After the death of her father, Elizabeth travels to a remote island, where a convent may hold the secret to the death of her mother. There, she finds nuns who conduct strange rituals in the catacombs beneath the building in an attempt to hold the evil there at bay.

One of the first Western films to be shot in the Ukraine following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the birth of this movie was as difficult as Elizabeth’s. The sets and locations are otherworldly yet inexpensive, but the political situation was rife with problems, like two coups that took place during the shooting and dubbing of the film.

Director Mariano Baino had only directed the short Caruncula before this, but his eye is steady and strong. There’s a definite air of looming Lovecraftian dread in this. It looks almost like a Soavi film. And while it has no score, the sound effects more than make up for it.

Any film that has squads of nuns burning buildings and killing people — as well as a crucified zombie nun and a savage elder god hidden beneath the world — is worth checking out. It doesn’t have the greatest story in the world, but when has that ever stopped our enjoyment of a horror film?

You can find it from Severin (of course!) right here. It’s also streaming on Shudder.

What do you write about a movie that pretty much created modern horror? Sure, you can point to Night of the Living Dead and even Carnival of Souls as starting points, but from a mainstream blockbuster perspective, this is where the rules of modern supernatural horror begin.

Inspired by William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel, which itself was inspired by the 1949 exorcism of Roland Doe (“The Pope’s Exorcist” Malachi Martin claimed that he was the inspiration, a point that Blatty denied) the legends around this film — it was a cursed set, it’s filled with subliminal messages — supersede a very simple fact: this movie is frightening as hell, even 40 plus years later.

Do I even need to tell you the story of how Pazuzu finds its way into an Ouija board and into the soul of the daughter of an actress? Probably not. What’s striking is that how long the movie takes to get there. Scenes of Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) acting take precedence over the sad life of Father Karras, who has to deal with the death of his mother and his increasing lack of faith.

When do we realize something is wrong? When it is too late. When Regan (Linda Blair) intrudes on one of her mother’s boring parties, pisses on the floor and tells an astronaut “You’re gonna die up there.” PS — Want to know more about that guy? Then you should watch The Ninth Configuration.

Science can’t solve these issues. Detectives cannot. Only the Church can help.

What follows is a haunted house of scares that have been imitated ad nauseum (pun intended) so many times that we know the beats: head spinning, pea soup vomit, masturbation with a cross, blood, strange voices, levitation. A priest must show weakness before showing great sacrifice. And in the end, two old men find friendship in the aftermath.

It’s what is not seen that is most interesting, such as the old Hollywood directorial tricks William Friedkin used to get a reaction. He fired guns into the air to get a frightened reaction. He slapped some actors right across the face before important scenes. The painful screams of Blair and Burstyn are real — they were being yanked all over the set by stunt harnesses which caused both injuries and pain. And Regan’s bedroom was actually the inside of a freezer.

I’ve read for years about the subliminal that are supposedly hidden in the film, originally learning about them in William Poundstone’s book Big Secrets. Wilson Bryan Key — the guy who claimed that if you stack Ritz crackers up they always spell S-E-X — claimed that the film was full of images and sound effects that created a subliminal air of menace.

Friedkin has alternately claimed that subliminal messages are both “a very effective storytelling device. The subliminal editing in The Exorcist was done for dramatic effect — to create, achieve, and sustain a kind of dreamlike state” and that “there are no subliminal images. If you can see it, it’s not subliminal.”

One of the techniques used are the flashes of Captain Howdy, a demon who appears three times in the film. In an Entertainment Weekly article, Friedkin said, “You couldn’t catch it before VHS. And now you can stop the DVD and stare at it.” You’ll find the face during Regan’s examination, Dr. Karras’ dream, in the kitchen and several other places throughout the film.

Key also claimed that the word “pig” appears several times in the film, a keyword in the post-Manson era.

The site Subliminal Manipulation also writes that “the terrified squealing of pigs being slaughtered was mixed subtly into the soundtrack. The buzzing sound of angry, agitated bees wove in and out of scenes throughout the film.” They go even further to describe people fainting during the film and getting nightmares — attributed more to the subliminal than the horror content.  In addition, they say that “several theater employees were actually placed under the care of physicians and a few quit their jobs. Employees frequently had to clean up floors and rugs when nauseous spectators (mostly male, for some reason) did not quite make it to the restrooms.”

