Well the winds of fall are blowing in and we are getting closer each week to Halloween season. This week’s cinema choices have an odd ammount of double feature films made of flicks from the 80s that you may or may not remember. Some interesting flashbacks to my childhood looking at the videostore shelves indeed. Let’s take a look…
Double Feature! First up from 1990 it’s Jesse “The Body” Ventura in Abraxas! An alien “policeman” arrives on Earth to apprehend a renegade of his own race who impregnates a woman with a potentially destructive mutant embryo. Next up from 1991 we have Doctor Strain The Body Snatcher! A man turns to his nephew to help continue his experimental work in reanimation since he is nearing death due to years of chemical poisoning.
Landmark Japanese cyberpunk classic where a secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath that only two teenagers and a group of psychics can stop. Katsuhiro Ôtomo (1988)
Back In Stock! From director Danielle Harris! A group of friends get together for a murder mystery party, but things take a dark turn when one hijacks the evening and is out for blood.
Back In Stock! This three-part, self-contained limited series is about the newest member of the Midnight Society, her first scary tale, and what happens to the group when the terrifying events of her story start to actually happen in their small town. 2019.
Back in Stock! Takashi Miike’s audacious horror about a widower who stages a mock audition in order to meet a new partner only to become infatuated with a woman who is not what she seems to be. Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, 1999.
Russian supernatural horror about a strange nanny, who may or may not be an ancient Slavic witch, who looks after the youngest daughter in a family that moved to the outskirts of the city. Svyatoslav Podgaevskiy, Nathalia Hencker, 2020.
Back in Stock! Bob Clark’s cult Canadian slasher classic about series of Christmas-time murders in a sorority house. Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder, Andrea Martin.
DOUBLE FEATURE! First up from 1988 we have BLOOD DELIRIUM. After his beloved wife dies, an unbalanced painter who believes himself to be the reincarnation of Vincent Van Gogh goes over the edge and digs up her corpse–with the help of his necrophiliac butler–to bring it back to his castle and use it for “inspiration”. He soon meets a beautiful musician who looks exactly like his late wife and brings her back to his castle. However, she eventually discovers their secret: the butler murders young women, disposes of their bodies and uses their blood–“the color of life”–for the artist’s paints.
And then from 1988 we have Linda Blair in GROTESQUE! A gang of crazed punkers breaks into a family’s vacation home in the mountains and slaughters the entire family, except for one daughter who gets away. As the gang pursues the girl through the snow, they slowly realize that some kind of murderous creature is chasing them…
Back In Stock! Seminal Slasher classic where Todd is institutionalised for a murder his twin committed. 10 years later, on Thanksgiving, Todd escapes and a killing spree begins in his neighbourhood. John Grissmer (1987)
Back in Stock! Long unavailable cult monster movie about mysterious turtle creatures who emerge from an abandoned mine. John Crawford, Rebecca Balding, James L. Conway, 1981.
Well since I have the Gopher in my shop I needed to get the movie back. Classic!
Back in Stock! Based on Clive Barker’s horror legend The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a sceptical grad student researching the monster’s myth. Bernard Rose (1992)
Japanese animated feature about a young girl who is drawn into a mystery involving sea life around the world, in which two mysterious boys who have been raised by dugongs are somehow involved. Ayumu Watanabe, 2019.
Back In Stock! French horror. Dancers gather in a remote, empty school building to rehearse on a wintry night. The all-night celebration morphs into a hallucinatory nightmare when they learn their sangria is laced with LSD. Gaspar Noé (2018)
Back In Stock! Insane adaptation of the H.P Lovecraft story from the producers of Mandy, directed by reclusive cult director Richard Stanley and featuring “the Klaus Kinski of Southern California” Nicholas Cage. 2019.
Lucio Fulci’s dreamlike sword-and-sorcery epic remastered! Andrea Occhipinti, Sabrina Siani, 1983.
Capturing the messy upheaval of the ’70s just as rock was re-inventing itself, explores the publication’s humble beginnings in post-riot Detroit, follows its upward trajectory from underground paper to national powerhouse. Alice Cooper, Gene Simmons, 2019
Back In Stock! H.P. Lovecraft story of murderous fish people where a boating accident runs a young couple ashore in a decrepit Spanish fishing town which they discover is in the grips of an ancient sea god and its monstrous half human offspring. Stuart Gordon (2001)
Back In Stock! A park ranger is tasked with dealing with a killer crocodile that appears to have a spiritual connection with the local Aboriginals.
Back In Stock! 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)
A low-budget actioner featuring Fred Dryer of TV’s Hunter taking on terrorists in a Middle Eastern country. Joseph Gian, Sasha Mitchell, Terry Leonard, 1987.
