When it was announced that Tom Cruise would play the vampire Lestat in this adaptation of Anne Rice's bestselling novel, even Rice chimed in with a highly publicised objection. The author wisely and justifiably recanted her negative opinion when she saw Cruise's excellent performance, which perceptively addresses the pain and chronic melancholy that plagues anyone cursed with immortal bloodlust. Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst are equally good at maintaining the dark and brooding tone of Rice's novel. And in this rare mainstream project for a major studio, director Neil Jordan compensates for a lumbering plot by honouring the literate, Romantic qualities of Rice's screenplay. Considered a disappointment while being embraced by Rice's loyal followers, Interview with the Vampire is too slow to be a satisfying thriller, but it is definitely one of the most lavish, intelligent horror films ever made. -Jeff Shannon When it was announced that Tom Cruise would play the vampire Lestat in Interview with a Vampire, the film adaptation of Anne Rice's bestselling novel, even Rice chimed in with a highly publicised objection. The author wisely and justifiably recanted her negative opinion when she saw Cruise's excellent performance, which perceptively addresses the pain and chronic melancholy that plagues anyone cursed with immortal blood lust. Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst are equally good at maintaining the dark and brooding tone of Rice's novel. And in this rare mainstream project for a major studio, director Neil Jordan compensates for a lumbering plot by honouring the literate, Romantic qualities of Rice's screenplay. Considered a disappointment while being embraced by Rice's loyal followers, Interview is too slow to be a satisfying thriller, but it is definitely one of the most lavish, intelligent horror films ever made. [+]

Most horror films exist in a fantasy movie-world safely removed from our existence, populated by zombie-like killers and psychopathic madmen. The power of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is its chilling placement in the mundane existence of everyday life. Michael Rooker plays Henry not as a raving psychopath but as the frumpy guy next door, a drifter who takes out his frustrations on random victims and escalates his body count after teaming up with the violent ex-con Otis (Tom Towles). Though not exceedingly gory in light of the excesses of such fantasy horrors as the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street series, director John McNaughton's straightforward presentation and documentary-like style creates a chilling realism that many viewers will find hard to watch. McNaughton neither comments on nor flinches at the brutal violence, which reaches its apex in a disturbing camcorder-eye view of a particularly sadistic murder of a middle-class couple, with Henry and Otis smiling through the deed as they record it for their continued pleasure. Henry straddles the line between True Crime (though fictional, the story was inspired by the confessions of real-life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas) and horror, a bleak, brutal kind of terror for a generation deadened by the escalating outrageousness of movie murders and nightly news crime scene clips. -Sean Axmaker, Amazon. com.

In 1992, The Lawnmower Man was hailed as a CGI (Computer Generated Image) breakthrough. It's fascinating to consider the effects in a historical context, knowing it came just a year after T2: Judgment Day and was followed by Jurassic Park a year later. Written and directed by Bill Leonard, this was intended to showcase how realistic digital likenesses and landscapes had become. Little did they know that Toy Story was already in pre-production! The story hangs on the concept that a scientist gain (Pierce Brosnan) is drafted in to utilise the technology for governmental. As with all top-secret government projects in the movies, it all goes horribly wrong. Forced to progress from a chimp to a human subject, Brosnan secretly recruits local backwards boy and lawnmower pusher Jobe (Jeff Fahey). The increases in intelligence are alarming. He learns Latin in two hours, becomes an object of sexual desire (all it takes is cowboy boots apparently), and then develops telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Some very overt religious analogy is in evidence. Jobe's beatings by a priest give way to an eventual crucifixion on the spinning wheel that allows him to enter Virtual Reality. [+]

You are now entering Interzone, William S Burroughs' phantasmagorical land of junk, paranoia and crawly things. Best travel advice: "Exterminate all rational thought". In David Cronenberg's superbly shot, unnerving warp on the Burroughs novel, Naked Lunch, the novelist himself becomes a main character (played in an implacable monotone by Peter Weller), with elements from Burroughs' life-including the shooting of his wife during a "William Tell" game, and bohemian friends Kerouac and Ginsberg-added to frame the book's wild visions. This is, ironically, a somewhat rational approach to an unfilmable book (and it makes a hair-curling double bill with Barton Fink, another look at writerly madness, with both films sharing Judy Davis). Cronenberg is a natural for oozing mugwumps and typewriters that turn into giant bugs, of course. But in the end, this is really his own vision of the artistic process, rather than Burroughs' hallucinatory descent into hell. -Robert Horton, Amazon. com.