In the middle of winter the one thing that always warms the heart is cinema. Lots and lots of cinema. So with that being said here are some of the goodies hitting the old video store as January keeps on trucking…
All-star remake from the director of the Exorcist of the powerful classic court room drama. Ossie Davis, George C. Scott, Armin Mueller-Stahl, James Gandolfini, Tony Danza, Jack Lemmon, Edward James Olmos, Hume Cronyn, William Friedkin, 1997
It’s the 3 Ninjas master collection with all FOUR (they made of them?) films on Blu Ray!
BACK IN STOCK! The First 6 Alien films all in one set on Blu Ray!
Respected scientist and psychology professor Edward Jessup (William Hurt) decides to combine his experiments in sensory deprivation tanks with powerful hallucinogenic drugs, convinced that it may help him unlock different states of consciousness. The experiments are a success at first, but as Jessup continues his work, he begins to experience altered mental and also physical states. As he spends more time in sensory deprivation, his grip on reality begins to slip away.
Cult superstar Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead) reunites with director Sam Raimi (Drag Me to Hell, Spider-Man) to battle the deadly forces of evil in Army of Darkness – the outrageous, effects-fueled action epic that will make you scream with fear and laughter. Forced to lead a makeshift Dark Ages army against the demonic Deadites, who possess all the deadly magic of hell, the shotgun-toting, chainsaw-armed, reluctant 20th century time traveler Ash (Campbell) must save the living from the dead, rescue his medieval girlfriend and get back to his own time.
The most personal film by the underworld poet Jean-Pierre Melville, who had participated in the French Resistance himself, this tragic masterpiece, based on a novel by Joseph Kessel, recounts the struggles and sacrifices of those who fought in the Resistance.
Dar, an ancient warrior with the ability to communicate telepathically with animal allies, sets out to stop the crazed plans of an evil high priest named Maax and save his friends.
Nice, normal-looking Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesel) has an obsession with movie-style slashers like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. Leslie decides to follow in the footsteps of his heroes, and, ever the self-promoter, invites a documentary filmmaker (Angela Goethals) and her crew to follow him around as he constructs his own grisly legacy.
In 1970, 20th Century-Fox, impressed by the visual zing “King of the Nudies” Russ Meyer (Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) brought to bargain-basement exploitation fare, handed the director a studio budget and the title to one of its biggest hits, Valley of the Dolls. With a satirical screenplay by Roger Ebert, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls follows three young female rockers going Hollywood in hell-bent sixties style under the spell of a flamboyant producer-whose decadent bashes showcase Meyer’s trademark libidinal exuberance. Transgressive and outrageous, this big-studio version of a debaucherous midnight movie is an addictively entertaining romp from
one of the movies’ great outsider artists.
Policemen (John Saxon, David Huffman) are baffled when people disappear, sucked into the beach by a sand creature.
Rare cult classic art house supernatural slasher where a woman who lives in deer-hunting country in rural Wisconsin is possessed by the murderous spirit of a Japanese samurai warrior. Fabrice A. Zaphiratos (1983)
Brian DePalma’s paranoid and often lurid homage to Hitchcock and Antonioni’s Blow Up. John Travolta, 1981.
After losing an acting role and his girlfriend, Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) finally catches a break: he gets offered a gig house-sitting in the Hollywood Hills. While peering through the beautiful home’s telescope one night, he spies a gorgeous blonde (Deborah Shelton) dancing in her window. But when he witnesses the girl’s murder, it leads Scully through the netherworld of the adult entertainment industry on a search for answers — with porn actress Holly Body (Melanie Griffith) as his guide.
Extensive reconstruction of the notorious 1980 spectacle, based on the original narrative as conceived by writer Gore Vidal. Malcolm McDowell, Peter O’Toole, Helen Mirren, John Gielgud.
When Los Angeles private eye J.J. Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by Evelyn Mulwray to investigate her husband’s activities, he believes it’s a routine infidelity case. Jake’s investigation soon becomes anything but routine when he meets the real Mrs. Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) and realizes he was hired by an imposter. Mr. Mulwray’s sudden death sets Gittes on a tangled trail of corruption, deceit and sinister family secrets as Evelyn’s father (John Huston) becomes a suspect in the case.
