The Innkeepers

Directed and Written by Ti West

USA, 2011

Fantasia
imdb

Chuck Jones directed a trilogy of horror cartoons (Scaredy Cat, 1948, Claws for Alarm, 1954 and Jumpin’ Jupiter, 1955) featuring Porky Pig blissfully unaware that his life is in danger, while his pet cat, – Sylvester, naturally – only too aware of the danger, does his best to protect both his own skin and that of his master, Porky, from killer mice, ghosts and aliens.

The Inkeepers is not a film for the Porky’s of this world, those easily distracted, immune to menace, insensitive to fear. It is a film for the sensitive, hyper-vigilant Sylvester’s, the fraidy-cats amongst us.

In the case of The Innkeepers, our Porky and Sylvester are Luke (Pat Healy) and Claire (the amazing Sara Paxton). They are the only staff left supervising the Yankee Pedlar Inn on its last weekend of operation. Fortunately, the hotel only has a handful of guests, most memorably including Kelly McGillis as a former actress turned spiritualist. Since Luke and Claire have ample free time and are amateur ghost-hunters, they devote most of their time trying to find evidence of the inn’s ghost.

“The craftmanship of this film, in support of building that atmosphere of fear, is outstanding,..

There is a sense in which Ti West is a man (wonderfully) out of step with time. He makes films using techniques and methods seemingly long abandoned. His films build menace and threat slowly, almost imperceptibly. Each isolated moment is easily dismissed, but for those paying attention the dread mounts drop by drop, until you are drowning in fear and the slightest, most miniscule thing: a piano key being played, a beer can falling down a flight of stairs, is enough to send you clawing the ceiling in fright.

If we say that West achieves the most scares with the least, by least we don’t mean least effort. The craftmanship of this film, in support of building that atmosphere of fear, is outstanding, especially the layered and creepy sound design.

There would be a temptation to arm the ghosthunters with video cameras and employ the modern arsenal of shaky-cam techniques to elicit fear. Instead, West arms Luke and Claire with headphones and a sound recorder, forcing both them and the audience to listen for the ghost. West’s work has been described as atmospheric and West does his best in The Innkeepers to film that atmosphere, to film what can be sensed but not seen.

“Ti West is a singular genius, and The Innkeepers is his best film to date…

West’s camera does not shake. It is in fact, slow, steady and silky smooth, almost as if West is consciously declaring that it is the audience that should shake and not the camera. The well-framed shots leave the sensitive in the audience studying every inch, deperately searching for traces of the invisible.

Let the Porky’s of this world sneer that The Innkeepers did not scare them. We Sylvester’s understand that this spooky ghost film is nothing less than a test of our evolutionary fight or flight response. When the inevitable Zombie holocaust hits, there will be a word for the Sylvester’s amongst us: survivors, while the blasé, no attention-span, sneeringly unafraid Porky Pig mother-fuckers will be so much Zombie chow.

For those with the patience for his slow-build cinematic magic, Ti West is a singular genius, and The Innkeepers is his best film to date.

- Michael Ryan

The Theatre Bizarre

Directed by Richard Stanley, Buddy Giovinazzo, Douglas Buck, Karim Hussain, David Gregory, Tom Savini and Jeremy Kasten

USA/France, 2011

A horror anthology in seven parts, The Theatre Bizarre is a throwback to the tradition of the port-manteaux films of the `60s and `70s. The main exponent of this type of film then was Amicus Films, a small British production company established by two American ex-pats (Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky) who wanted to take on the mighty (at the time anyways) Hammer Films at their game. The Theatre Bizarre, then, is a deliberate callback to that era, but with a contemporary sensibility that could only come from these directors having been exposed to myriad horror films by the likes of Fulci and Argento, and their own previous works of course; a true cross-pollination of styles and moods that is as refreshing and revolting as one might reasonably expect.

The film starts with a wonderful little enveloping piece (directed by Jeremy Kasten) that has a young girl venturing into what appears to be an abandoned cinema, only to be greeted by a wax puppet automaton (beautifully played by Udo Kier) who proceeds to segue us into each story. Each time we will see him, he becomes more human-like, and the visiting girl becomes more puppet-like.

“A very satisfying anthology film that should re-invigorate the genre…

The first story, The Mother of Toads, is directed by Richard Stanley (of Hardware and Dust Devil fame); a perfect little tale about a couple who purchase earrings that may have some ancient magical qualities from a shop owned by an old hag (not unlike Peter Cushing`s turn in From Beyond the Grave as the antique shop owner). Potions that make one hallucinate; late night strolls through old pagan-looking grounds; nature unleashed and uncontrolled; all aspects that we have come to expect from Stanley`s close connection to old mythologies. The couple are put through some horrifying moments that culminate in a tragic ending worthy of H.P. Lovecraft (whose spirit inhabits most of the stories here).

I Love You, directed by Buddy Giovinazzo, ably portrays the disintegration of a relationship between a French woman and her German boyfriend. The man is desperate to keep this woman in his life despite the fact that she confesses to him that she has never been sexually satisfied with him, and that she has been seeing various other men during their entire time together. Giovinazzo consistently toys with perspective, leading up to the story`s bleak ending. From the man who brought us Combat Shock and Life Is Hot In Cracktown.

“This crew of filmmakers have produced what is possibly their best work by keeping to their self-imposed limited parameters of production…

Next is Tom Savini’s Wet Dream, which is a similar story of a sexually dysfunctional relationship which could be a dream or reality. It has always been a hallmark of anthology films such as this one to have a few lighter vignettes, and this Savini piece is that link in this chain of the bizarre. Douglas Buck’a The Accident is a soft, heartfelt meditation on life and death from the point of view of a young girl who has witnessed it first hand in the aftermath of a road accident, leaving her mother to try and explain the unexplainable almost as if this horrible reality were a night-time fable; a wonderfully shot and score little respite from the next two hard-hitting pieces to come.

Karim Hussain gives us Vision Stains; a young woman`s attempt to discover the meaning of life via the experiences of other women by injecting fluid from the eye of these other women, whom she kills, into her own to see what they saw during their life. She considers herself a chronicler of past lives, which she has written down in various manuscripts kept in a dilapidated library reminiscent of a Terry Gilliam nightmare. Seeking the ultimate answer, she manages to get ahold of the fluid of an unborn child, and all is finally revealed to her, albeit not what she had expected. This particular entry is brutal to watch, bringing to mind the director`s first film Subconscious Cruelty in some respects. There is a scene where a female junkie injects herself with drugs that is brilliantly edited, putting into images what has been described many times in books or articles as to how a junkie experiences the hit of the dose of heroin; like sex and/or orgasm.

The last item on the menu is David Gregory`s Sweets, in which a couple, on the verge of splitting up, agree to a last meal together. To say more would spoil the surprise. All I will say is that there is a great reference to an old 70`s Vincent Price vehicle entitled Theatre of Blood. Enough said.

A very satisfying anthology film that should re-invigorate the genre (one can only hope). This crew of filmmakers have produced what is possibly their best work by keeping to their self-imposed limited parameters of production.

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- Mark Penny

Beneath the Darkness

Directed by Martin Guigui

Screenplay by Bruce Wilkinson

2011, USA

In the post-Scream era, it should be impossible to make a thriller or horror film that does not comment on the conventions of the genre. The only proof that it is possible is Beneath the Darkness, a painfully earnest thriller that falls into every bad-movie trap that a film of this sort could fall into. It’s the very sort of movie that the characters in Scream would laugh at.

Martin Guigui’s film opens with small-town Texas mortician Vaughn Eli (Dennis Quaid) killing a man. That scene, plus the subsequent story element that protagonist Travis (Tony Oller) once saw his sister’s ghost, might lead one to expect a thriller with a touch of the supernatural. Travis is studying Macbeth and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” which only reinforces that mood.

Instead the film delivers some turgid teen drama. Travis and friends are curious about why Eli is so creepy, so they form their own Scooby Gang to find out. At one point a character name-checks Buffy the Vampire Slayer during the investigation, but even that mildly clever moment is delivered in the most humorless way possible. The supernatural elements are quickly ditched, never to be seen again.

As the mystery plot accelerates, the performances create breakneck shifts in tone. The young actors, television veterans all, do their best with the bland dialogue that they’re given. On the other hand, Quaid delivers the most crazy-ass performance of his career, and not in a good way. He chews his cheesy dialogue while perpetually fidgeting with an e-cigarette that is without question the strangest product placement in the history of advertising.

This film almost reaches so-bad-it’s-good status several times, either because of Quaid’s sheer insanity or the laughable incompetence of the local police. Each time, it pulls back and tries to regain its sincerity with a weak dramatic note, including a psychological thriller ending that is neither psychological nor thrilling. Only the film’s final line indicates any awareness of its own lunacy, and by then it is far too late.

Mark Young

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame

Directed by Hark Tsui

China, 2011

More Sherlock Holmes than Guy Ritchie’s current slow-motion brawler, Detective Dee (Andy Lau) is a 7th century Chinese sleuth with a faithful bird for a sidekick instead of a doctor.

When a series of mysterious spontaneous combustions threaten to derail the inauguration of China’s first Empress, Wu (Carina Lau), the long-exiled Detective Dee is called back into action.

Ordered to closely follow and assist Dee is the mysterious Jing’er (Bingbing Li), the Empress’ right-hand woman, and Pei Donglai (Chao Deng), a stoic albino in the Silas/Da Vinci Code model. Each have their own agendas according to the controversy surrounding the first-ever female ascendance, and Dee must play both sides skillfully to solve the crime.

A gleeful work of historical fiction, Detective Dee mixes classic martial arts sequences with plenty of deduction to form a picture that is at once a deeply entrenched genre film, history lesson, and treatise on selfless politics.

While strong performances from the principles, including the always reliable, usually sinister Tony Leung Ka Fai, alongside whirlwind action sequences make the film immediately accessible, what really sets it apart is the diverse supporting cast and the twisting narrative that pays as much homage to ancient Chinese superstitions, as it mocks them for the sake of logic.

Director Hark Tsui, probably best known in the west for his Once Upon a Time in China series utilizes a variety of imaginative set pieces including warring puppets, acupuncture transfigurations, and talking, attacking deer to keep the action moving. One particular sequence involves Dee, Jing’er and Donglai fighting a mysterious figure that keeps splitting apart in an underground cavern. Tsui relies heavily on the fight choreography and production design rather than rapid editing and it pays off. The sequence is one of the best in the film and overcomes the poor CGI that unfortunately dominates the setting of this and many other locations.

The character of Dee – once an enemy of Wu, now freed by her – is closer to a Conan Doyle character than the pipe-smoker played by Robert Downey Jr. Dee’s martial art is more aligned with Holmes’ baritsu than the bare-knuckling practiced by Downey and, to the credit of the screenplay, there’s far more actual deduction in Tsui’s film. This is precisely the fun of Detective Dee: the fight scenes aren’t solutions here. They are narrative-movers and lifesavers. The logic comes separately or concurrently, and the conclusion is ultimately reached via reason.

- Neal Dhand

Headhunters (Hodejegerne)

Directed by Morten Tyldum

Written by Lars Gudmestad, Jo Nesbø, and Ulf Ryberg

Norway, 2011

Adapted from a novel by the acclaimed Norwegian writer Jo Nesbø, Headhunters is an original thriller filled with surprises. Initially disguised as a heist film, the story quickly transforms into a brutal test of wills that pushes the lead beyond his breaking point. Director Morten Tyldum (Fallen Angels) introduces a fairly despicable lead character but makes him identifiable because his actions are understandable. Once the chaos begins, his will to live is stronger than anyone expects and makes even the most talented killer underestimate his resolve.

Aksel Hennie (Max Manus) stars as Roger Brown, a diminutive headhunter for large corporations who has built a reputable business. He’s earned decent money but can’t keep up with the financial expectations of his gorgeous wife Diana (SynnøveMacody Lund). To supplement his income, he learns about the valuable art held by his job applicants and replaces them with duplicates. Working with his security contact Ove (Eivind Sander), Roger easily slips into his clients’ homes and robs them with little notice. The extra money helps him maintain their lifestyle, but it’s still not enough to cover all the expenses. But all hope isn’t lost. The arrival of ClasGreve (NikolajCoster-Waldau) offers the chance for a major score that could set Roger and Diana up for life.

This premise appears to set up your standard heist film with Clas’ Rubens painting as the top prize. While this type of movie could be exciting, it pales in comparison to the actual result. The heist is an easy robbery, which should raise warning bells inside Roger’s head. Clas is no ordinary mark and spent time in the Special Forces, so he’s not going to take kindly to being swindled. When this film switches from the heist genre to a man-on-man thriller early on, it’s surprising and only raises the stakes. The deck’s stacked so strongly in Clas’ favor that it seems impossible for Roger to survive even one night. His ability to stay afloat, combined with a tremendous amount of luck, leads to a stirring confrontation. There are no wasted moments in this 98-minute film, which keeps raising the tension with each subsequent conflict.

There are plenty of highlights that could be the climax of a lesser film, but Tyldum is just getting started. One of the best involves Roger hiding in an outhouse to avoid capture from his relentless pursuer. His only method to stay alive is to immerse himself completely into the toilet, which is presented in all its nasty glory. Tyldum wisely underplays this grisly moment, which doesn’t need sharp music cues or quick cutting to generate excitement. It’s a deceptively simple scene but works because the audience places themselves into this situation. Repeatedly, Roger must go beyond his expected limits or face certain death from his unstoppable enemy. The outhouse sequence is just the first of many tense battles that never feel over the top even when the end result is implausible.

Headhunters only works if Hennie presents a believable scoundrel at the start, and he’s definitely up for this task. Roger has little remorse about cheating on his wife, toying with the job applicants, and stealing valuable paintings for profit. It takes a lot of pain for him to become an identifiable character that viewers will root for by the end. Roger’s a flawed character but has feelings, which presents a sharp contrast to the cold and efficient Clas. His big speech with Diana works because he’s lost all reason to put up the façade that’s present at the film’s beginning. NikolajCoster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) is also excellent as the charismatic killer who has little qualms about murdering scores of bystanders to reach Roger. He’s the next evolution in the deadly and calculating CEO, who’ll do anything in business and beyond to succeed. These two actors (and a strong supporting cast) make this thriller one of the big surprises of the festival, if not the entire year.

Dan Heaton

Throughout November, SOS staffers will be discussing the movies that made them into film fanatics.

(click here for the full list)

A Nightmare on Elm Street has a special place in my heart. It was not only the first horror film I had ever watched but it was the first film in which I took notice of a film’s director and its stars. Prior to A Nightmare On Elm Street, perhaps the only director I was familiar with was George Lucas – after all Return Of The Jedi was the first film I had seen on the big screen. The difference between the two, and the reason why I decided to write about Nightmare, is because unlike Star Wars, a film that was pushed upon me by my older brother, Nightmare was something that I took interest in on my own. Perhaps it was the brim hat Freddy wore, and his sharp claws, or perhaps it was the buzz I heard from my friend Tommy at school, who was the only kid in our class who’s parents allowed him to watch horror films. Or maybe it was simply the addition of the word nightmare in the title – here I was a young boy suffering from nightmares on a regular basis. Perhaps it was all the above. Either way, A Nightmare On Elm street was my gateway into the world of cinema. For those who dare dismiss it as trash, I give you 2060 words as to why you are so very, very wrong.

Wes Craven intended Nightmare to be an exploration of surreal horror as opposed to just another stalk-and-slash horror movie, and not only did Nightmare offer a wildly imaginative, inspired concept, but it was a solid commercial genre entry for the dating crowd. Elm Street was New Line’s first genuine mainstream cinematic venture (after Alone In The Dark), and made the company a huge pile of money. The film was shot in 30 days at a cost of roughly $1.8 million, but it made back its figure and then some on opening weekend. New Line Cinema was saved from bankruptcy by the success of the film, and was jokingly nicknamed “the house that Freddy built.” Perhaps the most influential horror film of the ’80s, Craven’s 1984 slasher about a quartet of high school kids terrorized in their dreams by a torched boogeyman in a fedora hat and dusty pullovers spawned countless sequels and even a TV series.

One great thing Nightmare offered, perhaps more than anything else, was a new horror star in Robert Englund. Englund based the physicality of Freddy on Klaus Kinski’s performance in Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979), making Freddy one of the most recognizable modern horror villains: vicious, but with a sense of humour as sharp as the blades on his gloves. The horribly barbequed man with the ragged slouch hat, dusty red-and-green striped sweater, and metal gloves with knives at the tip of each finger, had not yet become the ridiculous wisecracking clown of the sequels. Here he says very little, and when he does speak, his words are powerful for its brevity – and oh those infamous razor gloves scraping against metal is enough to send shivers down your spine.

The inspiration for the character of Freddy came from several sources in Wes Craven’s childhood. The name, Fred Krueger, came from a schoolmate of Craven who had bullied him for several years and Freddy’s appearance was inspired by a hobo lurking around Craven’s house, who Craven spotted from his bedroom window one night at the age of ten. But the basis of the film was inspired by several newspaper articles printed in the LA Times on a group of Khmer refugees, who were suffering disturbing nightmares, and refused to sleep – with the most extreme cases leading to actual death in the throes of horrific nightmares. Medical authorities called the phenomenon Asian Death Syndrome.

“I don’t know who he is, but he’s burned and he wears a weird hat and a red and green sweater, really dirty. And he uses these knives, like giant fingernails… “

This was the film that introduced the world to Freddy Krueger, a monster who exists in his victims’ dreams and preys on them in the vulnerability of sleep. The idea behind the glove was a practical one on Wes Craven’s part, as he wanted to give the character a unique weapon, but also something that could be made cheaply and wouldn’t be difficult to transport. The end result brings a macabre ghostly figure throughout – indeed, precisely what nightmares are made of.

