The Wicker Man
There are plenty of plot summaries of this one out there. Don't read them! Seriously, don't. They just wreck everything. A straightlaced policeman from the mainland arrives on a small island off the coast of Scotland to investigate the disappearance of a child. Things get very weird very quickly and just keep getting weirder. It's so much better if you don't know anything else about this movie. Watching the plot unfold and trying to figure out what the hell is going on is half the fun. Rent it, rent it, rent it.
Tremors
OK, I'm already breaking my own guidelines because you've probably heard of Tremors. What you may not have heard is how totally freaking cool this movie is. The flick - and it is pretty emphatically a flick, rather than a film - essentially borrows the sandworms from Dune: big, hungry, underground critters that are attracted by any rhythmic vibrations. Like, say, walking. Highlights include Fred Ward just having a great time and a sequence in which Michael Gross and Reba McEntire blast the shit out of a worm for about five solid minutes. This is about as much fun as a monster movie can get. Rent it, rent it, rent it!