One of Lucio Fulci’s great masterworks in all its gut-spewing, brain smashing, head drilling, Lovecraftian zombie horror! Christopher George, 1980.
A novelist’s (Christopher Walken) wife (Lindsay Crouse) and son (Joel Carlson) see him changed by an apparent encounter with aliens in the mountains.
The peaceful tranquility of a small Western town is disturbed when a murderous car wreaks havoc by viciously mowing down innocent victims. Sheriff James Brolin may be the only one who can stop this menace.
A cult sci-fi adventure set in a post-apocalyptic world where a man hires a sexy renegade to track down a rare duplicate sex android model. Melanie Griffith, David Andrews, Harry Carey Jr., Laurence Fishburne, Steve De Jarnatt, 1987.
Featuring chart-topping music, Cool as Ice stars recording artist Vanilla Ice in his exciting motion picture debut. Johnny (Vanilla Ice) is a freewheeling, motorcycle-riding musician who rolls into a small town with his band. There he meets Kathy (Kristin Minter, TV’s ER), a high school honor student who catches his eye and his heart. Can a “good” girl like Kathy fall for such a “bad” guy? It’s modern romance with a beat in this fast-paced film with stunning visual style and a hit soundtrack. Directed by David Kellogg (Inspector Gadget).
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.
Party-loving Kate wakes up in a London tube station to find the place locked up and deserted. With no choice but to stay there until morning, Kate soon finds that some things are much more frightening than being alone, as she heads into the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the city, pursued by an unknown attacker.
The young student Joe discovers that a magical crystal he inherited from his father is the key to another dimension; together with the experienced adventurer A.T. he must save the world from a villain.
The chilling story of identical twin gynecologists who share the same practice, same apartment and the same women. When a new patient challenges their eerie bond, they descend into a whirlpool of sexual confusion, drugs and madness. Jeremy Irons.
After a mad genius inventor of killer robots and cyborgs kills his bosses and unleashes his ultimate death machine on the new cute CEO firing him. Brad Dourif, Rachel Weisz, Stephen Norrington, 1994.
In the fall of 1986, six knuckleheads from Detroit travel to Northern Michigan for deer hunting season. But something horrific has been awakened, and soon the hunters become the hunted.
A loan officer who evicts an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse. Desperate, she turns to a seer to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to the breaking point. Sam Raimi (2009)
Brian De Palma (Carrie) ascended to the highest ranks of American suspense filmmaking with this virtuoso, explicit erotic thriller. Angie Dickinson, Michael Caine, and Nancy Allen.
Legendary actor-director Sammo Hung delivers a bazooka blast of pure adrenaline in this exemplar of Hong Kong action cinema at its most entertaining. Drawing inspiration from Hollywood war films like The Dirty Dozen, Eastern Condors follows a ragtag band of Asian American prisoners dropped into Vietnam on a secret suicide mission to prevent a cache of weapons from falling into the hands of the Viet Cong, who are more than ready for a fight. Propelled by a dynamic ensemble cast that includes the ever-charismatic Yuen Biao as a black-market trader and a superhuman Yuen Wah as a giggling martial-arts monster, this rip-roaring spectacle offers a nonstop barrage of turbocharged set pieces that defy death, logic, and gravity itself.
American tourists Cass and Gav are backpacking their way across the Balkans. Shortly after crashing a wedding, they run into a mysterious Slav who goes by “Saint Peter.” Offering to give them an authentic tour of the region, the young couple take him up on the proposal, but soon fall prey to Saint Peter’s increasingly strange and manipulative behaviors, culminating with Gav’s sudden disappearance. Desperate to find him, and confident that Saint Peter is somehow connected to his vanishing, Cass is pulled deeper and deeper into a sinister web of violence as she comes to realize Saint Peter’s terrifying true intentions.
Having just quit her job as a TV horror hostess, Elvira receives the news that she’s set to inherit part of her great aunt’s estate. Arriving in Fallwell, Massachusetts to claim her inheritance, She receives a cold welcome from the conservative locals, including her uncle Vincent, an evil warlock secretly scheming to steal the old family spellbook for his own nefarious ends…
In a world ravaged by crime, the island of Manhattan has been converted into a prison which houses the world’s most brutal inmates. And when the President of the United States crash lands inside, only one man can bring him back: Snake Plissken! In 4K!