In addition to offering the visceral thrills that are necessary in a genre entry, Craven’s screenplay works on several levels. Here the idea of sleep as the ultimate threat is ingenious and incredibly insidious. Craven masterfully disguises dreams as reality and vice versa, and the idea that injuries sustained in dreams also exist outside helps to further blur the already murky distinction between the two. The primary element that elevates A Nightmare on Elm Street above many other slasher films is that the storyline invites intellectual observation: At times, we’re aware that the characters are trapped in a dreamscape, but there are times when we are not, and there are occasions when we suspect they’re awake and they are actually asleep – as if the children are in a never-ending state of hypnagogia.

The ultimate revelation however is that Freddy is really the byproduct of parental vigilantism. The teenagers in the film are paying for the sins of their parents —and thus the brute is determined to exact revenge in using their children as his victims. Nightmare has been described as a reaction to the perceived innocence of American suburbs: parents in the film’s fictional suburb dispose of Krueger and hide any form of his existence in an attempt to build a safe environment for their children. There’s a clear generational divide in A Nightmare on Elm Street, with the children trying to stay awake both figuratively and literally and the parents continuing to ignore the situation, utterly avoiding taking responsibility for their hideous actions. They instead bury their memories of the crime they once commuted so deep down inside, it remains lodged in the far reaches of their brain, where we can also find their declarative memories. As a result, the sins-of-the-father biblical warning (in a slasher-movie setting) have allowed Krueger to amass incredible power in his nightmare world – power he uses to exact his revenge. More so, Freddy’s actions have been interpreted as symbolic of the often traumatic experiences of adolescence. Sexuality is ever present in Freudian images and is almost exclusively displayed in a threatening and mysterious context (i.e. Tina’s death visually evokes a rape, Freddy’s glove emerges between Nancy’s legs in the bath, a centipede crawls out of the mouth of one of the victims and finally a mattress swallows up Johnny Depp only to ejaculate him immediately after). The original script actually called for Krueger to be a child molester, rather than a child killer, but somehow the idea was lost in the process of shooting.

Craven claimed he wanted someone very “non-Hollywood” for the role of Nancy, and he believed Langenkamp met this quality. Depp was another unknown when he was cast; and initially never intending on auditioning. Instead he was only tagging along with friend Jackie Earle Haley (who went on to play Freddy in the 2010 remake), yet it was Depp who got the part of Glen instead. Nightmare was both the feature debut and breakthrough for Depp and a stepping stone to bigger things to come.

Nightmare is the story of the courage and resourcefulness of one extraordinary girl. At the age of 19, Langekamp portrays one of the most perfectly realized and well-expressed teenagers/heroines of the 1980s. The best slasher films all have realistic heroines, and Langenkamp ranks as close to the top as Janet Leigh or Jamie Lee Curtis. As Nancy, Heather Langenkamp is closer to Alien’s Sigourney Weaver than to Halloween’s Jamie Lee Curtis: quick-witted, adventurous and courageous, and willing to enter into Freddy’s realm even when she knows he has the upper glove. Nancy and Freddy are incredibly well-matched: during the climax, she even uses a few survivalist techniques to turn the tables on Freddy. Her character is one of the greatest “final girls” in the history of slasher films, and goes on to reappear throughout the franchise in the only two solid sequels (A Nightmare On Elm Street 3, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare).

Visually, A Nightmare on Elm Street is a real treat hovering somewhere between gothic, supernatural imagery and the typical 80′s slasher fare. Cinematographer Jacques Haitkin’s work here is innovative and atmospheric, capturing a malevolent mood with light and shadow, most notably in the surrealistic basement scenes set around the furnace. Like so many films of this genre, its artistic ingenuity is intensified with various bloody set-pieces and visual effects. A Nightmare on Elm Street boasts several impressively conceived and well executed dream/kill sequences. During production, over 500 gallons of fake blood were used for the special effects production. The special effects, most of which are low-tech, are surprisingly effective, and this was the first film to use a breakaway mirror.

Craven’s probing of the waking/dreaming barrier results in some memorable kill sequences. Tina’s (Amanda Wyss) death scene, which featured her trashing across the ceiling, was partly inspired by the movie Royal Wedding (1951), which was the first movie to use a rotating set. The set here slowly spun to allow her to roll into position, with a camera bolted to the wall and a cameraman strapped into a chair beside it, which turned in tandem with the room. It’s important to remember that this was a low budget film shot in 30 days. For the two shots where Rod (Jsu Garcia) and Tina reach out for one another, Tina is actually lying on the floor and Garcia is hanging upside down with his hair pasted to stay flat.

FX man Jim Doyle was responsible for designing and constructing the ingenious full-scale gyro rotating room which was again used for Johnny Depp’s kill. For the famous blood geyser sequence, the furniture, cameraman, director and actor were fixed in place, and the room would spin upside down, thus allowing the rigged room to appear right side up while thousands of gallons of fake blood would seem to gush, erupt and ejaculate from the bed. On the DVD commentary, Wes Craven remarks that the room spinning the wrong way was like a “Ferris Wheel from hell.” This scene was partly inspired by the elevator scene in The Shining. Particularly effective is the scene where Nancy is attacked by Krueger in her bathtub and pulled under the water into a pitch-black pool leading to a back alley chase where Freddy stalks her. To achieve this effect, the tub was put in a bathroom set that was built over a swimming pool. During this underwater sequence Heather Langenkamp was replaced with a stuntwoman. Also worth noting is the “melting staircase” as seen in Nancy’s dream, which was created using pancake mix and directed by Friday the 13th director Sean S. Cunningham (who is uncredited). Finally, the sequence in which Freddy is set on fire, shot in one long take (with several cameramen), featured one hell of an elaborate and dangerous stunt by stuntman Anthony Cecere (who won best stunt of the year for it).

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Finally I just couldn’t end without mentioning Charles Bernstein’s spare score, the musical cues, synthesizers, creepy sound effects and the film’s unforgettable children’s rhyme – which is all perfect for the material – eerie but never overwhelming.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) – Theme Song

A Nightmare on Elm Street is tailor made for those who like their scares evened with thought-provoking ideas – something that is a rarity in this genre. Yes, there are plenty of shocks, but there’s something much more: a psychological fantasy thriller that tears away at the barrier of dreams and reality, making us think twice before settling in for a good night’s sleep. The film may be a bit rough around the edges for the new generation, and multiple viewings do tend to expose its low-budget origins, but Nightmare is still to this day dark and forbidding, chilling and incredibly unnerving – a near masterpiece of independent genre filmmaking.

Ricky D

Midnight Son

Directed by Scott Leberecht

2011, USA, 88 minutes

You know where this is going. Jacob (Zak Kilberg), a shy and lonely young man, works a nighttime security job because of a severe reaction to sunlight, thus amplifying his loneliness. He’s constantly hungry despite a supply of increasingly raw steak. Right around the time he starts licking the moisture from Styrofoam meat trays, Jacob meets Mary (Maya Parish), a cute but damaged girl just out of a relationship. Here’s the thing, though: it doesn’t really matter that the conventions of the vampire mythos make the plot of Midnight Son easy to anticipate. Director Scott Leberecht tells the story well, at that’s what matters.

Vampires exist to be reinvented, and Leberecht’s take on some of our oldest monsters is refreshing and contemporary. Certainty, blood, isolation, and love remain part of the story. However, gone are the dusty religious and superstitious elements of vampirism, and absent are the trashy tween elements of its most current unfortunate incarnation. In fact, if Twilight represents the naïve preteen’s opinion  (love is syrupy, grand, and ideal in an insipid sort of way), then Midnight Son is the cynical adult’s answer (love is difficult, suffocating, and gratifying in a torturous kind of way). Vampire Son is careful to treat everything from Jacob’s progressing affliction to his developing relationship with a sense of maturity that enables the film to build themes of loneliness and uncomfortable horror easily.

A good deal of credit should go to the film’s leads, Kilberg and Parish. Their supporting cast, though, talented, is minimal, and they carry the bulk of the film by themselves. Kilberg, especially, spends a lot of time on screen alone, which can be difficult for an actor to keep interesting, but he manages.

That said, Midnight Son’s indie roots show. This isn’t all bad (after all, it’s hard to imagine a studio film moving in the risky and mature route for a vampire movie), but it does mean that the film makes some compromises that don’t quite do it justice. A few moments, especially later in the film, don’t work, and drew laughter from the audience. And of course, this being a vampire movie, we were treated to the obligatory time-lapse shot of the city during the day. It’s the easiest way for a vampire film to show the passage of time, if not the most interesting.

If you can forgive some rough indie moments, then give Midnight Son a shot. It’s creepy, contemporary, and uncomfortable in all the ways a vampire movie should be.

- Dave Robson

The 6th Annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival runs October 20 though 27, 2011 at the Toronto Underground Cinema. For complete festival info visit www.torontoafterdark.com.

The Theatre Bizarre

Directed by Various

2011, Canada/USA/France, 108 minutes

Omnibus films tend to appeal mainly to hard-core fans and other filmmakers. That isn’t a bad thing. In the case of The Theatre Bizarre, some of horror’s nuttiest and most demented talents can be just as nutty and demented as they want. If you’re a horror fan, it’s a grab bag of treats; you’ll love some and hate others, but that’s part of the pleasure. If you’re a filmmaker, then The Theatre Bizarre is a twisted little laboratory. After all, experiments are always useful, even if they don’t always work.

“Mother of Toads”

Directed by Richard Stanley

Richard Stanley’s Lovecraft-inspired segment is also the most like a fairy tale. It’s certainly cautionary (don’t trust strange old women who live alone in the woods!), but it’s also creepy in a gross, oozy kind of way. Toads, after all.

“I Love You”

Directed by Buddy Giovinazzo

Psychological horror is difficult to do well, so it helps that Buddy Giovinazzo mixes in elements of emotional trauma and violence. He isn’t trying to be too clever, though: “I Love You” is essentially a realistic conflict between two people (with a third ancillary character) that abides by the classical unities. I found it well-structured and elegant.

“Wet Dreams”

Directed by Tom Savini

The master of creative SFX violence and gore, Tom Savini is in top form for “Wet Dreams”, a sick series of violent and gruesome little revenge fantasies. Of course, there is more than just gore going on here. “Wet Dreams” is something of a study in the way characters can inflict pain on each other. Oh, and Savini himself plays a psychiatrist.

“The Accident”

Directed by Douglas Buck

“The Accident” stands out in this film for a few reasons; namely, if it played as a short film at a prestigious film festival, you wouldn’t bat an eye. Contemplative and slightly uncomfortable, it is a juxtaposition of a young girl asking her mother questions about the nature of death and a scene where she witnesses a tragic (but unfortunately commonplace) accident resulting in death. It is understated, thoughtful, and charming, in a sad way.

“Vision Stains”

Directed by Karim Hussain

The concept behind Karim Hussain’s segment—of a women who kills people to harvest the vitreous fluid from their eyes, inject it into her own, and thus “see their life flash before their eyes”—is fascinating. However, it doesn’t ever get explored in a satisfactory way. That isn’t to say that the segment ought to have been longer (Hussain mentioned that he harvested the idea from a feature script). Rather, “Vision Stains” doesn’t make the most of the time it has. Couple that with a terrible voice over (the writing and action portions both).

“Sweets”

Directed by David Gregory

David Gregory isn’t shy (or subtle) about symbolism. His food fetish extravaganza, at once voluptuous, decadent, and nauseating, disgusted much of its audience. I found its candy motifs and colourful juxtapositions terribly witty, though I would have been fine with segment ending much sooner then it did.

“Theatre Guignol”

Jeremy Kasten

“Theatre Guignol” isn’t an individual segment, but a framing device surrounding the whole film and a series of transition pieces between each of the other segments. I understand why it’s there. Theoretically, anyway. I’m just not sure it should be.

So there it is. The Theatre Bizarre isn’t all great—actually, it’s rather mixed—but that’s the point. Each part is meant to be a risk, and sometimes risks fail. This is a treat for fans and filmmakers. If nothing else, it’s an interesting ride.

-       Dave Robson

The 6th Annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival runs October 20 though 27, 2011 at the Toronto Underground Cinema. For complete festival info visit www.torontoafterdark.com.

During the month of October, I kept myself extremely busy watching as many horror films as possible (a total of 76) – and writing up some “best of” lists for the genre. Some of the SOS contributors also helped out including Shayne Ramirez and Robert Simpson. Apart from that, Justine Smith, James Merolla and I all took part in a contest to see who could watch the most horror films in a span of five weeks (guess who won!). There was a lot of work put into it, so I decided to quickly wrap up what I call “October Horror”. Next year we will continue this new tradition but for now, here are links to some of the articles we posted last month.

28  Best Horror Comedies

Eleven Emotionally Horrific Art Films

62 Greatest Horror Films Ever Made

26 Giallo Films

40 Best Slasher Films

25 Best Horror Films / Thrillers Of 2011 (so far)

13 Best Werewolf Movies

19 Best Horror Films From New Zealand and Australia

34 Best Vampire Films

7 Best From The Found Footage Genre

Fight For Horror Supremacy Contest

For the horror buff, Fall is the best time of the year. The air is crisp, the leaves are falling and a feeling of death hangs on the air. Here at Sound on Sight we have some of the biggest horror fans you can find. We are continually showcasing the best of genre cinema, so we’ve decided to put our horror knowledge and passion to the test in a horror watching contest. Each week in October, Ricky D, James Merolla and Justine Smith will post a list of the horror films they have watched. By the end of the month, the person who has seen the most films wins. Prize TBD.

Ricky D (5 viewings)

Total of 76 viewings

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Purchase

Spirits Of The Dead (Histoires extraordinaires)

Directed by Federico Fellini (segment Toby Dammit), Louis Malle (segment William Wilson), Roger Vadim (segment Metzengerstein)

France, 1968

First thing to notice is the three directors: Federico Fellini, Louis Malle and Roger Vadim. Secondly, take notice of the cast, which includes Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, Alain Delon, Terence Stamp, Salvo Randone, James Robertson Justice, Françoise Prévost and Marlène Alexandre. Spirits Of The Dead is an adaptation of three Edgar Allan Poe, one of which demands to be seen.

The first segment of the film, Roger Vadim’s Metzgengerstein, is unfortunately the worst, but is still great in its own right, and features a marvelous performance by Jane Fonda. Louis Malle’s segment is the second of the three. Malle turns Edgar Allan Poe’s 1839 story into an engrossing study in cruelty and sadism. Malle’s episode is an engaging enough entry, but pales in comparison to what follows.

They really do save the best for last. Episode three is the reason to see this anthology. Even if it hardly qualifies as horror, it is still deserves to make my list. Federico Fellini’s Toby Dammit, which stars Terence Stamp, is a visual wonder. Fellini and his cinematographer shoot with an intensifying palette – the most brilliant mix of blues and reds, bittersweet shades and extraordinary camera movement you will ever see in any horror anthology. Stamp is truly terrifying as the dysfunctional Toby, and the world that Fellini creates perfectly mirrors the inner turmoil and self-destructive nature of his character. Toby Dammit feels like a stylish nightmare – a truly unsettling and intriguing film that makes the perfect gateway into the director’s oeuvre.

Deep Red (Profondo rosso) (The Hatchet Murders)

Directed by Dario Argento

Italy, 1975

Many will argue Suspiria to be Argento’s full-fledged masterpiece, but for my money it is Deep Red – gorgeous, gory and gruesome, and undoubtedly his finest picture. The alluring David Hemmings steals much of the show as a music teacher who investigates a series of murders performed by a mysterious figure wielding a hatchet. Argento’s trademarks are all visible here in copious amounts, as it prefigures some of the elaborate stylistic choices that he would carry on for the remainder of his career. Add in the superb, jazzy score by Argento’s band Goblin, and you have one of the most distinct-sounding and looking horror films of the decade. From a technical perspective, the film is a masterwork, but Deep Red also excels where most Giallos fall short: it carries an engaging narrative heightened by an unpredictable course of events and a truly surprising twist ending.

The Birds

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

USA, 1963

Although not as shocking as Psycho, The Birds is a more complex, ambitious and sophisticated film, and represents a high watermark in the prolific career of the master of suspense. Hitchcock’s inspiration for the film was an actual news report about a bird attack that occurred for unknown reasons, specifically a bird that was known to be prey and not a predator. The Birds is a precursor to nature vs. man horror films as Psycho was to slashers.It is also the second masterpiece Alfred Hitchcock contributed to the genre of small-town thrillers – the first being Shadow of a Doubt. Perhaps the aspect that stands out the most in The Birds is the long pauses between the dialogue. When one thinks of a Hitchcock film, one remembers the long well drawn conversations between the cast of characters. In The Birds, there are countless scenes in which the actors express more through physicality than in words. Hitch apparently wanted The Birds to be a silent film or at least was flirting with the idea of making a silent film, but decided it wouldn’t be marketable nor profitable. Hitchcock was also experimenting with the idea to not include a score in his film and instead opted for sounds created on the mixtrautonium, an early electronic musical instrument, by Oskar Sala. Along with Remi Gassmann, they composed a piece that consists primarily of screeching bird sounds, which provides a nerve wrecking, surrealistic backdrop to the sordid proceedings. Although the special effects are dated, they were still rather impressive for the time. Ray Berwick was responsible for training hundreds of birds, gulls, crows, etc. to act like they were attacking without actually hurting anyone (although apparently they did). By employing thousands of real trained birds intermixed with fakes, Hitchcock was able to create the illusion of a mass attack on the quiet community – the result is remarkable, featuring 370 effects shots, with the final shot composed of 32 separately filmed elements.

Possession (The Night the Screaming Stops)

Directed by Andrzej Zulawski

France / Germany, 1981

Think of Possession as an intense drama of marital collapse amidst occult happenings, intricate political conspiracies, and the Berlin Wall as backdrop. The director has stated that he wrote the screenplay in the midst of a messy divorce, and it is quite apparent. At Cannes, the film was nominated for the Palme d’Or (taken that year by another Polish film, Andrzej Wajda’s Man of Iron) and won a Best Actress awards for Isabelle Adjani. The feature earned a place on the list of 39 ‘Video Nasties’ banned in the UK under the 1984 Video Recordings Act. Seems like most of the movies on my list were either banned or highly controversial at one point or another. The film draws similarities to David Cronenberg’s The Brood (1979), Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers and anticipates Lars von Trier’s Antichrist.

