It is truly the lazy hazy days of summer but that does not mean that sweet cinema stops slapping us silly all over our senses. From really fun flicks like THE BLACKENING to plain nasty dare to watch like AUGUST UNDERGROUND we have a little bit for everyne this week so let’s take a look shall we?

VIDEOSTORE SEAL OF APPROVAL! Stuntman turned director John Stewart offers this well named obscurity with a plot that defies easy description but promises an octane-fuelled, edge of your seat explosion of senses shattering action. William Smith, Cameron Mitchell, Ross Hagen, 1989. 

Imagine walking down the street and finding an unmarked VHS tape. Curiosity piqued, you take it home and pop it in. What starts off as two men screwing around with a video camera quickly transforms into an ultra-realistic torture sequence where the unidentified psychopaths tape their exploits as they torment and violate a woman tied to a chair.

The locker’s contents appear to be worthless until they make a discovery deep inside a piece of furniture: an old 8mm film reel. When the reel depicts forty-year-old footage of two murders taken by the killer himself, they soon realize they have stumbled across evidence of the infamous Zodiac killer.

With a big reward for information leading to the killer’s capture, they embark on a hunt to solve one of history’s most perplexing and chilling unsolved mysteries, but will the hunters become the hunted?

BACK IN STOCK! From Ari Aster, director of Hereditary and Midsommar. From his darkest fears comes the greatest adventure.

Seven friends go away for the weekend, only to find themselves trapped in a cabin with a killer who has a vendetta. They must pit their street smarts and knowledge of horror movies against the murderer to stay alive.

Situated in an Amsterdam brothel, two whores rebel against their lot in life. 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.

A coming-of-age comedy follows the life of Jimmy Livingston (Jake Gyllenhaal), a young man born without immunities and raised in a manufactured world provided by his well-intentioned, but misguided mother (Swoosie Kurtz). But when he realizes that he’s in love with Chloe (Marley Shelton), the girl next door, he has no choice but to build a mobile bubble suit, and set off across the country to Niagara Falls, to stop Chloe’s wedding — which is only seven days away — in time to confess his love.

William Castle (The Tingler, Strait-Jacket, Rosemary’s Baby) presents a creeping, crawling film nightmare that will have you screaming and squirming with fright! A massive earth tremor opens a crevasse in the California desert, releasing a plague of bizarre, fiery, foot-long cockroaches.

With their numbers multiplying and the death toll mounting, obsessive entomologist James Parmiter (Bradford Dillman, Piranha, The Swarm) desperately seeks a way to eliminate the seemingly indestructible critters before they spread clear across the country … and beyond!

Joanna Miles (The Dark Secret Of Harvest Home) and Patty McCormack (The Bad Seed) are among the terrorized cast in this suspenseful screamfest directed by Jeannot Szwarc (Jaws 2).

Chef Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) had it all – and lost it. A two-star Michelin rockstar with the bad habits to match, the former enfant terrible of the Paris restaurant scene did everything different every time out, and only ever cared about the thrill of creating explosions of taste. To land his own kitchen and that third elusive Michelin star though, he’ll need the best of the best on his side, including the beautiful Helene (Sienna Miller). ADAM JONES is a remarkably funny and emotional story about the love of food, the love between two people, and the power of second chances.

In 1920, one brilliant movie jolted the postwar masses and catapulted the movement known as German Expressionism into film history. That movie was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a plunge into the mind of insanity that severs all ties with the rational world. Director Robert Wiene and a visionary team of designers crafted a nightmare realm in which light, shadow and substance are abstracted, a world in which a demented doctor and a carnival sleepwalker perpetrate a series of ghastly murders in a small community. This authoritative edition of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 4K restoration scanned from the (mostly) preserved camera negative at the German Federal Film Archive.

