kuroneko (1968)

AKA The Black Cat from the Grove. Yabu no naka no kuroneko.
"Are you passing through the dark grove beyond here?"
A mother and her daughter in law are raped and murdered by some bandits and return as vampiric cats to reap their revenge on unwary samurai. The governor calls in a young samurai to sort things out and he comes across the two who he then meets in a thrilling fight.
The title means "Black Cat" in English, and based on a Japanese folktale The Cats Return. What starts as a vicious tale develops into a surrealistic and atmospheric horror.

kwaidan (1964)

AKA Kaidan. Ghost Stories.
"I've had enough of poverty."
Four tales of horror and suspense. First 'Black Hair': A poor samurai divorces his true love to marry into money. When the marriage is a disaster he returns to his first love, but somethings not right. Then we have, 'The Woman in the Snow': When a woodcutter is stranded in a snowstorm he meets an ice spirit who spares his life, but only as long as he never tells anyone...Third we have 'Hoichi the Earless'. Hoichi is a blind musician who sings so well he gets an imperial command to sing to the court. But the court is not as Hoichi thinks. Finally we have 'In a Cup of Tea': a writer tells of a man who sees a mysterious face reflected in his cup of tea.
A masterpiece of suspense, beautifully cinema-graphed stories unfurl at a leisurely pace, building the unease.

once upon a time in the west (1968)

AKA C'era una volta il West. There Was Once the West.
"He knew someday or another that railroad through Flagstone would continue on west. So he looked over all this county here. Until he found this hunk of desert. Nobody wanted it! But he bought it."
The railway is heading west and needs to go through the McBain property, but McBain knowing the value of his land is unwilling to part with it. Up steps Frank (Henry Fonda), a ruthless man in the pay of the rail boss. Shortly after Frank 'negotiates' with Mr McBain and his family, his new bride Jill (Claudia Cardinale) arrives. Finding her husband dead and with nowhere to go, she decides to stay, much to the annoyance of the railroad. Help comes in the unlikely guise of a notorious desperado Cheyenne (Jason Robards) and Harmonica (Charles Bronson), a man with a grudge to settle with Frank.
A frontier epic, the ultimate western from a master of the genre.

a fistful of dynamite (1971)

AKA Duck You Sucker. Giù la testa. Once Upon a Time in the Revolution.
"Listen, Firecracker. Now you listen to me. Listen, why don't you come with me, eh? And we will work together and we will become rich!"
Mexico during the revolution and Juan (Rod Steiger), a bandit leader, meets up with John Mallory (James Coburn), an IRA explosives expert on the run from the British. Juan hatches a plan to use John's talents to raid the bank of Mesa Verde, but John wants to put his talents at the services of the revolutionaries.
A big budget, epic western, dealing in grand concepts, as well as how they effect family, and Leone's last due to its failure at the box office. Not on a par with the Dollar trilogy, this is never the less an entertaining western, with a political message, unfortunately overshadowed by the greatness of his previous efforts.

police story II (1988)

AKA Ging chaat goo si juk jaap.
"I can't help my heroics."
Despite a successful arrest record, Kevin Chan's (Jackie Chan) unorthodox approach to police work sees him demoted to traffic duties. Further woes come from Chu Tao (Chor Yuen), a gang leader who is determines to avenge his arrest and imprisonment now he is out. As Kevin tries to protect himself and his girlfriend (Maggie Cheung) from unwanted attention he is promoted to help them detect a gang of bombers attempting to extort millions by blowing up malls.
Follow up to the successful Police Story, sees a much more serious tone adopted and proved to be just as successful. Action packed as usual.

dark water (2002)

AKA Honogurai mizu no soko kara. From the Depths of Dark Water.
"There's water leaking from our ceiling."
Newly divorces Yoshimi (Hitomi Kuroki) tries to make a new start in a new apartment. But soon feels uneasy about the place when strange things begin happening. Water stains appear on the ceiling. A child's red bag starts appearing, and then the child itself. Yoshimi has no choice but to try and find the reason behind these supernatural events to protect herself and her own daughter.
A tense horror which builds slowly, maybe too slow for some, creating a claustrophobic and psychologically menacing ghost story.

