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A feverish and delusional man (Gianni Garbo) is placed into a mental hospital. From his bed, we see what broke his mind through flashbacks. When he almost strikes a mysterious pedestrian on a back country road, he abandons his car only to find a strange family living in a cottage. The family insists that he stays the evening and that he cannot leave while it is dark out.

This is another adaptation of the Tolstoy novella The Family of the Vourdalak, which had only been done nine years before as a segment in Bava’s Black Sabbath. Having the setting set in the modern day makes for an entirely different mood. The atmosphere in this movie is genuinely eerie. The score is by Giorgio Gaslini and it’s quite haunting and beautiful. The blood drenched finale is outstanding, a fight to survive accompanied by a chorus of laughing dead children. Highly recommended.

In this low key character study, we spend a week in the life of rodeo rider Junior Bonner (Steve McQueen). Junior’s better days are behind him, he’s tired and broke. He returns home looking for work and gets caught up in old family drama. 

Peckinpah fans who come at this one hungry for violence are going to be very disappointed.  Yet, you can feel the violence under the surface here in these rodeo men—the way they live their lives and the danger they face every time.

McQueen is excellent here, I hadn’t seen him play someone who has lost some confidence and was down on himself. Robert Preston stands out as his father—he has an outstanding scene with Ida Lupino that felt real and emotionally intense. Joe Don Baker also stands out as McQueen’s younger brother. I enjoyed the interplay between the two actors, their few scenes together were the best in the film. 

You still get many slow motion shots as is the Peckinpah style—rodeo drivers fighting to stay on their horses and hitting the earth after spinning through the heavens. As a viewer, you really feel that eight seconds. I also really enjoyed the nearly ten minute long saloon fight and the way character actor Dub Taylor cackled and laughed with joy at every punch in his bar. 

If you come to this one knowing it’s a slow burning  and rambling 70’s style character study, you will enjoy this excellent film. I found it to be a pleasant surprise. 

Note: 

Apparently Joe Don Baker didn’t get along with Peckinpah during shooting and I found this amusing quote:

“I didn't care for Peckinpah at all. He was one of those little guys who tries to bully big guys and he almost got his ass whipped for trying to do it to me. Every time I was going to throttle Sam Peckinpah, Steve McQueen would come and calm me down like a brother would.”

When his possessive mother dies of natural causes, a mentally ill farmer slips further into his psychosis. He digs up his mother, placing her back on her bed. He spends his evenings talking to her. Soon, he is adding other corpses to his house.

This one is based on the case of Ed Gein, though very loosely. There are also shades of other notorious killers.

The corpses and effects in this movie are supremely effective. They all look so real, giving this film a feel of wrongness that many films struggle to achieve. This is mostly due to the fact that genius affects and makeup artist Tom Savini is in full effect here. 

Roberts Blossom really nails the main character. He plays him with a hint of almost child-like wonder rather than go for looney tunes evil like many actors would. This underplaying makes this film even more powerful. It’s said that he beat out Christopher Walken and Harvey Kietel for this role only because they were deemed too young. 

This is an effective and eerie film. It’s genuinely creepy on many levels. It’s criminal that it’s not very well known, but this is mostly due to the fact that this film never makes it to the popular streamers. Highly recommended.

A group of small town teenagers struggle with boredom in between getting harassed by the local cops. They have nothing better to do but spend time together at a local recreational center and get high. One day one of them gets shot down by a cop and it sets the stage for an explosive rebellion.

I saw this one very young at around the same age as some of the characters. Because of that, this film had a massive impact on me. I truly being shocked to my core at the death of one of the main characters. As an adult, I was surprised to find that many of these scenes retain their power. This is an excellent and accurate portrayal of 70’s youth. 

This is Matt Dillon’s first time in a film. Apparently, he only went to try out for this film because it let him skip school. He’s so excellent and natural that it’s hard to believe he hadn’t been acting his whole life. Michael Eric Kramer gives a realistic and touching performance as a suburban youth pulled between his friends and what society and his parents want from him. 

The soundtrack is legit too—Cheap Trick, The Ramones, and The Cars can be heard blaring from various places. I challenge you to get the Cheap Trick song “Surrender” out of your head after watching. Highly recommended.

In this follow-up to The Born Losers, Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin) takes on small town rednecks again. This time, he’s protecting wild horses and a school that takes in misfit students. 

If you come at this film expecting it to be a kung-fu film you will be very disappointed. The fight scenes that we do have are a lot of fun, but it’s only a very small part of the film.

This one takes all the same beats of the first film in its plot. It’s basically a western in many ways. 

I enjoyed Laughlin and his low key tough guy charisma. When Quentin Tarantino was casting Brad Pitt as Cliff  in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, they watched this film together. You can definitely see how Laughlin would have been good in the QT role. 

I should point out that Delores Taylor gives an extraordinary performance as the teacher of the school for children. It’s said that John Travolta watched her post-assault scene and instantly decided to be an actor. Marlon Brando has said that her performance is one of the best he’s seen. 

I wanted to like this film more than I did, but it has aged to the point where it’s really a product of its times. There is a lot of peace and love ideals here and way too many scenes with the school students singing with their acoustic guitars. Though it makes me look like an asshole, I wanted more Billy Jack ass kicking. Though the ending gives us both in a way—we get some ass whooping revenge and then we are given a lecture about how violence is unnecessary.

A shy misfit teenager accidentally kills a little girl who was mocking him. His mother helps him hide in a hidden spare room at their house. The mother goes for an operation and dies leaving him all alone in his hidden room. Soon, another family moves in having no idea that he’s there.

