Synopsis: On his return from the Crusades a young knight is visited by Death during the black plague. The knight challenges Death to a game of chess - a stalling tactic he utilizes in order to come to grips with the madness of the world surrounding him and his struggling faith.

Why top 100?: Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1956) remains one of Bergman's most accessible films - a beautiful, haunting, terrifying and strangely uplifting look at the Crusades, loss of faith, religious insanity and the fear of death. Bengt Ekerot as Death, clad completely in black with only his pale face exposed, has become one of the most famous icons of world cinema and the set up match between the knight (the great Max Von Sydow) and death being one of the most brilliant and exhilarating ideas in film. The stark black and white cinematography makes the viewer feel that the end is at hand while the depiction of the march of self flagellating "holy men" and cripples along with the burning of the young "witch" will haunt you for years to come. The Seventh Seal, like most of Berman's films, is open to many interpretations making it a fascinating film to revisit from time to time. Probably not the best film for those on Prozac or Zoloft.

Moment you won't soon forget: The whole film is an unforgettable experience. When the knight and Death sit down for their game before an endless sky, the march of the holy men, the burning of the witch and deaths final arrival at the castle where he leads his victims in a line across the horizon are all classic moments.

39) Shock Corridor (1963, Dir. Sam Fuller)

Synopsis: A reporter seeking the Pulitzer poses as an inmate in an insane asylum to investigate a murder.

Why top 100?: One of the heavyweights of low budget filmmaking, Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor is a blast of sleazy fun with something to say. Peter Breck plays the journalist Johnny Barratt who with the help of his stripper girlfriend gets purposely committed to an asylum. Never a good idea - especially when you'll be sharing a ward with a Korean war turncoat who believes he's a Confederate soldier, a black man who believes he's a white member of the KKK and a huge, beast of a man who sits on your chest at night singing opera songs! Before you know it you start bugging out a bit getting nightmares and acting a bit strange. Next comes the fights and the electroshock therapy before your ass is left in for good. AGH! Fuller's ward is a surrealistic hell - it's full of nympho's, corrupt horny wardens and the destruction of the American Dream. Fuller's inmates have all striven for greatness in America before buckling under the pressure of a racist, corrupt society. A terrific, sleazy, disturbing low budgeted flick with a definite gloomy view on the state of the country circa 1963.

Moment you won't soon forget: The decision to give Johnny electric shock, that crazy big bastard Pagliacci who torments Johnny and the classic crazed corridor ending.

38) Blood Feast (1963, Dir. Herschell Gordon Lewis)

Synopsis: An Egyptian madman, Fuad Ramses, murders woman for their body parts in preparation of a "Blood Feast" for the Goddess Ishtar.

Why top 100?: Sensing the demise of the "nudie" film Chicago filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis with producer David Friedman put their noggins together and created a new genre of cinema - The Gore Film. Blood Feast, made for a paltry 30 grand, premiered in 1963 to long lines and sold out drive ins doing such brisk business that it competed with mainstream Hollywood films in sales. The film itself is a deliriously fucked up mess - the acting is beyond amateur, the lighting and composition make Plan 9 From Outer Space look like The Magnificent Ambersons and the dialogue seems to have been written by a nine year old mongoloid - yet the scenes of graphic gore deliver more of a jolt than most contemporary genre flicks. The pulling out of Astrid Olsen's tongue is the bone to spaceship cut of gore films - it remains a completely defenseless kick to the nuts. The acting of Connie Mason is the stuff of legend yet it is the acting of Molly's sobbing mother that remains the all time worst performance in cinema history.

Moment you won't soon forget: Olsen getting her tongue torn out while starring horrified at her killed. Molly's sobbing mother whose hysterics stop instantly to allow the other actors to speak into the one microphone!

37) A Clockwork Orange (1971, Dir. Stanley Kubrick)

Synopsis: In the near future Alex and his gang of "Droogs" terrorize the England.

Why top 100?: Kubrick's film still packs a major wallop - it's as mesmerizing the 20th time you see it as it was the first. A loud, cold, brutal and often hilarious look at youth, crime, the state and free will - this take on Burgess' classic novel remains one of the great literary adaptations in the cinema. A Clockwork Orange made a cult icon out of the almost too charismatic Malcolm McDowell whose murdering rapist you find yourself cheering for. McDowell's performance is so extraordinary nary a Halloween passes where some malcontent doesn't adorn the classic droog get up complete with crotch protective and false eyelash. The first thirty or so minutes remains a gloriously decadent thrill ride as we accompany the gang from their consumption of drugged milk to their pillaging, raping and hilarious car rides where they play "hogs of the road." The opening reaches a climax with one of the most infamous scenes in cinema history - the home invasion scene - featuring a phallic masked Alex doing his rendition of Singing in the Rain while dropping the boot on an old man and raping his wife. It's about as black as black comedy gets. A cult mainstay.