Frankie (Gary Busey) and Patch (Robbie Robertson) have a system. Frankie wears clown makeup and sits in the dunk-tank cage, howling insults at midway passersby. Patch is out front collecting dollars from marks eager to make Frankie and his big mouth take a dive. It’s a good town-to-town living for the two pals. Then Donna (Jodie Foster) came along. A charismatic star trio energizes this grit-and-glitter slice of carnival life that’s as atmospheric as a stroll down midway USA. Indeed, music man Robertson, who co-produced and penned the story on which the screenplay was based, once worked as a carny. He and his collaborators ensure that time spent with the impressive sights and unique personalities of this traveling show will be downright unforgettable.

A Manhattan composer is consumed by grief after his wife and daughter are killed in a shocking accident. But when he moves to a secluded Victorian mansion, he will find himself haunted by a paranormal entity that may unleash an even more disturbing secret. Based on actual events.

Eight teenagers get trapped in a shopping centre after hours and three murderous security robots chase them.

Boston medical resident Susan Wheeler (Geneviève Bujold) becomes suspicious when her friend (Lois Chiles) is left in an irreversible coma after a routine procedure. Once she uncovers evidence of other patients being left in comas after undergoing procedures in the same operating room, she fears a conspiracy is afoot. When her physician boyfriend, Mark Bellows (Michael Douglas), is skeptical about her findings, Susan must go it alone to uncover the horrible truth.

John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens alone in a strange hotel to find that he is wanted for a series of brutal murders. The problem is that he can’t remember whether he committed the murders or not. For one brief moment, he is convinced that he has gone completely mad. Murdoch seeks to unravel the twisted riddle of his identity. As he edges closer to solving the mystery, he stumbles upon a fiendish underworld controlled by a group of ominous beings collectively known as the Strangers.

When a hole in the Earth’s ozone layer triggers bloodthirsty madness throughout the animal kingdom, all mankind – particularly a group of tourists on an overnight hike – will become their prey. Christopher George, Lynda Day George, Richard Jaeckel, Michael Ansara, Andrew Stevens and Leslie Nielsen star in “one of the most outrageous offerings the drive-in has ever known”.

A death metal band is on its last legs after a disastrous European tour and is about to be dropped by their label. Hiring a legendary producer from the Norwegian black metal scene, the band sets out to record their latest album.

A struggling painter is possessed by satanic forces after he and his young family move into their dream home in rural Texas, in this creepy haunted-house tale. Sean Byrne (2015)

A troubled high school student becomes convinced he is living next door to a wanted serial killer. Struggling to come to terms with the death of his father, the teen lands himself in hot water after a fight with a teacher and is put under house arrest. During his domestic confinement, he begins to spy on his mysterious neighbour, believing him to be a murderous psychopath on the run from the authorities.

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)

In a universe where humans and anthropomorphic animals coexist, the series centers on Eric Tiberius Duckman (voiced by Jason Alexander), a widowed, lewd, self-hating, egocentric anthropomorphic duck who lives with his family in Los Angeles (as mentioned in the episode “Bev Takes a Holiday”) and works as a private eye.

In the wake of two back-to-back mass murders on Chico’s frat row, loner Brent Chirino must infiltrate the ranks of a popular fraternity to investigate his twin brother’s murder at the hands of the serial killer known as “Motherface.”

The Commissioner of the Police Force has lost his gun. As a group of students have just paid a visit to police headquarters, he suspects that they are responsible. Special Duty Unit member Chow Sing-sing is sent undercover and enrolls in the school.

Blu-ray edition of the cult animated film featuring the vocal talents of Don Johnson & Burgess Meredith, 1987. 

A Cajun beauty (Claudia Jennings) lures male intruders into a swamp where women have a field day with them

The BBC gives over a whole evening to an ‘investigation into the supernatural’. Four respected presenters and a camera crew attempt to discover the truth behind ‘The most haunted house in Britain’, expecting a light-hearted scare or two and probably the uncovering of a hoax.

A cop who loses his partner in a shoot-out with gun smugglers goes on a mission to catch them. In order to get closer to the leaders of the ring he joins forces with an undercover cop who’s working as a gangster hitman. They use all means of excessive force to find them.

