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Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.News Office Space.Some Hollywood insiders are blaming post-pandemic work-from-home policies—rather than rampant financialization and an overinvestment in stale intellectual-property tentpoles—for the industry’s recent decline.A coalition of human-rights groups have penned an open letter to Netflix demanding the renewal of its “Palestinian Stories” collection, which expired earlier this month after three years on the platform.Workers in RadicalMedia’s nonfiction division have launched a union drive, having collected an “overwhelming majority” of signature cards from the 65-person bargaining group. They plan to join the Writers Guild of America East.China will not have an Oscar entry this year, after the Academy deemed the documentary The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru (2023) ineligible for the Best Foreign Picture award,...

Back in 2017, Universal Pictures announced a new franchise known as Dark Universe, which was going to serve as a relaunch of the studio's classic monster movies as part of a shared cinematic universe akin to the MCU.

New projects based on the likes of The Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Creature from The Black Lagoon, and The Wolfman were planned, but everything came to a screeching halt when the first movie - Tom Cruise's critically-panned The Mummy reboot - bombed at the box office, essentially putting a stake through the entire franchise's heart before it ever had a chance to get going.

Earlier this year, Universal announced that it would be resurrecting the Dark Universe brand as part of the new Epic Universe attraction, which will be one of five new lands slated to open in its Orlando-based theme park in 2025.

Now, we have a first look...

Universal Orlando Resort is sharing a first, up-close glimpse at some of the Universal Monsters that will come to life like never before in the all-new Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment attraction at Dark Universe – one of the five immersive worlds coming to Universal Epic Universe in 2025.

The groundbreaking ride will feature 14 of the most ambitious and life-like animated figures ever created – each one depicting one of the legendary Monsters that will prey upon guests in what promises to be Universal Orlando’s most terrifying attraction yet.

Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment will take guests deep into the catacombs of Frankenstein Manor, where Dr. Victoria Frankenstein – the great-great-granddaughter of the infamous Henry Frankenstein – conducts her twisted and misguided experiments.

In a vain display of her genius, she invites guests to witness a demonstration of her ability to control monsters – but her plans go awry when a horde of enraged monsters are unleashed.

Paul Morrissey, a fixture of New York’s cinema scene whose collaborations with Andy Warhol in the ’60s and ’70s reinvented the American underground and made local legends of amateur actors and transgender performers, died Monday at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 86.

Morrissey’s death was confirmed by archivist Michael Chaiken to the New York Times, which reported that the cause was pneumonia.

Warhol and Morrissey were first introduced in 1965, when the former had begun to tinker with experimental films in his infamous loft hub, dubbed The Factory. Working on budgets of under $10,000, the pair completed a series of features, reaching the most commercial success with a trilogy starring Warhol fixture and gay sex symbol Joe Dallesandro that consisted of “Flesh,” “Trash” and “Heat.” Warhol served as producer, while Morrissey’s cinéma vérité direction and largely ad-libbed scripts provided his leads, such as Dallesandro, Jackie Curtis, Holly Woodlawn and Viva,...

Paul Morrissey, a cult film director and early Andy Warhol collaborator, has died. He was 86 years of age.

Morrissey’s archivist Michael Chaiken told The Hollywood Reporter the filmmaker died in the early morning of Oct. 28 at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City after a bout with pneumonia. His most celebrated films as an auteur include Flesh, Trash, Heat, Flesh for Frankenstein and the classic B-picture Blood for Dracula, which starred Joe Dallesandro.

Morrissey’s films also included classics like Women in Revolt and the 1980s New York City trilogy Forty Deuce, Mixed Blood and Spike of Bensonhurst. But it’s Morrissey’s early association with pop artist Andy Warhol that helped establish him as a director and kept his cult status alive throughout his career.

The two artists first met in 1965 and Morrissey signed on to run the publicity and filmmaking for Warhol at The Factory under a...

Wirgin Worries.

After kicking off August with discussions of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s surrealist masterpiece Santa Sangre (listen) and the screenlife sequel Unfriended: Dark Web (listen), we’re returning to the world of Andy Warhol with a look at Paul Morrissey‘s Udo Kier-starring vehicle Blood for Dracula (1974).

In the film, the deathly ill Count Dracula (Udo Kier) and his slimy underling Anton (Arno Juerging) travel to Italy in search of a virgin’s blood (the only type of blood he can drink). They’re welcomed at the crumbling estate of indebted Marchese Di Fiore (Vittorio De Sica), who’s desperate to marry off his daughters to rich suitors. But there, instead of pure women, the count encounters siblings with impure (aka not virgin) blood and their Marxist manservant Mario (Joe D’Allesandro), who’s suspicious of the aristocratic Dracula.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday.

