Ravenous (1999)
Ravenous is a tasteful combination of survival, legend, and cannibalism seasoned with dark humor. Guy Pearce plays an Army captain who is transferred to a fort in the Sierra Nevada foothills which is home to a motley crue of soldiers and Native Americans. Soon thereafter, Robert Carlyle shows up with a frightening tale of a traveling party who was stranded in the mountains. It’s a very well scripted movie and easy to get caught up in the insanity.
A solid cast and a unique soundtrack (that truly enhances the movie) make this a very overlooked film and a must see in my opinion. -
cactus
Repulsion (1965)
Few films can capture the circumstances under which existence itself becomes terrifying. In the paranoid, silent realm of our nightmares, the last spoon in a drawer or a can of soup on an empty counter can become terrifying, sad or awe inspiring. Repulsion is like Evil Dead without the zombies; trial after trial, act of violence after act of violence as life becomes a source of sheer horror. Being a Holocaust survivor, Polanski knows that life, limb and sanity are harder to retain than people think they are, and that in many cases they are prizes to be earned and not things to be taken for granted. Repulsion does not just show things that are frightening, it shows what it means to be frightened. Catherine Deneuve gives a transcendent performance in what I believe to be Roman Polanski' s best film. A must for students of atmospheric and psychological horror. -
Doc Faustus
Lik wong (aka Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky) (1991)
Oh yes, its cheesy, but thats the beauty of it. What's cooler than your hero getting his tendons sliced, tying them back together, and going back to fight some more? Riki-Oh is the story of a martial arts master who is sent to jail for brutally murdering the men who kidnapped his girlfriend, but in the corrupt prison when his fellow inmates start getting killed, things get personal, and its time for Riki-Oh to take out the trash. Impressive fight scenes (considering the budget), shallow but fun and perfectly cheesy characters, and downright rediculous amounts gore makes this film an absolute riot, and quiet frankly one of the most fun to watch films of all time. Based off of a graphic novel from japan, Ngai Kai Lam makes sure that Riki-Oh stays as comic-book like as it possibly can, and it suceeds. in spades. -
The Mothman
Yin ji kau (aka Rouge) (1987)
Santa Sangre (aka Holy Blood) (1989)
An elephant funeral. A demolished church with a pool of blood. An armless saint. A man haunted by his mother. All snapshots from Alejandro Jodorowsky's grandiose masterpiece, Santa Sangre. It's a movie grounded in the circus, but it has more grand, epic spectacle and grotesque absurdity than any circus you're ever bound to see. Jodorowsky's vision is huge, on the scale of Buñuel, Fellini, and even Tim Burton. Dealing with a man taken over by the conscience of his dead mother, Santa Sangre is something on the same narrative spectrum as Psycho, but far on the other end; both a playful and powerful statement on the importance of identity and the turmoil that can occur in trying to fight for ourselves. Auteurs like Jodorowsky typically experience creative ebbs and flows throughout their careers. After losing some of his vision after El Topo, Santa Sangre is his return to form. Not a hushed whisper of a master rediscovering his vision, but the roaring declaration of a man remembering why he makes films, tapping into vision and inspiration with glorious, unabashed fury. -
Fortunato