griggs's - Horror Films (Available on Cinema Paradiso) Everyone Should Watch Once List

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A lonely waitress with a tragic past, Agnes (Ashley Judd) rents a room in a run-down motel, living in fear of her abusive, recently paroled ex-husband (Harry Connick, Jr).

But when Agnes begins a tentative romance with Peter (Michael Shannon), an eccentric, nervous drifter, she starts to feel hopeful again. But Peter starts to imagine some horrific presence; he believes there is an infestation of bugs but Agnes can't see anything. As Peter's visions of bugs get more intense he starts to believe that they are crawling under his skin. Agnes will either have to convince Peter he is deluded or face up to the possibility that they may be the victims of a twisted government experiment.

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In the dusty heat of the American southwest, innocent country boy Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar) is seduced by a beautiful girl (Jenny Wright) into joining a roving pack of vicious drifters, lead by the enigmatic Jesse (Lance Henriksen). But this is no ordinary band of outlaws.

Caleb is now trapped in a nightmare of soulless evil that waits in the shadows, hellish mayhem that thrives on blood; the horror that begins Near Dark.

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Thérèse (Cristina Galbó) is the latest arrival at the boarding school for wayward girls run under the stern, authoritarian eye of Mme Fourneau (Lilli Palmer).

As the newcomer becomes accustomed to the strict routines, the whip-hand hierarchies among the girls and their furtive extra-curricular methods of release from within the forbidding walls of institutional life, she learns that several of her fellow students have recently vanished mysteriously. Meanwhile, tensions grow within this isolated hothouse environment as Mme Fourneau's callow but curious 15-year-old son Louis (John Moulder-Brown) ignores his mother's strict orders not to get close to the "tainted" ladies under her ward.

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A recently eloped, troubled young couple book into a luxurious but desolate hotel. Valerie (Danielle Ouimet) is young, naive and curious, whereas Stefan's (John Karlen)'s sadistic tendencies are slowly bubbling to the surface.

When a mysterious, exotic countess arrives at the hotel with her voluptuous assistant, things take a turn for the bizarre. As the night draws in, the newlyweds are slowly seduced into an erotically charged, supernatural world of uncontrollable lust and murder. Can they resist the lure of fevered temptation or must they submit to their darkest fantasies?

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Having learned of the sudden death of his sister Elizabeth (Barbara Steele), Francis Barnard (John Kerr) sets out to the castle of his brother-in-law, Nicholas Medina (Vincent Price), to uncover the cause of her untimely demise.

A distraught, grief-stricken Nicholas can offer only the vaguest explanations as to Elizabeth's death - at first citing "something in her blood", but later asserting that she quite literally "died of fright". What sort of unspeakable horrors are buried within the walls of this castle that could cause one's heart to stop so? With Francis determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, the terrible truth will not stay buried for long.

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Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward star as two country handymen who lead a cast of zany characters to safety in this exciting sci-fi creature comedy. Just as Val McKee (Kevin Bacon) and Earl Basset (Fred Ward) decide to leave Perfection, Nevada, strange rumblings prevent their departure.

With the help of a shapely seismology student (Finn Carter), they discover their desolate town is infested with gigantic man-eating creatures that live below the ground. The race is on to overcome these slimy subterraneans and find a way to higher ground.

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Italian celluloid icon Edwige Fenech is at her most beguiling as Jane, the housewife plagued by nightmarish visions of her own bloody murder! To cure her hellish fantasies her bewitching neighbour Mary (Marina Malfatti) initiates Jane into a Satanic coven, but there, the price for this brand of

diabolical cure is murder - committed as a ritual sacrifice during an orgiastic black mass! Jane's chilling repulsive nightmares have become true. Who is the blue-eyed knife-wielding phantom stalking her and has she already witnessed her own death?

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Tim Burton and Johnny Depp: two legendary talents team again. The director and star of five remarkable films now add a razor-sharp sixth with this gripping thriller based on Stephens Sondheim's worldwide stage sensation.

This tale of a 19th century London Barber with revenge on his mind and a blade in his hande has it all: blood, mystery, romance, wit, exhilarating music and stunning visual design. Co-stars Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen add more menace to the masterpiece as Sweeney's partner and victims in crime. Need a shave? A close shave? Sweeney's waiting.

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It's Lantern Festival time and Lung Shu-ai (Tony Liu) is determined to beat Tan Fu (Kuan Tai Chen) in the competition. He recruits the help of retired swordsman and aged lantern maker Chao Chung-fang (Lieh Lo), unaware of Chao's ingenious manner of avenging old wrongs.

Following the abduction of his wife, Lung is intrigued by the rumour that Chao's lanterns are made from the skin of his enemies' sisters, mistresses and...wives!

A small Argentine town is plagued by a demon that is possessing the locals and causing devastation wherever it goes. Two brothers will risk everything trying to stop this evil force.

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M. R. James is one of the greatest writers of stories of the supernatural, and 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' is one of his darkest works - a tale of solitude and terror, and the dangers of intellectual pride.

Made in 1968 for BBC Television's Omnibus programme, Jonathan Miller's adaptation succeeds in capturing the chill of terror at the heart of the story. The bleak Norfolk landscape is superbly photographed by Dick Bush to instil a sense of isolation and unease from the outset, and Michael Hordern's performance as the eccentric, grouchy professor is nothing short of brilliant. The final scenes will leave you with a shiver of horror you will not easily shake off...

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Nerdy college student Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) has survived the plague that has turned mankind in flesh-devouring zombies despite being scared of just about everything. Gun-toting, Twinkie-loving Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) has no fears.

As they join forces with Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) who have also found unique ways to survive the zombie mayhem, they will have to determine which is worse: relying on each other or succumbing to the zombies.

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During a cricket match at a lunatic asylum, patient Alan Bates relates a strange story to composer John Hurt and his wife played by Susannah York. It seems that Bates once lived with Australian aborigines, who taught him the secret of a deadly shout which has the power to kill anyone within earshot.

He moves in with the couple and starts a steamy affair with York. Meanwhile, Hurt who wants to harness the energy of 'the shout' for his music will not rest until he has discovered the truth about his guest's strange powers.

A young couple (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult) travels to an exclusive island restaurant where the chef (Ralph Fiennes) has prepared a pricey, lavish menu. But it soon becomes clear that the dinner guests are about to be served some shocking surprices in this dark comedy...

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Professor Norman Taylor (Peter Wyngarde) seemingly has it all - a great job, the envy of his colleagues, the perfect wife and a healthy skepticism when it comes to all things supernatural.

However, over the course of a weekend, Taylor discovers that his wife Tansy (Janet Blair) is a witch and that she has been practicing witchcraft ever since their honeymoon - apparently in an effort to protect him from jealous colleagues and assist his rise within the department. Despite her anguished protestations and warnings, he insists on destroying all the magic paraphernalia in the house and tries to carry on as normal, turning a blind eye to the possibility that his wife and her black magic could in some way have been behind his success. That is until the very next day when things in his life start going badly wrong...