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Jonathan Haze had over 40 screen acting credits to his name, with many of those credits being earned on Roger Corman productions – and the one credit that stands out among all others came when Haze took on the role of Seymour Krelborn in Corman’s 1960 man-eating plant classic The Little Shop of Horrors. We lost Corman earlier this year, when he passed away at the age of 98. Now, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that we’ve lost Haze as well. His daughter Rebecca informed them that Haze passed away at his home in Los Angeles this past Saturday at the age of 95.

A cousin of drummer Buddy Rich, Haze was born with the name Jack Aaron Schachter in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 1, 1929. He worked the stage for Rich and was Josephine Baker’s stage manager for two years before he got into acting. He hitchhiked to L.A. and got a...

Three new movies announced for Great American Christmas 2024 on Great American Family

The line-up of new, original movies for Great American Family’s Great American Christmas 2024 is growing.

Great American Family has announced three more World Premiere Original Movies for its Great America Christmas 2024. Among the talent acting in the movies are some of the network’s top stars and some new talent. The lineup includes Mario Lopez, Courtney Lopez, Alexa PenaVega, Carlos PenaVega, Julia Reilly, and more. Read on to find out more about the three new holiday movies to look forward to in the holidays of 2024.

A Royal Christmas Ballet

Brittany Underwood and Jonathan Stoddard in A Royal Christmas Ballet [Image @britt_underwood and @jonstoddardofficial on Instagram]Starring: Brittany Underwood and Jonathan Stoddard Ash Tsai and Eric Guilmette star in A Shelter and Season’s Greetings (wt), part of Great American Christmas 2024.

Starring: Eric Guilmette (The Black Box) and Ash Tsai (Journey to Christmas...

The sun is out and the screaming is about to start, because the sensational 9th Annual Tampa Bay Screams Horror Convention is set to thrill horror and movie enthusiasts once again. The convention will take place from Friday, June 28th to Saturday, June 29th at the Pinellas Park Performing Arts Center, located at 4951 78th Ave. N. in the sunny Pinellas Park/St. Petersburg, Fl.

This year’s event promises an indoor celebration of horror, sci-fi, and pop culture, offering a weekend packed with excitement for fans, collectors, and cosplay artists. The convention will be open from 5 Pm to 10 Pm on Friday and from Noon to 5 Pm on Saturday. Best of all, there is free parking available for all attendees.

The Tampa Bay Screams Horror Convention is renowned for its vibrant atmosphere and extensive lineup of activities. Attendees can look forward to meeting horror celebrities, exploring the “Dealer’s Dungeon” vendor expo hall,...

The Universal Monsters are one of the fundamental building blocks of the horror genre in Hollywood as we know it, where just about every horror film ever made can be related back to one of their many creep shows. Sometimes this connective tissue is thematic, but often it's an overt homage to the monstrous titular character.

We've spoken before at /Film about the best Invisible Man films you haven't seen, but now is the time to rank the best of the best from the entire multiverse of invisibility films. And I mean the entire multiverse. True-to-form horror, slapstick farce, raunchy sex comedy, and family-friendly romps are all fair game on this list, so allow me to be your guide into the land of invisible people as I rank the top 20 from worst to best.

Read more: The 15 Best Horror Franchises Of All Time, Ranked

20. The Erotic Misadventures Of The Invisible...

Stars: Benjamin L. Newmark, Nick Wilson, Arlene Lagos, Tristen Amason, Bruce Peoples, Laronn Marzett, Vanesa Tamayo | Written by Lauren Pritchard, Joe Roche | Directed by Christopher Ray

Attack of the Meth Gator lets you know what you’re in for right from the start as cops raid a Florida meth lab only to have its operators make a run for it. As Shane wades across the swamp, he drops a bag of meth. That’s when we see a giant gator’s snout twitch as if it’s smelling something. Then it goes straight for the meth, then goes for Shane, and one of the cops in a drug-induced frenzy.

In response, Mayor Jensen (Nick Wilson) hires Skylar and Twain (Tristen Amason) to take care of the gator discreetly, and before the tourists start arriving for the Memorial Day Weekend. Needless to say, they quickly become gator chow instead. Sheriff Williams...

Linnea Quigley has more than earned her spot as a preeminent scream queen. In addition to genre classics like The Return of the Living Dead, Silent Night, Deadly Night, and Night of the Demons, the actress was so prolific throughout the ’80s and ’90s that some of her micro-budget B-movies are still being discovered to this day. Scream Queen is, in fact, the second “lost” Quigley film unearthed by Visual Vengeance, following Heartland of Darkness.

