The new year keeps on trucking and some sweet titles will coming along with it at the old shop. So buckle in and let’s get down to business and see what’s what at the old video store…
This ensemble comedy follows an array of young people in New York City on New Year’s Eve. Among the numerous characters looking for love and fun are impulsive artist Ellie (Janeane Garofalo) and punks Tom (Casey Affleck) and Dave (Guillermo Diaz), who meet up with Stephie (Gaby Hoffmann) and Val (Christina Ricci), two girls from Long Island. Also interacting with various partygoers are a pensive bartender (Ben Affleck) and a taxi driver (Dave Chappelle) who operates a disco in his cab.
The first ALIEN films all together!
The Beast Within (Kino Cult #22) A teenager experiences growing pains of a most unusual sort in this unforgettable excursion into 1980s body horror! Teenager Michael MacCleary (Paul Clemens), spawn of an unholy union between woman and swamp beast, is on the brink of manhood. And as the inherited evil in his blood gnaws at his soul, Michael must return to the swamp to uncover the disturbing identity of his father—before his unnatural tendencies force him to feed on the locals! The Beast Within is highlighted by showstopping human-into-monster metamorphoses that make An American Werewolf in London look positively domesticated! Directed by Philippe Mora (Mad Dog Morgan, Howling II & III), written by Tom Holland (Fright Night, Child’s Play) and featuring Ronny Cox, Bibi Besch, Don Gordon, R.G. Armstrong and L.Q. Jones. Commentary by director Philippe Mora with historian Colum Waddell | Commentary by director Philippe Mora with actor Paul Clemens | Commentary by screenwriter Tom Holland | I was a Teenage Cicada: The Making of The Beast Within (46 Min.) | Storyboarding the Beast (13 min.) | Theatrical Trailer | Radio spots
In this suspense-thriller, three brothers revisit the woods where they buried their abusive father, only to find his grave empty. Suspicion and paranoia arise, leading to devastating consequences as they question each other’s loyalty.
Obscure Blaxploitation about a private detective who wages a one man war against a drug ring in Venice, California responsible for a series of murders. Fred Williamson, Rosemary Forsyth, Teresa Graves, Jack Arnold, 1974.
Blood and Lace (Kino Cult #23) Behind a veil of lace—TERROR hides its face—in this twisted cult shocker that will make your heart race! After her mother’s bloody demise at the hands of a hammer-wielding maniac, teenaged Ellie Masters (F Troop’s Melody Patterson) is sent to a remote orphanage run by the enigmatic Mrs. Deere (celluloid goddess Gloria Grahame, In a Lonely Place). But as terror strikes again and again, it becomes unclear who might be the bigger threat to Ellie’s life: the mysterious, homicidal hammerer…or Ellie’s sadistic new caretaker. Laced with mind-blowing plot twists and a real nail-chewer of a climax, this gnarly proto-slasher is a jolting nerve-jangler that cries out to be seen! Featuring Milton Seltzer, Len Lesser and Vic Tayback. Commentary by film historian Richard Harland Smith | Alternate opening titles | Theatrical Trailer
The dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi’gMaq reserve of Red Crow, except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are strangely immune to the zombie plague. Jeff Barnaby, 2019.
One of the most gorgeously photographed horror films of all-time this gripping, edge-of-the-seat film follows a social who enters the mind of a comatose serial killer. Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D’Onofrio, Tarsem Singh, 2000.
In this Mexican horror, some moronic teenagers disturb a sacred grave site for a laugh and get their comeuppance when the vengeful corpses reanimate and tear out their throats! Hugo Stiglitz, Usi Velasco, Erika Buenfil, Rubén Galindo Jr., 1985.
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.
When a priest hangs himself in a cemetery, he opens the gates of hell in the mysterious New England town of Dunwich in Lucio Fulci’s gut-spewing, brain smashing, head drilling, Lovecraftian zombie nightmare
A young woman (Meiko Kaji), trained from childhood as an assassin and hell-bent on revenge for her father’s murder and her mother’s rape, hacks and slashes her way to gory satisfaction. Rampant with inventive violence and spectacularly choreographed swordplay, Toshiya Fujita’s pair of influential cult classics Lady Snowblood and Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance, set in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japan, respectively, are bloody, beautiful extravaganzas composed of one elegant widescreen composition after another. The first Lady Snowblood was a major inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill saga, and both of Fujita’s films remain cornerstones of Asian action cinema.
