#3. Blair Witch Project - I saw this at a sneak-peak screening before all the hype began. It was still in that phase where people weren't sure if it was real or not. After that it got a bit too hyped-up and had the inevitable backlash against it. But it was still an incredibly powerful film.

#4. Squirm - I believe this is the first horror movie I ever saw. I must have been around 5-6 years old when I caught it on TV. I didn't even see the whole thing, but what I saw was enough to terrify me for years. There's a scene where some worms drop out of a tree on somebody... I couldn't walk under a tree for months. At one point a guy's face gets infested by worms and he goes understandably nuts and starts stalking the hero, trying to kill him. I swear one night my brother was snoring and it sounded exactly like this guy breathing and I got so freaked out that I puked. Needless to say, I still love this now cheesy film to this day.

12. Invasion of the Body Snatchers - This is an absolute classic! There weren't really many scary scenes, nothing that made me jump. But the overall idea of it all really got under my skin. That I could wake up and my mom and dad, wouldn't really be my mom and dad anymore, that scared me. I think it was also the first movie I ever saw that didn't have a happy ending, that the characters didn't save the day, that stuck with me too. ”

On the night that Survival of the Dead opened in theaters, I watched the film on DVR, thanks to the sneak preview on HDNet Movies, (My favorite movie channel.) and live Tweeted my review of the film. Here is what I posted.

• As far as I'm concerned, George Romero can make zombie movies forever. He was born to do it & by now the films feel like a cozy blanket.

• First zombie head explosion within the 1st 3 min. of the film, I like how this is beginning.

• Just tied it to last film, Diary of the Dead, the lead soldier in this one, had brief cameo in last as same character

• Why are we in Ireland?

• I like this line: "Putting the dead to sleep, before they put all of us to sleep."

• Got ourselves an ole fashion family fued, its the O'Flynns vs. the Muldoons & Patrick O'Flynn just got booted off island

• Why don't zombies eat politicians? ............ Professional courtesy.

• O'Flynn is offering people to come join him on island. Soldiers & wise-cracking kid they just picked up are on the way.

• First Zombies on a stick. Now fishing for zombies. What's next?

• @OfficialRomero - I hope you dont mind my live review of Survival of the Dead. I'm doing it out of love for your films. Enjoying it so far!

• Might just be the most original way to kill a zombie... Fire extinguisher to the mouth!



• Zombie driving a car. Is that some kind of social commentary there George?

• Muldoon is trying to train the zombies to behave & eat something besides human flesh. Kinda hearkens back to Day of Dead

• Zombie just bit her twin sister, now there's a shoot-out going on & all the zombies were released, must watch, not type.

• Perfect final shot for film! I won't spoil it for those that haven't seen it.

• @OfficialRomero - Just finished Survival Of Dead, please keep making Dead films & I'll keep watching them!

• Very fun, if you like zombie films it's a must see. Funny & thought provoking, well-made & gory in brilliant ways.

Stuart Gordon burst onto the scene in 1985 with Re-Animator, one of the most creative zombie films ever made. A film that is as funny as it is disgusting, with great creative twists that forever changed how filmmakers mixed horror with comedy. 23 years later that film remains his high-point, but that doesn't mean he isn't a filmmaker worth note, in fact, just the opposite. For the last two decades he's made quite a few fun horror films including, From Beyond, Dolls, and Dagon.

With his last three films he's hit a new creative stride, moving away from pure horror, into more dramatic work, but still with a deep dark side and a wicked sense of humor. It started with King of the Ants, a film about a young lad getting a viscous introduction to the world of professional killing. (I was lucky enough to interview him when he premiered the film at SIFF.) It continued with Edmund, starring William H. Macy as an average-Joe, who flips a switch and begins to enjoy his life with a new homicidal tinge. Stuck is the third film in which Gordon explores a ordinary people thrust into a dark world, and it may be the best of the bunch.

Mena Survari plays Brandi, a nurse in an old-folks home, whose life is so mundane that a promotion to shift-manager a very big deal. Stephen Rea is Thomas, a guy really down on his luck, he has one of those days where he loses everything; job, house and all his possessions. He's forced to sleep in the park, where he meets a helpful homeless man, who starts to show him the ropes of life on the street. After a night of celebrating for Brandi, and Thomas getting kicked off his park bench bed, they meet in the most violent way possible. Brandi, drunk and distracted by her cell-phone, runs down Thomas. He's thrown into her windshield, broken, bleeding and knocked out. Brandi, fearing the consequences of her actions, drives home with Thomas' half-dead body lying on her hood. She gets home and leaves him and the car in her garage. From here the film is a twisted little piece of genius and by the end you'll be rooting for some sickening actions.