This film aired as a TV film and made a mark on many kids who happened to see it. It has a creepy power to it and gets away with a lot by merely suggesting it. 

Scott Jacoby plays Ronald well. Some of you may him in a similarly themed film The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, where he played Jodie Foster’s magician boyfriend. He has a likable presence and you find yourself intrigued by his life, even as he slips down into something more sinister.

This film is very short at an hour and fifteen minutes. I found it to be very effective and worthy of its cult status. I found a blu ray transfer on the Internet Archive.

A farmer discovers a skull with one eye and some fur while he’s working his field. However, when he takes the local judge (Patrick Wymark) to see the skull it has vanished. Soon, some of the villagers start to lose their minds and hallucinate demon claws. The children start to grow fur and sexually assault and kill others. 

This film is positively dripping with eerie atmosphere under the direction of Piers Haggard. The forest oozes menace as should any film classified as folk horror. It really would make a great pairing with The Witchfinder General. 

The climax is batshit crazy and Haggard actually pulls it off, in my opinion. Loved this one. I’m surprised it’s not more well known around the world, particularly with this recent folk horror revival, Highly recommended.

Harry (Danny Devito) and Moe (Joe Piscopo) are both stooges in the lowest level of the mob. They are too hopeless to do anything but errand work. One night they are tasked with placing a bet on a specific horse for Frank the Fixer (Captain Lou Albano), a top level made guy. Somehow, they screw up the bet and end up owing the mob 250,000 dollars. Fleeing ensues. 

This is a very curious movie coming from the legendary director Brian De Palma. He does have a resume that occasionally goes for strange offshoots like Phantom of the Paradise. This is a straight up mob comedy, with lots of Goodfellas and The Sopranos extras. 

The performances are wildly uneven and in different tones for many of the actors. Devito is funny here and I enjoyed many of his scenes. Piscopo plays well with Devito, but I still found him somewhat forced and uncomfortable in his performance. Captain Lou acts like he’s playing another wrestling heel, even though I did find him very entertaining.

Other than an occasional complicated shot, this didn’t feel too much like De Palma. This one feels like it was shot pretty quickly and doesn’t have the precision of many of his other works. 

The film clocks in at a brief 100 minutes, which makes the slower paced scenes somewhat tolerable. This is a very mild comedy, with very few laughs. It’s definitely worth seeing if you’re a De Palma fan just to see him try something different. If not, you might find this one fairly mediocre and harmless. Entertaining enough is hardly the best review, but here we are.

A journalist (Michael Caine) and his young son investigate pirate activity on the Florida coast. A plane crash strands them on an island filled with modern day pirates who somehow mostly act like they live in 1742.

This is a pretty bad, but also highly fun movie. I can’t tell you how many times I laughed at Caine’s super serious line deliveries. The way it takes itself so seriously is one of the reasons it works so good as an entertaining but shit film. 

It’s based off of a Peter Benchley (Jaws) novel and he also wrote the screenplay. I imagine he was able to sell any damn thing he wrote for a bit. I don’t know about the novel, but the screenplay is pretty bad and often stupid. 

If you make it through all of this, you are rewarded with one hell of an ass-kicking ending. It’s almost good enough to elevate the movie a bit, and I think it does.

A high school misfit strangles his girlfriend to death and leaves her lying naked by the side of the river. He soon tells his friends who immediately begin to gossip and visit the decomposing body. None of them seem to care enough to tell anyone in authority.

This film is based on a real incident about the body and their apathetic reaction, but is otherwise mostly a fictional . What really sends this film into the stratosphere of cult movie fandom is the amazing list of actors who all knock it out of the park one by one. Dennis Hopper plays a crazed drug dealer who mutters about killing his girlfriend, all the while treating a sex doll like his wife. Crispin Glover steals every scene he’s in as the murderer’s loyal friend Lane. Keanu Reeves demonstrates his immense screen presence in an early performance ( that goofy walk he always used to do?). Young Joshua Miller (Near Dark) is both hilarious and chilling as Keanu’s younger brother. Daniel Roebuck is scary and mesmerizing as the hulking murderer. Highly recommended.

A demonic and driverless car terrorizes a small desert town. The town sheriff (James Brolin) fights to destroy it before it kills again. 

This is a pretty bad film. Yet, it’s highly entertaining in some of the best ways. There is an extended action scene between the devil car and the police out in the desert that stands out. I have a feeling the filmmakers were inspired by Steven Spielberg’s Duel.

Brolin has always been a pretty limited actor to me, and he doesn’t do much change my mind here. Yet, he doesn’t embarrass himself here either. As a town sheriff, he’s fine. 

Most of this film is pretty dull, so I recommend with reservations. I would have liked to see more gore for this type of film. It’s just a bit too mild for my taste.

Private detective Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman) is hired by a client to find her teenage daughter (Melanie Griffith) who has run away. He is soon immersed deeply in the world of Hollywood stuntmen who have a connection to the teenager. 

On the surface, this film seems to be your normal mystery. However, director Arthur Penn is more interested in a deep dive of Harry’s character. For one, he’s not that good of a detective. He also has a difficult time making emotional connections with people. If you’re looking for a typical Sam Spade type of affair, you won’t find it in this character study. This film is more in line with something like Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye. The mystery is mostly just a detail in Harry’s complicated life.

Gene Hackman gives one of the best performances in his career. He’s amazing to watch, nailing small character moments without any bravura at all. He makes it so effortless that you almost don’t realize how powerful he is.

