My Bloody Valentine
“There’s more than one way to lose your heart,” states the catchiest of the many taglines attached to the original, and best, Valentine’s-themed horror film. George Mihalka’s second feature, and still his most celebrated work, is holiday-specific in both its Valentine’s Day setting and its locale, a small made-up Canadian mining town called Valentine Bluffs.
Red Rooms
I first watched Pascal Plante’s Red Rooms months ago upon its Canadian release, and it was with no shortage of dread that I sat down to watch it again in preparation to write this review.
The Mask
“This is a living nightmare!” archaeologist Michael Radin (Martin Lavut) frantically spills to his shrink, Dr. Allen Barnes (Paul Stevens), explaining that his dreams have become all too real, even murderous.
The Changeling
For all the freaky poltergeist activity and vivid visions of murder to come, The Changeling (1980) dispatches its most abysmal horrors in its opening minutes, when its protagonist witnesses the deaths of his wife and child under the wheels of a truck, in the sort of scene that inevitably impacts older viewers more profoundly than younger ones.
Skinamarink
We go to the movies to see ghosts, whether they be the likenesses of long-gone actors, objects, or edifices, or the suggestion of specters imprinted in the gloom of otherwise benign images.
Pontypool
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was: “What?” This syllable, spoken by Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie), shock jock in decline, is in response to an encounter at a traffic light as he’s driving to work in the spiffy opening to Pontypool (2008), directed by Bruce McDonald and adapted by Tony Burgess from his book Pontypool Changes Everything.
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.
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.