You're craving a good scare on your next movie night, but the only horror films that seem to get made these days are formulaic sequels, remakes of better movies that you've already seen, or homogenized, bloodless, PG-13 products aimed at 13 year olds who can't get into R rated movies. Don't despair. The goods are out there, but you may have to dig a little deeper to find them and maybe open your mind to some new things (like reading subtitles).
Foreign horror films
Don't let those awful remakes of Asian horror movies give you the wrong idea; some of the best horror films of the past two decades have come from Japan and Korea.
Shinya Tsukamoto's Japanese classics Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Tetsuo 2: Body Hammer are cyberpunk favorites that still pack a punch more than fifteen years after their release. The prolific Takashi Miike has earned a reputation for pushing the boundaries of taste with shockers like Ichi the Killer, Gozu and Audition. With cerebral horror hits like Charisma, Pulse and his masterpiece, Cure, Kiyoshi Kurosawa established himself as one of the giants of modern Japanese cinema in the late nineties and all three are highly recommended titles. And even if you hated the American remake, The Uninvited, watch the Korean original, Ji-woon Kim's A Tale of Two Sisters.
From 1975 to 1987, Italy's Dario Argento was was untouchable, directing the genre classics Deep Red, Suspiria, Inferno, Tenebrae, Phenomena and Opera. Be warned, Argento used international casts speaking in their native languages, then dubbed into English, often with unintentionally humorous results, and his scripts often contained some awkard dialogue. Still, the severed arm spraying buckets of blood in Tenebrae, the bullet through the eye in Opera and the unforgettable scene of Jessica Harper moving through a technicolor nightmare to the strains of Goblin's piercing score in Suspiria more than make up for it. During the peak of his career, Argento served as a mentor to several young Italian filmmakers, including Lamberto Bava, director of the genre favorite Demons and Michele Soavi, whose Cemetery Man is one of the best zombie movies of all time. The late Lucio Fulci never enjoyed the acclaim that Argento did, but his eighties zombie movies The Beyond, Gates of Hell and House by the Cemetery are must-see material for any horror fan.
Two Spanish movies that belong in everyone's DVD collection are Agustín Villaronga's In a Glass Cage, about a former Nazi doctor, pedophile and child murderer who's forced to watch helplessly as a former vicitm sets out to recreate his crimes and Álex de la Iglesia's The Day of the Beast, in which a priest, a record store clerk and a TV talk show host go on a mission to kill the anti-christ on Christmas day.
Discover or revisit some old favorites
The seventies and eighties were a golden age of horror, but many gems from that era have fallen through the cracks and are just waiting to be rescued from obscurity. Wes Craven made his name with classics like The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left and A Nightmare on Elm Street, but some of his lesser known works like The Serpent and the Rainbow, Deadly Friend and Shocker are good for hours of entertainment. Frank Henenlotter's Basket Case and Brain Damage are great late night fun and have held up well despite their age and low budgets. In addition to those films, the underrated Stuart Gordon's Dolls, From Beyond and Re-Animator should be required viewing for anyone who enjoys horror, along with these goodies from the nineties: William Lustig's Maniac, John McNaughton's Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and The Borrower, Garth Maxwell's Jack Be Nimble and Alejandro Jodorowsky's amazing Santa Sangre.
Buy import DVDs
Invest in a code free DVD player. You can buy DVD players that have been modified to play discs from any region and convert PAL signals to NTSC so you can view DVDs from any country in the world. A lot of great movies either never get released in North America or suffer from heavy editing or poor video transfers, but with a code free player, you'll be able to watch any DVD in the world. Several online retailers sell excellent code free players for $50.00 to $75.00, so shop carefully and buy the player that best suits your needs.
Once you have the hardware, you can start expanding your DVD library at sites like www.diabolikdvd.com and www.xploitedcinema.com, which carry huge selections of horror, cult, exploitation, foreign and arthouse films.
Sign up for newsletters, join message boards and download podcasts to learn about new movies, get recommendations and read reviews for movies that won't be covered in your local publications. Have fun--and don't forget the popcorn.
 |
