THE MARTYR

THE MARTYR is easily one of the most wrenching and upsetting novels of any sort to emerge from a decade that saw more than its share of disturbing fiction.

EAT HIM IF YOU LIKE

Definitely one for the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction category, a novelized account of the “Affaire de Hautefaye” that occurred on August 16, 1870.

BY SANCTION OF THE VICTIM

A docu-novel based on the notorious 1965 Sylvia Likens murder, and an object lesson, I believe, in how not to write such a book.

SYBIL

This is the famous, multi-Emmy award winning 1976 TV production starring Sally Field as Sybil, a real woman possessed by 16 different personalities

WOLF CREEK

Hard, mean, no-nonsense horror from Down Under, proving that Aussie-sploitation is alive and well. It’s too bad, though, about that crummy ending!

MURDER ONE

A solid fact-based account of mass murder, thoughtful and naturalistic enough to satisfy true crime buffs while still bloody enough to sate most gore hounds

MOSQUITO

The full title of this 1976 Swiss curio is MOSQUITO DER SCHAENDER (MOSQUITO THE RAPIST), meaning it is NOT to be confused 1995’s big bug bummer MOSQUITO

MEN BEHIND THE SUN

This Hong Kong shocker has attained near-legendary status among extreme movie buffs, and is indeed a shocking, traumatizing film

MAN ON A SWING

A profoundly creepy, arrestingly eccentric but ultimately unsatisfying slice of fact-based horror from the seventies