News

I can't wait for Daily Dead readers to check out You'll Do Bad Things, a new horror comic book mini-series from Tiny Onion and Image Comics that will especially resonate with those that love giallo films. Written by Tyler Boss and illustrated by Adriano Turtulici (with lettering from Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou), the first issue is due out on March 26th, and I caught up with Tyler Boss to talk all about the making of this new mini-series. And to give you a tease of the horrors that await readers next month, we have a 6-page preview you can read right now!

What was the inspiration behind You'll Do Bad Things and how did this series come to land with Tiny Onion and Image Comics?

Tyler Boss: The genesis of You’ll Do Bad Things is funny to look back on. The origin story comes from when my longtime collaborator Matthew Rosenberg...

Sergio Martino’s Torso may not achieve the sustained delirium of Mario Bava and Dario Argento’s best work, but it’s still a top-shelf giallo. Martino directs with panache, deploying lots of slow zooms, putting the camera in odd positions, and cheekily toying with Pov shots. What’s more, Torso foregrounds a motif that recurs throughout the giallo: the interpenetration of sex, violence, and art.

In the opening scene, a professor lectures his distracted students on Pietro Perugino’s portrait of an arrow-pierced Saint Sebastian. While the professor drones on, the camera slinks around the ornate auditorium, catching the students’ exchanged glances and longing looks, hinting at the erotic appeal that can be unleashed by visual depictions of violence. Later, the evidence from a murder scene will be projected before the students in the same manner as the Perugino: art as murder, murder as art. As it turns out,...

Summer is coming to a close and life returns to normal after months of vacations, excursions and more than enough livations. Our collective attention now turns towards spooky season, some of us starting a two month celebration, starting on September 1st. From the first weekend in September let Arrow help you get in the mood with Selects from Adam Green and Ovidio G. Assonitis, a 4K restoration of Sergio Martino’s 1973 classic Torso, along with quartets of vampire and monster movies. Everything you need to know about next month's programming on the Arrow Player is listed below. Arrow Player Announces September 2024 Lineup Streamer Highlights Sun and Screams, Resurrected Masterpieces, Monsters Everywhere, Selections from Adam Green & More September 2024 Seasons: Adam...

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

While horror as a genre -- and slashers in particular -- can often get a bad rap when studios have a horror hit on their hand, they tend to capitalize on it. And over-capitalize on it, until not only is a horror franchise created, but it's beaten down into the ground. But sometimes the most effective scary movie is a one-time thing.

Horror in particular thrives on brevity. There's only so long you can hold out suspense before it leads to boredom. And since slashers all follow a similar enough formula (who is the killer and who will survive), once those questions are answered, there's not really much more story to tell. So for every Scream and Halloween franchise, there are dozens of iconic standalone slashers that deserve their time to shine.

Your browser does not support the video tag. One Of The First Slashers Kicked Off The Italian Giallo...

A classic slasher film from the 1970s is making a major comeback more than 50 years later. Arrow Studios is officially releasing a 4K version of Torso, the 1973 slasher horror starring Suzy Kendall, Luc Merenda, and Tina Aumont. The film comes from legendary director Sergio Martino, who directed and also wrote the screenplay along with Ernesto Gastaldi. Torso takes place at the University of Perugia as a mysterious and terrifying serial killer strangles college girls to death with a black and red scarf. The film has a 56% score from critics (albeit with only nine reviews) and a 55% rating from general audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.

On Wednesday July 3 2024, Investigation Discovery broadcasts Homicide Hunter: American Detective!

Torso Season 4 Episode 6 Episode Summary

In this episode of “Homicide Hunter: American Detective” titled “Torso,” viewers will be taken on a gripping journey into a disturbing case. Amongst the ashes of a barn fire, N.C. investigators make a chilling discovery – the remains of two dismembered women. The task falls on agent Nick Deming to unravel the mystery behind this gruesome crime.

As the investigation unfolds, Deming delves deep into the victims’ personal lives, uncovering a tangled web of secrets, revenge, and betrayal. The case takes a dark turn as he follows the trail of clues that lead him to a potential motive and the identity of the killer. Each piece of evidence brings him closer to the truth, but the answers he seeks may be more unsettling than he could have ever imagined.

With his keen investigative skills and relentless determination,...

Nyx UK presents eight chilling channel premieres in July, headed up on Tuesday July 16 at 9pm, with Uwe Boll’s controversial retro-slasher Seed (2007), a divisive portrait of a serial killer which delves into the macabre and grotesque, offering a grim exploration of vengeance and the human capacity for cruelty.

At first you’ll be afraid, you’ll be petrified! On Friday July 5, 9pm, Nyx UK also premieres Renaud Gauthier’s ‘goriously’ humorous Discopath (2013), in which a seemingly ordinary man turns his local Seventh Heaven nightclub into a splatter Disco Inferno.

