All things Cult Cinema

Started by wilder, March 27, 2017, 06:00:36 PM

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wilder

October 25, 2022

House of Psychotic Women Rarities Collection on blu-ray from Severin. Also available as a bundle with the expanded hardback edition of House of Psychotic Women



QuoteIn 2012 Kier-La Janisse published House of Psychotic Women, billed as "an autobiographical topography of female neurosis in horror and exploitation films." It soon became one of the most "vital" (Tim Lucas, Video Watchdog) and "astonishing" (Daily Grindhouse) genre tomes of all time. To mark the book's 10th anniversary, award-winning writer/programmer/filmmaker Janisse (WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED) now presents four of the strongest and strangest explorations of onscreen delirium and hysteria, all on American Blu-ray for the first time:

Elizabeth Taylor stars in 1974's IDENTIKIT (aka THE DRIVER'S SEAT) as a hostile woman who travels to Rome to find the most dangerous liaison.

In the surreal 1986 Polish horror-comedy I LIKE BATS, a female vampire discovers that love may be the cruelest curse of all.

Florinda Bolkan stars in the startling 1975 amnesiac giallo FOOTPRINTS from the director of THE FIFTH CORD. And British screenwriter and radical theatre icon

Jane Arden directs 1972's harrowing THE OTHER SIDE OF THE UNDERNEATH. Each film has been restored from original vault elements, with all-new introductions by the author and hours of Special Features produced exclusively for this collection.









wilder

#226
August 30, 2022

Jeff Kanew's Natural Enemies (1979) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome partner label Fun City Editions



What causes a man who seemingly has everything—a thriving business and family—to snap and throw it all away? It's the question that this provocative and intelligent psychological drama investigates. Successful New York magazine publisher Paul Steward (Hal Holbrook, The Fog and All the President's Men) has reached his breaking point and today is the day he has decided to kill himself, his wife and their children. His marriage to Miriam (Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Strange Behavior) has grown cold and distant. On this final day, he seeks the answers that might relieve him of his despair, through encounters with a psychiatrist (Viveca Lindfors, Creepshow and Dark City), an astronaut, a friend who survived the Holocaust (Jose Ferrer, Dune and Lawrence of Arabia), five prostitutes in a brothel and a lonely woman on the train ride home...

Writer, director and editor Jeff Kanew (Revenge of the Nerds and Troop Beverly Hills) established himself in Hollywood as one of the industry's most sought-after trailer editors of the 1960s and '70s. Having become a leader in that field, he adapted Julius Horwitz's controversial novel Natural Enemies for himself to direct. The result is a blistering and devastating work that recalls Taxi Driver, and which shocked audiences and critics when it was first released in 1979. Having been out of circulation for nearly four decades, this worldwide Blu-ray premiere has been sourced from the best-surviving element, a 35mm deposit print held by the Library of Congress.





August 30, 2022

The Films of Doris Wishman: The Moonlighting Years (1965-1969) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome partner label American Genre Film Archive



No one will ever make movies like Doris Wishman made movies. One of the most prolific women filmmakers in the history of American cinema, writer-director-editor Wishman created collisions between surrealism and exploitation that feel like they materialized from an alternate universe. THE FILMS OF DORIS WISHMAN: THE MOONLIGHT YEARS surveys the mid-period, gutter-noir era of Wishman's career. From BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL (Wishman's iconic crime epic) to INDECENT DESIRES (a horror-tinged sexploitation mindwarp), AGFA + Something Weird are honored to present these triumphant DIY treasures in sparkling new restorations.




TBD

Fabrice du Welz's Calvaire (2004) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome partner label Yellow Veil Pictures



Marc, a traveling entertainer, is on his way home for Christmas when his van breaks down in the middle of a jerkwater town with some strange inhabitants.



September 20, 2022

Joël Séria's Don't Deliver Us From Evil (1971) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro, from a 2K restoration of the original camera negative



Two young convent girls become friends and decide to spend the summer together. However, their innocent bicycle rides and walks in the country soon develop a much more sinister side.

Influenced by their reading of forbidden books, they decide to explore the world of perversion and cruelty. They find a victim and use their innocent appearance to seduce and destroy him. Once they have stepped over the line, they find it impossible to stop. And soon they are contemplating the ultimate evil act.

Hugely controversial, the film was banned for blasphemy and was never released theatrically in the US. This first Blu-ray release is newly restored from the film's original negative and includes a number of exclusive extra features. The film was screened as part of the Directors Fortnight at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival.