Want further conspiracy? That site also calls out author Blatty as a former CIA operative and policy-branch chief of the Psychological Warfare Division of the U.S. Air Force.

The music is another crucial element of the film. While Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells (actually part one of the overall record) is considered the theme for the movie, it was a complete accident that it was picked. Originally, Lalo Schifrin created six minutes of music for the trailer that were considered too frightening when combined with the images of the film. Some claim that this music was reused for The Amityville Horror, but the truth is that Friedkin hated the music that while it was being recorded, he made the orchestra stop playing and threw the tapes away in the studio parking lot — in front Schifrin and his wife. Additionally, the director claims that he wishes that had he heard them sooner, he would have used Tangerine Dream for the film (they would score his film Sorcerer).

While the film wasn’t available on video or TV in England until the 1990’s, an American TV cut has plenty of interesting changes, including director Friedkin speaking new, censored lines for Regan. In addition, this cut has a different shot of the Virgin Mary statue that cries blood and a longer shot of Regan’s face changing into a demon. This network TV cut is rarely seen today.

Friedkin used Mercedes McCambridge, a voiceover actress, to help create the signature sound of the demon’s voice. A former alcoholic, she used raw eggs, chain-smoking and whiskey to achieve the voice she used (and add to her state of mind). Plus, Friedkin demanded that she be bound to a chair while voicing the demon, to better give the sounds of restraint. She later said that the experience was one of horror and rage, while the director himself admitted that the extreme to which she went through terrified him. Plus, while she originally didn’t want any credit, once Linda Blair received a Best Supporting Actress nomination, she decided to sue so that people would know the voice as hers.

There’s also a Director’s Cut and an Extended Director’s Cut (The Version You’ve Never Seen) that has some cuts here and there, longer FX (CGI aided) for the spider walk scene and some added scenes between Father Karras and Father Merrin. These tweaks would only be noticeable to someone who has watched the film over and over again.

We’ll get to them eventually, but there were several sequels and prequels, such as Exorcist II: The Heretic, The Exorcist III, Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.

Was The Exorcist upsetting? Well, TV preacher evangelist Billy Graham claimed an actual demon was living inside the movie.

As for viewers today, they may be surprised at the sinister power that this movie still holds.

I could tell you that Inferno is about a man searching for his sister. I could also say that it’s about a New York City apartment building that is the gateway to evil, as well as the home of an ancient alchemist. But I could also tell you that it is the cinematic equivalent of a lava lamp, a swirl of images and colors that conjures mood and menace like no other.

A sequel to Suspiria in spirit, this film is also based on the concept of “Our Ladies of Sorrow” (Mater Lachrymarum, Mater Suspiriorum and Mater Tenebrarum) from Thomas de Quincey’s book Suspiria de Profundis. These three witches rule the evil of our world — Mater Lachrymarum as Our Lady of Tears, Mater Suspiriorum as Our Lady of Sighs and Mater Tenebrarum as Our Lady of Darkness.

Rose (Irene Miracle, Midnight Express) is a poet in New York City who discovers The Three Mothers, a book that tells the tale of the three sisters and how they rule our world through sorrow, tears and darkness. Each of them has been built a home by the author, Vaerlli, with Mater Suspiriorum, the Mother of Sorrows, living in Freiburg (hey there, Suspiria).  Mater Lachymarum, the Mother of Tears, resides in Rome (hey there, Mother of Tears). Finally, Mater Tenebrarum, the Mother of Darkness, is right there in NYC (you’re watching her flick).

Rose realizes that she’s living in Tenebrarum’s home and asks for her brother, Mark (Leigh McCloskey, TV’s Dallas), to come see her. She also starts exploring her apartment building, finding a ballroom filled with water in the basement. Dropping her keys, she has to swim through the water to find her them. Then, a corpse rises from its watery tomb, but she escapes.

Now we’re in Rome, where Mark tries to read Rose’s letter, but he keeps getting thrown off by a gorgeous student (Ania Pieroni, The House by the Cemetery) who leads him on a chase. He leaves the letter behind and his friend Sara reads it. She’s both frightened and fascinated, going to the library to find her own copy of The Three Mothers. Well, you’re in an Italian horror film, Sara, so a mysterious man is going to attack you. That’s just how these things go. She gets away and asks Carlo, her neighbor, to stay with her. Again, Sara, you are in an Italian horror movie, so chances are that you are about to be murdered by a black-gloved killer.