Other primetime channel premieres include the captivating 1972 Italian giallo Amuck, Reeker 2, Dave Payne’s 2008 prequel to Reeker, Sonja O’Hara’s 2022 horror thriller Mid-century, Black Circle (2018), a stunning Mexican-Swedish horror thriller directed by Adrián García Bogliano. and the Venezuelan supernatural thriller, The House At The End Of Time (2013), directed by Alejandro Hidalgo, broadcast on Fri July 26, 9pm.

The channel also...

Get ready for a gripping episode of “Homicide Hunter: American Detective” titled “Torso,” airing Wednesday, July 3, 2024, at 9:00 Pm on Investigation Discovery. This installment delves into a haunting case unfolding in North Carolina, where investigators are confronted with a chilling discovery amidst the aftermath of a devastating barn fire: the dismembered remains of two women.

Agent Nick Deming takes the lead in this harrowing investigation, navigating through the ashes to uncover clues buried within the victims’ personal lives. As Deming digs deeper, he unravels a web of secrets and a vengeful motive that drives the killer to commit such heinous acts. The episode unfolds with suspense as viewers are drawn into the complexities of the case, following Deming’s relentless pursuit of justice and his race against time to bring closure to the victims’ families.

Through meticulous detective work and strategic analysis, Deming strives to piece together the puzzle that...

Giallo horror films are known for their grandiose gore, stylized cinematography, and creative lighting, and have had a strong influence on contemporary horror filmmakers. James Wan's film Malignant pays homage to the campy giallo horror productions of the past, with creative camerawork and vibrant use of colors. Films like Stage Fright, Torso, and Blood and Black Lace are underrated giallo gems that showcase the genre's unique storytelling and visually stunning qualities.

Horror is an evergreen genre that tackles incredibly diverse material, whether it's psychological terrors, literal monsters, or everything in between. Giallo is a term that originates from Italian horror cinema and refers to a specific brand of heightened genre cinema.

Giallo horror riffs on engrossing detective fiction and murder mysteries, but with an emphasis on grandiose gore, stylized cinematography, and creative lighting and color palettes that cast a dream-like quality over these visceral dangers. Giallo horror first found...

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (Bhff) announces today the full program for its 2023 incarnation, running October 12-19th with all screenings held at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations. Audiences are in for an unearthly lineup of films and events, including the inaugural Leviathan Award, which will be presented to NYC horror legend William Lustig at a special 35th-anniversary screening of Maniac Cop, followed by a post-screening conversation with Lustig.

The Opening Night film is the World Premiere of Kill Your Lover from directors Alix Austin and Keir Siewert, who previously announced themselves to the Bhff audience last year with their short film Sucker. The 2023 festival boasts the World Premieres of three more exciting new films: Gaia director Jaco Bouwer’s unsettling Breathing In, Aimee Kuge’s audacious debut Cannibal Mukbang, and Tyler Chipman’s powerfully creepy debut The Shade. The festival’s other spotlight titles include director...

I went through a Bendis kick, around the time a lot of the hip comics kids did, back in the mid-Aughts. I at first liked Powers, and then thought it ran at high speed away from everything that was originally good about it. I was mostly impressed by Alias. And I think I wandered away about the time he, inevitably, like every other new writer in comics, was fully subsumed into the Wednesday Crowd and started writing sharecropped superheroes all of the time.

{Spongebob Narrator Voice: Fifteen Years Later}

I just re-read Fortune & Glory , his least representative book. It was there in the app I used to find comics, since this spiffy new edition was just published in May, and I’m always up for nonfiction these days – the curse of the middle-aged man.

I see I didn’t actually review Fortune the first time I read it, back in...

"John Wick" is undoubtedly one of the most brutal action franchises of all time. Just look at the numbers. In the first three "John Wick" films, the beloved assassin kills a total of 299 people, with "John Wick: Chapter 2" serving as the deadliest film in the series. One eagle-eyed fan claims that John offs 140 people in "John Wick: Chapter 4" (depending on how you count), bringing his total kills to 439. This makes him one of the most prolific murderers in all of film history, as his body count is even higher than Michael Meyers' and Jason Voorhees' — combined!

Of course, not every kill makes a huge impact. John's weapon of choice is a pistol, and gunshots become almost mundane after a while. Don't get us wrong, being shot in the head is an absolutely brutal way to go, but there are different levels of viciousness in the "John Wick" universe.

In the 1990s, Brian Michael Bendis was a semi-successful independent comic creator. Writing and drawing a bevy of crime books such as Torso and Jinx. He was making a name for himself and making a living — no small accomplishment for someone releasing comics out of Cleveland.

