Spring is in the air fellow movie nerds and the video store keeps trying it’s best to make sure the selection of the good, bad, and weird continues to grow on the shelves so let’s take a look and see what is coming in this week shall we…
It is the 21st Century, and society’s lust for violence is satisfied by “The Big Hunt,” an international game of legalized murder. Players are selected at random by a computer and it is up to the “Hunter” to get his “Victim”—no matter what—and to do him in. The divine Ursula Andress (Dr. No), doing in her last victim with a cleverly concealed pair of pistols in her bra at a New York nightclub; and the dashing Marcello Mastroianni (8½), doing in his last victim by attaching sticks of dynamite to the spurs of his victim, a rider in a horse show, have been matched up against each other by the computer. These adversaries are to confront each other in the arena of the coliseum before the world’s television cameras for the kill of the century…but they find that love is the most dangerous game of all!
A claustrophobic look at how a couple – a painter and a successful actor – spend their last day together before the world comes to an end. Willem Dafoe, Shanyn Leigh, Natasha Lyonne, Abel Ferrara. 2011.
A camp horror-adventure-comedy about an intrepid reporter who finds herself in the middle of some cosmic horror while pursuing a story. Brigitte Kingsley, Art Hindle, Andrew Cymek, 2022
The shocking story of Aum Shinrikyo, the doomsday cult that unleashed a deadly nerve gas in Tokyo’s subway system in 1995. Founded by disillusioned yoga teacher Shoko Asahara, Aum transformed into a terrorist organization while Japan’s police and media turned a blind eye. Featuring rare archival footage and an interview with one of Asahara’s former high-ranking disciples. A Sundance premiere. Trailers
Joe Swanberg and Adam Wingard’s AUTOEROTIC follows four interconnected Chicago couples as they explore the boundaries of self-pleasure and sexual exploration. Through a unique blend of outrageous comedy and in-your-face sex, AUTOEROTIC insightfully illuminates the private sexual lives of America’s urbanites.
Writer/director Luigi Batzella combines footage from two earlier WWII action movies with a newly- shot plot featuring a sadistic female Nazi officer, a perpetually aroused caged ogre, and a cavalcade of sexual atrocities that Horror-Extreme.com calls “tasteless and glorious…it gathers all the ethos of the genre and smashes it into a wonderfully hellish mix.”
Bob Clark’s cult Canadian slasher classic about series of Christmas-time murders in a sorority house. Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder, Andrea Martin.
Heavy metal horror about a demon-raising band that invades a sleepy little American town. Vincent Pastore, John Fasano, 1988.
Adam Webber (Brendan Fraser) has lived his entire life in confinement in a fallout shelter in Pasadena, Calif. When the Webber family’s rations of food and supplies grow thin, Adam’s eccentric father, Calvin (Christopher Walken), sends him on a dangerous restocking mission. When Adam emerges from the Webber family’s subterranean refuge for the first time, he finds that rumors of a nuclear apocalypse were totally false — and meets gorgeous Eve Rustikov (Alicia Silverstone).
1995 sequel to the horror film Candyman. The Candyman arrives in New Orleans and sets his sights on a young woman whose family was ruined by the immortal killer years before. Tony Todd, Kelly Rowan, William O’Leary, Bill Nunn, Bill Condon.
These women are serious about their TASTE in men. The U.S. government hires feminist anthropology professor Margo Hunt to find the man-eating Piranha Women tribe who inhabit the avocado jungle of California. Assisted by chauvinist Jim (Bill Maher) and a dimwitted student named Bunny, Hunt must convince the tribe to move to Malibu condos while simultaneously fending off her rival Dr. Kurtz.
Alice Jarett, recently released from a mental hospital, is taken by her husband Martin to their new and spacious home, located deep in the countryside, for which Martin has hired a group of builders to complete its renovation. In the middle of the night, something stirs Alice awake, and as she goes to investigate, she is shocked to discover a remaining carpenter hard at work in the wee hours. Besieged by loneliness, Alice strikes up a casual friendship with the mysterious man, inviting him to continue working at his leisure. But as prowlers and unwanted guests begin turning up at the home, sometimes to harass, sometimes to menace, and sometimes to attack Alice, her carpenter always seems to be on hand to gorily dispatch anyone who comes too close. Has she found her guardian angel? Is she, in fact, a delusional psychopath? Or does the carpenter have his own axe to grind?
