Road House is a 1989 American action film directed by Rowdy Herrington. The film stars Patrick Swayze, Ben Gazzara, Kelly Lynch, and Sam Elliott. Its plot follows a bouncer at a newly refurbished roadside bar who protects a small town in Missouri from a corrupt businessman. The film has gone on to be a cult classic, being voted the most watched film on cable in 2020.
The Guardian is a 1990 American supernatural horror film co-written and directed by William Friedkin, and starring Jenny Seagrove as a mysterious nanny who is hired by new parents, played by Dwier Brown and Carey Lowell, to care for their infant son; the couple soon discover the nanny to be a hamadryad, whose previous clients' children went missing under her care. The film is based on the novel The Nanny, by Dan Greenburg.
The Stepfather is a 1987 American psychological horror film directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Terry O'Quinn, Jill Schoelen, and Shelley Hack. O'Quinn stars as an identity-assuming serial killer who marries a widow with a teenage daughter. Having killed his previous family and changed his identity, his murderous tendencies continue after his stepdaughter becomes suspicious of him. The film is loosely based on the life of mass murderer John List, although the plot is more commonly associated with slasher films of the era. The film was written by Donald E. Westlake, from a story by Westlake, Carolyn Lefcourt and Brian Garfield, with an uncredited rewrite by David Loughery.
Black Christmas is a 1974 Canadian slasher film produced and directed by Bob Clark, and written by Roy Moore. It stars Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, and John Saxon. The story follows a group of sorority sisters who receive threatening phone calls and are eventually stalked and murdered by a mentally ill killer during the Christmas season.
When a Stranger Calls is a 1979 American psychological horror film written and directed by Fred Walton, co-written by Steve Feke, and starring Charles Durning, Carol Kane, Colleen Dewhurst and Tony Beckley. Its plot follows Jill Johnson, a young woman being terrorized by a psychopathic killer while babysitting, the killer's stalking of another woman, his returning to torment Jill years later, and a detective's trying to find him. Rachel Roberts, Ron O'Neal, Carmen Argenziano, and Rutanya Alda appear in supporting roles. The film derives its story from the folk legend of "the babysitter and the man upstairs".
Dolly Dearest is a 1991 American supernatural horror slasher film starring Denise Crosby, Rip Torn, Sam Bottoms, Chris Demetral, Candace Hutson and Lupe Ontiveros. The film was initially supposed to be direct-to-video, but it did get a limited theatrical release in the Midwestern United States. Despite being critically panned, it has been sometimes credited as being the inspiration for the 2014 film Annabelle.
The Grudge 2 is a 2006 American supernatural horror film directed by Takashi Shimizu and written by Stephen Susco. The film is a sequel to The Grudge (2004) and the second installment in the American The Grudge film series. The film stars Arielle Kebbel, Amber Tamblyn, Jennifer Beals, Edison Chen, Sarah Roemer, and Sarah Michelle Gellar who reprises her role from the first film. Like its predecessor, the film features a plot that is told through a nonlinear sequence of events and includes several intersecting subplots. It follows Karen's younger sister Aubrey coming to Japan after finding out about Doug's death, a schoolgirl named Allison being haunted by the ghosts of the Saeki family after entering the house with two of her classmates, and a young boy named Jake whose apartment building is haunted by the ghosts.
Halloween is an American slasher media franchise that consists of thirteen films, as well as novels, comic books, a video game and other merchandise. The films primarily focus on Michael Myers, who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for the murder of his sister, Judith Myers. Fifteen years later, he escapes to stalk and kill the people of the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Michael's killings occur on the holiday of Halloween, on which all of the films primarily take place. Throughout the series various protagonists try to stop Myers including, most notably, babysitter Laurie Strode and psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis. The original Halloween, released in 1978, was written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill—the film's director and producer respectively. The film, itself inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and Bob Clark's Black Christmas, is known to have inspired a long line of slasher films.
Jack Frost is a 1997 American direct-to-video black comedy slasher film written and directed by Michael Cooney. It stars Scott MacDonald and Christopher Allport.
When a Stranger Calls Back is a 1993 American made-for-television psychological horror film and a sequel to the 1979 classic When a Stranger Calls which reunites stars Carol Kane and Charles Durning with director Fred Walton from the original film. It was originally broadcast on Showtime on April 4, 1993.
