griggs's - Horror Films (Available on Cinema Paradiso) Everyone Should Watch Once List
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Siddharth returns to his hometown in the interiors of India with his newly wed wife Avni. But what the family resists is Siddharth's insistence on staying in his royal ancestral mansion. For it was that very mansion that held in its realm, a deadly secret that had repeatedly destroyed the family for generations. The scientifically inclined Siddharth and his wife Avni brush aside the concerns of the family. However, very soon they are confronted with inexplicable and dangerous happenings in the mansion. At his wits end, Siddharth turns to his dynamic Doctor friend Aditya for help. A determined Aditya doggedly investigates and grapples with the mysterious happenings in order to shift reality from myth. He eventually discovers that nothing is what it seems and the devastating reality is enough to shatter all truth. - Director:
- Priyadarshan
- Cast:
- Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Ameesha Patel
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A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)Una lucertola con la pelle di donna
Carol Hammond, the daughter of a wealthy politician, is about to have her seemingly normal life turned into an abyss of terror. Every night her mind is filled with depraved nightmares involving her sexually debauched, voluptuous neighbour. When the neighbour in question is murdered Carol becomes the number one suspect. But what deadly secrets are really hiding behind this sickening mystery? - Director:
- Lucio Fulci
- Cast:
- Florinda Bolkan, Stanley Baker, Jean Sorel
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The Secret of Marrowbone (2017)El secreto de Marrowbone / Marrowbone
After their mother's death, Jack (George Mckay) and his siblings have to learn to survive on their own, hiding from the world in the crumbling family house and with no other place to go. When their peaceful existence is threatened by a local lawyer wanting to repossess the house, their mother's death is only the first of many secrets kept within the walls of the old Marrowbone House that will be revealed. As a menacing presence takes hold, Jack must fight against the demons to protect his siblings. - Director:
- Sergio G. Sánchez
- Cast:
- George MacKay, Adam Quintero, Anya Taylor-Joy
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Walter Paisley, a dim waiter at a beatnik coffee bar, longs to be as cultured as the pompous poets, singers and artists who gather there. He gets his chance when, after trying his hand at sculpting, he accidentally kills the landlady's cat in a fit of pique. Covering the animal in clay to hide his crime, he is astonished when the pretentious beatnik crowd welcomes him as a fellow artist. Hailed as an over night success, Walter has no choice but to produce more work. When he is busted by an undercover cop for unwittingly accepting drugs from a customer, Walter kills him, covers the body in clay and unveils his next masterpiece: murdered man. - Director:
- Roger Corman
- Cast:
- Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Anthony Carbone
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Bette Davis plays estranged identical twins. Unmarried Edith has no money, no future. Widow Margaret has fabulous wealth - all because of marriage to the man she stole from Edith years ago. Out of long-festering revenge. Edith kills Margaret and takes her place. But new friends and surroundings, a snoopy cop (Karl Malden) who was Edith's beau and the arrival of Margaret's secret lover (Peter Lawford) may expose her masquerade. - Director:
- Paul Henreid
- Cast:
- Bette Davis, Karl Malden, Peter Lawford
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Kill It and Leave This Town (2020)Zabij to i wyjedz z tego miasta / Mistrz i Malgorzata
Fleeing from despair after losing those dearest to him, the hero hides in a safe land of memories, where time stands still and all those dear to him are alive.- Director:
- Mariusz Wilczynski
- Cast:
- Andrzej Wajda, Magdalena Cielecka, Daniel Olbrychski
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Towering ominously among the shadows of the Carpathian Mountains, Castle Dracula strikes fear in the hearts of the Transylvanian villagers below.
