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Reed Rothchild

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  1. Reed Rothchild
    What initially brought you to NA?
    I initially came to NA after we bought our house in like 2012-2013.  We’d both come armed with NES games.  Mine were childhood games and some stuff I’d picked up randomly from the local used media chain during college but most of hers were given to her by some dude I can only assume was named Pringle.  One evening I decided to go through the boxes to see what was in there and what it was worth.  That process and Google led me to NA where I discovered in my possession some game I’d never heard of; Little Samson.  Next thing I know I’m on eBay buying Dragon Warrior II.  Got hooked pretty quickly.
    What was your initial reaction to seeing the value of that Little Samson?
    My initial reaction to the Samson price was something along the lines of “What the hell is wrong with these people?”  After the shock that any of these games could be worth that much wore off I pretty quickly settled into wanting to snatch up some more of that NES nostalgia.  Hanging out at NA turned on the crazy mode pretty quickly.  I used to spend a morning reading the forum and be struck by the overwhelming urge to buy a bunch of stuff.  
    Story behind your username and avatar?
    My username is based on the most bad assedly named town in Norway with a twist on the end evoking the glory of the height of the Roman Empire.  Yes, I used to be a problem drinker.
    The Avatar is easy.  Quantum Leap is awesome.  Not the new one though.
    Top 10 favorite games of all time?
    Top Games?  Suikoden II, Dragon Warrior, SMB3, Castlevania SOTN, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy VII, Legend of Zelda, PTO II, Klax, EVO.  That’s vaguely in order but not really and I’m sure I’m forgetting important stuff that should be on that list.  I really enjoyed the Witcher 3.  Fuck. Paperboy should be in there.  I love paperboy.
    Family?  Kids?  Domestic geese?
    Let’s see, I live with my semi-non-platonic life partner and we have 2 kids together.  I actually left my job a while after the second one was born and covid was in full thing and for now I’m the stay-at-home dad.  It’s pretty cool most of the time.  I get to partake in all the things while they are little.  We’ve also got a dog Edith, and a cat Tessa and a grandpa that live in the basement (RIP my gameroom).
    Favorite book?
    Favorite book is hard to pick one so you’re getting a couple: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series is up there, Dune is a big one - I read this series until one of the last ones that Frank Herbert wrote and it got kind of weird,  Generation of Swine - I’m a big fan of Hunter Thompson’s work and this one is my favorite and probably my most reread book.
    Movie?
    I’m really not a big movie guy, probably Amadeus. My wifelike person complains that I never pick anything that was released in the last 20 years.
    TV show?
    Star Trek - most of them.  TNG is my favorite but I’m also a really big fan of TOS and I think Deep Space 9 is really underrated.  Really the only thing I ever actually watch these days.  Everything else just gets put on in the background while I don’t pay attention.    
    Futurama - Love this one.  Seen them a billion times but I haven’t seen the new ones yet…because I started watching from the beginning again so I’ll update you guys with my feelings in 2026.  
    Song/album/artist?
    This is too tough to pin down as some sort of all time pick.  I think there’s been a lot of top bands over the years and the formative years influence of someone like Metallica weighs heavily.  Amon Amarth is a solid contender for all time.  Currently the band I keep coming back to is Polyphia.  I love guitar melodies that are emotive and interesting enough that you don’t need vocals.  I also really like shit that makes me go wow.  This is really the headspace I’m in music wise these days.  
    Alright, obviously you're a big metal guy, so let's hear it.  Top ten songs of all time, go.
    I’m gonna spitball this one some because the final list is only scheduled to be released upon my death.

    Sanitarium (Metallica)
    Imaginations from the Other Side (Blind Guardian)
    Without Fear/Victorious March (Amon Amarth) - Cheating a little with 2 tracks that are connected and i think make the strongest 1 2 punch I’ve encountered
    Not Unlike the Waves (Agalloch)
    Towards Dead End (Children of Bodom)
    White Willow (Elvenking)
    A Trace of Blood (Pain of Salvation)
    Dante‘s Inferno (Iced Earth) - I hate that this is on here after what’s happened but the number of times I’ve threatened my upper spine with serious damage because of this song is undeniable.
    Built on Ashes (Zeal & Ardor)
    Eppur si muove (Haggard)
    Oof.   No order there.  I feel like there’s an entire galaxy of bad ass shit that probably could be plugged in there if I thought on it long enough.
    Lol I keep a Spotify playlist called peak metal that I reserve for only the most bad ass metal tunes.  Sort of a running top Songs candidates list.  So anyway, I’m listening to it in the background as I’m coming up with this list and as soon as I sent it Drapery Falls comes on and damn what a good tune.  Don’t know who I‘d remove to get them on there though.  
    Star Trek or Star Wars?
    Star Trek easily.   Something about the world they’ve created I find pretty engrossing and comforting.  The world also feels more tangible as opposed to space ninjas and cowboys pew pew.  And have you seen the diverse alien life forms they encounter?

    Best Star Trek game?
    Are there actually any good ones?  Of the ones I played I’m partial to the SNES The Next Generation game.  Even more than actually playing the game I always really enjoyed just scrolling through the computer files.  Some cool stuff in there.  It’s one of the handful of SNES titles I’d really like a CIB copy of.
    Best Star Trek movie?
    I’m really not a movie guy so I’m not really that big on any of the movies.  My favorite is probably The Wrath of Khan.  Im also partial to the Voyage Home.  In my head the Blind Guardian lyric in Theatre of Pain about “when the last whale went away”  always makes me think of this one.  The TNG movies were kind of sucky.  I was not impressed with that Sting looking dude as the villain.  The newer movies were entertaining but kind of pew pew Transformers action movie-ish for me.  
    The real gold is in the different series and their ability to address real deep philosophical topics the episode after dressing everyone up like Robin Hood characters.  Also, Deep Space 9 does not get enough love for how good it was.  
    Coffee or tea?
    Coffee.  Unless it’s iced tea.  Unsweetened always.  
    Wine, beer, or liquor?
    Beer.  Pretty narrow band of interest there too.  Don’t really like „craft“ beer usually tastes like they’re trying too hard.  Generally I keep it under 6%.
    Which member of The Breakfast Club are you?
    The cool one, definitely the cool one.  Who am I kidding, I never got detention.
    SNES or Genesis?
    Both?  I had both of these systems during this generation and I don’t have a strong preference for one vs the other.  Both systems had their highlights.  Slight edge SNES.  I really enjoyed EVO.
    PS1 or N64 or Saturn?
    This one’s easily PS1.  I didn’t realize it at the time but I was an earlyish ps1 adopter back when long boxes were still prevalent.  This was like JrHigh/High School years so a major phase in gaming for me.  I got the magazines at the time (including PSM from the very beginning) and I got to ride all of the hype trains for these absolutely juggernaut genre-defining games that came out.  Ahh I remember riding in my buddy‘s Monte Carlo to the Best Buy to the local shopping mall to pick up our pre-ordered Resident Evil 2s like it was yesterday.  
    The N64 was cool too.  I was always jealous of my buddy getting to play Wave Race.  Led to me buying Jet Moto.  Yeah, not the same but still fun as hell.  
    Do you collect anything besides games?
    Nope not me.  I really buy myself almost nothing in the way of stuff.  Game collecting was my one splurge.  
    Other interests and hobbies?
    Music is my big hobby.  Live music is pretty much my main going out activity (you may have noticed from the concert thread) amongst other patronages of the arts.  We got season passes to the theater last year which I was skeptical of at first having only seen the Book of Mormon previously.  I’ve got to admit, it’s actually been really enjoyable with some really excellent surprises.  Go to comedy shows too sometimes when I get the chance.  Bill Burr at the football hall of fame stadium was the last one.  Good stuff.  
    Where do you hail from?
    I‘m from just west of Cleveland.  I’ve lived in Northeast Ohio my whole life.  So…that’s cool.  
    First game you ever owned or played?
    The first game I ever owned definitely would’ve been SMB/DH.  Everything pre-NES is just a bit too old for me with no older siblings or anything.  One of my earliest NES memories has to be playing through the Legend of Zelda with my dad and hand drawing maps of the dungeons on this yellow paper he used to get from work.  Man I wish I had those maps.
    Dream vacation?
    Ya know you can do these six month long cruises around the world that sounds like a pretty awesome retirement present.  But, we’ve never been on a cruise before so that might be awful.  Probably more realistic is somewhere in the Caribbean.  One of those nice ass resort type deals.  I don’t want to have to put effort into anything.  
    Favorite restaurant?
    Like a local eatery?  Don’t really have one of those.  Maybe like Taco Tantos.  I do have a pretty firm rule never to eat any food from Elyria.  I’m sure there are some perfectly not disgusting dining options but I’m not looking for them.
    If I’m given completely free rein to choose dinner I’m probably going with the Brazilian steakhouse Texas de Brazil.  Nothing more satisfying than the meat sweats.
    Favorite meal to make?
    I’ve been pretty into making a Cajuny pasta lately with the sausage and shrimps and the whole nine yards.  I’ve been hooked on this comedian Uncle Rodger lately and it’s really made me want to try my hand at Fried Rice.  I’d have to buy a wok though.  Any suggestions on that front world be appreciated.
    Chocolate or Vanilla?
    Chocolate
    Fast food of choice?
    Taco Bell
    Best cereal?
    Honey Bunches of Oats.  Or Count Chocula
    Best yogurt?
    Key Lime
    Best local drink?
    The water.  Our water is the best water.  Ask anyone.  I’d like to take a moment to recognize what overrated tryhard trash Great Lakes brewing is.  Christmas Ale is straight up gross.
    Browns or Cavs or Guardians?
    Sigh.  Browns.  It disgusts me though.  Glad they finally got an “adult” in the qb spot.  It’s fine.  Everything is fine here. I’m all in on the Lions train right now though.  
    Baseball sucks but I do like that I can take the whole family to a game for like $8.  Go to quite a few.  
    (asked before the Super Bowl) Chiefs or Niners?
    Niners.  You guys fucked up getting Phil Dawson a ring but that’s ok.  Appreciate the attempt.  I think we’ve all had enough of the Chefs winning.
    Deshaun Watson or Johnny Manziel?
    Johnny Football.  At least he didn’t show up for work because he was passed out wasted in a hot air balloon not because he was busy giving handjobs in the parking lot of a Parma Walmart.  Why’s that shoulder sore again Deshaun? Actually can we just have  Brandon Weeden back?  At least that was horrible and hilarious.

    Ohio State or U of Cincinnati? 
    Can’t Read, Can’t Write, Kent State baby.
    The Browns winning the Super Bowl next year?  Or are they regressing?
    Lol no.  Everyone remembers the 0-16 season but nobody ever mentions the other Hue Jackson season at 1-15.  Or the entire decade prior where it was a successful season if they went above their usual 4 wins.  There was like 3 years in there where they just had Josh Cribbs play every position.  That went as well as expected.  They don’t call it the factory of sadness for nothing.  
    Ever watch The Drew Carey show?
    Of course.  It’s been a lot of years but I remember it being pretty entertaining.   Oh how novel, coffee beer.  Now that every hipster in a man bun makes coffee beer can we finally admit that it was and is gross?
    Michigan, Indiana, or Pennsylvania?
    As far as I’m aware Indiana is just a bunch of creepy religious weirdos.  The only time anyone goes to Indiana is when they miss their exit looking for Dayton.  
    Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Deliverance in between.  A genuinely terrifying place that I would never want to be stuck in after dark.
    So Michigan it is.  They’ve got good dank and cheap.  Detroit is also my go to nobody’s tour comes to Cleveland anymore city.  
    Are the people of Cleveland also obsessed with Skyline Chili, Zippos,and all that shit?
    Hell no.  We look down on Cincinnati and their stuff.  As it should be.  We just eat our chili regular and don’t add weird shit to in it in a desperate attempt to be quirky.   The appropriate noodle for Chili is elbow macaroni.  Period.  Joe Burrow is aight though.  
    Bengals, Ravens, or Steelers?
    Bengals.  If one of them has to do well I’m going the Cincy incest route.
    Best thing about Ohio? Worst thing?
    Best thing?  Umm Dave Chappelle?  Ooh I know, I’m actually a really big fan of our State (and local) Parks System.  It’s pretty extensive and enjoyable.  Spending a week next month in one of the cabins too.  Very chill.  Now that the kids are getting bigger I’d like to branch out into the hiking aspect more rather than spending all of my time at the pool.
    Worst?  The other people that live here.  It’s gone really obnoxiously red the past decade or so.  I’m so fucking tired of arguing with locals about how they think we shouldn’t fund the schools because one time in 1972 they bought pianos and gave teachers raises.  These MFers were full on ready to go black people hunting when George Floyd happened.  
    What does your wife think of your collection?
    Oh she totally thinks it stupid and we always kind of had like a don’t ask don’t tell policy on it.  I’d get packages in the mail and they would get spirited away into my basement lair.  She never really pushed me to sell anything very much but let’s just say when I started selling a bunch post covid she got the emotional rollercoaster of super excited I was selling some stuff to really disappointed that I used that money to buy different games and finally settled on annoyed that I had all my shit spread all out on the dining room table.
    (Hammer has to take his kids to tae kwon do) Can your kids kick your ass?
    Heh not yet.  Though I have a healthy fear of knife hand to the balls.
    First thing that comes to mind:
    Nintendo
    That big beautiful gray box.  Was really the only generation where Nintendo was undisputed king for me.  
    Sega
    Seg-do what Nintendo-don’t.  Got the Genesis for Christmas one year and I remember it taking my dad like an hour to hook it up to the shitty little TV in the full on wood paneled back room of my childhood home.  
    1990s
    Fresh Prince.  Did you know DJ Jazzy Jeff is touring with New Kids on the Block? Man, when I was a kid there was this magazine called Dinosaurs or something like that that I used to walk down the street to the local Convenient store near me to get.  Each one came with some plastic pieces to make a dinosaur skeleton.  Loved that shit.
    1980s
    NES.  There was still a Woolworths at the mall.  My dad used to pick up his paychecks from this creepy ass stone building at the edge of the steel mill.  One time a kid fell off his bike and cracked his head open on the sidewalk near our house.  This may have been the early 90s.
    2000s
    Liver Damage.  These were my college years.  A lot of interesting life experiences but also a lot of terrible decision making.  I tried to ford the river to get home on my 21st birthday.  
    Metal
    Ronnie James Dio.  He is the most metal dude of all time.  Ugly weird little dude who’s really into dragons?  Hell yeah.  
    Pizza
    Giovanni’s Pizza in South Lorain.  Gotta go to less savory areas if you want the good stuff.
    Beer

