Allison Anders

ALLISON ANDERS, from the release of her first feature, Border Radio (1989; co-written and co-directed with Kurt Voss) through Things Behind the Sun (2001), has established an innovative body of work marked by ensemble acting and strong women characters. Her films as writer-director also include Gas Food Lodging (1992), Mi Vida Loca (1993) and Grace of My Heart (1996).

A professor at University Of California, Anders has also directed episodes of the TV Shows Sex In The City, Cold Case, The L-Word and What About Brian.

On the Web: http://myspace.com/dontknocktherock

Allison's Commentaries:
  The Fastest Guitar Alive
  Forty Guns
  Jailhouse Rock
  The Naked Spur
  Peeping Tom
  All That Heaven Allows
  Privilege
  Psych-Out

Allan Arkush

A record collector and film buff from his early days, ALLAN ARKUSH brought his two loves together in directing the cult classic Rock 'n' Roll High School.

Allan's day job is directing television series like Moonlighting, Ally McBeal, Crossing Jordan, and the mini-series The Temptations, for which he won an Emmy. He currently stays busy as an Executive Producer and Director of Heroes.

Allan's Commentaries:
  A Night At The Opera
  The Horse Soldiers
  Rebel Without a Cause
  Winchester '73
  The Knack
  Wild in the Streets
  Bucket of Blood
  House of Bamboo
  The Trip
  Rio Bravo
  Queen Of Outer Space

Rick Baker

RICK BAKER blames growing up in front of a television and Famous Monsters of Film Land for the turning him into the strange man that he is today. He turned his interest in monsters and the grotesque into a profession and became a special make-up effects artist.

His award-winning film work includes An American Werewolf in London, Men in Black, How The Grinch Stole Christmas and The Nutty Professor, to name a few. He loves classic and not so classic horror movies.

Rick's Commentaries:
  The Time Machine
  The War of the Worlds
  Fiend Without a Face
  How to Make a Monster
  The Man of a Thousand Faces
  I Was a Teenage Werewolf
  Mad Love

Larry Cohen

The prolific writer-producer-director LARRY COHEN began his career in television creating hit shows like Branded and The Invaders.

His feature career took off with the killer baby trio of It's Alive and two sequels.
Among his movie credits are Q - The Winged Serpent, Full Moon High, The Private Life of J. Edgar Hoover, Return to Salem's Lot, Hell Up in Harlem and the screenplays for Phone Booth and Cellular.

His most recent work is the Masters of Horror episode, Pick Me Up.

Larry's Commentaries:
  God Told Me To A.K.A. Demon
  El Cid
  Spartacus
  Marnie
  Black Sunday AKA-Mask of the Demon
  Invaders From Mars

Joe Dante

JOE DANTE is a lifelong film buff who turned his obsession into a career.
He got his start cutting trailers for Roger Corman and later directed the hit movie Gremlins, as well as Gremlins 2: The New Batch, for producer Steven Spielberg. His feature films include The Howling, Innerspace, Matinee, Small Soldiers and The 'Burbs.

Among his TV work is The Second Civil War, Eerie, Indiana and the "Masters of Horrors" titles Homecoming and The Screwfly Solution.

Joe's Commentaries:
  Frankenstein 1970
  The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T. / Crazy Music
  The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake
  Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
  Invasion, U.S.A.
  Blood And Roses
  Creature From The Haunted Sea
  This Island Earth
  Lord of the Flies
  Mesa of Lost Women
  Target Earth
  No Name On The Bullet
  The Beast of Yucca Flats
  Confessions of an Opium Eater
  Horror of Dracula
  Tarantula
  The Black Sleep
  Blood of the Man Devil/House of the Black Death
  Mr. Arkadin
  Daughter of Dr. Jekyll
  The Innocents
  The Revenge of Frankenstein
  The Cyclops
  From Hell It Came
  The Incredible Petrified World
  Monster From Mars A.K.A. Robot Monster
  The Unearthly
  Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
  These Are The Damned
  The Fiendish Ghouls
  The Terror
  She Demons
  Coming Soon: The Sadist
  Coming Soon: College Confidential

Jon Davison

NYU graduate and longtime film buff JON DAVISON parlayed his term as director of advertising and publicity for Roger Corman's New World Pictures into a producing career which includes two of Paul Verhoeven's best, Robocop and Starship Troopers.

Other Davison productions are Airplane!, The Sixth Day, Piranha and Sam Fuller's controversial White Dog. At this moment he's probably running a 16mm print in his living room.

Jon's Commentaries:
  Cockfighter / Born To Kill
  Hollywood Blvd

Mick Garris

MICK GARRIS' latest creation is the "Masters of Horror" hour-long cable series of fright films helmed by well-known genre directors, including himself.