naked werewolf woman (1976)

AKA The Wolf Man. La Lupa Mannara. Daughter of a Werewolf. The Legend of the Wolfwoman. Werewolf Woman. She-Wolf. Terror of the She Wolf.
"Don't mind her she hasn't been well."
Daniela (Annik Borel) is a woman who dreams that she is a werewolf. Seeing her sister having sex triggers this compulsion and she believes she now is a werewolf. Her father, believing her traumatised at finding a body, sections her, but she escapes and an attempted rape sets her off again...
This lures you in as a horror, but quickly reveals itself as a sexploitation giallo. A stylish but far to talky film.

space master x-7 (1958)

"Are there any pretty brunettes on the plane?"
A satellite returns to Earth covered with a strange fungus and is accidentally tinged with human blood, transforming it into an ever-growing 'Blood Rust'. It is up army men John Hand (Bill Williams) and Joe Rattigan (Robert Ellis) to find the one woman who might have some answers, but Laura Greeling (Lyn Thomas) believing she is wanted for murder goes into hiding.
Low budget but taut chase movie. Watch out for Moe Howard of the Three Stooges, in a rare character part as a cab driver.

high anxiety (1977)

"The big bucks are in pschiatry...I mean...its so much more rewarding."
Dr. Richard Thorndyke (Mel Brooks) is the new administrator of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, and discovers there is something suspicious going on at the hospital. Nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman) and Dr. Charles Montague (Harvey Korman) frame Thorndyke for murder, and he goes on the run and confront his own 'high anxiety' to try and clear his name.
Brooks takes on the might of the Hitchcock thriller and wins with a parody that includes scenes from The Birds, Psycho, and Vertigo.

the black cat (1934)

AKA The House Of Doom. The Vanishing Body.
"Supernatural, perhaps. Baloney, perhaps not."
Joan and Peter Allison (Julie Bishop and David Manners), are Honeymooning in Eastern Europe, and meet another traveller, Dr. Vitus Verdegast (Bela Lugosi). When their bus crashes in the mountains they all take refuge in the home of architect Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff). There, cat-phobic Verdegast learns much has happened since leaving the area 18 years previously, and now he must play a cat and mouse game for all their lives and avenge his wife and daughters.
Uniting two of the greatest horror icons of all time, in Karloff and Lugosi, this is a tense film where the two come to battle wits for the lives of others.

les parents terribles (1948)

"...you dreamers always get what you want..."
When Michel (Jean Marais) tells his parents he is in love, they are both distressed for different reasons. His over possessive Mother Yvonne (Yvonne de Bray) believes she will lose him. Whilst his father Georges (Marcel André) is distressed because it is his mistress, Madeleine (Josette Day), whom Michel loves. With the help of Yvonne's maiden sister, Léo (Gabrielle Dorziat), they decide to separate Michel and Madeleine...
A claustrophobic and stiffling play, focused on the selfishness of parents, well these parents anyway.

branded to kill (1967)

AKA Koroshi no rakuin.
"Don't drink, don't touch women. Drink and women kill a killer."
Hanada (Jo Shishido) is a hit-man, who has to go on the run from his employer when his latest job goes wrong. Adding to this slight complication in his life is the presence of Misako (Anne Mari), a woman obsessed with death.
An entertaining yakuza film as seen through the lens of the Nouvelle Vague, part gangster flick, part arthouse weirdness. The film plays more as a surrealistic nightmare centred on sex and death; if you want a straight up action flick, you're in the wrong neighbourhood.

invasion (1965)

"Who are you?"
An alien spaceship crashes near a rural hospital and a hapless driver runs one of the humanoids over. Unconscious the alien is taken to the hospital, and a mysterious force field suddenly appears around it. Dr. Mike Vernon (Edward Judd) tries to figure things out with the alien leader (Yoko Tani), whilst Dr. Claire Harland (Valerie Gearon) gives assistance. Meanwhile the hospital staff have to literally sweat it out and tempers fray.
If you like mysterious strangers, puzzled doctors, army patrol, and lurking alien forces in dark and ominous looking woods, then this moody set piece is for you.