September 20, 2022

Sergio BergonzelliIn the Folds of the Flesh (1970) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro, from a 2K restoration of the original camera negative



Night-time. A peal of thunder. A castle by the sea. A severed head rolls across a carpeted floor. A blood-stained sword lies next to it... Meanwhile police are in hot pursuit of a criminal who is evading capture on a speeding motorbike. He takes refuge in the overgrown castle grounds. And he sees a dark-haired woman burying a corpse in a shallow grave. 13 years later, after being recaptured and serving his sentence, the man returns to the castle, intent on blackmail. And maybe a few other things.





September 20, 2022

Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's A Haunted Turkish Bathhouse (1975) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro, from a 2K restoration of the original camera negative



A Haunted Turkish Bathhouse features Nikkatsu star Naomi Tani as an abused wife sold to a brothel to cover her husband's debts. The deceitful husband is actually behind it all, in cahoots with the brothel madame, who is his lover. Tani discovers the truth and gets tortured to death. However, the dead woman's soul seeks vengeance from a most unusual quarter.

The film is a bizarre mixture of Japanese erotica, gangster film and "ghost cat" horror movie. All popular genres in the 1960s and 70s. It's a heady cocktail and makes for an entertaining and unpredictable film that rocks along at a giddy pace. Director Yamaguchi is best known for his Delinquent Girl Boss and Sister Street Fighter movies as well as the Sonny Chiba film Wolf Guy.






September 20, 2022

Hajime Satô's House of Terrors (1965) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro, from a 2K restoration of the original camera negative



A recently widowed woman discovers that her former husband, who died in an insane asylum, owned a remote country mansion. She and a group of friends go to the villa and find a weird demonic statue in the hallway. They are joined by a hunchback caretaker who tells them of the numerous murders that have occurred there. Soon the guests begin to hear strange noises including disembodied laughter, and feel that they are being stalked by a disturbing presence that haunts the mansion.

A rare Japanese film that was heavily influenced by US and European Gothic cinema of the 1960s, such as Mario Bava's Mask of Satan and Robert Wise's The Haunting. Filmed in luminous black and white widescreen the film is a classic of Gothic horror with many genuinely scary scenes. Packed with bizarre characters and strange occurrences the film builds to a surprising and horrifying climax. Director Hajime Satô is best known for his 1968 film Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell.






August 23, 2022

Frans Weisz's Naked Over the Fence (1973) on blu-ray from Cult Epics, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative



Rick, who runs a pinball arcade, lets a room to Penny, a young teacher and karate fan. Penny gets to know Lilly, a singer who has just been hired with her friend Ed to act in a film. But Lilly soon discovers that the movie they are involved in is nothing else but a dirty one. In disgust, she runs away from the set. Shortly afterward, the owner of the film studio is found murdered.



NSFW




September 13, 2022

Ralph Bakshi's Cool World (1992) on blu-ray from Shout Factory



A bizarre accident lands Frank Harris in Cool World, a realm of cartoons. Years later, cartoonist Jack Deebs, who's been drawing Cool World, crosses over as well. He sets his lustful sights on animated femme fatale Holli Would, but she's got plans of her own to become real, and it's up to Frank to stop her.



October 17, 2022

Nobuhiko Obayashi: 80s Kadokawa Years (1981-1986) on blu-ray from Third Window Films (UK)





A limited edition 4 disc digipack bluray set of four 1980s films from legendary Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi (HOUSE), all presented with new HD masters. Limited to just 2000 copies and includes a booklet by Ren Scateni and Joseph Kime.


School in the Crosshairs (1981)

Mitamura Yuka (Hiroko Yakushimaru) is a normal shy middle school student that has psychic powers. When a new student with similar powers begins to show his skills, by stealing the student government election, Yuka and her friends vow to stop him. The election has uncovered something which will put Yuka's powers to the ultimate test!



The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1983)

A high-school girl acquires the ability to time travel.



The Island Closest to Heaven (1984)

A high school girl travels to the island of New Caledonia and has magical adventures.



His Motorbike, Her Island (1986)

After a failed romance, a temperamental young biker meets a carefree rural girl while riding through her island hometown and gets her obsessed about riding a motorcycle.



