Scars of Dracula (1970)

Scars of Dracula (1970)

[3] Christopher Lee dons the fangs for Hammer Films a fifth time, but to every-diminishing returns. Scars of Dracula has little continuity with previous installments, feeling more like a reboot than a sequel. The first half of the film mirrors Bram Stoker's…
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

[3] I guess we were lucky to get five good Freddy movies before the franchise finally shit the bed. In Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, there's only one remaining teenager (Shon Greenblatt) in the neighborhood and Freddy uses him to gain access…
Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

[3] I've never read Lewis Carroll's novel, but I loathe every film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland I've ever seen. Walt Disney's animated version is marginally better than the studio's hideously garish 2010 remake, but it's just as aimless, pointless, and tediously…
A Monster Calls (2016)

A Monster Calls (2016)

[7] A twelve-year-old boy (Lewis MacDougall) is visited by a towering tree monster (voiced by Liam Neeson) who helps him deal with school bullies and his mother's terminal cancer. A Monster Calls is a beautifully crafted film directed by J.A. Bayona (The…
Masters of the Universe (1987)

Masters of the Universe (1987)

[7] If you had to make a movie based on the ham-fisted He-Man toy line and you had no choice but to cast Dolph Lundgren (Rocky IV) in the lead, you could do far worse than first-time director Gary Goddard did with…
The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)

The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)

[10] William Dieterle's adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benet's The Devil and Daniel Webster is a winning combination of rustic Americana and dark fantasy. A cautionary tale of greed and power, the narrative centers around the character of Jabez Stone (James Craig), a…
Return of the Jedi (1983)

Return of the Jedi (1983)

[9] George Lucas wraps up his historic, original Star Wars trilogy with an entry that's widely considered inferior to the first two films -- but that's more a testimony to the unparalleled excellence of those prior films than a knock against it's…
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

[6] Freddy's franchise continues with a fifth worthwhile installment directed by Stephen Hopkins (The Ghost and the Darkness, Predator 2). Freddy (Robert Englund) continues his killing spree by haunting the dreams of an unborn child. The child in question belongs to Alice…
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

[10] After deciding directing wasn't his favorite thing to do, George Lucas enticed his former film school teacher Irvin Kershner (Eyes of Laura Mars, Return of a Man Called Horse) to helm the dark second act of his historic Star Wars trilogy.…
Star Wars (1977)

Star Wars (1977)

[10] Writer/director George Lucas (American Graffiti) surprised the world with this unassuming and unheralded matinee-style fantasy adventure that, by all industry standards, would be dead on arrival at the box office. But then word-of-mouth catapulted Star Wars to the highest echelons of…