I vividly remember my favorite costume I ever saw on Halloween. I was staggering home down Christopher Street and there was a person dressed like Tippi Hedren inside in a huge phone booth with stuffed birds on wires pecking at the broken windows as she walked along. This homage to The Birds was made perfect by the Hedren impersonator screaming continuously as he strolled down the street. Now that’s a Halloween costume! Just wearing a Scream mask is not the same at all. I love it when people take this holiday seriously. And TV is great this time of year- with horror movies popping up frequently on all channels. I spent some time scrolling through my favorite, free, ad-supported, streaming service- Tubi, which has an enormous amount of horror films on their site. Friends are frequently asking what they should watch on Tubi but it’s a bit overwhelming. There are just so many great choices. So, I thought I’d recommend a few of my personal favorites from the site, and hopefully, if you haven’t heard of them, you might have a lot of fun with some of these terror treats.
Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) A lurid horror gem directed by Arthur Crabtree starring Michael Gough as Edmond Bancroft, a successful true crime author in London brought in by Scotland Yard to help solve a series of brutal murders in the city. Trouble is, Edmond is the one committing the crimes- helped by his hypnotized assistant. There are fiendish murders- one including a trick pair of binoculars at the beginning that is unforgettable. And there are weird undertones in the movie, particularly when the male assistant brings his girlfriend (beautiful Shirley Anne Field) over to see the private “black museum” and Edmond goes bonkers that he had the audacity to bring a woman over. The sadism, misogyny and homoerotic undercurrents were startling at the time.
The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) A truly great sci-fi film, and a film that changed the course of Hammer Studios, which up until then had turned out low-rent comedies and crime dramas. This became an international hit- it was called The Creeping Unknown in the US, and after that Hammer released The Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula and the rest is cult history. This was adapted from Nigel Kneale’s BBC television serial and stars Brian Donlevy as the gruff, no nonsense scientist Quatermass. baffled when a three-manned spaceship he sends up crashes back to earth with only one man aboard. Richard Wordsworth gives an amazing, wordless, performance as the changed astronaut, inhabited by some unknown entity. He is part tragic and heartbreaking but also chilling and malevolent as he begins to morph into something monstrous. Great direction by Val Guest and an incredible score by James Bernard turn this into a terror classic.
Mayhem (2017). The ultimate wet dream revenge film for anyone who has had their spirits crushed at the workplace. In director Joe Lynch’s violently entertaining film there is a pesky iD-7 virus rampant in the country whose tell-tale sign is one red eye and complete loss of inhibition of the infected. Steven Yeun plays Derek Cho, a lawyer at a powerful firm that legally exonerated clients who have committed murder while possessed by the virus. Unfortunately, the iD-7 sweeps his office building the same day he is fired. The building is quarantined and Derek, with the help of an angry young woman (Samara Weaving), who came to the building to try and save her family’s home from foreclosure, try to bloodily fight their way to the top floor where the monstrous boss (Steven Brand) and executives are hiding. Using nail guns, hammers, screwdrivers, knives and fueled by their righteous fury. The movie is fast-paced, crazily violent (in a fun way), and eminently satisfying.
Sweet Kill (aka The Arousers) (1972) Before John Waters’ Polyester energized the career of 50s teen idol Tab Hunter— he starred in this sleazy shocker as a sexually dysfunctional Venice Beach gym teacher named Eddie Collins. As a child, Eddie used to spy on his nude mother but now hires hookers to dress up like her while he kneels beside them and masturbates. He picks up a girl on the beach and attempts normal sex, but when he can’t get it up, he accidentally causes her death. Suddenly Eddie is hacking up women left and right, including a lovelorn neighbor who finds a dead body in his bathtub. Believe it or not, this pip was written and directed by Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential).
The New Daughter (2009) Why isn’t this movie better known? An author and divorced father (Kevin Costner) moves his young son and sullen teen daughter to a rambling country house in South Carolina. But what’s with the sets of muddy footprints on the front porch at night? The loaded shotgun hidden inside the piano. The strange, huge, burial mound out at the edge of the forest. The mysterious disappearance of the former tenant. The unnatural changes in his daughter’s behavior. This film, directed by Luiso Berdejo, builds with frightening intensity towards a really terrifying finale.