August 22, 2022

James Sbardellati & Jim Wynorski's Deathstalker & Deathstalker II (1983-1987) on blu-ray from 101 Films (UK)




Deathstalker (1983)

The warrior Deathstalker is tasked by an old witch lady to obtain and unite the three powers of creation - a chalice, an amulet, and a sword - lest the evil magician Munkar get them and use them for nefarious purposes. After obtaining the sword, Deathstalker joins with other travelers going to the Big Tournament to determine the strongest warrior. The false king holds the true princess in captivity, and plots to have Deathstalker killed, and Deathstalker must fight to free the princess.



Deathstalker II (1987)

Deathstalker helps Reena the Seer out of a few jams, and she solicits his help for a bigger task. She reveals that she is actually Princess Evie, but the evil sorcerer had her abducted and cloned in order to seize control of the kingdom. Together they travel to the evil sorcerer's stronghold to restore the princess to her rightful position, encountering challenges along the way both from the sorcerer's goons and the fierce Amazon women.



2022TBD

Robert Sigl's Laurin (1989) on blu-ray from a TBD UK distributor



In a small port town at the end of the 19th century children are disappearing. A mysterious man in black who stalks the town may be Death itself. And nine-year-old Laurin is suffering terrifying dreams and hallucinations of a man carrying a sack and frightened children calling for help from behind closed windows.




September 12, 2022

Jonathan Weiss' adaptation of JG Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition (1998) on blu-ray from Yuma Pictures (UK)



A university professor is fascinated with humankind's history of violent self-destruction.



November 23, 2022

Yasuzo Masumura's Irezumi (1966) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Joker Films (France). Previously released on blu-ray from Arrow.



A seductive woman gets kidnapped into prostitution. After getting a spider tattoo made on her back, she grows vengeful, leaving several men in her path.





November 23, 2022

Yasuzo Masumura's Red Angel (1966) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Joker Films (France). Previously released on blu-ray from Arrow.



During the Sino-Japanese War, a young army nurse gives sympathy to her patients and falls in love with an impotent doctor who's addicted to morphine.



September 2, 2022

Grigori Kromanov's Dead Mountaineer's Hotel (1979) on blu-ray from Camera Obscura (Germany). Region free, includes English subtitles.



Police Inspector Glebsky is called to the remote "Dead Mountaineer's Hotel" – a false alarm as it soon turns out. He decides to spend the night at the hotel anyway since there is no way going back after an avalanche has cut off the hotel from the outside world, and Olaf, one of the other peculiar hotel guests, is found dead. His investigation leads Glebsky into a world of the inexplicable and the supernatural...

DEAD MOUNTAINEER'S HOTEL is based on the novel by the brothers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, who have their place among the most important sci-fi/fantasy writers due to visionary cult novels like "Roadside Picnic" (adapted for the screen by Andrei Tarkovsky as STALKER) and "Hard to be a God". The film, which starts out as a mystical neo-noir thriller with a whodunnit twist and is soon intertwined with sci-fi elements, captivates the viewers not only with a remarkable blend of genres, but also with an impressive mountain setting and an atmospheric synth score by Sven Grünberg. A cult film in Estonia and a huge box-office success in the Soviet Union, it is now, over 40 years after its German theatrical release in the GDR, finally available again.





TBD

Dusan Makavejev's Sweet Movie (1974) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Camera Obscura (Germany)



After winning the "most virgin" contest, Miss Canada is married to a rich milk tycoon. But she quickly flees the marriage to experience the world around her, full of sweetness and anarchy.




October 5, 2022

Quentin Masters' Midnite Spares (1983) on blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment (Australia)



After discovering that a group of car thieves may have something to do with his father's untimely death, Steve pursues the criminals and attempts to capture them as well as prove his prowess as a race car driver.


wilder

2023 TBD

Steven Sayadian's Café Flesh (1982) is in the works, presumably from Vinegar Syndrome



In the future, humans are divided into Sex Negatives and Sex Positives. The negatives get sick if they have sex so they go to Cafe Flesh to see positives who are forced to perform on stage for the negatives. Lana is a positive who everyone thinks is a negative and she must decide whether to come clean or not.





2023 TBD

New label Error 4444 just announced some of their 2023 releases




Andrew Kam's Fatal Termination (1990)



A Hong Kong police officer's wife seeks revenge when a ruthless munitions smuggler kidnaps her daughter.




Chang Hsin-Yi's Thrilling Bloody Sword (1981)



The daughter of a queen and a comet is abandoned by her family. One day, she comes across a prince fighting a multi-headed dragon and falls in love with him. However, some wizards try everything to keep them apart.

