Antichrist
Lars von Trier has always been quietly obsessed with genre trash that his audience would find distasteful. Antichrist is more in the tradition of The Evil Dead than The Mirror.
The Living Dead Girl
Jean Rollin’s debut, The Rape of the Vampire, was the only film to premiere in Paris during the May 1968 riots, and Rollin’s destiny as a director was irrevocably sealed.
Deep Red
It’s so strange that Dario Argento’s 1996 movie called The Stendhal Syndrome is really about post-traumatic stress disorder when nearly all of his classics somehow involve Stendhal syndrome.
The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue
While it predates the entire Italian zombie phenomenon, the Spanish/Italian co-production The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue feels like an exemplar of Italian horror films of the 1970s…
The Howling
The first inkling I ever had of The Howling was hearing the opening notes of Pino Donaggio’s score sampled in the Primal Scream song “Pills,” produced by Dan the Automator. When I finally saw the movie years later (my adolescent music nerd phase predated my obsession with VHS horror), I was scandalized.
The Lords of Salem
“On the rare occasion, a special child appears…” I first watched The Lords of Salem in an empty multiplex in Easton, PA, in 2013. After 10 minutes, I had to go ask them to turn off the lights.
Cemetery Man aka Dellamorte Dellamore
Directors love Magritte. William Friedkin modeled the iconic Exorcist streetlight image after the painting Empire of Light. Director Michele Soavi was inspired by the shrouded kiss depicted in The Lovers II for his 1994 film Dellamorte Dellamore (translation: Of Death, Of Love).
The Strangers
“Because you were home.” That’s it. The best home-invasion movie ever made is built on a foundation of senselessness.
Black Sabbath
Mario Bava was a living embodiment of Italian genre cinema, working credited and uncredited on nearly a hundred films.
Trans Girl Suicide Apartment
Roman Polanski’s The Tenant as a phantom trans text