Actualités

Stars: Gino Barzacchi, Gabriel Cash, Riccardo Serventi Longhi, Crisula Stafida | Directed by Paolo Bertola

Just how many giant spider movies will we get before filmmakers realise that None will beat 2000s Spiders, directed by Gary Jones (Mosquito) and starring Lana Parrilla (Once Upon a Time’s Evil Queen), which had a sequel in 2001… This week’s contender for the spider-movie crown is the Italian monster-movie Arachnicide, a title which connotes a much greater movie than this film actually is!

Yes this latest giant spider movie is an Italian horror film, however don’t expect Fulci levels of spider-based gore, this one is sadly a made-for-tv affair directed by Paolo Bertola, who has been working steadily away producing TV movies in Italy for some years. However only his 2011 film My Lai Four has made it to these shores previously, released by Scanbox (remember them?) back in 2011 as Massacre at My Lai Four.

Stars: Gino Barzacchi, Gabriel Cash, Riccardo Serventi Longhi, Crisula Stafida | Directed by Paolo Bertola

How many “Spiders” films are there now on DVD? There’s my favourite: 2000s Spiders, directed by Gary Jones (Mosquito) and starring Lana Parrilla (Once Upon a Time’s Evil Queen), which had a sequel in 2001. Then there’s Spiders 3D. Originally released in 3D in 2013, the film dropped the “3D” from its title when it hit DVD the same year (though the 3D blu-ray didn’t)… And now comes Spiders, a retitling of an Italian monster-movie originally called Arachnicide – a much cooler title, yet one I’m guessing was too highbrow from the plebians that UK supermarkets think their “audiences” are…

Yes, surprise, surprise, this latest giant spider movie is an Italian horror film, however don’t expect Fulci levels of spider-based gore, this one is sadly a made-for-tv affair directed by Paolo Bertola, who...

Belladonna Of Sadness

Release Date: Coming Soon from Cinelicious Pics Written By: Yoshiyuki Fukuda, Jules Michelet (novel), Eiichi Yamamoto Directed By: Eiichi Yamamoto Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Katsuyuki Itô, Aiko Nagayama

When I heard about Cinelicious Pics’ plans to restore and release the long lost 1973 anime Belladonna Of Sadness, I was well and truly excited. I’m a huge aficionado of 70s-era anime, and this baby has been a “holy grail” of sorts for folks like me for a good many years — much desired but damn near impossible to obtain. So that being said, and with those expectations set freakin’ sky high, let’s see if ol’ Belladonna was worth the wait or will it just fill me with sadness of my own!

Belladonna Of Sadness, based loosely (and by that I mean hardly at all) on the French novel La Sorcière by Jules Michelet, tells the brutal tale of Jeanne,...