THE ISLE
A stunning horror film from Korea. Stylish, erotic, and often hellaciously grotesque, it plays like a deranged collaboration between Andrei Tarkovsky and Dario Argento
IRREVERSIBLE
An extraordinary piece of “shock art.” It seems curiously appropriate that, in the midst of the rabidly anti-French sentiment that saturated the US in the early 00s, this is the major French movie we got
IN A GLASS CAGE
This 1986 Spanish shocker is one of the most repellant, upsetting and relentless movies of all time, but it’s also a superbly made, endlessly thought provoking dissertation on the persistence of evil
NIGHT DREAMS
Although little known today, this was one of the most revolutionary porn films of the 1980s, and remains a high point in a format that contains very few
The Dregs
One of the unfortunate realities of being a movie buff, especially a bad movie buff, is running into—or better yet, stepping in—“films” like those listed below
HORROR PANEGYRIC
A well-written overview of the Savoy published Lord Horror novels, HORROR PANEGYRIC deserves credit simply for the fact that it’s currently the only existing book-lengthy study of these important works
HIP POCKET SLEAZE
The vintage adult paperback community is a small one to be sure, but for those of us who are into such things John Harrison’s HIP POCKET SLEAZE is an essential acquisition
ULTIMATE PORNO: THE MAKING OF SEX COLOSSAL
In the field of movie making-of books, ULTIMATE PORNO is one of the most obscure there is, yet also one of the few worth reading
THE TEARS OF EROS
This heavily illustrated philosophical primer on the influence of death in the sacred and sexual was the final work of Georges Bataille, and a fitting testament to a man obsessed throughout his life with the link between ecstasy and horror
An Infernal Trio of Dark Fiction
Q: What do THE MARTYR by David Meltzer, LET’S GO PLAY AT THE ADAMS’ by Mendal Johnson and THE GIRL NEXT DOOR by Jack Ketchum have in common? A: They’re among the most profoundly disturbing novels of their respective decades