Laid to Rest (2009). Outrageously gory, maniacally fun, horror movie inventively written and directed by Robert Hall. A beautiful woman (Bobbi Sue Luther) wakes trapped in a coffin at a mysterious funeral home, without memories of who she is or how she got there only to be stalked by a chrome skull masked killer. She flees and is picked up on the road by a good old boy (an appealing Kevin Gage) and they enlist the help of a wary stranger (the goofy, enjoyable, Sean Whalen) as they spend the night trying to flee this relentless masked psychopath who delights in videotaping his kills. One tires of so many new horror movies who riff on sentiments from 70s and 80s horror movies without understanding the dynamics of what makes a good one work. Fortunately, director Robert Hall keeps the momentum cranked up and makes this villain (Chromeskull) familiar and yet unique in many ways.
The Dunwich Horror (1961). Directed with great flair by Daniel Haller (the wildly talented art director for Roger Corman) and based on a H. P. Lovecraft story. Starring a quirky Dean Stockwell as a descendant of the feared Whateley family who steals the evil Necronomicon book in order to summon demonic creatures from another dimension into this world. Former teen star Sandra Dee stars as the pretty gal he lures to his satanic home. I’ve always loved this movie, with Stockwell cutting a sexy, curly-haired, mustache-twirling charm as the evil Wilber, and Sandra Dee in a drugged-out virginal haze (caused by Wilber spiking her tea), even showing some skin on the altar in a revealing open-sided cape. The trippy, solarized, red and black monster sequences in the movie are great fun.
Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) Alfred Sole’s provocatively perverse thriller is set in Paterson, New Jersey in the 1960s. A young girl (Brooke Shields) is murdered at her Catholic communion and all eyes fall on her hateful, jealous sister Alice (amazing Paula Sheppard). A mysterious little figure wielding a knife in a yellow rain slicker haunts the film, not to mention the obese, cat-loving creep who lives upstairs (unforgettable Alphonso DeNoble)- listening to 78s on a windup Victrola while eating cat food). A stylish, creepy, terrific film with all sorts of wonderfully (lapsed Catholic) sardonic touches.
The Lost (2006). Ultra-disturbing film by Chris Sivertson and set in Sparta, New Jersey, about psychotic Ray Pye (played with fiendish glee by Marc Senter), who crushes up beer cans in his boots to make himself look taller, slicks back his ink black hair and wears eye makeup to accentuate his coolness. He gets away with a brutal crime but a cop keeps a beady eye on him convinced he’s a killer. But Ray is juggling women, snorting coke, getting more irrational, and the flies are buzzing in his head louder and louder. It looks like it’s killing time again…The ending is beyond belief it’s so vicious, but it’s in keeping with the dark tone of Jack Ketchum’s chilling novel.
Wax Mask (1997) An Italian remake of House of Wax produced by Dario Argento and directed by Sergio Stivaletti. The movie begins with a little girl hiding under a bed only to see her own father’s steaming, disembodied, heart when a masked killer punches his metal fist through the man’s chest and through the bed. Years later the girl- Sonia (Romina Mondello) is an aspiring artist who applies for a job as apprentice to the sculptor (Robert Hossein) at a new wax museum opening in Rome. Meanwhile mysterious deaths haunt the city. Will Sonia eventually confront the killer of her father? Not before lots of gory action and bad dubbing. This was a project that was to be helmed by Lucio Fulci, but he died before the film began to shoot. It’s still a lot of fun.
Island of Terror (1966) Set on an island off the coast of Ireland a research laboratory working on cures for cancer unleashes a replicating series of turtle-like invisible creatures that sweep the island sucking the bone marrow from their victims. This underrated chiller stars Peter Cushing and is extremely well directed by Terence Fisher (Horror of Dracula).
Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975) There has always been criticism about the gratuitous sex and violence in “Giallo” films, so it’s refreshing to see a movie that just unapologetically revels in it. A killer wearing a motorcycle helmet, dressed head to toe in leather, is targeting people who work for the Albatross Modeling Agency in Milan. Edwige Fenech (in a short hairdo) works for the agency, as does her randy photographer boyfriend Carlo (Nino Castelnuovo). Trust me, many in the cast take the title quite literally in this sleaze great directed by Andrea Bianchi.