Mateo

After wrapping up July with a Jan de Bont double feature discussing the movie magic of Twister (listen) and the laundry list of problems with his 1999 remake of The Haunting (listen), we’re tackled our first Alejandro Jodorowsky film with Santa Sangre (listen).

Now we’re back on American soil for our first Screenlife horror film on the Main Feed: Stephen Susco‘s Unfriended sequel, Unfriended: Dark Web (2018).

In the movie, Matias (Colin Woodell) shows up for virtual game night with a new laptop. As his friends – conspiracy nut Aj (Connor Del Rio), British Damon (Andrew Lees), harangued Lexx (Savira Windyani), and lesbian couple Nari (Betty Gabriel) and Serena (Rebecca Rittenhouse) – play Cards Against Humanity, Matias discovers hidden video files on the stolen computer.

The realization leads him to Charon (Douglas Tait) and Erica Dunne (Alexa Mansour), a missing 17 year old as Matias, his deaf girlfriend Amaya (Stephanie Nogueras...

For as long as there have been films, there have been filmmakers attempting to enhance the theatrical experience through the use of gimmicks. From the red-eyed skeletons of William Castle to the “odorama” cards of John Waters’ Polyester, gimmicks are the puns of the filmmaking world: memorable and effective in small quantities, but annoying when overused.

That’s why I get why so many people reject 3D cinema. After all, modern theater screens ended up becoming oversaturated with lazily post-converted cash-grabs rather than movies that were shot on actual stereoscopic cameras. However, having just recently fixed my own aging 3D TV and binge-watched dozens of gimmicky genre films, I’m pleased to say that there are a surprising number of fun 3D experiences beyond the usual suspects.

With that in mind, here’s a list recommending six underrated horror movies that were shot in 3D!

As usual, don’t forget...

The story behind the novel is almost as famous as the novel itself: in the summer of 1816, Mary Shelley and her husband Percy Shelley traveled to Lake Geneva on a trip with her stepsister Claire Claremont and Claire’s lover, poet Lord Byron. Because of the abnormally cold weather, the foursome were forced to stay indoors for nearly the entire trip, and to pass the time, Byron proposed a challenge to see who could write the scariest ghost story. Mary, a woman with a taste for the macabre, was inspired by a discussion of galvanism, a scientific theory that electricity could stimulate or create life, to write what she first thought would be a short story: the tale of a young, ambitious student playing God and creating an abomination in the process.

From that idea came quite possibly the most influential and iconic horror novel in history. Published two years later in 1818, “Frankenstein; or,...

Game designer Hideo Kojima, creator of the hugely popular “Death Stranding,” had two pieces of news coming out of the Game Awards 2023.

On Thursday evening at the Game Awards show in L.A., Kojima appeared on stage with filmmaker Jordan Peele to announce his next game project: “Od,” which Kojima describes as an “immersive and totally new style of game” that will explore “what it means to Od on fear.” It’s being produced in partnership with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios.

In addition, Kojima announced that his documentary film “Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds” — which follows his journey to form an independent games studio and his creative process behind “Death Stranding” — will be distributed worldwide in the spring of 2024 exclusively on Disney+.

Peele, the acclaimed director of “Get Out,” “Us” and “Nope,” will be “one of several talented storytellers” involved in the “Od” project, according to Kojima Productions. “We are...

Legendary video game designer Hideo Kojima and innovative filmmaker Jordan Peele will be joining forces on the new immersive video game Od. Featuring Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schaffer, and Udo Kier, Od will explore "what it means to Od on fear," and you can get an idea of what to expect in the new teaser trailer unveiled by Kojima Productions and Xbox Game Studios at The Game Awards:

Press Release: Los Angeles, California – Kojima Productions and Xbox Game Studios officially announced Od at The Game Awards. World-renowned game creator Hideo Kojima has partnered with Academy Award winning filmmaker Jordan Peele, the acclaimed film director of “Get Out,” “Us,” and “Nope,” who will be one of several talented storytellers involved in the project.

“We are working with Xbox Game Studios and their cloud gaming technology to take on the challenge of creating a very unique, immersive, and totally new style of game – or rather,...

October is the time for horror, which makes it a great time for independent movies.