This is Melanie Griffith’s first performance in a movie and it’s memorable. It is kind of ironic that even though this movie explores the dark side of Hollywood exploitation of young women, it simultaneously exploits Griffith. Even though she was only 16 when filming, she has several nude scenes—most of them unnecessary. 

This is also an early James Woods performance. And he again shows he is very good at playing vile weasel-like characters. 

This is one of the best films of the 1970’s and easily in the top of Hackman’s best performances. Highly recommended.

Buford Pusser gets pissed off at the corruption in his hometown and sets out to remove it one good smack at a time with his trusty wooden club. Soon, every scumbag in town is out to kill him.

This one is often labeled as Hicksploitation—referring to a genre set in the Deep South where Hillbillies get to ass-kicking (think Burt Reynolds in White Lightning). It can be quite entertaining when Joe Don Baker is smacking evil rednecks around, but it gets slow at times when it concentrates on his daily life. Baker is also a magnetic actor and it feels viscerally good to watch him kick ass. There are two sequels and a TV show due to this film being a huge drive-in hit, though Bo Svenson (the real Buford Pusser’s actual original choice to play him) replaces Baker in all the follow ups. The real Pusser was supposedly going to play himself in part two, but he was murdered.

A radio reporter (Patricia Neal) discovers a charismatic drifter (Andy Griffith) while profiling people for a radio program. She is soon under his good ol’ boy magnetic spell of charisma and slimy charm. With the power of the media, he is able to transform that charm into the role of  leader and role model even though he has nothing but contempt for his audience. 

I was surprised to find out this film was a big bomb for Elia Kazan (A Streetcar named Desire). After thinking on it, I think it’s because this film is way ahead of its time in looking at the darker side of celebrity and media propaganda. These concepts would be brand new to an innocent audience of the 50’s.  It would be another 20 years before this theme would be used more successfully box-office wise with Lumet’s Network. It’s hard not to think of our modern world and to draw parallels to social media and the rise of a right wing government in America. This film is extremely prescient and would make the perfect discussion for a high school class. 

Andy Griffith will absolutely change the way you see him forever in this film. It’s actually a shock that he’s so good. This is a role that would be very difficult for any young actor and he pulls it off big time. He’s actually mesmerizing at times. Other actors do great work in this film too, including Walter Matthau, Patricia Neal, and Anthony Franciosa. One bit of trivia is that Marlon Brando turned this film down, as amazing as Griffith is, I couldn’t help but think of what it would be like to see him play a southern redneck.

This film deserves to be more widely seen. Highly recommended.

In early 1960’s Boston, a rebellious teenager (Rikki Lake) attempts to dance her way to an award on a local American Bandstand-like TV show. She also wants to bring about racial integration. 

This film is a hell of a lot of fun. John Waters manages to make a PG film that still has many of his subversive elements. He also keeps his high camp style that works so good for him.

Rikki Lake radiates so much joy, especially in her dance scenes—I found myself smiling every time she was making her moves. Divine does good work here as Lake’s mother (he also has a role in the film as a slimy businessman). There are tons to fun appearances in this—Debbie Harry, Sonny Bono, Pia Zadora, Ric Ocasek, Mink Stole, and even John Waters himself as a pervy psychologist. Highly recommended.

People are disappearing in the small town of Jerusalem’s Lot. A writer and a horror geek soon suspect that the town is being taken over by vampires. 

Despite being a TV movie, this excellent Tobe Hooper movie feels like a theatrical film. What it lacks in violence and gore it adds a ton of spooky undercurrents. The score by Harry Sukman is also outstanding and elevates it above its TV film status. 

Lots of good actors all over this film—David Soul, Geoffrey Lewis, James Mason, Fred Willard, and Bonnie Bedelia all do good and believable work here. 

There are definitely a few noticeable differences between the film and the Stephen King novel. Barlow is turned into a more bestial Nosferatu-like monster (though he’s scary as hell) and doesn’t speak a word. Ben Mears is also different, more active and focused than the version in the novel. Still, this film hits all the proper beats of the book, and Stephen King approved of it all.

It clocks in at 3 hours, which is necessary on my opinion to be a decent adaptation of the book. This would make a great Halloween night film—mild in its gore and violence, but still quite scary due to the atmosphere. Recommended.

A picture perfect almost 50’s sitcom like Mom runs a wholesome middle class family in the suburbs. If you cross her family in even the most slight way—she will kill you. 

This is a hilarious John Waters film at the peak of his mainstream era. To call these later films mainstream is a bit false though, as he still retains his zeal for filth and he still has a way of filtering it into absurdist comedy. These films are only called mainstream because the earlier films (such as Desperate Living)  were so damn wild.

Kathleen Turner nails her role—part June Cleaver with a dash of Lizzy Borden. It’s hilarious watching her face as she makes obscene phone calls with a clean grin. Other actors do fine work here too—Matthew Lillard, Rikki Lake, And Sam Waterston. Regular Mink Stole is funny and stands out as their neighbor. Recommended.

A docudrama about an incident in the small town of Texarkana, Arkansas in which a Zodiac-like hooded killer began night stalking teenagers parked in cars. The police, despite an extensive investigation, never caught him.

This is strange film that mostly doesn’t work due to the major tonal changes between the killings and the police. Basically, this film becomes like an even shittier Dukes of Hazard every time the killer isn’t murdering someone. In contrast, the violent murder scenes are quite effective and genuinely scary. It’s almost a slasher film and it came out one year before Carpenter’s Halloween. The film also has dry narration sometimes and pretends it’s a documentary. The end result is not very good, but might be worth seeing for those just looking for a trashy Saturday night flick.