a better tomorrow II (1987)

AKA Ying hung boon sik II.
"What makes you think that the good guys always win?"
Restaurant owner Ken Gor (Chow Yun Fat), twin brother of Mark Gor, teams up with police detective Kit (Leslie Cheung) and his struggling ex-con brother Ho (Lung Ti) to avenge an innocent death by a Triad gang, and bring down the new head of the gang KO (Shan Kwan).
The drama is broadened out with Ken being based in New York, whilst the others remain in Hong Kong. Woo ups the action, which whilst not matching up the previous film, is still head and shoulders above most action flicks.

bride of frankenstein (1935)

"To a new world of gods and monsters!"
Mary Shelley (Elsa Lanchester), reveals that Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) and his Monster did not die and introduces the continuing story. Henry wants to settle down and have a peaceful life with his new bride (Valerie Hobson). But the sinister Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), appears unexpectedly and blackmail Henry into continuing his work. The Monster (Boris Karloff) demands Henry build him a friend; and between them they develop a bride for the monster.
Another early classic horror from James Whale, that set the stage and wrote the blueprint for future horror productions.

the brood (1979)

"Thirty seconds after you're born you have a past and sixty seconds after that you begin to lie to yourself about it."
Nola Carveth (Samantha Eggar) is under the care of unconventional psychologist Dr. Hal Raglan (Oliver Reed). When the daughter returns home from a visit with her mother covered in bruises, the father (Art Hindle) attempts to stop his wife from seeing the girl. Meanwhile, Nola's parents start being attacked by weirdly deformed children...Her husband starts to suspect there may be a connection with the psychologist's methods.
Physical manifestations of rage come to the fore in this continuing exploration of medical horror by Cronenberg. This one supposedly driven in part by a contencious divorce the director was going through at the time.

brazil (1985)

"Information Transit got the wrong man. I got the *right* man. The wrong one was delivered to me as the right man, I accepted him on good faith as the right man. Was I wrong?"
Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is a technocrat in a frustratingly convoluted and inefficient future stiffled by bureaucracy. He idles his days away dreaming of getting away from it all, to spend eternity with the woman of his dreams. A woman he comes into contact with when trying to rectify the wrongful arrest of an innocent man. Unfortunately, the government wrongfully think him responsible for a series of terrorist bombings, and putting both his and the woman of his dreams life in danger.
As with all Gilliam films, this is a visually stunning and complex piece of theatre. The nightmare of bureaucracy gone mad is wonderfully conveyed here.

blue sunshine (1976)

"I'll get your Wayne! He's gone crazy from that acid you sold him, and so did your wife!"
A man goes insane and murders three women at a party. Jerry Zipkin (Zalman King) is falsely accused of the killings, and goes on the run. Whilst avoiding the police more killings occur, and Jerry discovers that people are turning into violent psychopaths due to a rogue batch of LSD they took ten years before.
An ambitious b movie, with an intreging premise. Does not quite come off, but is worth a look.

shivers (1975)

AKA They Came from Within.
"...disease is the love of two alien kinds of creatures for each other. That even dying is an act of eroticism."
There is a murder/suicide in an exclusive apartment block. The dead scientist had been experimenting on parasites for use within organ transplants. Then other residents start to act weirdly, giving in to wild abandon. Could it be that the scientist developed a parasite that preys on humans, increasing their sexual desire and violent tendancies? A parasite that is now loose within the block?
Early Cronenberg that established his dwelling on medical horror. A sort of sexualised version of 'Night of the Living Dead', which is a good thing, if you are wondering. All this and Barbara Steele.

billy liar (1963)

"Yes... today's a day of big decisions."
A young provincial clerk, Billy (Tom Courtenay) is a dreamer who prefers to live in his wild imagination, and the thought of one day leaving to live in London. His small time schemes inverably lead him into trouble, as he longs to get to know free spirit Liz (Julie Christie), who lives the life he professes to want. Then the chance arises to leave with Liz, but is he couragious to do so?
A wonderfully understated comedy drama that spawned a tv series and made stars out of its two leads.

curse of the crimson alter (1968)

AKA The Crimson Altar. The Crimson Cult.
"It's like a house from one of those old horror films."
Robert Manning (Mark Eden) visits a remote country house, hoping to track down his brother who has dissapeared, and is invited to stay by the head of the Morley estate (Christopher Lee). Whilst there Manning starts to feel uneasy. Well you would when the Butler (Michael Gough) tells you to leave whilst you can! He then broods on the legend of Lavinia Morley (Barbara Steele), the Black Witch of Greymarsh, when Professor Marsh (Boris Karloff), an expert in all things witchcraft, reprises the story for him.
Visually startling, this intreging story draws you in but leads to a disappointing end. But sometimes the journey is the thing, not the destination.

ms. 45 (1981)

"She's a horror. You've got to find her."
Thana (Zoë Lund), a mute woman gets raped twice on two separate occasions, whilst coming home from work. After the second rape she breaks down and decides to take revenge. Dressing suggestively she roams the streets, killing anyone who tries to take advantage. But her extra curricular activities spill over into her day job...
An early exploitation flick that effectively conveys the grim world of 80' New York.

akira (1988)

"Now you're king of the mountain, but it's all garbage!"
On Jul 16 1988 an atom bomb vapourises Tokyo. It is now 2019 in Neo-Tokyo, 31 years after WW3 and Kaneda is a school kid who leads a bike gang. One of the gang, Tetsuo is kidnapped by a secret government project. Kaneda tries to save his friend, and comes into contact with anti-government protesters trying to overthrow the government and confrontation with a transformed Tetsuo and ultimately Akira...
An unforgettable classic in the field of Japanese anime.

arsenic and old lace (1944)

"They're two of the dearest, sweetest, kindest, old ladies that ever walked the earth. They're out of this world. They're like, they're like pressed rose leaves."
Mortimer Bruster (Cary Grant) is an author known for his diatribes against marriage, who brings his bride (Priscilla Lane) to see his favourite maiden aunts (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair). Whilst trying to tell them the good news, he finds out they have been taking in lonely old men as an act of kindness. Unfortunately for the men, their charity includes putting them out of their misery and burying them in the cellar. Then to compound things nephew Jonathon (Raymond Massey), turns up, on the run from the law for murder. Cunningly he's had plastic surgery, unfortunately he now looks like Boris Karloff, due to his alcoholic sidekick Dr. Einstein (Peter Lorre). Bruster tries to sort things, whilst keeping his bride none the wiser that insanity obviously gallops in this family.
A classic black comedy with one of Grants finest performances as the wisecracking journalist out of his depth with the insanity around him.

the ritz (1976)

"I can't talk now, I think he's surrounding me for unnatural things."
Cleveland businessman Gaetano Proclo (Jack Weston) checks into the last place he things his psychotic brother-in-law Carmine (Jerry Stiller) will find him. The Ritz New York, a gay bath house. Carmine wants to kill Proclo and has hired detective Michael Brick (Treat Williams) who tracks him there. And whilst Proclo tries to fend off a chubby chaser and Googie Gomez (Rita Moreno), he gets more trouble as his wife (Kaye Ballard) turns up.
Lester takes the broadway farce onto the big screen and creates a wild world of bath house patrons in this interesting comedy.

the adventures of rat pfink a boo boo (1966)

AKA Rat Pfink And Boo Boo.
"Remember, Boo Boo, we only have one weakness...Bullets!"
Cee Bee Beaumont (Carolyn Brandt), girlfriend of rock n' roll star Lonnie Lord (Ron Haydock), is kidnapped by the Chain Gang. Lonnie and his friend Titus Twimbly (Titus Moede) transform themselves into the superheroes Rat Pfink & Boo Boo, in order to rescue the damsel in distress and then defeat Kogar the Ape.
Check out the go-go parties with kids doing the the Watusi. Check out the giant rampaging ape and the ticker tape parade held in honour of our daring duo. And whilst you are at it, check out the acting...a b movie classic, hilarious and inept, often at the same time.

