Equinox

Dennis Muren & Co. have made the ultimate fan flick to everything that had come before, and also forged ahead on what would become modern special effects filmmaking with this one-of-a-kind amateur fan film. In a plot similar to The Evil Dead, a group of kids go into the woods (although it’s more mountains than woods) and discover a book. All of the sudden, all sorts of evil stop-motion animation monsters show up, from a gorilla creature inspired by King Kong, a Cthulu-like octopus, and a fucking demon that still looks pretty creepy and realistic. A lot of people are not a fan of this flick, but I’ve been a fan of it since I saw it many years ago, midnight on AMC. Criterion released it in 2006 in a great 2-disc release, and it’s never looked better. It features the original version, and the longer re-edit, which is the one that is mostly shown. I frankly prefer the original version, which has more stop-motion stuff. One of my favorites.