Exploitation films

Walking Tall

One sheriff, one hickory club, and the blueprint for every Southern vigilante picture after it.

Basket Case

$35,000, shot on 42nd Street, and completely charming. The best kind of cheap.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Meyer and Roger Ebert, at a major studio, on drugs. Somehow released.

Class of 1984

Death Wish enrols at high school and the faculty loses.

Foxy Brown

Coffy again, louder and worse written. Grier is still magnetic.

Rabid

Cronenberg gives Marilyn Chambers a blood-feeding stinger. Montreal falls apart around her.

Reefer Madness

A church-funded warning that became a comedy 40 years later.

Sleepaway Camp

Ninety minutes of nothing, then an ending nobody who has seen it forgets.

The Crazies

A military bioweapon drives a town homicidally insane. Romero on institutional failure, again.

The Prowler

A killer in WWII combat gear stalks a graduation dance. Savini's best gore work.

Bride of Re-Animator

Herbert West builds a woman from parts. The sequel goes bigger, wetter and more demented.

From Beyond

Stuart Gordon and Jeffrey Combs do Lovecraft again. A machine that lets you see what should stay unseen.

It's Alive

A mutant newborn kills the delivery room and goes on the run. Larry Cohen means the metaphor.

Opera

Needles taped under the eyes so she cannot look away. Argento's last truly great film.

The Burning

The raft scene is the best kill in any slasher. The rest is fine.

The Trip

Corman stages an LSD experience with every optical trick he had. Written by Jack Nicholson.

Silent Night, Deadly Night

The killer-Santa movie that got itself run out of cinemas in a week.

The Beastmaster

The one that is actually fun. Ferrets steal the film.

The Toxic Avenger

Troma's only good film, and the head-crushing is still funny.

Two-Lane Blacktop

Almost no dialogue, almost no plot, and completely hypnotic.

Alligator

Sayles again. A flushed pet in the sewers, and it knows how silly that is.

Blacula

William Marshall plays it completely straight and almost saves it.

Carnival of Souls

Made by an industrial-film director for $33,000. Genuinely haunted.

Vanishing Point

A white Challenger, amphetamines, and an existential crisis at speed.

Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS

Shot on the leftover Hogan's Heroes set. Nothing here is defensible; it's catalogued, not recommended.

I Walked with a Zombie

Val Lewton doing Jane Eyre in the Caribbean. Beautiful and barely horror.

Maniac Cop

A dead cop stalks New York in uniform. Larry Cohen writes, Robert Z'Dar's jaw does the rest.

Piranha

Sayles script, Dante direction, and jokes that land. The best Jaws rip.

The Return of the Living Dead

Punk soundtrack, running zombies, and the film that invented 'BRAINS'.

White Zombie

Lugosi, Haitian folklore, and the first zombie film. No eating involved.

Death Wish 3

Abandons realism entirely. Bronson defends a housing block with a machine gun.

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Meyer's best. Tura Satana is a genuine screen presence and the dialogue snaps.

Phantasm

A flying silver sphere, a towering undertaker, and dream logic. Nobody has explained it since.

I Spit on Your Grave

The most argued-about film on this site. Read the glossary entry before deciding.

Re-Animator

Where the effects and the writing finally matched. Jeffrey Combs is perfect.

The Hills Have Eyes

Craven's meanest. The suburban family turn out to be the better killers.