Let’s dive right in shall we…new, old, weird, best sellers, and all of the above hit the shelves this week..
Amidst the Boshin War’s brutal conflicts, a motley squad of criminals and samurai defends a fortress, clashing with the Shibata clan. Kōichi Satō, Ryōhei Suzuki, Sakura Andō, Junji Sakamoto, 2024.
Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some issues to work out. They are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL (Michael Biehn) with a top-secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on Earth.
In the sci-fi monster movie Alien Terror (aka Alien 2: On Earth) a spaceship lands back on Earth after a failed mission. There’s only one minor problem: the astronauts have been replaced by hideous creatures that can penetrate people’s bodies and make them explode! A group of cave explorers are attacked by the monsters inside an underground cave, but the survivors are in for a surprise when they finally manage to escape the trap… Audio Commentary by Film Historians and Hosts of Wild, Wild Podcast Adrian Smith and Rod Barnett | Franchised Terrorist: An Interview with Eli Roth | Alternate English feature audio dub
For kids around the world, music is often the only salvation when the pain and anxiety of teenage life becomes too much to bear. Yuichi (Hayato Ichihara) is in the 8th grade and he worships Lily Chou-Chou, a Bjork-like chanteuse whose epic music is lush and transcendent. Yuichi only lives for Lily Chou-Chou’s big Tokyo concert, where the lies and violence can be washed away by the presence of his goddess and her powerful music. But fate has yet another obstacle in store for Lily’s devoted fan.Making-Of Featurette New essay by Stephen Cremin (deputy director NYAFF)
In the 1950s, notorious New York crime bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese vie for control of the city streets. Once the best of friends, petty jealousies and a series of betrayals place them on a deadly collision course that reshapes organized crime forever.
From the director of Basic Instinct and Total Recall, based on a true story, a 17th-century nun becomes entangled in a forbidden lesbian affair with a novice. But it is Benedetta’s shocking religious visions that threaten to shake the Church to its core.
It starts off as a great party–just eight people in a secluded lodge. One of the guests suddenly goes on a violent, murderous rampage. There is something wrong with his hair, and pure evil in his eyes. What he does to three of the girls there is too hideous to describe. Falsely accused of the killings, Jerry Zipkin (Red Shoe Diaries’ Zalman King) uncovers the shocking truth about BLUE SUNSHINE!
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)
The discovery of an illicit love affair leads two young Angelenos on a violent, sexually charged tour through the dark side of human nature.
Unpopular nerd Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) buys a 1958 Plymouth Fury, which he names Christine. Arnie develops an unhealthy obsession with the car, to the alarm of his jock friend, Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell). After bully Buddy Repperton (William Ostrander) defaces Christine, the auto restores itself to perfect condition and begins killing off Buddy and his friends. Determined to stop the deaths, Dennis and Arnie’s girlfriend, Leigh Cabot (Alexandra Paul), decide to destroy Christine.
A misanthropic, struggling photographer just wants to watch TV and eat candy while his wife is out of town, but when a desperate old pal resurfaces, his plans are thwarted, with spooky consequences. Clay Tatum, Whitmer Thomas, 2022.
Canadian shocker about a pacifist lawyer for an Indigenous tribe fails to protect their land against the racist owner of a lumber mill, both white men will be forced by a rogue Native man into a wilderness nightmare. Graham Greene, Ryszard Bugajski, 1991.
It’s the year 2030 and man’s worst nightmares have become a terrifying reality. Ultraviolet rays have punched through the ozone layer and parched the earth, dooming it to eternal summer. Big Brother has come to life in the form of Unicom, a multinational corporation that has taken control following a computer induced economic holocaust and various governments defaulting on their national debts.
A found-footage horror series compiling tapes from a socially awkward serial killer, each episode revealing a new victim’s harrowing experience. Mark Duplass, Josh Ruben, Josh Fadem, 2024.
