Synopsis: Sleazy L.A. private eye Mike Hammer gives a lift to a frightened gal who is later brutally murdered. Hammer pummels his way to the mystery surrounding her death and to a mysterious suitcase.

Why top 100?: Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer may be the nastiest bastard in the history of film noir - and he's the hero! His Hammer beats the living shit out of people for both information and sport in Aldrich's incredibly sleazy gem. Kiss Me, Deadly has it all - a dirty, tough private dick and his super sexy secretary - vicious femme fatales - a variety of tough guy hoods and sweaty snitches - it just doesn't get any better than this lunatic paced thrill ride. There have of course been more graphic films made but has another film been so steeped in knuckle crunching violence as Kiss Me, Deadly? Hammer himself gets knocked out about a half dozen times in between the blunt beat downs and slaps he delivers to those in his way. Not to mention the abuse woman go through in this sucker (including being tortured to death with pliers!) Some 40 years later this negative little flick still shocks.

Moment you won't soon forget: The revelation of what's in the glowing suitcase (remember Pulp Fiction?) leads to a real upper of an ending!

59) Re-Animator (1985, Dir. Stuart Gordon)

Synopsis: A mild mannered medical student becomes entangled in his lunatic roommate's quest to revive the dead with a glowing serum.

Why top 100?: Re-Animator is slam bang entertainment from the get go featuring terrific performances from its low budget cast, nasty gore effects, a witty screenplay and a director that knows how to deliver the goods. Re-Animator is one of those rare horror films that is actually funny - scenes are so ridiculous and over the top you find yourself chuckling throughout. Re-Animator really takes off when Robert Sampson loses his head only to be revived by the unflappable Combs. What follows is some sublime slapstick, attacking fifty foot intestines, zombies ripping bodies to pieces and in perhaps the most famous cult scene of the 80's, the delicious Barbara Crampton tied down butt naked to a table being licked and molested by Sampson's severed head! A real gem in a decade of really sub par American horror/fantasy films.

Moment you won't soon forget: Barbara Crampton tied down butt naked to a table being licked and molested by Sampson's severed head! Probably the most often freeze framed scene in the history of the VCR.

58) Brazil (1985, Dir. Terry Gilliam)

Synopsis: "Somewhere in the 20th century" a clerk searches for a girl he glimpsed in his dreams while living in an oppressive futuristic society plagued by terror bombings and the fascist "Ministry of Information."

Why top 100?: Visually stunning, thought provoking and just plain weird Terry Gilliam's Brazil seems to become more relevant with each passing year. It's true - if you haven't seen this sucker in a while check it out - it seems downright prophetic. Political leaders whose speeches sound like sport commentaries, a dumbed down, numb society obsessed with youth and plastic surgery, agencies that can smash into your home at anytime and take you away indefinably for unknown crimes, the constant and unending threat of terrorist bombings, etc. Brazil is so jam packed with ideas and little details that it reveals a little more of itself with each viewing. Brazil was famously subjected to various edits including an unbelievable cut that was an hour shorter and contained a sunny, happy ending (Criterion Collection has an incredible set that includes this edited version along with Gilliam's original and about 2 days worth of all things Brazil - a must have)!

Moment you won't soon forget: Robert De Niro's brilliant, scene stealing bit as a cigar chomping freedom fighter who fucks with the system before zip lining his ass down 100 story buildings.

57) Mommie Dearest (1981, Dir. Frank Perry)

Synopsis: Hollywood star Joan Crawford adopts a baby girl named Christina who she utilizes for publicity but abuses the hell out of behind closed doors.

