Mito, Kinuyo Tanaka, Masayuki Mori, Eitarô Ozawa, Sugisaku Aoyama, Mitsusaburô Ramon, Ryôsuke Kagawa, Kichijirô Ueda, Shôzô Nanbu

“Like a painter determined to catch one vista in canvas after canvas, Mizoguchi considers how the price of indulging men’s desires is often the suffering of women. This is done in individual shots (e.g. the highway robbers in the background gorging themselves on food the victimized Miyagi was carrying) as well as in the film as a whole. On another level the film can be read as paralleling the plight of post-WWII Japan. Either way, the film’s subtle mix of realism and fantasy (consider a tracking shot with a near-invisible dissolve which “impossibly” links a sensual bath with a picnic) makes for challenging viewing. Working within Japanese genre conventions which seek to validate traditional values, Mizoguchi also considers their inherent contradictions. Look carefully at the pan and tracking shot as the errant Genjuro thinks he’s returning to home and hearth near the end and you will witness a great moment in the history of cinema as both art and social commentary.” – TV Guide’s Movie Guide

436. (-107) House of 1000 Corpses

Rob Zombie

2003 / USA / 89m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Bill Moseley, William Bassett, Karen Black, Erin Daniels, Matthew McGrory, Judith Drake, Dennis Fimple, Chris Hardwick, Walton Goggins, Sid Haig

“The movie has absolutely no interest whatsoever in sanitized horror. Rob Zombie wallows quite comfortably in squalor, doling out mutilation, gore, sweaty close-ups, bad teeth, bad skin, fetid-looking clutter everywhere. Even the four college students — two male, two female, by the book — whose agony provides most of the fuel for the plot motor are not empty UPN/WB clones. Zombie has made a conscious and, yes, loving throwback to nuclear-family geek shows like Chainsaw, Mother’s Day, and Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes. If it doesn’t sound original, well, it isn’t. Zombie never designed this to be the new fresh thing in horror; he simply wants to blow away all the shiny teen crap that passes for horror nowadays and cover the audience in grime, spit, intestines.” – Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic

438. (+186) Intruder

Scott Spiegel

1989 / USA / 83m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Elizabeth Cox, Renée Estevez, Dan Hicks, David Byrnes, Sam Raimi, Eugene Robert Glazer, Billy Marti, Burr Steers, Craig Stark, Ted Raimi

“While Intruder follows much of the slasher film formula, it truly stands out from the ilk of that time for many reasons, the first being Speigel’s amazing style. As one of the guys behind the first two Evil Dead movies, Director and co-writer Scott Speilgel brings that same kinetic look to this movie. There are some crazy angles and snake-like movements, including some of the most innovative POVs, you’ve ever seen. Ever wonder what it would be like to see the POV of a bucket, telephone, or floor? Well, you’ll see it here. Add in the tight and ingenious editing and you have a movie that is technically superior to many of the stalk and slash that were out at that point in time. Speigel knows how to build up the tension. Intruder takes it’s time setting up the place, situation, and, more or less, the characters. The climax is pretty exciting and highly suspenseful.” – Giovanni Deldio, Best Horror Movies

440. (-53) Jisatsu sâkuru

Shion Sono

AKA: Suicide Club

2001 / Japan / 99m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Ryo Ishibashi, Masatoshi Nagase, Mai Hosho, Tamao Satô, Takashi Nomura, Rolly, Joshua, Masato Tsujioka, Kôsuke Hamamoto, Kei Nagase

“As frustrating as Suicide Club may be, there is no denying that it does succeed in hooking viewers with its highly original concept. The film manages to establish a sense of creeping dread; the anticipation of what lurks around each corner proves far more terrifying than the cheap scare tactics employed in other films. Ryo Ishibashi exudes a sense of decency and commitment to his mission—qualities that have a definite payoff later in the film. As Kuroda, Ishibashi gives the viewers a solid protagonist they can latch onto during the dark journey ahead. The lack of clear answers will frustrate many (this reviewer included) but what Suicide Club attempts to say and do, coupled with its success in executing some of those goals, makes the film worth recommending. And even with its baffling conclusion, there’s at least one lesson to be gleaned from Suicide Club: J-Pop may be hazardous to your health.” – Calvin McMillin, Love HK Film

