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Third Window Films present the third set of a series of films from the legendary 1980s Japanese production company, all with brand new digital restorations. This collection will be released on February 17, 2025 on Blu-ray and digital.

Bumpkin Soup (1985)

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

A wild and crazy pink film from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a director who would go on to become world-renowned with films such as Tokyo Sonata and Cure.

on Terracotta by clicking on the image below

Bonus Features

Interview with actress Yoriko Doguchi Feature length audio commentary by Jasper Sharp Video Essay by Jerry White, author of “The Films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa : Master of Fear” Slipcase with artwork from Gokaiju ‘Directors Company’ edition featuring insert by Jasper Sharp – limited to 2000 copies

Region Free / TWFBD088

Mermaid Legend (1984)

Directed by Toshiharu Ikeda

on Terracotta by clicking on the image below

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, yet...

Stars: Jun Etoh, Mari Shirato, Kentarō Shimizu, Seiji Miyaguchi, Junko Miyashita, Yoshiro Aoki, Takashi Kanda | Written by Takuya Nishioka | Directed by Toshiharu Ikeda

As FrightFest unveils its line-up each year, part of the fun is seeing what cult gems they have unearthed to show on a large screen. Amongst 2024’s line-up was Mermaid Legend, a 1984 feature from the late Toshiharu Ikeda (Evil Dead Trap) that had never been released in any format internationally or played at a film festival outside of its native home of Japan. In celebration of the film’s 40th anniversary, this rare exploitation film is rightfully given the chance for a brand-new audience to appreciate it.

The story introduces viewers to fisherman Keisuke Saeki (Jun Etoh) and his pearl-diver wife, Migiwa (Mari Shirato). They are newlyweds who may be growing at odds with each other, but love still remains between them. After witnessing a murder late one night,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Bam

Claire Denis’ monumental No Fear, No Die begins screening in a new restoration.

Museum of the Moving Image

A new 70mm print of The Searchers plays this weekend.

Japan Society

A restoration of Shinji Sōmai’s Moving and Toshiharu Ikeda’s Mermaid Legend play on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Film Forum

New restorations of Ann Hui’s July Rhapsody (watch our exclusive trailer debut), Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams, and Fitzcarraldo begin screening; Seven Samurai and Powell and Pressburger’s The Small Back Room continue.

Anthology Film Archives

Enrique Gómez Vadillo’s rarely screened Death on the Beach shows in a new restoration this Friday; Stan Brakhage plays in “Essential Cinema.”

Museum of Modern Art

A career-spanning Powell and Pressburger retrospective continues, including A Matter of Life and Death and The Tales of Hoffmann.

Nitehawk Cinema

Lucio Fulci...

As the 25th anniversary of Pigeon Shrine FrightFest approaches, the organisers have unveiled a tantalising lineup for this year’s horror festival, which will be held at the Odeon Leicester Square from 22 August to 26 August 2024. The festival promises an array of chilling films, international premieres, and rare retrospectives.

We have already detailed what will be on offer in Discovery Screen 1 and Discovery Screen 2 across the long weekend.

Now we have even more detailed information for you. Read on for the film programme for Discovery Screen 3.

Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2024 – Discovery Screen 3 Friday, 23 August 2024

6:30 Pm – Things Will Be Different (UK Premiere) Directed by Michael Felker, this film stars Adam David Thompson, Riley Dandy, Justin Benson, and Sarah Bolger. The plot follows estranged siblings Joseph and Sidney who, after a close-call robbery, hide in an abandoned farmhouse that inexplicably transports them to another time. As they struggle to return to their present,...

Comprising international premieres, short programs, and some of the country’s finest-ever films in new restorations, 2024’s Japan Cuts––running July 10-21 at New York’s Japan Society––is upon us. As one of North America’s sole festivals devoted to new voices in Japanese cinema, it’s likely your only opportunity to see many titles in a theatrical space. Though one can feel a bit dizzy looking through everything, we’re glad to distill it––from masters to nascent talents and, along the way, a few absolute classics given much-deserved restorations.

All the Long Nights (Shô Miyake)

Shô Miyake’s All the Long Nights is a film about small things: decency, kindness, why people help each other out, how those acts can inspire others. The first character we meet is Misa (Mone Kamishiraishi), a sensitive type who suffers from premenstrual syndrome. In the opening scene, this causes Misa to lose her cool at work,...

Horror trends ebb and flow, but slashers never truly go out of style.

Take the recently debuted trailer for the upcoming A24 horror movie MaXXXine, for example. There’s something oddly comforting about the slasher subgenre, beholden to its rules and its commitment to racking up an impressive body count, that we just can’t get enough of. So, this week’s streaming picks belong to one of the most beloved subgenres of horror.

Only this time, because the slasher subgenre is vast and endless with no shortage of hidden gems, we’re highlighting five underseen slashers you may not have watched yet.

Here’s where you can stream them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

Death Spa – AMC+, Plex, Shudder, Tubi, Vudu

Also known as Witch Bitch in Europe, this wacky ‘80s slasher movie takes aim at the decade’s fitness craze in the most entertaining way.

Like laughter, fear is a universal language. That’s especially true in horror and the slasher subgenre as well. Case in point? Today brings Lithuania’s first slasher movie, We Might Hurt Each Other, to Bloody Disgusting’s Screambox, now streaming exclusively!

Lithuania’s first slasher pays tribute to the golden age of the subgenre while infusing an influence from Eastern European folklore. In Screambox Original We Might Hurt Each Other, “After classmates destroy life-size wooden folk art statues during a wild high school graduation party at a remote cottage, a mysterious killer starts picking them off one by one.”