Two couples are vacationing in an RV and traveling. One night, while parked in a less populated area, they witness the murder of a woman during a satanic ritual. Soon, they find themselves continually attacked by cult . 

Warren Oates and Peter Fonda play well off each other. This is their third collaboration together. Loretta Swit and Lara Parker (Angelique from Dark Shadows) seem believable and genuinely terrified. There’s really no bad performances in this suspenseful film.

Director Jack Starrett was mostly a character actor, so it’s a bit of a surprise how accomplished and well done this film is. The demolition derby action scenes are supremely good. And,  every time there was an attack,  I became immersed in the suspense of this film—it’s really well done and genuinely scary. This film is vastly under appreciated in the modern world, largely due to the fact that it just never gets shown. I wish more streaming platforms would pick up some of these old drive-in exploitation classics.

After an unexpected death, the Deetz family return to their old home town and the ghost house in Winter River. When Lydia’s daughter opens up a portal into the afterlife, more Beetlejuice chaos ensues.

While I enjoyed seeing some of the cast get back together—Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, and Catherine O’Hara return—I found this film to be on the dull side. I guess because this sequel is just so absolutely unnecessary. Did even a single person even want this sequel?  The actors are all fine, but it all felt forced to me. Even the addition of Willem Dafoe and Monica Belucci couldn’t wake this film up. 

I also feel like Tim Burton has lost a lot of what gave him the feeling of an auteur. His scenes often feel workmanlike to me and have no joy or love of moviemaking. Of course this is just my opinion, but ask yourself if laughed out loud even once in this “comedy”.

A homeless man (Ice T) is recruited to be a survival guide for a band of rich businessmen in the remote wilderness. He soon finds out that he is the prey, and these sick bastards hunt humans for sport. 

What really makes this down and dirty reboot of The Most Dangerous Game is the motley crew of amazing character actors. Rutger Hauer, Gary Busey, Charles S Dutton, F. Murray Abraham, and John Mcginley all stand out in different ways without even saying a word. There is literally an Emmy award winner, a Tony award winner, a Grammy winner, an Oscar winner, and an Academy Award nominee in this cast. And they all fight like hell to steal a scene. The winner is Gary Busey, with a story about a scar on his face and a fight with a dog that is is so riveting and good that for a brief moment this film is elevated to greatness. It’s that good. Apparently, Busey wrote the scene himself and annoyed Hauer by stealing a scene of his. Ice T holds his own with these actors, at the very least proving he has the magnetic presence for a long career. 

Spike Lee’s amazing cinematographer Ernest Dickerson (he also directed the under appreciated Juice) is the director and he does a fine job. Every scene in this film was shot outdoors instead of a set. 

While this is definitely a B-movie film of the kind you would hold have caught on HBO late night back in the 90’s, it is elevated by so much talent into something a little better. Recommended.

This powerful and lush remake successfully remixes the story and vibes of the 1922 Murnau version, the 1979 Herzog/Kinski version, and the Bram Stoker novel. And Robert Eggers puts his own moody spin on it all. 

Bill Skarsgård gives an instant classic performance. His voice, a deeper octave than normal, a slight Transylvanian accent. The makeup is something special—I loved everything about it—the way he looked putrid and rotting, the disgusting nudity, and even the Vlad the Impaler mustache. The whole package makes for a unique look at Nosferatu. Weirdly, even though though he is by far the most hideous and disgusting Nosferatu, this is the most sexual representation of the character on screen. 

Nicholas Hoult, Lily Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and especially Willem Dafoe all give excellent performances. It was great seeing all these actors in period clothes.

Eggers direction is excellent, it’s easy to see why he is so critically praised—especially in this day and age where the auteur barely exists in cinema. I noticed he added a lot of his influences. I especially noticed an influence from Murnau’s Faust (the obvious of course is Nosferatu). The giant shadowy hand moving over the village is straight out of Faust. I also enjoy the way he uses very old English of the type you only see in period novels (“He’ll have no sanctuary at cock crow.”).

Highly recommend. I think this is destined to be a beloved classic.

Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is tasked by Queen Taramis (Sarah Douglas) to escort a virgin princess while they obtain a magical crystal. He is ed by a bunch of trusty sidekicks, such as a fierce warrior woman (Grace Jones!),  a wizard (Mako), a warrior (Wilt Chamberlin), and a thief.

If you come at this film like it’s a loyal follow up to the much darker in tone John Milius film, you will be very disappointed. This is more in the vein of 60’s or early 70’s Sinbad films or Jason and the Argonauts. Though even those mentioned films are better (because they have Ray Harryhausen), this is an extremely entertaining film if you’re in the right mood.

Arnold does his best with the sets and cheesy monsters—it was said he was so disappointed in this film that he never did another of its type. Grace Jones makes up for the lack of good special effects by being the amazing dynamo that she is. It’s said she hurt a few stuntmen with her stick—even Wilt Chamberlin is really bleeding in their fight. I think people are too harsh on this film and I found it perfect Saturday at Midnight entertainment.

After murdering her (Mink Stole) husband with the help of her maid (Jean Hill), a woman goes on the run. They soon end up in Mortville, a huge homeless village ruled by a fascist queen (Edith Massey).

I think most people know what they are getting into with a film like this—it’s not like it’s easily accessible. This is the last of the John Waters films before he diluted himself a little for the mainstream. I’m not saying that as a bad criticism, I love his later work, but these earlier films are much more extreme in his pursuit of bad taste. 

