Film Review: THE BEGUILED (1971, Don Siegel)

Stars: 5 of 5.
Running Time: 105 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page (known as the "First Lady of American Theater," SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, won Oscar for THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL, wife of Rip Torn), Elizabeth Hartman (Oscar-nominated for A PATCH OF BLUE), Jo Ann Harris (XANADU). Music by Lalo Schifrin. Cinematography by Bruce Surtees (DIRTY HARRY, THE OUTFIT, WHITE DOG, THE SUBSTITUTE).
Tag-line: "One man...seven women...in a strange house!" Gotta love the studio trying to figure out a way to sell this movie.
Best one-liner: "Mr. Yankee, there was enough iron in your leg to shoe a horse!"

It's difficult to single out one film from Don Siegel's exceptional oeuvre (DIRTY HARRY, THE SHOOTIST, CHARLEY VARRICK) and call it his 'masterwork,' but my gut reaction after viewing THE BEGUILED is to do just that. It's an atypical work, not merely for Action/Western icons Eastwood and Siegel, but for studio-financed American cinema as a whole. It's the sort of film that sticks with you for hours, days, and weeks… Based on a novel by Thomas Cullinan, it invokes the spirit and temperaments of Poe, Bierce, Hawthorne, and Capote, and the resulting film possesses a sort of 'Southern Gothic psychedelic existentialism.' It almost has the feel of SPIDER BABY combined with THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY.


As the Civil War rages, a small Confederate girls' school carries on with business (nearly) as usual, learning French and proper napkin etiquette even as cannons blast and patrols pass by. Their existence is interrupted by a wounded Union soldier, McB (Clint Eastwood), who isn't quite the saint that he pretends to be...of course, neither are they.

Stifling, hypnotic, even baroque, the film is presented from an omniscient perspective: different characters' thoughts, memories, and hypocrisies bleed into one another, like wreckage upon wreckage. You can blame it on the war or you can blame it on human nature, but no one- not even the sweetest, most innocent of little girls- emerges from this thing unscathed.

Clint gets a chance to really ACT this time: it's not chewing on a cigarillo, gunning down dudes, or growling one-liners; the legendary Geraldine Page maintains a calm exterior which brilliantly belies her inner tumult;

and Lalo Schifrin delivers his most mature, complex score (full of deep, echoey flutes, mournful oboes, and intricate harpiscords), and it perfectly complements the mood of the film. An eloquent meditation on survival, human folly, psychosexual longing, and race (and bookended by Clint singing, a cappella), THE BEGUILED is truly a masterpiece.

-Sean Gill

And check out the awesome Polish poster:

Film Review: THE EXTERMINATOR (1980, James Glickenhaus)

Stars: 4 of 5.
Running Time: 104 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Robert Ginty (COMING HOME, HARLEY DAVIDSON AND THE MARLBORO MAN), Samantha Eggar (WELCOME TO BLOOD CITY, THE BROOD), Christopher George (PIECES, ENTER THE NINJA), Steve James (VIGILANTE, THE DELTA FORCE, I'M GONNA GET YOU SUCKA), Irwin Keyes (DEATH WISH 4, David Lynch's ON THE AIR, FRIDAY THE 13TH, THE WARRIORS, the voice of 'Bruno the Bigfoot' in SAM AND MAX HIT THE ROAD), David Lipman (FRANKENHOOKER, WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S II), and Stan Getz as himself. Special makeup effects by Stan Winston.
Tag-line: "A one man army. A new kind of soldier in a new kind of war."
Best one-liner: "If you're lying, I'll be back."

So I saw Cannon Films' EXTERMINATOR 2 before I saw the first one, and I gotta say, while I enjoyed 2 quite a bit on a certain level, 1 is the far better film. THE EXTERMINATOR is sort of like a ROLLING THUNDER/TAXI DRIVER mashup as directed by an adolescent boy in 1980. EXTERMINATOR 2 is a DEATH WISH II/BREAKIN' mashup directed by an eight-year-old in 1984. That's probably the most diplomatic way to put it. Additionally, after seeing Robert Ginty's (R.I.P.) mumbly, unfocused performance as the Exterminator in Part 2, I was prepared to write him off as some bland no-talent, but after seeing him in Part 1, he's actually, at times, a pretty solid actor. I think this marks the first time EVER that the influence of Golan/Globus has dulled someone down (instead of making them more flamboyant).

