Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, P.J. Soles and Nancy Kyes
"A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood for the murder of his sister, escapes and stalks a bookish teenage girl and her friends while his doctor chases him through the streets." (IMDB.com)
Halloween was the obvious choice as being the film I recommend to watch on Halloween. It's a classic that needs to be seen by everyone. If you haven't seen it yet...get on it now!
Starring: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames and Mekhi Phifer
"A nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman, and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall." (IMDB.com)
Starring: Ashley Laurence, Clare Higgins and Andrew Robinson
"An unfaithful wife encounters the zombie of her dead lover, who's being chased by demons after he escaped from their sado-masochistic Hell." (IMDB.com)
Starring: Maren Pedersen, Clara Pontoppidan and Elith Pio
"A historical view of witchcraft in seven parts and a variety of styles. First, there is a slide-show alternating inter-titles with drawings and paintings to illustrate the behavior of pagan cultures in the Middle Ages regarding their vision of demons and witches. Then there is a dramatization of the situation of the witches in the Middle Ages, witchcraft and witch-hunts. Finally the film compares the behavior of hysteria of contemporary (1921) women with the behavior of the witches in the Middle Ages, concluding that they are very similar." (Claudio Carvalho via IMDB.com)
Essential viewing on Halloween for fans of silent and/or classic horror films!
Starring: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford
"A rambunctious group of five college friends steal away for a weekend of debauchery in an isolated country cabin, only to be attacked by horrific supernatural creatures in a night of endless terror and bloodshed. Sound familiar? Just wait. As the teens begin to exhibit standard horror movie behavior, a group of technicians in a control room are scrutinizing, and sometimes even controlling every move the terrified kids make! With their efforts continually thwarted by an all-powerful "eye in the sky," do they have any chance of escape? (DVD)
I know this is a movie that people either love or hate and I, for one, love it! The last 30 minutes or so are a total blast! As for the people who didn't like it or didn't really understand it, google the movie and you can read about the thought behind the movie from Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. I think that if people do that, they may understand it more.
Starring: Tisa Farrow, Richard Johnson and Ian McCulloch
"Strangers looking for a woman's father arrive at a tropical island where a doctor desperately searches for the cause and cure of a recent epidemic of the undead." (IMDB.com)
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Kate Ashfield
"A man decides to turn his moribund life around by winning back his ex-girlfriend, reconciling his relationship with his mother, and dealing with an entire community that has returned from the dead to eat the living." (IMDB.com)
Want to watch a movie that has zombies, but is also funny? Well, look no further than Shaun of the Dead. Whoever doesn't find this movie funny, I'm sorry to say, has no sense of humor.
"From the Amazon's forbidden depths came the Creature from the Black Lagoon"
Directed by Jack Arnold
Starring: Richard Carlson, Julie Adams and Richard Denning
"A strange prehistoric beast lurks in the depths of the Amazonian jungle. A group of scientists try to capture the animal and bring it back to civilization for study." (IMDB.com)
Of the Universal Horror films I've seen, Creature from the Black Lagoon is my favorite and that's why I'm recommending it.
Starring: Andre Gower, Robby Kiger and Stephen Macht
"Dracula is alive. In fact, he plans to rule the world and that is why he seeks the help of other legendary monsters. However, a bunch of kids regarded by their peers as losers uncover the devious plan and prepare for a counter strike." (Steve Richer via IMDB.com)
This movie ranks up there with The Goonies and Stand By Me as movies that I loved as a kid and I still love today!
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry and Dan Hicks
"The lone survivor of an onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits holds up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack." (IMDB.com)
If you haven't seen Evil Dead 2, see it immediately. I'm assuming that if you haven't seen it, you haven't seen The Evil Dead or Army of Darkness either, so go see those as well...you'll thank me later.