I enjoyed the actors in this—especially Mink Stole. With Divine unable to shoot this film due to a theatre commitment, Waters is forced to use his other divas. And it works—everybody steps up to the plate. I found it hilarious and often deeply wrong. Recommended, if you’re a fan of trashy and progressive cinema—but not for the easily offended.

A woman inherits a massive castle-like retirement home when her mother es away. Once she becomes settled at the estate, she begins going through her mother’s diary. Soon, strange and creepy occurrences began to happen.

Lead actress Jacki Kerin is outstanding and believable in this film. She really sells what’s happening to her, and makes it work. A very young John Jarratt (Wolf Creek) shows up for his first appearance in a horror film as Kerin’s boyfriend. It also has a very good and unsettling synth score by Klaus Schulze.

This film is often referred to as an Ozploitation classic. It might be a classic, but it’s definitely not some mere cheap exploitation film in any way. Instead, what we have is a deeply unsettling and supremely well shot gothic thriller. The camera effects used by director Tony Williams are very impressive. This retirement home is spooky as hell. 

Quentin Tarantino has cited this one as his favorite Ozploitation film. He compares it to The Shining. At first, I thought he was being a hit hyperbolic—but goddamn if some of these scenes really did nail that Kubrick feel, especially during the final part of the film.  Highly recommended.

Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is placed in control of selecting a new Pope. The leaders are all sequestered together to take part in this mysterious and secretive election. Drama ensues as some of them manipulate the proceedings and proceed to smear each other. 

What really makes this film work is rhe amazing cast—Fiennes, John Lithgow, Lucian Msamati, and Stanley Tucci. They all work to elevate this film into something riveting. And they have to work hard, because the ending is a ridiculous shocker. I was there for it all the way, but I can see how some would find the finale a bit too much. Recommended.

A mild mannered bookkeeper named Henry Limpet (Don Knotts) spends his days obsessing over his pet goldfish. He and his wife have very little chemistry, and she is visibly tired of him. One day on a day trip to Coney Island with his wife and friend, Henry falls into the water and is magically transformed into a fish. Soon, he’s helping the United States military blow up Nazis in submarines. 

This is a very strange film in a lot of ways. It goes back and forth between Disney style animation and live action shots such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit (though nowhere near that level of interaction). And it works quite well, I never felt jarred by the two universes merging.

The animation is all done by Warner Bros Cartoons animation studio, and this was the last film they worked on until a revival in 1967. The animation is actually a slight better than your typical Loony Tunes short, especially since Disney at the time was also putting out a less detailed style in films such as 101 Dalmatians. 

Knotts is engaging and enjoyable, though much of his work here is just voice. He’s probably only seen for maybe 20 minutes. Jack Weston does fine work here as Knott’s dubious friend. I enjoyed this one, even if it still felt slightly long at 1 hour and 39 minutes. It’s very family friendly, despite the blowing up of various Nazi submarines. That’s always a good thing for all ages anyways.

A doctor, his wife, and two mediums have been sent to the legendary Hell House. Two other expeditions into the house has led to entire teams being found dead. On this new mission, they plan to see if they can survive a full week inside and perhaps solve its mysteries.

The atmosphere in this creepy film is perfection—a fog enshrouded mansion, it’s pointy roofs disappearing into the gloom, giant mysterious antique furnished rooms, winding staircases, a dark chapel, and peculiar sounds and ageways. It’s really on point, if you’re looking for a slow burning and mostly mild Halloween eve kind of film.

Roddy McDowell stands out and really hams it up as the medium who survived a previous mission. He really sells the danger of the house to the viewer.

The screenplay is from the great Richard Matheson, based on his novel Hell House. There are some shades of the 1963 The Haunting, but this one is slightly more fun in my opinion. Recommended.

Five college friends take one final long road trip before the harsh realities of real life hit. One of them has been drafted to go to Vietnam when their road trip ends.

This is Kevin Costner’s first lead in a film and he really shines (I’m actually not a big fan). I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so loose, vulnerable, and realistic. Judd Nelson does good work here too as a tightly wound neurotic. 

I enjoyed this film very much. It has the hangdog feel and pacing of something that would have come out around 1977. Lots of grand shots of the American southwest abound. There is riveting sequence involving a failed parachute from a rickety plane that really stands out.

Apparently, Steven Spielberg liked an early short film of director Kevin Reynolds and he asked him to make a whole feature of it. This was the product. And Spielberg was so disappointed that he took his name off the film. I think he was wrong. Recommended, if you can find it. I found a DVD quality transfer on the internet archive.

A young poet finds an old book called The Three Mothers at an old antique shop in her neighborhood. She discovers that there may be a old key hidden in her building, and that there are two other buildings connected to witches. 

From a screenplay standpoint, this film is a complete mess. Pay attention as hard as you want, you will soon become baffled by all the underdeveloped characters and events that have absolutely zero explanation. This is a big flaw in Dario Argento’s work, as masterful as he is behind the camera, his screenplay work is often quite weak. In this case, he stole a story treatment by actress/wtiter Daria Nicolodi and then wrote a screenplay from it. She didn’t even fight for a writing credit, because he had fought her hard on the previous collaboration Suspiria. 

From a technical standpoint, this movie is masterful. If Argento had just embraced the weirdness like a Lynch film and not struggled to explain things in a convoluted way the film would be better for it. Mario Bava shot and lit much of this film as Argento was ill and bedridden for a part of the production. In earlier scenes with actress Irene Miracle, the Bava touch is all over—dreamy and surrealistic lighting that elevates every moment. The way this film looks elevates it into a decent and spooky film. 