Double Feature! First up is 1987’s DEATH RUN! A scientist places her son and his girlfriend into a cryogenic sleep so they can survive the coming apocalypse. They wake 25 years later in a world dominated by neo-Nazi like ruler, called the Messiah who holds the “Death Run”.
And then it’s 1979’s THE MEATEATER! A Psycopathic killer stalks teens at a run down, abandoned movie theatre.
Canadian made horror / sci-fi from the Tax Shelter years about 3 astronauts who return to Earth after the nuclear holocaust. Tim Choate, Douglas Carrigan, Maury Chaykin, Kate Lynch, Paul Donovan, 1985.
Double Feature! First up is 1988’s DEMONWARP! A man and his daughter are attacked in the woods by what they believe is a Bigfoot-type creature. However, they soon begin to suspect that they may have stumbled onto a nest of aliens in a hidden spacecraft. Following that is 1989’s THE CHURCH! An old Gothic cathedral, built over a mass grave, develops strange powers which trap a number of people inside with ghosts from a 12th Century massacre seeking to resurrect an ancient demon from the bowels of the Earth.
Double Feature! First up is 1995’s DROP DEAD ROCK! A down and out rock ‘n roll band, Hindenburg, kidnap their favorite British rock star Spazz-O (Maynard), and hold him hostage so he will listen to their music and make them famous. The problem is, Spazz-O’s ex-porn star wife Holly Everest (Parks) and his back-stabbing manager, Dave Donovan (Ant), can’t wait to get their hands on his fortune, and have hired a hitman to do him in. Thanks to the media feeding frenzy, Spazz-O’s career is hotter than ever. Enter media mogul Thor Sturmundrang (Harry) with a big advance check. Now Spazz-O is worth more alive than dead. Dave must outwit the bumbling band, clumsy cops, ruthless record execs and terrifying terrorists to get his just reward. ANd in the same year we got CYBER BANDITS! Jack boldly makes a play for the girlfriend of his mogul boss. He succeeds, but when she steals the VR device that the mogul has developed to become the world’s most powerful man, the pair go fugitive with the data tattooed on Jack’s back.
A murderous psycho breaks out of a mental hospital and goes after his uncle who had him committed. Bernard White, Dick Sargent, Paul Leder, 1986.
Back In Stock! The “Citizen Kane” of underground movies! The bizarre and musical tale of a girl who travels to another dimension through the gateway found in her family’s basement. Hervé Villechaize, Susan Tyrrell, Gisele Lindley, Danny Elfman, 1980.
This sucker was NOT included in the Tetsuo boxset Arrow released earlier this year. A skin crawling gothic horror packed with colourful, nightmarish imagery based on a “erotic grotesque” novel by Edogawa Rampo. Masahiro Motoki, Ryo, Shiho Fujimura, Renji Ishibashi, Tadanobu Asano, Shinya Tsukamoto, 1999
Back In STock! German horror. A serial killer strikes fear in the hearts of residents of Hamburg during the early 1970s. Fatih Akin (2019)
Hey You Guys!!! Nuff said. Goonies hits 4K.
Double feature of peerless Yakuza films from Kinji Fukasaku & Takashi Miike: Jingi no hakaba (1975) / Shin Jingi no Hakaba (2002)
Back In Stock! Michael Rooker’s haunting breakout role as Henry.
Back In Stock! Unusual French fantasy about a man who travels between multiple parallel lives, melding monster movie, film noir, romantic drama, musical, crime thriller and futuristic sex fantasy. Leos Carax, Denis Lavant, Édith Scob, 2012.
Back In Stock! In the mid 1980s, 17yo Vicki is randomly abducted from a suburban street by a disturbed couple. As she observes the dynamic between her captors she quickly realizes she must drive a wedge between them if she is to survive. Ben Young (2016)
Back In Stock! Indescribable psychedelic Japanse ghost tale that’s equal parts absurd and nightmarish, Scooby Doo and Mario Bava. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977.
Horror double feature: HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT (Bobby Roe 2014) HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT 2 (Bobby Roe 2017)
DOUBLE FEATURE! First up is 1982’s HUMONGOUS. The monstrous offspring of a violent crime grows up in seclusion on a remote island, where a boat-full of hapless teens have shipwrecked, unaware of what’s lurking in the woods. And then it’s 1986’s EAGLE ISLAND! The alarm blips for the 6th time in an army base on a Swedish Island. Two female bird photographers try to stay hidden as Russian special forces “in ninja suits” make short work of the Swedish conscripts on their way to steal a secret code.
A fun 2 disc collection of the early amateur films of Don Glut, American writer, motion picture film director, and film & TV screenwriter.