Thrilling Bloody Sword is a very rare 1981 Taiwanese action-fantasy-horror melding of Snow White, Masters of the Universe, and Clash of the Titans with a healthy dose Asian mythology, inspired low budget insanity, and loads of copyright infringement music.






They previously put out Yoshihiro Nishimura's Anatomia Extinction (1995)



In Anatomia Extinction, a man stands out from the crowd with his bleached blonde hair and disdain for the overflow of humans in Tokyo. Physically sick and tired of being surrounded, the man's only respite is the warm embrace of a sex worker. However, when the man is targeted by a serial killer known as "the engineer," he's given a choice--die by his hand or join him in murdering every last one of the humans he can't stand.

Both a pointed protest to Japan's raging overpopulation problem and a superb addition to the body horror sub-genre, Yoshihiro Nishimura's Anatomia Extinction, a prequel feature to Tokyo Gore Police, is overflowing with excellent blue and reddish hues, queasy practical gore effects and is an excellent capsule of Tokyo in the mid-90's.



WorldForgot

Quote from: wilder on August 26, 2022, 08:37:23 PMAndrew Kam's Fatal Termination (1990)



A Hong Kong police officer's wife seeks revenge when a ruthless munitions smuggler kidnaps her daughter.




This poster is actually for 'She Shoots Straight' from the same year.

wilder


WorldForgot

Anyone interested in X-rated cinema really owes it to themselves to watch Cafe Flesh and Caligari 3000 ~ They make good weekend flicks too, with the absurd sets and costumes channeling old midnite scrambled transmissionz.

wilberfan

I think I've seen it--although don't claim to remember much about it now.  Just noticed that Jerry Stahl wrote it with the director--Jerry's been making the podcast scene lately to promote his new book.

WorldForgot

Last night jenkins and I simul-watched MUTANT HUNT (1987) on the Xixax discord. I highly encourage any regular members to screen movies in our Xax'cord whenever you like ~

Even though it's a sci-fi B-movie, it's still shot like queer porn, gel lights and extravagent sets. Plus some really cool sci-fi cyborg gore. Really fun flick. Great dialogue and fights so choreographed they feel like contemporary dance.

QuoteHe used this alias to maintain a career on the 'legit' side of things. Often considered one of the best, Joe Gage had several of the most commercially successful gay porn films of the 70's/early 80's era.

Interestingly enough, he left the "adult" business just as video was taking over film, doing just one movie in video format (Closed Set 2), and directed a few low-budget horror films, under the name Tim Kincaid (such films as Breeders, and Robot Holocaust).

In several of his adult films, he appears as one of the many men in the orgy scenes (many of the guys simply credited as "The Gage Men"). Some rumors said the reason Gage made films in the 80's under the name Mac Larsen was because of trouble with Reagan's crack down on porn, or tax issues - not true. He said in an interview that he lost interest in making porno films, but they offered some quick money, and he made a deal with P. M. Productions to do several with a quick turn-around and a set budget. Those films were shot in 1 or 2 days, then edited and handed over to P.M. in a matter of just a few days total (in comparison to L.A. Tool and Die, which took 20 days for shooting alone, an unheard of amount of time for a porno movie)

WorldForgot


WorldForgot

Quote from: wilder on July 18, 2022, 05:56:24 PMOctober 25, 2022

House of Psychotic Women Rarities Collection on blu-ray from Severin. Also available as a bundle with the expanded hardback edition of House of Psychotic Women



QuoteIn 2012 Kier-La Janisse published House of Psychotic Women, billed as "an autobiographical topography of female neurosis in horror and exploitation films." It soon became one of the most "vital" (Tim Lucas, Video Watchdog) and "astonishing" (Daily Grindhouse) genre tomes of all time. To mark the book's 10th anniversary, award-winning writer/programmer/filmmaker Janisse (WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED) now presents four of the strongest and strangest explorations of onscreen delirium and hysteria, all on American Blu-ray for the first time:

Elizabeth Taylor stars in 1974's IDENTIKIT (aka THE DRIVER'S SEAT) as a hostile woman who travels to Rome to find the most dangerous liaison.

In the surreal 1986 Polish horror-comedy I LIKE BATS, a female vampire discovers that love may be the cruelest curse of all.

Florinda Bolkan stars in the startling 1975 amnesiac giallo FOOTPRINTS from the director of THE FIFTH CORD. And British screenwriter and radical theatre icon

Jane Arden directs 1972's harrowing THE OTHER SIDE OF THE UNDERNEATH. Each film has been restored from original vault elements, with all-new introductions by the author and hours of Special Features produced exclusively for this collection.










