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Johan (Gerrit Knobbe) is a reed-cutter. As “Reedland” opens, we meet him in his natural habitat, surrounded by hissing, shivering reeds shot in close-up, then in wide shot. It’s a sonic and visual maze, the natural world’s equivalent of TV static: earth-bound, mud-rooted and subtly threatening in its hypnotic, fluttering illusion of uniformity. Reeds are the perfect hiding place for horrors, as will shortly become abundantly clear, when a girl’s body is revealed in the dirt, in all its helplessness.

A violent crime fracturing a tight-knit community is hardly a new subject for arthouse cinema, but it is handled here by freshman writer-director Sven Bresser with an original eye and a keen sense of how to generate a persistent atmosphere of foreboding. It was filmed in Weerribben-Wieden in the Netherlands, and the landscape is integral to this finely calibrated mood. “Whispering” is probably the adjective most associated with reeds,...

Of all the female archetypes in narrative fiction, few are as reviled or misunderstood as the crone. This woman “of a certain age” has accumulated an arsenal of invaluable wisdom, but due to her age and fading conventional beauty, finds herself ostracized by the larger world. Often isolated, we think of crones inhabiting dilapidated huts on the outskirts of town conversing only with young strangers who seek out their counsel for insurmountable tasks. These visitors usually leave just as quickly as they came, shuddering at the thought of her solitary existence.

Though she’s often presented as a horrific harbinger or cautionary tale, the crone is still a human being, just as capable of complex emotions and desires as her younger counterparts. Sixty years before The Substance and Babygirl explored modern iterations of this misunderstood archetype, Kaneto Shindô imbued the crone with humanity in his 1964 film Onibaba. When men intrude on her simplistic life,...

“Once it’s dark, it can’t get any darker.”

Horror is filled with iconic masks, from Michael Myers and his vaguely humanoid contours to Peachfuzz and his unruly snarl. Some allow killers to hide their identities, attacking in secret while maintaining a relationship with their would-be victims. Others provide a persona of strength and terror that a would-be villain could not otherwise achieve. Though masks have been a genre staple since the dawn of film, few are as uniquely terrifying as the Hannya mask in Kaneto Shindô’s Onibaba. Set in 14th century Japan, this gorgeous film follows a fearful woman who dons a traditional mask only to find it slowly seeping into her skin.

Kichi’s Mother (Nobuko Otowa) is patiently waiting for her son to return from war. Left without a male provider, she lives with Kichi’s Wife (Jitsuko Yoshimura) in a hut surrounded by a large field of suzuki grass.

As with any cinematic genre, horror movies are nothing new. Audiences have sought out these terrifying works since the dawn of film. However, many older examples of horror quickly show their age. What was once an edge-of-your-seat thriller gathers dust and pales against its more modern counterparts, slowly falling into the ever-growing pile of “campy” old movies. Of course, not all early horror succumbs to this fate.

Kaneto Shindō’s Onibaba is the perfect example of such a timeless classic, and it’s been frightening filmgoers since 1964. Its success is a multifaceted combination of atmospheric, narrative, and visual perfection. Even after decades of progress, Onibaba remains a grotesquely captivating cinematic feat that has yet to be replicated. Moreover, while countless horror classics have received “updated” remakes, Onibaba has never been reshot. It’s been a candidate for a modern revival, though. Interestingly, the effort to recreate Onibaba was spearheaded by William Dafoe,...

Horror is cinema's prevailing genre. It has been standing tall as the form's most consistently popular and inventive monolith, with successive generations always finding ways to scare the life out of us, only to come back wanting more. Early folks like the expressionistic F.W. Murnau and gothic Tod Browning passed the spooky torch down to mid-century matinee giants in the form of William Castle and Roger Corman, only for the genre to explode into the hands of many. 1960s Japan had masters like Kaneto Shindo, only for George A. Romero to dominate the scene in Pennsylvania a few years later. Then in the '70s, Tobe Hooper took us to the grainy and grimy Texan wild, the '80s reeked of atmosphere from John Carpenter. Wes Craven brought the slasher back with a meta touch and we saw the breakthrough of found footage from Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. The...

Nearly every culture in the world has contributed to the horror genre at one point or another, but it’s pretty clear that Hollywood is still the de facto capital of genre filmmaking. That’s why it makes sense that most popular horror tropes and monsters are based on traditional western mythology and religions, as these films are usually made by – and meant to appeal to – a certain demographic.

However, dealing with the same old ghouls and possessions can get old after a hundred and thirty years of cinema, and that’s why we’re lucky that some filmmakers decide to incorporate elements from lesser-known cultures into their scary stories. Whether it’s a foreign film daring to apply the “Hollywood” treatment to a local monster or a north American production taking inspiration from international legends (like Bishal Dutta’s recent It Lives Inside), some of the best horror experiences...

by Nick Taylor

Cats! We love ‘em. I know I do. Are we all cat people? No, but variety is the spice of life. Spirits of wronged women avenging their own deaths? Well loved across all kinds of cultural traditions and generic conventions. Putting cats and wronged women together, then, should be an instant recipe for success, yes? Especially if the title in question is as lauded as Kaneto Shindo’s 1968 film Kuroneko?

Set roughly one millenia before it was filmed, Kuroneko follows two women, mother Yone (Nobuko Otawa) and her daughter-in-law Shige (Kiwako Taichi), who live together in a bamboo cottage on the outskirts of a peasant village...

Toho, the Japanese entertainment company behind Godzilla, also produced successful monster films featuring different creatures, establishing itself as a leader in the kaiju genre. Some of Toho's most popular monster movies featured creatures like Varan, Dogora, and King Kong, who also crossed paths with Godzilla in addition to appearing in their own films. These films, such as Varan the Unbelievable and Dogora, showcased the creative and original use of practical effects, despite their varying levels of popularity and overall quality.

Toho, the powerhouse Japanese entertainment company responsible for Godzilla, also produced and distributed many successful monster movies that didn't include the titanic lizard. Since its origins in the 1930s, Toho has been responsible for the production of films across several genres, including many works from iconic directors like Akira Kurosawa, Kaneto Shindo, and Ishirō Honda, the man behind the original 1954 Godzilla. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Toho established itself as...

Based on a real-life incident of a father who had strangled his violent son, “The Strangling” seems to follow one of the most prevalent themes of Japanese cinema from the 70s and onwards, the accusation towards the previous generation for the blights that torment the current. Kaneto Shindo, however, definitely moves much further, and occasionally even in an opposite direction, in a film that went beyond the borders of Japan, screening in competition at the 36th Venice International Film Festival, where Nobuko Otowa was awarded as Best Actress.

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The movie actually begins with the titular deed, showing Yasuzo, after an agreement with his wife, Ryoko, strangles his son, Tsutomu. Although Shindo takes care of showing what happened after the deed, including the support the couple got from their neighbors in all aspects, the main arc of the story deals with how the young man,...

Barefoot Gen, an animated Japanese film, offers a horrifying depiction of the bombing of Hiroshima through the eyes of a young child. A Compassionate Spy explores the story of physicist Theodore Hall, a Soviet spy who leaked information on the atomic bombs, presenting a different perspective on the bombings. Threads, set in Sheffield, England, depicts the aftermath of a nuclear bombing and provides a shockingly realistic portrayal of the devastating consequences.

Oppenheimer has reignited interest in the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan, and here are 10 other movies about the horrors of these weapons of mass destruction. The atomic bomb has been the subject of all kinds of films since they were dropped in August 1945, with Japanese cinema, in particular, reminiscing on the tragedy. Oppenheimer is arguably one of the most popular films on the topic, but it is far from the first. So, here are 10 other movies that...

Hachiko is one of the most famous canines of the 20th century. He was given a generous entrance in Wikipedia and a number of articles and books dedicated to his loyalty to his best friend Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University. The first movie about “the most loyal dog in the history” was shot in Hachiko's homeland Japan in 1925 by Kiyoshi Masomoto, followed by three other films in the 1930s, but the most famous version came up in 1987 penned by Kaneto Shindo, and directed by Seijiro Koyama. Its success led to Lasse Hallström's Hollywood adaptation “Hachi: A Dog Tale” (2009) starring Richard Gere which on the one side garnered mixed reviews, but on the other a considerable sympathy by the audience. The tale of the white Akita dog who came to prominence by patiently waiting nine years for Hidesaburo at the train station at exact same time...

Many international viewers probably know filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku for his terrific dystopian action-thriller “Battle Royale,” a movie that blends dark comedy with tragedy and kickstarted a narrative concept that would continue to be frequently utilized in other fictional works. Some may associate him with his campy sci-fi features like “The Green Slime.” Yet, early on, the director gave Japanese audiences viscerally outspoken and bold features. Look no further than his yakuza film series “Battles Without Honor and Humanity,” which tears apart Japan’s most operative crime organizations. The director was never afraid to speak his mind on a matter, even if he were to receive criticism as a result. Fukasaku’s mindset is openly expressed in his haunting anti-war masterpiece “Under the Flag of the Rising Sun.”

