The Best Foreign Slasher Films Ever
By Eric Larnick
Oct 18th 2010


To celebrate unique chillers and thrillers you may not have seen, Moviefone is spotlighting the best foreign horror films in a variety of categories. If you're up for a good scare -- and don't mind reading the occasional subtitle -- then consider this a world history lesson.


Up first: slasher films. Most people think a slasher film is nothing more than low-budget, cheesy schlock filled with scantily-clad babysitters and laughably-bad acting. But these international slasher films present dangerous new terrors from an exotic collection of horror masters.









5. High Tension (2003)
Country: France
Director: Alexandre Aja
AKA: Haute Tension



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/Tension.jpg





What's It About?

Marie and Alex retreat to the latter girl's family house in the countryside for a weekend of studying. But in the middle of the night, a hulking, mysterious killer invades the home and kidnaps Alex, planning to do unspeakable things to her.

Marie is forced to chase after her friend, and somehow survive amidst a body-count that keeps rising.





Why Is it Awesome?

Even with a controversial twist ending that splits audiences' opinions, High Tension is still an exhausting, tense thriller. The film is a grisly chase that never shies away from the excesses of murder, reveling in all the gory details.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cCP0nHopT7Y&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cCP0nHopT7Y&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











4. Wolf Creek (2005)
Country: Australia
Director: Greg McLean



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/WolfCreek.jpg





What's It About?

After visiting the Wolf Creek crater in the Australian countryside, Ben, Kristy and Liz find themselves stranded when their car breaks down. Luckily for them, a local character named Mick arrives on the scene to help fix the broken-down vehicle.

However as the night drags on, their suspicions of Mick begin to mount. Before they can safely leave, they find themselves drugged and trapped in his gruesome torture lair.






Why Is it Awesome?

The grim film, "inspired by true events," moves at an unrelenting pace. Like all slasher films, very few people make it out alive, but not many slashers punish their characters as heavily as Wolf Creek.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cm8duRDsS8E&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cm8duRDsS8E&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











3. Blood and Black Lace (1964)
Country: Italy
Director: Mario Bava



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/BloodLace.jpg






What's It About?

A masked killer stalks and murders models at a high-end fashion house in the hopes of discovering a diary that reveals incriminating information about many people.

While the police's search for the killer provides no leads, the models double-cross each other, hoping to prevent the revelation of their many vices -- unaware that they are putting themselves in mortal danger.






Why Is it Awesome?

It's the godfather of slashers. Mario Bava's emphasis on sexuality and gore, instead of the usual murder mystery tropes, set the template for decades to come.

The film's lavish setting and rich, visual production has never made a death toll look so pretty.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vELBsxEZGXU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vELBsxEZGXU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











2. Phenomena (1985)
Country: Italy
Director: Dario Argento
AKA: Creepers



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/Phenom.jpg






What's It About?

Jennifer Connelly stars as a young girl sent to a Swiss boarding school, at the exact same time a series of ghastly murders being to occur.

Donald Pleasence co-stars as a forensic entomologist, who begins to realize that Connelly may possess a telepathic connection to insects -- including the same bugs found feeding on the recently deceased.

Together, they work to solve the murders before Connelly becomes the next victim.






Why Is it Awesome?

Dario Argento is considered a "master of horror" -- so trying to find his best work is a tough challenge.

But Phenomena might be his most creative movie, filled with everything from deformed monsters locked in the basement to a knife-wielding chimpanzee. You would notice how unique the movie is if you weren't so busy being freaked out.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4Mk6EjlATp4&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4Mk6EjlATp4&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











1. Inside (2007)
Country: France
Director: Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury
AKA: À l'intérieur



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/InsideD.jpg






What's It About?

Sarah is a pregnant widow who wants to spend her Christmas Eve alone and in mourning.

As she prepares to enter the hospital the next day for her delivery, her home is assaulted by a strange and delusional woman who claims that the baby in Sarah's stomach belongs to her, and that she is going to claim it by any means necessary -- even if she has to cut it out of Sarah herself.






Why Is it Awesome?

No other slasher film has created a protagonist as sympathetic as the pregnant Sarah.

Inside is painful, nasty, and not afraid to push the limits of what the human heart can handle. By the time the movie is over, you'll feel like you just got off a roller-coaster -- turned upside down, out-of-breath and too nervous to ride it again.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ksPl9cpyUb8&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ksPl9cpyUb8&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>


http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/10/18/the-best-foreign-slasher-films-ever/

The Best Foreign Vampire and Werewolf Films Ever
By Eric Larnick
Posted Oct 19th 2010


Today's lesson: vampires and werewolves, two mythic creatures whose beastly attacks have terrorized generations of audiences around the world.

In America these legends of folklore are portrayed by emo teenagers arguing over who can pout their lips the hardest. And our second-best scenario (Kate Beckinsale starring in a Matrix rip-off) isn't much better.

But these five films from around the world highlight the monstrous potential of these two creatures -- with plenty of fangs, blood and torn limbs.









5. Dog Soldiers (2002)
Country: Great Britain
Director: Neil Marshall



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/Dogs1.jpg






What's It About?

A British squadron is dropped into the Scottish Highlands for a routine training session but quickly finds the slaughtered remains of the previous squadron, who went missing in action.

