Xixax Film Forum

Film Discussion => News and Theory => Topic started by: wilder on March 27, 2017, 06:00:36 PM

Title: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on March 27, 2017, 06:00:36 PM
Cult Epics Launches Campaign to Fund Comprehensive Guide to Cult Cinema
via blu-ray.com

U.S. label Cult Epics has launched an Indigogo campaign to finance a comprehensive a deluxe book that will cover the wildest films it has distributed during the years.

Official statement from the label:

For 25 years, Cult Epics has distributed the most sought-after, obscure, provocative and previously unknown films to the home video market. To commemorate this anniversary, we want to produce a deluxe, hardcover art book (in a limited edition of 1000) about those films and their directors – fully illustrated with in-depth reviews, interviews, and essays. We are reaching out to all our fans and film lovers, to help us raise the funds to make this essential book on cult cinema.

This commemorative book covers 150 essential releases 
from filmmakers such as Tinto Brass, Fernando Arrabal, Radley Metzger,
 Walerian Borowcyzk, Jean Genet, Abel Ferrara, Rene Daalder, Olivier Smolders, Jorg Buttgereit, Nico B, Irving Klaw, and pinup legend Bettie Page. Includes in-depth reviews, interviews, and essays on films and directors – fully illustrated in color with rare photos, poster art, and memorabilia. Size is approx. 8.75" x 11.25" x 1", with 256 full color pages (and over 200 Images).


CULT EPICS INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN can be accessed HERE (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cult-epics-hardcover-book-film-cinema)





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While we're at it, there's a thread (http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=280715&highlight=nightmare) on the blu-ray.com forums that tracks blu-ray releases of titles listed in the book Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents (https://www.amazon.com/NIGHTMARE-USA-Untold-Exploitation-Independents/dp/1903254469/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490655315&sr=8-1&keywords=nightmare+usa)


Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on April 30, 2017, 01:35:01 PM
frame of reference, trailers for my two favorite cult movies, both from Mondo Macobro



Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on May 01, 2017, 05:58:12 PM
Diabolique Magazine's Daughters of Darkness Podcast (http://diaboliquemagazine.com/category/podcasts/daughters-of-darkness-podcast/), hosted by Kat Ellinger (http://diaboliquemagazine.com/author/kellinger/) and Samm Deighan (http://diaboliquemagazine.com/author/samm-deighan/), has covered Jean Rollin, Jose Larraz, Elio Petri, Andrzej Zulawski, Giallo Cinema, Lesbian Vampire Films, and more
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on May 28, 2017, 04:44:37 PM
A limited edition re-issue of Stephen Thrower's (Nightmare USA) OOP book on Lucio Fulci is coming from FAB Press in September 2017

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FegiHeOm.jpg&hash=ee85a3836b23a5637cf6d8487ded5a4f2452f846)

IndieGogo promo video here (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fab-press-beyond-terror-lucio-fulci-book-dvd-cinema-horror/x/7253001#/)

Quote from: FAB PressOur goal is to re-issue Stephen Thrower's acclaimed Lucio Fulci book Beyond Terror in a massively revised and expanded edition along with an exclusive DVD of all known Lucio Fulci trailers, gathered together for the first time ever, all presented in a heavy duty case modelled on the Book of Eibon.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on July 20, 2017, 05:20:40 PM
The Girl on the Broomstick (1972)

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QuoteSaxana has the enthusiasm, but lacks the right talent to become a witch. So she's kept in for 300 years - nothing unusual for a sorceress' school. Being bored, she skims through the magicians' lexicon and finds a formula which brings her into the world of the humans for 48 hours. There she meets the friendly Peter who takes her with him to school... and the adventures begin.

the entire movie:

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on July 20, 2017, 10:00:10 PM
it was such a fucking gem

she transports from witch school to human school, and this is what happens to teachers

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F8pDMHy3.png&hash=cafe8aac672c6c57e75883d2d9a4b70d5fd77f12)

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FZXaxYvG.png&hash=b530115f6927efe10e1c06ed814139fcb0f2dd1c)

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FYcnQAgC.png&hash=943261a4eaff8e58f427609b04984ace013f982c)

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i slapped my thigh and yelled "oh my god." everyone in this movie is utterly human a total fucking rascal

so, these boys

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they're running from the law

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and what's happened is they've stolen the lexicon of magic, which the witch brought from magicworld, and so the boys transform themselves in order to hide from the cops pulling them over

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FPkyQQVr.png&hash=996bc06f855d8207a9b122622da455aca2b79342)

i laughed so hard. so hard. then they keep going but the cops are suspicious. so the cops pull them over again and lookie here

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fwo4aveH.png&hash=8e0ff3c90fdaab8bf618de85c93db00941ad1db2)

the popes or whatever are angry! i was dying. the witch was following along

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the boys turn themselves into some old men in a truck, so they can stop and get some food. they're trying to figure out the lexicon and they accidentally summon an ass on the table

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then the cops arrive, then the witch arrives, she gets the lexicon back with her sneaky stretch arm, and she turns the boys into teddy bears

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i felt so good i wanted to call my mother and tell her i love her and everything is going to be alright
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on August 07, 2017, 11:44:23 PM
spoiler: dogs dancing like humans 1930

QuoteTHE EARLY SOUND ERA OF film was like the Wild West when it came to making movies. It was into this experimental milieu that a series of short films that used all-dog casts was produced between 1929 and 1931.

Professionally trained canines were the stars of the "all-barkie" Dogville Comedies. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced the nine shorts as parodies of Hollywood's hits. The films were shot with silent film and dubbed over with human speech, utilizing the voices of the creators Jules White and Zion Myers, as well as their colleague Pete Smith. According to Jan-Christopher Horak, the director of UCLA's film and television archive, it is likely that other contracted MGM actors and actresses also lent their voices to the films, although none of that work was credited.

To a modern viewer, it can be hard to tell who the audience of these films were. It might seem like a canine cast is best suited for children, but the plots were often mature, featuring adultery, murder, and even cannibalism.

article (http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dogville-comedies-1930s-hollywood-filmmaking)

evidence:

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: polkablues on August 08, 2017, 12:57:55 AM
These things were amazing. I remember seeing them as interstitials between movies on AMC back in the day, but when I tried to find info about them later it was almost like they never existed. I finally found someone online who was selling home-burned DVDs of all the shorts for like 30 bucks, so I bought it and started playing it for my wife (girlfriend at the time), who watched two minutes of it and spent the rest of the time looking at me like I was insane. 30 dollars well spent.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: Drenk on August 08, 2017, 08:06:52 AM
Well, she did marry you.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: RegularKarate on August 08, 2017, 02:42:36 PM
They show these at the Drafthouse pre-show sometimes. Isn't there one that's a murder mystery?
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on August 08, 2017, 02:47:02 PM
"even cannibalism"
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: polkablues on August 08, 2017, 06:33:53 PM
Quote from: RegularKarate on August 08, 2017, 02:42:36 PM
They show these at the Drafthouse pre-show sometimes. Isn't there one that's a murder mystery?

You bet there is.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2jedo9
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on August 08, 2017, 09:38:16 PM
here's the wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogville_Comedies), here's the Warner Bros Archives disc (https://www.warnerbros.com/dogville-shorts-1930-31), still wondering where the cannibalism is
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on November 18, 2017, 10:18:48 PM
New Bev's Dec 31

(https://i.imgur.com/OKxPA16.png)

wilder i can't find the xixax link but i know we know The Fan from Mondo Macabro. here's the trailer for Christiane F.



spoiler of when that song actually appears in the movie

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on November 19, 2017, 01:19:37 AM
(https://i.imgur.com/eCQ36V6.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/W30mt3o.jpg)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on December 03, 2017, 01:46:11 PM
WHAT.

A MIDNIGHT TAXI ZUM KLO SCREENING AT THE NEW BEV ON DECEMBER 16 (http://thenewbev.com/program/december-16-taxi-zum-klo-midnight-show). THE BEST MOVIE THING TO HAPPEN TO LA FOR THE YEAR, IS MY VOTE.

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QuoteIn the pioneering classic of German queer cinema, Taxi zum Klo, Frank Ripploh writes, directs and stars in a semi-autobiographical snapshot of pre-AIDS West Berlin. An elementary school teacher by day, Ripploh cruises for sex at night, grading papers in the john while awaiting his next anonymous hook-up. But his compartmentalized routine gets shaken up when he meets a commitment-minded new beau. Frank, fierce, explicit and funny, Taxi zum Klo was notorious at the time of its release. Don't miss this rare chance to see it back on the big screen in 35mm!

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: BB on December 03, 2017, 11:27:12 PM
I sought out Taxi zum Klo based on a recommendation from here (possibly you, jenkins) and it truly is astonishing.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on December 11, 2017, 03:02:16 PM


Spectacle Theater's custom trailer (https://vimeo.com/51972167) for Indonesian director Arizal's American Hunter (1988) is one of my favorite things ever
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on December 20, 2017, 07:46:30 PM
the history of Japanese cinema is so beautiful to read about via wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_film). i crazy want to see a movie about a benshi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benshi). how has there not been a benshi movie, that's some major missing out on ripe material.

QuoteDuring the 1920s and 1930s, Japan was one of the world's two largest producers of motion pictures, along with the United States. Though the country's film industry was among the first to produce both sound and talking features, the full changeover to sound proceeded much more slowly than in the West. It appears that the first Japanese sound film, Reimai (Dawn), was made in 1926 with the De Forest Phonofilm system. Using the sound-on-disc Minatoki system, the leading Nikkatsu studio produced a pair of talkies in 1929: Taii no musume (The Captain's Daughter) and Furusato (Hometown), the latter directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. The rival Shochiku studio began the successful production of sound-on-film talkies in 1931 using a variable-density process called Tsuchibashi. Two years later, however, more than 80 percent of movies made in the country were still silents. Two of the country's leading directors, Mikio Naruse and Yasujirō Ozu, did not make their first sound films until 1935 and 1936, respectively. As late as 1938, over a third of all movies produced in Japan were shot without dialogue.

The enduring popularity of the silent medium in Japanese cinema owed in great part to the tradition of the benshi, a live narrator who performed as accompaniment to a film screening. As director Akira Kurosawa later described, the benshi "not only recounted the plot of the films, they enhanced the emotional content by performing the voices and sound effects and providing evocative descriptions of events and images on the screen.... The most popular narrators were stars in their own right, solely responsible for the patronage of a particular theatre." Film historian Mariann Lewinsky argues,

The end of silent film in the West and in Japan was imposed by the industry and the market, not by any inner need or natural evolution.... Silent cinema was a highly pleasurable and fully mature form.
It didn't lack anything, least in Japan, where there was always the human voice doing the dialogues and the commentary. Sound films were not better, just more economical. As a cinema owner you didn't have to pay the wages of musicians and benshi any more. And a good benshi was a star demanding star payment.

Lew. In. Sky. Lew. In. Sky.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 03, 2018, 07:02:11 PM
Mondo Macabro fb posted about their upcoming releases

(https://i.imgur.com/cSX7TrG.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/HZWcvZk.jpg?1)

(https://i.imgur.com/MSPXK3S.jpg?1)

(https://i.imgur.com/vwGJkyc.jpg?1)
[The Deserter]

(https://i.imgur.com/g34zEl0.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/PD8JwH9.jpg)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on January 15, 2018, 04:54:12 PM
2018 TBD

David DeCoteau's American Rampage (1989) on blu-ray from Massacre Video

(https://i.imgur.com/4H1oDm2.jpg)

A rookie cop with her own way of doing things decides it's time to throw away the rule book when her partner is killed by drug dealers in a war for control of the Los Angeles market. Cinematography by Howard Wexler (Hard Ticket to Hawaii, Malibu Express).


(great looking)
Trailer - Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/249132727)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on March 03, 2018, 04:23:57 PM
May 8, 2018

Andy Sidaris' Seven (1979) on blu-ray from Kino

(https://i.imgur.com/3FhCPeb.jpg)

A cartel of seven crime bosses unionize and plan to take over the state of Hawaii. Government intelligence agent Drew Sevano (William Smith, Any Which Way You Can) is hired to "handle" the situation however he sees fit. Drew enlists seven old friends to help, creating Sevano's Seven – the Playmate (Susan Kiger, H.O.T.S.), the Black-Belt (Ed Parker, Revenge of the Pink Panther), the Dragster (Christopher Joy, Big Time), the Cowboy (Guich Koock, North Dallas Forty), the Comic (Art Metrano, Police Academy 2), the Professor (Richard LePore, Stacey!) and the Indian (Barbara Leigh, Junior Bonner). Sevano's Seven – death is their way of life! This cult classic was co-written, co-produced and directed by Andy Sidaris (Malibu Express, Hard Ticket to Hawaii) and co-starred Martin Kove (Steele Justice) and Terry Kiser (Weekend at Bernie's).





A 12-film DVD collection of Andy Sidaris' other movies is available for $8. These are ridiculously entertaining.

(https://i.imgur.com/ZK0WSYb.jpg)

Girls, Guns, & G-Strings: The Andy Sidaris Collection - Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Girls-Guns-G-Strings-Sidaris-Collection/dp/B004HHX9OQ)




Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 14, 2018, 08:57:52 PM
[moved from the death thread. this is from 2012. this isn't a celebration of Lewis as a murderer, but rather an acknowledgement of the dark paths that people can find themselves traveling down; the utter darkness of this story. because certain aspects of this murder/death will always, always be a mystery, it's different from other types of murders/deaths. because of his association with cinema, Palo Alto in particular, Johnny Lewis belongs to cult cinema.]

Johnny Lewis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Lewis) was an actor on The OC, Sons of Anarchy, and other shows i never watched. he was in the movie Palo Alto, The Runaways, some more, supporting roles. i'm going to summarize his tragic death, which can be read about by clicking his name and going to wikipedia, or this Los Angeles Magazine article (http://www.lamag.com/longform/the-secret-life-of-johnny-lewis/), which is commented on by Johnny's father through a practical perspective, and his practical perspective is replied to by another practical perspective.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Johnny_Lewis_by_David_Shankbone.jpg/220px-Johnny_Lewis_by_David_Shankbone.jpg)

Johnny Lewis was an actor who considered himself an artist; specifically, a writer. he died within a semi-expensive artist compound in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. the compound was called Writers' Villa and he lived in the Red Suite: first when he was 23, then when he was 26 and after he'd been released from prison.

between the first and second time he lived in Writers' Villa, Johnny Lewis went through life difficulties of this sort: he suffered head injuries from a high-speed motorcycle accident; he broke into a condo to protect someone, except the condo was empty, and while in the condo two people arrived, he smashed bottles on their heads, they retaliated and called the cops on him; he served jail time.

he didn't appear to have a drug addiction, and a rather hilarious sidestory relates to people trying to blame anything on pot. in fact there's the story that in rehab Johnny switched to calling himself an alcoholic because that sounded like an actual problem. he didn't appear to be an alcoholic either. his father insists that Jonny had a TBI (traumatic brain injury) which was never treated (Johnny refused), although there are signs that Johnny's personality was becoming more aggressive before his motorcycle injury (and his father blames both the motorcycle accident and the break in and Johnny's jail time, and Johnny's father is a scientologist, which would be a separate story).

no one can quite describe Johnny's overall problem as a person.

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pictured: Cathy Davis and her cat. Cathy was the owner of Writers' Villa.  what happened was, five days after his release from prison, Jonny was living in Writers' Villa, and he killed both Cathy and her cat, then he either fell or jumped from a second story height onto a concrete driveway.

there's a photo of his blood on the driveway (http://cdn.lamag.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2014/01/driveway_h.jpg), which is such a sinister photo, an unnecessary photo imo.

the cat was found in the shower, its skull cracked in. Cathy Davis was beaten to death. there was a hammer with dried blood found in Johnny's room.

there are some good guesses about why Johnny was mad at Cathy (because she was mad at him for shutting down the fuse box, which he did because he didn't like lights), but the story of what transpired between them can only be speculated upon. no one guessed this, no one saw it coming.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on July 05, 2018, 07:51:08 PM
August 14, 2018

(https://i.imgur.com/15BOueF.jpg)

Written and produced by exploitation demigod Renee Harmon (FROZEN SCREAM) and directed by the legendary James Bryan (DON'T GO IN THE WOODS), this is the story of Linda, a tough-as-nails karate cop on the trail of the ruthless scumbags who murdered her twin sister. From the outrageous fight scenes to Harmon's incredible outfits, LADY STREET FIGHTER is a joyous blast of no-holds-barred chaos from one of the most important lady filmmakers in genre history.

Lady Street Fighter (1981) - Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Lady-Street-Fighter-Special-Blu-ray/dp/B07C53MX63/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1526420884&sr=1-1&keywords=lady+street+fighter+blu+ray)


Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on August 16, 2018, 06:31:52 PM
wilder

have you seen Mondo Macabro is going wild?

QuoteReady for something new? We'll have 4 new title announcements (!) to make next week, but in the meantime here's something brand new you can pre-order now from our friends at DiabolikDVD.com!

(https://i.imgur.com/20VgzJO.jpg?1)

QuoteThe Austrian cult film THE INHERITORS! Coming to blu October 9th!

A CHILLING AND TIMELY LOOK INTO THE TWISTED WORLD OF THE EXTREME RIGHT

On his way home from school, 16 year old Thomas helps Charly, an unemployed teenager, escape from the police. Despite their differing backgrounds the boys become good friends and Charly persuades Thomas to join a neo-Nazi youth group. Intrigued and confused by his new friends Thomas, who is experiencing trouble at home and school, is drawn deeper into a web of sex and violence that leads to a tragic end.

In 1979, Austrian film director Walter Bannert was among a group of Vienna cafe patrons beaten up by a gang of young neo-Nazis who wrecked the place. Researching the burgeoning movement in West Germany and Austria for 3 years, Bannert infiltrated their private meetings by convincing party leaders that he wanted to make an objective documentary. His film The Inheritors is the result, a disturbing and timely fictional drama based entirely on real characters, events and conversations that Bannert came across in the neo-Nazi camps. The film was highly controversial on its original release and theatres screening it were threatened with violent action by neo-Nazi sympathizers. Although it is now over thirty years old, the film remains incredibly relevant as we witness, across the world, the rebirth of right wing extremism using exactly the same lies and tactics exposed so powerfully in this film.

The Inheritors was not screened in its native country for many years until it was rediscovered at the 2015 Viennale Exhibition where it was praised as a rare and powerful example of Austrian genre cinema with a strong political message.

The film was selected at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival for the prestigious Directors Fortnight section, in the same year it won a jury prize at the Montreal World Film Festival.
SPECIAL FEATURES

Brand new 2k scan from film negative
World Blu-ray premiere
Region free
Exclusive 12 page booklet with essays by Michael Gingold and film maker Paul Poet
Original theatrical trailer
English/German audio choice
Newly created subtitles

also:

this movie is titled Where The Day Takes You so i like it, plus on top of that it's a movie version of Decline of Western Civilization Part Three



it's out of print but frankly BigAl'sCollectibles came through with an $8.95 dvd via amazon, cheap titles remain, that's just good movie stuff imo
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on August 16, 2018, 07:17:40 PM
Quote from: jenkins on August 16, 2018, 06:31:52 PMBannert infiltrated their private meetings by convincing party leaders that he wanted to make an objective documentary. His film The Inheritors is the result, a disturbing and timely fictional drama based entirely on real characters, events and conversations that Bannert came across in the neo-Nazi camps.

Wow, intriguing.

Ordered! Thank you for the heads up.


Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on August 20, 2018, 11:07:01 PM
From the blu-ray.com forum:

Quote from: Jared A
Quote from: MortimerBrewstrKnowing that there's 5 titles coming that haven't had any sort of US release... I'm going to ask a question that has always sort of interested me.

How does Mondo Macabro discover all of these super obscure titles? Especially movies that have never had a US release. Does Pete just sit through stacks of foreign films all owned by one foreign body or individual? Or are referrals made from owners that Mondo has previously dealt with?

I'm fascinated by how these titles must find their way into the Mondo Macabro consciousness...


It's mostly pretty simple. We are just huge movie fans and are personally drawn the more obscure end of the spectrum, and to movies from around the world.

Pete's been into this stuff forever, having literally written the book about it (twice!) back in the 90s. He has long, long lists of films he would like to release.

My knowledge is not nearly so encyclopedic, but my interests still lie very much in the weird, the obscure and the foreign. I ran the Worldweird Cinema blog back in the 2000s, which was dedicated to that sort of thing. I too have a list of movies I'd love to do.

Basically we just know what we want and then look for the rights and materials. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't.

But some films also just land in laps, seemingly out of nowhere. LOVERS BEYOND TIME was one. The director liked what we were doing and got in contact. INHERITORS is another. That came as part of the deal for BLOOD LUST. Neither Pete nor myself were familliar with it. But Pete thinks it's pretty good. I still have yet to see it myself.

That's it. No big mystery!

I used to read the Worldweird Cinema blog (http://worldweirdcinema.blogspot.com/?zx=26a88dc4ae670d91), but never made the connection to it being written by one of Mondo Macabro's co-founders. Jared has compiled a list of over 300 films (https://mubi.com/lists/worldweird-cinema) covered on it, on Mubi, which may be a hint of what's to come from the label in the future.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on August 22, 2018, 10:14:44 PM
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on August 23, 2018, 12:18:21 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/q3YnCq2.jpg?1)

ANNOUNCEMENT #1 - DANGEROUS CARGO (1977)
This is one where you'll probably want to take a shower after you watch it. From the degenerate director who brought you TANGO OF PERVERSION and THE WIFE KILLER (both available now on DVD from us!) comes another Hellenic sleaze-fest, DANGEROUS CARGO! DALLAS' Debbie Shelton stars, in a role she'd probably rather forget, as a woman taken captive when pirates take over a ship carrying weapons and ammunition to the far east. These pirates are very much the grimy 70s kind, and not the fun-loving, 18th century "yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum" variety. Quite a bit of ugly, sweaty, and hairy sex and violence ensues. Ms Shelton gets nude A LOT. And it doesn't end well for anyone involved.
MM is proud (?) to present the US home video debut of this nasty bit of Greek exploitation, as part of our ongoing exploration of genre films from that neglected country. And yes, this will be on BLU-RAY, god help us all. Keep an eye out for promo teaser trailer sometime in the next couple of months. We hope to unleash this film unto the world around the end of the year or maybe early next. It will likely have a "straight to retail" release, with no 'red case' limited edition.

(https://i.imgur.com/ztUfgQz.jpg?1)

ANNOUNCEMENT #2 - LA PUNITION (1973)

A.K.A. THE PUNISHMENT, is a very 1970s French arthouse/exploitation crossover that pre-dates such hit Euro S&M-themed films as STORY OF O and THE IMAGE. Karin Shubert stars as a prostitute who has failed to please a customer and so finds herself locked in a room by her pimp to receive her "punishment". Although filled with unpleasant violence and disturbing sex, LA PUNITION is a psychedelic marvel, an "evil gem of a movie" as one IMDB reviewer puts it, a ravishingly visual film made around a decidedly seedy story. This movie is often compared to the 70s films of Alain Robbe-Grillet like EDEN AND AFTER or SLOW SLIDINGS OF PLEASURE, but it hits much harder than those.

Coming to Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro probably sometime early next year from a new 2K restoration from the original negative.

(https://i.imgur.com/1ALtxq7.jpg?1)

ANNOUNCEMENT #3 - WOMAN CHASED BY A KILLER BUTTERFLY

A.K.A. THE GIRL WITH THE BUTTERFLY TATTOO or simply THE KILLER BUTTERFLY (probably the title we'll use).

Over the years we've released some pretty strange movies here at Mondo Macabro. But this might very well be the strangest yet. Directed by Kim Ki-young, director of the original version of THE HOUSEMAID, often called "the best Korean film of all time", BUTTERFLY is a horror-tinged psychotropic melodrama freak-out about nothing less than death itself and the will to keep living. After a young man survives being poisoned by a girl at a picnic he falls into a deep, suicidal depression. But standing in the way of his desire to kill himself is a Nietzschean bookseller who refuses to die even though he's killed several times, an ancient mummy who is revived in the form of a beautiful woman who happens to be a cannibal, and an insane anthropologist who wants to keep his daughter alive by getting her laid. And also, of course, butterflies. KILLER BUTTERFLY is the most eccentric work in the filmography of the very eccentric Kim Ki-young, made at time of crisis in the Korean film industry when he was running out of hit movies but not bizarre ideas.

MM is incredibly excited to bring this amazing film to the US for the first time ever in a world-premiere Blu-ray release sporting a new 2K restoration from the original negative and loaded with tons of exclusive extras. Hopefully we'll have this one available before the end of the year, though early next is possible as well.

(https://i.imgur.com/OvcTGYE.jpg?1)

ANNOUNCEMENT #4 - QUEENS OF EVIL (1970)

And finally, this wonderfully bizarre bit of hippy horror from Italy!

QUEENS OF EVIL stars Ray Lovelock as a freelovin' dude just tryin' to get away from it all, who stumbles into a seemingly perfect situation: a very stylish home isolated in the countryside inhabited by three extremely beautiful young ladies (played by Silvia Monti, Evelyn Stewart, and Haydee Politoff) who are totally into him and his free-love ethos. But of course, things don't go exactly as he would hope, and soon enough things take a bizarre turn into the realms of pagan ritual and witchcraft!

A wonderfully stylized example of late 60s/early 70s counterculture exploitation cinema with lots of artsy touches and an occult horror payoff, it's a real mystery than QUEENS OF EVIL has never gotten a US release before now.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on September 02, 2018, 02:09:52 PM
this is recent but being placed in the appropriate thread. as stated previously, the rationale behind dark news in the cult thread involves lives taking unforeseen paths that lead to tragic consequences. Rest in Peace Vanessa Marquez. this news is developing (https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/vanessa-marquez-er-shot-killed-police-south-pasadena-police-statement-1202924750/)

(https://i.imgur.com/O0zswnY.jpg)

Former 'ER' Actress Vanessa Marquez Shot and Killed by Police (https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/vanessa-marquez-er-shot-killed-police-1202923337/)

Vanessa Marquez, an actress best known for her role as a nurse on "ER," was shot and killed by South Pasadena police on Thursday, authorities confirmed on Friday.

Officers were called to Marquez's home in the 1100 block of Fremont Avenue by a landlord to check on her welfare. When the officers arrived around 12 p.m., she was suffering from seizures and appeared unable to take care of herself. Officers called out paramedics and a mental health clinician, and continued to talk with her. After about 90 minutes, Marquez, 49, armed herself with a BB gun and pointed it at the officers, causing them to open fire, said Sheriff's Lt. Joe Mendoza.

South Pasadena, a municipality separate from neighboring Pasadena, is eight miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Mendoza told reporters that Marquez appeared to be going through "mental problems" and seemed to be "gravely disabled."

She appeared as Ana Delgado in the Edward James Olmos-starring film "Stand and Deliver" in 1988, and in 27 episodes of "ER" as nurse Wendy Goldman. Her other credits include the series "Malcom & Eddie" and "Wiseguy."

Last October, Marquez alleged that she was blacklisted from "ER" by co-star George Clooney after complaining of racial discrimination and sexual harassment.

"Clooney helped blacklist me when I spoke up abt harassment on ER.'women who dont play the game lose career'I did," she wrote on Twitter.

Clooney issued a statement at the time saying he had nothing to do with casting on the show.

"I had no idea Vanessa was blacklisted," he said. "I take her at her word. I was not a writer or a producer or a director on that show. I had nothing to do with casting. I was an actor and only an actor. If she was told I was involved in any decision about her career then she was lied to. The fact that I couldn't affect her career is only surpassed by the fact that I wouldn't."

Marquez also wrote on social media that she was suffering from immune disorders, including celiac disease. She said several times that she was diagnosed as "terminal," was suffering from chronic pain, and was "homebound."

Marquez had alleged she was groped on the set of "ER" well before the #MeToo movement last fall. She claimed that when she complained to the producers, she was exiled.

"I was blacklisted and my career was over at 26," she wrote on Facebook in January 2017. "Why are women afraid to speak up 'at the time?' Because everything they've ever worked for is RIPPED away from them. For being a goddamn victim and expecting protection."

She also wrote extensively about her health problems and said she was entering "that Norma Desmond stage that some actors do. Watching their old stuff on tv."

"A person only has so much strength and I'm afraid I've used all mine up," she wrote. "Why couldn't my dream have lasted for more than just those few years?"
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on September 15, 2018, 12:52:27 PM
Quote from: wilder on March 31, 2017, 10:38:16 PM
Anna Biller joins the AGFA advisory board
via American Genre Film Archive
BY JOE ZIEMBA • MARCH 30, 2017

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FCfV9pwB.jpg&hash=d912c1616110def9b446dc1a3f0e03a83a83a060)

We are beyond honored to welcome Anna Biller, the filmmaker behind VIVA and THE LOVE WITCH, to the AGFA advisory board.

At the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA), we believe that genre films should rule the world. But we can't make this happen alone. Our advisory board is a coalition of like-minded fans who believe in the importance and preservation of genre films. Together, we ensure that these movies will be available on 35mm until the end of time. Or until the planet explodes. Whichever comes first.

The AGFA advisory board consists of Alamo Drafthouse founders Karrie and Tim League, filmmakers Paul Thomas Anderson and Nicolas Winding Refn, and musician RZA. Today, we're proud to welcome Anna Biller to the ranks.

"I am thrilled to be included on the board of the American Genre Film Archive," says Biller, "I believe passionately in continuing the legacy of film, and in preserving some of the great genre films that are such a vital part of our history and culture."

Anna Biller's work is an inspiration. Meticulously crafting VIVA and THE LOVE WITCH on 35mm, Biller is a breath of fresh air for twenty-first century genre filmmaking. She channels the hyper-stylized aesthetic of Jaques Tati, the surreal melodrama of Nicholas Ray, and the pop-art pulp of Doris Wishman to create movies that feel like nothing else before or since.

For more on Anna Biller and her work, visit: www.lifeofastar.com (http://www.lifeofastar.com)

Quote from: wilder on November 16, 2017, 05:11:57 PM
Quote from: wilder on July 31, 2017, 06:45:45 PM
November 21, 2017

William Morgan's The Violent Years (1956) on blu-ray from the The American Genre Film Archive and Something Weird Video, from a new 4K restoration.

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FUu0anuE.jpg&hash=5c0a5b80cc23996d912652fa15a6b6b13ec6e41e)

Paula Parkins is the teenage daughter of wealthy parents whom don't seem to make time for her, so she looks for thrills as the leader of her all-girl gang who steal, rob, and rape young men. Screenplay by Ed Wood. (The label has also confirmed that the film will be paired with Boris Petroff's crime thriller Anatomy of a Psycho).

The Violent Years (1956) - Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/The-Violent-Years-Blu-ray/dp/B073ZWJWQ8?SubscriptionId=AKIAIY4YSQJMFDJATNBA&tag=bluray-011-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B073ZWJWQ8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER)


(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FwJgQgfW.jpg&hash=7d155351e313d5c50e332d67b61f4afaa10e079f)



Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on September 15, 2018, 12:56:34 PM
American Genre Film Archive (https://www.americangenrefilm.com)

their list of titles is actually quite long and there's a lot more i can learn about them. i quoted two of wilder's posts about them. there's also a Lady Street Fighter post in this thread. and a Bat Pussy post exists somewhere i think, i can't find it

Oct 9 they're releasing Ninja Zombie

(https://i.imgur.com/P2Bpfw0.jpg?1)

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on September 23, 2018, 05:44:19 PM
Keeping the exploitation-film fires burning with Nicolas Winding Refn (https://www.avclub.com/keeping-the-exploitation-film-fires-burning-with-nicola-1828953125)

I like Nicolas Winding Refn's films—the ending of The Neon Demon was enough to redeem that otherwise flawed film for me, though that's a topic for another time—but I'm a huge fan of his ongoing side gig as a film preservationist. He first caught my eye when he bought a collection of film prints by obscure exploitation director Andy Milligan, including the only known copies of several of Milligan's works, back in 2012. I was delighted when he said he was motivated to buy Milligan's work by Jimmy McDonough's (now out of print) biography The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld Of Filmmaker Andy Milligan, which I had just finished shortly before the news broke. I later wrote about attending an exhibit of Refn's movie-poster collection in 2015, at which I shyly sidled up to the autograph table and told him that I collected movie posters, too.

Refn likes to speak in modest terms about his obsession with vintage exploitation films, saying, for example, that he hadn't even seen most of the movies in his art book The Act Of Seeing. But the care and attention to detail with which he restores these films and re-presents them to the public betrays his affection for the material, an affection that seems at least partially driven by sympathy for the filmmakers whose works end up in landfills. As he told The New York Times at the end of July, "A lot of the films [had] maybe just two prints existing—once they were gone, there would be nothing. All the hard work in making a film and then they would be lost, which would be really sad." I identify with that sense of duty, as anyone who has lived with me, and therefore has had to deal with the crates and crates of weird old VHS tapes I drag with me to every new apartment, can attest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnNe61UZsdM

So perhaps it was a foregone conclusion that I would be really into Refn's new preservation venture, byNWR, a highly curated—and free, if you're watching on a computer—streaming service that was announced last October and has been slowly rolling out new content ever since. byNWR, which describes itself as "an unadulterated cultural expressway of the arts," combines the best attributes of two other speciality streaming services: the curated selection of Shudder, and the excellent supplemental features of FilmStruck.

The content on byNWR is truly unique: These are films in danger of being lost forever, not well-known cult classics. And frankly, they're not to everyone's taste. They're all crudely made, many of them have pacing issues, and some are downright offensive to contemporary sensibilities. (This is particularly true of the "hicksploitation" films featured on the site.) If you stumbled on one of them on some bizarre late-night cable channel, you'd probably change the channel after a couple of minutes. But byNWR puts them in context, not only historically, but also artistically, revealing their true value as fascinating documents of their respective eras and misunderstood works of outsider art.

Titles are released in quarterly collections, each with a new film released monthly. Last fall came the "Regional Renegades" collection, featuring the films The Nest Of The Cuckoo Birds (1965), Shanty Tramp (1967), and Hot Thrills And Warm Chills (1967). I watched the latter, a collection of vignettes loosely strung together by a thin plot about a gang of female jewel thieves plotting a heist during Mardi Gras. You never actually see the heist, but you do get a lot of footage of the French Quarter in the mid-'60s, as well as burlesque dancers with gloriously caked-on eye makeup and sky-high hairdos performing their signature routines. Materials accompanying the film include extensive interviews with the four self-proclaimed "broads" who make up the core ensemble—one even includes some of her poetry!—as well as essays from various authors about regional cinema, the music and culture of New Orleans, and the art and business of exotic dance.

This month launched a new, slightly more highbrow series called "Missing Links," which opened with a title I had heard of before: Night Tide, a 1961 magical-realist horror-romance from prolific '60s and '70s B-movie director Curtis Harrington. (He also did a pair of Grande Dame Guignol movies, Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? with Shelley Winters, and What's The Matter With Helen? with Debbie Reynolds, in the early '70s.) The film is notable not only because it features a very young Dennis Hopper, but also as a document of the early '60s L.A. beatnik subculture (there is a lot of bongo drumming in this movie) and as a bridge between '50s drive-in cinema and the then-nascent American independent film movement. The plot recalls a gender-swapped The Shape Of Water, as lovestruck sailor Johnny Drake (Hopper) falls in love with reluctant mermaid Mora (Linda Lawson) on the Santa Monica pier; the pace undeniably drags, but the film is hypnotic and worth a watch anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVG1_lnjw2s

Next month's looking to be a good one on byNWR, as the service adds the second film in its "Missing Links" series: If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? (1971), an infamous Christian scare film from holy-rolling huckster Ron Ormond that contains an absolutely gobsmacking scene where a Communist gets a bunch of kids to renounce Jesus and embrace Fidel Castro by giving them candy. (It's embedded above.) I've seen it, and can attest that it's a must-see for those who watch Pure Flix films ironically. After that comes November's selection, Spring Night, Summer Night (1967), an obscure art film shot on location in Appalachian Ohio that was re-edited for maximum sleaze and released under various titles to capitalize on its incestuous theme. In its original form, however, it's reportedly more Killer Of Sheep than Common Law Cabin. I'm looking forward to it.

byNWR is now up and running on its own website. It isn't currently available in its free form as an app for Roku et al, but if you prefer to watch the films on a TV (and don't have one of these also-recommended cables that essentially turns your TV into an external monitor), they also stream on MUBI as they are released
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on September 27, 2018, 04:11:49 PM
Patty Mayo (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEYLdM2bdhmw-TS3c0TjFNw) has 3,755,420 subscribers on his youtube channel about being a bounty hunter.

this is his bio (http://youtube.wikia.com/wiki/Patty_Mayo):
QuotePatrick Thomas Tarmey, better known online as Patty Mayo, is an American entrepreneur and YouTube prankster-turned-vlogger best known for his bounty hunting series profession and stringing vlogs.

He is the former owner of Boston businesses Paramotor Tours, Abington Airsoft and Abington Zombie Apocolypse, under the name Patrick Tarmey. These were all sold when he moved to CA.

Now living in Burbank, CA, he owns his own production company - which plays a large part in creating his videos.