    Cincinnati
    Jerry Springer.  Seriously, I just really don’t think about them.  It’s basically just Kentucky. I went there once for a bachelor party.  Meh.  
    Canada
    When Ren and Stimpy visited the vast wiener fields of Canada.  I like your song better than I like our song.  I mean they’re just across the lake so I look forward to standing arm in arm with them one day to protect our water. 
    Children
    Interesting mix of Pride, Joy, and Irritation.  I have a giant head.  My son also has a giant head.  I once saw a vagina explode.  I think the boy might be a genius and the girl will most likely become the dictator of a small country.
    40s
    Anxiety.  I turn 40 this year.  Jeez, when did we get so friggin old?  I tweaked my back riding the tea cups this past summer.  
    Are you going to give your kids your collection, have it buried with you in your casket, or gonna come home one day to find out it was sold via garage sale?
    To the kids would be the current plan.  The value is more a novelty to mean that is pretty nice to think about having if there were some emergency that required it.  As it stands now the kids have almost full access to my loose NES, SNES and Genesis collection.  The boxed stuff is packed away.  I encourage them to explore through different stuff and to try to keep them in alphabetical order.  They are not in alphabetical order.
    Gaming holy Grail?
    I don’t  have one.  I’m not a fan of the term.   If I could complete any  one thing it would probably be my black box set.  Though that’s more a matter of $$.  If I had a significant amount of cash to blow I’d probably go for some sort of arcade set up first.  The one thing I’ve been hunting for years and there’s just very little traces of are the older rarer Lightspan titles.  I’ve all but given up.  A guy can only look through so many blurry box pictures of the same handful of series for so many years.  Still look every once in a while.
    Big plans for 2024?
    Not really.  It’s a developmental year in a lot of ways so we’re just marching forward.  Bunch of concerts lined up already.  Lot of tours getting announced this time of year so we’ve been in that mode of snagging tickets to interesting shows and hoping it fits in the schedule later.  The Ocean coming up soon.
    Walk us through a day in the life of Hammerfestus
    Well, I’m currently a stay-at-home parent so my day usually revolves around the kids days.  I’m guaranteed to be woken up between 5:30 and 6:15.  At this point I can usually fend them off for a half hour or so with a cartoon.  Off to school with ye.  After I drop the kids off I will usually puff one and then knock out some cleaning and whatever things need done around the house.  This is when you guys are seeing me most active with my werewolf.
     Pick up the little one in the afternoon and it’s usually art projects and activities and stuff.  I spend a lot of time at the library or park.  Then I pick up the big one and after that it’s making dinner and then whatever evening sports and stuff.  This is my first year with snow days.  Wtf snow days suck now.  I mean it really didn’t help that most of them have been because of the brutal cold. The snow was really fluffy too so that was kind of weak.  Couldn’t make snowballs or anything fun.
    After I get the kids to bed usually I’m pretty beat.  I normally just chill out with some tv or some games or something for a few hours.  I really need to get back to squeezing a workout in after they go down.  Lol I’m such a fat piece of shit these days.   
    Who should I interview next?
    @JamesRobot. I want to hear the story of liquor store bro to CFO of a multinational conglomerate.  
    Unfortunately I already did James once upon a time.  And everyone else from Colorado...
    I guess this got bumped out another month because of the interview logjam.  What should we talk about for another 30 days?
    Huh.  I thought I went back and checked before I suggested him.  How about @docile tapeworm?  There’s got to be some quality Florida man stories in there.
    There was something I was thinking about that we should have talked about but I can’t recall off the top of my head.  I’ll bring it up when I think of it.  
    Ooh here’s a fun fact.  My semi-non-platonic life partner and I joined the Ohio chapter of the Satanic Temple last year and this is still the centerpiece on our mantle lol
    Xmas at our house this year everybody!  

    We were just talking about this the other night: after initially attending a lot of their Zoom meetings and such we learned that in fact they are a bunch of weird cliquey nerds and I do not want to hang out with them, however, they sure do good work and I fully support them dragging around their statue of Baphomet to whatever courthouse lawn currently needs it.
    I've also interviewed skinny.  You don't recall these because they happened on NA 😄
    There may or may not have been video of him taking a shotgun to Tetris.
    Lol.  Well damn.  I’d like to see that.  What about Graded Japanese Dragon Quest guy? Fenrir or whatever he’s calling himself these days.  That should be fun.
    I think he left.  Again...
    As far as your framed trophy... nice.  I wore one of my Behemoth shirts while working out today at the office.  I'm still waiting to be reported to HR.
    What does your partner think of your music choices?
    Lol.  I’ve definitely gotten bitched at at home for taking the kids out for errands in my “Burn Your Local Church” t-shirt before.  
    My partner has a lot of appreciation for and roots in metal.  One of my earliest bonding experiences with her involved how for some high school class she played the Dragonforce song “Valley of the Damned” and claimed it was a song about Malaysian freedom.  We still rock a lot of stuff together and she is my main concert-going comrade.  She was pretty irritated that she didn’t get to go to The Ocean recently.  There’s still a lot of Zeal & Ardor listening happening in our house these days.  All that being said though, she is way more into American Folk and Hipster music than I can usually stomach.  One of my favorite quotes from her on my music tastes anymore is that I’m into “weird jazz shit and black metal and nothing in between.”
    Do you rock black metal or any other extreme metal in the car with the kids?  My boys have been requesting a lot of "Axes" (The Axe by Gojira) recently 
    Oh for sure.  I very rarely censor the music I expose them to.  Electric Callboy was a pretty big hit for awhile (we did always skip Fuckboi though lol).   😆
    The big one always requests Hurrikan.  Atta Boy.
    Also the 4 year old thinks this song is about drawing in the driveway and it’s a little weird hearing her sing along behind me:
     My listening actually isn’t usually overly brutal so there’s way more weedly deedly dee than chugga chugga choo choo.  There’s also some element of democracy in the car so I spend more time than anyone should have to listening to Sea Shanties.
    I've actually had to impose a partial ban on Electric Callboy (or as my boys call them, the "silly guys").  Too many lines or images that I'm afraid will be mentioned or repeated.
    Lol they are silly guys.  
    You know, in the beginning I had these grand ideas about introducing them to all of this classic stuff across the whole rainbow of music almost systematically.  It became obvious very quickly that that’s not the way at all.  Now I’m just hoping not to intelligibly encounter the word jism.  There are some topics I am in no hurry to have to actually answer.
  2. Reed Rothchild

    Featured Member 2023: Avatar

    By Reed Rothchild,


    Featured Members
    What originally brought you to NA/VGS?
    I purchased a game from someone from eBay, and they said "oh hey, I'm also on NA, come find me" and I did! I don't remember who that was, but I was super excited to find NA -- a community of diverse and fun nerdy gamers 🙂
    Story behind your username and avatar?
    I was always a fan of the classic Ultima RPGs. In Ultima, the protagonist (player) is known as "the Avatar". So my avatar, is the Avatar -- and the image comes from the fabulous cover to Ultima V, released back in 1988 (did I mention I'm old)

    Where do you hail from?
    I consider myself a Midwesterner, although at this point I've lived most of my life in New England. It's cold.
    Explain the difference between New England and the Midwest in 10 words or less.
    Midwest is flat farmy. New England is angry and cold.
    What do you for a living?
    Academic -- basically I teach and do research. Many people envy my position, but believe me, there is a ton of stress and challenges just like any job. And just like most jobs, it can be wonderful, at times. 
    Spouse? Kids?  Pet weasels?
    Yup, got a happy full house. No pet weasels, but the family is regularly terrorized by Her Furjesty --

    Top 10 games of all time?
    In no particular order:
    Ultima V -- you knew this was coming 🙂 but if I may "cheat" a moment, I would actually say the Ultima series as a whole, in particular IV, V, VII were all masterpieces.
    Fire Emblem Echoes -- I have finished every FE game released stateside! My favorite is Echoes, but Awakening, Path of Radiance, and the first game (Fire Emblem) for the GBA are all brilliant.
    Dark Souls -- this is tough, because I feel like saying Dark Souls II or Bloodborne. I played the original Demon's Souls which I loved, but ultimately felt Dark Souls improved upon the formula. DSII in my mind was not perfect, but with the DLC (on the PS4) it was close to perfection! Same with Bloodborne, which is basically Dark Souls in Victorian England. DSIII not so much.
    Myst -- I replayed through Myst Masterpiece Edition on the Switch not long ago. It had been years, so I had forgotten many of the puzzles. I was not sure how fun it would be, and wow, that game truly holds up to this day! The only negative was some screen tearing, and while the game was remastered, the videos were not remastered. Regardless, Myst truly captures  otherworldly beauty few games can match.
    Star Ocean the Second Story -- I typically prefer Western RPGs over JRPGs, but Star Ocean was amazing! I consider it a classic similar in vein to many games from the golden age of JRPGs such as Grandia, Thousand Arms, Lunar, etc. Many of those games combine magic with some science-fiction element, but I would say Star Ocean did it better than just about any of those. It was just plain ol' fun. Looking forward to the remake which is coming out soon!
    Planescape Torment -- the first Baldur's Gate broke new ground as the most realistic D&D computer game ever produced. Then Baldur's Gate II blew it out of the water, truly epic! For my taste, the height of those classic isometric games is Planescape Torment.  The story, the interactions, the characters... just brilliant. Also, you can purchase these on the cheap on Steam or get a physical copy for the PS4 or Switch. Can't recommend it enough to any RPG fan!
    Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga -- before there was Divinity Original Sin which put Larian Studios on everyone's radar, there was the Dragon Knight Saga. Originally, Divinity II received mediocre or even poor reviews. However, people said the Dragon Knight Saga was much improved and many said it was brilliant! Really? Well, for $20 or so I'd give it a chance. It was amazing. One of the greatest RPGs I ever played and truly epic. I was astounded - why is this not more talked about! Just a gem of a game with one of the greatest RPG stories I have ever played. Betrayal, loss, death, turning into a flying fire-breathing destroying dragon - yup! oh, and it's more fun than Skyrim.
    Dragon Quest IV -- I'm not a fan of random encounters... But of course Dragon Quest games (the earlier ones at least) are full of random encounters. However, the cute animations, cute monsters, numerous items, great cast members, all make any "flaws" such as random encounters just melt away. I rarely finish a game 100%, but I did in DQIV because it was just so darn fun! I wanted more and more. It's tough to choose - DQ IV, VII, and VIII are amazing.
    LOOM -- I'm a fan of the classic LucasArts games such as Monkey Island, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Day of the Tentacle, etc. It's tough to choose one, but LOOM has always been a favorite. Part of it is the amazing music (much of it based on Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake) but also the story. It's beautiful, surreal, and I would go so far as to say even provocative. The height of point-and-click games. I'm also a fan of the King's Quest games... but wow, you sure do die a lot in a Sierra game 🙂
    The Legend of Zelda -- big fan of the first two games, and many subsequent ones too! Not a fan, of Breath of the Wild actually. Most recent Zelda game I played was Zelda Outlands -- which is a hack of the first game, but it is just so fun to play... Makes me sad that Nintendo never released an Outlands-like Zelda back in the day. But hey, thank goodness for hackers! Of course almost certainly a lot of my joy in these games is rooted in nostalgia, but not just that. The sound of the ocean waves and simple theme and concepts are pixel perfect.
    Did you beat Darkest Dungeon and both DLCs?
    I did, and I really do not recommend The Crimson Court. I thought the dungeon itself was fabulous, and great enemies. However, the "infection" is very frustrating and can easily destroy your game if you have not progressed far enough. That said, I'm still looking forward to a physical copy of Darkest Dungeon II -- hope it materializes soon!
    On Switch at least , Darkest Dungeon has Crimson Court enabled from the beginning, which tried it's best to fuck up my playthrough.  A true sadist move by the developers.
    On the PS4 you could choose to install it -- definitely do not recommend it! It had some nice ideas, but ultimately was too annoying to be really fun.
    Did you play the old Bioware D&D games?
    Baldur's Gate II is one of my favorite games of all time. The first Baldur's Gate was also excellent, as was Neverwinter Nights. Icewind Dale I and II are top-notch, although they were developed by Black Isle Studios and not BioWare. Same for my favorite of these isometric RPGs -- Planescape Torment.  That said, what's also great is that you can get the "Enhanced" editions all dirt cheap for the Switch or PS4. While the graphics are obviously not current gen, the games themselves are still phenomenal. I'm sure 50 years from now these games will still be played.
    Quick, rank every Bioware and Black Isle game you've played.
    The following are all A+ games in my book (in no particular order):
    Baldur's Gate II -- Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II -- Dragon Age Origins -- Mass Effect 2 -- Neverwinter Nights -- Fallout 2 -- Icewind Dale -- Planescape Torment
    The following are all A games, but a notch below in quality compared to the games above:
    Baldur's Gate -- Mass Effect -- Mass Effect 3 -- Fallout -- Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
    The following aren't bad games, but I wouldn't play them again:
    Dragon Age Inquisition -- Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
    Did you play Wo Long?
    I have not played Wo Long. Team Ninja game? I'm a huge fan of the Nioh franchise, I feel Nioh takes the Souls mechanism and makes it even better! Hey, Dark Souls will always be a classic, but there is room for improvement 🙂
    Favorite book?
    Can't just choose one. While my favorite video game genre is RPGs, when it comes to books I am rather eclectic and can enjoy everything from classics to recent bestsellers. That said, here are a few of my favorite books of all time: The Oresteia, Heart of Darkness, Stardust, Poems of Robert Frost, The Wind in the Willows, My First Summer in the Sierra.
    What are you currently reading?
    When I need some R&R, I probably spend more time reading than anything else! I love books. I got into "higher-quality" books years ago, and then learned about book arts when I was in grad school... also years ago 🙂
    I always tell people, if you want to just read, a paperback or even basic hardcover will be great. BUT, if you want to truly enjoy "fine" books with beautiful illustrations, you need to look into book arts and letterpress printing! Anyway, I'm currently reading --
    My beautiful edition of The Blade Itself --