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The film is based on a collection of war short stories by Shoji Yuki. Beyond the source of adaptation,...

Filmmaker Kihachi Okamoto, throughout his career, made it abundantly clear he hated war. He experienced the horrors on the battlefield firsthand during World War II and forever was disgusted by the atrocities committed by the Empire of Japan. Okamoto’s war movies boast an anti-war mindset while blending tragedy with dark comedy. His early projects, such as “Desperado Outpost,” primarily showed the director’s sense of humor, with western inspired elements thrown into the mix. Over time, these projects became more grounded and progressively darker. “Fort Graveyard” tells the tragic story of musician youths forced into combat, and “Japan’s Longest Day” recounts the terrifying final hours before the country’s surrender during the Second World War. With his ambitious and brutal epic “Battle of Okinawa,” audiences are reminded war spares no one.

Even with the budgetary issues the Japanese film industry was plagued with at the time, Okamoto would not be stopped.

The psychological effect war has on the human mind is unimaginable. Following the end of World War II, many anti-war projects would come out of the Japanese entertainment industry from visionaries like Kon Ichikawa, Kaneto Shindo, and Masaki Kobayashi. Jingoistic propaganda was no longer as common and wasn’t being forced upon artists anymore by militarists. Many post-war Japanese war films stand by a humanist nature while reminding audiences how horrific errors should not be repeated. A notable reminder of evolving from past mistakes in history is the superb political thriller “Japan’s Longest Day.”

Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Kazutoshi Hando and Soichi Oya, this haunting recollection of disturbing events would kickstart the “Toho 8.15 series,” a collection of war movies that recreate Japan’s war history. Fittingly, nihilistic filmmaker and anti-war advocate Kihachi Okamoto would be appointed as the movie’s director and frequent...

2021 poster for The Golem: How He Came into the World. Art by Johan Brosow.This gorgeous new poster for the 101 year old German expressionist silent film The Golem is the product of a lovely new endeavor by the Swedish distribution company NonStop Entertainment. In 2015 NonStop, perhaps the premier arthouse distributor in the Nordic region, launched a sister label, NonStop Timeless, to release their hundreds of repertory classics ranging from Dreyer to Lanthimos. Last year, in the early days of the pandemic, they decided to commission some of Sweden’s foremost artists, photographers, and designers to do their own take on a classic of their choice from the NonStop Timeless collection. The six artists selected chose seven films between them. The posters were printed in limited quantities on non-glossy paper in the Swedish cinema poster format of 70 x 100cm (very close to the US 27" x 40" standard) and were unveiled last week...

Onibaba

Blu ray

Criterion

1964/ 2.39:1/ 102 Minutes

Starring Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura

Directed by Kaneto Shindô

Kaneto Shindô’s Onibaba is a campfire tale not for the faint of heart. The director was just a child when he first heard the Buddhist fable about a bewitched matriarch, told to him by his own mother in lieu of a bedtime story. That evening, the child’s perception of the world, and the women in it, took on a new dimension. The movie Shindô made from those memories is unclassifiable—a Bergmanesque allegory filmed in a graceful yet spartan style with a healthy dose of Grand Guignol to mitigate its pretensions. Produced in 1964, the film is set in the medieval era just as civil war has leveled Kyoto, sending the populace scurrying to the hinterlands.

Shindô wrote the screenplay and he leaves it to one of his characters, a deserter named Hachi, to...

BAMcinématek is hosting a 10-film series exploring Japanese art and folklore post World War II called Ghosts and Monsters: Postwar Japanese Horror starting this Friday, October 26th through November 1st. Also in today's Highlights: Dermot Mulroney joins the cast of Trick and an interview with Ted Welch and Chris Blake from All Light Will End.

Ghosts and Monsters: Postwar Japanese Horror Screening Details: "From Friday, October 26 through Thursday, November 1, BAMcinématek presents Ghosts and Monsters: Postwar Japanese Horror, a series of 10 films showcasing two strands of Japanese horror films that developed after World War II: kaiju monster movies and beautifully stylized ghost stories from Japanese folklore.

The series includes three classic kaiju films by director Ishirô Honda, beginning with the granddaddy of all nuclear warfare anxiety films, the original Godzilla (1954—Oct 26). The kaiju creature features continue with Mothra (1961—Oct 27), a psychedelic tale of a gigantic prehistoric and long dormant moth larvae...