Anyway, let me tell you about the fil– FOOOOOOOOOOSH!!

This movie starts right out with an explosion, and this a full five years before RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II. And it's not just an explosion– it's a human body spiraling through the air in agony as it blows away from an explosion. Damn! This movie is gonna be brutal! It's a 'Nam flashback, and, naturally, we segue to a torture scene– pre-FIRST BLOOD and post-ROLLING THUNDER. Robert Ginty and legendary martial arts actor Steve James have been captured by the Viet Cong, and of their comrades is gruesomely beheaded via a Stan Winston special effect.

Ginty holds fast.

They're about to do Ginty when James breaks loose and, together with Ginty, take out all the VC.

Amidst the carnage, some random dudes are running around on fire– this series has standards to maintain.

We then cut to NYC, 1980.

A bigger war zone than Vietnam? Possibly, according to this movie. James and Ginty now work for some kind of grocery warehouse, packing meats and produce into trucks.

There are some shady gangster-types who hang around, which gives it a kind of 'THIEVES' HIGHWAY/ evil fruit trucker biz' feel. A street gang called the "Ghetto Gouls" busts in and fights James and Ginty. Whenever gangs attack in this movie, you get a lot of 'victim POV,' where the gang member looks directly into and taunts the camera.

This is a good thing. James and Ginty mop the floor with the Ghetto Ghouls (they get their blood-pumping from 'Nam flashbacks), and we think that's the last we've seen of them. Well, we think that's the last we've seen of them if we've never seen a vigilante movie before. Anyway, the Ghouls come back and beat Steve James within an inch of his life (and with a gardening claw, no less), paralyzing him. Within one minute of finding out his friend has been paralyzed, Ginty is already torturing a random Ghoul with a flamethrower for information-

and within ten minutes, the original perps have been ejected from a house party (where they're playing 'Burn, Baby, Burn' by the Trammps) and have had their faces EATEN BY RATS. The Exterminator is born, and the movie's in high gear. It's not really done out of revenge, per sé- The Exterminator just seems to be on 'Nam-induced autopilot.


Then we got the totally schweet Christopher George in the role of 'cop investigating the Exterminator, but begrudgingly being won over by his take-charge attitude' role, which had been seen many times before (Robert Ryan in THE WILD BUNCH, Vincent Gardenia in DEATH WISH, etc.) and would be seen many times again (Yaphet Kotto in THE PARK IS MINE!, Ed Lauter in DEATH WISH III, etc., etc.).

They try and build this whole annoying subplot in, though, where George is dating a doctor played by Samantha Eggar (who is really quite talented- she played the wife and mother in Cronenberg's THE BROOD).

"What was 'Nam like?"
"–It was bad. Not as bad as New York City. But it was bad."

She's given absolutely nothing to do in this role, though, and when they're on dates (and they go on a million dates), you yearn for the scenes of the Exterminator carefully loading his weaponry or the bad guys mugging old ladies and high-fiving.

A common scenario.

The film's street cred comes from its possession of a certain attentiveness to quotidian detail:
the shabby denizens of Times Square (including a whacky, face-fondling trans woman who touches the Exterminator in passing),


a stuttering junkie hooker that can hardly form a coherent thought, the mob henchmen who scrutinize a bathroom stall before their boss uses it, the awesome interior design of the Exterminator's apartment,

and the drawn out exchange (in the midst of a TAXI DRIVER hooker-saving subplot) between the Exterminator and a ramshackle hotel lackey involving the cost of sheets for a paid sexual encounter ($5 for clean sheets, and a $5 deposit on the sheets)...

"YA WANT DA SHEETS?! YA WANT DA SHEETS?!"


Maybe Enzo G. Castellari worked on this thing as an uncredited asscrack coordinator. Stranger things have happened.


Anyway, probably my two favorite 'vigilante-in-action' scenes are these:

#1. The Exterminator captures a mobster in a restaurant's bathroom (he hides in the trash can with a hypodermic needle).

He chains him up and interrogates him about his home security above a gigantic meat grinder.


"If you're lying, I'll be back," Ginty says (pre-Arnie, I might add). Turns out the mobster was full of shit and only wanted his vicious guard dog to take out Mr. Ginty. The Exterminator survives said attack, which only means one thing:

Burgertime.

And I really admire the filmmakers' willingness to go there.


