Movie Title    (Country)   Year
D. Director   S. Star(s)
Alternate title(s)  Synopsis.  Notable Scene(s).
 Movie Rating/10 DVD Producer
*=indicates DVD Special Features
#=indicates as part of DVD collection

 

Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers   (USA)   1956
D. Fred F. Sears   S. Hugh Marlowe
Invasion of the Flying Saucers  Nifty stop-motion-powered spacecraft attack the world in this influential sci-fi thriller by effects-wizard Ray Harryhausen.  The Columbia DVD includes the Leonard Nimoy-narrated The Harryhausen Chronicles.  Downed saucers crash into various Washington landmarks.
 6.5/10  Columbia *

 

Elvira's Haunted Hills   (USA)   2002
D. Sam Irvin   S. Cassandra Peterson, Richard O'Brien
Horror-hostess Elvira returns in her second feature to spoof the classic Corman/Poe movies.  Elvira does a racy musical number and eats someone's poop.
 7/10  GoodTimes *

 

Equinox   (USA)   1971
D. Jack Woods
 The Beast, Equinox: A Journey into the Supernatural  Fans of the Evil Dead movies will be struck by an eerie sense of deja vu when viewing this low-budget experimental opus featuring a necronomicon, teenagers and a cabin in the woods, and plenty of nifty stop-motion demons- and that's only where the similarities begin!  Bad enough for MST3K, but a cinematic treasure for enthusiasts of the bizarre. 
 5.5/10  Criterion *

 

The Evil Dead   (USA)   1982
D. Sam Raimi   S. Bruce Campbell
Book of the Dead  Though a milestone in horror cinema until it's it's sequel set a new one, there's little question that The Evil Dead was clearly inspired by another older film, Equinox, in which a necronomicon, a cabin in the woods, a tape-recorder, demonic possession and claymation monsters were also employed.  A woman is raped by trees.
 8/10  Elite *

 

Evil Dead II   (USA)   1987
D. Sam Raimi   S. Bruce Campbell
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn  Like a bag of magic Halloween candy, the sequel to Sam Raimi's low-budget splatter opus The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn is the ultimate fear-feast for the eyes.  Raimi and Campbell craft a horror extravaganza that is almost as fun to watch as it must have been to make, as evidenced by the making-of featurette.  Sam, Bruce and Co. give their own movie an MST3K treatment that Mike and the 'bots would have a difficult time topping.  A man gets in a fight for his life against his own hand.
 9/10  Anchor Bay *

 

The Exorcist   (USA)   1973
D. William Friedkin   S. Linda Blair, Max Von Sydow
Whether you see it as a lurid promotion of Catholicism, or a gut-wrenching horror masterpiece, Friedkin's adaptation of the William Peter Blatty bestseller is visually breathtaking at times, with magnificent performances and special effects that still hold up well.  The 25th Anniversary Special Edition includes an interesting documentary about the seminal story of demon possession, The Fear Of God.
7.5/10  Warner *

 

The Faceless Monster   (Italy)   1965
D. Mario Caiano   S. Barbara Steele, Helga Liné
 Gli Amanti d'oltretomba, Nightmare Castle, Orgasmo   Enjoyable castle horror with Barbara Steele in another dual-role as the vengeful spirit of a murdered wife, and as the killers psychologically-shaky 2nd wife, who faces a similar fate.
 6/10  Retromedia

 

The Fall of the House Of Usher   (USA)   1960
D. Roger Corman   S. Vincent Price, Mark Damon
House of Usher  Roger Corman's first Poe adaptation, and the one most faithful to the source material, Fall also assured Vincent Price employment for years to come, and a prominent place in the horror hall of fame.  Roderick Usher is a part, it has often been said, Price was born to play.  Based on that notion, he would headline seven other Poe-inspired AIP pictures over the years, perhaps the finest series of horror movies ever made.  Roderick Usher shows off the strange portraits of the malevolent Usher line.
 7.5/10  MGM *

 

Faust   (Germany)   1926
D. F.W. Murnau
 Faust - Eine deutsche Volkssage  F.W. Murnau's interpretation of the classic story of the Medieval paragon who makes a pact with the Devil boasts striking visuals and an operatic structure, but is -in all- a bit inaccessible for modern audiences.
 6/10  Kino *

 

Faust   (Czech Republic)   1994
D. Jan Svankmajer
This mind-blowing version of Faust utilizes stop-motion effects and puppets with live-action for a rather perverse re-invention of the classic story.  An unexceptional man finds himself cast as the infamous Medieval alchemist in a theater where reality has no bounds.
 8.5/10  Kino

 

