Plot: idyllic weekend getaway turns into nightmare for thirty-somethings. El último fin de semana (or The Last Weekend, for some reason released internationally on streaming services as Our Last Weekend) is an early fantaterror exercise from Spanish one-man bilge basher Norberto Ramos del Val that mixes up a whole lot
Consistency and reliability should be regarded as the highest of virtues, especially in an environment and culture as notably conservative, preservationist, and enthralled by its own mythology as the death metal scene writ large. The prominence and relevance of regional scenes is only as strong as its most vital representatives,
Plot: dance the night away at Disco Transylvania in Transylvania. At the peak of disco in the late seventies Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, Sister Sledge, the Bee Gees, and ABBA all had chart-topping albums. Saturday Night Fever (1977) brought disco culture to the masses, and Van Nuys Blvd. (1979), and
Plot: who or what is prowling and killing in the Amsterdam canals? How do you follow up your most successful movie? How do you even approach such a venture after nigh on 40 years? Do you do a sequel or a remake now that people only vaguely remember the name?
Plot: hell hath no fury like a woman trapped, cornered, and scorned. Have you also secretly pined for that Die Hard (1988) spin-off wherein a nubile Lucy McClane fights bad guys in her apartment? Everly answered the call and can charitably be summarized as, “Salma Hayek fights bad guys in
Within the larger scope of the nascent Tampa, Florida death metal explosion of the early 1990s Fort Lauderdale’s Monstrosity has sturdily remained hidden despite pooling talent and sharing membership with its more popular brethren. Whereas Cannibal Corpse, Cynic, Death, Deicide, Malevolent Creation, Morbid Angel, and Obituary all went on
Plot: the souls of sinners are tortured in Hell for eternity. After the international success of Suzzanna: Buried Alive (2018) Anggy Umbara hasn’t exactly been resting on his laurels. In between the horrors that he’s famous for he has dabbled in comedy, drama, and romance. Siksa Neraka (or
Plot: dying aristocrat infects sleepy Méxican village with a terrible malediction. Ibulong mo sa hangin (or Whisper it in the wind, released across of the English-speaking world as either Blood Of the Vampires or Curse Of The Vampires) stands forever enshrined as the greatest Pinoy gothic horror ever produced. The
What an absolute mindfuck it must be to be a member of Morbid Angel these days. The band has a legendary trio of early albums and the stint with its second, more respectable frontman has been fragmented and beset by problems (both external and internal) from just about every angle,
Plot: sleepy rice-farming village is haunted by a carnivorous ghost. บ้านผีปอบ (or Ghost House, Haunted House, or The House Of Pop in some international translations, all of which roughly convey the same) is the first part in Thailand’s longest running horror franchise and truly humble in its
Plot: forty-something umbrella salesman has a midlife crisis. Hilarity ensues! It speaks to the infinite wisdom and incredible foresight of Joël Séria as a filmmaker that he never so much as attempted to top his subversive Don’t Deliver Us From Evil (1971). Such a thing was simply not possible.
Plot: novice nun has a brush with supernatural horrors… and lives! Hermana Muerte (or Sister Death) is the long-awaited (but something we honestly quietly forgotten about) prequel to Spanish surprise horror hit Verónica (2017) and apparently an attempt to turn it into a universe of sorts. To its credit Sister
Plot: what horrible fate befell the late Dr. Jeronimus Hauff? 5 tombe per un medium (or Five Graves For A Medium, released in North American grindhouses and drive-ins as the pulptastic Terror-Creatures From the Grave) is not so much a minor entry as a more routinely uninspired one in Barbara
News
This is Least Worst Option, a brand new/old review blog by Wouter Roemers that has been around since 2013. Things formerly dead will be up and running here shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails
1990s
Plot: demi-gods quarrel over dominion, until a semi-devil appears… Dragon Chronicles – The Maidens Of Heavenly Mountains (or 新天龍八部之天山童姥 back at home, for brevity’s sake Dragon Chronicles – The Maidens hereafter) is a fantasy wuxia from that fertile decade-long period from the early eighties to, give or take, the mid nineties
1970s
Plot: you are what you eat… or what he puts into his sausages. Lo strangolatore di Vienna (or The Strangler Of Vienna, released internationally as the more sensational sounding The Mad Butcher Of Vienna - or simply The Mad Butcher - and in North America as Meat Is Meat) is
1970s
Plot: nobleman is having a mental breakdown, or is he possessed by a demon? Byleth (Il demone dell'incesto) (or Byleth – The Demon Of Incest, simply Byleth hereafter) is a curio in the pantheon of Italian gothic horror that has remained remarkably minor and elusive despite having all the
2010s
Plot: vampire recounts her life, losses and regrets over the centuries. Have you ever wondered what and how a Jean Rollin vampire film would have looked like on a modest budget (at least in Hollywood terms) of $8 million? Byzantium offers a glimpse into what such possiblity might look like.
1970s
Plot: disabled morgue worker will stop at nothing to resurrect his lost love. The Spanish Lon Chaney, Paul Naschy, is rightly associated with horror and the macabre as that was his genre of choice. Through out his long career he played most, if not all, of the Universal Classic Monsters.
2000s
Plot: journalist investigates mysterious going-ons in a remote village. Viy (1967) is the quintessential Russian folkloric horror that every serious fan of the genre at least should have a passing familiarity with. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s novel Viy served as an inspiration to Mario Bava for his classic gothic horror
1970s
Plot: not all is well behind the white picket fences in suburban Reykjavík. Art is bound to and reflective of the time it was produced in. As such certain things can only be made under specific circumstances or only in certain time periods. Cinema of the 1970s is particularly wicked
1970s
Plot: girls in a Parisian brothel are brutally murdered by unseen assailant. Even for those in the know of such things director Ferdinando Merighi is a nobody. Judging from the company he kept it’s not exactly a surprise. His association as assistant director to legendary hack Alfonso Brescia is
1970s
Plot: Only one agent can stop a cartel from bankrupting several Asian countries. Singapore never quite etched out a regional cinematic industry the way the Chinese mainland and the more Western inclined Hong Kong did. Like the nearby Taiwan the country often joined in co-productions but never developed much of
1960s
Plot: colonial prospectors discover feral white girl in the Congolese jungle. What do you do when the jungle adventures you had been making no longer are profitable? You look to what other countries are doing. That must have been what Romano Ferrara did when he helmed Gungala, Virgin Of the