To their astonishment, the thing responsible for the gruesome crime is a werewolf -- actually a whole family of werewolves. The soldiers fight for survival in unfamiliar terrain, getting picked off one by one, not realizing that the wolves are backing them up right into the monsters' lair.





Why Is it Awesome?

Neil Marshall -- who has quickly gained a rep for being one of the most kinetic action directors -- made his debut on this bloody, violent film.

Taking cues from movies like Predator and Aliens, he loads the movie with tough heroes who refuse to become just another batch of horror movie victims, resulting in a battle where man and monster go to great lengths to destroy one another.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/R_0Ej5N-hFQ&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/R_0Ej5N-hFQ&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











4. Thirst (2009)
Country: South Korea
Director: Park Chan-wook
AKA: Bakjwi



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/ThirstDVD.jpg






What's It About?

Sang-hyun, a devout priest finds himself with two very troubling dilemmas.

First, after hoping to find a cure for a rare disease, he volunteers himself as a test patient, infecting himself with the fatal illness. A mysterious blood transfusion saves his life and removes all symptoms of the crippling disease, but in order to continue warding off the effects of the disease, he must now feed off of human blood.

And if that wasn't enough to agonize over, Sang-hyun also finds himself attracted to his friend's wife, who is all too willing to let him give into his sinful temptations.





Why Is it Awesome?

Thirst is a perfect demonstration of Park Chan-wook's visual style: depicting extreme violence with intense intimacy, while framing each moment like a stylized portrait.

But beyond the film's look, the movie indulges in all the forbidden taboos that exist with the ancient vampire myth. Thirst is a modern but timeless look at flawed people who succumb to supernatural vices and lose all humanly control.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ksHBkbERaJI&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ksHBkbERaJI&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











3. Ginger Snaps (2000)
Country: Canada
Director: John Fawcett



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/GingerS.jpg






What's It About?

Ginger and Brigitte play two morbidly-obsessed sisters, who happen to be total outcasts at their high school. However, Brigitte feels the two of them growing distant after Ginger begins puberty -- and after she is attacked by the Beast of Bailey Downs, suffering the curse of lycanthropy in the process.

As Ginger begins indulging in sex and drugs, and feeding on fellow students, Brigitte has to find a way to save her sister, stop the bloodshed and convince people that Ginger's new attitude isn't just a case of growing pains.





Why Is it Awesome?

In addition to genuine scares, the film has a lot of dark humor about the awkward pains of puberty.

Featuring great performances from a young cast, and awesome-looking creature effects, it's like An American Werewolf in London by way of John Hughes.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uN86SzY5RCk&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uN86SzY5RCk&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











2. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Country: Germany
Director: Werner Herzog
AKA: Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/NosVam.jpg






What's It About?

It's legendary director Werner Herzog's interpretation of Bram Stoker's Dracula -- as channeled through a remake of/homage to the 1922 silent German classic Nosferatu.

Dracula travels from Transylvania to Germany, bringing a plague of rats and ship full or corpses with him.





Why Is it Awesome?

It's one of movie history's rare instances of a remake being as good as the original.

The original -- which is available for free in the public domain -- is one of the art form's first horror films, and Herzog's remake pays tribute to the pioneer with the added benefits of moody color cinematography, a lavish production budget and eerie sound design.

And it's capped off by notorious big-screen madman Klaus Kinski donning pale white make-up and fangs to portray the iconic vampire lord.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZeYpGsEdEZU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZeYpGsEdEZU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











1. Let the Right One In (2008)
Country: Sweden
Director: Tomas Alfredson
AKA: Låt Den Rätte Komma In



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/LetTheRightOneIn.jpg






What's It About?

Young Oskar is a timid, lonely boy in 1982 Stockholm. He suffers constant bullying from his classmates, and fantasizes about revenge.

His luck begins to change when Eli, a cute, quiet girl moves into the apartment next to him. Oskar finally gets a close friend who looks out for him, and encourages him to stand up for himself.

But Oskar is unaware that the innocent-looking Eli also lives with a strange man who is killing local residents so that Eli can feast on their blood.





Why Is it Awesome?

Even if the film didn't have shocking images of a young 12-year-old-looking girl preying on unsuspecting victims -- which it totally does -- the film would still be noted for its striking, stylized depiction of a tender friendship amidst a beautiful, snow-filled setting.

Alfredson deliberately toned down the horror elements and concentrated on the friendship between its two lead characters, resulting in a story about two sweet children taking care of each other as the inevitable doom approaches closer.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ICp4g9p_rgo&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ICp4g9p_rgo&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>


http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/10/19/the-best-foreign-vampire-and-werewolf-films-ever/

The Best Foreign Supernatural Movies Ever
By Eric Larnick
Oct 20th 2010


For today's class: the supernatural. Ghosts. Evil spirits. Lost souls seeking vengeance.


Every civilization -- in an attempt to explain the unexplainable -- has created superstitious tales.

This collection of movies demonstrates that no matter where you are in the world, some scares are universal, and no matter what language you speak, a strange noise coming from a dark room will always be very creepy.









5. Pulse (2001)
Country: Japan
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
AKA: Kairo



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/PulseDVD.jpg






What's It About?

As Kudo and her friends try to figure out why their friend Taguchi committed suicide, his spectral image begins to appear on a computer disk he was working on and he leaves messages on her phone begging for help from the afterlife.