Gaspar Noé’s English language “psychedelic melodrama” about a drug-dealing teen who is killed in Japan, after which he reappears as a ghost to watch over his sister. Paz de la Huerta, Nathaniel Brown, 2009.
A reunion between two estranged sisters gets cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.
A group of friends who venture into the remote Texas woods for a party weekend find themselves stalked by Bigfoot. Roger Edwards, Samuel Davis, Chris Osborn, Eduardo Sánchez (of Blair Witch fame), 2014.
In this cult classic, a shy, lonely film buff embarks on a killing spree against those who browbeat and betray him, all the while stalking his idol, a Marilyn Monroe lookalike. Dennis Christopher, Tim Thomerson, Gwynne Gilford, Vernon Zimmerman, 1980.
In 1975, a group of five men are driving home after working in a forest when they see a mysterious light. Intrigued, Travis Walton (D.B. Sweeney) leaves the truck — only to be sucked up by a flying saucer. The other four men report the strange event, but they are skeptically interrogated by Lt. Frank Watters (James Garner), who suspects that murder is behind Walton’s disappearance. When Walton reappears five days later, his story of alien abduction is met with disbelief.
The film that started it all… the genre of “Spaghetti Western” was born, The Man with No Name was introduced and the iconic talents of star Clint Eastwood and director Sergio Leone.
The stars of a 1970s sci-fi show – now scraping a living through re-runs and sci-fi conventions – are beamed aboard an alien spacecraft. Believing the cast’s heroic on-screen dramas are historical documents of real-life adventures, the band of aliens turn to the ailing celebrities for help in their quest to overcome the oppressive regime in their solar system.
A witty, disgusting, eye-popping, and incomprehensible scabrous satire of organized religion that follows a Christ figure, his disciples, and their bloody quest for the home of the gods, whom they plan to depose. Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973.
Indescribable psychedelic Japanse ghost tale that’s equal parts absurd and nightmarish, Scooby Doo and Mario Bava. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977.
Dolemite (Rudy Ray Moore) is back and badder than ever in THE HUMAN TORNADO! After being run out of town by a racist sheriff, Dolemite returns to LA only to discover that Queen Bee’s (Lady Reed) club has been taken over by the mafia. On top of that they have also kidnapped two of Queen Bee’s top girls! With the law hot on his tail, Dolemite rounds up the toughest Kung-Fu fighting badasses in Southern California to take on the mob, culminating in one of the craziest surprise endings in blaxploitation film history!
In this deadpan coming-of-age horror-comedy from Quebec a young vampire has a serious problem: she’s too sensitive to kill. She befriends a lonely teenager with suicidal tendencies that helps her find herself. Sara Montpetit, Ariane Louis-Seize, 2023.
In this ultra violent revisionist WWII film, a group of Jewish-American soldiers plots revenge on Nazi leaders. Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, and Mélanie Laurent, Quentin Tarantino, 2009
One of the greatest comedians of all time, Richard Pryor gets raw and real in this brutally funny and lacerating self-portrait. Following the notorious incident in which he caught on fire while high on cocaine, nearly losing his life, Pryor exorcised his inner demons by writing, producing, directing, and starring in this dizzying hall-of-mirrors biopic and backstage drama, which traces a young comedian’s rise to fame, from his childhood growing up in a brothel to the colorful experiences that shaped his edgy comic voice to the addiction struggles that brought him to the brink of death. As he did in his legendary stand-up sets, here Pryor fearlessly turns his soul inside out, revealing the deep vulnerability that made his art so compelling.
Extremely shy Lars (Ryan Gosling) finds it impossible to make friends or socialize. His brother (Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law (Emily Mortimer) worry about him, so when he announces that he has a girlfriend he met on the Internet, they are overjoyed. But Lars’ new lady is a life-size plastic woman. On the advice of a doctor (Patricia Clarkson), his family and the rest of the community go along with his delusion.
A love letter to video rental stores and the B-movie treasures that lined their walls, Cody Kennedy & Tim Rutherford’s debut feature, The Last Video Store, is a genre-loving blast of pure joy: “a real treasure trove for genre fans, both new and old.”