#2. The Exterminator learns of a dungeon where young boys and hookers are tortured with a soldering iron and other such implements by a New Jersey State Senator (played by David Lipman, FRANKENHOOKER's first electrocuted John). This New Jersey State Senator must never show up to work- it doesn't matter if it's midnight on a Saturday night or 12 noon on a weekday, you better believe he's gonna be at his Times Square dungeon, torturing some slave child. Makes you wonder what exactly goes on in the New Jersey State Senate. Not much legislating, I guess. Anyway, the Exterminator decides to prep for this encounter by hollowing out his bullets and pouring mercury into them.

Why he does this exactly is left up to the viewer to imagine. I mean, if he's already shooting people dead with the bullets, is it really important to him that they get mercury poisoning, post-mortem? The intent is different, but it's kind of in the same ballpark as sanitizing the skin with alcohol prior to a lethal injection. Seems a bit pointless. Anyway, the Exterminator busts in and shoots him dead, right in the kidney.


And then, um, I guess he gets mercury poisoned afterward. Take that!

There's also a faction of evil politicians and CIA men who want the Exterminator dead- with no trial or subsequent public embarassment of the government, whose inability to clean up the streets is being highlighted by this angry, mercury poisoning man. Christopher George is pissed off by their holier-than-thou, big shot attitude (which is similar to Robert Davi's FBI douche in DIE HARD) and tells them what's what:

"What do you think?"
"I THINK YOU HAVE TO TAKE A SHIT- IT'S COMIN' OUTTA YOUR MOUTH INSTEAD'A YOUR ASSHOLE!!!"

It's moments like this that I'm truly glad Christopher George pursued a career in acting. Anyway, I won't spoil how it all goes down, but you have to love that a character commits a heart-wrenching act of euthanasia and then delivers a "You're fly's open!" one-liner within, literally, thirty seconds of each other.

Your fly is open, Christopher George. Zing!

Well, EXTERMINATOR, you've impressed me. I'm not sure why the flamethrower was so essential to the marketing (he threatens one man with it but never once pulls the trigger) and the plot of the sequel (he exclusively uses the flamethrower in part 2). I guess a dude cleaning up the streets of New York with a flamethrower certainly has pull (or at least Golan and Globus thought so). Well, a dude cleaning up the streets of New York with mercury poisoning bullets and a giant meat-grinder has a lot of pull, too, in my opinion.

Obviously not quite in the same league as Paul Schrader's additions to the genre, or even something like Bill Lustig's VIGILANTE, but THE EXTERMINATOR is still a damned solid, furious, n' sleazy revenge flick. Pass the burgers.

-Sean Gill

Television Review: THE RED SKELTON SHOW- 'FANCY FOOTWORK' (1952, Martin Rackin)

Stars: 3 of 5.
Running Time: 30 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Red Skelton, Charles Bronson.
Best one-liner: Not really.

Now, I know that everyone was really disappointed by the Halloween countdown because it meant less Bronson than usual (though I was able to fit in HOUSE OF WAX), but rest assured, my cast-iron commitment to providing you with the best Bronson coverage imaginable has not been compromised. So, today, I'm here to dole out your fix: Charles Bronson on THE RED SKELTON SHOW. It's only his fourth credited screen appearance, and already we can see inklings of the greatness which was to come.

The show begins with some pretty weak segments that clearly don't involve Bronson. I've certainly got nothing against Red Skelton, but I think that the problem with most comedian and variety show types (this, SNL, SCTV, etc.) is that people become convinced of their brilliance via the contrivance of 'greatest hits' clip shows. Once you slog through a random episode full of groan-mustering one-liners and skits that seem to go on for forever, trying to wring twenty laughs from a premise that wasn't even quite worth a polite smile... whew- Your face muscles start to hurt from anticipating laughs that never come, and when finally there's one decent skit in the midst of an entire hour of clunkers, you start to get resentful. Why couldn't the makers just have focused a little bit more, worked a little harder? Then we could've had an hour of decent entertainment instead of 8 alright minutes and 52 excruciating ones. I won't bore you with the unremarkable aspects of this program, so instead we'll look at the weird, the whacked-out, and the Bronson:

Early on, there's an odd skit starring Skelton that's basically an infomercial for a crudely constructed cleaning robot that resembles the Tin Man.