Moment you won't soon forget: A Clockwork Orange is jam filed with them. The whole first 30 minutes - The Ludovico technique which features Alex's eyes clamped open - the barrage of subliminal images that accompany Alex bashing the cat ladies head in with a huge penis - Alex giving his droogs a beating - Alex's frighteningly sleazy truant officer - the sped up threesome - Alex's daydreaming about the bible - and of course the conclusion where Alex is "cured all right."

36) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, Dir. Don Siegel)

Synopsis: A doctor returns to his small hometown to find the good folks suffering from a bizarre psychosis.

Why top 100?: Siegel's classic SCI FI horror flick has been the subject of numerous writings - the cold war message of communism / the seeming conformity of American suburbia / fear of McCarthyism, etc. All valid and fascinating discussions but sometimes lost in the mix is how plain thrilling Invasion of the Body Snatchers is. Siegel brilliantly begins his film with a depiction of the sleepy town of Santa Mira as a silly merger of Leave it to Beaver and The Andy Griffith show. Once the viewer feels comfortable with the tame Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) and the goofy town people, Siegel begins to slowly turn the screw. A half an hour into the film you're sweating bullets, mesmerized and horrified. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is pure cinema at its finest. Gorgeous black and white cinematography, brilliantly composed shots, sly editing and a script that has you (gasp!) actually caring about the characters. A nonstop barrage of thrills with quite a few outright scares and an overall creepy, sickening tone that is hard to pin down. Kevin McCarthy plays Dr. Bennell with a feverish intensity and you feel his fear and anger as he discovers the plot that has destroyed his town and his loved ones. One of the best.

Moment you won't soon forget: The sickening cadaver at his buddies pad, the discovery of the pods and the nail biting planks under the cave scene.

35) Vanishing Point (1971, Dir. Richard C. Sarafian)

Synopsis: A professional car driver cranked up on speed promises to deliver a Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours while trying to evade the police.

Why top 100?: In the good old days before CGI and multi million dollar Michael Bay car pile ups, they actually made exciting movies featuring real cars and real stunt drivers - Vanishing Point was one of the best. In typical 70's fashion the hero is a nut named Kowalski - a former war hero, police officer and professional race car driver who has of course "dropped out" and now fights against "the man" by doing mass amounts of drugs and driving as fast as he can. Aided by a band of misfits he meets on the way and the ever present DJ Super Soul, Kowalski becomes an antihero by outrunning and infuriating the fuzz in his super cool Challenger. Vanishing Point has got it all - part road movie, part existential loner flick, part super groovy seventies time capsule and of course a kick ass chase movie - Vanishing Point has remained a cult legend despite years of being a real bitch to find.

Moment you won't soon forget: The terrific suicide ending of course - Fuck Thelma and Louise - Kowalski did it first beeaattcchh!!

34) The Streetfighter (1975, Dir. S. Ozawa)

Synopsis: Killer for hire, Terry Tsuguri, fights the Yakuza in order to save a kidnapped oil heir. Tsuguri is pretty much a psycho who could give a shit less about the kidnapped lass - he wants revenge on the gangsters that ripped him off.

Why top 100?: If you gotta fight ... fight dirty! was the films tagline and Sonny Chiba lived up to the hype delivering the first film rated "X" for violence. While the Shaw brothers and the recently deceased Bruce Lee were delivering graceful, acrobatic blows to their enemies along came Sonny Chiba - a graceless, contorting, bone breaking madman of a fighter. Chiba didn't do three flips in the air and deliver 100 blows per second - his Terry Tsurgi grunted and spasmed before ripping out your windpipe, poking in your eyes or ripping off your genitals while enjoying the carnage way to much. Decked out in all black Chiba is a sight to behold - his "hero" doesn't fight merely to defeat a foe - oh no - he ENJOYS breaking bones and inflicting pain on his adversaries. When a client doesn't pay up for a job he insists his younger sister prostitute herself! And this guys the hero! Oh the good old seventies. The Streetfighter is aided by a terrific funky soundtrack, a colorful collection of villain's and almost nonstop action. The final battle aboard the ship is a thing of beauty as Chiba kills off a small army in brutal fashion before the legendary final showdown where a shot, stabbed and beaten Chiba rips the windpipe out of his foe - holding up the chunk of flesh in victory while laughing like a fucking madman.

