My Favorite Movies

My favourite movie. Every zombie movie made since borrows from this, whether it's acknowledged or not. Romero knows how to make a film made on a low budget look much more expensive than it was.

Over-the-top, almost operatically violent and disgusting sci-fi drama from Cronenberg. Jeff Goldblum is the perfect actor to play a human-insect hybrid.

Quirky and disturbing, MAY is not really a horror film but more of a macabre drama. Angela Bettis is brilliant in this, and Lucky McKee's direction is great, too. I cried at the end...

A dark and disturbing masterpiece from Rob Zombie. I know some of you are going to call me a heretic for saying this, but i liked it a bit more than John Carpenter's original. It's more emotionally involving and better acted. Zombie was smart enough to keep Carpenter's legendary score, though.

Romero's masterpiece. A poignant, haunting American gothic. The acting is superb and Romero and cinematographer Michael Gornick manage to make Pittsburgh look simultaneously beautiful and hellish. Proves vampire movies can be about more than whiny goths running around against CG backgrounds.

Alternately poignant and brutal revenge flick based on my favourite comic book character, and starring my favourite actor. Based in part on the WELCOME BACK, FRANK storyline. Too bad Tom Jane didn't stick around for the sequel...

Part western, part action movie, Rob Zombie's second film is a darker and more complex adventure for the twisted Dr. Satan cult. Bill Moseley proves he's possibly the most underrated actor working today. Great classic rock soundtrack, if you're into that, too.

Lucio Fulci's blood-soaked, surrealistic nightmare of hell on earth. Not really a zombie movie, but if that's what you want, check out Fulci's almost-as-good ZOMBIE (ZOMBI 2).

Joel David Moore, who is best known for comedies, is outstanding in this haunting drama about a deeply disturbed young man who may or may not be a serial killer.

One of the most brutally, realistically violent horror films I have ever seen, but it's not gratuitous or exploitative. Instead, it's haunting and deeply disturbing. The fact that the violence is being commited against a beautiful young woman is nothing new, but having it done BY another beautiful woman is a little different.

Anyone with even a fleeting interest in horror needs to see this film.

Brilliant third and final (?) Evil Dead film is a real departure from the first and second. Sam Raimi's direction is excellent as usual but this is Bruce Campbell's show all the way and he simply OWNS the screen, in every sense of the word.

"Shop smart, shop S-Mart...YOU GOT THAT???"

Much darker than I thought it would be. Terry Zwigoff has a gift for making offbeat comedy dramas about pathetic people. Cool to see Steve Buscemi and Joel David Moore in the same flick, too.

Another wonderful film from the Coen brothers. This one reminded me in some ways of Cronenberg's NAKED LUNCH, only less surrealistic (obviously). As usual with the Coens, the acting is superb. I know I've said this many, many times, but I'll repeat it again: John Goodman is one of the best and most underrated actors ever to work in films.

Dark and unpredictable genre-bender from the great Coen brothers. John Goodman is quite possibly the most underrated actor working today, and his is just one of the great performances in this film.

The only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars was that it might be just a TAD too long, but then again what would they have taken out?

Similar in feel to another great offbeat comedy, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE.

In many ways Edgar G. Ulmer's THE BLACK CAT is a film decades ahead of it's time. Apart from the presence of Lugosi & Karloff and a total lack of onscreen sex and gore, this could easily have been a Dario Argento film (although it's actually much better than any Argento film...)

A unique and unpredictable masterpiece, required viewing for Lugosi fans, Karloff fans and any and all horror film lovers.

Hal Hartley's sardonic take on Christianity. It's Jesus and Satan on New Year's Eve 1999. Thomas Jay Ryan may be the best Satan in any movie I've ever seen.

Haunting and deeply moving documentary about suicide that can be very tough to watch at times. This is what documentary films should be: thought-provoking, unsettling and honest.

One of the most intelligent horror films ever made. Deeply frightening and grotesque, THE BROOD is somehow also kind of... I guess elegant would be the word. A major leap forward for Cronenberg.

Underrated psycho-drama from Romero. The story of a man who is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. A well-written, well-acted film, but there's no gore and no zombies, so nobody watched it. Sorry, George, but your real fans appreciate this film.

Creepy and fascinating classic horror. Too bad Herk Harvey never made another horror film.

It's appropriate that the alternate title for A CAT IN THE BRAIN was NIGHTMARE CONCERT, because this film reaches positively operatic levels of violence and depravity. Again, not quite on the level of THE BEYOND or ZOMBIE, but a damn good splatter flick from the Godfather of Gore.

Often unfairly dismissed as a 'dry-run' for the (admitedly better) THE BEYOND, made a year later, CITY is a terrific horror film in it's own right. Sure, the ending makes no sense at all, but the Thomas family crypt scene that precedes it is one of the most pulse-pounding set pieces in horror history. A great, bizarre shocker from Fulci.

