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

 

Tales Of Terror   (USA)   1962
D. Roger Corman   S. Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone
A charming adaptation of Poe's "The Black Cat" (infused with a bit of "The Cask of Amontillado") is book-ended by two lesser tales.  In the strangely familiar Morella, Vincent Price plays a mad recluse haunted by his wife's uncertain death.  In The Black Cat, Peter Lorre is a villainous drunkard who serves up a horrific brand of domestic vengeance against an unfaithful wife and her suitor (Vincent Price again), only to be foiled by the family feline.  In The Case of M. Valdemar, Basil Rathbone is an iniquitous hypnotist who imprisons the soul of ailing subject Vincent Price- with predictable results.
 6.5/10  MGM

 

Teenagers From Outer Space   (USA)   1959
D. Tom Graeff
 The Gargon Terror  In spite of it's incredible obscurity, this shoe-string sci-fi schlock is 95% as enjoyable to behold as Ed Wood Jr.'s legendary opus Plan 9 From Outer Space, and should be sought out by anyone who would call themselves a B-Movie maven (As I often do.  I am a Maven!  See?).  An angst-filled, rebellious teen from another planet refuses to fulfill his people's prime directive of turning Earth into a lobster-ranch (Or something like that.  The plot is too simple for me to understand.)  Trust me, you don't want me spoiling this one for you.  
 3/10  Image

 

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre   (USA)   1974
D. Tobe Hooper   S. Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen
 Head Cheese  Probably the most effective horror film ever made, TCSM is a story full of portents and foreshadowing, but those first audiences could never have anticipated what they were in for when they caught this evolutionary low-budget gem almost thirty years ago.  Five twenty-somethings run out of gas in a remote stretch of road in Texas, and fall prey to a "family of Ed Geins" who love to have company for dinner.
 9/10  Dark Sky *

 

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2   (MGM)   1986
D. Tobe Hooper   S. Dennis Hopper, Bill Moseley
Forget the bad things you've heard about the twelve-year-removed sequel to TCSM, this movie is a classic.  Though this southern-fried guignol extravaganza lacks the masterful subtlety of the original, and plays more like a gory spoof of it's predecessor, it none the less carries on the saga of the cannibalistic Sawyer clan quite effectively.  Sure, there are several moments of outrageous improbability in the story (the opening, high-speed chain-saw attack comes to mind), and scenes of sickening sadism that transcend those in TCM, but the guys who made this skull-smashing smorgasbord knew what they were going for, and you spell that F-U-N.
 6.5/10  MGM *

 

Theater of Blood   (UK)   1973
D. Douglas Hickox   S. Vincent Price, Diana Rigg
Much Ado About Murder  Considered by some to be Vincent Price's last great horror movie, Theater Of Blood involved a Shakespeare-obsessed thespian (Price) who assassinates his critics in ways inspired by the works of The Bard.  A fat guy is force-fed poodle pie through a funnel!
 6/10  MGM

 

Them!   (USA)   1954
D. Gordon Douglas   S. James Whitmore, James Arness
Huge, mutant ants threaten to over-run the planet unless Sheriff Dillon and his booze-swilling side-kick Festus-...  (Just a little joke there, folks).  Them is the first, and inarguably the best, of the 1950's cycle of giant-bug movies.  The bus-sized giant ants are rather slow and puppety, but very nifty for the movie's time, and the movie's atmosphere is quite striking as well.
 6.5/10  Warner

 

They Live   (USA)   1988
D. John Carpenter   S. Roddy Piper, Keith David
John Carpenter's paranoid sci-fi thriller about nasty Capitalist aliens in human disguise who have the unsuspecting denizens of Earth in their thrall, until a special brand of eyewear starts circulating which can cut through the illusion.
 6.5/10  Universal

 

The Thing From Another World   (USA)   1951
D. Christian Nyby   S. Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite
The Thing  Howard Hawke's loose adaptation of Bill Campbell's "Who Goes There?" is a study in suspense, atmospherics and offbeat dialogue, with Gunsmoke's James Arness (years before strapping on a gun as Sheriff Dillon) playing the blood-drinking "thinking vegetable" who terrorizes a bunch of soldiers and scientists at the inhospitable Arctic Circle.  Thirty years later, John Carpenter would do his own adaptation, with a feature creature that was both more complex, and more terrifying than the frankenstein-like monster of the Hawkes original.
 8.5/10  Warner

 

The Thing   (USA)   1982
D. John Carpenter   S. Kurt Russell, Keith David
John Carpenter's treatment of the Bill Campbell sci-fi story "Who Goes There?" about a group of men trapped together in a compound on the Arctic circle with a nasty, shape-shifting alien that may be one of them.  The director does a great job of creating an atmosphere of claustrophobia and suspicion, and FX magician Rob Bottin creates a frighteningly plausible life-form in the slimy titular monster.  They and Kurt Russell (accompanied by a talented cast) all give this thrilling horror a distinct edge over the original 1951 classic.  Universal *
 9/10

 

