WE DARE YOU to see the most amazing trailer of our time! That’s how American International would most likely market this column if they were still around to do so. Michael Landon (yes, that Michael Landon) stars here as a troubled young man, but his therapist decides to use him for a ghastly experiment that involves closed eyes, hypnotism, and talking about sinking his teeth into people. That’s how you create a monster. Sadly, this one isn’t nearly as good at basketball as he should be.

Everyday, come rain or shine or internet tubes breaking, Film School Rejects showcases a trailer from the past. Today’s trailer teaches us how to die like a gentleman, to live like a human being, and to whistle while we work. Plus, the movie won 7 Academy Awards. Not too shabby. Think you know what it is? Check out the trailer after the jump.

I met Death today. We are playing chess. Antonius Block returns from the Crusades and jumps out of the fighting and into the black plague as the flesh-rotting disease hitches a ride all over the beautiful Swedish countryside. On a rocky beach looking out over the water, a cloaked man approaches, introduces himself as Death, and Block challenges him to a game of chess on the condition that a victory will secure his life.

Happy Birthday Kurosawa! Happy Birthday Toshiro Mifune! Their birthdays are a week apart, so we’ve decided to celebrate by remembering the time that Kurosawa shot real arrows at his favorite lead actor. Oh, those lovable scamps!

Get dragged kicking and smiling by Andy Griffith’s Lonesome Rhodes in a political horror film that still has a lot to say about our culture.

To this day, 12 Angry Men somehow hasn’t saturated some movie audiences, which is why I feel it’s an important movie to feature here (in a column usually devoted to lesser-known classics).