25 years after its inception, Scream Queen is reaching viewers on Blu-ray. The bulk of the flick was shot on S-vhs in less than a week in early 1998 with the rest being piecemealed together on weekends. Post-production was finally completed in 2002, after which it received a blink-and-you-miss-it VHS release. A DVD release was planned in 2012 but fell through at the last minute due to the distributor’s bankruptcy.

Scream Queen was the first “real” movie written...

Found footage classic The Legend of Boggy Creek introduced us to the “Fouke Monster” way back in 1972 – the film celebrated its 50th anniversary just last year – and now BayView Entertainment is taking us back to Boggy Creek with the brand new “Boggy Creek: The Series.”

Retromedia Entertainment through BayView Entertainment have released Boggy Creek: The Series on DVD (Region Free) in the USA, and you can watch the trailer below.

“Head to the legendary backwoods of Boggy Creek, Arkansas in the complete First Season of Boggy Creek: The Series, from Henrique Couto and Emmy Award-winning Executive Producer, Fred Olen Ray. Join the American Yeti Project as they investigate the strange events surround the spooky swamp and its unique denizens.

“You’ll encounter the witch of Boggy Creek (Scream Queen Brinke Stevens), the Scarecrow of Boggy Creek, and the fabled Bigfoot monster itself. Narrated by Eric Roberts.”

McKenzie Phillips also stars in Boggy Creek: The Series.

Retromedia Entertainment through BayView Entertainment have released Boggy Creek -The Series on DVD (Region Free) in the USA.

Synopsis:

Head to the legendary backwoods of Boggy Creek, Arkansas in the complete First Season of Boggy Creek – The Series, from Henrique Couto and Emmy Award-winning Executive Producer, Fred Olen Ray. Join the American Yeti Project as they investigate the strange events surround the spooky swamp and its unique denizens. You’ll encounter the witch of Boggy Creek (Scream Queen Brinke Stevens), the Scarecrow of Boggy Creek, and the fabled Bigfoot monster itself. Narrated by Eric Roberts.

Boggy Creek -The Series was Directed by Henrique Couto and stars Scream Queen Brinke Stevens, Eric Roberts and McKenzie Phillips.

Keep up to date with all things BayView Entertainment by following them on social media and via their website.

Links below:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Youtube

Youtube

The post Boggy Creek – The Series released on...

Retromedia Entertainment through BayView Entertainment will be releasing Boggy Creek -The Series on DVD (Region Free) in the USA on 26th December 2023.

Synopsis:

Head to the legendary backwoods of Boggy Creek, Arkansas in the complete First Season of Boggy Creek – The Series, from Henrique Couto and Emmy Award-winning Executive Producer, Fred Olen Ray. Join the American Yeti Project as they investigate the strange events surround the spooky swamp and its unique denizens. You’ll encounter the witch of Boggy Creek (Scream Queen Brinke Stevens), the Scarecrow of Boggy Creek, and the fabled Bigfoot monster itself. Narrated by Eric Roberts.

Boggy Creek -The Series was Directed by Henrique Couto and stars Scream Queen Brinke Stevens, Eric Roberts and McKenzie Phillips.

Pre-Order Boggy Creek – The Series on DVD (Region Free) via the links below:

Amazon.com

ImportCDs.com

DeepDiscount.com

Barnes & Noble

Keep up to date with all things BayView Entertainment by...

On the JoBlo Movies YouTube channel, you can find full feature films that we have uploaded, giving viewers the chance to watch them entirely free of charge. Now that we’re entering the month of October – which many of us refer to as “spooky season” or “the Halloween season”, since we celebrate Halloween all month long – the JoBlo Movies YouTube channel is already going to be getting into the holiday spirit. Throughout the month of October, we’ll be uploading a whole lot of horror movies – including today’s release, a creature feature called Glass Trap! You can check it out in the embed above.

Directed by the legendary Fred Olen Ray – whose long list of credits (he has directed over 160 movies so far) includes the cult classics Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers and Evil Toons – from a screenplay written by Lisa Morton and Brett Thompson, Glass Trap has the following synopsis:...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

When "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" was released to theaters in 2019, it was promoted as "The 9th Film by Quentin Tarantino." Technically, this is true. Though "Kill Bill" was split into two volumes due to its 247-minute runtime, it is one complete story. Still, there is one intriguing what-if that could bump Tarantino up into 10 completed features -- one that presaged his pop-culture cuisinart sensibility while displaying, in the crudest of forms, his formal daring.

The film is called "My Best Friend's Birthday," and only 36 minutes remain of what was once a 70-minute shoestring-budget indie comedy that, had Tarantino had been able to splice his footage into a coherent story, might've been able to land a competition slot at the Sundance Film Festival. Because, despite its ultra lo-fi aesthetic, it's got a hyper-referential swagger that plays like Jean-Luc Godard on a cocaine binge.

Erotic thriller documentary We Kill For Love recently had its world premiere at the Overlook Film Festival and we have the first clip and poster!