Female journalist Rahimi travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer targeting sex workers. As she gets closer to exposing his crimes, the quest for justice grows harder to attain when the killer is embraced as a hero. Based on the true story of the ‘Spider Killer’ Saeed Hanaei, who saw himself as on a mission from God as he killed 16 women between 2000 and 2001.

When Tess Beckett testifies against her cop-turned-serial killer husband Jim, he is sent to prison for life. Jim plots violent revenge and breaks out of prison to make Tess pay. When Tess learns of the escape, the only way for her to survive is to protect herself, so she turns to former cop and self-defense trainer J.T. Dillon. Will Tess and J.T. be ready for a final showdown with the deadly Jim.

Acclaimed filmmaker René Clément (Forbidden Games, The Day and the Hour, Rider on the Rain) brings you the explosive, courage-filled story of the Allied Resistance and the Paris Liberation of 1944. As the Nazi jackboot marches through Europe, the freedom fighters of Paris mount a brave resistance. An insane and desperate Hitler sends a top general to determine if the Nazis can hold the city. If not, Paris will be burned. With a powerful script by Gore Vidal (Suddenly, Last Summer) and Francis Ford Coppola (The Conversation); and a rousing score by legendary composer Maurice Jarre (Doctor Zhivago), this epic film boasts an international cast of screen legends, including Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Leslie Caron, Jean-Pierre Cassel, George Chakris, Alain Delon, Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford, Gert Fröbe, Yves Montand, Anthony Perkins, Michel Piccoli, Simone Signoret, Robert Stack, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Orson Welles. Is Paris Burning? is a staggering portrait of heroism and brotherhood, and one of the most riveting stories to come out of World War II.

Thrilling serial featuring Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy, battles the evil Dr. Grood, who has placed a death ray aboard his spaceship orbiting Earth. John Hart, Wallace Fox, 1947. 

Nightmarish stop-motion animated film from Japan about a scientist who seeks to solve humanity’s problems by examining a race of mutants who toil in a subterranean caverns. Takahide Hori, 2017. 

Quiet, withdrawn 13-year-old Rynn Jacobs (Jodie Foster) lives peacefully in her home in a New England beach town. Whenever the prying landlady (Alexis Smith) inquires after Rynn’s father, she politely claims that he’s in the city on business. But when the landlady’s creepy and increasingly persistent son, Frank (Martin Sheen), won’t leave Rynn alone, she teams up with kindly neighbor boy Mario (Scott Jacoby) to maintain the dark family secret that she’s been keeping to herself.

One classic movie and two disappointing and terrible sequels all in one lovely package!

4K EDITION. “We’ve met before, haven’t we?” A mesmerizing meditation on the mysterious nature of identity, Lost Highway, David Lynch’s seventh feature film, is one of the filmmaker’s most potent cinematic dreamscapes. Starring Patricia Arquette and Bill Pullman, the film expands the horizons of the medium, taking its audience on a journey through the unknown and the unknowable. As this postmodern noir detours into the realm of science fiction, it becomes apparent that the only certainty is uncertainty.

In a dystopian Switzerland that has fallen under the fascist rule of an evil cheese tyrant, Heidi lives the pure and simple life in the Swiss Alps. Grandfather Alpöhi does his best to protect Heidi, but her yearning for freedom soon gets her into trouble with the dictator’s henchmen. The innocent girl transforms herself into a kick-ass female fighting force who sets out to liberate the country from the insane cheese fascists.
LIMITED EDITION COLLECTION:
DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY
BEHIND THE SCENES
STUNT FEATURETTE & MORE
CD SOUNDTRACK
MOVIE TRADING CARD PACK WITH 5 CARDS, STICKER AND FRIDGE MAGNET
SPECIAL 28 PAGE MAKING OFF BOOKLET
EXCLUSIVE O-CARD ART BY PETER RICQ

Two New York policemen (Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell) and a policewoman (Laurene Landon) search for a killer in uniform who should be dead.

