PSYCHOTRONIC NETFLIX VOL. 26

HEY BASTARDS. Welcome to another edition of PSYCHOTRONIC NETFLIX! This week we’ll be giving you more bang for your buck with a ten pack of anthology films, each with at least three stories a piece to fill your weekend with time-efficient entertainment!

10. Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990)

For whatever reason, this anthology film based on the George Romero-produced TV series never gets the respect it deserves, despite the fact that it has one of the best wraparound segments, featuring Debbie Harry trying to stuff Matthew Lawrence into an oven. It’s also got an amazing cast, including Christian Slater, David Johansen, William Hickey, James Remar, Rae Dawn Chong, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore and Robert Klein.

9. The Butcher, The Chef and the Swordsman (2010)

Wu Ershan’s Chinese action-comedy anthology follows the story of a mystical blade travelling between the three title men as it’s used to forward their desires, only to discover that the power it wields is more than they can take. Over-the-top and deserving of a wider audience.

8. Screamtime (1983)

A great little oddity, this anthology strings together three British short films by linking them through segments about thieves taking VHS tapes from a video store and watching them. Alternatively chilling and goofy, this is pretty much the definition of a “mixed bag,” but it’s still a good time for a recreation of a Saturday evening in the ’80s after a visit to the local Video Barn.

7. Chillerama (2011)

Adam (HATCHET) Green, Tim (2001 MANIACS) Sullivan, Joe (WRONG TURN 2) Lynch, Adam (THE DARK BACKWARD) Rifkin and composer Bear McCreary each took turns in this retro-horror anthology set at “the last drive-in theater in America.” The attempts to replicate classic tales of B-movie horror don’t always work, and at two hours, it’s overlong, but there’s a lot of horror-comedy fun to be had.

6. Tales from the Hood (1995)

Okay, so Rusty Cundieff’s African-American take on the horror anthology isn’t great, but you really can’t beat the linking segments with Clarence Williams III as a deranged morgue attendant who distracts a group of burgling teens with stories about the corpses he’s overseeing. It’s worth it to hear Williams pronounce “the shit” alone. With Wings Hauser, David Alan Grier, Duane Whitaker, Joe Torry, Corbin Bernsen, Art J. Evans and Rosiland Cash in her final film.

5. After Midnight (1989)

The Wheat Brothers, who directed the underrated LIES and later wrote PITCH BLACK, directed this forgotten but fairly solid anthology flick, with a wraparound segment involving a college professor teaching a course in fear, and featuring at least one great segment involving a woman with a broken ankle being harassed via phone. Featuring Marc McClure, Marg Helgenberger, Pamela Adlon, Tracy Wells, Ramy Zada and ELM STREET 3’s prime time victim, Penelope Sudrow.

4. Bawdy Tales (1973)

Take a turn away from horror for an anthology of sexy shenanigans in a pic co-written by Pier Paolo Pasolini. In 1850s Rome, two prisoners awaiting their deaths take turns telling ribald, bodice-ripping stories about lusty countrygirls and castrating clergymen.

3. Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965)

Amicus was the primary source for great British horror anthologies, and Freddie Francis’ flick, consisting of five strangers on a train telling freaking experiences with which they’ve recently been involved, is one of the best. It helps that the cast is top-notch, including Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough and a young Donald Sutherland.

2. Three… Extremes (2005)

“Extremes” is right in this Asian horror anthology featuring tales from horror masters Takashi Miike and Chan-wook Park. (Also Fruit Chan, but calling Chan a “horror master” doesn’t sound right.) Probably the most disturbing entry in the list, but also one of the most beautifully made.

1. Black Sabbath (1963)

Mario Bava’s great trilogy of terror tales hosted by Boris Karloff (who also stars in one of the segments) is highly recommended, especially for the segment involving a young nurse whose thieving behavior comes back to haunt her.