Now streaming on Shudder!


https://twitter.com/bigsmashkierla/status/1577411231425892354

WorldForgot



"Okay, now, if you feel like having a horrible day, there's many choices here at Severin."

WorldForgot



QuoteIn an interview in issue #77 of Boston Rock, Samuels said the concept of airing films centered around a single theme was intended to have the effect that "the videos were saying something to each other and were letting the audience make conclusions from them." Samuels also said the show was never trying to compete with MTV; he felt the content of Night Flight was "...a little more selective... intelligent and... stimulating."

Samuels said Night Flight was the first show to place director's names on the videos, interview the bands, create band profiles, air uncensored videos, and to air longform 12" remix videos. He said they were also the first music video show to employ political themes, such as apartheid. The intent, he said, was not to be "...heavy-handed, but do 'here's-something-that's-in-the-news' shows".

The eventual backlash against the repetition of rock videos inspired Night Flight to program even more public domain animation (especially those from the Fleischer Studios, Ub Iwerks, etc.), cult and camp films in the mid- to late 1980s into the early 1990s. The show was thus instrumental in the distribution of cult, midnight movie and campy films.

wilder

November 5, 2022

Álex de la Iglesia's Accion Mutante (1992) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Severin



In a future world ruled by good-looking people, a terrorist group of mutants led by Ramon Yarritu kidnap the daughter of Orujo, a rich businessman, to claim for the rights of the ugly people. Escaping from the police in their spaceship, Ramon try to kill his gang in order to get all the ransom. The trip ends abruptly when they crash in Axturiax, the planet of the crazy miners where no woman lives.




Q1 2023

Stephen Sayadian's Dr. Caligari (1989) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Mondo Macabro



As sexually deranged as it is stylistically unhinged, this psychedelic surrealist neo-noir reworking of the 1920 German expressionist classic features Laura Albert as Mrs Van Houten, a woman whose libido is dangerously out of control. There's only one place for her: the Caligari Insane Asylum.

Madeleine Reynal plays Dr Caligari, the granddaughter of the original Doctor, whose own experiments in psychosexual therapy have led her to the brink of a radical treatment involving hormonal exchange. Having drugged and imprisoned Mrs Van Houten's sexually repressed husband, Caligari sets out to extract the brain fluid of an incurably nymphomaniac Mrs Van Houten and inject it into the head of a cannibalistic serial killer (John Durbin) addicted to electroconvulsive therapy. What could possibly go wrong?

With eye-popping set design from Stephen Sayadian (Night Dreams, Café Flesh), a luscious synth score courtesy of Mitchell Froom, not to mention acid-tongued dialogue written by Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight), Dr Caligari drops a dirty bomb on Reagan era family values. Mining high art in bad taste, it parodies both mass media and pop culture through a roll call of staged citations and quotations as exquisitely framed as they are sexually charged.






2023 TBD

Gualtiero Jacopetti & Franco Prosperi's Goodbye Uncle Tom (1971) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Blue Underground



Two documentary filmmakers go back in time to the pre-Civil War American South, to film the slave trade.




November 25, 2022

Matthew Bright's Freeway (1996) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome



Vanessa Lutz' life is a mess. Her mother, a prostitute, and father, an abusive drunk, have been hauled off to jail. With nowhere to live, Vanessa has no choice but to move in with her grandmother. Hitting the road to granny's house, she quickly encounters the silver-tongued Bob Wolverton, who offers to give her a lift. However, what Vanessa doesn't realize is that Bob is the notorious I-5 Killer; a vicious murderer who preys on young, female hitchhikers, and soon finds herself face-to-face with a real "Big Bad Wolf." Using all her wits, she sets in motion a cunning trap which all comes to a grisly head in this modern take on Little Red Riding Hood...




January 31, 2023

Matthew Bright's Ted Bundy (2002) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome



Seattle, 1974. Ted Bundy would seem to be a model citizen with a bright future. He's handsome and has an outgoing and friendly demeanor, he's dating an attractive woman who loves him deeply, and is doing well at college where he's studying to become a lawyer. But beneath his "nice guy" exterior, something evil is lurking; a sinister desire to commit the most heinous and unspeakable acts of violence. Unable (or unwilling) to control his urges, Ted eventually gives into to his violent passions and embarks on a cross country killing spree, leaving a trail of raped, tortured, murdered, dismembered, and defiled corpses in his wake...