"Written, produced, and directed by Anthony Penta, the doc goes in search of the lost and misunderstood world of the direct-to-video erotic thriller, an American film genre that once dominated late night cable television and the shelves of neighborhood video stores.

We Kill for Love stars filmmakers Andrew Stevens, Jim Wynorski, Fred Olen Ray; film stars Monique Parent, Amy Lindsay, Kira Reed Lorsch; film scholars Linda Ruth Williams, Abbey Bender and more.

Balancing film art with scholarship, We Kill For Love pulls back the curtain to reveal the heart and soul of a forgotten and often maligned film movement."

Director Anthony Penta shared, “We Kill for Love is part film essay, part documentary, and part casefile. It's a record of my prolonged investigation into a...

Yellow Veil Pictures has announced that they have acquired worldwide rights for the erotic thriller documentary We Kill For Love ahead of the world premiere at the Overlook Film Festival. The company is planning a domestic release later this year and will represent the film for international sales with a launch at the upcoming Marche Du Film this May. Written, produced, and directed by Anthony Penta, the doc goes in search of the lost and misunderstood world of the direct-to-video erotic thriller, an American film genre that once dominated late night cable television and the shelves of neighborhood video stores. Director Anthony Penta Courtesy of Anthony Penta Michael Reed in We Kill for Love Courtesy of Yellow Veil Pictures Balancing film art with scholarship, We Kill For Love pulls back the curtain to reveal the heart and soul of a forgotten and often maligned film movement. Joe Yanick Co-Founder of...

Rlje Films Nabs The Psychological Thriller “Sympathy For The Devil”: "Rlje Films, a business unit of AMC Networks, has acquired the North America, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand rights to the psychological thriller, Sympathy For The Devil from Christian Mercuri’s Capstone Global, which is handling worldwide sales for the film.

Directed by Yuval Adler, Sympathy For The Devil is the feature screenwriting debut of Luke Paradise. It stars Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman. The film will be released on July 28, 2023.

“This is our eighth collaboration with Nicolas Cage, which includes Mandy - a critically-acclaimed film that has a huge cult following,” said Rlje Film Chief Acquisitions Officer Mark Ward. “Once again, he doesn’t disappoint. In this film, Cage and Joel Kinnaman bring to life a suspenseful tale on screen that will keep audiences guessing.”

In Sympathy For The Devil, after being forced to drive a mysterious passenger at gunpoint,...

Yellow Veil Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to the erotic thriller documentary “We Kill For Love” ahead of its world premiere at the Overlook Film Festival.

The company is planning a domestic release later this year and will represent the film for international sales with a launch at the upcoming Marche Du Film in Cannes.

Written, produced, and directed by Anthony Penta, “We Kill for Love” depicts the long-gone world of direct-to-video erotic thriller, an American film genre that once dominated late night cable television and the shelves of neighborhood video stores.

“‘We Kill For Love’ is a home run for erotic thriller fans,” said Joe Yanick, co-founder of Yellow Veil Pictures. “It’s one of the most in-depth looks at genre cinema and serves as more than just a love letter but pushes the conversation and spotlights films that have often often lost out to their more glamorous theatrical counterparts,...

Stars: Sof Puchley, Bobby Rice, Houston Rhines, Jon Briddell, Carrie Overgaard, Shary Nassimi, Richard Gabai, Michael Gaglio, Jonathan Nation, Nathaniel Moore | Written and Directed by Fred Olen Ray

When Richard becomes suspicious of his girlfriend’s new experimental cancer treatment, he grows even more concerned when she suddenly vanishes. In his frantic search for her, he discovers a secret society of beautiful women, all medically altered by the mysterious Doctor Sinclair. They are something less than human. They are piranha women…

If you know your genre cinema, especially the era of VHS and independent horror, there are a few names that were, and still are synonymous with fantastic low-budget, high-concept horror movies… The type of films the mainstream called B-movies. People like Charles Band, Jim Wynorski, David DeCoteau and Fred Olen Ray. And guess how many of the aforementioned have worked together? If you said all of them you would,...

If you’ve watched the new Netflix mystery drama, The Pale Blue Eye, then you’ve seen a work of fiction in which a young cadet named Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling) helps Detective Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) in his attempts to solve a series of murders at New York’s West Point Military Academy.

Of course while the real-life Poe did in fact attend West Point, the man is much better known as the legendary author, poet, literary critic, and editor who is widely regarded as the inventor of detective fiction, a major proponent of the short story, and one of the foundational writers of the horror genre. You know the names of his most iconic tales: “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “Masque of the Red Death,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat,” and so on. They’ve become part of popular culture ever since the man’s premature...