When churlish mobster Albert Spica (Michael Gambon) acquires an upscale French restaurant in London, he dines there nightly, effectively scaring off the clientele with his bad manners. His wife, Georgina (Helen Mirren), is especially disgusted by him, and soon begins an affair with another restaurant guest, Michael (Alan Howard). Despite their efforts to keep it a secret, however, Spica finds out about their trysts, and he plans to exact a terrible revenge.
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.
Iconic Italian horror, after witnessing the murder of a famous psychic, a musician teams up with a feisty reporter to find the killer while evading attempts on their lives by the unseen assailant bent on keeping a dark secret buried. Dario Argento (1975)
A masterpiece from Nicolas Roeg, Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie mesmerize as a married couple on an extended trip to Venice following a family tragedy get caught up in a brilliantly disturbing tale of the supernatural.
American classic starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson as counterculture bikers travelling from Los Angeles to New Orleans in search of America. Dennis Hopper (1969)
This French Sci-Fi classic is a bizarre and beautifully animated futuristic story on a faraway planet, where blue giants rule and oppressed humanoids rebel against the machine-like leaders. René Laloux (1973)
German horror, Two violent young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic “games” with one another for their own amusement. Michael Haneke (1997)
The alumni cast of a space opera television series have to play their roles as the real thing when an alien race needs their help. However, they also have to defend both Earth and the alien race from a reptilian warlord.
As disturbingly funny as it is audaciously empathetic, auteur of unease Todd Solondz’s portrait of damaged souls reaching out for connection reveals the existential void underneath middle-class suburban “normalcy.” An extraordinary ensemble cast—including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jane Adams, Lara Flynn Boyle, Ben Gazzara, and Dylan Baker—embodies an array of loosely connected New Jersey deviants, depressives, and misfits, among them a frustrated phone-sex pest, an all-American dad concealing his pedophilic urges, and a lonely woman with a grisly secret, all of whom want just one thing: to be loved. One of the most controversial films of the 1990s, the unflinching Happiness unnerves precisely because it dares to see the humanity in those most often denied it.
Teenage kicks take a decidedly dark turn in director Douglas Grossman’s Hell High – a twisted tale of delinquency pushed to its horrifying extreme, where Class of 1984 meets I Spit on Your Grave!
Michael Rooker gives a bone-chilling performance as Henry, a solitary drifter who leads his dim ex-jail mate Otis (Tim Towles), on a senseless killing spree through the streets of Chicago. Choosing their victims at random, they vary their methods of execution to avoid detection. Meanwhile, Otis’ unsuspecting sister, Becky (Tracy Arnold), comes to visit and finds herself falling in love with Henry.
In this A24 Horror, two young Mormon missionaries find themselves in a game of cat-and-mouse forcing them to match wits with a creepy middle-aged man who traps them in his house. Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East, 2024.
Gruesome Hong Kong CAT3 horror about a shoe factory owner, driven by perverse desires, begins a horrifying spree of brutally murdering and skinning women to create high heels. 1996.
The people of Metropolis try to stop evil Graal and an insane scientist from creating an army of indestructible automatons.
The Egyptian vampire lady Miriam subsists upon the blood of her lovers. In return the guys or girls don’t age… until Miriam has had enough of them. David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, Catherine Deneuve, Tony Scott, 1983
Canadian horror shot in Northern Ontario that is a fresh and artistic take on the slasher genre filled with revolting kills and dark humour. Chris Nash, 2024.
Wounded in battle, soldier Marc ventures to the remote village of Nomen Tuum to find a well where the waters are said to possess healing powers. Little does he suspect that the inhabitants are demonic seductresses who entice interlopers and lead them to damnation, and one such succubus, Kia has her sights on Marc. As Marc and Kia’s relationship becomes more passionate… will his soul survive?
Brim-filled with shocking violence, thrilling action and excruciating suspense, Inglourious Basterds was a box office smash around the world garnering eight Academy Award nominations. Witness the war as it might have been in this stunning new edition, packed with explosive extras!
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.
Hugh Grant stars in Ken Russell’s delirious horror comedy where a Scottish archaeologist uncovers an ancient worm cult, but has he just released the monster himself? Ken Russell (1988)
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.”
