Witchfinder General is one of those cult British films that, like The Wicker Man, seemed to herald a renaissance in the fortunes of the British film industry in the late 1960s and early 70s. With only his third film, director Michael Reeves displayed an assured grasp of technique and a confident ability to mix and match genres that marked him out as a homegrown wunderkind to rival the Spielbergs and Coppolas who were just graduating from film school across the Atlantic. Sadly, this promise remained unfulfilled as Reeves died suddenly, soon after completing the film, from a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs; Witchfinder General remains his only significant work Veteran Vincent Price is wonderfully cast as the titular witchfinder, Matthew Hopkins, whose bloody and usually sexually motivated persecutions across civil war-torn East Anglia are carried out with much relish, graphic fake blood and lots of screaming. Ian Ogilvy, an old school pal of the director's, is the upright new model soldier who swears vengeance against Hopkins for the rape of his betrothed (Hilary Dwyer, who in true Hammer Horror fashion gets to take her top off and scream a lot). Lascivious depictions of burning witches and gratuitous sex aside, what draws the viewer into the film is the setting as Reeves' camera roams lovingly across the East Anglian countryside. The opening-hanging scene, for example, depends strongly on location for its effect, and Ogilvy's quest for revenge takes on a John Ford-style Western aura in the director's hands. Perhaps not quite the masterpiece some seem to think it is, Witchfinder General remains a sturdy piece of distinctively British filmmaking. On the DVD: This disc allows the viewer to select the slightly extended "Export cut" of the movie, which has a little more graphic blood than the censored UK release, although the restored sequences are of markedly inferior quality. The anamorphic picture and mono sound are decent, even if too many murky nighttime scenes and badly dubbed actors' voices betray the film's restrictively low budget. The major extra is a documentary about the life and short career of Michael Reeves, while other fill-ups include text notes from critic Kim Newman, a music video, trailer, filmographies and stills. All in all, it's a welcome restoration of a genre classic. --Mark Walker
Jennifer Lopez stars in this dazzling thriller as a psychologist who must journey into the mind of a comatose serial killer to save the life of his latest victim.
This attempt to reunite the stars of White Men Can't Jump will most likely be remembered as the movie that allegedly inspired a number of copycat arsons in the New York subway system. In other words, the movie itself is too perfunctory to be remembered for any other reason. Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes share their established chemistry as a pair of stepbrothers who work the subway detail as undercover detectives in the NYPD. Woody's a compulsive gambler with a huge debt problem to contend with, and he's also competing with his brother for the attentions of their new and beautiful partner (Jennifer Lopez), who's been assigned to join their investigation of the subway crimes. They're also supposed to guard the daily money train (so named because it contains each day's worth of subway fares), but Woody gets the bright idea that it might be the solution to his money woes. What follows is standard-issue action fare for the mid-1990s--lots of violence, excessive profanity, and attempts at witty banter between the co-stars to make it all seem more entertaining than it really is. You'd need to be a serious Harrelson, Snipes, or Lopez fan to add this movie to your collection. For anyone else, one viewing ought to be enough. --Jeff Shannon
Arthur Bishop (Bronson) is a mob hit man who operates in a world of his own an uncompromising world where conventional rules of morality don't apply and where one wrong move could cost him his life! He's always worked alone but as age catches up with him Bishop takes on a competent and ruthless apprentice (Jan-Michael Vincent) and teaches him everything he knows. Together they become an unmatchable team of globetrotting killers until the pupil's ruthlessness puts him on a colli
Haunted by horrifying childhood memories the son (Vincent Price) of the Spanish Inquisition's most notorious assassin teeters on the brink of insanity. But when his adulterous wife fakes her own death to drive him over the edge she soon discovers that betrayal cuts both ways.
Witchfinder General is one of those cult British films that, like The Wicker Man, seemed to herald a renaissance in the fortunes of the British film industry in the late 1960s and early 70s. With only his third film, director Michael Reeves displayed an assured grasp of technique and a confident ability to mix and match genres that marked him out as a homegrown wunderkind to rival the Spielbergs and Coppolas who were just graduating from film school across the Atlantic. Sadly, this promise remained unfulfilled as Reeves died suddenly, soon after completing the film, from a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs; Witchfinder General remains his only significant work Veteran Vincent Price is wonderfully cast as the titular witchfinder, Matthew Hopkins, whose bloody and usually sexually motivated persecutions across civil war-torn East Anglia are carried out with much relish, graphic fake blood and lots of screaming. Ian Ogilvy, an old school pal of the director's, is the upright new model soldier who swears vengeance against Hopkins for the rape of his betrothed (Hilary Dwyer, who in true Hammer Horror fashion gets to take her top off and scream a lot). Lascivious depictions of burning witches and gratuitous sex aside, what draws the viewer into the film is the setting as Reeves' camera roams lovingly across the East Anglian countryside. The opening-hanging scene, for example, depends strongly on location for its effect, and Ogilvy's quest for revenge takes on a John Ford-style Western aura in the director's hands. Perhaps not quite the masterpiece some seem to think it is, Witchfinder General remains a sturdy piece of distinctively British filmmaking. On the DVD: This disc allows the viewer to select the slightly extended "Export cut" of the movie, which has a little more graphic blood than the censored UK release, although the restored sequences are of markedly inferior quality. The anamorphic picture and mono sound are decent, even if too many murky nighttime scenes and badly dubbed actors' voices betray the film's restrictively low budget. The major extra is a documentary about the life and short career of Michael Reeves, while other fill-ups include text notes from critic Kim Newman, a music video, trailer, filmographies and stills. All in all, it's a welcome restoration of a genre classic. --Mark Walker
Death and debauchery reign in the castle of Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) and when it reigns- it pours! Prospero has only one excuse for his diabolical deeds - the devil made him do it! But when a mysterious uninvited guest crashes his pad during a masquerade ball there'll be hell to pay as the party atmosphere turns into a danse macabre!
