HORROR 101 with Dr. AC

THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985) – 40 YEARS LATER! Tonight we're discussing The Return of the Living Dead (1985), the cult-classic zombie comedy that redefined the undead genre. Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon (Alien, Lifeforce) makes his directorial debut with this wildly exuberant black comedy that mixes terrific comic performances with good old-fashioned flesh-chomping horror. Packed with gory ma...

TRILOGY OF TERROR (1975) d. Dan Curtis (USA) Tonight we're talking about Trilogy of Terror, the beloved horror anthology movie from producer/director Dan Curtis starring Karen Black which premiered on ABC television March 4, 1975. Curtis was already a household name in 1975, having created the legendary vampire soap opera Dark Shadows, as well as The Night Stalker, the highest-rated made-for-telev...

LIFEFORCE (1985) d. Tobe Hooper (USA/UK)  Based on Colin Wilson's novel, The Space Vampires, a team of astronauts encounter a ship lodged within the head of Halley's Comet and discover three impossibly beautiful humanoid creatures, two male, one female, encased in coffin-like crystalline blocks. And, as any genre film fan can predict, as soon as they get these strange creatures back to earth, bloc...

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) d. James Whale (USA) WEREWOLF OF LONDON (1935) d. Stuart Walker (USA) Tonight, we open the creaking doors to celebrate a pair of Universal classics that both turn 90 this year—Werewolf of London and Bride of Frankenstein, released in that golden year of genre cinema, 1935. While not always mentioned in the same breath, these two films mark an important moment in Univer...

THE CHANGELING (1980) d. Peter Medak (Canada) (Apologies for the tech issues during the last 4-5 minutes! We were battling the ghost of Joseph Carmichael!) Tonight we're discussing The Changeling (1980), Peter Medak's stellar haunted house tale which usually takes a back seat to the big-budget envisioning of Stephen King's The Shining, released the same year. But in many ways, this small Canadian...

BLACK SUNDAY (1960) d. Mario Bava (Italy) Tonight we're discussing Mario Bava's Black Sunday (aka The Mask of Satan) (1960), one of the most atmosphere-drenched cinematic forays into the supernatural. Marrying the feel of the Universal classics with the darkness of a Grimm fairy tale, and adding in the gorier and sexier feel of the rising Hammer color Gothics, this tour-de-force directorial debut...

FRIGHT NIGHT (1985) d. Tom Holland (USA) FRIGHT NIGHT PART II (1988) d. Tommy Lee Wallace (USA) FRIGHT NIGHT (2011) d. Craig Gillespie (USA) FRIGHT NIGHT 2 (2013) d. Eduardo Rodriguez (USA) Written and directed by Tom Holland, 1985's Fright Night is a genre-blending horror-comedy that combines classic vampire lore with 1980s suburban paranoia. The story follows teenager Charley Brewster, who suspe...

DAY OF THE DEAD (1985) d. George A. Romero (USA) Celebrate the 40th anniversary of George A. Romero's Day of the Dead, the dark, post-apocalyptic chapter of his legendary zombie trilogy. We explore the film's unforgettable gore, chilling atmosphere, and its place in horror history. Perfect for fans of classic zombie movies, 80s horror, and cult cinema! In this episode, we dive into: 🔹 Romero's vi...

TARANTULA (1955) d. Jack Arnold (USA) IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1955) d. Robert Gordon (USA) KING DINOSAUR (1955) d. Bert I. Gordon (USA) Tonight, we step back seventy years to 1955—the cusp of the golden age for giant monster cinema, as atomic anxiety crept from the headlines onto the silver screen, mutating into monstrous metaphors that stomped, crawled, and slithered into our collective ima...

HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986/1990) d. John McNaughton (USA) Tonight we take a look back at one of the most disturbing and uncompromising horror films ever made: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Loosely inspired by the real-life confessions of Henry Lee Lucas, John McNaughton's debut feature is relentless in its refusal to offer comfort, catharsis, or a triumphant finale of good over...

MASTERS OF HORROR was a horror anthology series like none before, making its small-screen bow on the cable channel Showtime in October 2005. Created by Mick Garris, the show brought together some of the most renowned names in horror filmmaking to direct hour-long episodes that showcased their unique visions. Predating the wave of multi-voiced anthology films like V/H/S and ABCs of Death, each epis...

JAWS (1975) d. Steven Spielberg (USA) JAWS 2 (1978) d. Jeannot Szwarc (USA) JAWS 3D (1983) d. Joe Alves (USA) JAWS: THE REVENGE (1987) d. Joseph Sargent (USA) From its harrowing opening sequence to the breathtaking climax, Steven Spielberg's hugely successful masterpiece of suspense and thrills, JAWS (1975), scared audiences out of the water and into theaters in record-breaking numbers. On the sur...