Skelton at one point threatens to blow up the audience with a grenade, then begins hawking said automaton. The robot naturally begins to go haywire and sticks Skelton's face in its crotch.

Not sure why he does that, exactly.

The skit ends with the robot reprogramming Skelton and steering him with a remote control. I can't say I was laughing, but I can say that I was making rather incredulous arches with my eyebrows.

'Laffs a plenty abound.

Then there's a performance by the musical guest- a barbershop quartet named "The Sportsmen," consisting of four Pointdexter-types wearing matching sweaters and bowties.

They conclude their number with a little gender-bending 'ring around the rosy'-style finale.

All I can say is that it's a good thing Bronson was still in the green room while this was going on.


Whew. Anyway, after more filler, it's time for "Fancy Footwork," the headlining skit. The plot is simple. Red Skelton plays "Cauliflower McPugg," a down-on-his-luck boxer who seems only to care about money, but he's terrible at his sport, so via this incongruity, hilarity ensueth.

A bemuscled young Bronson strides in, the new kid on the block– a fighter named "Perky." He challenges Cauliflower's manager– "I bet you five bucks I can cut him to ribbons!" Of course Cauliflower's ears prick up at the mention of five whole dollars, which is funny, because Cauliflower cares about money, yet we can tell from his rotund form that there's no way he can possibly defeat the Herculean Bronson.

Bronson shows what a tough guy asshole he is by waking up Cauliflower by taking a piss on his head.

Eh, not really. Enzo G. Castellari didn't direct this episode. Bronson instead shows what a tough guy asshole he is by flinging a wet towel at his head.

He then makes the big bet with Cauliflower's manager and makes some ape-like facial expressions while they shake on it:

It's extremely endearing to see Bronson do comedy. He's not exactly the yuckster of the century, but he really throws himself into his work. Bronson's background (coal mines, poverty, war injuries) transformed him into a tough but extremely sincere man. He's so happy to be play-acting instead of getting Black Lung that he is game for anything. There is no wink-and-nod shit going on here- this is Bronson sincerely tackling comedy. Bronson doesn't feel 'above' the material, he is giving it his all. This is what sets Bronson apart from the 'tough guys' of today. Will Smith? Gerard Butler? You people are killing me. Your personal trainers and master cleanse diets and all this crap. You can't even match Kurt Thomas in GYMKATA. Bronson's dressing room before appearing on this show was likely four cracked plaster walls covered with white lead-based paint, and goddammit, he was busy getting into character, not whining to his personal assistant. Sorry, I digress.

Bronson steps up and breaks the fourth wall–


"Pay attention, cause this is the big plot..."


Holy shit! I just fell out of my chair cause I thought Bronson was talking to me– and he was!

So then Bronson goes over and either staples or glues Cauliflower's feet to the floor. Don't ask me which- they recorded this thing in kinescope, I think, so in a long shot I can't tell what the fuck is going on. I'm not sure why Bronson, I mean 'Perky,' does this, because clearly he could beat the tar out of Cauliflower in a fair fight, so why cheat? It only risks invalidating the results. I guess it's just set-up for the final joke, which isn't exactly a joke at all, at least in the conventional sense.

At this point the skit becomes about running out the clock. This thing gets stretched to about 10 minutes, which is WAYYYY too long, but Bronson is game. Always listening and reacting (though not always successfully), Bronson is attentive where some would just phone it in.

He gets to smack Cauliflower around a bit, pre-fight,

and there's a drawn-out bit where Cauliflower's trainer must check his pulse to see if he's still alive. The trainer decides, "No pulse." Bronson exclaims "He MUST be DEAD!" with the exact enunciation, cadence, and arm movement that he would use to say "It's MY CAR!" in DEATH WISH 3, over thirty years later.

"He MUST be DEAD!"

"It's MY CAR!"

To keep the comedy going, the sound effect of a hammer striking an anvil plays every time anyone touches Bronson. The trainer even plays out the NBC tri-tone on Bronson's six-pack. Hoo-boy. Finally, Cauliflower comes to, and the skit is dragged out a bit longer with exchanges like:

Trainer: "We're gonna use strategy."
Cauliflower: "We're gonna use strategy! Strategy! That's it, we'll use strategy! ...(beat)... What's strategy?"

Bronson gets pissed off by all this waiting, and announces, "What's the matter– you get CHICKEN?"