“Dexter: Original Sin” tells the story of a young Dexter Morgan (Patrick Gibson), 15 years before the original “Dexter” series, as he navigates the transition from a student to a serial killer in 1991 Miami. Guided by his father, Harry (Christian Slater), he develops a “Code” to hunt and kill those who deserve to be eliminated from society while remaining undetected. The series explores how Dexter’s inner darkness manifests and his early experiences as a vigilante.
During a routine nighttime training mission in the Scottish Highlands, a small squad of British soldiers expected to rendezvous with a special ops unit instead find a bloody massacre with a sole survivor. The savage attackers of the special ops team return, and the men are rescued by Megan (Emma Cleasby), a zoologist who identifies what hunts them as werewolves. Without transport or communications, the group is forced to retreat to a farmhouse to wait for the full moon to disappear at dawn.
Violet is a widowed mother who goes to an upscale restaurant to meet Henry, her charming and handsome date. However, her pleasant evening soon turns into a living nightmare when she receives phone messages from a mysterious, hooded figure who threatens to kill her young son and sister unless she kills Henry.
Jackie Chan stars in this Hong Kong Kung Fu masterpiece where a disobedient son is sent to be trained by his uncle, a master of the 8-Drunken Genii kung-fu, before the son comes back to rescue the father from an assassin. Woo-Ping Yuen (1978)
Between 1959 and 1971, Filipino filmmakers Eddie Romero and Gerry de Leon – along with Hemisphere Pictures marketing consultant Samuel M. Sherman – unleashed this monsters-and-mayhem quartet that remains among the most deliriously schlocky horror classics of all time: TERROR IS A MAN, BRIDES OF BLOOD, MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND and BEAST OF BLOOD.
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.
Wealthy and precocious teenager Juliet (Kate Winslet) transfers from England to Christchurch, New Zealand, with her family, and forms a bond with the quiet, brooding Pauline (Melanie Lynskey) through their shared love of handsome big screen tenor Mario Lanza and games of make believe. But when their parents begin to suspect that their increasingly intense friendship is becoming unhealthy, the girls decide to run away to America, hatching a dark plan for those who threaten to keep them apart.
Ralph Bakshi’s grim and darkly comic animated film about a troubled artist and his bartender turned prostitute friend as they travel through a surreal city. 1973.
Indescribable psychedelic Japanse ghost tale that’s equal parts absurd and nightmarish, Scooby Doo and Mario Bava. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977.
Ti West directs this 80’s throwback horror about a cash strapped college student who foolishly takes a babysitting job in a remote mansion where she discovers that she is trapped by a maniac. Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, 2009.
Bruce Willis, Danny Aiello, Andie MacDowell and Sandra Bernhard star in the funniest action/adventure/comedy ever! Willis is Eddie “The Hawk” Hawkins, the world’s most famous cat burglar, who, after 10 years in prison, is ready to go straight. But it’s not going to be easy for The Hawk.
A queen sends a powerful sorceress to the ghostly wilderness of the Lost Lands in search of a magical power, where the sorceress and her guide must outwit and outfight man and demon. Milla Jovovich, Dave Bautista, Arly Jover, Paul W.S. Anderson, 2025.
A uniquely reflective late-career triumph that balances Scorsese’s virtuoso set pieces with a profoundly personal rumination on aging, mortality, and the decisions and regrets that shape a life. Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino.
The first manned expedition to Mars is decimated by an unknown life form…which stows away on the rescue ship. Marshall Thompson, Shirley Patterson, Kim Spalding, Edward L. Cahn, 1958
Legendary assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves) retired from his violent career after marrying the love of his life. Her sudden death leaves John in deep mourning. When sadistic mobster Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen) and his thugs steal John’s prized car and kill the puppy that was a last gift from his wife, John unleashes the remorseless killing machine within and seeks vengeance. Meanwhile, Iosef’s father (Michael Nyqvist) — John’s former colleague — puts a huge bounty on John’s head.
