Horror

Boy, do I love a good bug movie! I’m talking about bugs on the attack, of course. Where the creepy-crawly insects of the world get it into their heads to upset the delicate balance of Nature and show just how scary life can be when they decide that humans are the real pests that need to be stepped on, swatted, exterminated. No question bug movies wormed their way into my heart at a tender young age thanks to the swarm of sci-fi and horror B-movies that flickered through the

Ira Levin was a great American novelist and playwright. His inventive thrillers are a special treat—The Boys from Brazil, The Stepford Wives, A Kiss Before Dying, and my personal favorite, Rosemary’s Baby. By now, the story that forms the basis of that landmark novel and of the 1968 film that was made from it is well-known. A young couple moves into an old, stylish New York apartment building. The husband—Guy—is a self-centered actor struggling for his big break, while Rosema

There are certain movies I love that I call Guilty Pleasures—movies that—for whatever reasons—are maligned for their exploitive subject matter, poor productions, or for just being low-brow affairs. But I love them just the same, for any number of reasons. One such guilty pleasure for me is Race with the Devil. I first saw it at a drive-in theatre in 1975, and its cheap B-movie action thrills reached out from the screen, grabbed hold of me, and have never let me go. What’s it

A warning upfront: the movie Jacob’s Ladder is not for everyone. As a horror film, it ranks as one of the most painfully difficult, intensely sad, nightmarish ones that I’ve ever seen. Pitch black trauma, hallucinations, a confusing spiral into insanity—the web of despair in which the main character Jacob Singer finds himself trapped traps the viewer as well. The movie is a theme park ride through a ravaged, dark corner of psychological hell—and I love it! Made in 1990, dire

Film director Sam Raimi has made no secret of the fact that growing up he adored the films of The Three Stooges, the great comedy team of Moe, Larry and Curly—and later Shemp and Curly Joe. They made nearly 200 short films between 1930 and 1970. For generations of fans, The Stooges’ brand of slapstick, screwball comedy mixed with wonderfully idiotic physical mayhem proved irresistible. For Raimi, the influence of the Stooges was so great that when it was time for him to make

Hang on. What I’m about to tell you is true. Elvis is alive! And so is President John Kennedy! And both of them are old men living incognito in a cheap East Texas nursing home. But that’s not even the most incredible thing. Elvis and JFK have big trouble on their hands because Ho-Tep—a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy in a cowboy hat—is stalking the nursing home at night so he can suck out the souls of its residents. And Elvis and JFK could be next! That’s the outrageous premise