Next Friday, June 17th, Full Moon Features will continue to terrify and titillate your 2022 with its wild slate of original high-concept, micro budget horror and fantasy film entertainment with the release of part one of Piranha Women. From maverick B movie auteur Fred Olen Ray, the two-part exploitation epic will be available on the …

The post Full Moon Features ‘Piranha Women’ Debuts June 17th appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.

"I know I can help you, Lexi, the question is: are you prepared to take the next step?" Full Moon Features has revealed a trailer for their latest utterly ridiculous B-movie creation called Piranha Women, made by B-movie veteran director Fred Olen Ray. The pitch: "Terror rides on high tides in this sexy and outrageous tale of science run amok that's even madder than Moreau." This is a dumb mash-up of all kinds of horror concepts: instead of vampire women, a doctor injects the ladies with piranha DNA? blood? fluids? and turns them into fish people... That love to eat men. "Piranha Women is like a Lifetime thriller... with teeth! And with boobs with teeth! Yow!" You know what to expect. It's actually a "two-part exploitation epic" with the first part being released this month. Starring Sof Puchley, Keep Chambers, Cody Renee Cameron, Nathaniel Moore, and Carrie Overgaard. It looks as terrible as it sounds,...

Award-winning documentary Rondo and Bob, fixing on Texas Chain Saw Massacre art director Robert Burns and his obsession with cult actor Rondo Hatton, will be released on streaming platforms this June. Check out this trailer:

Robert A. “Bob” Burns is a significant name in horror film art direction for his work in the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, Re-Animator, The Howling. His props also appear in Poltergeist. From a young age he showed signs of being a genius and could create complex designs all in his head, draw detailed cartoons and create outrageous puns. In high school and college he studied drama, which he later utilized in films including Confessions of a Serial Killer.

While attending the University of Texas he edited the Texas Ranger humor magazine and discovered Rondo Hatton, a former Tampa, Florida, sports reporter, who contracted acromegaly, a condition that caused his face,...

Hello, dear readers! November is officially upon us, as well as a new week of Blu-ray and DVD releases, which means it’s time to make some room for more horror and sci-fi to fill your home entertainment shelves. One of this writer’s favorite indie genre movies of the year, Come True, is getting released to both Blu and DVD this week courtesy of Scream Factory, and Kino Lorber is showing some love to a pair of classic thrillers as well: The Spider Woman Strikes Back and The Mad Doctor. Other releases for November 2nd include The Banishing, Pig featuring Nicolas Cage, and The Spore.

The Banishing

From acclaimed genre director Chris Smith (Creep) comes the true story of the most haunted house in England. A young reverend, his wife and daughter move into a manor with a horrifying secret. When a vengeful spirit haunts the little girl and...

Hello, dear readers! This week’s home entertainment offerings include plenty of recent horror titles for you to enjoy, plus a few cult classics as well. Rlje Films is releasing a handful of genre films from this year, including Boys from County Hell, Violation, and The Power, and if you’re looking for something to enjoy during the Halloween season, you’ll definitely want to pick up the Haunt Blu-ray as well. Francis Ford Coppola’s first film, Dementia 13, is joining the Vestron Video Collector’s Series this week, and Severin Films has put together The Dungeon of Andy Milligan Collection for fans to enjoy as well.

Other releases for September 21st include The Vigil, Night Drive, Gaia, House Monster, and Tooth Fairy: The Last Extraction.

Boys from County Hell

A crew of hardy road workers, led by a bickering Father and Son, must survive the night when...

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone that my favorite movie featuring Gunnar Hansen and chainsaws is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a monument to gritty, independent cinema that drips with sweat, (mostly imagined) blood, and 1970s-era fears of the collapsing working class. Hansen himself is perfect as Leatherface as he imbues the character with layers that give him sympathy without taking away from the fact that he’s still utterly terrifying. Cap it all off with perhaps the greatest final frames ever put to celluloid and you have a grindhouse masterpiece.

But then there’s my second favorite movie featuring Gunnar Hansen and chainsaws, which kicks off with the following warning:

The chainsaws used in this motion picture are real and dangerous! They are handled here by seasoned professionals. The makers of this motion picture advise strongly against anyone attempting to perform these stunts at home.

Exploitation films have their mavericks, their patron saints and their bad boys: this well-researched and lovingly assembled shock-bio introduces us to a particularly talented persistent filmmaker whose sexed-up horror & action grindhouse non-epics proved commercially viable even into the video age. Then comes the Ghastly Death part, a cruelly undeserved finish for a movie guy liked and admired by his collaborators.

Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson

Blu-ray

Severin Films

2019 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date April 21, 2020 / available through the Severin Films / 24.00

Starring: Al Adamson, Samuel M. Sherman, John ‘Bud’ Cardos, Russ Tamblyn, Stevee Ashlock, Gary Graver, Fred Olen Ray, Vilmos Zsigmond, Zandor Vorkov, Chris Poggiali, Robert Dix, John Bloom.

