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Mario Bava excelled with at least five super sword ‘n’ sandal pictures — shooting two Hercules classics and directing two viking sagas in addition to this eye-popping mix of mythology and horror. Forget warring armies and casts of thousands. Bava places Reg Park, Christopher Lee, and several beautiful Italo actresses within his weird visual world of and hallucinatory imagery: swirling mists, intensely physical actors and retina-burning color. Kino’s disc carries three discrete versions on two discs, and a gotta-hear commentary by Tim Lucas. On your next trip to The Underworld, remember Not to trust what you see! Trust instead, uh, trust your … oh, just use the Force!

Hercules in the Haunted World

Blu-ray

Kino Classics

1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / Hercules in the Center of the Earth, Hercules in the Haunted World, Vampire gegen Herakles (Germany/Italy 86 minutes) / Ercole al centro della Terra / Street Date October 8, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Reg Park,...

Only two weeks have passed since Marvel welcomed the arrival of the first Avengers: Infinity War teaser and already, Joe and Anthony Russo’s starry tentpole has racked up a staggering 100 million views on YouTube.

That number continues to climb at an exponential rate, so it’s small wonder why Infinity War now holds the title as the most-watched trailer debut of all time within 24 hours. But YouTube content creator and all-around video wizard Darth Blender has produced a decidedly different take on the Avengers: Infinity War trailer.

Much like Darth Blender’s videos for Justice League, Injustice II and Spider-Man: Homecoming, this latest sizzle reel (see below) gives Infinity War the retro treatment, and is edited in such a way that Reb Brown and Burt Reynolds take point as Iron Man and Captain America.

With Thanos’ arrival imminent, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes begin to fall into place, including Lou Ferrigno’s Hulk,...

I know a lot of you are excited about Avengers: Infinity War, so while we wait for it to be released, which seems like a lifetime away, we have a great retro mashup trailer for you to watch! It comes from Darth Blender and it features a mashup of footage from several classic superhero films that were made in the 80s and 90s. I'm sure you'll remember some of these if you were up to speed with what Marvel was doing during this era. Below the video, you'll find a list of all the films that were used and all the characters that the actors are meant to play.

I love that Chuck Norris in The Punisher! It also features Burt Reynolds as Iron Man, David Hasselhoff as Nick Fury, Jean-Claude Van Damme as Winter Soldier, Dennis Quaid as Star-Lord, Eddie Murphy as Falcon and more!

You are welcome to...

by Nick Schager

What's new is always old, and in this recurring column, I'll be taking a look at the classic genre movies that have influenced today’s new releases. In honor of the swords-and-sandals epic Immortals, this week it's Mario Bava's nightmarish 1961 Hercules in the Haunted World.

Mario Bava's cinema immerses one in the otherworldly, so it's fitting that Hercules in the Haunted World, the legendary horror maestro's contribution to the '60s-'70s Greek mythology subgenre, opens with a credit sequence boasting a blood-red spiral into which the viewer seemingly plummets. His maiden effort in color, and produced a year after his iconic Black Sunday, Bava's 1961 film is narratively goofy but aesthetically rapturous, delivering myriad magnificent spectacles and an enveloping supernatural atmosphere that speak to Bava's preoccupation with the untrustworthiness of sensory experience and the tenuousness of reality. Shot with a minimal budget that Bava maximized...

Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.

This Week’s New Instant Releases…

Promised Lands (1974)

Streaming Available: 04/19/2011

Cast: Documentary

Director: Susan Sontag

Synopsis: Set in Israel during the final days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, this powerful documentary — initially barred by Israel authorities — from writer-director Susan Sontag examines divergent perceptions of the enduring Arab-Israeli clash. Weighing in on matters related to socialism, anti-Semitism, nation sovereignty and American materialism are The Last Jew writer Yoram Kaniuk and military physicist Yuval Ne’eman.

Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009)

Streaming Available: 04/19/2011

Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Heino Ferch, Hannah Herzsprung, Gerald Alexander Held, Lena Stolze, Sunnyi Melles

Synopsis: Directed by longtime star of independent German cinema Margarethe von Trotta, this reverent...