History

Early days
Patrick Thomas joined YouTube on November 12, 2013 and spent the following two years producing roughly a dozen reasonably popular prank videos. Beginning to experience significant monetization issues affecting his earnings, Thomas elected to pursue work as a bail bondsman agent or "bounty hunter," a profession he describes as "one of the first jobs as an adult I ever had..." Branding the initiative as the "Southland Bounty Hunters" in reference to the geographic locale of southern California in which he works, he began documenting his experiences as a bondsman.

Rise in viewership
Bringing along his longtime girlfriend Kayla as his initial bond agent partner and camerawoman, Thomas began producing 10-20 minute on-the-job vlogs, detailing the work involved in finding and apprehending wanted fugitives. Due in part to the exotic nature of his profession and the high level of filming and editing accompanying each video, his viewcount skyrocketed through the summer months of 2017.

In early June of 2017, Thomas acquired a new, genuie bounty hunting partner in the form of fellow YouTuber DeMar "Bounty Hunter D." Their cutting wit and chemistry, in addition to their decision to take on more potentially dangerous fugitives, led to an increase in viewership through the latter part of the summer, during which time Thomas hit one million subscribers. The duo briefly parted ways after an altercation in their personal lives but publicly reunited and buried the hatchet in November of 2017.

Current events
Thomas' video release levels reduced significantly in the latter half of November for several reasons. Due to a reappearing illness related to a previously sustained head injury that nearly cost him his life, Thomas was placed on light duty by his bail company employer to provide him time to recover. Secondly, he and Kayla had simultaneously begun production of a live show related to their part-time work as stringers, documenting their attempts to capture footage of dangerous events and natural disasters in California.

Equipment
As a legally-sanctioned bondsman, Thomas is licensed to carry firearms in the state of California. In addition to his 9mm handgun, he also carries a taser, tactical and chain handcuff variations, assorted flashlights and other such items. He generally appears in videos wearing Southland Bounty Hunters clothing merchandise, augmented through the inclusion of various levels of body armor sporting his badge and clearly notating his profession.

Vehicle-wise, Thomas has been known to drive both a blacked-out Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor equipped with strobe lights and a spotlight, as well as a black Dodge truck equipped with a video communications/surveillance suite in lieu of a flatbed. Though initially he did not possess a license to run his CVPI's ELS lights, it is believed that he has since acquired this license, though as of December 2017, this remains speculation.

Sponsors
Since his early days, Thomas has been sponsored by Edubirdie.com, a company whose support Thomas credits as being invaluable for funding the switch from prank videos to more serious bounty hunting videos during the preceding YouTube monitization issues. He has also received smaller sponsorships from companies like EvoGimbals who occasionally supply him with gear.

Personal life
Thomas's longtime girlfriend Kayla plays a significant role in the channel's operation; in addition to being Patrick's first bounty hunting partner, she currently serves as the main camerawoman of the operation, and assists in major behind-the-scenes administrative work necessary to locate and apprehend fugitives.

Thomas also runs a second channel with more intimate content related to his personal life called "Extra Mayo". Though much of the content is related to his life with his girlfriend Kayla, members of Thomas' family occasionally make cameo appearances.

i heard about him impersonally over the internet
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on October 18, 2018, 02:19:33 AM
sending The Shaggs  (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=13445.msg355190#msg355190) movie straight to cult. they're just so remarkable. it seems kind of embarrassing i've never listened to them. seems even without realizing it i've heard about them. Philosophy of the World (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_the_World) has the golden moment where it's somehow the perfect title. it's fair to say many other albums would be more serious with the title. their backstory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shaggs) is next level

QuoteThe conceptual beginning of The Shaggs came from Austin Wiggin's mother who, when her son was young, had predicted during a palmreading that he would marry a strawberry blonde woman, that he would have two sons after she had died, and that his daughters would form a popular music group. The first two predictions proved accurate, so Austin set about making the third come true as well. Austin withdrew his daughters from school, bought them instruments, and arranged for them to receive music and vocal lessons. The Wiggin sisters themselves never planned to become a music group, but as Dot later said, "[Austin] was something of a disciplinarian. He was stubborn and he could be temperamental. He directed. We obeyed. Or did our best." Austin named The Shaggs after the then-popular shag hairstyle and as a reference to shaggy dogs. In 1968, Austin arranged for the girls to play a regular Saturday night gig at the Fremont, New Hampshire Town Hall.

and within all this it's legitimate cult nerdery that's carried them this far. that's always so beautiful.

this song finalized my reverence



it's so wrong but it's so right and you just couldn't pull it off if you wanted to

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on December 14, 2018, 08:05:35 PM
adding it to cult because it hasn't been released on blu-ray yet (i just checked). this is the best John Fante screenplay that happened,* with Ben Hecht, Edward Dmytryk director, and it's a lovely example of southern melodrama (which i adore). it's my good fortune that someone made this trailer for it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cum3uuGUpYY

*despite his self-adaptation of Full of Life maybe, i've never seen it actually
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 04, 2019, 06:55:01 PM
what are your favorite cult movies just list them it's easy no pressure calm down.  this is inspired by me wanting to watch a light movie last night, and realizing i experience escapism through cult cinema.

they're my favorite way to experience fun via media. i don't think about them as much as i used to, but that's because i used to think of them quite a lot.

i'm going to define cult cinema like this: esoteric genre movies. clearly nothing comic book movie counts, since that's in a mainstream era. if you're a comic book movie fan you'll be cult-okay in the future, it's like 50s sci-fi films now. being off of a contemporary culture radar is how you are esoteric.

this is my list

Romero's Dawn of the Dead
a younger me might've gone with Night of the Living Dead, that was me yesterday, maybe tomorrow. i think Night of the Living Dead is fantastic, and i find its global impact extraordinary. but which movie is more fun? well. and oh wait, what is in fact the most fun zombie movie i've ever encountered my entire life? Dawn of the Dead. it's a weirdo staple and i own it, i don't own Evil Dead II and that's kind of preposterous.

Eraserhead
bound to include a criterion release i'll go early and with this one. i don't think it's ever considered Lynch's best, like through serious  consideration. but with Lynch the consideration is hilarious the entire time anyway. and somehow it really is only he who can be himself. every inch of the creativity in this movie is wildly impressive. i don't believe he's grown as an artist because i don't believe he started small.

Sparrow (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0491044/)
fuck i have to say To, same as i have to say Bava. this is because of what they meant to me in my life, truly. in the rest of my list i'm demonstrating how easy it is to make a list like this, but here i'm showing off a bit. i can name this one because of how well i know To, and of course i know it's somehow not one of his most frequently mentioned. pft. his action movies feel like a french new wave film. this is his actual french new wave film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4gql1XlSE8

Dead Alive
Dawn of the Dead is the most fun zombie movie ever according to me, and this is the most creative horror movie ever according to me. this is why i don't own Evil Dead II.

Le Boucher (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064106/)
this could be Hitchcock instead, it could be De Palma also, the master genre makers you know. tbh i'm not sure if i'd call Chabrol a master, compared to them, based on limited sampling actually. but i would call this a movie about a killer that's deeply affected me. i find sympathy for a killer disgusting. but somehow this movie makes me say maybe not always, that's so cult, providing me with another perspective about what i previously thought was disgusting.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man
it gives the weird a lot of love. in fact one scene in this is awful. this movie goes too far. it's an abomination and let them play it at my funeral.

i "got into" writing that post because i was thinking of my favorite things. but my whole objective here was to hear your own favorites, in order for me to feel inspired toward watching more cult this year.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 06, 2019, 05:49:41 PM
No one named their favorite movie-movies ftw
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on January 07, 2019, 10:36:13 PM
Quote from: jenkins on January 06, 2019, 05:49:41 PM
No one named their favorite movie-movies ftw

Speaking of favorites, there are 6 copies left of a newly restored German blu-ray edition of Czech filmmaker Juraj Herz's Beauty and the Beast (1978) on Diabolik DVD (https://www.diabolikdvd.com/product/beauty-and-the-beast-panna-a-netvor-blu-ray-region-b/) (snagged one). Region B locked, and no subtitles, unfortunately.

(https://i.imgur.com/IBIsgkn.jpg)

A more horrific and gloomy version of The Beauty and the Beast. Julie is a bankrupt merchant's daughter who as the only one of the three daughters chooses to save her father's life by going to the Haunted Wood's Castle where she meets Netvor. He wants to kill her, but her beauty prevents him from that. Although she is forbidden to see him she starts to love him and the love rescues him from his curse



————————————————————————————————————

And I've got these on the agenda to watch tonight, the Milligan partially inspired by your post quoted below (which I initially thought you wrote, before noticing the link at the top). Excited to dive in, regardless.

Quote from: jenkins on September 23, 2018, 05:44:19 PM
Keeping the exploitation-film fires burning with Nicolas Winding Refn (https://www.avclub.com/keeping-the-exploitation-film-fires-burning-with-nicola-1828953125)

I like Nicolas Winding Refn's films—the ending of The Neon Demon was enough to redeem that otherwise flawed film for me, though that's a topic for another time—but I'm a huge fan of his ongoing side gig as a film preservationist. He first caught my eye when he bought a collection of film prints by obscure exploitation director Andy Milligan, including the only known copies of several of Milligan's works, back in 2012. I was delighted when he said he was motivated to buy Milligan's work by Jimmy McDonough's (now out of print) biography The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld Of Filmmaker Andy Milligan, which I had just finished shortly before the news broke.

(https://i.imgur.com/QbTZfJF.jpg)

Nightbirds (1970)

While living rough on the streets of London's East End, a young man, Dink (Milligan regular Berwick Kaler – Coronation Street, Red Riding), encounters the beautiful and mysterious Dee (Julie Shaw – The Big Switch). Concerned for Dinks welfare, she invites him to stay with her and get off the streets. The two soon develop a curious relationship which oscillates, often without warning, between sexual intimacy and raging jealousy. As tenderness gives way to cruelty, they become consumed by darkness and their relationship spirals out of control.

Quote from: Mikatonic Institute of Horror StudiesANDY MILLIGAN: ARTIST, AUTEUR OR ASSHOLE?

Between 1965 and 1988, Andy Milligan produced, wrote and directed 29 films. He also photographed, edited and provided costumes, make-ups and set design. He is the embodiment of the fierce self-reliant filmmaker, a literal one-man powerhouse taking on the jobs of several people. Even more fascinating was that Milligan also ran an off Broadway theater, producing and writing plays as well as staging the works of other writers.

Yet, despite all the energy and productivity, Milligan was long regarded as a pariah in cult film circles. In Michael Weldon's book The Psychotronic Encyclopedia, he wrote "If you're an Andy Milligan fan there is no hope for you." Producer Richard Gordon wrote a letter to Fangoria magazine after they published an article on Milligan, ranting against Milligan and the lack of production value in the films he made. Most cult film fans tend to relegate Milligan to the bottom of the barrel and use disparaging remarks when describing his output. Yet since his death in 1991, Milligan's work has attracted a lot of attention and re-evaluation, most notably in Jimmy McDonough's book The Ghastly One (2001).

Milligan laid bare his soul in just about every film he made. Wallowing in a sea of self-hatred, Milligan willingly shared his misanthropy and laid it out for all to see on the screens of some of the scummiest grind houses and drive-ins this side of 42nd Street. He never let a film go by without using the classic Milligan tropes, all of which stem back to his life, which started in Saint Paul, MN, in 1929. In Milligan's view all problems start at home and usually with the mother, and he used the films he was contracted to make for the exploitation circuit as his therapy.


Confessions of a Young American Housewife (1974)

An attractive but conservative mid-30's housewife stays at the house of her sexually open daughter and soon becomes involved in her daughter's swinger lifestyle.



Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on January 23, 2019, 06:38:12 PM
*ECSTATIC*

April 16, 2019

Andy Sidaris' Malibu Express (1985) on blu-ray from American Genre Film Archive, from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/jO9kDeN.jpg)

A smooth-talking private eye is assigned the task of investigating who is behind the hi-tech computer technology leaks to the Russians.

Malibu Express (1985) - Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Malibu-Express-Blu-ray/dp/B07MWQCN9X?SubscriptionId=AKIAIY4YSQJMFDJATNBA&tag=bluray-012-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B07MWQCN9X&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER)

NSFW




April 16, 2019

Andy Sidaris' Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987) on blu-ray from American Genre Film Archive, from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/PtcBln8.jpg)

Two drug enforcement agents are killed on a private Hawaiian island. Donna and Taryn, two operatives for The Agency, accidentally intercept a delivery of diamonds intended for drug lord Seth Romero, who takes exception and tries to get them back. Soon other Agency operatives get involved, and a full-scale fight to the finish ensues, complicated here and there by an escaped snake made deadly by Toxic Waste!

Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987) - Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Ticket-to-Hawaii-Blu-ray/dp/B07MWQ9CQF?SubscriptionId=AKIAIY4YSQJMFDJATNBA&tag=bluray-012-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B07MWQ9CQF&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER)






February 26, 2019

Party Line (1988) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative

(https://i.imgur.com/p8ZwjWV.jpg)

Brother and sister Seth and Stacy live a secluded life in their family's beautiful Beverly Hills mansion. But these upper class siblings share a dark and violent hobby of using sexually driven 'party lines' to meet and lure lustful strangers into a deadly ménage à trois, the climax of which is a razor slash to the throat! With the victim count steadily rising, Detective Dan is under the gun to crack the case, but when his girlfriend falls prey to the maniacal duo, Dan goes rogue, taking his own violent measures to dispense justice.

Juxtaposing a slasher film setup with police drama and erotic thriller plot points, William Webb's PARTY LINE is a forgotten oddity, bridging the late 80s slasher craze with the soon to rise early 90s 'skinemax' obsession.



Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on March 15, 2019, 06:52:18 AM
4K restoration trailers for Andy Sidaris' Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987) and Malibu Express (1985)






More Andy Sidaris releases from new restorations are coming to blu-ray from Mill Creek later in the year:

Savage Beach (1989)

(https://i.imgur.com/5WfADGT.jpg)

On their way to make an air delivery, two drug enforcement agents will need to do an emergency landing on a remote island, rumoured to have a gold treasure.


Picasso Trigger (1988)

(https://i.imgur.com/L7HcnXT.jpg)

Double agent Picasso Trigger is assassinated in Paris by double-crossing bad guy Miguel Ortiz. Then Ortiz begins eliminating agents of The Agency who were involved in his brother's death. The Agency (belatedly) springs into action to stop Ortiz' heinous activities. The usual gunplay, romance, and nifty toys with bombs ensue.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on May 07, 2019, 06:44:18 PM
Quote from: wilder on March 15, 2019, 06:52:18 AMMore Andy Sidaris releases from new restorations are coming to blu-ray from Mill Creek later in the year:

Savage Beach (1989)

(https://i.imgur.com/5WfADGT.jpg)

On their way to make an air delivery, two drug enforcement agents will need to do an emergency landing on a remote island, rumoured to have a gold treasure.


Picasso Trigger (1988)

(https://i.imgur.com/L7HcnXT.jpg)

Double agent Picasso Trigger is assassinated in Paris by double-crossing bad guy Miguel Ortiz. Then Ortiz begins eliminating agents of The Agency who were involved in his brother's death. The Agency (belatedly) springs into action to stop Ortiz' heinous activities. The usual gunplay, romance, and nifty toys with bombs ensue.

Both coming to blu-ray July 9th





Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on May 23, 2019, 07:52:26 PM
omg apparently it's old news but it's omg to me like i just said

Paris Is Burning is coming to criterion and they even released a new trailer for it via entertainment fucking weekly (https://ew.com/trailers/2019/05/15/paris-is-burning-documentary-restoration-trailer/)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o47CwiJLpes

HELL YES. so sad if you don't like this movie
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on May 29, 2019, 08:27:55 PM
oh wow, this movie is landing exactly where it belongs. that's cool. i wish i was thirteen again, to really appreciate what playlist describe as "the most bonkers, ludicrously over-the-top action films you'll see all year" in what's somehow a negative review, sometimes it's like god what more do you people want

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UqYRrgYZRg
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on May 31, 2019, 05:04:11 PM
Quote from: wilder on January 15, 2018, 04:54:12 PM(https://i.imgur.com/4H1oDm2.jpg)

A rookie cop with her own way of doing things decides it's time to throw away the rule book when her partner is killed by drug dealers in a war for control of the Los Angeles market. Cinematography by Howard Wexler (Hard Ticket to Hawaii, Malibu Express).


Up for pre-order (http://massacrevideo.com/site/?product=pre-order-american-rampage-danger-usa-aka-mind-traplimited-edition-blu-ray) from Massacre Video
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on June 01, 2019, 01:35:52 AM
July 16, 2019

Satanis - The Devil's Mass (1970) and Satan's Children (1975) on blu-ray from American Genre Film Archive, from 2K restorations

(https://i.imgur.com/5jvG1jU.jpg)

The Devil's Mass is the unseen and unbelievable exposé on Anton LaVey, America's favorite leader of the Church of Satan. Feeling like a bedtime story as told by Kenneth Anger and Russ Meyer, this is a wild glimpse into the witches, black masses, and sex lives that built San Francisco's most infamous cult. From LaVey's daughter ("I think they're nuts!") to a nude woman who performs a satanic rite with a Boa constrictor, you'll meet numerous proto-goths, midnight maniacs, and daytime Draculas -- and even a pet tiger named Togare! In the words of LaVey, "There is a beast in man that should be exercised, not exorcised!"

Made by one-and-done filmmakers in the gutters of Tampa, Satan's Children is an Afterschool Special from depths of hell... literally. Bobby is a troubled teen with problems. After deflecting his father's insults and his stepsister's come-ons, Bobby unknowingly ends up at a gay bar. Before long, he's sexually assaulted by four guys in the back seat of a car. With nowhere else to turn, Bobby joins a cult of Satanists to enact his murderous revenge. A truly deranged gut-punch, this is a gritty and baffling "experience" that could have only happened in Florida.





Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on June 24, 2019, 02:29:21 PM
only today did i learn about this, since it's her birthday. she's perhaps most known for working with Hal Hartley

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/86/Adrienneshelly.jpg)

from wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrienne_Shelly)

QuoteMurder

Shelly was found dead at approximately 5:45 p.m on November 1, 2006. Her husband, Andy Ostroy, discovered the body in the Abingdon Square apartment in Manhattan's West Village that she used as an office. Ostroy had dropped her off at 9:30 a.m. He had become concerned because Shelly had not been in contact that day and went to the building, asking the doorman to accompany him to the apartment. They found her body hanging from a shower rod in the bathtub with a bed sheet around her neck.

Despite the door not having been locked and money reportedly missing from her wallet, New York City Police Department apparently believed Shelly had taken her own life. An autopsy found she had died as a result of neck compression. Ostroy insisted that his wife was happy in her personal and professional life, and in any case would never have committed suicide leaving her two and a half year old daughter motherless. His protests over the following days caused a more careful re-examination of the bathroom, which revealed there was a sneaker print in gypsum dust on the toilet beside where her body had been found. The suspect print was matched to a set of other shoe prints in the building, where construction work had been done the day of Shelly's death.

On November 6, 2006, the press reported the arrest of a 19-year-old construction worker, Diego Pillco, who according to police had confessed on tape to attacking Shelly, and then staging the fake suicide by hanging her. Pillco's original version of what happened was that when Shelly asked if the noise could be kept down, he threw a hammer at her and, afraid she would make a complaint that might result in his deportation, followed her back to her apartment, where the petite 40-year-old hit him, and was killed by a fall during a struggle. Subsequently, Pillco gave a completely different account in which he said while on a break he had noticed Shelly returning to her apartment and followed her. After assaulting her and rendering her unconscious, he killed her by staging the fake suicide. The second version was consistent with the lack of dust on Shelly's shoes (which she was not wearing when found) and seemed to be a confession to murder, but prosecutors reportedly thought if charged with murder Pillco might return to his original account and a jury trial could find him guilty of a lesser charge. The medical examiner determined that Shelly was still alive when hanged. Pillco pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole.

At Pillco's sentencing on March 13, 2008, Shelly's husband, along with family members, said that they would never forgive him. Andy Ostroy said of Pillco "...you are nothing more than a coldblooded killer" and that he hoped he would "rot in jail".

In remembering Shelly, Ostroy said that "Adrienne was the kindest, warmest, most loving, generous person I knew. She was incredibly smart, funny and talented, a bright light with an infectious laugh and huge smile that radiated inner and outer beauty... she was my best friend, and the person with whom I was supposed to grow old".
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on July 10, 2019, 11:40:49 PM
September 17, 2019

Andy Sidaris' Guns (1990) on blu-ray from Mill Creek, from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/zGeOcpo.jpg)

South American criminal Juan Degas has been using the Hawaiian Islands as his base for smuggling weapons from China to Latin America. Tracking their target from Hawaii to Las Vegas, our agents must watch their backs while attempting to take down their prey.





September 17, 2019

Andy Sidaris' Do or Die (1991) on blu-ray from Mill Creek, from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/SBFnzHv.jpg)

A pair of female agents is targeted for elimination by an Asian criminal kingpin out for revenge. The evil mastermind sends out an army of assassins with the same mission, to kill agents Donna and Nicole!

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on August 21, 2019, 02:10:32 AM
i have this feeling that Venom 2 is going to be really special. it's just a thrilling hunch
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on September 13, 2019, 11:02:29 PM
https://twitter.com/wehtwtvwlocal/status/1172605228182646785
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on October 01, 2019, 12:15:50 AM
i'm a supporter but there's no good reason to think this will reach beyond cult

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV7qfPcyaXQ
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on October 07, 2019, 09:27:38 PM
there's one line on the lips of trash culture this october:

"When you bring me out, can you introduce me as Gemini Man?"
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on October 08, 2019, 11:40:13 AM
We rented Andy Sidaris' films, Wilder. They were fun and full of het-drag, but oddly not as ridiculous as i had imagined they'd be. Essentially, Sidaris made the Triple B series out of the espionage/action tropes but truly only cares about the comic-bits of these films and leans into them -- looney-tunes via Malibu Bay. Goofy, no-frills, no-tension crime and outlaw skin slicks. I think this is where Danny Trejo learned his formula. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRBYSqCSnr4)

Also, the DVD menus are kinda cooler than the Blu Ray menus, but they're both packed with trailers and Sidaris links.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on October 12, 2019, 01:29:00 PM
Quote from: jenkins on October 07, 2019, 09:27:38 PM
there's one line on the lips of trash culture this october:

"When you bring me out, can you introduce me as Gemini Man?"

article about the original writer (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/gemini-man-meet-credited-writer-who-didnt-actually-write-gemini-man-1246953)

QuoteIn the mid-1990s, Lemke was working at a grocery store, pushing carts and pushing 27, writing murder-mystery theater in North Jersey. A graduate of New York City's School of Visual Arts, he had seen his classmates enthusiastically rush to Los Angeles after graduation, then slowly return like soldiers from the warfront. He stayed behind, tapping away at the keyboard on spec scripts, all action and thriller.

In a weird only-in-Hollywood confluence, only in this case it was only-in-Jersey, he went out to the movies one night, giving a script to a friend of a friend's brother, who gave it to an assistant to a movie producer, who then gave it to said movie producer.

he's written/directed one movie, ive seen it, i rented it from blockbuster back when we did things like that, it's awful, the movie, is awful


Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on November 03, 2019, 03:42:10 PM
i was reading trivia for The Black Cat  (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024894/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv)and first learned this

QuoteWhile working on this film, director Edgar G. Ulmer began an affair with Shirley Castle, who would eventually become his wife, known as Shirley Ulmer (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0880631/). At the time, however, Castle was married to Max Alexander (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0018613/), a producer at Universal Pictures and a nephew of powerful Universal chief Carl Laemmle, who did not look kindly on "outsiders" upsetting his family. Castle left her husband for Ulmer, and the ensuing scandal resulted in Ulmer being blackballed from all of the major Hollywood studios for the rest of his career. After a short period of directing micro-budgeted independent films, Ulmer went to work for the low-budget studio Producers Releasing Corp. (PRC), where he stayed for most of the rest of his career.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on November 11, 2019, 09:25:28 PM
i can't find the full story online, but it seems to be that Ben Hecht won the first screenwriting academy award for von Sternberg's Underworld, and sent the trophy back. a figurehead in screenwriting during the golden age of hollywood, Hecht didn't consider film an artform, he wanted to be a novelist. the trophy was sent back to him and he used it as a doorstop

i heard Adina Hoffman speak about this in reference to her book Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures (https://www.amazon.com/Ben-Hecht-Fighting-Moving-Pictures/dp/030018042X), so that's a legitimate source
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on November 15, 2019, 04:18:14 PM
last night at the new bev i saw Medium Cool (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064652/) and The Don Is Dead (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069989/) as part of the Robert Forster tribute series

but idgaf about those movies and i wish that rather than 60s/70s stuff qt was more into 20s/30s stuff but to each his own

our interests overlap in cartoons, however. seeing this in the theater was a tremendous experience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrBsb7Y13YA

QuoteHare-um Scare-um is a 1939 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton.

The title is a homonym with an old nonsense expression ("harum-scarum", meaning reckless or irresponsible) that has nothing to do with rabbits as such. This was the first use of a hare-based pun title in the Warner Bros. cartoons; it would be a device used to name the vast majority of Bugs Bunny cartoons in the years to come.

This cartoon marks the third appearance of the Bugs Bunny prototype and the first time he, thanks to a redesign by Charlie Thorson, appears as a grey rabbit instead of a white one.

Happy Rabbit's voice and laugh were identical to those of Woody Woodpecker in his very first appearance (the Andy Panda cartoon "Knock Knock", released the following year). In fact, Mel Blanc voiced Woody Woodpecker for the first year before entering a contract with Warner Bros.

it's fucking insane to me to see Bugs Bunny developing, especially feeling this experience in a theater. i've seen some good movies at new bev since it reopened but all my favorite experiences have been cartoon related
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on December 24, 2019, 01:26:38 AM
Quote from: WorldForgot on October 08, 2019, 11:40:13 AM
We rented Andy Sidaris' films, Wilder. They were fun and full of het-drag, but oddly not as ridiculous as i had imagined they'd be. Essentially, Sidaris made the Triple B series out of the espionage/action tropes but truly only cares about the comic-bits of these films and leans into them -- looney-tunes via Malibu Bay. Goofy, no-frills, no-tension crime and outlaw skin slicks.

Happy you checked them out. The spy shit is fun but you're right: what attracted me initially was their humor, everything laced with the absurdity found in the narrative setups of porn, interactions pointing that direction, but without the fully x-rated payoffs.

Quote from: WorldForgot on October 08, 2019, 11:40:13 AM
and full of het-drag

Would be interested to hear you elaborate on this...




February 18, 2020

José Ramón Larraz's Deadly Manor (1990) on blu-ray from Arrow US & Arrow UK, from a 2K restoration from the original film elements

(https://i.imgur.com/YD1sfkJ.jpg)

An old, dark house... A maniac on the loose... An orgy of bloodlust! All the hallmarks of late master of Spanish macabre José Ramón Larraz (Edge of the Axe, Vampyres) are present and correct in 1990's Deadly Manor - the final horror movie from one of the genre's most unheralded filmmakers.

Whilst en route to a lake, a group of youngsters make an unscheduled stop-off at a remote, seemingly abandoned mansion where they plan to spend the night. But the property is full of foreboding signs - a blood-stained car wreck in the garden, coffins in the basement, scalps in the closet, and photographs of a beautiful but mysterious woman adorning every corner of the house. Before daybreak, the group will unwittingly uncover the strange and terrifying truth that lurks behind the walls of this dreadful place.

The last in a trio of transcontinental slice-and-dice co-productions helmed by Larraz towards the end of the 80s (all of which which he directed under the anglicized moniker of Joseph Braunstein), Deadly Manor - released on VHS in the US under the title Savage Lust - is a fitting capper to the director's prolific career in fear, now finally unearthed for the first time on Blu-ray




January 28, 2020

José Ramón Larraz's Edge of the Axe (1988) on blu-ray from Arrow US & Arrow UK

(https://i.imgur.com/t3703fr.jpg)

From cult Spanish filmmaker José Ramón Larraz (Vampyres, Symptoms) comes this long-neglected late 80s slasher classic, finally unleashed on Blu-ray for the first time ever!

The rural community of Paddock County is being rocked by the crazed exploits of an axe-wielding psychopath, who stalks the night in a black trenchcoat and mask. As the victims pile up, the authorities attempt to keep a lid on the situation, whilst computer whizz-kid Gerald and girlfriend Lillian seek to unmask the killer before the town population reaches zero. Nominally set in Northern California but shot primarily in Madrid, giving the film an off-kilter, American/European atmosphere akin to the likes of Pieces, Edge of the Axe is a late entry hack-and-slash masterpiece from one of the titans of Spanish terror.




March 17, 2020

Andy Sidaris' Hard Hunted (1992) on blu-ray from Mill Creek, from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/lmR24zq.jpg)

After smuggling a nuclear trigger from China, underworld arms dealer Martin Kane offers it to a violent Mideastern leader. Before the sale is final, however, a special U.S. agent goes under-covers to steal it. But when she's murdered, it's up to secret agents Donna Hamilton (Speir), Nicole Justin (Vasquez) and Edy Stark (Brimhall) to save the day. Hunted by high-tech warriors, these straight-shooting heroines never back down. Between battles, they find time for some erotic R&R that gives new meaning to the word "action"! Suspenseful and sexy, Hard Hunted is hard to beat!



March 17, 2020

Andy Sidaris' Fit to Kill (1993) on blu-ray from Mill Creek, from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/XoxDOKw.jpg)

Chinese businessman Chang owns the fabulous Alexa diamond, stolen from Russia during WWII. He intends to return it to Russia during a gala dinner, but the diamond is stolen by Kane, assisted by his lethal and seductive partner Blu Steele. The Agency, in charge of security at the event, go into high gear to try and recover the diamond. Gunplay, explosions, seductions, lethal remote control helicopters, and general mayhem ensue.





March 24, 2020

Ovidio G. Assonitis & Robert Barrett's Beyond the Door (1974) on blu-ray from Arrow, from a 2K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/1KDNN3E.jpg)

Legendary filmmaker Ovidio G. Assonitis, whose Tentacles and Piranha II sought to cash in on the killer fish craze spawned by Jaws, first hit pay dirt in 1974 with Beyond the Door - a gloriously bonkers riff on The Exorcist featuring Emmy Award-winning actress Juliet Mills and distinguished British actor Richard Johnson.

Set against the backdrop of San Francisco, Beyond the Door stars Mills as Jessica Barrett, a young mother who starts to develop strange behaviors whilst pregnant with her third child. Before you can say "split pea soup", Jessica is displaying signs of full-blown demonic possession - complete with projectile vomiting and fully-rotating head! Could it be that she's carrying the child of the Antichrist himself?

Described as "disgusting", "scary trash" and "maddeningly inappropriate" by film critic Robert Ebert and subject to a lawsuit by Warner Bros. (who claimed copyright infringement against a certain William Friedkin film), the devilish denizens at Arrow Video have summoned up this wickedly entertaining popcorn spiller in a brand new, extras-packed edition fit for Satan himself!






March 2020

FAB Press is republishing (https://www.fabpress.com/ghastly-one-andy-milligan-book.html) the long-OOP book 'The Ghastly One: The 42nd Street Netherworld of Director Andy Milligan', with newly added material.

Pre-orders will include a one-off printing of a 300-page book of previously unpublished Andy Milligan scripts.

(https://i.imgur.com/09orV95.jpg)

There's an interesting interview (https://diaboliquemagazine.com/the-ghastly-one-is-coming-bynwr-is-here-an-interview-with-jimmy-mcdonough-biographer-andy-milligan-and-co-conspirator-of-nicolas-winding-refn/) with the author, Jimmy McDonough, up at Diabolique Magazine
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on December 27, 2019, 03:03:16 AM
now that i'm a part of hollywood cinema lore i'll try to behave like a normal person still

um, a 35mm print of Variety played for me alone, front row (where the guy in the movie sits, whom Luis Guzmán calls funny and the protagonist chases), on the second-ever night of Fairfax Cinema (https://fairfaxcinema.com/films/variety/), the controversial reopening of the Cinefamily organization (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-12-18/fairfax-cinema-cinefamily-uncut-gems)

only i was there for this occurrence, in this movie city with a metropolitan population of sixteen million. Lurie made the score i'd forgotten that. it's NYC around 1983, director Bette Gordon. the protagonist is a cashier at a neon porno theater. Guzmán is the ticket taker. cinematographer Tom DiCillo. it's neon and sex and the bright lights of a city especially at night, coca-cola signage and a baseball game too

given that 35mm prints have to be ordered, it can be presumed that the opening movies were programmed by the Safdies, who had to dip, and whose lack of support bottomed the screening down to just me

i have been to weirder la screenings (live commentary by tobe hooper with mick garris at the Aero for TCM) and sadder la screenings (a small population for  L.Q. Jones with A Boy and His Dog at the Nuart, a small population for Stuart Gordon opening night for Stuck at the Nuart, a small population for a live Roger Corman event i arrived early for at the New Bev), but it's never been just me until tonight, given that i was almost alone during the Charlie Brown anniversary screening at the Grove but then that family arrived
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on December 27, 2019, 04:55:11 PM
Quote from: jenkins on December 27, 2019, 03:03:16 AM
a 35mm print of Variety played for me alone

only i was there for this occurrence, in this movie city with a metropolitan population of sixteen million

At the NYFF screening of Transit,  I looked around at the nearly packed house and went 'this is the difference between NY & LA'. Had the same thought when I saw Margarethe von Trotta's Marianne & Julianne, off of polka's recommendation (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=11498.msg302612#msg302612), at the Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn (a converted former-bodega, so minuscule, but there was only standing room after the 30 or so card table chairs had filled).

My own memory of LA jives with your experience. Screenings at The Egyptian, for stuff like The Night of the Hunter or Sweet Smell of Success, movies clearly within the classic Hollywood lane, beget a smattering of people, but non-genre, off-the-beaten-path-repertory has so much harder a time. I don't remember much even showing, tbh, outside of The Silent Movie Theater (Cinefamily / now Fairfax). NY has its own gross problems, but less this one. Very curious how eward will fare.

fwiw, I kind of doubt you'd like it even on this end - the state of being alone in a crowded room seems like an integral part of the jenkins worldview.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on December 27, 2019, 05:09:21 PM
Quote from: wilder on December 27, 2019, 04:55:11 PM
the state of being alone in a crowded room seems like an integral part of the jenkins worldview.

nailed it i mean i don't feel comfortable when i fit in
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on December 27, 2019, 06:22:45 PM
Quote from: wilder on December 24, 2019, 01:26:38 AM

Would be interested to hear you elaborate on this…

Well, you know, these movies are flaunting skin in every scene. (Which is funny, because like you mentioned there are no sexual x-rated pay-offs).  They're also shooting the women differently and devising tropes that show off the playmates without ridiculing them the way the men get dragged. They're these buff or strutting ideals of the powerful hetero-male, so much so that it helps with the whole vibe that this is an action movie farce.

I could have just said drag, but the tone seems to always mock the men in drag -- and it's never the women agents getting dressed like men. It's a "disguise" trope like, what, Some Like It Hot, but wrapped up in so much beefcake that either Sidaris is pandering or merely having a laugh about "how funny" it is to see men in drag. Considering the era, I felt like it was the latter, but didn't mind. Everyone's oiled up and hot, anyway.

Will probably watch more of his films in the coming year. They went well with friends and drinks.

Quote from: wilder on December 24, 2019, 01:26:38 AM

FAB Press is republishing (https://www.fabpress.com/ghastly-one-andy-milligan-book.html) the long-OOP book 'The Ghastly One: The 42nd Street Netherworld of Director Andy Milligan', with newly added material.

Pre-orders will include a one-off printing of a 300-page book of previously unpublished Andy Milligan scripts.

(https://i.imgur.com/09orV95.jpg)

There's an interesting interview (https://diaboliquemagazine.com/the-ghastly-one-is-coming-bynwr-is-here-an-interview-with-jimmy-mcdonough-biographer-andy-milligan-and-co-conspirator-of-nicolas-winding-refn/) with the author, Jimmy McDonough, up at Diabolique Magazine


This is so exciting. Hoping to submit to the Milligan contest on ByNWR.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 01, 2020, 04:40:44 PM
Quote from: jenkins on December 25, 2019, 03:18:00 PM
Quote from: wilder on May 07, 2019, 06:32:33 PM
August 27, 2019

Philippe Mora's documentary Brother Can You Spare a Dime? (1975) on blu-ray from VCI

(https://i.imgur.com/JqNtrPT.jpg)

Brother Can You Spare a Dime? is the chronicle of an unforgettable piece of American history - twelve crazy, painful seesaw years, from the Wall Street crash to Pearl Harbor.

By juxtaposing contemporary news and documentary footage with extracts from Hollywood classics such as Golddiggers, Lady Killer and Wild Boys of the Road, director Philippe Mora offers us an immediate, intricate and evocative scrapbook of the 1930's. Somehow there are uncanny echoes of some of our current preoccupations: strikers at Ford's, mass unemployment, breadlines, vigilante gangs and failing fortunes...

Two heroes emerge: James Cagney, the rough diamond, hood-with-a-heart-of-gold star of the Movies, the little man who won't be beaten, and Franklin D. Roosevelt himself: tough yet benign, stepping into the breach with confidence and determination, yet imperceptibly crumpling under the weight of responsibility as he leads America through her most difficult years until the final humiliation of Pearl Harbor.