Each week, the fine folks at Fandor add a number of films to their Criterion Picks area, which will then be available to subscribers for the following twelve days. This week, the Criterion Picks focus on eight films featuring cats!

Need we say more? Meet the furry feline familiars that have graced some of the world’s greatest movies with their mercurial and mesmerizing presence.

Don’t have a Fandor subscription? They offer a free trial membership.

L’Atalante, the French Classic Drama by Jean Vigo

In Jean Vigo’s hands, an unassuming tale of conjugal love becomes an achingly romantic reverie of desire and hope.

Cléo from 5 to 7, the French Drama by Agnès Varda

Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy.

Grey Gardens, the Documentary by Ellen Hovde,...

Special Mention: Spirits Of The Dead (Histoires extraordinaires)

Written and directed by Federico Fellini (segment “Toby Dammit”), Louis Malle (segment “William Wilson”), Roger Vadim (segment “Metzengerstein”)

France, 1968

The first thing you should notice is the three directors: Federico Fellini, Louis Malle, and Roger Vadim. Secondly, take notice of the cast, which includes Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, Alain Delon, Terence Stamp, Salvo Randone, James Robertson Justice, Françoise Prévost and Marlène Alexandre. Spirits Of The Dead is an adaptation of three Edgar Allan Poe stories, one of which demands to be seen.

The first segment of the film, Vadim’s “Metzgengerstein”, is unfortunately the least impressive, but is still great in its own right, and features a marvelous performance by Jane Fonda. Malle’s segment, which is the second of the three, turns Edgar Allan Poe’s 1839 story into an engrossing study in cruelty and sadism. This episode is an engaging enough entry,...

What is it about foreign horror films that makes them more interesting than so many English language horror films? You would have to think that the language barrier makes it more terrifying; people screaming is already difficult, but speaking a language you don’t understand can only make it worse. So, why are the remakes typically so bad? On this portion of the list, we are treated to a few of the more upsetting films in the canon – one movie I wouldn’t wish for anyone to see, a few that blazed the trail for many more, and one that I would elevate above the horror genre into its own little super-genre.

30. Janghwa, Hongryeon (2003)

English Title: A Tale of Two Sisters

Directed by: Kim Ji-woon

Another excellent Korean horror film America had to remake to lesser results. 2003’s A Tale of Two Sisters is just one of many film adaptations of the folktale,...

The island setting’s tangible existentialism made it a key figure for the burgeoning art cinema movement of the early 1960s: Through a Glass Darkly (1961), the first of many Ingmar Bergman films set on Fårö; Naked Island (1960), Kaneto Shindô’s lyrical depiction of a farming family’s hardships; Peter Brook’s adaptation of Lord of the Flies (1963); and Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’avventura (1960). Contra Rossellini, these are all films that marshal considerable aesthetic resources to suggest man’s estrangement from God. Most influentially, Antonioni allows his narrative to unspool when a society woman disappears during a pleasure cruise through the same rocky Aeolian Islands.>> - Max Goldberg...

The island setting’s tangible existentialism made it a key figure for the burgeoning art cinema movement of the early 1960s: Through a Glass Darkly (1961), the first of many Ingmar Bergman films set on Fårö; Naked Island (1960), Kaneto Shindô’s lyrical depiction of a farming family’s hardships; Peter Brook’s adaptation of Lord of the Flies (1963); and Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’avventura (1960). Contra Rossellini, these are all films that marshal considerable aesthetic resources to suggest man’s estrangement from God. Most influentially, Antonioni allows his narrative to unspool when a society woman disappears during a pleasure cruise through the same rocky Aeolian Islands.>> - Max Goldberg...

Top 100 horror movies of all time: Chicago Film Critics' choices (photo: Sigourney Weaver and Alien creature show us that life is less horrific if you don't hold grudges) See previous post: A look at the Chicago Film Critics Association's Scariest Movies Ever Made. Below is the list of the Chicago Film Critics's Top 100 Horror Movies of All Time, including their directors and key cast members. Note: this list was first published in October 2006. (See also: Fay Wray, Lee Patrick, and Mary Philbin among the "Top Ten Scream Queens.") 1. Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock; with Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam. 2. The Exorcist (1973) William Friedkin; with Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow (and the voice of Mercedes McCambridge). 3. Halloween (1978) John Carpenter; with Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Tony Moran. 4. Alien (1979) Ridley Scott; with Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt. 5. Night of the Living Dead (1968) George A. Romero; with Marilyn Eastman,...

