A Century of Horror
1980s
The Boxer’s Omen
This movie will make you care more about a skeleton bat trying to walk than most movies will make you care about their protagonists in two whole hours.
A classic in the wizard-battle genre (see Roger Corman’s The Raven), The Boxer’s Omen follows a Hong Kong gangster whose brother is paralyzed after a cheap shot at a boxing match. When he goes to get revenge, he finds that he’s the reincarnated spirit of a guy who broke up a team of black magicians.
Crazy goop, zombies, spider stingers, this movie’s got it all!
Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat
A truly terrible title is hiding one of the goofiest, most fun little trifles I can imagine.
A horror-comedy-Western with about 3 main plots too many (but what would you cut?!) David Carradine as Dracula being forgiven by Jesus, Bruce Campbell as a slapstick descendent of Van Helsing, the premise of True Blood 20 years early, stop-motion bats, M. Emmet Walsh decapitating a dude, and a most rousing Western score that single-handedly raises the entire project a half star.
Alone in the Dark
Donald Pleasance plays a Bizarro Dr. Loomis in this hidden gem, where instead of being an insane criminal psychologist convinced that the only thing to do with Michael Myers is put him down like a dog, he's a permissive liberal who excuses everything his murderous patients do and gets killed trying to soft talk them down.
The movie features a collection of great murderous creeps all with their own special interests (you’ve got an arsonist, a child molester, a killer vet with PTSD and a serial killer who never reveals his face) who escape from their insane asylum.
Castle of Blood
A journalist bets Edgar Allan Poe that ghosts aren’t real and an eavesdropper convinces him to spend the night in his haunted house. A bunch of ghosts pop in to say “boo!” in a truly atmospheric castle and Barbara Steele is a ghost who’s got to help him escape. If you need more information than this, we do not have the same taste.
Also Recommended
The Texas CHain Saw Massacre, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Wicker Man, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, House, Suspiria, Dawn of the Dead, Halloween, Phantasm, MadHouse, Twins of Evil, Images, The Horror of Frankenstein, SHock, Vampire Circus, Baron Blood, And Now the Screaming Starts, Horror Express, The Vampire Lovers, Carrie, Bay of Blood, Dracula A.D. 1972, Zombie, Dracula, Rabid, Shivers, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, Tales from the Cryypt, Deep Red, Theatre of Blood, Nosferatu, Cat of Nine Tails, Bird with the Crystal Plummage, Martin, Lust for a Vampire, Cathy’s Curse, Messiah of Evil, The Omen