Jess Franco’s The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966) is an early career masterpiece. A Woolrich-ian noir revenge tale blended with elements of horror and sci-fi (and echoes of Franju and Lang), it’s a key transitional work...
Saturday, July 23, 2022
Daughter of Dracula (1972)
Jess Franco’s Daughter of Dracula (1972) was part of a new wave of revisionist gothic horror in which classic tales were rebirthed for more modern sensibilities and more lenient censorship strictures. Made in the...
Neurosis (1983)
In Neurosis (1983), Jess Franco reimagines Edgar Allan Poe’s Usher mythology as a deeply personal metaphor for his own artistic legacy, resulting in one of the auteur’s most haunting, empathetic, and personal works. Alan...
Nightmares Come at Night (1970)
A hallucinatory, erotic, and ominous vortex, Jess Franco’s Nightmares Come at Night (1970) is a beguiling movie of entrancement, and one of the purest expressions of his personal artistry. Evoking the doomed, criminal love...
The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein (1972)
The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein (1972), Jess Franco’s riff on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein mythology, is fond, irreverent, inventive, surreal and–as its title indicates–erotic. In short, it’s an undiluted dose of Franco...
A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)
Contrary to its salacious title, A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) is among Jess Franco’s more somber, moody works, and one of the most unusual and original takes on the zombie genre. It’s also among his strongest,...
Exorcism (1975)
Cult auteur Jess Franco stars in Exorcism (1975) as Mathis Vogel, a defrocked priest who now makes a living writing erotic stories for porno mags edited by Franval (Pierre Taylou). After overhearing Franval and...
Demon Squad (2019)
Not every movie selected for MST3K is a cinematic stinker, and one of their most recent riffs is a perfect example. Demon Squad (2019) is a terrific noir-horror hybrid whose ingenuity, creativity, and humor overcome...