Soon, people begin to randomly and mysteriously disappear, leaving behind only shadowy imprints. Meanwhile, Ryosuke's computer exhibits a life of its own, exposing him to images of ghosts, leading him to believe that their unrest souls are invading the earthly realm.






Why Is it Awesome?

The "J-horror" scene was swallowed up by Hollywood, who churned out tame remakes -- including a 2006 remake of Pulse -- and then burned audiences on the same repeated spooky imagery, until it all became cliché.

But where Pulse shines is in the totally creepy atmosphere created by director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. With Pulse he takes the "ghost in the machine" trope that was worn out so heavily, and pushes it to an apocalyptic conclusion.

The supernatural is represented as both the traditional "ghost," and as a lingering image of despair that invoked the atomic bomb blasts of WWII. In a world that is becoming increasingly industrialized and technologically connected, Pulse is proof that it can still be a scary, lonely place.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qjOEpIDa6_s&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qjOEpIDa6_s&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











4. Black Sunday (1960)
Country: Italy
Director: Mario Bava
AKA: La Maschera del Demonio (The Mask of Satan)



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/BlackSunday.jpg






What's It About?

The Moldavian witch Asa (Barbara Steele) is burned at the stake in the year 1630. Two centuries later, doctors inadvertently disturb her grave and resurrect the undead servant of Satan.

She begins to amass vampiric followers in an effort to capture and sacrifice the young, beautiful Katia in a bid for immortality.






Why Is it Awesome?

Black Sunday is one of cinema's greatest Gothic productions. Mario Bava's film not only examines but revels in viewers' fears of the occult and all its evil possibility.

The film shocked audiences with its levels of of violence and gore; they apparently forgot that history has always had a nasty streak when combating what they perceived to be the magic arts.

Few movies have depicted medieval torture and execution with as much lavish artistic design.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1Q5nV12AgVc&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1Q5nV12AgVc&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











3. The Devil's Backbone (2001)
Country: Spain
Director: Guillermo del Toro
AKA: El Espinazo del Diablo



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/DevilB.jpg






What's It About?

In 1939, after becoming another victim of the Spanish Civil War, young Carlos is sent to an orphanage. Things seem bad at first when he is picked on by the older Jaime, but they get seriously worse when he begins to hear strange noises at night.

His investigations reveal the orphanage to be haunted by another young boy named Santi. Before he can safely get away, Carols discovers that the bullying Jaime and the adults in charge may be connected to the supernatural mystery.

And even if he can survive whatever threats are closing in on him, he still must contend with the escalating and approaching war outside.






Why Is it Awesome?

Guillermo del Toro has since broken through to Hollywood and international audiences, but Backbone represents a personal creative peak for del Toro, who fused the genuine, moody scares of a ghost story with the shocking confusion of war.

The film's young protagonists and their innocent view of the world make the film's tragic setting even more nerve-wracking.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BHm_Me0CDC0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BHm_Me0CDC0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











2. Ringu (1998)
Country: Japan
Director: Hideo Nakata
AKA: Ring



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/Ringu.jpg






What's It About?

Most people are familiar with the super-successful Hollywood remake so here's the gist of it:

The journalist Reiko investigates the death of her niece, which came about after she watched a supposedly cursed videotape that will kill anyone who views it.

As she searches for clues, she discovers the true nature of the videotape, the terrifying little girl that is broadcast every time it is watched and the cruel game of tape-passing that must be played.






Why Is it Awesome?

Ringu is Japan's highest grossing horror movie of all time. And as far as remakes go, the American version isn't bad. But before the cross-continental movie fad spawned countless imitators, there was the original Ringu.

Over a decade later it stands tall as a dark, atmospheric twist on urban legends and ghost stories; there's no better example of how freaked out you can get from simply sitting in an empty room, watching images on a TV screen.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/e9Z-MOqAvtY&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/e9Z-MOqAvtY&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











1. Suspiria (1977)
Country: Italy
Director: Dario Argento



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/Suspiria.jpg






What's It About?

American ballerina Suzy (Jessica Harper) arrives at a prestigious dance academy in Munich just as her new classmates are terrorized by a vicious killer with superhuman abilities.

Suzy and her roommate investigate their mysterious school for answers and discover they are trapped within an evil terror, hundreds of years old.






Why Is it Awesome?

It's all in the execution(s). Trying to describe Suspiria doesn't begin to do it justice.

It sounds like a traditional fairy tale-inspired story of a young girl and an evil creature, but Dario Argento's film is a symphony of gore and beauty.


As Italy's last Technicolor film, the movie is a vibrant, choreographed display of carnage and other-worldly scares. Most movies frighten their audiences by drowning the scenes in black, but Suspiria has managed to freak people out for over 30 years using all the colors of the rainbow.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zak1AUiOvLo&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zak1AUiOvLo&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>


http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/10/20/best-foreign-supernatural-movies/

The Best Foreign Monster Movies Ever
By Eric Larnick
Posted Oct 21st 2010


The subject of today's class: monsters!

Hulking monstrosities mutated by radiation.
Prehistoric beasts that have secretly evolved past all scientific understanding.



In a heavily populated world, with little room left to explore, a monstrous mutation that rises from the depths to terrorize humanity defies all logic.

And with this collection of exotic super-heavies, you don't need to be bilingual to understand them; screaming will do just fine.









5. Black Sheep (2007)
Country: New Zealand
Director: Jonathan King



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/BlackSheepDVD.jpg






What's It About?

A brotherly feud between Henry and Angus reaches deadly proportions when Angus' genetic experiments on sheep go out of control.

Soon the countryside is infested with cannibalistic sheep possessing an insatiable thirst for blood and a bite so toxic it can mutate an average human into a deadly were-sheep.

The timid, sheep-phobic Henry must team up with animal activists to save what's left of his hometown before it's shepherded into a savage animal kingdom.






Why Is it Awesome?

Because it's totally ridiculous. The movie twists the classic "movie monster" format so much that it practically corkscrews.

There's enough dark comedy and gratuitous gore to have fun with the ludicrous premise, but the real treat of the film rests in the detailed creature creations supplied by the WETA Workshop, the visual effects company of fellow Kiwi Peter Jackson.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/829ZvtRKzAU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/829ZvtRKzAU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











4. Rodan (1956)
Country: Japan
Director: Ishiro Honda
AKA: Sora no Daikaiju Rodan



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/Rodan.jpg






What's It About?

After digging deep into the earth, miners accidentally release vicious, predatory giant insects known as Meganulon. That would be scary enough -- except the bugs are basically just food for even bigger monsters: gigantic Pteradons known as Rodans.

The military is called into action against the flying prehistoric monsters that soar through the skies, wreaking havoc around the entire world.






Why Is it Awesome?

This is the first color follow-up to Toho Studios' landmark Godzilla and it's an impressive display of the company's special effects.

After spending over 50 years laughing along at "man in rubber suit" movies that became increasingly geared for children, it's easy to forget that these initial "giant monster" movies were all about total and utter destruction.

Watching giant dinosaurs fly through the air toppling cities and amassing hundreds of casualties is a timeless spectacle.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/i5jfCb6-2RA&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/i5jfCb6-2RA&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











3. The Host (2006)
Country: South Korea
Director: Bong Joon-ho
AKA: Gwoemul



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/HostDVD.jpg






What's It About?

Gang-du, a slow-witted food vendor is called into action after a giant mutated fish creature rises from the Han River and begins terrorizing civilians. If it's not busy eating helpless victims, it's busy storing them in the sewers -- like Gang-du's young daughter -- with an intent to dine on them later.

Gang-du's efforts to mount a rescue mission are blocked by military officials trying to cover up the whole incident, quarantine a possible deadly virus that has also leaked and downplay the possibilities that the creature is the result of an American toxic waste mishap.






Why Is it Awesome?

Like Jaws before it, The Host is packed with exciting jolts that pump you full of adrenaline.

Unlike Jaws however, Bong Joon-ho relishes in displaying the monster in all its glory, as much as possible.


Fantastic modern effects have allowed for a completely unique monster, and the director's clever visual flair maximizes every fright that comes with the monster's bite.

This movie isn't just a roller coaster ride; it's like a million dollar Universal Studios attraction that makes you wait in line for hours. And it's totally worth it.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7kHKfN_VdUc&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7kHKfN_VdUc&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











2. Gojira (1954)
Country: Japan
Director: Ishiro Honda
AKA: Godzilla



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/Gojira.jpg






What's It About?

It's Godzilla. Everyone knows Godzilla. But in case you've forgotten the details:

Godzilla is a prehistoric beast that has been radiated to super-monster levels of power thanks to a nuclear explosion. He rises from the depths of the ocean and annihilates Tokyo.






Why Is it Awesome?

Gojira is the original Japanese language version and minus the addition of American actor Raymond Burr.

After you take away the massive pop-culture impact and the influence it's had on so many blockbuster movies, you have a dark, moody tale from a country recently ravaged by nuclear devastation; they created a fantastic monster to help explain and cope with the level of real death they have felt.

A giant dinosaur with radiation breath is fun in a comic book kind of way, but in his original form, Gojira was a harbinger of unchecked nuclear hostility and terrifying possibility.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ARCbfTP1KGo&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ARCbfTP1KGo&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











1. The Descent (2005)
Country: Great Britain
Director: Neil Marshall



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/Descent.jpg






What's It About?

Hoping to help their friend Sarah cope with the death of her husband and daughter, a group of adventure-seeking pals take her on a trip to the Appalachian Mountains.

Led by the more cocky-than-correct Juno, they explore an unmapped, underground cave system; the trip quickly goes awry when a collapse forces them to go deeper into the unknown cave system in search of a way out.

Miles away from daylight, with no one knowing where they are, the women's trip turns from disaster to nightmare when they discover that they are not alone.






Why Is it Awesome?

The Descent is one of the most intense, claustrophobic movies ever made -- detailing with uncomfortably close film-making -- how people would cope with such a freak natural disaster.

And we haven't even begun to talk about the monsters yet.


Neil Marshall's amazing directing choices, and masterful use of pull-and-release tension building, combined with horrifyingly-designed creature effects, adds up to one of the most unique movie experiences in years.

As a disaster movie, The Descent is really scary.
As a monster movie, it's life-changingly, therapy-inducingly brutal.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/l5I1q4KhKNU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/l5I1q4KhKNU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>


http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/10/21/best-foreign-monster-movies/

The Best Foreign Scary Sci-Fi Movies Ever
By Eric Larnick
Posted Oct 22nd 2010


Today's installment: scary science-fiction.