As long as independent movies have existed, horror movies have provided a huge bulk of the films made by artists outside the studio system. It’s one of the cheapest and easiest genres to make, with some of the best potential to make a profit, and has unsurprisingly thrived in the independent film market. Many of the most important and acclaimed American horror movies were independent productions. “Night of the Living Dead” practically created the zombie film, while the original slasher “Halloween” was a tiny budget indie made for just $300,000. Sure, there are plenty of quality horror films made by studios, but nothing beats the grit and pure terror that great indie horror films can provide.

For the latest in our monthly column of streaming independent film recommendations, we took a look at the plethora...

These last few years the Criterion Channel have made October viewing much easier to prioritize, and in the spirit of their ’70s and ’80s horror series we’ve graduated to––you guessed it––”’90s Horror.” A couple of obvious classics stand with cult favorites and more unknown entities (When a Stranger Calls Back and Def By Temptation are new to me). Three more series continue the trend: “Technothrillers” does what it says on the tin, courtesy the likes of eXistenZ and Demonlover; “Art-House Horror” is precisely the kind of place to host Cure, Suspiria, Onibaba; and “Pre-Code Horror” is a black-and-white dream. Phantom of the Paradise, Unfriended, and John Brahm’s The Lodger are added elsewhere.

James Gray is the latest with an “Adventures in Moviegoing” series populated by deep cuts and straight classics. Stonewalling and restorations of Trouble Every Day and The Devil, Probably make streaming debuts, while Flesh for Frankenstein,...

What if your imaginary friend was a killer from a slasher film? Set in Scotland in 1994, the new comic book series The Nasty answers this compelling question with blood-splattered results as it follows 18-year-old Graeme “Thumper” Connell, who enjoys watching notorious "video nasties" with his friends in The Murder Club, until one night when they come across a cursed videotape that just might bring its cinematic nightmares to lethal life.

With the first issue of The Nasty coming out on April 5th from Vault Comics, we caught up with writer John Lees and artist Adam Cahoon (who contributed art in the first two issues before stepping in as the main illustrator in issue #3) to discuss the making of The Nasty, including exploring how horror can be comforting, taking a subversive approach to the concept of imaginary friends, and creating their own "video nasties" for this series!

Below, you can check...

Boone, Button-Face & Barker.

After five weeks of discussing hilarious camp with Drop Dead Gorgeous, Nurse 3D, Female Trouble, Flesh for Frankenstein, and Sleepaway Camp, we went back to some more serious horror with a look at John Carpenter’s Someone’s Watching Me! last week. Now, we’re discussing the troubled production and queer allegory at the center of Clive Barker‘s Nightbreed (1990)!

In the film, Aaron Boone (Craig Sheffer) is haunted by terrifying nightmares of a city of monsters. He goes to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Decker (David Cronenberg), for help. But what Boone doesn’t know is that Decker is really a serial killer. Decker frames Boone to take the fall for his murders, and Boone is killed by the police. But Boone is brought back to life by the monsters of his dreams, the Nightbreed, who in turn join Boone in his quest to stop Decker from killing again.

City of Stalkers. After five weeks of discussing hilarious camp with Drop Dead Gorgeous, Nurse 3D, Female Trouble, Flesh for Frankenstein, and Sleepaway Camp, it’s time to go back to some more serious horror with a look at John Carpenter’s 1978 TV movie Someone’s Watching Me!. In the film, Leigh Michaels (Lauren Hutton) takes a room in a high-rise […]

The post The Positive Queer Representation in John Carpenter’s ‘Someone’s Watching Me!’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Judy Judy Judy After five weeks of nothing but Camp films, including pageant mockumentary Drop Dead Gorgeous, 3D monstrosity Nurse, and a pair of shocking and offensive 70s titles from John Waters (Female Trouble) and Paul Morrissey (Flesh for Frankenstein), Trace and I – along with returning guest Ten Backe – have reached our magnum opus: […]

The post Re-Evaluating the Trans “Twist” in ‘Sleepaway Camp’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The German acting veteran of 275 films answers your questions on creating spine-chilling characters, singing into a lamp and working with everyone from Lars Von Trier to Arnold Schwarzenegger

Have you seen 1970’s Mark of the Devil, 1973’s Flesh for Frankenstein or 1974’s Blood for Dracula recently? What are your thoughts on how they have aged? NatMikeel

No, I don’t watch my old films. I’m not one of those actors who has friends over and after dinner says: “Oh, let’s put on one of my movies.” I’ve made 275 films, a lot of which I want to forget but also some I will never forget.