Cinematography: Jim Kunz

Film Editors: Michael Capone, Mark Hartley

Original Music: Mark Raskin

Motion Graphics: Michael Etoll

Produced by Jack Bennett, David Gregory, Nicole Mikuzis, Heather Buckley

Directed by David Gregory

What makes lower-echelon exploitation producer-directors so interesting?...

April 9th is set to be a fun day for cult film fans (but perhaps a bad day for their bank accounts), as we have tons of great titles headed to Blu-ray and DVD this week. Scream Factory is bringing The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires home on Tuesday, and for you giallo aficionados out there, you’ll definitely want to add The Iguana With The Tongue of Fire to your personal collections as well. Agfa is resurrecting Blood Lake this week, and Severin is keeping busy with their impressive Hemisphere Box of Horrors set as well.

Other notable home media releases for April 9th include Moon Child, The Amityville Murders, Matriarch, and The La Llorona Curse.

Blood Lake: Special Edition

Blood Lake is the most fascinating -- and stupefying -- shot-on-video slasher that ever escaped from 1987. A group of unhinged party animals, including adolescent horn-dog Lil' Tony, embark...

By Todd Garbarini

When I was asked to review a film from 1975 called Supercock, I immediately thought that it sounded like a film that may have starred the late adult film performer John Holmes who was known the world over for being extraordinarily, if not freakishly, well-endowed. An Internet Google search turned up Supercock – the film I was reviewing and another one that starred John Holmes, a film I only joked about even existing! The latter didn’t surprise me in the slightest and I breathed a sigh of relief that I wasn’t being asked to review that film.

Supercock is a comedic outing concerning the sport of cockfighting with a humorous script that makes as many sexual inuendoes as you can imagine, to the point of it being a one-note joke that occasionally draws guffaws, smiles, and even a few rolling eyes. It was usually double-billed with the...

Recognised as one of the original scream queens and a career spanning over three decades, Debra Lamb continues to work in film both as an actress and writer. I was lucky enough to talk with Debra about working on her upcoming film projects There’s No Such Thing as Zombies and Expresso to Die For, the title of a scream queen title, her short stories and an idea for the delicious sounding vegan dish ‘Lamb Stew’

How did you first get into acting as a career?

When I was seven I kept bugging my mother that I wanted to take Ballet lessons. I had taken piano and typical lessons you take as a kid. She said if I enrol you in ballet you really have to be committed. So, I started Ballet when I was seven and you know how little kids I are didn’t want to practise, but...

February 6th is shaping up to be a busy day for horror and sci-fi fans, as there are a bunch of great films heading home on Tuesday. The highly anticipated Hatchet sequel, Victor Crowley, arrives on Blu-ray and DVD this week courtesy of Dark Sky Films, and Scream Factory and IFC Midnight have the slasher comedy Welcome to Willits on their release slate.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is keeping busy this week with a slew of titles, including House of Demons, Keep Watching, and Family Possessions, and cult film fans will definitely want to pick up the brand new Blu-rays for Grizzly and The Gruesome Twosome.

Other notable releases for February 6th include Day of the Dead: Bloodline, Inoperable, the Friday the 13th: 8-Movie Collection, The Diabolical Dr. Z, and the Stephen King 6-Movie Collection.

Day of the Dead: Bloodline (Lionsgate, Blu-ray & DVD)

In this terrifying retelling of George A. Romero's zombie horror classic,...

Oh, Yes… Our Wigs Are Made From Genuine Human Hair… And How!

After dabbling in the unlikely world of children s entertainment with the likes of Jimmy, the Boy Wonder and The Magic Land of Mother Goose, in 1967 ”Godfather of Gore” Herschell Gordon Lewis returned to genre he helped create with the delightfully depraved The Gruesome Twosome!

The young women of a small-town American college have more than just split-ends to worry about… Down at the Little Wig Shop, the batty Mrs. Pringle and her socially-inept son Rodney are procuring only the finest heads of hair by scalping the local co-eds! Can they be stopped before they clear the entire campus of luxuriant-haired ladies?

Also including Hg Lewis’ Dracula-inspired vampire epic A Taste of Blood as a bonus feature, this is one Gruesome Twosome that’s well worth flipping your wig over!

Special Edition Contents

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation...

Even after all of your presents are unwrapped and your tree is packed away (or put on the curb), Arrow Video will continue to give the gift of new horror Blu-ray releases for fans looking to expand their collections. The company just announced their impressive February 2018 slate of Blu-rays, including a limited edition version of Frank Henenlotter's Basket Case, The Gruesome Twosome, and much more!

