MONSTERZERO NJ’S 15 FAVORITE CLASSICS AND CULT CLASSICS I SAW AT NJ’s LEGENDARY ORITANI THEATER!

The Oritani Theater

Photo from the Mitchell Dvoskin collection

The first flick where Jason wears the hockey mask and ironically the last flick MZNJ saw at the Oritani Theater before it sadly closed its doors!

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If you’ve been visiting this site for a while, you’ve probably heard me mention more than once, The Oritani Theater in Hackensack, N.J. The Oritani was a grind house, that presented badly dubbed martial arts movies, horror flicks, and raunchy low budget comedies during the late seventies and early 80s. I lived only a town away, so this was a go-to theater on a Friday and Saturday night for my friends and I, who shared a love of B-Movie horror and sci-fi. I decided to compose a list of 15 favorite flicks that I saw there, which are now regarded as classics, cult classics, or fan favorites. Some of these were seen when first released and a few of the older titles were at revivals or midnight shows there!

Kurt Russell as legendary movie anti-hero Snake Plissken in Escape From New York!

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-MonsterZero NJ

MONSTERZERO NJ’S 15 LGBTQIA+ HORRORS FOR PRIDE MONTH!

Colin Minihan’s What Keeps You Alive, pits spouse against spouse.

Its Pride Month and MonsterZero NJ’s Movie Madhouse commemorates by focusing on fifteen horrors with LGBTQIA+ themes or main characters. Horror is a genre with something for everyone and was one of the first to embrace LGBTQIA+ content into its stories, as far back as 1936, when it was still considered taboo! Enjoy! – MZNJ

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Worth highlighting all on its own is Hammer Horror’s groundbreaking Karnstein Trilogy, three vampire flicks which featured openly lesbian themes at a time when it was bold to do so!

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The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s Frank N Furter, a groundbreaking LGBTQIA+ main character!

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(To get to the reviews of the titles listed above covered here at the Movie Madhouse, just type the title in the search engine to find the corresponding critique!)

-MonsterZero NJ

MONSTERZERO NJ’S 25 SUMMER THEMED HORRORS!

You Might Be The Killer gives us a fun, meta twist on the traditional camp set horror!

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Memorial Day Weekend 🇺🇸 is here and that means the start to the summer vacation season!…It also means camping, barbecuing, swimming, cabins in the woods, summer camp and maniacs in hockey masks! Halloween isn’t the only time of the year when things go bump in the night, as these 25 fright flicks prove! (…and no, I didn’t forget the cabin set Evil Dead films, they take place in the fall!)

To find the reviews for the films listed below, just type the title in the above right search engine!

A summer marina job is the least of his worries as Ben might have a witch living next door in The Wretched!  Photo: IFC MIDNIGHT

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY FROM MONSTERZERO NJ! 🇺🇸

-MonsterZero NJ

HAPPY 43rd ANNIVERSARY TO FRIDAY THE 13th!

The woman that started it all, Jason’s mom, Mrs. Voorhees!

43 years ago today the original Friday the 13th was released in theaters and a horror classic, a legendary franchise and a horror icon were born! Sure, Jason didn’t come along as the killer till part 2, but this is the installment where his iconic character first came to life! HAPPY 43rd ANNIVERSARY FRIDAY THE 13th!

-MonsterZero NJ

HAPPY 42nd ANNIVERSARY TO FRIDAY THE 13th PART 2!

Five years after the events of Friday the 13th, a new group of camp counselors line up for the slaughter!

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42 years ago today, 5/1/81, Friday the 13th Part 2 was released in theaters and a classic horror icon was born! Jason arrived to avenge his mother, in this installment, and thus his iconic character first came to life! HAPPY 42nd ANNIVERSARY FRIDAY THE 13th PART 2!

MZNJ PERSONAL NOTE: Saw F13P2 opening night at the Hackensack Drive-In in Little Ferry, N.J. Must admit I was a little disappointed when I first saw it. It wasn’t as gory as the first flick and how dare they kill off Crazy Ralph AND so early in the film. Years later this installment has grown on me and now I consider it to be one of the best of the sequels!

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Jason arrives to avenge his mom and horror history is made!