(And we all know how Bronson feels about chicken. For the uninitiated, see my DEATH WISH 3 review.)

Finallllllly, they fight. Cauliflower is confused why his feet are stuck to the ground. He thinks his feet or shoes may be broken. They go for a few rounds. Perky is cocky.



Bronson gets in some good jabs and knocks Cauliflower on his ass. The skit's almost over. Bronson goes to the trainer to collect his five big ones. The trainer pulls out the five bucks and someone mentions "dollars," and...

Skelton pops up from his KO slumber and lifts his feet from the ground, ripping out entire planks of wood in a display of super-strength! See? He realllly likes money. And it's funny because he didn't use any of that super-strength in the fight itself, he just used it when he thought he could get himself some easy dollars. Now that's comedy, ladies and germs. Set 'em up, knock 'em down, and leave 'em laughing or something.

While this show clearly wasn't breaking any new ground, the audience that tuned in that night got to see something new, something special- got probably their first taste of Mr. Bronson- and ever since, they've been crying out for more...

-Sean Gill

Updated, Browsable List of All Reviews- November 2009

#
7 DAYS IN MAY (1964, John Frankenheimer)
52 PICK-UP (1986, John Frankenheimer)

A
THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES (1971, Robert Fuest)
ACTION JACKSON (1988, Craig R. Baxley)
ALL THAT JAZZ (1979, Bob Fosse)
ALLIGATOR (1980, Lewis Teague)
ANGEL HEART (1987, Alan Parker)
APPALOOSA (2008, Ed Harris)
THE APPLE (1980, Menahem Golan)
APRIL FOOL'S DAY (1986, Fred Walton)

B
BALTIKA EXTRA 9 (2008, Russia)
BASKET CASE (1982, Frank Henenlotter)
BATTLE IN HEAVEN (2005, Carlos Reygadas)
BEAT STREET (1984, Stan Lathan)
BEST WORST MOVIE (2009, Michael Stephenson)
BIG BLOW (2000, United States)
THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1970, Dario Argento)
BLADE RUNNER (1982, Ridley Scott)
THE BLACK CAT (2007, Stuart Gordon)
BLACK MOON RISING (1986, Harley Cokliss)
BLUE COLLAR (1978, Paul Schrader)
THE BLOB (1988, Chuck Russell)
BLOOD WORK (2002, Clint Eastwood)
BOARDING GATE (2008, Olivier Assayas)
BODY PARTS (1991, Eric Red)
BORDERLINE (1980, Jerrold Freedman)
BOXING HELENA (1993, Jennifer Chambers Lynch)
BROKEN ARROW (1996, John Woo)
THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY (1978, Steve Rash)
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (1992, Fran Rubel Kazui)
BULLETPROOF (1988, Steve Carver)

C
CANDYMAN (1992, Bernard Rose)
THE CARD PLAYER (2004, Dario Argento)
CASTLE FREAK (1995, Stuart Gordon)
CHAMPAGNE COLA (2009, United States)
THE CHANGELING (1980, Peter Medak)
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE #84: YOU ARE A MONSTER (1988, Edward Packard)
CHOPPING MALL (1986, Jim Wynorski)
C.H.U.D. (1984, Douglas Cheek)
CLASS OF 1984 (1982, Mark L. Lester)
COFFY (1973, Jack Hill)
COPYING BEETHOVEN (2006, Agnieszka Holland)
CRITTERS (1986, Stephen Herek)
CRITTERS 2: THE MAIN COURSE (1988, Mick Garris)
CRITTERS 3: YOU ARE WHAT THEY EAT (1991, Kristine Peterson)
CRITTERS 4: THEY'RE INVADING YOUR SPACE (1991, Rupert Harvey)
CUTTER'S WAY (1981, Ivan Passer)

D
DAGON (2001, Stuart Gordon)
THE DARK CRYSTAL (1982, Jim Henson & Frank Oz)
DAVID (1988, John Erman)
DEAD & BURIED (1981, Gary Sherman)
DEAD HEAT (1988, Mark Goldblatt)
DEAD LIKE ME: LIFE AFTER DEATH (2009, Stephen Herek)
THE DEAD POOL (1988, Buddy van Horn)
DEADBEAT AT DAWN (1988, Jim van Bebber)
THE DEADLY SPAWN (1983, Douglas McKeown)
DEADLY WEAPONS (1974, Doris Wishman)
DEATH HUNT (1981, Peter R. Hunt)
DEATH WISH (1974, Michael Winner)
DEATH WISH II (1982, Michael Winner)
DEATH WISH 3 (1985, Michael Winner)
DEATH WISH 4: THE CRACKDOWN (1987, J. Lee Thompson)
DEEP RED (1975, Dario Argento)
DEMONS 2 (1986, Lamberto Bava)
DIARY OF THE DEAD (2008, George A. Romero)
DILLINGER (1973, John Milius)
DIRTY HARRY (1971, Don Siegel)

