griggs's - Horror Films (Available on Cinema Paradiso) Everyone Should Watch Once List
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The Spiral Staircase (1945)Silence of Helen McCord
Helen Capel (Dorothy McGuire) is a beautiful young girl who has not uttered a word since childhood. She works as a servant for old, ailing Mrs. Warren (Ethel Barrymore) in the Warren family mansion. When a sinister spate of murders involving 'women with afflictions' hits the neighbourhood, Helen believes she's the next victim. One night, a storm breaks and Helen realises the killer is in the house with her. Unable to scream for help, what can she do to save herself? And just who is the psychotic killer? - Director:
- Robert Siodmak
- Cast:
- Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore
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Ganja and Hess (1973)Ganja & Hess
Duane Jones stars as anthropologist Hess Green, who is stabbed with an ancient ceremonial dagger by his unstable assistant (Director Bill Gunn), endowing him with the blessing of immortality, and the curse of an unquenchable thirst for blood. When the assistant's beautiful and outspoken wife Ganja (Marlene Clark) comes searching for her vanished husband, she and Hess form an unexpected partnership. Together, they explore just how much power there is in the blood. - Director:
- Bill Gunn
- Cast:
- Duane Jones, Marlene Clark, Bill Gunn
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Fashionable Manhattan therapist Dr. Robert Elliott (Michael Caine) faces the most terrifying moment of his life, when a psychotic killer begins attacking the women in his life (Angie Dickinson and Nancy Allen) - with a straight razor stolen from his office. Desperate to find the murderer before anyone else is hurt, Elliott is soon drawn into a dark and disturbing world of chilling desires. And as the doctor edges closer to the terrible truth, he finds himself lost in a provocative and deadly maze of obsession, deviance and deceit - where the most harmless erotic fantasies…can become the most deadly sexual nightmares! - Director:
- Brian De Palma
- Cast:
- Michael Caine, William Finley, Angie Dickinson
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Anyone who lived through the '80's experienced the magic of 'Gremlins'. For everyone else, now is the time to see one of the decade's defining movies, a wildly original blend of comedy and horror. When Billy (Zach Galligan) receives an adorable, mysterious pet named Gizmo for Christmas, he's given three rules for its care. Inadvertently, he breaks the rules, and a resulting army of duplicate furballs wreaks havoc throughout the town... - Director:
- Joe Dante
- Cast:
- Don Steele, Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates
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After years of suffering deadly reviews, hammy Shakespearean actor Edward Lionheart (Vincent Price) decides it's curtains for his critics! Bumping off his detractors with executions inspired by the Bard, Lionheart stages a beheading in the manner of "Cymbeline", a stabbing inspired by "Julius Caesar", and even an untimely removal of a pound of flesh improvised from "The Merchant of Venice" - proving once and for all that all the world really is a stage for Murder. - Director:
- Douglas Hickox
- Cast:
- Vincent Price, Charles Gray, Diana Rigg
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Something hideous is changing law-abiding citizens into monstrous, hyper-violent psychopaths. A series of bizarre, inexplicable robberies and murders have L.A. police detective, Tom Beck (Michael Nouri) totally baffled. And it doesn't help when mysterious FBI agent, Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle MacLachlan) tells him that a demonic extraterrestrial creature is invading the bodies of innocent victims - and transforming them into inhuman killers with an unearthly fondness for heavy-metal music, red Ferraris and unspeakable violence. - Director:
- Jack Sholder
- Cast:
- Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Nouri, Claudia Christian
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Kathleen Conklin (Lili Taylor), a philosophy student at New York University, is dragged into an alley by a mysterious, well-dressed stranger (Annabella Sciorra) who sucks blood from her neck. Kathleen survives the attack, but develops such an overwhelming addiction to human blood that she realises she must kill to satisfy it. As she reluctantly comes to terms with her new predatory appetite, Kathleen wrestles with her conscience, desperately searching for some kind of redemption before she succumbs to an addiction that will engulf her and all those around her. - Director:
- Abel Ferrara
- Cast:
- Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra
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When a group of cannibal savages kidnaps settlers from the small town of Bright Hope, an unlikely team of gunslingers, led by Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell), sets out to bring them home. But their enemy is more ruthless than anyone could have imagined, putting their mission - and survival itself - in serious jeopardy. - Director:
- S. Craig Zahler
- Cast:
- Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox
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Whilst driving in heavy rain on a deserted road. Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) pulls over to pick up a hitchhiker (Rutger Hauer). Halsey quickly regrets his decision to stop as the hitcher pulls a knife on him and nearly forces the car off the road. In a narrow escape Halsey manages to leave the hitcher behind on the road. However, his nightmare has only just begun as a terrifying and psychotic game of cat and mouse ensues with all who pass on the road becoming unwitting victims of The Hitcher. - Director:
- Robert Harmon
- Cast:
- Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell, Jennifer Jason Leigh
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In a tiny California town, high school students Brian (Kevin Dillon), Meg (Shawnee Smith) and Paul (Donovan Leitch Jr.) discover an unusual gelatinous substance with the ability to remove flesh off any living creatures in its path. The deadly blob-like matter infiltrates the town's sewer system and continues to grow exponentially, threatening the lives of unsuspecting townspeople. - Director:
- Chuck Russell
- Cast:
- Shawnee Smith, Kevin Dillon, Donovan Leitch Jr.