There are some great eerie moments, such as a masterful scene where Miracle tries to retrieve a key from a flooded room full of floating corpses. A man is eaten alive by rats in a scene that would make most people squirm. There are many beautiful and spooky scenes. 

I feel like some of the cat scenes are disturbing for all the wrong reasons, so consider yourself warned. On one scene, Argento clearly just throws cats at a woman for a few minutes. 

This film is worth seeing. It’s the final work of an uncredited Mario Bava as he died soon after. It’s an eerie and beautiful film that is full of flaws and problems, but also completely worth seeing—especially if you’re a fan of Suspiria as this is sort of a spiritual sequel.

If you mix Flashdance and The Exorcist—and then also add ninjas, this is what you get in the best and worst possible way. An evil ninja possesses a young white  aerobics instructor (Lucinda Dickey from Breakin’)  to take revenge on his enemies from the grave. Another ninja (Shô Kosugi) senses the evil ninja and tries to help out.

This is one of the best worst movies I have ever seen. It’s so 1980’s that it almost seems to made as a modern tongue in cheek exercise in bad 80’s nostalgia. Lucinda Dickey is ridiculous and totally unbelievable in this role in the best and most entertaining way. Some of the stunts and fight scenes are somewhat decent, which really makes the rest of this film work. I enjoyed the hell out of this.

A failed ex con (Richard Pryor) has one chance to set his life right. He is hired to transport a group of troubled school children from Philadelphia to Washington. 

Richard Pryor does his best to make this film work, but his normal persona is so watered down that it just doesn’t happen. This film is basically for kids. His rapport with the children is pretty good—you can tell that they actually like him for real. 

There is one inspired bit where Pryor encounters a group of cross burning Klansmen in the middle of the woods (it’s on the poster). The ending is so bad—involving Pryor wearing a cowboy outfit and using a terrible accent. It felt one hundred percent tacked on, and it was. Pryor almost burned himself to death during the production of this film, and additional scenes were shot when he recovered. You can actually see the damage to his face in some of the scenes, while in others he looks normal.

This is a pretty bad film. I would only recommend it to Pryor completists.

A young woman (Meiko Kaji) is trained from birth to be an instrument of revenge against a group that harmed her family. Armed only with a sword she hides in a parasol handle, she makes her list and sets out to kill them one by one.

Meiko Kaji really stands out in this performance. I love the way she looks completely harmless and beautiful at first glance, but soon there will be a geyser of blood shooting out of the throat of her enemy. 

You can tell that Quentin Tarantino was highly influenced by this film as the plot pretty much mirrors Kill Bill. Kaji also appears in his film too.

The film is colorful and well shot. I enjoyed watching Kaji spray blood everywhere. The costumes and sets are impressive too. Highly recommended.

A peasant girl named Jeanne makes a pact with Satan after being raped by a feudal lord on her wedding night. She and her husband are banished and forced to live a hard life. She soon begins a transformation and takes revenge on all that hurt her.

This is easily one of the most unique and beautiful animated films I have ever seen. It takes some patience as the first part of the film is barely animated. It’s basically watercolor paintings with a camera panning over them alongside some narration. It’s sort of like being read a storybook with an adult bent. Soon, you will be rewarded with amazing psychedelic imagery and animation throughout. I was transfixed.

The rape scenes are depicted in an abstract way, but somehow manage to be extremely unsettling anyway. I was surprised how effective these scenes were. 

This is a beautiful must see if you are a fan of animation. To call it an anime gives it some disservice because it has its own totally unique style. I can’t even think of anything to compare it too. Hunt it down.

Five of the world’s most famous and iconic detectives are invited a strange mansion to solve a mystery. They have been invited by a wealthy mansion owner named Lionel Twain (Truman Capote) who claims a murder will take place at midnight.

A cast of of amazing actors really make this Neil Simon vehicle work. Standouts of the huge cast include Alec Guineas, as a blind butler. Peter Falk, playing a Sam Spade type, but also bringing Columbo vibes just by his presence. Peter Sellers will divide most movie goers with his portrayal of a Chinese man named Sydney Wang. Charlie Chan has often been played by white men in “yellowface” (is it even appropriate to use that term?). While ittedly Sellers did give me a chuckle or two, his timing is perfection, but I can’t deny the portrayal to be racist. I was still able to enjoy the film and even his performance, but I understand for some it will be a deal closer.  Other actors in the film include David Niven, Eileen Brennan, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith, James Coco and Elsa Lanchester.  

Many of the jokes fall flat, but these actors are so good they are able to sell most of it. The whole concept of having famous detectives play a little Cat and the Canary is a clever one. I was entertained and it’s speeds by at a brisk 90 minutes.

Jack the Ripper (David Warner) steals HG Wells’ (Malcolm McDowell) time machine (an actual machine, not the book haha) and takes it to 1979. Wells must pursue him as he mistakenly believes Jack is a threat to a future Utopian humanity. He has no idea that Jack will fit right in. 

Enjoyable and light science fiction film that often feels like an extended Richard Matheson-like episode of the Twilight Zone. McDowell doesn’t have the best romantic chemistry with Mary Steenburgen, but it works anyway due to the plot driven screenplay. I was entertained and it was definitely better than I expected. It’s directed by Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan).

An aspiring reporter (Don Knotts) is struggling to solve a murder mystery. He takes a job to stay at a haunted house to score points with his boss even though he’s literally terrified of everything.  