The Fearless Vampire Killers   (USA/UK)   1967
D. Roman Polanski   S. Ferdy Mayne, Sharon Tate
Dance of the Vampires  This comedy-horror romp from the pre-Hollywood Roman Polanski boasts the lush visuals of a Hammer studios production.  A pair of bumbling vampire hunters (Jack MacGowran and director Roman Polanski) lay siege on a castle of rather distinguished bloodsuckers.  Full American title: The Fearless Vampire Killers, or: Pardon me, But Your Teeth Are In My Neck.  A cross proves ineffective against a Jewish vampire.
 6.5/10  Warner

 

 

The Flesh and the Fiends
(Image)  B/W  1960

This dramatization of events surrounding the crimes of notorious murderers Burke and Hare in 1827 Edinburgh, Scotland is a work of exceptional quality, boasting a fine cast of performers, an intelligent and historically faithful script, and plenty of gloomy atmosphere.  At the time it was released, unfortunately, the masses of the early 1960's drive-in culture were too restless to sit still for such a textured period drama. But today it can be appreciated as a document of real life horror, very much at the roots of the gothic tradition.  Genre star Donald Pleasance plays the insidious William Hare with amusing aplomb.  Along with his slow-witted, ogre companion William Burke (George Rose), Hare conspires to sell cadavers, ostensibly snatched from their graves, to the famous surgeon and professor Dr. Robert Knox (Peter Cushing), who needs fresh subjects for his student's dissection lessons.  Knox, a fervent crusader for the advancement of medical science at a time when religious strictures limit the availability of raw material, seems to be well aware that Burke and Hare's product is a little too fresh to be purely victims of natural causes.  Burke and Hare, Irish immigrants who run a ramshackle boarding house in the slums of Edinburgh, find that they can capitalize on the dispensable nature of the impoverished dregs who pass through their doors, by hastening their liquidity (i.e.:killing them).  Inevitably, the duo's homicidal indiscretions begin to attract the attention of local authorities, threatening to stir a controversy capable of trembling the pillars of the of the medical world itself.

Knox's cool dispassion for the low-blooded victims of his henchmen is a performance dilemma which Cushing handles expertly with his portrayal of a brilliant surgeon struggling against a medieval medical establishment for the future of humanity.  With their lively interaction, Pleasance and Rose likewise make the murderous team of rogues almost endearing.  Even the peripheral characters are well drawn in this study of death, class and professional ethics that was promoted as an exploitation picture.  The Image DVD in fact includes an European version that contains some nudity and additional violence.  Contrary to the impression given by the movie's marketing, however, The Flesh And The Fiends is not gruesome and vulgar, but colorful and thought-provoking.  The atmosphere of this British shocker may appeal to fans of classic Universal and Hammer horror films.  At the very least, admirers of Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasance should be interested in seeing them in these remarkable early roles.

 

 

The Fly   (USA)   1958
D. Kurt Neumann   S. Vincent Price
A scientist developing a matter transmitter is found dead, apparently murdered by his distraught wife.  The wife's motive proves to be far from routine, however, when the nature of the scientist's failed experiment is brought to light.  Though the premise of The Fly is still oddly unsettling today, star Vincent Price, in interviews, recalled that the film was considered to be something of a lark by him and the rest of the cast, with easily the most memorable scene involving a web-ensnared fly with a man's head, crying "Help me!" as a spider closes in.
 5.5/10  Fox

 

The Fog   (USA)   1979
D. John Carpenter   S. Jamie Lee Curtis, Adrienne Barbeau
John Carpenter's horror follow-up to Halloween, because it contains very little gore, was somewhat smothered in the flood of splatter films that followed Carpenter's own crowning genre breakthrough.  The story focuses on another small town with a dark secret, this time a coastal town by the name of Antonio Bay, where few memories linger of the crime of the townspeople a century before.  Fearing the imminent arrival of a colony of wealthy lepers, the town elders set a bonfire on the beach during a heavy fog, leading the leper's ship to crash into the rocks.  On the 100th anniversary of the event, a strange, glowing fog rolls in- The drowned crew of the Mary Celeste has returned for their stolen gold.  The Fog is enjoyably atmospheric, as you would expect, but also fairly ponderous.  In spite of a fun cast of Carpenter regulars, including Jamie Lee Curtis and Adrienne Barbeau, the story suffers a bit from not choosing lead characters among them.  In the companion documentary on the DVD, Carpenter admits to sexing The Fog up after an underwhelming early screening.
 6.5/10  MGM *

 