A crew sailing from Bulgaria by the Black Sea to England find that they are carrying very dangerous cargo in this Dracula prequel. Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, André Øvredal, 2023
American underground new wave masterpiece where invisible aliens in a tiny flying saucer come to Earth looking for heroin. They land on top of a New York apartment and find that absorbing humans during orgasm is better then heroin. Slava Tsukerman (1982)
Director Teruo Ishii delivers four dramatized tales of real-life crimes of passion involving women across the ages in this grotesque anthology featuring the stories of the “Hotel Nihonkaku Murders”, the notorious “poison wife”, Oden Takahashi, the brutal serial killer Yoshio Kodaira and the story of Sada Abe, the infamous castratice featured in Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses.
When the evil Skeletor (Frank Langella) finds a mysterious power called the Cosmic Key, he becomes nearly invincible. However, courageous warrior He-Man (Dolph Lundgren) locates inventor Gwildor (Billy Barty), who created the Key and has another version of it. During a battle, one of the Keys is transported to Earth, where it is found by teenagers Julie (Courteney Cox) and Kevin (Robert Duncan McNeill). Now both He-Man and Skeletor’s forces arrive on Earth searching for the potent weapon.
Metropolis takes place in 2026, when the populace is divided between workers who must live in the dark underground and the rich who enjoy a futuristic city of splendor. The tense balance of these two societies is realized through images that are among the most famous of the 20th century, many of which presage such sci-fi landmarks as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner. Lavish and spectacular, with elaborate sets and modern science fiction style, Metropolis stands today as the crowning achievement of the German silent cinema.
An apocalyptic thriller where a man races against time to reunite with his love as nuclear war threatens Los Angeles. Anthony Edwards, Mare Winningham, John Agar, Steve De Jarnatt, 1988.
The plot follows a group of people in the small town of Bridgton, Maine, who become trapped inside a supermarket after a mysterious mist envelops the town, concealing deadly, Lovecraftian creatures. As fear and paranoia spread, tensions rise among the survivors.
Blonde Betty Elms (Naomi Watts) has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia (Laura Harring). Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman’s identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux) runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project. David Lynch’s seductive and scary vision of Los Angeles’s dream factory is one of the true masterpieces of the new millennium, a tale of love, jealousy, and revenge like no other.
Scott Valentine (TV’s Family Ties) and Michelle Little discover that true love has many faces, and occasionally claws, in the frightfully funny romance My Demon Lover. The happy-go-lucky but lonely Kaz (Valentine) is looking for love when he meets Denny (Little), a cute, kindhearted gal with an uncanny ability to attract stray pets and down-and-out boyfriends. Denny is sure she’s met the man of her dreams when she sweeps Kaz off the streets and into her heart. But it’s not exactly a match made in heaven because Kaz has a slight problem. Every time he’s turned on, he becomes an animal ‘ literally ‘ complete with horns…fur…and sometimes a tail! Will Kaz ever be able to shake this curse? And will Denny finally bring out the best, not the beast, in her man? Find out in this monstrously hilarious film!
In Sergio Bergonzelli’s CRISTIANA DEVIL NUN, a nymphomaniac finds pleasures of the flesh in a convent of the damned. Eleonora Giorgi stars in Domenico Paolella’s historically accurate STORY OF A CLOISTERED NUN. Sleaze maestro Joe D’Amato combines Sapphic lust and Satanic panic for IMAGES IN A CONVENT. With THE TRUE STORY OF THE NUN OF MONZA, Bruno Mattei fulfills ungodly vows of sacrilege.
In this Stephen King adaptation, a mysterious new shop opens in a small town which always seems to stock the deepest desires of each shopper, with a price far heavier than expected. Max von Sydow, Ed Harris, Bonnie Bedelia, Fraser C. Heston, 1993.
It’s Halloween! The gates of Hull House have creaked open once again and Angela (Amelia Kinkade) is waiting for her treats. When a group of rambunctious teens take refuge in the foreboding funeral home to escape the law, they soon realize their grave error. Packed with thrills, chills, and bloody spills, Night Of The Demons 3 is a party to die for!
