MESSIAH OF EVIL
Amid the innumerable NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD wannabes that appeared in the seventies the no budget MESSIAH OF EVIL stands out
BURIAL GROUND
Italian zombie flicks tend to be extremely gory and extremely goofy, and this pasta zombie fest from 1980 contains both qualities in abundance
BLACK SUNDAY (1961)
This was the first solo-directed film by the great Mario Bava, and remains his best-known work. There’s an excellent reason for that, and for the fact that actress Barbara Steele became an icon.
BEYOND THE GRAVE
As wonderfully eccentric a take on zombie cinema as anyone could hope for, a Brazilian made film that’s creepy, perplexing, energetic, gruesome and recommended
THE BEYOND
The undoubted masterpiece of Lucio Fulci, a crazed and surreal gorefest that’s irresistible, even if it doesn’t make much sense
EVIL DEAD II
A film as influential to the horror genre as any of the biggies (DRACULA, THE EXORCIST, etc.), Sam Raimi’s EVIL DEAD II: DEAD BY DAWN introduced a near-revolutionary mix of slapstick and horror
SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD
The final installment of George Romero’s DEAD saga is about on par with his previous efforts LAND OF THE DEAD and DIARY OF THE DEAD: flawed in many respects, but pretty good for the most part
THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT
Possibly the farthest the screen has ever taken the ARABIAN NIGHTS story-within-a-story motif, this distinctly literary exercise is not a film for the uncommitted viewer
THE SANDMAN 1996
Those familiar with the no-budget auteur Bookwalter’s work won’t be surprised to hear that the shot-on-video SANDMAN isn’t very good…but then, it’s not all that bad, either
Y2K: SHUT DOWN DETECTED
Yes, we all know the dreaded “millennium bug” was a joke, but you’re advised to catch Y2K: SHUT DOWN DETECTED, an extremely slick little film marred only by the fact that it really should have been longer