Then in 2000 he created Fortune and Glory, a three-issue autobiographical story about his escapades in Hollywood, which was courting comic creators to be fresh screenwriting voices. It was filled with incredulous moments and embarrassing meetings as it chronicled a writer navigating a byzantine world.

It was also a hit, the biggest at that point in Bendis’ ascending career, and earned him three Eisner Awards, the comic industry’s version of the Oscars.

“It weirdly ended up being the first actual hit book I ever did,” Bendis says, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter from his home in Portland on a snowy afternoon. “I did it...

The Osaka Asian Film Festival has unveiled its biggest ever program – a total of 76 films – to unspool next month.

Its competition section includes the acclaimed Korean debut film “Aloners,” which offers an exacting critique of the alienating effects upon life of modern capitalist economies; Hong Kong biopic “Anita”; the world premiere of “Angry Son,” which combines LGBT and mixed race themes in a heartwarming comedy; Kong Dashan’s new take on “Journey to the West,” as a ragtag group of people on a UFO hunt; “Mama’s Affair,” the second film by Kearen Pang, whose 2017 debut “29+1” won Osaka’s audience award, “No Land’s Man” from Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and festival circuit hit “Barbarian Invasion.”

The spotlight section includes ten titles. Among them are “The Ground Beneath her Feet” from Bangladesh’s Mohammad Rabby Mridha; “A Room of Her own” from China’s Xie Yiran; and Carlo Francisco Manatad’s “Whether the Weather is Fine.

The Osaka Asian Film Festival (Oaff) 2022 announced its program outline on January 31, 2022.

Event Outline

The Oaff aims to facilitate human resources development and exchange, to invigorate the Osaka economy, and to increase the city’s appeal, through providing opportunities to watch excellent Asian films, supporting filmmaking in Osaka and attracting filmmakers from Asian countries and regions to Osaka. Promoting Osaka worldwide as a gateway city for Asian films, and engaging with many people from the fields of culture, art, education, tourism and business, from Osaka and all of Asia, Oaff works as an open platform to contribute to the development of Osaka and cinema.

Marking its 17th edition this year and under programming director Teruoka Sozo, Oaff will again select high-quality Asian films. The Competition section, which receives increased recognition every year, will again select films previously unreleased in Japan. The Indie Forum section, special programs and other sections will...

Hello, everyone! We’re back with a brand new batch of home media releases, and this week’s assortment is an eclectic group. Code Red is showing some love to The Dead Pit and Arrow Video is keeping busy with their latest Giallo Essentials set and the 2-disc limited edition release of Mill of the Stone Women. Other titles headed home on December 14th include Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Amityville Vampire, Alone in the Woods, The Spanish Chainsaw Massacre, and Chicken’s Blood.

The Dead Pit

Dr. Ramzi (Danny Gochnauer), a deviant who enjoys torturing his patients, is killed by a fellow doctor and buried in the basement of a mental health facility. Twenty years later, the hospital is up and running again and a “Jane Doe” (Cheryl Lawson) arrives at the institute with amnesia. Upon her arrival, a major earthquake rocks the building and unearths the now undead Dr.

Among the live action shorts in contention for this year’s Academy Awards is “White Eye,” Israeli filmmaker Tomer Shushan’s poignant narrative about the thought-to-reaction movements of a Tel Avivian who finds his stolen bicycle in the street. At 20 minutes and in one continuous take, it progresses like a waltz through the choreographed action of its 10 primary actors, a diverse ensemble of Hebrew speakers from different ethnic backgrounds, each of whom comes with their own internal biases and sense of privilege and place in the greater class structure of modern Israeli society.

The short has already received numerous accolades on the film festival circuit, and Shushan himself has been tapped for additional projects like the Israeli TV series “Torso” and his first feature film, which he’s currently developing. Variety spoke to Shushan shortly after “White Eye” made the Oscars shortlist.

What was the inspiration for “White Eye?”

The...

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By Mark Mawston

We regret to report that actor John Richardson has passed away this week, just two weeks before what would have been his 87th birthday.

John found fame in the 1960s via films such as Mario Bava's Black Sunday and Hammer Film's remakes of She and One Million Years B.C., wherein he co-starred alongside many of the most beautiful actresses of the era, such as Ursula Andress, Barbara Steele and Raquel Welch who famously bemoaned, on first being introduced to John, that her new leading man was more beautiful than she was!

John's role in One Million Years B.C. (1966), Ray Harryhausen's prehistoric animated cult classic, led to a long relationship with his co-star Martine Beswick and a move to Hollywood, where he landed roles in big budget Hollywood productions such as Vincente Minnelli's On A Clear Day You...

Just weeks after announcing their engagement, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani are taking some time apart… from competing against one another on The Voice, at least.

