The Evil Dead
1981 · USA · 85m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legally. banned somewhereProsecuted in Britain. Actually a comedy, though it took years to admit it.
Splatter
1963–1990 · 45 films catalogued
Gore as the entire attraction, invented by a man who mostly made nudie films.
Films where graphic gore is the product rather than a consequence of the story.
The inventor
Herschell Gordon Lewis made Blood Feast in 1963 for about $24,500, in four days, because the nudie-cutie market was collapsing and he needed something drive-ins could not get on television. It is barely competent as filmmaking. It is also the first film built entirely around on-screen dismemberment, and everything in this category descends from it.
Lewis followed it with Two Thousand Maniacs! and Color Me Blood Red, then split with his producer David F. Friedman and kept returning to gore between other exploitation work, including The Wizard of Gore (1970) and The Gore Gore Girls (1972).
The technicians
The form got good when the effects people got good. Tom Savini, who had been a combat photographer in Vietnam, did Dawn of the Dead, Friday the 13th and Maniac. Giannetto De Rossi did Fulci's zombie films. Rob Bottin and Rick Baker took it into major studios.
The comic turn
By the mid-80s the excess had become the joke: Re-Animator, The Evil Dead II, Street Trash, Braindead. The gore is so far past plausibility that the only available response is laughing.
Where to start
Re-Animator, which is the point where the technique and the writing finally matched.
Splatter films on file
All 45 Splatter films →
The Evil Dead II
1987 · USA · 85m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legallyRemake and sequel at once. Raimi discovers slapstick and never looks back.
Dawn of the Dead
1978 · USA/Italy · 126m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legally. banned somewhereA shopping mall, four survivors, and Savini's finest hour.
Day of the Dead
1985 · USA · 100m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legallyThe bleakest Romero. Bub is the only sympathetic character in it.
Braindead
1992 · New Zealand · 104m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legally. banned somewhereJackson before the trilogy. The lawnmower scene ends the argument.
Re-Animator
1985 · USA · 104m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyWhere the effects and the writing finally matched. Jeffrey Combs is perfect.
The Return of the Living Dead
1985 · USA · 86m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyPunk soundtrack, running zombies, and the film that invented 'BRAINS'.
Bad Taste
1987 · New Zealand · 88m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyShot at weekends over four years by Jackson and his friends. Astonishing.
Ichi the Killer
2001 · Japan · 129m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyMiike hands out sick bags at the premiere and earns every one of them.
The Toxic Avenger
1984 · USA · 91m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyTroma's only good film, and the head-crushing is still funny.
Bride of Re-Animator
1990 · USA · 97m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyHerbert West builds a woman from parts. The sequel goes bigger, wetter and more demented.
From Beyond
1986 · USA/Italy · 85m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyStuart Gordon and Jeffrey Combs do Lovecraft again. A machine that lets you see what should stay unseen.
Inside
2007 · France · 83m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyThe French extremity wave stripped to one room, one night, and a pair of scissors.
Basket Case
1982 · USA · 91m
Obscurity: known. watchable legally$35,000, shot on 42nd Street, and completely charming. The best kind of cheap.
Nekromantik
1987 · West Germany · 68m
Obscurity: known. watchable legally. banned somewhereGerman, banned widely, and much sadder than its reputation suggests.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
1989 · Japan · 67m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallySixty-seven minutes of industrial nightmare. Nothing else looks like it.
Maniac
1980 · USA · 88m
Obscurity: known. watchable legally. banned somewhereSavini's effects, Spinell's performance, and a very bleak little film.
The Exterminator
1980 · USA · 99m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyA flamethrower and a meat grinder. Death Wish with the restraint removed.
Frontier(s)
2007 · France/Switzerland · 101m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyTexas Chainsaw with a French accent and a swastika over the door.
Dead & Buried
1981 · USA · 92m
Obscurity: known. watchable legally. banned somewhereStan Winston effects and a good twist. Underseen.
The Driller Killer
1979 · USA · 96m
Obscurity: known. watchable legally. banned somewhereAbel Ferrara's debut. More interesting as a document of downtown New York.
Two Thousand Maniacs!
1964 · USA · 87m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyH.G. Lewis, a Southern town, and gore effects that predate everyone.
Blood Feast
1963 · USA · 67m
Obscurity: known. watchable legally. banned somewhereThe first gore film. Barely competent, historically unavoidable.
Frankenhooker
1990 · USA · 85m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyA man rebuilds his dead girlfriend from the parts of exploded sex workers. Exactly that stupid, and great.