They work by day, take a full schedule of classes all night and somehow find time for study and an occasional date. Women in the evening curriculum at Boston’s distinguished Wendell College do a lot to get ahead in life. But there’s someone who will go to even greater heights. Someone will do anything to get a head. A killer whose m.o. is the ritualistic decapitation of victims makes terror a required course at Night School, directed by Kenneth Hughes (Casino Royale) and starring Rachel Ward (The Thorn Birds; After Dark, My Sweet) in her screen debut. Leonard Mann plays the homicide lieutenant assigned to the puzzling case. He has hunches, not clues. Suspects, not evidence. And a rising body count. Finals are coming early this year at Wendell. And for those who don’t make the grade, heads will roll.
A very strange, personal film from the author of the Ecorcist that is sort of Sam Fuller’s Shock Corridor set as an episode from The Twilight Zone. Stacy Keach, Scott Wilson, Jason Miller, William Peter Blatty, 1980.
An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” Nosferatu is the quintessential silent vampire film, crafted by legendary German director F. W. Murnau (Sunrise, Faust, The Last Laugh). Rather than depicting Dracula as a shape-shifting monster or debonair gentleman, Murnau’s Graf Orlok (as portrayed by Max Schreck) is a nightmarish, spidery creature of bulbous head and taloned claws—perhaps the most genuinely disturbing incarnation of vampirism yet envisioned. Nosferatu was an atypical expressionist film in that much of it was shot on location. While directors such as Lang and Lubitsch built vast forests and entire towns within the studio, Nosferatu’s landscapes, villages and castle were actual locations in the Carpathian Mountains. Murnau was thus able to infuse the story with the subtle tones of nature: both pure and fresh as well as twisted and sinister. Remastered in high definition for the first time and making its Blu-ray debut exclusively from Kino Classics.
When a young opera singer (Cristina Marsillach) is stalked by a masked psychopath, she will be forced into a grisly aria of murder, memories and unimaginable torment. Ian Charleson (CHARIOTS OF FIRE), Urbano Barberini (DEMONS), Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni (MOTHER OF TEARS) and Daria Nicolodi (TENEBRE) co-star in this definitive presentation of “one of Argento’s best” (IndieWire).
New German Cinema pioneer Wim Wenders brings his keen eye for landscape to the American Southwest in Paris, Texas, a profoundly moving character study written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Sam Shepard. Paris, Texas follows the mysterious, nearly mute drifter Travis (a magnificent Harry Dean Stanton, whose face is a landscape all its own) as he tries to reconnect with his young son, living with his brother (Dean Stockwell) in Los Angeles, and his missing wife (Nastassja Kinski). From this simple setup, Wenders and Shepard produce a powerful statement on codes of masculinity and the myth of the American family, as well as an exquisite visual exploration of a vast, crumbling world of canyons and neon.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD
Pray for Death (Special Edition) They Shattered His American Dream. The Ninja Master himself, Shô Kosugi (Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja), stars as Akira, a Japanese immigrant who starts a new life with his family in America, only to stumble onto the headquarters of a bloodthirsty gang of criminals. When the gangsters begin a rampage of murder that takes the lives of his two sons, Akira must step out of his quiet, peace-loving life and reveal his hidden identity, that of a perfectly skilled Ninja, the most lethal and mysterious of all martial artists. He has sounded his warning to top thug Limehouse (co-star/screenwriter James Booth, Avenging Force) and his henchmen: “Stay away from my family, or you will Pray for Death.” It’s time for vigilante justice—Ninja style! Directed by Gordon Hessler (Kosugi’s Rage of Honor). This two-disc special edition includes both the R rated and unrated versions of the film. NEW Audio Commentary by Action Film Historian Mike Leeder | Unrated and R Rated Versions of the Film on Two Discs | Sho and Tell Part 1: Interview with Shô Kosugi (19:05) | Theatrical Trailer (Newly Mastered in 2K) | Optional English Subtitles
Avalon Bay, 1945: On the night of her graduation dance, young Rosemary and her date are brutally murdered by a prowler thought to be a jilted soldier home from the war. The killer was never found. Thirty years later, the dance is held again for the first time since that horrific evening – but something else may have also returned…
Rage of Honor (Special Edition) International action icon Shô Kosugi (Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja) unleashes a devastating display of martial arts virtuosity as the forces of evil push him over the edge…and into a Rage of Honor. When his best friend is slain by a vicious drug ring, undercover agent Shiro (Kosugi) vows revenge. Warned by his superiors to drop his vendetta, Shiro pretends to comply, traveling to South America with girlfriend Jennifer for a long overdue “vacation.” Picking up the villains’ trail in Brazil, Shiro forces a confrontation—but it backfires when Jennifer is kidnapped by the drug-runners. Pushed to the limit, Shiro’s mission of vengeance explodes into a bone-crushing martial arts bloodbath as he battles to rescue Jennifer and bring down the corrupt empire of his ruthless opponents! Directed by Gordon Hessler (Kosugi’s Pray for Death). NEW Audio Commentary by Action Film Historian Mike Leeder | Sho and Tell Part 2: Interview with Shô Kosugi (17:48) | Interview with Composer Stelvio Cipriani (2:47) | American Ninjas: Video Essay by Chris Poggiali on the Rise of the Ninja Film in the 1980s (7:34) | Theatrical Trailer | Optional English Subtitles
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.