E
THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE... (1953, Max Ophüls)
EATING RAOUL (1982, Paul Bartel)
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA PROCUREMENT (2009, United States)
ENTER THE NINJA (1981, Menahem Golan)
ESCAPE FROM L.A. (1996, John Carpenter)
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981, John Carpenter)
EUREKA (1983, Nicolas Roeg)
EXOTICA (1994, Atom Egoyan)
EXTERMINATOR 2 (1984, Mark Bunztman)
EXTREME PREJUDICE (1987, Walter Hill)

F
FACE/OFF (1997, John Woo)
FAREWELL, MY LOVELY (1975, Dick Richards)
FAST FORWARD (1985, Sidney Poitier)
FEAST II: SLOPPY SECONDS (2008, John Gulager)
FEAST III: THE HAPPY FINISH (2009, John Gulager)
FIRESTARTER (1984, Mark Lester)
FIREWALKER (1986, J. Lee Thompson)
FLASHDANCE (1983, Adrian Lyne)
FLESHBURN (1984, George Gage)
FOXY BROWN (1974, Jack Hill)
FRANKENHOOKER (1990, Frank Henenlotter)
FREDDY VS. JASON (2003, Ronny Yu)
FREDDY'S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE (1991, Rachel Talalay)
FREDDY'S GREATEST HITS- PART 1 (1987, The Elm Street Group)
FREDDY'S GREATEST HITS- PART 2 (1987, The Elm Street Group)
FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III: IN 3-D (1982, Steve Miner)
FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN (1989, Rob Hedden)
THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (1973, Peter Yates)
FROGS (1972, George McCowan)
FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM (1987, Jeff Burr)
FROZEN RIVER (2008, Courtney Hunt)

G
GEEK MAGGOT BINGO (1983, Nick Zedd)
GHOULIES III: GHOULIES GO TO COLLEGE (1991, John Carl Buechler)
A GIRL CUT IN TWO (2008, Claude Chabrol)
GRAN TORINO (2008, Clint Eastwood)

H
HANG 'EM HIGH (1968, Ted Post)
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY (2008, Mike Leigh)
HARD RAIN (1998, Mikael Salomon)
HARD TICKET TO HAWAII (1987, Andy Sidaris)
HEARTBREAK RIDGE (1986, Clint Eastwood)
HELLBOUND (1994, Aaron Norris)
HELLRAISER (1987, Clive Barker)
THE HEROIN BUSTERS (1977, Enzo G. Castellari)
HIGH SPIRITS (1988, Neil Jordan)
THE HIT (1984, Stephen Frears)
HOMECOMING (2005, Joe Dante)
HOOPER (1978, Hal Needham)
HOUSE OF WAX (1953, Andre de Toth)
THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959, William Castle)
HOUSE III: THE HORROR SHOW (1989, James Isaac)
HUDSON HAWK (1991, Michael Lehmann)
THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1990, John McTiernan)

I
INFERNO (1980, Dario Argento)
INTRUDER (1989, Scott Spiegel)
IRISH POTCHEEN (2006, Ireland)

J
JOHNNY HANDSOME (1989, Walter Hill)

K
KELLY'S HEROES (1970, Brian G. Hutton)
KEOMA (1976, Enzo G. Castellari)
KILLER WORKOUT (1986, David A. Prior)

L
THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM (1988, Ken Russell)
THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO (1998, Whit Stillman)
THE LAST DETAIL (1973, Hal Ashby)
THE LAST SHARK (1981, Enzo G. Castellari)
LEATHERFACE: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 3 (1990, Jeff Burr)
THE LETTER PEOPLE, EPISODE 1- MEET MR M (1974, Elayne Reiss-Weimann & Rita Friedman)
LEVIATHAN (1989, George P. Cosmatos)
LIFE AT THE OUTPOST (1979, Skatt Bros.)
LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN (1971, Lucio Fulci)
LONE WOLF MCQUADE (1983, Steve Carver)

