Brian Yuzna directs Billy Warlock, Concetta D’Agnese and Ben Slack in this body horror freakout where a teen jock finds his world falling apart when it appears the rich kids, his neighbourhood and his own family are up to something secret and disgusting.

A near permanent cardboard standee at our local videoshop – Society’s home release advertising promised a glamorous woman tearing off her own face. It has been 25 years since I was brave enough to rent it. It has aged wonderfully. 75% of the film is a dark teen movie farce. Billy finds himself bouncing around a series of nihilistic interactions with his community. A punkishly weird vibe overrides nearly all the directorial decisions. You could make Society neater but then it would not be the unique cult classic it was always destined to be. There’s mystery, sex, rejection, pranks, hair eating… It is essentially a Brett Easton Ellis novel that ends in twenty minutes of gloopy relentless special FX. You wait patiently for Society’s infamous gore orgy to finally kick-off and it is well worth the wait. Satirical shocks abound. LET THE SHUNTING COMMENCE!

9

Check out my wife Natalie’s Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Baz Luhrmann directs Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan in this adaptation of F.Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age fable about a man who acquires untold wealth to seduce the married woman he was too poor to propose to.

My favourite (respectable) book as a teen. This adaptation felt diminished on the small screen, less impressive on second watch. No director does saccharine doomed romance or overwhelming production design like Luhrmann but his other stylistic choices often are grating. This contains too much of the same braying franticness and musical naffness that makes Moulin Rouge unwatchable for me. This just about overcomes it’s frenetic ornateness thanks to some unguardedly vulnerable work by Leo and the sheer pure mystery of the source material. To accuse a Great Gatsby film of being OTT is churlish… so… there we are, old sport.

7

Check out my wife Natalie’s Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Herbert Ross directs John Cusack, James Spader and Imogen Stubbs in this political drama about two college roommates who discover they have different ethics when they find themselves rising the Washington ladder.

Glossy, boiler plate stuff. It has the appearance of a gentle comedy from its sax heavy score and font chosen for opening credits. Though it is heavier by nature than those aesthetic choices it easily entertains throughout – the plot actually isn’t a million miles distant from The Talented Mister Ripley save a murder or two. If you want two quirky stars trying their hand at something adult with no inbuilt surprises this passes a weekday night pleasantly.

7

Check out my wife Natalie’s Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Anthony Minghella directs Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow in this period psychological thriller where a young gay conman ingratiates himself into the lives and wealth of the idle American rich in Italy.

A very beautiful film, every shot feels sundappled and stinking of La Dolce Vita. The wardrobes alone are to die for, no wonder Tom Ripley kills to stay smartly attired. You get three bristling chest-out performances from Damon, Law and an egregiously spoilt Philip Seymour Hoffman. Any one of them is Oscar worthy and rewards repeated viewing. This is very much a class act. Visually it rarely puts a foot wrong, and it wears its intelligence proudly on its sleeve. I enjoy it thoroughly every time I watch it, though my preference is still for Purple Noon. The final act drifts a little too far away from the main drag, you know if you are still introducing pivotal characters to the plot in the final 15 minutes that maybe the adaptation could have used a little reigning in or folding together of players. Minor gripes about a film I return to often.

8

Check out my wife Natalie’s Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Terence Young directs Sean Connery, Claudine Auger and Adolfo Celi in this fourth 007 spy adventure where a SPECTRE agent steals two nukes and holds NATO to ransom.

Here it is – plodding, directionless Thunderball. My least favourite Bond. Connery phones it in, the story take an hour to get going, the underwater “action” sequences move at deathly pace. The Bond girls are sexy and glamorous – Fiona Volpe’s redheaded assassin is the only real spark of life. The best action sequence involves her (a chase around a carnival and nightclub) and even that ends with a non-committal shrug. I’ll probably never watch Thunderball again, and there’s no other Bond I’d consider typing that about.

3

Check out my wife Natalie’s Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

Martin Scorsese directs Robert DeNiro, Cybil Shepherd and Jodie Foster in this paranoid character study where an insomniac cabbie slowly drifts into a world of loneliness and violence.

Maybe it took a blunt pastiche like last year’s Joker for me to completely discover the power of Scorsese’s original. This ain’t no theme park misanthropy, no soft play seedy, no safety scissor self-destruction. This has the ache and the negative energy of true cinematic oblivion. It bored me a little as a kid, the late night timings of its scheduling on TV meant I was exhausted by the drained operatic finale, adverts interrupting didn’t help… In my twenties I had fears that maybe the mirror was being held up. Me > Robert DeNiro > Travis Bickle. How do you marry up being a good person with the casual indifference you develop to the daily destitution you see on the city streets? How do you combat a wobbly sense of the self when every interaction you have with humanity feels false and doomed to rejection? How do you find love when your attitude towards women swings from white knight tendencies to over consumption of pornography? How do you take action in a world you detest when all efforts not to go with the sickly flow are seen as intense and overbearing? Luckily I’m surer of myself now, never suffered the curse of mental illness, know how to control my paranoia, anger and doubt to healthy levels. The closest I run to being a Travis Bickle these days is the occasional burst of rudeness or inappropriateness. But in my twenties… who knows how close I got… a few more bad decisions or unlucky days… Maybe I couldn’t get on board with Taxi Driver in my youth as it felt just a little too close to home. Now I’m mature, happy and have evolved tools to deal with other people on my terms… I can appreciate the urban hellscape Marty conjures up. Appreciate Paul Schrader’s fatal assessment on humanity. Appreciate Bernard Herrmann’s final mournful, rumbling score. Appreciate DeNiro’s hungry, desperate intensity. Appreciate how no-one can capture the colours and illuminations of a city like DoP Michael Chapman. Appreciate what a little powerhouse Jodie Foster always was and is. Travis got it wrong… Fuck Betsy (even though it is Shepherd’s best performance)! Iris… “THEY… CANNOT… TOUCH…HER!” The meters on, I’m in the second half of my life, I don’t think Taxi Driver will ever be elevated into my personal God Tier but I finally see the true qualities in it that you all could before me.

9

Check out my wife Natalie’s Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/

George A. Romero directs Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea and Russell Streiner in this zombie horror where a ragtag group of survivors are besieged in a boarded up farmhouse.

“They’re coming to get you Barbara!” One of the true revolutions in cinema. Before this landmark, zombie movies were classy period dramas with a haunted ghoul… afterwards the hordes just got faster, hungrier, relentless. The fear of the mob, of the crowd, infection, loss of humanity… the 21st century’s fears predicted and given cheap celluloid form. Before this landmark, DIY indie movies were about hipsters farting about the streets of Manhattan but now you could make action, horror and thrillers on a shoestring budget. Romero proved you just needed your own energy, purpose, brute simplicity. Before this landmark, a black protagonist hardly existed on the screen unless it was a hero who conformed to white liberal Americas hypocritical standards of worthiness. Duane Jones’ Ben takes charge and takes action…“Now get the hell down in the cellar. You can be the boss down there, I’m boss up here!” Night of the Living Dead ain’t no museum piece, no milestone to be mentioned in essays then overlooked. It still grips as a movie nightmare, moves like its life depended on it, takes risks that still feel impactful. Romero’s claustrophobic framing helps, his complete abhorrence of narrative slack is essential.

9

Check out my wife Natalie’s Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/