"Mrs. Voorhees is dead, and Camp Crystal Lake is shut down, but a camp next to the infamous place is stalked by an unknown assailant. Is it Mrs. Voorhees' son Jason who didn't drown in the lake some 30 years before?" (IMDB.com)
I'm a big fan of Jason Voorhees and the Friday the 13th series, so there was no question that I was going to include one of the films as a film I recommend to watch on Halloween. The tough part was deciding on which one to recommend. Ultimately, I decided to go with Part II because it features one of my favorite final girls (Ginny) and also because it's the film where Jason is introduced as the killer.
Starring: Jason Yachanin, Kate Graham and Allyson Sereboff
"When the American Chicken Bunker, a military-themed fried-chicken chain, builds a restaurant on the site of an ancient Indian burial ground, local protesters aren't the only ones crying fowl! The previous tenants, fueled by a supernatural force, take "possession" of the food and those who eat it, and the survivors discover that they must band together before they themselves become the other white meat! Film lovers have been starved for sustenance. The relentless diet of predictability and pretense Hollywood has been serving up just doesn't cut it. Poultrygeist is hearty food for thought. In Poultrygeist, Troma takes on the the fast-food industry-skewering the soulless restaurateurs-in the world's first horror-comedy film to feature zombie chickens, American Indians and a bit of singing and dancing! It's Poultrygeist!" (Troma Entertainment via IMDB.com)
Well, this is the other Troma flick I was thinking about recommending...Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. Just like with a lot of Troma flicks, this may not be a film for anyone who is easily offended as it's very non-PC. It features plenty of gore (zombies!), violence and nudity. It's outrageous and silly, so of course, I loved it and other Troma fans should love it too!
"The good news is your date is here. The bad news is...he's dead."
Directed by Fred Dekker
Starring: Tom Atkins, Jason Lively and Steve Marshall
"Alien brain parasites, entering humans through the mouth, turn their host into a killing zombie. Some teenagers start to fight against them." (IMDB.com)
A cult favorite, this awesome 80s horror/comedy stars the awesome Tom Atkins!
Starring: David Caruso, Stephen Gevedon and Paul Guilfoyle, Josh Lucas, Peter Mullan and Brendan Sexton III
"Tensions rise within an asbestos cleaning crew as they work in an abandoned mental hospital with a horrific past that seems to be coming back." (IMDB.com)
Once you've seen it, you will never again feel safe in the dark"
Directed by Dario Argento
Starring: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini and Flavio Bucci
"A newcomer to a fancy ballet academy gradually comes to realize that the staff of the school are actually a coven of witches bent on chaos and destruction." (IMDB.com)
Late today, NBC announced that Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler will host the 2013 Golden Globes on January 13th.
The network's president of alternative programming Paul Telegdy said that "Tina and Amy have a proven chemistry and comedic timing from their many years together on SNL to their successful co-starring roles in Baby Mama."
With Halloween creeping up on us, I present a post concerning Final Girls because they're a part of the horror genre.
Final Girl: "The final girl is a trope in thriller and horror films (particularly slasher films) that specifically refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story." (via Wikipedia)
I've done a post about Final Girls before, but that was just a list of them, this post will feature my top 5 favorite final girls. I'm not going to lie, it's been difficult to pick just 5, but here goes nothing...
#5: Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) - Scream
#4: Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) - A Nightmare on Elm Street
#3: Stretch (Caroline Williams) - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
#2: Ginny Field (Amy Steel) - Friday the 13th Part 2
#1: Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) - Halloween
To me, Laurie Strode is the ultimate final girl and that's why she is #1 on my list!
Starring: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin and Dan O'Herlihy
"An apparent murder-suicide in a hospital emergency room leads to an investigation by the on-call doctor, which reveals a plot by an insane toymaker to kill as many people as possible during Halloween through an ancient Celtic ritual involving a stolen boulder from Stonehenge and Halloween masks." (MuzikJunky via IMDB.com)
I know this film gets a lot of hate because it has nothing to do with Michael Myers, but I love it and feel that it's highly under appreciated. Plus, it stars the awesome Tom Atkins!
