I usually stay away from anything demonic or of the like, but this is a really great psychological retro-themed horror film definitely worth a watch for any horror fan. On one level the film has a bunch of similarities to Rosemary's Baby, but at the same time it also feels like a mini version of The Shining (both in location size and film length) or a haunted house film. The plot centers around a college student hard-up for cash answering a flyer that advertised needing a baby sitter, but upon arrival to the babysitting job she finds out the couple who put out the ad are actually childless. The film is dialogue-less for most of the movie and there's a small cast of about five characters in total or so. The film is stylized after movies from the late 70s and early 80s and is set in the 80s. The fashion and cars are vintage as well as the 80s walkman the main character carries and the music she dances to while "babysitting", and the film's synth soundtrack. The film's feel is reminiscent of some of Poanski's films like The Tenant, as well as some of Dario Argento's 70s films too. All in all this movie was a great psychological thriller with some unexpected scares and it was also surprisingly fun, I found myself dancing in my seat and drumming along to the film's dance sequence set to the 80s one hit wonder The Fixx's One Thing Leads to Another. It can also get surprisingly violent The film has a cameo by horror veteran Dee Wallce (The Howling, Critters, Cujo, The Frighteners, E.T.) and has character actor great Tom Noonan (Heat, Manhunter, Last Action Hero, Monster Squad) in a creepy role as well. This film was director Ti West's big break, he then went on to make more successful horror films like V/H/S, The Innkeepers, and his newest film produced by Eli Roth called The Sacrament which is available to stream on Netflix and was heavily promoted by them upon the film's release. House of the devil is featured in Rue Morgue Magazine's 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See book, and is available to stream on Netflix as well. I give the movie a 4.5/5 and you can watch the trailer below:
There's really no other way to say it, this movie was disappointing. The plot sounded very intriguing and like a film version of an X-Files episode: Fashion Photographer Laura Mars has psychic powers beyond her control that allow her to see through the eyes of a psychopathic killer that's on the loose. This was an early project for legendary horror director John Carpenter who wrote the film's screenplay. The movie stars Faye Dunaway, a young Tommy Lee Jones, and one of my favorite character actors Brad Dourif, the great character actor Rene Auberjonois is also in he film (playing quite possibly the funniest/best character of the film). The film has a good 1970s vibe present throughout the majority of
the film (the cars, the fashion, the architecture) and the film has good cinematography (a bit like some of the Giallo greats), but there is a large portion of this film that is really boring, and a lot of it probably could have been cut out. I fell asleep in the middle of the movie, woke up and finished it without missing a beat (the same thing happened when I watched Heat [1995]), I feel like if you're doing you're job of making the movie correctly then I should have had to re-watch what I slept through. Also this movie's plot has been done many times before, so I wasn't too surprised when the twist was revealed at the end because for a seasoned movie buff like myself, it was pretty easy to figure out (for lesser film buffs though it might be more difficult). The other notable thing about this movie is the theme song by Barbara Streisand "Prisoner," which I guess was somewhat of a hit for her. Overall though this was a mediocre movie and I give it a 3/5; You can Watch the Trailer below:
This is a very obscure cult classic, but unlike many obscure classics that are good and have seemingly no reason to be (no famous or noteworthy names attached to the project) Tourist Trap has people that add to its unique eccentric style. Most notably Robert A. Burns, the art director from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, was involved with Tourist Trap designing the creepiest mannequins I have ever seen, and being responsible for the also very effective special effects that made them come alive. Composer Pino Donaggio, most remembered for his scores for several Brian De Palma films, Carrie (1976) Dressed to Kill
(1980), Blowout (1981), as well as Jo Dante's Piranha (1978) and Howling (1981) and Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973), did a very bizarre carnival-esque score for the film. The plot of the film centers around these college aged kids going on a road trip who decide to stop at a tourist trap along the way; Slausen's Wax Museum. Unfortunately for the kids this is a real tourist trap, and the museum's owner and his crazy "brother" are turning the tourists into mannequins. It is also worth mentioning that the lead character/killer is played by the former star of the 50s TV series The Rifleman: Chuck Conners. As mentioned before the film has several unique quirks about it (the score, the lifelike mannequins, main actor cast against type) and my favorite is the fact that the killer also has telekinetic powers, forget the predictable plot twist, now that's truly
