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The 1960s and '70s were a turbulent time in myriad aspects for people all over the world. The United States was mired in a pointless war in Vietnam, while, at home, the nation's young populace were taking to the streets to protest this conflict as well as to show support for the Civil Rights Movement, women's equality, and other social/political causes. As often occurs during such highly contentious times, art got revolutionary and deeply weird.

Inspired by experimentation with consciousness-altering substances like marijuana and acid, artists in a variety of media explored psychedelia with gleefully reckless abandon. The Beatles recorded "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," Dennis Hopper made "Easy Rider," and designers incorporated the loud, swirling colors of this creative movement into clothing and home fashions. Shag carpeting became a thing, and people dug it so much they put it on their walls. The whole world had gone groovy,...

When Tobe Hooper passed away in 2017, the majority of the press coverage focused on him as the man behind The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist. Little was said about his other work, which includes a documentary on Peter, Paul and Mary, an experimental film about the ’60s counterculture called Eggshells, several made-for-tv movies, numerous TV episodes, and his influential music video for Billy Idol’s “Dancing with Myself.”

Now comes American Twilight: The Cinema of Tobe Hooper, newly published in paperback by the University of Texas Press, to remedy that oversight. Nearly every work in Hooper’s oeuvre is covered at some length by one of the essays in this volume.

Because this is an academic publication, there’s a certain amount of technical jargon to contend with. Luckily for readers, editors Kristopher Woofter and Will Dodson have endeavored to keep things eminently readable. And whenever the jargon does show up,...

This article contains spoilers for "MaXXXine."

Writer/director Ti West trilogy of films starring Mia Goth — "X," "Pearl," and now "MaXXXine" — are, first and foremost, a solid trio of character-based horror films. Taken at face value, they tell an eerie, sexy, and violent cautionary tale about two women, Pearl and Maxine (both played by Goth), whose ambitions for stardom lead them to commit sinful acts.

Taken metaphorically, however, the films have a ton to say about the history of cinema itself, with a particular focus on the tense relationship between prurience and art that's existed within the medium since its inception. Horror movies and pornographic films have long been associated with each other, and West draws on that connection to explore the effects cinema has on everything from standards of youth and beauty -- particularly when it comes to women -- as well as the American Dream of going from rags to riches.

A new episode of the Revisited video series has just made its way online, and with this one we’re celebrating the birthday of the late, great director Tobe Hooper by looking at one of his more underrated horror films: the 2004 release Toolbox Murders (watch it Here)! You can hear all about it in the embed above.

Toolbox Murders is technically a remake of the 1978 film The Toolbox Murders, but it’s very different from the source material. Written by Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch, this one has the following synopsis: Young couple Steve and Nell move into a once fashionable, but now decaying, apartment block in Los Angeles, and soon realise that a number of young female residents have met unusually violent deaths. Before long, Nell makes some disturbing discoveries about the building’s manager and her fellow tenants.

The film stars Angela Bettis, Brent Roam, Marco Rodríguez, Rance Howard,...

This holiday season’s release of Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving is cause for celebration amongst slasher fans. It’s been a hot minute since mainstream horror audiences have been able to watch a wide-release slasher that feels gruesomely throwback *and* is based on a wholly original concept. Thanksgiving is a contemporary reinterpretation of cheesy 80s midnighters about masked killers and juicy, rubbery effects that hoists holiday horror back into the limelight. It’s also fair to speculate how Thanksgiving signals a possible shift in overall genre trends, but labeling Thanksgiving as the rebirth of the slasher subgenre is a bit misleading. Roth’s ooey-gooey ode to holiday horror with all the trimmings certainly sticks out in today’s horror landscape, but that’s only on surface-level evaluations.

Heck, it wasn’t even the only holiday-themed slasher in theaters this season.

Academics consider 1978-1984 the “Golden Age” of slashers, built on the backs of Black Christmas,...

Horror has always had one of pop culture's most passionate and devoted fandoms. While there are many infamous horror franchises and films, like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, many excellent scary movies fly under the radar of the mainstream. With so many ongoing horror franchises, fans of the genre frequently look for forgotten or hidden gems.