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Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017)Vuelven
A haunting horror fairytale set against the backdrop of Mexico's devastating drug wars. 'Tigers Are Not Afraid' follows a group of orphaned children, armed with three magical wishes, running from the ghosts that haunt them and the cartel that murdered their parents. Filmmaker Issa Lopez creates a world that recalls the early films of Guillermo del Toro, imbued with her own gritty urban spin on magical realism to conjure a wholly unique experience that audiences will not soon forget. - Director:
- Issa López
- Cast:
- Paola Lara, Juan Ramón López, Nery Arredondo
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Phenomena (1985)Dario Argento's Phenomena / Creepers
Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly), daughter of a world-renowned movie star, arrives in the so-called "Swiss Transylvania" to attend an exclusive girls' school. However, a vicious killer is targeting the pupils, and sleepwalker Jennifer finds herself in the assassin's headlights when her nocturnal wanderings cause her to witness the death of a fellow pupil. Aided by paraplegic entomologist John McGregor (Donald Pleasence) and her own uncanny ability to communicate telepathically with insects, Jennifer sets out to track down the killer before she herself becomes the latest victim... - Director:
- Dario Argento
- Cast:
- Jennifer Connelly, Nick Alexander, Donald Pleasence
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Dementia (1953)Daughter of Horror
Come with me into the tormented, haunted, half-lit night if the insane. This is my world. Let me lead you into it. Let me take you into the mind of a woman who is mad. You may not recognize some things in this world, and the faces will look strange to you. For this is a place where there is no love, no hope...in the pulsing, throbbing world of the insane mind, where only nightmares are real, nightmares of the Daughter of Horror! - Director:
- John Parker
- Cast:
- Adrienne Barrett, Bruno VeSota, Ben Roseman
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"May" is a terrifying tale about a young woman's desire for friendship, which ultimately turns to obsession. As the subject of constant ridicule from her peers and parents as a young girl, May (Angela Bettis) is forced into a life of unwanted seclusion. Publicly outcast, she believes that her only true friend is the homemade doll given to her by her mother (Merle Kennedy). Now that she's an adult, her deeply rooted scars manifest in vengeful behaviour. May finds herself envying specific body parts of the people she pursues for affection. After numerous failed attempts at companionship, she comes to the conclusion: If you can't find a friend, make one. - Director:
- Lucky McKee
- Cast:
- Angela Bettis, Jammes Luckett, Jeremy Sisto
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He was born at 6am on the 6th day of the 6th month. The coming of Armageddon, the site of the final confrontation between the forces of good and evil, as foretold in the Book of Revelations, will begin with the birth of the son of Satan - in human form. Unable to tell his wife Katherine (Lee Remick) the tragic news of their still-born son, American diplomat Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) accepts a new-born orphan as his son. Details of the child's birth remain a secret, but as the boy Damien grows older, it becomes apparent that he is no ordinary child. As mysterious deaths and strange warnings occur, Robert Thorn slowly becomes aware of the hideous evil behind the child's innocent face and the significance of the numbers 666, which bring about the most terrifying of revelations. - Director:
- Richard Donner
- Cast:
- Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Stephens
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