Oh boy. This movie. Paul Morrisey’s 1973 feature Flesh for Frankenstein (Aka Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein) is quite the dip into genre absurdity. Initially the film may look like a more sexed up Hammer production, but it quickly establishes itself as something far more perverse and darkly comedic than any of Hammer’s stately, gothic curios. The […]

The post ‘Flesh for Frankenstein’ – The Good Doctor Gets Naughty in This Must-See Exploitation Adaptation appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

As we get ready to say goodbye to March, we have one last round of horror and sci-fi Blu-ray and DVD releases headed our way before the new month arrives, and this week’s assortment of titles is pretty damn great. Tragedy Girls is receiving a new Blu-ray release courtesy of those fine fiends over at Vinegar Syndrome, and they are also keeping busy with several other titles this week, too: Flesh for Frankenstein, Beware! Children at Play, and Sister, Sister.

Severin Films is also doing the dark lord’s work with all their amazing releases on tap for this Tuesday, including their 3-Disc Limited Edition set for House on the Edge of the Park, Ballad in Blood, and The Forbidden Door. And for those of you who dig shark-themed horror, you should definitely check out The Requin.

Other releases for March 29th include Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge...

On the eve of his 77th birthday, Udo Kier was on the phone at his home in Palm Springs, wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with orange lettering that reads, “Don’t act.”

He received the shirt as a gift, and it bears a maxim he gleaned from Lars von Trier, with whom he began a three-plus-decade partnership on “Medea” in 1988.

“He means don’t act so people can feel and see that you’re acting. That’s the difference,” said the Cologne-born actor, the star of more than 200 movies from directors including Von Trier, Fassbinder, and Werner Herzog.

Over the years, Kier’s steely cobalt eyes and sinisterly soothing German accent have enabled him to play low lives, decadents, and villains. But he takes a break from all that in Todd Stephens’ “Swan Song,” released this past summer. In a perfect world, it would catapult the iconic performer into the awards conversation.

You’ve never seen Udo Kier like this before. The heavily accented German character actor, who got his start in Andy Warhol’s “Flesh for Frankenstein” and was finally accepted as a member of the Motion Picture Academy this past year, has spent the intervening decades alternating between art films and exploitation movies, appearing as Nazis and nutjobs in everything from “Iron Sky” to “Nymphomaniac.” In Todd Stephens’ “Swan Song,” he plays a flaming small-town Ohio hairdresser who burns brighter than a dying star — which is precisely the way his character, Pat Pitsenbarger, sees himself.

Dressed like a cross between Liberace and Quentin Crisp, “Mister Pat” — who was in fact a real person — catered to the socialites of straight-laced Sandusky by day. In his off hours, he entertained at the local gay bar, the Universal Fruit and Nut Company, so comfortable with his queerness that he inspired Stephens’ own coming-out...

Graphic depictions of traumatic violence (eye-gouging with a spoon) and sexual depravity (don’t ask) had a good percentage of the audience sprinting for the exits when The Painted Bird premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year. Now available on demand, this WWII drama may have you running for cover in the privacy of your own home. In adapting Polish author Jerzy Kosiński’s bestseller, Czech writer-director Václav Marhoul spares nothing in showing the atrocities witnessed by a lost, abused and abandoned Jewish boy named Joska (Petr Kotlár), as...

Anita Ekberg in Killer Nun will be available on Blu-ray October 15th from Arrow Video

Aging blonde-bombshell Anita Ekberg gives a full-bodied performance as a sex-crazed sister with some seriously bad habits in the lurid cult classic Killer Nun.

One of the most notorious nunsploitation films, Killer Nun tells the sordid story of Sister Gertrude, a disturbed woman of the cloth who degenerates into a perverse mire of drug taking, sexual perversion, sadistic torture and murder. Joe Dallesandro, Alida Valli and the ample Paola Morra (Behind Convent Walls) offer spirited performances and able support to Ekberg, in this outrageous tale based on real events.

Boasting an incongruously classy score by legendary composer Alessandro Alessandroni (Women’s Camp 119) and stylishly rendered scenes of sex and murder, Killer Nun takes the viewer on a hair-raising journey from the heights of religious ecstasy to the depths of devilish degeneracy. Now Giulio Berruti s...

Welcome to the latest installment in our regular Movies You May Have Missed series here on Nerdly, in which I highlight some of, what I think, are the best movies that have flown under the radar of many or have been “forgotten” in the intervening years since its release. This edition focuses on Break, a German-made slasher movie made in 2009, released in the UK in 2012, and buried ever since!