From Arrow Video: "Time for our new announcements! First up two titles coming from Arrow Records and Books this December…

New Arrow Book: The Hitcher (Book)

Pre-order now: http://bit.ly/2BqKmWx

Release date: 29th December

Robert Harmon’s 1986 film The Hitcher is a complex beast: reviled at the time of its release, it has been adored in the long term as one of the most intoxicating, unrelenting highway cult films ever made. Starring Rutger Hauer in the title role whose alluring villainy...

Review by Roger Carpenter

My guess is that all true movie lovers have a list of films which remain unavailable on a decent DVD or Blu-Ray release and for which they are waiting for some company to pick up and give it a nice release. This was true for me regarding The Slayer. I first saw the film in the early-to-mid-eighties on a VHS double-bill with Fred Olen Ray’s Scalps. Both films were pretty terrible quality but both were fun in their own way and I duped both and kept them for a long time. Scalps has long since been on DVD (and recently Blu-Ray), and I have long owned a copy of that film which I still pull out from time to time and watch again. But my dupe of The Slayer died decades ago and I hadn’t viewed the film in a long time…...

James Franco has been annoying a lot of people, myself included, for a variety of reasons, not least his relentless direction of a shocking number of movies, most quite poorly received: if I’m counting the credits on his IMDb page right, The Disaster Artist is his 16th feature since 2005 — not precisely Fred Olen Ray levels of shoddy productivity, but not that far off either. For easily his most mainstream effort (and, full disclosure, the only one I’ve seen), Franco films the saga of the making of Tommy Wiseau’s infamous cult movie The Room. I’m not much of a so-bad-it’s-good consumer, […]...

Out of all of Poe’s works, few have had as big of an impact on me as “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Like many youngsters with an interest in the macabre, it was the first to immediately grab my attention, its title conjuring images of a massive, swinging blade cutting a poor sap wide open. Of course, there’s more to the poem than that—it’s focused less on the titular blade and more on the paranoia it creates, as well as painting a portrait of the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition. It also has, quite infamously, one of the most frustrating deus ex machinas of all time, where the French army stops the swinging pendulum mere seconds before it can bisect our bound protagonist, much to the disappointment of English students the world over. While it’s hardly Poe’s best work, it’s certainly among his most iconic,...

We have another busy week of home entertainment releases on the horizon, as there are over two dozen titles making their way to Blu-ray and DVD this Tuesday. For those of you cult film enthusiasts, you have a lot of options when it comes to adding items to your collections, as Alienator is being resurrected by Scream Factory, Arrow Video is unleashing a special edition set for Madhouse, and Mondo Macabre has given Paul Naschy’s Inquisition an HD overhaul as well.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also have new releases for The Hound of Baskervilles, Medusa, and Nicholas Ray’s classic noir They Live By Night to look forward to as well. For you TV lovers out there, the box sets for the final season of both The Vampire Diaries and Grimm are being released Tuesday, and for those who are on the hunt for some new action cinema,...

She has one mission, one purpose, and no qualms about killing anyone who gets in her way. The 1990 sci-fi action film Alienator comes out on Blu-ray on June 13th from Scream Factory, and we've been provided with one Blu-ray copy to give away to one lucky Daily Dead reader.

---------

Prize Details: (1) Winner will receive (1) Blu-ray copy of Alienator.

How to Enter: We're giving Daily Dead readers multiple chances to enter and win:

1. Instagram: Following us on Instagram during the contest period will give you an automatic contest entry. Make sure to follow us at:

https://www.instagram.com/dailydead/

2. Email: For a chance to win via email, send an email to contest@dailydead.com with the subject “Alienator Contest”. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Entry Details: The contest will end at 12:01am Est on June 19th. This contest is only open to those who...

We have a high-def clip from Fred Olen Ray's Alienator to share with Daily Dead readers ahead of the film's Blu-ray release on June 13th from Scream Factory!

Alienator Blu-ray: "In deep space, the deadliest animal is still woman!

It's a futuristic fight to the finish when the Commander of a space station prison (Jan Michael-Vincent, The Mechanic, White Line Fever) takes on galactic archvillain Kol (Ross Hagen, Avenging Angel). When Kol escapes, on the verge of his execution, the Commander has no choice but to unleash the Alienator – a ruthless android hunter with one unstoppable purpose: terminate Kol at any cost!

Kol's shuttle crash-lands on Earth and the Alienator is hot on his trail. She is determined to capture her prey – even if it means blowing away everything and everyone in her path.

This sci-fi action film co-stars John Phillip Law (Barbarella), P.J. Soles (Carrie, Halloween, Rock 'n' Roll High School...

