Made in 1984, The Hitcher is an update-in spirit at least-of Steven Spielberg's first feature film, 1971's Duel. Here C Thomas Howell plays a guy taking a drive-away car from Chicago to San Diego. On a whim, in the rain, and against his better judgment, he picks up a hitchhiker (Rutger Hauer). The hitcher quickly admits to being a murdering psychopath and once Howell finally gets him out of his car, he is pursued with all the vengeance of the ancient furies. We're never sure if the hitcher is a figment of his imagination, making Howell a schizophrenic killer, or if he's real and Howell is the random victim of a wandering madman, which is how his potential new girlfriend (Jennifer Jason Leigh) thinks of him. Either way, The Hitcher is great fun, kinda scary and teetering on the brink of "must see". -Andy Spletzer.

In 1976 The Omen scored a hit with critics and audiences hungry for more after The Exorcist with its mixture of Gothic horror and mystery and its plot about a young boy suspected of being the personification of the anti-Christ. Directed by Richard Donner (best known for his Superman and Lethal Weapon films), The Omen gained a lot of credibility from the casting of Gregory Peck and Lee Remick as a distinguished American couple living in England, whose young son Damien bears "the mark of the beast". At a time when graphic gore had yet to dominate the horror genre, this film used its violence discreetly and to great effect and the mood of dread and potential death is masterfully maintained. It's all a bit contrived, with a lot of biblical portent and sensational fury but few would deny it's highly entertaining. Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-winning score works wonders to enhance the movie's creepy atmosphere. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com Damien: Omen II takes place several years after the mysterious events that claimed the life of the US Ambassador and his wife as the now teenaged and militarily enrolled Damien Thorne is slowly being made aware of his unholy heritage and horrific destiny. Woe is he (including anyone in Damien's adoptive family and his classmates) who suspects the truth or gets in his way. While not as unrelentingly frightening as its blockbuster predecessor, this more-than-competent sequel raises some interesting questions about the nature of free will (can the anti-Christ deny his birthright?) before falling into a gory series of increasingly outlandish deaths, the best of which is a terrifyingly protracted scene beneath the ice of a frozen lake. Jerry Goldsmith (who won an Oscar for his work on the first film in the series) contributes another marvellously foreboding score. [+]

Halloween III: Season of the Witch was producer John Carpenter's attempt to get the series away from the original psycho-on-the-loose storyline and turn it into a vehicle for more far-fetched Halloween-themed horror tales. Incredibly, the fans voted for more of the same and Carpenter walked away for others to rehash the Michael Myers plotline in a succession of lookalike movies that are still turning up every few years. Though original screenwriter Nigel Kneale (of the Quatermass series and The Stone Tape) removed his name from the final film after a coarsening rewrite by director Tommy Lee Wallace, his strange touch is evident in the offbeat story. After the mysterious deaths of a toyshop owner, a doctor (Tom Atkins) and the man's daughter (Stacy Nelkin), an investigation takes place in the Irish-dominated Northern California community of Santa Mira, a company town owned by the Silver Shamrock Novelty corporation, whose bestselling Halloween masks are pushed by an amazingly irritating TV jingle you won't ever be able to get out of your head ("Two more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween"). Atkins and Nelkin are typical low-rent horror movie protagonists, dim-bulbs who discover an Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style conspiracy involving sharp-suited corporate robots. But guest star Dan O'Herlihy steals the film as a Celtic joke tycoon ("the man who invented sticky toilet paper and the dead dwarf gag") who hates the way American kids are despoiling the religious spirit of Samhain and decides to teach them a nasty lesson. His scheme, which involves a stolen Stonehenge megalith ("sure, you'd never believe how we did it") and a techno-magic spell that turns the heads of TV watchers into writhing masses of snakes and insects, is value for money. O'Herlihy mixes enough serious malice into the charm to come across as a great screen baddie. On the DVD: Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a disappointment on disc. After letterboxed titles, this defaults to full frame throughout, severely cramping Dean Cundey's Panavision cinematography, and it's a grainy, indifferent print that ill-serves the performances or the atmospherics. [+]

"You can't kill the boogeyman", explained John Carpenter in the original Halloween, and to prove it Michael Myers returns in the handsome but grisly sequel Halloween 2. Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her role as Laurie Strode but spends most of her time cowering in a hospital gown, and Donald Pleasance runs around like a maniac as the panicky doctor desperate to hunt down Myers before he kills again. Carpenter writes and produces with partner Debra Hill and together they replace the mystery and uncertainty of the original with an exponentially bigger body count, some strange tales about the Druids and Pagan ceremonies, and the now-familiar family ties between Michael and Laurie. First-time director Rick Rosenthal (Bad Boys) paces the film at a brisk jog and directs it with a clean, crisp style, taking the murders out of the dark to display them in all their nasty detail. -Sean Axmaker, Amazon. com.

