22. WRECK TANGLE: Rubberneck a car crash scene.

Everything Mad Max did right, The Road Warrior does better.

Italy and many other countries remade this over and over.

It changed American pro wrestling thanks to the look of the Road Warriors tag team,. Hawk and Animal.

And it made the end of the world seem awesome.

“Mad Max” Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) lost his family to a biker gang just as the world was ending. Now, he roams the outback and battles even more biker gangs, including Wez (Vernon Wells) and Lord Humongous (Kjell Nilsson), who has perhaps one of the greatest speeches in movie history: “There has been too much violence, too much pain. None here are without sin, but I have an honorable compromise. Just walk away. Leave the pump, the oil, the gasoline, and the whole compound, and I spare your lives. Just walk away. I will give you safe passage in the wasteland. Just walk away and there will be an end to the horror. I await your answer. You have one full day to decide.”

Along with a feral child (Emil Minty) and the gyro captain (Bruce Spence), Max must decide to aid the ragtag people left behind. By the end of the movie, we learn that the child has become Chief of the Great Northern Tribe and has been telling this story all along.

As for Max, he’s the greatest cowboy to not ride a horse. Only George Miller could make a cocktail of Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung and Akira Kurosawa that works this well.

In America, you’d never know this was a sequel. It was sold as a brand new movie and as the first movie aired on cable, people put it together. People loved it; critics too. Roger Ebert said that it was  “one of the most relentlessly aggressive movies ever made.”

I first saw it at the drive-in and was totally shocked when the child kills Wez’s partner with a metal boomerang. Like, it shut me down. I couldn’t believe how non-stop violent this movie was and I’m laughing now, because I totally fell in love with this movie and couldn’t stop drawing it as a kid. So much of what I love — the Bronx Italian films, Fist of the North Star and more — all start here.

21. TWINNERS CIRCLE: Scientists rejoice! Human cloning has been achieved.

Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) died so that Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) could learn that Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) lives and plans on killing 94 civil servants near retirement. Despite being exhausted by the world, Ezra forms a team with his sister Esther (Lilli Palmer), journalist Sidney Beynon (Denholm Elliot) and vigilante David Bennett (John Rubinstein) to stop the murders.

Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (Planet of the Apes) and written by Heywood Gould (Rolling Thunder) from the book by Ira Levin, this is about the children — clones! — of Adolf Hitler, who have been placed all over the world.

Two years before this, Olivier would play a Nazi in Marathon Man. Here, he seems way more kindly than the character is in the book that inspired it.

Oddly, this is a movie that my wife’s family watched and quoted all of the time. Maybe they just like watching dogs maul evil German doctors. Who can say? Even today, long after this was made, just saying the title of the movie suggests a vast conspiracy.

Ira Levin had to be the richest man ever. Just look at the movies of his books: A Kiss Before Dying, Critic’s Choice, Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives, Deathtrap, Sliver and more. Several were filmed more than once and had sequels.

20. DANCE DANCE DEVOLUTION: Today’s viewing soiree must be some kind of mutant, freak, or genetic mishappening.

The Toxic Avenger had some trouble securing a distributor for wide release after its premiere, with one unnamed producer deeming the film “unreleasable” because of how violent it was. So it sat for nearly two years. What emerged is a movie a million times better than I thought it could be.

Winston Gooze (Peter Dinklage) is struggling. His wife Shelly (Rebecca O’Mara) has died from cancer, he’s raising his stepson Wade (Jacob Tremblay) and he can’t afford the surgery he needs, as he probably also got his cancer by working for Bi-Toxiphetamine Hydroxylate. At a company fundraiser, the owner, Bob (Kevin Bacon), turns him down for help in person.

Meanwhile, the entire city is in the grip of a gang called The Killer Nutz, run by Budd Berserk (Julian Kostov), Fritz Garbinger (Elijah Wood) — brother of Bob — and mobster Thad Barkabus (Jonny Coyne). After the fundraiser, Winston sees the gang try to kill reporter J.J. Doherty, (Taylour Paige) and is shot in the head and dumped into toxic radiation for his troubles. Of course, this turns him into the Toxic Avenger (Luisa Guerreiro in the suit voiced by Dinklage) who makes it his mission to destroy the gang, protect the people of his city and stop big pharma.

This movie feels like its reclaiming Toxie from cartoons, from mainstream fame, from being just another silly 80s movie. This is fun, it’s dark, it’s dangerous and it has a message. It’s punk and instead of having to say that it’s punk, it just is. Also, any movie that has its hero emerge and sing Motorhead’s “Overkill” while murdering movie punks is seemingly made for me.

