Cat's Eye (1985) - Lewis Teague

Three tales of terror from Stephen King and company. Each with their own twists and turns. They call theses movies Anthology movies. You could put this in with Creepshow or Tales From the Crypt. I really like these movies because they have the ability to come at you from all angles. Not only that. The movie has a ton of cameos like James Woods and Drew Barrymore. This movie had just about everything it just didn't have the fear.

The first story is one of the most interesting. It stars James Woods in a role not too far out of his Videodrome piece. Woods wants to quit smoking so he goes to an experimental anti-smoking place called Quitters Inc. They have... lets say... interesting strategies on the subject. This was probably the best story and most compelling. It felt original. Followed by a story of a compulsive gambler that gambles peoples lives. Then closing with Drew Barrymore as a little girl haunted by a goblin who does battle with her new found cat.

The last story has really awesome effects and the makeup on the goblin is really cool. The middle story wains and you cant really wait for the next story to start. The bread and butter of the movie has to be Quitters Inc. I heard they were going to try and remake this segment with Samuel L. Jackson. That would be really awesome, I would love to see it.

Good for Polly!

Sid

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Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t

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Spookies (1986) - Genie Joseph, Thomas Doran, and Brendan Faulkner

It's impossible to get a decent movie when you take two films and just squash them together. That is essentially the story of how this movie came together. The film started as Twisted Souls. However, according to the financial backer they didn't have enough horror. So they ended up hiring another guy to come in and add a monster in virtually every scene. This movie started out being directed by Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran. It basically is the tale of two sets of teenagers that arrive to a strange building surrounded by a strange cemetery. It was your usual tale of teenagers in a big hows with a few monsters. Then they brought in Genie Joseph and added even more. Like a haunted birthday party, a murderous cat-man, zombies, and an old wizard. It really became a smorgasbord of horror with a very thin plot-line leading it around. This movie is hard to summarize in a conventional way. It just packs so much. The most interesting part of this movie are defini

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Le Diable au Convent (1899) - George Melies

Le Diable au Convent is longer than the two previous Georges Méliès ventures into short form horror. This particular French short shows the Devil himself running a convent and terrorizing the poor old nuns that live there. However he is finally vanquished by the good of Faith. This is yet another Méliès classic, showcasing the art work that really goes into his short film-making. This is one of the earliest examples of a horror movie that could rely on its elaborate set design and artistic design. Everything in this film, although horribly aged, has been packaged extremely well. If you are a fan of production and set design then I would highly recommend just about anything that Melies has his name on. Though nothing that is considered too extreme actually happens, Satan does have his way with a convent. The satanic imagery itself must have kept this film on the traveling carnival circuit. It certainly wouldn’t fit into the good moral bag that society shoved itself into back in

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