I think you know what you’re getting into if you watch this—and Knotts delivers it. His spastic mannerisms, bulging eyes, feeble karate chop hand movements and defenses, and of course fleeing, are all in full effect here. And I was here for it all. It’s all mildly funny, and probably not funny at all if you find him annoying. I genuinely find him entertaining. 

The look and feel of the film is very 1950’s sitcom. Many of the writers on this film are from The Andy Griffith Show (even Andy himself helped with the screenplay). The ending takes a nice twist.

The film was a big hit for Knotts and basically launched his career as a reluctant hero. Recommended.  If you’re looking for a wholesome family movie with a Halloween bent (in the vein of Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein), you can’t go wrong with this one.

Sinbad (Patrick Wayne) must deliver a prince that has been transformed into a baboon to the land of Ademespai. He hopes to restore the prince to his normal form so he can take his rightful place as King. Zenobia the evil witch does everything she can to stop him.

This is a highly entertaining adventure tale in the vein of Jason and the Argonauts. This is because the legendary Ray Harryhausen does some fine work in this film. Here we get a chess playing baboon, a bronze Minotaur, a huge wasp, and a giant walrus among other beasties. 

Patrick Wayne is an extremely wooden actor. I don’t think he ever made it out of B films. He has the looks of his father John (Stagecoach era John Wayne), but none of the magnetism. That said, he’s serviceable enough as Sinbad—we don’t need Daniel Day Lewis in such a production.  A very young and stunningly beautiful Jane Seymour plays the love interest. 

Very entertaining.

A loving couple (Sophie Thatcher & Jack Quaid) are attending a weekend getaway at a friend’s luxurious estate. The situation takes a dark and strange turn. 

I think if you can go into this excellent film knowing nothing you will be happier. I already knew the first twist and I wish I didn’t. The plot takes some very interesting turns and I really enjoyed this film.

Sophie Thatcher (Hereditary) is quite excellent in this—evolving into a different person every twenty minutes. Jack Quaid (The Boys) shows even more leading man talent than his father Dennis, I like how easily he can slip into different personas. 

Recommended!

A young punk named Otto (Emilio Estevez) is strapped for cash so he takes a job at a repo agency. He is mentored by a man named Bud (the always welcome Harry Dean Stanton). Soon Otto is accepted into this gang of misfit repo men. All of them are on the lookout for a 1964 Chevy Malibu that has a reward of $20,000. Apparently, there is something otherworldly in the trunk. 

I found this beloved cult classic to be a delight. Estevez is perfect in this role—totally believable as Otto. I love the scene where he repossesses his first car and sees the owner fall, rolling into the street in his rear view mirror—and he laughs. Harry Dean Stanton nails his part as the take no shit Bud. Is there any film that he doesn’t make better?

Alex Cox’s script has a legitimate feel, especially the camaraderie between the various repo men. His direction feels right too, he makes this world feel believable even when crazy shit goes down.

There is a great  choice of punk music from back in the day all over this film. The opening credits theme is an excellent instrumental piece by Iggy Pop. The Circle Jerks, Suicidal Tendencies, Black Flag and others add to the vibe of the film in a perfect way. 

I adored the batshit ending.  It brought a big smile to my face. Highly recommended.

A woman is recovering from a car accident and the loss of her unborn child. Her husband thinks vitamins will cure her anxiety and frightening dreams. Her sister thinks therapy is the answer. Meanwhile, a strange man with glowing blue eyes is stalking her in both her dreams and the real world. Soon she can’t tell what it real and what it not. 

This is an excellent film from director Sergio Martino that is part giallo and part occult horror. Martino films many of the scenes like a psychedelic nightmare. Weird camera angles and rushing movements instill an unsettling feeling throughout the film. Bruno Nicolai’s score is memorable and spooky, particularly in the dream sequences and the devil cult introduction. There are so many shades of Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby in this film that it is practically just a reworking. Many times as I watched, I was reminded of the Polanski film. 

Raven haired actress Edwige Fenech looks like she was literally made to be in giallo, so striking and beautiful. Her performance is quite good too, which certainly isn’t always the case in this genre. 

One of the best I’ve seen in this genre. Highly recommended.

Two slow freight handler’s (Bud Abbott and Lou Costello) lives become a horror movie with the arrival of Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and Frankenstein (Glen Strange). Fortunately for them, the Wolfman (Lon Chaney, Jr.) is there to help them out.

It has been many years since I revisited this one. For kids who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s, this film became a  favorite. It was often shown on TV for Saturday or Sunday matinee, and many kids planted theirselves right in front of the TV immediately.

I found that seeing it as an adult this film holds up very well. Some of the jokes fall flat, but many of them work quite well. The ending is really effective and even works as a mild horror film. And it looks dreamy too—it’s so great to see Universal monsters having some fun with their roles. Although Boris Karloff is missed, he shows up later in other Abbott and Costello films. Vincent Price has a brief but instantly noticeable voice cameo. I watched this one in a very nice transfer on the internet archive. Recommended.

A restorer named Stefano arrives at an isolated village. He has been hired to restore a controversial mural of Saint Sebastian at a church. It was painted by an insane artist who obsessed with the agony on people’s faces as they die. As Stefano learns more about the painter and his mysterious disappearance he becomes a target.

Excellent giallo with a deep and intense atmosphere throughout. The village has such a palpable sense of dread. Director Pupi Avati has a way with infusing each scene with unsettling undercurrents. Highly recommended.