Songs and images stick in the mind: fortunes dwindle, the small man's savings disappear, even the banks go bust; men lose their jobs and join the breadlines to the haunting title song of Brother, can you spare a dime?; hobos and okies take to the road while Bessie Smith sings Nobody loves you when you're down and out; a ragged child huddles against the bleak landscape as Woody Guthrie sings the Dust Bowl Blues; an abandoned cat shivers on the ledge of a flooded home... Only Hollywood offers an escape from reality for these are the Golden Years of Bogart, Cooper and Dietrich. We glimpse Gable and Vivien Leigh at the screen test of Gone with the Wind; George Raft dances a languorous tango with Carole Lombard; Shirley Temple dimples and Chaplin jokes while Busby Berkeley fills the screen with his lavish extravaganzas...and the marathon dancers stumble on... As Ginger Rogers says: It's the depression, dearie...





figured you'd covered this one. just heard about it again another way and i'm like dying to see it now. same director as:

(https://i.imgur.com/x6Tnx7j.jpg)

QuoteFrom Academy Award Winning Producer David Puttnam (Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, The Killing Fields) comes the most controversial documentary (that was BANNED at the Cannes Film Festival) about Hitler ever made. Utilizing intimate color home movie footage shot by Eva Braun, it presents the private life of a dictator, going on picnics and joking with friends, displaying an affable face to the man labeled as the Devil incarnate by history. The film interweaves rare propaganda films, which presented Hitler as he wanted to be seen, consoling war widows and frolicking with young children. Director Philippe Mora combines these materials together to form an unintentional autobiography of Hitler's rise and fall, from the formation of the Nazi state through the end of WWII. Mora lets the images speak for themselves, leading to misinterpretations and its bans in Germany and Israel. But it is one of the most fearsome anti-Nazi films ever made. As the opening credits state, ''If Hitler is dehumanized and shown only as a devil, any future Hitler may not be recognized, simply because he is a human being.''

Ebert's review of BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?

QuoteThe notion behind another new Depression film, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" was a good one: Why not put together a feature-length montage of the central images of the Depression? And so here they are, from King Kong to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but somehow the movie never quite knows what to do with them. There are songs and production numbers from the great 1930s musicals and newsreel footage of the rioting strikers at Ford, and animated sequences, and Will Rogers kidding FDR and Rudy Vallee singing the title song. But to what purpose?

The movie's only method seems to be ironic juxtaposition. If we see bread lines and then a production number like "We're in the Money," we're supposed to get the message. And we do, all right (just as we got it in 1967, when Bonnie and Clyde went to the movies and saw the same scene). But this same knee-jerk response is expected again and again in the film, until finally we get tired. The director, Philippe Mora, doesn't seem to have ordered his material or thought much about it. Some footage seems to have been put in just because it was there. And for moviegoers who didn't grow up during the Depression or aren't terribly familiar with its greater or lesser personalities, the movies offers little help. It's not a coherent documentary statement, but just a series of images.

We get a great deal more of Roosevelt than we really need, and James Cooney is also used as a motif throughout the film - turning up with one-liners wrenched from context to work as cheap gags. At the movie's end, Mora has Cooney watching "Citizen Kane" with a girl friend and wisecracking. And on the screen, Kane whispers "Rosebud," which thus serves for the second, not nearly so worthy time, as the symbol of a film's impenetrability.

James Cagney not James Cooney , i'm not sure who puts Ebert's reviews on the web

that's a bad Ebert review. that's Ebert missing the sensation of the movie. it's not about an American narrative it's about the feeling of America. are we on one path to one thing or do we never quite know what's coming our way and how it is? as a narrative movie this movie would mean one thing, that thing, for always, but as it is it means what the viewer thinks it means, and for me it means dense currents of the human spirit lead us toward where we did not know we would go

very into this movie
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 10, 2020, 10:01:55 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/1rRKrcy.jpg?1)

QuoteOn her wedding night, Remember "Mem" Steddon, daughter of a small-town conservative preacher, has a sudden change of heart. Abandoning her groom, she impulsively sneaks off their Los Angeles-bound honeymooner train in the middle of the desert. When she recuperates from dehydration, she finds herself on a film set and is cast as an extra. As Mem's masterful art of deception drives her to fame, the left-behind husband returns, raging with jealousy and murderous revenge.

First published 1922 and adapted to screen the following year by Rupert Hughes himself, this "insider" story of Hollywood filmmaking traces every Hollywood trope from slapstick comedy to theatrical melodrama with love and deceit at every page turn. Hazing the lines between truth and fiction, Souls for Sale is a snapshot of Hollywood's Golden Age, hailed by three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sandburg as "the heart of moviedom by anyone who believes it."

(https://i.imgur.com/HgUtBYE.jpg)

QuoteSouls for Sale is a 1923 American silent comedy-drama romance film written, directed, and produced by Rupert Hughes. Based on the novel of the same name also by Rupert Hughes, the film stars Eleanor Boardman in her first leading role, having won a contract with Goldwyn Pictures through their highly publicized "New Faces of 1921" contest just two years prior.

The film is notable for its insights into the early film industry. Among the significant cameos in the film are appearances by directors King Vidor, Fred Niblo, Marshall Neilan, Charlie Chaplin, and Erich von Stroheim, as well as a number of actors, producers, and other filmmakers. Souls for Sale includes rare behind-the-scenes footage of Chaplin and von Stroheim directing the films A Woman of Paris and Greed, respectively.

QuoteWriter/director Rupert Hughes was the brother of Howard Hughes Sr., and was responsible for introducing his nephew, Howard Hughes Jr., to the world of Hollywood movies.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 12, 2020, 02:09:54 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/ggS8YKX.jpg)

it's so good. this is the path

previously

(https://i.imgur.com/Q84RkTh.jpg?1)

originally

(https://i.imgur.com/E8VNIb9.jpg)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on January 12, 2020, 04:59:05 PM
I see, it's on The Criterion Channel. Arturo Ripstein rips. Many iterations of this kind of tale are personal favorites of mine. Will def watch. Thanks for the heads up.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 12, 2020, 08:56:53 PM
wish i already owned this obvious gem

(https://i.imgur.com/RIjqgEM.jpg)

QuoteBleak Street is the latest provocation from Mexican master Arturo Ripstein (Deep Crimson), a surreally entertaining neo-noir based on a true crime that shocked Mexico. Bleak Street tracks the nocturnal adventures and ill-fated encounter between two desperate old prostitutes and twin mini-luchadores. The Mexico City they traverse is a vice ridden dreamscape of crime, loneliness and poverty. The two ladies get mired in botched scams and unhappy relationships while the twins face a demanding life of family obligations and their wrestling careers. All these characters can do is journey ever deeper into the night, with no escape in sight, until fate brings them all together.

a letterboxd review

QuoteBleak Street is a crummy, black-and-black, unsentimental view of desperation and woe on Mexico's Poverty Row. This tawdry tale was based on a real-life crime involving two mini-luchadore-wrestlers, who were poisoned by two sex-workers in 2003 Mexico. The vividness of this bas-relief comes from its appearance of having been shot through a filthy grave. It is unwavering in its commitment to the low-down, the fallen. Arturo Ripstein's best technique involves a Demy-ish tracking camera which wants to capture the languid energy of a scene in one go. The film, therefore, degrades as it goes along, giving it exactly the kind of tiredness and desperation in technique its story demands. This is a classic example of a film where a lousy technique does not equal a lousy movie. Look at how Ripstein, a very disciplined Buñuelian director, shoots two characters' ascension of stairs. It's like becoming aware of light after an extended period of nothing but tunnel-darkness.

Quote
bas-relief noun

art : sculptural relief (see RELIEF entry 1 sense 6) in which the projection from the surrounding surface is slight and no part of the modeled form is undercut (see UNDERCUT entry 1 sense 2)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeqtG4mwsOg
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on January 29, 2020, 01:38:07 AM
Richard Stanley is such a character

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 31, 2020, 04:26:57 PM
no yeah no yeah when this first came out i was like hey wilder this will be us and wilder was like ummmmm and i was like ohhhhhh like when i took my mother to see tangerine which i thought was marvelous and she said it made her sad and i was like ahhhhhh and you know what another time i mentioned how i wouldn't mind being the women in grey gardens and reelist was like please no

(https://i.imgur.com/HN4FWIs.png?1)

i watched this again and they say it's their destiny, their fate, and that, if you think about it, movies are made for them

i have the wellspring dvd it's oop and it might just die but i think it's a true cityperson moviepeople movie
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 31, 2020, 04:44:37 PM
Der Riese (The Giant)  (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277276/), 1984, wr/dr Michael Klier, "A feature-length film composed entirely of security camera footage," "this film was shot without any camera crew. Everything shown is edited from automated surveillance camera footage."

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on February 12, 2020, 10:13:24 PM
the art and concept

(https://i.imgur.com/MXEQpTr.jpg)

Quote13 female filmmakers explore themes of the uncanny, the supernatural, and the sublime in a series of 13 short films featuring a killer twin, an interdimensional time traveler, a doomed magician, and other strange characters that exist within the confines of a decaying, early 20th-century building slated for demolition. 13 tales. 13 women. 13 Chambers.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on February 17, 2020, 09:40:18 PM
May 12, 2020

Christian Drew Sidaris' The Dallas Connection (1994) on blu-ray from Mill Creek, from a new restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/qk67whD.jpg)

Esteemed scientists in charge of a sophisticated, state-of-the-art, satellite weapon-tracking system are being assassinated before a major scientific convention in Dallas.





May 12, 2020

Christian Drew Sidaris' Enemy Gold (1994) on blu-ray from Mill Creek, from a new restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/QTHAqWi.jpg)

While on a mission to stop a drug operation, three Federal agents accidentally discover gold from the Civil War. With the aid of a corrupt agent, a ruthless criminal kingpin will hunt them down, one by one.


Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on February 23, 2020, 05:23:49 PM
watched Carmen, Baby (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061448/) at the New Bev last night at midnight. great opening lines and i was magnetized by the gorgeous male lead with a lingering sense dread on his face, and the kind of outrageous female lead who is so strong too, oh and when the male lead had that knife fight related to gambling and killed that other guy

Radley Metzger

QuoteEarly in his career, in the 1950s, Metzger worked primarily as a film editor and was a member of Local 771 of the IATSE.] He was employed in editing trailers for Janus Films (now The Criterion Collection), a major distributor of foreign art films, especially those of Michelangelo Antonioni, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut.

QuoteUnder the pseudonym "Henry Paris," Metzger also directed several explicit adult erotic features during the mid- to late-1970s. These films were released during the Golden Age of Porn (inaugurated by the 1969 release of Andy Warhol's Blue Movie) in the United States, at a time of "porno chic", in which adult erotic films were just beginning to be widely released, publicly discussed by celebrities (like Johnny Carson and Bob Hope) and taken seriously by film critics (like Roger Ebert).

that is all gone now, you know. it's crazy it was happening but left

(https://i.imgur.com/erG6wqZ.jpg)

QuoteBlue Movie (stylized as blue movie; also known as Fuck) is a 1969 American film written, produced, and directed by Andy Warhol. Blue Movie, the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States, is a seminal film in the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984), and helped inaugurate the "porno chic" phenomenon.

Golden Age of Porn:

QuoteThe term "Golden Age of Porn", or "porno chic", refers to a 15-year period (1969–1984) in commercial American pornography, which spread internationally, in which sexually explicit films experienced positive attention from mainstream cinemas, movie critics, and the general public.

imagine it today i can't even
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on February 23, 2020, 05:50:58 PM
Quote from: jenkins on February 23, 2020, 05:23:49 PM
watched Carmen, Baby (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061448/) at the New Bev last night

first original movie poster I ever bought

(https://i.imgur.com/Ml7oiVC.jpg)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on February 23, 2020, 06:42:17 PM
Quote from: wilder on February 23, 2020, 05:50:58 PM
Quote from: jenkins on February 23, 2020, 05:23:49 PM
watched Carmen, Baby (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061448/) at the New Bev last night

first original movie poster I ever bought

(https://i.imgur.com/Ml7oiVC.jpg)

love it

my full Metzger experience goes Carmen Baby, Therese and Isabelle, and i own Score. in other words i deadass need to see The Lickerish Quartet and The Image

we've talked about this kind of movie before i'm either sure or it makes sense anyway. off-the-top the only other director i know like this is Tinto Brass (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000972/). i mentioned many times how when showing my friends the threesome in Wild Things my mother caught us and brought in Behind the Green Door (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068260/)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on February 25, 2020, 09:37:09 PM


In 1992, Long Island teenager Amy Fisher ignited a media firestorm when she shot the wife of her lover, Joey Buttafuoco, in the face. This sordid tale of sex, aggravated assault, and Zubaz managed to spawn not one, not two, but THREE separate made-for-TV movies — a television first! Drew Barrymore, Alyssa Milano, and Noëlle Parker all took stabs at portraying the disturbed teen in each movie, yet a true on-screen depiction of Amy Fisher never emerged. Until now. In this RASHOMON of found footage film, director Dan Kapelovitz (THREE GENIUSES) mind-melds all three Amy Fisher movies into one ultimate meta-melodramatic mashup that's both a scathing critique and celebration of early-90s tabloid culture.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on February 27, 2020, 01:30:16 AM
it's crazy to me how lavish this production is and how its biggest problem is being russian. i wonder if they remember it in russia, here it's an obscurity that i caught at a festival, although it did play in la at the nuart, kino lorber distributor, it's on dvd. but you don't see this one popping up in conversations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpfcuU6taTE
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on February 28, 2020, 08:45:05 PM
http://thenewbev.com/program/march-28-andy-warhols-dracula-midnight-show/
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on March 10, 2020, 02:44:02 AM
April 28, 2020

Tinto Brass' P.O. Box Tinto Brass (1995) and Massimiliano Zanin's Istintobrass (2013) on blu-ray from Cult Epics, from 4K and 2K restorations

(https://i.imgur.com/nvPpkkp.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/Q7OueKb.jpg)

P.O. Box Tinto Brass (1995)
The confessions, dreams, secrets and memories of women who wrote in to newspapers, told through a series of the letters, photos and videotapes sent in to the paper along with their stories of hidden desires and fantasies.

Istintobrass
An intimate look at the life, career, and legacy of Tinto Brass. One of the most controversial, original and loved figures of Italian cinema. The most censored director of all time. An anarchist of the film, a gifted experimenter, an inventor of dreams. A truly great artist.

NSFW


NSFW




May 19, 2020

Mario Bava's Danger: Diabolik (1968) on blu-ray from Shout Factory

(https://i.imgur.com/LxvWEEO.jpg)

The suave, psychedelic-era thief called Diabolik (John Phillip Law) can't get enough of life's good – or glittery – things. Not when there are currency shipments to steal from under the noses of snooty government officials and priceless jewels to lift from the boudoirs of the super-rich.

The elusive scoundrel finds plenty of ways to live up to his name in this tongue-in-cheek, live-action caper inspired by Europe's popular Diabolik comics. He clambers up walls, zaps a press conference with Exhilaration Gas, smacks a confession out of a crime lord while freefalling with him from an airplane, and pulls off the heist of a twenty-ton gold ingot. Impossible? No, diabolical – Danger: Diabolik, to be exact!




March 31, 2020

Ulli Lommel's Olivia (1983) aka Prozzie on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, restored in 4K from the original 35mm negative

(https://i.imgur.com/PoZFEnT.jpg)

When she was a child, Olivia (Suzanna Love) witnessed the horrifying and violent murder of her prostitute mother at the hands of an angry John. Now an adult, she's married to an abusive and controlling factory worker, that is, until her mother appears to her and demands that Olivia avenge her death by seducing and then slaying men. While disposing of a body near the London Bridge, Olivia has a chance meeting with a friendly American named Mike (Robert Walker Jr) who reveals that he's visiting England in order to dismantle and move the bridge to Arizona, setting off a series of increasingly strange events, and a lot more bloodshed...

Perhaps the most offbeat film in the fascinating career of German actor turned exploitation auteur, Ulli Lommel (Tenderness of the Wolves, The Boogeyman) OLIVIA (also known as Prozzie and Double Jeopardy) finds a distinctive blend of slasher, erotic thriller, and straight forward sleaze, seasoned with touches of semi-surrealism. Atmospherically photographed and featuring a moody score by Joel Goldsmith (Man's Best Friend), Vinegar Syndrome brings this nearly unclassifiable piece of early 80s genre weirdness to Blu-ray, newly restored in 4K from its original 35mm camera negative and presented in its completely uncensored version for the first time on disc.




2020 TBD

Sergio Martino's The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971) on blu-ray from Severin

(https://i.imgur.com/MbRCsgo.jpg)

An ambassador's wife discovers that one of the men in her life -- either her husband, an ex-lover or her current lover -- may be a vicious serial killer who targets women with razor blades in Vienna.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on March 10, 2020, 06:41:28 PM
I just became aware of Jonas Middleton's "hardcore horrror nightmare" Through the Looking Glass (1976)

(https://i.imgur.com/mxk38Iw.jpg)

A rich socialite escapes her boring lifestyle when a ghost takes her to a sexual hell where anything goes.


Quote from: Samm DeighanI initially watched Through the Looking Glass with the expectation that it was a loose sequel to Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Comedy (1976), because Through the Looking-Glass was Lewis Carroll's follow up to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. That could not be farther from the truth. Where Alice is a silly, sexploitation musical comedy about Alice's sexual awakening and does not take itself seriously in the least, Through the Looking Glass is a surreal, horror-porn with ghosts, demons, incest, sexual trauma, and images of hell.

^ Lengthier write-up at Satanic Pandemonium (http://satanicpandemonium.blogspot.com/2013/04/through-looking-glass.html)

Quote from: Letterboxd user CliffIf you've ever wished that pornography had better stories, Through the Looking Glass might make you think again. Because this is one nightmarish fuckfest, concerning unhappily married Catherine, who sneaks off into her boudoir in the attic where a mirror makes all her best and worst fantasies come true. The film has four jaw-dropping set-pieces. [...] What this lacks in wank material, it more than makes up for in transgressive, disturbing weirdo horror.

Quote from: Letterboxd user BerryOf all the staples in the Golden Age of Porn, the most fascinating were always the works that put artistry before the erotic. Jonas Middleton made an adult film, but the porn aspect is probably all lost because Through the Looking Glass is an all-out horror film. A smoky, shadow-painted collection of eerie fantasies, exploring the dark sides of sex, going as far as addressing incestuous abuse and generational trauma. One could only wonder if the film was advertised as titillating. The reactions from an unsuspecting audience being treated to something that featured a scene pulled straight from Pasolini's Trilogy of Life would be priceless.

Quote from: Nick'Through The Looking Glass' also has the distinction of being one of the few hardcore films to be re-edited for mainstream release. It screened at New York's World Theater, the same cinema where 'Deep Throat' had its premiere.

...the film dives headlong into Catherine's damaged state of mind. There are several scenes depicting any number of sexual hang-ups, most of which are staged as brazenly disturbing and not the least bit arousing. After all, this is a film using sex to depict the deep emotional scars of incest. Nothing herein is depicted as straight copulation as much as it seems like the sex is consuming Catherine, causing her to turn inward, like a snake eating its own tail, a kind psychological cannibalism.

The ending is not positive, bordering on nihilistic, as Catherine gives into her fantasies and enters the looking glass with her "father." She emerges on the other side in a carnal wasteland, doomed to degradation and sexual ravishing with no pleasure and no reprieve. Worst of all, the closing scenes depict Catherine's maligned daughter posing in front of the very same mirror, suggesting that the cycle of incest will continue.

A horror film, through and through.

His [Jonas Middleton's] work in 'Through The Looking Glass' feels like a distant cousin to the works of Alejandro Jodorowsky or Federico Fellini and one or both of those auteurs undoubtedly inform the experience.




According to Ian Jane, Distribpix (which restored and released Blue Sunshine) had a blu-ray in the works but at some point it stalled:

Quote from: Ian JaneIt was supposed to be released but it never happened. There was an issue with the HD scan that was prepared and I don't know if it was ever redone or not. It would look amazing in HD.

The odd things is, I know first hand from being there, that he's got scans done for a bunch of titles. He was planning, at one point, to do a bunch of double feature releases on Blu-ray without any extras, just to start getting the finished titles out there. Why it hasn't happened I don't know, I haven 't talked to him in a while. It's probably just a matter of essentially being a one man show and not having enough hours in the day.


oh well, another white whale...

(https://i.imgur.com/1ZUDdyQ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/HtXeDUf.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/9m1BsyR.jpg)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on March 10, 2020, 07:06:59 PM
Damn! Will seek out Istintobrass and Through the Looking Glass.
QuoteIt's probably just a matter of essentially being a one man show and not having enough hours in the day.
Disheartening and inspiring, both. That people are still looking out for the film even if it's out of reach. Jonas Middleton could use a cineaste-champion like NWR.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on March 11, 2020, 01:05:35 AM
From a podcast interview (https://www.therialtoreport.com/2014/01/12/jonas-middleton-god-church-and-through-the-looking-glass-podcast-29/) with Jonas Middleton by The Rialto Report:

Quote"Today, Jonas is proud of his artistic achievement but (and there's always a 'but') why did it have to contain hardcore sex? You see, Jonas Middleton is a man of religious conviction, and God has never been far away from his life and his work. A church group was even responsible for the funding of his sex films. And so it can't be easy to feel proud and perhaps uncomfortable at the same time. In fact, he feels he's been paying the price for making adult movies ever since the 1970s."

I'm just into the first couple minutes of this but it seems like it's going to be a wild ride.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 17, 2020, 02:29:10 AM
i think about cinemania all the time and it's literally joined grey gardens and tangerine etc in my list of favorite movies in which i don't understand what the problem is really
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 21, 2020, 04:04:08 AM
The Tenant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tenant) wiki is like um expansive. it's mostly dumb but it seems exciting. for example it has an entire Kafka Influence section. that definitely seems exciting. but then it has another section titled "Doomed cycle, loss of self, and social assimilation" that begins with "The Tenant has been referred to as a precursor to Kubrick's The Shining" and ends with "the film has also been referred to as an early precursor to Fight Club (1999), a film where the final twist reveals it to be about a case of split personality." that's so tacky. i want to circle back to The Shining because i shittalk that movie as a hobby. "(the question usually asked with The Shining is 'Ghosts or cabin fever?')." stop. it. that that question is not an attempt at humor is hilarious because ghosts don't exist. it's still crazy to me that St. Augustine wasn't sure if The Golden Ass was real or not, in other words that intelligent people aren't sure if magic exists or not. life is so funny but nobody wants to admit it. The Shining is bullshit in a simple way. what's cool about The Tenant is it demonstrates how legitimate world problems can infect the mind in complex ways. it's legitimately not a complicated movie it's just complex, and complexity trips people out. anyway according to wiki this is a cult movie because, once again, Ebert was wrong: "Although The Tenant was poorly received on its release, with Roger Ebert declaring it 'not merely bad -- it's an embarrassment,' it has since become a cult favorite." it's a brilliant movie for reasons that wiki doesn't describe well but does describe
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 28, 2020, 01:45:35 PM
Slow cinema (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_cinema) is a genre of art cinema film-making that emphasizes long takes, and is often minimalist, observational, and with little or no narrative. It is sometimes called "contemplative cinema". Examples include Ben Rivers' Two Years at Sea, Michelangelo Frammartino's Le Quattro Volte, Nili Portugali's And the alley she whitewashed in light blue and Shaun Wilson's film 51 Paintings.

History
Progenitors of the genre include Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Robert Bresson, Aleksandr Sokurov, Béla Tarr, Chantal Akerman and Theo Angelopoulos. Tarkovsky argued that "I think that what a person normally goes to cinema for is time".

Greek director Theo Angelopoulos has been described as an "icon of the so-called Slow Cinema movement".

Recent underground film movements such as Remodernist film share the sensibility of slow or contemplative cinema. Examples include The Turin Horse by Béla Tarr, the works of Fred Kelemen, Sleep Has Her House by Scott Barley and The Earth Still Moves by Pablo Chavarría Gutiérrez.

The AV Festival held a Slow Cinema Weekend at the Star and Shadow Cinema in Newcastle, UK in March 2012, including the films of Rivers, Lav Diaz, Lisandro Alonso and Fred Kelemen.

Recent examples also include films by Kelly Reichardt, Tsai Ming-Liang, and the late Abbas Kiarostami.

Reception
Sight & Sound noted of the definition of slow cinema that "The length of a shot, on which much of the debate revolves, is a quite abstract measure if divorced from what takes place within it". The Guardian contrasted the long takes of the genre with the two-second average shot length in Hollywood action movies, and noted that "they opt for ambient noises or field recordings rather than bombastic sound design, embrace subdued visual schemes that require the viewer's eye to do more work, and evoke a sense of mystery that springs from the landscapes and local customs they depict more than it does from generic convention." The genre has been described as an "act of organized resistance" similar to the Slow food movement.

It has been criticized as being indifferent or even hostile to audiences. A backlash by Sight & Sound's Nick James, and picked up by online writers, argued that early uses of long takes were "adventurous provocations created by extremists" whereas recent films are "operating within a recognized, default artistic idiom." The Guardian's film blog concluded that "being less overweeningly precious about films that are likely to be impenetrable to even the most well-informed audiences would seem an idea." Dan Fox of Frieze criticized both the dichotomy of the argument into 'philistine' vs 'pretentious' and the reductiveness of the term "slow cinema".

Controversy
Recently, film scholars Katherine Fusco and Nicole Seymour have pointed out that the slow cinema movement has been mischaracterized by both supporters and detractors. As they argue, much "commentary posits slow cinema as a kind of pastoral for the present moment, a respite from our technologically saturated ... Hollywood-blockbuster-centered era." Such commentary therefore associates the movement with pleasure and relaxation. But in reality, slow cinema films often focus on down-and-out laborers; as Fusco and Seymour argue, "for those on the fringes of society, modernity is actually experienced as slowness, and usually to their great detriment."
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 28, 2020, 01:46:07 PM
totally fascinated by the "no it's bad you can't enjoy it" perspective
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: Alexandro on March 28, 2020, 04:57:01 PM
Quote from: jenkins on March 28, 2020, 01:45:35 PM

Recent underground film movements such as Remodernist film share the sensibility of slow or contemplative cinema. Examples include The Turin Horse by Béla Tarr, the works of Fred Kelemen, Sleep Has Her House by Scott Barley and The Earth Still Moves by Pablo Chavarría Gutiérrez.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_cinema)

nice to see Pablo's name there. He's a good friend and I produced his previous film (and I think his best) before that, The Letters. Recently we helped him out with his most recent in post.

My relationship with so -called "slow cinema" has been ambivalent, particularly after being so close to some of the filmmakers of that type of cinema in Mexico and Latinamerica. I enjoy a lot of them, but there are plenty of examples where the supposed subversion in formal terms becomes as predictable and asphyxiant as the narrative conventions these films are avoiding. I saw one recently (not saying any names but it was a celebrated film in plenty of international festivals) which was, to me, the equivalen of an oscar bait miramax 90's film. I could literally anticipate each beat, each cut, when the shot was gonna end, how long it was gonna last. And people creamed over it and gave it the accolades that by now are too familiar: it's like seeing life, it's like reinventing cinema at once, it's an approach that defies hollywood conventions... and so on.

From time to time, as with any other type of film, true gems come around. But it has become a bit tiresome in the last few years.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 28, 2020, 05:12:45 PM
great irl elements

that's also how i'd describe Portrait of a Lady on Fire. and Moonlight for that matter

i think it's a bona fide element in cinematic grammar but we all know there's a lot more to consider than proper grammar
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on April 04, 2020, 12:45:41 PM
I had it in my head that André de Toth's 1953 House of Wax was the first 3D film but that's inaccurate and this is accurate:

Bwana Devil is a 1952 U.S. adventure B movie written, directed, and produced by Arch Oboler, and starring Robert Stack, Barbara Britton, and Nigel Bruce. Bwana Devil is based on the true story of the Tsavo maneaters and filmed with the Natural Vision 3D system. The film is notable for sparking the first 3D film craze in the motion picture industry, as well as for being the first feature-length 3D film in color and the first 3D sound feature in English.

The advertising tagline was: The Miracle of the Age!!! A LION in your lap! A LOVER in your arms!

Historic Background:
The plot was based on a well-known historical event, that of the Tsavo maneaters, in which many workers building the Uganda Railway were killed by lions. These incidents were also the basis for the book The Man-eaters of Tsavo (1907), the story of the events as written by Lt. Col. J. H. Patterson, the British engineer who killed the animals. The story was also the basis for the film The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) with Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer.

Natural Vision:
By 1951 film attendance had fallen dramatically from 90 million in 1948 to 46 million. Television was seen as the culprit and Hollywood was looking for a way to lure audiences back. Cinerama had premiered on September 30, 1952 at the Broadway Theater in New York and was a success there, but its bulky and expensive three-projector system and huge curved screen were impractical, if not impossible, to duplicate in any but the largest theaters.

Former screenwriter Milton Gunzburg and his brother Julian thought they had a solution with their Natural Vision 3D film process. They shopped it around Hollywood. 20th Century Fox was focusing on the introduction of CinemaScope and had no interest in another new process. Both Columbia and Paramount passed it up.

Only John Arnold, who headed the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer camera department, was impressed enough to convince MGM to take an option on it, but they quickly let the option lapse. Milton Gunzburg turned his focus to independent producers and demonstrated Natural Vision to Arch Oboler, producer and writer of the popular Lights Out radio show. Oboler was impressed enough to option it for his next film project.

Oboler said he had overheard Joseph Biroc and the camera crew talking about 3D while filming The Twonky and Oboler became interested.

Release:
As at all U.S. screenings of feature-length 3D films in the 1950s, the polarized light method was used and the audience wore 3D glasses with gray Polaroid filters. The anaglyph color filter method was only used for a few short films during these years. The two-strip Natural Vision projection system required making substantial alterations to a theater's projectors and providing its screen with a special non-depolarizing surface.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on April 08, 2020, 04:23:02 PM
These two releases round out the Girls, Guns, and G-Strings (https://www.amazon.com/Girls-Guns-G-Strings-Sidaris-Collection/dp/B004HHX9OQ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=andy+sidaris+dvd&qid=1586380799&sr=8-1) Andy Sidaris DVD box set. All the titles are now on blu-ray.




July 28, 2020

Andy Sidaris' Day of the Warrior (1996) on blu-ray from Mill Creek

(https://i.imgur.com/EaPdeZM.jpg)

The Legion to Ensure Total Harmony and Law (L.E.T.H.A.L.), is tracking a criminal mastermind known only as The Warrior. While investigating his combination diamond smuggling/art theft/porn production industry, the agents discover that he has cracked their secret database and has stolen the files on all of their agents. With the help of their martial arts instructor Fu, agents Tiger, Willow and Cobra take on the case.





July 28, 2020

Andy Sidaris' Return to Savage Beach (1998) on blu-ray from Mill Creek

(https://i.imgur.com/TeaCH2n.jpg)

A stolen computer disk contains the location of a hidden tresaure trove. It's up to the sexy ladies of LETHAL (Legion to Ensure Total Harmony and Law) to find the treasure before the bad guys do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRG3bxBaCgk
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on April 08, 2020, 05:36:01 PM
Gone through the first five of the "Triple B" series, so uh, now I find myself hype for Sidaris announcements.
The menus and features are class (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irnfb2Qf4rk).

As a package, these movies are "show"-ers AND growers.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on April 10, 2020, 10:37:26 PM
movies i'm literally learning about right now (https://letterboxd.com/badsmile/list/mindfuck-surreal-strange-and-weird-films/) while maybe needing to see at some point or other

Volition  (https://letterboxd.com/film/volition/)
A man afflicted with clairvoyance tries to change his fate when a series of events leads to a vision of his own imminent murder.

Aloys (https://letterboxd.com/film/aloys/)
A lonely private investigator is contacted by a mysterious woman who pulls him into a mind game known as "telephone walking". Fascinated by her voice, Aloys discovers an imaginary universe that allows him to break out of his isolation.

Staying Vertical (https://letterboxd.com/film/staying-vertical/)
Screenwriter Leo is searching for the wolf in the south of France. During a scouting excursion he is seduced by Marie, a free-spirited and dynamic shepherdess. Nine months later she gives birth to their child. Suffering from post-natal depression and with no faith in Leo, who comes and goes without warning, Marie abandons both of them. Leo finds himself alone, with a baby to care for.

The Ornithologist  (https://letterboxd.com/film/the-ornithologist/)
Stranded along a sublime river fjord in northern Portugal, an ornithologist is subjected to a series of brutal and erotic Stations-of-the-Cross-style tests.

Antibirth (https://letterboxd.com/film/antibirth/)
In a desolate community full of drug-addled Marines and rumors of kidnapping, a wild-eyed stoner named Lou wakes up after a crazy night of partying with symptoms of a strange illness and recurring visions. As she struggles to get a grip on reality, the stories of conspiracy spread.

The Similars (https://letterboxd.com/film/the-similars/)
A science fiction thriller that takes place in 1968's Mexico and deals with identity in a metaphorical way, as the plot involves a mysterious condition that makes all persons locked inside a bus station on a rainy night to adopt the same face and features.

Aaaaaaaah! (https://letterboxd.com/film/aaaaaaaah/)
Alpha Male Smith and his Beta, Keith, move to take over a local community. They hook up with restless Female, Denise, igniting a deadly feud in which emotions run high and deep-seated grudges resurface amongst the tribe. Are we not men? Or are we simply beasts? Steve Oram, the actor/writer from SIGHTSEERS and KILL LIST stars in his long-awaited debut feature with a host of his friends. Get ready for the most unusual celluloid primal scream – an anarchic, hilarious, disturbing and touching look at the human condition. THEMROC meets PINK FLAMINGOS in the Cult Movie of the Year.

The Brand New Testament  (https://letterboxd.com/film/the-brand-new-testament/)
God lives in Brussels. On earth though, God is a coward, with pathetical morals and being odious with his family. His daughter, Ea, is bored at home and can't stand being locked up in a small apartment in ordinary Brussels, until the day she decides to revolt against her dad...

The Bunker (https://letterboxd.com/film/the-bunker-2015/)
A student moves in with a family that lives in an underground house in the middle of the forest, far from civilization. His hopes of peace and quiet are soon shattered, when it becomes apparent that both the parents and their son have a screw loose.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: polkablues on April 11, 2020, 01:00:57 AM
Of the three of those that I've seen, I highly recommend Antibirth; The Similars is unique and mesmerizing, but never fully came together for me; and The Bunker is really going to be a personal taste situation. Discomfort for its own sake. Not my style.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: putneyswipe on April 11, 2020, 10:39:38 PM
Topical

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTKNMR9KDZg
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on April 12, 2020, 12:19:53 AM
(https://images3.static-bluray.com/products/20/49559_1_large.jpg)

This movie isn't as good as the short its Kino Lorber 3D Blu Ray comes with - Experiments in Love (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2069768/) -- with projection effects that recall Corman's The Trip  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmZCwcGu_2I) and a bunch of eye-popping dildos. It's total cheese but goofier fun than the feature its blu ray'z for.

Quote from: EXPERIMENTS IN LOVEPenthouse Pet Mariwin Roberts and her ditzy sidekick Linda Gordon star as a pair of sexy scientists who explore the secrets of sexuality with a sci-fi third dimension experiment!
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on April 15, 2020, 04:49:04 PM
May 26, 2020

Solid Metal Nightmares: The Films of Shinya Tsukamoto (1987-2018) on limited edition blu-ray from Arrow

(https://i.imgur.com/1X4lVQX.jpg)

One of the most distinctive and celebrated names in modern Japanese cinema, there's no other filmmaker quite like Shinya Tsukamoto. Since his early days as a teenager making Super 8 shorts, he has remained steadfastly independent, garnering widespread acclaim while honing his own unique and instantly recognizable aesthetic on the margins of the industry. Frequently exploring themes of urban alienation, physical transformation and psychosexual obsession, his films cross genre boundaries, defying straightforward classification. This exclusive collection gathers together eight feature-length films and two shorts from Tsukamoto's diverse filmography, including his most recent offering – his samurai drama Killing, making its home video premiere.

-Tetsuo: The Iron Man
-Tetsuo II: Body Hammer
-The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo
-Tokyo Fist
-Bullet Ballet
-A Snake of June
-Vital
-Haze
-Kotoko
-Killing



2020 TBD

Shinya Tsukamoto's Gemini (1999) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro

(https://i.imgur.com/ZvnVHxL.jpg)

A successful doctor, Yukio's picture perfect life is gradually wrecked, and taken over by his avenging twin brother, who bumps off his family members one by one and reclaims his lover who is now Yukio's wife.





August 11, 2020

Mikey (1992) on blu-ray from MVD Visual

(https://i.imgur.com/IFpiUNK.jpg)

Although Mikey is just a little boy, he is capable of anything.... Every family Mikey lives with has a series of unexplained "accidents" and hence he's moved from home to home. After his original family die, accidently, Mikey is taken by authorities and placed into the care of adoptive parents. Of course they eventually come to learn that.


Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on April 25, 2020, 06:55:37 AM
April 28, 2020

Nico Mastorakis' The Wind (1986) is coming to blu-ray from Arrow. This guy makes fun movies.

(https://i.imgur.com/QqkIRZ2.jpg)

A novelist is stalked by a psychopath one stormy night.

