HALLOWEEN ***** USA 1978 Dir: John Carpenter. 91 mins Those who got their knickers knotted by Rob Zombie’s HALLOWEEN remake duo have a short memory: John Carpenter’s original film is a scare machine precision-tooled from elements of earlier genre works. Its legendary opening alone (contrary to popular belief, the…
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MIMIC **** USA 1997 Dir: Guillermo Del Toro. 105 mins (Director’s Cut: 112 mins) Del Toro’s most straight-forward “scary movie” captures an unsettling ambience from the start, partly via Kyle Cooper’s jittery opening title sequence, echoing his design for SE7EN, a movie with which this shares an oppressively rainy…
FRIDAY THE 13TH ***** USA 1980 Dir: Sean S. Cunningham 95 mins Borrowing the format and structure of HALLOWEEN and the shock tactics of CARRIE, while adding a new kind of horror star to the mix (make-up FX legend Tom Savini), this movie became as influential in its own…
MALEVOLENCE **** USA 2004 Dir: Stevan Mena. 85 mins Writer / producer / director / composer Stevan Mena’s feature debut is a lean, scary back-to-basics slasher film that ditches the self-conscious jokes and ironic dialogue of the SCREAM cycle while returning to the suspense-driven set pieces (and evocative electronic…
HELL HOUSE LLC **** USA 2015 Dir: Stephen Cognetti. 93 mins A genuinely scary found footage horror movie employing the usual array of perspectives (TV news broadcasts, documentary-style talking heads, YouTube videos) to convey the tragedy that befell a Halloween tour at New York’s most notorious haunted hotel. A…