In this anime feature, 13-year-old Kiki moves to a seaside town with her talking cat, Jiji, to spend a year alone, in accordance with her village’s tradition for witches in training. After learning to control her broomstick, Kiki sets up a flying courier service and soon becomes a fixture in the community. But when the insecure young witch begins questioning herself and loses her magic abilities, she must overcome her self-doubt to get her powers back.
A rapturously stylized quartet of tales of demonic comeuppance and spiritual trials, featuring colorfully surreal sets, luminous cinematography, existentially frightening and meticulously crafted. Masaki Kobayashi, 1964.
Bertolucci’s infamous erotic film about 2 strangers meet for anonymous passion in an empty flat haunted by grief and butter. Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972.
Featuring Viggo Mortensen, two college students are stalked by the menacing Leatherface and his demented family…a bizarre cannibalistic clan with blood on their hands and a feast on their minds. Jeff Burr (1990)
A rich tycoon bets he can survive on the streets, spiralling into slapstick misfortune, grim reality, and Mel Brooks’ signature satire on wealth and class. Mel Brooks, Lesley Ann Warren, Jeffrey Tambor, Mel Brooks, 1991
From best-selling author and celebrated director Clive Barker comes a supernatural thriller that rips apart the boundaries between sanity and madness! Scott Bakula, Kevin J. O Connor, Famke Janssen.
Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg are on a film set telling stories about past productions and burning witches at the stake, meanwhile technical problems, ego, and psychotic outbreaks gradually plunge the shoot into chaos. Gaspar Noé, 2019.
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.
The luxurious villa of Mark and Jessie Bannister, a yuppie couple, is overrun by loads of uninvited guests who turn the house up side down. John Larroquette, Kirstie Alley, Alison LaPlaca, John Diehl, Jessica Lundy, Bradley Gregg, Dennis Miller, 1990.
A psychic (Tony Curtis) recruits a witch doctor (Michael Ansara) to get a 400-year-old Indian medicine man off his girlfriend’s (Susan Strasberg) back.
He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe, battles the evil Skeletor to save the planet Eternia and protect the secrets of Castle Grayskull
The untold origin story behind Ridley Scott’s Alien – rooted in Greek and Egyptian mythologies, underground comics, the art of Francis Bacon, and the dark visions of Dan O’Bannon and H.R. Giger. Alexandre O. Philippe (2019)
When struggling photographer Leon Kaufman (Bradley Cooper) meets the owner of a prominent art gallery, he sees a chance for the success that has, so far, eluded him. Determined to show the darker side of humanity for his debut showing, Leon crosses paths with Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) a serial killer who preys on late-night subway commuters. His fascination with Mahogany pulls him — and his lover (Leslie Bibb) — deep into an evil abyss.
Two Swedish boys (Nicholas Pickard, Christian Bale) fight a fantasy-land Black Knight (Christopher Lee) who has turned children into birds.
Oscar® nominee Dev Patel (Lion, Slumdog Millionaire) achieves an astonishing, tour-de-force feature directing debut with an action thriller about one man’s quest for vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systemically victimize the poor and powerless.
Three erotic tales in one sizzling pack! REAL NAUGHTY HOUSEWIVES, REAL NAUGHTY VICE GIRLS and REAL NAUGHTY, REAL WILD. From promiscuous housewives and untamed beauties to cops and call girls!
Sexy Set!
What if the only people left alive in the world were Southern California teenagers? That’s the premise in this campy, enjoyable sci-fi tale of two sisters who must fend off zombie-like mutants and mysterious scientists after a comet’s passing exterminates nearly all life.
The quintessential silent vampire film, remastered in high definition for the first time.
Includes the 3 films in the Oh God series featuring George Burns as God – OH, GOD! (1977) / OH, GOD! BOOK II (1980) / OH, GOD! YOU DEVIL (1984)
Wes Craven, the director of The Serpent and the Rainbow and Shocker, locks you inside the most terrifying house on the street. Trapped inside a fortified home owned by a mysterious couple, a young boy is suddenly thrust into a nightmare. The boy quickly learns the true nature of the house’s homicidal inhabitants and the secret creatures hidden deep within the house. Stunning visuals highlight this inventive film that the San Francisco Chronicle calls, “Wes Craven’s most satisfying movie.”