    I'm not a big fantasy reader, but I heard such great things about the series and of course I couldn't resist this beautiful edition. So far, it definitely has Game of Thrones vibes to it, but it's engaging and I'm really enjoying it.
    I actually have that Abercrombie trilogy on my backlog.  I've heard many great things.
    Very much been enjoying it. I'm not a huge sci-fi/fantasy reader, but I did enjoy Game of Thrones and feel like The Blade Itself is in a similar vein, which is not a bad thing at all. Also, it's nice that Abercrombie actually finishes his books...
    Favorite movie?
    Anything by Ingmar Bergman. Also Fantasia 🙂
    Bergman Persona or Japanese High School RPG Persona?
    They're both fun in their own right 🙂
    Favorite musician?  Album?  Song?
    I love classical music, as well as jazz, video game music, etc. So I don't have a favorite musician, album, or song. Last album we listened too was music of Vince Guaraldi, best known for his music to the Charlie Brown animated series.
    Tea or coffee?
    Tea, especially ginger tea... yummy!
    Wine, liquor, or beer?
    Let me just say that LongHorn Steakhouse makes the best mango margarita humanity has ever seen.
    Star Trek or Star Wars?
    I appreciate both. Not a fan of the new Star Wars movies, but the first trilogy will always be a classic. Also, always fun to watch re-runs of Star Trek, especially TNG

    Genesis or SNES?
    Tough call. Can't I have both?! Still, if I could only have one it would be the SNES, although that would make me sad...
    PS1, Saturn, or N64?
    PS1, hands down. Saturn had some amazing games, as did the N64. But the PS1 had thousands more games than both systems combined. While many were "meh", there are of course plenty that are fabulous and such a diversity of games.
    Prize piece in your collection?
    I don't have any one game or video game memorabilia I consider my precious -- but I will say one of my favorite pieces in my collection is actually a soundtrack. Soundtrack to Albert Odyssey Gaiden: Legend of Eldean which was released on the Saturn. I did play the game, and overall it was forgettable. Literally forgettable, I hardly remember anything from the game! I do remember the dialogue being witty (Working Designs did a great job with localization), the game being  cutesy, and very very average in most every way. Apart from the music. Wow, I just loved the music, it was the best part of the game. It took me years before I managed to find the soundtrack, but I did. I still listen to it -

    Gamecube, PS2, or Xbox?
    Toss-up between GC and PS2. Both had fantastic games that are still classics today. Honestly, at this point I'm hoping Sony and Nintendo release mini-consoles in the same vein as the SNES Classic featuring some of the best games from the systems -- who wouldn't purchase it!
    DS or PSP?
    I think Sony's UMD is cute - there's something charming about it. While the PSP had some wonderful games,  the answer is most definitely the DS. Aside from much faster load times, the quality and variety of games is phenomenal. Also, while the DS certainly had "gimmicky" features, games such as Etrian Odyssey made perfect use of the system's capabilities.
    Vita or 3DS?
    I never got into the Vita, although it had some really impressive games and I think it's destined to be very hot with collector's in the future. First time I saw the 3DS in stores it hurt my eyes. So of course I went and purchased one! Love it. Some of the best 3DS games, such as Dragon Quest VIII, are not playable in 3D -- but I don't mind.  
    Switch or Xbone or PS4?
    Between the Switch and the PS4... tough call. I'm going to cheat and say the Switch, but only because the PS5 supports PS4 games! The PS4 was an amazing system. The Switch likewise is continues to release phenomenal games.
    PS5 or XBSX or ...uh, Switch 2?
    PS5 -- again, it plays PS4 games and I have a ton of those in my backlog. Not to mention there are fabulous exclusive titles like the Nioh Collection which honestly, is just as fan as Dark Souls 🙂 I'm glad it's now easy to find a PS5, we all remember a year or two ago when it was scalper's paradise... did I mention I loathe scalpers?
    Do you remember what your first game was?
    Not sure I can say it was truly my "first", but I do remember that The Legend of Zelda really made me a fan of the NES and made me get the system (well, beg my parents to get it) and into video games 🙂
    Did you solve it yourself without any outside help?
    I did actually! For a little child who's certainly what today we would say "a bit on the spectrum" -- well, it was a big accomplishment 🙂
    Did you have to hand draw every map?
    Never had patience for that! I just winged it most of the time, although my memory was not bad either, well, if memory serves 🙂
    What were your thoughts when Zelda II came around?
    I was super thrilled when Zelda II came out! I remember the game even made the news (very unusual for video games back then) since it was hard to find, and it came out at a time when there were little to no spoilers. I thought the music and graphics were incredible -- the game itself overall was wonderful too. I still preferred the open-world in Zelda I, but it was so much fun and the last battle is to this day very memorable.
    I am Error.
    Were you able to beat it as well?
    Sure did! I don't think it was as hard as everyone seems to remember 🙂
    What does your spouse think of your collection(s)?
    Very supportive... with a smirk and touch of sarcasm, but I wouldn't have it any other way! We both grew up with video games, so we both appreciate the history behind them, and of course they're still fun! My spouse's comfort-game is Super Mario 64 -

    Has your wife gotten all 120 stars?  Or... whatever the number is in DS version.
    Oh yeah, 120 stars. In fact, "Just finishing the game is lame! If you're going to do it, get the 120 stars or get out" 🙂
    What is the biggest gaming purchase letdown you remember?
    I found Breath of the Wild to ultimately be rather disappointing. I enjoyed the actual dungeons, the "Divine Beasts". I thought the graphics were lovely. The gameplay was tight. Having an open world Zelda in the same spirit as the original is a great idea, at least in concept. BUT --
    1)Lack of memorable story and/or characters. So yeah, Ganon again... end of world or something. Save Zelda and Hyrule. Got it. So... where exactly are the interesting characters here? Twilight Princess is a game with truly memorable characters. Everyone remembers Midna, so much life and character in her. In BoTW the characters are just...there.
    2)The shrines... bleh. Same boring thing over and over and over...
    3)Item durability. Who thought this was a good idea? It's a staple in many Fire Emblem games, but it's pathetic and annoying in BoTW. It would not be so bad if at some point in the game, say after you finish your first Divine Beast, you get a weapon that does not break. It doesn't have to be a powerful weapon. Even if the weapon lost some durability, as long as it didn't break that would be less frustrating. But nope. You have to wait until you get the...yawn, Master Sword.
    4)Back to the open world concept. Cool, go anywhere you want! Or most places. Sounds fine, until you realize there's just not much to see and do. Oh sure, come across a bunch enemies, have a weapon or two break, kill them, find another weapon or two and some rupees. Then you move on... to another group of enemies which look just like the group of enemies you just killed. Rinse and repeat.  The game sometimes feels like a walking simulator with some boring fighting.
    5)Climbing. I don't mind climbing, I think it's cool to be able to go up a mountain and (hopefully) find something exciting. Skyrim did this very well. But, of course in BoTW it's going to rain and thunder. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
    6)Horse riding. Why is it SO bad? On top of that, it's just not particularly useful.
    7)Plenty of "little things" such as the mini-games and quests. Korok Seed hunting gets boring. Fetch quests get annoying. Cooking... you seriously can't save a recipe?
    So many people and "critics" called BoTW a masterpiece. It's not even close to being a masterpiece. It's not a "bad game". However, imagine the game was exactly the same as is, but replace the Zelda characters with generic characters. It would have been a 7/10 which is what Breath of the Wild deserves.
    And also, what upcoming AAA and  upcoming Indy game are you looking forward to the most?
    AAA -- Dragon Quest III remake. Super Mario RPG remastered. Pikmin I & II ...yeah, a lot of classic games are getting the makeover, and I'm fine with that. Games like that are an easy purchase because you know they will be great. That said, there are some AAA games that I'm hoping will live up to expectations such as Dragon's Dogma 2, Dragon Quest XII, Elder Scrolls VI etc. One AAA game that I know is going to be amazing, I'm waiting for it to be released on the PS5, is Baldur's Gate III.
    Indie -- I usually keep an eye on what LRG and other such companies release. Many of those indie games I haven't actually heard of, and often I'll give them a go only to find that they're really great! Hades II will be fabulous. Darkest Dungeon II will be an instant purchase.
    Hobbies outside of gaming?
    In no particular order -- hiking, kayaking, reading, antiquing, writing.
    Favorite local hike?  Kayak spot?
    White mountains up in NH. A few hours from Boston, always great!
    https://www.nhstateparks.org/find-parks-trails/monadnock-state-park
    Most of the kayaking around the Charles River is fun. Especially if you start a few miles away from Cambridge and then paddle downstream -- you can tell when you're back in the city because of all of the noise!
    What do you write?
    I enjoy writing short stories -- not sure there's any particular genre, just whatever comes to mind! Although I haven't written just for "fun" in a while since I have a ton of writing to do for my work.
    Has any of your non-work writing been published?
    It actually has! Although not for a while. Most of my writing time is work-heavy. Once my (scholarly) book is done back to having more of a life!!
    Do you collect anything besides games (and books)?
    That's pretty much it! I did have a large video game music CD collection. I sold most of my CDs, but kept the ones that really mean something.
    Favorite restaurant?
    Everything from Mediterranean, to steak, to sushi, to Mexican! So no one favorite place. Probably eat out once maybe twice a week. I think that's fairly typical. Definitely enjoy firing up the grill when the weather allows 🙂

    What's your specialty on the grill?
    I think simple is good when grilling. Just some chicken or steak with a bit of marinating goes a long way! Now, I'm hungry...
    What do you have planned for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?
    We were supposed to have a few family members over, and it now sounds like some will make it while others are unable. So, we expect a relatively quiet and peaceful Christmas eve and day -- filled with some great food and some presents 🙂
    I hope everyone on VGS also has a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas -- preferably with a good video game or two!
  3. Reed Rothchild

    The Invisible Man / Malignant / Smile

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    The Invisible Man (2020)