The Church (1989) Michele Soavi’s (Cemetery Man) gothic shocker about a church built over a burial ground of executed witches. Tomas Arana plays a librarian who accidentally breaks open the seal protecting the world from an invasion of demons. Asia Argento (director Dario’s daughter) is a young girl in the film, and there’s a gruesome, wild, ending with people trapped inside the cathedral transforming into demons.
The House That Jack Built (2018) This is the Lars von Trier movie that caused an uproar at Cannes, but in actuality is simply a sardonically funny, sometimes uncomfortably creepy, film about a serial killer. Set in the 1970s and starring Matt Dillon, the film is told in five chapters. What surprised me most was the subversive humor. True there are things that make you cringe, but hell, it’s about a murderous psycho (with OCD no less). The whole finale with Bruno Ganz in hell is so bonkers it solidified my love for the film.
Beware! Children at Play (1989) This mind-boggling cult classic will hopefully garner a new audience to experience the bonkers, blood-splattered finale. Trust me, very few endings in movie history are as hilariously wrong and deranged as in this film directed by Mik Cribben. A father and son are out camping the woods when the dad gets his foot irreparably caught in a bear trap. The son watches him die and, traumatized and crazed, survives on his own in the forest, kidnapping other children from the nearby town which evolves into a murderous pack of killers. (Think a pint-sized Manson Family). But the ending really is why anyone remembers this film and it truly goes off a cliff in such an outrageous way that it will leave you shrieking in disbelief.
Dementia (1955) This bizarre, black & white oddity is directed by John J. Parker and follows Adrienne Barrett as she scurries through dark alleys, and struggles with a lecherous man (Bruno VeSota) who falls to his death. She uses a knife to saw off his hand clutching her necklace and awakes in a hotel room with the hand in the dresser. This expressionistic nightmare was made completely without dialogue and was banned by the New York Censor Board (which ironically included my own grandfather!). Daughter of Horror was the same film re-released two years later with narration by none other than Ed McMahon from The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965). British Amicus Studio’s first, and arguably best, anthology horror film. Five strangers board a London train to Bradley, when the seedy, mysterious Dr. Schreck (Peter Cushing) joins them in their rail car, and, by using a Tarot deck, shows the dire fate that awaits each one of them. The stories include vampirism, a murderous creeping vine, werewolves, a jazz musician and voodoo. Christopher Lee plays an obnoxious art critic tormented by the dismembered hand of a painter (Michael Gough) he disfigured. A young Donald Sutherland is one of the doomed travelers. Expertly directed by master cinematographer Freddie Francis (who doesn’t get enough directorial credit).
The Food of the Gods (1976) Bert I. Gordon’s 1976 film (loosely) based on H. G. Wells, starring Marjoe Gortner confronting giant wasps, chickens and ravenous rats on a remote island. With Pamela Franklin, Ralph Meeker and Ida Lupino who says these immortal lines of dialogue: “I won’t never sin again, never! Only don’t let no rats eat us- please, God!” Another riotous moment is Marjoe Gortner confronting, and battling, humongous poultry, asking the reclusive farmer’s wife (Ida Lupino), “Where the hell did you get those goddamn chickens?” A wildly entertaining Bert I. Gordon camp classic.
Squirm (1976). Jeff Lieberman’s (Blue Sunshine) first film, shot in 25 days in Georgia, about a freak storm that causes power lines to snap and fall into the ground, raising up swarms of killer worms. It stars a young Don Scardino and Lieberman used a lot of locals as extras. And the thousands of worms used were Glycera. “They bite,” Lieberman said, “They do. When I was a kid we used to use them. They’re like blood worms. They’re saltwater worms and they have this thing that shoots out.” A well-deserved cult favorite.
Empire of the Ants (1977) Oh come on- it’s Joan Collins and giant ants. What more could you possibly want in a film? Another inadvertent, hilarious, howler from director Bert I. Gordon. Collins plays a shady land developer, who, while on an expedition with potential clients stumbles on giant ants. As the group fights to stay alive they discover a nearby town controlled by the Queen ant (thanks a lot, pheromones) who are letting the mutated monsters feed at the local sugar factory. Let’s just say- you don’t want these ants in your pants.
Cannibal Girls (1973) “The sound of a bell in the theater will warn you when to close your eyes,” is announced at the beginning of this scrappy little low-budget, Canadian, humorous horror film from the future director of Ghostbusters– Ivan Reitman, and starring comedy greats Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin. “Welcome to Farnhamville: The Friendly City” is the sign for the snowbound town that young lovers Clifford (Eugene Levy sporting an afro, mutton chop sideburns, mustache and shades) and Gloria (Andrea Martin) drive through and fatally decide to visit. They stay at a local motel and decide to eat at an infamous farmhouse/gourmet restaurant, where they are greeted by long-haired Reverend Alex St. John (Ronald Ulrich) and his sexy female wait staff, who are more comfortable picking up men, bringing them back to the house and hacking them to death. “They love every man they meet- to death…then for dinner,” proclaimed the trailer to this oddball “Canuxploitation” favorite.
We Are Still Here (2015) Director Ted Geoghegan’s nice shivery homage to those great splattery Lucio Fulci films of the 80s. Starring the legendary Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator) as Anne, still grieving the loss of her son in an accident, who has moved to the wintry wilds of New England with her husband Paul (Andrew Sensenig) to heal. Unfortunately, they’ve picked the wrong house to recoup. A weird old man (Monte Markham) stops by, like a welcome wagon from hell, to give the startled couple a history of the damned spot they’ve chosen to call home. Anne invites a couple over (Larry Fessenden & Lisa Marie), who are sensitive to the paranormal, when she becomes convinced that her late son is trying to reach out to her. Director Ted Geoghegan carefully builds the sense of isolation and suspense and borrows heavily from H.P. Lovecraft to make sense of the hidden horrors lurking in the basement. Crampton conveys just the right fragility and terror.
The Monolith Monsters (1957) A fascinating Universal Studios sci-fi movie about a meteorite that crashes outside a California desert town. It replicates and grows at an alarming rate when exposed to water. Grant Williams (The Incredible Shrinking Man) plays a geologist that tries to warn authorities of the impending catastrophic danger. The criminally under-used Lola Albright (A Cold Wind in August) plays the geologist’s teacher girlfriend. While massive marauding rocks initially seems like a dumb idea, there’s a surprising intelligence to this underrated sci-fi treat. Perhaps I have rocks in my head, but I love this stupid movie.
I, Madman (1989) Alright, let’s pause for a minute to pay tribute to actress Jenny Wright. Her output on film may be slight- including The World According to Garp, St. Elmo’s Fire, and Kathryn Bigelow’s vampire classic- Near Dark. But she mesmerizes on screen. There’s such a quirky beauty to her. A sense of mystery. Fierceness. And innate sexiness. In director Tibor Tikacs’s horror gem, Wright plays a bookstore clerk and aspiring actress who can’t make anyone believe she has witnessed a facially-scarred fictional killer from a 1950’s pulp novel “I, Madman” written by Malcolm Brand (found in an estate sale) come to life and brutally murdering those around her. The killer in the book (and now in present day Los Angeles) delights in removing ears, noses and hair and attaching these items to himself. A genuinely clever, creepy and fascinating horror film, made even better by starring the incandescent Jenny Wright.
Dr. Giggles (1992) L.A. Law’s Larry Drake stars as the giggling psychopath who escapes from a mental hospital and slashes his way across the land. He returns to his murderous doctor dad’s hometown and steals files of patients to take up where his dad left off- cutting out the hearts of unfortunate townsfolk. Holly Marie Combs stars as a girl with a heart monitor who is stalked by the hulking madman. The kind of fun slasher movie that is a cut above others, keeping its tongue firmly in its cheek. Gory and kind of great, with plenty of dark humored wisecracks, like when Dr. Giggles is about to kill a kidnapped victim and says, “If you think that’s bad, wait until you get my bill!”
Phenomena (1995) First released in the States in a hacked-up, bowdlerized version retitled Creepers, the original uncut version is one of Dario Argento’s strangest and most darkly beautiful. A young, incandescent Jennifer Connelly stars as the daughter of a popular movie star who arrives at a boarding school in Switzerland. She has a psychic affinity with all insects and is afflicted with bouts of sleep-walking, which introduces her to an entomologist (Donald Pleasence) and his pet monkey. The scientist is working with the police trying to track down a psychopathic killer. There is a crazed, Alice in Wonderland logic, and the whole finale is so demented, violent and lyrical it defies easy categorization, especially with a razor-wielding monkey as an avenging angel.
Circus of Horrors (1960) An outrageous mix of sex, sadism and sleaze- and from 1960, too! Anton Diffring plays a plastic surgeon on the run (his own face scarred and replaced after a car accident). He ends up heading a circus populated by criminals and ex-prostitutes, whose faces he has altered. When any performer tries to leave, they are met with a hideous “accidental” death in the ring. This ill-fated circus really starts to see profits from bloodthirsty crowds anticipating disasters. If you saw this as a kid (and I did) you are permanently fucked-up.
Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958) Director Richard E. Cunha’s deliriously deranged film opens with bad girl and tease Suzie (Sally Todd), being dropped off by her blue balls boyfriend (Harold Lloyd Jr.). As he drives off she suddenly sees a young woman running down the sidewalk in a nightgown with hideous fangs and fuzzy eyebrows. The unfortunate “monster” is actually sweet, wholesome Trudy (Sandra Knight), who nightly is unwittingly slipped a drug concoction created by mad scientist Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy). Oliver works as an apprentice to Trudy’s Grandfather (Felix Locher) but is really Oliver Frankenstein, a relative to the infamous monster-maker and he is secretly using the lab to help cobble together a female creature from stitched-together body parts collected by the gardener- Elsu (Wolfe Barzell). His final creation is this hilarious giant-headed disfigured creature played by Wallace Beery’s understudy- Harry Wilson– who dubbed himself “The Ugliest Man in Pictures.” Late in the film Trudy hosts a rock and roll barbecue with boyfriend Johnny (John Ashley) around her pool and Harold Lloyd Jr. joins the band to croak out two lackluster tunes “Special Date” and “Fly Away Tonight,” music no teenager in their right mind would ever listen to again.
The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966). Prolific Spanish director Jess Franco’s fantastically macabre film, definitely one of his finest. A beautiful blonde nightclub performer called “Miss Death” (with long, lethal, fingernails) is kidnapped by the daughter of the mad scientist Dr. Z. She is brought to a laboratory and transformed into a killing machine, targeting three scientists the daughter feels responsible for her father’s death.
Mystery of The Wax Museum (1933) What was once thought to be a lost film- this two-strip color horror film from Warner Brothers. Lionel Atwill plays a mysterious sculptor at a wax museum in 1921 London. Glenda Farrell plays the wise-cracking reporter investigating the story of a hideous monster stealing corpses from the local morgue and the clues lead her to the wax museum and the resemblance of a missing body to one of the figures. House of Wax starring Vincent Price (and in 3D) was the remake. Fay Wray plays the fiancé of a man working at the museum who unmasks the fiend in this fabulous, fast-paced pre-Code shocker.
Warlock Moon (1975) I remember loving this bizarre film when I saw it on late night TV years ago. Laurie Walters plays a California college student who meets a reporter (a young Joe Spano) and after a picnic they stumble on a crumbling, abandoned, spa. There they meet a weird old woman living there. The co-ed stumbles onto remnants of satanic rites, mysterious locked meat lockers, the ghostly figure of a bride floating in the distance, and strange, long-haired, men attacking with axes. Is she hallucinating, or is there something more sinister going on?
Wrong Turn (2021). This is the new reboot of the six-film series about a bunch of cannibalistic hillbillies preying on any poor soul that makes a “wrong turn” on the highway and ends up in their path. And to my amazement, the movie a grisly treat. A white-haired Matthew Modine plays the father of a missing girl- Jen (Charlotte Vega), who went lost six weeks earlier hiking with her 5 friends on the Appalachian trail in Virginia. You know it’s a new movie because the kids are more ethnically diverse and one of the couples is gay. A local woman even warns them, “A piece of advice- keep to the marked trail- the land here can be very unforgiving.“ But do those damn fool kids listen? Suddenly giant rolling logs are roaring at them in the woods and booby traps are everywhere. But here’s where director Mike P. Nelson’s movie takes a genuine surprising turn, which really changes everything in creepy, gory, unexpected ways. The always wonderful Bill Sage even shows up as a major, menacing character. This reimagining is pretty damn good. And for God’s sake, make sure you watch the final credits!
Shivers (1975) David Cronenberg’s controversial first feature (released in the States as They Came from Within) is about a modern high rise complex in Canada infected with a venereal parasite that spreads quickly and turns people into ravenous sexual predators. A horny Night of The Living Dead, so to speak. The disgusting worm-like creatures slither up drains and down people’s throats during kisses. A pre-AIDs cautionary tale? Hardly. Cronenberg’s cool caustic eye revels in the mayhem. Look for Cronenberg’s cameo- he’s busting out of a wooden storage area in the basement with other sexually crazed apartment dwellers.