Numerous screenplay assignments led to a career in directing, and he is perhaps best known for his long association with Stephen King, whose novels The Stand and The Shining have been translated by Garris into well-received mini-series.

Mick's Commentaries:
  The House That Screamed
  The Magic Christian
  Sullivan's Travels
  Kiss Me Stupid
  Dementia 13
  Horrors Of The Black Museum
  Son of Kong
  White Zombie
  House on Haunted Hill
  X - The Man with the X-Ray Eyes
  The Vampire Lovers
  The Raven
  God Told Me To A.K.A. Demon

Stuart Gordon

STUART GORDON was traumatized as a child by The Tingler and began returning the favor with Re-Animator in 1985, and more recently as a Master of Horror on the Showtime series of the same name. Other credits include Edmond, Ray Bradbury's The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, Fortress, RoboJox, and Dolls.

His new film, Stuck opens May 30th.

Stuart's Commentaries:
  The Thing With Two Heads
  Nightmare Alley
  True Grit
  Coming Soon: Mr Sardonicus

Sam Hamm

Failed cartoonist SAM HAMM turned to screenwriting when he realized he would never be able to draw like Alex Toth. His feature credits include Never Cry Wolf, Batman, Batman Returns, and Monkeybone.

Hamm also created the short-lived television series M.A.N.T.I.S. in collaboration with Sam Raimi. Most recently, he has written two episodes of the cable series "Masters of Horror" for director Joe Dante: Homecoming (for which he won a Best Screenplay award at the Sitges International Film Festival) and The Screwfly Solution.

Sam's Commentaries:
  The Intruder
  Kronos
  20 Million Miles to Earth
  Scream of Fear
  Journey to the Lost City
  13 Ghosts

George Hickenlooper

Writer-director GEORGE HICKENLOOPER's feature film credits include Factory Girl, about Andy Warhol and his muse, Edie Sedgwick; the internationally acclaimed documentary, Mayor of the Sunset Strip, the psycho-sexual drama The Man from Elysian Fields, The Big Brass Ring, a political thriller adapted from an Orson Welles screenplay, and Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse for which George received a directing Emmy.

His interest in movies and filmmaking began in childhood – stemming in part from his Great Uncle's (conductor Leopold Stokowski) involvement with Disney's Fantasia.

George's Commentaries:
  Vanishing Point
  Yellow Submarine
  Five Million Years To Earth / Quatermass and the Pit
  Night Of The Living Dead
  Coming Soon: The Last Voyage

Jack Hill

JACK HILL began his career, like so many of his contemporaries, working for Roger Corman, then wrote and directed the cult classic Spider Baby, which introduced his favorite actor, Sid Haig. His The Big Doll House launched an entire genre of "Women in Prison" pix as well as Pam Grier, whom he later brought to stardom in Coffy and Foxy Brown. Other credits include The Big Bird Cage, Pit Stop, Swinging Cheerleaders and Switchblade Sisters.

He is currently exec producing a series of remakes of some of
his earlier horror films. See Jack Hill Presents.

On the Web: http://www.myspace.com/thefilmsofjackhill

Jack's Commentaries:
  Blood Bath
  The Black Swan
  White Heat
  Foxy Brown

Dan Ireland

DAN IRELAND loves movies of all shapes and sizes. He's one of the co-founders of The Seattle International Film Festival and producer of over 15 films.

His directorial debut, the award winning The Whole Wide World starred Vincent D'Onofrio and introduced to the world to Renee Zellweger. His other credits as a director include Passionada and Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont. His latest film, Jolene, stars Dermot Mulroney.

Dan's Commentaries:
  The Haunting
  Bad Day At Black Rock
  Imitation of Life
  The Girl Can't Help It
  Experiment in Terror

Mary Lambert

MARY LAMBERT, a member of the Music Video Hall of Fame, first made her mark directing groundbreaking music videos for Madonna and Talking Heads, as well as the Stephen King adaptations, Pet Sematary and Pet Sematary II. Her credits include Siesta, Grand Isle, The In Crowd, and Return To Halloweentown.

She has just completed a feature documentary about female senators titled 14 Women.

Mary's Commentaries:
  House of Usher
  The Masque of the Red Death
  Carnival of Souls
  Village of the Damned
  The Pit and the Pendulum

John Landis

JOHN LANDIS was the director of Animal House, The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf In London, Trading Places, Coming To America, Kentucky Fried Movie, Spies Like Us, ˇThree Amigos!, Into The Night and Michael Jackson's Thriller among many other films and television shows.