Gordon expertly plays these characters so you're not quite sure what to think of them. At first Brandi seems like the hero of the film, but by the end she is quite clearly the villain. The things she does will disgust and shock you. Poor Thomas goes from a hard to love loser to a quiet action-hero bent on survival. Both performances are neatly crafted, nothing in the film rings false, as horrible things happen because, to and all around them. This is not a film for the faint-of-heart. Once Thomas is Stuck, the film jumps into a maniac gear that is at once hard to watch, but you also can't tear your eyes away. After this film, I have hope that Gordon may yet create a film that outdoes Re-Animator. - Grade: B+

After two months away from writing real reviews, I'm trying to make a comeback, but I'm not even sure where to start. I'm typing this, just to get my fingers moving, it seems once I do that, things start to flow. I was at Blockbuster, with a free movie coupon that I had to use by the end of the day. I had no idea what to rent, so I headed to the horror section, my favorite genre. Having seen about 90% of them, the only films I hadn't being all the straight-to-video stuff, which is a total crap-shoot. On a rare occasion, I'll find some hidden gem, most other times they're a total mess. But I've come up with a fairly good system for cases like these, start looking for Film Festival award winners. These are often films that are overlooked by most, but were good enough to get somebody-in-the-know's attention. That's how I ran across Lucky. On the cover, it says winner of the New York City Horror Film Festival, Best Film Award; since nothing else jumped out at me, this apparently was my film for the night.

Almost immediately the film gave me a good laugh, at the conclusion of the intro, when the title Lucky appears, a subtitle pops up saying Based on a True Story. Right away I knew that this was a film that had a sense of humor about itself. Because really, how can you take a film about a murderous dog seriously? The film concerns Millard Mudd (great name), a cartoon writer, who's seen better days. He has a serious drinking problem, for the first act of the film, there isn't a moment where he is without a can of beer in his hands. The cans are so prevalent, they're almost a character on to themselves. They're everywhere, they're so thick you can't see Millard's rug, and there is constantly the noise of them being stepped on. It proves to be a nice detail, to give the film some more depth.

Despite the film having an obviously very low budget, you can tell the filmmakers put a lot of thought and effort into it. Those small attention to detail things always give me a better feeling about a film. Often when a film has a huge budget, these thoughts go out the window, as they concentrate on making the biggest digital explosions possible. While I'd rather focus on the little things that make the character's tick. And boy do we learn how Millard ticks, almost too much. The first ten minutes is non-stop voice over, a free flowing inner monologue, that gets a bit annoying when he starts thinking about nonsensical matters. What finally stops it, is Millard hitting a little dog with his car, on the way back from a beer run.

He takes the dog in, tries to nurse it back to health, but it gives into its injuries and Millard is forced to bury the dog in his backyard. Immediately the dog pops back to life, and starts talking to him like a 70's blaxplotation character. The dog's mouth doesn't move, it's all done telepathically. So not only do we hear Millard's non-stop thoughts, but now we hear the dog's as well. When the script-courier character appears and she actually moves her lips to talk, it's almost refreshing.

At first Millard is happy to have some company. Then he's made even happier when the dog starts to give him wonderful new ideas for cartoon screenplays. Suddenly his writers-block is gone and he's producing the best work of his life. All thanks to this undead, telepathic dog that may or may not be a reality. Millard is turning his life around, he cleans up his house, puts on some clean clothes, and meets a girl while taking his dog for a walk. ( This is the scene I'm not sure where reality begins and ends.) Everything is very good for a while, until his dog starts to demand blood in payment for his services. Millard goes off the deep end, the red stuff starts to flow, and you don't know who'll come out alive.

Lucky is a well made little horror-comedy. Despite being shot on video, it has a good look to it, they keep the camera moving and shoot it from unique angles; the frantic editing gives you a good sense of the chaos going on in Millard's head. Millard is played well by Michael Emanuel, shlubby, but likable. The dog's talking gets a little annoying, he mostly just stares straight ahead, there isn't much interaction between the two characters. I would have liked the film to be a little bloodier, feature a few more deaths, but what's there is done well. Millard's voice over gets overused, but it's mostly well written. I particularly liked the opening line, "Ever have one of those lifetimes?" This definitely isn't a film for your average film viewer, you have to be open something completely different than the norm. - Grade: B

Happy Halloween! I've updated my list of horror film reviews, which is my favorite genre of films, if you couldn't tell.