Joseph Stefano
This historical and critical look at slasher films, which includes dozens of clips, begins with Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Prom Night. The films' directors, writers, producers, and special effects creators comment on the films' making and success. During the Reagan years, the films get gorier, budgets get smaller, and their appeal wanes. Then, Nightmare on Elm Street revives the genre. Jump to the late 90s, when Scream brings humor and TV stars into the mix.
A retrospective look at Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train.
A young female embezzler arrives at the Bates Motel, which has terrible secrets of its own. Although this version is in color, features a different cast, and is set in 1998, it is closer to a shot-for-shot remake than most remakes, Gus Van Sant often copying Hitchcock's camera movements and editing, and Joseph Stefano's script is mostly carried over. Bernard Herrmann's musical score is reused as well, though with a new arrangement by Danny Elfman and recorded in stereo.
A retrospective on the entire movie, from start to finish. There are interviews with many of the principle cast and crew (including Janet Leigh and Joseph Stefano), who all talk openly and lovingly about entire process of making the film. The sessions with Janet Leigh are particularly involving, and she talks a great deal about shooting the now infamous shower scene.
It's a hot summer day in 1933 in South Philly, where 12-year old Gennaro lives with his widowed mom and his ailing grandpa, who sits outside holding tight to his last quarter, which he's promised to Gennaro and which Gennaro would like to have to buy a ticket to the plush new movie theater. But grandpa's not ready to pass on the quarter or pass on to his final reward: he has some unfinished business with a woman from his past, and he enlists Gennaro to act as his emissary.
Norman Bates is again released from the mental hospital he was placed in at the end of Psycho III after serving another few years and is apparently rehabiliated for the second time. Norman is now married to a young nurse named Connie and is expecting a child. However, Norman fears that the child will inherit his mental illness. Meanwhile, Fran Ambrose is a radio talk show host who is discussing the topic of matricide with guest Dr. Richmond, Norman's former psychologist. The radio station receives a call from Norman, who uses the alias "Ed" to tell his story.
Amanda's deathbed request to her son, John, was for him to destroy all the lab notes etc. from her last experiment. She also blurts out he had a brother. At the funeral John meets Melissa, who claims to be his mothers biggest fan. Together with some of John's friends they go to Amanda's house, but none are prepared for what they find there.
A girl in hospital discovers that if she dies she may become a heart donor for the surgeon's son.
After being cryogenically frozen for more than 30 years, a woman wakes to find her husband an old man and her children older than she is. Her daughter has also developed a psychotic obsession with her and may be out to kill her.
An ailing man summons his four daughters home for Christmas and asks them to kill his new wife, who he suspects is poisoning him.
A mother travels to New York to see her daughter who is awaiting trial for murder. The mother is totally convinced of her daughter's innocence and does all she can to help her. As the trial progresses however, the mother begins to have doubts.
A man and his girlfriend plan to rob the mansion of the man's eccentric but wealthy aunt. However, the aunt keeps dozens of cats in her home, and the man is deathly afraid of cats.
Near Aix-les-Bains (South-East of France), two women, Kassia and Leonora, are driven by a fanatical blackmailer, named André, in a white Rolls Royce at full speed. Suddenly, they stop near a lake, in the middle of the woods, where the man decides to have a swim. He asks the two women for a drink. The women plan to assassinate him by introducing a deadly leaf from a Thanatos tree in the cocktail. The man dies by poisoning and drowning and the women stare at him without moving. They put the dead body in the trunk of the fancy car. Later, they've lost their way in the countryside and, finally, find a mansion where an old blind man, Colas, opens the door. Upstairs, a strange inventor, Tone Hobart, built a time machine which could resurrect the dead. Unfortunately, André is now alive and ready for a revenge.
Terrified of being buried alive, a young woman installs a phone in her crypt. A few days after her untimely death, the phone suddenly rings and paranormal investigator Nelson Orion (Landau) is brought in to probe the case.
Michael Anderson's 1961 suspense thriller stars Deborah Kerr as a London wife who suspects her wealthy husband (Gary Cooper) might be a murderer. The cast also includes Eric Portman, Diane Cilento, Hermione Gingold and Michael Wilding. This was Gary Cooper's last film.
An aging widower fights family disapproval when he falls in love with a gangster's widow.