unexpected. Like many great horror flicks from the 70s and 80s this was not a success on its initial release, but it found an audience when it was aired on cable TV in the 80s, garnering none other than Stephen King as one of its many fans. King praises it in his Danse Macabre book as an obscure classic saying that the film "“wields an eerie spooky power, as wax figures begin to move and come to life in a ruined, out-of-the-way tourist resort.” The film was recently released on Blu-ray so it is now more accessible than its ever been. It is truly a unique take on the slasher film, considering it has no blood (there is a little actually, but basically none) or nudity in it and is rated PG, but just like Texas Chainsaw, it feels a whole lot more graphic than it is. The film is featured on Rue Morgue Magazine's 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to see list/book. I give it a 4.5/5, you can view the trailer below:
Another one that almost single-handedly changed the horror genre. As I mentioned before in my Black Christmas review, 1974 was a big year for horror, Black Christmas redefined the slasher genre making the birth of movies like Halloween (1978) possible, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre made eventually led to the birth of the extremely gory violent and scary horror movie. Texas Chainsaw along with Black Christmas were the first two horror films to create "the lone girl" formula (where a single female always survives)for horror films to come, Chainsaw was also the first film to feature the killer running full speed after his victims instead of walking at a slow pace, and it was also the first horror film to have the majority of it take place in the daytime. Also though you may walk away from the film thinking you've just seen a bloodbath, there's very little actual gore in the film (a lot of it just appears or was already in the background). For those who do not know about the film, the general plot is that five hippies go out for a drive and get lost/find an old house and go exploring, the five friends then run into a chainsaw wielding maniac named Leatherface and his demented cannibalistic family. The movie is not based on a true story despite what the film and advertising says, but it was inspired by the real life crimes of Ed Gein and Charles Manson. Now if you were to just look at the movie for all those reasons alone the film would be great, but that would be disregarding about 90% of the film's greatness. Arguably the real horror and greatness that came from this movie involved/was due to the horrendous infamous conditions of the film's production. The acting in the film was great and one of the reasons why the film was as successful as it was, but a large percent of the performances, were not acted. A lot of the scenes when you see people getting beat with brooms or other objects, those actors were actually beaten full force. The scene where the actress limps away from Leatherface after jumping out of a one story window? That was real too, in order to get a better shot the film crew made about an eight foot tall ramp for the actress to run and jump off of, through the window, and when she landed she hurt her leg badly, but she decided to continue filming anyway. All the animal bones, bodies, and furniture aroundthe house? Those
were all real too and constructed by the film's art director who went out driving around the highways of Texas scouring for roadkill, and then would bring it back to make all the film's "creations" out of it. The crazy hitch-hiker? In the documentary found on "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre:2-disc Ultimate Collection," titled Flesh Wounds, the actor who plays the Hitch-hiker admits to actually being Schizophrenic. The insane cackling the actress does on the back of the truck at the end? That was real too, she explains that she was having a nervous breakdown at that point in filming due to the fact that she had to re-shoot some of the most difficult scenes to film (including the one where she hurt her leg) because of technical problems. Also in the scene where
Leatherface hits the guy with a hammer, one of the actors expressed that he was almost struck by the hammer. And the obnoxious Franklin character? He stayed in character even when they weren't filming so as to create real dislike between himself and the other characters. On top of all that the shooting of the film is notorious for the conditions it was filmed under, it was filmed during a record breaking heatwave in Texas history with almost a month of days with the temperature over 100 degrees, plus when filming on the set all the lights added about another 20 degrees of heat, which lead to the animal carcasses rotting and stinking to the point of making several people on the production (including the actor who played Leatherface) vomit multiple times. Most of the Actors and Actresses only had one costume too say during the whole three plus weeks of filming in the severe heat, they couldn't wash their clothes, or even bath so they could retain their character's gritty "look". Also at one point they had more animal carcasses lying around than they knew what to due with, so director Tobe Hooper told the crew to burn them, so the horrible smell of burning rotting animal flesh was detectable for miles. The most grueling part of the shootthough was agreed upon by everyone involved to be the dinner scene, which was a 27 hour long shoot. The actor who played the hitch-hiker said in Flesh Wounds, that he had personally lead soldiers into combat several times in Vietnam, and that that was not as harrowing of an experience as shooting the dinner scene was.