Mark finds the dead bodies of Carlo and Sara, along with two pieces of his sister’s letter. After speaking with the police, he walks outside to see a taxi with the mystery woman staring at him. You never see the woman again, but she’s really the Mother of All Tears. Mark calls his sister, but cannot hear her due to the connection. He promises to visit just as two shadowy figures chase her, finally using broken glass to slice her throat.

Mark makes good on his promise, heading straight to Rose’s building where he meets all manner of folks: the nurse (Veronica Lazăr, The Beyond), the old man she takes care of (Feodor Chaliapin Jr., Cher’s grandfather in Moonstruck), the concierge (Alida Valli, Miss Tanner from Suspiria) and Countess Elise De Longvalle Adler (Daria Nicolodi, wife at the time of Argento and uncredited writer of the film) who tells him that Rose is missing.

Mark follows bloodstains he finds outside his sister’s door, but suddenly he passes out and is dragged away by a black-robed man. Elise sees this and the man follows her. She’s overcome by cats before the man stabs her to death, just as the concierge and nurse help Mark go to sleep.

Later, Mark finds the antique dealer who sold Rose the book in the hopes of discovering more clues about his sister’s whereabouts. The man has no info for him, but we follow him throughout the night, where he has a nice evening of drowning cats in Central Park. However, he falls into the water and an army of rats attacks him, shredding and gnawing on him. A hot dog vendor hears the commotion and walks across the water to stab the antique dealer with a knife. What does this have to do with the rest of Inferno? Your guess is as good as mine!

Meanwhile, Elise’s butler tries to steal her possessions, but he’s killed. When the concierge finds his corpse, she drops a candle and sets the room ablaze. She gets tied up in some curtains and falls out a window to her death. As the house burns, Mark finds the secret crawlspace in the basement. He follows a series of passages until he finds the old man in the wheelchair, who ends up being Varelli, the author of the book. He tries to kill Mark with a needle, but is choked to death before telling Mark, “Even now, you are being watched.”

Mark follows one of the shadowed figures until he ends up in a luxurious chamber, where the nurse reveals herself to be Mater Tenebrarum and becomes death itself. That said — the fire from above sends debris crashing down and the film ends.

After Suspiria became a surprise success for 20th Century Fox, they bankrolled this film. However, a change in management at the studio led to the film never receiving the release it deserved. While it played in Italy, it sat unwatched in the U.S. for five years before a VHS release in 1985 and a one week New York City theatrical run in 1986.

This is not Argento’s favorite film, due to painful memories of an extreme case of hepatitis that he suffered during the filming. At times, he was in so much pain, he had to direct on his back. At other times, only the second unit scenes could be filmed by Mario Bava! That’s right — Bava also worked on the film’s optical effects, matte paintings and trick shots! For example, the skylines in the film? That’s Bava using photos glued to milk cartons. And the apartment building itself is an optical illusion, as it was only a few floors high and had a Bava-created sculpture to cheat the eye. Bava also was a camera operator and lighting technician for the film — all uncredited — with his son serving as assistant director.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I love Inferno. If it’s your first Argento or Italian film, you’re about to be overwhelmed. This is a poetic, lyrical, erotic blast of cinema, unafraid to go off into a thousand directions at once with the thinnest of storyline thread to hold it together. It’s a union of the new — Argento — with the old master Bava providing one last gasp of his brilliance. Fuck every critic who savaged this movie. Time has proved what fools they were.

Enough words. Watch this at once! It’s available on Shudder and Amazon Prime. You can also buy it at Diabolik DVD.

Sure, Jaws was frightening. But now, “just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…you can’t get to it!”

A woman walks her dog along the beach before she is pulled under the sand by an unseen creature. Her screams alert Harry Caulder, a harbor patrol officer who is swimming in the ocean. He reports her disappearance to LAPD detectives Royko (Burt Young, Amityville II: The Possession) and Pianadosi, who can do nothing without a body.

The woman’s estranged daughter, Catherine (Marianna Hill, Messiah of Evil) calls Henry about her mother. Even after she finds a dog with a severed head, no one can figure out what has happened. The cops believe that a serial killer is at large, but much like the aforementioned Jaws, the powers that be want them to keep a lid on it after the media starts using the term “Blood Beach.”