RE-ANIMATOR (1985) d. Stuart Gordon (USA) BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR (1990) d. Brian Yuzna (USA) BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR (2003) d. Brian Yuzna (Spain) Stuart Gordon's debut feature Re-Animator is a fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek blend of horror, sci-fi, and dark comedy that helped define the splatter subgenre of the 1980s. Loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft's serialized novella and set at the fabled Miskatonic Uni...

CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (aka THE GATES OF HELL) (1980) d. Lucio Fulci (Italy) Tonight we're returning to the eerie and bonkers world of Italian horror with a film that defies conventional storytelling — Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead, known to American audiences as The Gates of Hell. Following up on the success of Zombie the year before, City of the Living Dead marked a turning point in Ful...

PEEPING TOM (1960) d. Michael Powell (UK) A provocative psychological thriller and a daring exploration of voyeurism, Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM tells the story of Mark Lewis, a withdrawn cameraman filled with deep pain and dark secrets. Powell's brilliant examination of the human urge to look—but not be seen looking—turns Mark's camera into both weapon and mirror. Peeping Tom is a film about wa...

MANIAC (1980) d. William Lustig (USA) Celebrating 45 years of William Lustig's Maniac (1980) — a cult horror classic that's part slasher, part psychological descent, and all Joe Spinell. Wildly controversial and undeniably influential, Maniac (1980) is one of the most unsettling slasher films of the early 1980s. Directed by William Lustig and starring Joe Spinell—who also co-wrote the screenplay—M...

BATTLE ROYALE (2000) d. Kinji Fukasaku (Japan) How did Battle Royale become one of the most influential survival horror films of all time? In this HORROR 101 panel, we dive into Kinji Fukasaku's controversial cult classic—an ultra-violent dystopian thriller where 42 students are forced to kill or be killed. Based on Koushun Takami's novel, Battle Royale blends brutal action with haunting emotion,...

1970 was a breakthrough year for vampire cinema — sexier, bloodier, and bolder than ever before. In this episode of HORROR 101 , Dr. AC and his panel explore five iconic films that redefined the vampire mythos for a new era: COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE (USA) – A modern bloodsucker stalks the streets of Los Angeles. HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS (USA) – Barnabas Collins goes full Gothic on the big screen. THE VAM...

REPULSION (1965) d. Roman Polanski (UK) Co-written and directed by Roman Polanski, Repulsion (1965) is a landmark psychological horror film that explores the mental disintegration of a young woman, Carole (expertly played by Catherine Deneuve), living alone in London. Polanski's first English-language feature—and the first in his iconic "Apartment Trilogy," followed by Rosemary's Baby and The Tena...

PHENOMENA (1985) d. Dario Argento (Italy)   Perhaps the only "insect detective" movie out there on the shelves, featuring a very young Jennifer Connelly (released one year before Labyrinth) as the daughter of a famous American movie star sent away to study at an exclusive Swiss girl's academy, whose students just happen to be falling victim to a homicidal killer. But as this is an Argento movie, t...

MOTEL HELL (1980) d. Kevin Connor (USA) "It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's Fritters." So runs the tagline for 1980's Motel Hell, an endearing oddball combo of black humor and horror, featuring veteran character actor Rory Calhoun as Vincent, the proprietor of the Motel Hello, where the O on the neon sign keeps going on the blink. Vincent and his equally wacky sister Ida (a pr...

DEAD OF NIGHT (1945) d. Various (UK) A landmark horror film, 1945's Dead of Night was produced by Britain's famed Ealing Studios and directed by a team of mostly younger upstarts including Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, and Robert Hamer, with veteran Alberto Cavalcanti and producer Michael Balcon marshaling their forces. Widely regarded as one of the earliest and most influential horror antholog...

HOUSE OF USHER (1960) d. Roger Corman (USA) PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961) d. Roger Corman (USA) Journey into the heart of gothic horror with House of Usher, Roger Corman's moody and mesmerizing film version of Edgar Allan Poe's short story. Released in 1960, Usher marks the beginning of Corman's AIPoe series, his celebrated octet of Poe-inspired works, and it's an atmospheric triumph of mood and sty...

SHIVERS (1975) is a wonderfully squirmy milestone in body horror — and David Cronenberg's sleazy, slimy debut. A high-rise residence is thrown into chaos when a strange parasite begins turning tenants into uninhibited, sex-crazed versions of themselves. Part science fiction, part sleazy exploitation, Shivers introduced many of the themes that Cronenberg would return to again and again throughout h...

THE SHINING (1980) d. Stanley Kubrick (USA) THE SHINING (1997) d. Mick Garris (USA) DOCTOR SLEEP (2019) d. Mike Flanagan (USA) The Shining (1980) remains one of the most iconic and unsettling horror films ever made. Based on Stephen King's novel but wildly reimagined through writer/director Stanley Kubrick's unique vision, this "masterpiece of modern horror" tells the story of Jack Torrance, an as...