Brian Yuzna Movies

Cujo's got nothing on this fearsome canine as beast fuses with metal to create the ultimate killing machine in this tale survival from genre specialist Brian Yuzna. An innocent man imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, Dante's (William Miller) future looks increasingly grim until an unexpected window of opportunity allows him the chance to flee the confines of his bleak prison cell. Upon realizing that Dante has escaped, the corrupt authorities unleash their ultimate weapon -- an unstoppable, bone-crunching hybrid of canine and machine with a taste for flesh and metal scissors for jaws. In a battle that goes beyond man-versus-machine, the stage is set for the ultimate game of survival. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Directed by Jaume Balagueró, Darkness follows father and husband Mark (Iain Glen), his wife (Lena Olin), and their two children (Anna Paquin and Stephan Enquist) on their move to an outwardly quaint country home. Though the initial housewarming party is widely celebrated by neighbors, their houseguests become steadily fewer as a series of creepy happenings indicate that the house is home to more than their family. Sure enough, the lights begin to flicker incessantly on and off, while Mark's Huntington's disease makes a comeback after a ten-year dormancy. Regina (Paquin) expects that the problem stems from the house itself, but no one believes her. Determined to prove her case (particularly after mysterious noose marks begin to appear on her brother's neck), Regina decides to pay a visit to the man (Fermi Rexach) who built the house to begin with. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

A plucky pilot searching for a missing relative gets bugged by a island controlled by giant spiders in this horror opus. Mercer (Alex Reid) is a pretty but all-business female pilot whose brother is a novice flyer. When a small plane he's flying crashes on a small island in the South Pacific, Mercer immediately assembles a crew and sets out on a rescue mission to find her brother. Joining Mercer in the search for her brother are Valentine (Chris Potter), a mercenary handy with a gun; Dr. Leon (Pepe Sancho), a tough-talking physician; Capri (Ravil Isyanov), a scientist investigating a strange disease that's been traced back to the island; and Susana (Neus Asensi), a good friend who is bright and resourceful. When Mercer and her associates arrive on the island, they believe they're ready for anything, but they're not prepared for what they find -- a breed of huge and deadly spiders, who are ready and willing to defend their territory and begin picking off Mercer's crew one by one. While shot in Mexico by a Spanish production company, Arachnid was co-produced by American producer Brian Yunza (through his multi-national Fantastic Factory production house), and helmed by American director Jack Shoulder. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Brian Yuzna directed this sci-fi horror film with creature design by Screaming Mad George. Sherry (Jillian McWhirter) and Craig Burton (Arnold Vosloo) are zapped by a white light while making love, suffer a later memory loss of the incident, and see a psychiatrist (Lindsay Crouse) and UFO investigator Dr. Clavell (Brad Dourif). Hypnotic sessions prompt memories of steel medical instruments, tentacled aliens, and an operating table. When Sherry's gynecologist (Wilford Brimley) checks with ultrasound, alien technology zaps his pacemaker, and the situation begins to get grim. Progeny was shown at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

In this spoofy horror outing from veteran genre director Brian Yuzna, L.A. Law vet Corbin Bernsen plays Dr. Feinstone, an anal-retentive Beverly Hills dentist with an amusement park of an office replete with Planet Hollywood-worthy, themed exam rooms, piped-in opera music, and a crisp, efficient staff. When Feinstone finds out that his lovely wife, Brooke (Linda Hoffman), is fellating the pool boy, he becomes unhinged -- haunted by visions of filthy mouths and faithless spouses. Inviting Brooke back to the office on their anniversary and begging her to indulge him in his hobby of cleaning her teeth, Feinstone performs a little unorthodox oral surgery and soon uses his now-disfigured sweetie to lure her boyfriend into a backyard trap. Revenge doesn't cure Feinstone's homicidal urges, however, and soon his violence and sexual obsessions spill over into his practice -- especially after creepy IRS investigator Marvin Goldblum (Earl Boen) shows up for a little "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine." Soon, patients and staff members alike are interacting with drills and laughing gas in ways they never expected. Filmed for, and originally shown on, HBO, The Dentist did not receive a U.S. theatrical release. Yuzna, Bernsen, and Hoffman reunited two years later for The Dentist II: Brace Yourself. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Oversized mutant ticks start terrorizing a nearby campground and eating its campers. ~ Sean D. MacLaggan, Rovi