Possession features special effects from Carlo Rambaldi who worked prior on Dario Argento’s Deep Red and Flesh for Frankenstein. Here, he designed the ominous “creature,” an eroticised tentacular monster that looks like it was lifted from one of Cronenberg’s wet dreams. Most impressive of all is the cinematography, by Bruno Nuytten, who uses ambitious hand held takes, extensive dollies and infinite tracking shots. The shape shifting monsters reflect a film that is an amalgam of family tragedy, political thriller, and body horror.

Halloween

Directed by John Carpenter

US, 1978

A historical milestone that single-handedly shaped the future of the entire genre. This seminal horror flick actually gets better with age; it holds up with determination as an effective thriller that will always stand head and shoulders above the hundreds of imitators to come. Halloween had one hell of an influence on the entire film industry. You have to admire how Carpenter avoids explicit onscreen violence, and achieves a considerable power almost entirely through visual means, using its widescreen frame, expert hand-held camerawork, and terrifying foreground and background imagery.

James (15 viewings)

Total of 52 viewings

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Essential Horror Viewing

The Evil Dead (Raimi, 1981) If you haven’t seen this film yet, than you aren’t much of a horror fan. It is both schlocky and genuinely terrifying.

Bedlam (Robson, 1946) Another clever and stylish Val Lewton classic. What makes this film disturbing is the idea that one’s freewill and idea of sanity can be stolen away from them.

Dracula Has Risen from The Grave (Francis, 1968) Freddie Francis may have made some of the best looking horror films of all time, and this one may be the prettiest of them all. Francis drops in subtle hues of pink, red, yellow, and blue to accentuate the mood of this atmospheric classic.

Dawn of The Dead (Romero, 1978) The satire is thick in this gorey bit of social commentary, which plays on our fears and fantasies of being trapped in paradise.

The Fifth Cord (Bazzoni, 1971) This film is probably the most rugged display of machismo of any giallo I’ve seen. Franco Nero, is John Wayne, Dirty Harry, and Alain Delon all rolled into one sandy haired, mustachioed, whiskey breathing dragon of a man, and what’s best is he plays the role fully aware of this. What makes this film unique though, is working in juxtaposition to Nero’s bulging performance, is a soft feminine elegance of Luigi Bazzoni’s cinematic touch. Even among giallos this film has a notable deft touch.

Meh

The Stuff (Cohen, 1985) The Stuff isn’t nearly as clever and witty as it thinks it is, and by the third act it feels as if they were making it up as they went along. But, it does have a fun exploitation film feel to it, and a Cold War sensibility that makes it interesting. At times it is nostalgic for the 50′s Sci-fi generation, and at times it is a vague ode to Hitchcock, but it never achieves the poignant commentary that it tries so desperately to do.

Images (Altman, 1972) A haunting, and mildly disturbing look into madness. Altman’s gray and gritty motif makes this film an eerie dreaminess. But, much of this film feels a bit too on the nose. There are ventures into different aspects of the main character’s (Susannah York) madness, but nothing that truly ponders the dark emotional corners of her madness. We are given someone who has gone crazy, scenarios that lead up to her madness, but the connection of those events to her madness don’t create sparks.

Seven Dead in The Cat’s Eye (Margheriti, 1973) One of the sillier giallos I’ve ever seen. It presents a few supernatural elements that never go anywhere, it is incredibly hammy, even for a giallo, Serge Gainsbourg is dubbed in the worst Scottish accent you’ll ever hear, Jane Birkin always looks cold, and there is a guy in a gorilla suit that we are to believe is an orangutan. With all that being considered it makes for a fun and light film. Margheriti is loose and light with the sex, and it has a classic horror movie nostalgia with its gothic setting.

Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue (Monument, 2009) One of the better horror documentaries I’ve seen, but the great films of the 40’s particularly those of Val Lewton are glazed over a bit in favor of focus on awful films of the 50’s and 80’s.

Paranormal Activity 3 (Joost, Schulman, 2011) I am still having a hard time gauging how I feel about this film. It more or less is the same film as the first two, and again, it does some things well, and some things poorly. What it does well is creating tension with the static wide shots, keeping the viewer at attention, waiting to see something. Will we see a subtle movement? Will there be something abrupt and over the top? What it does poorly is relying so heavily on the cheap jump scare. And like I’ve said before it is one of the inherent downfalls to the found footage subgenre

To The Devil a Daughter (Sykes, 1976) Made during the height of the satanic cult trend, To The Devil a Daughter seems to lump all of the tropes together in one film. It has some overtly shocking imagery, confused ideas on exactly what a Satanic cult is (the supposed demon the cult worships apparently has nothing to do with Satan, but they keep calling it Satan. Oh, and it is a woman, and they keep referring to it as a man.) So, we end up with a shallow pool of silliness, but, and it’s a big BUT, Christopher Lee is so much fun to watch as the cold unforgiving cult leader, and we get to see a young Nastassja Kinski play an innocent (or not so innocent) nun. It’s worth a look.

Skip It

Bloodlust Zombies (Lantz, 2011) By rule I don’t watch movies starring porn stars that aren’t porn. But, I was in the mood for something light and short, and this film was certainly both. Unfortunately it sucks. To say that it feels like it was written and directed by an ignorant 13 year old boy would be an understatement.

The Human Centipede (Six, 2009) I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a film where the protagonists are dumber than this film. It might not be so bad if the film had somewhere to go with its premise, but, it is hindered by its adherence to an idea that it wants to shock the viewer rather than say something of any real interest. It’s a shallow, and intellectually pointless film.

The Rite (Hafstrom, 2011) Perhaps the most flawed of all horror subgenres is that of demonic possession. It is flawed in that it is not inclusive to nearly half the audience. If you are not a superstitious Christian, and the film doesn’t build anything beyond the broad and shallow fight between good and evil, and the crisis of faith, there is very little for the audience to relate too. Sure there is the visceral terror that comes with the idea that something can take over one’s body, but again, if the film is wallowing in the faith aspect that idea gets lost in the preachiness. The Rite, is almost like Christian propaganda, and it induces more eye-rolls than scares.

Grave Secrets (Borchers, 1989) This movie sucks. It is an absolute chore to get through. It is hokey, stupid, and a waste of time.

Justine Smith (11 viewings)

Total of 51 viewings

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Purchase

Spirits of the Dead (Roger Vadim, Louis Malle and Federico Fellini)

Fellini’s short, Toby Dammit, is rightfully hailed as not only the greatest film in this series but among his best work. It is inventive, disturbing and viscerally exciting. The film lampoons the media industry with delicious venom, while similarly reveling in the absurd imagery it creates. Dammit’s final act reminds me of something directly out of sports footage or that awesome video the F1 car driving through early morning paris in the 60s. The labyrinthian nature of the streets, as well as the thunderous sound of the motor create an edge-of-your-seat sense of impending doom. The other shorts are still good, at least compelling to watch. Vadim’s short is quite outlandish, borderline garish. He clearly has a perverse sense of humour, casting Peter Fonda in the role of the object of obsession of the deliciously French Jane Fonda. The film appeals to my sensibilities towards camp and extremes. I wouldn’t call it great, but it’s certainly serviceable. Malle’s is probably the weakest of the three, packing in far too much in a short running time. The pacing is extremely uneven, and it ultimately feels unfocused. Still worthwhile for the beautiful people

Don’t Deliver us from Evil (Joel Seria, 1971)

Quite possible my favourite film I’ve seen for this horror race, Don’t Deliver us From Evil basically speaks to all of my favourite cinematic conventions and motifs. The story of a close friendship between two teenage girls who go to the same Catholic boarding school and live just a couple of miles apart, in their obsessive devotion for each other they renounce Jesus Christ and perform a ceremony to become brides of Satan. The film is quite lighthearted and playful, but surrealistic imagery and psychological detachment make for an unbalanced film reality. The film seems to speak for why we both adore and fear teenage girls, from their awful self-centeredness, coy games and physical perfection. Their most cruel and exciting games involve teasing local men. The men are often quite a bit older, often dumb and dull (at least one is obviously a little slow). They tease and tease and tease, pushing the situation as far as they can, until the men can no longer resist. The girls are well aware of sex and sexuality, especially how powerful their own appeal is, but the moment a man touches them they can’t seem to stand it, fighting them off with all their power, screaming, punching, pulling. It’s an interesting contrast. The film is rather beautifully made as well, very much a late 60s and early 70s aesthetic but with a nice amount of grace. Jeanne Goupil, who plays one of the girls, is amaaaazzzing. Totally recommended.

Rental

Blood and Black Lace (Mario Bava, 1964)

Possibly Bava’s best looking film: The lighting, the compositions, the women all make for a singular stylistic vision. I don’t know if it amounts to much suspense or anxiety but it doesn’t REALLY matter in the end. I also like that it’s set in a fashion house type thing.

Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925)

The filmmaking itself is a little weak but Chaney makes the film more than worthwhile worthwhile. I still like certain sequences like the opening of all the glowing ballerinas searching for the phantom. Still, the film rests on the weight of dread and sadness embodied by the mysterious phantom.

West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928)

This is a great film, except for the fact that it’s REALLY REALLY racist. The film is set in Africa where the tribespeople are described as “cannibals” and are generally meant to be the source of horror and ridicule. Otherwise, the film is extremely atmospheric and beautifully cast. Lon Chaney is famous as the “man of a thousand faces”, but that titles undermines the totality of his physical transformations. In West of Zanzibar, he plays a circus magician who suffers a horrible accident which leaves him paralysed from the waist down, throughout most of the running length he is known simply as “dead legs”. Dragging his mostly useless body around, his mangled body comes to mirror his increasingly twisted soul. In his quest to avenge the man who crippled him, he sets upon himself to destroy the life of the man’s daughter. He brings her to Africa (the most depraved of depraved continents, or didn’t you know?), has her raised in a house of ill-repute where as soon as she is able she is forced into prostitution. In a guise to save her from this life, he sends someone who claims to have found her father. Things only get worse from her as she moves deeper into the depths of the jungle and hell. I have already seen an adaptation of the play Kongo (title name of the 1932 film) and this one is far more seedy. The other film is a bit more developed but lacks the punch and pathos that Chaney & company bring to the screen.

Brain Dead (Adam Simon, 1989)

A wonderful movie to watch with friends, this is an all out crazy fest. First and foremost it has Bill Pullman and Bill Paxton, it has a bunch of brains in jars, and dreams within dreams within dreams, etc. etc. The production designer is also none other than Catherine Hardwick, yes director of Twilight and Red Riding Hood. Paxton totally outshines Pullman in every conceivable way but it’s totally expected. It’s actually eerie at times though the narrative’s convulusion is a bit too much, and really lessens the film’s power. Still, BILL FUCKING PAXTON.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (John S. Robertson, 1920)

A fairly good adaptation of the story, John Barrymore is a great lead. The story is rather pithy unfortunately, the Mamoulian one stands apart as the adaptation to raise above the moralistic underpinnings. The film stands on the minute differences in appearance between Jekyll and Hyde, they exist certainly ( a few grotesque notes like Hyde’s misshapen head covered with greasy and sparse hair) but the general features of the face are not too different until quite late in the film. The Nosferatu claws being the most monstrous sign of his inhumanity. It is very much a performance piece and the film doesn’t stand too much above that. I will single out the inclusion of Nita Naldi as the Italian dancer, solely because of her uniquely modern beauty. She doesn’t have that doe look that so many other actresses of the era did, perhaps because she is more distinctly “ethnic”, refreshing in the white-washed world of classic Hollywood. There is also an interesting sequence with a spider like alien creeping about Jekyll’s bedroom, I am not sure if it is “good” but it’s certainly … interesting. Barrymore is also kinda really handsome.

Candyman (Bernard Rose, 1992)

I don’t think the film lives up to it’s promise but remains a smart and invigorating. It is loaded with political energy though perhaps remains a bit too ambiguous to make any strong message. The film’s locale, score and “villain” makes for an unusual entry in the genre. Madsen’s “noble” quest brings her on a road to ruin and her upper middle class visionary ideas are all but destroyed by experience investigating the urban legend of the Candyman. Tony Todd is incredible and is a large force in the creation of the multi-dimension atmosphere of attraction and repulsion.

Skip-it

Son of Dracula (Robert Siodmak)

Basically too silly and slight to recommend. It could maybe scare a child, but generally lacks in basic storytelling elements to make it worthwhile for anyone else. It seems a bit ridiculous at this point to outline so specifically the “rules” for vampires, especially as this film doesn’t really depart in any way from the classic formula. The casting of Dracula is awful, some mid-west style actor with no sex or fright appeal. Not for an instant is he believable as a European. The film also relies too heavily on special effects, which are not only primitive (for the most part) but ineffectually employed. The film does have some moody cinematography though, I can’t say it’s an entire waste of space. Very dreamy, noir-like and well, dark?

The Grudge 2 (Takashi Shimizu, 2006)

whoa, one of the worst films i’ve seen in a while. it just made no sense, not an ounce of scary and was so badly acted. Worse than Ju-on and i hate Ju-On.

Orphan (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2009)

I had little interest in seeing this film until I actually heard what the twist was, that revelation was enough to pique my interest and let me see the film. With that knowledge in mind a lot of the goings on in the film are actually quite eerie, the reveal suggesting an ultimately nightmarish scenario. With any kind of fantasy oriented film, and horror is without a doubt very much ingrained in fantasy, the absurdity of the premise is not nearly as important as the execution. The opening scenes of this film are actually quite effective, beginning with an incredibly disturbing dream sequence. The middle and latter half fall apart because they fixate too much on physical realities and not enough on psychological. One only has to look at films like Sleepaway Camp or the Sixth Sense to see a twist done right. This film meanders far too much, and loses sight of what makes the opening successful. It quickly becomes redundant and instead of building on dramatic irony, in a way Hitchcock might using an audience’s knowledge of events as a means of creating suspense this might have been effective but the film builds on insignificant moments and criminality rather than shock or dread. The absurdity of the central “romantic” relationship might ultimately be the cause of error, the absurdity of the union and the treatment of each other is too dysfunctional to be believed. This is an error in both writing and performance, the film does not leave enough ambiguity in the character interactions as a whole fail to ring true. This creates too much disbelief and Esther’s presence does not serve as a strong enough catalyst, or perhaps is too strong… basically, the whole balance is completely off-kilter and the film fails. There are also just so many scenes that don’t work. Isabelle Fuhrman is great though.

Check out the results from week 4

The latest list in sound of sights month long look at the greatest horror films ever is taking a different look on the horror genre. There is a very narrow line that divides finding something funny and scary, which is exactly the sort of film this list is celebrating. As a genre there is two ways you can address the comedy horror. The first and the much more popular route is comedy about horror, these films rarely attempt to attain any qualities other than a comedic jibe at the genre. If you were to pick one classic example it would be Young Frankenstein – a film that satirises early horror and Frankenstein in what is close to comedy perfection (the Gene Wilder effect). The contemporary take on the genre has given the world some of the worst films of recent times in the Scary Movie franchise and its brood of mutant off-shoots.

The second angle to the comedy horror sub-genre is more keeping to the genre’s intentions; films that work within the framework of any given sub-genre whilst being funny too. I would say the pre-requisite for these films is for them to be as funny as they are scary, but as any genre buff will attest, there are more ways for a horror film to be effective than through fear alone. I would say that these films would be the perfect entry points for people new to horror but some of these titles are very explicitly violent. For a while one of them had the title of “the goriest film ever made”, whether that is still true today I’m not sure.

28 – Critters

Far from a classic, Critters sees a Kansas farm attacked by a hoard of hungry flesh-eating aliens with razor sharp teeth and an attitude to match. The family who inhabit a nearby farm must seek the help of a local drunk and his bounty hunting friends to save the day. These rotund balls with teeth view everything with new eyes which results in the aliens offing themselves in varied and stupid ways, the real comedy, however, comes from their design and how they navigate the environment. The critters bounce around the environment like the huge balls they are, an interesting juxtaposition when you consider these harmless looking balls of hair want to eat everything, houses and people alike. Also, the inter-galactic bounty hunters searching for the critters blow everything up with their huge cannons like a Terminator which an even thinner grasp on reality.

27 – Fright Night

I’ll come right out and say it; I honestly preferred the remake. While more of a straight horror than its parent, it was impossible not to be won over by Colin Farrell’s manipulative and animalistic vampire. Nevertheless the 1985 is a vital entry of the comedy/horror hybrid genre. A point that deserves mentioning about fright night is just how of its time it is; Tom Holland’s movie is one of the most quintessentially 1980s movies you could ever hope to see. It is a decade where things that play with popular culture date the least kindly. As a film though, Holland paid homage to one of the greatest suspense films of all time in Rear Window, only with added vampires and a hearty amount of camp excess. More memorable than any of this is the most enduring image of my childhood, that iconic vampire smile.

26 – Wild Zero

Chances are you won’t have heard of Wild Zero. Japanese garage/noise rock band Guitar Wolf star in this Jap-curio. Ace is a huge fan of Guitar Wolf and follows their example, living his life as they do, even if he is a bit of a loser, a story beat that informs the development of the story. While this is happening a race of aliens unleashes a terror on earth that turns man into army of zombies, naturally it’s up to Guitar Wolf to save the day. Wild Zero has amateur actors and practical effects that would look dated in the 80s. It is ultimately nothing more than a transparent vehicle for the band, yet there is something there, hidden away. The stupidity of the survivors, the ways in which the zombified retain their personality as well the inventive ways the zombies are killed collaborate to make an endlessly fun watch. Whether that was the intended result remains to be seen.