In a genre that routinely explores the possible and impossible in the world around us, it is quite easy to be frightened by the resulting discoveries.

The melding of horror movie and sci-fi film results in a unique and demented view where the medically inaccurate, the reality-bending and the unexplainable take control over all things logical.









5. Village of the Damned (1960)
Country: Great Britain
Director: Wolf Rilla



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/VillageDamned.jpg






What's It About?

Every single living being in a five mile radius of a quaint British town suddenly collapses into unconsciousness. Despite the military's best efforts, no cause or cure can be found until everyone awakens, seemingly healthy.

All the women involved in the mysterious "time-out" find themselves pregnant and simultaneously go into labor nine months later. They give birth to a collection of children who age rapidly, share the same blond features and bond in cold, uniform similarity.

They possess telepathic abilities and have the ability to mentally force people to do whatever they want.



Soon, anyone who rebels is driven to kill themselves in gruesome fashion. A professor -- and father to one of the children -- hopes to find a way to understand and solve the crisis that has developed.

But soon he learns that villages around the world have experienced the same phenomena, and he realizes there is only one solution: complete destruction.






Why Is it Awesome?

It's the godfather of creepy kid movies.

An entire town of alien-looking children, who exhibit no emotions -- save for maybe the calm confidence to drive grown men to vicious suicide -- appear to have no weaknesses.

Every possible solution to controlling the growing threat quickly proves helpless.


It is a bleak film that offers more questions than answers. And when it is over, the creepy, hypnotic eyes of the children linger in your mind.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zJAz4Uxf06s&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zJAz4Uxf06s&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











4. Xtro (1982)
Country: Great Britain
Director: Harry Bromley Davenport



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/Xtro.jpg






What's It About?

Sam, a loving family man, is abducted by aliens right in front of his young son. Sam's wife believes that he simply ran out on them, and her poor son is unable to cope with the reality of the situation.

But three years later, Sam returns to earth as a freakish alien creature who searches to reclaim his human body and regain his family that has since moved on.


Sam now possesses bizarre, otherworldly powers and passes them on to his young son, who begins to display them in weird, imaginative ways. As father and son plan to re-start the family as a half-human, half-alien hybrid, things take a freakishly deadly turn.






Why Is it Awesome?

This movie is weird. Really weird.

On the surface, it sounds like a poor mash-up of horror and E.T. but the movie's staying power exists in the lingering imagery and atmosphere it cultivates.

Sam's desire to re-spawn takes on ghoulishly invasive properties, and the extraterrestrial imagination-fueled powers lead to odd and surreal nightmare scenarios where the end result is usually death.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/d6tMdiUEHA4&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/d6tMdiUEHA4&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











3. Cube (1997)
Country: Canada
Director: Vincenzo Natali



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/CubeDVD.jpg






What's It About?

A group of strangers awaken to find themselves in a large cube-shaped structure, consisting of smaller cube-shaped rooms.

With no memory of how they arrived, and no explanation given for the origin of the structure, they plot to escape the cube, only to find that their path is complicated by a series of deadly traps.

In order to survive the twisting nature of the cube, they must decode its complex mathematical puzzle, or else they will fall victim to grisly and ornate fatalities.

But even if they can figure out the cube's true nature, they must tread cautiously; the structure's maddening reality can turn them against each other.






Why Is it Awesome?

The film can serve as a display of fantastic and byzantine death sequences, but beyond that, it is a cold, existential nightmare.

The film carries a deliberately ambiguous tone and the complex mathematical puzzle at the heart of the story keeps audiences on edge. It's one big exercise in resisting encroaching insanity.

The failure to fight it off will most likely lead to a gory demise.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/01hUyIrubWE&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/01hUyIrubWE&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











2. Meatball Machine (2005)
Country: Japan
Director: Yūdai Yamaguchi
AKA: Mītobōru Mashin



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/Meatball.jpg






What's It About?

Yoji and Sachiko are two lonely coworkers and love-struck fools who inadvertently expose themselves to a strange techno-alien insect that bonds to their bodies and begins to transform them into hideous monsters.

Multiple parasites swarm the city, mutating innocent civilians into horrifying cyborg-flesh weapons of destruction known as the Necroborg. The human host bodies' purpose is to fight each other to the death.

Amidst the rapidly-developing bloodshed, Yoji and Sachiko must fight their urge to destroy each other's flesh.






Why Is it Awesome?

It's a gory, bloody, skin-tearing, limb-cutting mess.

A prime example of the burgeoning "splatter-punk" series of horror films -- movies that indulge in all the terrible and fantastical ways that a body can be maimed -- what sets Meatball Machine apart is the story of doomed, innocent love between its main characters.

The film is not for the squeamish, and the jaw-dropping effects and creature/weapon design create a movie that can't really be described like anything else.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/N1WsJRHKiGg&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/N1WsJRHKiGg&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











1. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
Country: Japan
Director: Shinya Tsukamoto



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/IronMan4.jpg






What's It About?

A white-collar businessman -- known only as Salaryman -- commits a hit-and-run on a man known only as the Metal Fetishist, who is obsessed with turning his body into a completely industrial creation.