Because they're relatively inexpensive to make, studios produce many horror films yearly, making it easy for critics and fans to overlook some fun entries. This genre has amassed a hidden treasure trove of incredible yet unknown movies fans would love if they saw. These are some of the best hidden gem horror movies for fans to sink their teeth into.

Updated October 11, 2023, by Anthony Jeanetta. Horror movies continue to perform well at the box office and on streaming, with recent hits like Scream VI and M3GAN. Despite these commercial successes, many...

Gothic castles and faraway cabins are classic genre fare, but there’s something to be said for scary movies that tell stories about claustrophobic urban environments and the horrors of being isolated despite being surrounded by densely packed neighbors. Not only are these stories more relatable for big-city folks like myself, but they’re also uniquely positioned to deliver down-to-earth scares with a social twist.

And in honor of Evil Dead Rise brilliantly relocating the action to an LA apartment building, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six of the best Apartment Horror movies. After all, there’s nothing scarier than finding yourself trapped in a high rise with nowhere to go but down!

In the interest of keeping the list varied, we’ll be leaving out a few obvious entries like Candyman and Rosemary’s Baby, as I think we can assume that most of our readers have already seen these.

“What he does to your nerves is almost as frightening as what he does to his victims!”

World Premiere of The Toolbox Murders (1978) on New 4K 16-Bit Restoration struck from the uncut original negative for the 4K Uhd + Blu-ray Set Coming January 18th 2022. Pre-order Here

Here’s the Restored 1080p HD Movie Trailer from Blue Underground

Blue Underground Opens the Tool Shed to Release One of the Most Shocking Slashers of All Time in 4K Ultra HD. Blue Underground invites you to ring in the New Year with one of the most sadistic and controversial slashers of all time. On January 18, the cult distributor plans to dust off the old toolshed with a brand-new release of The Toolbox Murders. Dennis Donnelly’s notorious exploitation classic makes its debut on 4K Ultra HD with a new Blu-ray combo that has been scanned in 4K 16-bit from the uncut original negative. A...

Tim Donnelly, the actor best known for his portrayal of fun-loving firefighter Chet Kelly on NBC’s ’70s series Emergency!, has died. He was 77.

A cause of death was not disclosed, though the Los Angeles County Fire Museum confirmed the news via a tribute posted to their official Facebook page.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the sudden passing of our friend, Tim Donnelly, this weekend. To all the Emergency! fans, we want you to know that he was very excited about coming to the Museum in January for the 50th Anniversary,” a spokesperson wrote. “Many of the Museum Board Members have great memories of Tim from our time on Project 51 and personal contact. To his daughter, grandchildren, and siblings, we offer our sincerest condolences.”

Donnelly was born on September 3, 1944, finding his first role in Don Siegel’s 1957 crime drama, Baby Face Nelson, and going on to enjoy a 27-year screen career.

With offerings like Death Line and Stage Fright in their August lineup, Arrow's service continues to be a go-to destination for lovers of cult cinema:

"London, UK - Arrow Video is excited to announce the August 2021 lineup of their new subscription-based Arrow platform, available to subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland.

The August lineup leads with the Arrow release of Noel David Taylor's bizarre filmmaking comedy Man Under Table, available exclusively to subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK and newly launched in Ireland. The feature debut from writer/director Noel David Taylor, who also stars as Guy, a beleaguered, hilariously obnoxious scriptwriter navigating his way through the chaotic indie film scene in a dystopian Los Angeles, Man Under Table world premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival and screened at the Chattanooga Film Festival. The film will debut on Arrow August 2nd.

Man Under Table...

The old joke goes that the way one gets to Carnegie Hall is practice; while this is also a truism that can be applied to any tenet of life, it’s particularly ironic in The Mephisto Waltz (1971): yes, hard work is great, but it’s much easier to just have Satan put a concert pianist’s soul in your body to achieve your dreams. Not as funny, but easier.

The Mephisto Waltz (based on the novel of the same name by Fred Mustard Stewart) danced onto screens in early June to scathing reviews and tepid box office; even its support group find fault with key elements (we’ll get to the grievances in a bit) all these years later. I would say they are correct except I find the film works well enough despite its issues; truth be told there aren’t many Satanic flicks I don’t like,...