Back In Stock! Starring Seth Green. A teenage slacker’s right hand becomes possessed with murderous intent. Rodman Flender (1999)
Back In Stock! Starring Sam Neill and Jürgen Prochnow, an insurance investigator begins discovering that the impact a horror writer’s books have on his fans is more than inspirational. John Carpenter (1994)
Back in Stock! Import Blu Ray edition of David Lynch’s hypnotic flick.
Remastered, restored and available for the first time on home video anywhere in the world, this new “perverse double bill” from maverick film maker Jean Louis Van Belle contains both the 1972 release Pervertissima and the 1971 production The Lady Kills.
BACK IN STOCK! A team consisting of a physicist, his wife, a young female psychic and the only survivor of the previous visit are sent to the notorious haunted house to prove / disprove survival after death. Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, John Hough, 1973
Rare shot-on-video horror movie about a woman who makes a descent into Hell after she kills a man she brought home as a one-night stand. Tina Krause, 1999.
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)
Alice, a single mother, is a dedicated senior plant breeder at a corporation engaged in developing new species. Against company policy, she takes one home as a gift for her teenage son, Joe. Jessica Hausner (2019)
Back in Stock! Proper re-issue of David Lynch’s 1997 thriller starring Patricia Arquette, Robert Blake, Bill Pullman, Marilyn Manson and Jack Nance.
Horror-comedy anthology from China featuring four unconnected short stories based on the director’s dreams. Teddy Robin, 2018.
Back In Stock! The cult classic french flick where a documentary crew follow around a serial killer.
back in stock! A supernatural, maniac killer cop teams up with a Times Square serial killer to get the revenge on those who killed him in prison. Written by Larry Cohen. Robert Davi, Claudia Christian, Michael Lerner, Willian Lustig, 1990.
DOUBLE FEATURE! First up is 1989’s MEMORIAL VALLEY MASSACRE with the original plot of Campers on a holiday are terrorized by an axe-wielding maniac. And then from 1978 is TILL DEATH…A widower, visiting the crypt that holds the body of his wife, is accidentally trapped therein. That night, he finds that she seems to have been cataleptic, rather than dead, and frees her from her coffin. things, of course, are not what they seem.
Set towards the end of World War II, the film tells the story of an American intelligence unit which finds a German platoon that wishes to surrender. Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, Arye Gross, Ethan Hawke, Gary Sinise, Keith Gordon, 1992.
An unsuccessful, nervous businessman gradually comes to befriend an eccentric, asocial nerd on a trip to Utah to bury a deceased cat.
Over 1600 people have vanished in our National Forests. Now, a team of adventurers is about to find out why.
An embittered wife’s attack on her unfaithful husband fails, so she castrates her son and flees, but the psychodrama only truly begins with her return. Kim Ki-duk, 2013.
Back in Stock! Cult homage to the Universal monster matinees of the 1940s. Duncan Regehr, Tom Noonan, Fred Dekker, 1987.
Back In Stock! A decades-old folk tale surrounding a deranged murderer killing those who celebrate Valentine’s Day turns out to be true to legend when a group defies the killer’s order and people start turning up dead. George Mihalka (1981)
Back In stock! David Cronenberg’s hallucinatory take on William S. Burroughs’ unfilmable novel. Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, 1991.
Double Feature! First up is 1982’s NIGHT SCREAMS in which teenagers are stalked and murdered by a maniac at a town fair. And then it’s 1980’s TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT. An underrrated Santa slasher flick…
Back In Stock! A timeless tale of vengeance told through the medium of a bloated Jaws rip off! Richard Harris, Charlotte Rampling, Michael Anderson, 1977.
Double Feature! First up is 1982’s PANIC in which a scientist’s experiment with a deadly bacteria goes awry and leaves him horribly deformed. The monstrous man then runs amok in his town. And then 1987’s THE FOREST in which A hillbilly father and his idiot son terrorize and murder campers.
DOUBLE FEATURE! From director BERNARD “CANDYMAN” ROSE comes his first movie PAPERHOUSE from 1988 in which A young girl lost in the loneliness and boredom of reality finds solace in an ill boy, whom she can visit in a surreal dream world that she drew in her school composition book. Then from 1977 comes THE DEATH OF RICHIE in which a sensitive but confused teenager feels pressure on him from all directions and turns to drugs, which causes problems for him in school and at home.
Cult filmmaker Larry Cohen writes & directs this crime drama about a hitman who tries to seduce the mother of the child who witnessed his most recent kill. Anne Carlisle, Brad Rijn, John Woehrle, 1984.
Back in Stock! Brian De Palma’s (Scarface, The Untouchables) classic musical cult comedy remastered! William Finley, Jessica Harper, Paul Williams, Brian De Palma, 1974
Back In Stock! After returning to his childhood home, a disgraced children’s puppeteer is forced to confront his wicked stepfather and the secrets that have tortured his entire life. Directed by Garth Merengie himself, Matthew Holness 2018.