November 29, 2022

Edmund Purdom's Don't Open Till Christmas (1984) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome



It's just days before Christmas in London, but not everyone is full of good cheer - as a maniac with a pathological hatred of Santa Claus stalks the streets, butchering any man that's unlucky enough to be wandering around dressed as Old Saint Nick. Not restricting themself to any one method of murder, this twisted killer dishes out stabbings, gunshots, a castration, and even burns the face of one poor Santa on his own roasting chestnuts! As the bodies of slaughtered Father Christmases pile up, Chief Inspector Harris finds himself under increasing pressure to crack the case before the holiday is canceled for good!




December 27, 2022

Sean Donnelly's I Think We're Alone Now (2008) on blu-ray from ETR Media



This feature documentary is an intimate portrait of two people who are deeply in love with the 80's pop singer Tiffany.

Jeff Turner is a 50-year-old man from Santa Cruz, California with Asperger's Syndrome. He has a very friendly and childlike spirit and can talk to anybody for hours on end but finds it difficult to maintain relationships and has never had a girlfriend. He has been attending Tiffany concerts since 1988 and describes her as his "best friend, mentor and protector."

Kelly McCormick is a 35-year-old intersex person from Denver, Colorado who identifies as a lesbian. She loves running, watching action movies and doing impressions. She has also never been in a romantic relationship but says that she loves Tiffany "down to her bone marrow."

Both Jeff and Kelly have been called "stalkers" by the media and other Tiffany fans but this film allows them to share their side of the story. Filmed over the course of six years, I Think We're Alone Now takes you deep into their lives, and shows the power of having something to believe in.





October 25, 2022

Karen Shakhnazarov's Zerograd (1988) on blu-ray from Deaf Crocodile



Part Kafka, part Agatha Christie and part Monty Python, director Karen Shakhnazarov's surreal satire of Communism follows an Everyman engineer named Varakin (Leonid Filatov) who arrives in a remote city where nothing quite makes sense, but everyone acts as if it does. He's quickly drawn into the investigation of the suicide (or possibly murder?) of a local restaurant chef, Nikolaev – who may (or may not) be Varakin's missing father. The more complex and absurdist the mystery becomes, the more poignant and plaintive Varakin's predicament – "I have to get back to Moscow," he pleads to no avail. Along the way we're treated to a bizarre and wonderful sideshow of non sequiturs out of a Wes Anderson film, including an underground museum filled with a thousand years of real and imagined Russian history ("Here's the pistol with which Urusov shot the False Dimitry II.") Frozen in time, frozen far beneath the surface, the waxwork figures are strangely beautiful and forlorn, like Shakhnazarov's marvelous and enigmatic satire of Soviet bureaucracy. With music by the great Eduard Artemyev (SOLARIS, STALKER).




March 28, 2023

Daisy von Scherler Mayer's Party Girl (1995) on blu-ray from Fun City Editions, from a new 4K restoration. Available through MVD's online shop and DiabolikDVD.



Although Mary (Parker Posey) has little income, she still finds ways to spend her nights at clubs. After being arrested for throwing an illegal rave, she asks her aunt Judy (Sasha von Scherler) for bail money. Judy then finds Mary a job at her library so that Mary can repay her. Initially, Mary finds the job as a clerk boring and stifling, and prefers to get to know a street food vendor (Omar Townsend) whom she likes. However, Mary must refocus her life once she loses her job and apartment.




2023 TBD

Dusty Nelson's Effects (1980) on 4K UHD blu-ray from AGFA



Some crew members of a company shooting a horror film begin to suspect that the "killings" in the movie are real, and that they are actually making a "snuff" film.



March 7, 2023

Narciso Ibáñez Serrador's The House That Screamed (1969) on blu-ray from Arrow



Mrs. Fourneau owns and runs a school for wayward girls in France. Her absolute discipline has fostered a social order among the girls with rampant sex, lesbianism and torture the norm. Mrs. Fourneau also has an adolescent son she tries to keep isolated from the young women lest he be tainted by sexual relations; she explains that he must wait for a girl "just like his mother". Meanwhile, girls are "running away" (being murdered) one by one, with their corpses and any evidence of their outcome not to be found...




February 7, 2023

Chris Wales' The Vagrant (1987) on blu-ray from Arrow



A business man buys a house, but he has a hard time trying to get of it's previous tenant, a dirty bum.