What is it about foreign horror films that makes them more interesting than so many English language horror films? You would have to think that the language barrier makes it more terrifying; people screaming is already difficult, but speaking a language you don’t understand can only make it worse. So, why are the remakes typically so bad? On this portion of the list, we are treated to a few of the more upsetting films in the canon – one movie I wouldn’t wish for anyone to see, a few that blazed the trail for many more, and one that I would elevate above the horror genre into its own little super-genre.

30. Janghwa, Hongryeon (2003)

English Title: A Tale of Two Sisters

Directed by: Kim Ji-woon

Another excellent Korean horror film America had to remake to lesser results. 2003′s A Tale of Two Sisters is just one of many film adaptations of the folktale,...

Every year, we here at Sound On Sight celebrate the month of October with 31 Days of Horror; and every year, I update the list of my favourite horror films ever made. Last year, I released a list that included 150 picks. This year, I’ll be upgrading the list, making minor alterations, changing the rankings, adding new entries, and possibly removing a few titles. I’ve also decided to publish each post backwards this time for one reason: the new additions appear lower on my list, whereas my top 50 haven’t changed much, except for maybe in ranking. I am including documentaries, short films and mini series, only as special mentions – along with a few features that can qualify as horror, but barely do.

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Special Mention:

Häxan

Directed by Benjamin Christensen

Denmark / Sweden, 1922

Häxan (a.k.a The Witches or Witchcraft Through The Ages) is a 1922 silent documentary about the history of witchcraft,...

★★★★☆ The latest welcome addition to the Masters of Cinema's growing Kaneto Shindô catalogue, the cult Japanese director's 1968 film Kuroneko (Yabu no naka no kuroneko) feels like the near-perfect partner piece to his demonic earlier effort, Onibaba. Celebrating both pictures' atmospheric, effortlessly sensual and often terrifying feudal Japan-set ghostly narratives, the restoration and ongoing preservation of these two mini masterworks has rightly helped the late Shindô to earn the kind of acclaim and reverence previously reserved for iconic figureheads such as Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu.

Loosely based on the Japanese folktale The Cat's Return, Kuroneko begins with the brutal rape and murder of a poverty-stricken mother and daughter-in-law (Nobuko Otowa and Kiwako Taichi) at the cruel hands of a pillaging band of low-life samurai. Brought back from the dead as vengeful, vampiric cat spirits, the unholy duo take it upon themselves to prey on wayward soldiers trespassing across their accursed place of rest.

★★★★☆ Kaneto Shindô's Naked Island (Hadaka no shima, 1960) receives the Blu-ray treatment this week thanks to the UK's foremost purveyors of highly acclaimed filmic artefacts - Eureka's Masters of Cinema label. Presenting the intolerably difficult life of a peninsula-dwelling family, Naked Island is a cinematic ode to life separated from civilisation and a masterfully crafted portrait of devotion. Each day, the family travel via boat across the precarious sea to a neighbouring island, gathering fresh water to irrigate their barren fields and pouring it by hand over each of the plants fighting against the odds in this desolate terrain.

Shindô perfectly captures the monotony of this daily chore, crafting a seemingly endless cycle of repetitiveness and the futility of life on the edges of humanity. This incessant sequence of tiresome survival is only broken twice, once for a day trip to a neighbouring town where the advancements of technology are met with fear and trepidation,...

Kuroneko, the classic 1960s Japanese ghost-story by Kaneto Shindô, will be released as part of Eureka Entertainment’s Masters Of Cinema Series on Blu-ray on 24 June 2013.

Eureka Entertainment have announced that they will be releasing an updated 1080p edition of Kuroneko, the cult-classic film by Kaneto Shindô, the director of Onibaba, recently re-released in the West to great acclaim and theatrical success. This classic of ’60s Japanese ghost-story cinema will be released on blu-ray, … Continue reading →...

Throughout the month of October, Editor-in-Chief and resident Horror expert Ricky D, will be posting a list of his favorite Horror films of all time. The list will be posted in six parts. Click here to see every entry.

****

Enjoy!

150: Session 9

Directed by Brad Anderson

Written by Stephen Gevedon and Brad Anderson

2001, USA

If there was ever a perfect setting for a horror movie, it would be the abandoned Danvers State Mental Hospital. Built in 1878 on an isolated site in rural Massachusetts, it was a multi-acre, self-contained psychiatric hospital rumoured to have been the birthplace of the pre-frontal lobotomy. The hospital was the setting for the 2001 horror film Session 9, where an asbestos clean-up crew discover a series of nine tapes, which have recorded a patient with multiple personalities, all of which are innocent, except for number nine. With a shoestring budget and no real special effects, Session 9...

