Another week of movie goodness prepares to assault the videostore with a little bit of old and new. One of the bigger releases this week is Arrow Video’s new Yokai Monsters boxset which includes the original three films and the Great Yokai War by the always intriguing Takashi Miike. But let’s see what else is arriving this week shall we…
A host of a “psychic phenomena” radio show investigates the death of an old lover in a small town and uncovers a strange series of experiments that have unleashed tormented spirits. Agusti Villaronga, 1997.
A woman seeks revenge on the person she blames for her daughter’s death.
Six young adults in the woods run afoul of a berserker’s rage, a viking warrior who dons the skins and snout of a bear. Jefferson Richard (1987)
A medium holds a seance for a writer suffering from writer’s block but accidentally summons the spirit of his deceased first wife. Dan Stevens, Isla Fisher, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Michele Dotrice, 2020.
Remake of the 1958 sci-fi horror classic about a deadly blob from another planet which consumes everything in its path. Teenagers attempt without success to warn the townspeople, who refuse to take them seriously. Chuck Russell (1988)
In the near future, gas prices have gotten so high that automobiles are an unusable mode of transport. Then vegan teacher Archie (Mike Brune), while working on an engine designed to run on wheat grass, discovers he can get it to work using human blood. He dumps sweet organic grocer Lorraine (Anna Chlumsky) for hot butcher Denise (Katie Rowlett) and all forms of mayhem ensue while Archie fuels his bloodcar. Things get crazier when the government takes an interest in the project.
A young actor’s obsession with spying on a beautiful woman neighbour leads him into a tangle of murder where he must prove his own innocence while battling crippling claustrophobia. Brian De Palma (1984)
Solid double feature from the 90s. Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein!
A collection of OLD SCHOOL Halloween Cartoons some dating back to 1907!
In the post-apocalyptic California of 2017, Sam Treadwell (David Andrews) manages a recycling plant. His companion is Cherry 2000 (Pamela Gidley), a lifelike robot who caters to his every need. When Cherry expires, Treadwell refuses to settle for a newer, less attractive robot. Salvaging the chip containing her personality, he hires tracker E. Johnson (Melanie Griffith) to lead him through the lawless desert zone, where a replacement Cherry 2000 model can be found.
Sam Raimi directs & the Coen brothers pen this cartoony story of a pair of exterminators/hitmen who kill the owner of a burglar-alarm company, stalk the partner who hired them, his wife, & a nerd framed for the murder. Louise Lasser, Brion James, 1985.
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.
A couple who inherited an old house learn they share it with small creatures determined to possess the wife’s mind.
In this Amicus horror anthology, a mysterious fortune teller uses Tarot cards to read the future of five fellow passengers. Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Cough, Max Adrian, Donald Sutherland, Freddie Francis, 1965
The Bob Hope of bosomy camp horror comedy! Set in Victorian times, Elvira & her maid end-up spending the night at an old creepy castle when they hitch a ride with a local. Written by John Paragon. Richard O’Brien, Mary Scheer, 2001.
Based on the iconic movie, Follows three priests dealing with cases of a demonic presence targeting a family and a foster home. TV Series (2016)
A store clerk who is nearly driven to insanity when he sees an apparition of a girl driving a team of white horses in this 1922 German expressionist creeper. F.W. Murnau, Alfred Abel, Grete Berger, Silent.
To the students at Harrington High, the principal and her posse of teachers have always been a little odd, but lately they’ve been behaving positively alien. Controlled by otherworldly parasites, the faculty try to infect students one by one. Cheerleader Delilah (Jordana Brewster), football player Stan (Shawn Hatosy), drug dealer Zeke (Josh Hartnett) and new girl Marybeth (Laura Harris) team up with some of their other classmates to fight back against the invaders.
In 1975, a group of five men are driving home after working in a forest when they see a mysterious light. Intrigued, Travis Walton (D.B. Sweeney) leaves the truck — only to be sucked up by a flying saucer. The other four men report the strange event, but they are skeptically interrogated by Lt. Frank Watters (James Garner), who suspects that murder is behind Walton’s disappearance. When Walton reappears five days later, his story of alien abduction is met with disbelief.
Maverick writer/director Ralph Bakshi made his feature-length film debut with this audacious foray into adult-content animation, creating one of the most successful animated features of its time! 1972.