Men In Black: Secret agents 'K' (Tommy Lee Jones) and 'J' (Will Smith) work for a highly funded yet unofficial government agency which tracks civilisation-infiltrating extraterrestrial. K and J must prevent an alien terrorist (Vincent D'Onofrio) from assassinating two galactic ambassadors on Earth for a conference dooming the Earth to certain destruction! Men In Black 2: Agent J and Agent K are back! Agent J (Will Smith) needs help with a new breed of alien terror i
1. Scream Bloody Murder (Dir. Robert J. Emery 1972) 2. A Bucket of Blood (Dir. Roger Corman 1959) 3. Hell Penitentiary (Dir. Sergio Garrone 1985) 4. Hellraiser III (Dir. Anthony Hickox 1992) 5. Carnival of Souls (Dir. Herk Harvey 1962) 6. Don't Look in the Basement (Dir. S.F. Brownrigg 1973) 7. House on the Haunted Hill (Dir. William Castle 1959) 8. Ghoulies IV (Dir. Jim Wynorski 1994) 9. Don't Ring the Doorbell (Dir. Karen Arthur 1978) 10. Eat and Run (Dir. Christopher Hart 1986) 11. The Creature from Black Lake (Dir. Joy N. Houck Jr. 1976) 12. Queen of Blood (Dir. Curtis Harrington 1966) 13. Giant Spider Invasion (Dir. Bill Rebane 1975) 14. Demon Under Glass (Dir. Jon Cunningham 2002) 15. Flesh of the Beast (Dir. Terry West 2003) 16. Home Sweet Home (Dir. Netie Pena 1981) 17. Flesh Eater (Dir. Bill Hinzman 1989) 18. Night of the Living Dead (Dir. George A. Romero 1968) 19. Dead One (Dir. Barry Mahon 1961) 20. Silent Night Bloody Night (Dir. Theodore Gershuny 1974)
1645 sees England in the grip of a bloody civil war. The structure of law and order has broken down. During this climate of fear self styled witch hunter Matthew Hopkins tours the country preying on innocent victims in the name of the Lord. His name strikes fear into the hearts of superstitious people already terrorised by war. During his reign of terror Hopkins travels the country torturing and executing innocent people for personal gain after claiming to find evidence of witchcraft. Vincent Price gives an outstanding performance as the sadistic witchfinder in one British cinemas best horror films.
Elementary school teacher Florence (Sara Forestier, Perfume, The Names of Love) is a single mother completely devoted to her pupils, so much so that she shares an apartment on the school's property with her 10-year-old son and pupil Denis. When she encounters and meets Sacha, a disruptive student with a complicated home life, Florence dedicates herself to helping him. But as Sacha's plight and her impending work assessment force her to put everything on the line, including her position within the school and her relationship with her son, Florence gradually realises that one is never too old to learn a new life lesson.
Electrifying indie auteur Lodge Kerrigan following up his cult ordeal Clean Shaven explores the desolate existence and paranoid perspective of a women lost in a tangle of high-end prostitution and urban anxiety. Claire Dolan (Katrin Cartlidge Naked Breaking The Waves) an Irish immigrant in Manhattan pays off her debt to a formidable gangster/pimp (Colm Meaney The Snapper Layer Cake) by submitting herself as a call girl to this whims of anonymous businessmen. Craving an ordinary existence and living in cold dread of losing her sense of self Claire attempts to bond with a quietly troubled cab driver (Vincent D'Onofrio Full Metal Jacket Ed Wood) and remake her life. Both a dramatic exploration of exploitation and a psychological portrait of modern womanhood adrift in a world of violation and rootlessness and filmed by Kerrigan with a poet's awareness of detail Claire Dolan stands as one of the 1990's most significant and affecting works of cinema.
A box set of three spine tingling horror tales: Masque Of The Red Death: As a deadly plague ravages Europe sadistic Prince Prospero hosts a lavish banquet for noble devil-worshippers in the sanctuary of his castle. But in the midst of their cruelly wanton revelry there is an uninvited masked guest; Death! Night Of The Eagle: Norman Taylor is hated by other university lecturers when rumours of a major promotion circulate. Hated so much in fact that someone pervades his life with sinister occult spells... Zoltan Hound Of Dracula: In the event of a bizarre find a group of Russian soldiers bring back to life the Dog of Dracula. The evil hound then travels to Los Angeles where the last descendants of the deadly clan still survive...
