Rob Zombie directs Sheri Moon Zombie, Bruce Davison and Judy Geeson in this demonic horror where a radio DJ’s life is taken over by a coven of executed witches.

A little more subdued than their gore fests, this is just as messy and distinctive as all the Zombie family output. So the plot and tone is undisciplined and unruly, so Sheri Moon isn’t exactly anyone but Rob’s choice of a leading lady, so the look is so dirty that you are scared you’ll get hepatitis just glancing at it. There is imagery here that brands itself on your brain. Real horror freak show stuff imprinted on your brain! That repugnant atmosphere is something no other horror director can sustain for a movie entire. This does lack some of the blunt force humour that the Zombie household “lighten” their films with. But even that can be sick and grating and overpowering at times. Listen… I’m clearly conflicted about these movies. I’ve never seen a Rob Zombie movie I unreservedly loved but equally I would watch them all again in a heartbeat. This move away from torture into the supernatural leaves a raw hangover of fear. What do you want from your horror movies?

7

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point 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/

Kar-Wai Wong directs Norah Jones, Jude Law and Natalie Portman in this U.S. road movie where a dumped woman crosses the states witnessing different forms of heartbreak.

I first saw this in an arthouse cinema in Berlin with a water fountain in front of the screen that stopped spouting when the movie was due to start. Flawed but beautiful. The heightened emotions on display are a bit too comic book to be seduced by. The acting is broad and unconvincing. Jude tries an accent. Natalie doesn’t land it as a fifty-something, casino living, bleach blonde. Norah Jones is pretty and wistful but adds nothing to a blankly written lead role. The steamy trifle is however utterly gorgeous. Darius Khondji’s cinematography absorbs every artificial light, creating a kaleidoscope of warm colours. Cat Power’s The Greatest appears on the soundtrack as a pleasing recurring motif. And the pies look delicious.

7

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point 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/

Steve Mitchell directs Larry Cohen, Fred Williamson and Michael Moriarty in this documentary about prolific low budget moviemaker Larry Cohen.

Black Caesar. Q-The Winged Serpent. The Stuff. Every Larry Cohen movie I’ve seen is an absolute blast. Yet so few are available on DVD or via streaming that I have to comfort myself with this exhaustive retrospective. You can tell from both his interview footage and his expansively unpretentious oeuvre that Cohen was bursting with chutpaz. The other talking heads openly call him out on his bullshit and fibs but with a warmth that suggest they’d have rather been taken for a ride with Larry than any studio head. It is a very affectionate biography littered with eye popping clips. I can’t tell what I want more; Larry Cohen’s unique career or a box set with all the gems I haven’t seen.

7

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point 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/

François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell direct Graham Verchere, Judah Lewis and Rich Sommer in this throwback thriller where the neighbourhood kids begin to suspect the nice cop across the road is a child serial killer.

Rear Window or Disturbia or The ‘Burbs for the Stranger Things generation. That’s everyone now, right? For an hour this plays out exactly as you might underestimate it to. Sommer’s too-nice-guy suspect is neatly inscrutable, the girl next door is a fantasy Betty, the messed up kids bicker at the arcade and around their BMXs convincingly. Nice evocation of The Goonies or The Monster Squad, the filmmakers fealty to that vibe shows they know their original sources and not just what Eleven and The Underneath cribbed. But the kills don’t come, and we seem to be marinating in an overused nostalgia rather than ramping up the romp. Then the mystery sharpens and things take an incredibly bleak and nasty turn. Wow! The final act plays out exactly as if a group of defenceless teens caught the attention of a killer rather than the wish fulfilment victory an Amblin Entertainment might sate us with. To shift the larks into pain and despair on a dime is a bravura move. Not exactly crowd pleasing though. Neither tone fully delivers what you want but Summer of 84 is a curiosity worth seeing how you feel about. If it had come out in 1984 it might now be a cult classic.

6

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point 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/

Henri-Georges Clouzot directs Elisabeth Wiener, Laurent Terzieff and Bernard Fresson in this dark drama where a dominant art dealer seduces a curious housewife.

I’m not that into geometric op art or posh S&M but I’ll quite happily say this is one of the sexiest and gorgeous films ever made. An utterly convincing journey of seduction, oblivion and experimental montage. Wiener and Terzieff’s simmering, often unspoken chemistry crackles.