442. (-167) La chute de la maison Usher

Jean Epstein

AKA: The Fall of the House of Usher

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

444. (-10) The Walking Dead

Michael Curtiz

1936 / USA / 66m / BW / Zombie | IMDb
Boris Karloff, Ricardo Cortez, Edmund Gwenn, Marguerite Churchill, Warren Hull, Barton MacLane, Henry O’Neill, Joe King, Addison Richards, Paul Harvey

“Warner Brothers zaps Boris Karloff back to life with a plot device torn from the headlines so he can exact vengeance on a group of racketeers… The Film Daily reported that for The Walking Dead’s premiere at the New York Strand the lobby display was comprised of several still photos of the Lindbergh Heart scene from the movie, accompanied by real newspaper clippings triumphing the actual invention… The Walking Dead is run-of-the-mill gangster stuff with a horror twist but an exemplary performance by Boris Karloff, who always gave heart and soul to his work, that boosts its status in both genres. It’s a must for Karloff fans and will be enjoyed by those who love both the Universal monsters and Warner Brothers gangsters.” – Cliff Aliperti, Immortal Ephemera

446. (+307) Spalovac mrtvol

Juraj Herz

AKA: Cremator

1969 / Czechoslovakia / 95m / Col / Black Comedy | IMDb
Rudolf Hrusínský, Vlasta Chramostová, Jana Stehnová, Milos Vognic, Zora Bozinová, Ilja Prachar, Eduard Kohout, Jirí Menzel, Míla Myslíková, Vladimír Mensík

“Herz’s direction has an expressionist feel, shot in black and white with a striking use of shadow and marked gothic sensibility. The film is very much seen through Kopfrkingl’s eyes, and as such, the city is given the look of a tomb, with the crematorium resembling the grand temple of death which he imagines it to be. This does mean that the proceedings do at times slip into the realm of the surreal, though this is skilfully done and works well as a method of illustrating both the character and the country’s decent into madness, giving the atmosphere that of an inescapable nightmare. “The Cremator” is a unique example of modern gothic cinema, being both fantastic and grimly realistic.” – James Mudge, Beyond Hollywood

448. (+91) Straw Dogs

Sam Peckinpah

1971 / USA / 113m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Dustin Hoffman, Susan George, Peter Vaughan, T.P. McKenna, Del Henney, Jim Norton, Donald Webster, Ken Hutchison, Len Jones, Sally Thomsett

“Straw Dogs frustrates and compels not because it tells us easy things like “violence lurks in the hearts of men” (which it does), but because it ultimately refuses to make any absolute value judgments about such a statement. Peckinpah clearly believed that humans are inherently violent beings—he said as much in interview after interview. Yet, he was also a committed liberal democrat and humanist who detested the violence and scandal of the world around him. Thus, like its depictions of violence, the film’s stand on David’s descent into destruction to protect what’s his is, in the end, ambiguous.” – James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk

450. (+223) The War of the Worlds

Byron Haskin

1953 / USA / 85m / BW / Science Fiction | IMDb
Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne, Robert Cornthwaite, Sandro Giglio, Lewis Martin, Houseley Stevenson Jr., Paul Frees, William Phipps, Vernon Rich

“The special effects were state-of-the-art for the time, and they remain impressive today. If a few wires are visible to discerning eyes, at least the images are interesting in design and colorful in execution; something about the smooth, sleek look of the Martian hovercraft make them fascinating to watch, even if their miniature origins are sometimes apparent. Although subsequent films (such as INDEPENDENCE DAY) would outdo WAR OF THE WORLDS in terms of depicting mass destruction, this film retains its classic status thanks to the dramatic conviction with which it portrays its characters helplessly fighting against an unstoppable enemy bent on driving humanity into extinction.” – Steve Biodrowski, Hollywood Gothique

452. (+136) Hocus Pocus

Kenny Ortega

1993 / USA / 96m / Col / Witchcraft | IMDb
Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Omri Katz, Thora Birch, Vinessa Shaw, Jodie-Amy Rivera, Larry Bagby, Tobias Jelinek, Stephanie Faracy

“Like many movies about sorcery – The Witches of Eastwick comes to mind – Hocus Pocus does not always make a great deal of sense, yet it makes for a great deal of fun. Midler’s fans might be disappointed that she doesn’t have a whole lot to do beyond puckering her kewpie-doll lips and flouncing onto her broom. But the witches have an amusing, Three-Stooges rapport, with a lot of bonking, slapping and cursing (of the witch rather than the profane variety) that make them particularly satisfying villains. Director Ortega successfully fuses their slapstick onto a teen adventure that, by the way, encourages moody big brothers to watch out for their pesky kid sisters – and vice versa.” – Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

454. (+132) Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Robert Aldrich

AKA: What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?