The Time Machine   (USA)   1960
D. George Pal   S. Rod Taylor
The real stars of George Pal's quaint adaptation of the H.G. Wells sci-fi classic is obviously the time machine itself, and the movies glowing-eyed, subterranean antagonists, the Morlocks.  It's a pity that the companion retrospective included on the DVD doesn't mention the Morlocks at all.
 7/10  Warner *

 

The Tingler   (USA)   1959
D. William Castle   S. Vincent Price
William Castle's third notoriously stupid gimmick movie is redeemed simply by Vincent Price's presence in it, and is also remarkable for being the first cinematic portrayal of the effects of LSD.  A pathologist with a fascination for fear discovers the creature responsible for it: a centipede-like monster that resides in the spinal column, and lives to make our spines tingle.  Uh, yeah...
 5/10  Columbia *

 

The Tomb of Ligeia   (USA)   1965
D. Roger Corman   S. Vincent Price, Elizabeth Shepherd
Vincent Price plays another of his trademark doomed protagonists in Corman's final Poe film for AIP.
 6/10  MGM *

 

Tombs of the Blind Dead   (Spain)   1972
D. Amando de Ossorio
La Noche del terror ciego, Mark of the Devil 4: Tombs of the Blind Dead, Revenge from Planet Ape   A loose dream-like structure characterizes this first of Spanish director Amando Ossorio's Blind Dead Series, though the original concept of the empty-eyed satanic Knights Templar rising from their graves to terrorize the present was improved on somewhat in the sequels, with Night of The Seagulls being a personal favorite.  The living dead hijack a train and feed on the passengers.
 6/10 - 5/10  Blue Underground #Blind Dead Series

 

Twisted Brain   (USA)   1974
D. Larry N. Stouffer
 Horror High  A tormented geek develops a formula turning himself into a discount Mr. Hyde, in order to exact revenge on his assorted bullies and oppressors.
 4.5/10  Rhino

 

Underworld   (USA)   2003
D. Len Wiseman   S. Kate Bekinsale, Bill Nighy
Brainless but diverting special-effects actioneer dealing with an ancient war between werewolves and vampires that is being waged in a rain-slicked, urban netherworld of the present day.  The "2-Disc Unrated Extended Cut" includes a wealth of production featurettes, a commentary with director Len Wiseman and cast, and the AMC television special, Fangs vs. Fiction.
 6.5/10  Columbia *

 

Vampire In Brooklyn   (USA)   1995
D. Wes Craven   S. Eddie Murphy, Angela Bassett
Wes Craven's contemporary answer to Blacula (not to suggest that one was needed) features Murphy as a fairly effective vampire, though it can be argued that there's no way to divorce yourself from the fact that it really is only Eddie Murphy.  As much for laughs as scares, though, the comic material manages to compensate for the formulaic plot, particularly in the form of Kadeem Harrison, as the decomposing ghoul thrall, and comic foil, of the vampire Maximillian, played straight by Murphy.
6.5/10  Paramount

 

The Vampire Lovers   (UK)   1970
D. Roy Ward Baker   S. Ingrid Pitt, Peter Cushing, Ferdy Mayne
Based on the pre- Bram Stoker Sheridan Le Fanu story Carmilla, about a becoming female vampire who befriends an aristocratic family in order to prey on the young daughter, this Hammer version used nudity and lesbianism to bolster the box-office in an increasingly exploitative market in which the studio was struggling to stay afloat.  In my opinion, Ingrid Pitt, though she cuts a striking figure, was about fifteen years too old to play the part, and seems quite a bit more physically imposing than source story's description of its titular character.  Further, even with Peter Cushing as the revenge-seeking father of one of Carmilla's previous female victims, and Ferdy Mayne (The Fearless Vampire Killers) as the family physician, there is nothing about this movie to make it more compelling than reading the story.  Aside from the sight of Pitt in all of her nude glory, and a couple of other bared cleavages, the movie just doesn't generate much intrigue, trudging over a lot of familiar Hammer horror territory.  Even so, Hammer produced two more movies following the further adventures of Le Fanu's Karnstein vampire family, Lust for a Vampire and Twins of Evil.
5/10  MGM *

 

Werewolf Shadow   (Spain)   1970
D. Léon Klimovsky   S. Paul Naschy, Gaby Fuchs
La Noche de Walpurgis, The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman, Blood Moon  One thing you can't take away from Paul Naschy (born Jacinto Molina), he is the padre grande of Spanish horror cinema, an athlete and art director who had been profoundly inspired as a boy by Lon Chaney Jr.'s portrayal of Laurence Talbot in Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man.  He got to wrote a series of screenplays involving werewolves fighting vampires, and the like, which he dreamed of putting in front of a camera.  He not only had to single-handedly erect a Spanish horror industry where zero horror movies had ever been shot, but when he couldn't get a washed-up Lon Chaney to play his wolf man protagonist, Waldemar Daninsky, Naschy donned the lupine get-up himself.  In that role he became the werewolviest actor in history, outscoring even his childhood idol, Chaney.  Werewolf Shadow is easily the most recognized Naschy title internationally, but the release of this DVD will hopefully generate interest in other Naschy monster movies.  The widescreen transfer on the Anchor Bay DVD is unlike any of the horrible video bootlegs that have been floating around over the years, and the extras- a Naschy interview, biography, extensive poster gallery and trailers- along with a pristine transfer of one of the coolest (and most beautifully shot) werewolf movies of all time- make this disc a howling success.  Also known as The Werewolf Versus Vampire Woman and Night of the Walpurgis.  
 5.5/10  Anchor Bay *