Starring: Michael Stephenson, George Hardy and Margo Prey
"Those greedy goblins are back and hungrier than ever in this gourmet gross-out! Disguised as friendly country folk, a pungnacious posse of people-eating trolls lures visitors to their town. But a family of four is about to discover this place is a real tourist trap...and they're the prey! Now, the no-good gnomes must be destroyed before the family gets flambed...and the world becomes a buffet in this feeding freezy of fear!" (Blu-Ray)
I'm recommending Troll 2 because it's so awesomely bad that it has to be seen, especially if one loves other bad movies such as The Room (2003) and Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010). Why is it so awesomely bad? Well, it's better if you just watch and find out for yourself, but I'll say that acting is awful as is the dialogue. The costumes for the goblins (despite the movie being Troll 2, there are no trolls like the first one, only goblins) look like they stuck some extras in potato sacks and threw on some cheap Halloween masks. I could go on, but like I said earlier, it's something you have to watch for yourself to truly understand how bad and awesome the movie is!
After watching the movie, I'd also recommend that one watches Best Worst Movie (2009). It's a documentary, written and directed by Michael Stephenson (Joshua), about how the movie became the cult classic that it is.
Starring: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott and Barbara Crampton
"A dedicated student at a medical college and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue when an odd new student arrives on campus." (IMDB.com)
A horror classic that every horror fan needs to see!
"Melvin was a 90 lb. weakling until nuclear waste transformed him into..."
Directed by Michael Herz & Lloyd Kaufman
Starring: Andree Maranda, Mitch Cohen and Mark Torgl
"Tromaville has a monstrous new hero. The Toxic Avenger is born when mop boy Melvin Junko falls into a vat of toxic waste. Now evildoers will have a lot to lose. (IMDB.com)"
Troma films aren't for everyone, but I love them...well, most of them anyways! I chose to recommend The Toxic Avenger because not only is it one of their best films, but it was the first Troma flick I ever saw. There is another film from the independent movie studio that I might just recommend later this month because it's another good one, but enjoy this one first.
Starring: Joan Collins, Peter Cushing and Roy Dotrice
"This British movie was based on the Tales from the Crypt series, which spawned several subsequent movies (and many imitators), at least one television series, and a whole new wave of comic books. Released in 1972, this movie has five episodes based on Gaines' stories, each introduced by Sir Ralph Richardson as the eerily cheery Crypt Keeper. His comedic approach to the role was misunderstood at the time, as reviewers expected a more solemn approach to horror. In "All Through the House," Santa Claus is someone to avoid. In "Reflection of Death" it takes some people a while to realize the truth about themselves. In "Poetic Justice" death cannot prevent one man's revenge. The episode "Blind Alley" demonstrates a new use for razor blades. "Wish You Were Here" cautions against taking native artifacts lightly (among other things)." (Clarke Fountain, Rovi via RottenTomatoes.com)
Another great horror anthology with the first story, All Through the House, being my favorite.
Starring: Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza and Pablo Rosso
"REC turns on a young TV reporter and her cameraman who cover the night shift at the local fire station. Receiving a call from an old lady trapped in her house, they reach her building to hear horrifying screams -- which begin a long nightmare and a uniquely dramatic TV report." (Davi Silva via IMDB.com)
Forget Quarantine(2008), the U.S. remake, and just watch [REC] if you want to be creeped out.
"They keep coming back in a bloodthirsty lust for human flesh!"
Directed by George A. Romero
Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman
"The dead come back to life and eat the living in this low budget, black and white film. Several people barricade themselves inside a rural house in an attempt to survive the night. Outside are hordes of relentless, shambling zombies who can only be killed by a blow to the head." (Mark Logan via IMDB.com)
"Who are these unholy savages who hunt out their victims by sound alone?"
