HORROR 101 with Dr. AC

THE GORGON (1964) d. Terence Fisher (UK) THE REPTILE (1966) d. John Gilling (UK) By the mid-1960s, Hammer Studios had exhausted its supply of classic Universal monsters, with vampiric counts, stitched-together reanimated corpses, lycanthropic curses, and bandaged Egyptian shamblers all present and accounted for. In response, the creative teams dug out their tomes of Greek mythology and exotic trav...

THE SIXTH SENSE (1999) d. M. Night Shyamalan (USA) STIR OF ECHOES (1999) d. David Koepp (USA) With scores of classic ghost movies populating the silver screen, video shelves, and streaming queues, it's still a pleasant surprise to have two noteworthy examples arriving the same year. That's exactly what happened in 1999 when M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense and David Koepp's Stir of Echoes hit...

THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (1974) d. Kevin Connor (UK) AT THE EARTH'S CORE (1976) d. Kevin Connor (UK) THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT (1977) d. Kevin Connor (UK) WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS (1978) d. Kevin Connor (UK) After a British cruiser is sunk by a German U-boat in the waning days of WWI, the remaining survivors – led by square-jawed American Bowen Tyler – turn the tables on their aggressors, floating...

ZOMBIE (aka ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS/ZOMBI 2) (1979) d. Lucio Fulci (Italy) When George Romero's Dawn of the Dead became a major success worldwide, Italians had a stake in the matter since horror icon Dario Argento was one of its producers. In Italy, the trimmed-down Dawn was rechristened Zombi , and its blockbuster status dramatically altered the horror landscape, with molto filmmakers clamoring to ri...

THE FLY (1958) d. Kurt Neumann (USA) RETURN OF THE FLY (1959) d. Edward Bernds (USA) CURSE OF THE FLY (1965) d. Don Sharp (UK) Veteran director Kurt Neumann mostly toiled in mid-tier melodramas, Westerns and Tarzan movies throughout his long career, but had already made a few notable entries in the realm of science fiction cinema with Rocketship X-M (1950) and Kronos (1957). Released two months be...

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) d. Daniel Myrick/Ed Sanchez (USA) BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH 2 (2000) d. Joe Berlinger (USA) BLAIR WITCH (2016) d. Adam Wingard (USA) Low-budget horror filmmakers take note: You can make an original and frightening film for barely any money; it simply requires a fresh approach and more imagination than Karo syrup. Witness 1999's groundbreaking sensation from co-cre...

TETSUO: THE IRON MAN (1989) d. Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan) TETSUO II: BODY HAMMER (1992) d. Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan) TETSUO: THE BULLET MAN (2009) d. Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan)  Winner of Best Film at the 1989 Fantafestival in Rome, Shinya Tsukamoto's breakout 1989 feature Tetsuo: The Iron Man is a touchstone of cinematic cyberpunk, a relentlessly frenetic black-and-white 16mm assault on the senses and...

IT FOLLOWS (2014) d. David Robert Mitchell (USA) THE BABADOOK (2014) d. Jennifer Kent (Australia)  10 years ago, a pair of horror films exploded onto the scene, both from independent writer/directors not known for genre fare, both displaying exceptional visual confidence and storytelling skills, and both layered with multiple levels of metaphor and symbolism spicing their genuinely unnerving and c...

ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948) d. Charles Barton (USA) By the late 1940s, The Wolf Man, Frankenstein's Monster, and Dracula had become more friends than fiends to audiences. In a flash of inspiration, producer Robert Arthur hit upon the idea of pairing his hit comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello with the creepy creatures. Though nobody, especially Abbott and Costello, were enthu...

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1964) d. Roger Corman (USA/UK) THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964) d. Roger Corman (USA/UK)  On May 9, 2024, cinephiles everywhere bid adieu to one of the true giants of modern-day Hollywood, Roger Corman. The producer of nearly 500 films and director of 50, Corman also served as mentor for countless writers, directors, actors, and technicians who proceeded to shape the face of...

THEM! (1954) d. Gordon Douglas (USA) Unleashed upon a hungry for sci-fi movie-going public in the summer of 1954, Them! was the first of the "big bug" movies and proved to be the year's biggest moneymaker for Warner Brothers. Originally slated to be shot in color and 3D, the studio cut the budget at the last minute, although the stark black and white cinematography may have worked to its advantage...

GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) d. Ivan Reitman (USA) GHOSTBUSTERS 2 (1989) d. Ivan Reitman (USA) GHOSTBUSTERS: ANSWER THE CALL (2016) d. Paul Feig (USA) GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE (2021) d. Jason Reitman (USA) GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE (2024) d. Gil Kenan (USA) (Apologies for the dicey audio - apparently my microphone wasn't plugged in, so you're getting that sweet, sweet laptop mic instead.) 40 years ago, no...