Japanese horror. A reporter and her ex-husband investigate a cursed video tape that is rumored to kill the viewer seven days after watching it. Hideo Nakata (1998)
Big was once a religious man, but turned away from his vocation as a Buddhist monk when he could no longer bear the weight of his unusual gift: the ability to see people’s past lives and predict the impact of karma upon their present and future. Having found a new life as a bodybuilder, he is drawn to use his sixth sense for good after meeting Lee Fung-yee, a cop investigating a homicide.
The final feature produced, photographed, edited and directed by Russ Meyer is a wicked take on Our Town, co-written by Meyer and Roger Ebert. Russ’ latter-day muse Francesca ‘Kitten’ Natividad stars – along with Uschi Digard, Ann Marie and Russ himself – in this unwashed look at Small Town, U.S.A., complete with faith healers, war criminals, bosom buddies and the quest for sexual salvation.
Following the ‘serious’ features THE SEVEN MINUTES and BLACK SNAKE, this 1975 return to form written, photographed, edited, produced and directed by Russ Meyer remains perhaps his most over-the-top and savagely entertaining epic of all: When a hot-blooded wife and a psychotic cop come together, it will ignite a cross-country odyssey of violence, vengeance and relentless coitus.
Amid the cultural chaos of 1968 and armed with a budget of only $70,000, producer/director/cinematographer Russ Meyer transcended sexploitation by crafting this “bosomacious melodrama” (Time Magazine) about racism, communism, bush pilots, draft dodgers and a ferociously free-spirited wife named Vixen (the incredible Erica Gavin of BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and CAGED HEAT).
Leap into action and adventure once again with another 11 classic martial arts films, Focusing on the Shaws’ output from the late sixties and early seventies, from the famous Shaw Brothers’ library.
An ingeniously engineered slash of thoroughly modern horror, arguably the most important film of the Canadian Tax Shelter era, which charts a social breakdown by tearing through our most intrinsic taboos. David Cronenberg, 1975.
A true champion among sports movies, the hilarious comedy Slap Shot stars the one and only Paul Newman as Reggie Dunlop, the player/coach of the Charlestown Chiefs, a minor league hockey team. Struggling with an abysmal season and a dwindling fanbase, Dunlop switches up his game plan in order to beef up attendance: unleashing new team acquisitions the Hanson Brothers on the competition! The Chiefs’ more aggressive and violent style of play reignites the fans and the team’s win/loss record, making them championship contenders.
About to embark on a new world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins to experience increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and pressures of fame, she must face her dark past to regain control of her life before it spirals out of control.
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.
Essential Italian horror classic, a newcomer to a prestigious ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amidst a series of grisly murders. Dario Argento (1977)
Art the Clown returns in this gory third entry in the series of brutal horror films with pitch black comedy. David Howard Thornton, Damien Leone, 2024.
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!
When Max Renn goes looking for edgy new material for his sleazy cable TV station, he stumbles across the pirate broadcast of a hyperviolent torture show called “Videodrome.” His attempts to unearth the program’s origins send him on a hallucinatory journey into a shadow world of right-wing conspiracies, sadomasochistic sex games, and bodily transformation. Starring James Woods and Deborah Harry, Videodrome is one of the most original and provocative works from writer-director David Cronenberg, and features groundbreaking makeup effects by Academy Award winner Rick Baker.
Starring Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, and Willem Dafoe, Young lovers Sailor and Lula run from the variety of weirdos that Lula’s mom has hired to kill Sailor. David Lynch (1990)
And there we go. Hoping the movies arrive Thursday/ Friday. Cheers!