1964 / USA / 133m / BW / Psychological | IMDb
Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Cecil Kellaway, Victor Buono, Mary Astor, Wesley Addy, William Campbell, Bruce Dern

“Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a finely executed psychological thriller/horror film. There is a surprising amount of gore and swearing for a picture of this time and that works in its favor. It lends a realistic quality to a film that could otherwise be a little ridiculous. It’s well paced and offers no end of surprises. The ending haunts you long after it’s over and makes you recalculate everything you just saw.” – Doug Heller, Next Projection

456. (+354) Annihilation

Alex Garland

2018 / UK / 115m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Natalie Portman, Benedict Wong, Sonoya Mizuno, David Gyasi, Oscar Isaac, John Schwab, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny, Tessa Thompson

“”Annihilation” is an exercise in maintaining tone and keeping the action of the piece relatable enough so that it doesn’t spin off into something easily dismissible. Cinematographer Rob Hardy, who also shot “Ex Machina,” works with Garland to use the natural world as effectively as the pair used those sleek lines and reflections of the lab in their previous film. And the sound design, especially in the climax, is spectacular, keeping us disoriented and frightened with atonal noises that almost sound like they’re turning in on themselves. Most of all, the artistic success of “Annihilation” comes down to the way Garland metes out information visually. He’ll often show us one thing and then subvert it with the next image, which is an ambitious but perfect way to tell a story about duality and corruption.” – Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

458. (+173) The Autopsy of Jane Doe

André Øvredal

2016 / USA / 86m / Col / Mystery | IMDb
Brian Cox, Emile Hirsch, Ophelia Lovibond, Michael McElhatton, Olwen Catherine Kelly, Jane Perry, Parker Sawyers, Mary Duddy, Mark Phoenix, Sydney

“Integrating elements of body horror, Agatha Christie and, least interestingly, contemporary horror films, Autopsy has both a cheeky simplicity (the production design of the morgue is at once devilishly eerie and cleanly pragmatic) and Carpenter-inspired formalism: Øvredal lingers on things like hallways and blood dripping down a funnel while familiarizing us with the spaces in the underground morgue. Less a subversion of genre conventions than a relatively effective repackaging of them, The Autopsy of Jane Doe is made up of established pieces that it repositions in a manner ranging from the obvious to the dexterous.” – Josh Cabrita, Cinema Scope

460. (+56) Shadow of the Vampire

E. Elias Merhige

2000 / UK / 92m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Udo Kier, Cary Elwes, Catherine McCormack, Eddie Izzard, Aden Gillett, Nicholas Elliott, Ronan Vibert, Sophie Langevin

“The movie does an uncanny job of re-creating the visual feel of Murnau’s film. There are shots that look the way moldy basements smell. This material doesn’t lend itself to subtlety, and Malkovich and Dafoe chew their lines like characters who know they are always being observed (some directors do more acting on their sets than the actors do)… Vampires for some reason are funny as well as frightening. Maybe that’s because the conditions of their lives are so absurd. Some of novelist Anne Rice’s vampires have a fairly entertaining time of it, but someone like Schreck seems doomed to spend eternity in psychic and physical horror.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

462. (-2) Bride of Chucky

Ronny Yu

1998 / USA / 89m / Col / Black Comedy | IMDb
Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, Katherine Heigl, Nick Stabile, Alexis Arquette, Gordon Michael Woolvett, John Ritter, Lawrence Dane, Michael Louis Johnson

“After the squalor that was Child’s Play 3, Mancini and newly anointed director Ronny Yu (who would later helm Freddy vs. Jason) resuscitated the series with Bride of Chucky, a new breed of killer doll movie that dropped any pretense of horror and went running toward comedy and satire. Some hail it as hilarious; others find it more intolerable than Child’s Play 3. And frankly, this is about as much of a to each his own series shift as you might imagine… Tilly is a godsend (although some detractors have deemed her, not Child’s Play 3, the real series killer), Dourif is a blast, and the lunacy of it all piles up and piles up until it literally spills into the unholy union of Chucky and Tiffany, announcing Mancini’s willingness to take the franchise anywhere.” – Kenneth Brown, Blu-ray.com