M
MACSHAYNE: WINNER TAKES ALL (1994, E.W. Swackhamer)
MADIGAN (1968, Don Siegel)
MAN ON WIRE (2008, James Marsh)
MANHUNTER (1986, Michael Mann)
MANIAC! (1980, William Lustig)
MANIAC COP 2 (1990, William Lustig)
MARY (2008, Abel Ferrara)
MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (1986, Stephen King)
THE MECHANIC (1972, Michael Winner)
MESSENGER OF DEATH (1988, J. Lee Thompson)
METROPOLITAN (1990, Whit Stillman)
MISSING IN ACTION (1984, Joseph Zito)
MISSION TO MARS (2000, Brian de Palma)
MISTER LONELY (2008, Harmony Korine)
MODESTY BLAISE (1966, Joseph Losey)
MOTHER OF TEARS (2008, Dario Argento)
MR. MAJESTYK (1974, Richard Fleischer)
MURDER ROCK (1984, Lucio Fulci)
MY OWN WORST ENEMY (2008, Jason Smilovic)
MY WINNIPEG (2008, Guy Maddin)

N
THE NAME OF THE ROSE (1986, Jean-Jacques Annaud)
NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS (2007, Jon Turteltaub)
THE NEVERENDING STORY II: THE NEXT CHAPTER (1990, George Miller)
THE NEW YORK RIPPER (1982, Lucio Fulci)
NIGHT MOVES (1975, Arthur Penn)
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD (1989, Stephen Hopkins)
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 6: FREDDY'S DEAD (1991, Rachel Talalay)

O
THE OCTAGON (1980, Eric Karson)
THE OFFENCE (1972, Sidney Lumet)

P
THE PARK IS MINE! (1986, Steven Hilliard Stern)
PATTY HEARST (1988, Paul Schrader)
PELTS (2006, Dario Argento)
PHENOMENA (1985, Dario Argento)
PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (1953, Sam Fuller)
PIECES (1982, Juan Piquer Simón)
PIRANHA II: THE SPAWNING (1981, James Cameron)
THE PIRATE MOVIE (1982, Ken Annakin)
PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (1965, Mario Bava)
PREDATOR 2 (1990, Stephen Hopkins)
PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1987, John Carpenter)
THE PRINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA (1988, Ron Nyswaner)
PRIVATE PARTS (1972, Paul Bartel)
PROM NIGHT (1980, Paul Lynch)
THE PROWLER (1981, Joseph Zito)
PUMP UP THE VOLUME (1990, Allan Moyle)

Q
Q & A (1990, Sidney Lumet)

R
THE RAGE (1997, Sidney J. Furie)
RAGING BULL (1980, Martin Scorsese)
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981, Steven Spielberg)
RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II (1985, George Cosmatos)
RAMBO III (1988, Peter MacDonald)
RAMBO IV (2008, Sylvester Stallone)
RAWHIDE: "DUEL AT DAYBREAK" (1965, Sutton Roley)
REAL COTTON CANDY (????, United States)
RED DAWN (1984, John Milius)
RED DRAGON (2002, Brett Ratner)
THE RESURRECTED (1992, Dan O'Bannon)
REVENGE OF THE NINJA (1983, Sam Firstenberg)
RHINESTONE (1984, Bob Clark)
ROADGAMES (1981, Richard Franklin)
ROADIE (1980, Alan Rudolph)
ROBOT JOX (1990, Stuart Gordon)
ROCK 'N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL (1979, Joe Dante & Allan Arkush)
ROCK 'N ROLL NIGHTMARE (1987, John Fasano)
ROLLER BOOGIE (1979, Mark L. Lester)
ROLLING THUNDER (1977, John Flynn)
RUNAWAY TRAIN (1985, Andrei Konchalovsky)
RYAN'S DAUGHTER (1970, David Lean)

