HORROR 101 with Dr. AC

PONTYPOOL (2008) d. Bruce McDonald (Canada) Pontypool , celebrating its 15th anniversary, is a fiercely intelligent variation on the "zombie/infected hordes" theme, indelibly anchored by film/TV veteran Stephen McHattie's charismatic central performance. Exiled to the wastelands of rural Ontario, former shock jock radio personality Grant Mazzy finds himself caught up in increasingly bizarre circum...

SAW (2004) d. James Wan (USA) SAW II (2005) d. Darren Lynn Bousman (USA) SAW III (2006) d. Darren Lynn Bousman (USA) SAW IV (2007) d. Darren Lynn Bousman (USA) SAW V (2008) d. David Hackl (USA) SAW VI (2009) d. Kevin Greutert (USA) SAW 3D (2010) d. Kevin Greutert (USA) JIGSAW (2017) d. Michael Spierig / Peter Spierig (USA) SPIRAL (2021) d. Darren Lynn Bousman (USA) SAW X (2023) d. Kevin Greutert (...

LEFT BANK (aka LINKEROEVER) (2008) d. Pieter Van Hees (Belgium) CUB (aka WELP) (2014) d. Jonas Govaerts (Belgium) Tonight's double feature takes us across the ocean to Belgium, a land renowned for lace, beer, chocolate, waffles, and a small but notable number of horror titles, including two films we're going to be discussing tonight: Pieter Van Hees' Left Bank from 2008 and Jonas Govaerts' Cub (ak...

SHATTER DEAD (1994) d. Scooter McCrae (USA) When the Angel of Death impregnates a mortal woman, people stop being able to die. As the living human population dwindles, the line begins to blur as to which is considered the dominant race and who are the monstrous aberrations. Tonight's selection, SHATTER DEAD, is a shining example of why "Shot-on-Video" horror films are, as author S.A. Bradley puts...

BLACK SABBATH (1963) d. Mario Bava (Italy) Following the success of Roger Corman's comic exploration of Edgar Allan Poe's  The Raven  in 1963, Boris Karloff found himself in high demand with American International Pictures. In addition to  The Terror , notoriously shot in two days on the  Raven's  sets, the horror icon appeared in  The Comedy of Terrors  for Jacques Tourneur (alongside  Raven  co-...

FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER (1984) d. Joseph Zito (USA)  One of the most influential modern horror films, 1980's surprise hit from producer/director Sean S. Cunningham, FRIDAY THE 13th, spurred a spate of sequels and imitators. By 1984, however, interest in the slasher genre seemed to be fading (only to be reinvigorated by a certain resident of Elm Street, but that's another show), and so t...

GODZILLA (2014) d. Gareth Edwards (USA) GODZILLA MINUS ONE (2023) d. Takashi Yamazaki (Japan) Join AC and his awesome panel of guests (Dan Caffrey, Barry Kaufman, Michelle Kisner, Mark Matzke, Lee Price) for the second half of our special TWO-PART EPISODE celebrating 70 years of Godzilla! Tonight, we'll discuss the first installment of what would come to be known as the Legendary Monsterverse, 201...

GOJIRA (aka GODZILLA) (1954) d. Ishiro Honda (Japan) SHIN GODZILLA (2016) d. Hideaki Anno (Japan) From his dark and imposing origins in 1954 to the rambunctious, bellowing, drop-kicking superhero of the 1970s to his resurgence on both sides of the Pacific in the 1990s and 2000s, Godzilla's significance to the giant monster genre cannot be understated. 70 years, 30 official Toho films, and five Hol...

THE BLOB (1958) d. Irwin J. Yeaworth (USA) THE BLOB (1988) d. Chuck Russell (USA) By the 1950s, sci-fi had taken Hollywood by storm, with all manner of tales involving Man exploring the galaxy, or various intergalactic neighbors swinging down to our neck of the woods for a visit. Meanwhile, juvenile delinquent pics became all the rage following the 1955 smash Rebel Without a Cause. Misunderstood t...

THE TOXIC AVENGER (1984) d. Lloyd Kaufman/Michael Herz (USA) THE TOXIC AVENGER PART 2 (1989) d. Lloyd Kaufman/Michael Herz (USA) THE TOXIC AVENGER III: THE LAST TEMPTATION OF TOXIE (1989) d. Lloyd Kaufman/Michael Herz (USA) CITIZEN TOXIE: THE TOXIC AVENGER IV (2001) d. Lloyd Kaufman (USA) Neither celebrated for their subtle nuance nor held in high regard by the critical cognoscenti, Troma Studios...

DOG SOLDIERS (2002) d. Neil Marshall (UK) Dispatched to the Scottish Highlands, a half-dozen soldiers find their special training maneuver exercises interrupted by an S.O.S. signal flare. Upon arrival at the distress site, they discover the sole remaining member of a Special Ops team, Captain Ryan, raving and bleeding profusely. Moments later, the team is besieged by mysterious, snarling assailant...

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...