Directed by Amando de Ossorio
Starring: Lone Fleming, Cesar Burner and Maria Elena Arpon
"In the 13th century there existed a legion of evil knights known as the Templars, who quested for eternal life by drinking human blood and committing sacrifices. Executed for their unholy deeds, the Templars bodies were left out for the crows to peck out their eyes. Now, in modern day Portugal, a group of people stumble on the Templars abandoned monastery, reviving their rotting corpses to terrorize the land." (Jeremy Lunt via IMDB.com)
A Spanish horror film that is the first of the Blind Dead series by
director Amando de Ossorio. This film just oozes atmosphere, especially when the
Templar Knights are shown rising from their graves and when they're on
horseback. Not only that, but it features one of the best endings to a horror film! Don't believe me? Check it out and you'll see for yourself.
"On his first day on the job at an army surplus store, poor Freddy unwittingly releases nerve gas from a secret U.S. military canister, unleashing an unbelievable terror. The gas reanimates a corps of corpses, who arise from their graves with a ravenous hunger for human brains! And luckily for those carnivorous cadavers, there is a group partying teens nearby, just waiting to be eaten!" (Blu-Ray)
Grab a beer, sit back and relax while you enjoy this horror/comedy zombie flick!
Starring: Boris Karloff, Michele Mercier, Lidia Alfonsi and Mark Damon
"A trio of atmospheric horror tales about: A woman terrorized in her apartment by phone calls from an escaped prisoner from her past; a Russian count in the early 1800s who stumbles upon a family in the countryside trying to destroy a particularly vicious line of vampires; and a 1900-era nurse who makes a fateful decision while preparing the corpse of one of her patients - an elderly medium who died during a seance." (IMDB.com)
Atmospheric and scary are the two words I'd use to describe this excellent film from Mario Bava. All three stories were fantastic, but the last one, The Drop of Water, would have to be my favorite because it genuinely scared me...it's that creepy. Black Sabbath is a must see for any horror fan.
Phantasm: "A young boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber known only as the Tall Man, who keeps a mysterious arsenal of terrible weapons with him." (IMDB.com)
Phantasm II: "Mike, now released from a psychiatric hospital, continues his journey to stop the evil Tall Man from his grim work." (IMDB.com)
It was too difficult to choose between the two films because both should be seen, so I decided to go ahead and group them together as one recommendation. I haven't seen parts III or IV yet, but I am planning on watching them this month.
"Poison, drowning, claw, or knife. So many ways to take a life."
Directed by Michael Dougherty
Starring: Anna Paquin, Brian Cox and Dylan Baker
"Trick 'r Treat takes the Creepshow/Tales from the Crypt approach to nefarious new depths with four interwoven tales set on Halloween night: a high school principal moonlights as a vicious serial killer; the quest of a young virgin for that special someone takes a gruesome turn; a group of teens carries out a cruel prank with disastrous consequences; and a cantankerous old man battles a mischievous trick-or-treating demon." (Blu-Ray)
For me, this has become an essential horror movie to watch on or around Halloween and it'll be that way for several years because it's a blast. Highly recommended!
Starring: Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Leslie Nielson, Ted Danson and Stephen King...among many others
"Five tales of terror are presented. The first deals with a demented old man returning from the grave to get the Father's Day cake his murdering daughter never gave him. The second is about a not-too-bright farmer discovering a meteor that turns everything into plant-life. The third is about a vengeful husband burying his wife and her lover up to their necks on the beach. The fourth is about a creature that resides in a crate under the steps of a college. The final story is about an ultra-rich businessman who gets his comeuppance from cockroaches." (Todd A. Bobenrieth via IMDB.com)
If I had to pick my favorite story of the five, I'd have to go with the third, Something to Tide You Over. I find it to the creepiest and the thought being buried up to my neck in sand during low-tide is a horrifying thought.
Creepshow 2 was released in 1987 and while it's not as good as the first, I'd actually recommend it for a watch because of the second story titled The Raft. Sadly, the other two stories are a bit of a letdown, so they could be skipped.