Genres: Black Comedy, Supernatural Horror, Horror Comedy, Slasher, Romance, Road Movie, Puppetry, Gross-Out Comedy, Evil Doll

464. (new) Body Snatchers

Abel Ferrara

1993 / USA / 87m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Terry Kinney, Meg Tilly, Gabrielle Anwar, Reilly Murphy, Billy Wirth, Christine Elise, R. Lee Ermey, Kathleen Doyle, Forest Whitaker, G. Elvis Phillips

“On the assumption that the audience already knows the premise, Body Snatchers doesn’t explain the alien invasion, it simply shows it with gloopily effective special effects. Ferrara, in a rare medium-budget excursion, shows he can make a smooth-looking, well paced film, while his acute ear for character tensions deftly captures the untidy human emotions that the pods live without. The writing and acting are way above average for a sci-fi quickie: note how a “truth” game between Anwar and soldier hero Billy Wirth sets up resonances that pay off throughout the film.” – Kim Newman, Empire Online

466. (+198) Isle of the Dead

Mark Robson

1945 / USA / 71m / BW / Mystery | IMDb
Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Marc Cramer, Katherine Emery, Helene Thimig, Alan Napier, Jason Robards Sr., Ernst Deutsch

“Lewton’s signature, of course, was atmospheric spookiness, not shocks. A couple of good jumps aside, his movies have endured because of his remarkable talent in fusing the eerie with the melancholy. But whether it was by design or pressure from Gross, Isle of the Dead offers both the unsettling and the truly startling as it reaches its climax. The fear of being buried alive gets its ultimate expression here. At first that fear is played out in indelibly understated creepiness — the camera slowly moving in on a closed casket, wrapped in the shadows of tree branches swaying in the wind. And then… a noise. It builds from there when Thea slowly walks through the same area later. Obscured by heavy darkness and aided by a strikingly modern use of flash frames, a figure appears so fleetingly you are not sure you’ve seen her at first. But then she makes her presence definitively known. Taken together, these scenes rank among the most bone-chilling moments from any era of horror cinema.” – Joel Wicklund, Classic-Horror

468. (new) Yeogo goedam

Ki-hyeong Park

AKA: Whispering Corridors

1998 / South Korea / 105m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Kang-hee Choi, Gyu-ri Kim, Min-jung Kim, Roe-ha Kim, Yu-seok Kim, Mi-yeon Lee, Yong-nyeo Lee, Jin-hie Park, Yong-soo Park, Yi Shin

“Whispering Corridors shows through these characters that the fixation on performance and competitiveness between students, amplified by their teachers—while with the intent of pushing them all to get better grades to get into better universities—still drives social wedges between them, dehumanizing them by turning students into nothing more than numbers to be compared. Which is a pretty nuanced criticism to make for a horror film, especially since it’s pointing at the broader system of test-score-based education and not just high school. In fact, it seems that the ghostly haunting of Jin-ju is actually secondary to the psychological horror that the girls go through in school.” – refresh_daemon, Drama Beans

470. (+151) V/H/S

Various

2012 / USA / 116m / Col / Anthology | IMDb
Calvin Reeder, Lane Hughes, Kentucker Audley, Adam Wingard, Frank Stack, Sarah Byrne, Melissa Boatright, Simon Barrett, Andrew Droz Palermo, Hannah Fierman

“Remarkably, given the premise, only one of the five short segments that make up V/H/S is an outright failure. The others — from such US indie darlings as House Of The Devil director Ti West, mumblecore luminary Joe Swanberg and fledgling YouTube collective Radio Silence — share an experimental bent, a knack for well-timed twists and they don’t pander to the squeamish. It puts these spooky miniatures head and shoulders above the bulk of this year’s featurelength horror fare… Forever chasing scares both cerebral and visceral, the filmmakers leave little space for cynicism and plenty for admiration — an invaluable accomplishment in a film form that’s so susceptible to weak spots.” – Charlie Lyne, Little White Lies

472. (-88) Let Me In

Matt Reeves

2010 / USA / 116m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloë Grace Moretz, Richard Jenkins, Cara Buono, Elias Koteas, Sasha Barrese, Dylan Kenin, Chris Browning, Ritchie Coster, Dylan Minnette

