![](\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-P-6DE0B2rsE\/UJG-S9J7gqI\/AAAAAAAAAFs\/bZEXCbRVZn8\/s1600\/IMG_20121031_200015.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nMy favorite film of 2011 bar none (sorry, The Artist<\/i>) was the high octane Korean shocker I Saw the Devil<\/a><\/i><\/a>. I\u2019ve never seen a revenge thriller so relentlessly horrifying\u2014just when you think it can\u2019t get any crazier, it astonishes the viewer with another bombshell development. I Saw the Devil<\/i> is centered on the diabolical machinations of school bus driver and predatory serial killer Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik ), who picks precisely the wrong victim when he abducts, (graphically) tortures, and murders the fianc\u00e9e of secret service agent Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun<\/a>). The devastated yet coolly resourceful Soo-hyun is hell-bent on revenge, and breaks protocol (which is frankly the least of his indiscretions) by using his secret agent smarts to hound Kyung-Chul as Kyung-Chul goes on a sickening rampage of rape and murder. Much cathartic mayhem ensues\u2014the fact that Soo-hyun catches Kyung-Chul, beats the ever living snot out of him, and frees him just so the super-spiteful secret agent can have yet another excuse to administer a professional-grade ass whooping later on is completely absurd. Come to think of it, it also may not be the best law enforcement tactic. Still, watching this vile, remorseless psychopath get his ass handed to him repeatedly makes for an enthralling 141 minutes. You can also plumb a little deeper if you want to ponder the nature of evil or the futility of vigilantism and revenge, but even if you take I Saw the Devil<\/i> on the most superficial level, the film definitely delivers.<\/p>\n A flick that ratchets up its scares in measures that equal its gross-out factor is Lucio Fulci\u2019s 1978 sickie Zombie 2<\/a><\/i>. If you\u2019re not familiar with Fulci\u2019s oeuvre, suffice to say he\u2019s sort of a bargain-basement Dario Argento (who is probably the most renowned director of Italian giallo pictures; Argento\u2019s visually arresting, highly stylized and ghastly films\u2014such as 1977\u2019s Suspiria<\/i>\u2014are classics of the horror genre.) Lucio\u2019s Fulci\u2019s late 1970s and early \u201880s imports usually featured stomach-turning gore and the terrible things you would least like to encounter in real life (sudden cobra appearances, ambulatory dead guys with maggots crawling all over their faces, and creepy children with blonde pageboy haircuts who speak in poorly dubbed English.) Zombie <\/i>( a.k.a. Zombi 2<\/i>, thusly named because it was marketed worldwide as a pseudo-sequel to George Romero\u2019s Dawn of the Dead<\/i>) is extreme even by modern zombie film standards. The plot is simple: a woman and a reporter travel to a faraway island to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her scientist father. It seems the scientist was investigating an epidemic that\u2014surprise!\u2014turned all the island\u2019s inhabitants into undead cannibals. The carnage in this movie is mind-bogglingly excessive, and the set pieces\u2014like one in which a nude diver finds herself a third wheel during a nasty throw down between a deep-sea zombie and a great white shark\u2014makes modern zombie epics like The Walking Dead<\/i> (available at Langsdale<\/a> in its original graphic novel form) seem about as intense as Mary Poppins<\/i>. <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Langsdale has many top tier horror movies on hand that are ideal for setting the mood this Halloween\u2014I\u2019m looking at you, Rosemary\u2019s Baby, Evil Dead II and Alien\u2014but sometimes you need to be hit with something that amps up the Continue reading Langsdale\u2019s Craziest Foreign Film Shockers<\/span>