A rubbery mutant bear terrorises the wilderness as corporate greed poisons the land with toxic waste. Robert Foxworth, Talia Shire, Armand Assante, John Frankenheimer, 1979
In the free-for-all chaos after World War II, black marketeer Ueda (Hiroki Matsukata, Cops vs Thugs) is robbed of a stash of morphine. He takes his brutal revenge, but is arrested for murder and sentenced to 20 years. He escapes and is caught, but no matter where they send him, Ueda won’t let prison walls stop him.
A graffiti arrest spirals into a gonzo odyssey of plutonium deals, mallrats, and a deranged cop in 2007 Fresno, Texas. Carl Fry, Maxwell Nalevansky, 2024.
In this space adventure, Mars is being prepared for the human race as Earth has become uninhabitable. But when the algae introduced there to create oxygen disappears, Commander Kate Bowman is sent to investigate. The ensuing action includes a crash landing, and desperate struggle to return to Earth, and the threat of a malfunctioning murderous robot.
Imaginatively evoking the inner landscape of human beings longing to connect, to love and feel loved, the film is a parable of happiness gloriously found and tragically lost. “Requiem for a Dream” tells parallel stories that are linked by the relationship between the lonely, widowed Sara Goldfarb and her sweet but aimless son, Harry. The plump Sara, galvanized by the prospect of appearing on a TV game show, has started on a dangerous diet regimen to beautify herself for a national audience.
Horror-comedy about a group of people who must battle brain-hungry zombies unleashed by toxic gas. Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa. Dan O’Bannon. 1985.
In the run-down, torpid area between Miami and the Everglades, a dissatisfied housewife, Cozy, and Lee Ray, the live-at-home handyman she meets in a bar, are involved in an accidental shooting. Thinking they have committed murder they decide to flee, but their natures and bank balances ensure they don’t get very far.
A hot new rock group…their sexy young girlfriends… it should’ve been the best time of their lives, but it ended up being a Rock ‘N’ Roll Nightmare! Recording some new music in an isolated farmhouse, the band gets more than they bargained for when something horrifying stirs in the darkness. Eternal evil haunts this place and the band members start turning into demons from Hell itself!
The comic genius of silent star Harold Lloyd is eternal. Chaplin was the sweet innocent, Keaton the stoic outsider, but Lloyd—the modern guy striving for success—is us. And with its torrent of perfectly executed gags and astonishing stunts, Safety Last! is the perfect introduction to him. Lloyd plays a small-town bumpkin trying to make it in the big city, who finds employment as a lowly department-store clerk. He comes up with a wild publicity stunt to draw attention to the store, resulting in an incredible feat of derring-do on his part that gets him started on the climb to success. Laugh-out-loud funny and jaw-dropping in equal measure, Safety Last! is a movie experience par excellence, anchored by a genuine legend.
OILY MANIAC: Legal assistant Shen Yuan follows the directions of an ancient spell, hoping to defend his lifelong love, Yue Yang-Ba. He digs a hole, climbs into the thick black liquid he uncovers, and quickly transforms into an oily monster, taking down criminals and leaving behind a trail of destruction. Will the identity of the Oily Maniac be revealed?
SEEDING OF A GHOST: A Hong Kong taxi driver is cursed by a sorcerer. After his wife is raped and killed by teenage hooligans, he makes a pact with evil forces to unleash revenge and bring his wife back from the dead…
Packed with zombies, gruesome deaths, Thing-like beasts, and pints of crimson-red blood coating the walls – this is a must-see horror for all fans of The Evil Dead.
SEX BEYOND THE GRAVE: A woman is raped and murdered during World War II. Forty years later she returns to haunt her persecutors from the Tao Tao Mansion. A professor and his family move into the house, only to have the spirits take their son.
