2000’s

[8] A pregnant woman waiting for the ambulance to pick her up from home must suddenly fight for her life when a scissor-wielding mad-woman invades her house with the aim of cutting her unborn baby from the womb. The concept of this French flick is unsettling enough, but what got me the most was the sheer volume of bodily fluids that ooze, drip and splash …

[7] Joel Schumacher (The Lost Boys, Flatliners) directs this weird, gloriously convoluted horror flick involving Nazis, the occult, and zombies — all on a farm in New England, beginning during World War II and ending today. As usual, Schumacher casts a hunk in the lead (God bless him). This time, it’s Henry Cavill from Man of Steel and TV’s The Tudors. Cavill and the cast …

[8] I was beginning to wonder if torture could ever be depicted in a movie without the movie becoming “torture porn”, without any other cinematic merit. This French horror flick answers my question. In Martyrs, torture isn’t just a dirty gimmick. It’s the thematic subject of the movie, where the reasons for torture are more disturbing than the act itself. The narrative structure is unconventional, …

[8]  An austere Swedish import that is both a touching coming-of-age story and a disturbing horror film. Let the Right One In centers around twelve-year-old Oskar, a bullied boy who befriends a strange new girl whose arrival into the community just so happens to coincide with many strange disappearances. Oskar falls in love with the girl, all while fearing her tyrannical father — not realizing …

[8] Crazed hunters pursue an American mountain cyclist through the misty Austrian wilderness until all parties fall prey to a super-sick and twisted, almost supernatural character referred to as Mortis. Director Federico Zampaglione puts a few fresh spins on this mash-up of familiar tropes and proves downright masterful at building atmosphere and suspense. The scenes involving Mortis (Nuot Arquint) are a rare treat for horror …

[5] George Clooney and Cate Blanchett star in Steven Soderbergh’s homage to war-time film noir, right down to the black and white 4×3 Academy aspect ratio. Clooney plays an American military journalist who tries to figure out who shot his driver (Tobey Maguire) in Berlin, after Germany fell but before the atomic bomb. Then Clooney discovers he and Maguire have bedded the same woman, a …

[8] Charlize Theron stars as Aileen Wuornos, the infamous Florida prostitute who became a serial killer, in this film chronicling her last few months of freedom before being captured and executed in 2002. Writer/director Patty Jenkins doesn’t shy away from Wuornos’ crimes, but aims to paint a more complex portrait of the woman who committed them. Monster introduces us to Wuornos as she’s contemplating suicide, …

[8] This is probably one of the most brutal and harrowing horror films of the past ten or fifteen years. Michael Fassbender hopes to pop the question to his girlfriend Kelly Reilly over a romantic weekend that spirals into a nail-biting fight for survival. Eden Lake takes its cues from Deliverance, but with nasty thirteen-year old’s instead of hillbillies. This film is the directorial debut …

[7] Jeepers Creepers begins with a Spielbergesque road ‘Duel‘, and then evolves into a disturbing mystery. Justin Long and Gina Philips give solid performances playing a brother and sister who unwittingly fall prey to the ‘Creeper’, director Victor Salva’s stab at incarnating the boogey man. While the Creeper is kept in shadow, the movie is really good. I especially love how the horror unravels when …

[7] How they shot Winged Migration is almost more fascinating than the film itself. The filmmakers rigged camera equipment to ultralight planes and imprinted with hatching birds of various species to get as close to their subjects as possible. The resulting cinematography is breathtaking, especially if you love birds. The film focuses solely on the migratory patterns of birds all around the world, so the …

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