Stars: Marina Anna Eich, Lili Schackart, Ralph Willmann, Thelma Buabeng, Esther Maaß, Sebastian Badenberg, Patrick Jahns, Meelah Adams | Written and Directed by Matthias Olof Eich

Official Synopsis:

Four young girlfriends head out to the Canadian woods for some downtime. But downtime turns to terror time when they discover a pile of intestines and a pair of severed feet dangling from a tree. The friends begin to realise humans are the preferred prey and that they are being hunted. Armed with bows and arrows,...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Film Society of Lincoln Center

The 56th New York Film Festival has begun, and with it comes the latest in their typically excellent “Revivals” and “Retrospective” series.

Metrograph

Icarus Films’ retrospective and the Dario Argento series both continue.

As two Godard classics have 35mm showings, Perfect Blue keeps its run and the Cuban epic Lucía begins screening.

In terms of horror adaptations, few stories are as well worn as Dracula and Frankenstein. From the early days of cinema until now, it feels a bit like every third genre director out there has taken a stab at adapting at least one of the classic gothics in their own voice, and the fact of the matter is that a whole lot of them don’t work. With notable exceptions here and there, a good majority of Dracula and Frankenstein spins are incredibly dull and, in an arguably worse sin, incredibly similar to each other.

Paul Morrissey’s films don’t have this problem. Working with the help of producer Andy Warhol, he managed to put out some of the most bizarre, inventive takes on the tales to ever hit the silver screen: a pair of Udo Kier-starring, gloriously campy X-rated horror films. They’re strange, they’re silly and they’re very,...

The Climber (1976) is now available Blu-ray From Arrow Video

After shooting cult favorites Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula in Europe, Joe Dallesandro spent much of the seventies making movies on the continent. In France he worked with auteurs like Louis Malle and Walerian Borowczyk, and in Italy he starred in all manner of genre fare from poliziotteschi (Savage Three, Season for Assassins) to nunsploitation (Killer Nun).

The Climber follows in the tradition of gangster classics such as The Public Enemy and Scarface as it charts the rise and inevitable fall of small-time smuggler Aldo (Dallesandro). Beaten and abandoned by the local gang boss after he tries to skim off some profits for himself, Aldo forms his own group of misfits in order to exact revenge…

Written and directed by Pasquale Squitieri (Gang War in Naples, I Am the Law), The Climber is a prime example of Italian crime...

Writer-director Elio Petri scores big in his first feature, the story of a heel suspected of murder. Is he a killer, or just an average guy trying to get ahead, who uses women to his advantage? Marcello Mastroianni impresses as well in a serious role, with Salvo Randone shining as the police inspector trying to pry a confession from him. Beautifully restored in HD; the show is from a time when Italian film was at its zenith.

The Assassin

Blu-ray + DVD

Arrow Video USA

1961 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / L’Assassino / Available from Arrow Video

Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Micheline Presle, Cristina Gaioni, Salvo Randone, Andrea Checchi, Francesco Grandjacquet, Marco Mariani, Franco Ressel.

Cinematography: Carlo Di Palma

Film Editor: Ruggero Mastroianni

Original Music: Piero Piccione

Written by Tonino (Antonio) Guerra, Elio Petri, Pasquale Fest Campanile, Massimo Franciosa

Produced by Franco Cristaldi

Directed by Elio Petri

Fans of Elio Petri...

Although François Truffaut has written that the New Wave began “thanks to Jacquette Rivette,” the films of this masterful French director are not well known. Rivette, like his “Cahiers du Cinéma” colleagues Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Éric Rohmer, did graduate to filmmaking but, like Rohmer, was something of a late bloomer as a director.

In 1969, he directed the 4-hour L’amour fou (1969), the now legendary 13-hour Out 1 (1971) (made for French TV in 1970 but never broadcast; edited to a 4-hour feature and retitled Out 1: Spectre (1972)), and the 3-hour Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), his most entertaining and widely seen picture. In these three films, Rivette began to construct what has come to be called his “House of Fiction”–an enigmatic filmmaking style involving improvisation, ellipsis and considerable narrative experimentation.

Celine and Julie Go Boating

In 1975, Jacques Rivette reunited with Out 1 producer Stéphane Tchal Gadjieff with the idea of a four-film cycle.

After introducing moviegoers to Belial in Basket Case, filmmaker Frank Henenlotter brought another evil entity to the big screen in Brain Damage, one of several horror films coming out on Blu-ray in the Us this spring from Arrow Video, who have now revealed the full list of special features for the 1988 film's high-def home media release.