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)
Japanese erotic thriller. The shady past of a devoted housewife is slowly & painfully being exposed just as a serial rapist is loose in her neighbourhood… Kenichi Fujiwara.
Two affluent suburban girls clash with the Latino gang culture of East Los Angeles. Anne Hathaway, Bijou Phillips, Michael Biehn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 2005.
A career criminal plagued by his checkered past, but longing for a simpler life, while on parole he falls in with a band of thieves for one last heist in the Sierra Nevada. Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Raoul Walsh, 1941.
Indescribable psychedelic Japanse ghost tale that’s equal parts absurd and nightmarish, Scooby Doo and Mario Bava. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977.
Desperate to make some money so she can move into a new apartment, college student Samantha Hughes (Jocelin Donahue) takes a mysterious babysitting job. When she arrives at the house, Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan) mentions a full lunar eclipse and explains there is no child, but that Samantha will be watching his mother instead. After exploring the sinister-seeming house, Samantha soon comes to realize that her employers are hiding a horrifying secret and have plans to use her, dead or alive.
A crew of interplanetary archaeologists is threatened when an alien creature impregnates one of their members, causing her to turn homicidal and murder them one by one. Norman J. Warren (1981)
Classic 90s comedy Starring Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Lloyd Bridges, when a hypochondriac learns that he is dying, he accepts an offer to throw himself in a volcano at a tropical island, and along the way there, learns to truly live. John Shanley (1990)
From the director of Squirm, an extremely eerie and beautifully shot camping slasher. George Kennedy, Mike Kellin, Chris Lemmon, Jeff Lieberman,1981.
A sexy space vampire comes to earth and begins to transform the population of London into zombies. From director Tobe Hooper and writer Dan O’Bannon. Steve Railsback, Mathilda May, Peter Firth, 1985.
Teenage brothers Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) move with their mother (Dianne Wiest) to a small town in northern California. While the younger Sam meets a pair of kindred spirits in geeky comic-book nerds Edward (Corey Feldman) and Alan (Jamison Newlander), the angst-ridden Michael soon falls for Star (Jami Gertz) — who turns out to be in thrall to David (Kiefer Sutherland), leader of a local gang of vampires. Sam and his new friends must save Michael and Star from the undead
In this comedy, the highest-grossing film in China’s history, two businessmen go searching for their boss in Thailand & meet up with an enthusiastic tourist eager to explore the country & planet a cactus. 2012.
The series is about a young Black man who travels across the segregated 1950s United States in search of his missing father, learning of dark secrets plaguing a town on which famous horror writer H. P. Lovecraft supposedly based the location of many of his fictional tales.
Broad comedic take on the Godfather with the son of a mafia king taking over for his dying father. Jay Mohr, Lloyd Bridges, Billy Burke, Christina Applegate, Jim Abrahams, 1998.
The activities of rampaging, indiscriminate serial killer Ben (Benoît Poelvoorde) are recorded by a willingly complicit documentary team, who eventually become his accomplices and active participants. Ben provides casual commentary on the nature of his work and arbitrary musings on topics of interest to him, such as music or the conditions of low-income housing, and even goes so far as to introduce the documentary crew to his family. But their reckless indulgences soon get the better of them.
A serial killer (Elijah Wood) removes his victims’ scalps and attaches them to the vintage mannequins he restores in his late mother’s shop.
Starring Emilio Estevez, a group of people try to survive when machines start to come alive and become homicidal. Stephen King (1986)
Rare shot on video found footage horror film inspired by the then popular alien abduction stories. Tommy Giavocchini, Patrick Kelley, Shirly McCalla, Dean Alioto, 1989.
In this hilarious backstage mockumentary, three eclectic, never-quite-famous folk bands come together for the first time in decades following the death of their manager to put on an reunion concert in his honor, at the request of his son (Bob Balaban). For the members of The Folksmen, The New Main Street Singers, and Mitch & Mickey, time has not been kind. As the show approaches, apprehension sets in, romances are rekindled and ambitions are permanently deferred.
Iconic horror based on Steven King’s novel, after a famous author is rescued from a car crash by a fan of his novels, he comes to realise that the care he is receiving is only the beginning of a nightmare of captivity and abuse. Rob Reiner, 1990.
After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality. Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, David Lynch.
David Cronenberg’s hallucinatory take on William S. Burroughs’ unfilmable novel. Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, 1991.