Trailer:




I highly recommend one Vinegar Syndrome put out, In the Cold of the Night (1990). Really entertaining exploitation. Personal taste but you know

(https://i.imgur.com/VPXbSnK.jpg)

Scott is a fashion photographer concerned about the sudden appearance of nightmares in his nightly dreams. In these, he seems to be involved in the murder of a beautiful young woman. When he actually meets this dreamwoman in reality, he begins to suspect that something strange must be responsible. As he attempts to solve the enigma of his troubling dreams, he is falling deeply in love with the mysterious woman. In the end, he uncovers a diabolical and sinister plot....

(https://i.imgur.com/1ZE56Dn.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/RqZUGxd.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ZKpLomK.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/47i49dI.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/DgpkthW.jpg)


Arrow has released several more. You can find listings for his filmography on blu-ray here (https://www.blu-ray.com/Nico-Mastorakis/409570/#Bluray).

Dread Central posted a write-up (https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/189076/arrow-nico-mastorakis-appreciation/) on his work four years ago

Quote from: Matt SerafiniTHE ARROW: NICO MASTORAKIS APPRECIATION

I was at a horror convention in the early 2000s when someone recommended Island of Death as a prime example of exploitation cinema. It wasn't the first time I'd heard about it, and it sounded right up my alley. I bought an import DVD off the table in question and couldn't wait to get home and watch it. When I got around to it, I wasn't remotely disappointed. It was sick without reveling in excess, done with a wink and a nudge. To this day, it's a go-to favorite when somebody tells me they want to venture into the deep end of sleazy cinema without taking off their water wings.

It was sometime around then that I looked up director Nico Mastorakis and was stunned to discover how many of his films I'd already seen! None were as twisted as Island of Death, not even close, so it was a little difficult to believe "glossier" things like The Wind and Nightmare at Noon came from the guy who brought wholesale righteous slaughter to the isle of Mykanos. Still, his films are consistently entertaining and deliver on whatever expectations come attached to the genre he's trafficking in.

Having said that, I'm a little surprised the Greek filmmaker isn't more of a "name." He's scarcely mentioned in any of my conversational circles, and we're a likeminded bunch! I'm not sure Mastorakis has a personal stamp or signature that you can point to beyond his work being highly entertaining. I think that's enough. There's a workmanlike consistency that makes him reliable. Anyone who's watched a lot of schlock in their lives recognizes the importance of competency, and Mastorakis gives you solid actors (sometimes doing heavy lifting over dicey scripts) and decent-to-good production value, which means he's got a leg up on the competition. I'm really happy to see Arrow Video in the Mastorakis business, offering up terrific editions of three of his most enjoyable works (Island of Death was covered last year (https://www.dreadcentral.com/on-my-shelf/103678/island-of-death-and-the-strange-case-of-dr-jerkyll-and-miss-osbourne-offer-a-double-dose-of-arrow-weirdness/)).

The Zero Boys is an intersection of survival action and slasher horror. Southern Comfort meets Just Before Dawn. If that sounds like a thoroughly 80s cocktail, that's because it is. Here, a scrappy competitive paintball crew goes against mountain psychos using an isolated country house to make snuff films. The film was shot on the same property as Friday the 13th Part III, and so slasher fans will get to see Higgins' Haven through an entirely different lens (this land was used in three separate slashers, with Twisted Nightmare being the last).

The movie opens with an extended paintball sequence that plays out in an old western ghost town. Mastorakis tries for a little bit of misdirection, making us think this is a real conflict at first. The reveal is fun, and the opposing team (in Nazi regalia) is appropriately absurd. It introduces us to our band of carefree heroes (The Zero Boys is the name of their paintball team) who are planning a big weekend getaway with their ladies. When they reach their destination they take shelter in an unlocked farmhouse and discover it may not be abandoned.

The Zero Boys is an oddity because it's fun without being truly successful. As a slasher, creative deaths are limited. As an action movie, its setpieces are small scale and conservative. Mastorakis knows how to build tension through the earlier moments, and once our characters begin falling prey to booby traps littering the campground, he tightens those screws for a few well-made sequences. The film mostly gets by on charm, however, with a breezy pace, effective atmosphere, and amiable performances (it's hard to dislike Kelli Maroney in anything).

I'm not sure Mastorakis is all that concerned with generating scares. He seems more concerned with keeping things moving at a good clip. In that sense, The Zero Boys is a lot of fun. If that's what you're after, it's a good time.

Which brings me to Hired to Kill. I can't remember where I read it, but some online commentator summarized this as a marriage between Andy Sidaris and Cannon Films. Hard to be any more accurate, although Mastorakis isn't as adept at exploiting the female form as Sidaris, and nobody has ever out-Cannoned the Cannon Group. Still, the point stands.

The story is amazing. Brian Thompson takes center stage as the musclebound mercenary tasked with overthrowing a South American dictator (Oliver Reed). The catch? He needs to pose as a homosexual fashion designer to do it. This requires him to travel with an entourage of badass female mercenaries disguised as models. In a wonderful reversal of the "prepare for your mission montage", these tough ladies are required to undergo runway training in order to sell the charade.

If this sounds like a parody of the 1980s "one man army" action pictures, you're be half right. If Mastorakis is sending up the genre, you wouldn't necessarily know it, as Hired to Kill plays out with a straight face. Regardless of intent, the tone winds up being perfect. Any goofier and this would've been irritating. Any more serious and it would've fallen completely flat. In the end, none of this matters because it's got a scene where Oliver Reed kisses Brian Thompson in an effort to test the legitimacy of his cover. Bliss.

Like many of Mastorakis' productions, this offers surprisingly decent production value. It feels less like a one man army action movie and more like the middle of almost any James Bond movie, where 007 infiltrates the enemy stronghold to gather intel, only it's sustained for the better part of 90 minutes. A few veteran actors are on hand to add marquee value–the aforementioned Reed, along with George Kennedy as the shadowy operative who orchestrates the mission, and Mel Ferrer as the captured rebellion leader. Thompson and his supermodels shine the brightest, however, as they're in on the joke without being obnoxious about it. Most of the action is held back until the climax, but it's appropriately loud and fiery.

2016 gave us two Nico Mastorakis movies on Blu-ray, and Arrow knocked them both out of the park. Hired to Kill's supplements are almost worth the price of the disc itself (Mastorakis has plenty to say about Oliver Reed, none of it good, but all of it amazing). It's also got a highly entertaining interview with Brian Thompson, who gets choked up when asked about the film's on set fatality. The Zero Boys offers a strange feature where Mastorakis interviews himself, along with commentary by and an interview with Kelli Maroney. Both movies look great on Blu-ray. Do you take requests, Arrow? If so, I'm asking for more Mastorakis in 2017, specifically Blind Date and The Wind.

Last month, a restored trailer for his first feature Death Has Blue Eyes (1976) was uploaded to youtube. The description says: The film, also beautifully restored by Stef Films, will be available for worldwide sales soon.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on April 25, 2020, 11:39:24 AM
Mastorakis' Island of Death iz streaming on primevideo US region at the moment. (https://www.amazon.com/Island-Death-Jessica-Dublin/dp/B075VJZ1LY)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on May 13, 2020, 02:42:20 PM
June 23, 2020

Harry Cokeliss' Dream Demon (1988) on blu-ray from Arrow, from a new 2K restoration of the original camera negative, supervised and approved by director Harley Cokeliss

(https://i.imgur.com/90wOJp3.jpg)

A young bride-to-be s anxieties over her upcoming wedding take on a horrifying, demonic form in this underseen 1988 rubber reality shocker from director/co-writer Harley Cokeliss (Black Moon Rising), starring Timothy Spall and Jemma Redgrave.

As her marriage to decorated war hero Oliver draws near, well-heeled Diana moves into her sprawling new London home where she starts to experience strange and terrifying nightmares. But are these blood-curdling night terrors merely the symptom of an unsettled mind, or the sign of something far sinister at work? Hounded by a pair of sleazy journalists (Timothy Spall and Jimmy Nail), Diana soon crosses paths with American tourist Jenny, who appears to have a strange connection to the foreboding house and its sinister past.

Long dormant on home media since its original VHS release, Dream Demon - a terrific blend of psychological horror and late 80s practical gore effects - has at long-last been stirred from its analogue slumber and arrives on Blu-ray, newly-restored from the original camera negative and in a brand new Director s Cut!




Quote from: wilder on April 15, 2020, 04:49:04 PMMay 26, 2020

Solid Metal Nightmares: The Films of Shinya Tsukamoto (1987-2018) on limited edition blu-ray from Arrow

(https://i.imgur.com/1X4lVQX.jpg)

One of the most distinctive and celebrated names in modern Japanese cinema, there's no other filmmaker quite like Shinya Tsukamoto. Since his early days as a teenager making Super 8 shorts, he has remained steadfastly independent, garnering widespread acclaim while honing his own unique and instantly recognizable aesthetic on the margins of the industry. Frequently exploring themes of urban alienation, physical transformation and psychosexual obsession, his films cross genre boundaries, defying straightforward classification. This exclusive collection gathers together eight feature-length films and two shorts from Tsukamoto's diverse filmography, including his most recent offering – his samurai drama Killing, making its home video premiere.






And I don't keep up with French and German labels as much as others because they're typically not as English-friendly, but this French label LE CHAT QUI FUME (https://www.lechatquifume.com/) is worth pointing out.

I've bought a couple of their releases in the past, La Rose Écorchée (https://www.lechatquifume.com/collections/bluray/products/la-rose-ecorchee-1) and L'Aguille (https://www.lechatquifume.com/collections/combo-dvd-bluray/products/laiguille), which have subtitles, although I don't know if that's true for them across the board. They have a 4K UHD disc of Zulawski''s Possession (1981) coming later this year.

If nothing else they're a good curatorial reference, and take the cake in terms of packaging artwork.

(https://i.imgur.com/tmfxiqH.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/jYzdXGv.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/YnZMzwS.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/UdUfg7l.jpg)

They have a youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6nt-2nmxTtnM7Rg27eGDxA/videos) with trailers for most of the films they've released.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on June 03, 2020, 09:56:17 PM
August 25, 2020

Richard Driscoll's The Comic (1985) on blu-ray from Arrow US & Arrow UK, from a 2K restoration of the original camera negative

(https://i.imgur.com/vInk3mp.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/3DYR8cB.jpg)

Stand-up comedy can be a cut-throat business, but in Sam Coex's world, it's downright murder... From the annals of bizarre cinema comes perhaps the most bizarre one of them all – 1985's The Comic! In a dystopian police state reality of indeterminate time and place, orange bouffant-haired comedian Sam Coex is eager for his big break. Realizing that desperate times call for even more desperate measures, he slits the throat of his rival Joey Myers, leaving the way clear for him to carve his own niche on the comedy circuit. But success can be a fickle and fleeting mistress, and Sam soon finds his career on a downward turn when he falls foul of the powers that be.

Filled with more dry ice and lighting gels than an '80s stadium rock concert, The Comic is a barmy, baffling and beguiling cinematic oddity shot on 35mm film in an alternate dimension. If you ever wanted to know the answer to the eternal conundrum "How does Pinocchio make love?" then this is the one for you






August 18, 2020

Mike Hodges' Flash Gordon on 4K UHD blu-ray and standard blu-ray from Arrow, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative

(https://i.imgur.com/iFZKqND.jpg)

Super producer Dino De Laurentiis (Dune, Barbarella) brought Alex Raymond's beloved cartoon strip and the long running movie serial to the big screen with celebrated director Mike Hodges (Get Carter, Black Rainbow) at the helm, in a delirious space opera, where Flash is King of the Impossible!

Merciless Emperor Ming (Max von Sydow) decides to wreak havoc on Earth in a moment of cruel boredom. Boarding a rocket as a means of escape, star quarterback Flash Gordon (Sam J. Jones), Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) and Dr. Hans Zarkov (Topol) find themselves on Mongo. Taken prisoner Flash must save Dale from becoming Ming's concubine, avoid the amorous intentions of Ming's wicked daughter Aura (Ornella Muti) and unite the warring Kingdoms of Mongo.




August 24/25, 2020

Yasuzo Masumura's Black Test Car (1962) & The Black Report (1963) on blu-ray from Arrow US & Arrow UK

(https://i.imgur.com/Fy1BXcS.jpg)

Japanese maverick director Yasuzo Masumura (Blind Beast) helms a bitingly satirical espionage thriller set in the heart of the Japanese auto industry in his 1962 landmark Black Test Car, which launched a series of similarly themed "Black" films.

In a bitter, take-no-prisoners corporate war between the Tiger Motorcar Company and their competitors, the Yamato Company, undercover spies have infiltrated both sides. As Tiger prepares to launch its newest "Pioneer" car and a prototype bursts into flames, Toru (Hideo Takamatsu, The Last Emperor) heads a secretive task force to root out Yamato's spy, and find out what they can about the competitor's familiar-looking new model. Making its worldwide Blu-ray debut, Black Test Car is paired here with the English-language video premiere of its follow-up The Black Report, also directed by Masumura.




October 26, 2020

George Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Second Sight (UK), from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative supervised and approved by DP Michael Gornick. Includes the theatrical, extended, and Argento cuts.

(https://i.imgur.com/92SZIVU.jpg)

In 1968, director George A. Romero brought us Night of the Living Dead. It became the definitive horror film of its time. Eleven years later, he would unleash the most shocking motion picture experience for all times. As modern society is consumed by zombie carnage, four desperate survivors barricade themselves inside a shopping mall to battle the flesh-eating hordes of the undead. This is the ferocious horror classic, featuring landmark gore effects by Tom Savini, that remains one of the most important - and most controversial - horror films in history. When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth: The original Dawn of the Dead is back!

More details here (https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=26880)



June 2020 TBD

Michel Lemoine's Seven Women for Satan (1973) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro

(https://i.imgur.com/NJUQonP.jpg)

This rarely seen Euro shocker is a sexy version of the story of Count Zaroff, the man whose favorite past time was hunting humans on his private island. By day a mild mannered businessman, in his dreams, Boris Karloff chases naked females on his country estate; just like his notorious father. One weekend, two visitors arrive at Boris's castle. the young girl is fascinated byt the tales of the wicked Zaroffs and asks if she can see their famous torture chamber. Maybe now the Zaroff dreams can becomne reality once more? A stylish and erotic horror film that was actually banned in France in the 1970's. A stylish and erotic horror film that was banned in France in the 1970s.

Mondo Macabro was the first company to resurrect this film in 2003 with their DVD release of the theatrical version. Now finally on Blu-ray, and in collaboration with France's Le Chat qui fume video label, it's possible finally to see this rare Gallic horror film in something like its intended form. Alongside the theatrical release the disc includes over 30 minutes of trailers and alternate and deleted scenes, including the mythical "seventh victim" sequence. Most of this footage has not been seen for 45 years and is quite a revelation.



NSFW
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on June 03, 2020, 10:09:31 PM
i still own my Black Test Car, which was last seen this way (the one i own)

(https://i.imgur.com/cKZKeNs.jpg)

i used to think Coppola operated Fantoma but thankfully i checked the wiki page to find out he didn't. it was based out of San Fran is the only immediately noticeable connection. anyway Fantoma was dope and they got really into Masumura, so i got really into Masumura too

(https://i.imgur.com/WOaiJcy.jpg)

that's mother fucking Yukio Mishima in a yakuza movie right there

there was a story about Michelangelo Antonioni being old and not wanting to do anything except when he heard about Masumura movies playing
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on June 03, 2020, 10:32:09 PM
Quote from: jenkins on June 03, 2020, 10:09:31 PMthere was a story about Michelangelo Antonioni being old and not wanting to do anything except when he heard about Masumura movies playing

lol

This (http://www.filmaf.com/search.html?pub=fantoma%2F%2F&rgn=us&init_form=str0_pub_fantoma%2F%2F*rgn_us) is the complete listing for Fantoma's DVD catalog. Looks like most of it has been migrated to blu-ray by other companies at this point. Pretty sure Criterion has the rights to the Fassbinders.

On the Masumura front I've only seen the exceptionally gorgeous Blue Sky Maiden (1957), and bits and pieces of Giants and Toys (1958) and The Hot Little Girl (1970). Would love to see more of his work recognized and restored.



Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on June 04, 2020, 05:20:09 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4nT-5DyjX0

I hope you are all keeping safe friends <3
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on June 09, 2020, 06:10:26 PM
Arrow Video has a streaming service, which for now is only available through Apple TV in the US, and Amazon in the UK

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on June 26, 2020, 10:14:44 AM
These channel preview supercuts are so fun

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on July 21, 2020, 10:10:07 PM
props to putneyswipe who is the only xixax member who's mentioned this movie which i'm filing in cult for the mentioned reason, became aware of this bc there's another kino sale. putneyswipe says it's not wholly good but has a few key scenes, which is another cult quality, so definitely decided

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5s6D1lOTQM

other movies i'm thinking about which are maybe less cult

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QCAbFut7tY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5j8ZMtO_3k
(it's been mentioned on xixax in the past)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zv-VfgZINc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3H_Ui3rMqc

oh here is the entirety of Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on August 04, 2020, 10:38:58 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/bhUg3Bh.jpg?1)

so, this is an example of elevating the idea of what a cult film can be. it's being categorized as cult because nobody cares about it except particular types of movie people, although it could be called art house too, which would mean the same thing in a different way, and anyway it's got a lot going on and deserves to be fully appreciated

Ishmael Reed wrote the treatment for a "meta-soap opera," which he said both parodies soap operas and "shows how Black life looks away from the intervention of mediators." it began as episodic radio and Reed's treatment was sculpted through improvisatory performances by artsy type unknown actors. the characters are middle-class people who are "neither happy nor unhappy." the taped version is a two-parter that feels alive to a high degree, very much Mike Leigh-level

the director, Bill Gunn, slamdunks this movie in the realm of cult because of his art horror masterpiece Ganja & Hess (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068619/), which Spike Lee remade as Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. Bill Gunn said he wanted Personal Problems to behave as a "fluid thing" that was "less a product than a process" and he brings it

the image quality comes from being shot on 3/4" videotape, as in on a tube based video camera, which allows for longer taping but also produces, for example, ghosting. at the time, this was considered an experimental quality that blurred the line between documentary and fiction
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on August 24, 2020, 06:17:31 PM
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on August 24, 2020, 07:49:50 PM
it's going to be pretty damn hard to top the trailer
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on August 26, 2020, 02:42:45 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/apOpbYK.jpg?1)

it's been a minute since i encountered a movie that made me feel blessed like this

there's more than enough to qualify this for cult. the director Robert Sparr  (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0817081/)was mainly known for television, except his two other movies being A Swingin' Summer (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059771/) (Beach party escapade features a bookworm with glasses who learns to "groove", as she attempts to sing "Ready to Groove". ) and Once You Kiss a Stranger...  (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064760/) (A woman seduces a professional golfer, then offers to kill his opponent if the golfer will kill her psychiatrist, who wants her committed.). unfortunately he died in a tragic plane crash while location scouting for Star Trek in Colorado. Rest In Cult

the lead character is named Cain, he's Killer Cain, played by Clint Walker. Clint Walker is unfamiliar to me although perhaps i've seen him around, but anyway in this movie he's this big handsome guy and i just want him to hold me. Vincent Price plays the owner of a western themed sideshow so that's obviously awesome.  Paul Hampton plays Billy Valence, a young boy who's the quickest draw and best shooter at the time, so he's jealous of Killer Cain, who is older and slower, but a killer draws out the crowd. Paul Hampton sort of sucks at acting and he's also the star of Cronenberg's Shivers

the movie begins with four men being hanged before there's a raid on a prison initiated by men hiding in caskets. Killer Cain has a love affair with a painter. the ending semi-sucks but not really, who cares, the pros far outweigh the cons here
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on August 27, 2020, 04:00:20 PM
Quote from: jenkins on August 26, 2020, 02:42:45 PMOnce You Kiss a Stranger... (A woman seduces a professional golfer, then offers to kill his opponent if the golfer will kill her psychiatrist, who wants her committed.)

logically illogical

Quote from: jenkins on August 26, 2020, 02:42:45 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/apOpbYK.jpg?1)

Putting that on my Kino (https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/More-Dead-Than-Alive-Blu-ray/109621/#Overview) wishlist for the next time they have a sale. The trailer does look cool






October 27, 2020

Fhiona-Louise's Cold Light of Day (1989) on blu-ray from Arrow

(https://i.imgur.com/a7y7xnV.jpg)

A hugely underseen and underrated British effort that can stand proudly alongside the likes of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer as one of the most unflinching true-crime films of all time.





July 28, 2020

Jonathan Demme's Caged Heat! (1974), from a 2K restoration of the original camera negative, paired with Jackson County Jail (1976) on blu-ray exclusively from Shout Factory (https://www.shoutfactory.com/product/caged-heat-jackson-county-jail-double-feature?product_id=7460)

(https://i.imgur.com/2PwH39W.jpg)

Thrown into the penal hell of Connorville, petty criminal Jacqueline (Erica Gavin, Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls) must fight against the ruthless inmates, a cruel warden (Barbara Steele, Dark Shadows) and a depraved staff. Eventually she forms an uneasy friendship with two hardened inmates. When these three unite, they find themselves on a sexy and violent adventure seeking escape, money and revenge. Also starring Roberta Collins (Death Race 2000) and Rainbeaux Smith (Massacre At Central High), and written and directed by Jonathan Demme (The Silence Of The Lambs), Caged Heat is "inspired from start to finish" (The Onion A.V. Club)!



October 13, 2020

Giulio Questi's Death Laid an Egg (1968) on limited edition blu-ray from Cult Epics, from a 2K restoration and reconstruction of the complete Director's Cut prepared by Nucleus Films (104 mins), and a new 2K restoration of the 'Giallo' cut prepared by Nucleus Films (91 mins)

(https://i.imgur.com/T2AVk9M.jpg)

A woman (Ewa Aulin) plans to kill both her lover (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and his wife (Gina Lollobrigida) but conspires with each one to get the job done.





October 19, 2020

John Parker's Dementia (1955) on blu-ray from BFI (UK). Cohen Media Group has the rights in the US.

(https://i.imgur.com/sVofCfD.jpg)

A woman's nightmare of murder, maiming and mistrust proves to be more than a mere dream, in John Parker's influential horror. Stripped of dialogue using only sound effects and an unnerving score Parker combines horror, film noir and expressionist methods to depict a mind descending into madness. Shocking audiences upon its original release, the film was initially banned by the New York State Film Board, who deemed it 'inhuman, indecent, and the quintessence of gruesomeness'.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: polkablues on August 27, 2020, 04:12:37 PM
I remember seeing Cold Light of Day on VHS way back when. My main impression of it was that it just felt aimless, and lacked any narrative direction that would have lent impact to the handful of (reasonably well-executed) murder scenes.

The blurb comparing it to Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is apt in terms of style, but it might lead people to go in expecting a certain level of cinematic value that Cold Light of Day won't be able to live up to.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on August 29, 2020, 12:31:05 AM
November 10, 2020

Sogo Ishii's Burst City (1982) on blu-ray from Arrow US & Arrow UK

(https://i.imgur.com/6NDEPUU.jpg)

This extraordinary celebration of Japan's punk music scene of the early 1980s thrust Sōgo Ishii (now known by the name of Gakuryū Ishii), the underground filmmaking wunderkind behind such works as Half Human: Einstürzende Neubauten (1986), Angel Dust (1994) and Electric Dragon 80,000V (2001), to the next level and is regularly cited as an early landmark in Japanese cyberpunk cinema.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on December 11, 2020, 04:57:54 AM
November 24, 2020

David Greene's I Start Counting (1969) on blu-ray from Fun City Editions

(https://i.imgur.com/wBk0uVi.jpg)

A 14-year-old girl coming to terms with her sexuality discovers that her adored older brother may be guilty of a series of bizarre sex crimes.

(https://i.imgur.com/oyoTlZR.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/TKH8OfG.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/TKO5Dm5.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/xfOZb8j.jpg)
(https://imgur.com/a/6yAN3UU)
(https://i.imgur.com/IGbcyT2.jpg)



November 27, 2020

Douglas Buck's Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America (2003) on blu-ray from Severin

(https://i.imgur.com/Rv8N30H.jpg)

Over the course of seven years, three short films about the brutal dissolution of the American family – CUTTING MOMENTS (1997), HOME (1998), and PROLOGUE (2003) – elicited both horrified gasps and standing ovations at film festivals around the world.





November 24, 2020

Don Coscarelli's The Beastmaster (1982) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome

(https://i.imgur.com/Uk74yyZ.jpg)

Dar, the son of a king, is hunted by a priest after his birth and grows up in another family. When he becomes a grown man, his new father is murdered by savages and he discovers that he has the ability to communicate with the animals. After that, Dar begins his quest for revenge.

(https://i.imgur.com/udtu8QU.jpg)



December 2020 TBD

Smut Without Smut: Things to Come / The Dirty Dolls on blu-ray from AGFA

(https://i.imgur.com/TsYSQ3W.jpg)

"Smut Without Smut" is X-rated genre movies with the X-rated bits removed. In other words, your perception of reality will never be the same again.

A future dystopia dream-epic shot in San Antonio, THINGS TO COME finds Julie leaving her marriage to investigate a mysterious sci-fi cult on behalf of frustrated women everywhere. With a soundtrack that feels like it was cribbed from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, ambitious sets that look like leftovers from STAR TREK, and no lack of robots, computers, and bloody violence, THINGS TO COME is a truly unique Texploitation headtrip. Coasting on the fumes of the Manson murders,

THE DIRTY DOLLS follows psychopath Johnny and his cultish gang of women as they embark on a bizarro crime spree filled with stolen diamonds, senior citizen drag, grimy sex, and cold-blooded murder. Directed by Stu Segall (DRIVE-IN MASSACRE) under his adult-movie nom de plume "Godfrey Daniels," this is a sleazy summer-bummer from the wilds of California.




October 13, 2020

Hideo Oguni's Warning from Space (1956) on blu-ray from Arrow

(https://i.imgur.com/CfV8UNK.jpg)

A group of starfish like aliens come to Earth to warn mankind about a runaway planetoid known as Planet R that is on a collision course with Earth.





February 9, 2021

Tonino Cervi's Queens of Evil (1970) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative

(https://i.imgur.com/8vCFC7s.jpg)

A young hippie kills a man and seeks refuge at the lakeside house of three beautiful sisters, who seem to be hiding a dark secret.



January 19, 2021

David DeCoteau's Beach Babes from Beyond (1993) on blu-ray from Full Moon Features

(https://i.imgur.com/BbIJdbC.jpg)

Three intergalactic beauties beam down off the California coast and have close encounters with three local beach boys.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on December 13, 2020, 04:05:25 PM
wilder i tried to look for but couldn't find when we last chatted about Vinegar Syndrome. during their Black Friday sale i threw down on a starter pack of six hardcore movies, including Red Roses of Passion, and 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy obviously, and those are on their way to me now, i'm looking forward to it, i'm wondering if it'll be too much sex for me to handle, and anyway Red Roses of Passion is Joseph Sarno, whom i remember you ordered from Film Movement, and they released seven of his movies but five of them are oos, i ordered All the Sins of Sodom/Vibrations and they have arrived, i'm saving All the Sins for later but i started with Vibrations and it's so good, so okay Sarno's whole thing is erotic melodrama, and i'd call it sexy existentialism, Vibrations has juicy existentialism and it's such early sex movie stuff that there's no real sex and just sometimes naked bodies wiggle against each other, no cock or pussy is shown, and it's b&w nyc stuff, i was into it. the perspective is they were all made to be shown in a theater during the golden age of porn, and beneath all that sex they're just movies
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on December 13, 2020, 05:05:44 PM
oh i found it (https://xixax.com/index.php?topic=9090.msg363190;topicseen#msg363190). thought it couldn't be further back than June, what a dumbass. i don't see hardcore movies listed but you did push me toward Corruption which does qualify. there's also a podcast in which a woman speaks about hardcore movies in a casual way, which is reassuring, though she does mention they aren't first date movies (https://justthediscs.libsyn.com/episode-186-vinegar-syndrome-favorites-samm-deighan)

the nonhardcore movies i ordered are Decoder, Liquid Sky, Snapshot, and Prey. VS is so deliciously weird you know. i don't even like the word delicious but it fits there
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on December 13, 2020, 07:59:30 PM
i must watch Liquid Sky >_<

Johnny Mnemonic iz so fun it makes up for the boring direction --
I'm a bit surprised that and New Rose Hotel haven't caught on as new-net cult flicks.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on December 13, 2020, 08:09:02 PM
I own Johnny Mnemonic on Blu-ray but of course I do, I bought it to replace my dvd copy

wf you're into what's going on with 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076459/)? Ferrara chatted about it with Noé during their Love conversation. so Ferrara is in it and the speculation is he has a dick double and in fact he complains about the dick double in the conversation with Noé, his stance on it today is he wouldn't let VS put his name on their release and he regrets paying someone to suck at having sex with his girlfriend

Liquid Sky is like in, Decoder is this one that's a new example of cool from that era

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy8W-xAR9uA
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on December 13, 2020, 08:15:48 PM
Lol !

I knew of that film from reading up on Ferrara but didn't know about the dick double.
Ouch -- I'll have to listen to that conversation, I can imagine those smirks are audible.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on December 17, 2020, 12:37:26 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA1vTNMWMe4

Very dope cast/cameos, and a fun ride. Was hoping for a bit more from "Kurt" as a character but I like where the third act heads after the comedy show. "Grand Theft Influencer"

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Epi8m5aUcAArUP7?format=jpg&name=large)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on December 20, 2020, 09:28:49 PM
I watched Snapshot (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079917/) from Vinegar, and although the ending is so-so the lead up to is great, and I became aware of Brian May (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006189/), who
"rates highly as one of the best film music composers in the history of Australian cinema," and wrote music for Patrick, Mad Max, Road Games, Turkey Shoot, some others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5fLSlCQYX4
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on December 21, 2020, 02:17:34 AM
dang wilder I'm sorry to see that post go but I'm always sorry to see your posts go. classic wbf and wilder in the same night. I like you guys

I had delayed my response because I was watching Lucifer's Women (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7932490/) which, although it has the infamous Paul Thomas (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0249892/?ref_=tt_cl_t4), isn't a hardcore movie. it makes me lol that I can say this but there are sex scenes though they aren't hardcore. just, you know, normal sex scenes. there's also drug use and satanism and sideshow culture and I was a big fan of this movie. funny enough it was edited by David Webb Peoples (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0672459/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr7). it's post60s but it definitely reminds me of the 60s, and I mean that as a compliment, because of how aptly it handles philosophy. it's a coherent narrative rich with applicable atmosphere

VS continues to delight me
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on December 21, 2020, 10:07:09 AM
Quote from: jenkins on December 21, 2020, 02:17:34 AM
I'm always sorry to see your posts go. classic wbf and wilder in the same night. I like you guys

Seconded ~
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on December 28, 2020, 04:46:38 PM
it's only a matter of time before i see these recent AGFA releases. both their marketing materials reference John Waters. man oh man to think of other John Waters who didn't make it. there were more of him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdQTlGjOR7c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA2W3A13vXI
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on December 28, 2020, 10:48:03 PM
Artsploitation had a popular release this year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jc3oxy7EzY

QuoteProbably the horniest film I've seen this year, The Prince is a homoerotic, heightened prison drama, where sex and violence collides as various men are ascribed roles - and when they step out of their roles chaos ensues. It at times feels almost like a fantasy but the brutal edge to the violence and the scenes of authentic fucking keep it grounded, dirty, visceral. The denouement sees an unbroken circle and a sense of inevitability, as these fascinating characters continue trying to make connections in a life with little hope and no freedom. Oh, and LOTS of penis.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on December 29, 2020, 01:53:19 PM
there is or there should be a specific thread for best video essays but I couldn't find it. this is the best video essay I've ever watched, wilder shared it in the Tarkovsky thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak6rI-j07QU
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on December 31, 2020, 11:59:45 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g1Vsz5TWYE

DO NOT WATCH if you do not vibe with abrasive noise music/industrial sound design --
to all the rest, this experimental film creates magic out of super 8mmz soul ~

Spoiler: ShowHide
Love, mourning, friendship are all alike in that our body must 'process' in order to experience. Then, too, our bodies are camera and film and agents of constellation.

At some point i started interpreting its score as the frequencies coming off the film's shadow range.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 02, 2021, 04:29:06 PM
watched Ticket of No Return (https://letterboxd.com/film/ticket-of-no-return/), which made its way to me through xixax. 1h2m to 1h10m is high-level stuff while the rest of it is slightly wavering. great opening. great other moments but this a lighter side of "narcissistic pessimistic worship of loneliness" compared to, say, The Savage Eye (https://letterboxd.com/film/the-savage-eye/). so a difference between them is the VO in The Savage Eye, while the protagonist in Ticket of No Return is a mute (she does speak once: when she's on the hood of the car wearing a helmet, and the driver asks if she's okay). there's a greek chorus that sometimes allows for an outside perspective but i wouldn't say there's a psychological through line. I'm glad to have it and I'll rewatch it at some point too (I'd like to at least)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 02, 2021, 07:14:56 PM
Quote from: WorldForgot on December 31, 2020, 11:59:45 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g1Vsz5TWYE

DO NOT WATCH if you do not vibe with abrasive noise music/industrial sound design --
to all the rest, this experimental film creates magic out of super 8mmz soul ~

Spoiler: ShowHide
Love, mourning, friendship are all alike in that our body must 'process' in order to experience. Then, too, our bodies are camera and film and agents of constellation.

At some point i started interpreting its score as the frequencies coming off the film's shadow range.


" magic out of super 8mmz soul" is accurate
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on January 04, 2021, 12:37:49 AM
Quote from: wilder on December 11, 2020, 04:57:54 AMNovember 27, 2020

Douglas Buck's Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America (2003) on blu-ray from Severin

(https://i.imgur.com/Rv8N30H.jpg)

Over the course of seven years, three short films about the brutal dissolution of the American family – CUTTING MOMENTS (1997), HOME (1998), and PROLOGUE (2003) – elicited both horrified gasps and standing ovations at film festivals around the world.



This. Is. Amazing.

I'm not the first to say so but it's got to be the closest thing to an American counterpart to Haneke's The Seventh Continent.

The film highlights the chasms between its character's attempts to connect to one another and the disappointing results of their efforts. There's sparse dialogue, but much of it plays out as a meticulously realized silent film, drawing out the desperate silences between people until those moments become as painful as the shocking punctuations the movie is more known for.

This is unbelievably deft visual filmmaking (don't let the aesthetically rough surface fool you) and even more darkly comic than Solondz's films (if that's even possible), which strike similar emotional chords. I'm internally laughing but my face isn't smiling at all. One of the best things I've seen in several years. Can't wait to dive into the extras on the Severin disc.

Has anyone seen Buck's remake (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486652/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_3) of De Palma's Sisters? The reviews are horrible but I'm inclined to seek it out as it's the only other feature he's made.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 04, 2021, 12:47:34 AM
god I gotta see it. during the severin black friday sale I could only figure out Viy and didn't order anything. You know VS tickled me the most during 2020, although I still consider mondo macabro the pound for pound champion

I was going to bring up brigsby bear but seems kind of embarrassing now
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 04, 2021, 04:13:43 PM
being so familiar with VS now and everything I placed my LA Wars order today, because that's a limited release of four thousand and it's down to 48 today

wilder you already have LA Wars but just so you know Action USA is also a limited release and it's down to 389, and well three days ago it was 699. so it's flying
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on January 04, 2021, 05:52:05 PM
Thanks to your earlier post and that podcast, I placed a hefty order the other day that included 9 Lives..., the Sarno, Roberta Findlay's A Woman's Torment (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/a-womans-torment?_pos=1&_sid=bfd382039&_ss=r), Psycho Cop Returns (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/psycho-cop-returns?_pos=1&_sid=9f0557408&_ss=r), and Satan's Blood (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/frontpage/products/satans-blood), so I'm spent for a little while.

Haven't watched LA Wars yet. Action U.S.A. looks really fun but after that haul I'm going to have to miss out on it for the time being.

(https://i.imgur.com/QSSQ5mJ.jpg)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 04, 2021, 06:22:38 PM
nice nice nice. it's so fun, they're fun. that Sarno is #1 in their sexploitation series, which is a limited number series as well. Pick-Up and Fugitive Girls are already gone for good, so I need to order Andy Milligan's Seeds / Vapors (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/andy-milligans-seeds-vapors?_pos=1&_sid=751e1a62a&_ss=r) before I miss out on that like I missed out on Fleshpot on 42nd Street. what i hope is that an adult films sale happens on vday this year like it did last year. then if they're part of the sale i'll order Seeds/Vapors and i am like dying dying to see this period piece film noir hardcore movie Dixie Ray Hollywood Star (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/dixie-ray-hollywood-star?_pos=1&_sid=3cd93c8bb&_ss=r), "one of the last truly ambitious X rated movies ever made," and Bijou (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/bijou?_pos=1&_sid=05fef8ae4&_ss=r), a "fever dream blending the erotic and the divine in equal parts, Bijou is a psychosexual puzzle that rewards multiple viewings" and "set a new standard for explicit cinema when it opened in 1972."

but I had to order LA Wars because it's about to go. honestly questionable taste is a lot of fun at VS and though they're head scratchers in part they also haven't shown me a bad movie yet. I do hear they have bad movies though. Personally I take my time with watching them because I'm sad when I've already watched them
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 04, 2021, 11:45:56 PM
I adore these people, this is the most first world statement I've heard in a week

(https://i.imgur.com/qVTEpBX.png)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 05, 2021, 04:41:08 PM
Quote from: wilder on January 04, 2021, 05:52:05 PMAction U.S.A. looks really fun but after that haul I'm going to have to miss out on it for the time being.

