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Requiem for a Dream revolves around four New Yorkers, who each get trapped in despair and horrifying drug addictions. Each have their own twisted logic behind their addictions, and must be seen to believed. The plot in itself is simple, but what makes this film so brilliant is the superb/realistic character depth, strong script, innovative score, impressive camera angles, and direction. Burstyn is amazing, and takes her character from shy/lonely person to speed addict obsessed with a TV show to new heights. Looking back she definitely deserved the Oscar for that year. The rest of the cast is solid-excellent. Each character wants to live some type of decent life, but the drugs keep pulling them back. The last 15 minutes of the movie, showing the demise of each character accompanied with the haunting soundtrack could be an example of some of the best film making ever.

9/10. Graphic drug use, violence, strong sexual situations, nudity, strong language.

I have yet to see DMW- starring Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon, but given it was such a popular movie, it was difficult for this one to step out of its shadow. It is about a woman up against death row. An attorney steps in and tries to save her life by proving her innocence in a murder trial. I have always been intrigued with prison movies for their grittiness, and drama, and Last Dance has some real moments of tension. However the grittiness is somewhat lacking, until the end (and even there its not as strong). What saves the movie is strong acting, specifically from Stone (who is somewhat Hollywood's female version of Sean Penn in that they exceed in the lowlife "bad guy" roles like no other). 7/10.

Panic Room had an interesting premise. A family consisting of a mother and daughter, have their home gangbusted by a group of thieves and hide in a room built to keep out any intruders from coming in. It had some suspense but at times dragged on. The acting was so-so, Foster was ok but has done much better work (Silence of the Lambs). The 3 thieves were bordering on comedic. Very bad acting. The ending also fizzled off too quickly. Overall a decent thriller with some good cinematography and suspense but nothing great.

Pulp Fiction is perhaps one of the most acclaimed movies of the 1990's. What it has going for it is superb editing, direction, and story. Even amidst all of the action and swearing we see the lives of these hitmen and mobsters. The best sequences in the film are the Thurman/Travolta piece and the diner stick up. 8.8/10. Extreme profanity, violence, and drug use.

In Martin Scorsece's hit "mafia" film, depicting the rise and fall of group of mobsters in Las Vegas. Rob Deniro and Joe Peschi give top notch performances as the lead mobsters running the Tangiers casino in Vegas. In the first half we are shown how Deniro's character tightly operates his casino. He knows all the tricks in the books that hustlers try to pull, however noone can pull a one up on this guy. Peschi is his hitman who does most of the dirty work, but is eventually banned from all casinos. Turning in a fiery, top notch (Oscar nomination) performance is Sharon Stone as a drug hustler who enchants Deniro one day as she shows up at the casino. They marry and he hopes to "make" him fall in love with her one day, because her true love is a pimp (played by James Wood). Needless to say the last hour or so of this movie is vicious as we see the FBI crackdown on all the schemes the mobsters were trying so hard to hide in the casinos. Stone and Peschi, in particular have brutal demises. 9.3/10 extreme profanity, violence, and partial nudity. Excellent acting, direction, plot, and soundtrack. Only down side is the length of the movie, running well into above 3 1/2 hours.

This compilation of horror movies had pro and cons. The video had some excellent trailers and clips from Hellraiser, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Psycho, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Dentist(more comedic than horror, yet had excellent scenes) and an unknown horror movie called the Ugly. I was very disappointed in the inclusion of Leprauchan, Child's Play 2, and Friday the 13th:Jason goes to Hell. They should have included a scene from an earlier Friday flick. They also did not show all trailers for all the movies shown(most notably NOES, and Psycho). Also missing was Night of the Living Dead, the Shining, and the Exorcist. I did like that they previewed some lesser known horror movies, that looked really good, however I have some doubts to put those in a 'best of horror compilation'.

I honestly didn't think Hannibal would be any good, considering it had to follow the footsteps of a very good first movie. It definitely exceeded my expectations and is the best horror movie i've seen for at least the last few years. The acting is very strong. As usual Hopkins performance of Lecter was great. Moore as Clarice Sterling was surprisingly VERY good. There was also great directing and scenery.

The movie has a relatively slow pace. In this one, Lecter has escaped to Italy. Meanwhile there is a diabolicle disfigured man who is out to get Lecter for leaving him in his current disfigured self. Detective Sterling gets involved in the case, and another cat and mouse game with Lecter ensues for a second time.

There are some flaws to the movie. Too much emphasis on gore and rather abrupt ending, but overall the feeling of adrenaline between Lecter and Sterling is still there. On par with the original.