Press Release: May sees the release of a fantastic slate of cult cinema from Arrow Video, with a healthy mix of giallo, cult crime and gore to keep fans happy.

First comes The Climber, starring cult actor Joe Dallesandro (Flesh for Frankenstein, Blood for Dracula). The Climber is a prime example of Italian crime cinema and follows the rise and fall of Dallesandro's smalltime drug dealer, Aldo. Filled with brawls, fistfights, shootouts and explosions, this is an excellent action-thriller. The other big crime release of May is Cops vs Thugs, Kinji Fukasaku's masterpiece...

Arrow Video will have special treats in store for horror fans this spring with their limited edition Blu-ray releases of Evil Ed and Brain Damage.

Both Evil Ed and Brain Damage will be released on Blu-ray in the Us and the UK this May, and you can check out the impressive lists of bonus features below, as well as the eye-popping cover art for the releases.

Arrow Video has also announced a new UK Blu-ray release of Dario Argento's Phenomena (aka Creepers), which includes the 116-minute Italian cut of the film.

Evil Ed Blu-ray / DVD: "New UK/Us Title: Evil Ed (Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD) Limited Edition

A veritable smorgasbord of flying limbs, exploding heads, busty babes and creepy creatures!

Pre-order your copy via Arrow: http://bit.ly/2kRcxF2

Pre-order via Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/2kRgU2Y

North American pre-orders links should be live soon!

Release Dates: 29/30 May

When His Mind Blows,...

Which legendary Italian screenwriter penned "Flesh For Frankenstein?" What film marked David Prowse's third (and final) role as Frankenstein's monster? Which Hollywood filmmaker returned to the director's chair after a 19-year hiatus to helm "Frankenstein Unbound?"  Test your knowledge of the famous screen monster with this 10-question quiz, here.  Read More: 'Victor Frankenstein' Is the Unholy Marriage of Mary Shelley, James Whale and TV's 'Sherlock'...

Special Mention: Dead Ringers

Directed by David Cronenberg

Written by David Cronenberg and Norman Snider

Canada, 1988

Genre: Thriller / Drama

Dead Ringers is one of David Cronenberg’s masterpieces, and Jeremy Irons gives the most highly accomplished performance of his entire career – times two. This is the story of Beverly and Elliot Mantle (both played by Irons), identical twins who, since birth, have been inseparable. Together, they work as gynecologists in their own clinic, and literally share everything between them, including the women they work and sleep with. Jealousy comes between the two when Beverly falls in love with a new patient and decides he no longer wants to share his lady friend with Elliot. The twins, who have always existed together as one, have trouble adapting and soon turn against one another. Unlike the director’s previous films, the biological horror in Dead Ringers is entirely conveyed through the psychological...

All week our writers will debate: Which was the greatest film year of the past half century. Click here for a complete list of our essays. It’s perhaps a little quaint to choose a year that I wasn’t even alive during to represent the best year of cinema. I was not there to observe how any of these films conversed with the culture around them when they were first screened. So, although I am choosing the glorious year of 1973, I am choosing not just due to a perusal of top ten lists that year—but because the films that were released that year greatly influenced how I engage with movies now, in 2015. Films speak to more than just the audiences that watch them—they speak to each other. Filmmakers inspire each other. Allusions are made. A patchwork begins. These are the movies of our lives. Having grown up with cinema in the 90s,...

To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, genre fans have a handful of indie horror films and a mind-bending cult classic making their home entertainment bow this week to look forward to. Anchor Bay’s highly anticipated slasher Muck is getting released on Blu-ray and DVD, Arrow Video is resurrecting Mark of the Devil on Blu-ray for fans in the Us and Breaking Glass’s latest, A Cry From Within, is also coming to DVD as well.

A Cry From Within (Breaking Glass Pictures, DVD)

After a devastating miscarriage, a family trades their city lifestyle for a quiet life in the country. Jonathan (Eric Roberts), Cecile (Deborah Twiss) and their two children Ariel and Morgan settle into a rental home in Long Island that was vacated by a woman and her elderly mother. The family soon finds themselves at the mercy of a terrifying and violent manifestation that Ariel...

UK residents have been enjoying Arrow Video Blu-ray releases of cult films like Maniac Cop and The Funhouse for years, and soon horror hounds living stateside can enjoy the diligent distributor’s offerings now that Arrow Video is expanding to the Us. To commemorate their growth, Arrow Video has announced upcoming North American Blu-ray releases of Mark of the Devil, Blind Woman’s Curse, and more.