(https://i.imgur.com/QSSQ5mJ.jpg)

Rarefilmm is there for you too. that window fall is at 1hr12min34sec

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fps6IWqZGs8
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on January 06, 2021, 11:24:58 AM
http://weare.fyi/

VR feature-length hyperfiction comedy, directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA1vTNMWMe4), featuring Dasha Nekrasova
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 06, 2021, 01:07:14 PM
seems worth it. have you watched it?
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on January 06, 2021, 02:42:43 PM
Yup! Don't tend to blind share.
(wouldn't know how to describe otherwise/woulda put ish in quotes, ya kno)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 06, 2021, 04:29:59 PM
okay I'll try to get on it tonight but it might be delayed because you see I finally ordered Pasolini and Pasolini arrived and I'm def in the mood
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on January 06, 2021, 05:42:52 PM
Pasolini beats out almost everything. Carry on, dream warrior!
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 08, 2021, 05:27:16 PM
still intend to watch We Are at some point maybe tonight in fact

reporting about this (https://letterboxd.com/sol_madrid/film/knife-under-the-throat/)

QuoteBasically French De Palma.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on January 08, 2021, 06:18:04 PM
Quote from: jenkins on January 08, 2021, 05:27:16 PM

reporting about this (https://letterboxd.com/sol_madrid/film/knife-under-the-throat/)

QuoteBasically French De Palma.

Its name reminds me of Un couteau dans le cœur.
Must investigate further...
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 08, 2021, 09:13:50 PM
Quote from: WorldForgot on January 08, 2021, 06:18:04 PM
Quote from: jenkins on January 08, 2021, 05:27:16 PM

reporting about this (https://letterboxd.com/sol_madrid/film/knife-under-the-throat/)

QuoteBasically French De Palma.

Its name reminds me of Un couteau dans le cœur.
Must investigate further...

the director Claude Mulot has Sins of the Flesh at Mondo Macabro (https://mondomacabro.bigcartel.com/product/sins-of-the-flesh-standard-edition) and La Femme-objet is being imported from a French distributor by Vinegar Syndrome (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/la-femme-objet-pulse-video?_pos=1&_sid=d87800b27&_ss=r)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 09, 2021, 12:58:41 AM
Quote from: WorldForgot on January 06, 2021, 11:24:58 AM
http://weare.fyi/

VR feature-length hyperfiction comedy, directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA1vTNMWMe4), featuring Dasha Nekrasova

just started this and I'll report back but Sean Price Williams (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0998342/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1) showed up in credits and I feel so validated and my expectations are reasonable so this should be a triumph
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on January 10, 2021, 07:56:55 PM
Q1 2021 TBD

Serge Leroy's La traque aka The Hunt (1975) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Le chat qui fume (France). Includes English subtitles.

Le chat qui fume's releases can be ordered from their online shop (https://lechatquifume.myshopify.com).

(https://i.imgur.com/yORTZEU.jpg)

A young tourist is sexually assaulted by two men in the countryside. After she manages to escape, a party of local hunters agree to track her in order to cover up the scandal.

Quote from: Letterboxd user matt lynchSkeevy but slow-moving thriller with a rape/revenge premise that's actually just a jumping off point for a rather ponderous allegory of bourgeois exploitation and thwarted masculinity. Honestly more interesting and ultimately more disturbing than that sounds but be prepared for minimal violence and a lot of quasi-moral handwringing among a bunch of French dudes about whether or not they deserve to be punished for their myriad sins. Short answer: of course they do, but of course they aren't.

Quote from:  IMB user Coventry"La Traque" is an undeservedly obscure French drama/thriller that is incredibly tense, intelligent, compelling and unpredictable. The title, plot synopsis and awesome movie poster make you assume that this is another variant on the "The Most Dangerous Game" in combination with "Straw Dogs" or "Deliverance", but the film is much more than that.

It's a dreary Sunday and a bunch of macho males gather in the countryside for an afternoon of wild boar hunting. The group of acquaintances (I really wouldn't refer to them as close friends) exists of prominent aristocrats, like a land owner and an aspiring senator, as well as middle class guys, like a pair of car mechanic brothers and a former military man. During the hunt, the Danville brothers encounter Helen Wells, a beautiful English tourist searching for a country cottage to rent during the holidays. They viciously rape the defenseless poor girl, but she manages to wound Paul Danville and flee into the forest.

Although none of the other hunting party members is responsible for what happened, they all have their own dark secrets and absolutely want to avoid getting linked to a scandal. Therefore, rather than helping Helen, they decide to collectively track her down and silence her. The acts and decisions taken by the lead characters may seem illogical and revolting, but they're actually very realistic and plausible. In fact, "La Traque" is much more of a social character study instead of a rancid backwoods thriller. Real human beings are much more cowardly and self-protective than the heroes depicted in movies, as illustrated in the unforgettably bleak finale.

Quote from: IMDB user kinsayderThere have been innumerable horror films in which faceless psychopaths pursue women to their deaths. What makes "La Traque" all the more unnerving is that the faces of these hunters are all too familiar. They are the faces of politicians, landowners, war heroes, pillars of the Establishment (and Leroy carefully chooses actors who have played such respectable types in other films). Their actions derive not from a loss of control, but from an excess of it: these are men who have learnt to suppress human compassion when necessary to achieve their goals in life. And murder is the logical consequence of that.





February 2021

Claudio Fragasso  & Bruno Mattei's Scalps (1986) on blu-ray from Le chat qui fume (France)

(https://i.imgur.com/mSAROAv.jpg)

The commander of a Texan fort in the Civil War refuses to surrender to the Northerners, and tries to buy the local Indian tribe chief's daughter. The sage man refuses, and the Southerners massacre the tribe and abduct the young squaw anyway. The noble squaw manages to escape, and hides out with a rough rancher, who dislikes Indians, but hates the Southerners more. The odd couple joins forces, and tactics, to exert ultimate vengeance on the men at the fort.





March/April 2021 TBD

Carl Schenkel's Abwarts aka Out of Order (1984) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Subkultur Entertainment (Germany)

Subkultur's releases can be ordered from their online shop (https://www.lisa-film-kollektion.de/).

(https://i.imgur.com/t1GVdJq.jpg)

It's Friday evening. The lift repairman leaves the building and wants to finish his work on Monday. But he doesn't know there are four men in the building. They use the lift but stay in it about 100 meters from the floor. They have little oxygen and must survive...





April 16, 2021

Roland Klick's Deadlock (1970) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Subkultur Entertainment (Germany). Includes English subtitles.

(https://i.imgur.com/LrmoKik.jpg)

In a deserted mining town at the end of nowhere three desperate men fight over a suitcase full of cash.

Quote from: Letterboxd user Kevin PincusA suitcase full of money is a premise as old as the western genre itself, probably even older, and there's no shortage of slickly directed, well acted, top-quality grime-caked Eurowesterns. Deadlock stands ahead of the pack for a few reasons- namely, it's setting, an impossible-to-define wasteland beyond time dense with dusty, broken genre iconography, looking just alien enough that you can never quite put your finger on where and when you are. But let's be real- that's well and good, but this thing boasts a krautrockin' soundtrack by (The) Can, and if you need anything else to sell you on it, buddy, you might be beyond help. Play loud.





TBD

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

(https://i.imgur.com/IpySv5c.jpg)

Willi is 18 years old and lives on the street. Without a goal in his life he walks around the city and meets several people, helping but also cheating him. When he meets a girl, Monica, he realizes that there are people out there whose lives are even more desperate than his. So he's trying to help her (and him) by planning a great robbery on a supermarket's money transporter.




There's a documentary on Roland Klick, The Heart is a Hungry Hunter (2013), which can be rented on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07S7R5K3Z/ref=atv_dl_rdr?tag=justusqxg9-20) and other VOD platforms





April 27, 2021

Alejandro Jodorowsky's Santa Sangre on 4K UHD blu-ray from Severin, from a 4K restoration supervised by Alejandro Jodorowsky, in both standard and limited editions

(https://i.imgur.com/pHISglQ.jpg)

A young man is confined in a mental hospital. Through a flashback we see that he was traumatized as a child, when he and his family were circus performers: he saw his father cut off the arms of his mother, a religious fanatic and leader of the heretical church of Santa Sangre ("Holy Blood"), and then commit suicide. Back in the present, he escapes and rejoins his surviving and armless mother. Against his will, he "becomes her arms" and the two undertake a grisly campaign of murder and revenge.





March 30, 2021

Álex de la Iglesia's Perdita Durango (1997) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Severin, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative

(https://i.imgur.com/8A2GHkw.jpg)

For his English-language debut, writer/director Álex de la Iglesia (DAY OF THE BEAST) chose novelist Barry Gifford's prequel to WILD AT HEART featuring sociopath priestess Perdita Durango. But when the U.S. distributor saw the finished film, they slashed 10+ minutes of gleefully profane sex & violence and dumped it under the title DANCE WITH THE DEVIL. Severin is proud to present the complete Director's Cut starring Oscar® nominee Rosie Perez and Academy Award® winner Javier Bardem in the "amoral love story" (DVD Talk) filled with human sacrifices, kidnapping, murder, fetus trafficking and the dogged DEA agent (James Gandolfini) on the trail of it all. Don Stroud (DJANGO UNCHAINED), Demián Bichir (THE HATEFUL EIGHT), Alex Cox (REPO MAN) and Screamin' Jay Hawkins co-star in this "splendidly irresponsible" (Moria) joyride to the dark side.





March 30, 2021

Álex de la Iglesia's Day of the Beast (1995) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Severin, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative

(https://i.imgur.com/7KMi6MN.jpg)

In between his cult hit debut ACCIÓN MUTANTE and proudly depraved PERDITA DURANGO, writer/director Álex de la Iglesia delivered the international smash that remains one of the best horror comedies of our time: When a rogue priest (Álex Angulo of PAN'S LABYRINTH) discovers the exact date The Antichrist will be born, he'll enlist a Death Metal record store clerk (Santiago Segura of KILLER BARBYS) and a cheesy TV psychic (Armando De Razza) for an urban spree of "gore, sacrilege and twisted humor" (San Francisco Examiner) to prevent the Apocalypse by summoning Satan himself.





Q1 2021 TBD

Jorge Grau's Hunting Ground (1983) blu-ray from Mondo Macabro

(https://i.imgur.com/Uvy9PQD.jpg)

The story tells of a female lawyer who finds her liberal convictions wavering when she comes under repeated threats from the vicious hoodlum who she defended in court in the past. The story that follows is a combination of Death Wish and Straw Dogs that, in its gruesome final segment, ventures into the territory of films such as LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.

Quote from: Andrew MonroeThough there are some queasy moments. It's almost as much a look at coping with the loss of a loved one. The film is set around Christmas but it's not particularly emphasized. The sleaze factor does go nuclear at the climax. Very grim payoff to what has been a fairly tame film.





March 9, 2021

Jorge Grau's Blood Ceremony (1973) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro

(https://i.imgur.com/NnARegl.jpg)

An ageing Countess discovers that the blood of a maid can temporarily restore her youth and great beauty. Then she falls in love with a dashing young soldier, but is compelled to kill again and again to maintain her attractiveness and prevent the secret getting out.





Q1 2021 TBD

Elwood Perez's Silip: Daughters of Eve (1985) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro

(https://i.imgur.com/Shso89V.jpg)

In the remote countryside of Ilongo, various women are sexually abused by local men. Two sisters meet Simon, the most attractive man in the village, and fight over him--one constantly haunted by Catholic dogma because of the abuse she suffered previously.

Quote from: Letterboxd user Andrew MoncrieffSomewhere halfway through the second hour of this, all the various pieces click into place for a greek tragedy ending which is genuinely grim and dour.

I won't lie and say I understand what the director was trying to say (beyond that a balance between purity and promiscuity must be met within one's self - the animal can't be denied nor the soul), but this is exactly the kind of movie I live for because it is the product of a vision.
Quote from: Letterrboxd user John Raymond CalejasThought it was just another shitty '80s sexploitation erotica so I really didn't expect to be engaged by this film -- in various ways. It has a plethora of incredibly disturbing and fucked up things in it that most viewers would find uncomfortable to watch. I liked its bizarreness and its commentaries on several things such as sexual repression brought about by religious fanaticism, dogma and mob mentality.
Quote from: Letterboxd user LouRaw and untamed indeed! I am floored. What a remarkable film. Silip is so much more than just an exploitation movie. It explores what it means to be human.



2021 TBD

Piero Schivazappa's Femina Ridens aka The Laughing Woman aka The Frightened Woman (1969) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro

(https://i.imgur.com/mH36UgL.jpg)

A rich and sadistic man, who enjoys degrading women as part of elaborate S&M games, abducts a female journalist. She is subjected to his unpleasant games, but eventually the players' roles reverse.



April 6, 2021

Dario Argento's Sleepless (2001) on standard blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing. Previously released in a limited edition.

(https://i.imgur.com/8yAuLtP.jpg)

An elderly and retired police detective and a young amateur sleuth team up to find a serial killer who has resumed a killing spree in Turin, Italy after a 17-year hiatus.



Q1 2021 TBD

Roberta Findlay's The Oracle (1985) on blu-ray from Media Blasters, from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/HxNF9oh.jpg)

Moving into an apartment formerly occupied by an old gypsy medium, Jennifer (Caroline Capers Powers) and her husband (Roger Neil) discover 'The Oracle' which the gypsy used to communicate with the dead. Before long, Jennifer is contacted by the ghost of a murdered man, who is seeking revenge on his killers, his wife's lover, and a psychotic transvestite lesbian assassin (Pam La Testa). Soon, Jennifer is deeply obsessed with this unearthly power. Battling possession as the tormented spirit terrorizes and manipulates her into investigating his death, Jennifer finds herself directly in the path of a violent and dark force.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 15, 2021, 01:13:38 PM
Martial Law is available on Tubi (https://tubitv.com/movies/496262/martial-law), it just dipped below 1k at VS and will disappear as part of the VSA series

the VS stans went apeshit about Action USA but apparently the sound mix is off and it sounds better on YouTube from rarefilmm, and I told them about the YouTube a couple times but no longer bring it up as everyone who receives Action USA in the mail posts a photo of it
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on January 15, 2021, 02:55:14 PM
Holy shit - Perdita Durango director's cut on blu X_X
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on January 15, 2021, 06:57:41 PM
Quote from: wilder on January 10, 2021, 07:56:55 PMSerge Leroy's La traque aka The Hunt (1975) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Le chat qui fume (France). Includes English subtitles.

Le chat qui fume's releases can be ordered from their online shop (https://lechatquifume.myshopify.com).

(https://i.imgur.com/yORTZEU.jpg)

The UHD sold out within 30 minutes and was replaced by a blu-ray version at the same price point. I delayed ordering thinking I could group some forthcoming releases together with it to save shipping. Finally jumped on the blu.

There was some discussion on blu-ray.com about the viability of these kinds of titles, if we want them available restored, at all:

Quote from: LiersiPhysical media used to be large corporations releasing mass product at mass product prices, which quickly decayed as supply outstripped demand. Le Chat qui Fume et al are a new model, where a handful of enthusiasts offer niche product to a niche audience, and the price must cover the cost across much less product and time. We're getting the same kind of discs in the same kind of packaging, but I guess it's very different type of product, economically speaking. We'll get there, it just takes time for the perspective to adjust. I can see this in myself as I switch from buying more for less, to buying less for more on the same budget.

Quote from: French ManuI understand your point of view about the price but"Le Chat qui fume"is a very small company (3 persons), the rights were very expansive and a big work of restauration has been done.

The movie was almost disappereared since his issue in 1975.

Quote from: The Bond FanI really like that release but 30€ for a Blu-Ray is really expensive.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 15, 2021, 07:02:39 PM
omg wait until they find out about the market value of a limited release oop, they'll be begging for the initial price

a side topic here is the villainy of resellers. VS sets quantity restrictions but resellers simply create multiple accounts

it's a whole thing
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on January 17, 2021, 12:16:44 AM
my first Andy Milligan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Milligan) was Vapors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapors_(film)), from the VS Sexploitation Signature Series (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/andy-milligans-seeds-vapors?_pos=1&_sid=a0df47a14&_ss=r). missing out on his Fleshpot on 42nd Street is a particular regret of mine, especially now that I've seen Vapors. so it's from 1965, it's his first movie (~30min short), it's set in a bath house, men seeking men, it's b&w and there isn't a single dick shown. sex movies are still just beginning, which I knew from Vibrations (https://letterboxd.com/film/vibrations/). pre-hardcore it's super soft core. no sex here: this movie is tender, it's dimensional, it's full of character, and it's a million fucking miles from Hollywood movies in this time period, much closer to something like Shadows (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053270). it's hella authentic seeming even if it's obviously a movie. everyone is acting natural
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on February 03, 2021, 10:43:04 PM
Quote from: jenkins on January 15, 2021, 01:13:38 PM
the VS stans went apeshit about Action USA

then it's so funny because it was a limited release and this happened

(https://i.imgur.com/XthhPSM.jpg)

then this joke happened

(https://i.imgur.com/xSmcj6y.jpg)

and now the internet has taken flight

(https://i.imgur.com/naLCs7k.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/oxdCSCF.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/RifRw4S.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/EdsCgAB.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/a7WrhVM.jpg)

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on February 03, 2021, 11:37:44 PM
I totally regretted not taking your advice when it was available and will definitely be picking that up.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on February 06, 2021, 07:01:25 AM
March 16, 2021

The Dungeon of Andy Milligan on limited edition blu-ray from Severin

(https://i.imgur.com/iGSSXi8.jpg)

He's been described as "The Fassbinder of 42nd Street" (Artforum), "a celebration of hate" (Bleeding Skull) and "an unmatched voice from the underbelly of low-budget cinema" (Rue Morgue). More than a quarter century after his death, he remains perhaps the most divisive name in genre history. Severin Films now presents the cranium-cleaving collection devoted to writer/actor/director Andy Milligan – "a gay sadist who pioneered New York's avant-garde theater world and made astonishingly unique exploitation movies" (Diabolique Magazine) – on 8 Blu-rays featuring 14 surviving films from his NYC and London years, 10+ hours of trailers, outtakes, interviews & audio commentaries, a bonus CD and an all-new 128-page book by Stephen Thrower that explores the profane madness behind it all. From his provocative underground work through his international scuzz-horror classics, experience the venomous legacy of the filmmaker Time Magazine calls "depraved, degenerate, desperate, damned" like never before.

Details here (https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=28077). Available from Severin's online store (https://severin-films.com/shop/andy-milligan-collection/).





March 29, 2021

Christian Gion's Le jardin des supplices aka The Garden of Torment (1976) on blu-ray from Nucleus Films (UK). Region free.

(https://i.imgur.com/giWjAwq.jpg)

In rebellious and unstable 1920s China, Antoine, a naive young French doctor finds himself increasingly involved with a depraved group of pleasure-seeking Colonial settlers who use the misery and desperation of the local population for their own entertainment. As Antoine is drawn further and further into the sadistic and perverted world of the beautiful but evil Clara and her powerful and corrupt father (Tony Taffin, Maitresse), has to decide what matters most to him – his desire to reduce the suffering around him or his desire for the cold and seductive mistress of the Garden of Torment.

Adapted from Octave Mirbeau's notorious fin de siècle decadent classic Torture Garden, this rarely-seen study of Sadean pleasures and wanton cruelty emerged at the height of the French erotic cinema revolution and was originally banned in the UK thanks to its hedonistic collision of sensuality – courtesy of the stunning Jacqueline Kerry (in her only film appearance) and future novelist and pop singer Ysabelle Lacamp (Emmanuelle 2) – and grotesque horror. As outrageous, stylish, politically astute and constantly unsettling now as it was on original release, The Garden of Torment is the great lost film of 1970s Euro erotica, now on Blu-ray, restored and uncut for the first time with brand new bonus features.


NSFW




March 10, 2021

Nouchka van Brakel's Een vrouw als Eva aka A Woman Like Eve (1979) on blu-ray from Cult Epics

(https://i.imgur.com/SO8xA99.jpg)

Acclaimed actresses Monique van de Ven (Turkish Delight) and Maria Schneider (Last Tango in Paris) star alongside with Peter Faber (Soldier of Orange) in the groundbreaking film A Woman Like Eve (1979), focused on a married woman's affair with another woman. Directed by pioneering filmmaker Nouchka van Brakel, the acclaimed A Woman Like Eve was a major hit at LGBT film festivals and was the Dutch entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.





February 23, 2021

Umberto Lenzi's The Hitcher in the Dark (1989) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative

(https://i.imgur.com/5ReCz8Q.jpg)

Mark, a disturbed young man, harbors sexual desires for his deceased mother. Driving around the back roads of Va. Beach, Mark seeks out lone females to carry out his twisted sexual fantasies. Enter Daniela, who bares a striking resemblance to mom, who happens to make the mistake of accepting a ride from Mark.



February 23, 2021

Forgotten Gialli Vol. 3 on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome

(https://i.imgur.com/DqPq1QK.jpg)

QuoteAutopsy

A wave of sudden, violent suicides have gripped Rome and are being blamed on sun spots. Simona, a young pathologist with an unhealthy obsession with death, has become increasingly interested in this strange phenomenon. But with the discovery of the body of a young woman, an apparent victim of a self inflicted gunshot, Simona finds herself thrust into a terrifying mystery and conspiracy to cloak actual murders as suicides. And the nearer she comes to unraveling the truth, the more in danger she is to entering the sights of a deranged killer, who might be a lot closer to home than she realizes.

An expertly directed and at times staggeringly brutal thriller from Armando Crispino (The Dead Are Alive), AUTOPSY (which was made under the title 'Sun Spots' and released internationally as 'The Victim') stars Mimsy Farmer (Four Flies on Grey Velvet), Barry Primus (New York, New York), and Ray Lovelock (Let Sleeping Corpses Lie). Featuring stunning photography from veteran Italian DP Carlo Carlini (The Bloodstained Butterfly) and an acclaimed score from Ennio Morricone (A Lizard in a Woman's Skin), Vinegar Syndrome is proud to bring AUTOPSY to Blu-ray, fully uncensored and featuring its complete English and Italian language audio tracks fully intact.



Murder Mansion

On a dark and foggy night in the countryside, a group of apparent strangers all find themselves stranded at an old gothic mansion. Deciding to spend the night and look for help the following morning, the group pair off for bed. As the night wares on, increasingly strange events begin to occur, culminating in a murder. Tensions and suspicions rise, and fear mounts that the ghosts of the mansion have risen from the grave, especially when more bodies turn up...but is the explanation behind these ghastly events truly supernatural?

One of the best and most effective combinations of mid 60s style gothic Euro horror and early 70s flavored giallo intrigue, Francisco Lara Polpo's Spanish-Italian co-production, MURDER MANSION (originally titled 'The Mansion in the Fog') became a drive-in and late-nite TV hit in the US, during the mid 1970s. Never legally released in the United States on disc, Vinegar Syndrome proudly presents the Blu-ray premier of MURDER MANSION, newly restored in 4K from its original negative and includes its original Spanish soundtrack along with its English and nearly impossible to find Italian dubs.



Crazy Desires of a Murderer

The Countess Ileana has just returned to her family's grand old castle, where her paralyzed father, an apparent clairvoyant, and strange younger brother, with an unhealthy interest in taxidermy, reside. Almost immediately after arriving, one of Ileana's friends, who's visiting the castle, is shockingly murdered and has her eyes plucked out of their sockets. While suspicion falls on Ileana's brother, a curious police inspector (Sicilian character actor Corrado Gaipa of THE GODFATHER and MY DEAR KILLER) begins to investigate, believing there to be more to the killing than meets the eye. However, his sleuthing proves no match for this maniac, as the body count steadily rises...

A delirious mix of gothic horror, sex drama, murder mystery, plus a whole lot of extracted eyeballs, Filippo Walter Ratti's CRAZY DESIRES OF A MURDERER (though known in Italy as the much more lurid 'The Morbid Vices of a Housekeeper') remains one of the forgotten treats of late 70s giallo cinema. Never released theatrically in the English speaking world and virtually unavailable on home video, Vinegar Syndrome is delighted to bring this trashy rarity to Blu-ray, newly restored in 4K from its 35mm original negative!

NSFW




March 2021 TBD

Mario Bava's Black Sabbath (1963) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Le chat qui fume (France)

(https://i.imgur.com/ehjpFVX.jpg)

Boris Karloff hosts a trio of horror stories concerning a stalked call girl, a vampire-like monster who preys on his family, and a nurse who is haunted by her ring's rightful owner.





March 2021 TBD

Mario Bava's Erik the Conquerer (1961) on blu-ray from Le chat qui fume (France)

(https://i.imgur.com/DmofG51.jpg)

In the 9th Century, two Viking children, separated since their early childhood with one raised by the British and the other by Vikings, meet after nearly 20 years as rivals as war breaks out between Britian and the Vikings for control of England.





March 2021 TBD

Bruno Mattei's The True Story of the Nun of Monza (1980) on blu-ray from Le chat qui fume (France)

(https://i.imgur.com/9C2S0xS.jpg)

Sister Virginia de Leyva becomes the new Mother Superior at the convent of Monza. Said convent turns out to be a veritable hotbed of sinful carnality and depravity. Debauched priest Don Arrigone and lecherous womanizer Giampaolo Osio plot to seduce sister Virginia. But will their wicked and lustful actions continue to go unnoticed?



April 26, 2021

Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale (2000) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Arrow (UK)

(https://i.imgur.com/e8Ea8Hz.jpg)

Presenting an alternate dystopian vision of turn-of-the-millennium Japan, Battle Royale follows the 42 junior high school students selected to take part in the government's annual Battle Royale programme, established as an extreme method of addressing concerns about juvenile delinquency. Dispatched to a remote island, they are each given individual weapons (ranging from Uzis and machetes to pan lids and binoculars), food and water, and the order to go out and kill one other. Every player is fitted with an explosive collar around their neck, imposing a strict three-day time limit on the deadly games in which there can only be one survivor. Overseeing the carnage is 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano (Sonatine, Hana-bi, Zatoichi) as the teacher pushed to the edge by his unruly charges.

Playing like a turbo-charged hybrid of Lord of the Flies and The Most Dangerous Game, the final completed work by veteran yakuza film director Kinji Fukasaku (Battles without Honor and Humanity, Graveyard of Honor) helped launch a new wave of appreciation for Asian cinema in the 21st century. Also included in the set is the incendiary sequel Battle Royale II, the directing debut of Kenta Fukasaku (after his father passed away during production), in which a new class of delinquents are recruited by the government to hunt down the survivor of the deadly games of the first film.




April 20, 2021

Jack Hill's Switchblade Sisters (1975) on blu-ray from Arrow

(https://i.imgur.com/2nbweE8.jpg)

From Jack Hill, legendary director of Spider Baby, Coffy, Foxy Brown, and The Swinging Cheerleaders comes another iconic cult classic, Switchblade Sisters!

Lace (Robbie Lee), the leader of inner city girl gang The Dagger Debs, meets her match when new girl Maggie (Joanne Nail) moves into the neighborhood. Mistrust and conflict turn to friendship as the girls end up in Juvenile Detention together at the mercy of abusive guards. Meanwhile, The Dagger Debs' male counterparts The Silver Daggers have to contend with the arrival of a new gang, led by the villainous Crabs (Chase Newhart). But when the girls get back on the streets, a planned retaliation strike in tandem with The Silver Daggers backfires and puts Lace in hospital. Maggie assumes control, teaming up with Muff (Marlene Clark) and her gang of African-American militants from across town to declare all out war. But there's a traitor in their midst...






April 6, 2021

Nico Mastorakis' Death Has Blue Eyes (1976) on blu-ray from Arrow

(https://i.imgur.com/pCVCClb.jpg)

When local gigolo Chess (Chris Nomikos) greets his vacationing friend Bob Kovalski (Peter Winter) at Athens airport, the pair embark on a string of scams and erotic dalliances that eventually lead them into contact with an elegant wealthy woman, Geraldine Steinwetz (Jessica Dublin), and her glamorous daughter Christine (Maria Aliferi). Geraldine blackmails the two cheeky bachelor boys into acting as bodyguards for Christine, whom it transpires has telepathic abilities and has had her eye on them for some time. After fleeing from a series of assassination attempts, it soon becomes clear that Geraldine herself might not be quite whom she seems, as the two young men find themselves caught up in a political conspiracy of international dimensions.

In his debut feature, maverick filmmaker Nico Mastorakis presents us with a generous meze of non-stop car, bike and helicopter chases, a bevy of beautiful girls with guns, sensational softcore sex scenes, psychic thrills and Cold War political intrigue set against the picturesque landscapes of 70s Greece.






2021 TBD

Walter Boos' Magdalena aka The Devil's Female (1974) on blu-ray from Dark Force Entertainment, from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/doeJnen.jpg)

Magdalena is an orphan at a girls' school who gets possessed by a demonic supernatural force. She goes into convulsions and makes furniture fly around the room before she gets some help from an exorcist.





March 22, 2021

George Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) on 4K UHD blu-ray (standard edition) from Second Sight (UK)

(https://i.imgur.com/hGmqFvg.jpg)

As modern society is consumed by zombie carnage, four desperate survivors barricade themselves inside a shopping mall to battle the flesh-eating hordes of the undead.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on February 17, 2021, 09:27:42 PM
Quote from: wilder on February 06, 2021, 07:01:25 AM
March 16, 2021

The Dungeon of Andy Milligan on limited edition blu-ray from Severin

(https://i.imgur.com/iGSSXi8.jpg)

He's been described as "The Fassbinder of 42nd Street" (Artforum), "a celebration of hate" (Bleeding Skull) and "an unmatched voice from the underbelly of low-budget cinema" (Rue Morgue). More than a quarter century after his death, he remains perhaps the most divisive name in genre history. Severin Films now presents the cranium-cleaving collection devoted to writer/actor/director Andy Milligan – "a gay sadist who pioneered New York's avant-garde theater world and made astonishingly unique exploitation movies" (Diabolique Magazine) – on 8 Blu-rays featuring 14 surviving films from his NYC and London years, 10+ hours of trailers, outtakes, interviews & audio commentaries, a bonus CD and an all-new 128-page book by Stephen Thrower that explores the profane madness behind it all. From his provocative underground work through his international scuzz-horror classics, experience the venomous legacy of the filmmaker Time Magazine calls "depraved, degenerate, desperate, damned" like never before.

Details here (https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=28077). Available from Severin's online store (https://severin-films.com/shop/andy-milligan-collection/).





Two recent podcasts on Andy Milligan:

Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan discussed him on the Daughters of Darkness Podcast (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7HSexuafhk)

And he was the subject of the Severin Films Podcast (https://severin-films-podcast.libsyn.com/ep-07-the-dungeon-of-andy-milligan) a couple episodes ago
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on February 17, 2021, 09:36:21 PM
i want Samm Deighan to explain everything to me

you know my Milligan path was The Man with Two Heads ages ago, and i just realized it was actually The Thing with Two Heads i was thinking about, and Vapors was my first Milligan ever. he's really landed on the scene, though in another way he's been on the scene and just when i became aware of him this boxset arrived
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on February 18, 2021, 08:22:25 PM
QuoteSamm Deighan: I do feel like you kind of already hit the nail on the head of why so many people hate him is because he's usually described as being a horror movie director who's sort of along the lines of someone like Al Adamson, but the truth is that he made these really, really misanthropic melodramas that are all about families that hate each other, and a lot of the time they're masquerading as horror movies, or they have genre elements but they're not really horror movies...

Kat Ellinger: Yeah they're not horror movies, and he'll often cut away before the actual horror—

Samm Deighan: Because he doesn't give a shit about the horror!
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on February 18, 2021, 08:43:29 PM
They both inform me about the topic and make me feel less alone. The whole thing about Milligan-hating being rewarding reminded me about myself.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on February 20, 2021, 10:13:42 AM
Quote from: jenkins on January 17, 2021, 12:16:44 AM
my first Andy Milligan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Milligan) was Vapors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapors_(film)), from the VS Sexploitation Signature Series (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/andy-milligans-seeds-vapors?_pos=1&_sid=a0df47a14&_ss=r). missing out on his Fleshpot on 42nd Street is a particular regret of mine, especially now that I've seen Vapors. so it's from 1965, it's his first movie (~30min short), it's set in a bath house, men seeking men, it's b&w and there isn't a single dick shown. sex movies are still just beginning, which I knew from Vibrations (https://letterboxd.com/film/vibrations/). pre-hardcore it's super soft core. no sex here: this movie is tender, it's dimensional, it's full of character, and it's a million fucking miles from Hollywood movies in this time period, much closer to something like Shadows (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053270). it's hella authentic seeming even if it's obviously a movie. everyone is acting natural

Damn, what a beautiful performance piece and exercise in juxtaposition Vapors iz ~

A psychological space within & without compassion
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on February 20, 2021, 02:39:22 PM
it's going to be a minute until I can watch it but it's singing to me, Fleshpot

(https://i.imgur.com/VfsXT1Z.png)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on February 22, 2021, 05:13:13 PM
A bootlegger People's Court episode that's famous in cult land

https://youtu.be/KHp0avIxAeI
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on February 25, 2021, 04:59:29 PM
they're still my overall peeps

(https://i.imgur.com/pHEq13V.jpg)

QuoteFirst up is the 80s Spanish exploitation/thriller marvel HUNTING GROUND aka COTO DE CAZA!
Adele, a female lawyer, played brilliantly by Assumpta Serna, passionately defends criminals, believing that everyone deserves a second chance and that criminality is more often than not bred by deprivation. In the courtroom a pair of local hoods see her in action and decide to follow her. They steal her car, find the keys to her country villa and decide to rob the place. Unfortunately Adele's family turn up at the villa mid-robbery, and her husband is killed. But that is only the beginning of the nightmare ...
Directed by Jorge Grau who make the horror classics BLOOD CEREMONY and LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE, HUNTING GROUND is an intense, gripping crime story that takes a savagely realistic look at the social dived between the rich and the poor in the big city. The climax of the film is unrelenting in its depiction of sexual violence and revenge and includes one of the most shocking sequences ever seen in a mainstream film. 
Mondo Macabro is proud to present this underseen Eurotrash classic in its first ever English friendly home video release and for the first time ever in HD.
DISC FEATURES
Region Free world Blu-ray premiere
Brand New 4K restoration from film negative
Choice of English dub or Spanish Language with optional English subtitles
Archival interview with director Jorge Grau

LIMITED EDITION FEATURES
1200 numbered copies in the famous red case
Reversible sleeve with brand new art by Justin Coffee on the A side and original Mexican VHS art on the B side
20 page booklet with brand new writing on the film by Spanish film expert Ismael Fernandez

This release will go up for sale at 9 AM Pacific Time (google what time that is where you live) on Thursday March 11 at mondomacabro.bigcartel.com. A half an hour later at 9:30 AM Pacific it will go on sale at our main site, mondo-macabro.com.

(https://i.imgur.com/lt8lPrH.jpeg)

QuoteSpanish horror star Paul Naschy plays a multitude of roles in a tour-de-force performance in one of his best and most personal films, which he also wrote and directed.
Naschy plays Hector Doriani a stage and screen actor who feel himself living in the shadow of his dead twin brother, Alex Doriani, a famous star of horror movies. Alex's young son, Adrian,
now lives with Hector in an isolated mansion in the countryside. To keep his father's memory alive, the boy imagines himself visited by the spirit of the dead man, incarnated in a series of classic horror character from the past: Mr. Hyde, the Frankenstein Monster, the Phantom of the Opera etc. Also making an appearance in the young child's fantasies is Waldemar Daninsky, the werewolf character made famous by Naschy himself.
Eric, Alex Doriani's former butler, now also works for Hector. His main role is to locate and bring to the mansion a series of women who are paid large sums of money by Hector to take part in various
sadistic sex games. To complicate matters even further, the games always seem to end with the women getting slaughtered in various gruesome ways by a black gloved, masked killer.
Also on hand is horror diva Caroline Munro, as Hector's housekeeper and cook, who is being pursued by a local priest with whom she once had a much-regretted affair.
The whole bubbling caldron of mayhem and misbehavior really boils over when Eric the butler mounts a séance to bring back the body of his dead master. But it is not Alex who appears... and all
hell literally breaks loose.
One of the last films to be directed by Paul Naschy, HOWL OF THE DEVIL was, for many years, impossible to see in anything like its intended form. This first HD presentation of the film shows it at
last in its true glory. One of Naschy's most savage and most heartfelt films, its reappearance is an event worth celebrating.
DISC FEATURES
Region Free world Blu-ray premiere
Brand New 4K restoration from film negative
Spanish Language with optional English subtitles
Brand new audio commentary by Rod Barnett and Troy Guinn of the Naschycast
Debut of previously unreleased archival "making of" documentary
Brand new interview with Naschy's son Sergio Molina, who appears in the film
LIMITED EDITION FEATURES
1500 numbered copies in the famous red case
Reversible sleeve with brand new art by Rick Melton on the A side (censored here but will be uncensored on the product itself) and original poster art by Jano on the B side
Full color booklet with brand new writing on the film by Naschy expert Shane M. Dallmann
This release will go up for sale at 9 AM Pacific Time (google what time that is where you live) on Thursday March 11 at mondomacabro.bigcartel.com. A half an hour later at 9:30 AM Pacific it will go on sale at our main site, mondo-macabro.com.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on February 25, 2021, 05:41:57 PM
Don't Deliver Us From Evil remains me one Mondo Macabro experience, but it's the kinda film I'm not sure I could have seen any other way, the sort of jagged film that's neither pure genre or conventionally cult. You get to that fringe and it's like specialty label or ny's Spectacle or perhaps the Bev, if the film print luck strikes.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on February 25, 2021, 07:39:31 PM
^ Looking forward to Hunting Ground and generally interested to see more Jorge Grau released.

Quote from: WorldForgot on February 25, 2021, 05:41:57 PM
Don't Deliver Us From Evil remains me one Mondo Macabro experience, but it's the kinda film I'm not sure I could have seen any other way, the sort of jagged film that's neither pure genre or conventionally cult. You get to that fringe and it's like specialty label or ny's Spectacle or perhaps the Bev, if the film print luck strikes.

Also dying to see that. Have been holding out for an HD upgrade but just noticed Diabolik (https://www.diabolikdvd.com/product/dont-deliver-us-from-evil-dvd-mondo-macabro-ntsc-region-1/) had a few copies of Mondo Macabro's DVD left in stock. How long the gap will be between that disappearing and whatever new edition lies in the future is unknown, so I went for it.






Code Red put out Paolo Solvay and Joe D'Amato's The Devil's Wedding Night (1973) back in January, which is a film I learned about while perusing the releases of German arthouse label, artus films (https://www.artusfilms.com/50-dvd-blu-ray)

(https://i.imgur.com/EB6JwW5.jpg)

Lady Dracula uses Dracula's ring to lure beautiful girls to her castle, where she murders them so she can bathe in their blood.






Other discoveries made through their website:

Lucio Fulci's Dangerous Obsession (https://www.artusfilms.com/lucio-fulci/le-miel-du-diable-330) aka The Devil's Honey (1980), which is available from Severin (https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Devils-Honey-Blu-ray/187819/#Screenshots) in the US

(https://i.imgur.com/s4dZSj7.jpg)





&

Canevari Cesare's Matalo! (1970) (https://www.artusfilms.com/western-europeen/matalo--194)

(https://i.imgur.com/5FyihPt.jpg)

Quote from: Letterboxd user Ken CoffeltIn deeper Spaghetti Western circles, director Cesare Canevari's ¡Mátalo! is known as one of the most unusual in the canon. Eschewing dialogue for the most part (apparently at one point Canevari intended the only word in the film to be "Mátalo!") and employing weird dissonant music alternating with a jamming acid rock soundtrack, this could reasonably fall into the Acid Western subgenre.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on February 25, 2021, 07:49:37 PM
Quote from: WorldForgot on February 25, 2021, 05:41:57 PM
Don't Deliver Us From Evil remains me one Mondo Macabro experience, but it's the kinda film I'm not sure I could have seen any other way, the sort of jagged film that's neither pure genre or conventionally cult. You get to that fringe and it's like specialty label or ny's Spectacle or perhaps the Bev, if the film print luck strikes.

totally. they have such an appreciative perspective of appreciable qualities

the sibling to Don't Deliver Us From Evil is Alucarda (https://mondomacabro.bigcartel.com/product/alucarda). I consider Lady Terminator (https://mondomacabro.bigcartel.com/product/lady-terminator) an essential for a handful of reasons. now, I know you're the kind of person who can understand that I don't consider that movie a guilty pleasure. I don't think it's my liking the taste of trash, I think it's a wonder of human achievement and I mean that. what you got here is Hollywood imagined through an Indonesian lens, with a tourist playing the lead character, inspired by local mythology. I wrote about that movie (http://innergenre.blogspot.com/2011/01/lady-terminator.html), and I also wrote about (http://innergenre.blogspot.com/2011/01/mystics-in-bali.html) H. Tjut Djalil's Mystics in Bali (https://mondomacabro.bigcartel.com/product/mystics-in-bali). so, Mystics in Bali I'm partial to because it was the first movie I'd seen like that, although now I know there are other, even better, movies like that, and it's not necessarily one of my top recommendations like some of the others I'm mentioning. so, Paul Naschy is a big deal in cult land, and I unlocked him through The Devil Incarnate (https://mondomacabro.bigcartel.com/product/devil-incarnate-retail-edition), which is impressive enough that it knocked me flat. I've never seen such outer limits performed so straight facedly. I've never experienced a full-force genre movie with such clarity of inner dimensions, which is mondo in a nutshell

plus others. for sure. didn't want to overload the conversation
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on February 26, 2021, 10:28:50 AM
Fulci elevates saxophone sexiness to new heights in The Devil's Honey (1980)/Dangerous Obsession
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on March 01, 2021, 08:19:14 PM
May 25, 2021

Ken Shapiro's The Groove Tube (1974) on blu-ray from Hen's Tooth Video, from a 4K scan of 35mm archival film materials

(https://i.imgur.com/QQYkXjM.jpg)

The Groove Tube spoofs television and commercials in an outrageous series of skits. Lampooning everything from cooking shows to public service announcements, this fast paced predecessor to Saturday Night Live deftly assaults the medium of television itself. Both Chevy Chase and Richard Belzer made their screen debuts in this wild comedy hit.





May 11, 2021

Yasuzo Masumura's Giants and Toys (1958) On blu-ray from Arrow

(https://i.imgur.com/9O27vap.jpg)

Making its worldwide Blu-ray debut, this lurid adaptation of the award-winning 1957 novel by Ken Kaiko is considered a landmark in Japanese film history and a key work by Yasuzo Masumura (Blind Beast, Red Angel), one of the country's most highly acclaimed directors of his generation. Its absurdist and acidly cynical take on the excesses of the media and advertising worlds recalls the work of Frank Tashlin (Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?), as it presents a garish vision of a bold new postwar Japan where traditional company values come head-to-head with American-style consumer capitalism.



March 23, 2021

Alain Payet's Furies Sexuelles (1976) / Prostitution Clandestine (1975) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, from 2K restorations of the original camera negatives

(https://i.imgur.com/Mp5X3Bu.jpg)

Alain Payet was one of the first, and most controversial, auteurs to take full advantage of France's legalization of hardcore sex in the cinema. Eschewing the superficial fluff pieces being directed by his peers, Payet's films delved into the strange and perverse underbelly of Parisian sex culture. Presented here are his two earliest hardcore ventures, both produced by frequent Jess Franco collaborator, Robert de Nesle.

Marie-Madeleine is a shopgirl who, at the persuasion of her lecherous boss, has begun exchanging sexual favors with the store's most affluent clientele. After being fired for refusing one of her customer's advances, she finds solace in a squalid bar, which turns out to be a haven for prostitutes. Deciding to try her hand at the profession once again, but this time on her own terms, Marie is quickly immersed into a world of increasingly debauched and hedonistic experiences which soon threaten to destroy her in body and soul. A fittingly seedy and well directed drama, FURIES SEXUELLES (aka Les Marie-Madeleine) is presented here in its totally uncensored original director's cut, completely unseen since 1976. (106 min)

Claudine and Martine are two young women who work as glamor models. But that's only a cover for their actual profession: high class call girls servicing the whims and hidden fantasies of Paris' high society. A virtual who's who of early French hardcore, PROSTITUTION CLANDESTINE stars Claudine Beccarie (Exhibition), Sylvia Bourdon (Pussy Talk), Pamela Stanford (Cannibal Terror), and many others and is presented totally uncut for the first time on video.




March 21, 2021

Sergio Martino's Silent Action (1975) on blu-ray from the newly launched label Fractured Visions (https://www.fracvis.co.uk/) (UK)

(https://i.imgur.com/dBWUwzW.jpg)

From maverick filmmaker Sergio Martino (Torso) comes his most explosive and provocative film, Silent Action. When high-ranking military officials turn up dead, all from apparent suicides or suspicious accidents, it's down to Inspector Giorgio Solmi (Luc Merenda, The Violent Professionals) to find out what's happened to them. Aided by Captain Mario Sperli (Tomas Milian, Almost Human), the two men soon find themselves in the midst of a deadly political scandal that threatens to bring Rome to its knees.





2021 TBD

Raphaël Delpard's Clash (1984) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Le chat qui fume (France), from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/fnfvwq9.jpg)

A woman revisits long-suppressed nightmares as she is being chased through an abandoned warehouse by a strange man.





December 2021 TBD

Bob Swaim's La Balance (1982) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Le chat qui fume (France), from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/WPIKQPB.jpg)

A Paris police detective (Richard Berry) plays rough with a prostitute (Nathalie Baye) and her pimp/lover (Philippe Léotard), whom he wants as an informant.




2022 TBD

John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) on 4K UHD blu-ray from new label Deaf Crocodile (https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=28218)

(https://i.imgur.com/QJ1sxoF.jpg)

An unlikely partnership between a Highway Patrol Officer, two criminals and a station secretary is formed to defend a defunct Los Angeles precinct office against a siege by a bloodthirsty street gang.

(https://i.imgur.com/fX0XtXA.jpg)

Quote"Almost all of John Carpenter's movies are owned by large entertainment conglomerates. One exception is ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, which is owned by people who made it," says Joseph Kaufman. "As executive producer of the film, I am excited to work with Deaf Crocodile on a 4K scan of the original camera negative, and the possibility of applying new technology, including HDR10 and Dolby Vision, to extract much more from the negative image than has been possible before, while still respecting the movie's original roots."



Quote from: wilder on February 06, 2021, 07:01:25 AM2021 TBD

Walter Boos' Magdalena aka The Devil's Female (1974) on blu-ray from Dark Force Entertainment, from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/u7Gl1vD.jpg)

Magdalena is an orphan at a girls' school who gets possessed by a demonic supernatural force. She goes into convulsions and makes furniture fly around the room before she gets some help from an exorcist.


Up for pre-order exclusively from Dark Force Entertainment (https://darkforcesuperstore.com/magdalena-possessed-by-the-devil-collectors-edition-blu-ray-dark-force-pre-order/). Limited to 400 copies.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 01, 2021, 08:30:43 PM
Quote from: wilder on March 01, 2021, 08:19:14 PM

(https://i.imgur.com/u7Gl1vD.jpg)

Up for pre-order exclusively from Dark Force Entertainment (https://darkforcesuperstore.com/magdalena-possessed-by-the-devil-collectors-edition-blu-ray-dark-force-pre-order/). Limited to 400 copies.

damn, just 400 like that. the l.e. game is getting fierce

pretty sure I first heard about The Groove Tube from PTA in the IV era

the new-me is most excited about Furies Sexuelles / Prostitution Clandestine from this month's VS releases, yeah
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on March 01, 2021, 08:38:13 PM
Quote from: jenkins on March 01, 2021, 08:30:43 PMpretty sure I first heard about The Groove Tube from PTA in the IV era

Yes! And Ernie Anderson narrated the Tunnel Vision trailer:

(https://i.imgur.com/D6dcT64.jpg)

This 1976 film tries to predict what American television will be like in the year 1985. Tunnelvision is America's first "uncensored and free" television network. Although wildly popular, it is also blamed for increased crime and unemployment. Christian A. Broder, president and founder of Tunnelvision, is called to defend his network in front of a Senate sub-committee. The sub-committee decides to view excerpts from a "typical" day of Tunnelvision broadcasting. What follows is a series of brief skits lampooning television, including cop shows, news broadcasts, situation comedies, and (of course) commercials.


QuoteThis darker, meaner Groove Tube knockoff definitely had its moments.  From Neal Israel, who later directed the eerily prescient (though much more chipper) "Americathon".
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on March 05, 2021, 02:27:12 AM
Quote from: wilder on January 10, 2021, 07:56:55 PMApril 16, 2021

Roland Klick's Deadlock (1970) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Subkultur Entertainment (Germany). Includes English subtitles.

(https://i.imgur.com/LrmoKik.jpg)

In a deserted mining town at the end of nowhere three desperate men fight over a suitcase full of cash.

Quote from: Letterboxd user Kevin PincusA suitcase full of money is a premise as old as the western genre itself, probably even older, and there's no shortage of slickly directed, well acted, top-quality grime-caked Eurowesterns. Deadlock stands ahead of the pack for a few reasons- namely, it's setting, an impossible-to-define wasteland beyond time dense with dusty, broken genre iconography, looking just alien enough that you can never quite put your finger on where and when you are. But let's be real- that's well and good, but this thing boasts a krautrockin' soundtrack by (The) Can, and if you need anything else to sell you on it, buddy, you might be beyond help. Play loud.



Up for pre-order (https://www.lisa-film-kollektion.de/product_info.php?info=p84_edv-14---deadlock---cover-b.html). Limited to 500 copies.


Quote from: jenkins on March 01, 2021, 08:30:43 PMgame is getting fierce
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 07, 2021, 01:15:18 PM
owing to the fact that I finally purchased Giuseppe Makes A Movie  (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WL256UY/), well, then I figured I should order a Giuseppe movie. so I did. Touch Me in the Morning (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BRBADS/), which apparently was distributed by Troma. so now I'll own a Troma release and, well, funny enough, another of their releases is on its way to me, Def by Temptation (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/def-by-temptation). obviously they're both distributed not produced by Troma but it is a bit of like, oh my god what I have done, to me. which makes me feel young again

I'll speak more about Giuseppe after I see his movie. apparently he's been missing since 2015 but that's after the movie came out. choosing disappearance over suicide is a wise move, respect
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 08, 2021, 07:57:06 PM
this movie with John Cassavetes as a doctor is supported by VS community members

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e53OMaiOZ4Q
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on March 08, 2021, 08:07:32 PM
Quote from: jenkins on March 07, 2021, 01:15:18 PM
owing to the fact that I finally purchased Giuseppe Makes A Movie  (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WL256UY/), well, then I figured I should order a Giuseppe movie. so I did. Touch Me in the Morning (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BRBADS/), which apparently was distributed by Troma. so now I'll own a Troma release and, well, funny enough, another of their releases is on its way to me, Def by Temptation (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/def-by-temptation). obviously they're both distributed not produced by Troma but it is a bit of like, oh my god what I have done, to me. which makes me feel young again

I'll speak more about Giuseppe after I see his movie. apparently he's been missing since 2015 but that's after the movie came out. choosing disappearance over suicide is a wise move, respect

Touch Me in the Morning iz brill. He was actually found by a young superfan. That itself iz its own odd tale. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWFsK4fzPJ4)

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 08, 2021, 08:21:00 PM
(https://media3.giphy.com/media/8cyro9Vo2FNhZ5mucq/200.gif)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 11, 2021, 12:06:34 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKZRWzOpEnM

I bought this so it's like
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 12, 2021, 07:58:54 PM
I adored Giuseppe Makes a Movie so severely. I'm afraid that it's going to be hard for the movies themselves to top the documentary. for example the movie he's making in the documentary is also included but I'm not rushing to it

a slight scratch on the used disc affects about 2-3secs of the movie and that drives me absolutely crazy but that's an unrelated side story
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 12, 2021, 10:40:33 PM
oh shit, okay. but then I watched the Giuseppe and that did rule for the reasons he described. for the feeling. when the homeless took over in Viridiana
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 14, 2021, 05:01:09 PM


I heard about Gas Pump Girls because my friend purchased it from Ronin Flix (https://roninflix.com/products/gas-pump-girls?_pos=1&_sid=539080d4e&_ss=r), although I watched it on amazon prime. I want to immediately mention that this is how I learned about the dp, Nicholas Josef von Sternberg (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003138/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr6), and right within his name is his father's name, he also shot Dolemite (his first dp job), Disco 9000, Petey Wheatstraw, Tourist Trap, Wacko, Joysticks, and, later, Texasville

okay but enough about him, I went to get into how much I liked this movie that isn't technically good. first of all its rhythm is super unusual, nothing out there like it. the speed of the movie is otherworldly, and I could never guess what would happen next. things magically happen in this movie. I have provided a video of the sole singing moment, although there is also a dance scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTV295EGtOk

this movie is not an anomalous occurrence and it's quite like other 70s movies, from American Graffiti to Grease, and today I learned about Skateboard (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076721/). but it's definitely a genre missing from us today, making its reappearance in Soggy Bottom you may have noticed
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on March 16, 2021, 10:18:54 PM
learned about this from Jeff Lieberman's Facebook page, which I clicked a link to (he's a member, it was mentioned) in the 326.6k strong Incredible Strange Films Facebook group

(https://i.imgur.com/unXxGzc.jpeg)
the back says:
QuoteIn this hilarious compilation of true stories (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P98BJYL/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb) , cult favorite writer-director Jeff Lieberman brings us along on a wild odyssey going in depth into his early work in the Golden Age of 70's horror with such classics as Squirm, Blue Sunshine, and Just Before Dawn, then on to award-winning network documentaries & mainstream entertainment. Political & social commentary has always been Lieberman's trademark & here he tells it like it was with the same unique comic voice and biting satire that's signified his work from the start.Lieberman's fearless and funny exploits reveal the events and relationships that influenced some of his greatest accomplishments. And failures. There's something for everyone here. Horror fans young and old will revel in Lieberman's colorful accounts of how his classic cult films came to fruition, while his fellow baby boomers get to be flies on the wall while the action plays out with some of the favorites of their generation, the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Rod Serling, John Lennon and many others. This eclectic mix covers Jeff's fifty years working in the industry, is illustrated with photos throughout and is sure to bring back some fun times in your life.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on April 12, 2021, 08:40:19 PM
May 11, 2021

Nouchka van Brakel's Van de koele meren des doods aka The Cool Lakes of Death (1982) on blu-ray from Cult Epics, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative

(https://i.imgur.com/XLupU85.jpg)

The film chronicles the tragic story of a wealthy woman whose sexual desires change her into a prostitute, working on the streets of Paris during the 1880s.

Quote from: Cult Epics*The new promotional trailer that is included below does not reflect the quality of the new 4K transfer that was created for the film. It is cut from the only existing 35mm work print and a vintage English language trailer.





Q4 2021 TBD

Max Pécas' Brigade des moeurs aka Death Brigade (1985) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro, from a 4K restoration. Also coming in UHD from Le chat qui fume later in the year, sans subtitles.

(https://i.imgur.com/8Vflck7.jpg)

When the investigation on a prostitute murder by the Paris vice department derails, one cop will stop at nothing for revenge.

NSFW




Summer 2021 TBD

Jean Rollin's Bacchanales Sexuelles (1974) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Le chat qui fume (France)

(https://i.imgur.com/tJoabVS.jpg)

Valerie, a beautiful young girl, watches over her cousin's place while he's away for six months. She spends her first night there reading, playing records and calling her girlfriend over for some hot lesbian sex! That night, members of a crazed sex cult break in and mistakenly kidnap Sophie. Valerie's cousin, a member of this cult, has some incriminating photos and the leader wants to ruin his life. Once the kidnapping plot is uncovered, Valerie and Sophie's horny friend Fred go to the cult's mansion stronghold to stop all this madness! And madness it is! This cult classic from Jean Rollin is an insane mix of humor and sex.

NSFW Trailer (https://vimeo.com/492032886)



2021 TBD

Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat (1972) on blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing

(https://i.imgur.com/IoMelsj.jpg)

Fritz is a feline college student of New York City in the '60s, using hippie buzzwords and fashion to score easy sex and drugs. After smoking some strong marijuana in Harlem, Fritz hallucinates and ignites a shooting incident with the police, resulting in the death of his friend Duke. Based on R. Crumb's underground comic character



Summer 2021 TBD

John J. McLaughlin's Death Collector (1988) on blu-ray from Culture Shock, from a 4K remaster

(https://i.imgur.com/mmPoj2Q.jpg)

In a future time, when things have reverted back to the days of the Old West, a man goes after the gang that murdered his brother.

Quote from: Letterboxd user Justine WieseA low budget, regionally shot, dystopian sorta-western that feels like an Alex Cox film with Lynchian overtones



July 20, 2021

Denis Héroux's Born for Hell (1976) on blu-ray from Severin, from a 2K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/uR68PGW.jpg)

Loosely based on the notorious Richard Speck murders, this is the grim tale of a disturbed Vietnam vet returning home via Belfast, who invades a house shared by eight nurses and proceeds to terrorize and murder them.





2021 TBD

Tinto Brass's first feature Chi Lavora E'Perdto aka Who Works Is Lost (1963) on blu-ray from Raro Video, limited to 1,000 copies. Up for pre-order (https://www.rarovideousa.com/films/pre-order-only-chi-lavora-e-perduto-who-works-is-lost-1963-directed-by-tinto-brass).

(https://i.imgur.com/txsLmal.jpg)

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.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on April 18, 2021, 08:59:00 PM
Rachel Kushner, who is a cool writer as much as that can happen, published her book of essays, The Hard Crowd, and in it she writes about the Italian movie Anna (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0791101/). now, any nerd knows how to be a nerd, and this is a prime selection because mainly Italians review it on letterboxd (https://letterboxd.com/film/anna-1975/) and its wiki presence is Italian, too (https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_(film_1975)). she is appreciating what's underappreciated

she'll be introing at at the Metrograph (https://metrograph.com/live-screenings/rachel-kushner-presents-anna/) on April 21, following which it will be available on demand for a week. photos and trailers are in the link. it's 225 MIN long so it's too long for me and this is being catalogued. if someone watches it, great, I'd hear about it. it's direct cinema (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_cinema) and Kushner writes its synopsis like this

QuoteAnna, by Albert Grifi and Massimo Sarchielli, shot mostly in 1972, holds in it every seed and secret component of the political explosion that was to come in Italy, a tout court rejection of bourgeois life, a dream that crested in the year 1977, and then was made a nightmare, on account of a repression that swept Italy. If Anna is the mother of all films about Italy in the 1970s, Anna, a pregnant, depressed, beautiful, charismatic, and drug-addicted teenager, is something like the mother of Italy in the 1970s. She gives life, and then lice, to her exploiters, who capture her on film. This movie is near-impossible to see in the U.S. So now is when you should see it. Anna was living on the streets when the filmmakers met her, but she will take up permanent residence in the minds of all who see this film. She disappeared, never to be heard from again, but you won't be able to forget her.

Kushner's essay was slightly revised for the book but also available online (https://www.artforum.com/print/201209/woman-in-revolt-alberto-grifi-and-massimo-sarchielli-s-anna-36151)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on April 26, 2021, 03:12:30 PM
for a moment I'd been asking for a Jean Rollin recommendation but then I realized that at the time I was thinking about a Jess Franco movie and it all felt overwhelming
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on April 29, 2021, 10:44:09 PM
Quote from: jenkins on February 22, 2021, 05:13:13 PM
A bootlegger People's Court episode that's famous in cult land

[oh shit, the YouTube link is missing]

fyi: in cult circles he's become a meme, the owner of the distribution company (http://www.massacrevideo.com). if you see this someone is responding to a person whose reason for making a decision is highly questionable

(https://i.imgur.com/1krItIB.jpeg)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on May 15, 2021, 09:33:17 PM
the upcoming "UHD two pack" from VS is speculated to be Scanner Cop 1 & 2, which I had never heard about, and are connected to the Scanners movie by Cronenberg

QuoteScanner Cop is a 1994 Canadian film. It is the fourth film in the Scanners series and the first film in the Scanner Cop series. It was written, produced, and directed by Pierre David. Daniel Quinn stars as the title character, a police officer with psychic powers.

(https://i.imgur.com/ItN28uq.jpeg)

QuoteSam Staziak, a rookie cop with the Los Angeles Police Department, is also a 'Scanner' (a person born with telepathic and telekinetic abilities). When a string of murders begins to decimate the police department, Sam faces sensory overload and possible insanity as he uses his powers to hunt the man responsible for the killings.

(https://i.imgur.com/hJI5wYX.jpg)

QuoteScanners: The Showdown (also known as Scanner Cop II) is a 1995 American science fiction film directed by Steve Barnett. It is the sequel to Scanner Cop and the fifth film in the Scanners series. Daniel Quinn returns as a psychic police officer who searches for a serial killer who targets other psychics.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on May 15, 2021, 09:34:06 PM
May 25, 2021

Norbert Meisel's Walking the Edge (1985) on blu-ray from Fun City Editions, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative

(https://i.imgur.com/Ai16diD.jpg)

Cult movie icons Robert Forster (Medium Cool) and Joe Spinell (Maniac) star with Nancy Kwan (Flower Drum Song) in Norbert Meisel's gritty action drama Walking the Edge. Jason Walk (Forster), a down on his luck cabbie and numbers runner, has a chance at redemption when he crosses paths with revenge-seeking Christine Holloway (Kwan). She's after the gang of violent criminals, led by Brusstar (Spinell), who her murdered her husband and son. Jason unwittingly drives Christine to their lair and when she is unable to finish the job, a hellbent Brusstar and his goons hunt the pair with a vengeance.

Jason Walk's cab prowls the seedier, grimier locales of early '80s Los Angeles and picks up passengers—gamblers, prostitutes and addicts—who match this environment. As such, Walking the Edge is both a sleazy urban thriller and a valuable visual record of an L.A. that has long since been scrubbed clean and redeveloped. And like Max Cherry in Jackie Brown, Jason Walk is the kind of everyman-turned hero that Forster excelled at playing throughout his career.






July 27, 2021

Virginie Despentes' Baise-moi (2000) on blu-ray from Kino

(https://i.imgur.com/Yt7v2TS.jpg)

Manu has lived a difficult life. Abused and violently raped, she sets off to find herself only to meet Nadine, a prostitute who has encountered one too many injustices in the world. Angry at the world, they embark on a twisted, rage-filled road trip. They choose to have sex when they please and kill when they need. Leaving a trail of mischief and dead bodies in their wake. Generating a media blitz and manhunt, soon everyone is out to capture the young fugitives.



August 3, 2021

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1982) is being reissued on blu-ray from Code Red

(https://i.imgur.com/IooJvuB.jpg)

An orphaned teenager finds himself being dominated by his aunt who's hell-bent on keeping him with her...at all costs.



2021 TBD

Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires (1965) on blu-ray from Kino, from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/KRqns8h.jpg)

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...



September 7, 2021

Joe D'Amato's Crazy Nights (1978) on blu-ray from Full Moon Features

(https://i.imgur.com/cQzyfUt.jpg)

"Italian exploitation icon Joe D'Amato's outrageous and rarely seen 1978 "mondo" movie meltdown CRAZY NIGHTS (aka Follie di notte) is one the strangest snapshots of the disco era you'll ever see.

The legendary and controversial performer Amanda Lear appears here as herself, singing her signature dance floor hit "Follow Me" while D'Amato's camera uses her as an entry point into the glamorous, eccentric, often depraved annals of Rome's after hours nightclub scene. But that's only scratching the surface. CRAZY NIGHTS then meanders - in true "mondo" fashion - all over the world, filling the screen with strippers, sex and ritualistic absurdity, all set to the beat of Lear's sultry cabaret pop sound. Lear - who famously dated David Bowie, was the cover girl for many Roxy Music records and long served as Salvador Dali's lover and muse - was at the peak of her popularity when she signed on to film CRAZY NIGHTS.

Originally pitched as a musical centered around her fame called FOLLOW ME, Lear believed the movie to be incomplete until - to her shock - it turned up in Italian theaters under the name Follie di notte. Horrified to discover that she had been tricked into starring in a full-blown exploitation film, Lear sued the producers, one of many reasons CRAZY NIGHTS has lapsed into virtual obscurity. Full Moon is pumped to be presenting this delirious and decidedly adult pseudo-documentary in its fully uncut edit, remastered from the original negative. Get ready for the wildest and weirdest "mondo" movie ever made!"






July 27, 2021

Dario Argento's Cat O'Nine Tails (1971) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Arrow

(https://i.imgur.com/wAuzitF.jpg)

A reporter and a retired, blind journalist try to solve a series of killings and in so doing, both become targets of the killer.



August 24, 2021

Dario Argento & George Romero's Two Evil Eyes (1990) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Blue Underground

(https://i.imgur.com/4wNY8gh.jpg)

The masters of modern horror – George Romero and Dario Argento – bring you an unprecedented pair of shockers inspired by the tales of Edgar Allan Poe. In Romero's 'The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar', a conniving wife (Adrienne Barbeau of THE FOG) and her lover use a hypnotic trance to embezzle a fortune from her dying husband, only to receive some chilling surprises from beyond the grave. Then in Argento's 'The Black Cat', a deranged crime scene photographer (Harvey Keitel of RESERVOIR DOGS) is driven to brutal acts of madness and murder by his girlfriend's new pet. But will this cunning feline deliver a final sickening twist of its own?



July 6, 2021

Willard Huyck's Howard the Duck (1986) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Universal

(https://i.imgur.com/s5bTy18.jpg)

Howard the Duck is suddenly beamed from Duckworld, a planet of intelligent ducks with arms and legs, to Earth, where he lands in Cleveland. There he saves rocker Beverly (Lea Thompson) from thugs and forms a friendship with her. She introduces him to Phil (Tim Robbins), who works at a lab with scientist Dr. Jenning (Jeffrey Jones). When the doctor attempts to return Howard to his world, Jenning instead transfers an evil spirit into his own body.



Quote from: wilder on March 01, 2021, 08:19:14 PMMay 11, 2021

Yasuzo Masumura's Giants and Toys (1958) On blu-ray from Arrow

(https://i.imgur.com/9O27vap.jpg)

Making its worldwide Blu-ray debut, this lurid adaptation of the award-winning 1957 novel by Ken Kaiko is considered a landmark in Japanese film history and a key work by Yasuzo Masumura (Blind Beast, Red Angel), one of the country's most highly acclaimed directors of his generation. Its absurdist and acidly cynical take on the excesses of the media and advertising worlds recalls the work of Frank Tashlin (Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?), as it presents a garish vision of a bold new postwar Japan where traditional company values come head-to-head with American-style consumer capitalism.





Quote from: wilder on April 12, 2021, 08:40:19 PMSummer 2021 TBD

John J. McLaughlin's Death Collector (1988) on blu-ray from Culture Shock, from a 4K remaster

(https://i.imgur.com/mmPoj2Q.jpg)

In a future time, when things have reverted back to the days of the Old West, a man goes after the gang that murdered his brother.

Quote from: Letterboxd user Justine WieseA low budget, regionally shot, dystopian sorta-western that feels like an Alex Cox film with Lynchian overtones

Up for pre-order (https://www.cultureshockreleasing.com/product-page/death-collector-special-edition-blu-ray) from Culture Shock

(https://i.imgur.com/eu1FYTL.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/MTgk0nk.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/uACYUwC.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/SOpSFpW.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/V28LU3M.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/kxfCpYp.jpg)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on May 17, 2021, 07:31:51 PM
totally recommend listening to this and imagine she's talking about you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5BFrJEmbak
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on May 18, 2021, 07:02:43 PM
Def by Temptation  (https://letterboxd.com/film/def-by-temptation/) is an Ernest Dickerson-shot supernatural horror movie that borrows from Mario Bava and Videodrome, written directed and produced by James Bond III, an actor who only directed this one movie. this is his Night of the Hunter. the Videodrome-inspired sequence is well done and I'd share it if i had found it sitting around on YouTube
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on May 20, 2021, 10:19:57 PM
of interest to me: this (https://www.thunderbeanshop.com/product/1941-animated-feature-special-blu-ray-bd-r/) is a special, unlicensed release of Mr. Bug Goes to Town (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Bug_Goes_to_Town), the second and last Fleischer animated feature ever made, following Gulliver's Travels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulliver%27s_Travels_(1939_film)), at the very beginning of animated features
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on May 25, 2021, 03:19:49 PM
https://twitter.com/bigsmashkierla/status/1397256891923722241

Holy shit Severin's cover of CANNIBAL MAN (1972)
NSFW/gorewarning
Spoiler: ShowHide
 https://twitter.com/SeverinFilms/status/1397282865100988416
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on May 27, 2021, 08:22:01 PM
2021 TBD

Grigori Kromanov's The Dead Mountaineer's Hotel (1979) on blu-ray from Camera Obscura (Germany). Will include English subtitles.

(https://i.imgur.com/IG4dy1D.jpg)

After receiving an anonymous phone call, police inspector Glebsky embarks on a journey to a remote mountain hotel to uncover a group of international terrorists. However, almost immediately after his arrival, an avalanche cuts the hotel off from the rest of the world and the situation changes drastically. The surreal nature of events and circumstances ultimately leads inspector Glebsky to question his sanity.

This Estonian adaptation of the eponymous novel by the Strugatsky Brothers (renowned authors of sci-fi classics such as HARD TO BE A GOD and ROADSIDE PICNIC, the source for Tarkovsky's STALKER) is a stylistically striking exploration of a fictional world that mirrors the Soviet one. The visual richness – the film is known for its unorthodox camera angles, vivid colors, and unearthly sounds – as well as the gripping script and unforgettable characters, has made THE DEAD MOUNTAINEER'S HOTEL a cult film.



This is a bucket list blu-ray release for me. You can currently watch the entire film in HD, for free, on Anthology Film Archives' vimeo channel (https://vimeo.com/541192256).
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on June 09, 2021, 09:12:22 PM
omg, this was released by VS days ago. i don't think they're Tarkovsky fans but this level of film nerdery is fun to witness

A cover of the Champagne & Bullets title song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebTlSXcJy0Q
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on June 11, 2021, 06:31:41 PM
August 31, 2021

David Lynch's Dune (1984) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Arrow

(https://i.imgur.com/k4qsu0b.jpg)

A Duke's son leads desert warriors against the galactic emperor and his father's evil nemesis when they assassinate his father and free their desert world from the emperor's rule.



August 24, 2021

Yasuzô Masumura's Blind Beast (1969) on blu-ray from Arrow

(https://i.imgur.com/JpHAFwS.jpg)

Blind Beast is a grotesque portrait of the bizarre relationship between a blind sculptor and his captive muse, adapted from a short story from Japan's foremost master of the macabre, Edogawa Rampo (Horrors of Malformed Men, The Black Lizard, Caterpillar).

An artist's model, Aki (Mako Midori), is abducted, and awakens in a dark warehouse studio whose walls are decorated with outsized women's body parts – eyes, lips, legs and breasts – and dominated by two recumbent giant statues of male and female nudes. Her kidnapper introduces himself as Michio (Eiji Funakoshi), a blind sculptor whom she had witnessed previously at an exhibition in which she featured intently caressing a statue of her naked torso. Michio announces his intention of using her to sculpt the perfect female form. At first defiant, she eventually succumbs to his intense fixation on her body and finds herself drawn into his sightless world, in which touch is everything.

Blind Beast is a masterpiece of erotic horror that explores the all-encompassing and overwhelming relationship between the artist and his art and the obsessive closed world that the artist inhabits, with maestro director Yasuzo Masumura (Giants and Toys, Irezumi) conjuring up a hallucinogenic dreamworld in which sensual and creative urges combine with a feverish intensity.




November 2021

Sylvia Kristel 1970s Collection (1974-1978) on blu-ray from Cult Epics

(https://i.imgur.com/7ryYtQy.jpg)

QuotePLAYING WITH FIRE (France, 1975) Alain Robbe-Grillet. Bonus features: 2K Transfer, Audio Commentary by Tim Lucas, Interview with Catherine Robbe-Grillet and more tba.

PASTORALE 1943 (Netherlands, 1978) Wim Verstappen. Bonus features: 2K Transfer, Audio Commentary by Peter Verstraten, Vintage Interviews 1978 HD, Theatrical HD Trailers and more tba.

MYSTERIES (Netherlands, 1978) Paul de Lussanet. Bonus features: 2K Transfer, Audio Commentaries by Peter Verstraten and Jeremy Richey, Vintage Interviews 1978 HD, Theatrical HD Trailer and more tba.

JULIA (Germany, 1974) Sigi Rothemund. Bonus features: 2K Transfer, Audio Commentary by Jeremy Richey, Theatrical HD Trailer and more tba.

NSFW


Clips from the other films in this set here (https://vimeo.com/cultepics)



August 31, 2021

Walerian Borowczyk's Love Rites (1987) on blu-ray from Kino

(https://i.imgur.com/z9vWjqH.jpg)

Love Rites (Cérémonie d'amour) is cult director Walerian Borowczyk's (The Beast) subversively erotic final feature. He returns with a vengeance to a signature theme—emasculation. Vain clothing buyer Hugo (Mathieu Carrière) meets beautiful Myriam (Marina Pierro) on the subway and pursues her, discovering to his delight that she's a prostitute. The crafty Myriam, of course, has more in mind for their encounter than smug Hugo bargained for. Love Rites turns the sexual tables with perverse exactitude.



August 16, 2021

Domenico Paolella's The Nun and the Devil (1973) on blu-ray from 88 Films (UK)

(https://i.imgur.com/1u4HfT8.jpg)

Directed by Domenico Paolella (The Prey/The Story of a Cloistered Nun), The Nun and the Devil AKA Le Monache di Sant'Arcangelo is a headily erotic tale of seduction and persecution detailing the sinful practices which spill out of a 16th century convent. When the psychotically ambitious Sister Julia (Anna Heywood) vies to take the place of a dying Mother Superior by any means possible, other inmates start to lose their way, indulging in heterosexual flings and lesbian coupling. But things take a nasty turn when the nuns are subjected to a violent inquisition and their existence becomes one of torture and degradation.

Made just two years after Ken Russell's notorious The Devils (1971), this 1973 film sought to offer a corruption of the innocent style plot which monopolised on the short-lived wave of nunsploitation features, incorporating graphic horrors, soft-pornography and historical drama. Loosely based on authentic records, this sordid tale of religion and power will delight lovers of extreme Italian exploitation cinema.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on June 11, 2021, 10:18:38 PM
Yes (https://roughcutfanclub.com/)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on June 16, 2021, 02:21:12 PM
so Paul Morrissey's Blood for Dracula is being released on 4K during Severin's midyear sale, and the nature of the physical media game has shifted such that it "debuts Saturday, June 26 at 11:59:59 PM EST and will ONLY be available for the remainder of the sale."
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on June 21, 2021, 04:51:04 PM
followed by VS's announcement:

QuoteWe know this announcement is a bit unusual, but due to the plethora of rumors and misinformation currently circulating online, we felt we should put all the conspiracies to bed and formally confirm that YES, we are going to release FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN in Real 3D & 4K UHD, under exclusive, worldwide, license from its director and copyright holder, Paul Morrissey.
Our release, which has been newly scanned in 4K from the original, 35mm over-under, Stereoscopic camera negative (which has never been accessed for any other home video edition) is being restored by the 3-D Film Archive, LLC and looks absolutely stunning. It will be released later this year.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilberfan on June 21, 2021, 05:17:08 PM
Saw FLESH in 3D at FILMEX back in the day... Probably '74?
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on June 22, 2021, 03:21:37 PM
Quote from: wilder on May 30, 2021, 03:30:09 AM
You’ve definitely gone farther down this lane than I have. I never thought my cinephile adventures would take me here, but most mainstream movies are no longer showing me something I’m uncomfortable to see, and if a movie can’t hurt me why would I watch it?

"I can't remember which American writer it was who, I heard him speak and he said his job was to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable.  (https://youtu.be/iGLzWdT7vGc?t=3234)

There's something comforting about being able to inhabit somebody else, but there's also something very uncomfortable about it; because usually the experiences that person is having are just the ones that I don't like or that I haven't worked out. And it seems to me that the biggest split isn't between music and literature or music and sculpture - where, there are forms of art that offer us escapes from ourselves and our daily lives - and I think that's fine, in small doses - and then there are kinds of art which offer us more sort of confrontational with our own lives. And I don't think it's surprising that there isn't as much demand or money in the latter, because it's more difficult and less pleasant sometimes. And it takes skill and education to get good enough at reading or listening to be able to derive pleasure from it.

There's class stuff involved here that gets very tricky."

Just watched this interview for the first time today^


And there's a Carpenter interview  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nkzUwLmbW4&t=887s)that I've seen maybe three timez now. Herein Carpenter, you know, emphasizes that he doesn't like pretension. And so one could assume he's aiming at a specific audience ie the former to what DFW details and not the latter. Yet, in Carpenter's films - as Donald Pleasance highlights at the end bits here - there's nuance to the tone that affordz it a Grindhouse sensibility with a strong intent toward thematic substance. Donald's term "overwritten."

John Carpenter "My intention is to entertain. Thematic material is different than a message."

I wonder about this distinction between material plenty. Wherein the sensation can play to more than one sensibility or taste. Comfort and discomfort at once. Certainly it seemz that cult cinema (or genre cinema?) gets to be more playful in form than anything else. Most importantly, it can explore the intellect of sensation, maybe? As jenkins mentioned Giallo iz all feeling. And yet, sheesh, right, we could write about giallo for yearz!
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on June 23, 2021, 01:31:14 AM
I consider that a valuable topic and I've been deliberating how to respond, and at this point in time I believe the most succinct and substantive way to respond is to mention that Seven Samurai is a genre movie. it doesn't really matter how you create so much as you create with all of your effort. Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai is a gorgeous, flawless, genius book that's about raising a son who "gets it" and he is taught Greek and Shakespeare etc, and as the title suggests he is taught Seven Samurai too. basically whatever it is understand its capabilities to their fullest extent or why bother
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on June 23, 2021, 01:40:50 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/dv5MtOi.jpeg)

QuoteIt's finally time to share the details on our big sale title! BLOOD FOR DRACULA will be a 3-disc set with slip case. The first disc is a UHD with the film in 4K HDR. The second disc is a blu-ray with a 1080P presentation of the film, along with bonus features. The third disc is a newly mastered, extended version of the CD soundtrack. Check out the full disc specs below.
Special Features for Blood For Dracula:
*Trans-Human Flesh And Blood – Interview With Director Paul Morrissey
*Rubinia's Homecoming – Interview & Location Visit With Actress Stefania Casini
*Blood For Udo – Interview With Actor Udo Kier
*Little Big Joe – Interview With Actor Joe Dallesandro
*Conversation With A Vampire – Audio Interview With Actress Milena Vukotic
*Bloodthirsty – Interview With Assistant Director Paolo Pietrangeli
*Black Cherry – Interview With Art Director Gianni Giovagnoni
*The Blood Of These Whores... – Interview With "Murderous Passions"
Author Stephen Thrower
*Sad, Romantic Dracula – Interview With Soundtrack Composer Claudio Gizzi
*The Roman Connection – Interview With Producer Andrew Braunsberg
*Trailers
*CD Soundtrack - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Composed,
Orchestrated, And Conducted By Claudio Gizzi
Feature Specs for Blood For Dracula:
*Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions: English SDH
*Region: All

Quote from: jenkins on June 16, 2021, 02:21:12 PM
so Paul Morrissey's Blood for Dracula is being released on 4K during Severin's midyear sale, and the nature of the physical media game has shifted such that it "debuts Saturday, June 26 at 11:59:59 PM EST and will ONLY be available for the remainder of the sale."
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on June 28, 2021, 04:52:03 PM
Quote from: jenkins on June 28, 2021, 04:15:34 PM
Hellzapoppin' (1941) on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2TOriWWSLE&fbclid=IwAR0MUbtNxhHyDX8jhi36g5u_Ah3SHzJlGyMIpNcRk0bgJnnrmJqqu3DSzg8)

the song for its most-famous moment starts at 48:00, the dance begins at 50:34
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on July 22, 2021, 05:02:00 AM
2022 TBD

A 4K restoration of Stephen Sayadian's Dr. Caligari (1989) is being presented at Fantasia Fest 2021 (https://fantasiafestival.com/en/film/dr-caligari?fbclid=IwAR3qIHHUqj0glSnyyN-bXmQOFqNNWhJhhzc2kvmzHy-C8kr3SRqA_tnt6AY) by Mondo Macabro. 4K UHD blu-ray coming early next year.

(https://i.imgur.com/dXY9l7G.jpg)

In 1989, Stephen Sayadian, aka Rinse Dream, released one of the most iconic and fantastical works in American exploitation cinema. For the first time since its release, thanks to a new restoration, it will finally find its audience, and retroactively be appreciated as the underground masterpiece that it is. Bizarre, stunning, goofy and unsettling, DR. CALIGARI embraces the avant-garde in its exquisite and hilarious exploitation of America's repressed libido. As the film's title might suggest, the film is a loose remake of the German Expressionist classic, following Mrs. Van Houten, a woman who seems to be losing touch with reality, and her treatment under Dr. Caligari, who diagnoses her with a "disease of the libido". Far more than just narratively similar, Sayadian's background in set design and art keeps with the silent classic's highly stylized design, updated with the bright, disorienting commercialism of 1980s Americana. DR. CALIGARI might be one of the American cinema's most incisive and unique portraits of national excess ever to grace the screen.

Above all else, though, the film has a biting and over-the-top sense of humour. The dialogue is ripe with delicious one-liners ("My feelings are like filthy prayers I want to scream into your face") and incredible visual gags. In just the first few minutes of the film, we get the first visual joke as SMPTE colour bars slowly peel away to reveal a naked woman lounging on a couch. Aware that some omniscient force is exposing her nudism, she tries to hide behind the disappearing bars. In rare exploitation form, DR. CALIGARI maintains its wild and intoxicating energy throughout, pulling the audience deep into its erotic nightmare world, in an experience not soon to be forgotten.






July 26, 2021

Juraz Herz's Beauty and the Beast (1978) on blu-ray from Second Sight (UK)

(https://i.imgur.com/x8HgMg3.jpg)

From Juraj Herz, director of The Cremator and Morgiana, comes this singular adaption of the classic tale - an altogether darker interpretation than we're used to. Light years from Disney, Herz's Beauty and the Beast (also known more provocatively as The Virgin and the Monster) follows the familiar story - innocent girl presents herself as sacrifice to a cursed man-beast hiding in exile, and learns to live with, and eventually love her captor - but is transformed into something entirely more twisted and terrifying in Herz's macabre re-imagining.

(https://i.imgur.com/XCIyRf2.jpg)



September 6, 2021

Marco Ferreri's The Ape Woman (1964) on blu-ray from Cult Films (UK), from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/vYnfZm0.jpg)

The Ape Woman is inspired by a true story of the cruel exploitation of a young carnival performer, Julia Pastrana, whose body was completely covered in hair. She is brought to life here by an extraordinary Annie Girardot - France's highest-paid actress at the time - in a natural measured and elegant performance from which emanates the ambiguous emotion of being alluring yet devastatingly poignant as "the ape woman". An unscrupulous hustler (the magnificent Ugo Tognazzi) discovers the young woman in a convent and marries her in order to get her on the freak show circuit and to cash in on the distinctive appearance of her body and face fully covered in hairs.



August 31, 2021

Byron Mabe's She Freak (1967) on blu-ray from AGFA, from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/WNghMd0.jpg)

Fed up with waitressing, Jade Cochran (Claire Brennen) embarks on a new life with a traveling carnival. But she discovers that what lurks behind the curtain doesn't take too kindly to her backstabbing plans. A gutter-noir reworking Tod Browning's FREAKS and a valentine to the carnival lifestyle that defined the career of producer David F. Friedman (BLOOD FEAST), SHE FREAK is a snapshot of life, love, and revenge on the grounds of a seedy carnival in Smalltown, USA.





October 19, 2021

Bill Lustig's Maniac Cop 2 (1990) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Blue Underground

(https://i.imgur.com/t0wrrK8.jpg)

This sequel to Maniac Cop pits Matt Cordell (Robert Z'dar), the crazed, murderous "Maniac Cop" of the first film (now horribly disfigured after a particularly brutal stay in prison), and Turkel (Leo Rossi), a serial killer who likes to murder strippers, against a frenzied NYPD detective, Sean McKinney (Robert Davi), who is just one step ahead of a nervous breakdown.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on July 27, 2021, 07:17:52 PM
two powers combine forces 1 pre-code 2 weed isn't illegal yet. the movie is titled Murder at the Vanities and it's a murder mystery that takes place behind the scenes of a stage show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjdETBXwDo8
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on August 01, 2021, 04:29:08 PM
this month from AGFA and VS:

(https://i.imgur.com/cv3g0Xb.jpeg)(https://i.imgur.com/zm3veOh.jpeg)

Fed up with waitressing, Jade Cochran (Claire Brennen) embarks on a new life with a traveling carnival. But she discovers that what lurks behind the curtain doesn't take too kindly to her backstabbing plans. A gutter-noir reworking Tod Browning's FREAKS and a valentine to the carnival lifestyle that defined the career of producer David F. Friedman (BLOOD FEAST), SHE FREAK is a snapshot of life, love, and revenge on the grounds of a seedy carnival in Smalltown, USA -- complete with crackpot monster make-up effects from Harry Thomas (PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE). Like Devo's music and Ed Wood's novels, SHE FREAK creates a synthetic reality that is often preferable to our own. AGFA + Something Weird are beyond excited to present a dazzling 4K restoration of this essential weirdo classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKBP_li0UMU


(https://i.imgur.com/9CiQqKD.jpeg)(https://i.imgur.com/rFnSxNg.jpeg)

After a two week bender, Tim Madden awakens one morning from his drunken state, only to discover everything in his life seems amiss. There's a fresh tattoo on his arm, his car is covered in blood, his girlfriend is in bed with the town sheriff, but worst of all, there's a woman's severed head in his weed stash. Sensing a setup and in desperate need to clear his name, Tim begins an investigation, with the help of his dying father, that soon begins to expose an ever stranger web of corruption, greed, blackmail, and violence woven into every aspect of the small coastal community of Provincetown.

The last feature film directed by Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Norman Mailer, TOUGH GUYS DON'T DANCE is a wild, labyrinthian, neo-noir black comedy starring Ryan O'Neal (Love Story) alongside acclaimed actors Isabella Rossellini (Blue Velvet), Wings Hauser (Vice Squad), Lawrence Tierney (Reservoir Dogs), and more. Equal parts brutally violent, suspenseful, and blisteringly funny, Vinegar Syndrome is proud to present the long overdue Blu-ray debut of TOUGH GUYS DON'T DANCE, newly restored in 2K from its 35mm interpositive, and featuring revealing new interviews with its cast and crew.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on August 01, 2021, 06:31:03 PM


moment @ 45 seconds ranks as one of the best laughs ever
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on August 01, 2021, 08:44:31 PM
^ nice

ETR Media's second release arrived, trailer is NWS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfBTOZu2jik
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: tpfkabi on August 01, 2021, 10:40:18 PM
Have you seen the Eugenio Mira film, The Birthday (2004), starring Corey Feldman? I saw somewhere where Feldman said it was his best acting, so I was curious. Then I found out it has no US DVD release, but seems to only have foreign ones. Found it on YouTube. It's very stylish and Lynch seems to be the biggest influence. Feldman uses a voice sorta like Jerry Lewis and acts a little Egan awkward. PDL may have been an inspiration. I would like the chance to see it in HD on Blu-ray. The director later did Grand Piano, written by Damien Chazelle. I own it, but haven't watched it. I think I will try to watch it soon now.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on August 04, 2021, 06:59:40 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/Mxh1mhf.jpeg)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: jenkins on August 06, 2021, 03:37:41 PM
^ that figure is starting out at 99 cents. how much will it go for???

https://www.ebay.com/itm/373674140939?hash=item5700b6e50b:g:kxoAAOSw1XBhDZZa
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on October 21, 2021, 03:33:14 PM
December 28, 2021

Iván Zulueta's Arrebato (1979) on blu-ray from Altered Innocence, from a new 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/mtqce08.jpg)

ARREBATO's dimension-shattering blend of heroin, sex, and Super-8 is the final word on cinemania. This towering feat of counterculture was the final feature of cult filmmaker and movie poster designer Iván Zulueta - is a film without genre, and is Pedro Almodóvar's favorite horror film!

Horror movie director José is adrift in a sea of doubt and drugs. As his belated second feature nears completion, his reclusive bubble is popped by two events: a sudden reappearance from an ex-girlfriend and a package from past acquaintance Pedro: a reel of Super-8 film, an audiotape, and a door key. From there, the boundaries of time, space, and sexuality are erased as José is once more sucked into Pedro's vampiric orbit. Together, they attempt the ultimate hallucinogenic catharsis through a moebius strip of filming and being filmed.






2022 TBD

Garth Maxwell's Jack Be Nimble (1993) on blu-ray from Altered Innocence, from a new 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/TbpxD3L.jpg)

Jack and Dora, abandoned by their parents as babies, are desperate to find each other after years of adoption. Jack's (Alexis Arquette) young life has been spent with a sadistic family. Dora (Sarah Smuts-Kennedy), whose life has been somewhat better, has developed extra-sensory powers which tell her that Jack's in danger and drives her to search for him.

Unrestored Trailer


(https://i.imgur.com/LnJ2Ai4.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/6mraDt5.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/NKCkYo2.jpg)



November 2021

Shinya Tsukamoto's Hiruko the Goblin (1991) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro

(https://i.imgur.com/6FxbeY7.jpg)

Former pop sensation Kenji Sawada stars as a discredited archeologist who's drawn to a rural school following a rash of strange disappearances, only to find the institution was built on a gateway to evil housing head-ripping demonic entities searching for new hosts. Can he and a group of students figure out how to stop the creatures before all hell literally breaks loose?

Based on a manga by Daijiro Morohoshi, Tsukamoto was afforded the chance to direct this feature adaptation following the surprise international success of his amazing cyberpunk debut, TETSUO THE IRON MAN (1989). While it's more of a traditional film both narratively and stylistically, it's still full of bizarre delights—the decapitated heads running around on spider legs are quite memorable—and it's quite fun to see Tsukamoto try his hand at the most pure horror title of his career – albeit one with a twisted sense of humor.






November 2021

Pedro Ramírez's School of Death aka El colegio de la muerte (1975) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative

(https://i.imgur.com/T9CZcvj.jpg)

The outwardly respectable St. Elizabeth's Refuge in Victorian London is a place where young orphans and other female waifs and strays are trained to be good servants, destined for employment in the houses of upstanding citizens. One by one the girls are sent out into the world, never to be seen again.

The headmistress, Miss Wilkins, is a firm disciplinarian. Any of her girls who seem rebellious or wanton will be taken to the punishment room and given a good whipping by her willing assistant, Miss Colton. But should the girls fall into the hands of the sinister Dr. Krueger, their fate will be even worse.

One of the most rebellious students, Leonore - played by Spanish actress Sandra Mozarowsky - is determined to find out what happened to her friend Sylvia, who died after being sent to a rich man's house one night. What she discovers is more horrifying and twisted than she could ever have imagined. But will she live to tell the tale?






November 2021

Georg Tressler's Sukkubus (1989) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative

(https://i.imgur.com/2HfHtpQ.jpg)

This film is the story of that sacrilege and its punishment.

There's much talk these days of "folk horror". This film is the real deal, based on a gruesome and ancient story, much retold by people who live in the Alps – the huge mountain range that spans six European countries. In the summer the three herdsmen, two adults and a young apprentice took their cattle high up on the mountains where the pastures are richer. At night, holed up in their cabin there was little for them to do. Inevitably, their thoughts turned to sex. But as they were three men... what could they do? The more reckless of the men tried it on with the young boy but was soon put in his place by the group's leader, who was himself combating lustful thoughts through prayer.

One day the boy finds a peculiar tree root shaped like a face. He brings it back to the hut and makes a kind of wig for it out of old straw. That night the two older men get drunk and, seeing the strange root, they decide to use it to make a life-sized female doll, using bits of old clothing, straw and wood. They baptize their creation with strong liquor and even offer it food. And then, to their shock, the doll comes to life in the form of a beautiful woman. And that's where their nightmare really starts. Resisting their abuse of her body, the demonic doll hunts them down one by one and takes a terrible revenge.


NSFW




November 2021

Paolo Levi & Giuseppe Zaccariello'sThe Laughing Woman aka Femina ridens (1969) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro

(https://i.imgur.com/jj24WOB.jpg)

A rich and sadistic man, who enjoys degrading women as part of elaborate S&M games, abducts a female journalist. She is subjected to his unpleasant games but soon begins subverting him.



November 23, 2021

Richard Friedman's Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge (1989) on blu-ray from Arrow

(https://i.imgur.com/eXxfbxp.jpg)

With numerous interpretations of Gaston Leroux's classic novel The Phantom of the Opera having been turned out over the years, it was only a matter of time before the slasher genre decided to take a stab at the tale – step forward 1989's Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge!

High school sweethearts Eric Matthews and Melody Austin are so in love, but their youthful romance is cut tragically short when Eric apparently dies in a fire that engulfs his family home. One year later and Melody is trying to move on with her life, taking up a job at the newly built Midwood Mall along with her friends. But the mall, which stands on the very site of Eric's former home, has an uninvited guest – a shadowy, scarred figure which haunts its airducts and subterranean passageways, hellbent on exacting vengeance on the mall's crooked developers.






October 5, 2021

Gary L. Keady's Sons of Steel (1988) on blu-ray from Future Video. Available to order here (https://future-video.tv/products/sons-of-steel-blu-ray)

(https://i.imgur.com/YZ73UJC.jpg)

The heavy metal futuristic action-packed adventure Sons of Steel is set in 21st century Sydney, Australia. Black Alice, rock star and man of peace, is trapped  by the fascist government and accidentally transported  into the future to witness the results of nuclear devastation. His grim discovery that he is directly responsible leads him to travel back from the future to save mankind from destruction.

Available for the first time in North America in this restored and remastered release from a 2K scan of the surviving 35mm elements, Sons of Steel is the lost sci-fi, time-traveling post-apocalyptic Ozploitation musical you'll never forget!






October 12, 2021

Augusti Villaronga's 99.9 (1997) on blu-ray from Cult Epics

(https://i.imgur.com/ks9CzsO.jpg)

Lara, the host of a radio call-in show dealing in psychic phenomena, discovers that her estranged lover has been found dead in a small Spanish village. She learns that he was conducting secret experiments searching for tortured souls trapped behind the energy of the living world.



October 26, 2021

Camillo Mastrocinque's An Angel for Satan (1966) on blu-ray from Severin

(https://i.imgur.com/8fcqTQE.jpg)

In the final film of her Italian Gothic period, the legendary Barbara Steele (BLACK SUNDAY) stars in one of the most startling erotic shockers of her entire career: When a cursed statue is recovered from a villa's lake, a young heiress (Steele) will inflict a torrent of depraved seduction and homicidal madness on the local village. Anthony Steffen (THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE), Claudio Gora (DANGER: DIABOLIK) and Marina Berti (NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS) co-star in "a EuroHorror classic featuring Steele in all her mid-'60s glory" (DVD Drive-In), co-written and directed by Camillo Mastrocinque (CRYPT OF THE VAMPIRE) and scanned in 2K from the original negative – with both the Italian and thought-lost English tracks – recently discovered in a Rome vault.





October 26, 2021

Death Whistles the Blues (1963) and Riffifi in the City (1964) on blu-ray from Severin, both restored from the original camera negatives

(https://i.imgur.com/h4JEVhB.jpg)

Following his international breakthrough with THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF, director Jess Franco next delivered a startling pair of crime-thrillers that pistol-whipped European notions of film noir while lighting the fuse on Uncle Jess' own insane aesthetic. Set in New Orleans and based on a novel by the authors of VERTIGO, DEATH WHISTLES THE BLUES is a hard-boiled tale of betrayal, violence and revenge featuring smoky jazz compositions by Franco himself. Jean Servais of RIFIFI fame stars in RIFIFI IN THE CITY, a nihilistic trip through a pulp underworld of thugs, snitches, nightclub dames and black-gloved giallo-style murders. Both films – which led an impressed Orson Welles to hire Franco as his assistant on CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT – now feature HD scans from the original negatives for the first time ever.



November 29, 2021

Carl Schenkel's Abwarts (1984) on blu-ray from Subkultur (Germany). Region free. Pre-order here (https://www.lisa-film-kollektion.de/product_info.php?info=p88_edv-16---abwaerts---cover-a.html)

(https://i.imgur.com/BEfJzEj.jpg)

On a Friday evening, four people climb the elevator of an office building. After this gets stuck, they quickly notice that their calls for help go unheard. Desperate, they decide to free themselves on their own and climb through a hatch to the outside. In the greatest danger to life, there is a dispute and the situation escalates completely. With every further minute in this claustrophobic narrowness, the veil of superficiality rises and reveals a glimpse into the human abyss, which is much deeper than the elevator shaft under your feet.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on December 04, 2021, 02:23:59 AM
February 28, 2022

Dario Argento's Phenomena (1985) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Arrow (UK)

(https://i.imgur.com/oFtO8Ui.jpg)

A young girl at a boarding school has telepathic power to control insects. Can her unusual capability help solve a string of murders?



March 8, 2022

Dario Argento's Phenomena (1985) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Synapse

(https://i.imgur.com/eZzDO4Q.jpg)

A young girl at a boarding school has telepathic power to control insects. Can her unusual capability help solve a string of murders?



January 18, 2022

Yasuzo Masumura's Red Angel (1966) on blu-ray from Arrow

(https://i.imgur.com/u9h5oIs.jpg)

Red Angel takes an unflinching look at the horror and futility of war through the eyes of a dedicated and selfless young military nurse.

When Sakura Nishi is dispatched in 1939 to a ramshackle field hospital in Tientsin, the frontline of Japan's war with China, she and her colleagues find themselves fighting a losing battle tending to the war-wounded and emotionally shellshocked soldiers while assisting head surgeon Dr Okabe conduct an unending series of amputations. As the Chinese troops close in, she finds herself increasingly drawn to Okabe who, impotent to stall the mounting piles of cadavers, has retreated into his own private hell of morphine addiction.

Adapted from the novel by Yorichika Arima, Masumura's harrowing portrait of women and war is considered the finest of his collaborations with Ayako Wakao (A Wife Confesses, Irezumi) and features startling monochrome scope cinematography by Setsuo Kobayashi (Fires on the Plain, An Actor's Revenge).




March 15, 2022

Eloy de la Iglesia's Murder in a Blue World (1973) on blu-ray from Cauldron Films

(https://i.imgur.com/cRnTEXz.jpg)

In a violent, dystopian consumer-fed future, David (Chris Mitchum - Summertime Killer) blackmails nurse Ana (Sue Lyon - Stanley Kubrick's Lolita) after witnessing her commit a murder. When Ana and Victor (Jean Sorel - Perversion Story) discover David is a known gang member with an extensive criminal past, they make a plan to turn the tables and use him for their own clandestine purposes.

In 1971 Stanley Kubrick changed dystopian cinema forever with A Clockwork Orange. Two years later, transgressive Spanish genre director Eloy de la Iglesia unleashed this thought provoking and beautifully shot future-world that was also known as A Clockwork Terror.






February 15, 2022

Lamont Johnson's Lipstick (1976) on blu-ray from Shout Factory

(https://i.imgur.com/6bdebIE.jpg)

Margaux Hemingway makes her film debut portraying a high-fashion model who is victimized by a brutal assailant and then again by the judicial system that's supposed to protect her. Chris Sarandon plays the music teacher who brutally attacks her and forces her to the point of desperation – and revenge.





February 8, 2022

Alberto De Martino's The Antichrist (1974) on blu-ray from Kino, from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/Hfcsfvf.jpg)

Ippolita is a paralyzed young woman with serious mental problems stemming from the death of her mother. Her crisis of faith and the intervention of a well-meaning psychologist lead Ippolita to remember her past life as a witch during the Inquisition. Eventually, Ippolita becomes possessed and starts seducing local men, only to kill them. An exorcism seems to be the only solution to stop the madness.






January 11, 2022

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

(https://i.imgur.com/9le98qH.jpg)

A comic strip vamp seeks to seduce her cartoonist creator in order to cross over into the real world.



January 4, 2022

Donald Driver's The Naked Ape (1973) on blu-ray from Code Red

(https://i.imgur.com/ZfxxWBj.jpg)

The naked ape is only human. From executive producer Hugh Hefner comes this provocative adaptation of Desmond Morris' pop-zoology bestseller.

Through a series of animated and live-action vignettes starring Johnny Crawford and Victoria Principal, The Naked Ape traces the evolution of sex and offers insight into why we behave the way we do. Part docudrama, part satire, part surreal countercultural experiment, The Naked Ape exposes the naked truth about love, courtship, jealousy and violence. Can you dig it? This Playboy-produced cult classic finally reveals itself in a glorious new HD transfer!






January 11, 2022

Dario Argento's The Card Player (2004) on blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing

(https://i.imgur.com/OtJ0k9V.jpg)

A Rome policewoman teams up with a British Interpol agent to find a crafty serial killer who plays a taunting game of cat-and-mouse with the police by abducting and killing young women and showing it over an Internet web cam.



Early 2022

Peter S. Traynor's Death Game aka The Seducers (1979) on blu-ray from Grindhouse Releasing, the inspiration for Eli Roth's Knock Knock (2015)

(https://i.imgur.com/vW3HAQv.jpg)

A businessman whose family is away on his birthday picks up two young girls. He takes them to his house, where they seduce him. Afterwards, however, they tie him up, torture him, trash his house, and then kill a delivery boy.





Late 2021

José Ramón Larraz's Black Candles (1982) on blu-ray from Severin

(https://i.imgur.com/0jbDMHY.jpg)

A young woman travels with her partner to England on the unexpected death of her brother. Staying with her sister-in-law, she finds her companion soon drawn into a satanic cult based in the house whose rites seem to centre somewhat on large-scale sexual congress.



December 27, 2021

Michele Soavi's StageFright (1987) on blu-ray from Shameless (UK), from a 4K restoration

(https://i.imgur.com/zioOQyL.jpg)

Combining graphic, blood-splattered set pieces with his trademark wit and filmmaking elegance, Michele Soavi's (Dellamorte Dellamore, The Sect, The Church), Stagefright is now unleashed in a new 4K restoration.

When a masked killer infiltrates a group of actors rehearsing overnight in an isolated theatre, the stage is set for carnage! Featuring an abundance of over-the-top kills and spills, shot with Soavi's typical style, marvel at the mayhem as the iconic chainsaw wielding 'Owl Man', delivers a blood-soaked performance for the ages.






2022 TBD

Giulio Berruti's Killer Nun (1979) on blu-ray from Le chat qui fume (France)

(https://i.imgur.com/3NfNYRl.jpg)

Legendary Swedish sex bomb Anita Ekberg stars as Sister Gertrude, a cruel nun who discovers depraved pleasure in a frenzy of drug addiction, sexual degradation and sadistic murder.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on December 04, 2021, 10:27:35 AM
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.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on March 04, 2022, 09:32:10 PM
For some transgression this March ~
Collection of Nick Zedd filmz (https://ubu.com/film/zedd.html)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on March 08, 2022, 04:14:12 PM
The owner of VHS Collector (http://www.vhscollector.com) 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.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on March 16, 2022, 02:32:22 AM
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on March 22, 2022, 07:24:24 PM
March 24, 2022

Apocalypse After: Films by Bertrand Mandico on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro. Available to order from Mondo Macabro's online shop (https://mondomacabro.bigcartel.com/product/apocalypse-after-films-by-bertrand-mandico-limited-red-case-edition) on release day. Limited to 1,500 red case copies, no standard edition coming.

(https://i.imgur.com/MNLwFEp.jpg)

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.


Quote from: Mondo MacabroThis 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


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First El Scapulario (1968) (https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Horror-Movie-Classics-Double-Feature-Blu-ray/307905/) and now this. Continue crossing off white whales.

Quote from: wilder on April 21, 2020, 04:47:31 AMBertrand Mandico's short films Notre-Dame des Hormones (2015) and Depressive Cop (2017)

(https://i.imgur.com/2yGONlA.jpg)

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.

(https://i.imgur.com/bTtN6Zn.jpg)

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.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on April 26, 2022, 01:53:48 AM
May 31, 2022

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

(https://i.imgur.com/He0SEvc.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/xE9veU3.jpg)

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 (https://www.shoutfactory.com/product/cockfighter?product_id=7820)

(https://i.imgur.com/OELj3qr.jpg)

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 (https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/forbidden-zone-cult-classic-to-digitally-replace-blackface-scene/) to this new Director's Cut, for better or worse.

(https://i.imgur.com/Q9Q1pR7.jpg)

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.

(https://i.imgur.com/PmTqyi4.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/lIuE9KT.jpg)

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 (https://mvdshop.com/collections/vci/products/bloody-70s-horror-double-feature-mary-mary-bloody-mary-rene-cardonas-blood-feast-blu-ray-dvd)

(https://i.imgur.com/PeqzSHC.jpg)

QuoteMary, 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.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on May 01, 2022, 07:21:33 PM
May 31, 2022

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

(https://i.imgur.com/8iu75vi.jpg)

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.

(https://i.imgur.com/iDZFSp8.jpg)




May 31, 2022

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

(https://i.imgur.com/jCtVIKs.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/MapqFsy.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/mdcjvTw.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/US93Vrv.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/Ws43met.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/xgz56js.jpg)

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.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on June 03, 2022, 06:30:00 PM
July 26, 2022

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

(https://i.imgur.com/J2FHX99.jpg)

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 (https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=30717)




June 28, 2022

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

(https://i.imgur.com/PwJNbJq.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/hzdRPYX.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/C00TtY6.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/src9a8z.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/tP7RmCs.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/whmRj3x.jpg)

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 (https://roninflix.com/products/wild-orchid-2)

(https://i.imgur.com/VbBrVJP.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/7eOc3ll.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/VIWEPrN.jpg)

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.


Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on June 04, 2022, 06:53:22 PM
YES

(https://i.imgur.com/3iV8YwZ.jpg)

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on June 06, 2022, 02:16:59 PM
An expanded hardback edition of Kier-La Janisse's 'House of Psychotic Women' is being published by FAB Press (https://www.fabpress.com/hopw-expanded-edition-hardcover.html) in August 2022

(https://i.imgur.com/uT2Y0ix.jpg) (https://www.fabpress.com/hopw-expanded-edition-hardcover.html)

Quote from: Kier-La JanisseThe 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 (https://www.fabpress.com/the-ghastly-one-paperback.html) this month

(https://i.imgur.com/2YhRcOd.jpg) (https://www.fabpress.com/the-ghastly-one-paperback.html)

Quote from: FAB PressOne 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.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on June 09, 2022, 09:58:30 AM
I watched Shatter Dead (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/shatter-dead-saturns-core) 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?
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on June 09, 2022, 04:29:12 PM
Quote from: WorldForgot on June 09, 2022, 09:58:30 AMI watched Shatter Dead (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/shatter-dead-saturns-core) finally.

Quote from: WorldForgot on June 09, 2022, 09:58:30 AMWhat 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.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on June 09, 2022, 05:21:35 PM
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 ^_^
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on July 03, 2022, 09:52:25 PM
July 26, 2022

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

(https://i.imgur.com/Lpe0IWQ.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/0Qhvf5Y.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/NpV324X.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/pcxuXsE.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/syFZNLM.jpg)

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.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on July 05, 2022, 01:58:18 AM
Aight so I definitely have to see 2LDK, Roth's Heartbreakers , and Heavy Metal Parking Lot.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on July 18, 2022, 05:56:24 PM
October 25, 2022

House of Psychotic Women Rarities Collection on blu-ray from Severin (https://severinfilms.com/products/hopw-box). Also available as a bundle (https://severinfilms.com/collections/shop/products/house-key-bundle) with the expanded hardback edition of House of Psychotic Women

(https://i.imgur.com/2WVq4eT.jpg)

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.








Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on August 20, 2022, 05:40:54 PM
August 30, 2022

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

(https://i.imgur.com/lsNVPWe.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/TLlYIDf.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/X1Ix83j.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/025gAoZ.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/VeOs64m.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/FBWnWsf.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/gMDilyr.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/3tElk25.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/tiwYFPc.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/jfYlKd1.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/26cLkpn.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/65SiEs6.jpg)


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

(https://i.imgur.com/kAISAXD.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/t8Nbuo1.jpg)

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.

(https://i.imgur.com/oAGD4gB.jpg)

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.

(https://i.imgur.com/fw6F7AX.jpg)

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.

(https://i.imgur.com/Cn33Bxe.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/Tra4O3n.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/epiTBm8.jpg)

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.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on August 26, 2022, 08:37:23 PM
2023 TBD

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

(https://i.imgur.com/SFYq7aT.jpg)

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 (https://error4444.bigcartel.com/) just announced some of their 2023 releases

(https://i.imgur.com/ZzlWhTf.jpg)


Andrew Kam's Fatal Termination (1990)

(https://i.imgur.com/gb3mgOr.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/sAZ0x5n.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/NOv0wlU.jpg)

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.


Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on August 26, 2022, 08:46:11 PM
Quote from: wilder on August 26, 2022, 08:37:23 PMAndrew Kam's Fatal Termination (1990)

(https://i.imgur.com/MBFk8A6.jpg)

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.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on August 26, 2022, 08:49:00 PM
Fixed!
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on August 27, 2022, 11:02:04 AM
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.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilberfan on August 28, 2022, 03:20:57 PM
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.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on September 02, 2022, 12:19:41 PM
Last night jenkins and I simul-watched MUTANT HUNT (1987)  (https://letterboxd.com/film/mutant-hunt/) 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)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on October 03, 2022, 07:10:08 PM
https://twitter.com/NeilBreen/status/1577035864881840128

New Breen alert! New Breen!!  :yabbse-cool:
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on October 04, 2022, 04:55:21 PM
Quote from: wilder on July 18, 2022, 05:56:24 PMOctober 25, 2022

House of Psychotic Women Rarities Collection on blu-ray from Severin (https://severinfilms.com/products/hopw-box). Also available as a bundle (https://severinfilms.com/collections/shop/products/house-key-bundle) with the expanded hardback edition of House of Psychotic Women

(https://i.imgur.com/2WVq4eT.jpg)

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
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on November 07, 2022, 11:00:09 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD_4Lqly-sY

"Okay, now, if you feel like having a horrible day, there's many choices here at Severin."
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on December 19, 2022, 01:23:57 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjGYYaXZ2uc

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.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on January 13, 2023, 04:44:56 PM
November 5, 2022

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

(https://i.imgur.com/TPUigCK.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/llsHO9z.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/lHb8l7P.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/mt0YcQe.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/mu5Lg4K.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/HyCEWij.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/ZvOBteY.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/y7lM84u.jpg)

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.

(https://i.imgur.com/IKwkFJf.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/boXrme7.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/hPIFFEZ.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/302iQ2D.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/0qwFBEr.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/hrz5nGW.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/zGHDFdg.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/PuF1Oxd.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/98fuy6f.jpg)

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

(https://i.imgur.com/EYDics1.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/1e1cdWR.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/XpJyev4.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/NyAaR8E.jpg)

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...
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on February 09, 2023, 06:30:11 PM
Quote from: wilder on January 13, 2023, 04:44:56 PMApril 11, 2023

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

(https://i.imgur.com/0qwFBEr.jpg)

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)

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on February 23, 2023, 06:42:46 AM
May 29, 2023

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

(https://i.imgur.com/CA2dGVL.jpg)

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)

(https://i.imgur.com/BPlnKvb.jpg)

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 (https://www.spectacletheater.com/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

(https://i.imgur.com/Zd8vqHk.jpg)

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.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on March 01, 2023, 03:34:19 PM
They released Freeway 1 in December -- and now FREEWAY II: Confessions of a Trickbaby

 (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/freeway-ii-confessions-of-a-trickbaby)

(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0092/3025/4180/products/Freeway2slippreorderfront_2400x.jpg?v=1677613832)


QuoteWhite Girl is a twisted teenage prostitute with a bad attitude and a nasty eating disorder, who's been sent to the slammer for 25 years. Her cellmate, Cyclona, is equally deranged, being a vicious killer. And, as like minds attract, the two are quick to form a truly twisted alliance. When the opportunity arises, White Girl and Cyclona manage to escape from the pen and embark on a non-stop orgy of violence and debauchery, all while hoping to make it across the border into Mexico in order to seek refuge with Cyclona's proxy caretaker, Sister Gomez. However, there's a big hitch in their plans as the good Sister isn't as "she" seems...

Somehow weirder, sleazier, and even more jaw dropping than its predecessor, director Matthew Bright's in-name-only sequel, FREEWAY II: CONFESSIONS OF A TRICKBABY regurgitates onto the screen with an unflinching barrage of gross-out-gags and adept social satire. Starring Natasha Lyonne (But I'm A Cheerleader, TV's Poker Face and Russian Doll) in one of her first, and most controversial, starring roles alongside Vincent Gallo (Buffalo '66), María Celedonio (Dragstrip Girl), and a rare on-screen appearance from filmmaker John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Vinegar Syndrome is delighted to present the UHD debut of this demented reimagining of Hansel & Gretel, newly restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative, jam packed with extras, and looking so perversely crystal clear you can almost taste the perversion.

directed by: Matthew Bright
starring: Natasha Lyonne, María Celedonio, Vincent Gallo, David Alan Grier, John Landis
1999 / 98 min / 1.85:1 / English 2.0 Stereo
Additional info:

4K Ultra HD / Region A Blu-ray Set
4K UHD presented in High-Dynamic-Range
Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative
"Once Upon a White Girl: Remembering Confessions of a Trickbaby" (98 min) - a brand new making-of documentary with the cast and crew
"Bright on Dark" (23 min) - an interview with writer/director Matthew Bright from 2018
"Disrupt and Revolt" (29 min) - an interview with producer Chris Hanley from 2018
Archival interview with Matthew Bright (4 min)
Archival interview with executive producer Samuel Hadida (5 min)
BTS Footage (28 min)
Still Gallery (7 min)
Reversible sleeve artwork
English SDH subtitles
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on March 02, 2023, 05:22:57 PM
One of my friends gifted me Vinegar Syndrome/Saturn Core's double blu-ray of Red Spirit Lake & We Await  (https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/red-spirit-lake-we-await-saturns-core)

Video scuzzball poetry. Wes Craven and Lynch but neither and both simultaneously. AMPLIFIED mysticism. Genre and spirituality entertwined into bombastic grunge beauty. Degenerate, repulsive environments constantly edging into the divine before shattering and splitting your sidez.

(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0092/3025/4180/products/redspiritlakeslipfront_2400x.jpg?v=1644519802)


QuoteSaturn's Core Audio & Video is a New Jersey based home video label devoted to releasing underground oddities and shot on video cinema on VHS, and now, blu-ray discs! In partnership with OCN Distribution, Saturn's Core will exhume forgotten or under-seen genre cinema from the 80s and 90s, with an emphasis on SOV horror features. Vinegar Syndrome's sister company, OCN Distribution, is thrilled to be representing this diverse and unique home video line!

One of the most visionary artists to arise from the pre-digital, shot on video underground, director Charles Pinion's awe-inspiring features fearlessly blurred the lines between punk rock, Cinema of Transgression, avant-garde surrealism, pornography and backyard splatter films. Saturn's Core is proud to present two of Pinion's most daring works with newly reconstructed, director approved restorations from the original analog master tapes.

Spoiler: ShowHide
Red Spirit Lake (1993): After a vengeful sorceress is tortured and killed by a corrupt industrialist looking to harnass the spectral powers of Red Spirit Lake, her niece arrives in snow covered Angel Falls to settle her aunt's estate. A meditation on The Old Dark House replete with UFO abductions, castration, frank nudity, witchcraft, fatal fistings, and slughterous saunas; Red Spirit Lake is a cacophony of subversive hyper violence, psychotic surrealism, salacious sexual choas, and picturesque winter vistas featuring acting performances by a cavalcade of legendary Cinema of Transgression era artists and filmmakers including Richard Kern, Holly Adams, Kembra Pfahler, Tessa Hughes-Freeland, and Tommy Turner as well as an insurgent soundtrack featuring music by Cop Shoot Cop, Lydia Lunch, Clint Ruin, and The Lunachicks.

We Await (1996): A con artist is held captive by an unhinged cannibal family that ingests copious quantities of hallucinogenic, green fungal goo covertly harnessed from an otherworldly, sentient crystal housed in their third third floor apartment of horrors. Featuring a man who willfully chooses to be a dog, sexual stimulation via blowtorch, and a corpulent, nude and blood soaked Godzilla-sized Jesus; We Await is a shot on video, urban riff on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that slowly descends into a psycho sexual, drug-fueled, analog aurora borealis nightmare like no other. Starring director Pinion, adult filmmaker David Aaron Clark, visual artist Alyssa Taylor Wendt, and boasting a blistering soundtrack featuring music by Crash Worship, Neurosis, and Unsane.

So far I've only watched Red Spirit Lake and all its extras but this is a FANTASTIC package. It includes a full concert set of 'COTA', an avant garde music project of Pinion's I think (there's no description of who the band is haha) as well as two short films, commentary tracks, and 'Rare Footage' shot by Pinion of Screw Magazine's bathroom (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw_(magazine)) - GRODY SCRIBBLED WALL-ART as it should be.

(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0092/3025/4180/products/REDSPIRITLAKEMarilynandmirror_2400x.png?v=1644519802)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on April 28, 2023, 12:47:14 PM
https://twitter.com/SeverinFilms/status/1652000451435585536

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fu0VQScaAAAEu1T?format=jpg&name=large)

Black Emanuelle box set! Very exciting to have all of this in one package.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on May 02, 2023, 02:55:26 AM
May 30, 2023

Claude d'Anna's The Broken Mirror (1975) & Férid Boughedir's Unquiet Death (1970) double feature on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro

(https://i.imgur.com/1wh9MY5.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/gw5hyAc.jpg)

The Broken Mirror (1975)

Anne Lawrence lives in Brussels, where she works as a restorer of rare paintings. When Anne becomes pregnant, her widowed mother visits her, which brings back memories from Anne's past. Her mother asks Anne about the time she went missing and was found, lost in the city, clutching a strange painting with no knowledge of where it came from. Anne is fascinated by the painting but also scared of it. She becomes determined to discover why it now seems so important to her.
Strange incidents start to occur. Anne is pursued through empty streets by a large car with a hidden driver. She sees a man with a gloved right hand watching her from the deserted house across the street. She becomes frightened by her own reflection in mirrors.

As Anne sinks ever deeper into the mystery of her past, fantasy and reality start to merge and she finds herself entering a nightmare of fear and sudden violence from which she seems unable to escape.
Director Claude d'Anna's third feature film is a dreamlike and hallucinatory journey into altered states of consciousness; a unique film, full of images of beauty and terror.


Unquiet Death (1970)

Three sisters come from France to visit their wealthy uncle who lives on a remote island off the coast of Tunisia. The only other inhabitant of the island is the uncle's manservant. The uncle dies in mysterious circumstances and the girls are left at the mercy of the servant. Initially he seems cooperative but then, as the radio broadcasts disturbing reports of trouble and unrest on the mainland, he rebels, refusing to obey the girls' orders. Imprisoning them in the uncle's house, he sets them various bizarre tasks, challenges their sense of superiority and even tries to teach them a new form of language.

Finally their veneer of civilization cracks, and the girls resort to savagery. The servant disappears, seemingly dead. Sensing freedom, the girls celebrate. But then the servant returns. And this time he is angry...

Made in the shadow of the May 68 Paris "events", Unquiet Death is a truly revolutionary and radical film, one that throws all caution to the wind. Packed full of startling images that mix beauty and terror, there really is nothing else quite like it.








May 30, 2023

Kostas Manoussakis' The Fear (1966) on blu-ray from Mondo Macabro

(https://i.imgur.com/surUwCD.jpg)

Anna, a young female student living in Athens, returns to her family's large farm in the remote Greek countryside. She starts to feel the tensions that lie, repressed, under the apparently tranquil rural setting. Her father and mother are trapped in a loveless marriage and her half-brother, Anestis, seems even more of a brooding and dangerous figure than ever before. Anna's only real friend is the mute servant girl, Hrysa, who many of the local villagers see as some kind of saint due to her alleged sightings of the Virgin Mary in the lonely corn fields that surround the farm.

Hrysa disappears and is reported missing. Anna soon suspects her half-brother is responsible and has probably killed the girl. She starts to follow him, trying to trick him into a confession. Realizing that she might become his next victim, Anna starts to fear for her life. Confused and scared she accepts a marriage proposal from a local man. It's at the wedding ceremony, with the whole village watching, that the truth finally emerges and the terrifying last act of this rural psychodrama is played out.

The Fear was the third, and final, film made by director Kostas Manoussakis. It was screened at the Berlin Film Festival and was widely sold around the world. However, due to a series of problems, Manoussakis never completed another feature. Now acclaimed as a classic and one of the best Greek films of its era, The Fear has lost none of its power to grip the viewer with its striking imagery and pulsing, avant garde soundtrack.






March 8, 2023

Mexican Gothic: The Films of Carlos Enrique Taboada (1975-1984) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome

(https://i.imgur.com/PMUQnmU.jpg)

Bewitched children, revenge seeking spirits and murderous thieves. Revered in his country but criminally under-known outside of it, three of Mexican genre film master Carlos Enrique Taboada's most influential works are collected here for the first time on Blu-ray. Few directors other than Taboada have left such a distinct footprint on Mexico's horror genre. These three films, with ample violence, wretched depravity and supernatural evil, adeptly place their horror to Mexican society and culture at large and all have been newly restored in 4K by Vinegar Syndrome from their original 35mm camera negatives!

Poison for the Fairies
When young Flavia arrives at her new school she is quickly befriended by Veronica. What starts out as an innocent friendship turns terrifying when Veronica reveals herself to be a Witch. Unsure of the truth, Flavia enters into a manipulative relationship as Veronica's accomplice as the line between what is real and imagined blurs and leads to a spiral of magic, death, sacrifice and murder!

Darker Than Night
Ophelia has just learned of the death of her Aunt, whom she had never trusted. In a sinister twist of fate, she has now inherited her Aunt's estate, along with all of its tenants, living and dead. Inviting her three close friends along, Ophelia moves into the gothic house. But shortly after disregarding her Aunt's posthumous requests to care for Bequer, the house cat, their lives are turned upside down as horrors reveal themselves and a supernatural force starts to violently pick off the girls one by one!

Rapiña
Woodcutter Porfirio has always accepted his meager existence, however one day while working in a remote, forested mountain, Porfirio is the sole witness to the crash of a luxury plane. Desperate to escape his circumstances, he seizes the opportunity to loot the wreckage with his neighbor and co-worker, Evodio. But soon, best laid plans lead to treachery and murder...




March 28, 2023

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

(https://i.imgur.com/28fmMEC.jpg)

Marc, a traveling entertainer, is on his way home for Christmas when his van breaks down in the middle of a village, where he quickly falls victim to a dangerously unhinged innkeeper determined to keep him captive. For the first time in the US, CALVAIRE will be available in high definition. The HD Remaster was created from the original print with new color grading supervised by original cinematographer Benoit Debbie and director Fabrice du Welz. This high water mark from the New French Extremity movement premiered at the Cannes Film Festival followed by TiFFF Midnight Madness.




April 25, 2023

Risto Jarva's Time of Roses (1969) on blu-ray from Deaf Crocodile

(https://i.imgur.com/knmV723.jpg)

Finnish director Risto Jarva's fascinating, futuristic sci-fi mystery is set in a dystopian, Pop Art-designed world of gleaming white towers, Sony video monitors and inflatable furniture, where the beautiful inhabitants all dress as Edie Sedgwick-like pixie sprites or medieval page boys out of LOGAN'S RUN. A historian of late 20th century culture - "before class boundaries were abolished" – named Raimo (Arto Tuominen) is researching the death many years earlier of a free-spirited erotic model named Saara (Ritva Vepsä) who died under mysterious circumstances. (She caused a public scandal by asking three of her wealthy, powerful lovers to pay for an abortion). Raimo finds Saara's identical double – an earthy, uninhibited engineer named Kisse (also played by Vepsä) -- and tries to convince her to re-enact Saara's life and death for TV. Director Jarva was one of Finland's most acclaimed fiction filmmakers and documentarians before he was tragically killed in an auto accident returning from a screening in 1977. His fabulously quirky vision of Future World, with its fragmented & abstract political conversation and semi-orgies (all waving hands and sitar music!) would have delighted both Andy Warhol and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.




April 24, 2023

Richard Loncraine's Full Circle aka The Haunting of Julia on 4K UHD blu-ray from BFI (UK)

(https://i.imgur.com/eqEBLmE.jpg)

Bereaved mother Julia flees her controlling husband Magnus, re-establishing herself in an old house in leafy West London. Yet she finds herself haunted by apparitions of a ghostly blonde-haired child, sending her on a strange journey of self-discovery - with dreadful consequences.




April 18, 2023

Richard Loncraine's Full Circle aka The Haunting of Julia on 4K UHD blu-ray from Shout Factory

(https://i.imgur.com/Z5CkK3u.jpg)

Bereaved mother Julia flees her controlling husband Magnus, re-establishing herself in an old house in leafy West London. Yet she finds herself haunted by apparitions of a ghostly blonde-haired child, sending her on a strange journey of self-discovery - with dreadful consequences.



June 6, 2023

Paul Bartel's Private Parts (1972) on blu-ray Shout Factory

(https://i.imgur.com/SKJ8U4Z.jpg)

Cheryl fled an unhappy home in Ohio for the sunny skies of California with her best friend in tow; however, after they have a falling out, Cheryl is left with no place to stay. Remembering that her Aunt Martha runs a hotel, Cheryl arrives at the King Edward, a decaying residential inn located in one of L.A.'s less desirable neighborhoods, and persuades Martha to give her a room for a few days. Cheryl soon discovers the King Edward is home to a wide variety of eccentrics -- defrocked priests with muscle-men fetishes, falling-down alcoholics, senile old women, and a voyeuristic photographer named George. Cheryl, who indulges her own voyeuristic impulses by sneaking into the rooms of her fellow boarders, is attracted to George and enjoys playing dress-up as he watches her though a peephole, despite Aunt Martha's warnings not to interact with the other guests. But when Cheryl decides to cross the line into physical action with George, she learns his obsessions are more dangerous than she imagined -- and that both he and Aunt Martha have some rather surprising secrets.





Summer 2023

Paul Nicholas' Daughter of Death aka Julie Darling (1982) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Dark Force Entertainment

(https://i.imgur.com/zIfXDos.jpg)

A teenage girl whose inaction caused her mother's death arranges a similarly gruesome fate for her stepmother and brother.




2023 TBD

Monte Markham's Neon City (1991) on blu-ray from Kino

(https://i.imgur.com/A9ORaxN.jpg)

Post-apocalyptic story about a group of scavengers in search of refuge from the lethal atmosphere




May 16, 2023

Byron Haskin's Conquest of Space (1955) & Gene Fowler Jr.'s I Married A Monster (1958) on blu-ray from Shout Factory

(https://i.imgur.com/LJ4UvlE.jpg)

Conquest of Space (1955)
An American-led team of International astronauts leave their space station on the first mission to Mars, but the captain's religious beliefs may get in the way.

I Married A Monster (1958)
Aliens arrive on Earth to possess the bodies of humans. One of their first victims is a young man, whose new wife soon realizes something is wrong with him.




April 3, 2023

Robert Sigl's Laurin (1989) on blu-ray from Second Run (UK)

(https://i.imgur.com/Bwcil8V.jpg)

Children have been disappearing under mysterious circumstances in a 19th century German village. A young girl soon becomes haunted by disturbing visions of the missing kids.




May 1, 2023

Juraj Herz's Morgiana (1972) on blu-ray from Second Run (UK), also coming to blu-ray later this year from Severin

(https://i.imgur.com/lWPjG73.jpg)

With delirious visuals conjured by cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera (Daisies, Diamonds of the Night) and often described as 'the last film of the Czechoslovak New Wave', Juraj Herz's delirious tale of terror is a surreal phantasmagoria of dark desires and splintered minds – a twisted Czech take on What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Poe's 'The Black Cat'.

Based on a short story by Aleksandr Grin, (the 'Russian Poe'), Morgiana is the story of twin sisters, Klára and Viktoria who live a life of decadent opulence, somewhere in the late 19th century. Klára is charming, trusting and beautiful, whilst Viktoria is wicked, sadistic, bursting with hate and jealousy - and who hatches a terrible revenge by slowly poisoning her more popular sister. As the toxin takes hold, Klára begins to lose grip on her sanity...

Part fairy tale, part Gothic horror, Morgiana is a full-blown hallucinatory experience from the director of the chilling The Cremator, Oil Lamps and Beauty and the Beast.





2023 TBD

Jean-Gabriel Albicocco's Le Coeur Fou (1970) on blu-ray from Le Chat Qui Fume (France)

(https://i.imgur.com/MWzE9XE.jpg)

Serge Menessier has been paid to shoot a reportage on his ex-wife's depression. Now remarried, he has accepted the job to pay his debts and maybe because he is still in love with her, a famous actress whose career he contributed to launch.

Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on May 27, 2023, 05:10:53 PM
Here's an essay by Curiosities and Classics (https://curiositiesandclassics.substack.com/p/misery-manifested-poverty-personified) and interview from Russian director Artour Aristakisian, covering two wayward films from Russia, examining extreme states of homelessness in turn of the milennium poverty.


Quote"This is not a socially conscious film. There is no society. It is nonexistent. It is not a philosophical film either. There are no authorial points of view or ideas. It has to be admitted this film is dangerous. Truly dangerous. As a matter of fact, it undermines the authority of the state. For it, too, is nonexistent."  So says Artour Aristakisian, in regards to his film A Place in this World (2001), the follow up to his documentary Palms (1994), two of the more harrowing and confrontational films I've seen in a very long time. (http://www.kinoeye.org/02/02/stojanova02.php)
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on July 01, 2023, 11:37:03 AM
Quote from: wilder on May 02, 2023, 02:55:26 AMMarch 8, 2023

Mexican Gothic: The Films of Carlos Enrique Taboada (1975-1984) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome

(https://i.imgur.com/PMUQnmU.jpg)

Bewitched children, revenge seeking spirits and murderous thieves. Revered in his country but criminally under-known outside of it, three of Mexican genre film master Carlos Enrique Taboada's most influential works are collected here for the first time on Blu-ray. Few directors other than Taboada have left such a distinct footprint on Mexico's horror genre. These three films, with ample violence, wretched depravity and supernatural evil, adeptly place their horror to Mexican society and culture at large and all have been newly restored in 4K by Vinegar Syndrome from their original 35mm camera negatives!

Poison for the Fairies
When young Flavia arrives at her new school she is quickly befriended by Veronica. What starts out as an innocent friendship turns terrifying when Veronica reveals herself to be a Witch. Unsure of the truth, Flavia enters into a manipulative relationship as Veronica's accomplice as the line between what is real and imagined blurs and leads to a spiral of magic, death, sacrifice and murder!



I watched Poison for the Fairies last night. Brilliantly designed film. Here's an excerpt from my longer piece on Mexican Grindhouse cinema for an as-yet unpublished zine (Cinedome  (https://www.cinedome.org/)Issue #3)



"
El Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía would fund Mexico's most accomplished cult act of witchcraft in Carlos Enrique Taboada's Poison for the Fairies (1984, released in 1986). Recently re-released in a restored transfer as part of Vinegar Syndrome's Mexican Gothic: The Films of Carlos Enrique Taboada blu-ray set.

Its design is so specific that, once clued into the trick being played on us, all framing becomes claustrophobic, and enchanting. Forcing itself onto the viewer is the 'child's gaze,' let's call it. Threaded with pure over the shoulder and point of view shots, no adult is given identity or third dimension. Our dual leads, played by Ana Patricia Rojo and Elsa Maria Gutierrez, are our only eyes.

(https://i.ibb.co/KN2gm6r/veneno-para-las-hadas-perspectivegrid2.png)

Alienated from the world of adults, we're back behind the veil of childhood. Innocence and the unknown. Beyond, its evil counterpart cackles at us. Eternal possibilities of the child's imagination warping from blissful meadow to macabre, twisted ends. What ought to be a fairy-tale becomes unreasonable horror. "


Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: wilder on August 07, 2023, 04:49:44 AM
August 22, 2023

Iain Softley's Hackers (1995) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Shout Factory

(https://i.imgur.com/DoRuJLe.jpg)

A young boy is arrested by the US Secret Service for writing a computer virus and is banned from using a computer until his 18th birthday. Years later, he and his new-found friends discover a plot to unleash a dangerous computer virus, but they must use their computer skills to find the evidence while being pursued by the Secret Service and the evil computer genius behind the virus.



June 29, 2023

Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls (1995) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome

(https://i.imgur.com/q6OXN2f.jpg)

A VSU we've been working on for over a year, and the biggest film yet to grace the line, Paul Verhoeven's cult sensation, feast for the senses, and all around madness, SHOWGIRLS is at last coming to UHD in an edition worthy of its splendor. Featuring hours of archival interviews, BTS material, commentaries, and more, among them plentiful never before seen material. Plus we've added a slew of fresh interviews with cast and crew, along with critical pieces examining the production and impact of this landmark film.

Furthermore, we've performed extensive exclusive restoration using the source files from Paul Verhoeven's supervised color grade to ensure a presentation which looks exactly as intended, but without any of the digital manipulation which has notoriously plagued other releases. 





Summer 2023 TBD

Romano Scavolini's Nightmare aka Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (1981) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Severin

(https://i.imgur.com/6EI5eKW.jpg)

Mentally unbalanced patient, George Tatum, is released from a New York mental hospital, slums it up on sleazy 42nd Street, and then travels to Florida to terrorize an unsuspecting family. Brutal, uncompromising, and graphic, this is one NIGHTMARE that you'll never forget! Originally released unrated to theaters during the height of the slasher craze in the early 1980s, this slasher-splatter classic has garnered a huge cult horror fanbase in the years since.




September 18, 2023

Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace (1964) on 4K UHD blu-ray from Arrow UK

(https://i.imgur.com/clEZNfX.jpg)

Isabella, a young model is murdered by a mysterious masked figure at a boarding house run by Max Morlacchi and his lover Countess Cristiana Como. When Isabella's boyfriend is suspected of the killing, her diary, which apparently has some incriminating evidence linking her to the killer, dissapears, the masked killer begins killing off all the models in and around the house to find the diary...



September 12, 2023

Fatal Femmes: Neige (1981) / The Bitch (1984) on blu-ray from Fun City Editions

(https://i.imgur.com/n7ohsC8.jpg)

From the neon underworld of early '80s Paris come two stylish, atmospheric films noirs. In Juliet Berto and Jean-Henri Roger's NEIGE, Berto is a barmaid in the red light Pigalle district who attempts to score for her deceased drug dealer friend's clients. In Christine Pascal's THE BITCH, Isabelle Huppert is the woman at the heart of a Hitchcockian tale set in the world of French high couture.





May 26, 2023

Piotr Szulkin's Apocalypse Tetrology on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome Labs

(https://i.imgur.com/aICITf8.jpg)

GOLEM (1979)

Pernat finds himself in a police interrogation, accused of a murder, and unable to recall any details of the crime, or even his own life. He's released back into a world of raving lunatics and deranged dentists, murderous doctors and scientists who believe the secret of human creation is inside the walls of a cast-iron oven. Pernat's odyssey to find out who he is, and what it is to be human, will force his path to cross with all of them.


THE WAR OF THE WORLDS: NEXT CENTURY (1981)

The Martians have landed and they're not to be feared! Or at least that's what TV personality Iron Idem has been telling people. Soon after their arrival though, his apartment is ransacked and his wife kidnapped. He's tagged like a wild animal and his nightly scripts are being changed. What Idem's eyes are seeing no longer matches what he tells audiences night after night. Are the Martians as good-natured as he believed, or is he being used in a more sinister plot that endangers the entire planet?


O-BI, O-BA: THE END OF CIVILIZATION (1984)

The world has been ravaged by nuclear war. The planet is frozen and radiation kills anyone or anything that ventures outside of 'The Dome'. Soft is a shepherd for the last remnants of humanity who have gathered together as they await rescue from a mysterious craft known only as 'The Ark.'  He wanders among the masses, performing his regular daily tasks; keeping morale from plummeting, wooing prostitutes, squashing rebellions, and sometimes feeding the hungry. But as the true and sinister nature of 'The Dome' comes to light, Soft must ask himself if humanity is worth saving?


GA-GA: GLORY TO THE HEROES (1985)

Scope is a prisoner on a behemoth space station and is chosen, like all his fellow prisoners, to 'volunteer' for the exploration of far-away planets. Landing on planet Australia 458, he is given a hero's welcome with all the sex, booze, and violence that any one man can stomach. But as his new caretakers push him towards even more heinous and deplorable acts, Scope finds that his freedom comes with a high price; his own violent demise, broadcast live for the viewing pleasure of Australia 458's inhabitants. Is there a way out? Or is Scope's fate sealed?




September 2023

Terminal Degeneration: The Films of Moritsugo (1989-2013) on blu-ray from American Genre Film Archive

(https://i.imgur.com/N0e3loh.jpg)

A force of nature since 1985, underground icon Jon Moritsugu—in partnership with wife Amy Davis—creates candy-colored genre riots that feel like NC-17 sitcoms from outer space. Moritsugu's fearless, protopunk deconstructions function as a giant middle finger to everything from racism to gender expectations—while also exploring themes of Asian-American identity. TERMINAL DEGENERATION: THE FILMS OF JON MORITSUGU collects these joyous, trash-art ragers for the first time on widely released home video. From MY DEGENERATION (a DIY answer to BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS) to TERMINAL USA (an ultra-90s teen-crime berserker that was funded by PBS), AGFA is honored to present sparkling new restorations of Moritsugu's essential work.




August 29, 2023

Jiří Barta's The Pied Piper (1986) on blu-ray from Deaf Crocodile

(https://i.imgur.com/NqIbWOO.jpg)

THE PIED PIPER (KRYSAŘ), 1986, Czechoslovakia, 53 min. Director Jiří Barta's stop-motion animated masterpiece, based on The Pied Piper of Hamelin, is set in a dark and twisted medieval village of narrow streets and weird Gothic arches, half-CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI and half-Jan van Eyck. The money-obsessed citizens, carved out of wood blocks and speaking in an onomatopoeic babble, are like George Grosz caricatures, literally spouting coins from their mouths instead of words. The rats are far more organic and sympathetic, made of real fur and whiskers, constantly tunneling and burrowing under the towering arches and cobblestone streets above. (In one of the film's many surreal moments, a rat emerges from a gargoyle's gaping maw.) Fans of fellow Czech animation legend Jan Švankmajer and the Brothers Quay will adore Barta's eerie, Expressionist gem, recently restored for its first-ever U.S. Blu-ray release through Krátký Film Praha, Deaf Crocodile and Comeback Company. "Barta's mastery of all aspects of filmmaking are evident: staging, production design, lighting, animation, editing, sound and music combine into dark worlds of repression and revolt with ironic conclusions." – Phil Tippett (MAD GOD).




October 3, 2023

Fran Rubel Kuzui's Tokyo Pop (1988) on blu-ray from Kino

(https://i.imgur.com/OIV4ohO.jpg)

Bleach-blonde wannabe rocker Wendy (Carrie Hamilton) is disillusioned with her life in New York City. After receiving a postcard from Japan saying "wish you were here," she spontaneously hops on a plane to Tokyo with dreams of making it big as a singer. Quickly finding herself broke and a fish out of water, she moves into a youth hostel for gaijin (foreigners) and takes up work as a hostess at a karaoke bar. Just when she's at her breaking point, she meets Hiro (Diamond Yukai), a rock 'n' roller whose band is looking for their big break. They form a romantic and musical connection and Hiro convinces Wendy to become their lead singer. Through a combination of hustle and luck, they stumble into their 15 minutes of fame, but Wendy soon comes to realize that being a gaijin rocker may be nothing more than a passing fad. An underseen gem of '80s American independent cinema by Fran Rubel Kuzui (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Tokyo Pop takes us on a breezy tour through bubble era Tokyo, replete with knowing nods to the city's vibrant pop culture.




August 15, 2023

Marleen Gorris' Broken Mirrors (1984) on blu-ray from Cult Epics

(https://i.imgur.com/1HBZIJx.jpg)

In an Amsterdam brothel, two prostitutes begin questioning the misery of their existence and become unorthodox rebels. Meanwhile, one of their customers, a serial killer, kidnaps a housewife. This portrait of sexual power is the second film by the controversial director of A Question of Silence, presented in a new 4K transfer and with new bonus features.




August 8, 2023

Wendell B. Harris Jr.'s Chameleon Street (1989) on blu-ray from Arbelos

(https://i.imgur.com/BfdswsN.jpg)

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival—yet criminally underseen for over three decades—Chameleon Street recounts the improbable but true story of Michigan con man Douglas Street, the titular "chameleon" who successfully impersonated his way up the socioeconomic ladder by posing as a magazine reporter, an Ivy League student, a respected surgeon, and a corporate lawyer. Elevated by a dexterous performance and daring direction from multi-hyphenate actor-writer-director Wendell B. Harris Jr., the film pins a lens on race, class and performance in American identity, which has lost none of its relevance. At once piercingly funny and aesthetically mischievous, Chameleon Street is a "lost masterpiece of Black American cinema" (BFI) long overdue to take its rightful place in the independent film canon.




August 22, 2023

Ralph Bakshi's American Pop (1980) on blu-ray from Sony

(https://i.imgur.com/xsLFPtR.jpg)

From a turn-of-the-century immigrant vaudevillian to a rock superstar, AMERICAN POP is the story of four generations whose lives revolve around the beat of American popular music.





August 5, 2023

Neil Douglas' Sinner's Blood (1969) and Krishna Shah's Rivals (1972) on blu-ray from Dark Force Entertainment

(https://i.imgur.com/YO4cgSe.jpg)

Sinner's Blood (1969)

A small town is corrupted when two orphan girls, Penny and Pat arrive to live with their uncle. They soon meet up with a lesbian cousin, her moronic large cousin Aubrey, and their uncle who is as horny as a hardware store man. They scandalize everyone for having affairs with everyone like the motorbike gang, their uncle, their cousin, and the son of a religious preacher. When a gang member ends up being killed by a dose of LSD given by Penny, his homosexual lover revenges on her in a way you will not forget.

Rivals (1972)

A boy with an unhealthy and pathological attachment to his mother becomes increasingly jealous of the new man in her life. After his mother remarries, his rage and misery overwhelm him and he plots to kill his stepfather



December 13, 2023

Roger Corman's The Terror (1963) on blu-ray from Film Masters

(https://i.imgur.com/YocY9vD.jpg)

Napoleonic cavalry soldier Lt. Andre Duvalier comes upon a mysterious woman named Helene. Although the lieutenant is immediately taken with Helene, she seems to be leading him into deadly traps. When Duvalier seeks refuge at a baron's nearby castle, Helene unexpectedly appears there. The baron is convinced that Helene is the ghost of his long-departed wife Ilsa, but the lieutenant believes Helene is under a hypnotic spell.



September 25, 2023

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's The Guard from Underground (1992) on blu-ray from Third Window Films (UK)

(https://i.imgur.com/qc1Oost.jpg)

Before becoming one of Japan's most well-known horror directors through films like Cure, Pulse and Creepy, Kiyoshi Kurosawa started off his career in horror with 1992's The Guard from Underground, the final film of the 'Director's Company'. Kiyoshi Kurosawa here fashions a dark tale that is both a sharp satire of corporate life and a B-movie thriller. A former sumo wrestler now working as a security guard goes on a murderous rampage in the company that's employed him.




October 30, 2023

Banmei Takahashi's Door (1988) & Door II (1991) on blu-ray from Third Window Films (UK)

(https://i.imgur.com/weriVdW.jpg)

DOOR (1988)

The first Japanese 'Giallo' slasher film! Yasuko lives in a high-rise apartment in the city with her husband and her son. Being nervous about prank calls and salesmen's solicitations, she slams the door on a salesman's finger when he tried to forcibly insert a pamphlet through her door chain. This leads him to start harassing her, starting off with obscene letters written on her door then steadily escalating to full on stalking, building up to an unbelievable last 20 minutes of chaos!

DOOR 2 (1991)

Ai is a call girl whose job involved a lot of risk. Every time she goes through a door, she has no idea what type of man is on the other side. Some are sweet, some are violent and some are just full-on crazy! One day she meets Mr.Mamiya, a strange and captivating artist who gradually will initiate her into SM pleasures.





November 27, 2023

Shinji Sômai's Typhoon Club (1985) on blu-ray from Third Window Films (UK), also coming from Cinema Guild in the US

(https://i.imgur.com/9kgtha1.jpg)

Shinji Somai's beloved cult film Typhoon Club is widely heralded as the director's seminal feature and considered to be one of the greatest Japanese films ever made. Offering a caustic immersion into the lives of disaffected junior high students on the cusp of adulthood, Typhoon Club features a lively cast of young talent including idol Youki Kudoh (The Crazy Family, Mystery Train) facing existential intrigues, budding sexuality, and rising social tensions in the days leading up to a typhoon's arrival. Stranded in their schoolhouse as the storm settles in, the group undergoes an awakening as they dispel all insecurities, fear and desire under the swell of the tempest.




September 19, 2023

Juanma Bajo Ulloa's La madre muerta aka The Dead Mother (1993) on blu-ray from Radiance (UK)

(https://i.imgur.com/AGbdlBF.jpg)

Ismael (Karra Elejalde, Timecrimes) breaks into the house of a fine art restorer and shoots the homeowner dead, leaving her daughter orphaned and traumatized for life. Years later Ismael is working in a bar where he sees the daughter again. Paranoid that she has recognised him and will report him, he kidnaps her and holds her hostage, demanding that her hospital pay a ransom for her release. As he spends more time with her, a strange bond develops that causes him to delay the ransom request or fulfil his threats of throwing her in front of a train. But he can't delay forever... A gothic thriller with pitch-black humour that recalls the Coen brothers, Juanma Bajo Ulloa's sophomore feature won a host of prestigious international awards and was a precursor to the Spanish genre explosion.




October 24, 2023

Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz's Messiah of Evil (1973) on blu-ray from Radiance (UK)

(https://i.imgur.com/xDpI5C7.jpg)

A woman arrives in a sleepy seaside town after receiving unsettling letters from her father, only to discover the town is under the influence of a strange cult that weeps tears of blood and hunger for human flesh. From Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, the writers of American Grafitti, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Howard the Duck, this dreamy and atmospheric film transposes the post-Night of the Living Dead zombie movie to a surreal small-town American setting, presented through gorgeous Techniscope visuals that echo the stylish European horror of Mario Bava and Hammer. A true cult film, Messiah of Evil, which was also released as Dead People, has overcome distribution challenges to enjoy growing awareness and high acclaim after decades of word-of-mouth enthusiasm among horror cinema fans and critics around the world.



September 18, 2023

Ryszard Bugajski's Przesłuchanie aka Interrogation (1982) on blu-ray from Second Run (UK)

(https://i.imgur.com/kuBJWks.jpg)

Based on true events, and reflecting the Stalinist terror of the early 1950s, Ryszard Bugajski's harrowing film was banned under martial law in Poland, but survived and thrived on underground VHS through a copy smuggled out by the director at great personal risk. Interrogation was finally officially released in 1990 to great international acclaim.

Tonia (Krystyna Janda - Man of Marble, Mephisto), a cabaret singer, is imprisoned without explanation. Days become months, varied only by the persuasion, intimidation and torture of relentless interrogations. Janda's outstanding depiction of a woman who finds strength and heroism in the face of torture and internment, takes you to places few films are willing to explore.
Title: Re: All things Cult Cinema
Post by: WorldForgot on August 27, 2023, 06:22:28 PM
Isao Fujisawa's 1974 Bye Bye Love (https://www.collabjapan.org/events/2023/bye-bye-love)

QuoteFollowing two youngsters on a doomed summer road trip through Japan in the wake of the era of free love, Bye Bye Love (1974) takes its viewers on a journey through both politics and surreal poetry, the affliction of loneliness, the magic of partnership, and the lure of leaving society behind. Carried by sparkling performances from its two young stars, Bye Bye Love is a breathless farewell to the spirit of an era as it disappears over the horizon.         

Long considered lost, the film was rediscovered in a warehouse in 2018. This will be its first screening with English subtitles, translated by Colin Smith & edited by Akihiro Suzuki.