With plentiful rotting flesh, a flying refrigerator, and one of the longest stripteases ever committed to celluloid, this truly insane entry in the Shaw Brothers catalogue must be seen to be believed, with a title that truly lives up to its name.
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!
Ground control has been receiving strange transmissions from the remaining residents of the Solaris space station. When cosmonaut and psychologist Kris Kelvin is sent to investigate, he experiences the strange phenomena that afflict the Solaris crew, sending him on a voyage into the darkest recesses of his own consciousness. In Solaris, the legendary Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky gives us a brilliantly original science-fiction epic that challenges our conceptions about love, truth, and humanity itself.
Fugitives drive nitroglycerin through South American hell, each mile cracking their souls. Based on *The Wages of Fear*. Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, William Friedkin, 1977
Born into a family business of race cars, Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is one of the track’s hot stars. Sitting at the wheel of his Mach 5, he consistently deflates the competition. When Speed turns down an offer from the head of Royalton Industries, he uncovers a secret. Powerful moguls fix the races to boost profits. Hoping to beat the executive, Speed enters the same arduous cross-country race that killed his brother.
A hopeful young starlet uncovers the ominous origins of the Hollywood elite and enters into a deadly agreement in exchange for fame and fortune. Alex Essoe, Amanda Fuller, Noah Segan, 2014.
Fading actress Elisabeth Sparkle becomes distressed when her chauvinistic boss fires her from her aerobics show. She soon injects herself with a mysterious serum that promises a younger, better version of herself, but things go horribly wrong.
After George Leahy (Larry Pennell) moves with his wife and kids to a large and very old New England house, strange and deadly occurrences begin to happen. Eventually, it is revealed that a vengeful witch haunts the home, and nothing seems to appease the evil spirit. Intent on stopping the carnage, Inspector Sturgess (Albert Salmi) and the Rev. David Thompson (James Houghton) join together to rid the place of the sinister force, but the witch isn’t easily vanquished.
40 years ago, five youths on a weekend getaway in the Texas countryside fell prey to a butcher in a mask made of human skin and his cannibalistic family, and horror cinema would never be the same. Violent, confrontational, and shockingly realistic, director Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE terrified audiences in a way never thought possible when it was unleashed on a politically and socially tumultuous America in 1974. Facing a storm of controversy, censorship, and outcry throughout its troubled release, this masterpiece of horror has stood the test of time to become a landmark motion picture and cultural milestone.
Tobe Hooper’s sequel to his beloved cult classic is wild, outrageous, and unbelievably gory mix of southern fried terror and surreal humour. Dennis Hopper, Bill Moseley, Caroline Williams, Bill Johnson, 1986.
John Carpenter’s fun satire of consumerism finds an unemployed Roddy Piper uncovering that the world’s ruling elite are aliens in disguise who’s aim is to keep humans in a state of mindless consumerism. Keith David, Meg Foster, 1988.
Low budget cult film about a series of unexplained murders which occured in Texarkana. Ben Johnson, Dawn Wells (Mary Ann of Gilligan’s Island), Charles B. Pierce (The Legend of Boggy Creek), 1976.
Chevy Chase, John Candy, Laraine Newman and more star in this cult classic satirical sketch comedy film that skewers 1970’s television culture with a series of outrageous sketches and parodies, lampooning everything from game shows and commercials to news broadcasts, delivering a relentless barrage of laughs along the way.
After finishing up the school term in a remote outback town, teacher John Grant (Gary Bond) looks forward to spending his holiday with his girlfriend in Sydney. But John gets waylaid in a mining town where a gambling spree leaves him completely broke. He quickly falls in with the hard-drinking locals, who constantly ply him with alcohol and force him to participate in a gruesome kangaroo hunt. Disgusted, John tries to hitchhike out of town and, when that fails, begins to contemplate suicide.
And there we go guys…new stuff should arrive Thursday/ Friday. Cheers!
