The brutal, ultra-hard horror film The Collector, which was formerly known as The Midnight Man, is going to be one of the key horror titles of 2009. The film tells the story of an ex-con who plans to steal a rare jewel from a house while the family is away. The only problem is that a masked marauder entered the house earlier in the night and turned it into a gigantic man-trap. Director Marcus Dunstan,who also produced Feast and wrote Saw IV-VI, made the The Collector with hardcore horror fans in mind. The film is set-up like a thriller, but it slyly switches gears after the first act, and turns into an amped-up, non-stop bloodbath.

The Collector is set for U.S. theatrical release on July 31, 2009. The MPAA’s “R” rating should be prefaced by the word “hard.” For those who cannot wait, Fantastic Fest has teamed up with Scott Weinberg’s new Horror Squad site for a special screening at the Alamo Drafthouse on July 22nd, 2009. Information about the screening as well as some still images can be pursued at the links below.

Norifumi Suzuki directed some of the more infamous Toei Pinky Violence including Sex and Fury (1973) and School of the Holy Beast (1974). Suzuki eventually hopped over to Nikkatsu while the company was still knee deep in roman poruno. This, in 1979, Nikkatsu released Suzuki’s Star of David: Hunting for Beautiful Girls (Dabide no hoshi: Bishôjo-gari). Star of David, which was written by Jiku Yamatoya based on Maasaki Sato’s manga, coats the usual Nikkatsu mix of sex and violence with thick layers of De Sadean philosophy, haphazard religious symbolism, and black humor. The result is a nihilistic bloodbath that is equal parts absurd, clever, and offensive.

Continue Reading "DVD Review: Norifumi Suzuki’s STAR OF DAVID"...

In late March 2009, a trailer for a film called After Last Season appeared on the Internet. This cryptic trailer featured a litany of weirdness, including a cardboard box masquerading as a MRI machine, Rubbermaid containers shuffling across a floor, ultra-crude 3D computer graphics, and seemingly stunned actors delivering dialogue in dazed monotone. The trailer raised numerous questions. Was this a real movie? If so, was it an elaborate put-on? The answer to the first question is “yes.” Index Square, which is the company behind After Last Season, somehow managed to get a four city 35mm theatrical release through Cinemark. As to the second question, the answer is definitely “no.” The film is not a put-on. After Last Season is, however, so genuinely and startlingly bad that a movie cult will undoubtedly form around it.

Continue Reading "Film Review: Mark Region’s AFTER LAST SEASON"...

Mike Malloy has been hard at work on a new documentary called Eurocrime!:The Italian Cop and Gangster Films that Ruled the ‘70s, With the expert participation of genre genius Kier-La Janisse, Malloy has pulled together a roster of the top actors and directors in the Italian crime genre in order to get their perspectives on these tough, brutal, and occasionally dangerous films. The list of interviewees is a “who’s who” of action heavyweights, including John Saxon, Fred Williamson, Antonio Sabato, Henry Silva, Franco Nero, Enzo Castellari, Leonard Mann, Joe Dallesandro, and numerous others.

Twitch was provided with an advance trailer, which provides a taste of what Malloy and company have been up to. A release in late 2009 is anticipated so start preparing your death dance (watch the trailer), listen to some albums by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis, and check with Twitch for more details in the upcoming months.

Continue Reading "EUROCRIME! Documentary Explores Violent Italian Crime Films of the 1970s"...

This post will remain at the top of the page for a single day.

There are countless films about obsessive relationships but one of the very best is Nicolas Roeg’s 1980 film Bad Timing. Roeg’s film is an absolutely beautiful work about the complex dynamics of an absolutely wretched relationship. Bad Timing is fiction, but like most great art, the film uses the tools of the medium to artfully probe the dark side of human behavior.

Continue Reading "Nicholas Roeg’s BAD TIMING and the Art of the Bad Relationship"...

Mondo Macabro has returned with another installment in their Bollywood Horror Collection. Like the previous DVD collections, volume three maintains a focus on Tulsi and Shyam Ramsay, who are sibling purveyors of horror films that merge Western genre tropes with Indian sensibilities. Mahakaal (The Monster) and Tahkhana (The Dungeon) display the elements that made the Ramsay brothers innovators in Indian cinema.

Continue Reading "DVD Review: BOLLYWOOD HORROR COLLECTION VOLUME 3"...

It has been announced that Kaleidescope has purchased U.K. rights for The Horseman. Also, the new full-size sales art has been added to the image gallery, and links have been updated accordingly.

Steven Kastrissios’  film The Horseman had its North American premiere as part of the Fantastic Fest screenings at South by Southwest in March 2009. Now, according to Inside Film, Media 8 Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to the film for a tidy sum.

Media 8 is bringing the film to Cannes market for buyer’s screenings. As such, brand new sales art is out and a new sales trailer is forthcoming. Inside Film has the full scoop, as well as the larger-sized sales art, at the link below. The most recent NSFW trailer is beneath the fold. Thanks goes to Simon de Bruyn for the tip.

Continue Reading "Media 8 Entertainment Acquires THE HORSEMAN (Updated)"...