    When Cecilia's abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax.
    Originally part of Universal's failed attempt to update all of their classic horror franchises and make it some sort of connected cinematic universe.  Thank God that didn't work out, because it meant this thing landed in Leigh Whannell's lap, and he took things in a decidedly different direction.  A much, much better direction.
    If you've seen the trailer for this movie you can probably guess a significant amount of the plot.  Luckily, the execution is so tight here that it doesn't matter what you think you know.
    And Elisabeth Moss is spectacular as the lead.  Massive snub by the Academy to overlook her because it's a genre flick.
    Malignant (2021)

    Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities.
    Speaking of Leigh Whannell, his partner in crime, James Wan, returned from the world of blockbusters to helm this horror comeback, something of a modern giallo.  And in doing so made his best movie.  Holy shit is this thing a good time.
    One of the things I love most about this flick is that it intentionally fucks with your preconception that this is going to be another Insidious or Conjuring.  Watch the trailer and tell me that isn't what you think that is.  Everything is crafted to set you up.  And then...
    Well, let's just say shit gets crazy in the third act.  Don't look into it, or read anything.  Just watch it.
    Smile (2022)

    After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, a psychiatrist becomes increasingly convinced she is being threatened by an uncanny entity.
    A movie completely indebted to It Follows (and The Ring).  Which isn't a bad thing; the best horror films of the last decade should be inspiring the next generation of films.  I'm all for it.
    And besides, what it lacks  in originally, it makes up in execution.  This is another film where you can are never allowed a moment to breath, because there is no easing of tension.  Not for the entire runtime.  It's a bold choice, but I think it pays off brilliantly. 
    It's not one of the very best horror films of the last decade, but it's certainly a lot of fun.
  4. Reed Rothchild

    The Conjuring / The Babadook / It Follows

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    The Conjuring (2013)

    Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.
    The first James Wan movie to appear on the list, and the first of like a thousand movies in the greater "Conjuring universe."  Most of them tend to not be very good.  But they came from a solid foundation.
    I wouldn't say this movie brings a ton of new ideas to the table.  Even for a Wan movie - Insidious predates it by a few years.  What it does do, is take 40 years worth of horror tropes, and deliver them at a high level. 
    Especially the jump scare.  This movie has a ton of them.  If I dared watch it with my wife she'd probably scream loud enough to get the police called.
    But it doesn't lean entirely on that, as the entire movie fosters a creepy atmosphere that leaves you constantly uneasy.
    Finally, shout out to a stellar cast, led by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson.
    The Babadook (2014)

    A single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book titled "Mister Babadook" manifests in their home.
    This is one of those movies that people seem to either love, or not care for so much.
    I don't know why people don't like it.  Maybe there's too much subtext for them.  Not that it matters, because even if you're just looking for a straightforward horror movie, it delivers.  It is creepy as all fuck, with some of the most tense scenes in the last couple decades of horror, a great monster, and, again, a great cast, with a child lead who more than holds his own.
    It Follows (2015)

    A young woman is followed by an unknown supernatural force after a sexual encounter.
    Speaking of... this is yet another movie that people either rave about, or abhor. 
    In fact, I saw it in the theaters with a group of buddies (something I usually avoid at all costs, as I find it much scarier to watch movies by yourself in the dark), and afterwards we were basically split down right down the middle.  Some of us absolutely loved it, and some of thought it was one of the worst movies they had ever seen.  Browsing the internet later, turns out those sentiments are not unusual for this movie.
    I'm obviously in the former group.  Watching this movie is a trip, and unnerves you in the simplest, yet highly effective way.  I adore it for that.
    This is also yet another movie where subtext reigns supreme.  Luckily, it works without it too.  You can take the plot entirely at face value and still have a great time.
  5. Reed Rothchild

    The Shining / Scanners / The Burning

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    The Shining (1980)

    A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.
    Stephen King superfan, remember?  And even though King himself wasn't the biggest fan of this adaptation (probably because he had already entered his booze and coke phase), I think the rest of the world is in agreement that it's sublime.
    This is yet another movie that I watched way too young (that's another trend), so I've been haunted by this movie for a very long time.  Since even before I read the book (which was back in elementary school - the teachers ending up banning King in our classroom, true story), I was having nightmares over the lady in room 237.  Nevermind the twins, or Jack, or the elevator of blood.  No, it was that goddamn cackling lady that kept me up at night.
    Scanners (1981)

    A scientist trains a man with an advanced telepathic ability called "scanning" to stop a dangerous Scanner with extraordinary psychic powers from waging war against non scanners.
    David Cronenberg movie number two!
    Is this horror?  It's probably borderline, but I say it is.  Body horror, as it were.  One of my favorite types.
    Everyone knows the infamous exploding head scene.  But what really gets me is the battle between Captain Whats-His-Name and Michael Ironside at the end.  That is some shit that gets under your skin.  Like, literally.  I didn't type that up as a pun, it just kind of happened.
    The Burning (1981)

    A former summer camp caretaker, horribly burned from a prank gone wrong, lurks around an upstate New York summer camp bent on killing the teenagers responsible for his disfigurement.
    If you haven't seen this, or you haven't heard of it, just know that it is the world's most blatant Friday the 13th ripoff (which you should now notice did not make this list).  Everything from the setup, to the location, and the kills themselves are pages directly out of the book of Crystal Lake.
    But that's okay, because derivative or not, this movie is endlessly entertaining.  It has the superior cast, superior acting, a super fun story, and tons of blood and gore.  Everything you could want in a slasher, and more.
    There's a reason it's a pretty huge cult classic nowadays.
    If there was one complaint, it's that the supposed, uh, "hero(ish) guy", played by the actor who was Mark Ratner in Fast Times at Ridgement High, is a bit of a little slimy weasel.  Definitely not the most relatable lead.
  6. Reed Rothchild

    Dolls / Evil Dead II / The Lost Boys

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    Dolls (1987)

    A dysfunctional family of three stop by a mansion during a storm -- father, stepmother, and child. The child discovers that the elderly owners are magical toy makers and have a haunted collection of dolls.
    Stuart Gordon's second appearance on this list.
    If there's one thing I like almost as much as killer kid flicks, it's killer doll flicks.  Again, I don't know what that says about me, it's just the way it is.  I guess they're just inherently creepy, which taps into something in my psyche.  Maybe I had too many second-hand stuffed animals when I was a kid, I dunno.
    This is also the only Charles Band movie to appear on this list (I think).  Think of this as a typical Full Moon or Empire picture, but with some actual talent and budget behind it.
    Evil Dead II (1987)

    The lone survivor of an onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits holes up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack.
    Back in middle school my mother lived one block away from a video rental store.  The best part about it?  During weekdays, rentals were $.99.  So I'd grab stuff every night I was there.
    Some movies I rented over and over and over again.  The Road Warrior and Aliens were weekly staples.  But there was one movie I rented more than any other.  By far.  Can you guess which one it was?
    I'm something of a Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell Stan.  At one point I was collecting everything that had anything to do with either of them.  And though I can appreciate the original The Evil Dead, that love was mostly born out of my obsession with this movie.  I've probably watched it at least fifty times.  And it's such a perfect sequel remake that I almost never find myself going back to the first movie.
    The Lost Boys (1987)

    After moving to a new town, two brothers discover that the area is a haven for vampires.
    Remember back in my Poltergeist write-up, where I described my nostalgia for 1980s California?  Well, The Lost Boys triggers a nostalgia overdrive for late 1980s Santa Cruz.  I want to live in this damn movie.
    This is another movie I watched with my dad once upon a time (I think it was on HBO or something).  And it scared the shit out of me at the time.  The final siege where the vampires keep busting into the house?  Scary stuff.  Nowadays it feels rather tame to me, but that's not why I watch it.  I watch it for the atmosphere.  I mean, those hairdos, that soundtrack... that scene on the beach with the guy playing the sax....
    Oh, and did I mention that this is a Coreys movie?  Just thinking about it is overwhelming my capacity for awesome.
  7. Reed Rothchild

    Barbarian / M3gan / Terrifier 2

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    Barbarian (2022)

    A woman staying at an Airbnb discovers that the house she has rented is not what it seems.
    This is yet another movie where I absolutely do not want to say anything about the plot, because you want to know absolutely nothing going in.  Even that tagline up above is too much.  I should remove it.
    All I can say, is that this movie is creepy, tense, funny as hell, superbly acted, takes things in unexpected directions, and is overall a ton of fun.
    It is also the only movie in this entire list that I do not own because for whatever reason it has never seen a physical release.  Come on Shout Factory, do horror fans a solid already!
    M3gan (2022)

    A robotics engineer at a toy company builds a life-like doll that begins to take on a life of its own.
    You may have noticed that I didn't include Child's Play on this list.  Or any of the billion sequels.  Or the remake.
    Don't get me wrong, I like the original movie well enough.  It has a great premise, and the cover art scared the living daylights out of me as a kid.  But the actual execution of the movie is merely "good."  I like Brad Douriff as an actor.  As a wise-cracking doll that's supposed to be scary?  Doesn't completely work for me.  And the sequels are garbage.
    I actually thought the remake was a pretty nice little step up.  Mark Hamill voicing a Chucky that is actually sweet and naïve?  I like that a lot more.  Not enough to make this list, but pretty dang good.
    So seeing that James Wan and company were doing their own killer doll movie?  Rated PG-13?  I was skeptical, but intrigued.  I went in with expectations tempered.
    And dang it if I wasn't fully engaged for the entire runtime.  I think M3gan as a character is great, even if it does owe a nod or two to the recent interpretation of Chucky, and I think the plot is fun and paced just about right.
    Does the movie play out in the exact manner that you think it will?  Yes.  But not everything has to be twists and turns.  Sometimes it can be conventional, yet still fun.
    Terrifier 2 (2022)

    After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to the timid town of Miles County where he targets a teenage girl and her younger brother on Halloween night.
    Hoo boy.  Where to even start with this one...
    First off, I just want to make it clear that this is not a torture porn movie.  The tone is completely different from a Martyrs or Hostel or anything like that.  It's more like one giant homage to the work of guys like Tom Savini.  A 2 hour celebration of the grossest practical effects possible.
    Second off, awhile back I said Dead Alive is probably the bloodiest movie of all time.  That's still true.  I think technically the Evil Dead remake holds the official record because of how much Karo syrup they poured onto their set, but I think the insane ideas in Dead Alive actually put it all to better use.
    This movie on the other hand, might have a claim for being the "goriest" of all time.  Splitting hairs on different types of violence, I know.  But it's true, because the entire movie is a celebration of the artform.  Director Damien Leone saw the slashers and Tom Savini gorefests of the 1980s,  and said "I can do better."  And then dedicated the last decade to making that dream a reality.
    The first Terrifier already takes things to an 11 by, among other things, having Art the Clown use a hacksaw on a woman in one of the least politically correct ways possible.  It's exactly as pleasant as it sounds.
    This movie uses that scene as a starting point, and then spends 2 hours taking things to a 22.  There were claims that people were passing out and throwing up in the theater.  A lot of horror movies since The Exorcist have tried to make the same types of claim.  Generally, it's not very believable.  But I think I could believe it here.
    Obviously that sort of thing is not going to be for everyone.
  8. Reed Rothchild

    Green Room / Get Out / IT

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    Green Room (2016)

    A punk rock band is forced to fight for survival after witnessing a murder at a neo-Nazi skinhead bar.
    A24's first appearance on the list.  What can I say?  They've put out a lot of good stuff, including a significant number of the best horror films of the last decade.  Some of the biggest names didn't make this list, but they were pretty close.
    This terrifying little number is probably the most difficult watch on this entire top 100.  Definitely not a movie for the faint of heart, or easily disturbed.
    It was also sadly the last movie released before the death of Anton Yelchin.  It's probably the best work he's ever done.
    Also, bonus points for getting Patrick Stewart to play against-type.  I guess the script got to him so badly that he felt he had to do it.
    Get Out (2017)

    A young African-American visits his White girlfriend's parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point.
    Jordan Peele's first appearance on the list.
    I know audiences were a bit more divided on his two follow-up movies.  Which seems fair to me: they're both really fucking strange.  But Get Out brings so much fun to the table that I feel like every horror fan should enjoy it.  The plot is perfectly set up, with the kind of slow burn that I love.  And the way it gradually reveals the plot is perfect.  And every single member of the cast does a stellar job.  Especially the bad guys.  I love when movies create the most hateable villains possible, which this movie has in spades.
    IT (2017)