The best part of this film? The marketing team and distributor, Cineverse, partnered with the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt to buy out $5 million of medical debt instead of using the money for marketing. Additionally, for every $1 million the movie makes at the box office, Cineverse agreed to buy out another million in debt (as of this writing — before the physical media release — it’s raised $15 million).

Cineverse’s SVP of Marketing, Lauren McCarthy, said, “We spent hours brainstorming how to close out the campaign and, while sending Toxie to the moon was appealing, no idea came close to combating unexpected medical debt for families. The Toxic Avenger had his entire life upended by crushing medical costs so, as Toxie says, “Sometimes you have to do something.””

19. THE ABANDONED PLACE: This spooky classic trope that must inhabit tonight’s viewing.

Sam (Maurice Luijten) is abused by his fellow Cub Scouts, like pack leader Peter (Stef Aerts). This disruption causes the scouts to be lost in the mountains, just as two of the older scouts start telling ghost stories. One of them, about a werewolf child, leads to Sam running away, only to find a feral child  (Gill Eeckelaert), the son of a poacher (Jan Hammenecker). Together, they have filled the forest with traps.

The Scouts en Gidsen Vlaanderen, the Flemish Boy Scouts, condemned the “all ages” rating this film was awarded and asked parents not to allow their children to see it. They totally saw it. I mean, it’s a slasher. Kids are going to see it even more if you tell them no.

With a striking poster, I had wanted to see this for years. While the tone isn’t always consistent—it tries for humor at times, then shifts away from it, only to work back toward it and then launches harrowing moments and a surprising ending—it’s still different with death machines all over the woods.

The first film directed by Jonas Govaerts, it reflects his influences, particularly when a Scout leader’s ringtone is the Goblin theme from Suspiria.

18. VIDEO STORE DAY: This is the big one. Watch something physically rented or bought from an actual video store. If you live in a place that is unfortunate enough not to have one of these archival treasures, then watch a movie with a video store scene in it at least. #vivaphysicalmedia

Perhaps you know Reed Richmond from Hell Ninja 4 and Beverly Hills Graverobber. Or maybe you realize that we are in the WNUF universe, which includes WNUF Halloween Special, Out There Halloween Mega Tape, What Happens Next Will Scare You and this movie.

On this tape, recorded back in the day when this first aired on Monster Planet in 1995, Reed and guests will share where monsters come from. Saved by Daisy Hemlock and the Center for Lost Media and Trader Tony’s Tape Dungeon, this has all the commercials, so you can feel like you’re back in 1995. Or another version of 1995 from another time and place.

This is a bit straighter than the other movies — or so it seems! — so you may be lulled into thinking it’s just a real 90s basic cable special. But then the commercials get odd — the AIDS one made my wife yell, “They can say that?” — and maybe I just want to live in a world where SciFi wasn’t SyFy and cable let me escape the news. I thought the news was bad in 1995. Thirty years later, wow, right?

This is my favorite movie that I bought this year. If all it had were the trailers, well, I’d be set. That said, Chris LaMartina could make a movie about toothpaste, and I’d order a copy. What a world he has built. Here’s hoping we get to keep coming back.

You can get this directly from the filmmaker. It includes commentary by Head Archivist Chris LaMartina, another track by Reed Richmond historian George Stover, selected trailers from Trader Tony’s Twisted Trailers, and bloopers. There’s also a reprinted copy of the October 1995 issue of WHAT’S YOUR DAMAGE?

17. THE WATCHENING: Today’s film title should end with an -ing.

Oh man, the whitewashing of the Warrens starts here, but at least James Wan made one great art-directed movie, a film that has a scary room filled with occult objects like Annabelle, who couldn’t stay in just one movie.

Ed and Lorraine (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) are super Catholic ghostbusters who no one believes in. But you know who does? The Perron family. Roger and Carolyn (Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor) move into a farmhouse with their five daughters — Andrea (Shanley Caswell), Nancy (Hayley McFarland), Christine (Joey King), Cindy (Mackenzie Foy) and April (Kyla Deaver ) and yes, they must be Catholic too with a family like that — and their dog Sadie, who won’t even enter their new home. That’s because witch and Satanist Bathsheba Sherman sacrificed her week-old baby to the devil and killed herself at 3:07 in the morning after cursing all who take her land. So every night at 3:07, stuff gets crazy. Oh yeah, the dog dies, so you know, cheap heat.