Also all the blood that was poured in the main actresses hair at the end, permanently stained her hair for life. Also once the film did get successful the actors never got any of the royalties because of the contract they had with the film company that produced the film (which just happened to have ties to the mafia), honestly checkout the documentaries on that 2-disc collection if you're interested in hearing more, they're quite good.But despite all the hardships the film and crew went through, someone could argue the end product was worth it. The director, Makeup artist, and set/art director and cinematographer all went on to successful and award winning careers. The film opens at the beginning by talking about some mutilated bodies that are described as "a grisly display of art," which is exactly how I would describe the film. It is at once extremely disturbing and yet gorgeous. The cinematography, unique camera style, and gorgeous sunsets make the film gorgeous to look at, and the set is so distinct that it is essentially another character in the film. (Fun fact: the set was an actual house, and it is open to the public today as a restaurant in Texas.) And the rest is history, the film became a massive success at Drive-ins and such and spawned several sequels and remakes as well launched the career of Tobe Hooper, one of my all time favorite directors. At this point I think it's pretty obvious what my opinion of the film is, most people will say this is one of the greatest Horror films of all time, if not the greatest, I wouldn't say it's the greatest but I'd say it's probably in the top 5. I give it a 5/5. I've decided not to include the trailer because it shows every single famous/scary scene from the film, so instead here's the segment from Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments where they talk about the film:
The Day of the Locust is based on the novel of the same name which is on several lists of Greatest novels of the 20th Century. The story is an unromantic look at the often romanticized Golden age of Hollywood in the 1920s and 30s. The movie shows the seedy side of Hollywood and also shows what happens to all those people who went into Hollywood to fulfill their dreams, only to see Hollywood become their land of broken dreams. Burgess Meredith was nominated for an Oscar as alcoholic former vaudevillian father of Karen Black's character, who never quite made it to the big time. The movie not only shows unfulfilled dreams, but everywhere throughout the film there are signs of the darker side of Hollywood, one of the first scenes of the film shows a tour group at the famous Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, and the tour guide is talking about all the people that have jumped off the letters and committed suicide. Later a set collapses during the shooting of a film showing the more dangerous side of Hollywood, and you get to see the more inhuman side when you find out that even if anybody would have died in the collapse it wouldn't have mattered to the producers of the film. But no matter what the film is showing whether it's a cockfight or an androgynous child mocking the films main characters in song, the cinematography is at once gorgeous, and gritty. Another main element of the story is the film's female lead Karen Black who is pretty much single handedly responsible for the film's at times overwhelming sexuality. Black plays a woman who's fickle character is best described as a combination between Scarlet O'hara, Blanche from Streetcar Named Desire, and Jenny from Forest Gump, so in other words every mans downfall/worst nightmare. She and her carelessness (this is from a man's point of view mind you) with her sexuality is at least partially responsible for ruining most of the film's male's lives, or at least breaking their hearts. If for nothing else her inability to decide what she wants and the consequences that has to the people around her, makes for an interesting psychological study. The film has since become a cult classic for several reasons: the cast is amazing, Burgess Meredith, Karen Black, Donald Sutherland, Billy Barty, Geraldine