In this erotic thriller Sharon Stone plays Cathrine Tramell. A seductive, manipulative woman who may have been involved in an ice-pick murder. Michael Douglas is the cop who is sent to investigate, and falls for Tramell and they begin a steamy love affair.

Basic Instinct definitely does not leave alot to the imagination when it comes to its graphic sex and murder scenes. Stone and Douglas have incredible chemistry and sexual tension between them. Probably the best chemistry I have seen between two couples in a movie. Even in the scenes where they are not having sex, you can sense a strong attraction between them. Some of the plot may be predictable, but the movie has a great pace to it and never gives up. The ending is rather ambiguous and has to be seen many times to fully get it.

Great movie, recommended. Inspired alot of knock offs(Sliver, Disclosure, Body Of Evidence exc.)

The Howling works well as a gore/pure horror/comedy movie. The special affects, although riveting, aren't as amazing as some say. The areas this movie is strong in is atmosphere, character development, and some great shocks.

The first half of the movie takes a long time to set up the characters and situations. Dee Wallace plays Karen White, who is traumatized by a rapist. Her psychiatrist advises her to go to a vacation area in the woods. She brings her husband and two friends. What they don't realize is that the area is a coven for werewolves, and the "normal" looking vacationers are actual werewolves. Wallace, her husband, and friends are all terrorized by the lycanthropes.

(Spoilers)The second half of the movie picks up considerably. The best scenes in the movie is where one of the female werewolves lures Wallace's husband in the woods to have sex with him and makes him a werewolf in the process. The special affects start working well here, but get slightly overdone by the end of the sex scene. Another scene is where Terri(Wallace's friend) stumbles in a deserted creepy cabin where she finds pictures of the killer who terrorized Wallace. A werewolf spots her snooping around and chases her. The ending is pretty good, if not a bit hokey.

The acting and gritty, tense atmosphere work very well, and the chase scenes are excellent. The special affects are sometimes excellent, but sometimes very fake looking. There are some slow parts, but the end result is very good. Recommended definitely for all horror fans.

Valentine fits along the lines of the horrible batch of "teen horror" movies. This one tries so hard to take itself seriously, but ends up becoming a tiring, dull, cliche ridden movie. The plot is ripped-off from countless other movies that came before it. A young boy at a junior high school dance, gets tortured by his classmates. As we all know he comes back when everyone is all grown up to murder them. The acting is fake and uninspired, greatly lacking suspense or much action for that matter.

There are minor things that save this movie from a complete zero, and that is some of the killing scenes are nicely done, and the plot twist at the end(which looks like it was just thrown in at the last minute really).

But Overall: terrible unoriginal movie.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre is another movie of the long lines of classics from its decade. The movie is about a group of young students who, while visiting their grandfathers grave, stumble upon an abondoned out-house. What they don't realize is that a family of cannibalistic psychos live there, and are terrorized one by one by the "leader" of the pack, Leatherface.

That said, TCM ranks as one of the scariest movies ever. There is almost no soundtrack or budget for the film, which makes it seem extremely real. One scene especially(*spoilers up ahead*) which illustrates that is when one of the characters steps into a room full of bones, animal skins and a grotesque animal. It is absolutely horrifying to say the least. The suspense of the movie moves at a very quick rate, giving you(and the characters) no time to breath. Not much gore, but plenty of scares and thrills the whole way through(similar to "Psycho", "Halloween" exc..) Acting is standard for this type of film. Also, I found it amazing that the heroine of the film(Sally) made it through that torture inside the house. She had almost everything thrown and used against her(chainsaw, switchblade, broomstick, branches exc..) Not to mention the fact she had to jump through two windows and almost got hit by 2 trucks!! The action is nonstop. 8.5/10.

Freddy's revenge is a bad movie. It is typical 80s schlock, the only real redeeming quality to the movie is Freddy, he maintains a dark aura about him in this movie(still not as good as the first). The acting from the other lead actors was horrible, and the ending was laughable rather than suspenseful. I noticed this seemed to be a trend with the Nightmare films, as the first one also had a disappointing ending. There are worse movies than this and it is fun to watch just to waste time, or if your a fan of the series, just don't expect any scares or suspense here.

Twister gets some negative reviews for its romantic sub-plot(between Hunt and Paxton) and while I agree somewhat. It was just filler in the movie, however that is not the point of this film. The point was the struggle between Mother Nature vs Humans and it succeeded in that department very well. The special effects are probably the best ever from a 'disaster' film. The acting and some of the scenes can get choppy at times, but "Twister" is a without a doubt a pack filled, fun ride from start to finish.