The “Maniac Cop” is back from the dead and stalking the streets of New York once more. Officer Matt Cordell was once a hero, but after being framed by corrupt superiors and brutally assaulted in prison, he sets out on a macabre mission of vengeance, teaming up with a vicious serial killer to track down those that wronged him and make them pay… with their lives!

Robert Davi (LICENSE TO KILL), Claudia Christian (THE HIDDEN), Michael Lerner (BARTON FINK), Laurene Landon (HUNDRA), Leo Rossi (HALLOWEEN II), Robert Z’Dar (TANGO & CASH), Charles Napier (THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS), and Bruce Campbell (THE EVIL DEAD) star in this chilling, action-packed sequel written by Larry Cohen (IT’S ALIVE) and directed by William Lustig (MANIAC). Featuring a brand-new 4K High Definition transfer from the original camera negative, this definitive presentation of MANIAC COP 2 comes packed with exclusive Extras!

Many movies come to mind when you hear the term “torture-porn”. Saw, Hostel, The Human Centipede. But, in France, they turned the extreme acts of inhumanity into more than just gore. Martyrs defined the genre known as New French Extremism amongst the likes of Irreversible and Inside. Pascal Laugier has said Martyrs is not about pain but about suffering. Martyrs doesn’t shy away from the brutality it confronts you with. Yet it gives dark meaning to the gore, that means what you feel will stick with you just as much as what you see. Lucie, a frail, frightened, adolescent girl flees an abandoned slaughterhouse. Her opaque skin suggests she has been missing for many months. She is found filthy, starved, and unresponsive. Something horrific has happened to her. But what? Flash-forward 15 years later when the quiet tranquillity of a home nestled in a sparsely populated French forest is interrupted by a knock at the door – it’s Lucie, embarking on a gory quest for revenge. Pascal Laugier’s 2008 sophomore feature garnered a notorious reputation after audience members attending the premiere at the Festival de Cannes were left wide-eyed and mouth agape. It’s reception so shocking, it was immediately threatened with censorship in it’s home country, with calls for the director to be imprisoned. MARTYRS is a brutally confronting and provocative example of the French New Extremity a work of dark brilliance and vile beauty. A genre-defining classic so profoundly traumatising, it transcends all constraints of your average horror film and dives into the murky depths of human degradation and suffering. Extras: NEW! Audio commentary by film historian Dr. Lindsay Hallam BFI at Home – Horror la Fran aise online panel with Anna Bogutskaya, Alexandra West and Dr. Lindsay Hallam Organic Chronicles: The Making of Martyrs Interview with director Pascal Laugier Make-up interview with Benoit Lestang New French Extremity trailer reel Stills Gallery International Poster Gallery Theatrical trailer Teaser trailer Easter Egg

Michael, a seemingly meek insurance agent, has a secret: he’s holding 10-year-old Wolfgang captive in a locked room in his basement. Chronicling a five month period, director Markus Schleinzer reveals a tense portrait of how seemingly mundane lives can hide the darkest secrets. MICHAEL is a masterfully executed study of a monster with rich cinematic detail and unnerving insight.

A severe thunderstorm strikes Bridgton, Maine, causing a tree to fall into the lakeside home of artist David Drayton, his wife Stephanie, and their eight-year-old son Billy. While surveying the damage the next morning, they notice a thick mist advancing over the lake.

Cowboy Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar) meets gorgeous Mae (Jenny Wright) at a bar, and the two have an immediate attraction. But when Mae turns out to be a vampire and bites Caleb on the neck, their relationship gets complicated. Wracked with a craving for human blood, Caleb is forced to leave his family and ride with Mae and her gang of vampires, including the evil Severen. Along the way Caleb must decide between his new love of Mae and the love of his family.

It stars Jordan Belfi as a psychiatrist who must determine if a convicted death row inmate (Sean Patrick Flanery) is faking his alleged demonic possession.