The Warrens bring Father Gordon (Steve Coulter) to get evidence, but because the Perron family is not Catholic, the church won’t help. No worries. Ed can do it.

Norma Sutcliffe and Gerald Helfrich, the previous owners of the house on which this was based, sued James Wan, Warner Bros, and producers because, in 2015, their property was being vandalized constantly after the movie. The suit was later dismissed.

Now, the Conjuring Universe has nine movies. Although The Conjuring: Last Rites felt like a combination of the series’ conclusions and a Father of the Bride remake, this won’t be the end.

When this was shown in the Philippines, some cinemas had to hire Catholic priests to bless the viewers before showing it. I don’t know if this was a William Castle stunt that benefited the movie or the church.

16. SEQUELAR SUBTITULAR: You know how sequels sometimes have clever subtitles? Like House II: The Second Story…

Someone tell medical student Grace Rhodes (Naomi Watts) that you should never go home again. Yet she has to take care of her agoraphobic mother, June (Karen Black), who keeps dreaming of being hurt by children. She gets her old job back with Dr. Larson (William Windom) and starts to take care of her much younger siblings, Margaret (Jamie Renée Smith) and James (Mark Sailing).

When every kid in town gets a fever, just like in June’s dreams, and you realize this is set in Grand Island, Nebraska, the birthplace of Dick Cavett, you know something evil is up.

Donald (Brent Jennings) and Sandra (Toni Marsh) Atkins have one of those feverish kids, Marcus (Lewis Flanagan III). Josiah, Brandon Kleyla, a child preacher, gets him to murder his own mother, sending the police after the father, whom they blame. Oh man, Josiah. The dude was like Marjoe Gortne, and as he started to grow, the priests he was with tried to stop his aging. They abandoned him at one point, so he killed them, then the people of Grand Island burned him alive and sealed his remains in a well. So, you know, it’s totally normal that he’s back and giving the kids the names of dead children from a past century.

Somehow, his weakness is mercury, and somehow, this small-town medical student learns how to make mercury bullets. I love it. In a deleted scene, the two old ladies tell Grace and Donald that the children called Josiah “He Who Walks Behind The Rows.” Yeah, we didn’t have continuity, and only nerds cared back then.

U of M grad Steve King said he “could have done without all of the Children of the Corn sequels.” Well, did you say no to the money? Oh, Steve.

As for me, I’m sad when William Windom — Dr. Seth! — gets killed by a strange operating table with a blade on it. Oh yeah, spoiler.

Director Greg Spence also made The Prophecy II.

15. GOES WITHOUT SAYING: Feast your eyes on something with little to no dialogue at all.

Directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, this is the perfect expression of German Expressionism. Janowitz and Mayer, both pacifists who despised authority after their military experiences during World War I, created something amazing here, which Wiene realized.

Roger Ebert called it arguably “the first true horror film,” and it’s still unsettling to watch today.

Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) is a hypnotist who has his own sleeping man, Cesare (Conrad Veidt), whom he uses to entertain — and murder — people. Caligari prophesies that  Franzis’ (Friedrich Feher) best friend Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski) will die by morning. When it happens, Franzis and his girlfriend Jane (Lil Dagover) investigate, which leads to a plot where Caligari may or may not be the head doctor of an asylum.

But ah, the ending! The beginning seems so simple, with Franzis telling his story. Finding out that he’s an unreliable narrator makes this entire movie one to watch again.

Is this a fairy tale? Is it one man trying to make sense of things? Is it Janowitz working out witnessing a murder behind the Holstenwall, which gives the setting its name?

While this is considered a cult movie, it was released as a typical film. But when we see it today, a hundred years later, we think that it had to have been an art film.

14. “SHUT THE FACE UP”: Watch a TV edit of an R-rated movie, you fairy godmother.

While the Halloween TV cut is an edited version of the 1978 movie with limited gore, not that Halloween had much, and re-dubbed swear words. That left around 12 minutes to extend the film, and luckily, John Carpenter was on the set of Halloween II.

The new moments hint at the revelation of the second movie, as we see that Michael has written “sister” on a door, there are moments in the high school, Dr. Loomis discusses young Michael’s dangerous nature at Smith’s Grove, Loomis talking to young Michael about fooling the doctors but not him as they move him to minimum security, and a moment where “Lynda visits Laurie Strodes at home and borrows a blouse just as Annie calls trying to borrow the same blouse.” Also, the final confrontation with Michael was retooled so you can only hear the gunshots and not see the shooting.

