Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Johnny and Barbara, brother and sister travel by car to a rural cemetery to visit their father’s grave. There they are confronted by a pale-faced man man who staggers toward them and attacks Barbara. Johnny fights with him, but is knocked unconscious when his head is hit on a gravestone. Barbara runs back to the car, but Johnny has the keys so she puts it out of gear but it crashes into a tree. So she takes off running away from the man until she finds a farmhouse nearby and takes refuge. There she is met by a man named Ben who arrives in a pick up truck who protects her and barricades the doors and windows to prevent the creatures from coming in. Later on they discover people hiding in the basement, a young man and woman, and a husband and wife with a sick young girl who was bitten. The news broadcast being televised explains that the dead are coming back to life and eating the flesh of their victims. Running out of time because of the growing masses of zombies outside, they devise a plan to get fuel from the gas pump outback for the truck so they can get out of there.
A terrifying and bone-chilling horror classic.
Starring Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, Keith Wayne, Judith Ridley, Kyra Schon 8/10

Read Full Post »

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

A young nurse named Ana returns home from her day shift. She spends her time with her husband Louis. The next morning one of the neighbor kids bites him on the neck. He dies but comes back to life, trying to bite her. Ana runs out of the house and finds it’s chaos in her neighborhood, people are being eaten by flesh eating zombies. She gets in her car and drives away from town but she loses control and crashes it into a tree. When she comes to, a black police officer rescues her and they run into three more people who tell them the same thing is going on where they came from. So they all take shelter in a closed mall while they wait for help to arrive. But they’re running out of food, ammunition and time as the zombies are multiplying in great numbers outside. So they come up with a plan to reinforce two shuttle buses with weapons and a battering ram to get through the massive crowd of zombies. They drive to the boat docks where one of them has a boat so they can take it to one of the islands.
A gory and bloody but exciting remake of the original 1978 version. Starring Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, Ty Burrell, Michael Kelly, Kevin Zegers Matt Frewer, Michael Barry 7/10

Read Full Post »

American Psycho (2000)

Patrick Bateman is a wealthy twenty-seven year old man working as a broker on Wall Street. He dresses nice, he has a rigorous exercise routine, and lives in a expensive and modern suite in an upscale apartment of the city. He looks normal from the outside, but inside he struggles with an unquenchable blood lust and lack of sympathy for fellow human beings. So at night he puts on gloves and a raincoat so as not to stain his clothes, takes a spotless axe and hacks his co-worker to pieces. No one suspects him of anything, even his lawyer who thinks he’s joking when he confesses all the people he’s murdered.
A good dark comedy; Bale is flawless in the role as the clean cut, eccentric music lover Patrick Bateman.
Starring Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage, Chloe Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, Samantha Mathis, Matt Ross, Jared Leto, Willem Dafoe 8/10

Read Full Post »

Psycho (1960)

Leigh plays Marion Crane, a secretary who steals money from the bank she works at, and runs away until the stormy weather makes driving difficult so she decides to stay at a motel for the night. She happens to stop at a motel that is right off the highway named the Bates Motel, owned by the seemingly normal but awkward Norman Bates. But everything is far from normal. Norman Bates has a split personality of himself and his mentally ill mother. After Marion’s ill-fated death in the famous “shower scene”, her boyfriend, sister and a private detective set out to investigate her disappearance. Excellent horror film that still gives you chills.
Starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, Simon Oakland, John Anderson 10/10

Read Full Post »

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

Oldman plays Dracula, who was once a Romanian knight fighting against enemies of God, but his bride Elisabeta believing him to be dead takes her own life. So he renounces God and vows to rise from his grave and avenge her death. Four centuries later, estate agent Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to Dracula’s castle on behalf of his firm, while his fiancee Mina stays with her friend Lucy until his return. Dracula eventually finds out that Mina is the splitting image of his lost love and she becomes the object of his affections.
Meanwhile, Doctor Seward calls for Professor Van Helsing when Lucy starts to get weak from blood loss. Van Helsing discovers two bites on her neck and believes that she was bitten by an animal or monster.
In my opinion one of the the best films about Dracula, with amazing performances by Oldman, Hopkins and Ryder. Although it is not entirely similar to the Bram Stoker novel, it is still entertaining. Starring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Richard E. Grant, Cary Elwes, Bill Campbell, Sadie Frost 8/10

Read Full Post »

The Shining (1980)

Jack Torrance (Nicholson) is a writer who becomes the new caretaker of The Overlook Hotel in the secluded mountains of Colorado. He brings along his wife Wendy and son Danny so they can stay with him while he looks after the hotel until May the first. But during their stay, strange things start to occur as Danny sees gruesome and horrific images with a very special gift he has called “the shining”. Jack suffers from a major writer’s block and along with the demons of the hotel haunting him, he ends up having a mental breakdown and is told by the previous caretaker to murder his family.
This is by far one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen; and even though I’ve lost count how many times I have viewed this film, it still scares the hell out of me. With terrific direction, incredibly creepy music and the brilliant Jack Nicholson this is a great horror film. Starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson 10/10

Read Full Post »

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Millionaire Fredrick Loren throws a party at the house on haunted hill. He invites five people and offers them each $10,000 to spend the night in the old mansion. But this is no ordinary house; it’s haunted. In spite of its reputation that it’s haunted, they’ll have to stay there if they want the money.
Vincent Price is terrific as the eccentric millionaire. Good to see late at night, snuggled up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, this is one of those rare black and white movies that never ceases to be entertaining. Starring Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal, Carolyn Craig 9/10

Read Full Post »