Page, Jackie Earle Haley as a ten year old in drag, William Atherton, and a cameo by the great B-movie director William Castle; and then the dynamics of the main male characters (I feel a connection with both and I think a lot of people might), and of course the ending. This film has an epic horrific LSD inspired nightmare of an ending that takes the film from a look at the darker side of Hollywood, to an over the top symbolic representation of an inhuman dog-eat-dog world. That attack on that age of Hollywood may be a bit harsh in my opinion but it's how the author and the director wanted it portrayed. This film is directed by John Schelisinger (Midnight Cowboy, Marathon Man, Pacific Heights) and the film has a lavish score composed by five time Oscar winning John Barry (the James bond theme). I highly enjoyed it though except for the very ending, and even though it is long it builds and builds and makes the climax worth waiting for. I give it a 5/5 from a technical standpoint, and a 4.5/5 as for my enjoyment of the film. You can watch the trailer below:
This is John Carpenter (legendary horror director)'s second film, he still hasn't made a horror movie at this point yet. His first film was a Sci-fi comedy (Dark Star [1974]), and this one is an action/crime-thriller. The movie does feel like a horror movie at times though. The film is about a police precinct that is being moved across town in L.A. California. The film takes place on the precinct's last day of operation. A police officer on his first day on the job is assigned to watch over the precinct for its final 24 hours. The trouble begins however when a gang who recently had several of its members killed/arrested by cops from precinct 13, decide to get revenge, and attack the precinct. There are only five people trapped inside left to fend off the seemingly endless hordes of criminals trying to get in and kill them all. The movie is really similar to Night of the Living Dead (1968). The protagonist in both films is black, there are only four to five people trapped inside trying to fend off seemingly endless hordes of inhuman monsters (the criminals in Precinct are completely dehumanized and never talk while they are attacking, and the audience is completely disconnected from them), and the trapped people in both have an argument about retreating to the basement. The movie also has a stellar 80s-esque score (composed by Carpenter) that helps intensify the mood. I really did enjoy this one, pretty much everyone knows John Carpenter for his horror movies (Halloween, The Thing, etc.) but this was the first of his action movies (Big Trouble in Little China, Escape
from New York, They Live) and it's good, but what is most striking about it to me is how
funny it is. People tend to overlook the comedy element of Carpenter's movies but so many of them are so funny, and in my opinion this is his funniest; Here's an example: A secretary in the station is pouring the new police officer a cup of coffee and asks "Black?" meaning "would you like your coffee black?" and the African American officer responds smiling "Have been for over 30 years!" This being an early film of Carpenter's, there are no big name stars (but the little girl from Escape to Witch Mountain [1975] is in it) in it. Apparently this film was remade in 2005 with Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne. This is an all around great thriller, looks great, sounds great, is written great and acted great. The only thing it could have done better to make a full-fledged action flick instead of one with a horror vibe, would have been to develop the enemy's character more, instead of them being faceless and nameless. I give it a 4.5/5. This film is available to stream instantly on Netflix. You can view the trailer below:
Another influential and ahead of its time horror movie, Raw Meat would pave the way for countless stories about underground mutants killing people in the subways, like C.H.U.D.(1984), (see my review) Creep (2004), and Clive Barker's short story and film The Midnight Meat Train (2008), and even The Descent (2005) takes a page from this film's book. When an important member of the British government goes missing in a subway station, the local police force takes the matter into their hands, and a somewhat manic Donald Pleasance (The Great Escape, Halloween) leads the investigation. Sir Christopher Lee also makes an appearance in the film, though his is much smaller. It turns out the lone survivor of a group of construction workers that got stuck in the subway tunnelsmany years ago (for so long
