All things Cult Cinema

[WorldForgot]

Thanks as always for posting these release roundups. Almost always I've only heard of one or two of the flicks, and especially in the other thread where it's classic canon that oft goes unmentioned in contemporary circles.  From your latest cult post, The Naked Ape and Red Angel have me very intrigued.

ANGEL GUTS: Nami has a wild chase sequence that somehow combines De Palma w/ Buñuel -- it feels both voyeuristic and rooted in surreal subjectivity.

[WorldForgot]

For some transgression this March ~
Collection of Nick Zedd filmz

[wilder]

The owner of VHS Collector runs a YouTube channel, The Analog Archivist. He's a wealth of information about the pre-DVD era and all of the companies and obscurities that disappeared with it. Contains some fun history.

[wilder]

[wilder]

March 24, 2022

Apocalypse After: Films by Bertrand Mandico on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro. Available to order from Mondo Macabro's online shop on release day. Limited to 1,500 red case copies, no standard edition coming.



Bertrand Mandico is one of world cinema's most visionary and original filmmakers. He began work as an animator and went on to win many awards for his short and medium length films. In 2017 his first feature, THE WILD BOYS, was released to great acclaim and was followed in 2021 by his second full length feature AFTER BLUE. He is currently working on a new feature – SHE IS CONAN.

Mandico makes films that are unlike anybody else's. His work has an astonishing beauty mixed with moments of dark humour, cruelty, eroticism and melancholy. The textures, colors, secretions and sounds from which he constructs his films create a seductive and immersive world that envelopes the viewer, drawing us into a magical and mysterious place where almost anything could happen next.

This Region A locked BD50 contains 11 films by Bertrand Mandico, all in glorious HD:

APOCALYPSE AFTER
BLUE CAVALIER
BORO IN THE BOX
DEPRESSIVE COP
ANY VIRGIN LEFT ALIVE?
HE SAID HE IS DEAD
LIVING STILL LIFE
OUR LADY OF THE HORMONES
PREHISTORIC CABARET
SALAMMBO
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF HENRY DARGER

NSFW

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First El Scapulario (1968) and now this. Continue crossing off white whales.

Bertrand Mandico's short films Notre-Dame des Hormones (2015) and Depressive Cop (2017)



Two aging actresses take a long weekend in the countryside to practice their latest roles, but become side-tracked when they fall into a violent love triangle with a purring oozing organ discovered in the woods.



On a Scottish island, a depressed cop investigates a girl's disappearance. The distraught mother accuses the island's inhabitants for her daughter's disappearance. Mother and daughter are in fact the same person.

[wilder]

May 31, 2022

Bo Arne Vibenius' Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome



Rendered mute after being sexually assaulted as a youth, Madeleine (sexploitation superstar, Christina Lindberg) lives an isolated existence in her parents' farmhouse. Missing the bus on her way to town one day, Madeleine accepts a lift from a wealthy and charming stranger named Tony. What starts off as an innocent meeting soon takes a nightmarish turn when Madeleine learns that Tony is really a sadistic pimp on the make, who soon enslaves her into his prostitution racket by forcing her to become dependent on heroin. After refusing to service a client, Tony punishes Madeleine by violently blinding her in one eye, forcing her to wear an eyepatch. Despite her limited means, Madeleine secretly saves money to undergo karate and weapons training behind Tony's back. Once she reaches lethal proficiency, Madeleine embarks on a bloody road to revenge against her captors...



February 22, 2022

Lino Brocka's Cain and Abel (1982) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome partner label Kani



Firstborn Lorens (Phillip Salvador) toils the land by buffalo while Ellis (Christopher de Leon), the apple of his mother's eye, is given a university education in Manila. When the latter returns to the family's hacienda with a metropolitan fiancée in tow (Carmi Martin), the domineering Señora Pina (Mona Lisa) immediately disapproves. Looking to reassert her influence, she asks her youngest to name his inheritance. Ellis claims the land – which sparks a family feud that invites tragedy and boils over into all-out filial war.



April 26, 2022

Monte Hellman's Cockfighter (1974) on blu-ray from Shout Factory. Limited to 1,500 copies exclusive to their web store



A small-town Georgia man caught up in the illegal sport of cockfighting is the center of this action-drama from legendary producer Roger Corman.

Warren Oates (Stripes, The Wild Bunch) stars as Frank Mansfield, one of the most infamous trainers in the brutal world of cockfighting. His reputation in tatters due to his hubris, Frank becomes obsessed with making his way to the top of the game — against the wishes of his lover, Mary Elizabeth (Patricia Pearcy, The Goodbye Girl).