25 – The Happiness Of The Katakuri’s

Takashi Miike is one of the strangest and most prolific Japanese auteurs working today, no films attests to his eccentricity greater than The Happiness Of the Katakuri’s, a remake (of sorts) of Kim Jee-Woon’s directorial debut the Quiet Family. The premise for that film followed a family moving to the countryside away from the bustle of the big city to run a hotel only for the customers to die in a range of mysterious ways. Miike has taken that concept and turned into a musical with zombies, Claymation and deaths that tread closer to slapstick than anything. A sumo wrestler and his young girlfriend visit the hotel, the pair are having sex (with the wrestler on top) only for him to have a heart attack and die suffocating his girlfriend underneath his heft. Far more comedy than horror, Happiness Of The Katakuri’s is included in this because of the horror iconography being played alongside that of Gone with the Wind. It might be the most playful entry into it the last, but when its one of Miike’s best films it’s more than deserving of its place.

24 – Tokyo Zombie

Fujio (Tadanobu Asano) and Mitsuo (Sho Aikawa) spend their free time wrestling. Their boss interrupts one day and starts yelling at them. After a heart attack, they dump his body on Black Fuji, a mountain of trash that contains everything, from everyday trash to bodies. The chemicals in the mountain cause the dead to rise, and now Tokyo has some real problems. It’s a simple film which takes to the comedy angle of the genre, all you need to know about Tokyo Zombie with its J-punk rock soundtrack, is that it stars the finest living Japanese actor in Tadanobu Asano with an afro, wrestling zombies. That ticks both boxes and then some as far as I’m concerned.

23 – Slither

James Gunn’s breakthrough Slither and its shotgun approach to the genre is a work of immense affection. Slither sees an alien life-form crash-landing on earth, infecting Michael Rooker turning him into a giant slug creature who then turns everybody else in town into zombies through small slug’s entering the mouth. With plot points and references ranging from the creature feature and body horror to the zombie film, there’s plenty of splatter and slime to share around. The locals might be charactertures, but the way in which they struggle and fail to come to terms with the chaos brings up plenty of laughs. Also, Slither is one of the few films that successfully adopt the gore as humour ideal; when gore and splatter becomes so excessive the only way to react is to laugh.

22 – Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon

The slasher has a slew of genre films that point out and make fun of the genre conventions, very few of which are as clever as this. Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon takes place in a world where Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Freddie Krueger are not the work of fiction, but real. Allowing a camera crew to follow him Leslie Vernon shares the reality of the serial killer, the tricks of the trade and what is psychically and mentally required to be a masked murderer. There are some memorable gags and one liners, pointing out the predictability of the behaviour patterns of the slasher victims. Best of all, the way it humanises and makes a likeable person out of Leslie before the documentary makers turn the cameras off and it mutates into a straight slasher for the final run in, makes for a special film.

21 – Fearless Vampire Killers

When people think of Roman Polanski, they think of Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown and the multiple tragedies of his personal life. The last thing they think of is Fearless Vampire Killers. For such a film to be disregarded is truly is a shame because there is a lot of merit here, with the pale vistas, desolate landscapes and a unique take on the myths of the vampire. The titular vampire hunters are discovering the vampire through trial and error, they also aren’t quite as fearless as the title suggests, and giving the horror angles a relatable spin. Unlike many of the other entries on this list, FVK puts the comedy before the horror with pratfalls and witty lines at plenty, that’s not to say the horror isn’t there it’s just confined to certain scenes. First and foremost, Fearless Vampire Killers is very funny. A standout is the scene in which one of our vampire hunters tries to use a crucifix on a vampire for it not to work because he is Jewish.

20 – Spider BABY, or The Maddest Story Ever Told

Bold film making from the late 60s, not only does it include a family of mentally damaged adults there is also lines to be drawn between this and Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There’s a scene towards the end of Spider Baby that begs the question that the similarity isn’t coincidental but much more direct. These damaged adults behave like children and have murderous tendencies and are looked after by Lon Chaney Jr. (Bruno). Their childlike behaviour makes for some sweet moments and there’s a nice recurring sight gag that develops a darker edge. Spider Baby presents a unique play on the popular horror trope of paedophobia, young adults with the behaviour pattern of small children seeking to kill their house guests. The meaning behind the name provides some great horror shenanigans too.

19 – The Frighteners

Long before the over bloated cinematic odysseys that were the Lord of the Rings and King Kong, Peter Jackson was a highly accomplished maker of genre films; this being the first of two entries. Michael J. Foxx puts in a career high performance as the anti-hero of the piece in Frank Bannister who abuses his ability to see the dead to con people out of money with his impromptu “exorcisms”. That is until the mystery behind him being able to see ghosts comes back to haunt his life and unsparingly kill off people the town. The Frighteners is a comedy action film just as much as it is a horror, with themes of the ghost story and slasher recurring regularly. The star and source of all the best jokes is one of the icons of the B-Movie in Jeffrey Combs as the manic FBI agent Milton Dammers.

18 – Hot Fuzz

Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frosts’ second big screen adaptation and the second instalment of the Blood and Ice-cream trilogy – Hot Fuzz. At face value, this film is a loving homage to action police films and television shows of the 70’s and 80’s, the reason that it is included into this list is that it is also a slasher. The deaths that are happening around the small English village are fresh from a slasher film, just as bloodily as any entry on the list, including a gargoyle being pushed from a church roof onto someone’s head. As ever with anything these three writers are involved in, there is a constant barrage of jokes poking fun at a variety of things from and not exclusive to popular culture, the sleepy small town and how different the police force is compared to the romanticised version.

17 – Versus

Ryuhei Kitamura has had a mixed career to date, from Midnight Meat Train and the ill-judged Godzilla: Final Wars to the two “sexy teenage ninja” movies in Azumi and Sky High, the highlight of his career so far, though, is his breakout film, Versus. A convoluted story, messily told, Versus opens with a statement about how there are 666 portals that connect this world to the other side. These are concealed from all human beings. Somewhere in Japan is the 444th portal… the forest of resurrection. A battle of good versus evil ensues with another entry into that elusive group of films that successfully adopt the gore as humour ideal. A scene in which a zombie uses his limbs like spider legs has all his limbs chopped off by the hero, yet he doesn’t die he continues to flop about on the floor alive. Versus is over the top in every conceivable way, enjoyably so.

16 – Zombieland

The breakthrough for perennial cinema-nerd Jessie Eisenberg and director Ruben Fleischer is Zombieland. Merging together the road trip genre and the zombie film is another unique take on the zombie sub-genre. If anything has become apparent through writing this list, it’s the amount of comedy takes on the zombie. While the film does nothing particular bold for a piece of genre cinema other than the inclusion of the brilliant Woody Harrelson and includes everybody’s least favourite zombies (the running ones). On the other hand, as a comedy it stands head and shoulders above the competition for three reasons, the first is thanks to the running gag of zombie kill of the week (won by an elderly woman dropping a piano on a zombie). Second is Bill Murray, I don’t want to mention that any further for fear of running one of the best cameo’s I’ve seen for years. Lastly is the running gag of visualised rules to survive the apocalypse. It might favour the comedy over the horror, but when you have so much going for you on that angle there’s plenty there that make Zombieland such a firm fan favourite.

15 -Dog Soldiers

Neil Marshall is one of the select few British directors who has made horror films that are worthy of your time, the other being the magnificent (the) Descent. Dog Soldiers follows a troop of soldiers who are on training movements through woods in deepest darkest Scotland only for them to be set upon by wolves. They take refuge in a nearby house only to be overwhelmed in the night by scores of werewolves. Admittedly the werewolves do look a bit cheap, but the concept and the set-pieces are all nervy, jumpy and relatable to the iconic archetypes of the genre. Unlike some entries, the humour is always organic and straight. The actors aren’t playing for laughs; the dialogue is natural and sardonic which allows for some dark moments of comic relief.

14 – Rare Exports

YouTube hit turned movie, Rare Exports is about a boy called Pietari who believes in the magic of Santa Claus. Don’t be mistaken though as this isn’t the same Santa who brings you presents, this couldn’t be further away from the coca cola image, Pietari believes in the Finnish version. In Finnish folklore Santa does some brutal things to bad children, much worse than a lump of coal. Nearby up a hill there is a camp of American workers who are digging something up, something big. They are on an excavation to retrieve Santa, and when they finally do get him he is coming for you. While not a comedy per se, the inclusion of Santa as a figure of horror provides memorable and most importantly funny dialogue. It’s another example where the ludicrous is played straight, that alone provides some well-placed laughs.

13 – Tremors

Whenever I want to watch a film late on a Saturday night, Tremors always figures somewhere in there with it’s perfectly pitch mix of 1950’s creature feature and invasion scenario horror. The “graboid’s” are one of those horror monsters who you don’t see for long stretches but the threat of their presence is always there lingering away. It’s a hopeless situation for these people, one made worse by them being surrounded by sand the very same environment what the mysterious creature dominates at the top of the food chain. A concept sold by the friendship between a young Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward, constantly goading each other and challenging each other despite the fact that these huge monsters stalk their every movement. Tremors is one of those rare horror films that is both good and can be watched by the whole family.

12 – Scream

Wes Craven is one of the genre kings and in Scream, one of his career defining pictures, metatextuality is king. Scream was the rebuttal to the state of the slasher in the mid-90s, a rebuttal that was presented through the medium of the slasher. Ignoring all the sequels which begged the question whether he was making bad films as a comment on the poor nature of the genre or whether the proceeding films just weren’t very good. The original sequel is the only film in the series that matters. In the film, a killer known as “ghost face” begins killing off teenagers, and as the body count begins rising, one girl and her friends find themselves contemplating the “Rules” of horror films as they find themselves living in a real-life one. While not an overtly jokey film, the laughs come from the situations which lovingly recreate genre clichés, pointing out how stupid such films are whilst falling into same pitfalls. This may ruin many films, but the thing which elevates Scream above the chaff is how successful it is as a genre film (both slasher and murder mystery) and a satire which shattering the fourth wall.

11 – Gremlins

Joe Dante is the king of horror for kids and there is no greater example than Gremlins, we’ll pretend its awful sequel doesn’t exist. The original sees the adorable mogwai Gizmo be fed after midnight and came into contact with water, the two things you should never do. Spitting out of Gizmo’s back come some nasty little monsters that destroy the town in sea of violence of chaos. This is a film that follows the most celebrated ideal of its not what you see but what you can imagine via these monsters scurrying around town, all you can hear is there manic laughter. It’s one of the only entries on this list where the balance between horror and comedy is about perfect, for every scene of manic energy there is a scene whose sole intention is to unsettle. My favourite scene, and by turn the one that scared me most as a kid is when Stripe jumps into the local public swimming pool, then at the other end of the spectrum, the town becomes silent as gremlin-kind watches Snow White.

10 -Night Of The Creeps

Following on from Fright Night, Night Of The Creeps directed by Fred Dekker is another quintessentially 80s movie. Dekker was also responsible for Monster Squad in 1987. Night of the Creeps and Slither have a lot in common, not just because of the homage that James Gunn paid by having slugs aliens diving down people’s throats to infect them with a zombie like state, they also both have a massive affection for the genre. The names of the characters express this perfectly; George Romero, Sam Raimi, John Carpenter and John Landis were referenced. Taking place on prom night, one of the infected who has been kept in cryogenic sleep since 1959 breaks free thanks to two nerdy students trying to impress a frat house which is in turn to impress a beautiful girl on campus. From this we are led into a zombie film turned slasher, admittedly the practical effects have dated badly, especially with the infected animals. It might have always been the intention to make people laugh through the inclusion of zombified household pets, but through the aging of these scenes the comedy value has risen exponentially. There is also a brilliant script, the basic plot might not be up to much, the dialogue however allows for a tender and sweet friendship between Jason Lively and Steve Marshall, as well as plenty of laughs and jump moments. Allow me to quote a line of dialogue delivered by Tom Atkins, “The good news is your dates are here. The bad news is… they’re dead.”

9- Bubba Ho Tep

Picture the scene for a second, the Elvis who died was look alike with a striking resemblance and JFK is still alive but because of political reasons his skin was dyed and he went into hiding, now picture Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis playing the roles. Based on a script by Joe R. Lansdale and Adapted for the screen by Phantasm director Don Coscarelli, we see the retirement home that JFK and Elvis live at besieged by a mummy feeding on the life energy of the elderly. The dark and desolate halls of the retirement home builds up a presence of malice and dread, and unlike certain other films, the mummy (the titular Bubba Ho-Tep) is rarely seen. The real high point of the film, alongside the audacious concept, is the dialogue which has a certain lo-fi Raimi quality; the characters are usually annoyed at the world and do something about it. Enter Elvis to kick ass and save the day.

8- Tucker And Dale Versus Evil

A play on the archetype of dangerous hillbillies is Tucker And Dale Versus Evil. A group of college students are heading to the Deep South for good times during the summer break, focusing more on the beer they have forgotten than the road they nearly crash into some locals. These very same locals are best friends and thoroughly nice guys Dale and Tucker. When they all meet in the nearby woods, where misunderstandings are played with to hilarious and grisly effects. The students believe the hillbillies to be pure evil and up to nefarious, murderous ends and Dale and Tucker believe the kids are part of some suicide cult. Playing within the rules of the genre results in a constant barrage of laughs, there’s also a stellar reference to Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

7- Return Of The Living Dead

The first in a franchise of punk rock zombie films, return of the living dead sees the zombie mass at their most invulnerable. Centred on a cemetery, we see the zombies released into the world by a boss showing off, essentially, to a new recruit which leads to a gas being emitted that brings anything that was dead back to life. Anything, there’s a small dissected model of a dog which comes back to life even though it’s been cut in two. As many zombie films have stated before, how do you kill that which isn’t alive? Return Of The Living Dead answers that question simply, you can’t kill zombies. You can destroy the brain; cut off all their limbs, anything, whatever you do to them they will always draw breath. As terrifying a concept as that is, it also brings about many great set-pieces and laugh out loud moments. The real stars though are there zombies, Tar-Man included, there are some great set pieces as the zombies retain their personality and intellect. The array of inventive ways that the zombie horde sucker people in with varies. Whether they dress up and set the scene for the authorities before jumping them or they simply state “send more paramedics”, down the intercom (a line which was used for a now defunct zombie thrash punk band). As funny as the film is, it’s never anything less than a grimy and authentic zombie picture, right down to the token bleak ending.

6- American Werewolf In London

Alongside Joe Dante’s The Howling, the John Landis directed American Werewolf In London stands at the top of pile for films with the most impressive werewolf transformations, both films present the mutation akin to something fresh out of a body horror. Two American students visit England, going to the wrong pub, aptly titled the slaughtered lamb they are dragged into a world of werewolves. A unique spin it is too, the person who infected David with a werewolf must be killed for the curse to be lifted, and a werewolf is haunted by the people they killed. The connection between the living and the afterlife and the tourist dynamic make American Werewolf in London a fish out water comedy, but more importantly – one of the greatest werewolf films ever made.

5- Attack The Block

An incredibly divisive film in its own country, the true definition of a love/hate film thanks to the nature of the kids featured. First time director and British TV comedy legend Joe Cornish made Attack the Block as an ode to all those horror films that he couldn’t get into as a kid. The result sees an inner city London block of flats attacked by what looks like a cross between a gorilla and a dog with fur blacker than the nights sky and teeth that glow blue. It’s an inspired monster design that fits the architecture of the British inner city perfectly. The script is equal parts natural (thanks to the director getting assistance from the young actors, so the dialogue would be authentic) and dry sarcastic references to popular culture. Playing on the strengths of the locale and the acting talent, Cornish developed a film that was the important shot of adrenaline into British genre cinema whilst capturing the mood of the city-centric alien invasion movie.

4- Re-Animator

Herbert West is a scientist who is investigating the possibility of bringing dead flesh back to life, after brutally killing his senior in the opening scenes (his eyes explode), he moves in with a young student in America to investigate the effects on humans. Made abundantly clear in the opening sequence, this is an excessively gory film, some of which is hard to stomach (the aforementioned exploding eyes, cutting someone’s head off with a spade) and other sequences which are so over the top it becomes slapstick. Just as was the case with The Frighteners, this attains greatness thanks to the performance of Jeffrey Combs. A brilliant character actor who excels with grotesques and weirdo’s and there is nobody more grotesque or weird than Herbert West. A man obsessed with work like the eponymous Dr. Frankenstein and the Lovecraft story it was based on, he has no idea how to deal with people in a grotesque way Re-Animator is fish out of water comedy. Yuzna’s film is also one of the overlords of comedic gore; you need look no further than the scenes with the severed head to illustrate this point.

3- Braindead

The second entry for a Peter Jackson film after the frighteners is Braindead (or to go by it’s more common name Dead Alive). Made in his native New Zealand, we see another zombie outbreak this time confined to a house after a woman his bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey. A bite from the animal sees people infected with a zombie like state. The woman’s son Lionel (played energetically by Timothy Balme) tries to prevent the outbreak spreading by knocking out the few zombies he’s kept in his basement with sedatives. He doesn’t just have to stop the zombies eating him; he also has to stop the zombies having sex. He can’t stop them all the time and despite his best efforts a zombie baby is born, a baby who stars in some of the films funniest scenes. Better than any zombie baby though is the scene with the kung Fu priest. As a genre piece, Braindead is rife with seemingly endless gore; there are gallons of the red stuff. Whether it is still true today, I am not sure, but once upon a time this film was labelled the goriest film ever made. This is thanks to one of the climactic scenes in which Lionel kills a room full of the living dead with a lawnmower. It’s long overdue for Jackson to head back to his roots and make another bloody disgusting horror film. I would rather see another one of those than another one of his over bloated epics.