In the small town of Cherry Falls a psychotic murderer is killing off the virgins of the local high school. Brittany Murphy, Jay Mohr, Michael Biehn, Geoffrey Wright, 2000.
Canadian shocker about a pacifist lawyer for an Indigenous tribe fails to protect their land against the racist owner of a lumber mill, both white men will be forced by a rogue Native man into a wilderness nightmare. Graham Greene, Ryszard Bugajski, 1991.
Contemporary horror film in the spirit of classic anthology films like Creepshow and containing films that not only celebrate the golden age of drive-in B horror shlock but also span over four decades of cinema. Richard Riehle, Adam Rifkin, 2011.
A weekend getaway turns bloody and violent when a subservient android that’s built for human companionship goes haywire.
David Cronenberg’s icily erotic fusion of flesh and machine about the kinky, death-obsessed underworld of sadomasochistic car-crash fetishists for whom twisted metal and scar tissue are the ultimate turn-ons. Rosanna Arquette, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas.
During his long and industrious career, the “Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema” Chang Cheh made several films with the celebrated “Venom Mob,” a group of skilled martial arts performers. Here, Eureka Classics presents two of the Venom Mob’s best: The Daredevils and Ode to Gallantry.
A babysitting uncle tells his charges three horror stories–about a killer witch, Little Red Riding Hood and a werewolf, and a story about “Goldi Lox” and the three bears. Jeffrey Delman. Melissa Leo (1986)
Experience “the most charming post-apocalyptic cannibal comedy ever made” (Starburst) restored for the first time ever: From co-writers/directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro comes the “darkly moving and strangely uplifting” (Salon) dystopian fable – nominated for 10 César Awards – about odd jobs and strange neighbors, circus stars and troglodytes, fresh meat and true love.
Two fallen angels who were ejected from paradise find themselves banned in Wisconsin. They are now headed for New Jersey where they find a loophole that can get them back into heaven. The only catch is that it will destroy humanity. A group bands together to stop them.
A satirical twist on the gory and sexually charged 1980’s slasher genre presented as the only surviving VHS copy of the reviled horror franchise’s third, and final, installment. Tomm Jacobsen, Michael Rousselet, Jon Salmon, 2015.
Ridiculous but stylish 80s ultra-violent action film about a Texas ranger who must take on a childhood friend who is now a drug kingpin. Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Michael Ironside, Walter Hill, 1987.
In 1983, acclaimed photographer Avery Crounse made his directorial debut with what is considered to be the seminal American folk horror film. Mishandled by distributors, it has remained virtually unseen until now: On the 18th-century frontier, an adulterous preacher and his followers flee to ‘the promised land’ only to enter a valley of lust, madness, pagan vengeance and hallucinatory terror.
Between 1959 and 1971, Filipino filmmakers Eddie Romero and Gerry de Leon – along with Hemisphere Pictures marketing consultant Samuel M. Sherman – unleashed this monsters-and-mayhem quartet that remains among the most deliriously schlocky horror classics of all time: TERROR IS A MAN, BRIDES OF BLOOD, MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND and BEAST OF BLOOD.
An Arizona logger mysteriously disappears for five days in an alleged encounter with a flying saucer in 1975. D.B. Sweeney, Robert Patrick, Craig Sheffer, Robert Lieberman, 1993.
When Jeffrey Franken’s fiancée is chopped to pieces by the blades of a remote-controlled lawnmower, he uses his dubious medical knowledge to try to bring her back to life. He reassembles his beloved Elizabeth using the body parts of New York City’s finest prostitutes, and resurrects her during a heavy lightning storm.
Based very loosely on a story by H. P. Lovecraft, a group of scientists create a resonator to stimulate the pineal gland, and open up a door to a parallel (and hostile) universe. Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Stuart Gordon, 1986.
The local news stations scramble to break the story on who he is while a group of high schoolers see the clown’s arrival as an excuse to create a little trouble themselves.
The police try to maintain order in a city that has gone clown crazy and a conservative podcast host vows to put a stop to the clown while broadcasting his clown hunt on social media for the world to see.