 

The Wolf Man   (USA)   1941
D. George Waggner   S. Lon Chaney, Claude Rains, Bela Lugosi
This third classic Universal monster introduced Lon Chaney Jr. into the pantheon of great Hollywood bogeyman that included his own father Lon Chaney.  Lon Jr. plays an unlikely Count who has returns to his birthplace in Wales (which looks strikingly similar to darkest Transylvania in this movie), is promptly bitten by a lycanthropized Bela Lugosi, and tags along with a weird old Gypsy woman (Maria Ouspenskaya) in his struggle to come to terms with his monstrous affliction.  Tragically, he takes a savage caning to the head in the end, but Universal would resurrect Chaney's Wolf Man to die in five other Universal horrors, including Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.  Though the role was originally intended for Boris Karloff, no other person would play the role for Universal besides Lon Chaney Jr.
 7/10  Universal *

 

 

Wrong Turn (Regency)  C  2003

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre gravy train has been barreling along steadily for the last 30 years it seems, and movies that cash in on the Tobe Hooper cult classic continue to be popular even as the seminal film itself gets a modern, megabucks, Michael Bay face-lift.  Stan Winston's Wrong Turn is a slick stand-out among the most recent of these "Cannibal Clan" slashers, with effects work supervised by the make-up guru himself.  The elaborate, prosthetic make-up of the three, deformed hillbilly maniacs is the feature attraction, (though the characters are rarely seen clearly, making the viewer's imagination work to try to comprehend them) but the presence of Buffy hottie Eliza Dushku in the role of head scream queen, and the striking, rustic setting certainly help Wrong Turn to stand on it's own in this "scary hicks" sub-subgenre.  Alas, the movie's trailer was deemed too intense for release, leading to a marketing calamity and box-office disappointment.  No doubt as a result of this misfortune, Wrong Turn has been transferred to the medium of DVD in record time, with a scattered assortment of extras, including making-of featurettes, a refreshingly amusing commentary track, deleted scenes, and the infamous banned trailer itself.

The movie itself should become a horror classic thanks mainly to Winston's obvious determination to create just that, but the sober straight-forward manner in which this was accomplished somewhat dulls it down.  The action is fairly tight and Dushku and the other actors are at least good enough to fill the shoes of their respective sketchy characters, but the deliberately square, functional dialogue and the short running time keep them well out of the reach of audience sympathy even as they meet horrible deaths.  Winston suggests  in one of the featurettes that he wanted to avoid being too clever and self-referential, and this is probably the thinking that squandered the movie's true potential.  I admit I'm more keen on the whole Scream trend of horror satire than Winston, but if he could have only given these brief personalities something interesting to say, to put them in the arena emotionally, he might have had something epical.  Winston relies on a good number of dependable, slasher clichés, as you might expect, but aspires to stay above the homage-a-minute rabble that he perceives as eating away at the genre.  He's entitled to try, of course, but he may have overcompensated in Wrong Turn, and missed the exit completely.  This curious austerity of style can also be found with the Tarzan-ish soundtrack, which is as standard as the dialogue.

Synopsis: A group of stranded college students finds themselves prey to a monstrous trio of inbred mountain men in the wilds of West Virginia.

 

 

Zombie   (Italy)  C  1979
D. Lucio Fulci   S. Richard Johnson, Tisa Farrow
Zombi 2, Zombie Flesh-Eaters, Island of the Flesh-Eaters  Accompanied by an intrepid reporter investigating a strange maritime incident in New York harbor, a woman (Tisa Farrow, sister of Mia Farrow) charters a boat to a lush, sparsely populated Caribbean island to discover the fate of her scientist father.  Informed by a colleague of her father's (Richard Johnson of the original The Haunting) that he'd died of a strange contagion that is the focus of their research there, the pair soon find that the tragedy of the father's death is the least of their concerns.  A disease that turns it's afflicted into repulsive flesh-eating ghouls puts them in a flight for life to get off of an island of the living dead.  Best known for a gross-out scene showing a woman's eye being slowly impaled on a wooden splinter, the Fulci-directed Italian rip-off of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead improves on it's predecessor in many respects, particularly in regard to the slimy, gruesome zombie make-up and gore effects.  The haunting photography works with the dark, plodding musical score to evoke potent chills, in spite of numerous laughable logical errors with the story and a few flat performances.  Buy it just for the unequaled aquatic-zombie versus tiger-shark scene.  Wow!  Lots of great extras on the Media Blasters version, if you don't mind subtitles (or better, understand Italian).
 7/10  Media Blasters *