2-Evil Dead 2

In the UK, the Evil Dead was one of the most controversial films of the 1980’s, a lead name in the notorious collection of ‘video nasties’. Six years later the same film was remade with a much stronger focus on comedy than the red stuff which garnered its predecessor with such controversy. With Evil Dead 2, Sam Raimi found his niche and built upon it, here the mastery with the camera and sound effects were housed within a film where Raimi’s brother Ted and Bruce Campbell could run free with their manic energy. Campbell’s psychical presence and the way he threw himself around the room, fighting himself, with a straight face made him a star of the B-movie and horror world. Then there is the one liner, Bruce Campbell has such a command of the witty one liner it’s almost as if they were invented for him.

1- Shaun Of The Dead

Mockingly labelled as a rom-zom-com on release, Shaun of the dead is one of the very few romantic comedies that takes place with the backing of the zombie apocalypse. The romantic comedy aspect of Wright/Pegg and Frost’s big cinema hit might not be fresh or new in any way other than the pathetic nature of the antagonist yet it still provides laughs for the simple reason that these people act how we do behind closed doors. It also helps that Nick Frosts character Ed has furiously filthy mouth. The zombie side of things is a love story to the work of Romero, a fact that the king of zombie-kind acknowledged by giving Edgar Wright and Shaun Pegg cameo’s in the underwhelming Land of the Dead. Story beats can be followed from the entire original dead trilogy – the media coverage from night and dawn, even the same lines are pitched from the news media. The tower block is there from Dawn Of The Dead. The isolation in a single location is there, (from each entry) only for the zombie mass to invade thanks to the stupidity of one of the survivors. As far as zombie homages go, Shaun Of The Dead is just about note perfect.

Honorary mentions or films I didn’t get around to seeing:

Director of the Re-Animator trilogy Brian Yuzna’s debut – Society, as well as the two follow ups to Re-Animator (Bride Of & Beyond). As also mentioned in the Night Of The Creeps run down, its director Fred Dekker also made Monster Squad, which I didn’t have the time to re-watch. If memory serves me correctly, it would fit perfectly into the list in the same class of horror films as Critters, Tremors and Gremlins. Bad Taste, Satan’s Little Helper, Undead, Murder Party and Feast are some of those I didn’t see either. Rubber could be classified in this group too, but as surreal the concept is, the delusions of grandeur result in a film that takes itself too seriously. The same goes for Black Sheep, it most definitely fits within the mould and has some decent zombie and body horror beats backed up by fantastic practical effects from WETA, yet its let down by being guilty of having more style than substance.

- Rob Simpson

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) / Day of Wrath (1943)

The original king of despair, Carl Dreyer didn’t just gravitate toward miserable material, he embraced it with a technique so perfected, it felt predestined. In The Passion of Joan of Arc, a film consisting almost solely of close-ups, Dreyer tightens his lens on Maria Falconetti’s delicate face. As the martyr charged with heresy, the actress delivers a silent performance that is pure emotion. Day of Wrath depicts a conflicting scenario between love and faith–the doomed affair between an elderly priest’s second wife and his son set to the backdrop of actual witch hunts in 17th century Denmark. If Passion is Dreyer’s most clinical film, Wrath is his most lyrical. Both exhibit textured lessons in how flawed human beings are unable to retain faith in the face of oppression.

Cries and Whispers (1972)

Ingmar Bergman excelled at sparse chamber dramas, but perhaps no other film in his oeuvre debilitates its viewer more than his most striking color film, Cries and Whispers. Described by the director as “an exploration of the soul,” the film’s late 18th century story involves a cancer stricken woman being visited by her two cruel sisters, and in turn, seeking comfort from her bedside housemaid. Awash in saturated reds contrasted by pearly whites, this is the film Bergman had been reaching for his entire career, a culmination of the formalist elements of his style–constrictive mise-en-scene, fusion of past and present timelines, and performances so naked that they become emotionally assaultive. What results is a suffocating melodrama where the agonizing throes of death are nothing less than a plea from the dying to the living to make good on the gift of life.

Eraserhead (1977)

David Lynch’s first film is either a sickening allegory of fatherhood or just a grating geek show. Whichever, his surrealist take on the miracle of life leaves much for the imagination. Jack Nance is the not so boastful father, an industrial drone in a post-apocalyptic future who loses all hope for a better life after his wife gives birth to a mutant baby and leaves him to raise it. With the father’s suicidal thoughts and fanciful hallucinations, and the child’s awful wails wringing through his ears into the night, you don’t know whether to chuckle or shriek.

Come and See (1985)

In this near apocalyptic vision of the Nazi genocide in Belorussia in World War II, director Elim Klimov crafts a dizzying aural and visual landscape for one child Partisan’s unbearable loss of innocence. Unforgivable terrain, whirling bullets, fire raids, mass graves, and zealous Nazi death squads overwhelm the character and the audience. In a Kubrickian touch, Klimov has his actors stare directly into the camera, a decision that actually strips the film of any artifice by deliberately involving the viewer, asking he or she to mourn the empty looks of human beings stripped of their souls.

In a Glass Cage (1986)

It’s practically plotted and paced like a horror film, and on the surface, Agusti Villaronga’s sickening morality play offers the atmospheric dread and cinematographic decay of some of the masters of suspense, but In a Glass Cage‘s real history casts a shadow longer than any fictional nightmare. The showdown between a former Nazi pedophile confined to an iron lung after a suicide attempt and his nurse, a former victim who has returned for his revenge, carries an emotional weight uncharacteristic of exploitation cinema. The film doesn’t force us to sympathize with a child murderer or the man who takes up his mantle to punish him, it merely presents a scenario where a culture of inhumanity still lingers and the youngest (and most innocent) among us may not just be collateral damage but heirs to the sins of the past.

The Seventh Continent (1989) / Cache (2006)

Austrian director Michael Haneke has had plenty of sick fun in films like Funny Games, but his manipulative propensity is most present at the start of his career as well as its height. Like a twisted anthropologist, Haneke is at his best when he’s making the bourgeois self destruct. In The Seventh Continent, he takes a literal approach, chronicling one family’s extrication from society’s material hold. In Cache, a family is terrorized by innocuous video tapes of surveillance footage of their home. The former is an experiment in the sadistic punishment of the complacent middle class; the latter is a film that builds to an end that never comes. Notable though is Haneke’s interest in how the privileged carelessly abuse their children in ways deliberate and inadvertent.

Dancer in the Dark (2000)

Danish provocateur Lars Von Trier has no qualms about degrading his characters. In Dancer in the Dark, Icelandic singer Bjork is an unusual yet uncanny choice for the role of Selma, a Czech immigrant living in Washington in the 60′s, whose naivete puts her in a precarious situation that leads her to be wrongfully accused of murder. Trier takes pleasure in his obvious contrast between Selma’s cheery musical fantasies and the stark injustices of the real world–notably the American legal system–reminding the audience that there is no applause and no bows after the final curtain draws.

Irreversible (2002)

In the backwards timeline of Gasper Noe’s unforgettable film, the story ends, as most stories are expected to, at the happy part. This only tempers the tragedy of a woman’s horrible rape and her boyfriend’s ill advised revenge with a sickening air of regret, more in tune with the actualities of life than with manufactured plots. The opening, where the vengeful boyfriend metaphorically and literally spirals down into a crimson labyrinth of sex and degradation, as the camera floats behind him like a specter, is as harrowing as it is nauseating.

Twentynine Palms (2002)

French director Bruno Dumont’s deceptively sly shocker is light on plot, dialogue, convincing performances, and even believable subtext, but not on atmosphere, provided by the ample sun drenched vistas of the Southern California desert, a shadowless cover for the film’s two boorish characters: David, a clueless magazine photographer, and Katia, his feckless model girlfriend. Though neither speaks the other’s language, they both communicate in French, a compromise that does nothing to bridge the multitude of barriers between them, which extend far beyond language. This is all foreplay for Dumont’s twisted machine, which, much like the couple’s copious amounts of sex, massages the viewer for a final demoralizing act of violence whose abrupt jolt releases them from the clutches of two dolts who deserve each other.

The Theatre Bizarre

Directors:

Douglas Buck (segment The Accident)

Buddy Giovinazzo (segment I Love You)

David Gregory (segment Sweets)

Karim Hussain (segment Vision Stains)

Jeremy Kasten (framing segments)

Tom Savini (segment Wet Dreams)

Richard Stanley (segment The Mother Of Toads)

If you love horror and suffer from A.D.D. then you already agree that horror anthologies are a great way to pass the night. Films such as Creepshow, Twilight Zone: The Movie and Trick ‘r Treat have gained tremendous notoriety for their smorgasbord of terror and fast scares. The Theatre Bizarre may not be in the same league as these gems, but it’s an honourable attempt to satisfy a quick horror fix.

The film opens with a curious woman entering an abandoned theatre. Inside, she sees a human-sized puppet (Udo Kier) summoning her to the front of the stage. After she dutifully complies, the puppet begins his eerie marionette show, which introduces all six of the film’s bizarre tales.

Director Richard Stanley’s Mother of Toads follows the story of a couple travelling in the French Pyrenees, where they meet a seemingly frail old woman, who offers to share her town’s secrets. As a budding anthropologist, Martin (Shane Woodward) can’t pass up the opportunity, but his girlfriend Karina (Victoria Maurette) would rather spend the day at the spa. Their trusting nature would turn out to be their downfall after the old woman reveals her deadly amphibian alter-ego. Mother of Toads is a weak opener to the film. The story is uninspiring, the pace is slow and the protagonists are dull. And unless you’re terrified of toads, you will scarcely feel a chill.

Director Buddy Giovinazzo’s I Love You thankfully picks up the pace. A paranoid husband is devastated when his disillusioned wife tells him that she’s running off with another man. Desperate to hold onto her affections, he showers her with I love you’s and begs for another chance. But her mind is made up. After pity sex, she permanently severs the relationship by coldly recounting her frequent infidelities. Later, a knock at the door signals the arrival of her lover. As he watches them drive away at the window, the husband’s heartbreak quickly turns to hysteria. Did his wife and her lover really leave together or is that really blood on his hands? Giovinazzo’s excellent script is delightfully brought to life with the electrifying performances by lead actors Andre Hennicke and Suzan Anbeh. But this is a horror-anthology, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that this soap-opera – filled with drama, sex and betrayal – ends very badly for everyone.

Director Tom Savini’s Wet Dreams centres on Donnie, a cheating husband, who suffers from having violent nightmares against his innocent wife, Carla (played by scream queen Debbie Rochon). Despite regular meetings with his therapist (Savini in a cameo role), his dreams continue to get more torturous and out of control. But Carla isn’t so innocent after all, and when she has dreams of her own, things quickly go awry for Donnie. Wet Dreams is a dreadful story that sadly stalls the wonderful momentum created by I Love You.

Director Douglas Buck’s The Accident is an engaging featurette about a young girl who must confront the realities of death after she witnesses a dying motorist at the side of a road. Buck’s story has the child come to an epiphany after asking her mother a series of innocent but relevant questions in the car. The Accident plays like a gruesome fairy tale.

The squeamish should avoid Director Karim Hussain’s Vision Stains at all costs. A woman (Kaniehtiio Horn) kills unsuspecting homeless people for the purpose of stealing their memories and writing their biography. How she acquires their memory will shock many. Using a syringe, she extracts the fluid from their dead eye and injects it into her own. The chilling operation causes the girl to convulse uncontrollably as she sees their entire life flash before her. But curiosity gets the best of her after she extracts the fluid from a pregnant mother’s fetus, which has evil plans of its own. Vision Stains’ cringe-factor may be high with each succeeding eye puncture, but unfortunately its payoff isn’t nearly as penetrating.

Director David Gregory’s Sweets is a strange and perverse tale of a couple exploring their fetish of incorporating sugar and sex. During their happier days, Estelle (Lindsay Goranson) and Greg (Guildford Adams) gorged on cake, cookies and ice cream while in the heat of passion, but Estelle wants to break up and Greg can’t cope. He cries incessantly and when she can’t take it anymore, she takes him back…on one bitter condition. Sweets is a strange selection to close this anthology. Save for the hilarious performance by Adams, there’s nothing memorable about it – just empty calories.

Theatre Bizarre’s finale brings us back to the abandoned theatre, wherein our favourite puppet has one last twisted surprise for his female guest – a fitting conclusion for an inconsistent anthology.

Nigel Hamid

31 – Rosemary’s Baby

Directed by Roman Polanski

USA, 1968

Roman Polanski’s brilliant horror-thriller was nominated for two Oscars, winning Best Supporting Actress for Ruth Gordon. The director’s first American film, adapted from Ira Levin’s horror bestseller, is a spellbinding and twisted tale of Satanism and pregnancy. Supremely mounted, the film benefits from it’s strong atmosphere, apartment setting, eerie childlike score and polished production values by cinematographer William Fraker. The cast is brilliant, with Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes as the young couple playing opposite Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer, the elderly neighbors. There is ominous tension in the film from first frame to last – the climax makes for one of the greatest endings of all time. Rarely has a film displayed such an uncompromising portrait of betrayal as this one. Career or marriage – which would you choose?

30 – Eraserhead

Directed by David Lynch

USA, 1977

Filmed intermittently over the course of a five-year period, David Lynch’s radical feature debut mixes Gothic horror, a pounding score, surrealism and darkly expressionist mise-en-scène to create a bizarre and disturbing look into a man’s fear of parenthood. Or maybe not. Lynch claims that not one critic has come close to his own interpretation of his film. In 2004, the film was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Lynch has called it a “dream of dark and troubling things” and his “most spiritual movie.” First shown at Filmex 1977, the movie was not widely seen until 1978, when it ran for years as a midnight attraction at Greenwich Village’s Waverly Theatre. It is known, alongside El Topo, Pink Flamingos and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as one of the first true midnight movies.

29 – Black Swan

Directed by Darren Aronofsky

USA, 2010

In Black Swan, Aronofsky shows off his skill for synthesizing influences: Black Swan is partly inspired by Giallos, Polanski, Cronenberg, Perfect Blue and even Hitchcock. Aronofsky has made sense out of the incoherent plot line of the classic ballet, in the process conjuring memories of everything from The Red Shoes to All About Eve to Ingmar Bergman’s Persona and even Dario Argento’s Opera. At its bare bones this is really a tense drama about backstage anxiety in the performing arts, but Black Swan is also one of the greatest physiological thrillers ever made. There is a sense of dread that pervades the film, justifying its presence on my list. Much like The Wrestler, Aronofsky goes to great lengths to show in excruciating detail how much physical pain some artists are willing to inflict upon themselves in the pursuit of perfection. Natalie Portman gives the best performance of her career (so far), nearly in every frame of the movie, often in close-up, conveying a barrage of intense and complicated emotions: fear, confusion, excitement and so on. Cinematographer Matthew Libatique shoots with a mixture of documentary-style handheld and traditional set-ups, gorgeous visuals and deliberately jarring edits, and Aronofsky makes great use of a colour scheme featuring mostly black and white and the occasional deep, bleeding red. Composer Clint Mansell’s score is menacing and the intricate sound design heightens the horrific proceedings. The entire film builds to a third act that elevates the film to level of greatness, and solidifies Aronofsky as one of the best working filmmakers today.

28 – The Devil`s Backbone

Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Spain / Mexico, 2001

As director Guillermo del Toro explains, “It’s a very moving and very dark fable about war. And within its walls is contained a ghost story.” Backbone is a supernatural allegory set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. A multi-layered tale, following ten year-old Carlos in a remote orphanage which provides him refuge from the horror of war but leaves him vulnerable to the supernatural. Del Toro, working with cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, create a genuinely scary, exquisitely shot and eerie, unnerving mood that holds to the very end. In a nutshell, it’s a ghost story with soul.

27- The Thing

Directed by John Carpenter

Bill (son of Burt) Lancaster’s script ignores Howard Hawks’s original The Thing from Another World, and instead hews more closely to John W. Campbell’s short story Who Goes There. The Thing was John Carpenter’s first theatrical film for a major studio (Universal) but was a tremendous box office flop during its initial release. However, the film gained a largem faithful cult following over the years and many consider it one of the best entries into the genre of sci-fi horror. The Thing is a paranoid masterpiece, and that rare remake that surpasses the original. Carpenter keeps the creature hidden for much of the movie, but when we do see the beast, he and special effects wiz, Rob Bottin, don’t shy away from showing off some of the most ground-breaking and disturbing special FX and the most spectacular scenes of body horror ever put on screen. The Thing is now recognized as a nerve-shredding masterpiece of suspense, paranoia and outright, nihilistic terror. Ennio Morricone’s Carpenteresque synth score of simple drones and repetitive bass lines punctuates the picture, as does the touch of comedic dialogue uttered by a fabulous ensemble cast, led by the one and only Kurt Russell.

26- A Nightmare On Elm Street

Directed by Wes Craven

US, 1984

In both concept and execution, the first A Nightmare on Elm Street has a great deal more to offer than most slasher films. Wes Craven intended Nightmare to be an exploration of surreal horror as opposed to just another slice-and-dice slasher movie. Elm Street was New Line’s first genuine mainstream cinematic venture (after Alone In The Dark), and made the company a huge pile of money. The film was shot in 30 days at a cost of roughly $1.8 million, but it made back its figure and then some on opening weekend. Robert Englund based the physicality of Freddy on Klaus Kinski’s performance in Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979), making Freddy one of the most recognizable modern horror villains: vicious, but with a sense of humour as sharp as the blades on his gloves. Nightmare was both the feature debut and breakthrough for actor Johnny Depp, but the film acted more as a launch pad for its director, who despite having turned out two great pictures prior, became a household name. Craven masterfully disguises dreams as reality and vice versa, and the idea that injuries sustained in dreams also exist outside helps to further blur the already murky distinction between the two.

25 – Halloween

Directed by John Carpenter

US, 1978

A historical milestone that single-handedly shaped the future of the entire genre. This seminal horror flick actually gets better with age; it holds up with determination as an effective thriller that will always stand head and shoulders above the hundreds of imitators to come. Halloween had one hell of an influence on the entire film industry. You have to admire how Carpenter avoids explicit onscreen violence, and achieves a considerable power almost entirely through visual means, using its widescreen frame, expert hand-held camerawork, and terrifying foreground and background imagery.