The crew of the merchant ship Demeter sets sail from Carpathia to London to deliver a cargo of 50 unmarked wooden crates. However, they soon discover they’re not alone as Dracula’s unholy presence turns the trip into a nightmarish fight for survival.
Mathilda (Natalie Portman) is only 12 years old, but is already familiar with the dark side of life: her abusive father stores drugs for corrupt police officers, and her mother neglects her. Léon (Jean Reno), who lives down the hall, tends to his houseplants and works as a hired hitman for mobster Tony (Danny Aiello). When her family is murdered by crooked DEA agent Stansfield (Gary Oldman), Mathilda joins forces with a reluctant Léon to learn his deadly trade and avenge her family’s deaths.
Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
This genre-defying horror-musical mash-up-the bold debut of Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska-follows a pair of carnivorous mermaid sisters drawn ashore to explore life on land in an alternate 1980s Poland. Their tantalizing siren songs and otherworldly auras make them overnight sensations as nightclub singers in the half-glam, half-decrepit world of Smoczynska’s imagining. The director gives fierce teeth to her viscerally sensual, darkly feminist twist on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” in which the girls’ bond is tested and their survival threatened after one sister falls for a human. A coming-of-age fairy tale with a catchy synth-fueled soundtrack, outrageous song-and-dance numbers, and lavishly grimy sets, The Lure explores its themes of emerging female sexuality, exploitation, and the compromises of adulthood with savage energy and originality.
Gruesome stop-motion fever dream produced, written, directed, designed and largely animated by legendary visual effects maestro Phil Tippett off and on for roughly 30 years. Alex Cox, Niketa Roman, Satish Ratakonda, Phil Tippett, 2021.
Musician Harry Washello (Anthony Edwards) sits down at a Los Angeles diner, where he instantly takes an interest in waitress Julie Peters (Mare Winningham). The feeling is mutual, too, so the pair arranges a date for later that day. But things go awry when Harry picks up a random pay phone call from a frantic soldier who warns of a nuclear attack that will hit L.A. within the hour. Scrambling, Harry finds Julie and the two do everything they can to escape to safety.
When a mysterious force begins to disrupt their big summer fun, a man and his friends team up with a retired police detective to embark on a monstrous adventure to save their island. Mel Gibson, Mason Thames, Julian Lerner, David Henrie, 2024.
You really are what you eat with Farmer Vincent’s smoked meat in this creepy horror yarn that packs a punch and goes way beyond mere terror! Vincent’s popular products contain a special ingredient, and when his secret is threatened, he and his psychotic sister will literally kill to keep it from getting out.
The quintessential silent vampire film, remastered in high definition for the first time.
It is 1850 in the beautiful town of Wismar. Jonathan Harker is about to leave on a long journey, despite desperate warnings from his wife Lucy. Upon his arrival, he is greeted by a pale, wraith-like figure with deep-sunken eyes, who identifies himself as Count Dracula. The events that transpire convince Harker that he is in the presence of a vampire. What he doesn’t know is the magnitude of danger he, his wife and his town face as victims of the Nosferatu.
PIG (1998), a film depicting the relationship between a killer (Rozz Williams) and his victim (James Hollan), where all lines are crossed, blending fantasy and reality, in a transformation of the subconscious mind of a killer. 1334 (2011), a ghost story, that reveals the haunting disturbances than began to plague the ones left behind following the completion of PIG and the death of R.W.
A popular radio DJ finds himself in a difficult situation when he starts a torrid affair with an obsessive fan. Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills, Don Siegel, 1971
The First three of the series back in stock!
Stringent vegetarian Justine (Garance Marillier) encounters a decadent, merciless and dangerously seductive world during her first week at veterinary school. Desperate to fit in, she strays from her principles and eats raw meat for the first time. The young woman soon experiences terrible and unexpected consequences as her true self begins to emerge.
Grace couldn’t be happier after she marries the man of her dreams at his family’s luxurious estate. There’s just one catch — she must now hide from midnight until dawn while her new in-laws hunt her down with guns, crossbows and other weapons. As Grace desperately tries to survive the night, she soon finds a way to turn the tables on her not-so-lovable relatives.