April 11, 2023

Martin Koolhoven's AmnesiA (2001) on blu-ray from Cult Epics, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative



A photographer returns to his parental home because his mother is seriously ill. The confrontation with his past leads to panic in a surreal, stylized psychological drama.




January 2023 TBD

Joe Sarno's Moonlighting Wives (1966) on blu-ray from Dark Force Entertainment



An ambitious suburban housewife, tired of forever being in debt, sets up an independent stenography business. Finding that her clients are more interested in the women than the dictation, she revamps it into a discreet and highly profitable prostitution ring made up of neighbourhood wives.




November 22, 2022

Sion Sono's Hair Extensions (2007) on blu-ray from Media Blasters



When a mortician discovers that a girl's mutilated corpse grows prodigious amounts of hair, he sells the locks to a beauty salon for use as hair extensions. But the dead girl's spirit has cursed the hair, which begin to attack the women who wear it.




2023 TBD

Sion Sono's Suicide Club (2001) on blu-ray from Discotek Media



On a day like any other at Shinjuku Station, 54 smiling schoolgirls throw themselves in front of a train in a spectacular splatter of blood. This shocking scene opens Sono Sion's cult suspense about a suicide epidemic sweeping through Japan, and the police's rush to find the cause behind the separate yet seemingly connected deaths.



2023 TBD

Gakuryû Ishii's Electric Dragon 80.000 V (2001) on blu-ray from Third Window Films (UK)



A violent, guitar-playing, electrically charged boxer faces off against an electronic wizard half-merged with a metallic Buddha.




2023 TBD

Tinto Brass' Chi Lavora e' Perduto (1963) on blu-ray from Raro Video



Bonifacio is 27 years old and he is roaming about Venice. He is trying to decide whether to accept a job or not. In so doing, he recalls all his past life: his love story with Gabriella, his old friend Claudio, who had always regarded working as a worthwhile thing, the war, the partisans. What will he do?



December 12, 2022

Corey Yuen's Yes, Madam! (1985) on blu-ray from Eureka (UK)



Two policewomen join up to investigate a ferocious homicide committed by a ruthless underworld gang. Faced with savage attacks from vicious gang members, the two partners battle the gangsters with a shower of deadly kicks and devastating blows.




2023 TBD

Roland Klick's Supermarkt (1974) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Subkultur (Germany)



Willi is a street kid trying to make a living with petty crimes. He befriends both a journalist who wants to help him make an honest living and an older petty criminal looking for a quick buck.





January 26, 2023

Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires (1965) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Plaion (Germany)



In the near future the two spaceships Argos and Galliot are sent to investigate the mysterious planet Aura. As the Galliot lands on the planet her crew suddenly go berserk and attack each other. The strange event passes, but the crew soon discovers the crashed Argos - and learns that her crew died fighting each other! Investigating further, the explorers come to realize the existence of a race of bodiless aliens that seek to escape from their dying world...

wilder

Quote from: wilder on January 13, 2023, 04:44:56 PMApril 11, 2023

Martin Koolhoven's AmnesiA (2001) on blu-ray from Cult Epics



A photographer returns to his parental home because his mother is seriously ill. The confrontation with his past leads to panic in a surreal, stylized psychological drama.

QuoteDISC ONE: AmnesiA
  • NEW 4K REMASTER FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
  • NEW Introduction by Martin Koolhoven
  • NEW Audio Commentary by Martin Koolhoven, Fedja van Huet, moderated by Peter Verstraten
  • NEW A Conversation with Martin Koolhoven & Carice van Houten (2022) 44 Mins
  • The Making of AmnesiA (2001) 38 mins
  • Behind-the-Scenes with Carice van Houten (2001)
  • Theatrical Trailer

DISC TWO: Bonus TV films by Martin Koolhoven
  • Suzy Q (1999) 85 mins
  • Dark Light (Duister Licht) (1997) 55 mins
  • Trailers




Suzy Q (1999):




Dark Light (Duister Licht) (1997)


wilder

May 29, 2023

Mexico Macabre: Four Sinister Tales from the Alameda Films Vault (1959–1963) on blu-ray from Indicator (UK & US)



QuoteThese four macabre titles from the vaults of one of Mexico's best-known film companies offer uniquely Mexican takes on the ghosts, witches, and monsters familiar to fans of horror cinema and fiction.