24 – Black Christmas

Directed by Bob Clark

Canada, 1974

We never did find out who Billy was. Maybe it’s for the best, since they never made any sequels to Bob Clark’s seminal slasher film, which predates Carpenter’s Halloween by four years. Whereas Texas Chainsaw Massacre, released the same year, blends backwoods horror with the slasher formula, Black Christmas is widely considered the first proper slasher and is noted as one of the earliest films to present some of the sub-genre’s defining characteristics: a mysterious stalker, a set of adolescent or young-adult victims, a secluded location with little or no adult supervision, point-of-view camera shots representing the “killer’s perspective,” and graphic depictions of violence and murder. Like Carpenter, Clark avoids graphic bloodshed, focusing instead on suggestion and careful mise-en-scene and editing. Clark leads us through a labyrinth of red herrings and skillful handling of such plot devices as obscene phone calls from within the house. More importantly, unlike many of the slashers that followed, Black Christmas cannot easily be accused of misogyny; the violence against the female protagonists isn’t the picture’s raison d’etre. If there was ever a character from a slasher film to be chosen for a thesis on feminist work, it would have to be the film’s “final girl,” Jessica.

23- Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Valerie a týden divu)

Directed by Jaromil Jires

Czechoslovakia, 1970

Set in a vaguely-defined Transylvanian town sometime in the last century, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is a bizarre gothic fable of a young woman’s descent into womanhood. There is no clearly-defined story, but essentially the film works as a parable of menstruation. Directed and co-written by Jaromil Jires, a key member of the Czech New Wave, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is one long, erotically charged nightmare of sexuality and death. And yes, there are vampires. Think Alice in Wonderland meets Nosferatu, with stunning visuals and a remarkable score. Easily one of the most influential fantasies ever made. Schallerová (13 at the time) gives a tour-de-force performance.

22 – Death Proof

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

USA, 2007

Tarantino’s homage to the road-fury genre is really two movies in one, offering two manifestations of the same story: Two separate groups of beautiful women are stalked by a homicidal maniac who uses his “death proof” car (his weapon of choice) to terrorize and eventually kill his victims. Death Proof is essentially two slasher films, with the second half acting as a sequel, offering new, beautiful victims for the murderous Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) to menace.

As Tarantino clearly identifies in the film, the obvious reference points of Death Proof are such movies as Vanishing Point, Roadgames, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry and even Steven Spielberg’s Duel, but Proof is influenced by more than just vehicular horror. It’s a grim stalk and slash picture, and a blaring commentary of female empowerment. It’s also a small masterpiece, dredged up from a cinematic human encyclopedia. Toying with genre rules, Tarantino doesn’t attempt to follow the “grind-house” formula step by step and create a carbon-copy, instead taking a more ambitious approach. Replace the typical sharp edged blade with a car, and Death Proof is every bit a slasher film as Halloween, Final Destination and A Nightmare On Elm Street. Death Proof is a masterwork of film criticism, commenting upon genre and gender roles.

21 – Inland Empire

Directed by David Lynch

2006, USA

You either love or hate David Lynch. So to sum up Inland Empire, I will quote the Village Voice’s J. Hoberman: “It’s an experience. Either you give yourself over to it or you don’t. And if you do, don’t miss the end credits.” I am not even going to attempt to describe this mind fuck of a film in a brief capsule review, except to say that it is utterly brilliant, haunting, bewildering and totally unforgettable.

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20 -Repulsion

Directed by Roman Polanki

UK, 1969

Polanski’s masterpiece. This subtle horror film follows an isolated, sexually repressed, schizophrenic woman’s descent into madness, stunningly played by Catherine Deneuve, who gives her best performance ever at the age of 22. Polanksi’s determination to dismiss as much baggage to explain the proceedings only intensifies the pic. There are no explanations of Catherine Deneuve’s behaviour and more importantly, one cannot make any clear distinction between reality and hallucination. Watching the film, we are entirely situated inside the mind of a mad woman. The sense of isolation we feel through Deneauve’s performance is only heightened by Polanski’s astonishing control of the medium of film. His second of the “apartment trilogy” (Rosemary’s Baby and The Tenant being the other two), Repulsion remains his best. The apartment itself becomes a deranged character of sorts, as the very dimensions of the surroundings continue to change. Hallways extend to infinity, rooms enlarge or shrink and the floors slowly tilt. If you can’t trust the floorboards beneath your feet and the walls that surrounds you, you know you’ve got some serious issues.

19 – Let Me In

Directed by Matt Reeves

2010, US

The pressure in adapting a story or remaking a film is that the filmmakers already have an archetype to which everyone will compare their work to. Some people will be unwilling to give this film a chance, but those who do, will be thankful. Let Me In is a film that achieves the rare feat of remaining faithful to its source material while emerging as a highly accomplished work in its own right.

18 – Vampyr

Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer

Denmark, 1932

Vampyr ranks in many circles as one of the greatest horror films of all time, and I agree. Almost entirely devoid of the outright scares we’ve come to expect of the genre, it creates instead a sense of unease, even more than 75 years after its release. Vampyr is just one of many reasons why director Carl Theodor Dreyer is considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. With the help of Rudolph Maté’s luminous photography, Dreyer creates a poetic psychological horror film. The coffin carrying sequence and live-burial scene towards the end will forever be etched in your memory. An absolute masterpiece.

17 – Picnic at Hanging Rock

Directed by Peter Weir

Australia, 1975

Based on Joan Lindsay’s 1967 novel, which suggests the events actually occurred, Picnic at Hanging Rock relates the story of the disappearance of several schoolgirls and their teacher during a picnic to Hanging Rock on St. Valentine’s Day in 1900, and the subsequent effect on the local community.

Weir recalled that when the film was first screened in the United States, American audiences were disturbed by the fact that the mystery remained unsolved. The questions that linger after seeing Weir’s masterpiece reveal as much about you as they do about the film. Picnic at Hanging Rock creates a haunting atmosphere with tour-de-force imagery, score, pacing, direction and performance. Simply a masterpiece.

16 -The Last Wave

Directed by Peter Weir

Australia, 1977

I’ve been arguing all week long as to wether or not The Last Wave should be considered a horror film . Well I think it is. In fact the tagline reads, “The Occult Forces. The Ritual Murder. The Sinister Storms. The Prophetic Dreams. The Last Wave.”

The Last Wave is an especially evocative horror film, but a horror film nevertheless. Peter Weir follows up on his critically acclaimed masterpiece Picnic at Hanging Rock with this visually striking and totally engrossing surrealist psychological thriller. Weir’s film expresses a rather apocalyptic sensibility – a doomsday machine derived from native Aboriginal mythology. Absolutely brilliant.

15 – The Innocents

Directed by Jack Clayton

US, 1961

If you’ve never heard of it, don’t feel bad because most people haven’t – but just take my word that it deserves its rightful spot on any list of great horror movies. Co-written by Truman Capote, the movie has the most startling opening of any ghost film to date, with a creepy song written by Paul Dehn and Georges Auric sung over a black screen. The lush photography is by two time academy award winning cinematographer Freddie Francis, who would go on to direct his own features. The film also features an amazing performance of intense, neurotic seriousness by Deborah Kerr and two great child actors (including Martin Stephens, previously known as the lead child in Village of the Damned). Stylish, intelligent and creepy, The Innocents ends with one of the most brave and devastating finales of any horror film. Truly one of the greatest ghost stories of all time.

14- Don’t Look Now

Directed by Nicolas Roeg

UK, 1973

Based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier, 1973′s Don’t Look Now remains one of the great horror masterpieces, patiently building suspense with haunting imagery and a chilling score. Directed by noted cinematographer Nicolas Roeg, Don’t Look Now arguably bears resemblance to giallos, and leans more toward “creepy” than “horrific.” The film stars Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, here wrapped in an emotional blanket of fear, anger, guilt, and love. There is so much to say about this gem. Don’t Look Now is a flawless film, with a unique directorial style, stunning imagery, and powerful performances. Roeg’s ingenious editing job cutting between flashbacks and flash-forwards undermines chronology and creates a haunting meditation on fear, death and the beyond.

13- Bride Of Frankenstein

Directed by James Whale

USA, 1935

The irony of James Whale’s masterpiece The Bride of Frankenstein is that Frankenstein’s creation is called the Monster, yet he is the least menacing presence in the film. Karloff yet again dominates the screen with a powerhouse performance, managing to invest his character with emotional subtleties that are surprisingly nuanced. The Bride of Frankenstein provides a searing citation of man’s inhumanity to man and still finds room for self-parody, social satire and comedy. This is the greatest of all Frankenstein movies and quite possibly the best horror film of the 30′s.

“She hate me,” he growls, “Just like others!”

Bride Of Frankenstein has spectacular direction, a thoughtful script, wonderful performances and is enhanced by the vivid Franz Waxman musical score. Whale’s genius holds it all together until the tragic, inevitable finale.

12 – Eyes Without a Face (Les yeux sans visage)

Directed by Georges Franju

France, 1960

Eyes Without a Face pioneered the theme of the mad surgeon, and spawned countless imitators including Circus of Horrors (1960) and at least four Jesus Franco pictures (including Faceless and The Awful Dr Orloff series). Eyes also influenced the Japanese art-house film The Face of Another (1966).

It was the feature length directorial debut of Georges Franju, who had previously made a number of shorts – his best-known being The Blood of the Beasts (1949), a documentary that unraveled the horrors inside a slaughterhouse (available in the criterion DVD release of Eyes Without A Face). The screenplay is credited to five writers – among them is Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, a duo of popular French writers who adapted a number of classics including Les Diaboliques (1955), Vertigo (1958) and even Body Parts (1991).

Methodical and haunting, Eyes Without a Face is an anomaly in the horror genre: a mad-scientist fairy tale. Along with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (all released in 1960), Eyes helped shape the modern slasher film with its dark themes, general air of malevolence, visual lyricism, Maurice Jarre’s mad jarring score and of course it’s fairly graphic scenes of slicing through the skin. The film’s title has a double meaning, referring both to the surgical procedure of removing facial features and to the character of the daughter played brilliantly by Edith Scob: because of the mask she wears, her eyes are the only visible moving part of her face.

11 – The Exorcist

Directed by William Friedkin

1973 – USA

The phenomenon, that was The Exorcist was a studio’s dream come true. With rumours that it was supposedly based on a true story, masse audience walk-outs, protests, vomiting and fainting in the theatres, and even the legendary claims that the production itself was cursed, all helped make The Exorcist the second highest grossing film at the time ($441 million to be exact). The film earned ten Academy Award nominations – winning two (Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay), before losing Best Picture to The Sting. The film was released during a cycle of ‘demonic child’ movies produced in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and featured the incredibly talented cast of Jason Miller, Ellen Burstyn, and who can forget, Linda Blair – whose transformation from sweet innocent to demonic incarnate is one of the most terrifying performances of all time. The Exorcist has been influential in the genre, spawning several sequels, and similar films such as The Omen, none which have come close to matching it’s power.

This ever haunting journey into demonic possession is likely just as disturbing today as it was back than, and will always be an important film historically. A must see for any true horror aficionado, The Exorcist is creepy, atmospheric, and contains some truly unforgettable and viscerally shocking scenes – not to mention spectacular special effects for it’s time. I still have no idea how they created the “spider walk” sequence.

The Exorcist makes an interesting contrast to Ken Russell’s The Devils, a film also about the Catholic church and demonic possession. However in Ken Russell’s movie (also featured on this list), demonic possession is viewed as something not real but instead, a product of religious hysteria.

10 -Let the Right One In

Directed by Tomas Alfredson

Sweden, 2008

Even in a pop culture landscape littered with the bloodthirsty undead, Let The Right One In stood out as a poignant coming of age story as well as a bone-chilling horror film. The haunting mediation on the difficult and often painful transition into adolescence garnered plenty of praise on the festival circuit in 2008 and earned a loyal cult following through word of mouth. Based on the novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who also wrote the screenplay, Sweden’s Let The Right One In is hypnotic, horrific, and it groundbreaking. It follows the classical rules of vampire mythology but takes those very same rules we are accustomed to and updates each of them in new and exciting ways. Perfectly paced, and patient in building its atmosphere to set us up for some horrific moments. It has its moments of restrained fright, but never shies away from the gore when it’s called for. An instant classic of modern horror cinema and easily the most fascinating recent film to appear on this list.

9- Les Diaboliques

Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot

France, 1955

Henri-Georges Clouzot (dubbed the French Hitchcock) created this masterpiece in 1955 – a film which served as the template upon which most of the psychological thrillers that were made in the aftermath of the success of Psycho were based. Hitchcock reportedly wanted to make this movie himself, but Clouzot bought the film rights to the original novel, supposedly beating Hitchcock by only a matter of hours. Based on the novel Celle Qui N’etait Pas, the script was adapted by the French duo Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, also responsible for a few other films appearing on this list. Not wanting to miss another opportunity, the Master of Suspense snapped up the rights to Boileau and Narcejac’s next thriller, D’entre les Morts, which would become Vertigo.

Les Diaboliques is a timeless classic. Clouzot delivers a despairing character study masquerading as a thriller, jacking up the suspense with grueling intensity, presenting a bleak world full of suspicion, manipulation, fear and loathing. Much like Hitchcock’s work, Les Diaboliques is peppered with perverse atmosphere and dark humour. The lead performances are all incredible, particularly Clouzot’s wife Vera Clouzot, who stars as the vulnerable lead. The twist ending is shocking – one of the greatest of all time – but what is even more amazing is that the murder plot is in many ways the least disturbing element at play.

8- Night Of The Living Dead

Directed by George A. Romero

1968, USA

George Romero set a new standard for horror with his low-budget directorial debut. The film, made in 1968, broached many taboos (cannibalism, incest, necrophilia) and changed the face of American horror movies forever while setting the template for zombie films to come. The racial subtext speaks volumes even today, and the film still looks better (despite the shoestring budget) than the majority of its future imitators. One of the best films of the 60′s, and possibly the most influential horror movie ever made. Night Of The Living Dead actually gets better with age.

7- Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

Directed by

Italy, 1975

Commonly referred to as Salò, this controversial 1975 Italian film written and directed by Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini with (uncredited writing contributions by Pupi Avati) is one of the most controversial films ever made and banned in several countries to this day. If there was ever a film that earned its notorious reputation, Salo is it. Pasolini was a visionary, a provocateur, a poet, a social critic and one of my all time favourite filmmakers.

It was Pasolini’s last film; he was murdered shortly before Salò was released. Many still believe it was Pasolini’s political views and the content of Salò that got him killed. Based on the book The 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade, Salo is quite easily one of the most shocking movies ever, depicting intense graphic violence, sadism, and sexual depravity. This is a film of conviction, showcasing a hell on earth, a place where demented values are brutally enforced. The “circle of shit” segment is usually when most people walk out vomiting. Good luck! But seriously, this is the greatest movie I’ve only ever seen once that I never want to see again (I own three different editions). As Pasolini once said, “Artists must create, critics defend and Democratic people support work so extreme that it becomes unacceptable to even the broadest minds of the new state.”

Anyone familiar with Michael Haneke’s work will understand why he calls Salo one of his three favourite films of all time. By watching to the very end, we the viewers become voyeurs, witnessing the most sickening finale of any motion picture, and Pasolini calls us out in the most obvious way in its twisted conclusion.

6- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Directed by Tobe Hooper

1974, US

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre remains to this day a motion picture of raw, uncompromising intensity, a punishing assault on the senses via the most vivid extended scenes of absolute sustained frenzy ever captured on celluloid. Marilyn Burns’s doomed screams will forever be etched in your memory as will the horror icon it produced, the raging chainsaw wielding lunatic Leatherface. Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre undoubtedly ranks as one of the best horror flicks of all time, and also boasts one of the most unforgettable abrupt endings ever.

5- The Shining

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

UK / USA, 1980

Jack Torrance only kills one person, yet he is the monster of the film. No one ever questions Wendy, who not only repeatedly hits Jack over the head with a baseball bat, but also lashes after him with a knife, finally leaving him to die of hypothermia. I’m just saying.

Putting aside all violence, this is no ordinary horror film, boasting a brilliant performance by Jack Nicholson, an incredibly eerie score, beautiful cinematography and flawless direction. There has been books devoted to Kubrick’s work. I’m sure you’ve all heard of it, so let’s move on.

4- Peeping Tom

Directed by Michael Powell

UK, 1960

Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom is a methodical look at the psychology of a killer and a meditation on violence and voyeurism. The extremely controversial picture was branded as “sick” and “nasty” by major critics upon its 1960 release and banned from any release. These harsh and despicable responses effectively destroyed Powell’ career, but later generations embraced the film and many, including myself, regard it as a masterpiece – a chilling work of voyeuristic cinema. The film revolves around a serial killer who murders women while using a portable movie camera to record their dying expressions of terror. Peeping Tom has been praised for its psychological complexity. On the surface, the film is about the Freudian relationship between the protagonist and his father and the protagonist and his victims. However, several critics argue that the film is as much about the voyeurism of the audience as they watch the protagonist’s actions. A thoroughly opaque and gritty London atmosphere permeates the grisly proceedings, carried off by a very powerful performance from Carl Boehm, who has the difficult task of convincing us he is a cold blooded killer, while eliciting sympathy for the trauma of his childhood. Powell’s roaming camera work and Otto Heller’s shadowy cinematography makes Peeping Tom a work of cinematic art.

3- Evil Dead 2

Directed by Sam Raimi

1987 – US

This high-octane, ferocious gross-out semi-sequel to Sam Raimi’s cult hit The Evil Dead nearly eclipsed its predecessor’s reputation thanks to an endless barrage of visual gags, hyperkinetic camera work, rapid-fire editing, kegs of jet-propelled blood and splatstick gore, and the demented comic genius of Bruce Campbell (aided by an impressive arsenal of weapons, including a sawed-off shotgun and a chainsaw). Campbell’s performance shifts to match the needs of the script spitting out the greatest one-liners of any horror comedy. Evil Dead 2 is so outrageously over-the-top that it attains a level of dizzying surrealism and is a must see for any self-respecting movie-goer.