June 7, 2022

Richard Elfman's Forbidden Zone (1980) on blu-ray from Elfo Media Corp. There's some controversy over revisions to this new Director's Cut, for better or worse.



The bizarre and musical tale of a girl who travels to another dimension through the gateway found in her family's basement.

September 26, 2022 TBD

William Cameron Menzies' Invaders from Mars (1953) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Ignite Films.



Curious adolescent boy David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt) confronts aliens who have set up base in his backyard. The extraterrestrials intend to use mind control on the local townsfolk. Determined to stop the invaders, who have already co-opted his father (Leif Erickson), he attempts to warn others. But when local law officers also succumb, David teams up with astronomer Stuart Kelston (Arthur Franz) and Dr. Pat Blake (Helena Carter), and the trio must fight together to repel the insidious intruders.

May 16, 2022

Steven Arnold's Luminous Procuress (1971) on blu-ray from Second Run (UK), from a new 2K restoration



The only feature film by artist, mystic and polymath Steven Arnold, Luminous Procuress is a bold, experimental, mind-and-gender-bending odyssey of unabashed hedonism. A celebration of otherness, of pan-sexuality, and of the exotic, Luminous Procuress is a truly unique work of Art.

Often compared to the works of Fellini and Kenneth Anger, and featuring the outrageous talents of San Francisco's avant garde drag troupe The Cockettes, as well as artist Ruth Weiss, the film was an underground sensation upon release, but disappeared from circulation for many years. Now fully restored in all its sensuous glory, Luminous Procuress is ready to be discovered anew.



June 6, 2022

70's Horror Double Feature: Juan López Moctezuma's Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary (1975) & René Cardona's Blood Feast (1972) on blu-ray from VCI. Available from MVD's online shop

Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary
A beautiful American artist named, Mary, who just so happens to be a vampire living in Mexico, has authorities baffled and in full investigation, after her lust for blood has left a trail of bodies across the country. Attempting to elude detection by the authorities, Mary tries to maintain a love relationship with an American ex-patriot, while still trying to satisfy her growing appetite and need for 'human sustenance.' Things become even more complicated and terrifying for Mary, when her vampire father comes on the scene. Wrought with his own heinous compulsions, her father is determined to stop his legacy, before it totally consumes his daughter, and he intends to do this, even if it means killing her.

Blood Feast
Hugo, a twisted, cat lover, who also collects weapons and other macabre objects as a pastime, uses another pastime of picking up and scoring with beautiful women, as a means to sustain his massive horde of the animals. The routine is, once Hugo brings the women home with him and he is done with them, his mute and creepy butler, Dorgo, takes over. At some point, Dorgo, slips up and angers Hugo, with this ending in Dorgo having a similar fate as the women. Hugo soon finds himself at the mercy of his angry horde, when his efforts to rid himself of his latest conquest are foiled.

[wilder]

May 31, 2022

Dusan Makavejev's The Coca-Cola Kid (1985) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome partner label Fun City Editions



When a small-town Australian soda maker refuses to convert his factory to Coca-Cola production, the parent company sends in its whiz kid "troubleshooter" Becker (Eric Roberts, The Pope of Greenwich Village and Star 80) to resolve the issue. The previously unflappable Becker, however, finds his own resolve challenged by Australia's unique character and characters—namely Terri (Greta Scacci, The Player and White Mischief), his beautiful and very eccentric secretary, and McDowell (Bill Kerr, Gallipoli and Razorback), the stubbornly independent soft drink entrepreneur. Serbian auteur Dušan Makavejev (Montenegro and W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism) brings his celebrated off-kilter and boundary-pushing sensibilities to this classic screwball comic set-up, so that the narrative remains refreshingly unpredictable, unconventional and subversive throughout.

May 31, 2022

Aleksandr Ptushko's Ilya Muromets (1956) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome partner label Deaf Crocodile



Legendary Russian fantasy filmmaker Aleksandr Ptushko's sweeping, visual F/X-filled epic ILYA MUROMETS (THE SWORD & THE DRAGON) is one of his most enchanting achievements: a stunning Cinemascope ballad of heroic medieval knights, ruthless Tugar invaders, wind demons and three-headed fire-breathing dragons, all set against a mythic landscape of pastoral, unspoiled Russia. Based on one of the most famous byliny (oral epics) in Old Russian culture, the film stars Boris Andreyev as the bogatyr (knight) Ilya, waging a decades-long battle against the Tugars who threaten his homeland, kidnap his wife and raise his own son to fight against him.