- Director:
- Tod Browning
- Cast:
- Bela Lugosi, Tod Browning, Helen Chandler
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When a supposedly tame black leopard escapes from a New Mexico nightclub, young girls start to die - horribly. While the police desperately search for the beast, nightclub singer Kiki Walker (Jean Brooks) and her manager Jerry Manning (Dennis O'Keefe) start to suspect that someone - or something - far worse is responsible for the killings. Something is stalking the small town, something with an overwhelming compulsion to kill and kill again... - Director:
- Jacques Tourneur
- Cast:
- Dennis O'Keefe, Margo, Jean Brooks
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The Hands of Orlac (1924)Orlacs Hände
Based on a novel by medical-horror novelist Maurice Renard, it charts the mental disintegration of a concert pianist Paul Orlac (Conrad Veidt) whose hands are amputated after a train crash, and replaced with the hands of an executed murderer. When Orlac's father is murdered by the dead man's hands, Orlac begins a steady descent towards madness. - Director:
- Robert Wiene
- Cast:
- Conrad Veidt, Alexandra Sorina, Fritz Strassny
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10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)The Cellar
After a catastrophic car crash, a young woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) wakes up in a survivalist's (John Goodman) underground bunker. He claims to have saved her from an apocalyptic attack that has left the outside world uninhabitable. But, as his increasingly suspicious actions lead her to question his motives, she'll have to escape in order to discover the truth. - Director:
- Dan Trachtenberg
- Cast:
- Bradley Cooper, John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
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The credits dub this "the maddest story ever told", a promise that's well on the way to being fulfilled in the opening scene alone, when Virginia traps and kills a hapless deliveryman in her makeshift web. She's one of three siblings who suffer from a unique genetic disorder that causes them to regress back to childhood, while retaining the physical strength and sexual maturity of adults. Lon Chaney Jr. gave one of his most memorable late performances as Bruno, their guardian and protector, who has managed to cover up their crimes until two distant relatives lay claim to their house. When they insist on moving in, Bruno has to cross his fingers and hope that the 'children' behave towards their new guests... This was the first solo feature by Jack Hill, whom Quentin Tarantino dubbed "the Howard Hawks of exploitation filmmaking", and it remains one of his wildest and weirdest. - Director:
- Jack Hill
- Cast:
- Lon Chaney Jr., Carol Ohmart, Quinn K. Redeker
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The Fan (1982)Der Fan
An obsession gone mad…Teenager Simone (Désirée Nosbusch) appears to be like any other fan of a rock band. But soon her fixation on the band's lead singer "R" takes over her life. Simone walks out of school, breaks off with her friends and parents, and as if sleepwalking, somehow finds herself waiting for her idol as he appears on a TV show. As she sees him for the first time, she is speechless, unable even to ask for his autograph. He notices her and reaches out to touch her. Overcome with emotion, Simone faints; with that first touch, R's fate is sealed. He leaves the show, planning to take a vacation from the band, and takes Simone with him. Simone discovers the carefully styled world of which "R" is just another product. Simone wants nothing more to love and be loved by "R", but he takes her with machine-like coldness. She experiences their intimacy as a kind of slow motion nightmare, an encounter with a robotic creature, totally incapable of affection or emotion. Simone cannot accept the detachment of her idol, and when "R" walks out on her to join his friends, she plots her revenge. Simone plans the ultimate sacrifice of her god on the alter of her madness. She plans her ceremony, as exalted and romantic as it is horribly wonderful. The finale - pagan, quiet and anonymous, is at the spot where she first saw him. The police search for "R" - only Simone knows where he is, and she will give birth to him anew... - Director:
- Eckhart Schmidt
- Cast:
- Désirée Nosbusch, Bodo Steiger, Simone Brahmann
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Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) is a normal American teenager whose mother thinks he watches too many late night horror films. Charley's life is pretty uneventful - until he becomes convinced that his suave, yet sinister, neighbour Jerry Dandridge (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire. No-one, least of all the police, will believe that Dandridge is the vicious killer responsible for a spate of bizarre murders. Charley finds an ally in Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), a former horror film star and host of TV's Fright Night Theatre, in his quest to nail the debonair bloodsucker. But then the nightmare really begins... - Director:
- Tom Holland
- Cast:
- Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse
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The White Reindeer (1952)Valkoinen Peura
A newly-married young woman, Pirita (Mirjami Kuosmanen), becomes frustrated and lonely as her husband, a reindeer herder for a small Arctic village, spends much of his time away from home in devotion to his work. Desperate for affection, she visits a shaman who offers a potion that makes her an irresistible object of desire, but there is a terrible cost. Pirita becomes a bloodthirsty shapeshifter who lures men out into the barren wilderness where she consumes them. - Director:
- Erik Blomberg
- Cast:
- Mirjami Kuosmanen, Kalervo Nissilä, Åke Lindman
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The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)Baskervilski pas
Sir Charles Baskerville has been found dead in mysterious circumstances, the locals ascribe his demise to the ancient family curse - a paranormal hellhound, said to roam the moors searching for its prey. With the trusty aid of Doctor Watson (Nigel Bruce), Holmes sets out to uncover the truth and solve the mystery of the terrifying hound - before another Baskerville falls victim to the family curse. - Director:
- Sidney Lanfield
- Cast:
- Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Richard Greene
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