The Salaryman tries to cover up the accident, not realizing that the Fetishist is still alive; he returns to terrorize Salaryman by turning his body into a horrific amalgamation of metal and deteriorating flesh.

Soon, everyone that surrounds the Salaryman is cursed by the Metal Fetishist's plan, and his reality becomes more nightmarish than his already-terrifying dreams.






Why Is it Awesome?

One of horror film's most potently powerful ideas is the possibility that your own body will turn against you.

The Salaryman is helpless to the human-esque Metal Fetishist's plan, and we spend the majority of Tetsuo watching any and all feeble defenses fail miserably.


The plight of body betrayal takes its necessary erotic turn, and the growing metal threat spreads outward, claiming more and more victims. Beyond the wondrous story however, Tetsuo's legacy remains in director Shinya Tsukamoto's intense, hyper and gritty artistic style.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yuDPbMqGkmA&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yuDPbMqGkmA&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>


http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/10/22/best-foreign-sci-fi-horror-movies/

The Best Foreign Zombie Movies Ever
By Eric Larnick
Posted Oct 23rd 2010


Today's lesson: zombies!

Who doesn't love them? The recently-deceased creatures who'd rather munch on a nice, juicy brain, than utter a single word have become all the rage with horror fanatics.

The following collection of undead folk can be found in both hemispheres, come in slow and fast varieties, and have spread their disease along multiple time zones.









5. Stacy (2001)
Country: Japan
Director: Naoyuki Tomomatsu
AKA: Attack of the Schoolgirl Zombies



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/Stacy.jpg






What's It About?

Take a deep breath. Ready?

Okay -- a strange disease affects all teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 17.


First, they are overtaken by a hysterical joy known as "Near Death Happines," then within a few days they drop dead. They immediately resurrect as flesh-eating zombies that attack the nearest living creature. The epidemic has caused the zombie schoolgirls to be nicknamed "Stacies."

The government has tried to curb the panic by sending out execution squads known as the Romero Repeat-Kill Troops.



Lonely puppeteer Shibu-san has been tasked by the beautiful Eiko -- in the final throes of Near Death Happiness -- to illegally repeat-kill her, while a med student joins the front-line in hopes of rescuing his lost pen-pal, Momo.

Meanwhile, the Drew Barrymore-inspired female vigilante squad called the "Drew Death Troops" try to find the best weapon to kill a zombie, the TV is hawking the "Bruce Campbell's Right Hand 2" chainsaw attachment and there's still the mystery of the glittery Butterfly Twinkle Powder that glistens off a Stacy's skin.


Got it? Now exhale.






Why Is it Awesome?

Did you read what it is about? The movie is a car wreck of American zombie tropes and J-Pop stereotypes smashed together to create a fetishized monster of pure id.

Once you look past all the heightened iconography of eastern and western culture, and get past the gleeful amount of gory violence, you'll end up with a very quiet, meditative story about the "power" of love and the things will people do to please one another..




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HX4t8XYJgS0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HX4t8XYJgS0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











4. The Beyond (1981)
Country: Italy
Director: Lucio Fulci
AKA: Seven Doors of Death



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/Beyond.jpg






What's It About?

A young woman named Liza inherits an old decrepit Louisiana hotel, unaware that in the 1920s an artist and possible warlock known as Schweick was tortured and murdered in the basement.

A ghostly blind woman appears to Liza, urging her to leave, but Liza ignores the pleas.


What she doesn't know is that Schweik's death has unlocked one of the seven doorways of Hell, and Liza's plans to renovate the abandoned building blew the door wide open.

With the help of a local doctor, Liza must now contend with an infestation of the walking dead, who are entering our earthly realm from the underworld.






Why Is it Awesome?

Director Lucio Fulci made his name in a variety of genres from Westerns to slashers, but his most-regarded work came with his innovations of the zombie film.

It's hard to choose which one stands out the most, but The Beyond is Fulci's fullest exploration of the afterlife and all its existential notions.


Some zombies are the result of cosmic radiation or a voodoo curse, but the zombies in The Beyond are a purely undead threat that have literally walked straight out of hell.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/s3rqDvWaujU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/s3rqDvWaujU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











3. [REC] (2007)
Country: Spain
Director: Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/REC2.jpg






What's It About?

TV reporter Angela is doing a fluff news piece on the graveyard shift of Barcelona's fire department. With her cameraman in tow, she follows the squad on a routine call to an apartment building that quickly descends into chaos.

What appears to be a distraught, belligerent old woman soon reveals herself to be a crazed savage with a taste for flesh.


Rescue workers' attempt to evacuate the tenants are blocked by the military, which has quarantined the building -- and locked everyone inside with a virus that is turning living beings into mindless creatures that attack one another.

Angela and her camera are the only thing that document the horrors that are suffered by all those trapped inside.






Why Is it Awesome?

Americans are probably familiar with the remake, Quarantine, but they are not prepared for the level of intensity that comes with the original.

[REC] turns zombie conventions on their head using the first-person, real-time effect to simulate a zombie attack. It ignores all the cliches that have come with the "rules" of zombie films, and instead focuses only on the confusing, terrifying, in-the-moment panic of being attacked by something that used to be human.

The only time you'll get a chance to catch your breath and ask "what just happened?" will come with the end credits.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ib5ZSj6ST0U&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ib5ZSj6ST0U&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











2. 28 Days Later (2003)
Country: Great Britain
Director: Danny Boyle



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/Daysl.jpg






What's It About?

