Murders in the Zoo
After a curiously cutesy opening-credits sequence featuring Murders in the Zoo’s cast members mirrored with similarly posed animals, a quick tonal shift occurs, transitioning to perhaps the most gruesome film scene of its day.
Laurín
Like the best fairy tales, which often portray darkness through the lens of childhood innocence, Laurín tells a dreamily surreal story of hardened youth.
The Ghost Bride
Marriage and remarriage have forever been prominent motifs in the comedy genre. But with matrimonial success rates not exactly encouraging in much of the world, and divorce illegal in the Philippines, they’re equally suitable grist for the horror mill.
Hospital Massacre
While 1981’s My Bloody Valentine may rightfully be the go-to Valentine’s Day slasher for anti-romantics who prefer their gooeyness blood-soaked and sugar-free, Cannon Films attempted to give it some competition later that year (though it didn’t hit U.S. theaters until April 1982).
Demon
With its theatrical origins—Piotr Rowicki’s play Adherence—Demon might be stagey in its limited setting, but there’s so much festering within that you’re hardly aware that most of the action takes place during the course of one wedding.
Humongous
In what could be the fastest-resulting rape-revenge scenario in horror-movie history, a drunken lout brutally forces himself on a young woman, Ida (Shay Garner), during a family party in 1946, and directly after he’s through, is attacked by her dogs and, while laying there mauled and bleeding, his victim finishes him off by smashing his head with a rock. He’s dead before the opening credits roll.
Nightmare Beach
The close of the ’80s brought a consummate entry in that decade’s trash-horror cinema. Nightmare Beach takes a sex-comedy setting—spring break at Miami Beach—and tosses in a killer, who so inconveniently disrupts the visiting horny teens’ partying agendas.
Murder by Phone
This rarity by the director of Logan’s Run and Orca may be one of the silliest slasher films ever made, but it’s also irresistible fun, both well-executed and rapidly paced.