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You know what's even better than a low-budget Ozploitation flick about a telekinetic coma patient? THE OVER-THE-TOP REMAKE! Patrick: Evil Awakens (2013) is one of the best, most respectful horror remakes of all time. So eager to respect the original were its creators that they basically gave ANYBODY who'd been in the original even for a moment the opportunity to be in the remake as an extra.   While the original is set is a dumpy old facility, the remake is set in a SCARY GOTHC facility. Really. The hospital is an entire additional character and a very welcome one. The Doctor is 100 times more eccentric. The Head Nurse 10 times as icy.   Those who are late do NOT get fruit cup. The nurse is 10 times more Righteously Determined and Patrick is 10 times more threatening since nowadays everything is controlled by exactly the kind of electronics his powers (seem like they) could plausibly affect. If you want to see how a FUN and RESPECTFUL horror remake can be done (which, by the wa

1970s horror movies are a breed apart.  The era of radioactive giant animals had ended  With some notable exceptions, of course. and the horror industry was just making it up as they went along.  Supernaturalism and satanism were favored topics, but Just Plain Weirdness like cryptids, Italian dwarves in raincoats, and Margot Kidder roamed the cinematic plains. One of the creatures didn't roam at all, however. That creature was  Patrick (1978) Patrick is a coma-patient who is more aware than his caretakers realize and who has psychokinesis and MINDPOWERS.  Patrick is also... well, being immobile would make anyone crabby, but that aside, Patrick is not a nice person.  He's a bit, let's say "possessive", and that's how he wound up in a coma in the first place. He's stuck in a slummy/crummy hospital, where the staff isn't very sympathetic (but it's kind of hard to blame them).  The Main Doctor is trying to electroshock Patrick out of his coma; Patrick

There are about 10,000 films where The Young Creative goes to a Secluded Cabin so they can work on their Artistic Project in solitude. But the one you want to see is  Hush (2016). Now, the set-up is not unlike a play I saw once called "Wait Until Dark". But in that play the woman is blind and she is in NYC, threatened by criminals.  In this film, the protagonist is deaf/mute, in the middle of nowhere, and threatened by a masked psychokiller. Crash Test Dummy of Doom. I guess, all crash test dummies are "of doom", by definition, aren't they? Actually, he abandons his mask almost immediately, which is a wonderful change of pace.  He decides he doesn't need it frighten this "Disabled Woman" and becomes, well, just a vicious, smarmy ****, rather than An Implacable Masked Foe. It's delightfully realistic. The film contains only 15 minutes of dialog, which is great, because some horror movies are REALLY talky.   The protagonist is smart and tough

  Ghost Story (1981) is the perfect "comfort horror." Almost no one is ever in any danger, other than four guys who probably aren't going to live another four years anyway. Alice Krige is krige-creeping ALL over the screen. It's got one of the most powerful ensemble of venerable male actors you could imagine: Fred Astaire, John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (and was the final theatrical feature film for those last three). These are not your usual group of Stupid Youngsters who can be lured into a deathtrap by a fake Dick Dastardly sign. It doesn't make TOO much sense, but ... it's a ghost story, exactly like it says on the tin. It's a story of a vengeful ghost and if her methods and priorities and powers don't make sense to you, well, you're ALIVE, so they wouldn't. Despite special effects of what I will kindly call "varying quality", it's a perfect horror movie to cozy on the couch for.  For good or for ill,

 The Witch in the Window (2018) is an intimate little horror film. There are no severed heads, no plunging daggers.  It's mostly a sad story of a man who feels he's failed as a person, a husband, a father, and his attempt to fix that. By fixing an old house for resale with his son. He picks the wrong time and place, however. Not all haunted houses are large Victorian mansions, you know. There is one scene that is ... VERY chilling, indeed.  Despite all the many terrifying scenes I have seen in horror movies, this is one that truly haunts me; "omg, what would I do if I were he at that moment?"  I think you'll know it when you see it. But the overall effect of the film isn't so much terror, as it is the sad feeling of inevitability you get from a Greek play.  Horror films can make you feel lots of things, not just scared, and so I recommend this one.

Horror lends itself naturally to anthological format. Horror comics being a perfect example. It makes sense; horror is easier to pull off in short form than in long form due to its need to maintain suspense and build terror.  So there is no shortage of horror anthology films. But there is one every Real Horror Fan knows:   Trick 'r Treat  (2007) It's hard to articulate exactly why.  It's not the scariest, nor the funniest. But it has two things going for it. First, Sam Hain, an adorable but deadly Halloween mascot. He's just trying to safeguard traditions. Second, the fact that, unlike many such films, the segments are all presented as if they were happening in the same town at the same time, and each has little hints of the OTHER ones going on in the background.  The effect is very satisfying and will remind you of "Mystery Train" (1989), if you've seen "Mystery Train". And, if you haven't seen "Mystery Train', why HAVEN'T you s