that the survivors resorted to cannibalism and inbreeding to survive) is responsible for the recent disappearances and murders in the subway. This movie is surprisingly funny, Donald Pleasance is a real hoot, and there are also times when the audience is called to feel empathy or even sympathy for the cannibal killer, (and it is rather effective at doing so), and then of course there are times when the film's atmosphere (dark London subways) is very disturbing/unsettling and freaky. This film was ahead of its time for the amount of graphic detail and gore it shows. There are some plot holes if you look hard enough and try to scientifically analyze everything, but you shouldn't be doing that for this film anyway. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I don't like gore (the gore is ahead of its time but not necessarily a lot by today's standards), I would recommend watching this one in total darkness though, because I watched almost the whole thing with a light on, and then turned it off for the last 20 minutes or so, and it was a lot freakier in the dark.The monster could have seemed less human Also you'll never think of/hear the line "Mind the doors!" the same way again. I give it a 4.25/5. This film is mentioned in Rue Morgue magazine's 200 Alternative Horror Films You need to See. You can view the trailer below:
If you were to look up an example of what a "cult" movie is I think you would first run into the Star Wars franchise, then perhaps the Evil Dead series and then The Warriors would probably be listed next. This film has maintained a strong cult following since its release 35 years ago. When I was in high school/middle school (junior high) this film had a resurgence of popularity because it had two popular video game adaptations made of it one in 2005 just called The Warriors, and one in 2009 called The Warriors:Street Brawl, and there have also been comic book adaptations of the film. The film gathered $3.5 million on its opening weekend, but was linked to acts of vandalism and violence the following weekend including 3 killings, two in southern California and one in Boston, involving movie goers heading to or from the theater. Almost all the film's advertising was severely cut to show only the title the rating of the film and theater locations, and at least 200 theaters upped security during showings of the film. Most people nowadays are not aware that the film was actually relatively successful on it's initial release ($16.4 million in its 6th week when the film was made for between $6-7 million) because of its status as a "cult" film.
The film is about a meeting between all the gangs of New York in the late 70s coming together to hear the leader of the most feared gang in the city propose a citywide truce among all the gangs so that they can work together to better control the city, but one of the people in the crowd didn't like that idea and didn't follow the rules because he came armed, you know this because he shoots and kills the leader Cyrus during his speech. The killer then blames a rival gang called the warriors and everybody is now convinced the warriors are responsible for the killing. The rest of the film is about the warriors trying to get back across the city to their home turf of Coney Island without getting killed by every other gang in the city. This film is definitely partially about youthful angst, but it is also somewhat of an urban retelling of Homer's The Odyssey. The warriors encounter no end of trials on their way back home, from rival gangs to siren like temptations,
the police, to being separated from each other. Now I thought I'd never be interested in this film because I've never been the type of person to like the ideas of gangs or gang related violence, but this film is a lot more than that as I just previously mentioned. In addition to the deeper side of the film it is very well done visually and is very visually appealing. Critic Pauline Kael of The New Yorker called it "visual rock". It also has somewhat of a cartoony feel to it because every gang has a different theme, there's a gang of mimes, a gang of ninjas, and a gang of face painted Jersey wearing baseball bat wielding psychopathic ballplayers no less. The director wanted to divide the film into chapters and start each section with a comic book stylized splash panel, but the studio was on a fixed schedule and limited budget so the film never fully achieved its comic book look (though you can still kind of feel it in the opening titles). The most famous scene from the movie of course is the real murderer taunting the warriors with the now famous,then improvised, cry of: "Warriorrrrrrrrrrs, come out to plaaaaaaaaaaaaay!"
