Film Discoveries of 2016 - Jackson Stewart

Jackson Stewart is a writer/director living in Los Angeles. He created the web series 'The Cartridge Family' and wrote for the CW show Supernatural. He also did a short entitled 'Sex Boss' and recently directed the new horror movie BEYOND THE GATES (which I am a big fan of). BEYOND THE GATES was co-written by RPS friend and contributor Stephen Scarlata. Check out BEYOND THE GATES right now on VOD:
http://amzn.to/2jgMw4i

Jackson is on twitter @bossjacko.
Here are his discoveries list from last few years:

http://www.rupertpupkinspeaks.com/2016/02/film-discoveries-of-2015-jackson-stewart.html
http://www.rupertpupkinspeaks.com/2014/12/favorite-film-discoveries-of-2014_26.html
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1. Sweet House Of Horrors (1989) -- Fulci's attempt to make a TV horror movie. The interesting thing is that it is just as violent as 'The Beyond'. The opening murders are especially brutal featuring a man getting the back of his head smashed in on a fireplace corner and a woman getting her face forced onto a hot stove. I don't want to give too much about the plot away but there is a sequence with a haunted tractor that I found very fascinating.

2. Slugs (1988) -- Juan Piquer Simon's insane-o answer to Jaws. If you'd like to see the director of 'Pieces' make an unbelievably sleazy creature film loaded with explicit violence and gratuitous nudity this is the movie for you.

3. Return From The Ashes (1965) -- J. Lee Thompson directs this twisty-turny murder mystery centered around a holocaust survivor who happens to be quite wealthy and her assuming a different identity. Soon enough her ex-lover takes up with her estranged daughter and they set out to murder her for inheritance. Many complications arise. There's an emotional maturity to this movie I appreciated and I genuinely couldn't predict where it was going. Seek it out.

4. Fright Night Part II -- not to be confused with the recent direct to DVD movie. Roddy McDowell and William Ragsdale are back as Peter Vincent and Charley Brewster respectively. This time, Brewster's become the skeptic while Vincent must convince him vampires are real. It's a ballsy note to start the movie on and Tommy Lee Wallace does a terrific job of keeping what was special about the first movie while avoiding falling into formula. It boasts a terrific Brad Fiedel score, a bizarro vampire bowling sequence and a slew of other surprises. Only real downside is the absence of Stephen Geoffreys as Evil Ed.

5. Fear City (1984) -- Abel Ferrara's attempt at a studio film. This movie is pretty much wall to wall sickening violence and full frontal nudity. Tom Berenger plays an ex-boxer turned night club owner who has to go after a deranged psycho path who is mutilating his strippers. The New York Dolls provide the theme song and Billy Dee Williams plays a racist cop. What more do you need?