****

Special Mention

Un chien andalou

Directed by Luis Buñuel

France, 1929

The dream – or nightmare – has been a staple of the horror cinema for decades. In 1929 Luis Bunuel joined forces with Salvador Dali to create Un chien andalou, an experimental and unforgettable seventeen-minute surrealist masterpiece. Buñuel famously said that he and Dalí wrote the film by telling one another their dreams. The film went on to influence the horror genre indefinitely. After all, even as manipulative as the “dream” device is, it’s still a proven way to jolt an audience. Just ask Wes Craven, who understood this bit of cinematic psychology when he dreamt of the central force behind A Nightmare on Elm Street, a film intended to be an exploration of surreal horror. David Lynch is contemporary cinema’s most devoted student of Un chien andalou – the severed ear at the beginning of Blue Velvet is a direct allusion to Buñuel’s blood curdling famous closeup on the slashing of an eyeball with a razor. Technically, that scene alone could classify Un chien andalou as the first splatter film. Though it is not a horror film per se, the film does contain a number of disturbing images: an army of ants crawling through a hole in a man’s hand, dead animals strung on top of a piano and children playing with dismembered hands. Buñuel and Dalí compile images and scenes that will make you cringe and in the case of the splitting eyeball – look away. Buñuel exploits the viewer, through these horrific images understanding fully well that people enjoy seeing something macabre. The film has lived up to its aim to shock, as viewed in modern times it’s still shocking.

****

#2 Psycho

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

USA, 1960

Psycho proved an unexpected sleeper hit, largely due to a clever promotional campaign where Hitchcock managed to get theatres to sign a contract that refused to let people in after the film had started. He took the idea from Henri-Georges Clouzot, who did the same back in France with Les Diaboliques. Hitchcock was nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards and of course left the ceremony empty handed.

I figure there hasn’t been a film more analyzed than Psycho, but let me point out a few things. There are many reasons why Psycho is a masterpiece: One of the principal reasons is its structure. We follow one apparent protagonist only to have her killed off abruptly. Hitchcock pulls the rug out from under our feet, in one of the most shocking scenes in cinematic history. The shower scene in which Janet Leigh is murdered has gone on to become probably the single most famous scene in any horror film. And yes Psycho is considered the first psycho-thriller / slasher film, by most, but not everyone – Psycho invoked Freudian psychology as motivation for the killer and gave its murderer Freudian childhood traumas, split personalities and confused gender roles, everything that would inspire the slasher films of the 70′s and 80′s. Psycho is pure perfection: Bernard Herman’s score – the shower scene – the mother in the cellar – the knife wielding maniac – the creepy old house – the twist ending – even the credits font. Psycho stands the test of time!

1- The Vanishing (Spoorloos)

Directed by George Sluizer

Netherlands / France, 1988

Based on Time Krabbe’s The Golden Egg, this clinical, maddening descent into the mind of a serial killer left audiences buzzing with excitement over its ending. The Vanishing could very well be the most intelligent but least influential serial killer film of all time. This is one of the most interesting character studies of obsession: both Gene Bervoets’ obsession with the missing Johanna Ter Steege and Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu’s obsession with stalking young women. Written in a non linear fashion, the egg-shaped overlapping narrative tells the same story from two points of view –the perpetrator’s and the victim’s. If it seems complex, it is, but the facts are laid out in a straightforward manner since we know so much so early in the film. The Vanishing is a simple story, but manages to build one great idea over another great idea throughout. The mystery here isn’t who the kidnapper is, but why he took her, and more importantly, where is she now? Every key sequence, every beat, foreshadows the appalling dénouement. This is potent stuff, a brilliantly crafted intellectual thriller that will leave you gasping for a breath of fresh air when it’s over.

****

Special Mention

****

Thriller

Directed by John Landis

1983 – USA

Thriller is not so much a music video as it is a short horror film, featuring choreographed zombies performing with Jackson. It was directed by John Landis who had previously directed the hit film An American Werewolf in London and choreographed by Michael Peters who worked with Jackson on Beat It. The video contained a spoken word performance by horror film veteran Vincent Price, co starred former Playboy centerfold Ola Ray and incidentally contained music by composer Elmer Bernstein (who also worked with Landis on An American Werewolf in London). The video set new standards for production, having cost $500,000 to film and the choreography in Thriller has become a part of global pop culture, replicated everywhere from Bollywood to the Philippines. The Thriller short film marked an increase in scale for music videos, and has been named the most successful music video ever, firmly cementing the notion that videos could be something more than just commercials for singles. The result is an exciting piece full of gothic imagery that still holds up decades later.

Go back

Choosing my favourite horror films of all time is like choosing between my children – not that I have children, but if I did, I am sure I would categorize them quite like my DVD collection. As with all lists, this is personal and nobody will agree with every choice – and if you do, that would be incredibly disturbing. Also, it was almost impossible for me to rank them in order, but I tried. I based my list taking into consideration three points:

1- Technical accomplishments / artistry and their influence on the genre.

2- How many times I’ve revisited the films and how easily it makes for a repeated viewings.

3- Its story, atmosphere and how much it affected me when I first watched them.

Finally, there are many great films such as The Witchfinder General, The Wickerman and even Hour Of The Wolf that won’t appear here. I tried to keep my list to 60 films. However I have been creating individual lists for sub-genres. Already I have written my lists for slashers, giallos, werewolves, vampires, found footage and even the best from New Zealand and Australia. Next year I will continue with other sub-genres.

****

I originally wanted to make this a list of 75 but I ran out of time. I intend on posting 100 next Halloween. For anyone who may be interested, these are the remaining unlucky 13 who didn’t make it in (this year).

1- Wickerman

2- The Devils

3- The Witchfinder’s General

4- Freaks

5- Opera

6- Shaun Of The Dead

7- Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)

8- Dead Ringers

9- Village Of The Damned (1060)

10- Pulse

11- Hour Of The Wolf

12- Hasta El Viento Tiene Miedo (1967)

13- The Uninvited (1944)

Here are what I consider my 62 all time favourites.

****

Special Mention

Spirits Of The Dead (Histoires extraordinaires)

Directed by Federico Fellini (segment Toby Dammit), Louis Malle (segment William Wilson), Roger Vadim (segment Metzengerstein)

France, 1968

First thing to notice is the three directors: Federico Fellini, Louis Malle and Roger Vadim. Secondly, take notice of the cast, which includes Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, Alain Delon, Terence Stamp, Salvo Randone, James Robertson Justice, Françoise Prévost and Marlène Alexandre. Spirits Of The Dead is an adaptation of three Edgar Allan Poe, one of which demands to be seen.

The first segment of the film, Roger Vadim’s Metzgengerstein, is unfortunately the worst, but is still great in its own right, and features a marvelous performance by Jane Fonda. Louis Malle’s segment is the second of the three. Malle turns Edgar Allan Poe’s 1839 story into an engrossing study in cruelty and sadism. Malle’s episode is an engaging enough entry, but pales in comparison to what follows.

They really do save the best for last. Episode three is the reason to see this anthology. Even if it hardly qualifies as horror, it is still deserves to make my list. Federico Fellini’s Toby Dammit, which stars Terence Stamp, is a visual wonder. Fellini and his cinematographer shoot with an intensifying palette – the most brilliant mix of blues and reds, bittersweet shades and extraordinary camera movement you will ever see in any horror anthology. Stamp is truly terrifying as the dysfunctional Toby, and the world that Fellini creates perfectly mirrors the inner turmoil and self-destructive nature of his character. Toby Dammit feels like a stylish nightmare – a truly unsettling and intriguing film that makes the perfect gateway into the director’s oeuvre.

****

62 – Carnival Of Souls

Directed by Herk Harvey

USA, 1962

This low-budget, independently made black-and-white film, produced and directed by Herk Harvey for an estimated $33,000, did not gain widespread attention when originally released, and was billed as a B-movie, but it’s actually one of the greatest under-seen horror movies ever made. Without Carnival Of Souls, you would have no Sixth Sense. Set to the funereal organ score by Gene Moore, Carnival of Souls relies strictly on atmosphere of melancholic, surreal dread to create a mood of unease and foreboding. It has been cited as a major influence on the films of both David Lynch and George A. Romero. The film’s subdued black and white photography contributes considerably to its creeping mood of eerie otherworldliness and poetic nightmarish palate.

61 – Alucarda, La Hija De Las Tinieblas / Innocents From Hell 

Directed by Juan López Moctezuma

Spain, 1978

Part nunsploitation, part possession/satanism movie, and part vampire flick, Alucarda (yes, that’s “a Dracula” backwards) finds satanic going-ons in a convent after orphan Justine comes along, only to be seduced by another orphan named Alucarda. Director Juan López Moctezuma came along during the new wave of 70′s Mexican genre pics that expressed radical and subversive views. Alucarda never received much attention from critics nor audiences, but over the years became something of an underground cult classic. Moctezuma (who also produced Jodorowsky’s El Topo and Fando Y Lis) was an important intellectual figure in Mexico in the fifties, sixties and seventies, and his three horror films (which also includes Mansion of Madness, and the American co-production Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary) were all distinctive works. The film was independently financed outside of the Mexican mainstream industry and was shot with an English-speaking cast. The set design and art direction is stunning as well as Xavier Cruz’s cinematography. The gruelling exorcism conclusion to Alucarda reminds one of the final scene in Brian De Palma’s Carrie. While it is not widely known by many cinephiles, many fans who have seen it, including myself, consider it an unrecognized gem. Seriously, this movie is batshit crazy and a must see!

60 -Day Of The Beast (El Dia De La Bestia)

Directed by Alex de la Iglesia

Spain, 1995

Former comic book illustrator Alex de la Iglesia took Spain by surprise in 1991 with his short film, Mirindas Asesinas. Four years later, he returned with his feature-length debut Day Of The Beast, a tongue-in-cheek thriller which picked up no fewer than six of Spain’s Oscar equivalent, the Goyas. Spiked with extreme violence and over-the- top performances, The Day of the Beast mixes comedy, horror and a considerable amount of dark humour to the story, without ever feeling like a parody or spoof. The film’s shocking and darkly comic opening sets the tone right away, and it’s a testament to the director’s talent that he is able to continuously up the ante as the film progresses.

59 – Onibaba

Directed by Kaneto Shindô

Japan, 1964

OniBaba brings Kurosawa-esque neo-realism to bear on the traditional Japanese kaidan (ghost story). A landmark in fantasy cinema, this lyrical ghost story is bleak, sexually charged, decadent and dripping with depravity. Symbolism runs rampant and the dialogue is minimal in this harrowing study about the rotten nature of humanity and the useless wars they wage. Kiyomi Kuroda’s startling black-and-white cinematography, the excellent percussive jazz soundtrack, and the final twist (one which might seem obvious today but not back then), is reason enough to watch this gem.

58 – Janghwa, Hongryeo (A Tale of Two Sisters)

Directed by Ji-woon Kim

South Korea, 2003

Inspired by a Korean legend, this is the odyssey of two sisters, who after spending time in a mental institution, return to the home of their father and cruel stepmother. There’s a reason why Hollywood has been so busy in recent years remaking Asian horror movies. There’s more rank dread, inexplicable cutaways, overwhelming suspense and and inscrutable mystery in this South Korean psychological thriller than in most American mainstream horror films of the past 10 years. Mixing classic horror in the vein of Hitchcock and Argento, A Tale of Two Sisters is a groundbreaking film, and well worth seeking out for fans of Asian horror.

57 – Suspiria

Director: Dario Argento

Italy, 1977

The king of Italian horror, Dario Argento, directs what many consider to be his masterpiece. Suspiria is one of the most important and influential genre movies ever made, and essential viewing for all horror fans. Argento’s first major non-Giallo directing job doesn’t stray too far from the style he established in his previous film Deep Red. Suspiria’s overall charm resides in its technical triumphs and visual style. Taking his cues from Mario Bava, Argento, together with his director of photography Luciano Tovoli, creates a vibrant, colorful film quite apart from the standards of the genre. Argento’s masterful use of intense primary colours (he acquired 1950s Technicolor stock to get the effect) and stunning set designs gives the whole film a hallucinatory intensity. The dissonant, throbbing score, composed by Argento and performed by his frequent collaborators, Italian rock band Goblin, drives the picture with the occasional distorted shriek of “Witch!”. A strange combination of the arthouse and horror film, Suspiria, although cited as one of the scariest movies ever made is, ironically, one of Argento’s least violent films. It relies more on tone and atmosphere than on blood and gore. Surreal and frightening, Suspiria still shocks audiences decades after its original release.

56 – Kwaiden

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi

Japan, 1964

Kwaidan (Kaidan) is a 1964 Japanese portmanteau film directed by Masaki Kobayashi; the title means ‘ghost story’. Based on stories from Lafcadio Hearn’s collections of Japanese folk tales, this impressively mounted anthology horror film consists of four separate and unrelated stories. It won the Special Jury Prize at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Kwaidan’s haunting poetry is conveyed with what might possibly be the most beautiful horror film you will ever see. The soundtrack is equally impressive, and although it might not outright scare, you can’t help but admire the craft and artistry.

55 – The Descent

Directed by Neil Marshall

UK, 2005

This creepfest may not only see more feminist deconstruction than the original Alien, but is also one of the most tightly effective horror films in a long time. Much like his previous film Dog Soldiers, director Neil Marshall relies on our familiar memories of past horror films, but the fascination of this film is anticipating how it will morph these familiar elements, particularly the inferior ones, in creative new ways.

54 – Seul Contre Tous (I Stand Alone) (One Against All)

Directed by Gaspar Noé

France, 1998

I’ve noticed many lists online include Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible. However, I cannot justify placing it on my list. Apart from being one of the most homophobic films I’ve ever seen, it also doesn’t quite fall in the spectrum of horror, despite its gruesome material. Instead, I am including Noé’s previous feature, I Stand Alone, a French nouveau Taxi Driver – that is sure to arouse controversy with its scenes of explicit sex and bloody violence. The film opens with these words of narration: “morality is made by and for the rich, power comes from the barrel of a gun,” and Noé proceeds to prove this point, while attacking what he sees as the social and cultural complacency of mainstream French cinema and television.

I Stand Alone is a violent and verbally vulgar assault on the sense, but the far more deeply disturbing element at play isn’t the onscreen violence, but how Noé takes us inside the mind of the protagonist. What elevates I Stand Alone from an average horror film is the way it refuses to cut its umbilical tie with the butcher. Instead we get his point of view from the first frame to the very last. The butcher never for a moment becomes a sympathetic character and Noé doesn’t for a moment try to justify or excuse his behaviour. Philippe Nahon’s performance is strong and fearless and Nahon refuses to make the character a stereotype or cartoon.

Three quarters into the film, Noé takes a page from legendary schlockmeister William Castle’s 1961 Homicidal by giving the audience a 30-second warning to either leave the theatre or avert their eyes, before continuing to the film’s bloody climax. The flashy scope cinematography – the twisted, bitter and cynical voiceover – the aggressive shooting style – the deliberate widescreen close-ups – the endless shots of empty corridors, vacant, industrial streets – the repeated uses a swish pan and/or a skip frame, and the marvelous score accompanied by a sharp electronic sound like a gun shot – all help make I Stand Alone one of the nastiest entries into the genre you will ever see.

53 – We Are What We Are

Directed by Jorge Michel Grau

Mexico, 2010

Unlike most cannibal films, We Are What We Are eschews the easy options of excessive gore, graphic violence, sex and and cheap laughs, instead creating a deeply moving drama with a spoonful of black comedy and a healthy serving of horror. It’s a slow burning film with an engulfing atmosphere that occasionally leaves you feeling uneasy and other times laughing along. For every moment of bloodshed (of which there is surprisingly little), there are subtleties and surprises that transcend this exhausted subgenre. Though the violence is nowhere near as brutal as the cannibal movies of the late ’70s or early ’80s, We Are What We Are hasn’t forgotten its roots, administering just enough bloodshed to upset mainstream movie-goers. It also provides us with nice, small moments of color for the characters, short but clever lines of dialogue and plenty of room for development. Director Jorge Michel Grau (who also wrote the script) conjures up one of the best, most imaginative and resonant family-themed horror stories to date. The picture’s leading attribute is Santiago Sanchez’s dazzling photography, a dark and dirty pallette which beautifully highlights the sleazier neighborhoods of Mexico City. Grau balances beautiful, long, static shots while at times having the camera move kinetically, juxtaposed with a remarkably eerie and complex score composed by Enrico Chapel. It is without a doubt one of the most layered, atmospheric, and textured movies in recent memory. Beautifully crafted and expertly acted, We Are What We Are is a haunting, emotionally involving journey into the macabre.

52 – House of the Devil

Directed by Ti West

USA, 2010

House of the Devil hearkens back to the days of late 70s grindhouse cinema, complete with a synthesized rock soundtrack (one of the best soundtracks to any horror film), a freeze-frame opening credit sequence marked with yellow title cards and a cast that includes Mary Woronov (Silent Night, Deadly Night) and horror veteran Dee Wallace-Stone (The original Hills Have Eyes, The Howling) who makes a small cameo. West is not interested in cheap shocks and scares but rather takes a simple situation and spins tension out of it through careful craft. He’s a patient filmmaker, and makes great use of long sequences and static shots with an assortment of oddly askew camera angles, each camera positioned deliberately for creative reasons. He’s built a career on his preference for slow-building tension, atmosphere and suspense as opposed to fast-paced action, sex and splatter. His direction is smart, subtle, and passionate, and he likes to test the patience of his audience before rushing into its climax. The harsh, jarring tone of the musical score steals the show and makes for one of the most nerve wrecking scores in recent memory. Composer Jeff Grace and audio designer Graham Reznick create an atmosphere that suggests something terrible can happen at any moment, leaving you gripping on to your seat in anticipation – yet West still makes room for an eclectic selection of rock/pop tunes, highlighted by a sequence in which Samantha dances about (Walkman replacing iPod) to the sound of Fixx’s “One Thing Leads to Another.” Eliot Rockett’s cinematography nails the feel of the early 80s, and the film is almost entirely shot at night or in dark interior spaces, befitting the horror awaiting Samantha. The film is so carefully detailed and perfectly attuned to the style of the 80s that one could actually mistake it for an 80s production, and the Quantum Creation FX gang (who gave us the effects for Splinter) once again showcase their talent despite a minimal budget.