Why top 100?: One of the most rewatchable, enjoyable films ever made. It's hard to put your finger on what makes Mommie Dearest so damn enjoyable - is it Faye Dunaway's manic performance? Is it the creepy young actress that plays Christina who you are supposed to side with but are completely repulsed by? How about the girl who plays the older Christina - Is she the worst actress to ever appear in a major Hollywood film?! Mommie Dearest is both laughably bad and completely addictive. Try watching just five minutes of it - it's impossible. Mommie Dearest is all about the freak out torture scenes and they live up to the hype. My personal favorite is the young Christina having to sit in front of that rotting slab of rare meat she refuses to eat. She's such a smug little bitch you kind of root for Dunaway to give her a whack with the wire hanger! When Paramount realized this train wreck wasn't going to pick up any Oscar's they actually embraced its cult appeal with a No More Wire Hangers . . . Ever! ad campaign. The films producer, who took his flick seriously, threatened to sue and put an end to the campy campaign.

Moment you won't soon forget: So many ... the no more wire hangers ever followed by the bathroom scrubbing, the hacking of the rose bushes, the slab of meat, Crawford cutting off Christina's precious golden curls, etc. the whole damn movie.

56) Witchcraft Through the Ages (Haxan) (1922, Dir. Benjamin Christensen)

Synopsis: A visual history of European witchcraft from the middle ages to the 1920's.

Why top 100?: Christensen's mesmerizing silent film opus would become one of the most banned films in cinema history. This distressingly eerie flick would be nearly forgotten until a revival in the late 60's which featured a re-release of the flick with sound effects and a narration by none other than William S. Burroughs! The first half of Witchcraft is some of the spookiest shit ever laid down on film - it's probably not a good idea to get loaded up on hallucinogens on a cold rainy night and take this one in solo. The infamous "Walpurgisnacht" scene featuring witches flying through the air on broomsticks to meet up with a bloated Satan (played by the director!) seems to have been shot in another dimension! They reek evil and are so stylistically, beautifully shot for the time. The repulsive demon make up and ample nudity still deliver a jolt.

Moment you won't soon forget: The tongue waging demon that gets its kicks bonking nuns over the head!

55) High School Confidential (1958, Dir. Jack Arnold)

Synopsis: Juvenile delinquency, rock and roll, hot rod racing and a drug epidemic hang over Santo Bello High until an undercover narc shows up to set things straight.

Why top 100?: One of the most amusing high school/delinquency/car racing/rock and roll/ drug abusing exploitation flicks of the 50's. With my man Jack Arnold at the helm you know you are in for a good time and he delivers with a bang. Right from the get go we get Jerry Lee Lewis banging out a song while the wild and crazy student body gets down. The ridiculously sexy Mamie Van Doren gets a juicy bit as Russ Tamblyn's older Aunt who tries to seduce the supposed high school student while her husband is away (he thwarts her advances!). High School Confidential is somewhat shocking in its depiction of heroin withdrawal and general drug abuse while at the same time being wonderfully naive (The great character Joan who is hooked on "marijuana cigarettes"). Sexy 50 gals in tight sweaters, switchblade fights, zonked out teenagers getting down and a great voice over that claims during the happy ending that - "Joan only smokes ordinary cigarettes now" make High School Confidential a freakin' classic.

Moment you won't soon forget: Tamblyn's narc character pretending to shoot up. Mamie Van Doren in various tight sweaters.

54) Drunken Master Two (1994, Dir. Liu Chia-liang)

Synopsis: Wong Fei-hong discovers the Brits stealing Chinese artifacts which they export for profit. In order to stop this thievery and protect the abused Chinese laborers Fei-hong gets shit faced and beats much ass.

Why top 100?: Remember the time when Jackie Chan was the star and he didn't half to laugh at some lame comedian's jokes in overproduced Hollywood bullshit? In Drunken Master 2, his best film, he delivers the jokes and blows with equal fury in this legendary Kung Fu tornado of a film. The fight scenes in this film are just out of control, when that silly bitch starts chugging down bottles of wine - or drinking pure alcohol - ass whopping and much hilarity ensue. Chan seems to be made out of rubber as he stumbles about contorting his body and delivering blows from inconceivable angles. When Fei-hong and his buddy General Fu take on about a hundred hatchet wielding madmen we get to witness a Jackie Chan I miss - an ass kicking lunatic that goes off uninterrupted for a good twenty minutes of savage violence. Jackie please dump the American sidekicks and beat some drunken ass yet again!

