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An American ballet student gets roped into a mystery involving a brutal murder at her German dance academy which might be run by a coven of witches. Jessica Harper is a great audience stand in who seems as perplexed by what's happening on screen as we are. There's not a lot of traditional plot to get involved in, but the beautiful visuals, scary Goblin score, and gory death scenes will keep most people entertained.

There's not much of a story to be told with The New York Ripper. The murder mystery investigation, as is the case with many of these movies, isn't the most compelling and there aren't any characters to attach yourself to. Most characters are introduced and, 2 minutes later, are brutally murdered, so it's hard to feel much but disgust for most of the movie which is not much more than a collection of stylish, gory murders. Maybe that's enough for gore fans. There's one moment with a razor blade and an eyeball that'll really upset the easily squeamish.

The story of Deep Red involving a British musician who witnesses the murder of a psychic in Italy can stray from its path a few times, but when it hits a home run, it really delivers with the eerie visuals, engaging characters, compelling mystery, and creepy music score. The relationship between the lead character, Marc, and a driven journalist, Gianna, is sweet and gives the film a lot of warmth and humanity.

An unexpectedly solid entry in one of the better and smarter horror franchises out there. The filmmakers bring back all the fan favorites and give them something to do without destroying their legacy like so many other reboots/sequels/requels do and still makes time to introduce us to a new group of knife fodder. The good news is that these are characters likable enough to not want to see them get butchered within 5 minutes of meeting them. I'm curious to see where the filmmakers take the series next.

Leatherface returns after 50 years in this direct sequel to the original. Don't expect the filmmakers to explain how he wound up at an orphanage or who this strange lady is who has been taking care of him. Also, don't expect them to explain how a bunch of 20-somethings are able to afford to buy and entire town to create some sort of mecca for social media influencers. The original film's sole survivor, Sally Hardesty, returns for a measly 5 minutes and seems shoehorned in for no reason. It has a short enough runtime and enough of a sense of humor to not make the audience dwell on some of the story issues.

Jamie Lee Curtis mostly sits this one out in a hospital bed which makes sense given what she went through in the last movie, but it leaves us without anyone major to root for since the rest of the characters are mostly made out of cardboard and set up for the slaughter. If you like a lot of gore, you'll love it, but those expecting a plot or interesting characters will be bored to tears.

Gorgeous black and white photography and Barbara Steel's intense performance rule this movie. The script can get a little convoluted and it's hard to judge the acting when everyone has been dubbed, but there's enough spooky mood here to make a great Halloween viewing.

Not much happens in this movie, but there's a bad "clean up" montage where everyone shakes their butts and doesn't get much cleaning done. The ending truly makes no sense whatsoever.

Folksy charm is the order of the day in Death Screams, so if you don't enjoy long stretches of quirky southern townspeople going on about their daily lives in between a few random bursts of violence, you won't enjoy this one much. If you're a little more patient, you'll be rewarded with a pretty gnarly and violent last act.

A dull Argento film is still a more exciting film than most, but Cat O'Nine Tails seems to have caught the Italian master of horror on an off day. There are a few good set pieces and Karl Malden is a nice and surprising addition to the cast, but it's never as suspenseful or surprising as it should be and certainly doesn't compare to his previous film, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, or many of the films that followed this one.

Unlike most of the slasher films around this time, April Fool's Day dared to have a sense of humor and play around with the formula a bit. It has a nice Agatha Christie style setup with a lot of characters you don't mind spending 90 minutes with.

In some ways, Night of the Demons 2 seems faster paced and more ridiculous than the first film, bringing Angela back to terrorize a group of Catholic high school students who ditch their square school dance to conjure up some fun in Hull House. Effects are excellent and there's enough action to insure that you're never bored.

James Wan appears to be having the time of his life swinging from the rafters and filling Malignant with as much insanity as you can cram into a big studio horror film as possible. While it takes a little while for the film to find its footing and get to the really wild parts, the wait is well worth it.

Pleasence, Vaughn, and porn queen Allen are entertaining trying to make sense of a silly script that's like a cross between a cruddy Euro gialli and a made for TV suspenser. Most of the other actors appear to be phoning in their performances from another planet. Some of the cinematography has some thought and care put into it and there's one death scene via hand mixer that's a tad inspired, but it's not enough to make it worth sitting through this again.

