Hmmm, so many to choose from.... George Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and DAWN OF THE DEAD for their apocalyptic visions of the U.S. George Romero's MARTIN for its views on the manner in which "otherness" and "monstrosity" are regarded by middle-class WASP culture. GANJA AND HESS for its narrative and stylistic daring, and its representations of African-American strength within the face of cultural oppression. NEAR DARK for deftly blending genres and playing with gender roles (and having a completely kick-ass bar slaughter scene). For sheer fun, Peter Jackson's BRAIN DEAD (a.k.a. DEAD ALIVE) and Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD 2: DEAD BY DAWN. Their exuberant excesses in gore comedy can't be beat. LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH and DEAD AND BURIED for giving me nightmares when I was a little kid. (I was never able to bring myself to watch them again, they'd scared me so much.) On the global front, Japanese horror films EVIL DEAD TRAP II: HIDEKI, ONIBABA, and THE LAST FRANKENSTEIN for their fascinating cultural renderings and all-out creepiness. Italian maestro Mario Bava's KILL BABY KILL, SHOCK, LISA AND THE DEVIL, and BLACK SUNDAY: impressive accomplishments for their time, and even today (particularly KILL and LISA, two fascinating movies). Sammo Hung's ENCOUNTERS OF THE SPOOKY KIND for its great mixture of bone-breaking kung fu and Chinese hopping vampires! Most of the films of Dario Argento and David Cronenberg for their intensely personal visions. THE COMPANY OF WOLVES, Neil Jordan's and Angela Carter's lushly envisioned Freudian fairy tale, deserves to be seen. MOTEL HELL is a caustic Grand Guignol look at the values that comprise America's heartland. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACREhas an intiguing representations of family (and for being so stylistically aggressive). This is all I can think of at the moment.... Curtis Tsui "Ah, rum! Darkest of the dark liquors!" [log in to unmask] http://pages.nyu.edu/~ct208/ ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]