Speed is an enjoyment from the minute the credits roll to the end scene where Bullock and Reeves just survived the train bomb. The movie is almost exhausting to watch but its definitely worth it because of solid performances from Keeanu Reeves and especially Sandra Bullock. Its unfortunate some of her current work can't be as good as this.

This was Bates crowning achievement. The most important character in a horror movie is the antagonist, after all and she delivers. I think it is slightly under-appreciated because it doesn't take itself seriously at the end, which ruined the film slightly. The middle section where we witness Bates torture the writer she's obsessive over is brilliant, however.

Home Alone is certainly not the best comedy ever made, however it has to be one of the best Holiday films to watch. Culkin gives a funny, cute personality to his character. The mirror scene is a classic by now and its great fun to watch at Christmas with young kids. Only thing about this movie which holds it back, is that there's really no other time, other than Christmas where you'll want to watch Home Alone. The sequels should not have been made though, one time is enough of watching a young kid practically decapitate 2 adult robbers. 7.5/10

The original Shining form Stanley Kubrick was good, had flaws in it(some of the opening scenes were just filler and unneeded). Nontheless had memorable scenes and one of Jack Nicholoson's great performances, and one of the best acting psycho performances in horror. That is why movies like these do not need remakes(Psycho is another example). What made the first great was its originality, remakes just ruin the whole experience.

Suspiria was the type of movie that left alot to the imagination. The attention to detail in this movie is very apparent and the scenes themselves are filled with style. A young ballet dancer joins a ballet school in Europe and soon learns it is a place of evil. The gore is minimum but there are some very gruesome scenes in the movie. I think the only thing that holds me back from calling "Suspiria" a masterpiece is the acting, and that fact that no one character stood out in the movie. You would expect with such great detail from Argento, that he would have the actors to back up the movie, but that is unfortunately the only thing that held this film back. Nontheless a really great horror flick.

There's not much more to be said of "Jaws" that hasn't been said already. The acting, music, style all fit to make this a great thriller/horror flick. For me the movie was more of a thriller than horror however it could work on both levels. This movie was definitely Steven Spielberg's peak in movie making, unfortunate the horrible sequels had yet to follow.

I'm not sure exactly what "Cutting Class" was trying to be. Horror or comedy? If it was striving for the latter, it succeeded. The supposed "scary" scenes and acting were hilarious, unbelievable and annoying at times. The killer was terrible and the cliches rain galore, NOT acceptable for 1989.(10 years + into the slasher craze,and the time when they were dying down completely). Usually movies like this at least attempt to scare the audience, this one attempts and just fails completely. Terrible start for Brad Pitts career.

Nightmare part 4 was actually very good, still a step down from the original but one of the better sequels, (if not the best). The characters are all well acted, with the usual cliche parts. Freddy is more comical then scary, which is one of the reasons it doesn't reach the height of the first one. The special effects were amazing though. All in all, a good sequel to a very long drawn and overrated series.(almost as overrated as the Friday the 13th series).

In the wake of how popular the teen slasher movies had gotten after "Halloween", the genre was already dying down by 1983. However, House on Sorority Row is a gem, not great, but much better than what is typically seen here. "I Know what You Did Last Summer" definitely had very heavy influence from this movie. A group of sorority girls accidentally kill the owner and try to dump her body, to never be found but of course that is not the case, and they are murdered one by one. Very typical, strictly by the numbers slasher film. Nothing really exciting about it, but its watchable just to pass time or for fun, if your in the mood for a slasher.

I don't think I need to comment on the acting quality in movies like these but I will just mention we see Eillen Davidson("Days Of Our Lives" star) in one of her early movie roles. Interesting to see how many stars actually start their careers in slasher flicks.

Friday the 13th part 6 actually delivers scares with some good acting from Thom Matthews who plays Tommy. Jason is a bigger force in this movie than he was in the others, however some of the gore in this movie gets out of hand. It is the best one out of the later bunch(5-9) of the Friday series.

Erin Brockovich was a pleasant surprise. A great comedy/drama film. But what really made this movie so good was Julia Roberts, definitely one of her best performances in a movie. Roberts is funny, catchy and realistic in her role. The movie never becomes tired or boring in silly sub-plots, it is a straight foward solid story. 9/10. Roberts really shines in this role.

"I Still Know" followed up the story of the original very well, unfortunately the movie is not the least bit scary or suspenseful. The movie actually drags on towards the end, and the victims do not portray scared, realistic characters. They come off as shallow, and fake. Hewitts acting is very mediocre here, Brandy was a little better, but unfortunately her character was wasted in the end. The setting to this film was very good though, a deserted island is the perfect place to make a mystery, horror film. Unfortunately this movie falls short of that. 5/10