May 31, 2022

The Films of Doris Wishman: The Twilight Years (1970-1977) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome partner label AGFA



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 TWILIGHT YEARS surveys the last major era of Wishman's career. From DEADLY WEAPONS and DOUBLE AGENT 73 (crime epics starring the iconic Chesty Morgan) to LET ME DIE A WOMAN (a semi-documentary about transgender people), AGFA + Something Weird are honored to present these triumphant DIY treasures in dazzling new restorations.

July 18, 2022

Dario Argento's Tenebrae (1982) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Arrow (UK)



A razor-wielding psychopath is stalking the thriller writer Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa, Death Wish II), in Rome to promote his latest work, Tenebrae. But the author isn't the obsessive killer's only target: the beautiful women who surround him are doomed as, one by one, they fall victim to the murderer's slashing blade.



July 26, 2022

Dario Argento's Tenebrae (1982) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Synapse



A razor-wielding psychopath is stalking the thriller writer Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa, Death Wish II), in Rome to promote his latest work, Tenebrae. But the author isn't the obsessive killer's only target: the beautiful women who surround him are doomed as, one by one, they fall victim to the murderer's slashing blade.



Summer 2022 TBD

Michel Caputo's L'exécutrice aka The Female Executioner (1986) on blu-ray from Severin



Martine is a tough female cop trying to solve the kidnapping of young Caroline by a gang of pornographers. She already has an accomplice inside the gang feeding her information, but progress is hindered by her own police commissioner. In her private live, Martine likes to hang around with her male colleagues, swapping a younger cop for the more mature and experienced Jean.



Summer 2022 TBD

Jesús Franco's Faceless (1987) on blu-ray from Severin, from a 4K restoration



When model Barbara Hallen disappears in France, her father's private detective traces her steps to a private plastic surgery clinic run by Dr.Flamand.

[wilder]

July 26, 2022

The Incredibly Strange Films of Ray Dennis Steckler on blu-ray from Severin



The box set contains twenty incredibly strange films – scanned in 4K/2K from the best existing 35MM/16MM vault elements, sole remaining prints and video masters – including several rarely-seen, thought-lost or never-before-on-disc, plus all-new Special Features, audio commentaries, a full-color book and more that smashes the fun barrier!

Full details here

June 28, 2022

Lynne Fernie & Aerlyn Weissman Forbidden Love (1992) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome partner label Canuxploitation International Pictures



In the 1950s, a wave of lesbian pulp literature emerged, exploring a then taboo subject in vivid, sensationalistic detail. While these writers often took a critical, moralistic view of gay life, they provided a jumping-off point for women still discovering their suppressed sexual desires. But with society unwilling to grant them a place in public life, they channeled their passion for these novels into a vibrant underground culture full of distinctive codes, roles, and rituals. Mirroring the shadowy traditions of noir fiction, they also faced violent opposition from police and other protectors of the status quo, resulting in a dangerous, but ultimately liberating path to sexual awakening.

Mixing lively testimonials from unforgettable women at the forefront of mid-century lesbian bar culture with scripted segments that take the Hollywood melodrama in provocative (and sexually explicit) new directions, Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives is an eye-opening cultural history – and one of the most memorable Canadian films of the '90s. With a soundtrack of late '50s and early '60s hits by The Fleetwoods, Connie Francis, Jimmie Rodgers, and The Shirelles, this is a stirring, funny, and ultimately moving portrait of rebellion flourishing in the face of repression.



June 28, 2022

Carl Schenkel's Out of Order (1984) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome partner label Subkultur USA



On a Friday evening, four people board the elevator in an office building. After it gets stuck, they soon realize that their cries for help go unheeded. Desperate, they decide to free themselves on their own and climb out through a hatch. When their lives are in great danger, a fight breaks out and the situation escalates completely. With every additional minute in this claustrophobic narrowness, the veil of superficiality lifts and reveals a glimpse into the human abyss that is much deeper than the elevator shaft beneath their feet.

June 13, 2022

Jonathan Demme's Caged Heat (1974) on blu-ray from 101 Films (UK)



A girl is caught in a drug bust and sent to the hoosegow. The iron-handed superintendent takes exception to a skit performed by the girls and takes punitive steps, aided by the sadistic doctor who is doing illegal electroshock experiments and raping drugged prisoners. After a while the prisoners put away their petty differences and plan the Big Prison Escape.

September 13, 2022

Izo Hashimoto's Evil Dead Trap 2: Hedeki (1992) on blu-ray from Unearthed Films



A female projectionist suddenly comes to the self-realization that she just in fact may be a serial killer responsible for brutally murdering everyone around her.