He is currently in production on a documentary about legendary comedian Don Rickles.

John's Commentaries:
  The Curse Of The Werewolf
  The Errand Boy
  In Society
  The Shootist
  The Beguiled
  Ulzana's Raid
  This Is Spinal Tap
  Sunset Boulevard
  Kind Hearts And Coronets
  International House
  Sweet Smell of Success
  The Defiant Ones
  It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
  The Bride and the Beast
  Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
  Don't Look Now
  The T.A.M.I. Show
  The Fall of the Roman Empire
  Psycho
  Colossus: The Forbin Project
  Once Upon A Time in the West
  The Brain That Wouldn't Die
  Coming Soon: King Solomons Mines

Michael Lehmann

MICHAEL LEHMANN has directed nine feature films, including Heathers, Hudson Hawk, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, and Because I Said So.

Among his numerous television directing credits are Homicide, The West Wing, The Larry Sanders Show and Big Love. He divides his time between Santa Monica and western Sonoma County, where he lives among the redwoods with his wife, Holland, who makes the world's best granola.

Michael's Commentaries:
  Johnny Guitar
  The Party
  Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls
  Easy Rider
  Strangers on a Train
  Repulsion
  The Asphalt Jungle
  Seconds

Mark Pellington

MARK PELLINGTON directs feature films, television, commercials and music videos. His film credits include Going All the Way (w/Ben Affleck and Jeremy Davies), Arlington Road (w/Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins) and The Mothman Prophecies (w/ Richard Gere and Laura Linney).

He is currently based in Los Angeles and developing multiple projects.

Mark's Commentaries:
  Rosemary's Baby
  Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

Howard Rodman

HOWARD A. RODMAN, a Professor and former Chair of the screenwriting program at USC's School of Cinematic Arts and an artistic director of the Sundance Screenwriting Labs, wrote Savage Grace with Julianne Moore, August with Josh Hartnett and David Bowie, and the opening night film of the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, Joe Gould's Secret, with Ian Holm and Stanley Tucci.

The sleaziest character in Steven Soderbergh's film The Underneath is named "Howard Rodman," for reasons which need not be enumerated here.

Howard's Commentaries:
  Touch Of Evil
  Coming Soon: The 10th Victim

Eli Roth

ELI ROTH wrote, directed, and produced the horror films Cabin Fever, Hostel, and Hostel: Part II, all made independently and on a low budget, in the tradition of his heroes.

As a child Roth was obsessed with horror movies, and was sawed in half with a chain saw at his Bar Mitzvah, much to the horror of his entire extended family. His future projects include an adaptation of Stephen King's bestseller Cell and "Trailer Trash, an entire movie of fake trailers

On the Web: http://www.myspace.com/eliroth

Eli's Commentaries:
  Forbidden Planet
  Three On A Meathook
  Squirm
  The Birds
  Exorcist II

Edgar Wright

Writer-director EDGAR WRIGHT is best known for Spaced, the BAFTA-nominated tv series he created with Simon Pegg for Britain's C-4, as well as the recently-released feature film Hot Fuzz (2007) and the zombie romantic-comedy Shaun Of The Dead (2004). The latter earned Wright a BAFTA nomination along with a Bram Stoker and a British Independent Film Award.

On the Web: http://www.myspace.com/edgarwright

Edgar's Commentaries:
  Phantom Of The Paradise
  Asylum
  Silent Running
  Carnage
  Twitch of the Death Nerve
  Raw Meat
  Suspiria - International Version
  Suspiria
  Danger Diabolik
  Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
  Coming Soon: Venom
  Coming Soon: High Plains Drifter

Eli Roth:
“The Birds”

Allison Anders:
“Forty Guns”

Mark Pellington:
“Rosemary's Baby”

Allison Anders:
“Jailhouse Rock”

Mark Pellington:
“Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House”

John Landis:
“The Errand Boy”

Jack Hill:
“Foxy Brown”

John Landis:
“The Defiant Ones”

And 146 More >>

Allison Anders

Allan Arkush

Rick Baker

Larry Cohen

Joe Dante

Jon Davison

Mick Garris

Stuart Gordon

Sam Hamm

George Hickenlooper

Jack Hill

Dan Ireland

Mary Lambert

John Landis

Michael Lehmann

Mark Pellington

Howard Rodman

Eli Roth

Edgar Wright

BoingBoing

Cartoon Brew

Reel Movie News

King of Zembla

Video WatchBlog

The Price of the Ticket

Cinema Retro

Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule

Mr. Peel's Sardine Liqueur

DVD Savant

Allison Anders

Jack Hill

Eli Roth

Edgar Wright