All of this footage was re-worked into an extended edition for home video.

There was once a TV edit of Halloween II that had tons of differences, too. There’s a messy cut of Mrs. Elrod’s death, as, instead of seeing the blood on her hands, the camera cuts to Michael’s face. This moment was taken from Michael killing Karen at the hospital, so he looks as if he’s in green lighting, unlike the rest of this scene.

According to 45 Lampkin Lane, there’s also:

• A deleted scene of Janet and Jimmy talking to one another in the hallways. Janet informs Jimmy that Laurie cracked a bone and that she’s going to have a scar on her shoulder. Jimmy asks if she’s still awake, to which Janet replies that Dr. Mixter gave her a double dose. “If she can keep her eyes open, she’s made out of steel.”
• Bud’s filthy version of “Amazing Grace” is changed to “Amazing grace, come show me your face. Don’t make me cry, I tell no lie.”
• An added scene where Jimmy tells Karen that he’s going to see the Ben Tramer car crash.
• The hammer killing Mr. Garrett is removed.
• A less gross take of the autopsy of Ben Tramer.
• A dream sequence where Laurie, as her younger self, meets Michael at the sanitarium.
• Karen’s death is less intense.
• The theatrical cut ends after Laurie gets into the ambulance. On TV, a white sheet rises inside the ambulance, but it’s Jimmy. They smile at one another as the ambulance drives away.

Here’s the original 1981 airing with commercials!

13. HOLLYWOODLAND BACK: Made by an indigenous filmmaker or has featured indigenous cast members.

How is this movie, directed by Dan Trachtenberg and written by Patrick Aison, the best Predator in, well, maybe ever?

The Comanche Naru (Amber Midthunder, a citizen of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribe) dreams of being a warrior like her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers). She’s a healer, and the tribe would be upset to know she’s tracking deer to improve her hunting skills. That night, she sees strange lights in the sky, just as she’s called to service, as a member of the tribe has been attacked by a cougar. In her head, she wishes she were at the party sent to hunt the beast. Soon, she forms a hunting party to fund them and is brave enough to face off with the cougar, which knocks her out. Her brother hunts it and comes back with it as a trophy.

Those lights bother our heroine, so she heads out with her dog, Saril. When her grandmother hears of whatever is out there, she believes it is Mupitsi, the mother owl of her ancestors. Her brother is taken by French traders, whose translator Captain Raphael Adolini (Bennett Taylor) is the last to be killed by the Predator (Dane DiLiegro) that is waiting in the woods.

Yes, the same Anolini whose name is on the pistol that Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover)has at the end of Predator 2.

What I love most about this movie is that its heroine is just as fierce as any of the men. She’s not a damsel to be rescued; in fact, she is one of the few who has ever bested a Predator. Sorry, I know I should call them Yautja, Hish-Qu-Ten or Skin Thieves.

Plus, it has roles for indigenous peoples like Michelle Thrush (Canadian Aborigine), Julian Black Antelope (Cree and Métis by birth, adopted by the Kainai Nation), Stormee Kip, Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat (Cree), Stefany Mathias (Squamish Nation), Skye Pelletier, Ginger Cattleman, Samiyah Crowfoot, Seanna Eggtail and Samuel Marty (Plains Cree and Nakota Stoney). According to IMDB, “The script was rewritten by two Comanche activists to ensure its depiction of Comanche culture wasn’t inaccurate or stereotypical, and the movie was praised for the results of their efforts. Among their changes, they insisted on giving every character (Comanche and French) a name in their language, even if it wasn’t stated onscreen.”

Plus, Billy Sole from Predator is a reincarnation of Taabe, and in that film, he is “reframing his last stand with that film’s Predator as being due to subconscious memories of a past life.” Trachtenburg said that as a kid, he was told that in the original, Billy “stood on a bridge over a waterfall and fought the Predator. But when I eventually saw the movie, that scene was not in it. The beginning of it is, but then it cuts away. So the seed was planted, and then I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a movie that focuses on that character’s story?’ And Prey isn’t exactly that, but it is, spiritually.”

I just read a review of this on IMD, B and it said, “Not bad, except for the teeny bopper stuff.”Yes, men, sometimes you have to watch women as the hero of your movie. That said, “Naru would have an easier time proving herself before her peers as women warriors, being among the various Great Plains Nations was actually very common and would sometimes even lead other warriors into battle.”