“In transliterating a foreign-language horror hit into an Anglophone movie it doesn’t follow [shot-for-shot]… though it does lift many scenes verbatim… If anything, this is a grimmer reading: as per Lindqvist, Abby genuinely feels for Owen, but the film suggests – via a photo-strip showing that she has been with her current protector since he was Owen’s age – that the vampire is going through another iteration of a relationship she has had before and will have again… Let Me In isn’t as rich or daring as Let the Right One In and seldom improves on it – but it plays better as a horror film, more concentrated in its focus on the creepy and shocking aspects of its unusual love story.” – Kim Newman, Sight and Sound

474. (+224) Crimson Peak

Guillermo del Toro

2015 / USA / 119m / Col / Gothic | IMDb
Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, Jim Beaver, Burn Gorman, Leslie Hope, Doug Jones, Jonathan Hyde, Bruce Gray

“To absorb the extraordinary details, colors, shapes and situations that are rife with layered danger is to witness this director’s fierce commitment to his own vision of what life could, or should, be. Del Toro’s latest, “Crimson Peak,” is a case in point. Set in the early 20th century, the action takes place almost entirely in the confines of a dark, decaying, sprawling manor house in northern England called Allerdale Hall. The hall sits atop a mine of red clay that brings about all kinds of building stress: red liquid oozing from walls, thick red water clogging the pipes and trickling down faucets, as if the whole place is in a permanent state of menstrual seizure… But del Toro has always trafficked in very expensive, well curated yuck. And as a result, “Crimson Peak” is all sexy gothic decor mixed with dungeon-like discomfort.” – Kaori Shoji, Japan Times

476. (+428) Wolf

Mike Nichols

1994 / USA / 125m / Col / Werewolf | IMDb
Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader, Kate Nelligan, Richard Jenkins, Christopher Plummer, Eileen Atkins, David Hyde Pierce, Om Puri, Ron Rifkin

“In the business world Stewart is something of a bizarre jellyfish, but in full lycanthropic form, he is something of a surreal and absolutely menacing evil that Spader makes his own. “Wolf” is an underrated horror gem, one that works as social commentary and horror cinema, and it’s a great piece of nineties filmmaking. Filled with an understated intellect and using the werewolf movie formula as a commentary for aging and the battle of the males in a society obsessed with power and dominance, Mike Nichols “Wolf” is one of our favorites of the genre, and a guaranteed good time for anyone looking for a different kind of horror film.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed

478. (-5) The Stepford Wives

Bryan Forbes

1975 / USA / 115m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson, Nanette Newman, Tina Louise, Carol Eve Rossen, William Prince, Carole Mallory, Toni Reid, Judith Baldwin

“The Stepford wives are, in fact, not women; they are bloodless, soulless robots, created by the men in Stepford to replace their presumably intelligent and enterprising wives who might see more to life than getting the upstairs floor to a glistening shine and having sex whenever their husbands desire it. Much is made of the fact that the women in Stepford had once belonged to a popular feminist group, which shows that, prior to their replacement, they had been independent thinkers. This is one of the keys to the film and the understanding that it does not look down on women… The robots are simply a twisted male fantasy of the ultimate woman: sexy, submissive, and mentally vacant. That this fantasy is pathetic in the extreme says much about the film’s view of the male animal and his capacity for feeling and imagination.” – James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk

480. (-125) Los sin nombre

Jaume Balagueró

AKA: The Nameless

1999 / Spain / 102m / Col / Mystery | IMDb
Emma Vilarasau, Karra Elejalde, Tristán Ulloa, Toni Sevilla, Brendan Price, Jordi Dauder, Núria Cano, Isabel Ampudia, Carles Punyet, Aleix Puiggalí

“Rather than bombard viewers with shocking scares, Jaume Balaguero’s multi-award-winning feature debut builds up an overwhelming and oppressive sense of dread with plenty of suspense thrown in. As the characters’ fear grows, so does yours… There are a few plot weaknesses – many questions go unanswered – but The Nameless gets it right in so many other areas it is easy to forgive. Albert Carreras and Xavi Giménez’s cinematography is stunning and creates pit-of-your-stomach dread from the off. There is very little colour in the film – the world is icy blue and grey aside from the old home movies Claudia pores over… Balaguero sets out to define evil – and he manages it in truly graphic yet glorious style.” – Leanne McGrath, Eye for Film

