Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski • 1978 • United Kingdom
Starring Alan Bates, Susannah York, John Hurt
This entrancing psychosexual puzzle thriller from Jerzy Skolimowski features a memorably unsettling performance from Alan Bates as an enigmatic drifter who insinuates himself into the lives of an experimental electronic composer (John Hurt) and his wife (Susannah York) living in a remote coastal cottage. Claiming to possess knowledge of Aboriginal magic—in particular a scream that can kill anyone who hears it—the mysterious stranger draws the couple into a vortex of desire and control, with the tension immeasurably enhanced by an innovative soundtrack by Michael Rutherford and Tony Banks of the pioneering prog-rock group Genesis.
Up Next in Horror
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Matango
Directed by Ishiro Honda • 1963 • Japan
Starring Hiroshi Koizumi, Kumi Mizuno, Kenji SaharaLeaving behind the kaiju genre for which he was best known, Ishiro Honda took a detour into hallucinogenic science fiction with this disturbing psychological survival thriller that stands as perhaps the d...
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Cat People
Directed by Paul Schrader • 1982 • United States
Starring Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John HeardPaul Schrader’s kinky-stylish reworking of the 1942 Val Lewton classic transfers the action to a voodoo-spooky New Orleans, adds an incestuous undercurrent, and ups the sex and gore. Nastassj...
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Scanners
Directed by David Cronenberg • 1981 • Canada
Starring Stephen Lack, Jennifer O’Neill, Michael IronsideWith SCANNERS, David Cronenberg plunges us into one of his most terrifying and thrilling sci-fi worlds. After a man with extraordinary—and frighteningly destructive—telepathic abilities is nabb...