    In the summer of 1989, a group of bullied kids band together to destroy a shape-shifting monster.
    I have a long history with IT.  All the way back in the 2nd grade, my friends and I would try to scare one another with stories about Pennywise, and eventually we all managed to rent the TV mini-series and succeed in giving ourselves endless nightmares.  The whole concept is so terrifying.  Freddie gets you in your dreams.  Jaws gets you in the water.  Pennywise does whatever the fuck he wants.  There's no rules, and you're never safe.  I was frightened of the bathtub drain for years.  I read the book not much later, which is pretty amazing considering how young I was and how massive it is.
    Nowadays, I find that miniseries pretty hard to watch.  It's too low budget, too campy, and too PG-13.  Hard to believe it was the cause of so many sleepless nights.
    Enter the remake.  It's not perfect, relying too much on certain horror tropes that it goes to again and again.  But it's damn good.  Damn scary.  Bill Skaarsgard outdoes Tim Curry as the evil clown, the child cast does a phenomenal job, and the scary scenes are very scary.
    My kids are constantly teasing me about watching the "Pennywise movie."  They're all between the ages of 6-8.  And I just look at them, and say "you don't know what you're asking for.  If I let that happen you'd spend the next year coming into my room at night saying you're too scared to sleep."
  9. Reed Rothchild
    Drag Me to Hell (2009)

    A loan officer who evicts an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse.
    Sam Raimi's triumphant return to horror.
    This movie is so much fun.  And so Raimi.  I can only imagine how many theatergoers went into the cinema thinking they were watching the next Saw or Hostel, and were just completely befuddled by what they were seeing.  In true Raimi fashion, physical comedy is once again the name of the day, almost making this something of a spiritual Evil Dead 4.  Which is fine by me.
    Some people seem to dislike the ending, but, come on, it's horror.  What do you expect?
    I Saw the Devil (2010)

    A secret agent exacts revenge on a serial killer through a series of captures and releases.
    One of the most feel-bad movies on this list.  If that sorta thing isn't your cup of tea, don't even humor the thought of watching this.  You're just gonna have a... "bad" time.
    When this was released much was made of the "who is the true monster" nature of the plot.  But I think it goes beyond that.  Much like with the earlier Funny Games, I think the true diabolical trick here is to try and punish the audience for making them think they're gonna get what they want, and punishing them even for wanting it in the first place.  Very cruel.  Not as cruel (or as meta) as Funny Games, but up there nonetheless.
    The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

    Five friends go for a break at a remote cabin, where they get more than they bargained for.
    Yet another modern horror classic.  The 21st century really has been a great time for the genre.
    Chances are you already know what this movie's whole "deal" is.  If you don't, don't dare look into it before watching this.  Trust me on that one.
    But the amazing thing, is that even when rewatching this, and knowing what's going to happen, it loses none of its replay value.  There's always new things to catch, or tiny little details to notice.  And the cast is so good, especially a certain "duo."  I'm incredibly thankful no one ever tried to do a sequel to this, because the only thing it could have done is tarnish the legacy of a perfect movie.
  10. Reed Rothchild
    Trick 'r Treat (2007)

    Five interwoven stories that occur on Halloween.
    My favorite horror anthology film of all time.  This.  Not Black Sabbath, not the Creepshows, not Tales from the Darkside, not Cat's Eye, not Tales from the Hood, not V/H/S, not Three Extremes, not Trilogy of Terror, not Body Bags, not From a Whisper to a Scream, not The Monster Club, not Nightmares, not The ABCs of Death, not All Hallow's Eve, not Tales from the Crypt (the movie), not... well, you get the idea.
    And it's funny, because I believe this almost never saw the light of day, even after it was fully completed and finished in post-production.  There were trailers for this movie that ran for years before it ever came out, and I distinctly remember wondering what had happened to it.
    Thank God it finally did (though it was demoted to STV, even though it's clearly a full budget theatrical release), where it could gather a cult following that propelled it to success.
    I don't want to spoil anything about the various segments, just that they involve an unusually large number of.... actually I'm not gonna say.  Just watch the movie and go in blind.  It's better that way.
    Let the Right One In (2008)

    Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.
    This isn't just one of my favorite horror movies of all time.  This is one of my favorite movies of all time. Period.  That puts it somewhere around the top 5 of this entire list.  Which means I like it more than virtually every other movie I've just spent the last month gushing over.
    You may have seen this.  You may have seen the American remake.  You may have read the book.  And I think I saw there was a television show or something.  But this is arguably the best of the lot.  Absolutely nothing is lost in adapting it from book to film, and, if anything, a few things were cut that actually make the story stronger.  How many films can make that claim?
    Also, this may be the first and only film in history where you will actively cheer for the deaths of a group of children.  How fucked up is that?
    The House of the Devil (2009)

    In 1983, financially struggling college student Samantha Hughes takes a strange babysitting job that coincides with a full lunar eclipse.
    Ti West's first appearance on this list.  I don't remember exactly how I first heard of this movie, but it was very possibly on the AV Club's "New Cult Canon."  A great series that explored films that were slightly off the beaten path, that is sadly not only defunct, but apparently been scrubbed from the internet for some reason.  It's really a shame.
    Luckily, before that I happened, I was able to watch everything on the list, with this being one of the major winners.  It makes me very grateful I was able to somehow stumble across it.
    I don't want to spoil anything with the plot, but the film's introduction (and the title itself) make it very clear that is going to have something to do with the "Satanic panics" that gripped the United States during the 1980s.  And that's all I'm going to say about that.
    Keep an eye out for appearances by Greta Gerwig, AJ Bowen, Tom Noonan, and Mary Woronov.
  11. Reed Rothchild

    Slither / Pan's Labyrinth / The Mist

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    Slither (2006)

    A small town is taken over by an alien plague, turning residents into zombies and all forms of mutant monsters.
    I cannot overstate how much I love this movie.  Between the stellar cast, led by an in-his-prime Nathan Fillion, playing a wonderful set of characters, with endlessly quotable and hilarious dialogue, and the huge number of incredibly disgusting scenes (which continuously top themselves)... like, I cannot speak enough superlatives about this movie.  It is such a great time.
    It helps that I am such a big fan of everything James Gunn is involved with.  Tromeo & Juliet?  The best thing Troma ever did.  Dawn of the Dead?  Awesome.  Super?  Outrageous and fun.  Guardians of the Galaxy?  Laid the blueprint for most of the MCU movies that followed it.  The Suicide Squad sequel?  Easily the best thing to come out of the DCU.  And yet this is arguably his best movie.
    Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

    In the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.
    Guillermo Del Toro shows up again.
    Is this horror?  Probably borderline, again.   People like to call it "dark fantasy", whatever that means.  Sounds like a subgenre of horror to me.  But it's also a pretty gruesome war movie, which is horrifying in it's own right.  Especially one particular scene that made some waves back when this came out.
    There's also a number of horrifying monsters, and scary scenes.  And the lead child actress does an amazing job.  All serving an amazingly shot movie that never gets old, regardless of how much I watch it.  I honestly think that when the Academy was handing out all of those awards for The Shape of Water, it was partially a "body of work" award to help make up for them snubbing this film so badly.
    The Mist (2007)

    A freak storm unleashes a species of bloodthirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.
    Another winner from Stephen King.
    People always go on about the ending of this movie.  That's what it's mostly kinda known for.  I'm somewhat meh on it myself.  The ending I mean.  It's mean-spirited, for sure.  I'm fine with that: that kind of thing comes with the territory when it comes to horror.  But it also doesn't really matter that much or serve the story in any way.  It's just kind of... there.  Which is fine.
    No, what grabs my attention with this movie is the incredibly simple - yet incredibly compelling - base concept to the story. 
    "People are trapped in a supermarket, which becomes surrounded by mist, and whatever lurks within it."
    Classic.  It's your old school Western siege movie, except set within the framework of a horror movie.  And I love it for it.
    Now, is the "villain" the same old Stephen King crazy zealot Christian that's showed up in like all of his stories since Carrie?  Yes.  But Marcia Gay Harden does such an amazing job making her so massively hateable, that I'm willing to forgive the laziness.
  12. Reed Rothchild

    28 Days Later / Dawn of the Dead / The Descent

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    28 Days Later (2002)

    Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.
    Here it is.  The film that changed horror forever.
    Do I think that change was for the better?  Yes, yes I do.  Seems like a pretty open-and-shut case to me.  Things got real visceral, real fast after this, which is exactly the sort of shake-up the genre needed to keep things fresh.
    Nowadays, I think the film still stands strong.  Cillian Murphy is great as the lead, and the opening shots of the deserted streets are highly effective.
    Is it perfect?  No.  I don't really buy the "superhero" turn at the end of the movie, which makes no sense.  And the way the film was shot with the crappiest digital cameras possible, no doubt intended to make the film feel more "real" or "intimate" or something, doesn't really work for me.  I want picture where I can actually see clearly, if at all possible.  Not something that looks like it's streaming in low resolution over the internet.
    That aside, it's still a classic film that everyone needs to watch.
    Dawn of the Dead (2004)

    A nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall.
    The other big zombie film that shook up horror during the mid-2000s.  I was floored by this movie when it first came out, and I still highly enjoy it to this day.
    First off, the opening scene is one of the best in recent horror history.  They hit it out of the park.
    Second, I love the cast.  Phenomenal job across the board.
    Third, some people hate the Richard Cheese cover song played to lighten the mood.  I love it.  Very fitting.
    Fourth, other than the setting, a few references, and a few cameos from guys like Tom Savini, this has nothing in common with the original film.  They are completely different in plot, characters, setpieces, and overall tone.  There really isn't any reason to compare the two.
    Finally, I know Zack Snyder's legacy is kind of all over the place after this strong start to his career.  But when he's on, he's on.
    And James Gunn, well, he went on to big things for a reason.  Dude's a talent.
    The Descent (2005)

    A caving expedition goes horribly wrong.
    I remember the first time I watched this movie.  There was quite a bit of buzz around it, so I was psyched to finally rent it (or maybe I blind bought it, who can remember?).  And let me tell you, that initial 45 minutes is just brutal.  Gripping, terrifying stuff.  And it's just a crew of women going on holiday, spelunking!
    Seriously, that shit will make anyone develop a case of claustrophobia.  If you are claustrophobic, stay far, far away from this movie.  You can trust me on that one.
    ...then the rest of the movie happens, and that's also really good in a completely separate way.  Kind of a like a double "bang for your buck."
  13. Reed Rothchild

    Ringu / The Sixth Sense / Audition

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    Ringu (1998)

    A reporter and her ex-husband investigate a cursed video tape that is rumored to kill the viewer seven days after watching it.
    I have to be honest, and admit that I was rather torn on whether to include the original Japanese movie, or the American release here.  That may be sacrilege to some corners of the horror community, but I don't care.  The remake brings a lot to the table, including a stellar job by Naomi Watts, and a few subtle changes that amp up the scares.  Disagree me with all you want, but they did a good job.
    But I ended up giving the original the slight nod.  I think the lower budget, smaller scale sets, and overall "darker" lighting really contribute towards a better overall atmosphere.  This is one creepy ass movie.
    But you can't go wrong with either version.
    The Sixth Sense (1999)

    Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist, starts treating a young boy, Cole, who encounters dead people and convinces him to help them. In turn, Cole helps Malcolm reconcile with his estranged wife.
    M. Night Shamalama-ding-dong might have reduced himself to something of a running joke over the last couple decades, but make no mistake, in the wake of this movie his stock was completely through the roof.  This is a movie that everyone was talking about.
    And for good reason.  It is such a great script, with so many great scenes.  I don't even want to spoil them for the 2 people here that haven't already seen this movie, but rest assured, they're great.
    And yeah, the twist.  It's so ingrained in pop culture at this point that it's impossible to think that someone isn't already familiar with it.  But if by some miracle you aren't, don't look into it.  Just watch the movie.
    Audition (1999)

    A widower takes an offer to screen girls at a special audition, arranged for him by a friend to find him a new wife. The one he fancies is not who she appears to be after all.
    Audition and Ringu in the same batch?  How cliché!
    What can I say, these two movies are adored for a reason, and really set the table for a decade worth's of horror.  Don't believe me?  Consider this one of the proto-"torture porn" movies, and think about how those completely dominated horror in the 2000s.  For better or worse.
    Now, is it a slow burn?  Yes.  The slowest.  In fact, this might have the longest buildup of any movie on this list.  But I like that.  I like those kinds of movies.  And the payoff is worth it.
  14. Reed Rothchild

    Event Horizon / Mimic / Deep Rising

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    Event Horizon (1997)

    A rescue crew is tasked with investigating the mysterious reappearance of a spaceship that had been lost for seven years.
    Hellraiser in space.  Did I make that up, or was that like a critic's quote used to promote the movie?  I don't remember, but it fits.
    Actually, lets call it Solaris, but stuff actually happens.
    Or how about Sunshine, before Sunshine was a thing.
    Whatever you want to call it, this is (yet another) movie I watched young (in the theaters in fact), which then got to live rent-free in my imagination for awhile.  That is always the hallmark of a good horror movie.
    Mimic (1997)