9

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point 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/

Lamberto Bava directs Nancy Brilli, Bobby Rhodes and Asia Argento in this Italian horror sequel where the screen-hopping monsters infect a skyscraper.

A gorehound’s Die Hard: made somehow years before John McClane even dirtied his vest. This borrows the dripping corrosive blood of Alien, the disaster ensemble structure of The Towering Inferno, the infection rate of Dawn of the Dead. Seriously, this is like watching a 90 minute game of hide and seek or tag where the downside of being caught is mutating into an impressively rabid grotesque. It is admittedly bittier than the already quite random original. There are about 10 subplots that either end abruptly or toddle off without true resolution. One partygoer is left locked outside the glass cage waiting to ward off some unwanted punks… for little audience gain. A middle aged couple visit a Christmas market with no instances of monstrous possession to report. If you’ve come for narrative sense you’ve come to the wrong shop, brother. If you’ve come for bodybuilders throwing dumbbells at drooling undead loons or glamorous call girls losing it in elevators… then, boy-o-boy, do I have the kaleidoscope of nasty for you! I’m surprised given the quality of this series we never got a third VHS freak out.

7

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point 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/

Henri-Georges Clouzot directs Louis Jouvet, Bernard Blier and Suzy Delair in this crime farce where a music hall couple and their neighbour all become implicated in the murder of a rich lech.

Hardboiled but with unnecessary lurches into light comedy. At its best (the long sequence when the sad sack husband orchestrates a detailed alibi on his way to commit his crime) it matches Hitchcock. With a sympathetic lesbian support character and general bawdiness this works fine when it is being frank and adult. The sillier moments hold it back.

6

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point 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/

Sam Raimi directs James Franco, Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz in this fantasy adventure prequel following the “wizard”’s crash-landing in Oz and the fallout from his arrival.

I’m always surprised when I read this has a bad reputation. I remember really enjoying it on opening weekend and haven’t changed my opinion seven years later on revisit. It certainly is the best of the CGI vista environment, 3D cash-in films that followed in Avatar’s wake. Better than even Avatar. Unashamed digital is not my preference for fantasia generating yet still this Oz looks stunning. Like a shimmering pearl or crayon box come to life… the actors never seem to float a click out from the green screen, the pitfall of this style of filmmaking. Except when they are actual floating through the animated flora, fauna and yellow brick masonry. O.K…. Franco is a little smug (he’s a schmuck and so is the hero as written) but the three female leads more than make up for him. These are three of the most talented and attractive actresses working in modern Hollywood. It is never going to be boring watching them vamp and camp it up as witches in waiting. Zach Braff’s wisecracking monkey sidekick garners plenty of laughs. For the first half he threatens to Robin Williams the show and takeover the production like the genie does in Aladdin. Once the action begins, he fades into the background a little too much. If you approach this as Raimi’s take on a fairytale then he delivers it with the same verve as Army of Darkness or Darkman. The big battle action is a little weak but the slapstick knockabout and character design is perfect in the smaller kinetic moments. Full tilt Looney Toons lunacy. Raimi’s playful honed eye for big screen movement aside this isn’t to my taste when it comes to mega budget cinema, yet I genuinely believe it is as about as good as a 21st Century trip to Oz as you could expect.

8

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point 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/

Ted Post directs Anjanette Comer, Ruth Roman and Marianna Hill in this exploitation thriller where various women fight over an adult baby man.

Aside from the acting being a little on the thick side, this is a very original and effective creeper. You are never sure where the plot is going even though it fits in all the mandatory glimpses of sex, violence, bondage and crazy partying you’d expect from a mid-70s independent. Ends on a thrilling note, punctuating this lurid little shocker nicely.

7

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point 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/

Dario Argento directs Karl Malden, James Franciscus and Catherine Spaak in this giallo mystery where a journalist, a blind man and his adopted niece investigate a killer at a genetics company.

More ditzy murder mystery than slasher… this feels subdued and a little less joyful. Certainly it is nowhere near as deranged or colourful as Argento’s crazy best. That doesn’t mean the story telling doesn’t skip along with its own lunatic logic. Why don’t we see the scene where Karl Malden is poisoned? We know he can’t be the killer. Right? Right! Why do they set up his table of blindman crossword letters then never use it as a clue or macguffin later? There are decent set-pieces… a night in the cemetery and a chase on a roof. But there’s also a really miserable moment of nudity followed by an awkward sex scene involving a warm glass of milk. A mixed bag of retro daftness and nastiness.

6

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point 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/