EVIL WORDS
Good mystery-horror from Quebec that mixes crime, detection, hallucination and the supernatural to satisfying effect
ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW
This is the already-infamous indie that was filmed surreptitiously at Walt Disney World. The film is fairly affecting, although the crummy final third does it in
EL NOMINADO
Yet another take on the reality TV craze, EL NOMINADO is disturbing because it seems quite plausible in terms of its setting (an enclosed space deep underground) and outcome (a contestant goes violently insane). Too bad the film just isn’t very good
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
STOKER
This, the first-ever English language film by South Korea’s Chanwook Park (of SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE and OLDBOY fame), is an outrageously stylish and fascinating work
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
SPIKE OF LOVE
A cult movie in search of a cult, this Canadian made outrage plays like MARAT/SADE reconfigured as a nineties black comedy, being an unrestrained blast of insanity with nearly every imaginable perversion
THE SILENT HOUSE (2010)
This 2010 Latin American no-budgeter was shot entirely in real time and a single continuous take. Interesting approach, but the film just isn’t very good
THE SIGNAL
Hardly the “groundbreaking indie masterpiece” it’s been made out to be, THE SIGNAL (2007) is a semi-experimental anthology film that’s scary, funny and suspenseful—but still not all it could be
SHALLOW GRAVE
The timeworn concept of normal folks finding a suitcase full of money is given a wicked dose of mid-nineties cynicism in this memorably twisted British import, the directorial debut of Danny Boyle