Horror Express (1972). Set in 1906, Christopher Lee plays an anthropologist traveling on the Trans-Siberian Express with a crate carrying a frozen primitive creature (actually an alien) who thaws and begins killing people on the train, sucking out their brains and leaving them white-eyed zombies. Peter Cushing plays a doctor aboard the train and Telly Savalas a Russian solider in this terrific sci-fi thriller directed by Eugenio Martin.
Don’t Go in the House (1979). One of the more notorious slasher films starring Dan Grimaldi as Donny, a deeply disturbed young man who was abused by a psychotic mother who repeatedly held his hand over an open flame when he was naughty. Now with the demise of monster mom, Donny’s morbid obsession with fire has him create a steel-walled room in his house where he lures unsuspecting victims into and takes a flame-thrower to them. Well-directed by Joseph Ellison and with a strong lead performance by Grimaldi as the deranged killer. It’s a film that dares to go too far as a nightmarish wallow in obsession and madness, but it’s actually really damn good.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007). A monumentally disturbing shocker by director John Erick Dowdle about a serial killer in the New York/Poughkeepsie area who left a series of snuff videos of his murders for the police to find. Told in a documentary-like fashion it’s a movie that does its job almost too well, and caused such a stir when it played film festivals. The movie is pretty damn unnerving, so you have been warned.
God Told Me To (1976) Arguably one of New York maverick director Larry Cohen’s best films. A wildly ambitious mix of thriller and sci-fi weirdness, this stars an excellent Tony Lo Bianco as a NYC detective investigate a series of bizarre crimes: a sniper climbs a water tower with a rifle and guns down strangers; a husband inexplicably murders his family; a cop marching in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade goes homicidal (played by a very young Andy Kaufman). They all say the same thing when they are arrested: “God told me to.” Bianco’s detective is a conflicted soul- secretly devoutly Catholic, he strings along his girlfriend (Deborah Raffin), falsely claiming his wife (Sandy Dennis) won’t give him a divorce. But his investigation into these deranged crimes leads him to a shadowy, secret organization and a weird, messianic man with long hair (Richard Lynch). Is he alien or avenging angel? Wonderfully bizarre, Cohen followed up his wildly popular It’s Alive with this unique, intelligent, ambitious, wildly offbeat film.
The Price We Pay (2022) A lean, mean, grisly shocker directed by Ryuhel Kitamura, the director of Midnight Meat Train and No One Lives (also recommended and on Tubi). A messy shoot-out robbery of a pawnshop causes three thieves- Alex (Emile Hirsch), Cody (Stephen Dorff) and an injured John (Jesse Kinser)- to take a hostage- Grace (Gigi Zumbado), so she can drive them away from the crime. Unfortunately, the car breaks down outside a seemingly deserted farmhouse. The only one there is a skittish young boy in the barn (Tyler Sanders) and when they ask him if they can stay the night he nervously agrees. But as they crash out in one of the bunkhouses they all start to realize that something is very wrong. Emile Hirsch is terrific as the trigger-happy psycho and Stephen Dorff is sensational, as is Gigi Zumbado. Then the movie kicks into nightmarish high gear. Sure, there is something achingly familiar about all this, but the last half hour is gory and great. Wait until you get to “Grandfather” (Vernon Wells) slicing people open to the aria “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s Turandot.
The Last House on Dead End Street (1977) The fact that this film exists on Tubi is really surprising- because it’s a real rarity that justly deserves its notorious reputation, An ex-con (played by director and star Roger Watkins) decides to make money by using his criminal crew to film actual “snuff” movies. They lure unsuspecting strangers to a dilapidated house and kill them while filming them. They wear masks and force a man to suck on a deer’s hoof in one scene. There’s no introduction to the characters and the jarring camerawork and disorienting soundtrack make you feel you are watching something far too authentic for comfort. I saw this on 42nd St. and was incredibly disturbed by it. There was something about this movie that felt raw, nasty and slightly depraved. One guy in the movie theater stood up when the film was over and said out loud, “That is some fucked-up shit!” No kidding.
Pleasant screams.