Stefani, currently a Season 19 Voice coach alongside Shelton, John Legend and Kelly Clarkson, will vacate her chair for the NBC competition show’s upcoming 20th season — and pass it down to returning coach Nick Jonas.

More from TVLineThis Is Us Recap: Kate's Secret -- and Randall's Torso -- Exposed!The Voice Recap: As the Knockouts Began, Two Contestants Sang What Turned Out to Be Their Swan SongsLaw & Order: Svu: Wentworth Miller to Return as...

Halloween may be over, but there's a ton of horror content to look forward to from Shudder this December, including Creepshow and Joe Bob holiday specials:

New Shudder Specials

Joe Bob Saves Christmas — December 11 at 9pm Et

The Christmas spirit takes over The Last Drive-In as Joe Bob and Darcy close out the year with a double feature of holiday horrors. Premieres live on the ShudderTV feed Friday, December 11, and will be made available on demand on Sunday, December 13. (Also available on Shudder Canada)

A Creepshow Holiday Special — December 18

In the holiday themed, hour-long episode, “Shapeshifters Anonymous,” fearing he is a murderer, an anxious man searches for answers for his "unique condition" from an unusual support group. Starring Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect) and Adam Pally (The Mindy Project), the special is written and directed by Creepshow showrunner Greg Nicotero, based on a short story by J.A. Konrath (Last Call...

Shudder is closing out a record-breaking year with holiday specials from two of their most popular series, exclusive new supernatural chillers, massive new collections focused on holiday horrors and giallo, and so much more. Take a look below for all of the classics, new movies, and series coming to the horror streaming service this December.

Joe Bob Saves Christmas - December 11 at 9pm Et

The Christmas spirit takes over The Last Drive-In as Joe Bob and Darcy close out the year with a double feature of holiday horrors. Premieres live on the ShudderTV feed Friday, December 11, and will be made available on demand on Sunday, December 13. (Also available on Shudder Canada).

A Creepshow Holiday Special - December 18

In the holiday themed, hour-long episode, "Shapeshifters Anonymous," fearing he is a murderer, an anxious man searches for answers for his "unique condition" from an unusual support group. Starring Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect...

[This October is "Gialloween" on Daily Dead, as we celebrate the Halloween season by diving into the macabre mysteries, creepy kills, and eccentric characters found in some of our favorite giallo films! Keep checking back on Daily Dead this month for more retrospectives on classic, cult, and altogether unforgettable gialli, and visit our online hub to catch up on all of our Gialloween special features!]

From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, the giallo film was a defining genre for Italian cinema. The giallo, for those unfamiliar, was born from literature; crime novellas published in Italy, and known for their yellow book covers, would focus on pulp fiction detective tales and crime stories. When the giallo style found its way into cinematic form, the genre would be most influenced by the exercise of sensationalized sex and violence rather than the crime procedural or mystery solving.

The giallo, in some forms of film during this Italian wave of horror, finds significantly more depth and complication than otherwise perceived. And there is no better example of the sensationalized and nuanced approach to this style of film than Sergio Martino’s 1973 film Torso. Alternatively known as Carnal Violence, or sometimes The Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence, this film functions as both giallo and a slasher film,...

Arrow Video is excited to announce the bow of their new subscription-based Arrow platform, available in the US and Canada beginning October 1. Building on the success of the Arrow Video Channel and expanding its availability across multiple devices and countries, Arrow boasts a selection of cult classics, hidden gems and iconic horror films, all curated by the Arrow Video team.

Arrow Video Channel begins streaming this October with headliners The Deeper You Dig, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Crumbs, The Hatred, Cold Light of Day, Videoman and The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast. Also immediately available are perennial Halloween hits Hellraiser 1 & 2, Elvira, Ringu, tthe complete Gamera series, as well as full collections from the Arrow archives packed with exclusive extras, rarely seen interviews and documentaries.

The Deeper You Dig, the latest feature written, directed by and starring filmmaking family The Adams Family, leads the lineup of Arrow's launch, joined by The Adams Family's The Hatred,...

Tim Marshall with Christina Radburn (second from left).

Writer-director Tim Marshall’s debut feature Followers is among 10 projects from around the world selected to participate in the Toronto-based Inside Out Lgbtq Film Finance Forum.

Developed from his eponymous short which had its world premiere in competition at Sundance followed by SXSW in 2015, the dark comedy follows Lynn Walters, a grieving widow who sees a vision of Jesus on the shorts of young, queer aqua aerobics instructor Rudi.

Convinced Rudi has been sent from God to heal and reinvigorate her life, Lynn hopes he will somehow fill the void left by her dead husband while he endures a toxic relationship with Jim, his older life coach.

Melbourne-based Frances Wang-Ward and Christina Radburn (who produced the short) will produce, with Robyn Kershaw as Ep.