When a creepy older man named Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow) moves to a small town in Maine and sets up an antique shop, bad things soon follow. Gaunt has the remarkable ability of selling people exactly what they want most, but his ideal purchases come at a price that involves more than just money. Through Gaunt’s manipulation, the citizens of the town gradually turn on one another, resulting in violence that Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Ed Harris) struggles to contain.
Rival reporters (Miguel Ferrer, Julie Entwisle) tail a vampire who travels by airplane, claiming victims at small isolated airports.
Reeling from the unexpected death of her husband, Beth (Rebecca Hall) is left alone in the lakeside home he built for her. She tries as best she can to keep together-but then the dreams come. Disturbing visions of a presence in the house call to her, beckoning with a ghostly allure. But the harsh light of day washes away any proof of a haunting. Against the advice of her friends, she begins digging into his belongings, yearning for answers.
One of the most haunting & perverse film noirs of the 1940s – a small-time carny whose charm propels him to fame as a charlatan spiritualist, but whose unchecked ambition leads him down a path of moral degradation & self-destruction. Tyrone Power, 1947.
That infamous cat and his twisted life are back & plunged headlong into the harsh realities of Vietnam, racial riots and Watergate of the ’70s. Robert Taylor, 1974.
Legendary 80’s slasher gorefest available for the first time uncut! Paul L. Smith, Christopher George. Written by Joe D’Amato. Juan Piquer Simón, 1982.
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.
4K remaster of Dario Argento’s giallo masterpiece! Features the original version and the export version.
Hal Needham’s beloved cult film about one young man’s intense desire to win a BMX race called Helltrack. Bill Allen, Lori Loughlin, Talia Shire, Ray Walston, 1986.
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.
A samurai answers a village’s request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food. A giant battle occurs when 40 bandits attack the village.
In this horror film, a timid young woman has become the captive of a savage killer who has claimed the lives of a number of other women somehow she finds the courage to escape… Caspar Van Dien, Rae Dawn Chong, Valerie Harper, 2012.
Chinese crime thriller where a master criminal shot by police refuses treatment, waiting to break out, caught between an obsessed cop and the troubled surgeon assigned to save his life. Johnnie To (2016)
Compelling train wreck of a Halloween rip off involving maniac on the loose looking for fresh babysitter flesh to stab. Jacqueline Giroux, Steve Railsback, Peter Jason, David Carradine, Gary Graver, 1982.
In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, an orphaned teen (Munro Chambers) must battle a ruthless warlord (Michael Ironside) to save the girl (Laurence Leboeuf) of his dreams.
A pair of siblings from London purchase a surprisingly affordable, lonely cliff-top house in Cornwall, only to discover that it actually carries a ghostly price; soon they’re caught up in a bizarre romantic triangle from beyond the grave. Ray Milland.
Includes WOLFCOP (Lowell Dean 2014) ANOTHER WOLF COP (Lowell Dean 2017)
A New York cop investigates a series of brutal deaths that resemble animal attacks. Albert Finney, Diane Venora, Edward James Olmos, 1981.
A Roger Corman Women In Prison Triple Feature! Includes the classic Jack Hill directed Big Doll House starring Pam Grier / Big Bird Cage / Women in Cages.
A defiant teenage boy, struggling with his parents’ imminent divorce, faces off with a thousand year-old witch, who is living beneath the skin of and posing as the woman next door. John-Paul Howard, Piper Curda, Jamison Jones, 2019.
In Florida, parents can hire Wrinkles the Clown to scare their misbehaving children. Michael Beach Nichols (2019)
From the makers of Daimajin comes a trilogy of terror ripped from the pages of Japanese folklore: 100 MONSTERS / SPOOK WARFARE / ALONG WITH GHOSTS. Also includes Takashi Miike’s remake THE GREAT YOKAI WAR.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, fear grips the city of San Francisco as a serial killer called Zodiac stalks its residents. Investigators (Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards) and reporters (Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr.) become obsessed with learning the killer’s identity and bringing him to justice. Meanwhile, Zodiac claims victim after victim and taunts the authorities with cryptic messages, cyphers and menacing phone calls.
Americans in the Caribbean take a tour of a nearby island at night and watch a local voodoo ritual. Soon after, they find themselves stranded on the island and under attack by unseen foes. One by one they meet violent ends. John N. Carter (1984)
And there we go guys…some beauties coming this week to the shop. They should be here Thursday or Friday. Till then.. Cheers!