Five years ago this weekend Tim Burton’s updating of Dark Shadows, the gothic/horror-themed soap opera which ran from 1966 to 1971 on ABC and was a seminal influence on a generation of budding horror fans (including Burton), was released on American movie screens, one weekend after Marvel’s The Avengers was still dictating the imaginations (and the wallets) of moviegoers everywhere. Given Burton’s track record with horror comedies (Beetlejuice being the primary example) and collaborations with Johnny Depp (Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands), a surprisingly low number of ticket-buyers seemed ultimately to care—the movie, which cost $150 million to make, and undoubtedly a hefty chunk of change more than that to market, would earn back only slightly more than half of that in the United States, though its final take globally came in at around $235 million. There were a few takers among critics, notably...

Horror icons are reimagined as popsicles in Freddy in Space's new enamel pins from Pin & Seller, and we have a look at all six collectibles and their release details in today's second Horror Highlights. We also have news on Charlie Sheen's upcoming appearances at Wizard Worlds in Minneapolis, Des Moines, and Philadelphia, as well as release details for The Follower and lineup info on both the fifth annual Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival and this year's Sci-Fi-London Film Festival.

Freddy in Space's Horror Popsicle Pins: From Freddy in Space: “Freddy in Space horror popsicle pins are now available through Pin & Seller. Can grab individuals or sets of three!”

Depicting horror icons as popsicles, these handmade enamel pins from Freddy in Space are now available as a set of three for $30.00 or as individual items priced at $12.00 apiece from Pin & Seller on Etsy. To learn more, visit:

https://www.

Stars: Nicole Tompkins, Kaiwi Lyman-Mersereau, Kim Nielsen, Amanda Barton, Trevor Stines, Christy St. John, Tonya Kay, Bobby Emprechtinger, Lai-Ling Bernstein, Klaudia Kaye, Korey Knecht, Sarah Lieving, Cher Hubsher, Priscilla Emprechtinger, Jocelyn Saenz | Written by Amanda Barton | Directed by Michael Angelo

The Jacobsen family moves into an aged house in the town of Amityville. Almost immediately they witness strange occurrences and begin seeing terrifying images around the house. The local townspeople also have a secret and soon the Jacobsens are battling with an evil spirit in the house and the malicious locals who want them silenced…

After a stunning opening coda, The Amityville Terror soon decends into the same direct-to-market cash in we’ve come to expect from the Amityville series. At least this one doesn’t hang around too much: within twenty minutes we see our first haunting – a gory bath death that isn’t (much like other haunted house movies,...

Bloodsuckers, the water-soaked paranormal, and a Herschell Gordon Lewis film collection are coming out on Blu-ray this October from Arrow Video, and the official special features lists and cover art for The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast collection, Dark Water (2002), and 1986's Vamp tease plenty to enjoy on all three releases:

"Mvd Entertainment Group furthers the distribution of Arrow Video in the Us with several new titles in October...

Dark Water [Blu-ray + DVD] (October 11th)

After terrifying audiences worldwide with the blockbuster J-horror classic Ring and its sequel, director Hideo Nakata returned to the genre for Dark Water, another highly atmospheric, and critically acclaimed, tale of the supernatural which took the common theme of the "dead wet girl" to new heights of suspense and drama.

Based upon on a short story by Ring author Koji Suzuki, Dark Water follows Yoshimi, a single mother struggling to win sole custody of her only child, Ikuko.

“Fred Olen Ray is a phenomenon. Since the late 1970s he has directed, produced and/or written well in excess of an extraordinary 150 films. He has worked on countless others with little or no credit, often stepping in to complete… Continue Reading →

The post Cult Film Legend Fred Olen Ray Talks the Birth of His Stepmonster appeared first on Dread Central.

Well, genre fans, we only have four home entertainment releases coming our way this Tuesday, but as the saying goes, they are quality over quantity.

Scream Factory is releasing the ’90s thriller The Crush on Blu-ray this week and we also have two great recent films to look forward to as well: The Wave and Midnight Special. Rounding out this Tuesday’s Blu-ray and DVD offerings is Bayview Entertainment’s DVD release of the ’80s cult classic, Biohazard.

Biohazard (Bayview Entertainment, DVD)

The cult classic returns featuring an all-new 2K 16×9 widescreen film transfer from the original 35mm negative! A group of scientists, army types and a buxom psychic use a variety of methods to suck a bloodthirsty alien out of another dimension. Upon arriving, the little devil blasts his way loose, taking part of a soldiers face along the way. The psychic and her network of friends chase the beast,...

News that Don Dohler’s cult favorite The Alien Factor is arriving on Blu-ray next week somehow slipped through the cracks amid the flood of recent b-movies to Blu announcements of late. Fred Olen Ray’s Retormedia is behind this limited edition… Continue Reading →

The post Don Dohler’s The Alien Factor Invading Blu-ray Any Day Now appeared first on Dread Central.

