Happy Halloween! I wanted to put a lot more of these up, but I wound up pressed for time. There’s always next year, I suppose. Anyhow, here you are, my favorite slashers, I hope some of you watch one or two of these tonight.

(I’d like to note that I do not consider Nightmare on Elm Street or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to be slashers, therefore, they ain’t on this list.)

1.     Friday the 13^th Part IV : The Final Chapter ~ 1984, Joseph Zito

2.     American Psycho ~ 2000, Mary Harron

3.     Black Christmas ~ 1974, Bob Clark

4.     The Burning ~ 1981, Tony Maylam

5.     Halloween ~ 1978, John Carpenter

6.     Maniac ~ 1980, William Lustig

7.     Friday the 13^th ~ 1980, Sean S. Cunningham

8.     Don’t Go In The Woods… Alone! ~ 1981, James Bryan

9.     Sleepaway Camp ~ 1983, Robert Hiltzik

10.My Bloody Valentine ~ 1981, George Mihalka

11.The Intruder ~ 1989, Scott Spiegel

12.Silent Night, Deadly Night ~ 1984, Charles E Sellier Jr.

13.High Tension~ 2003, Aleandre Aja

14.Bloody Moon ~ 1981, Jesus Franco

15.Bay of Blood ~ 1971, Mario Bava

16.Just Before Dawn ~ 1981, Jeff Lieberman

17.Opera ~ 1987, Dario Argento

18.Nightmares ~ 1981, Romano Scavolini

There’s still plenty of time to get in a couple more movies, you guys. Here’s another list for you; this time it’s cults, the devil, witches, and stuff like that.

1.     Rosemary’s Baby ~ 1968, Roman Polanski

2.     The Exorcist ~ 1973, William Freidkin

3.     The Wicker Man ~ 1973, Robin Hardy

4.     Alucarda ~ 1977, Juan Lopez Moctezuma

5.     Haxan ~ 1922, Benjamin Christensen

6.     House of the Devil ~ 2009, Ti West

7.     Father’s Day ~ 2011, Astron 6

8.     Drag Me To Hell ~ 2009, Sam Raimi

9.     Prince of Darkness ~ 1987, John Carpenter

10.The Devil Rides Out ~ 1968, Terence Fisher

11.Night of the Demon ~ 1957, Jaques Tourner

12. Dagon ~ 2001, Stuart Gordon

13. The Killing of Satan ~ 1983, Efren C. Pinon

Magic!

1. Black Magic (AKA Jiang Tou) ~ 1975, Meng Hua Ho

2. Simon, King of the Witches ~ 1971, Bruce Kessler

3. Born Of Fire ~ 1987, Jamil Dehlavi

4. The Serpent and the Rainbow ~ 1988, Wes Craven

5. Mystics in Bali ~ 1981, H. Tjut Djalil

6. Black Magic 2 (AKA Revenge of the Zombies) ~ 1976, Meng Hua Ho

7. Big Trouble in Little China ~ 1986, John Carpenter

8. The Seeding of a Ghost ~ 1983, Chuan Yang

9. Eternal Evil of Asia ~ 1995, Man Kei Chin

10. Lord of Illusions ~ 1995, Clive Barker

11. Queen of Black Magic ~ 1983, Liliek Sudjio
12. Sugar Hill ~ 1974, Paul Maslansky (Almost more of a zombie movie than a magic movie, the whole voodoo/Baron Samedi always made me think of this as a “Magic” horror film than anything else.

Halloween draws closer! We’ve only got about two weeks of October left, so here are some more great movies to check out. My last list of Haunted House movies brought to mind the Cabin in the Woods subgenre, a small group of films, but one very near to my blackened, mechanical heart. Here are some of my favorites.

1. The Evil Dead ~ 1981, Sam Raimi

The ULTIMATE cabin in the woods movie, and my favorite horror film of all time. The thing about The Evil Dead is that it is such a pure, and perfect example of the Cabin in the Woods scenario, that it’s basically the first, and the last, word in the genre. Think of an important Cabin in the Woods horror flick that came before The Evil Dead… Cape Fear, almost? Straw Dogs? Night of the Living Dead establishes most of the genre conventions, but it does so without the “Woods” part of the equation, which I feel is actually an important element, because it uses the fear of isolation as part of the constant threat to the protagonist. There was Equinox, which is another huge influence on The Evil Dead (allegedly), and that will show up later in this list, but mostly The Evil Dead was the first really focused and pure Cabin in the Woods movie, and it’s so successful that made the Cabin in the Woods scenario cliché all by itself. Every Cabin in the Woods film from that point onward becomes a reference, parody, or homage to The Evil Dead.

2. Antichrist ~ 2009, Lars Von Trier
3. Evil Dead 2 ~ 1987, Sam Raimi
4. Cabin Fever ~ 2002, Eli Roth
5. Wither (AKA Vittra) ~ 2012, Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund
6. Tucker and Dale Versus Evil ~ 2010, Eli Craig

This counts! It’s post modern, but it counts. I would call this the ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead’ of Cabin in the Woods movies.