The Offer is an American biographical drama miniseries created by Michael Tolkin and developed by Tolkin and Nikki Toscano for Paramount+. The series follows the development and production of Francis Ford Coppola’s landmark gangster film The Godfather (1972) for Paramount Pictures.

Collector’s Edition Blu-ray packed with extras and exclusive slipcase art and folded poster. When the Ouija Shark emerges from Hell to cause havoc once more on earth, a sorcerer with a history of fighting the ghostly great white must follow it into a multiverse hellscape for one final battle. But this time he is bringing along some friends to help send the shark into oblivion.

After Anna (Isabelle Adjani) reveals to her husband, Mark (Sam Neill), that she is having an affair, she leaves him and their son. Mark is devastated, and seeks out Heinrich (Heinz Bennent), the man who cuckolded him, only to receive a beating. After a series of violent confrontations between Mark and Anna, Mark hires a private investigator to follow her. Anna descends into madness, and it’s soon clear that she is hiding a much bigger secret — one that is both inexplicable and shocking.

ower-hungry Queen Gedren (Sandahl Bergman) captures the priestesses guarding the Talisman, a mystical orb that created and can destroy the world. But one of the priestesses escapes and seeks out her warrior sister, Red Sonja (Brigitte Nielsen), to warn her about Gedren’s plan for world domination. Lord Kalidor (Arnold Schwarzenegger), the Talisman’s keeper, insists on helping Sonja, and though she scorns the assistance of any man, she soon gains respect for Kalidor’s fighting prowess.

When gunslinger Joe Burdette (Claude Akins) kills a man in a saloon, Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) arrests him with the aid of the town drunk, Dude (Dean Martin). Before long, Burdette’s brother, Nathan (John Russell), comes around, indicating that he’s prepared to bust his brother out of jail if necessary. Chance decides to make a stand until reinforcements arrive, enlisting Dude, an old cripple named Stumpy (Walter Brennan) and baby-faced cowboy Colorado Ryan (Ricky Nelson) to help.

A writer (Rob Lowe) encounters a pair of sinister new residents when he returns to his Maine hometown to research a project.

When Scottie Smalls (Thomas Guiry) moves to a new neighborhood, he manages to make friends with a group of kids who play baseball at the sandlot. Together they go on a series of funny and touching adventures. The boys run into trouble when Smalls borrows a ball from his stepdad that gets hit over a fence.

English scientist Professor Willingdon (Barry Jones, Brigadoon) runs away from a research center with an atomic bomb.

In a letter sent to the British Prime Minister, he threatens to blow up the center of London if the government doesn’t stop stockpiling nuclear warheads.

Special agents from Scotland Yard, led by Superintendent Folland (André Morell, The Frightened Bride), try to stop him with help from the scientist’s assistant and future son-in-law.

Beautifully shot by the great Gilbert Taylor (Star Wars, Repulsion) and directed, edited and produced by John Boulting (Brighton Rock) and Roy Boulting (Run for the Sun), who also co-wrote the screenplay with Frank Harvey (I’m All Right Jack).

Two former geeks become 1980s punks, then party and go to concerts while deciding what to do with their lives.

The credits dub this “the maddest story ever told”, a promise that’s well on the way to being fulfilled in the opening scene alone, when Virginia traps and kills a hapless deliveryman in her makeshift web. She’s one of three siblings who suffer from a unique genetic disorder that causes them to regress back to childhood, while retaining the physical strength and sexual maturity of adults.

When an undercover cop (Ken Shorter) infiltrates an outlaw motorcycle gang, he’ll straddle 7000 RPM of screaming steel for a full-throttle hell ride through sex, violence, and Down Under vengeance. Hugh Keays-Byrne, Helen Morse, Roger Ward, Vincent Gil, Reg Evans, and members of the Sydney Hells Angels co-star in the “ass-kicking bite of entertainment that delivers on every level” (DVD Drive-In).

