Perfect Blue

1998 | Director: Satoshi Kon | Japanese | IMDB

Perfect Blue is about a pop idol named Mima who, on the advice of her management, decides to quit her singing career to pursue acting. Having more trouble than expected, she agrees to star in a rape scene, breaking her squeeky clean pop star image. She is haunted by this decision as she descends into madness, with reality, televison and her dreams merging into one. Meanwhile, there is a serial killer murdering the people in her new life as a television actress.

I know what you’re thinking, “This is anime, it shouldn’t count!”, but it has more in common with Inland Empire than Dragonball. Infact, this movie is probably the closest thing you will find to an animated giallo. Its graphic murder scenes rival anything by Argento in terms of brutality, and its story twists and turns like you would expect from a textbook giallo too. This seamlessly combines with the Lynch-like surrealist collapse of reality Mima undergoes, which makes this film feel really unique. I know that Dario Argento and David Lynch seem like lazy comparisons, but believe me, they are spot on. It has strong themes of identity and fame that naturally emerge from the plot, which elevates this film to a level of maturity that isn’t really seen in most horror films, let alone anime.

El día de la bestia a.k.a The Day of The Beast

1995 | Director: Álex de la Iglesia | Spanish / Italian | IMDB

A priest discovers that the anti-christ will be born on Christmas day, 1995. He decides to earn the devils trust so that he can find out where the birth will be and kill the baby.

I'm not the biggest fan of horror comedies, they are usually too self aware for their own good or just aren't funny. Luckily, this movie doesn't suffer from either of these downfalls. It has a dry and mostly smart sense of humour, with a few cheap laughs sparsely thrown in for good measure. With the likes of a drug addled metalhead and a sleazy TV psychic, the characters are really colorful and are well fleshed out by some on point acting and some fantastic writing. Visually speaking, its subdued yet competent, with only a handful of stylish shots. The effects range from good to just passable, however this is not an effect driven movie so it barely detracts from the viewing experience. If you're in the mood for a chuckle, you could do much worse than this finely balanced, charming little film.

Habit

1996 | Director: Larry Fessenden | American | IMDB

Sam is an alcoholic down on his luck. His father recently passed away and his girlfriend just broke up with him. At a friends Halloween party he runs into Anna, and finds solace in her arms. After several highly sexual encounters, Sam slowly starts to believe that she may in fact be a vampire, draining him of not only his blood, but his soul.

This movie is a starkly original, very realistic take on the classic vampire tale. This movie feels very personal and plays as an allegory for any number of relationships. Larry Fessenden directed, wrote, edited, mixed and starred in this film, which is what gives it its air of uniqueness. While its blatantly obvious to the viewer that Anna is a vampire, Sam naturally takes a long time to reach this conclusion. This combined with the subdued camera work, the underplayed acting and the slow burn pace of the movie make Habit feel very real and provide an air of normalcy. For anyone interested in a vampire movie with a take on the genre as unique as Let The Right One In, this is well worth checking out.

Posrednik

1990 | Director: Vladimir Potapov | Russian | IMDB

In a forest not far from a small provincial Soviet town, falls a black sphere of extraterrestrial origin. An alien force posseses the minds of those it comes in contact with, suppressing their will and slowly infiltrating the local community. A large radio telescope outside town is its target, a means of signalling a mass invasion of Earth...

This movie originally premiered on Soviet TV in 3 parts, which when watched together add up to an epic three and a half hours of brilliance. It's basically a very simple body snatchers plot presented in a very stylish manner. Every single shot in this film is exquisitely framed and heavily feature muted sepia tones, with occasional dollops of bright red. The shots are usually very long and often in slow motion, accompanied by a very reverberated sparse soundtrack, with very little dialogue at all. All of this adds up to create an atmosphere so thick you can carve it. This one is pretty hard to track down but is available on various small corners of the internet, with subs available at opensubtitles.org. If you enjoy very slow paced, moody features, watching this is worth the hunt.

Felidae

1994 | Director: Michael Schaack | German | IMDB

After moving to a new town, Francis the cat discovers that someone in his new neighborhood is brutally killing cats in a state of sexual arousal. With the aid of some newly found friends, he sets out to solve the murders, and gets caught up in a dark world full of secrets, cult worship and animal experimentation.