Forbidden Planet   (USA)   1956
D. Fred M. Wilcox   S. Leslie Nielson, Walter Pigeon
This sci-fi adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest features Robby the robot and a young Leslie Nielson, better known for his comic role of Frank Drebbin in the Naked Gun movies. As a kid I particularly loved the matte paintings of the planet surface and the invisible Id Monster.
 8.5/10  MGM *

 

Frankenstein   (USA)   1931
D. James Whale  S. Boris Karloff, Colin Clive
Reputedly there is a screen test of Bela Lugosi's screen test for the role of Frankenstein's monster somewhere, but he ultimately turned down the role, thus launching the career of British actor Boris Karloff.  In later entries in the franchise Bela Lugosi would don the neck-bolts himself and also played the sinister hunchback assistant Ygor.  Karloff would go on to play the role of Frankenstein's monster in Bride Of  Frankenstein and Son Of Frankenstein, before relinquishing the role for good.
 8/10  Universal *

 

Frankenstein Created Woman   (UK)   1967
D. Terence Fisher   S. Peter Cushing
Peter Cushin's Victor Frankenstein is mostly a peripheral character in this Hammer cheapie that features playboy bunny Susan Denberg, who died of an overdose not long after filming.  A boy, Hans, having witnessed the execution by beheading of his own father, grows up to be an employee of the infamous (but here rather affable) Baron Frankenstein.  Accused of killing the father of his beautiful, but disfigured, girlfriend Christina (Denberg), Hans is condemned to the same fate as his father so many years earlier.  Working on a method for transmuting souls, Frankenstein plants Hans' intellect into the body of Christina (who threw herself off a bridge after witnessing Hans' ghastly demise), fixing her scarred face in the bargain.  Now possessing Hans' desire for revenge against the young hoodlums that framed him, Christana goes about luring them to their doom, one at a time, with her ravishing beauty.
 5.5/10  Anchor Bay

 

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man   (USA)   1942/1944
D. Roy William Neill   S. Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi
Universal's first "Monster Mash" unites two of their most popular boogeymen for a climactic battle to the death.     Lon Chaney Jr. returns as the Wolf Man and donning the Frankenstein boots is Bela Lugosi, bringing the actor full-circle to the role he allegedly refused in 1931.  Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man , and the monster-mashes that followed may be a bit wonky compared to the original Universal monster epics given the logistical problems of such an unlikely gathering of frightful personalities, but a box-office revival of Dracula and Frankenstein in a popular double feature assured a market for them regardless of the increasingly flimsy plots.  Two grave-robbers arouse the wrath of a slumbering werewolf.
 6.5/10  Universal

 

Frankenstein: The True Story   (USA-TV)   1973
D. Jack Smight   S. David McCallum, James Mason
This exceptional, three-hour television feature has Michael Sarrazin as a normal-looking creation that gradually becomes a monster.  Jane Seymour appears as a beautiful but deadly Frankenstein "bride".  Arguably the finest adaptation of the Frankenstein story to date, in spite of (or maybe because of) not being altogether faithful to it.  The monster crashes a swank party and gets a piece of Jane Seymour.
 9/10  Universal

 

Fright Night   (USA)   1985
D. Tom Holland   S. Chris Sarandon, Roddy McDowell
Typical American teenager Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) enlists eccentric horror host Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowell) to help him clean up the neighborhood after suave yuppie bloodsucker Jerry Dandgidge (Chris Sarandon) moves in next door with his (ahem) boy Friday.  A feel-good popcorn vampire movie if I've ever seen one.  A washed-up television vampire-killer is confronted by the real thing.
 9/10  Columbia

 

From Dusk Till Dawn   (USA)   1995
D. Robert Rodriguez   S. George Clooney, Juliette Lewis
This startlingly unconventional vampire bonanza gets in your face early with a brutal crime spree perpetrated by bank-robber brothers Seth and Richard Gecko (George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino) and maintains it's relentless visual assault as we find our unlikely heroes, along with their erstwhile hostages, combating Aztec vampires in a Mexican strip-club.  The DVD comes with a two hour making-of documentary called Full-Tilt Boogie on a 2nd disc, which nicely illustrates the myriad obstacles indie filmmakers face in an entrenched, teamster-controlled Hollywood system.  Duct-tape is improperly utilized.  A guy uses a whip and a crotch-gun to steal a beer.  Bullets pass through thick stone walls like they were Styrofoam.
 7/10  Dimension *

 

The Funhouse   (USA)   1981
D. Tobe Hooper
 Carnival of Terror  A mildly entertaining homage-filled entry by horror director Tobe Hooper, but Hooper squanders a potentially great premise to make the standard masked-slasher Halloween clone so much in demand at the time.  Double-dating teens take a detour of terror in a carnival funhouse.
 5.5/10  GoodTimes