Religious repression runs amok in Alice, Sweet Alice when a young girl is brutally murdered before partaking in her first communion, sending her family into a series of escalating nervous breakdowns played to the balcony by stage actors who treat every line as if it were Shakespeare. This overblown acting style along with the strange music score, moody cinematography, and smarter-than-average script makes Alice, Sweet Alice one of the finest and most memorable horror films of the 70's. It's not one you're likely to forget once you've seen it.

I've seen many horror anthologies in my time and not one has come close to being as satisfying and entertaining as Creepshow. A co-creation between horror master George Romero and Stephen King, Creepshow tells 5 different stories about reanimated corpses, flesh-eating beasts under university stairwells, sociopaths drowning people in holes on the beach, yokels turning into grass, and bigoted germaphobes who are harassed by millions of roaches. Each story has a sense of humor, a lot of style, and inspired performances by an all-star cast featuring the likes of Ted Danson, Adrienne Barbeau, Ed Harris, Leslie Neilsen, and Hal Holbrook. It's hard to imagine any horror fan not loving this movie as it has something for everyone.

In time honored horror film tradition, a married couple and their young child move into a seemingly perfect house only for strange, supernatural things to tear them apart. It's something we've seen from The Amityville Horror to The Shining, but Burnt Offerings has a few twists up its sleeve. Less patient viewers will be put off by the slow pacing, but if you can stick it out, you'll be rewarded with one of the most insane horror film finales of the 70's (or really any decade). The cast, featuring Oliver Reed, Karen Black, Bette Davis, Eileen Heckhart, and Burgess Meredith can't be beat.

Netflix has come out with three films based on R. L. Stine's popular 90's book series, Fear Street, and the first one of the batch is enjoyable without reinventing the wheel. It delivers the gore and the spookhouse atmosphere well even when the plot and characterizations feel flimsy. It makes a few missteps, but always ends up pulling you back in a few moments later. A good one to pull out around Halloween time.

For years, I'd heard that Bloodline was one of the worst sequels of all time. Having just finished watching it, I can safely say it's nowhere near as bad as some people have made it out to be. It's not as good as the first three by a long shot, but the production design and effects are excellent and I was never bored. The story can be confusing and the characters could have been better drawn, but it's far from the disaster many have made it out to be.

Mostly predictable slasher flick with one nice twist towards the end and some fun 3D effects. The story itself sounds more interesting on paper than it ends up in the film, but it's anchored by a great performance by Belinda Montgomery who seems to think she's in a much classier film than she is. Viveca Lindfors chews up the scenery in the best way as the housemother of a sorority where a series of brutal murders took place. It's not a movie you'll remember much about when it's over, but it's not the worst way to spend 90 minutes of your time.

If you can make it through the slow first hour of Girl in Room 2A, you'll be rewarded with a somewhat insane final act that almost makes it worth the wait. It's still far off the mark in many ways and most of it feels really pedestrian and predictable.

There's not much going on in this cheap giallo movie to keep one's interest and all of the death scenes seem to cut away before there's anything exciting. It does feature someone falling to their death from the Eiffel Tower, so that's something you don't see every day. The lead also looks exactly like Humphrey Bogart.

Little Danielle Harris does all she can to make sense of her character and the plot of this ridiculous sequel, but even she can't save it. It's beautifully shot with lots of atmosphere, but that atmosphere doesn't feel at all like a Halloween movie. Michael's mask has never looked worse, the script is a mess, most of the supporting characters are shrill, and there's nothing close to resembling a scare in the entire movie.

Great effects spectacle, but a little light on genuine tension and character development. If you turn off your brain, you'll probably have a better time with Night of the Demons. It's easier to appreciate as a filmic, higher quality version of one of those country haunted houses that pop up around the Halloween season. It's never truly scary or very intense, but there's a lot of imagination on display.

Two sisters manage to escape a comet's deadly wrath and find themselves seemingly all alone on earth until they discover that there are still some people around, but they might have more nefarious ideas in mind. Night of the Comet is made by the chemistry between Kelli Maroney and Catherine Mary Stewart as the two lead sisters. They sell the inherently silly premise for all its worth and give their characters a lot of humor, heart, strength, and warmth. There's plenty of 80's cheese to go around and you'll find yourself a lot more invested in the story than you'd initially expected to be.