Free Willy Three and one-half tonnes of best friend: family adventure doesn't get any bigger! Willy is an orca whale confined in a Pacific Northwest aquatic park's too-small tank and separated from his family in the nearby bay. No one understands Willy's moods - except a 12 year-old boy who knows what it's like to be without a family. That boy is scruffy street kid Jesse (Jason James Richter) who befriends Willy and risks all to set him free. Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home Two years after helping his friend escape into the sea Jesse enjoys life with his adoptive parents and is delighted to be reunited with the 3 tonne killer whale. However a crashed supertanker causes an oil spill which threatens the life of both... Free Willy 3: The Rescue Now 16 Jesse has taken a job on an orca research ship to encounter his old friend threatened by illegal whalers hoping to make money from turning the whale into sushi...
Based on documents compiled by leading French philosopher Michel Foucault I Pierre Riviere a unique and original film charts the gruesome events which took place in a Normandy village in 1835 when a young man Pierre Riviere murdered his mother sister and brother before fleeing to the countryside. With a cast made up of real-life villagers from the area where the events took place the detailed re-enactments and careful attention to the gestures of their ancestors serve to create an intense and sometimes disturbing atmosphere of hyper-realism. Details of the crime and of the trial that followed are told from varied perspectives including the written confession of Pierre himself and form a rich and complex narrative that interrogates the concepts of 'truth' and 'history'. Radical bold and uncompromising director Rene Allio's extraordinary work is at one and the same time an ethnographic enquiry an historical reconstruction and an unflinching portrait of psychopathology and its aftermath.
Eva meets Tudor on the day of her 16th birthday. It is Tudor who is to make her feel whole as a woman. He becomes for her a source of both love and suffering through his constant mysterious departures and reappearances. When he is gone, Eva keeps a special place for him in her heart. During Tudor’s absences, Eva lives through many terrible ordeals, including her shooting of her uncle Alfonse as he tries to rape her. With Tudor away, she meets Baron Oswald Von Seele. They marry and Eva finds her peace. When Tudor returns, Eva’s love for him is rekindled and they spend an unforgettable summer together at the seaside. Eva is now pregnant. Oswald wants a divorce. Soon Tudor leaves again, called away on business, though without saying where he is going. Eva’s child dies during childbirth. War is bringing the world to its knees and Europe’s borders are collapsing. Tudor returns to Eva to find tragedy at every turn: political assassinations, raids and Iron Guard rebellions that culminate in massacres of the Jews. Romania’s entry into the War sees Eva on her own again. She volunteers to work at the Military Hospital, where she meets Lucian, a medical student. They begin a warm, affectionate relationship. Lucian proposes to Eva, but she is unable to give him an answer, still in shock from the news of Oswald’s death in an attack in Istanbul. Returning home one day, Eva finds Tudor, unshaven and confused, waiting for her. Tudor tells her he is wanted by the Gestapo and asks her to help him acquire fake documents to leave the country. Lucian learns of Tudor’s return, leaves for the front and dies in action. Eva now realizes there must be a different explanation for Tudor’s many mysterious encounters with a strange man at important moments in the past. It is the end of spring before Eva manages to obtain Tudor’s new documents. A day before his departure, Eva finds out she is pregnant again but chooses not to tell Tudor for fear he might change his mind. She accompanies him to the railway station, but they loose each other amid the American bombardment of April 4th, 1944. Eva searches for Tudor, but he is not to be found, either among the living or the dead. The strange man of Tudor’s acquaintance tells Eva to flee the country to live with Tudor’s mother in America. While on board a ship heading for America, she learns that Tudor had been running a network of American spies in Romania.
Missing in action and presumed dead Captain Dave Morgan turns up alive in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp. He has been able to send word out - but help better come quickly before the sadistic Colonel Minh who runs the hellish internment stockade succeeds in breaking Morgan's body and spirit. Getting into Vietnam through the back door is easy enough with the help of gunrunning soldiers of fortune but trying to ferret out the phantom POW camps rescuing half dead prisoners and getting them out of 'Nam seems a pipe dream. No one has ever escaped from Colonel Minh's hell hole and lived to tell the tale. That's the kind of challenge that Chris Burton and his boys look forward to. The Ultimate Maximum. Armed with their Ninja skills forged on them by Sensei Hiroshi; thirty-sixth direct descendant of the Iga-Ninja Chris Burton Bill Norton and Mike Dobson form what mercenaries dub 'The Ultimax Force' - what Colonel Minh will call the 'curse of the devils'. Fate has destined this final confrontation between Burton and Minh and there is no stopping now the one-on-one that began years ago in the jungles of 'Nam is now about to resume. Try as he might to prevent it by moving camp and sending out his elite blocking forces against the rescue party Minh realises that his time is running out and that the unfinished duel between him and Burton will have to be brought to an end - death to the loser....
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