90s American neo-noir from John Dahl about a discharged marine turned drifter who gets mixed up with the trashy denizens of a small Wyoming town. Nicolas Cage, J.T. Walsh, Dennis Hopper.
In this Canadian film from cult director Guy Maddin, the ineffectual meagerness of global summits and draft resolutions are satirized. Cate Blanchett, Charles Dance, Roy Dupuis, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin, 2024.
After a year of combating a pandemic with relatively benign symptoms, a frustrated nation finally lets its guard down. This is when the virus spontaneously mutates, giving rise to a mind-altering plague. The streets erupt into violence and depravity, as those infected are driven to enact the most cruel and ghastly things they can think of. Murder, torture, rape and mutilation are only the beginning. A young couple is pushed to the limits of sanity as they try to reunite amid the chaos. The age of civility and order is no more. There is only “The Sadness”.
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)
After being sent to the electric chair, a serial killer uses electricity to come back from the dead and carry out his vengeance on the football player who turned him in to the police. Michael Murphy, Mitch Pileggi, Peter Berg, Wes Craven, 1989.
Silent Night, Deadly Night is the heartwarming story of little Billy Chapman who was traumatized by his parents’ Christmas Eve murder, then brutalized by sadistic orphanage nuns. But when grown-up Billy is to dress as jolly St. Nick, he goes on a yuletide rampage to “punish the naughty!” Santa Claus is coming to town … and this time he’s got an axe! Robert Brian Wilson and Scream Queen Linnea Quigley (Return of the Living Dead) star in this jaw-dropping horror classic that a nation of angry mothers still cannot stop!
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.
A maverick cop goes undercover into a dangerous criminal underworld and, under the spell of the bad guy’s charismatic leader, maybe gets in a little too deep. Brian Bosworth, Lance Henriksen, William Forsythe, 1991.
A retired farmer and widower in his 70s, Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) learns one day that his distant brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton) has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver’s license. Then he hits on the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.
Elisabeth Sparkle, renowned for an aerobics show, faces a devastating blow on her 50th birthday as her boss fires her. Amid her distress, a laboratory offers her a substance which promises to transform her into an enhanced version of herself.
In this horror comedy western, vampires in a small town manufacture artificial blood in the hopes of integrating into human society. However, a descendent of Van Helsing has other plans. David Carradine, Morgan Brittany, Bruce Campbell, Anthony Hickox
No-one’s safe as long as the evil kung-fu masters of the Qi Sha clan terrorise the land. Can they be stopped’ The authorities have placed a spy in their ranks, but the clan – and their mysterious leader – won’t go down without a fight. Or several…
Long unavailable, and famously difficult to see, 88 Films are proud to present this essential rediscovery in a beautiful new Blu-ray edition.
Based on Troma’s cult classic smash The Toxic Avenger, The Toxic Crusaders animated series follows the adventures of that lovable deformed creature of superhuman size and strength, Toxie!
Yacht passengers encounter mysterious weather conditions that force them to jump onto another ship, only to have the odd havoc increase.
The urban jungle of 1963 New York’s gangland subculture, this coming of age teenage movie is set around the Italian gang the Wanderers falling in love, surviving in school and defending their turf. Philip Kaufman (1979)
Mind-bending horror comedies where murderous animated wax figures manifest demonic evil. Anthony Hickox (1988,1992)
Cult teen 80s horror / sci-fi film about a mysterious fast-driving spirit who descends from the sky to take revenge against a road-racing gang of motor-heads. Charlie Sheen, Nick Cassavetes, Sherilyn Fenn, Randy Quaid, Mike Marvin, 1986.
Thanks to perhaps the most indelible character in Akira Kurosawa’s oeuvre, Yojimbo surpassed even Seven Samurai in popularity when it was released. The masterless samurai Sanjuro, who slyly manipulates two warring clans to his own advantage in a small, dusty village, was so entertainingly embodied by the brilliant Toshiro Mifune that it was only a matter of time before he returned in a sequel. Made just one year later, Sanjuro matches Yojimbo’s storytelling dexterity yet adds a layer of world-weary pragmatism that brings the two films to a thrilling and unforgettable conclusion.
4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
And there we guys. MOvies should here end of the week. Cheers!
