Type: Vampires
Also: Love
What's good?: Good child actors, good pacing, moody cinematography, no whiny pretty vampires, interesting lore.

Why I like it: It's a unique film that studies love in many forms: love between friends, falling out of love, first love, familial love, and long established love. This is handled by showing, not telling, while playing with tropes such as "sacrifice for love". The vampire itself is very interesting as well. It's unclear if being a vampire has erased their gender/sex or if they are a castrato. They specifically mention they are "not a girl", so... queer vampire? Nifty either way. Also, all the child actors are awesome. They actually outshine some of the adults! A bittersweet delight.

Type: Occult
Also: Culture clash, fish out of water
What's good?: well-researched, well-written, clever direction

Why I like it: This film works on multiple levels depending on your personal faith. If Christian, there's all the horror of the otherness found on Summerisle. If Pagan, you can grumble at the terrible Christian and their sheer disrespect of the locals. This is accomplished by a very even-handed matter of fact script that doesn't try to demonize anyone. And yes, it's mostly all actual folk magic on screen! Some names are changed and historically speaking no human was ever really burned in a giant wicker man (that's Roman slander), but the rest? Whoo boy! I also like how the direction really makes you feel the confusion, fear, and pain the officer is in.

Type: Mutants
Also: Revenge, brothery love, comedy?
What's good?: Lovable characters, Comic Book Cartoony Villians,

Why I like it: It's a low budget gem so good that it made it's way into the Museum of Modern Art. The pacing is a mess, but the special effects are great for the budget. The acting, hoever, is it's main draw. The villians are like something out of a comic book complete with silly names (Dr Kutter, Surgeon!) and are played over the top as soon as they are revealed to be bad. The hero and his new friends are warm, lovable, and quite believable as people even if the acting is questionable at times. It's also one of the few horror films in which a sex worker is just another person and is treated with respect.

Type: Anthology
Also: Science fiction, Revenge, Monsters
What's good?: Pre-Code Comics only as a movie!

Why I like it: Both are good, and it's a mood thing as to which Creepshow I like more. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but both are fun, campy goodness very much like the pre-code comics that inspired them. A little gory, a little funny, but overall great popcorn flicks.

Creepshow has more comic book flavor complete with faux comic book panels. Father's Day and Something to Tide You Over are both "revenge from the grave" stories. Although well-done, two of the exact same theme in an anthology seems a little much. The crate is another revenge story, but this time an annoyed husband gets the chance to kill off his embarsing alcoholic wife via a classic monster in a box. A fine balance of humor and horror for the win! The Loneseome Death of Jordy Verill has a lot of hillbilly cliches, but features a rare Stephen King lead role and a unqiue death. They're Creeping Up on You is bland and skippable. Yet more revenge, this time in the form of a plague of roaches brought on by a man's dying wish and/or his widdow's rage. It's not as good as it sounds.

Creepshow 2 is a product of it's time, so be ready for sexism, casual rapey-ness, and accidental racism. The animated sections are OK, IMHO. Personally I preferred the comic book pages, but this was not terrible. Old Chief Wood'nhead is a taboo story in which some youths break a taboo and get killed by a supernatural guardian. Very basic and slashery, but well paced and exciting. The Raft is the best part: a unique monster hidden in a lake preys on careless college students. The deaths are memorable and the tension is high. The revelation that all this could have been avoided is just the icing on the cake. The Hitch-hiker is yet another revenge story. This time an angry ghost wreaks havok on the hit and run driver who killed him. Another high-tension segment, though it suffers from being a little too fast paced with not enough breathing room over most of the segment.

Creepshow 2

Type: Revenge
Also: Exploitation/Grindhouse, Found Footage, Cannibals, Human Monsters
What's good?: beautiful cinematography, a filmmaking landmark

Why I like it: A beautifully shot series of atrocities. The first real found footage film. A film that encourages you to stop and think about how you view and treat the world. A film that is meant to shock and sicken, and does it's job with style. Worth it, if you can handle the extreme content.

I'll address the elephant in the room: the making of this film was TERRIBLE. So bad, in fact, laws were passed so that future film crews would never be treated like that again. The effects were so jarringly realistic for the time that the film makers were charged with murder. And Cannibal Holocaust was one of the films that helped create the "video nasties": a list of banned films that spawned the UK video ratings system and have since become a symbol of free speech. A true landmark in the cinema world, even if at the same time one of the most hated horror films ever made.

Type: Lovecraftian
Also: Meta Commentary, Cult
What's good?: Clever commentary without winking at the camera, interesting forbidden artifact/lore and descent into madness.

Why I like it: Part of the "Masters of Horror" series one hour length films. This clever film balances an exciting hunt for a forbidden artifact (a film!) with the horror, literal cults, and madness that springs up around it. All of it is done as meta commentary on what it's like to be a creator, the strange world of obscure fandoms, and the state of the film industry at the time of filming. Tightly written, edited, and directed with quite a few things to spot on repeat viewings. The background image from this page was taken from Cigarette Burns!

Type: Werewolves
Also: Coming of Age, Family ties, Tragedy
What's good?: Good practical effects, heartbreaking story, female-centric

Why I like it: A beautiful story of sisterly love. Ok, more of a tragedy complete with a nearly classical fall from grace, but still beautifully written with lead actresses who really sell the idea of them being sisters. It's also interesting to have werewolves as a metaphor for growing up and exploring adulthood (recklessly at that!) instead of as just plain monsters or people to pity. If you're on the grim side, too, it's very easy to root for our girls.

Type: Anthology
Also: Magical Realism
What's good?: Creative magical realism, Unique monsters, Great worldbuilding

Why I like it: What if Silent Hill was in the Mojave Desert? A single film manages to build up a series of readily understandable magical rules and creatures while avoiding exposition dumps! Every part of this anthology builds on the one before it before hitting a fascinating crecendo and literally looping back into itself. Build your own conclusions: this film won't shoehorn in a happy or sad ending. It's just a continuation.