Coma victim Jim wakes up in an abandoned London hospital; his attempts to look for help quickly lead him to the city streets where he discovers even more deserted ruins.

His first interaction with life turns out to be a cruel trick when he is almost attacked by a pack of blood-thirsty brutes, infected with a sickness that has removed all traces of humanity.


He's rescued by a few barely-alive survivors who inform him of the "rage virus" that has brought about the end of the world.

With most of civilization in ruins, and the general population now consisting of inhuman creatures that prey on the last remaining people capable of thought, Jim and his new friends try to find sanctuary ... somewhere.






Why Is it Awesome?

The blockbuster, cross-continental hit changed everything we know about the modern zombie film.

By transforming them into fast-moving, animalistic monsters, director Danny Boyle removed any last vestiges of hypothetical "zombie survival scenarios" from people's minds.


28 Days Later is not just about the fear of being attacked by something that used to be a person, it's about humanity eating itself alive.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eunaclr-WgU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eunaclr-WgU&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











1. Dead Alive (1992)
Country: New Zealand
Director: Peter Jackson
AKA: Braindead



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/DeadAlive2.jpg






What's It About?

In 1950s New Zealand, the timid Lionel must contend with his over-bearing mother and her meddling attempts to break up his budding romance with a local girl.

Lionel is forced to stay by his mother's side after her health quickly deteriorates, following a bite from the diseased Rat Monkey of Sumatra. The infection quickly takes her life, but to Lionel's surprise she is revived as a mindless, brain-eating zombie.


Ever the mama's boy, Lionel tries to look after his zombie mother, win the heart of Paquita and attempt to curb the zombie outbreak that has taken over his town.

(Spoiler alert: He strikes out on a couple of those.)






Why Is it Awesome?

Before he became the guy who made the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson was infamous in his native New Zealand for making the most ridiculous zombie movie of all time.

The movie's use of blood and guts is so over the top that Lionel becomes a Chaplin-esque slapstick comedian trying to wade through it all.



Dead Alive has everything:

a zombie baby
living intestines
a kung fu priest
an amazing use of a lawnmower
a finale with the largest volume of fake blood ever used in a movie.


This is the goriest film of all time, and it's simply splendid.



<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xbOmCUWm25w&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xbOmCUWm25w&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>


http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/10/23/best-foreign-zombie-movies/

The Best Foreign WTF Horror Movies Ever
By Eric Larnick
Posted Oct 24th 2010


The final installment in our look at foreign horror: the best WTF films.


These are the films that defy easy description. They're not just the "left-overs" but are movies that take everything you expect a horror film to be, turn it on its side, and then spin wildly out of control.

Their reputations have built into urban legends -- things that most people have only heard about, and sound too outlandish to be real; but these five films are very real, and are waiting to be watched.









5. House (1977)
Country: Japan
Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi
AKA: Hausu



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/House.jpg






What's It About?

Oshare and her friends decide to spend their summer vacation at the country home of Oshare's estranged aunt.

What none of the girls realize is that Oshare's aunt is secretly an undead spirit and her house is possessed by a demon that feeds off the flesh of innocent, young girls. The girls are trapped in the aunt's haunted house and get picked off one by one.






Why Is it Awesome?

Because it is completely demented. Thoroughly, aggressively demented.

A girl-eating piano, a killer lampshade, walls the spew blood like a fire hydrant, disembodied limbs floating through some sort of undefined negative space. That's just some of the stuff you'll see.



Calling it "weird" for the sake of being weird, is an insult to level of experimental, absurd film-making at work. It's a complete dissection of cinematography, editing, special effects, character archetypes and ironic sentimentality.

It's not "scary" in the traditional sense, but it's psychedelia, it's energy, it's lucid surreality dominates every frame of film; it feels like the kind of thing you saw late at night on TV, while half-asleep, not fully able to process what you were watching, and unsure if anyone would ever believe you witnessed.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NN0HVJ5tkIM&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NN0HVJ5tkIM&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











4. The Human Centipede: First Sequence (2009)
Country: The Netherlands
Director: Tom Six



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/HumanCentipede.jpg






What's It About?

Two American girls, vacationing in Germany, are kidnapped by Dr. Heiter after their car gets a flat tire.

They are drugged and brought back to his compound, where after regaining consciousnesses, are placed into Heiter's mad medical obsession: they along with a young male Japanese tourist shall be surgically bonded together -- from mouth to anus -- to create a "human centipede" that will share one long digestive track.

The three victims must find a way to survive their new horrifying condition and crawl away to safety -- before Heiter adds more "links" to the centipede.






Why Is it Awesome?

Because it's probably the most decency-pushing horror film in modern history, if not all-time.

The film ramps up the morbid humor with its strive for medical accuracy, and the plight of its poor, poor victims does not shy away from the gross details.



Director Tom Six came up with the idea from bizarre dark jokes about criminal punishment, and the character of Dr. Heiter serves as a comment on the horrifying history of WWII and the Nazis reprehensible human experiments.

Human Centipede's greatest horror lies in the fact that someone actually thought up the idea.











3. Three... Extremes (2004)
Country: Hong Kong / South Korea / Japan
Director: Fruit Chan, Chan-wook Park & Takashi Miike



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/3Ex.jpg






What's It About?