Over the last year or so, UK indie cult home video label 88 Films has made a name for itself by releasing solid editions of in demand 70s and 80s horror and genre films. Through both their Slasher Classics and Italian Collection lines, 88 Films have filled in many horror fans' wish lists for HD slaughter.  Recently they sent us a care package of their newest releases, and asked us to take a look, so here we are. Keep reading to see what we thought of Andrea Bianchi's Burial Ground, Creepshow 2, Sleepaway Camps 2 & 3, and finally low-budget grinder Fred Olen Ray's Scalps....

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Over the last year or so, UK indie cult home video label 88 Films has made a name for itself by releasing solid editions of in demand 70s and 80s horror and genre films. Through both their Slasher Classics and Italian Collection lines, 88 Films have filled in many horror fans' wish lists for HD slaughter.  Recently they sent us a care package of their newest releases, and asked us to take a look, so here we are. Keep reading to see what we thought of Andrea Bianchi's Burial Ground, Creepshow 2, Sleepaway Camps 2 & 3, and finally low-budget grinder Fred Olen Ray's Scalps....

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Stars: Karrueche Tran, Jason Simmons, Rob Van Dam, Danny Trejo, Jena Sims, Brad Mills, Scott Thomas Reynolds | Written by Jacob Cooney, Bill Hanstock | Directed by Christopher Olen Ray

It seems oh-so-obvious, but would you believe me if I told you that 3-Headed Shark Attack is a sequel to the 2012 film 2-Headed Shark Attack? Well it is. And both films come from Christopher Olen Ray, son of legendary (well at least in my house) B-movie director Fred Olen Ray, and director of the fantastic, and criminally over-looked, action flick Mercenaries. Ray is also one of the best director that purveyors of Syfy channel shlock, The Asylum, currently have on their roster.

Of course your enjoyment of this film depends entirely on whether or not you’re a fan of the un-ironically bad films that The Asylum – and the Syfy channel – have made their stock and trade. For me their films are...

Like many children growing up in the 1960s, Kenneth Hall loved monsters. Ever since he was a toddler, his mother — who was an especially big fan of Vincent Price — took him and his brother to see films like The Brides Of Dracula, Curse Of The Werewolf, and The Pit And The Pendulum. And that was all it took. At age 10, Hall discovered Famous Monsters of Filmland, and with the help of the trusty TV Guide, he and his brother made a point to watch as many of the films they read about as they could, even if it meant sneaking out of bed and staying up late to catch a showing of The Deadly Mantis. Like many Monster Kids of his time, there was a now-or-never mentality that came with a lack of home video, but growing up in Jacksonville, Fl did give Hall an extra advantage. It was the...

I admit it, I’m a sentimental old fart. I get choked up and maudlin very often, when I think of family and friends, a moment in time when I realized the tragedy life can bring to us, or the joy. I tear up at the movies regularly, or reading certain passages in books. But I never thought I would weep at the loss of a video system. If you read We Are Movie Geeks regularly you must be aware of the video revolution of the 1980s, when VHS players and recorders found a place in almost every home in America. I hope you recall the early days when VHS was neck and neck with Betamax, a technically better system. Remember the days of Mom and Pop video rental stores when almost anyone could open a store front, and with a collection of VHS tapes start making money? As one of the many,...

Owen Humphreys/Pa Archive

It’s easy to say that the Premier League has been unforgiving, punishing, and utterly merciless when it comes to Sunderland Afc. If being relegated with the lowest ever top flight points total after a couple of gloriously successful seasons wasn’t bad enough, the Black Cats beat their own pathetic record just two seasons later.

In that time, the die-hard fans were forced to endure some of the worst football these British Isles have probably ever witnessed, with some of the players not fit to lace the boots of most pub team substitutes.

There were some players who featured a maximum of once for Sunderland; they fall into the Nicolas Medina-Milton Nunez category. Then there are those who could play for a few seasons and still never produce a solid performance in the Jozy Altidore-Jeff Whitley camp, and then there is an entire...

David Howarth/Pa Archive

Sunderland are a club like no other when it comes to signing cult heroes for all the wrong reasons. Some have talent, like Julio Arca and Steed Malbranque, and rightly reserve a place in fans’ hearts. But the majority of cult heroes spawned in red and white are from the Milton Nunez school of disappearing.

Nicolas Medina, Benjani and Cabral are three perfect examples of players who were so ineffectual, or played so few times, that everyone remembered them in infamy. If Nunez had arrived, scored a few goals and then left, he wouldn’t drifted out of memory, but the entire saga of signing the wrong player and his solitary appearance in a Sunderland shirt grew the story into a myth still told today.

There’s been an incredible amount of players flow in and out of the doors at the Stadium of Light, and...