Back In STock! 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. 30 years later, the dance is held again for the first time
Italian horror where a maniac butchers a fashion model on a Caribbean island and leaves the body to be eaten by rats. Her sister suspects a lax police investigation and decides to go snooping on her own. Giuliano Carnimeo (1988)
Back In Stock! SCREAM FACTORY BOXSET of all four REC films. Beauty!
Back in Stock! French thriller, never take your mistress on an annual guys’ getaway, especially one devoted to hunting – a violent lesson for three wealthy married men. Coralie Fargeat (2017)
back in Stock! The twisted musical that has become somewhat of a cult classic 10 years later.
Back In Stock! The amazing Sho Kosugi in the 80s cult classic from CANNON FILMS ofcourse.
Back In Stock! The Tobe Hooper directed mini series from 1979 based on the book by Stephen King!
A sweet mother takes a little too much at heart for the defense of her family. Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, Ricki Lake, John Waters, 1994.
Back In Stock! When a detective acquires mysterious superheroic powers from a Kabuki performer, he must learn to channel his strange new abilities, with help from a sexy sensai. Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman, 1991.
Back In Stock! Bill Friedkin’s 1977 masterpiece!
Back in Stock! Adapting a science-fiction novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Andrei Tarkovsky’s final Soviet feature is a metaphysical journey through an enigmatic post apocalyptic landscape. 1979.
Back In Stock! After being out of print for many years people are rediscovering this 1992 cult classic comedy with John Ritter.
Psychedelic live action adaptation of the video game, Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, 1993
Back In Stock! 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)
Back In Stock! A haunted traveller must protect the mystical keys to the destruction of the universe from a relentless demon known as the Collector. Ernest Dickerson, 1995.
back In Stock! The first two seasons of Tales From The Crypt!
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.
Back In Stock! Cult film adaptation of the beloved cult comic book about a rocking punk girl in the post apocalyptic wasteland. Lori Petty, Malcolm McDowell, Naomi Watts, Ice-T, 1995.
When strange events occur in a neighborhood in Buenos Aires, a doctor specializing in the paranormal, her colleague, and an ex police officer decide to investigate further.
Horror TV series set during WWII centring on a series of bizarre deaths that haunt a Japanese-American community, and a young man’s journey to understand and combat the malevolent entity. Kiki Sukezane, Naoko Mori, George Takei.
Back In Stock! A dark fairy tale about a gang of five children trying to survive the horrific violence of the cartels and the ghosts created every day by the drug war. Issa López, 2017.
Back In Stock! A beautiful but naïve aspiring television personality films a documentary on teenagers with a darker ulterior motive.
Brilliant big screen adaptation of a novel by Iceberg Slim following 2 Phildelphia con men trying to evade the gangsters and the cops while trying to make a buck. Kiel Martin, Mel Stewart, Larry Yust, 1972.
Back In Stock! Fun Norwegian horror about a group of students investigating a series of mysterious killings blamed on bears begin to follow a mysterious hunter who claims to be a troll hunter. 2010.
South Korean film about a former gangster gone straight whose latent violent streak is reawakened when criminals kidnap his wife. Kim Min-Ho, 2018.
Five women are stalked by an unknown assailant while preparing for Valentine’s Day. David Boreanaz, Denise Richards, Marley Shelton, Katherine Heigl, 2001.
Back In Stock! The cult classic returns. Julie, a girl from the valley, meets Randy, a punk from the city. They are from different worlds and find love. Somehow they need to stay together in spite of her trendy, shallow friends
DOUBLE FEATURE! Fist up is 1990’s THE WILLIES. Two brothers camping with their cousin try to frighten each other by telling stories. There are two main narrations: one involves strange happenings at an elementary school; the other, a teenage boy with a peculiar interest. And the 1995 Adventure film MAGIC ISLAND. A bored teenager receives a pirate adventure book from his nanny-housekeeper and is sucked into the magic story book after reading it.
In this Canadian imaginary friend horror, an malevolent & invisible “friend” terrorises the family of a weird kid. Keegan Connor Tracy, Jett Klyne, Stephen McHattie, Sean Rogerson, Brandon Christensen, 2019.
Back In Stock! When a terrorist’s body, infected with a stolen chemical, is cremated by the US military, a virus is unintentionally released into the atmosphere over a small island. Lucio Fulci, Claudio Fragasso, Bruno Mattei, 1988.
And there we have it guys! This week’s wonders as always will be at the shop on Thursday so it gives you a few days to decide. Unil then remember the videostore loves you. Cheers!