The Revenge of Frankenstein was an inevitability after Hammer Films had made an international star of Peter Cushing in The Curse of this sequel-rich franchise. The plot here is a braver twist on the story than the many follow-ups would take. The Creature doesn't make its presence known until the final reel, up to which point the only sense of lurking menace comes from Cushing's deliciously mannered performance as a disguised Dr Stein. A new name and a new town is a gamble sure to fail, and circumstances almost immediately conspire against the deceit. Also rattling around the brilliantly lit studio sets are Eunice Gayson and Francis Matthews, while Michael Gwynn gives everything he's got in stiff competition to predecessor Christopher Lee in the Creature role. It's subtle and simply screams out for enfranchisement-so of course Hammer dutifully made another five in the series. On the DVD: The Revenge of Frankenstein comes with mono sound (all you're going to get from Hammer and 1958), but the 1. 66:1 ratio is a treat. You also get a trailer (and a surprise additional movie trailer) plus 10 photos. -Paul Tonks.

In its fourth season, Buffy the Vampire Slayer had to change its formula radically. Two major characters-the vampire-with-a-soul Angel and Cordelia, the queen bitch of Sunnydale High-had gone off to be in their own show, Angel, and soon after the start of the season Willow's werewolf boyfriend Oz left when Seth Green needed to concentrate on his film career. Buffy and Willow started college, where they met new characters like Riley, the All-American Boy with a double life, and Tara, the sweet stuttering witch; but Xander and Giles found themselves at something of a loose end. Several characters were subjected to the radical re-envisioning possible in a show that deals with the supernatural: the blond vampire Spike came back and soon found himself with an inhibitor chip in his head, forced into reluctant alliance with Buffy; the former vengeance demon Anya became passionately smitten with Xander. Not all fans were happy with the central story arc about the sinister Dr Walsh (Lindsay Crouse) and her Frankensteinian creation Adam, though Crouse's performance was memorable. The strength of Season Four was perhaps most in impressive stand-alone episodes like the silent "Hush", the multiple dream sequence "Restless" and the passionate, moving "New Moon Rising", in which Oz returns, apparently cured, only to find that Willow is no longer waiting for him. This was one of the high points of the show as a vehicle for intense acting, perhaps only equalled by "Who Are You?", in which the evil slayer Faith takes over Buffy's body and Sarah Michelle Gellar gets to play bad girl for once. -Roz KaveneyOn the DVD: Buffy Season 4 was a hit and so is this sublime box set. The commentaries for "The Initiative", "This Year'sGirl", "Superstar" and "Primaveral" are all well above average, but are nothing compared to "Hush" and "Restless" where Joss Whedon gives out all the information and insights any fan would dream of. The four featurettes included are a pleasure to watch, especially the evolution of the sets for the show. [+]

"You can't kill the boogeyman", explained John Carpenter in the original, and to prove it Michael Myers returns in the handsome but grisly sequel Halloween 2. Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her role as Laurie Strode but spends most of her time cowering in a hospital gown, and Donald Pleasance runs around like a maniac as the panicky doctor desperate to hunt down Myers before he kills again. Carpenter writes and produces with partner Debra Hill and together they replace the mystery and uncertainty of the original with an exponentially bigger body count, some strange tales about the Druids and Pagan ceremonies, and the now-familiar family ties between Michael and Laurie. First-time director Rick Rosenthal (Bad Boys) paces the film at a brisk jog and directs it with a clean, crisp style, taking the murders out of the dark to display them in all their nasty detail. -Sean Axmaker.

"Now you see it. You're amazed. You can't believe it. Your eyes open wider. It's horrible, but you can't look away. There's no chance for you. No escape. You're helpless, helpless. There's just one chance, if you can scream. Throw your arms across your eyes and scream, scream for your life!" And scream Fay Wray does most famously in this monster classic, one of the greatest adventure films of all time, which even in an era of computer-generated wizardry remains a marvel of stop-motion animation. [+]