482. (+141) The Witches

Nicolas Roeg

1990 / UK / 91m / Col / Fantasy | IMDb
Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, Jasen Fisher, Rowan Atkinson, Bill Paterson, Brenda Blethyn, Charlie Potter, Jane Horrocks, Anne Lambton, Sukie Smith

“Based on Roald Dahl’s 1983 children’s fantasy, executive produced by Henson and directed by Nicolas Roeg, it’s the kind of literate, imaginative children’s fantasy we see too rarely… Forgetting the new, questionably “upbeat” ending, Roeg and Scott have served Dahl well, embellished him intelligently… But what [Roeg has] also done is put disturbing flesh on Dahl’s fancies, visualize the witches with such revolting detail, and the mouse-eye view with such horrific vividness, that the movie takes on an unnerving pulse and threat. The setting becomes overwhelming, the evil palpable; Dahl’s book with its light, ironic tone, candy-coated the fear.” – Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times

484. (+384) Gerald’s Game

Mike Flanagan

2017 / USA / 103m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Chiara Aurelia, Carel Struycken, Henry Thomas, Kate Siegel, Adalyn Jones, Bryce Harper, Gwendolyn Mulamba, James Flanagan

“Gerald’s Game is a single-setting thriller for the majority of its runtime, so Flanagan and his longtime cinematographer Michael Fimognari use constrictive camera shots and precise editing (which Flanagan also handled) to maintain a suffocating sense of atmosphere throughout the scenes set in Jessie and Gerald’s bedroom, in spite of the unchanging scenery… Gerald’s Game generates horror more through suggestion that onscreen imagery for much of its runtime, but be warned: when things do get explicit, the movie becomes rather graphic and very disturbing, very quickly.” – Sandy Schaefer, ScreenRant

486. (+375) Creep

Patrick Brice

2014 / USA / 77m / Col / Found Footage | IMDb
Patrick Brice, Mark Duplass

“More or less a two-hander for co-stars Patrick Brice and indie-cinema multihyphenate Mark Duplass, who reportedly improvised from a jointly written bare-bones outline under Brice’s direction… Right from the start, “Creep” primes viewers to suspect that nothing is what it seems. Indeed, even before Aaron actually begins shooting Josef’s monologues, he comes across as dangerously naive, if not downright clueless, simply by agreeing to spend a long day alone with a much-too-ingratiating stranger in and around a cabin in a remote mountain town. Sure enough, there’s an entirely predictable revelation of deception around the midway point. But then something else happens, followed by some other, far more unexpected things.” – Joe Leydon, Variety

488. (+203) Urban Legend

Jamie Blanks

AKA: Mixed Culture

1998 / USA / 99m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Michael Rosenbaum, Loretta Devine, Joshua Jackson, Tara Reid, John Neville, Julian Richings, Robert Englund

“The notion of a new horror film devoted to urban legends is somewhat redundant, given that horror films routinely mine urban legends and arguably represent them. Urban Legend, a first feature directed by 26-year-old Australian Jamie Blanks, places the modern-day folktale at the center of what might otherwise be yet another Scream offshoot… As horror movies and first directing efforts go, Urban Legend offers decent suspense and a few genuine jolts; it has a kind of loud, insistent charm, which eventually grinds down. James Chressanthis’ wide-screen cinematography is attractive and assured, but Silvio Horta’s screenplay scarcely breaks new ground, content instead with serving up stock characters in familiar settings.” – Ed Kelleher, Film Journal International

490. (+4) Kurutta ippêji

Teinosuke Kinugasa

AKA: A Page of Madness

1926 / Japan / 70m / BW / Surrealism | IMDb
Masuo Inoue, Ayako Iijima, Yoshie Nakagawa, Hiroshi Nemoto, Misao Seki, Minoru Takase, Eiko Minami, Kyosuke Takamatsu, Tetsu Tsuboi, Shintarô Takiguchi

“A stunning invocation of the world as viewed by the mentally ill, within minutes, as the rapid montage of the opening storm sequences dissolves into the surrealistic fantasy of the sailor’s wife dressed in an exotic costume dancing in front of an art-deco inspired backdrop featuring a large spinning ball flanked by ornate fountains, A Page of Madness bowls you over with a barrage of startling images utilising every technique known to filmmakers of the time. Even now, Kinugasa’s film seems as fresh as a daisy and when seen on the big screen, as eye-popping an experience as anything you’re likely to see released nowadays.” – Jasper Sharp, Midnight Eye