    Three years ago, entomologist Dr. Susan Tyler genetically created an insect to kill cockroaches carrying a virulent disease. Now, the insects are out to destroy their only predator, mankind.
    The first appearance from our Spanish Mexican buddy, Guillermo Del Toro.
    I actually saw this one in the theaters, and I was so creeped out that night I had trouble sleeping.  What's the only thing grosser than bugs?  Gigantic intelligent bugs, apparently.
    Re-capturing the gross, grimy New York that was so famous in movies from the 1970s and 1980s, the movie succeeds in making the viewer deeply unsettled and uncomfortable throughout.  Which is a rousing success in my book.
    Deep Rising (1998)

    A group of heavily armed hijackers board a luxury ocean liner in the South Pacific Ocean to loot it, only...
    Here's a fun one, and another one I watched with my dad when it came out. 
    Before he was directing (decidedly uneven) summer popcorn-fare like The Mummy, Stephen Sommers gave us this B-movie classic.  Treat Williams stars as the boat captain who's hired to lead a squad of mercenaries and intercept a cruise ship.  Little do they know that everyone onboard is already dead...
    I won't say anymore, but if that teaser interests you, and you like decidedly campy gorefests, check this one out asap.
  15. Reed Rothchild
    Army of Darkness (1992)
     
    A sardonic hardware store clerk is accidentally transported to 1300 A.D., where he must retrieve the Necronomicon and battle an army of the dead so he can return home.
    I've bought this movie five times.  Initially, I got the director's cut as one of the very first DVDs I ever owned.  Then I got the edition that came bundled with the theatrical cut.  Then I bought the blu ray.  Then I bought the fancy Scream Factory version of the blu ray.  Then I bought the 4K.  If it ever gets some sort of ridiculous 8K release, I'll probably buy that too.
    What can I say?  I love this movie.  I love the silly plot, Bruce's acting, the practical effects, the humor, the ending(s), the climactic battle... it's really just the perfect medieval time-travel fantasy horror comedy... thing.  One that I never get sick of watching.  Is it as good as it's predecessor?  No, but it's very close.
    In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

    An insurance investigator begins discovering that the impact a horror writer's books have on his fans is more than inspirational.
    The third and final Carpenter film to make the list.  This time he tackles some Lovecraftian things (kind of), while piling on the monsters, the jump scares, and Sam Neill losing his mind.  I love it.  I may not completely buy the plot (imagine a pulp horror writer being the most popular thing in the world), but when movies are this entertaining, who cares?
    Also, check out Carpenter's Cigarette Burns.  I won't call it a spiritual sequel, but there's a lot of similarities.
    Seven (1995)

    Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his motives.
    Another borderline horror film.  I included it mainly for "seven" particular scenes:
    Gluttony Greed Sloth Lust Pride Envy Wrath If you've seen the movie, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  And you know I'm cheating there, a little bit.  If you haven't seen it, immediately go watch it.
  16. Reed Rothchild

    Re-Animator / Aliens / Night of the Creeps

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    Re-Animator (1985)

    After an odd new medical student arrives on campus, a dedicated local and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue.
    Or as they put it in American Beauty... that movie where "the body is waIking around... carrying its own head, and then the head goes down on that babe."
    I mean, that's all you really need to know.  I don't even need to say anything else to justify this placement.
    Aliens (1986)

    Decades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.
    One of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time.  One of the greatest action movies of all time.  And one of the greatest horror movies of all time.  That's a goddamn trifecta, if there ever was one!
    Oh, and it has a serious case for being the greatest sequel in the history of cinema.  No big deal.
    Seriously though, this is one of the rare movies where the sequel outclasses the original in every way.  Not to take anything away from the original Alien, but this thing cranks everything up to 11.  And I mean everything.  It has such a classic ensemble cast, with so much quotable dialogue, so many great setpieces, so many great effects, and such amazing sound design.  It's really a perfect film.  They could have forever ended the franchise here, and we all could have died happy.
    And if you're a gamer who somehow hasn't seen this, just know it may be the most influential movie in history, as far as gaming goes.  So you should probably do something about that.  Just saying.
    Night of the Creeps (1986)

    Alien brain parasites, entering humans through the mouth, turn their host into a killing zombie. Some teenagers start to fight against them. [really IMDB?  That's the worst description I've ever read on your site]
    So much fun.  Part 1950s alien creature feature, and part splatter zombie fest, this movie is all awesome.  Tom Atkins is gold, the young leads are great, the practical effects are great, the comedy is hilarious... it's another perfect 1980s horror comedy.  Maybe not as great or iconic as American Werewolf, but damn good nonetheless.
    It also heavily influenced another later movie that I love even more.  If you're a horror guy you should know exactly what I'm talking about.  It will show up in a couple weeks.
  17. Reed Rothchild
    Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

    In a small American town, a diabolical circus and its demonic proprietor prey on the townsfolk.
    The scariest Disney kids movie ever made?  Maybe.  It's this or Return to Oz, and that's some damn good company to keep.  Where else would the house of the mouse dare to show the main kid lead seeing visions of his own bloody decapitated head?  Nowhere, that's where...
    Also, it has Jason Robards AND Jonathon Pryce, at their best.  Can't beat that.
    And there is one ridiculous scene where the kid actors are very clearly much older.  Like, they specifically came back and shot that one scene for no real reason.  Bizarre.
    Anyway, I love Ray Bradbury, and this is my favorite adaptation of his work.  It's pretty hard to get ahold of nowadays, so do what you must to try and get it watched.
    Also, I love that artwork.  For decades I've been holding out hope of running across the movie tie-in version of the book in the wild.
    The Thing (1982)

    A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
    The greatest John Carpenter movie of all time.  The greatest Kurt Russell movie of all time.  The greatest horror movie of all time.  Bar none.
    My dad rented three older horror movies when I was a kid.  Three classics that he felt I had to watch.  Those movies were Alien, Jaws, and The Thing.  And I specifically remember him talking this one up.  Talked about how scary it was, how digusting the monsters were, and how great the reveals were.  He was 100% correct on all fronts.
    Decades later, the movie has only continued to grow in stature, if anything.  Everyone loves it, and celebrates it for the classic it is.  
    And for the record, he also made sure to rent Big Trouble In Little China, and Escape From New York.  He's awesome like that.
    Body Double (1984)

    A young actor's obsession with spying on a beautiful woman who lives nearby leads to a baffling series of events with drastic consequences.
    Also known as the movie Patrick Bateman is obsessed with in the book version of American Psycho.
    This is the third and final selection from Brian De Palma, and represents him taking several of his favorite things - Hitchcock and gratuitous violence - and combining them to great effect!  Think Rear Window meets... well, something very bloody.
    Seriously, this movie is so much fun, and so... I don't want to say "depraved."  But it ain't exactly highbrow.  I mean that in the best way possible.
    Also, some major scenes take place in Troy McClure's house.  How awesome is that?
  18. Reed Rothchild
    Arachnophobia (1990)

    A new species of South American killer spider hitches a lift to a small California town in a coffin and starts to breed, leaving a trail of deaths that puzzle and terrify the young doctor newly arrived in town with his family.
    Did I mention that I had a fear of spiders growing up?  Because I still hate them.  Wouldn't touch one to save my life.  They're disgusting, they're all hair and legs and fangs, and they give me the willies.  Spiders suck.
    When I saw the trailer for this film, and it shows off spiders on the showerheads and in the toilet bowls... *shudder.*
    Nowadays, it's comfort food.  I watch it all the time.  Again, something about nostalgia for movies from the era set in California.  It's just my thing, I guess.
    The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

    A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.
    I was on the fence with this one for quite awhile.  Growing up I never really considered it a horror film, for whatever reason.  The elements are all there, but my brain just didn't want to put the pieces together.
    Then, last week a certain shock-rock horror-themed band went and released a music video homage to this movie, and I realized it was a sign.  I had to include it in this list.
    And I mean... like... you know.  Hannibal Lecter is often considered the greatest villain in the history of cinema.  That doesn't happen without being truly horrifying.  And Buffalo Bill is no slouch himself.
    Dead Alive (1992)

    A young man's mother is bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey. She gets sick and dies, at which time she comes back to life, killing and eating dogs, nurses, friends, and neighbors.
    Peter Jackson's infamous comedic-horror bloodbath.  If you aren't familiar with this movie, just know that the wunderkind from New Zealand was making waves in the horror community before he was filming 12 hour fantasy epics.  And none were better than this splatterfest. 
    Some say it's the bloodiest movie ever made.  They would be correct.
    Come for the madcap humor.  Stay for the crazy-as-all-fuck ending.
  19. Reed Rothchild

    Hereditary / Doctor Sleep / Midsommar

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    Hereditary (2018)

    A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.
    The first appearance from filmmaker Ari Aster.
    Do I think this is one of the greatest horror films of all time, like certain corners of the internet?  No.  Absolutely not.
    Do I think it's a hell of a good time, with a few key scenes that are effective as hell?  Damn straight.  I've already stated a dozen times that I like slow burns, and this is another one that crawls.  Just be wanred that if you don't enjoy the thought of a 2+ hour runtime that's going to build tension the entire time, this is probably not gonna be the movie for you.
    Toni Collette and the kids do a fantastic job as well.
    Doctor Sleep (2019)

    Years following the events of The Shining (1980), a now-adult Dan Torrance must protect a young girl with similar powers from a cult known as The True Knot, who prey on children with powers to remain immortal.
    How many sequels have I included so far?  It can't be too many.  Aliens, Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, and... is that it?  3?  Out of the over 80 years I've covered to this point?  That's impressive.
    So calling the follow-up to The Shining one of the greatest horror sequels of all time is a bold statement.  Especially one that didn't exactly have the same amount of impact on the genre as the original did.  Or when it's a movie where many fans like to claim that the book is better.
    Well, I've read the book, and I disagree.  In it, Stephen King made many of the same errors he always makes.  He meanders.  He gets off track.  And he gets to the end, without a plan (this is documented), and proceeds to make things up.  That approach doesn't usually work for endings, and I don't really care for the book's ending.
    The movie on the other hand, completely changes the ending, for the better in my opinion.  And it does it by actually tying Doctor Sleep and The Shining together.
    See, that was another complaint of mine with the book.  It's a sequel to The Shining, starring Danny Torrance, but in reality he could have been anyone.  It could have been a brand new story.  It made almost no real difference.
    The movie aims to correct that, and I think it's a change for the better.
    Also, the villains are far more menacing in the movie.  Fact.
    Midsommar (2019)

    A couple travels to Northern Europe to visit a rural hometown's fabled Swedish mid-summer festival.
    Another Ari Aster film, already?
    Probably one of the best back-to-back performances we've seen from the horror world in a very long time, it's amazing that he managed to spit out not one, but two great films in such a short span.  And I'd even argue that Midsommar is probably the better of the two.
    I don't want to spoil anything with the plot (not that you won't see where things are going right away), but the entire thing brings back memories of a certain 1970s film that I already fawned over previously.  It shouldn't be hard to guess which one.
  20. Reed Rothchild

    Featured Member October 2023: DefaultGen

    By Reed Rothchild,


    Featured Members
    What originally brought you to NA/VGS?
    I became a collector the day Nintendo announced the Wii Virtual Console and said old Nintendo games were going to be $5. Since the average unwanted physical Nintendo tape at the time was like $2, this was an outrage. This was before even Oblivion Horse Armor. The world placed zero value on digital goods. Shortly after I was bouncing between GameTZ and DigitPress hoarding up Nintendo games, and eventually NintendoAge. Every game I bought for less than $5 felt like I was sticking it to Nintendo.
    I spent a huge portion of 2006-2009  just constantly circularly refreshing DP, NA, GTZ, AtariAge, and Ebay new listings. There was so much forum chatter about old video games and wheeling and dealing that I couldn't even keep up with how many posts there were. It was really the golden age of forums. Facebook and Discord servers can't compare.
    I came to VGS once NA implemented banner ads.
    Where do you hail from?
    The southern US. Don't live here. It's hot, humid, and miserable. I need to move to New England or Colorado or something. Gimme some cold mountains.
    What do you do for a living?
    I collect and talk about vintage video games. But to make money by selling my labor I do software support, which has left me jaded with technology watching already-working things get needlessly worse, needlessly more complex, and needlessly more invasive. It makes me want to cuddle up with some simple NES games and talk to guys on one of those old timey internet forums.
    Spouse?  Kids?  Exotic and disgusting pets?
    Lil chihuahua named Ponyo. He's the cutest dog on VGS, although I do love fox's pom pom.