Do not be decieved by the child friendly look of the film, this is ultra violent, complex noir at its finest. Its utterly bizzare, i have no idea who this movies intended audience is. The very nicely drawn and animated talking cartoon cats have a very 70's Disney feel to them, but the plot and subject matter is so mature. You have foul language, dark opressive themes, unbelievable levels of violence (seriously, I'm talking Fulci levels) and even an explicit sex scene. It also has clues to what is happening presented to Francis in surreal nightmares. The plot has a surprising depth to it and keeps you guessing through out, and the characters are colorful staples in the noir genre. I'm really bummed that I can't find a subtitled version of this, as the American dub is pretty poor, and the original voice cast features the likes of Mario Adorf. Despite this its still worth tracking down, you will never see a another movie like it.

Yi boh lai beng duk a.k.a Ebola Syndrome

1996 | Director: Herman Yau | Chinese | IMDB

This movie follows Kai San, A psychopathic loser wanted for committing a triple homicide ten years ago in Hong Kong. Now hiding out in South Africa, he works a job at a restaurant where he has to do all of the tasks nobody else wants to. One day on an outing to buy cheap pigs from a Zulu tribe, he sees a topless tribal woman pass out by a river bed. He decides to try and help her, but after he realizes that “her tits are huge”, he rapes her instead. From this he contracts the Ebola virus, sending him on a murderous and infectious rampage.

This movie has everything you want from an exploitation flick. Inventive gore, explicit rape and sex scenes, and even a man fucking raw meat. Its so mean and exploitative that if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought this was from the 70’s. In fact its so over the top that its almost comical. Even though its not the type of film you would demand it from, the cinematography and acting are solid, and the characters are colorful and well rounded (some of the girls are particularly "well rounded" if you catch my drift). Most films this trashy and despicable are very poorly made and have little to no effort put into the plot, but this film has a very serviceable story. It kinda slows down a bit towards the end, but its still well worth a watch, especially if you’re a fan of mindless exploitation.

Ghost in the Machine

1993 | Director: Rachel Talalay | American | IMDB

A serial killer is on the loose who finds his victims from stolen address books. He goes after a single mother and her son, but on the way to their house he loses control of his car in a storm and crashes. Getting a CAT scan at the hospital, lightning from the storm surges through the building, converting his soul into electrical energy. He continues on his killing rampage, possessing household goods and the like to murder his victims.

Now, this movie has a great deal of flaws, but its so cheesy and fun. It definitely falls in the “so bad it’s good” category. It's filled with all of this "futuristic technology" which just charms the pants off of me. I don’t know whether its just because the standards were different back then, but i was really surprised by how competent the cinematography was. Some of the deaths are pretty awesome too, including an infamous microwave scene that is as ridiculous as it is awesome. At times it feels like a predecessor to the Final Destination series, drawing out anticipation for inventive deaths (one death sequence in particular feels very much like Final Destination, and is utterly hilarious and unforeseeable.) Its been SLAMMED on imdb, but i think if films as poorly made as Pieces or the first Friday 13th can be considered great, there is no reason that this couldn’t be either.

Schramm

1993 | Director: Jörg Buttgereit | German | IMDB

Directed by Nekromantik’s Jorg Buttgereit, Schramm is a portrait of a serial killer, showing flashbacks and memories of his life as he lays on his floor dying. Because this film is strongly focused on its dark atmosphere, its hard to explain the plot beyond that. Its really nicely shot and very well acted, but the subject matter and how it is presented is really disturbing. The visual effects are great, and are doubly effective due to its contrast with the grainy, low budget 16mm look of the film. The way its edited combined with the grainy film stock give it a nightmarish atmosphere which doesn’t let up. It always throws something in your face just as you start to get comfortable. It really captures the struggle and torment of a sick mind. Worth a watch, but definitely not for everyone.

99.9

1997 | Director: Agusti Villaronga | Spanish | IMDB

Lara, the host of a paranormal radio show, is notified that her missing ex boyfriend has turned up dead in a small village. She comes to learn that he was conducting experiments on recording supernatural imagery projected onto TV screens. She decides to try and find out what happened in the creepy insular town, but finds herself caught in a much deeper mystery than anticipated.

Only being familiar with the directors previous film In a Glass Cage, I was expecting an intense and highly disturbing ride, but what i got was a perfectly paced, genuinely creepy supernatural mystery. Despite a few loose ends, this film is fantastic. The way each clue presents itself and how the mystery unfolds reminds me of Twin Peaks, with an atmosphere as thick as any Lynch film (though much less abstract). Its shot very dramatically with rich hues of blue and pitch black dominating the screen. The dialog is realistic without getting boring, and the acting is solid and underplayed. If i were to compare it to any movie, it would be Pupi Ivati’s The House With Laughing Windows, though they're still quite different from one another. I don't want to reveal too much about it plot wise, so I'll just say that I highly recommend it and that it's a shame that this movie hasn't got a wider following.