Unearthed Films put out Toshiharu Ikeda's Evil Dead Trap (1988) last August



A TV station employee takes a camera crew out to an abandoned factory to investigate a purported snuff film that was made there, as she gets closer to the truth, she and her friends are subjected to a brutal nightmare.

April 5, 2022

Yukihiko Tsutsumi's 2LDK (2003) on blu-ray from Unearthed Films



Nozomi and Lana share an apartment in Tokyo. They have both auditioned for the same role in a movie, and know that the shortlist has been cut down to just the two of them. As they wait the night before finding out who will get the role, their personality clashes erupt into an all-out battle.

2022 TBD

Zalman King's Wild Orchid 2: Blue Movie (1991) on blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing. Available from RoninFlix



From the director of Wild Orchid and "Red Shoe Diaries" comes this sensual thriller about a beautiful young woman caught between passion and innocence - and two shades of the truth. Starring Tom Skerritt (Top Gun, Alien, Opposing Force), Robert Davi (License to Kill, Showgirls, Die Hard, The Taking of Beverly Hills), Wendy Hughes (Paradise Road, My Brilliant Career, Happy New Year), Nina Siemaszko (License to Drive, Lost Angels, Airheads), Joe Dallesandro (The Limey, Andy Warhol's Frankenstein, Seeds of Evil) and Liane Curtis (Sixteen Candles, Critters 2: The Main Course), Wild Orchid 2: Blue Movie Blue has an "erotic ambience" that has "everything to do with fantasy" (The New York Times).

After her father (Skerritt) dies, Blue (Siemaszko) is forced to grow up fast. Taken in by Elle (Hughes), a high-class brothel madam, she discovers a beguiling world of power and pleasure - but also the tightening grip of Elle's control. To make matters worse, she is falling for Josh (Brent Fraser, Dark Side of Genius, Wild at Heart), a regular guy who doesn't know about her double life. Now, if she tells the truth, will she lose him forever?



June 7, 2022

Richard Elfman's Aliens, Clowns, and Geeks (2019) on blu-ray from MVD Visual - director of The Forbidden Zone (1980)



Out-of-work actor stumbles upon key to the universe, is drawn into intergalactic war between clowns and aliens.

September 26, 2022

Alfred Cheung Kin-Ting's On the Run (1988) on blu-ray from 88 Films (UK)



When Hsiang Ming's wife is murdered, he takes up the hunt for her killer. The killer turns out to not be at all like he imagined, and suddenly he has unsuspected enemies who are after him.

[wilder]

YES

[wilder]

An expanded hardback edition of Kier-La Janisse's 'House of Psychotic Women' is being published by FAB Press in August 2022

The 10th Anniversary expanded limited edition hardcover of HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN launches July 24th at the @fantasiafestival in Montreal, where I will also have the great honour of being presented with this year's Canadian Trailblazer Award. The book features the return of my preferred cover (featuring Borowczyk's DR JECKYLL AND HIS WOMEN), 100 more films covered in the appendix, hundreds of images including a 48-page full colour section, PLUS a spoken word CD of yours truly reading Charlotte Perkins Gilman's THE YELLOW WALLPAPER with an original score by @timothyfifeost

And a paperback edition of 'The Ghastly One: The 42nd Street Netherworld of Director Andy Milligan' is being published by FAB Press this month

One of the most acclaimed film director biographies ever published. The Ghastly One: The 42nd Street Netherworld of Director Andy Milligan is back in print in paperback, following the run-away Sold Out success of its large format slipcased limited edition.

Andy Milligan, perhaps the most compelling lone wolf in cinema history, gets his due in this definitive work. A dressmaker, actor and puppeteer, Milligan cranked out explosive titles like Bloodthirsty Butchers, The Body Beneath, and The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! on threadbare budgets. Biographer and journalist Jimmy McDonough's book serves as a history of not only the shadowy New York City sexploitation business, but also of the Caffe Cino – a tiny storefront café many consider to be the beginning of Off-Off Broadway theatre in America. Starring a cast of unforgettable, elusive characters, the gripping narrative turns grimly personal, and it's told with unflinching honesty. Hilarious at times, deeply unsettling, and ultimately heartbreaking, THE GHASTLY ONE will haunt you long after the last page is turned.

The text has been carried over in full from the original FAB/NWR hardcover, but this edition has been completely re-designed, with an all-new layout, in portable 246mm x 189mm (10 x 7 inch) paperback format.

[WorldForgot]

I watched Shatter Dead finally.

Quotable, gory, and a novel take on the 'zombie' genre. Although they're not really zombies; they're Living Dead, SHATTER DEAD. Sometimez the film would feel like it's "dragging" but something they achieved with the atmosphere actually made it feel a bit daunting, depressing or oppressive I can't decide, to the point that even its 'lulls' feel like they work. I think I read there's a shorter 'cut' out now.