Making their Blu-ray debuts in the Us, 1970’s Mark of the Devil will come out on March 17th and 1971’s Blind Woman’s Curse (aka Black Cat’s Revenge on March 24th. Arrow Video will also release the Blu-ray of Blood and Black Lace on April 14th and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne to Blu-ray on April 21st. All four releases will include a DVD copy, as well. We have the official press release with full details, as well as...

On the evening of October 14, 1944, the day Udo Kier was born Udo Kierspe in Cologne, the hospital was bombed and Udo and his mother had to be dug out of the rubble. It'd be nearly thirty years before Kier would break through internationally in Paul Morrissey's Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula. He's since appeared in over 200 films directed by the likes of Lars von Trier, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Dario Argento, Werner Herzog, Gus Van Sant, Wim Wenders, Rob Zombie, John Carpenter, Guy Maddin and the list goes on. » - David Hudson...

On the evening of October 14, 1944, the day Udo Kier was born Udo Kierspe in Cologne, the hospital was bombed and Udo and his mother had to be dug out of the rubble. It'd be nearly thirty years before Kier would break through internationally in Paul Morrissey's Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula. He's since appeared in over 200 films directed by the likes of Lars von Trier, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Dario Argento, Werner Herzog, Gus Van Sant, Wim Wenders, Rob Zombie, John Carpenter, Guy Maddin and the list goes on. » - David Hudson...

Arrow Video is thrilled to announce the UK Blu-ray and DVD release of Mark of the Devil, once proclaimed as “positively the most horrifying film ever made”. Mark of the Devil finally arrives uncut in the UK on 29th September 2014. With Mark of the Devil, writer-director Michael Armstrong created a bloody and brutal critique of state-funded brutality and religious corruption with a doomed romance at its centre. In America, Mark of the Devil was distributed with a free sick bag provided for every patron. In the UK the BBFC were obliged to sit through the entire uncut film and deemed it “vicious and disgusting.” They recommended that a certificate be refused entirely and provided a list of required cuts to make the film acceptable for an X certificate. This means that finally, after more than forty years, the full-blooded, full-frontal version of Mark of the Devil can be released with...

Paul Morrisey’s 1973 film Flesh for Frankenstein, starring the inimitable Joe Dallesandro, Udo Kier and Dalila Di Lazzaro, will be screened tonight on 35mm at the beautiful Nitehawk Cinema at 136 Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn, NY at midnight as part of their September “Nitehawk Nasties” series. From the press release:

Many versions of Dr. Frankenstein and his monstrous creation have been made since Mary Shelley first wrote her gothic novel Frankenstein in 1818 … Continue reading →

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An indulgent documentary about James Toback and Alec Baldwin's attempt to pitch an erotic drama at Cannes festival has little new to say

Having long been agnostic on the subject of James Toback's manly genius, I can't say that this whimsical HBO (mock?)-doc was a disappointment – merely a confirmation. Toback and Alec Baldwin team up to raise financing for a feature film that will transpose the eroticism of Last Tango in Paris to battle-scarred Iraq – or so they claim. So it's off to Cannes for a series of meetings with international money-men, interspersed with cosy conversations with their famous friends (Scorsese, Coppola, Bertolucci) and punctuated by what the makers presumably feel are funny/touching/profound personal vignettes. The revelations about Cannes (the glitz is tacky, the market is real) are all as old as the festival itself; the insights into the movie biz (art doesn't matter, stars...

German actor Udo Kier has appeared in over two hundred films, yet he is more of a cult figure known to Euro-trash cinephiles than a household name. He made several early films through Andy Warhol’s studio, including Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula, before embarking on a long career that includes a variety of other softcore horror-dramas that feature the very attractive and very gay Kier seducing every naked woman in his path (such as 1970's Mark of the Devil), minor roles in some surprisingly mainstream hits, and almost everything Lars von Trier has ever done (including his upcoming, star-studded sex opus, Nymphomaniac).

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U.S classic horror fans rejoice! Synapse Films, Inc. has acquired the North American home-video rights to Dario Argento's 1977 classic horror film Suspiria, with an original soundtrack by European prog-rockers Goblin. Described as “one of the scariest films of all time” by Entertainment Weekly, Suspiria stars Jessica Harper (Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise, Woody Allen's Stardust Memories) as a young girl caught up in a coven of witches controlling a German dance academy, with a guest appearance by Udo Kier (Lars von Trier's Nymph( )Maniac, Andy Warhol's Frankenstein and Dracula). Synapse will work closely with Technicolor Rome and Technicolor Los Angeles to create an all-new high-definition 2K scan from the original negative for a possible 2014-15 video release. “It’s important to spend as much time as possible to create the definitive high-definition home video version for the fans,” May explains. “We’re going...