A car delivery driver (Barry Newman) bets that he can get a car from Colorado to San Francisco in 15 hours. His race soon gets the attention of the police and an epic chase ensues. He is assisted and guided by a blind DJ with a radio scanner by the name of Super Soul (Cleavon Little). He soon becomes a sort of folk hero as his quest begins to pick up steam and people hear of his shenanigans on Super Soul’s radio show. 

I found this 70’s cult classic to be a pure delight. There are some great car chase scenes here that are quite intense. Director Richard C. Sarafian has cameras installed in several cars to get some amazing shots, and he never uses a fake back screen behind actors like so many other films have done.

Actor Barry Newman has a quiet cool about him that really works for this film. Gene Hackman was the original choice, but the studio didn’t want him. It’s interesting to think about how Hackman might have changed the tone of the film as he and Newman are quite different on screen. 

This film is sort of like a nihilistic Smokey and the Bandit—and it’s definitely a precursor to all the police chase some anti-disestablishment dude films that would come in the next few years. Some say this film is a metaphor for the demise of the “freedom” of old America and its descent into more a a controlled police state. I can’t argue with that, and it definitely gives the ending some depth to look at it that way. Highly recommended.

A small Italian town is on extreme edge due to a string of recent child murders. Police and journalists alike search for the killer. 

Fulci considers this to be his best film. While not as gory as some of his other genre work, this is a very creepy and effective thriller. 

Fulci was briefly arrested when this film premiered due to a controversial scene between actress Barbara Bouchet and an underaged boy. Fulci had to prove that the actor was never with the actress. He filmed one part by having the back of a dwarf walking towards the nude actress. The charges were dropped.

Atmospheric and eerie film. Recommended.

Greek hero Jason puts together a crew of brave men to find the Golden Fleece. They immediately set sail on a dangerous quest.

This film is so much fun. The legendary Ray Harryhausen does some of the finest stop-motion work of his career on this film. A hydra, a giant Talos, harpies, and a skeleton army are all brought to life and interact seamlessly with the actors. It’s very easy to see Harryhausen as the precursor to Hollywood CGI blockbusters. Highly recommended.

Hercules (Reg Park) undertakes a journey into Hades to get a magic stone that will help free his love from a spell. All the while, the vile King Lico (Christopher Lee) plots to stop him.

This film is brilliantly directed by Mario Bava. Despite its obvious low budget, he lights all the scenes like a magnificent surreal painting—bright colors pop all over the screen. A simple scene becomes a breathtaking surreal landscape in his hands. I don’t think there is anyone on film that can equal Bava’s ability to light a scene. I found this one highly enjoyable and just beautiful to look at. Highly recommended.

A veterinarian (William Shatner) discovers that his town is right in the path of thousands of migrating aggressive tarantulas. Before they can take any real action, the veterinarian and a group of townsfolk become trapped in an old hotel. 

This is a film that really scared the hell out of me when I was around 9. It ran on HBO pretty regularly around 1979 or so, and many kids of that time and were traumatized by this film. The ending has stuck with me for forty years—and it’s still effective.

Around this time there were a lot of films based around animals or insects becoming aggressive due to environmental factors (Food of the Gods, Day of the Animals, The Swarm, etc.). This is actually one of the better ones.

What really makes this film stand out is the fact that production purchased around 5000 tarantulas and set them upon the actors. Much of the time they had to blow air off screen at the tarantulas just to get them to even appear they are “aggressing” at actors. Though a real bite is kind of like a bee sting, this film treats it like it’s an extremely venomous creature. 

The true horror of this film as I watched as an adult, is the constant slaughter of real spiders. They are dropped, stomped, thrown, run over, and splattered all over the place. It’s ironic that I always bitch and complain that I want practical effects and then I re-watch this one and wish it had some CGI. It’s hard not to feel some sympathy with this constant slaughter, and at times it drags you out of the film and into reality. This use it real spiders also makes this film very effective if you are an arachnophobe.

A shy and nerdy bird watchers magazine publisher (Don Knotts) somehow ends up as the Hugh Hefner-like leader of a nudie magazine empire. Soon everybody wants a piece, from seedy publishers to gangsters. 

Weirdly, despite the fact that this is sex comedy, this film is actually almost family friendly in its tone. It was controversial in its day and even found itself slapped with M rating. It was later downgraded to PG-13. This film bombed because theaters wouldn’t carry it and television wouldn’t it.

Knotts is very good in this, but he definitely doesn’t take any chances. It’s a typical character of his, wide-eyed and scared, shifting around uncomfortably. But if you’re fan, you will be quite happy. Lots of late 1960’s hippy vibes and splashy technicolor sets are everywhere. Entertaining. I watched it on the Internet archive.

A man’s (Thomas Milian) friend is killed in a war between two crime families. He  vows to avenge his friend and simultaneously rescue a boy that one of the families have kidnapped.

This one was a little disappointing to me after having recently watched Umberto Lenzi’s previous film—the outstanding Being Human (1974). This one has a decidedly lighter tone, with Milian doing some silly stuff that doesn’t work outside of a Spencer/Hill t like pretending to shoot a thug’s head with a pool stick like he is lining up a cue ball.  There’s also a touch of too much sentimentality between Milian’s character and the boy. I think the audience watching these genre films are definitely not seeking syrupy sentimentality.

It’s also kind of the first appearance of Rambo (Milian’s name in the film). Apparently, Milian loved the David Morell novel First Blood and tried to get Italian producers to make it, but basically he had to just settle on using the name. Decent enough crime film, but definitely a bit of a disappointment for me.