51 – Dead Alive (Braindead)

Directed by Peter Jackson

New Zealand, 1992

Originally released as Braindead, Dead Alive is the Godfather of Kiwi gore and the magnum opus of Peter Jackson’s early career. Jackson’s second feature gleefully eclipses the gross-out quotient of not only his splatter-fest debut, but of any movie ever made before. The finale is the greatest gore-fest ever put on celluloid, using 300 litres of fake blood pumped at five gallons per second. The tone is cartoonishly comic, and the premise is simple, but Dead Alive is one of the most inventive and outrageous splatter-fests ever made.

50 – The Blair Witch Project

Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez

USA, 1999

The Blair Witch Project is an homage to sitting by the campfire and listening to urban myths and various ghost stories, something most of us can relate to. However the primary reason for it’s success is that it keeps audiences in the dark about its titular villain. The Blair Witch Project remembers that nothing onscreen can be as scary as your own imagination. It understands how to build anticipation and deliver the scares at precisely the right moment. Unlike most horror films, The Blair Witch Project isn’t simply designed to make you jump nor ever gross you out. Instead the film focuses on having the viewer feel discomfort, nausea and terror – and thus some people respond by saying it is the scariest film of all time simply because it feels so real.

49 – [REC]

Directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza

Spain, 2007

A brilliant horror / thriller which may start slow but eventually accelerates to a fever pitch of complete and utter terror and hysteria. Directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza quickly became rising stars in the Spanish horror scene with this short, stripped-down, first-person horror picture that delivers some unforgettably effective shocks while gradually building a haunting atmosphere of ever-increasing panic and despair.

48 – Nosferatu: The First Vampire

Directed by F.W. Murnau

Germany, 1925

The earliest surviving film based on Dracula is Nosferatu, an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel. One of the first vampire movies, it is perhaps still one of the best vampire movies ever made. Thoroughly creepy from first to last frame.

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47 – Daughter of Darkness (Les lèvres rouges)

Directed by Harry Kümel

Belgium, 1971

Belgium’s premier horror filmmaker Harry Kümel directs this lesbian-themed vintage vampire flick heightened by a stunning performance from Delphine Seyrig. I’m generally not a huge fan of lesbian vampire films but Daughter of Darkness is subdued rather than exploitative. Best described as a European art-house flick that sways far away from the traditional vampire movie, the film boasts bold strokes of atmosphere and psychosexuality. Cinematographer Eduard van der Enden, who shot Jacques Tati’s Trafic, infuses the film’s imagery with a pervading sense of the modern gothic. Unlike most lesbian vampire films, Daughters of Darkness is not only worth watching, but worth buying.

46- The Others

Directed by Alejandro Amenábar

Spain / US, 2001

Some say The Others is a one trick pony, and once you know the secret, the gig is up. Regardless of its twist ending, one of the greatest in cinema, the film holds up in other respects. In fact, I have seen this film multiple times and each time it scares the bejeezus out of me, thanks to its spooky vibe, stylish photography and great cast. The plot is well thought-out and its secrets and mysteries are revealed in a slow and clever manner – and did I mention it’s scary as hell? Marking his English-language debut, Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar (Open Your Eyes) impresses with his ability to evoke the supernatural in a convincing manner.

45- Häxan

Directed by Benjamin Christensen

Denmark / Sweden, 1922

Häxan (a.k.a The Witches or Witchcraft Through The Ages) is a 1922 Swedish/Danish silent documentary about the history of witchcraft, told in a variety of styles, from illustrated slideshow to dramatised events of alleged real-life events that are comparable to horror films. Written and directed by Benjamin Christensen, and based partly on Christensen’s study of the Malleus Maleficarum, Häxan is a fine study of how superstition and the misunderstanding of diseases and mental illness could lead to the hysteria of the witch-hunts. While the film does a great job exposing the horrors of superstition and hysteria, it really doesn’t feature any witchcraft – but still deserves to appear on this list. At the time it was the most expensive Scandinavian film ever made, costing nearly two million Swedish krona. Although it won acclaim in Denmark and Sweden, the film was banned in the United States and heavily censored in other countries for what were considered at that time graphic depictions of torture, nudity, and sexual perversion. Depending on which version you’re watching, the commentary is either in the form of intertitles or narration by William S.Burroughs, recorded in the mid-1960s. A fascinating historical document, and, more surprisingly, a very entertaining film, and one of the earliest films that takes misogyny and sexual repression as its subject.

44 – Even Dwarfs Started Small (Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen)

Directed by Werner Herzog

Germany, 1970

Barely released in 1971 amid great controversy from just about every corner, Dwarfs essentially went on to influence many filmmakers, most notably Harmony Korine, who borrowed heavily from it for his feature Gummo. Dwarfs is as unapologetic and affirming as Tod Browning’s Freaks. Even in the director’s extensive oeuvre, there are few films in the his portfolio that are as beautifully shot, impressively scored, and strangely composed as this one. Whether you see it as a powerful political/philosophical allegory or as exploitation, Dwarfs will linger in your thoughts for a long time.

The cast includes 28 dwarfs and midgets, a tormented one-legged chicken, and a limp camel that at one point defecates amidst his frustration of being handicapped.

43 – Dead Of Night

Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti (segments Christmas Party and The Ventriloquist’s Dummy), Charles Crichton (segment Golfing Story), Basil Dearden (segments Hearse Driver and Linking Narrative), Robert Hamer (segment The Haunted Mirror)

UK, 1945

Considered the greatest horror anthology, the classic British chiller Dead of Night features five stories of supernatural terror from four directors. The whole film ends with a bravura final sequence recapitulating the stories ultimately making them all feel like a unified whole. Cavalcanti’s story about a mad ventriloquist played by Michael Redgrave is the best, a brilliant precursor to Hitchcock’s Psycho, featuring an early uncensored gay relationship. Even the weakest segment – Golfing Story directed by Charles Crichton – is still pretty amazing.

42 – Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny And Girly (aka Girly)

Directed by Freddie Francis

UK , 1970

One of the best and most bizarre films of the late early ’70s Brit psycho-horror entries. Girly isn’t exactly suspenseful, and it’s not a horror movie in the traditional sense, but a sordid affair about perversions and power games. Imbued with disquiet and unease, Girly will get under your skin. Based on the play Happy Family by Maisie Mosco, Girly is stuffed with clever, literate dialogue, features great performances and boasts confident direction from Freddie Francis, who served as cinematographer of The Innocents. Girly is a macabre and highly entertaining tale that plays up the absurdity of the story and keeps most of the violence and sex offscreen.

41 – Deep Red (Profondo rosso) (The Hatchet Murders)

Directed by Dario Argento

Italy, 1975

Many will argue Suspiria to be Argento’s full-fledged masterpiece, but for my money it is Deep Red – gorgeous, gory and gruesome, and undoubtedly his finest picture. The alluring David Hemmings steals much of the show as a music teacher who investigates a series of murders performed by a mysterious figure wielding a hatchet. Argento’s trademarks are all visible here in copious amounts, as it prefigures some of the elaborate stylistic choices that he would carry on for the remainder of his career. Add in the superb, jazzy score by Argento’s band Goblin, and you have one of the most distinct-sounding and looking horror films of the decade. From a technical perspective, the film is a masterwork, but Deep Red also excels where most Giallos fall short: it carries an engaging narrative heightened by an unpredictable course of events and a truly surprising twist ending.

40 – An American Werewolf in London

Directed by John Landis

UK / USA , 1981

One of the all-time great horror movies, with a pitch-perfect mix of comedy and genuine scares. Directed by the brilliant John Landis and made well before the advent of CGI, it features werewolf transformations (courtesy of genius effects wizard Rick Baker) that are more realistic than those of recent horror films. Landis – who was 19 when he penned the first draft – delivers a clever mixture of comedy and horror which succeeds in being both funny and scary. Along with the thrills, atmosphere, romance, sex, nudity and a witty assemblage of moon-themed songs (“Blue Moon”, “Bad Moon Rising”, “Moondance”), American Werewolf In London remains the best werewolf movie to date – so good that Rick Baker received a well deserved Oscar for his makeup (in the first year of that category).

39 – Re-Animator

Stuart Gordon

USA, 1985

Stuart Gordon’s first feature film after years as a director of experimental theater has since become a cult film, driven by fans of Jeffrey Combs (who stars as Herbert West) and H. P. Lovecraft. While Re-Animator fails as a faithful adaptation of Lovecraft, the injection of gristly humour and a plethora of downright disgusting visual gags and extreme gore, make this one incredibly demented movie in its own right. A brilliant tour-de-farce – Combs delivers an iconic performance as the title character, updating the mad scientist role for a whole new generation. For my money his performance stands in the same league as Bruce Campbell’s Ash in the Evil Dead series.

38 – Audition

Directed by Takashi Miike

Japan, 2001

This art-house cult horror film will be talked about for a long time to come. The last section of the film features some of the most harrowing, graphic closeups of torture ever put on celluloid, but even in its gore-filled moments, the film is a monumental achievement by a director willing to take chances and challenge his audience. Based on a novel by Ryu Murakami, Audition isn’t nearly as gory as Ichi the Killer, but it has to be Miike´s most disturbing and most powerful film. In fact, it was listed at #11 on Bravo´s 100 Scariest Movie Moments. Not for the faint of heart.

37 – Seven (Se7en)

Directed by David Fincher

US, 1995

One of a handful of films that is based on the religious concept of “seven deadly sins,” director David Fincher’s Seven is a dark, stylish thriller that boasts enough horror genre trappings to justify its presence on this list. Seven pales in comparison to Fincher’s best film Zodiac, but regardless, it is one of the decade’s most influential box-office successes. This dark, creepy and relentlessly grim shocker features taut performances, polished gore effects, and an unforgettable ending that will burn in your memory long after the credits role. Seven has all the hallmarks of the giallo or serial killer genres – red herrings, a whodunnit mystery, gruesome murders and a surprise twist ending – but thankfully, it also turns out somewhat smarter and less predictable. One of its strongest aspects is the visuals. There are many unusual and innovative cinematographic techniques, including the opening credit sequence (one of the best of all time) and outstanding production, art and set design which focuses on the seedy, depressing side of Seven’s anonymous big-city setting.

36- Jaws

Directed by Steven Spielberg

USA, 1977

Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw star in this terrifying thriller about an enormous man-eating Great White Shark that terrorizes the fictional coastal summer resort town of Amity, Long Island on the Fourth of July weekend. Based on the trashy best-selling novel by Peter Benchley (who also provides the screenplay along with Carl Gottlieb), this low-budget film (operating on a reported $12 million) which had a mostly no-name cast, was a surprise cash cow. Thanks to a sophisticated, unrelenting publicity campaign, Jaws was the first film to rake in over $100 million (it grossed more than $260 million at the domestic box office and nearly $475 million worldwide). It went onto spawn three sequels (all terrible), laid out a blueprint for summer blockbusters and put Steven Spielberg onto the A-list of Hollywood directors.

Spielberg doesn’t serve up mass quantities of blood and gore but what makes Jaws work is the confident direction combined with stellar editing that draws the audience into relaxing at precisely all the wrong moments. Spielberg’s meticulous attention to creating suspense recalls the best of Hitchcock. Jaws remains tense by not showing audiences the shark for the majority of the film. For the first hour, the only glimpses we catch of the beast are fleeting and indistinct. The camera doesn’t dwell upon it until the final act. We are only treated to a long hard look at the shark when it passes by the deck of the ship, setting up the film’s most memorable line, “We’re going to need a bigger boat.” In the final scenes, it becomes apparent why Jaws gets so little screen time – it simply looks fake. Spielberg openly admits that if the technology had been better, he would have shown the shark more often. Ironically, it is this handicap that resulted in the film’s greatest strength. By keeping Jaws hidden from the audience, the movie effectively builds suspense and the end result is an edge-of-your-seat thriller.

35- Alien

Directed by Ridley Scott

UK – 1979

Boasting one of the greatest taglines of all time – “In space, no one can hear you scream” – Alien

blends science fiction, horror and bleak poetry into what could have easily turned into a simple B-monster movie. Alien can test a viewer’s patience.This is an extremely slow burn, unusual for the genre. Despite the budget, stellar effects and ambitious set design, Alien in a sense is a minimalist film – from the simple opening title sequence to the first 45 minutes of all dialogue – no horror and certainly no action. But patience is a virtue. The second half of the film is technically a marvel – tense, horrifying and visually breathtaking. Alien remains one of the best examples of sustained tension and despite a slow start, the first half still conjures up a sense that something very, very bad is going to happen. Hold on to your stomachs, it is going to be a bumpy ride. Oh and I just can’t go one without mentioning how incredible Sigourney Weaver is. She single-handely carries the majority of the picture as the tough resourceful,independent, and extremely bad-ass heroine. The script was written by Dan O’Bannon, who based the screenplay upon a story (Titled Star Beast), that he had written earlier on in his career. In the original first draft of the screenplay, the characters of the crew were all uni-sex, and interchangeable between sexes, referred to only with their last names, eliminating any director association with typical gender names. Aline is also cluttered with Freudian and sexually-charged symbolism and images. The creature itself was designed with a phallic head and an open vaginal mouth. Note that in the film’s most shocking scene, it is a man who becomes ‘impregnated’ by the creature as a surrogate mother. Also note that the name for the starship’s computer interface that awakens the crew members is simply called “Mother” (or MU-TH-R 182). Nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Visual Effects and Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, it won a single Oscar for Best Visual Effects (awarded to H. R. Giger and four others). Because of the original film’s success, Scott was able to finance his next futuristic film, Blade Runner, still considered to be his best.

34 – Silence Of The Lambs

Directed by Jonathan Demme

1991 – USA

Directed by Jonathan Demme, The Silence Of The Lambs features two powerhouse perfoermance by it’s stars – Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. The film’s principle attraction stems from the thrill of the hunt, and the spellbinding time spent between Foster’s heroine and Hopkins’s chilling Hannibal Lecter. Based on the novel of the same name, The Silence of the Lambs grossed over $272 million and won the top five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. A smart, taut thriller that teeters on the edge between psychological study and all-out horror.

33- Possession (The Night the Screaming Stops)

Directed by Andrzej Zulawski

France / Germany, 1981

Think of Possession as an intense drama of marital collapse amidst occult happenings, intricate political conspiracies, and the Berlin Wall as backdrop. The director has stated that he wrote the screenplay in the midst of a messy divorce, and it is quite apparent. At Cannes, the film was nominated for the Palme d’Or (taken that year by another Polish film, Andrzej Wajda’s Man of Iron) and won a Best Actress awards for Isabelle Adjani. The feature earned a place on the list of 39 ‘Video Nasties’ banned in the UK under the 1984 Video Recordings Act. Seems like most of the movies on my list were either banned or highly controversial at one point or another. The film draws similarities to David Cronenberg’s The Brood (1979), Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers and anticipates Lars von Trier’s Antichrist.

Possession features special effects from Carlo Rambaldi who worked prior on Dario Argento’s Deep Red and Flesh for Frankenstein. Here, he designed the ominous “creature,” an eroticised tentacular monster that looks like it was lifted from one of Cronenberg’s wet dreams. Most impressive of all is the cinematography, by Bruno Nuytten, who uses ambitious hand held takes, extensive dollies and infinite tracking shots. The shape shifting monsters reflect a film that is an amalgam of family tragedy, political thriller, and body horror.

32 – The Birds

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

USA, 1963

Although not as shocking as Psycho, The Birds is a more complex, ambitious and sophisticated film, and represents a high watermark in the prolific career of the master of suspense. Hitchcock’s inspiration for the film was an actual news report about a bird attack that occurred for unknown reasons, specifically a bird that was known to be prey and not a predator. The Birds is a precursor to nature vs. man horror films as Psycho was to slashers.It is also the second masterpiece Alfred Hitchcock contributed to the genre of small-town thrillers – the first being Shadow of a Doubt. Perhaps the aspect that stands out the most in The Birds is the long pauses between the dialogue. When one thinks of a Hitchcock film, one remembers the long well drawn conversations between the cast of characters. In The Birds, there are countless scenes in which the actors express more through physicality than in words. Hitch apparently wanted The Birds to be a silent film or at least was flirting with the idea of making a silent film, but decided it wouldn’t be marketable nor profitable. Hitchcock was also experimenting with the idea to not include a score in his film and instead opted for sounds created on the mixtrautonium, an early electronic musical instrument, by Oskar Sala. Along with Remi Gassmann, they composed a piece that consists primarily of screeching bird sounds, which provides a nerve wrecking, surrealistic backdrop to the sordid proceedings. Although the special effects are dated, they were still rather impressive for the time. Ray Berwick was responsible for training hundreds of birds, gulls, crows, etc. to act like they were attacking without actually hurting anyone (although apparently they did). By employing thousands of real trained birds intermixed with fakes, Hitchcock was able to create the illusion of a mass attack on the quiet community – the result is remarkable, featuring 370 effects shots, with the final shot composed of 32 separately filmed elements.

Two images featured prominently in the film are cages and glass: the cage representing Melanie’s own closed minded way of thinking (her own insular cage), and the glass (more importantly broken glass) that suggests the vulnerability of human life. Finally what makes The Birds a true masterpiece is the final shot. The film does not finish with the usual “THE END” title because Alfred Hitchcock wanted to give the impression of unending terror, and boy does he succeed.

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