What if Sartre dug video nasties?

[wilder]

I watched Shatter Dead finally.

What if Sartre dug video nasties?

Bought this blind, should be coming in the mail today. Have barely waded into the SOV genre and, like you're saying, this seems to have a little more going on, thematically. Excited to check it out.

[WorldForgot]

Sick!! The transfer I watched isn't the latest, which from the stillz looks to have much clearer picture. Curious to hear your thoughts on it. Enjoy ^_^

[wilder]

July 26, 2022

Garth Maxwell's Jack Be Nimble (1993) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome Partner label Altered Innocence



A gothic horror gem from New Zealand returns in a brand new 4K restoration! From the twisted mind of Garth Maxwell comes the tale of separated twins Jack (Alexis Arquette) and Dora (Sarah Smuts-Kennedy), abandoned by their parents as children and separated by adoption. Jack ends up with a sadistic family who bullies and controls him whereas Dora is raised by a quite normal family, but starts being tortured by extra-sensory powers. Both twins feel the pull to find each other again as they grow older, but violence threatens their joining from all sides.

July 26, 2022

Bobby Roth's Heartbreakers (1984) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome Partner label Fun City Editions



Los Angeles painter Arthur Blue (Peter Coyote, E.T. and Bitter Moon) and businessman Eli Kahn (Nick Mancuso, Ticket to Heaven and Nightwing) are the best of friends, commiserating and competing always, whether on the racquetball court or in the singles bar. When Blue's long-term girlfriend Cyd (Kathryn Harrold, Modern Romance and The Sender) leaves him for a more successful artist (Barney Miller's Max Gail) and Eli's father (George Morfogen, They All Laughed and V) passes away, they each fall for a beguiling French art gallery manager (Carole Laure, Sweet Movie and Get Out Your Handkerchiefs), and their fragmented bromance enters crisis mode. The late Carol Wayne (The Tonight Show and Surf II) co-stars and leaves a lasting impression as Blue's sad artistic muse and sometime lover.

Filmmaker Bobby Roth (The Boss' Son and Circle of Power/Brainwash) based his screenplay on his experiences growing up and working in Los Angeles, and the film reflects his insider's view of the city and deep personal connection to the characters. Although filmed in Hollywood, Heartbreakers refreshingly and effectively evokes the mood of European relationship dramas. To this end, the film employs two of Germany's most revered exports to world cinema: director of photography Michael Ballhaus (the longtime cinematographer for Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Martin Scorsese) and pioneering electronic musicians Tangerine Dream (Sorcerer, Thief and Risky Business), who contribute one of their most emotional and evocative scores. Out of print on home video since the tape era, this critically-acclaimed festival favorite has been restored in 2K from its original 35mm interpositive and is poised to wow and surprise audiences anew.



July 26, 2022

Jeff Krulik & John Heyn's Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome Partner label Circle Collective



On May 31,1986, John Heyn and Jeff Krulik filmed Judas Priest fans in a concert arena parking lot in suburban Maryland. Thirty years later, Heavy Metal Parking Lot is hailed as one the greatest rock documentaries ever. It's a definitive cultural touchstone for the 1980s metal scene: spandex, big hair, denim, mullets, muscle cars, and beer. Heavy Metal Parking Lot launched a parking lot genre that continues to resonate today with sequels, screenings, concerts, a reality-TV series, and fan-generated films and art inspired by the 1986 original. Welcome to the World of Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Hell Yeah!

August 2022 TBD

Mario Andreacchio's Fair Game (1986) on blu-ray from Dark Star Pictures



A bonafide Aussie classic, one that would later inspire Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, Fair Game is a wild revenge triller set in the outback pitting Cassandra Delaney's wildlife sanctuary boss against three psycho kangaroo hunters. Bored with killing kangaroos, they decide to kill the animals in the sanctuary, and when they see how attractive the owner is, they decide to have a little "fun" with her, too. Turns out that they may get a bit more "fun" than they bargained for.

August 9, 2022

 Pinocchio 964 (1991) on blu-ray from Media Blasters



Pinocchio 964, lobotomised cyborg sex slave, is thrown out onto the street by his owners because of his inability to maintain an erection. He is befriended by a criminally insane, memory-wiped, homeless girl. Meanwhile, the corporate entity who manufactured and sold him plots to kill him because of his malfunction.

[WorldForgot]

Aight so I definitely have to see 2LDK, Roth's Heartbreakers , and Heavy Metal Parking Lot.