492. (-134) Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors

Freddie Francis

AKA: The Blood Suckers

1965 / UK / 98m / Col / Anthology | IMDb
Christopher Lee, Roy Castle, Peter Cushing, Max Adrian, Ann Bell, Michael Gough, Jennifer Jayne, Neil McCallum, Bernard Lee, Alan Freeman

“Inspired by the black humour-filled E.C. comics of the 50’s, Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors was to set off Amicus’ long-standing obsession with making horror anthologies. It was a successful formula as long as most of the stories in them were entertaining. You were always going to get some clunkers but with the array of acting talent that Amicus managed to get to appear in small roles, it was a price worth paying… Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors has dated quite a bit by now and as a result, it’s not going to keep you up at night. But with some great performances by THE best actors this genre has to offer as well as one or two unnerving moments, you can do no harm by having your fortune read by the doc.” – Andrew Smith, Daily Dead

494. (-99) Alligator

Lewis Teague

1980 / USA / 91m / Col / Natural Horror | IMDb
Robert Forster, Robin Riker, Michael V. Gazzo, Dean Jagger, Sydney Lassick, Jack Carter, Perry Lang, Henry Silva, Bart Braverman, John Lisbon Wood

“The basic angle to John Sayles’ script (dubious scientific research leading to a dangerous freak of nature) is a reworking of his 1978 Piranha, but the sense of humour, narrative economy and attention to character are as sharp and fresh as you could wish. No prizes for guessing that Ramon finally devours the shady hand that unwittingly fed him, or that the cop on his tail literally blows the lid off his own guilt problems, but Sayles and Teague never stint on incidental pleasures. The result is an effective and unpretentious treat.” – Time Out

496. (+100) House

Steve Miner

1985 / USA / 93m / Col / Haunted House | IMDb
William Katt, George Wendt, Richard Moll, Kay Lenz, Mary Stavin, Michael Ensign, Erik Silver, Mark Silver, Susan French, Alan Autry

“Even though the creatures in the film are truly disgusting, there is a lack of blood and gore. That makes this the perfect kind of film for the horror hunting 12 year old kids out there. Just creepy and gruesome enough to satisfy their curiosity, but not enough to have them sleep with the lights on. The lighthearted nature that some of the more frightening scenes take helps to ease the tension. House ranks up there as one of the best horror comedies around, sitting in a list that includes Evil Dead 2 and Dead Alive. There’s a lot to enjoy here, and it’s pretty fast paced, rarely slowing down once the insanity starts. If you haven’t had a chance to watch this one yet, I suggest picking it up right now. You won’t be disappointed.” – The Film Reel

498. (+108) Idle Hands

Rodman Flender

1999 / USA / 92m / Col / Comedy | IMDb
Devon Sawa, Seth Green, Elden Henson, Jessica Alba, Vivica A. Fox, Christopher Hart, Jack Noseworthy, Katie Wright, Sean Whalen, Nicholas Sadler

“”Idle Hands” is a delirious, no-holds-barred attempt at creating a slasher movie with lots of campy and outrageous humor. While some of it fails (including the whole subplot dealing with Mick and Pnub, who return from the grave), much of it really is funny, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of the so-bad-they’re-great ’80s horror flicks that this film obviously gets its inspiration from. Back in those days, there were very few redeeming qualities, just gory killing after gory killing, intermingled with a helpful dosage of gratuitous nudity.” – Dustin Putman, The Movie Boy

500. (+132) Irréversible

Gaspar Noé

AKA: Irreversible

2002 / France / 97m / Col / Drama | IMDb
Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel, Jo Prestia, Philippe Nahon, Stéphane Drouot, Jean-Louis Costes, Michel Gondoin, Mourad Khima, Hellal

“What we have here is a genuine outlaw work of art. They are to be treasured. From Louis-Ferdinand Celine’s twisted tales of the perverse in ’30s Paris to Henry Miller’s examination of the extremes of heterosex and John Rechy’s of the extremes of homosex, and Jim Thompson’s bleak, nihilistic noir fables, to Sam Peckinpah’s blood-spattered Götterdämmerungs, they are tough to sit through and impossible to forget. They get way deep inside, to the reptile walnut of brain still in the center of the head…. it seems to be Noe’s first philosophical position, that natural man is a monster.” – Stephen Hunter, Washington Post