S
SALSA (1988, Boaz Davidson)
SATURN 3 (1980, Stanley Donen)
SAVAGE STREETS (1984, Danny Steinmann)
SCREAMERS (1995, Christian Duguay)
SEINE GROSSE ERFOLGE (1969, Heino)
THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW (1988, Wes Craven)
SEVEN DAYS IN MAY (1964, John Frankenheimer)
SHARKY'S MACHINE (1981, Burt Reynolds)
THE SHOOTIST (1976, Don Siegel)
SILENT LIGHT (2007, Carlos Reygadas)
SILENT RAGE (1982, Michael Miller)
THE SILENT WORLD (1956, Jacques Cousteau & Louis Malle)
SILVER BULLET (1985, Daniel Attias)
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (2008, Danny Boyle)
SOUTHERN COMFORT (1981, Walter Hill)
SPASMO (1974, Umberto Lenzi)
SPIDER BABY (1964, Jack Hill)
ST. IDES MALT LIQUOR JINGLE (1992, Ice Cube)
ST. IVES (1976, J. Lee Thompson)
THE STAND (1994, Mick Garris)
STAR 80 (1983, Bob Fosse)
STAR CRYSTAL (1985, Lance Lindsay)
STEPFATHER 2: MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY (1989, Jeff Burr)
STRAIGHT TIME (1978, Ulu Grosbard)
STRAIT-JACKET (1964, William Castle)
STREET TRASH (1987, J. Michael Muro)
STROKER ACE (1983, Hal Needham)
STUCK (2008, Stuart Gordon)
THE STUFF (1985, Larry Cohen)
THE SUBSTITUTE (1996, Robert Mandel)
SURVIVAL QUEST (1989, Don Coscarelli)
SUSPIRIA (1977, Dario Argento)
SWAMP THING (1982, Wes Craven)
SWING SHIFT (1984, Jonathan Demme)
SWITCHBLADE SISTERS (1975, Jack Hill)

T
THE TAKING OF POWER BY LOUIS XIV (1966, Roberto Rossellini)
TELEFON (1977, Don Siegel)
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974, Tobe Hooper)
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986, Tobe Hooper)
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 3 (1990, Jeff Burr)
THEY LIVE (1988, John Carpenter)
THE THIRD MIRACLE (1999, Agnieszka Holland)
THUNDER ROAD (1958, Arthur Ripley)
THE TINGLER (1959, William Castle)
TOMBSTONE (1993, "George Cosmatos" & Kurt Russell)
TOTAL RECALL (1990, Paul Verhoeven)
TRANCERS (1985, Charles Band)
TRON (1982, Steven Lisberger)
TROUBLE THE WATER (2008, "Tia Lessin & Carl Deal")
TUAREG: THE DESERT WARRIOR (1984, Enzo G. Castellari)
TWINS (1988, Ivan Reitman)

U
UNDER SIEGE (1992, Andrew Davis)

V
VAMPIRE'S KISS (1988, Robert Bierman)
VIGILANTE (1983, William Lustig)
VISITING HOURS (1982, Jean-Claude Lord)

W
W. (2008, Oliver Stone)
THE WANDERERS (1979, Philip Kaufman)
WAXWORK (1988, Anthony Hickox)
WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S (1989, Ted Kotcheff)
THE WHITE BUFFALO (1977, J. Lee Thompson)
WHITE DOG (1982, Sam Fuller)
WHITE HUNTER, BLACK HEART (1990, Clint Eastwood)
THE WILD ONE (1953, Laslo Benedek)
THE WILLIES (1991, Brian Peck)
WINNING (1969, James Goldstone)
THE WIZARD (1989, Todd Holland)
THE WORST WITCH (1986, Robert Young)
THE WRESTLER (2008, Darren Aronofsky)

X

Y
YOU ARE A MONSTER (1988, Edward Packard)

Z
ZIP ZAP RAP (1986, Devastatin' Dave the Turntable Slave)

LA ENFERMA (2008, Sean Gill and Rachel Klein)

A little something for your Day of the Dead– my film of Rachel Klein's piece, LA ENFERMA:

The following tale is a whirling reverie of savage beauty and spectral elegance. For whom? I would suppose they had names once, but it takes place in that unenviable span as mortal remains begin their ceaseless march from bone to dust. It's an ageless parable set in no single place, its backdrop being the anonymous graveyards, cemeteries, tombs, and mausoleums which some of us might pass every day and pay little mind. A little daydream set on El día de los Muertos. That one untamable day where the dead interrupt their eternal slumber to cavort and prance with morbid exuberance, a shadowy reflection of a vitality that now seems more like a half-remembered dream. La Enferma.