THE SERVANT
A justified classic, and the very definition of a psychological thriller. THE SERVANT boasts great direction, writing and acting, succeeding as both a brainy thriller and an intriguing psychological case study
SERIES 7
Perhaps the ultimate satire on America’s reality TV craze, SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS, about a reality program whose participants must kill each other in order to advance, is funny, disturbing and far more insightful than most of us would feel comfortable admitting
SERIAL MOM
In my view John Waters’ best film, a funny and subversive comedy about serial killer worship starring a never-better Kathleen Turner
A SERBIAN FILM
2011’s gross out movie du jour, a profoundly vile and repellent compendium of sexual sadism with political overtones. Well made, but the potential audience is limited, to say the least
THE SENDER
This was the first feature directed by former art director/set decorator (of STAR WARS and ALIEN) and future BATTLEFIELD EARTH helmer Roger Christian, and it’s not bad
SEIZURE
You’d be hard-pressed to find many Oliver Stone trademarks in this, his 1974 debut. It’s not a great or even very good film, being amateurish and pretentious—a deadly combination
SEEDING OF A GHOST
If you can get past this film’s lousy opening minutes you’ll experience one of the wildest of all Hong Kong horror movies—and considering the unfettered nature of most such films, that’s no faint praise
THE SECT
This horror opus from Italy’s Michele Soavi is long winded, incoherent and overly derivative of the films of its producer and co-writer Dario Argento, but excels nonetheless in arrestingly grotesque, hallucinatory imagery
SECRETS OF A SOUL
From the silent era, a striking German-made depiction of psychoanalysis, notable for its unforgettably surreal dream/hallucination scenes
SEANCE
Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of the most distinctive talents in the J-horror field. SÉANCE, a loose remake of the sixties classic SÉANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON, is not one of his better films, but it definitely has moments