Vincent Price in the role of Edward Sheridan Lionheart is going to chew the scenery so boldly and so vividly in the kinds of important theatrical roles he always wanted to play, but felt his stature and reputation in horror cinema kept out of his reach. Luckily for Vincent Price, and by extension for us, Lionheart's final season was a survey of some of the biggest and juiciest roles in Shakespeare's canon. The Shakespeare plays contained in Theatre of Blood were more likely than not chosen for the inventiveness with which characters are dispatched than for the significance of the plays themselves, but Price does get to wrap his mouth around monologues from Hamlet, Richard III, Shylock, and on and on.
Jennifer's Body (2009)
I think Jennifer's Body rides a lot of lines. It's a little nostalgic in terms of its tone and its story. It's a little post-modern though in its execution. I think the characters reflect and refract one another. There's sort of a kind of “reverse menstruation” idea at work. And there's an exploitation of the fear of female or feminine power and empowerment. I think it's got a view of high school that's so saturated with meta-commentary that it seems like it has been made by a team of artists who probably barely survived high school and then really triumphed afterward.
Extra Ordinary (2019)
In Extra Ordinary, the characters are all losers in the truest sense. They're mostly unlucky people. They've experienced loss. Everybody is looking for something. But I think it's a rare cinema experience that kind of makes me feel in every scene, if not every frame, compelled to either laugh out loud or get a little misty with truly happy tears.
Haunted Honeymoon (1986)
Haunted Honeymoon came out in the summer of 1986. I was eight. I remember sitting outside on the patio in the summer and seeing an ad for it in the newspaper, The Scranton Times: “Haunted Honeymoon, a comedy chiller.” Can you imagine my excitement? But by the time I'd convinced my parents to take me to see it, probably 10 days later, it was gone. And when a few months later, it arrived on VHS on the shelves of Montage Video, I could not wait to get it first into my hot little hands and then into the waiting maw of our Magnavox VCR. And for eight year-old me, it was 10,000% worth the wait.
Evil Dead 2 (1987)
Raimi and his team — all of whom have gone on to become powerhouses in their respective departments in Hollywood — made a thing that was totally unique in the marketplace. They created an environment in which anything can and does happen. And they did it all in a house in the woods, in which all things seem possible.
Ready or Not (2019)
The overall quality of Ready or Not is extremely high, especially when considering the relatively modest budget. Yet this yields is a bounty of extremely stylish design and fabulousIv eccentric architecture. It might be my favorite horror movie mansion, and it looked like real rich people lived in it. I think that in another film, in another story that happened to be set in this location, you could easily say that the house is a character in the film, which is a song our listeners have heard from me more than once.