Horror

[8] See review of the Nightbreed theatrical cut here. Clive Barker’s Nightbreed was originally released in 1990, dumped onto a handful of screens by the studio and barely marketed. It was a financial failure, and for the director it was also a creative one. Barker was forced by the studio to compromise his original vision, dropping key plot elements, shooting new scenes and an alternate …

[8] Nightbreed, directed by Clive Barker and based on his book Cabal, wants to be a sprawling horror-fantasy epic for the ages. But the multifaceted story is told so quickly and haphazardly in the studio’s cut of the film, the end result is something between whiplash and total discombobulation. As messy as the end result is, I still really admire the sheer ambition behind the …

[6] It’s not nearly as good as its predecessor, but I kinda like two out of the three tales in Creepshow 2.  The first story, Old Chief Wood’nhead, is about a wooden statue that comes alive to avenge the murder of a kindly old couple played by George Kennedy and Dorothy Lamour. Kennedy and Lamour are sweet, but the episode is too hackneyed to leave …

[8] George Romero directs an anthology from Stephen King in this homage to colorful horror comics of the 1950s. All five tales are pretty good. In Father’s Day, a deceased patriarch comes back to life to torment his heirs. Then Stephen King steps in front of the camera, playing a goofy hillbilly who discovers a deadly meteor in The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verill. Leslie …

[7] This decent little horror anthology produced by Bryan Singer serves up four tales of Halloween fright. Each of the stories feels like a small-town myth, the kind that haunts a community for generations. I particularly liked the one about a school bus driver who murders a bus load of ‘special needs’ kids. Other plot lines involve a high school principal who has it out …

[6] Reviled in its initial release for lacking any appearance of Michael Myers, truth is Halloween III ain’t that bad, it’s just mis-titled. It plays like an expanded episode of Twilight Zone or Outer Limits, centered around an oafish hero (Tom Atkins) and a stereotypical hot chick (Stacey Nelkin) who team up to uncover a conspiracy involving deadly Halloween masks. Halloween III is silly and …

[5] Roger Corman directs and Vincent Price stars in their only collaboration based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft. Price plays a man claiming an inherited castle where he gets possessed by the spirit of his great grandfather, who is hellbent on exacting his revenge on the relatives of the villagers who burned him alive one hundred years ago. Price plays both the possessed and …

[3] While trying to lose their virginity, two college guys discover some of the girls on campus are actually terrifying creatures from outer space. You’re either going to like that summary or you’re not. Decoys is a low-budget flick with respectable ambitions, but its thin story needs to rest on stronger characters and more charismatic actors. The lead boy (Corey Sevier) is easy on the …

[5] Whenever Bela Lugosi isn’t onscreen, you can’t wait for him to return in this cornerstone of on-screen horror. His iconic portrayal is the best thing this movie has going for itself. I also liked some of the sets and Dwight Frye’s crazy performance as Renfeld. The rest of the cast are not particularly good, and I would like the Dracula/Mina relationship to have been …

[7] I’m always on the lookout for a good monster movie, and Godzilla is one of the most legendary monsters in movie history, right? But he’s still not a sure thing. We all remember the Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich crap-fest from 1998, right? Well, thank goodness Monsters director Gareth Edwards takes the big lizard more seriously than they did. And thank goodness Edwards knows …

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