The fourth edition of the Lgbtq Forum will take place online from May 26-29, featuring one-on-one meetings with reps from Netflix,...

Looking for the UK Amazon Prime new releases? Click here instead!

It’s been awhile since the world has seen a new comedy from Greg Daniels, co-creator of The Office (U.S.) and Parks and Recreation. That all changes this month with Amazon Prime’s new releases for May 2020. That’s right, leading the pack of Amazon originals on May 1 is Daniels’ Upload, a comedy about digital afterlives. That should inject a healthy dose of sci-fi “middletopia” into our lives.

Also premiering in May is the second season of Amazon Prime’s twisty drama Homecoming. This season starts Janelle Monáe and premieres on May 22. After that, the rest of Amazon’s originals this month are fairly film-centric. The Goldfinch, Seberg, and The Vast of Night are the notable original films arriving in May.

Per usual the first of the month sees the biggest injection of movie content. Though there is...

Amazon is out with its list of what’s new in May.

Highlights include the new Amazon Prime Original series “Upload,” Season 2 of “Homecoming,” “Seberg,” “The Goldfinch,” and an original comedy special from “Crazy Rich Asians” star Jimmy O. Yang called “Jimmy O. Yang: Good Deal.”

Here is everything available to Amazon Prime members for no additional charge in May:

May 1

Movies

10 Fingers of Steel (1973)

A Cadaver Christmas (2011)

Assassination Tango (2003)

Best of Shaolin Kung Fu (1977)

Who Saw Her Die? (1980)

Crooked Hearts (1991)

Escape From Alcatraz (1979)

Eurocrime! The Italian Cop And Gangster Films That Ruled The ’70s (2014)

Fearless Young Boxer (1979)

Five Fingers of Steel (1982)

Friday The 13th Part III (1982)

Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (1982)

Gloria (2014)

Green Dragon Inn (1977)

House Of D (2005)

Torso (1973)

I Hate Tom Petty (2013)

Indie Film Artists: The Dmv Truth (2016)

Inferno (1980)

Night Train Murders (1975)

Seven Deaths In The Cat’s Eye (1973)

The Blood Spattered Bride (1972)

Lakeboat (2000)

Daughters of Darkness...

There was a special mix of shame and liberation when you visited a gay bookstore that contained adult material. When I ventured into my first one in the Nineties, you might start out flipping through an Edmund White or Andrew Holleran novel before slowly making your way to the magazines: After Out and Genre and The Advocate, there was the sexy stuff like Bluebook, Mandate, Torso, and Inches. If you were lucky, they also had a selection of VHS tapes or albums or DVDs to rent and buy, as well as a stash of poppers,...

Though much of the entertainment industry is currently paralyzed by Coronavirus and the lockdowns imposed to curb its spread, streaming services are now making out like bandits. Netflix and Amazon Prime both have reported record viewing figures, though that isn’t particularly surprising given that they have an almost literally captive audience.

Anyhow, with all eyes on the small screen, anything new and exciting is eagerly hoovered up. And after learning about all of the new and exciting shows and movies hitting Netflix in May, now it’s Amazon Prime’s turn.

Here’s the full release schedule:

May 2020

New Movies:

10 Fingers of Steel (1973)

A Cadaver Christmas (2011)

Assassination Tango (2003)

Best of Shaolin Kung Fu (1977)

Who Saw Her Die? (1980)

Crooked Hearts (1991)

Escape From Alcatraz (1979)

Eurocrime! The Italian Cop And Gangster Films That Ruled The ’70s (2014)

Fearless Young Boxer (1979)

Five Fingers of Steel (1982)

Friday The 13th Part III (1982)

Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter...

Genre festival to open with Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Parasite’.

Genre festival Night Visions has revealed the line-up for this year’s event, which will run from November 20-24 in Helsinki, Finland.

The opening film is Bong Joon-ho’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Parasite while other highlights include Rian Johnson’s whodunnit Knives Out and Vaclav Marhoul’s World War II drama The Painted Bird, starring Udo Kier, Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgard.

The festival will celebrate the work of Us director Jack Sholder by screening three of his 1980s horror films: The Hidden, Alone in the Dark and A...

“You could have dinner with us… my brother makes good head cheese! You like head cheese?”

The ‘Grave Tales’ Horror film series concludes at Webster University Thursday March 6th with a screening of Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). The screening will be at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood). The movie starts at 7:30 and a Facebook invite for the event can be found Here.

Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre may or may not be the scariest horror movie ever made (I think it is) but it’s certainly one of the most referenced, imitated, ripped off, and influential. It opened in October of 1974 when I was 13 and I read about it in a few monster mags, but could not initially talk my dad into taking me to see it (hew was usually pretty cool about that kind of thing – he’d already taken me to...