the wild women of wongo (1958)

"You "come in peace"... with spears!"
The island of Wongo is inhabited by a tribe of beautiful women, who on discovering that the other side of the island is inhabited by a tribe of hunks, go to grab themselves some action. But there is also a tribe of evil ape men on the island, and thet to want in on some action and plan to raid on female tribe to capture themselves some mates.
So cheap and badly acted its actually fun to watch. Where else are you going to see a wise-cracking parrot out acting the human cast?

confessions of a psycho cat (1968)

AKA 3 Loves of a Psycho Cat.
"Each of you has killed."
Virginia Marcus (Eileen Lord) is a wealthy byt deranged woman who offers three men $100,000 if they can stay alive for 24 hours in Manhattan, whilst she hunts them down.
A Nouvelle Vague style thriller, with bizarre sex scenes randomly inserted and so ineptly edited it becomes comic. A cult curio featuring a bit part for the 'Raging Bull' himself Jake LaMotta!

the brain machine (1977)

AKA Gray Matter. Mind Warp.
"We're all killing machines..."
Four people from different backgrounds all volunteer for an experiment involving mind alteration, and all have a secret that the government wants to know. As with such things, something goes wrong and mayhem ensues.
Low rent and low on the 'lets make something that makes sense' scale. One to watch if you want to see Rosco from The Dukes Of Hazzard in a new light, but otherwise boredom awaits.

highlander (1986)

"There can only be one."
We follow the life of Connor Macleod (Christopher Lambert) an immortal, from the 16th Century Scottish highlands to modern day New York, as he battles other immortals and bests them all. All that is until he meets his deadliest foe Kurgan (Clancy Brown).
A failure on its release, this spawned four sequals and a tv series. Not surprising as it is an entertaining adventure.

a clockwork orange (1971)

"Viddy well, little brother. Viddy well."
Alex (Malcolm McDowell) is a juvenile delinquent in the near future, and we follow his thugish life as he rapes and pillages his way through his teens. Until he's caught and imprisoned, betrayed by his gang, who are fed up with his attitude to them. Whilst in prison he volunteers for an experimental aversion therapy programme which makes him detest violence, but back on the streets he finds he has no way to defend himself as his past comes back to haunt him, and he becomes a political pawn.
A classic book, made into a classic film, which has the distinct style of the 70's all over it. This is study on the problem of violence in society, the political reaction to it, and their attempt to solve it. Not a film that is easy to like, it can be cold, analytical, and disturbing, but rewards persistence in the viewer.

die! die! my darling! (1965)

AKA Fanatic.
"One's duty to the Lord must take precedence, must it not?"
Patricia Carroll (Stefanie Powers), arrives in London to marry Alan Glentower (Maurice Kaufmann), but before she does, she wants to pay her respects to Mrs Trefoile (Tallulah Bankhead), the mother of her deceased fiancé. Whilst at Mrs Trefoile's it becomes apparent she blames Patricia for her son's death, and decides Patricia needs to cleanse her soul...
A psychological thriller, rather than a horror. This is mildly diverting, rather than out and out entertainment.

freaks (1932)

AKA Forbidden Love. Nature's Mistakes.
"we except her, one of us."
A carnival barker draws a crowd to his freakshow by relating the story of a freak called the Feathered Hen. We flashback to Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova), a trapeze artist, who is adored by Hans (Harry Earles) a midget. Friends warn Him that she is only interested in him for his money. Unknown to Hans Cleopatra is having an affair with Hercules (Henry Victor), and the pair plan to get the little guys money by marriage. Cleopatra duely marries Hans, but during the wedding reception, Cleopatra openly flirts with Hercules, and mocks the other freaks present. until they decide they have had enough and exact a high price from Cleopatra for her high handed attitude to them...
Banned at the time by many countries and some states in the US, for using real freaks within the cast. This is one of the classic 30's horrors, with an ending that you will never forget.