7. Entrails of a Virgin ~ 1986, Kazuo ‘Gaira’ Komizu
8. Evil Dead ~ 2013, Fede Alvarez
9. Dog Soldiers ~ 2002, Neil Marshall
10. Rituals ~ 1977, Peter Carter

(Turns into a Cabin in the Woods film briefly. It’s toward the edges of the genre, but a great enough film to warrant inclusion.)

11. Night of the Demon ~ 1980, James Wasson

(Same as Rituals. Only briefly toward the end does this become a Cabin in the Woods film… But I really love this movie, so I’m putting it in here.)

12. Equinox (AKA The Beast) ~ 1970, Jack Woods, Mark Thomas McGee, Dennis Muren

Last I’d heard, Sam Raimi denies that he had ever seen this movie when he made The Evil Dead, but a lot of people have trouble believing that given the overwhelming similarities between the two. I don’t know who to believe, but the two are close enough that The Evil Dead could have been a remake. It’s certainly closer than Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ is to Nyby and Hawks’ ‘The Thing From Another World.’

13. Scarecrows ~ 1988, William Wesley

I control this website… Therefore, no one can stop me. I can post these all day.

Portland, OR area artist/musician (and good friend of mine) Seth King (band camp site seen at http://wastemusic.bandcamp.com/ ) has requested a list of Haunted House movies, and I couldn’t be happier to oblige. In honor of October, here is another list; my twenty favorite Haunted House movies.

1.     The Shining ~ 1980, Stanley Kubrick

2.     House (Japanese film) ~ 1977, Nobuhiko Obayashi

3.     The Others ~ 2001, Alejandro Amenabar

4.     The Sentinel ~ 1977, Michael Winner

5.     The Innkeepers ~ 2011, Ti West

6.     House (American film) ~ 1986, Steve Miner

7.     The Entity ~ 1982, Sidney Furie

8.     Purani Haveli ~ 1989, Shyam and Tulsi Ramsay (This is a super awesome Bollywood horror film. Highly recommended. I’m no expert on the sub-genre, as I’ve probably seen less than ten Bollywood horror films in total anyway, but of all the ones I have seen, this is my favorite.)

9.     The Tennant ~ 1976, Roman Polanski (This one kinda counts, right? I say it does.)

10. The Keep~ 1983, Michael Mann (Probably doesn’t count… But I’m including it anyway.)

11. Let’s Scare Jessica To Death ~ 1971, John Hancock

12. The Legend of Hell House ~ 1973, John Hough

13. The Changeling ~ 1980, Peter Medak

14. Death Spa (AKA Witch Bitch) ~ 1989, Michael Fischa

15. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken ~ 1966, Alan Rafkin

16. From Beyond ~ 1986, Stuart Gordon (This one is also pushing it.)

17. Paranormal Activity ~ 2007, Oren Peli

18. The House on Haunted Hill ~ 1959, William Castle

19. The Haunting ~ 1963, Robert Wise

20. Hold That Ghost ~ 1941, Arthur Lubin

Hello!

Halloween is a week closer, so I’ve got another list of awesome horror movies to recommend. This time, I got vampires.

The cover of the ‘Let The Right One In’ DVD/Blu Ray has a quote on it, it reads “BEST. VAMPIRE. MOVIE. EVER.” And who does this quote come from? Just some dude pretty much. Some critic from some newspaper, and while ‘Let The Right One In” is very good, it is definitely not the best vampire movie ever. There have been many, many vampire movies made in the last one hundred years, and while most of our cinematic achievements have been retroactively rendered irrelevant in the aftermath of how profoundly detrimental the ‘Twilight’ franchise has been to human culture, there remain countless classic vampire films that can be enjoyed if you have Netflix, or if you somehow still have access to a video store that isn’t a friggin’ vending machine. Here are some of my favorites;

1.     Nosferatu ~ 1922, FW Murnau (Probably the real best vampire movie ever)

2.     Horror Of Dracula (AKA Dracula) ~ 1958, Terrence Fisher (Pretty much any of the Hammer Vampire flicks.)

3.     Mr. Vampire ~ 1985, Ricky Lau (Awesome hopping vampire kung fu/horror comedy flick from Hong Kong.)

4.     Blood For Dracula (AKA Andy Warhol’s Dracula) ~ 1974, Paul Morrissey

5.     Darkness ~ 1993, Leif Jonker (SUPER low budget, show on video, poor production values, not for everyone… However, it’s super gory, and also, really, really metal.)

6.     The Fearless Vampire Killers ~ 1967, Roman Polanksi

7.     Ganja and Hess ~ 1973, Bill Gunn

8.     The Nude Vampire ~ 1970, Jean Rollin (Really anything by Jean Rollin. He made tons of awesome vampire movies. They’re not for everybody, though.)

9.     Martin ~ 1977, George Romero

10.Lemora, a Child’s Tale of the Supernatural ~ 1973, Richard Blackburn

11.Layer of the White Worm ~ 1988, Ken Russel (Super cool. It’s got a young Hugh Grant. It’s rad.)

12.Innocent Blood ~ 1992, John Landis

13.The Night Flier ~ 1997, Mark Pavia

14.From Dusk Till Dawn ~ 1996, Robert Rodriguez

15.Nosferatu The Vampyre ~ 1979, Werner Herzog

So, yes. That’s just a small list of some of the classics that are out there. Seek ‘em out!