For this final week of home media releases in January, I hope everyone has prepared their wallets, because we have a lot to get excited about, especially if you’re a cult film fan.

Vinegar Syndrome is doing the dark lord’s work this Tuesday, as they are putting out four different titles, including Cutting Class, Splatter University, There’s Nothing Out There, and Uninvited. Severin is celebrating giallo filmmaking with their releases of All the Colors of Giallo and All the Colors of the Dark, Scream Factory is showing some love to Screamers, and if you missed it in theaters, you can also finally catch up with Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria on Blu-ray this week as well.

Other notable releases for January 29th include a new edition of Willow, Save Yourself, and Dead Silence (1989).

All the Colors of Giallo

'Giallo' is Italian for 'yellow', the color of the lurid...

From their "Hammer's House of Horror" screenings to their 21-movie Mario Bava spotlight and extensive Jean Rollin retrospective, New York's Quad Cinema has been an essential source for celebrating the horror genre's past, and they will continue to do so later this month with "Perversion Stories: A Fistful of Giallo Restorations."

Taking place November 23rd–29th at New York's Quad Cinema, "Perversion Stories: A Fistful of Giallo Restorations" will showcase digital restorations of Italian titles both beloved and lesser-known, including Lucio Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, Sergio Martino's Torso, Joe D’Amato's Death Smiles on a Murderer, and more.

Read on for more details on the giallo restoration screenings, and be sure to visit Quad Cinema's official website for additional information!

"Perversion Stories:

A Fistful of Giallo Restorations

November 23 – 29

The Quad offers up a selection of salacious and sinister Italian pulp—all screening in new digital restorations!

Sergio Martino’s Torso will be available on Blu-ray October 30th From Arrow Video

Enter… If You Dare!

A talented and versatile journeyman, director Sergio Martino has lent his talents to multiple genres across his long and varied career, but it is undoubtedly his giallo thrillers from the early 70s for which he is best known. Among the most highly acclaimed of these, 1973’s Torso revels in the genre’s time-honored traditions while simultaneously laying the groundwork for the modern slasher movie.

A sex maniac is prowling the streets of Perugia, targeting picturesque university town’s female students. Alarmed at plummeting life expectancy of the student body, Jane and her three friends elope to a secluded country villa only to discover that, far from having left the terror behind, they’ve brought it with them!

Also known as ”Carnal Violenc”e, Torso was released in Italy towards the end of...

Having turned the Jason Bourne series into a billion-dollar franchise that’s now spinning-off into television, Academy Award-nominated director Paul Greengrass can pretty much make whatever he likes. He’ll get offered things like a James Cameron-produced sci-fi film (“Fantastic Voyage” which he turned down) and consider a serial killer procedural crime film (“Torso“; not happening any longer), but given the agitated state of the world, the filmmaker instead decided to make to “22 July,” a drama about the infamous 2011 domestic terrorist attack in Norway by a lone wolf gunman who shot up a summer camp full of kids in protest of elites, Islam and immigration.

Continue reading ’22 July’: A Troubled Paul Greengrass Says “The World Is Unmoored At The Moment” at The Playlist.

We have officially entered fall which means it’s finally time to get those Halloween decorations up to the scare the neighbors and enjoy pumpkin spice variations of your favorite treats. More importantly, it’s that time of year when you gather ’round the television with your closest friends and watch the spookiest of movies… and what better way than with the latest releases from Arrow Video (Us).

For those looking to stay in the horror realm without watching only horror, then perhaps it’s best you start with Schlock from John Landis and hitting Blu-ray on October 16th. This raucous comedy pays loving tribute to monster movies of the past as it follows a prehistoric ape named Shlock on a rampage throughout southern California. This genre mashup launched the career of Landis and makeup effects wizard Rick Baker and now it will finally have a proper home video release.

The saying goes that books and their covers aren’t always the same or words to that effect; this particular logic had long been applied to the hallowed halls of the video stores, as eye-popping box art used to lure an unsuspecting victim could lead to atrocities or worse, boredom. And then there’s Screamers (1981), which promises something cool and twisted on the cover yet delivers a completely different film – an Italian period adventure tale with killer fish guys filleting to and fro. Different? You bet. Kind of delightful? Definitely.

The cover of Screamers boasts well, a screaming man who has been turned inside out, or rather appears just to be wearing his veins like an Italian horror wetsuit. Groovy, right? Well you can thank Roger Corman and his New World Pictures for the hucksterism; Screamers original title is The Island of the Fishmen, made in ’79, director Sergio Martino (Torso...

