Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writer: Joseph Stefano based on a book by Robert Bloch
Release year: 1960
A boy’s best friend is his mother.
Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a young woman on the run, stops for the night at the isolated Bates Motel. The motel manager, oddball Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), is happy for the company, but Marion is distracted by her recent past. The motel has a past of its own in which Marion soon becomes immersed….
Director: Richard Franklin
Writer: Tom Holland
Release Year: 1983
Coming home is hard to do.
More than twenty years after the events of the first film, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) is released from the asylum and returns to the Bates Motel. Lila Loomis (Vera Miles)—who apparently married her sister’s boyfriend Sam—objects to his release in the strongest possible terms, but Dr. Bill Raymond (Robert Loggia) assures her that Bates is restored to sanity. Others, including Norman himself, are not so sure….
Director: Anthony Perkins
Writer: Charles Edward Pogue
Release Year: 1986
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
The film opens with novice nun Maureen Coyle (Diana Scarwid) accidentally causing the death of another nun in a scene swiped from Vertigo. She decides to leave the order and catches a ride with general-purpose sleazebag Duane Duke (Jeff Fahey). After being left alone on the road, she finds her way to an out-of-the-way motel run by an interesting man named Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins)….
Director: Mick Garris
Writer: Joseph Stefano based on a character by Robert Bloch
Release Year: 1990
The bad seed sprouts.
Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) calls in to a radio talk show hosted by Fran Ambrose (CCH Pounder) and Dr. Leo Richmond (Warren Frost) to talk about the reason that he killed his mother (here played by Olivia Hussey) and lets slip that he is going to kill again, soon….
Director: Fred Olen Ray
Writer: Fred Olen Ray and T.L. Lankford
Release year: 1983
Watching a Fred Olen Ray film is like popping happy pills: They’re not exactly healthy for your brain, but they make you laugh anyway.
Indians. They’re best left alone. They have peaceful ways, but if you hassle them, you’re in for some real trouble. History has taught us that. Even from beyond the grave they can come back for revenge. And taking up residence in the eternal spirit world, gives them great powers. Movies have taught us that. And Fred Olen Ray made one about it.
Director, writer: Robert Hiltzik
Release year: 1983
When we’re talking about freeze-frame shock-endings, I think this one is edged in the collective memory of all true horrorfans. Slasherfans in particular.
(Spoilers!)
Director: Sage Bannick
Writer: Damon Abdallah, Ari Bernstein and Sage Bannick
Release year: 2011
The curse of prediction
In the quiet mountain town of Liberty, the youngsters of the local high school seem to have made it onto someone’s death list. Science teacher Vincent Burton (Bryan Kirkwood) finds himself wrapped up in the murder mystery soon enough and together with Sheriff John Jackson (Samuel Ball) he’ll have to put a stop to the murders.
Director: Crane Wilbur
Writer: Crane Wilbur based on a story written by Avery Hopwood & Mary Roberts Rinehart
Release Year: 1959
The next scream you hear may be your own!
On a dark and stormy night, two women are trapped inside a mansion with a crazed killer, known only as The Bat. As the two women try to hide from The Bat, outside the police are looking for a million-dollar stash that was stolen from a nearby bank. Can the police find the money in time before it’s lost forever and can they rescue the women before The Bat kills them both? It’s easy to see that this movie is a great mystery thriller but I think it serves as a great slasher movie as well.
Director: Tony Maylam
Writer: Harvey Weinstein, Tony Maylam, Brad Grey, and Peter Lawrence
Release Year: 1981
Is it hot in here or is it just me?
A bunch of stupid teenagers accidentally set fire to their camp’s drunken caretaker leaving him scarred badly enough that latex hookers have no interest in him. This makes him a mite bitter, so he returns to the camp to kill some of the superfluous teenagers that seem to congregate there. Some of those degenerates are Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, and Holly Hunter as well as some other recognizable faces….
Director: Donald M. Jones
Writer: Evan Jones
Release Year: 1982
Family problems cause cannibalism.
Steve (Dean Russell) and Charlie (John Batis) decide to go camping. Not wanting to be left out, the guys’ significant others Sharon (Tomi Barrett) and Teddi (Ann Wilkinson) decide that they were already going camping as well. Unfortunately their chosen campground is within the territory of professional cannibal John (Gary Kent)….
