What to Watch: Suggestions for a Psychotronic Film Festival in the Comfort of Your Home

Over the past 20 years or so, I had amassed a great collection of DVD's and video tapes, but with my kids growing up fast, I figured it was time to do some simplifying.
The clean-up was two-fold: 1) Sell or throw out any film we just won't miss and 2) convert tapes or rare stuff to DVD, then throw out the bulky VHS tapes.

In doing this, it's been fun to take a look at films that I just love and have been enjoying watching again or converting to DVD. For your perusal, a list of some of the most off-the-wall, off-beat and off-the-hook films to ever grace my home theater:

Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People - Underneath the 'Gilligan's Island on Acid' vibe and stupid title actually resides a thought-provoking Japanese film regarding man's selfishness and self-destruction as a group of people find themselves stranded on an island with little to no hope. Made in the mid-60's by the same people that brought you Godzilla!

Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill! - An ode to the inherent violence in women, as large breasted go-go dancers drive fast cars, break he-men's spines and take advantage of a sadistic old man in this Russ Meyer classic!

The Big Gundown - One of the best non-Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns ever, with Lee Van Cleef hunting down Thomas Milian playing Cuchillio 'the Knife' Sanchez for a crime he may not have committed. Fantastic showdown ending, with knives, guns and rifles!

Enter the Dragon - Bruce Lee's swan song! The greatest martial arts movie ever as Bruce enters a contest to the death on an island full of fighters!

Danger: Diabolik - Swinging 60's Italian superhero/thief/terrorist out to steal from the rich, humiliate the 'Man', and rip off a 50-ton gold ingot with his hot girlfriend, as filmed by Mario Bava with an incredible soundtrack by Ennio Morricone.

Dracula: Prince of Darkness - Rumor has it the script for this was so bad, that all of Dracula's dialogue was removed. Instead, we get Christopher Lee hissing and growling as lord of the undead in the 60's Hammer studios classic! One of my favorites!

Invasion of the Saucermen - A family favorite, as big headed aliens land on earth, inject teenagers with alcohol, and are succumbed by headlights (no lie!) in this 50's drive in classic.

House of Wax - Poor Vincent Price loses his business and then his mind, so he starts dipping bodies in wax for his new museum. If only I could ever see this in the original 3D!

Tron - The computer geek in me forces me to love this film and all the great computer effects in it (I mean, for 1982). Plus, you wouldn't want to compete on the game grid on a light cycle?

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - Three hours of extreme close ups of ugly people, desert landscapes, and a soundtrack to die too. Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef are three gunslingers on the hunt for Confederate gold in the war-torn West. I actually think this movie is art and it appears on my top 5 list of all time favorite films ever!

Quatermass and the Pit - Thinking man's sci-fi, as a alien vessel is discovered underneath a British subway system. I actually prefer the BBC serial, but I also recommend the Hammer version with Andrew Keir.

The Pit and the Pendulum - A minor Vincent Price classic very loosely based on the Edgar Allen Poe short story, but everyone that sees it is subsequently creeped out by the imagery. Awesome film!

Night of the Living Dead - Zombies are a dime a dozen now, but this original 1968 George Romero classic is just as much a social commentary about paranoia and survivalism as it is a monster film and is also one of my favorite films ever.

Revenge of Frankenstein - Before he was Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars, Peter Cushing enjoyed a healthy run in British cinema, and his portrayal of the Baron Frankenstein (the scientist, not the monster) in a series of Hammer Studios films from the 50's and 60's is one of the best roles ever! It's creepy, it's sociopathic, and it's dang fine acting for a bunch of B-list films! This is one of the best, the second film of the series (though I also highly recommend the first film Curse of Frankenstein).

Gunhed - This is purely a guilty pleasure of mine from 1989, in this Japanese sci-fi mess about a giant robotic gun unit, a mercenary, a Texas Air Ranger and the gauntlet they have to run against a super computer on a techno-island. Awful electronic soundtrack that I can't get out of my head, but somehow I've seen this film like 10 times!