After a significant wait, Martyrs was released on U.S. DVD this week. Coincidentally, Alex and Willie Cortez, who operate under the moniker of Seppuku Paradigm, have just made their outstanding original soundtrack for the film freely available in high bit-rate MP3 format. See the “Related Links” below for the download location.

 
In the 1990s, Something Weird Video struck a deal with producer and distributor Harry Novak to release many titles from his company Box Office International on VHS tape. One of the titles that stood out from weird, sleazy flood was a Danish film called The Sinful Dwarf (Dværgen) . In addition to the usualy cheap thrills, the movie had a rare, secret ingredient: a drooling, perverted dwarf. When Image Entertainment released dozens of Something Weird titles on DVD, The Sinful Dwarf was allegedly skipped because the company thought it went too far. Now, Severin Films has released the film on U.S. DVD so people can judge for themselves.

Continue Reading "DVD Review: THE SINFUL DWARF"...

Alejandro Adams’ film Canary is the filmed equivalent of an experimental novel. It is dense, complex and spirals off into numerous directions.  It is also a small-budget film that successfully blends thought provoking, as opposed to preachy, social commentary with novel forms of visual story telling.

The name of the film comes from its fictional subject: a company called Canary Industries. Canary specializes in “organ redistribution” or leasing organs to people who need them. The catch is that those who accept these organs must also sign a “Conscientious Usage” contract that allows Canary to repo the organs if the recipient abuses their body. To this end, Canary employs various “organ redistribution specialists” to retrieve the body parts when people violate their contracts. Babies, young kids, teenagers and adults all receive the same deal: take care of the organs or they will be taken back.

Continue Reading "Review: Alejandro Adams’ CANARY"...

J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek demonstrates the right way to “reboot” a long standing film franchise. Abrams uses the essential elements of Gene Roddenberry’s original creation to create a version of Star Trek that is comfortably familiar yet very different from the films and television shows that preceded it. The result is a work that is not without flaws but easily stands as one of the best of all the Star Trek movies.

Continue Reading "Review: J.J. Abrams’ STAR TREK"...

A full, mostly spoiler-free review is now available. Check below for the link

A heavily advertised free screening of Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan on Monday, March 6th at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas turned out to be the well-disguised world premiere of J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie. Leonard Nimoy, as well as three of the film’s screenwriters, introduced the screening, which ended before the publicly announced Australian premiere even started.

A full Twitch review will appear in the near future but it is safe to say that Abrams’ film is a very entertaining and reverential take on the Star Trek mythos. The acting and casting are spot on. The story mixes old and new elements of the Star Trek universe. The effects are breathtaking. Some people will inevitably nitpick this film but J.J. Abrams’ new work is as good as (and arguably better than) most of the Star Trek movies that preceded it.

A few years ago, Patton Oswalt showed up at SXSW Film Festival to present an unknown comedy called The Foot Fist Way. As many know, The Foot Fist Way launched the careers of Danny McBride and Jody Hill. So, when Oswalt returned to SXSW in 2009 to introduce another unknown comedy called The Snake, there was definitely a buzz in the late night air. The buzz was justified because The Snake is a low-budget exercise in dark, evil humor featuring great comedic writing and acting.

Continue Reading "SXSW Review: THE SNAKE"...

Mototsugu Watanabe’s Sexy Battle Girls (Nerawareta gakuen: seifuku o osou) is best described as a pinku version of a tokusatsu television show. Instead of Power Rangers fighting space monsters,  however, Sexy Battle Girls portrays unchaste school girls out for revenge. Pink Eiga’s new DVD of the title represents the first time Sexy Battle Girls has been available with English subtitles.

Continue Reading "DVD Review: Mototsugu Watanabe’s SEXY BATTLE GIRLS"...

The world’s financial institutions are crumbling. Energy resources are dwindling. War and poverty plague many countries. Some say that the nations of Earth are in need of a massive change, perhaps even a revolution. The truth is that what the world needs right now is a RanXerox movie.

RanXerox (Ranx) is a comic book character created by Stefano Tamburini and Tanino Liberator. The Ranx character is a punky, post-apocalyptic android built from spare Xerox machine parts. All RanXerox stories were luxuriously illustrated with bizarre, violent and, to put it lightly, unchaste story lines. RanXerox first appeared in Cannibal magazine in 1978. After the disappearance of Cannibal, RanXerox was transitioned to Frigidaire magazine, where the comic strip appeared until 1985. Most English speakers first caught wind of RanXerox when Heavy Metal magazine began serializing translated strips in July 1983. There have been no new Ranx stories since the 1980s.

One would have thought that somebody like Alejandro Jodorowsky would have made a RanXerox movie. However, Chris Cunningham, who is best known for directing videos for Aphex Twin and Squarepusher, picked up the mantle early in this young century. Cunningham publicly stated that he was going to adapt Ranxerox 2 for Warp Films. The UK Film Council even provided some funds but after years of talking, the production collapsed.

So, the point of this post comes down to this: who will be so bold as to pick up the torch and make a RanXerox movie? Who should direct? Who should play RanXerox?