Lead singer Joe Dick (Hugh Dillon) decides to reunite his cult punk band, Hard Core Logo, for a Canadian tour. But guitarist Billy Tallent (Callum Keith Rennie) is waiting to hear back from Jenifur, a popular Los Angeles–based group considering bringing him on — which causes tension with Joe, for whom Hard Core Logo is everything. Along with erratic bassist John Oxenberger (John Pyper-Ferguson) and hard-partying drummer Pipefitter (Bernie Coulson), the contentious duo take to the road.
In this offbeat road comedy from Finland, an amateur metal band from Finland travels to Norway to be in a huge heavy metal festival in order to seek fame and fortune. Juuso Laatio, Jukka Vidgren, 2018.
In this offbeat road comedy from Finland, an amateur metal band from Finland travels to Norway to be in a huge heavy metal festival in order to seek fame and fortune. Juuso Laatio, Jukka Vidgren, 2018.
Just after becoming the director of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke (Mel Brooks) is greeted by a series of mysterious events. When his colleagues — including the militaristic and mustachioed Nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman) — become leery of his questions, they accuse him of murder. Thorndyke’s own mental health comes into question as he struggles to clear his name in the midst of a crippling bout of a condition known as high anxiety.
In an America ravaged by atomic warfare, nomads spend their days scavenging for scrap in a blasted landscape. That’s how ex-soldier Moses Baxter (Dylan McDermott) comes into possession of some spare android parts. He buys them as a present for his artist girlfriend, Jill (Stacey Travis), who plans to put them in a sculpture. What they don’t know is that the pieces come from a new kind of android that is capable of reassembling itself — and is programmed to kill.
At the height of the 1980s, following their breakthrough documentary P4W: Prison for Women, filmmakers Janis Cole and Holly Dale turned their lens on Vancouver’s Davie Street neighborhood, a bustling, neon-soaked hub for both trans and cisgender sex workers informally known as “the prostitution capital of Canada.” The result was Hookers on Davie, a landmark document combining candid interviews with a group of instantly memorable subjects and vivid location footage of their street work, surreptitiously captured with hidden cameras. An indelible community portrait, the film culminates in the group’s collective efforts to challenge and overcome legislative oppression.
Featuring Christopher Lee, an anthology of four horror stories revolving around a mysterious rental house in the UK. Peter Duffell (1971)
A young man whose sister was murdered by werewolves helps an investigator track down a gang of the monsters through the United States and Europe. Christopher Lee, Annie McEnroe, Reb Brown, Philippe Mora, 1985.
After over one hundred years of service, The Yankee Pedlar Inn is shutting its doors for good. The last remaining employees -Claire and Luke – are determined to uncover proof of what many believe to be one of New England’s most haunted hotels. As the Inn’s final days draw near, odd guests check in as the pair of minimum wage “ghost hunters” begin to experience strange and alarming events that may ultimately cause them to be mere footnotes in the hotel’s long unexplained history.
Madame Wu (Sibelle Hu) has been assigned to the Hong Kong Police Academy to train female Banshee Squad Members, next door to the male Tiger Squad Members lead by Inspector Kan (Shui-Fan Fung). After internal conflicts and courting mishaps, the squad members were ordered to band together to round up a gang of thieves at a convention.
Jack Brooks (Trevor Matthews) develops major anger issues after he witnesses his parents’ murder. Jack’s girlfriend (Rachel Skarsten) is fed up and demands he attend anger-management classes. One night, while repairing pipes for his professor, Gordon Crowley (Robert Englund), Jack unintentionally unleashes a demonic evil that transformers Crowley into a monster. The evil spreads, transforming everyone in sight into monsters as well, and Jack must harness his anger in order to defeat them.
All three of Peele’s movies together.
Ridley Scott’s odd but visually ravishing fairy tale featuring one of the screen’s most astonishingly rendered depictions of Evil and puppets by the Krofft Brothers. Includes U.S. Theatrical Cut and the Director’s Cut. Tim Curry, Tom Cruise, 1985.
Eight years ago, Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) washed up on a beach, pregnant, with no memory. Now she’s a school teacher living an idyllic small town life with a daughter and boyfriend who love her. She’s almost given up on ever finding out about the life she used to lead, until an accident awakens hidden memories and her past comes back with all guns blazing
Loosely based on Poe, this psychedelic horror plunges a journalist into a madhouse where the inmates run the show. Claudio Brook, Arthur Hansel, Ellen Sherman, Juan López Moctezuma, 1973.