Fernando Méndez's Black Pit of Dr. M (Misterios de ultratumba) sees a doctor make a pact with his dying colleague in order to learn the secrets of the afterlife. In Chano Urueta's The Witch's Mirror (El espejo de la bruja), a murderer is tormented by the ghost of his dead wife, whilst in Urueta's The Brainiac (El barón del terror), a nobleman executed for necromancy returns in diabolical form to eradicate the lineage of his killers... by sucking out their brains! Finally, in Rafael Baledón's The Curse of the Crying Woman (La maldición de la Llorona), a young bride visits her aunt's Gothic mansion, where she finds that she is the descendent of one of Mexican folklore's most terrifying figures.

With their star-studded casts, beautiful photography, eerie production design, and bone-chilling atmosphere, these films have terrified audiences for decades, and are now available in this strictly limited, individually numbered Blu-ray box set, which includes an array of new extra features – including four new audio commentaries, and rare English-language dub tracks – as well as a set of art cards and a fully illustrated 100-page book.

The full restoration of Black Pit of Dr. M can be viewed on YouTube in full, sans subtitles:



Black Pit of Dr. M (1959):



The Witch's Mirror (1962):



The Curse of the Crying Woman (1963):



The Braniac (1962)




May 29, 2023

From Hollywood to Heaven: The Lost and Saved Films of The Ormond Family on blu-ray from Indicator (UK & US)



QuotePresented by Nicolas Winding Refn, From Hollywood to Heaven tells the extraordinary story of a truly unique American filmmaking family.

For almost half a century, June, Ron and Tim Ormond, a Nashville mother-father-son trio, cranked out a wild bunch of movies, from Lash LaRue westerns to the stripper-gore-musical outrage The Exotic Ones, and plunged into every area of showbiz. What's more, they did it all on a shoestring, totally independently, with no studio to back them.

At the height of their frenzied career, Ron and June experienced a spiritual awakening when their private plane crashed on the way to a premiere. From then on, they turned their back on secular show business to produce a series of shocking, surreal religious pictures, including an unbelievable trio of films for Mississippi Baptist preacher Estus Pirkle – films such as The Burning Hell, which made millions, despite never being shown in an actual movie theatre.

Produced by Powerhouse Films in association with byNWR, and released to coincide with FAB Press' publication of forensic biographer Jimmy McDonough's awe-inspiring tome on the extraordinary life and work of the Ormond Family, this strictly limited, individually numbered Blu-ray box set contains thirteen feature films, a host of new and archival extra features – including five new audio commentaries and a collection of rarely seen short films – as well as a set of art cards and a fully illustrated 100-page book, newly written by McDonough.

There's a short write-up on his films on The Spectacle's website, The Grindhouse Gospel of Ron Ormond






May 29, 2023

The Exotic Ones - Deluxe Hardback Book by Jimmy McDonough from FAB Press, also available to order from Powerhouse Films



QuoteJune. Ron. Tim. Together they were the Ormond Organization, a Nashville mother-father-son trio who cranked out a wild bunch of movies, from Lash LaRue westerns to the stripper-gore-musical outrage The Exotic Ones, then, finally... Baptist extravaganzas. The Ormonds plunged into every area of showbiz, from vaudeville to drive-in movies to Christian filmmaking. They did it all on a shoestring – by themselves, with no studio to back them.

Theirs was a glittery world like no other. Populated by inebriated cowboys... spook-show mentalists... non-acting country stars... UFO testifiers... men in gorilla suits... fire-breathing, mud-wrestling ex-strippers... egocentric magicians... rockabilly monsters... sweaty preachers... pint-sized evangelists. Not to mention a con artist or ten.

At the height of their frenzied career Ron and June experienced a spiritual awakening after their private plane crashed on the way to a premiere. The Ormonds turned their back on secular show business to produce a series of shocking, surreal religious pictures, including an unbelievable trio of films for Mississippi Baptist preacher Estus Pirkle – such as The Burning Hell, which made millions without ever being shown in an actual movie theatre. The inside story on the three unbelievable Ormond-Pirkle religious pictures has never been told – until now.

Forensic biographer Jimmy McDonough interviewed June Ormond extensively and she revealed things she told no other soul. June was the guiding force of the family, a woman who held her own in the cutthroat male-dominated world of exploitation film. Her commentary is hilarious, brutally honest and at times heartbreaking.

Presented by Nicolas Winding Refn, and released to coincide with Powerhouse Films' publication of From Hollywood to Heaven, a four-disc Blu-ray box set of thirteen films by the Ormond Family, The Exotic Ones is a landmark work by Jimmy McDonough, and a beautifully designed feast for the eyes.