Michael Gough

[3] Horror maestro Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream) tackles voodoo and zombification in The Serpent and the Rainbow. Bill Pullman (Spaceballs) stars as an anthropologist sent to Haiti by a pharmaceutical company seeking the ingredients of a powder that is thought to give the living every appearance of being dead. Victims are buried alive while still hearing, seeing, and feeling everything. Along …

[7] Director Tim Burton puts his stamp on Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, casting his Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands star Johnny Depp in the role of Ichabod Crane. In this retelling, Crane is a 1799 New York forensic investigator sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a string of murders. The townspeople tell him the victims are decapitated and their heads haven’t been …

[6] Hammer Film’s loose adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s story focuses on revenge and doesn’t really touch upon the subversive romantic potential between the Phantom (Herbert Lom) and Christine (Heather Sears). Since that’s kind of the whole point, the film largely misses the mark. But as usual with Hammer Films, I like the production design and general atmosphere — especially the Phantom’s underground lair. Herbert Lom …

[9] It’s hard to believe we once lived in a time when superhero movies didn’t monopolize the multiplexes. Such a time was the summer of 1989, when Warner Brothers’ very first big-screen version of Batman was due to be released. Many declared the film a folly. Indeed, a superhero film hadn’t been successful since Superman II nearly ten years earlier and most of the world …

[9] With double entendre’s out the wazoo and sight gags out the yin-yang, not to mention a shiny young Val Kilmer dancing and singing his heart out, Top Secret! wins me over. The film is from the makers of Airplane!, and as well-loved as that film is, I personally enjoy this one a lot more. The jokes come rapid-fire, ranging from low-key (“In women’s tennis, …