One of the longest prayed for Blu-ray releases is Finally on its way courtesy of Synapse Films. That's right, kids! The Dario Argento classic Suspiria is coming to get us all in high definition!

From the Press Release

Synapse Films, Inc. has acquired the North American home-video rights to Dario Argento's 1977 classic horror filmSUSPIRIA, with an original soundtrack by European prog-rockers Goblin. Described as “one of the scariest films of all time” by Entertainment Weekly, Suspiria stars the beautiful Jessica Harper (Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise, Woody Allen's Stardust Memories) as a young girl caught up in a coven of witches controlling a German dance academy, with a guest appearance by Udo Kier (Lars von Trier's Nymph( )Maniac, Andy Warhol's Frankenstein and Dracula).

“I’ve been involved in the restoration and release of many films in my career, but Suspiria has always eluded me,...

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. Enjoy!

Special Mention:

Michael Jackson’s groundbreaking dance routines and unique vocals have influenced generations of musicians, dancers, and entertainers. He was one of entertainment’s greatest icons, and like most gifted individuals, he was always pushing boundaries, reinventing himself, and testing his limits. One of his biggest accomplishments was Thriller, a 14-minute...

Life of Pi; Bait; The Oranges

Even as Ang Lee's Life of Pi (2012, Fox, PG) picked up Oscars for direction, cinematography, music and, crucially, visual effects, there was disgruntlement among the VFX effects team that their work on the movie had not been sufficiently recognised. Certainly, the digital wizardry is extraordinary, making the audience believe that they have been cast adrift on an endless ocean with a man-eating tiger, putting us right there in the lifeboat with the story's titular hero. All the more tragic, then, that Rhythm & Hues, which provided so much of the film's computer graphic magic, had filed for bankruptcy just before the Oscars, the latest victim of a downward spiral that had seen VFX artists become the most important but least valued craftspeople in Hollywood.

The irony, of course, is that visual effects are often at their best when unnoticed, and the real triumph of Life of Pi...

Around these parts if we had to pick what amounted to a hell of a decade for horror movies, it'd be easy to say that the Seventies were up there. Boundaries were pushed as well as the limits of what some would call good taste. Now two of that decade's weirdest films are back from the grave!

From the Press Release

Severin Films has announced the long awaited June 11th Blu-ray + DVD combo Us debut release of the controversial shocker House On Straw Hill and the creepy classic The House Of Seven Corpses.

House On Straw Hill: Banned in Britain as a Video Nasty for thirty years! A shockingly violent and erotic tale of seduction, brutality and revenge. Cult movie icon Udo Kier (Mark Of The Devil, Flesh For Frankenstein) stars as a successful novelist suffering from writer’s block, who rents a country cottage with his wife (British...

Severin Films have announced the long-awaited June 11th Blu-ray/DVD combo Us debut release of the controversial shocker House on Straw Hill and House of Seven Corpses. Some details on both titles below!

House On Straw Hill: Banned in Britain as a Video Nasty for thirty years! A shockingly violent and erotic tale of seduction, brutality and revenge. Cult movie icon Udo Kier (Mark Of The Devil, Flesh For Frankenstein) stars as a successful novelist suffering from writer’s block, who rents a country cottage with his wife (British 70s sex sensation Fiona Richmond) in the hope of finding inspiration. But the arrival of a sensual secretary, played by Linda Hayden (Blood On Satan’S Claw, Taste The Blood Of Dracula) sets in motion a chain of events that culminate in an unrestrained explosion of sex and savagery. Film elements were long thought lost or destroyed on this sleazy...

Above: 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (Michael Curtiz, USA, 1932).

When I wrote about the posters of 1933 last week this was one poster I deliberately held back (though 20,000 Years in Sing Sing was released on Christmas Eve 1932, it is included in Film Forum’s retrospective). The early 1930s, no less than today—though the execution was a lot more interesting— was an era of big floating heads in movie posters. While 1920s movies had the occasional floating head poster for their biggest stars, artists and studios still favored the look of early silent posters with their head-to-toe portraits and snippets of narrative. Though Norma Desmond said famously of the silent era “We didn’t need dialogue...we had faces!” it was ironically with the coming of sound that faces started to dominate movie posters and, until Saul Bass, minimalism in American movie posters was almost non-existent.

All that makes the 20,000 Years poster,...