    Top 10 favorite games
    Super Mario 64 Zelda: Ocarina of Time Doom Metroid Prime Ninja Gaiden III Super Mario Bros. 3 Super Mario World (Not great if you compare it to SMB3) Cruelty Squad Zelda: A Link to the Past Metal Gear Solid 4 Those are mostly obvious Nintendo picks. I am not a clever man. Yes Metroid Prime is better than Super Metroid, I don't know how they did it, it just is.
    Ninja Gaiden III is secretly the easiest NG game because you get a huge ass sword and enemies are dumb AF. That game is just flow city once you know it.
    Cruelty Squad is the antithesis of everything I hate about modern games. It's short, it isn't constrained by imitating reality, and it doesn't treat you like you've never played a video game before. It rips off the best aspects of a dozen games but is unlike any other single game as a whole. It's the most fun I've ever had with an FPS and it was made by a weird gen z artist following an FPS tutorial, not some seasoned game dev. It is the greatest piece of outsider art video games have ever been graced with.
    Cruelty Squad feels like one of those games where I've heard the name, but couldn't for the life of me tell you anything about it.
    ...er, wait, is that the game you just completed a short time ago and were raving about?  Because I immediately researched it after hearing all of your superlatives, and it sounds like an absolute trip.
    Yes it's the game I was very recently raving about, ha. I always feel like modern games are a bloated march to the credits. After a 20 hour campaign or huge open world, I don't really care about any individual part of the game. I'm probably going to beat it and never play it again. Cruelty Squad is, I dunno, 2-5 hours long if you're blazing through it but it's full of fun new ways to play the game, new ways to challenge yourself, lower times to get, secrets to find, meaningless crap to explore. It reminds me more of a Goldeneye or SM64 than anything, where I care about and want to find every nook and cranny of every level. It also does this thing where it tries so hard to make it seem like no effort was put into graphics, level design, etc. when obviously every little thing was obsessed over.
    Favorite book
    The Hobbit is one of the only books I've read more than once. The older I get, the more I appreciate something concise, as epic as LOTR or Stormlight Archive is.
    I'm reading (listening to) Stormlight Archive 1 as we speak.  Rank the series, go.
    I dunno on Stormlight Archive. I love Brandon Sanderson but I feel like I'm getting lose in the obscene scale of the universe after 5000 pages and we're not even halfway through. I've got to re-read them. I'd probably rank my enjoyment as 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 because I feel like I need to take notes. I would've probably called TWOK my favorite book before I got lost in the scope of this series like a dummy.
    Ever read The Silmarillion?  Mistborn? Other nerd crap?
    I've read basically everything by Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, and about half of RA Salvatore. I burned out hard on Wheel of Time because it's soooooooooo boring. Been waiting on George RR Martin to see if he ever finishes his thing. Patrick Rothfuss is a frustrating author who wrote one amazing book and completely failed to follow up on it. Dungeon Crawler Carl is a better series than I expected since I don't usually like stupid comedy, the audiobook has a kind of love it or hate it narrator and I love it. I didn't get far into Malazan, similar to Stormlight I feel like I have to get into hardcore pay attention mode when I'm listing to it.
    I can relate.  I'm in Malazan 6 right now and it's the most confusing shit in the world, even if you do stay on top of it.  Gave up the first time with Wheel of Time after 5 books too.
    Which one will get released first: the next George RR Martin book or the Rothfuss book?
    GRRM won't finish ASOIAF. I don't even know if Rothfuss wants to write book 3. I didn't like book 2 so I'm calling him a one hit wonder until proven otherwise, no matter how amazing the way he writes is.
    Favorite movie
    There Will Be Blood, the modern day Citizen Kane. What a film bro answer. Primer is my other hipster answer.
    I asked @JamesRobot this same question: how many times did you have to watch Primer to get it?
    I've seen Primer many times but I never could've figured it out on my own. I only fully "got" it while watching with a huge like 11-timeline chart in my hand, and even then I love that even though tons of the movie fits into place, it still leaves things unanswered (Why/how did Mr. Granger time travel?). Tenet is pretty sweet if you just watch it as a direct sequel to Primer too.
    Favorite musician, song, album
    Iron Maiden? Excellent! 🎸🎶 King Crimson - Starless. A song so perfected it was delayed off the eponymous album. Songs under 8-10 minutes long are garbage. I came to listen to a song, not the trailer for a song. Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls. A maiden album with THREE songs over 10 minutes long. YES. Rank all the Maiden albums.  Go.
    Book of Souls
    Brave New World
    Dance of Death
    Powerslave
    Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
    I dunno I like a few songs on all the other albums but don't feel as strongly.
    Ever play that Maiden game?  It was a FPS or mobile game, or some fuckin' thing.
    No I never played that Iron Maiden game, lmao. I remember when it came out though. But like all mobile games it looked awful.
    Future game you're looking forward to the most?
    The only game I am really looking forward to is Super Mario Wonder. I dunno, it's probably going to be the best game of all time. But I just like Mario games, even and especially the "new" style ones. I haven't even finished TOTK yet. I don't need new games.
    When is Metroid Prime 4 coming out?
    Hopefully MP4 gets delayed to be one of those "Bad version on the old Nintendo console, good version on the new Nintendo console" games cause I don't like Switch. Am I calling Gamecube Twilight Princess bad. Maybe.
    Collect anything besides games?
    I've never stuck with anything like video games, so I deliberately try to not get involved in collecting hobbies so I don't have to go through the hassle of selling everything off when I lose interest. I used to collect Magic and comic books and I have a decent sized pinball collection.
    What's the worst game you've ever played?
    Marky Mark Make My Video is a strong contender because the gameplay is barely more than watching a couple music videos while controlling awful effects. But it's probably the somehow even more boring Color a Dinosaur, a game with the word color in its name but of course you only really have 2-3 colors most of the time. Color a Dinosaur is especially egregious because it's somehow strictly worse than its already awful predecessor Videomation.
    What are you playing right now?
    Diablo 4. It's kind of waste of time but I paid like $70 for it and I like Diablo in theory so I'm at least going to beat the story.
    Price piece in your collection?
    I don't even know what a price piece is. But from context probably this 1/100 prize Famicom disk given to winners of Nintendo's first contest. It's Famicom Golf with a unique, very difficult course and is or is very close to the rarest Nintendo game. I've got the 35th place winner's prize.
    Favorite Werewolf memory?
    Puppy and Gloves claiming Dr. Toad and Dr. Toadette and both being coroners so town voted them both off. I was a wolf that game so I was just watching that chaos. Jeeves is a game design genius.
    SNES or Genesis?
    SNES, but maybe just because I didn't have one as a kid. All my Genesis games were single-session games and I was always jealous of all my friends lengthy RPGs and such with save batteries.
    PS1 or Saturn or N64?
    PS1 is probably the best system ever made and I'm not even a super big PS1 fan.
    DS or PSP?
    DS. Longer/3D games are bad on handhelds. The ability to snap shut immediately is the also best.
    PS2 or Cube or Xbox?
    PS2 is probably the best console ever made. I already said PS is the best console ever made, but PS2 plays all the PS games so let's change my answer.
    GC is the "most Nintendo" console ever, with a ridiculous number of sequels and new franchises. It is hard not to like it.
    And Xbox was there too. I have an Xbox set by the way. I think I made the wrong choice here.
    360 or PS3 or Wii?
    Meh, none of them really but Wii had Mario Galaxy so I'm going Wii.
    Star Wars or Star Trek?
    Star Trek, easy. The standalone nature of each episode/movie lets the brightest stories shine on their own. The majority of Star Wars is cramming new stories onto and around the beloved original trilogy, and the whole of the story is forever of weighed down by that stupid bullshit like midichlorians, Jar Jar, Palpatine's million star destroyers, etc.
    Next Generation or the original series?
    I used to watch TOS on repeat while playing Lord of the Rings Online (i.e. wasting 100s of hours of my life) so TOS.
    The original movies or the TNG movies or the JJ Abrams movies?
    The original movies, and forget "even good, odd bad". They're all pretty amazing. You've never seen a movie like Star Wars: The Motion Picture. You're in space. Things are slow, methodical, and philosophical. I was bewildered the first time I saw it but now I absolutely love it.
    What member of the Breakfast Club are you?
    I'm home playing Nintendo games. How much of a screw up do you have to be to get all-day Saturday detention. That doesn't even sound legal.
    Yogurt or greek yogurt?
    Greek I guess, but idk have you seen the prices of yogurt lately. It went from $2 for the fancy brand to $2 for any brand.
    Sell me on your podcast in exactly... let's say, 13 words.
    A biweekly reminder to collect with intention but tempts you with random obscurities.
    Wine, liquor, or beer?
    None? Wine? I like a couple wines and beers but the vast majority of alcohol isn't very delicious. Like all those IPA people are just drinking garbage seltzer and pretending right?
    What's the worst beer you've ever had?
    I have no idea. Once beer people start saying beer words like "stout" and "sour" I know I'm in for a bad time.
    Coffee or tea?
    Oh shit, coffee. I forgot that I can't dunk on people who like garbage beer because I like garbage bitter black coffee. Turns out your brain makes anything taste good if it has drugs.
    Favorite meal?
    A big old sushi sashimi boat
    Favorite restaurant?
    I like those restaurants that serve you raw steak and a hot volcanic rock to cook it on. Every bite is the perfect doneness and temperature.
    Hobbies outside of gaming and hoarding?
    I like backpacking, competitive pinball, podcasting, and Youtubing but I'm somewhat less extreme at all of them.
    What's your biggest "pinball competition" moment?
    Qualifying to play it the top division at Pinburgh, the biggest pinball tournament in the world. I got demolished but got to play in the finals with the pros you see on TV. You guys watch live streaming pinball right? If you go to any big events you frequently rub shoulders with the best players on earth, which is pretty neat.
    Favorite table?
    Twilight Zone, which is a little like saying Super Mario Bros. 3 is your favorite Nintendo game. After the success of Addams Family they gave the designer a blank check to make the most tricked out game ever, and he used every cent of it.
    A more interesting answer is Flash Gordon. I want something very challenging, hard to control, and with the most distinct shots. Easier and newer games can take too long to play, especially on a good game. It's more fun to be able to lose at any moment.
    Do you own any pinball tables?
    I have around 10. I'm trying to downsize a bit because they're taking up multiple places of prime collection real estate. I topped out around 13 including 3 in my kitchen before my wife moved in because, you know what they say, "Your wife doesn't want 3 pinball machines instead of a kitchen table 🙄".
    Is she a gamer?  What was her reaction to first seeing the kitchen?
    She gets super deep into very specific games. She won't touch Minecraft, but will drop 1000 hours into Animal Crossing and Pokemon Go and many more into Wasteland 3, Divinity Original Sin 2, Diablo, and Stardew Valley. She doesn't like old games so we're not going to chill out and play Donpachi or Ninja Gaiden together. Her favorite game of all time is Wasteland 3, maybe she's unique in the entire gaming world for that opinion. It's a great game, but like, the BEST? Man. And I cleaned up the kitchen before she moved in, I'm not a madman. I'm already a collector with too much crap, I can only make her put up with so much.
    That's pretty cool.  If I tried to get my wife to play Divinity she'd probably annul our marriage that day.
    She likes running around picking things up and Divinity is kind of the ultimate game for that.
    Favorite coop game to play with the wife?  Did you guys play It Takes Two?
    Probably Divinity OS2 because it has such well integrated co-op but it's totally fine to just go off and do your own thing for a while too. She likes picking up every last item in ARPGs and I like blazing through maps for high level stuff, so we pull each other in opposite directions in a lot of games. We beat It Takes Two but it was a little nauseating.
    She mostly likes games with isometric or top down perspectives we have played basically every single co-op campaign in a game like that, especially ARPGs. There are a bunch of genres that don't really have great isometric co-op games.  I like creative crafting games, but all of the great ones are 2D or 3D. Project Zomboid is the only game in the entire genre we played for a long time, but how many random indie co-op survival crafting games have come out every week since Minecraft? It's crazy that seemingly no brainer ideas like "Isometric co-op Minecraft or Dwarf Fortress for people with motion sickness" isn't really a thing beyond some indie games like Necesse and Gnormoia that don't have that 1000 hours of unlimited playtime in them.
    If any indie game devs are out there, more isometric non-ARPG co-op campaigns please.
    [It Takes Two] Care to elaborate?...
    She just doesn't like full 3D games. She doesn't like camera control in general.
    Walk us through a day in the life of DefaultGen
    Roll out of bed 5 minutes before work. Send emails for 9 hours. Then spend the rest of the with a cloud of existential dread pondering if I should play some games, organize my collection, work on publishing some cool knowledge resource, work on podcast ideas, work on Youtube ideas, or connect with friends. Idk how I ever had time to waste on social media or Reddit before I quit. There's too much stuff to actually do.
    It's October.  Are you going to watch any scary movies?  Play scary games?  Read Goosebumps?
    I've been playing Realms of the Haunting, which is like an alternate reality Resident Evil. Rather than a third person adventure game with absurd controls, clunky combat, and funny voice acting and FMV, it's a first person adventure game with absurd controls, clunky combat, and funny voice acting and FMV. It reminds me so much of Resident Evil in spirit, I'm surprised it's not a more celebrated cult classic, but it's solidly from that era of 1994-1997 PC games where everything had completely unusable controls before developers figured out how to use mice with 3D video games.
    I primarily watch horror movies, so I don't do anything special for Halloween. It's always October at my house. Good ones, bad ones, derivative ones, give it all to me. If a Ouija board movie or people trapped in a single set movie or kids find a Monkey Paw box movie with 1.8/10 on IMDB shows up on my feed, I'm throwing that crap on ASAP.
    Quick, top ten horror films of all time.
    The Thing
    The Lighthouse
    The Shining
    The Descent
    Funny Games
    Funny Games Remake (yes, both)
    Saw
    Alien
    Dawn of the Dead Remake (I'm sorry a Zack Snyder film made this list)
    Tetsuo: The Iron Man
    Summarize Funny Games (either one) in 10 words.
    Home invaders torture family with games worse than Night Trap
    Worst horror movie you've ever seen?
    The worst horror movie I've ever seen is the worst movie I've ever seen: The Human Centipede 3. I think the first one is kind of meh, I like how excessive the second one is, and this one seems like it was perhaps trying to intentionally be the worst movie ever made, and I think it succeeds. And it doesn't have any The Room so-bad-its-good appeal or anything, it's just the worst thing ever put to film.
    What's the last great one you saw?
    Possessor by Brandon Cronenberg is so, so good. I need that weirdo to make more dark vibey movies. Maybe it's more sci-fi with its anime-feeling corporate cyber assassin thing going on. For more a pure horror-y one, I absolutely love the recent Blumhouse Invisible Man movie. I just need these studios to keep crapping out low budget horror movies as quickly as possible because every once in a while we get a really great one.
    Spoiler alert, Invisible Man may or may not have made my top 100.
    Man it doesn't linger on the [redacted] either or try to explain it. It's just like "[redacted] for the plot, deal with it". I love that movie.
    Favorite Halloween candy?
    I just like Resse's cups, I am not an interesting man. Whatever novelty Reese's Big Ass Huge Boy 99.9% peanut butter, 0.1% chocolate coating cup they have is fine with me.
    Who should I interview next?
    @Richardhead
    I already interviewed him long ago.  I don't know if the world is ready for the sequel.  Also he'd probably tell you about the drunken bro hugs I was handing out or the beer I almost knocked in my own face with a basketball.
    Oh god oh jeez oh man. @ZeldaFreak?
  21. Reed Rothchild

