SANTA SANGRE (1989): CULT FILM PERFECTION!!!

SANTA SANGRE (1989) d. Alejandro Jodorowsky (Mexico/Italy)

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Visionary filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky cultivates one brilliant sequence after another, employing a staggering use of color shades, sensational aural cues, disturbing themes, and some of the most original onscreen imagery ever laid to celluloid. Hypnotizing and enticing, repugnant and crude, Santa Sangre is a thoroughly absorbing and unforgettable experience. It is at once a character-based drama, a psychological thriller, a social commentary tract rife daring symbolism, and a bona-fide musical featuring trance-inducing tunes and haunting ballads. It’s also Jodorowsky’s greatest and most accessible masterwork.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PETER! (CUSHING CURIOSITIES BOX SET)

CONE OF SILENCE (1960) d. Charles Frend (UK)
SUSPECT (1960) d. The Boulting Brothers (UK)
THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED (1962) d. Quentin Lawrence (UK)
SHERLOCK HOLMES (1968) d. Various (UK)
BLOOD SUCKERS (1971) d. Robert Hartford-Davis (UK)
TENDER DRACULA (1974) d. Pierre Grunstein (France)

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Welcome to Episode #18 of THE STACK!!

Tonight we celebrate Peter Cushing's 111th birthday in style with Severin Films' extraordinary box set of five feature films and the six remaining episodes of the BBC's production of Sherlock Holmes.

PETER CUSHING AND THE HAMMER FRANKENSTEINS!!!

THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) d. Terence Fisher (UK)
THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958) d. Terence Fisher (UK)
THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964) d. Freddie Francis (UK)
FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN (1967) d. Terence Fisher (UK)
FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (1969) d. Terence Fisher (UK)
FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL (1974) d. Terence Fisher (UK)

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With over 130 film and television credits to his name, there are plenty of options by which fans can celebrate horror icon Peter Cushing’s 111th birthday on May 26. For our part, we’ve elected to showcase the half-dozen features that made Cushing (and his myriad onscreen creations) immortal: Hammer’s Frankenstein series!

ALIEN (1979) TURNS 45!!!

ALIEN (1979) d. Ridley Scott (USA/UK)
ALIENS (1986) d. James Cameron (USA/UK)
ALIEN 3 (1992) d. David Fincher (USA)
ALIEN: RESURRECTION (1997) d. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (USA)
PROMETHEUS (2012) d. Ridley Scott (USA/UK)
ALIEN: COVENANT (2019) d. Ridley Scott (USA/UK)

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When the commercial space vessel Nostromo responds to a distress signal on an unknown planet, one of their crew is attacked by a bizarre life form. Over the course of several hours, the seemingly indestructible creature threatens all of their lives, consistently evolving and exhibiting horrifically distinctive characteristics: acidic blood, rows and rows of retractable teeth, white-hot intelligence, and a fierce predatory instinct.

ENCOUNTER OF THE SPOOKY KIND (1980) Blu-ray Review

ENCOUNTER OF THE SPOOKY KIND (1980) d. Sammo Hung (Hong Kong)

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Welcome to Episode #17 of THE STACK!!

A defining film in Hong Kong genre cinema, Encounter of the Spooky Kind blends kung fu, special effects, and Chinese folklore to invent a whole new subgenre of Asian cinema, the jiangshi film, which only a few years later would spawn the iconic and hugely successful Mr. Vampire. Available now from Eureka!

THE BLACK CAT (1934): A TRUE UNIVERSAL CLASSIC TURNS 90!!

THE BLACK CAT (1934) d. Edgar G. Ulmer (USA)

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Bearing no resemblance to the original story by Edgar Allan Poe, Universal’s atmosphere-drenched 1934 offering, The Black Cat, from Austrian expatriate Edgar G. Ulmer, is a superior piece of filmmaking, made all the more historic for marking the first and finest on-screen teaming of horror icons Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

ROLLING THUNDER (1977) UHD/Blu-ray Review

ROLLING THUNDER (1977) d. John Flynn (USA)

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Welcome to Episode #16 of THE STACK!!

At first glance, Rolling Thunder (now available on UHD and Blu-ray from Shout! Factory) is a genuinely contemplative, returning-Vietnam-veteran drama, that predates The Deer Hunter and Coming Home by a full year, with hardened POW Major Charles Rane (William Devane) tentatively reuniting with his family after years of isolation. But after hoodlums murder his wife and son, leaving him with a bloody stump for a hand following a garbage disposal close encounter, the track-down-and-kill-the-baddies stage is set, especially once Devane starts sharpening up his metal amputee hook and sawing off shotguns.

DAVID CRONENBERG'S THE BROOD (1979): ALIVE AT 45!!!

THE BROOD (1979) d. David Cronenberg (Canada)

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Canadian writer/director David Cronenberg has become so synonymous with the term “body-horror” that when a project is referred to as being “Cronenbergian,” we actually have an idea of what this might mean. Cronenberg has often said that he does not see disease and mutations as good or bad – they simply are – a viewpoint that shows up time and again in his cinematic output.

THE ABANDONED (2006) Blu-ray Review

THE ABANDONED (2006) d. Nacho Cerda (Spain/UK)

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Welcome to Episode #15 of THE STACK!!

Spanish auteur Nacho Cerda, who dazzled short film horror audiences with his festival favorites Aftermath and Genesis, takes the helm for his first feature-length effort, the hypnotic ghost story The Abandoned, now available on Blu-ray from Unearthed Films.