Fascinating, unpredictable thriller beautifully acted by Angela Bettis and Henry Czerny, who are among the most underrated actors out there. Great ending!

Romero's lost classic! THE CRAZIES reverses the threat of the DEAD films: To become a zombie in Romero's world is to lose all individuality, whereas to become infected in THE CRAZIES is to lose all inhibition; essentially, your true self is unleashed. A major, unacknowledged influence of 28 Days Later...

An EC Comic brought to garish, bloody life. Stephen King's script is funny, Tom Savini's effects are nicely grotesque, and Romero's direction captures the style of a comic book far better than Ang Lee's work on HULK.

Terry Zwigoff is one of the masters of combining the absurd with the pathetic, and this fascinating documentary proves it. I admit to being ignorant about R. Crumb before seeing this, except for liking the first Fritz the Cat film (which Crumb hated!), but now my curiousity is piqued and I'm going to look into this fascinating, enigmatic man's work.

Would make a good double feature with PORN STAR: THE LEGEND OF RON JEREMY.

The ultimate zombie-splatter film! Tom Savini's make-up effects have never been more realistic and grotestque. The whole film is much darker than DAWN, and except for the inexplicable happy ending, the most nihilistic of the DEAD films. Joe Pilato is the quintessential Romero villian: loud, violent and cartoonishly evil. A classic!

Cronenberg's first Hollywood movie still has some pretty bizarre moments. CHristopher Walken is great as Johnny, and Martin Sheen seems to be somehow channeling George W. Bush... scary!

Absolutely incredible Ed Gein-inspired flick (released the same year as THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, which may explain why it's so obscure). I desperately want an UNRATED DVD of this kickass horror classic to be released!!!

Generally speaking, whenever I watch a "classic" film noir, I'm deeply disappointed (as was the case with LAURA and GILDA, just to name two), but I found Edgar G. Ulmer's DETOUR to actually live up to the ballyhoo. DETOUR is, in fact, one of the very few noirs I've seen that actually has the "haunting" feel often attributed to the genre. Tom Neal (an effective thug in the Lugosi chiller BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT) is a fine anti-hero; whether he's an innocent victim of circumstances or a lying multiple murderer really doesn't matter. And Ann Savage may be the most vitriolic femme fatale I've ever come across; she's quite beautiful but her character is so damn EVIL it's tough to not be repulsed by her.

A triumph for the brilliant Edgar G. Ulmer!

Romero's best film since DAWN, and the best zombie movie since Lucio Fulci's ZOMBI 2. Also, this is really the only DEAD film other than NIGHT which is actually scary. The plot suits Romero's social commentary perfectly, and the hopefulness of LAND has been replaced by a much darker, existential tone.

Excellent latter day Hammer gothic with an "everything including the kitchen sink" mentality: you've got a transgender Jekyll/Hyde thing, a Jack the Ripper angle, AND a Burke and Hare angle. Wow!

Ralph Bates was likable but never really much of an actor (it's hard to believe Hammer ever believed Ralph Bates and Mike Raven could be the new Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee...), and he's really about average here. The show belongs to the gorgeous Martine Beswick, who I really wish had been in more Hammer films (and more horror films in general).

A bizarre classic.

At once deeply moving and profoundly disturbing, DER UNTERGANG is the greatest film ever made about Adolf Hitler. Bruno Ganz is superb as the rapidly deteriorating Fuher, and Ulrich Matthes almost manages to steal the film with his chilling (but not over-the-top) portrayal of Doktor Goebbels. I have said this before, but I think it can be repeated here: This film is so effective because it portays the Nazis as human beings rather than monsters. After all, isn't the fact that they WERE human beings the scariest thing of all?

For my money a superior film to Hammer's (still great) 1958 (HORROR OF) DRACULA. Christopher Lee has simply never been more frightening than he is here as the silent bloodsucker (you'd think watching a movie in which Christopher Lee never speaks would be a disapointment, but Lee is still superb) and Terrence Fisher's direction is (as always) flawless.

PRINCE OF DARKNESS also has a much darker feel than the adventurous, somewhat innocent 58 film.

A classic!

Tobe Hooper's OTHER masterpiece of American gothic is not as famous as THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, but it's just as twisted and far more graphic in terms of onscreen bloodletting. The crocodile looks ludicrous, but that's really part of the charm. A young Robert Englund has a very funny small role.

THE ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE IN GRUELING TERROR!!! Sam Raimi's groundbreaking indie splatter flick is everything is cracked up to be. Often overlooked is the fact that this film is actually, truly SCARY. I just hope they don't mess up the remake too badly...

Not as scary as the first but even more zany and off-the-wall. Bruce Campbell had found his persona by this point, and his pitch-perfect performance is mesmerizing. Raimi's direction is superb.

Smarter than The Matrix, with cheaper but more striking production design. This is the only film I've ever seen Don McKellar in where I didn't want to smack him repeatedly...

Possibly the most unique film I've ever seen, th