An anthology film from three of Asia's biggest directors.



- "Dumplings" from Hong Kong's Fruit Chan tells the story of an aging actress who goes to a mysterious cook, who offers dumplings with the power to reverse the effects of aging.

The dumplings are successful, but the woman must decide to continue eating them after she learns of their secret ingredient.



- In "Cut" from Chan-wook Park of South Korea, a film director returns home to find his wife held captive by a spurned movie extra, who plans to chop off one of his wife's fingers every five minutes, unless he is forced to play a series of mind games.



- In "Box" from Takashi Miike of Japan, a young woman is plagued with nightmares of being buried alive by a terrifying figure, all while she searches for her long lost sister.






Why Is it Awesome?

Takashi Miike has earned a reputation as one of the world's most shocking directors, but with "Box" he displays a calm reserve meditating on quiet horror that shifts between linear and non-linear imagery.



"Cut" meanwhile is an exhausting torture scenario, not just for the explicit physical pain that is depicted, but also for the lingering mental trauma that opens a Pandora's box for the story's unfortunate victims.



But the most out-there segment in the movie is "Dumplings". Without spoiling the secret ingredient, we can say that viewers with weak stomachs and/or serious moral beliefs should avoid at all costs.

It will do nothing but get you angry, not just at the implications of the scenario, but in Fruit Chan's nauseating use of sound design that leaves little to the imagination.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4-lnf01j7kw&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4-lnf01j7kw&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











2. The Wicker Man (1974)
Country: Great Britain
Director: Robin Hardy



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/WickerMan.jpg






What's It About?

Police Officer Howie investigates the disappearance of a young girl on the folksy island of Summerisle.

Howie's devout Catholicism is drawn to immediate conflict with the island community's Celtic pagan beliefs. Their practices regarding medicine, sexuality and education anger him, as his faith is tested with intense temptation.

As the people of Summerisle deny the existence of the missing girl, Howie beings to uncover a conspiracy that is possibly driven by the pagan cultish ritual of human sacrifice.






Why Is it Awesome?

It's an unnerving thriller that peels away layer and layer of madness, until there's no hope left. It's exploration of the folk practices of Ancient Britain, challenges and questions the notions of faith and the hope that someone will save you.

The pagan practices of Summerisle are depicted with lavish detail, and as the people close in more and more on the unsuspecting Howie, the terrifying notion that everyone else is the enemy moves from fevered paranoia into grim reality.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5FdV-O8o7ok&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5FdV-O8o7ok&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>











1. Audition (1999)
Country: Japan
Director: Takashi Miike
AKA: Odishon



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/Auditon.jpg






What's It About?

A lonely widow named Aoyama wants to attempt dating again, but as a busy, middle-aged father, his romantic skills are shaky.

A film-maker friend comes up with a scheme to hold a mock audition for a fake film, and Aoyama can meet all the woman trying out and give a call to the one he likes best.

Aoyama is mesmerized by Asami, a young girl with a mysterious past. His friend urges Aoyama to pursue another woman, but Aoyama is insistent on discovering more about Asami, unprepared for what he will discover next.






Why Is it Awesome?

Because there's Audition and then there's every other horror movie. So much of the film's sad, shocking, awful power comes from not knowing what comes next, so we won't divulge too many details.

But Audition is the film that loudly proclaimed the world of horror cinema was being revolutionized throughout the world.



Defying all notions of what a horror movie had been in the past, Audition is the film that stays with its audience for years. Those who see it will struggle to watch even a moment of it ever again, but every single second of celluloid is perfectly preserved in the viewer's memory.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/G-kMokjYL5A&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/G-kMokjYL5A&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>


http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/10/24/best-foreign-wtf-horror-movies/

Stacy? Really? That made it on their top 5 list with all those Foreign zombie flicks out there? That's just sad. Stacy had a great idea, but it was extremely poorly executed, I thought. The rest of the lists I pretty much agree with. But the zombie one, no.

5. House (1977)
Country: Japan
Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi
AKA: Hausu



http://i879.photobucket.com/albums/ab358/JamesGrec1/House.jpg






What's It About?

Oshare and her friends decide to spend their summer vacation at the country home of Oshare's estranged aunt.

What none of the girls realize is that Oshare's aunt is secretly an undead spirit and her house is possessed by a demon that feeds off the flesh of innocent, young girls. The girls are trapped in the aunt's haunted house and get picked off one by one.






Why Is it Awesome?

Because it is completely demented. Thoroughly, aggressively demented.

A girl-eating piano, a killer lampshade, walls the spew blood like a fire hydrant, disembodied limbs floating through some sort of undefined negative space. That's just some of the stuff you'll see.



Calling it "weird" for the sake of being weird, is an insult to level of experimental, absurd film-making at work. It's a complete dissection of cinematography, editing, special effects, character archetypes and ironic sentimentality.

It's not "scary" in the traditional sense, but it's psychedelia, it's energy, it's lucid surreality dominates every frame of film; it feels like the kind of thing you saw late at night on TV, while half-asleep, not fully able to process what you were watching, and unsure if anyone would ever believe you witnessed.




<object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NN0HVJ5tkIM&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NN0HVJ5tkIM&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object>








I love this film! It's so wacky and surreal.