Moment you won't soon forget: The final fight between Chan and this absolute kung fu kicking lunatic named Johnny Lo! This Lo fellow is no joke and the choreography between the two is legendary.

53) God Told Me To (Demon) (1977, Dir. Larry Cohen)

Synopsis: I'll try. New York City becomes even more chaotic as people begin murdering each other declaring "God told me to." A police officer investigating the growing epidemic soon realizes that a supreme being, born of a virgin mother who was impregnated by a UFO, is roaming the streets. Then the film gets weird!

Why top 100?: "What if a messiah came back, bringing with him the kind of ethic that really is the basis of our religion, which is: kill and destroy anybody who doesn't do exactly what you tell him to do." Larry Cohen was inspired to make God Told Me To after a museum visit filled with religious paintings depicting various forms of butchery that bible stories are chock full of. The result is one of the most bleak, confusing and difficult to endure films ever made. The intense Tony Lo Bianco searches the streets of Manhattan for a "hippie with no face" who speaks with the killers before they rampage. What he finds is an extremely creepy hermaphrodite Antichrist/Messiah figure played by the always menacing Richard Lynch. This here is a seriously disturbing film that will leave you feeling like absolute shit by the conclusion. Thankfully one of a kind, seriously powerful stuff.

Moment you won't soon forget: The whole damn movie. The cameo by Andy Kaufman.

52) Night of the Demon (Curse of the Demon) (1958, Dir. Jacques Tourneur)

Synopsis: A skeptical doctor sets out to prove a famous witch/Satanist is a fraud only to find himself immersed in unexplainable supernatural happenings.

Why top 100?: Jacques Tourneur tightens the screws in this truly creepy beautifully directed little shocker. Known for his reliance on lighting and sound to create horror in the viewers mind, Tourneur's film was hijacked by producer Hal E. Chester who inserted the infamous hairy, horned demon beast at the films conclusion. On one hand the "demon" is a terrific monster becoming a low level horror icon pictured on the cover of many monster magazines of the past, on the other hand it was completely unnecessary - the human brain or course concocts images far more horrible than can be shown with make up. Regardless the film is good, eerie fun as we watch the nonbeliever doctor slowly becoming unraveled in a landscape of gnarled trees, supernatural winds and fog filled nights all captured on dazzling black and white stock. The quintessential late night Halloween spooker.

Moment you won't soon forget: The good doctor meeting Karswell the witch at his estate. Made up for Halloween, with masked children running about, Karswell whips up a massive windstorm to scare both the doctor and the viewer shitless.

51) The Killer (1989, Dir. John Woo)

Synopsis: A hitman accidentally blinds an innocent singer during a hit. He must complete one last mission to pay for her costly sight saving surgery.

Why top 100?: Woo's much copied action extravaganza blasted onto the screen in 1989 quickly making American action films of the time look like the empty, dull works of shit that they were. His "Heroic Bloodshed" flick contained much melodrama, slickly dressed casual villains and mucho chaos. Taking the works of Peckinpah as a launching pad The Killer contained long stretches of impeccably choreographed mayhem edited together to create a flawless series of mind-blowing images. Star Chow Yun Fat became the coolest actor working in film showing a grace for action scenes, terrific comic timing and a cool that has sadly been lost since his arrival in American productions. The Killer is possibly the most influential genre work of the past ten years with its images being swiped by countless films. Beware of various versions that cut the nastier bits (you can never lose with the Criterion Collection).

Moment you won't soon forget: Chow Yun Fat and Inspector Li mowing down a barrage of jumpsuit clad thugs. The sheer beauty of the violence is shockingly interrupted when Fat pins down an assassin, grabs a butcher knife from a block on the counter, and brutally buries it in his back. The viewer realizes for the first time what nasty business it all is - a brilliant scene.

Here are some more classics - check out ten more!