Black X-Mas is a 2006 Christmas slasher film written and directed by Glen Morgan and starring Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oliver Hudson, Lacey Chabert, Kristen Cloke, Crystal Lowe and Andrea Martin. The film takes place several days before Christmas and tells the story of a group of sorority sisters who are stalked and murdered in their house during a winter storm. It is a loose remake and reimagining of the 1974 film of the same name. A co-production of Canada and the United States, the film was produced by Morgan and James Wong through their production company Hard Eight Pictures, along with 2929 Productions, Adelstein-Parouse Productions and Hoban Segal Productions. It is the second film in the Black Christmas series.
When a Killer Calls is a 2006 direct-to-DVD horror film directed by Peter Mervis and starring Sarah Hall, Mark Irvingsen, Robert Buckley, Derek Osedach, and Rebekah Kochan. It was distributed by B movie company The Asylum. The film was released in February 2006, to coincide with the theatrical release of the 2006 remake of When a Stranger Calls, which this film is a mockbuster of.
The Grudge 3 is a 2009 American supernatural horror film directed by Toby Wilkins and written by Brad Keene. The film is a sequel to The Grudge 2 (2006) and the third installment in the American The Grudge film series. The film stars Johanna Braddy, Gil McKinney, Emi Ikehata, Jadie Rose Robson, Beau Mirchoff, and Shawnee Smith, with a special appearance by Matthew Knight. It features a linear plotline unlike all of its predecessors, which used nonlinear sequences of events for their respective plots and subplots.
Visiting Hours is a 1982 Canadian psychological slasher film directed by Jean-Claude Lord and starring Lee Grant, Michael Ironside, Linda Purl, William Shatner and Lenore Zann. The plot focuses on a feminist journalist who becomes the target of a serial killer, who follows her to the hospital after attacking her in her home.
The Strangers is a 2008 American psychological horror film written and directed by Bryan Bertino. The film follows a couple whose stay at a vacation home is disrupted by three masked intruders who infiltrate the home one night. It is the first installment in The Strangers film series. The screenplay was inspired by two real-life events: the multiple-homicide Manson family Tate murders and a series of break-ins that occurred in Bertino's neighborhood as a child. Some journalists noted similarities between the film and the Keddie cabin murders that occurred in Keddie, California, in 1981, though Bertino did not cite this as a reference.
The Collector is a 2009 American horror film written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, and directed by Dunstan. It stars Josh Stewart, Michael Reilly Burke, Andrea Roth, Juan Fernandez, Karley Scott Collins, Madeline Zima, and Robert Wisdom. The film follows a man who, in order to pay a debt, decides to rob a house, only to find out somebody with far more sinister intentions has already broken in.
The Ring Two is a 2005 American psychological supernatural horror film and sequel to the 2002 film The Ring, which was a remake of the 1998 Japanese film Ring. Hideo Nakata, director of the original Ring, directed this film in place of Gore Verbinski. Noam Murro was attached before Nakata, but left due to creative differences. Naomi Watts, David Dorfman and Daveigh Chase reprised their roles with Simon Baker, Elizabeth Perkins and Sissy Spacek joining the cast.
Curse of Chucky is a 2013 American slasher film and the sixth installment of the Child's Play franchise. The film was written and directed by Don Mancini, who created the franchise and wrote the first six films. It stars Fiona Dourif, Danielle Bisutti, Brennan Elliott, Maitland McConnell, Chantal Quesnelle, Summer Howell, A Martinez, and Brad Dourif. The film grossed $3.8 million in DVD sales.
The Sitter is a 1977 American short horror-thriller film directed by Fred Walton on which his 1979 feature film When a Stranger Calls is based. It is a suspenseful retelling of the classic urban legend of "The babysitter and the man upstairs" about a babysitter who is menaced by mysterious and frightening phone calls which are finally revealed to be coming from inside the house.
The When a Stranger Calls franchise consists of American psychological-thriller installments, including the original 1979 theatrical release, its television movie sequel, and its 2006 theatrical remake, and also the 1977 short film The Sitter, which started it all. The plot centers around a teenage high school student who works as a successful babysitter, who one night is harassed with disturbing phone calls from an unknown man while she is caring for an isolated home. As she continues through the night, the calls become more threatening and she urgently seeks the help of local law enforcement, the location of the assailant is revealed to be closer than she would like; forcing the young woman to fight for her life.