After another attack on a teenage girl, Captain Pearson (John Saxon, making every movie better just by his presence) begins digging up the beach to discover the killer.

Meanwhile, Hoagy (no, not Michael Caine, but a co-worker of Henry) is closing the harbor patrol when a man attacks his girlfriend. She knocks the rapist to the ground and the creature castrates the man. And then the beach devours Marie, the French stewardess who lives with Henry, leaving only her hat and an eyeball.

Oh yeah — Harry and Catherine used to be lovers and now try to reconcile.

Finally, someone survives an attack, a man who was using a metal detector on the beach. However, he’s in shock and unable to explain what happened. And when Hoagy tries to warn Mrs. Selden, who has watched the murders throughout the film, he’s pulled under while she simply looks on.

Catherine decides to investigate the access tunnel to the beach where they found the survivor. She discovers the remains of every victim as Captain Pearson installs motion detectors, cameras and explosives all over the beach. Soon, a giant worm emerges and the cops blow it up real good.

That said — Dr. Dimitrios believes that because it’s a worm, it can regenerate. With small sinkholes showing up all over the beach, he just might be right.

Blood Beach does what we expect from Jaws but inverts the danger. There’s some fine character work by Burt Ward, Marianna Hill is as lovely as ever and there are plenty of monster attacks to keep everyone in suspense. It’s not the finest in horror, but it’ll do once a few beers have started to work themselves into your brain.

Co-written and produced by Charles Kaufman, brother of Troma Entertainment co-founder Lloyd Kaufman, this is a rough affair all about an insane woman and her two even crazier sons capturing and torturing three young women. It’s our thank you to mothers everywhere — happy Mother’s Day!

A bunch of hippies are about to graduate from a Growth Opportunity workshop, which is a very 1970’s affair. Two of them, Terry and Charlie, plan to rob and kill an old woman who gives them a ride home. They didn’t expect Ike (Frederick Coffin, Alone in the Dark) and Addley, the woman’s two sons, to come out of the woods and cut off Charlie’s head. And then Mother herself chokes out Terry.

Now it’s time to meet our heroines, three women who have been friends for a long time (the Rat Pack!) who reunite every year for a camping trip. Abbey, Jackie and Trina are having a blast in the woods when the boys abduct them in their sleeping bags, then torture and abuse them.

The next day, Abbey and Trina make their escape, yet discover the dead bodies of Terry and Charlie, as well as Jackie who has been destroyed and left in a drawer. Meanwhile, Queenie, Mother’s deformed and werewolf-like sister who feeds on dead animals, has been sighted in the woods.

Jackie dies of her wounds as the Abbey and Trina make a plan of revenge against the brothers. They dispatch of Addley and then Ike jumps out of a window to attack them, but gets Drano poured down his throat, a TV dropped on his head and is finally killed with an electric carving knife. Then, they use inflatable breasts to suffocate Mother.

I liked how the girls have a strong relationship and defend one another, somewhat defying the Final Girl convention.

After burying Jackie in the woods, the girls attempt to leave, but Queenie leaps to attack as the credits roll. This would be surprising if it wasn’t ruined by so many of the trailers.

If this film looks like it was shot in a grimy murder house, well, it’s because it was. It was shot in an abandoned house in Newton, New Jersey that had been empty for 15 years, with the original owner being killed inside the home and another body had been found just prior to filming.

Beatrice Pons was billed as Rose Ross and Frederick Coffin was billed as Holden McGuire due to their membership in the Screen Actor’s Guild prohibiting them from appearing in non-union films. In fact, Beatrice was supposedly so eager to accept the lead role that she voluntarily breached SAG’s “Global Rule One” policy, by changing her name!

There’s also an insane Hollywood party opening, packed with old men and young women hooking up, roller skating, coke snorting and a butler with a long coat and no pants. This scene feels like it inspired the Boogie Nights pool parties scenes at Jack Horner’s house.

Mother’s Day was kind of, sort of remade in 2010 with Rebecca De Mornay as Mother. It isn’t as well regarded as this film.

While this is a Troma movie, I tried not to hold it against this film, It’s a pretty simple, quick moving affair. And well worth checking out. Maybe you shouldn’t share it with your mom, though. Get her some chocolates or something.

Let’s say there’s this island where drugs come from. Also, there’s a white slavery ring that trades in pretty girls. Additionally, a Nazi who looks a lot like Hitler is interested in the place. And oh yeah — it’s also the burial ground for disgraced martial artists who will one day be raised from the dead by the strange monks who live there. Got all that? Throw in Cameron Mitchell as a boat captain and you’re ready for the pure batshit piece of trash that is Raw Force.

But wait — the film is also a travelogue of the worst parts of the Far East, as the members of the Burbank Karate Club make their way to the island. Bar fights. Dens of ill repute. Strip clubs. And then the film becomes the Love Boat, but then people start getting killed.

Toss in a nude scene of Camille Keaton (I Spit On Your Grave, What Have You Done to Solange?) while she’s in the bathroom (she’s billed as “Girl In Toilet” and was paid in cash for her part) and a final act where the zombie martial artists all rise and begin killing everything and everyone (and are dressed as Mortal Kombat castoffs ten years before that game even came out), as well as piranhas and you, have quite the stew.

Originally written as Kung-Fu Zombies, the film ends with a To Be Continued… The sequel would have featured Jonathan Winters (!!!) as Hope Holiday’s ex-husband and of course, Cameron Mitchell would have returned.

This is a delirious cocktail of everything you want to watch while at the drive-in or inebriated in the middle of the night: sex, chop sockery, zombie gore, Nazis, mayhem, more sex, more gore, bad kung fu and daring airplane hijinks. Luckily, it’s easy to find on Shudder. Or you can grab a blu ray from the awesome people at Vinegar Syndrome.

I can’t overemphasize how much fun this movie is. Director Edward Murphy claims that he was making a film for seventeen-year-old boys. He succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.

Six years after the events of Night of the Demons, all of the bodies at Hull House have been recovered except Angela. Urban legend suggests that she went body and soul directly to Hell. But the real truth? Upon getting a Halloween card with her signature last year, her parents committed suicide. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Night of the Demons 2, one of the many sequels that Becca loves more than the original.

Meet Melissa, who everyone calls Mouse. She’s Angela’s sister, who is now attending St. Rita’s Academy, a school for troubled teens. The school bully, Shirley, gives her a hard time while Sister Gloria, the head nun, tries to look out for her.

Shirley isn’t allowed to attend the school dance after the nuns catch her fooling around with Kurt, so she decides to have her own Halloween party at Hull House, complete with a demonic ritual and help from the school nerd, her boyfriend, a guy named Z-Boy, Johnny, Johnny’s girl Bibi and Terri (Christine Taylor, years before she was in The Brady Bunch Movie).

Of course, all Hell breaks loose. What you might not expect is that the demonic Angela rises and rapes Z-Boy in the attic in an inversion of horror movie tropes. And a tube of lipstick possesses Shirley, which leads to the girls being possessed and murdered by Angela, who wants to sacrifice her sister Mouse to the Devil.

The nerd, Perry, uses his demonology skills and the help of Father Bob and Sister Gloria to try to rescue the teens. Bibi, Johnny and Sister Gloria survive, killing all of the demons except Angela, who tries to cut the nun’s head off. A combination of a sword strike, a supersoaker filled with holy water and light coming through a cross shape finally kills Angela. But oh no! The evil lipstick survives!

Brian Trenchard Smith (Turkey Shoot, Leprechaun 4: In Space) puts together a quick moving fun piece of cinema junk food here. It’s not anything that will stay with you for long, but it’ll certainly keep you laughing and somewhat entertained while it’s in your DVD player or streaming on your media player.

Produced by Robert Rodriguez (who also came up with the story) and directed by Nimród E. Antal, this is the forgotten film of the Predator franchise. Its title relates to Aliens and it also describes the humans who have come to this alien planet.

Royce (Adrien Brody, cast against type here but awesome in his role; he has even offered to return in sequels) is a mercenary who awakens as he parachutes into an unfamiliar jungle. It’s a great sequence that sets up the non-stop chase that makes up the movie. Soon, he meets other predators: Mexican gang member Cuchillo (Danny Trejo), Spetsnaz Russian soldier Nikolai (UFC fight Oleg Taktarov, who was happy to play a rare positive Russian character in an American film), Israeli sniper Isabelle (Alice Braga, The Rite), RUF soldier Mombasa (Mahershala Ali, Moonlight), Yakuza gang member Hanzo, San Quentin death row inmate Stan (Walton Goggins, House of 1000 Corpses) and a doctor named Edwin (Topher Grace from TV’s That 70’s Show), who doesn’t seem to fit. They finally make their way through the jungle to a clearing where they stare up at multiple planets. It’s a jarring scene that reminds us that we are far away from Earth.

It turns out that this planet is a game preserve where the Predators gather game to be hunted. Soon, Cuchillo is killed and used as a trap. Then, they find a captive Predator and three larger hunters, known as the Tracker, Berserker and Falconer. Mombasa is killed and Royce demands to know why Isabelle knew who the aliens were. That’s because she knew Dutch from the original movie and heard his story.

They then meet Noland (Laurence Fishburne), a soldier who has survived for ten seasons. Even though he explains the rules to them, he tries to kill them for their supplies. As they escape, Royce hatches a plan to exploit the feud between the smaller and larger Predators.

As he tries to escapes the fire, the Tracker kills Noland but is taken out by Nikolai’s mines as he sacrifices himself to help the party. Similarly, Stan saves everyone by facing off with the Berserker, but his skull and spine are ripped out. Hanzo is the last to put himself before the group as he and the Falconer duel, with both dying from their wounds.

Royce, Isabelle and Edwin make their way to the camp, but Edwin is injured and Isabelle won’t leave him behind. Royce then frees the smaller Predator and they set the ship’s course for Earth. Unfortunately, the Berserker returns, kills his rival and blows the ship up. It’s revealed why Edwin is there: he was a killer and uses poison he found on the planet to paralyze Isabelle. Royce arrives in the nick of time and saves her.

Our heroes cover Edwin with grenades and then Royce battles the Predator one on one, killing it with an axe just as more parachutes come down from the sky. Soon, more Predators will come, but they will be ready.

I really enjoyed this film, both in the theater and then revisiting it a few weeks ago on blu-ray. It deserves to have more people watch it. Hopefully with the new The Predator movie coming out, this will happen.

Have you ever paused a movie and yelled aloud, “I LOVE THIS MOVIE!” and you’re all alone in the room? If you’ve answered in the affirmative, you understand the pure joy that I felt while watching this movie.

Dean Miller, an American reporter, is waiting to interview a nuclear scientist when a military plane lands and mutated men emerge, killing everyone in their path. Even the worst wounds only slow them down as they hack their way through their victims, pausing to drink the blood of those they kill.

General Murchison (Mel Ferrer, The Visitor) shuts down any news stories about the attack. Meanwhile, the city is overrun with the killers and their victims, who soon join their ranks. Miller saves his wife at the hospital where she works as the city’s power is shut down.

It turns out that they’re fighting humans who have been contaminated by a leak in the nuclear power plant (that’s why the scientist was meeting with Miller in the beginning) and now they have strength, speed and reflexes beyond the range of normal humans. However, because they can’t regenerate red blood cells, they must consume blood. There’s only one way to kill them, which will be familiar to zombie movie fans: shoot them in the head.

No one is safe — the general is looking for his daughter and her husband, but by the time they are discovered, they are infected and must be killed. And Major Holmes warns his artist wife to stay in the house when two infected men break in and kill her friend and almost murder her. By the time he gets to the house to save her she’s been infected and he must kill his wife.

That’s the theme of this movie — everyone gets turned into something horrible, even a priest at the church where Miller and Anna try to hide. Finally, they make a last stand in an amusement park, using submachine guns and grenades to keep the attacking horde at bay. Major Holmes tries to save them, but Anna can’t hold the rope and falls to her death. This being an Italian movie, we see every moment of her demise.

Miller then wakes up. It was all a dream, except he goes back to the airport and the movie starts all over again!

Known as City of the Walking Dead in the U.S., this is a fast-moving, down and dirty gore packed film. Directed by Umberto Lenzi (Eaten Alive!, Cannibal Ferox), this film feels like it’s out of control from the first scene. Once that plane opens and the mutated fiends emerge, it’s an orgy of heads being opened up, breasts being eaten, gunshots galore and eyes being ripped from their sockets. In short, this is. a true crowd pleaser. How can you not love a movie where a studio full of disco dancers are mauled and murdered by an army of mutated killers?

There was a remake announced in 2015, which was to have been directed by Tom Savini. While that movie hasn’t shown up yet, you can always watch the original on Shudder!