MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
10 Full Eclipse
Citadel Entertainment
Starting off the list, we have the Mario Van Peebles movie, Full Eclipse. This movie features a down-on-his-luck L.A. cop who is struggling to get his life together. The plot takes a severe left turn when Mario Van Peebles is introduced to a secret task force that turns its members into deadly werewolves with a mystery concoction. As the name Full Eclipse suggests, this L.A. cop must hunt crime at night to take full advantage of his new werewolf powers.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
It is rare to find a cop procedural mixed with a werewolf horror movie. The film was inspired by the X-Men comic books, and Peebles’s character uses his claws similarly to the iconic superhero, Wolverine. The film is filled to the brim with action, sex, violence, and good special effects for the time. The movie was directed by Anthony Hickox, who combines his love for cop dramas and werewolves to create a horror-action cop movie, with just the right amount of cheesiness.
9 Body Bags
Showtime Networks Inc.
John Carpenter’s Body Bags is an anthology of three stories: The Gas Station, Hair, and Eye. The stories have a comedic tone and feature appearances from fellow horror directors Sam Raimi and Wes Craven. Horror actor David Naughton also makes a cameo in the film.
The first story, The Gas Station, follows Robert Carradine as a gas station attendant who leaves a young college student working alone on her shift, where a murder happens. In the next story, Hair, a middle-aged businessman is experiencing thinning hair. He finds a product that will grow his hair back, but that hair grows too quickly and becomes a monster. The final story, Eye, features a baseball player who gets into an accident. He tries to get surgery to get his career back on track, but the eye that he gets, belongs to a former serial killer who attempts to take control of him.
The humor of the anthology is a standout part of the film. It is one of John Carpenter’s funniest projects. He also embraces a more light-hearted approach to directing and the plot, but pays special attention to the goriness of the stories.
8 Carnosaur
New Horizon Pictures
Next up is the B-movie cult film, Carnosaur. In this film, a geneticist, played by Diane Ladd, hatches a plan to wipe out humanity. She plans to genetically engineer flesh-eating dinosaurs that are evolutionary superior to replace the human race. Her plan is unexpectedly foiled by a climate activist and her friends, who were protesting the destruction of the planet by a construction company. While it lacks the production and charm of Jurassic Park, the show’s real star is the gory dinosaur-involved deaths. Surprisingly, the film debuted in theaters just weeks before Jurassic Park, making it the predecessor. The pace of the movie is slow, with a few lulls, but the unintentional humor and flesh-eating monsters make it an enjoyable watch.
7 Return of the Living Dead 3
Trimark Pictures
Return of the Living Dead 3 is a continuation of the Return of the Living Dead Series. It is a horror comedy where the military is experimenting with using zombies as tools of war. One of the characters, Curt Reynolds, gets into a motorcycle crash that kills his girlfriend. Curt’s dad works for the military and uses their technology to bring his girlfriend back to life.
The film focuses on the couple’s struggles of adjusting to his girlfriend’s new life as a zombie. They get into many humorous situations that make it a fun examination of the zombie trope. The acting and performances are great, with a good pace of thrills and gross-out humor. It also has some B-movie appeal, making it an excellent watch for enjoyers of schlocky horror elements. The story elements feel fresh and unique, and the ideas behind the zombies are fun to explore.
6 Man’s Best Friend
New Line Cinema
The next movie on the list is Man’s Best Friend. This film is a science fiction horror movie where a genetically altered dog has unusual abilities. A report stumbles upon a case of animal cruelty when investigating experiments by a doctor played by Lance Henriksen. A dog follows her as she escapes from the lab, and this dog forms a bond with her. Eventually, the dog shows some psychotic tendencies and goes on a killing spree.
Man’s Best Friend takes a trip into the absurd and benefits from it. It has a schlocky B-movie feel that adds to the overall atmosphere. The quality of the filmmaking is excellent, and the story is entertaining enough to be a delightful viewing experience.
5 The Good Son
20th Century Fox
This film features Elijah Wood and Macaulay Culkin in a horror thriller where Culkin’s character is a psychopathic child. Wood’s character, Mark, loses his mother and has to stay with another family while his dad is out of town. He meets his cousin Henry, played by Culkin. The story unfolds with Wood slowly exposed to Henry’s psychopathy. Mark witnessed different unsettling things, like killing a neighbor’s dog and Henry causing a traffic accident. It’s a race against time for Mark to expose Henry before things escalate too far.
Director Joesph Ruben creates a creepy atmosphere with the contrast of model family members engaging in crazy evil deeds. This opens up the opportunity for plenty of camp to enter the film, making it a fun watch. Some have considered the film to be the most controversial film Macaulay Culkin ever made.
4 Hocus Pocus
Buena Vista Pictures
Hocus Pocus is a cult Halloween horror classic movie. It stars Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy as fanciful witches living in an abandoned house. The plot involves a teenager accidentally freeing these evil witches from their long slumber. Now it is a race against time to stop the witches from casting a spell to turn themselves immortal and wreak havoc on the greater world. The film immerses itself in a campy vibe and embraces its kooky silliness. It works as a family-friendly Halloween flick that follows the common horror trope of teenagers being the only ones who can save the day.
3 Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
Paramount Pictures
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday is the ninth film in the Jason series. Despite having the word ‘final’ in the title, there were several films that came after it. In fact, Jason Goes to Hell isn’t even the only movie in the series that was called the final film.
After having died in the film’s first part, Jason’s body is transferred to a coroner’s office. While performing the autopsy, the coroner eats Jason’s pitch-black heart, allowing Jason to control his body and be revived. Now gaining the ability to switch bodies, Jason starts trading bodies until he gets a good one to go on a killing spree. The movie is extremely out there, even for a Jason movie. It features demonic heart infants, possession, and mystical daggers. Though the title of the film says it is the last one, it hints at a sequel near the end with Jason being dragged to hell and Freddy Krueger’s laugh.
2 The Dark Half
Orion Pictures
This film stars Timothy Hutton, Amy Madigan, and Michael Rooker in a psychological horror murder mystery story. Thad Beaumont, played by Timothy Hutton, is a successful novelist who writes thriller books. In an attempt to get rid of his writing pseudonym, he holds a mock funeral for him. However, murders start happening that are eerily similar to his books, and it comes to light that his pseudonym came to life and needs to be stopped.
The film is an adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name. The Dark Half is directed by George Romero, who successfully tells a story through striking visuals. The film is a technical masterpiece and bathes in a gothic atmosphere. The tortured, darker part of the author makes for a good film concept, and there are themes of exorcising your own darkness to keep you engaged while the blood-pumping thriller aspects of the film keep you watching. A remake for The Dark Half may be on the horizon by director Alex Ross Perry.
1 Cronos
Prime Films
Cronos is the feature debut of Guillermo del Toro and is famous for its unique and striking visuals. It is a surreal horror film that is as stylish as it is full of gore. The movie tells the story of an antique dealer named Jesus Gris (Frederico Luppi). Gris stumbles upon an ancient scarab called Cronos that grants him eternal youth. However, this youth comes at the cost of consuming human blood. A struggle ensues between him and a dying old man who wants the scarab for himself.
The film presents a novel twist on the classic vampire tale, where vampirism is sought out instead of hunted down. The main character has to choose between living as a vampire and his family’s safety. This form of vampirism also might seemingly have a cure, but the film’s ending leaves it ambiguous whether it truly works.