A more straightforward horror film than the darkly comic Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988), this third chapter in the "Living Dead" saga was directed by Brian Yuzna and is quite similar plot-wise to his earlier film, Bride of Re-Animator (1990). J. Trevor Edmond and Mindy Clarke star as Curt Reynolds and Julie Walker, a young couple in love. Curt's father is Col. John Reynolds (Kent McCord), a scientist working on a top-secret project at a nearby military compound. When Curt steals his dad's security pass and sneaks Julie into the base, they discover that the project involves bringing corpses back to life using the powerful gas Trioxin, responsible for events in the previous films. The military hopes to use the mindless, flesh-consuming zombies as weapons, but the experiment goes gruesomely awry. Later, Julie is killed in an accident on Curt's motorcycle and the grief-stricken boyfriend brings her to the base and exposes her to the gas. As she begins craving human flesh, Curt must try to keep her alive while also facing down a local street gang he's unintentionally crossed, as well as the soldiers seeking Julie, led by his father. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

In this horror film, malicious toymaker Joe Petto (Mickey Rooney) and his creepy son, Pino (Brian Bremer), terrorize the residents of a small town with the deadly toys they create. After her husband is killed by one of Petto's toys, Sarah (Jane Higginson) and her troubled son Derek (William Thorne) set out to stop the evil toymaker. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

In this horror film, the murderous Ricky returns under the control of a cult of demon-possessed women, who use the killer for their own evil means. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Erstwhile inventor Prof. Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) has been experimenting with an electromagnetic shrinking machine. He leaves the device unattended in his attic; shortly afterward, it is accidentally activated. Alas, the demon machine is aimed at his children, as well as the son of neighbor Russ Thompson (Matt Frewer). The kids, shrunk to 1/4-inch height, are tossed into the trash bin by the unwitting Szalinski. For the rest of the film, our teeny-tiny protagonists attempt to gain their parents' attention -- and to survive the wilds of the backyard, where all sorts of dangers, from bumblebees to lawnmowers, threaten their well-being. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids features Marcia Strassman as Moranis' wife, and juvenile players Robert Oliveri, Kristine Sutherland, Thomas Brown, Jared Rushton, and Amy O'Neill. The visual effects are the handiwork of such masters as Joe Johnston, Phil Tippett, and David Allen. When originally released to theaters, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was double-billed with the Roger Rabbit cartoon Tummy Trouble; this is how it is presented on videotape as well. The film (the live-action one, that is) prompted a 1992 sequel, Honey, I Blew Up the Kid. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The production team responsible for the twisted cult classic Re-Animator -- including director Stuart Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna -- returned the following year with this equally depraved (perhaps more so) follow-up, based once again (and very loosely) on the pulp-horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. Also returning to the fray is Jeffrey Combs, here playing the mild-mannered Crawford Tillinghast, apprentice to the dangerously obsessed Dr. Pretorious (Ted Sorel) and co-inventor of an enigmatic and ominous-looking device known as "The Resonator" -- a machine designed to stimulate the vestigial sensory apparatus contained within the human pineal gland. Such stimulation allows participants to "see" the slimy creatures which occupy a dimension parallel to our own, but with some chilling side effects -- the first of which being that the interdimensional vision works both ways. When a powerful sentient force devours Pretorious and assumes his consciousness, Tillinghast panics and destroys the Resonator -- soon to find himself in a padded cell, accused of his mentor's murder. Called to the case are Dr. McMichaels (Barbara Crampton, another Re-Animator alum) and amiable cop Bubba Brownlee (Dawn of the Dead's Ken Foree), who escort Tillinghast back to the shattered laboratory in an attempt to corroborate his deranged account by re-creating the experiment. Their attempts are all too successful, and the Pretorious-thing emerges to take control of the reactivated Resonator and draw the others into its hideous realm. Also called forth are the participants' darkest sexual desires -- another interesting by-product of pineal stimulation -- and, in Tillinghast's case, an uncontrollable urge to devour human brains. Just when it seems it can't get any weirder...it does. Gordon explores this demented scenario with relish, allowing nearly every scene to go completely over the top into surreal mayhem while retaining the dark brooding sense of menace characteristic of Lovecraft's work. (It's not likely, however, that the author's dignified upbringing would have explored the psychosexual dimensions of the premise -- at least not in the kind of detail seen here.) All manners of perversities abound, accompanied by the wizardry of four dueling special-effects studios and the rich, creepy score by Richard H. Band, bringing the film to a literally explosive climax and a chillingly poetic final shot. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi