STRANGLER VERSUS STRANGLER
There’s no other movie quite like this loony comedy-chiller from Serbia, which never takes an expected turn and has a cheesy yet curiously elegant style that’s very much its own
THE STEPFATHER (1987)
An intelligent, disturbing and altogether impressive eighties thriller, one of those rare films that’s well worth going out of your way to see
SPECIAL EFFECTS
This 1984 cheapie appears to be writer-director Larry Cohen’s answer to PEEPING TOM, a unique and intelligent account of voyeurism and exploitation in the movie business that, as usual with Cohen, is all-but done in by its low budget and uninspired direction
SOUTHERN COMFORT
This horrific bayou-set kill fest is a key action-suspense film of the 1980s, and one of the finest-ever outings by director Walter Hill
SONNY BOY
The 1990s were filled with independent films marketed, most often misleadingly, as “bizarre”, “shocking”, “subversive” and other similarly enticing adjectives. For a nineties indie that really is all those things go directly to SONNY BOY
SOCIETY
So-so eighties horror enlivened by amazing special effects and a GREAT climax
SMOOTH TALK
A seminal ’80s indie that still holds up as a provocative and disturbing psychological horror story
SHY PEOPLE
This largely forgotten gothic melodrama appears on its way to becoming a lost film. A shame, really, as it’s a haunting and atmospheric work unlike any other movie released during the eighties…or ever
SHOCKER
Wes Craven put some interesting ideas into play in this film, but it doesn’t really work. Blame a fraught shoot, and the fact that Craven was attempting in vain to create a NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET-like franchise
SHAKE, RATTLE & ROLL
Here it is, the 1984 three-parter that launched the phenomenally popular—in its native Philippines, at least—SHAKE, RATTLE & ROLL film series