Though visually top notch this film does seem a bit empty (like more could have been happening at times) in certain scenes, and the acting is pretty good all around but you don't really get to see too much character development throughout, and some of the acting is just plain cheesy, but in the best possible way (in the last ten minutes especially). This movie is also noted as an early appearance of future Oscar winning actress Mercedes Ruehl, and this movie features the 70s hit single "In the City" by Joe Walsh (the song was from this movie). I give this a 4.25/5 overall, a 4 for how well made it is, and a 4.5 for how much I enjoyed it, so that averages to about 4.25/5. You can view the trailer below:
This is without a doubt one of the weirdest movies I've ever seen: It's called The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) and it's the first film by one of my favorite directors, award winning Peter Weir ( Dead Poet's Society, Truman Show, Picnic at Hanging Rock). This film has nothing to do with cars eating people or Paris France, it does however have to do with a small Austrailian town called Paris. The film is a David Lynch-esque look at the dark side of 1950s style small town life being plagued by mad max-esque violent youths. It is gorgeously filmed, scored (musically) and acted, as well as funny, creepy and disturbing at times. It is a social commentary on rebellious youth/car-culture and the aging populations attempts to keep them under their thumb. Weir's early films all have very strange feels about them, but they're all really good, as the article about it in Rue Morgue Magazine's 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See says: "Remember, you can't spell weird, without Weir." I give it a 5/5, it also has the coolest/scariest car ever. This film is a part of the Criterion Collection and is available to stream with Hulu plus. You can view the trailer below:
The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) the first really truly crazy spoof movie aside from the works of Mel Brooks. This was the first film by the people who brought you the Airplane! and Naked Gun series, so same kind of humor. The movie is made up of all skits and fake movie trailers, while the film quality is low (really low budget) the jokes are grade A. Definitely worth a watch or looking at select scenes. If you don't offend easily the best scene in the movie is "Catholic High School Girls in Trouble" by far, otherwise "feel around" is great too. This is also the second movie by big name director John Landis (Animal House, Blues Brothers, American Werewolf in London, the Thriller music Video). There is some gross humor here, some racial, and a lot of sexual humor. I give it a 3.75/5 I couldn't find a trailer so here's the "feel a-round" scene (as in, "this film is brought to you in 'Feel a-round'"):
I've been watching a slew of originals lately: Willard (1971) for starters. The original is super hard to find due to the fact that it has never been released on DVD. It is a classic coming of age story about a boy who has the power to control rats, but he soon loses control of them, also a classic tale of revenge. There are some famous people in it, like Ernest Borgnine (gets killed by rats) and Elsa Lanchester (Bride of Frankenstein). The movie was huge in its day and has some pretty good production value, including music written by an oscar winning composer, and LOTS of rats. The sequel to Willard, Ben (1972) had a theme song which was Michael Jackson's first solo hit. I give Willard a 3.5/5 Willard (1971) TV trailer
(1980), Blowout (1981), as well as Jo Dante's Piranha (1978) and Howling (1981) and Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973), did a very bizarre carnival-esque score for the film. The plot of the film centers around these college aged kids going on a road trip who decide to stop at a tourist trap along the way; Slausen's Wax Museum. Unfortunately for the kids this is a real tourist trap, and the museum's owner and his crazy "brother" are turning the tourists into mannequins. It is also worth mentioning that the lead character/killer is played by the former star of the 50s TV series The Rifleman: Chuck Conners. As mentioned before the film has several unique quirks about it (the score, the lifelike mannequins, main actor cast against type) and my favorite is the fact that the killer also has telekinetic powers, forget the 
Page, Jackie Earle Haley as a ten year old in drag, William Atherton, and a cameo by the great B-movie director William Castle; and then the dynamics of the main male characters (I feel a connection with both and I think a lot of people might), and of course the ending. This film has an epic horrific LSD inspired nightmare of an ending that takes the film from a look at the darker side of Hollywood, to an over the top symbolic representation of an inhuman dog-eat-dog world. That attack on that age of Hollywood may be a bit harsh in my opinion but it's how the author and the director wanted it portrayed. This film is directed by John Schelisinger (Midnight Cowboy, Marathon Man, Pacific Heights) and the film has a lavish score composed by five time Oscar winning John Barry (the James bond theme). I highly enjoyed it though except for the very ending, and even though it is long it builds and builds and makes the climax worth waiting for. I give it a 5/5 from a technical standpoint, and a 4.5/5 as for my enjoyment of the film. You can watch the trailer below:
