Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen’s legendary 1922 silent film Häxan uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious; instead, it’s a witches’ brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous.Read More »
Gertie, called Flo by her friends, sees her big chance of a model carreer, when she manages to get the business card of successful model Chantal at a fashion show in her sleepy village. She goes to Berlin and nests in the flat share of Chantal and Freddie. Whereas country girl Flo is still busy to find herself, Chantal is about to lose herself more and more in the depths of stardom. The story of a very unusual female friendship.Read More »
Nurse Charlotte Beale arrives at the isolated Stephens Sanitarium to work, only to learn that Dr. Stephens was murdered by one of the patients and his successor, Dr. Geraldine Masters, is not very eager to take on new staff. Charlotte finds her job maddeningly hard as the patients torment and harass her at every turn, and she soon learns why Dr. Masters is so eager to keep outsiders out.Read More »
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This Belgian surrealist work consists of two films, one commenting on the other, concerning a young man with a crucifixion complex. Imagining crosses everywhere, he even cuts his fried potatoes in the shape of a cross. Unable to buy a large cross, he settles for sixty francs worth of small ones, which he carries of in a paper bag. When the cross he finds to crucify himself on proves too small, a kindly priest volunteers to nail his feed to the floor. – J.H. Matthews, Surrealism and Film, 1971Read More »
A dutiful grand-daughter goes home to take care of her elderly grandmother. Once there, she finds herself trapped inside the house with a homicidal maniac.Read More »
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On the northwest side of Milwaukee, Mark Borchardt dreams the American dream: for him, it’s making movies. Using relatives, local theater talent, slacker friends, his Mastercard, and $3,000 from his Uncle Bill, Mark strives over three years to finish “Covan,” a short horror film. His own personal demons (alcohol, gambling, a dysfunctional family) plague him, but he desperately wants to overcome self-doubt and avoid failure. In moments of reflection, Mark sees his story as quintessentially American, and its the nature and nuance of his dream that this film explores.Read More »
Mega-promoter Colin Beverly plans to sabotage the New Year’s 1983 concert of small-time operator Max Wolfe. Wolfe’s assistants Neil Allen and Willie Loman find romance while trying to save the drugs, violence, and rock and roll from Beverly’s schemes.Read More »
A blood drenched vampire epic from the director of “The Curious Dr. Humpp”. A potent combination of Latin spice, Hammer-style horror and topless go-go dancing, this vampire movie from south of the border is a wild and untamed slice of raw cinema. A group of young swingers are on holiday in the mountains when their van breaks down. Seeking shelter in an abandoned lodge, they end up having a night none of them will soon forget… A raunchy and radical production – as you’d expect from the country that produced both Evita and Che Guevara.Read More »
Follow-up to Ed Wood’s “Plan 9 from Outer Space” about the walking dead, It opens in a cemetery. Criswell, the “real” medium, rises from his coffin to tell us of “monsters to be despised.” Dr. Acula (Kenne Duncan) is a phony medium aided by Valda Hansen, a bogus ghost, and big Tor Johnson, wearing rags and horrible scar makeup as Lobo. The doctor swindles people by pretending to contact dead relatives, but then accidentally succeeds in reviving a bunch of corpses that bury him alive! Sat unreleased for 23 years because Wood couldn’t pay the lab bill! Followed by “Sinister Urge” in 1961 (Wood’s last film).Read More »