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL is a poignant and heartfelt chronicle of the life of Grace Pudel, a lonely misfit with an affinity for collecting ornamental snails and an intense love of romance novels. At a young age, when she’s separated from her twin brother, she falls into a spiral of anxiety and angst. Despite a continued series of hardships, inspiration and hope emerge when she strikes up an enduring friendship with an elderly eccentric woman named Pinky. As she slowly learns to let go of the clutter in her home and her mind, Grace starts to find her confidence and the courage to love again.
Johnnie (Li Hsui-hsien) is one of many voyagers seeking a mysterious monster in the jungles of India. Eventually, he comes across the enormous ape-like creature known as Utam. Shockingly, the beast is gentle and has a human companion, Samantha (Evelyne Kraft), whom he brought up after her parents’ death. After Johnnie convinces Utam and Samantha to travel to Hong Kong with him, greedy promoter Lu Tiem (Ku Feng) exploits and mistreats the creature, causing Utam to unleash his fury on the city.
Hamburg 1963. German journalist Jon Voight (Midnight Cowboy, Deliverance, Coming Home) finds himself in possession of a diary detailing the unspeakable crimes of cruelty, torture and mass murder perpetrated by an SS captain, now veiled as a top industrialist. Neame’s compelling mix of conspiracy thriller and action-adventure, adapted from Frederick Forsyth’s bestseller, is a fine addition to the post-war spy thriller genre, and features an outstanding performance from Voight and glorious location photographed by the great Oswald Morris (Lolita, The Pumpkin Eater).
Darkly funny cult film about a group of bored teenagers who give into to their anarchist tendencies out of frustration with the adults in their lives. Matt Dillon, Michael Eric Kramer, Jonathan Kaplan, 1979.
Brian De Palma’s (Scarface, The Untouchables) classic musical cult comedy Phantom of the Paradise blends elements of The Phantom of the Opera, The Picture of Dorian Grey, and Faust, paving the way for his later hits. In it, a disfigured composer sells his soul for the woman he loves so that she will perform his music. However, an evil record tycoon betrays him and steals his music to open his rock palace.
The young Jennifer Corvino (played by Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Connelly) is sent to a private Swiss academy for girls where a killer is on the loose, brutally murdering students. Jennifer is a “gifted” girl with the strange ability to communicate with insects, and Dr. McGregor (Donald Pleasence, John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN series, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK) enlists her to help locate the killer.
Joel Delaney would seem to be an average burnout type, eschewing his high-class and wealthy upbringing for an affected hippie lifestyle. But when he moves into an apartment previously inhabited by a now-deceased serial killer in Spanish Harlem, Joel begins changing. Initially, his wealthy sister Norah attributes his behavior to moodiness and disillusionment, but as Joel becomes increasingly hostile and aggressive, she begins to fear something worse is afoot. When Joel’s temperament spills over into violence, after which a series of seemingly accidental deaths occur, Norah begins investigating her brother’s new lifestyle, which plunges her into the world of Espiritismo and the occult.
In Arizona, an introverted and insightful teenager, Mark Hunter (Christian Slater), finds an outlet for his viewpoints through a shortwave radio. Broadcasting as Hard Harry, Hunter uses his pirate radio show to rant against the injustices and hypocrisies taking place in the area, and in society in general. Hunter conceals his off-air identity, but a determined student (Samantha Mathis) discovers the truth, while Principal Creswood (Annie Ross) seeks to shut down Hunter once and for all.
Starring Charles Bronson, French crime drama, A US Army colonel in France tries to track down an escaped sex maniac. René Clément (1970)
A high school slacker commits a shocking act and proceeds to let his friends in on the secret. However, the friends’ reaction is almost as ambiguous and perplexing as the crime itself. Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, Tim Hunter, 1986.
A noble young samurai searches for a thief who has stolen a precious treasure and killed one of his clansmen and meets an older samurai who tries to deter him from the violence of revenge. Hiroyuki Nakano, 1998.
Iconic head exploding sci-fi horror where a race of humans with telekinetic abilities must track down a rogue Scanner of unparalleled power waging a bloody war against the normals. David Cronenberg (1981)
Scanner Sequel double feature! Scanners II: The New Order (1991) / Scanners III: The Takeover (1991).
Gonzo arthouse exploitation film from about an aging porn star who is roped into making an “art” film which proceeds to have him commit increasingly demented and depraved acts. Srdjan Spasojevic, 2010.