This week’s streaming picks adhere to an international slasher theme, delivering brutal kills from around the globe. As always, here’s where you can stream them this week…

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

A Bay of Blood – freevee, Kanopy, Plex, Shout TV

Also known as Twitch of the Death Nerve,...

Based on an adult-oriented manga by “Angel Guts” creator Takashi Ishii, “Mermaid Legend” was Toshiharu Ikeda’s first film after leaving Nikkatsu, and was produced by the Director’s Company and distributed by Atg. The movie won three awards in Yokohama Film Festival, for director, Actress and Cinematography, and despite its exploitation premises, also channels the intense anti-nuclear sentiment of the decade.

on YesAsia

Keisuke, a frequently drunken fisherman who opposes the construction of a nuclear plant in the seaside village he lives with his young wife, is murdered by a group of thugs who are the puppets of the corrupt contractor who is tasked with securing the location for the construction. His wife, Migiwa, actually witnesses the whole thing as it happens while she was diving, a common profession for women of the area who fished that way, barely escaping the murderers herself. When she tries to inform the police,...

Fans of Japanese horror are almost certain to be familiar with the infamous “Evil Dead Trap” series, an odd amalgamation of East meets West with an absurd edge only really experienced through Japanese cinema. “Evil Dead Trap” is one of those films that is perfect to toi revisit around Halloween. But as we are heading into the summer months, a more idealistic choice would be the other genre-bending film from Toshiharu Ikeda that paints a very violent picture framed by the gorgeous backdrop of a seaside village.

“Mermaid Legend”, at points, has a very contemplative flow to the storytelling, moments of reflection on the seaside as well as a general romanticization of the industry tied to the sea–including some picturesque shots of the infamous pearl divers that have become the subject of interest in many films. The abrupt end to this solitude by way of Migawa (Mari Shirato) losing...

Years before the ‘Resident Evil’ and ‘Silent Hill’ franchises, and J-Horror classics such as ‘Ringu’ and ‘Ju-On: The Grudge,’ pulp filmmaker Toshiharu Ikeda created a plethora of pulp films to simultaneously disturb and intrigue his late night viewers. Sadly, Ikeda’s legacy came to an end when he passed away in 2010, but fans of J-horror still uncover, restore, and admire his films today. Arguably Ikeda at his weirdest and best, ‘Evil Death Trap’ is a visceral sexploitation horror from the 80’s which would go on to set the standard for the countless celebrated horror films and video games to come out of Japan within the next decade. With the movie’s recent Unearthed Films restoration, ‘Evil Dead Trap’ has never felt more hideously enthralling.

The story begins at a production studio in the 1980’s, where an almost exclusively female TV crew is desperate for leads on a new story to cover.

I always love new websites that celebrate the art of short films. Short of the Week is a nice new site that features some great stuff, including, yes, short films, but also news and updates. Go bookmark this one. Congrats to Bad Lit fave Jef Taylor for a successful Sundance romp! (You usually hear so little about short films at these kinds of events.) His After You Left got some nice reviews, first at Reel Guys and then at College Movie Review. It was sad to hear that Random Lunacy star Poppa Neutrino passed away last week. The New Yorker‘s Alec Wilkinson, who wrote a book on Poppa, has a wonderful remembrance. Rupert of SnuffBox Films keys us into a great new web video tool, Vid.ly, which converts video into every playable online video format possible. The sample played really great. Mike White posted up an amazing list...

It's always sad to report on the passing of people taken before their time. It's even sadder when those taken are responsible for their own deaths. Evil Dead Trap was a strange little Japanese film that garnered a lot of notoriety here in the West. Sadly, the director of it is no longer with us.

According to Japanese websites Hochi Yomiuri and Ameblo, filmmaker Toshiharu Ikeda has been found dead, believed to have committed suicide by drowning.

We here at Dread Central would like to take this time to offer our sincerest of condolences to Ikeda's friends, family, and constituents. Arigatō, sir. May you find the peace in death that eluded you in life. You will be missed.

Thanks to DC reader Dick Winchester for the heads-up.

- Uncle Creepy

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Discuss the man's legacy in the comments section below!

Very sad news from Japan: It looks as though director Toshiharu Ikeda, who held a place on Movieline's Halloween 25 horror film list for Evil Dead Trap, has been found dead. He is believed to have committed suicide by drowning. Besides a number of exploitation films in the early 80's, including the fourth film in the internationally-infamous Angel Guts series, Ikeda was known in Japan for Mermaid Legend and the 2004 Tokyo International Film Festival selection The Man Behind the Scissors. Rest in peace. [Jasper Sharp]...

Prim department store worker Nami (Jun Uzumi) gets dragged into a seedy underworld of dodgy sexual shenanigans after her 'friend' sets her up to do a porn magazine shoot. After an ill-timed affair with a married man, our heroine with a high sex drive finds her path has inextricably crossed with the local 'pervert', but is he the one stealing girls' knickers? All will be revealed (including some things you perhaps didn’t want to see) in Toshiharu Ikeda’s saucy and sad Red Porno.

The penultimate in the Angel Guts box set is the shortest and certainly the sauciest as our lady of lovin' proves that Diy is not just for men. Delving considerably deeper than its predecessor's crotch shots, this edition in the series serves up hefty slices of masturbation for titillation, making it the most sexually charged of the powerful collection. Though it isn't all self appreciation...