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

The Boxer's Omen

Show moreShow less

While awaiting her husband's return from war, Grace (Nicole Kidman) and her two young children live an unusually isolated existence behind the locked doors and drawn curtains of a secluded island mansion.

Then, after three mysterious servants arrive and it becomes chillingly clear that there is far more to this house than can be seen, Grace finds herself in a terrifying fight to save her children and keep her sanity.

Show moreShow less

The lecherous Chief Justice Frollo (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) gazes on a beautiful, gypsy girl, Esmeralda (Maureen O'Hara), and sends the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame Cathedral Quasimodo (Charles Laughton) to catch her.

But Quasimodo himself is captured by Phoebus, Captain of the Guards, who frees Esmerelda and sentences Quasimodo to be flogged. Whilst Quasimodo is tied up in the square, only Esmeralda takes pity on him and gives him water. Later, at a party of nobles, Esmeralda again meets both Frollo, who is bewitched by her, and Phoebus; but when Phoebus is found stabbed to death, Esmeralda is accused of his murder, convicted by the court and sentenced to hang. Only Quasimodo, can save her from the gallows...

Show moreShow less

Having inexplicably survived a car accident that left two friends drowned at the bottom of a river, Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) takes up a new job as a church organist in a quiet coastal town. But while she suffered no physical injuries, Mary begins to fear for her sanity.

Haunted by nightmarish visions of a ghoulish-looking man, she is drawn to a derelict amusement park where the living dead await her...

Show moreShow less

A Night of living terror led to a Dawn of false hope, but nothing before will prepare you for the darkest Day the world has known! Below ground in a fortified installation, scientists conduct experiments to understand the virus that has turned humanity into flesh-hungry zombies.

Isolated and deprived of natural light, the researchers begin clashing with their military protectors and it soon becomes apparent that their co-dwellers are just as dangerous and unpredictable as the zombies gathering to enter their safe haven...

Show moreShow less

Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? Deliriously entertaining and ruthlessly satirical, Coralie Fargeat's Cannes sensation turns toxic beauty culture inside out with a be-careful-what-you-wish-for fable for the ages.

Demi Moore gives a career-best performance as Elisabeth Sparkle, a former A-lister past her prime and suddenly fired from her fitness TV show by repellent studio head Harvey (Dennis Quaid). She is then drawn to the opportunity presented by a mysterious new drug: The Substance. All it takes is one injection and she is reborn - temporarily - as the gorgeous, twentysomething Sue (Margaret Qualley). The only rule? Time needs to be split: exactly one week in one body, then one week in the other. No exceptions. A perfect balance. What could go wrong? Explosive, provocative and twisted, 'The Substance' marks the arrival of a thrillingly visionary filmmaker.

Show moreShow less

"I'll show you what horror means..." growls the hideous Mr. Hyde (Fredric March) as the helpless, terrified Ivy (Miriam Hopkins) cowers on her bed. And now you'll see too, as you watch this fully restored 1932 version of Robert Louis Stevenson's spine-chilling masterpiece.

With the inclusion of 17 minutes of previously censored material, this is the definitive Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Director Rouben Mamoulian's choice of young, handsome Fredric March (known then as a comic actor) to play the lead raised studio hackles. But Mamoulian argued, "I don't want Hyde to be a monster. Hyde is not evil, he is the primitive, the animal in us, whereas Jekyll is a cultured man, representing the intellect. Hyde is the Neanderthal man, and March's makeup was designed as such".

Show moreShow less

The night that medical student Dan Cain discovered his pet cat, Rufus, dead in his roommates fridge was just the beginning. Before long Dan, and his beloved girlfriend, Megan, become involved in the macabre experiments of his roommate, the sinister Dr.

Herbert West, who has created a serum that can bring both brain and body back from the dead. The immoral scientific methods of Dr. West provide the Dean of the medical school with reason to expel West and force Cain out of the hospital. Undeterred, West and Cain continue with their experiments in the hospital's morgue - restoring life to an unlimited supply of fresh corpses. However, a chilling side effect to West's discovery leads to a seemingly endless night of mind-bending terror and unthinkable madness.

Show moreShow less

On the banks of the Han River, a crowd gathers to watch an unidentified object hanging onto a bridge. In an instant, the object reveals itself as a terrifying creature, turning the riverbank into a gruesome sea of blood.

Amid the chaos, a little girl, Hyun-sea is snatched up by the creature right before her father, Gang-du's eyes. After receiving a mobile phone call from his daughter confirming that she has miraculously survived, the once-ordinary citizen Gang-du and his family decide to wage war against the creature, despite both Korean authorities' and U.S. army's every efforts to stop them. Combining state of the art visual effects from the team behind Superman Returns, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Sin City with the dark and offbeat humour synonymous with Korean cinema, The Host is one of the most original monster movies to emerge for decades.

A visually stunning mix of horror, romance, martial arts and eastern mysticism, 'A Chinese Ghost Story' tells the immortal story of a reluctant hero who embarks on a quest to redeem the soul of an alluring fox-spirit imprisoned for all eternity by her vampiric mistress.

Show moreShow less

Gaspar Noe, director of the hugely controversial 'Irreversible', 'Enter the Void' and 'Love', makes a triumphant return with 'Climax' - a visually dazzling feast of music and mayhem, and perhaps his most critically acclaimed work to date.

Following a successful rehearsal, a dance troupe set about celebrating with a party. But when it becomes apparent that someone has spiked the sangria, the joyous atmosphere soon transforms into a nightmarish hellscape of violence and twisted carnality as the dancers begin to turn on each other in an orgiastic frenzy. Inspired equally by the worlds of modern dance and esoteric arthouse-horror (chief among them, Dario Argento's Suspiria and Andrzej Zutawski's Possession), 'Climax' - which pulses towards its astonishing conclusion with a thumping score by the likes of Daft Punk, Aphex Twin and Gary Numan - illustrates a director at the height of his hallucinatory filmmaking powers.

Show moreShow less

Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reynor) are a young American couple with a relationship on the brink of falling apart.

But after a family tragedy keeps them together, a grieving Dani invites herself to join Christian and his friends on a trip to a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer holiday in a land of eternal sunlight takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that render the pastoral paradise increasingly unnerving and viscerally disturbing. From the visionary mind of Ari Aster comes a dread-soaked cinematic fairytale where a world of darkness unfolds in broad daylight.

Show moreShow less

Originally conceived in the mid-sixties, 'Images' concerns a pregnant children's author (Susannah York) whose husband (Rene Auberjonois) may or may not be having an affair.

While holidaying in Ireland, her mental state becomes increasingly unstable resulting in paranoia, hallucinations and visions of a doppelgänger.

Show moreShow less

As beautiful blonde Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) rolls into Bodega Bay in pursuit of eligible bachelor Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), she is inexplicably attacked by a seagull.

Suddenly thousands of birds are flocking into town, preying on school-children and residents in a terrifying series of attacks. Soon Mitch and Melanie are fighting for their lives against a deadly force that can't be explained and can't be stopped in one of Hollywood's most horrific films of nature gone berserk.

Show moreShow less

Having just quit her job as a Los Angeles TV horror hostess, Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) receives the unexpected news that she's set to inherit part of her great aunt Morgana's estate.

Arriving in the small town of Fallwell, Massachusetts to claim her inheritance, Elvira receives a less than enthusiastic reception from the conservative locals - amongst them, her sinister uncle Vincent (William Morgan Sheppard), who, unbeknownst to Elvira, is in fact an evil warlock secretly scheming to steal the old family spellbook for his own nefarious ends...