Life lessons to be learned in F13P2! Fun-loving Ted (Stuart Charno) survives the movie by staying at the bar and continuing to get drunk!

-MonsterZero NJ

MONSTERZERO NJ’S 15 HORROR/SCI-FI FLICKS THAT INVOLVE EGGS!

An egg chamber beneath the streets of NYC in Guillermo del Toro’s Mimic!

As colored eggs and hunts for them are a large part of the Easter celebration, and eggs are a common plot element in horror and science fiction films, here are fifteen movies that include some very un-Easter eggs in their stories! Happy Easter to those who celebrate! – MZNJ

Creatures hatch from their ancient slumber in the 1972 Gargoyles!

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(To get to the reviews of the titles listed above covered here at the Movie Madhouse, just type the title in the search engine to find the corresponding critique!)

-MonsterZero NJ

MONSTERZERO NJ’S IRISH HORRORS TO WATCH ON ST. PATRICK’S DAY 2023!

The annual celebration of all that’s Irish is upon us! As St. Patrick’s Day 🍀 is here, those with horror in our Irish hearts 💚 can have plenty to watch with their corned beef and carnage! So, here is a list of Irish made…or themed…horror flicks to send shivers down your shillelagh!

(Click on the titles below to get to our reviews of the films covered here at the Movie Madhouse!)

1. The Hallow

2. From The Dark

3. Wake Wood

4. Grabbers

5. Let Us Prey

6. Isolation

7. Shrooms

8. The Devil’s Doorway

9. Dark Touch

10. The Canal

11. Citadel

12. I Am Not A Serial Killer

13. A Dark Song

14. The Lodgers

15. In Fear

16. The Hole In The Ground

17. Rawhead Rex

18. Into The Dark: Crawlers

19. Halloween III: Season of the Witch

20. Leprechaun

Conspiracy theorist Shauna believes aliens have taken over the local college campus on St. Patty’s Day in Crawlers!

-MonsterZero NJ

MONSTERZERO NJ’S 15 NATURE RUN AMOK FLICKS TO WATCH!

 Crawl, finds a young woman (Kaya Scodelario battling alligators loose in a house during a hurricane!

Cocaine Bear has brought the nature run amok flick back into the limelight, so, while everyone is in the mood for critters and carnage, here are fifteen fun nature run amok flicks, old and new, to satisfy your creature cravings! You’re going to need a bigger couch!

Cutie Missy Peregrym has a problem with the local wildlife in Backcountry!

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(To get to the reviews of the titles listed that were covered here at the Movie Madhouse, just type the title in the search engine to find the corresponding critique!)

-MonsterZero NJ

MONSTERZERO NJ’S HORROR FLICKS FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH!

February is the month where we mark the achievements of the black community and there have been some wonderful contributions to the world of horror films by some amazing talents. Whether it be black filmmakers like William Crain and Jordan Peele, or actors such as William Marshall, Pam Grier, Lupita Nyong’o, Kiana Madeira and Duane Jones, there is much to celebrate! Here are fifteen films that illustrate the sometimes groundbreaking and always entertaining achievements in the horror genre that this month so proudly commemorates!

To all these talented men and women in front of and behind the camera…CHEERS!

-MonsterZero NJ

MONSTERZERO NJ’S 15 HORRORS TO WATCH ON VALENTINE’S DAY!

During this season of candy and flowers, those with horror in our hearts can have plenty to watch with that special boy or ghoul…or for the single folk to calm the storm of sappy sentimentality they are enduring from their paired-up friends on social media! Not all are classics, but even the lesser titles are suitable for this day of grave emotional attachment!

(Click on the titles below to get to our reviews of the titles covered here at the Movie Madhouse!)

1. My Bloody Valentine 1981

2. My Blood Valentine 2009

3. Valentine

4. Spring

5. The Bride Of Frankenstein

6. Return Of The Living Dead 3

7. The Shape Of Water

8. Bram Stoker’s Dracula

9. Burying The Ex

10. Blacula

11. The Love Witch

12. The Loved Ones

13. Warm Bodies

14. Only Lovers Left Alive

15. What Keeps You Alive

-MonsterZero NJ