In Kaneto Shindô’s 1968 Kuroneko (“Black Cat”), a beguiling supernatural horror-romance that doesn’t seem to belong to either genre, the spirit world not only co-exists with the material world, but is literally carved into it, like a secret portal or booby trap. Set in a feudal Japan where samurai are more scourge than savior to the peasant class, the film opens with a harrowing scene of weary warriors invading a country home, raping and murdering the two women inside, and burning it to the ground. When the victims return as vengeful spirits, they reside in a fog-shrouded netherworld ...

Choosing my favourite horror films of all time is like choosing between my children – not that I have children, but if I did, I am sure I would categorize them quite like my DVD collection. As with all lists, this is personal and nobody will agree with every choice – and if you do, that would be incredibly disturbing. Also, it was almost impossible for me to rank them in order, but I tried. I based my list taking into consideration three points:

1- Technical accomplishments / artistry and their influence on the genre.

2- How many times I’ve revisited the films and how easily it makes for a repeated viewings.

3- Its story, atmosphere and how much it affected me when I first watched them.

Finally, there are many great films such as The Witchfinder General, The Wickerman and even Hour Of The Wolf that won’t appear here. I...

Chicago – Halloween just isn’t the same without an Onryō. Thanks to America’s tireless remakes of Japanese horror films, the materialization of Onryōs in pop culture has become as much of a seasonal tradition as witches and goblins. They’re often characterized by long black hair, white robes, bodily contortions, tragic backstories and an unquenchable thirst for vengeance beyond the grave.

In short, Onryōs unnervingly embody the old adage that “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…even a dead one.” It’s easy to see how spine-tingling modern classics like “Ringu” and “Ju-on: The Grudge” followed in the ghostly footsteps of Kaneto Shindô’s overlooked 1968 masterwork, “Kuroneko” (“Black Cat”). Though the film is more hypnotic than scary, it still manages to creep under the skin as it spins a tale of real emotional and erotic power.

Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0

As in Shindô’s better-known 1964 classic, “Onibaba,” this film...

Rank the week of October 18th’s Blu-ray and DVD new releases against the best films of all-time: New Releases Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

(Blu-ray & DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #1487

Win Percentage: 47%

Times Ranked: 8433

Top-20 Rankings: 50

Directed By: Rob Marshall

Starring: Johnny Depp • Penélope Cruz • Ian McShane • Kevin McNally • Geoffrey Rush

Genres: Action • Adventure • Costume Adventure • Fantasy • Sea Adventure • Swashbuckler

Rank This Movie

Bad Teacher

(Blu-ray & DVD | R | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #3281

Win Percentage: 42%

Times Ranked: 3361

Top-20 Rankings: 19

Directed By: Jake Kasdan

Starring: Cameron Diaz • Justin Timberlake • Jason Segel • Lucy Punch • Phyllis Smith

Genres: Comedy • Farce • Sex Comedy

Rank This Movie

Red State

(Blu-ray & DVD | Nr | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #2738

Win Percentage: 53%

Times Ranked: 1781

Top-20 Rankings: 12

Directed By: Kevin Smith

Starring: Michael Parks • John Goodman • Melissa Leo • Kevin Pollak • Michael Angarano

Genres: Drama • Horror • Religious Drama • Thriller

Rank This Movie

Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest

(Blu-ray & DVD...

This Week in Dork is a new feature that will attempt to encapsulate all of the dorky events happening in and around Toronto every week. Sure, “This Week in Geek” sounds better, but there’s a little thing called copyright which prevents us from calling it that.

You can see more events happening this week here, but these are some of the highlights:

Kuroneko

This 1968 medieval-horror film directed by Japanese auteur Kaneto Shindô (Onibaba) sees the ghosts of two murdered women out for revenge against samurai-class responsible for their deaths. Kuroneko is definitely not your typical Valentine’s Day fare.

Feb. 14, 4:30Pm @ Bloor Cinema

$5 members /$9 non-members

More details here.

Anti-Valentine’s Day Event

Alone for Valentine’s Day or looking to do something a little different with your sweetheart? Check out the Anti-Valentine’s Day Event at the Toronto Underground Cinema, featuring the classic 1975 adult-film Sensations. The film was...