Review by Roger Carpenter

If Mario Bava can be credited as the Grandfather of the Giallo, with his early The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963), and Dario Argento can be credited as the Father of the Giallo with his seminal The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), then Sergio Martino should rightly be credited as, perhaps, the finest director of gialli. While Bava did some excellent work, including Blood and Black Lace and Twitch of the Death Nerve (Aka A Bay of Blood) and Argento also is renowned for his gialli like Profondo Rosso (Aka Deep Red), The Cat O’ Nine Tails, and Tenebrae, perhaps no director other than Martino was able to reel off a string of five—that’s right, five—expertly crafted gialli in a row. So, while Bava and Argento have become synonymous with gialli, and rightly so, fans of the genre include Martino’s name in...

By Tim Greaves

The name Sergio Martino will strike a chord with anyone who has even a passing interest in Italian exploitation pictures of the 70s and 80s. Once seen, who can forget The Great Alligator or The Island of Fishmen – both of which are favourites of this writer in their showcasing of Barbara Bach at her most radiant – or premium Suzy Kendall giallo Torso, or for that matter once ‘video nasty’ and Ursula Andress headliner The Mountain of the Cannibal God? Marking Martino’s second giallo, The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail (o.t. La coda della scorpione), was released in 1971, sandwiched between a couple of his most highly regarded titles, The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh and All the Colours of the Dark. Scorpion’s Tail isn’t quite on a par with either of those, but it’s still a respectable entry in the sub-genre.

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Tuesday, July 17th looks to be another busy day for home media releases, as we have a rather interesting blend of titles, both new and old. As far as recent flicks go, Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare, The Housemaid, Rampage, and You Were Never Really Here are the big highlights of this week’s Blu-ray and DVD debuts. And for those of you who are looking to expand your cult cinema collections, Arrow Video is keeping busy with new HD releases of The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail and Doom Asylum.

Other notable releases for July 17th include the new EndoArm edition of Terminator 2 in 4K, the Church of the Damned/Bad Magic double feature Blu-ray, Amityville Prison, and The Antithesis.

Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare

Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) and Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf) lead the cast of Blumhouse's Truth or Dare, a supernatural thriller from Blumhouse Productions.

DC Comics has released a trailer promoting Brian Michael Bendis' run on Superman and Action Comics. Bendis did a lot of great stuff while he was at Marvel Comics and I'm pretty stoked to see what he has planned for Superman at DC! The spot came along with the following description:

It’s a new era for the Man of Steel! Comic book superstar Brian Michael Bendis is taking the reins of Superman’s two ongoing series. Look for his Metropolis debut this July in both Superman #1 and Action Comics #1001.

DC will also be releasing new editions of Bendis’ Jinxworld titles with new issues of Powers, Scarlet, The United States of Murder Inc. and digital editions of Jinx, Torso, and Fire. The comic publisher will also be releasing several other titles from Bendis that will feature both existing DC properties and all-new characters that he has created.

Watch the...

Exclusive: Paramount Pictures has abandoned the development of the Brian Michael Bendis/Marc Andreyko project Ness (previously titled Torso), which Paul Greengrass was attached to direct in what was to be a possible feature franchise property. Well, we’re told no longer. So what happened?

Sources said that no one could agree on a script and the versions of the script were really not representative of the book which focuses on the 1930s Torso murder cases. The project was based on the graphic novel Torso and the last script was from Brian Helgeland, who earned Academy Award nominations for Mystic River and L.A. Confidential.

This is the second go-round for this project as the studio also tried to develop this property with David Fincher in 2008. But that fell apart when creative differences arose with studio exec Rob Moore.

Ness is a crime thriller that follows Treasury Department agent Eliot Ness...

Old dogs and new tricks, that’s me, as I’ve never seen a Sergio Martino film until now. If Torso is to be my first, so be it; a fun giallo with copious amounts of strictly gratuitous nudity is nothing to scoff at, and UK boutique label Shameless Films lovingly stabs their way onto your video shelf.

I certainly know of Martino’s work; as I delve deeper into Italian horror I hear of All the Colors of the Dark and Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (both from ’72), mostly due to the vibrant titles and his even more vibrant leading lady, Edwige Fenech, whose stunning visage graces my eyeballs on a regular basis. (Gratzi, Sarah.) But beyond that, I really knew little before taking my first trip into Martinoville. And thanks to Shameless, I plan to pop in more often.

Here’s our setting,...

Shameless Films in the UK continues their commitment to sharing the best in classic sleaze with their new UK Blu-ray premiere of Sergio Martino's Torso. The company has recently released two of Martino's other classic giallo films on Blu-ray - The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh and All the Colours of the Dark, both starring Edwige Fenech - but this is probably one of the most eagerly awaited film from the director's filmography to hit the British Isles in HD. The film was released on Blu-ray back in 2011 in the Us by Blue Underground, and I reviewed it then: Sergio Martino's film mines the primordial brain, mingling sex and violence in a very explicit way, more explicit than most, even, and creates a very...