    American Psycho / Session 9 / Dog Soldiers

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    American Psycho (2000)

    A wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.
    I remember back in high school, I had a discussion with my mother about this movie.  Since we're both fans of horror, I was convinced she needed to watch it.  She had other ideas.  She had heard stories from her friends about how insanely messed up the book was, and refused to watch it in consequence.
    Eventually I won out and got her to check it out, and in the end she highly enjoyed it.  Which really told me something.
    See, I am convinced that people are nearly impossible to convince.  About anything.  If someone doesn't think they're going to enjoy something, for whatever reason, then there is like a 99.9% chance they won't at the end of the day.  Their mind was already made up.  Even if they should, they'll do enough mental gymnastics to ensure it stays that way.  It's just the way we seem to be.
    But in rare cases, the item in question is so good, that it overpowers that instinct.
    That's the case with the film version of American Psycho.  It's too entertaining to not enjoy.  It's impossible. 
    Even if you do have visions of the book, and of prostitutes being fed alive to rats.
    Session 9 (2001)

    Tensions rise within an asbestos cleaning crew as they work in an abandoned mental hospital with a horrific past that seems to be coming back.
    Maybe the most effective "haunted house" movie of all time.  Certainly in the running.  I first heard about this movie a million years ago (on the IGN boards, of all places), but I don't remember how I watched it.  It feels like that was too long ago for Netflix, so I must have found it a video store (for the younger readers, that used to be a thing).
    And I was instantly sold.  I went out and bought it on DVD not long after, and the instant Shout announced it on blu ray I pre-ordered that as well.
    Does it have replay value?  Yes.  But a lot of the value is in the initial viewing.  I suggest you don't read anything about it beforehand.
    Dog Soldiers (2002)

    A routine military exercise turns into a nightmare in the Scottish wilderness.
    Neil Marshall's first appearance on this list.
    Long ago, after watching The Descent, I looked around online and found a lot of recommendations for Marshall's earlier film, Dog Soldiers.  So I went out that very night to buy a copy.  And lo and behold, what I found had some of the worst box art in the history of cinema.  I mean, just look at this bastard:
    Jesus.
    But I stifled the urge to vomit, and bought it anyway.
    And goddamn did the movie end up being awesome.  It also might be the first true werewolf movie to appear on this list (someone check me on that).  Which may just mean it's the greatest werewolf movie of all time.  Think about that.
  22. Reed Rothchild
    Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

    Aliens who look like clowns come from outer space and terrorize a small town.
    When I was a kid, we had cable, but none of the premium channels.  None that is, until the occasional free trial came around.  And every time we had a free trial for HBO, this movie would be on repeat.  And I would watch it every time.
    For those who haven't seen it, it's exactly what it says it is.  Killer aliens, that look like clowns, and kill people with popcorn guns, cotton candy guns, balloon animals, and every other ridiculous carnival-themed thing you can imagine.
    Also, the bloody faces inside the cotton candy used to scare the shit out of me.  That's a big factor for inclusion on this: the ability to emotionally scar me as a child.
    Waxwork (1988)

    A wax museum owner uses his horror exhibits to unleash evil on the world.
    House of Wax meets the 1980s.  Kind of like Tourist Trap, except more fun.
    The entire plot of this movie is one giant excuse to try and pack in as many references to classic horror films as possible.  And that's totally fine by me.  I love when all hell breaks loose by the end of the film, and monsters of every ilk are running around, and the gore levels shoot through the roof.  That's my kind of movie.
    Unfortunately the sequel was not nearly as fun.  They almost never are.
    Society (1989)

    An ordinary teenage boy discovers his family is part of a gruesome orgy cult for the social elite.
    This movie is exactly as that tagline says.  Gruesome orgy cult.  Exciting stuff.
    While I adore this film, to be fair, the first 2/3 of the runtime is a bit of a slow burn.  To put it lightly.  I like that that kind of thing, because I like movies that make you wait for their payoff.  But obviously not everyone feels that way.
    When things do unravel, it escalates quickly.  Probably one of the most batshit insane final segments you'll find in any horror film.  And I mean that in a good way.  The best possible way.
  23. Reed Rothchild
    Pet Sematary (1989)

    After tragedy strikes, a grieving father discovers an ancient burial ground behind his home with the power to raise the dead.
    King superfan, remember?
    To be clear, I think there's room for improvement with cinematic Pet Sematary adaptations.  This movie is pretty damn good, but it can't hold a candle to the novel, arguably one of King's best novels (if not singular best), which is commonly cited as one of the scariest books ever written.  That's a tough assignment, but I hope someone can eventually crack it.
    Still, the movie is super creepy.  The child who plays Gage does a hell of a job, the final parts are all sorts of scary, and that highway scene?  Jesus!
    And those scenes with Zelda?  Yeah, an entire generation was traumatized.
    Nowadays I don't find it as engaging as I did 30 years ago, but it still gets the job done.
    Tales from the Darkside (1990)

    To stall a witch plotting to eat him, a boy reads her horror tales dealing with a collegian's resurrection of a mummy, a murderous cat, and an artist's pact with a gargoyle.
    Another anthology, again featuring the work of George Romero and Stephen King.  They may as well have titled this Creepshow 3.
    The cat segment is a particular favorite of mine, an adaptation of one of King's better short stories (which wasn't actually published in a book until decades later, strangely enough).  Cat lovers will not appreciate this vignette 😏
    The mummy segment is also fun, featuring a prime Christian Slater, and early appearances by both Steve Buscemi and Julianne Moore.
    Then there's the gargoyle segment which is maybe the best of the bunch, adapting the best segment from the old Japanese horror film Kwaidan.  The original makes a lot more logical sense, but the remake is probably the more entertaining watch.
    Finally, the wraparound segment involves Deborah Harry trying to serve a child for dinner.
    What's not to love?
    Jacob's Ladder (1990)

    Mourning his dead child, a haunted Vietnam War veteran attempts to uncover his past while suffering from a severe case of dissociation. To do so, he must decipher reality and life from his own dreams, delusions, and perceptions of death.
    Hey, the second movie in a single batch about losing children.  That's no coincidence, as that subject matter always hits me especially hard.  This one in particular is pretty devastating, with Tim Robbins doing an amazing job in the role of Jacob Singer, whose entire existence and sense of reality unravels over the course of the movie.
    Despite watching this movie at least a dozen times, I still don't know what some of the scenes are supposed to be telling us.  I never look it up either, because I want to keep coming back so I can learn a little bit more each time.
  24. Reed Rothchild

    Hardware / Night of the Living Dead / Misery

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    Hardware (1990)

    The head of a cyborg reactivates, rebuilds itself, and goes on a violent rampage in a space marine's girlfriend's apartment.
    Hardware answers the age-old question:  what it would be like if Blade Runner was set entirely within someone's high-rise apartment? 
    Also, a killer robot slaughters everyone. 
    And there's also this extremely creepy neighbor who spies on the main character having sex and says some of the most disgusting shit this side of a porno film. 
    And it has Burglekutt from Willow.
    Night of the Living Dead (1990)

    When the unburied dead return to life and seek human victims, seven refugees shelter in a house in the Pennsylvanian countryside.
    Tom Savini takes the director's chair, to helm this remake of his buddy George's seminial zombie classic.
    Is it sacrilege to call this better than the original?  I dont' know, and I don't care.  I watch this one way more often, and that's all I needed to make the decision on which film to include on this list.
    Barbara is no longer a worthless, whimpering piece of dead weight.  Is it at the expense of the main male lead, now played by Tony Todd?  Eh, I don't think so.  There's room for two heroes.
    Also, the gore and violence levels have been ratcheted up a level or ten.  Which shouldn't be surprising, considering the eras the two films were released in.
    It's also significantly scarier.  No offense to the original, but it ain't gonna keep you up at night.  This one has a much better shot at that.
    Either way, both films deserve a space in every horror fan's collection.  It's just a shame this one gets overlooked so often.
    Misery (1990)

    After a famous author is rescued from a car crash by a fan of his novels, he comes to realize that the care he is receiving is only the beginning of a nightmare of captivity and abuse.
    Another Stephen King joint!
    This is another story that has a serious claim at being the greatest thing that King has ever written.  And Rob Reiner kills the adaptation, thanks mostly to the performances by the two leads.  James Caan is great as writer Paul Sheldon, delivering arguably his best performance since the original Godfather.
    But Kathy Bates... I mean, come on.  Her performance speaks for itself.  How many films in the history of the genre have won an Academy Award for best performance by a lead actress?  This and... nothing else?  Ever?  Does Natalie Portman in The Black Swan even count?
  25. Reed Rothchild

    The Fly / Hellraiser/ Street Trash

    By Reed Rothchild,


    100 Favorite Horror
    The Fly (1986)

    A brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong.
    David Cronenberg's third and final selection on this list.
    The greatest horror remake of all time?  That would be The Thing.  But The Fly is a not-too-distant second.  I love the original movie, but this one runs circles around it.  Jeff Goldblum is spectacular as the "Brundlefly", subverting the nature of the accident in the original film in a very clever (and creepy) way.  And man is this movie ever creepy.  Not to mention disturbing.  There are several scenes in it that really stuck with me as a kid after watching it.  One in particular is sheer nightmare fuel.  Cronenberg really knows how to get under your skin.
    Hellraiser (1987)

    A woman discovers the newly resurrected, partially formed, body of her brother-in-law. She starts killing for him to revitalize his body so he can escape the demonic beings that are pursuing him after he escaped their sadistic underworld.
    Speaking of skin puns...
    Clive Barker is a great writer.  I've read a number of novels and short stories of his that are truly gruesome and horrifying in clever ways.  Highly recommended.  Sadly, most of those works were never adapted into films.
    Luckily, we got a handful of truly fun adaptations in Rawhead Rex, Nightbreed, and Lord of Illusions.  Fun, gory movies.  But Hellraiser is the runaway winner.  This movie is a sickeningly fun time, with copious blood and gore, and a cast of truly revolting villains.  And I'm not even talking about the Cenobites.
    Just ignore every sequel outside of the second movie.  And even that one can't hold a candle to the original.
    Street Trash (1987)

    A liquor store owner sells alcoholic beverages to homeless people, unaware of what the bottles actually contain: toxic brew.
    ..and yet Hellraiser isn't nearly as depraved and disgusting as this movie.
    Ever seen any Troma films?  Like The Toxic Avenger or Class of Nukem High.  Because if you have, then you'll understand when I say those movies have a particular "feel" to them.  It's a thing 99.9% of the general population will not want anything to do with.
    Street Trash is what happens when a filmmaker decides to one-up Troma, and make a movie that's more depraved, more disgusting, filled with even more bodily fluids, dismemberments, and the sort of non-PC moments that only the 1980s could get away with.
    Don't watch this unless you have an iron constitution.
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