FREDDY VS. JASON (2003) d. Ronny Yu  Since the closing shot of 1993's Jason Goes to Hell, fans had been clamoring for this "Slash of the Titans." A decade later, New Line Cinema answered their nightmares with a flick that is exactly the low-brow monster-mash masterpiece that the two screen legends deserve. Screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift concoct a storyline that builds upon history fro...

VAMPYRES (1974) d. Jose Ramon Larraz (UK/Spain) At a time when throwing extensive vampiric nudity on screen would have been enough, writer/director Jose Ramon Larraz went the extra mile to conjure a deceptively simple, highly satisfying tale of two bisexual bloodsuckers with Vampyres, released in 1974. Played with charged sensuality by newcomers Marianne Morris (as the dark, mysterious Fran) and A...

SANTA SANGRE (1989) d. Alejandro Jodorowsky (Mexico/Italy) Visionary filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky cultivates one brilliant sequence after another, employing a staggering use of color shades, sensational aural cues, disturbing themes, and some of the most original onscreen imagery ever laid to celluloid.  Hypnotizing and enticing, repugnant and crude, Santa Sangre is a thoroughly absorbing and un...

THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) d. Terence Fisher (UK) THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958) d. Terence Fisher (UK) THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964) d. Freddie Francis (UK) FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN (1967) d. Terence Fisher (UK) FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (1969) d. Terence Fisher (UK) FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL (1974) d. Terence Fisher (UK) With over 130 film and television credits t...

ALIEN (1979) d. Ridley Scott (USA/UK) ALIENS (1986) d. James Cameron (USA/UK) ALIEN 3 (1992) d. David Fincher (USA) ALIEN: RESURRECTION (1997) d. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (USA) PROMETHEUS (2012) d. Ridley Scott (USA/UK) ALIEN: COVENANT (2019) d. Ridley Scott (USA/UK) When the commercial space vessel Nostromo responds to a distress signal on an unknown planet, one of their crew is attacked by a bizarre l...

THE BLACK CAT (1934) d. Edgar G. Ulmer (USA) Bearing no resemblance to the original story by Edgar Allan Poe, Universal's atmosphere-drenched 1934 offering, The Black Cat, from Austrian expatriate Edgar G. Ulmer, is a superior piece of filmmaking, made all the more historic for marking the first and finest on-screen teaming of horror icons Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The storyline of mysterious...

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (1978) I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (2010) I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE 2 (2013) I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE: VENGEANCE IS MINE (2015) I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE: DEJA VU (2019) GROWING UP WITH I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (2019) (documentary) Join AC and his incredible panel of guests Art Ettinger (Ultra Violent Magazine), Adam Rockoff (Going to Pieces, The Horror of It All), and superfan Kate Hansen as they dis...

THE BROOD (1979) d. David Cronenberg (Canada) Canadian writer/director David Cronenberg has become so synonymous with the term "body-horror" that when a project is referred to as being "Cronenbergian," we actually have an idea of what this might mean. Cronenberg has often said that he does not see disease and mutations as good or bad – they simply are – a viewpoint that shows up time and again in...

SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004) d. Edgar Wright (UK) When Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead, a romantic comedy with zombies (or zom-rom-com, as it was immediately dubbed by pundits) hit theaters in 2004, it instantly earned a place alongside The Return of the Living Dead and Peter Jackson's Braindead (aka Dead-Alive) as one of the best horror/comedies of all time, as well as a winning tale of love and tru...

GODZILLA VS. MEGALON (1973) d. Jun Fukuda (Japan) A far cry from the anti-nuke statement that spawned the large lizard's origins, this entry (#13) serves up twice the monster mashing and half the "plot" of other installments. Throwing caution and physics to the winds, this installment features the underwater race of Seatopians who, ticked off by another round of nuclear testing, unleash the giant...

THE TERMINATOR (1984) d. James Cameron (USA) TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991) d. James Cameron (USA) TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES (2003) d. Jonathan Mostow (USA) TERMINATOR: SALVATION (2009) d. McG (USA) TERMINATOR: GENISYS (2015) d. Alan Taylor (USA) TERMINATOR: DARK FATE (2018) d. Tim Miller (USA) Released in 1984, The Terminator captivated critics and audiences alike with its mind-blowin...

THE BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE (1959) d. Monte Hellman (USA) THE GIANT GILA MONSTER (1959) d. Ray Kellogg (USA) THE KILLER SHREWS (1959) d. Ray Kellogg (USA) The good folks at Film Masters  have taken it upon themselves to rescue oodles of public domain titles, some of which they've even gone through the time and effort to give the stand-up, high-def presentations these orphaned films deserve. Or do...

CASTLE OF BLOOD (1964) d. Antonio Margheriti (as Anthony Dawson) (Italy) THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH (1964) d. Antonio Margheriti (as Anthony Dawson (Italy)  Even if you're a fan of Italian horror cinema, one name that continues to labor for recognition is Antonio Margheriti, in some respects due to the fact that he was often billed by his Anglicized moniker, Anthony M. Dawson. Like his contemporaries,...