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

Review by Roger Carpenter

Sergio Martino was a journeyman Italian director who averaged around three films a year into the early nineties and who worked in many different genres including documentaries (Naked and Violent), spaghetti westerns (A Man Called Blade), poliziotteschi (The Violent Professionals), sex comedies (Sex with a Smile), and action films (The Great Alligator; Slave of the Cannibal God; 2019: After the Fall of New York). But this blue-collar filmmaker is arguably most famous for his early seventies gialli such as The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail, All the Colors of the Dark, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, and Torso. Each of these gialli films are–rightly so–considered genuine classics of the genre and fans of these films each have their favorite Sergio Martino giallo. However, his final giallo of this period (he...

Sergio Martino’s The Suspicious Death Of A Minor (1975) will be available on Blu-ray September 26th from Arrow Video

In the wake of the success of Dario Argento’s ground-breaking giallo The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, numerous other directors stepped forward to try their hand at these lurid murder-mysteries. At the forefront was Sergio Martino (The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, Torso), whose sensual 70s thrillers starring Edwige Fenech and George Hilton are widely celebrated as some of the best the genre has to offer. The final of Martino’s six gialli, The Suspicious Death of a Minor combines conventional giallo trappings with elements of the then flourishing ‘poliziotteschi’ crime thrillers. Claudio Cassinelli (What Have They Done to Your Daughters?) stars as undercover cop Paolo Germi, on the trail of a Milanese criminal outfit following the brutal murder of an underage prostitute. But a killer-for-hire is also on the prowl,...

“Enter… if you dare – the bizarre world of the psychosexual mind.”

In April of 1975, the Italian horror film Torso opened at the Four Seasons Cinema at Olive and Woods Mill road where it was double feature with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre! I had tried to talk my dad into taking me to see Chainsaw when it had opened about 6 months earlier, but he refused (he was usually pretty cool about that kind of thing – but I was just 13). Finally, dad must have got sick of my begging because he drove me and a couple of buddies to the Four Seasons and dropped us off. Chainsaw ran first and it’s still the most terrifying moviegoing experience of my life. Torso wasn’t nearly a scary but it was loaded with gore and nudity (which Chainsaw was not), something I wasn’t used to, so it was kind of the perfect double feature.

Looking back on this still-young century makes clear that 2007 was a major time for cinematic happenings — and, on the basis of this retrospective, one we’re not quite through with ten years on. One’s mind might quickly flash to a few big titles that will be represented, but it is the plurality of both festival and theatrical premieres that truly surprises: late works from old masters, debuts from filmmakers who’ve since become some of our most-respected artists, and mid-career turning points that didn’t necessarily announce themselves as such at the time. Join us as an assembled team, many of whom were coming of age that year, takes on their favorites.

The torture scenes in writer-director Eli Roth’s Hostel openly evoked the 2003 Abu Ghraib photographs, which depicted United States military and Central Intelligence Agency personnel subjecting Iraqi prisoners to acts of profound cruelty and abuse. The film also addressed post-9/11 U.

Giallo film fans should get excited, as there are two amazing special edition releases coming your way this week courtesy of Arrow Video: Death Walks at Midnight and Death Walks on High Heels. For those of you who may have missed seeing The Eyes of My Mother and Incarnate, both are making their home entertainment bows on March 7th, and Scream Factory is set to teach us all about pain with their new release, The Lesson.

Other notable titles coming home this week include Havenhurst, Bad Kids of Crestview Academy, The Shadow People, Door to the Other Side, and Slasher.com.

Death Walks at Midnight: Special Edition (Arrow Video, Blu-ray & DVD)

The second film in Luciano Ercoli’s Death Walks series (and his third directorial effort to feature his wife Nieves Navarro, aka Susan Scott), Death Walks at Midnight is arguably the director’s masterpiece aided in...

In 1973, after prolific director Sergio Martino made three formative giallo films — The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, All the Colors of the Dark, and Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key — the filmmaker created a giallo-slasher hybrid that conflated sex, violence, and art. Torso was released a decade before Dario Argento’s Tenebre, but…

The post The Beyond: Sergio Martino’s Torso appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

Welcome to the future where you will hunt for your food in gang war ridden streets of a major metropolitan area! You and your buddy are just trying to get by but shit is getting way too real. You decide it’s time to leave the city and go to an island in the Atlantic. It must be better than the Bronx Warriors-like survival of the fittest living conditions. Does this sound like something that might be called The Fishemen and Their Queen? Does it sounds like the sequel to Island of the Fishmen as directed by the great Italian director Sergio Martino, one of the savviest and well-known of the horror men from the booted country? This guy has directed the Gialli of your nightmares. It doesn’t sound like a movie he would make at all, does it? Well, he did, and if you think the title is bad just you wait.