charlie bubbles (1967)

"Your life is not your own, is it?"
Charlie Bubbles (Albert Finney), is a writer, who returns to Manchester, to try and reconnect with people. The capacity he has lost since moving to London and becoming rich and successful. To do so he visits his estranged wife (Billie Whitelaw) and son. All this and he's seeing his young secretary (Liza Minnelli) as well.
Albert returns to the place of his birth, much like the character he portrays in the film, in this dramatised middle life crisis, written by Salford lass done good Shelagh Delaney. Annoyingly this is as detatched as the character itself, and whilst entertaining enough you are never drawn to the people being portrayed.

night of the ghouls (1959)

"Monsters! Space people! Mad doctors! They didn't teach me about such things in the police academy!"
Opens with Criswell, a real medium, who introduces the film about "monsters to be despised." Dr. Acula (Kenne Duncan) is a phony medium aided by the White Ghost (Valda Hansen), someone pretending to be a ghost, and Lobo (Tor Johnson), in horrible scar makeup. The doctor is busy swindling people by pretending to contact their dead relatives, but one night accidentally succeeds in reviving some corpses. Step in Police Lieutenant Daniel Bradford (Duke Moore), and the legendary Patrolman Kelton (Paul Marco) to sort it all out.
This low rent movie supposedly sat unreleased for 23 years as Wood couldn't pay the lab fees! A legendarily bad film, which one would expect of the follow up to 'Bride Of The Monster'.

la cage aux folles (1978)

AKA Birds of a Feather.
"Indifference is a terrible thing."
Renato and Albin (Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault) are a gay couple living in St. Tropez, who end up in a flap when their son Laurent (Rémi Laurent) announces he is getting married. They attempt to conceal their lifestyle and their ownership of the transvestite club downstairs from the sons fiancée and her parents.
Break through gay film, that played well with straight audiences, mainly due to the script that plays up the farce.

eating raoul (1982)

"He was a man. Now he's just a bag of garbage."
Paul and Mary Bland (Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov) are a conservative couple living in riotous Los Angeles, and dislike the lifestyle of those around them, and lots of money worries. When a swinging neighbour is killed by Paul, as he assaults Mary, they have a problem. What to do with the body? Once they get away with disposing of the body, they hit on a plan to rid themselves of more annoying neighbours, but then a catburgler named Raoul (Robert Beltran) stumbles on their scheme and wants in on it...
A black comedy full of fantastic one liners, that is both over the top and subtle at the same time!

matinee (1993)

"You think grown-ups have it all figured out? That's just a hustle, kid. Grown-ups are making it up as they go along, just like you. You remember that, and you'll do fine."
Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman) is a William Castle style moviemaker, who comes to a small Florida town, with his assistant Ruth (Cathy Moriarty), to preview his latest film Mant, during the Cuban Missile crisis. Determined to be there is Gene (Simon Fenton), a young horror fan, who has real life worries of his own, as his dad has been assigned to the naval blockade of Cuba.
A salute to the B-movie in this light but entertaining coming of age comedy.

new york ripper (1982)

AKA Lo squartatore di New York.
"But you won't understand me, you'll never understand me! You're too stupid! Quack! Quack! Quack!"
A serial killer is preying on promiscuous women, ending their lives in a variety of sadistic ways. Its up to burnt out detective Fred Williams (Jack Headly) to catch him, whilst the killer keeps calling to taunt him. Then Williams catches his first break when Fay Majors (Antonella Interlenghi) survives an attack. Can she lead him to the killer?
Viewed today this is nothing special, the gore being surpassed by many mainstream films. But back in the day this was banned in many countries and refused a certificate in the UK, with the BBFC director supposidly ordering the print be sent out of the country, under police escort. Really its a standard whodunnit with added gore and misogyny.