Click to stab Some stupid fucker security guard stabbed a kid at a screening of My Bloody Valentine 3D, talk about taking it to the next level. I wonder if any of the movie goers thought it was part of the film. Probably not, but then I am being a smart arse as it actually happened at the end of the film when the kid wouldn't leave the theatre. It did remind though of Scream 2 when the dude gets stabbed in the intro. Read Full Story
Legend has it that Mario Bava made Planet of the Vampires on an empty soundstage with two columns, a fake rock, a fog machine and a few color gel lights. One of cinema’s most resourceful filmmakers, Bava probably had a little more at his disposal when he shot this ultra low-budget cult classic – but not much. A lesson plan on how to make superior horror film with spit and shoeshine, Planet of the Vampires – along with Hercules in the Haunted World – represents Bava at the apex of his... Read Full Story
Saw V
Starring Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, and Scott Patterson
Directed by David Hackl
Rated R
There is a moment early in
Saw V that might disorient someone who has
followed the series and will certainly confuse someone who hasn't kept up to
date. In very quick succession, and with no establishment of what the hell is
going on, we see FBI agent Strahm ( Scott
Patterson ) and police detective Mark Hoffman ( Costas
Mandylor ) with their guns drawn in some seedy... Read Full Story
Got to love those people that do the write up on the back of DVD’s. For Cold Prey it says that, “If you think this is going to be the usual ‘trapped teens stalked by a maniac’ movie, you’re dead wrong.” The finishes off the blurb by quoting Arrow in the Head that says, “If you enjoyed the original Friday the 13th and Halloween , you’re going to love Cold Prey .” Two movies that created the “trapped teens stalked by a manic” genre. First off, it should be noted that Cold Prey is actually... Read Full Story
Roger Corman is well known for his frugality and expeditiousness as a director, but those traits in no way negate his talent. While Corman has directed and/or produced his share of clunkers over the years (who wouldn’t with upwards of 500 films to his credit?), he is also responsible for a great number of low-budget gems and handful of near-classics. My personal favorites are his Edgar Allen Poe-inspired films, especially The Fall of House of Usher (1960), The Masque of the Red Death (1964... Read Full Story
Island of Lost Souls (1933) is the kind of gleefully perverse pre-code horror movie that makes you want to go back in time and punch William Hays and the Hollywood producers who buckled to his rigid form of censorship. How many American horror films between the years of 1934 and 1967 could have been improved without the shackles of the Hays Code? Luckily, Island of Lost Souls was released one year before the Hays code was implemented, and, boy, does it show. An adaptation of the H.G. Welles... Read Full Story
5 -
Poltergeist
4 - The Evil Dead
3 - The Shining
2 - The Exorcist
1 -
Halloween
Not the guy who created Austin Powers
There may be no better movie night in the year
than Halloween. It's tailor made for getting the hell scared out of you in the
dark. Because of that, there are a million ways we could have gone with
for this Top Five list. I think the top two have to be represented in your
viewing party, or you're just doing it wrong. But... Read Full Story
For the most part, horror films of the 1940’s were relegated to the status of B-movie programmers. That’s not to say they weren’t fun, and Val Lewton took a list of B-movie titles and made some of the greatest horror films of all time, but increasingly the genre was viewed like an ugly stepsister, a perception that persists to this day. While Universal Studios churned out low-budget filler like The Mad Ghoul and Captive Wild Woman (both 1943), a small group of other studios were plumbing... Read Full Story
Part The Witchfinder General (1968) and part Village of the Damned (1960), Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) is one of the better -- though more obscure – witchcraft entries from the early 1970s. A product of England’s Tigon Studios (the chief competitor of Hammer during this period), Blood on Satan’s Claw is an effective satanic possession/infestation movie that ultimately succumbs to a confused screenplay, but not before boasting a few extremely disturbing scenes and genuinely creepy moments... Read Full Story
Horror’s second cycle was winding to an inglorious close by 1945, but a few decent movies managed to surface before the nuclear age of sci-fi and big bugs took hold. For the major part of its running time, The Woman Who Came Back is one of the better horror films of this period. And even though the film is let down severely by an unnecessarily prosaic ending, it delivers enough spooky goods along the way to make it a solid Halloween recommendation. Lorna Webster (Nancy Kelly) returns to her... Read Full Story