One of the key films of the American independent film movement of the 1990s, Richard Linklater’s plotless prescient look at an emerging generation of aggressive nonparticipants. 1991.
Two former geeks become 1980s punks, then party and go to concerts while deciding what to do with their lives.
Just after a bad breakup, Charlie MacKenzie (Mike Myers) falls for lovely butcher Harriet Michaels (Nancy Travis) and introduces her to his parents. But, as voracious consumers of sensational tabloids, his parents soon come to suspect that Harriet is actually a notorious serial killer — “Mrs. X” — wanted in connection with a string of bizarre honeymoon killings. Thinking his parents foolish, Charlie proposes to Harriet. But while on his honeymoon with her, he begins to fear they were right.
Starring Teagan of Teagan & Sara fame, a musician isolates herself in a remote cottage to write new songs, but eerie events suggest she may not be alone. Teagan Johnston, Jenna Schaefer, April Aliermo, Ryan Glover, 2020.
From Jack Hill, legendary director of Spider Baby, Coffy, Foxy Brown, and The Swinging Cheerleaders comes another iconic cult classic, Switchblade Sisters!
Filled with sharp, clever dialogue and tongue in cheek humor, this Shakespeare-influenced girl gang/women in prison/action movie medley is a stone cold grindhouse classic!
80’s TV horror anthology show gets the big screen treatment in this comes an all-star anthology of horror. Debbie Harry, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, 1990.
Tammy is a popular high school cheerleader whose new boyfriend, Michael, might be the love of her life. But Tammy’s jealous ex, Billy, won’t stand for anyone coming between him and ‘his’ girl, so he and his friends kidnap Michael, leaving him to be mauled by a lion in a local wildlife reserve.
Comatose and at death’s door, Michael’s body is stolen from the hospital by mad scientist Dr. Wachenstein, who extracts his brain and implants it into a giant robotic T-Rex. Horrified by his predicament and new dinosaur body, he escapes from the doctor’s lab and begins brutally killing his former bullies.
Art The Clown returns and sets his sights on three young women, along with anyone else that gets in his way. Terrifier is based on a character from the successful horror anthology franchise All Hallows’ Eve. Not for the squeamish!
While Bubbles and his band, “The Shitrockers,” are playing shows around Nova Scotia a viral internet clip lands them a European tour opening for Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters. With Randy as their roadie, they head to Prague but soon get kicked off the tour, busking to survive. Can Ricky and Julian come to the rescue?
A dive into the stylish, uncompromising world of one of Japan’s most genre-defying filmmakers, Tai Kato: BY A MAN’S FACE SHALL YOU KNOW HIM / I, THE EXECUTIONER.
An idle, good-natured bachelor, unaccustomed to suburban life, is left in charge of his nephew and nieces during a family crisis. John Candy, Macaulay Culkin, Jean Louisa Kelly, Amy Madigan, 1989.
In a Florida research lab, a seemingly harmless orange cat has developed the ability to transform itself into a hideous mutant creature. A group of gangsters and criminals unknowingly bring the furry monster aboard a yacht in the Caribbean. The heinous feline begins terrorizing the passengers and a desperate struggle for survival leads to a terrifying climax. Will George Kennedy or anyone survive the attacks from the “Uninvited”
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist,” says con man Kint (Kevin Spacey), drawing a comparison to the most enigmatic criminal of all time, Keyser Soze. Kint attempts to convince the feds that the mythic crime lord not only exists, but is also responsible for drawing Kint and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro Harbor – leaving few survivors.
Nicolas Cage’s triumphant cult performance as a yuppie who becomes a blood slave to a sexy vampire. Maria Conchita Alonso, Jennifer Beals, Robert Bierman, 1988.
Includes: Fall of the House of Usher (1960) / The Haunted Palace (1963) / The Masque of the Red Death (1964) / Witchfinder General (1968) / The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) / The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971).
Argentinean horror about the residents of a small rural town discover that a demon is about to be born among them. They desperately try to escape before the evil is born, but it may be too late. Demián Rugna, 2023.
Grindhouse fever dream at its most absurd from Jesús Franco – a father searching for his abducted daughter in the jungle finds that she is captured by a tribe with a gruesome taste for human flesh. Al Cliver, Sabrina Siani, Jerome Foulon, 1980.
And there we go guys. Movies should be here Thursday/ Friday. Cheers!