Moment you won't soon forget: Chiba cracking some dude's skull - the damage is shown via an x-rayed skull being pulverized. Chiba contorting and writhing like an animal before striking his victims and the psycho ending where he grasps a torn windpipe in victory.

33) Cannibal Holocaust (1980, Dir. Ruggero Deodato)

Synopsis: A documentary film crew searches the Amazon for a cannibalistic tribe called the Yamamomo. They disappear and their film is recovered by a professor who plays back the film to discover their fate.

Why top 100?: The greatest of all Italian Cannibal films and still possibly the most brutal film ever made - Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust is the ultimate cinematic kick to the nuts. Cannibal Holocaust has been burned, banned and its director temporarily arrested - that's how strong this low budget Italian flick is. Of course The Blair Witch Project stole it's premise from Cannibal Holocaust without so much as a thanks to Deodato in the credits but we don't care - as Blair Witch fades away as the fad it was, Cannibal Holocaust will be both loved and despised for generations to come, it's too powerful to go away. Shot in a surprisingly effective documentary style we follow the film crew as they provoke and abuse the seemingly childlike cannibals. Along the way we are treated to some of the most vile animal butchery this side of Franju's Blood of the Beasts - all to set up the brutal finale. By showing the real deaths of animals Deadato brilliantly and indefensibly sets up his ending to seem as if the crew is actually being murdered. This guy doesn't play around. Cannibal Holocaust is one of the toughest most indefensible movies ever made - you leave any screening feeling like utter shit. For years Cannibal Holocaust was only available via bootleg or foreign laserdiscs adding to its allure - it took work to find it! (I had a terrific Dutch video copy!) Alas it has become available on DVD after mucho controversy (some printing place wouldn't lay down the pole through the mouth artwork). As cult and as old school Grindhouse as it gets.

Moment you won't soon forget: I'd be listing scenes for the next hour - the whole fucking movie you won't forget.

32) Jason and the Argonauts (1963, Dir. Don Chaffey)

Synopsis: Jason, under the watchful eye of the Goddess Hera, searches for the Golden Fleece which will bring peace and prosperity to his people.

Why top 100?: As a child growing up in the late seventies / early eighties when Don Chaffey's Jason and the Argonauts was listed in the TV Guide for the upcoming week it felt like a holiday. The magic of seeing the mammoth Titan Talos, the wonder of the horrific flying Harpies and the show stopping battle with the army of skeletons was enough to put my pea sized kid brain into a frenzy. Under the helm of stop motion and effects master Ray Harryhausen, Jason and the Argonauts remains one of the most magical movies ever made. Throw in Todd Armstrong as a terrific and intelligent Jason, a soaring score by master Bernard Herrman and a literate script written by a freakin' Greek scholar by the name of Beverly Cross and you have yourself a truly magical family film - not some dumbed down Disney shit - but real rousing, uninsulting family entertainment. Keanu Reeves can battle a million fucking replicants and it won't hold a candle to the jaw dropping battle between Jason and his boys versus the skeleton army. Pick up a Harryhausen book and read about how he pulled that lunacy off - it will blow your mind. There is something in these animated models that brings such joy I can't put my finger on but Jason and the Argonauts is what it's all about.

Moment you won't soon forget: Any of Harryhausen's incredible creations I'm sure are stuck in the mind of any genre fan.

31) Basket Case (1982, Dir. Frank Henenlotter)

Synopsis: A young man named Duane makes his way around seedy 80's New York City with his mutated, violence prone, Siamese brother Belial.

Why top 100?: Possibly the greatest American Grindhouse film Frank Henenlotter's Basket Case played to block long lines in New York City and has remained a video favorite. A living encyclopedia of exploitation and horror film knowledge, Henenlotter writes and directs the ultra low budget Basket Case with the precision and skill of a man whose absorbed the genre whole. There is not a second of wasted time in this sleazy, hilarious, gore splattered favorite. Shooting in the city utilizing welfare hotels and colorful locals you can almost FEEL the stink of a pre Guiliani New York. Kevin VanHententryck is a believable, sympathetic lead as Duane and the creature Belial emerges as one of horror cinemas great movie monsters. A mixture of foam latex, robotics and good old fashioned stop animation models the creature seems almost too realistic for such a low budget endeavor. Belial is sympathetic, spoiled, jealous, plotting and extremely nasty - you don't know whether to cheer him on or vomit. Most of his rage is justified until the show stopping rape (and murder?) of his brothers girlfriend in a scene you won't soon forget. A burst of much needed originality in the early eighties.

Moment you won't soon forget: The rape seen where Belial is humping away on the bloody mess that was his brothers girlfriend. It'll take the previous hours smile right off of your stupid face. The murder by a hundred scalpels.

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