Tadao and Takaho are two scientists from an Ultra-spatial research center who discover a mecha emitting an alarm signal: a giant, monster sturgeon is approaching. This roller-coaster ride includes a love story, kaijus, mad scientists, and humanoid robots, all seasoned with big absurd humor and action packed battle scenes. From Minoru Kawasaki, director of “Monster Seafood Wars”.

Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi get the shock of their lives when they discover a parallel world populated by the intelligent descendants of dinosaurs. It seems they weren’t destroyed by a meteor millions of years ago but hurled into another dimension and, now, they have plans to rule our world. It’s up to our unlikely heroes to battle the evil King Koopa and his Goomba guards, free the beautiful Princess Daisy and save mankind in this adventure of a lifetime.

Young American dancer Susie Bannion arrives in 1970s Berlin to audition for the world-renowned Helena Markos Dance Co. When she vaults to the role of lead dancer, the woman she replaces breaks down and accuses the company’s female directors of witchcraft. Meanwhile, an inquisitive psychotherapist and a member of the troupe uncover dark and sinister secrets as they probe the depths of the studio’s hidden underground chambers.

Thanatomorphose is a french word meaning the visible signs of an organism’s decomposition caused by death. One day, a young and beautiful girl a wakes up and finds her flesh rotting.

In 1984, it was aired on the BBC and shocked tens of millions of UK viewers. Four months later, it was broadcast in America and became the most watched basic cable program in history. It remains one of the most acclaimed made-for-television movies ever. THREADS is a docudrama about the effects of a nuclear attack on the working-class city of Sheffield, England as the fabric of society unravels.

Winner of two Academy Awards for Original Screenplay (McQuarrie) and Supporting Actor (Spacey), this masterful neo-noir enraptured audiences with its twisting storyline, tour-de-force performances and jaw-dropping climax. “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist,” says con man Verbal Kint, drawing a comparison to the most enigmatic criminal of all time, Keyser Söze. 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 multimillion-dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro Harbor—leaving few survivors. But as Kint draws his interrogators into the incredible story of Söze’s almost supernatural prowess, so too will you be drawn into The Usual Suspects—one of the most gripping and diabolically clever thrillers of the ’90s. Written by Christopher McQuarrie (Top Gun: Maverick), directed by Bryan Singer (X-Men) and featuring a legendary lineup of actors: Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, Pete Postlethwaite, Suzy Amis, Giancarlo Esposito, Dan Hedaya, Paul Bartel, Clark Gregg and Peter Greene in an uncredited role as Redfoot the Fence.

A Los Angeles businesswoman turns to prostitution to support herself and her young daughter when she’s forced by the vice squad to help them arrest a brutal pimp. Gary Sherman (1982) 

Supernatural horror trilogy follows an evil warlock from the 17th to the 20th century who works to unleash Satan. WARLOCK (Steve Miner 1989) WARLOCK: THE ARMAGEDDON (Anthony Hickox 1993) WARLOCK III: THE END OF INNOCENCE (Eric Freiser 1999) 

In her search for independence, Lucia (Constanza Cardillo) falls into the arms of black metal singer Cristian (Demián Salomón) and an ill-fated relationship rooted in violence that reveals Cristian’s Satanic on-stage presentation is all too real. Desperate to escape the singer’s clutches and protect her unborn child, Lucia moves to her grandmother’s forest cabin, but finds her monstrous past will stop at nothing to find her. With Welcome To Hell (Bienvenidos al infierno) director Jimena Monteoliva delivers a beautiful, brutal horror film replete with strong performances, stunning cinematography, and jaw dropping special effects, all underscored by pummeling black metal. Terror Vision is proud to present Welcome To Hell in it’s worldwide disc debut with a bloody slew of special features.

An in-depth look into the life and work of musician Frank Zappa. Alice Cooper, Steve Vai, Pamela Des Barres, Alex Winter, 2020. 

And there we go guys…some sweet stuff crashing into the video store this week. Hope something caught your eye. Cheers!