Pete's Dragon - 1977

This is the story of a late-stage schizophrenic and his autistic dragon friend. Yes, I fucking loved this as a child. I still do. It's empirical evidence that Disney movies were once both well-done and on the side of actual children.

Before the Storm - 2000

I saw this movie in Vancouver when it premiered at the VIFF many years ago. It's one of the most stressful movies I've ever seen. It's two stories, one about an Arab immigrant who left his life in Iran behind to pursue one with a future in Sweden who's being blackmailed by old terrorist contacts who will kill his Iranian wife and child if he doesn't set off a bomb for them. The other story is about a boy that gets bullied until he's pushed too far and then kills another student in the woods with his police officer mother's gun. There are no happy endings in this film, and every decision is wrought with circumstances that seem insurmountable by our protagonists. If you can find it, watch it.

Phantasm Ultra Post {Phantasm I, II, III} - 1979, 1988, 1994

Ah yes, Phantasm. One of the finest series of bad horror films ever created and, from what I can tell, the sole financier of Angus Scrimm and Reggie Bannister. Here are the trailers for the first three, though in total there are five films. Of these, I'm not sure if the first or the third is my favorite. The first is the most well-made and features graveyard sex, supernatural sex change, an ice cream vendor/folk guitarist who closes a portal with his tuning fork knowledge and, of course, tiny undead monsters. However, it commits the sin of having actually blown up a then-new hemicuda. Seriously. They blew a whole car up. The third one involves an orphan with a killer instinct, black lesbian ninjas, a four-barrelled shotgun, an ethereal other-world and gives our original protagonist, Jodie, super-powers. That's pretty awesome. You'll have to make your own decision, but I urge you to find out. If you want to check out part IV, you'll get to see boobs that turn into killer silver balls.

Monster Squad - 1987

Somehow this trailer hasn't been posted on this blog previously. How'd we miss it? Only the Gods can know. Basically, this movie rules. It's about a bunch of kids who befriend Frankenstein's monster and then fight off the entire Universal creature pantheon, sending them all through a gateway to another dimension. Also, there's a scary German guy who lived through Auschwitz. This movie is so awesome that last year there was a two disc DVD set called Monster Squad Forever! documenting its total awesomeness.

Invaders From Mars {Smackdown Edition} - 1953

Oh shit, the original fifties version! One more point for me and a sucka punch for Dreday.