We have a busy start to this new month of home media releases, as we have more than 20 genre-related titles coming out this Tuesday alone. As far as new films are concerned, horror fans have quite an assortment to look for this week, between Knife+Heart, The Cleaning Lady, and I’ll Take Your Dead from Scream Factory. Arrow Video is giving the cult classic Trapped Alive the Special Edition treatment, and for those of you Stephen King aficionados out there, Children of the Corn is getting its own SteelBook, and there’s also a six-movie collection of King adaptations arriving on Tuesday as well.

All four of the original Batman movies are getting a 4K upgrade this week, courtesy of Warner Bros., and for those of you who are into stop-motion animation, the ever-delightful Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit hits Blu-ray on Tuesday too.

Other notable releases for June 4th include The Convent,...

Cameron Mitchell in Trapped Alive (1988) will be available on Blu-ray June 4th From Arrow Video

Genre regular Cameron Mitchell stars in this thrilling tale of escaped hoodlums and underground-dwelling cannibals from director Leszek Burzynski and Hellraiser producer Christopher Webster.

One wintry night, pals Robin and Monica are making their way to a Christmas party when they re carjacked by a gang of crooks recently escaped from the local penitentiary. With the two young women taken as hostages, things take an even darker turn when their vehicle plummets down an abandoned mine shaft, trapping them underground with the dangerous crooks – and a mutant cannibal.

Filmed in 1988 under the title of Forever Mine but not released until 1993, Trapped Alive was the first film to come out of Wisconsin s now-defunct Windsor Lake Studios, which would go on to produce a number of films under the Fangoria Films label in the early-90s,...

Guest reviewer Lee Broughton covers a trio of grisly horrors. The Toolbox Murders, Blood Harvest and A Cat in the Brain each feature a pop culture icon in a leading role. Hollywood actor Cameron Mitchell, oddball 1960s crooner Tiny Tim and the Italo horror director and all-round enfant terrible Lucio Fulci find themselves caught up in their own gory and disturbing splatter show. Perhaps unsurprisingly, all three films fell foul of the British Board of Film Classification at the time of their original release in the UK.

The Toolbox Murders, Blood Harvest, A Cat in the Brain

Separate Region B Blu-ray releases

All from 88 Films – Slasher Classics Collection

£14.99 each

Reviewed by Lee Broughton

The Toolbox Murders

Region B Blu-ray

1978 / Color / 1.78 / 93 min. / Street Date December 4, 2017

Starring: Cameron Mitchell, Pamelyn Ferdin, Wesley Eure, Nicholas Beauvy, Tim Donnelly, Aneta Corsaut.

Cinematography: Gary Graver

Film Editor: Nunzio Darpino

Production Designer: D. J. Bruno

Original...

Ever since seeing Creepshow (1982) when it first arrived on video, I’ve been enamored with anthology films; reaching back to Amicus’ ‘60s and ‘70s treasures like Tales from the Crypt (1972) all the way up to Epic Pictures’ Tales of Halloween (2015), omnibuses scratch a very particular itch for this viewer. Falling somewhere in the middle of my terrorline is From a Whisper to a Scream (1987), a proud and nasty addition to the sub-genre. This bugger does not mess around.

Released by Moviestore Entertainment stateside and by Cineplex-Odeon up here in Canada the following year, From a Whisper to a Scream (Aka The Offspring, which is what I knew it as) made back its $ 1.1 million budget plus a few dollars more, and the film received mixed reviews from critics in its limited release. Scrappy and mean, with a delightful turn from Vincent Price in the wraparound, From a Whisper to a Scream...

Review by Roger Carpenter

Italian directors have always had a penchant for jumping on the cinematic bandwagon whenever a popular film is released. And we aren’t talking about just a couple of directors and a couple of films, but nearly all directors and, depending upon the genre, sometimes hundreds of films. Thus, we have the pepla of the 1950’s and 1960’s, the poliziotteschi and gialli of the 1970’s, the spaghetti westerns of the 1960’s and early 1970’s, the Jaws-inspired rip-offs, the Alien-inspired ripoffs, and the zombie and jungle/cannibal epics of the 1980’s. But, with the international sensation of the Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis vehicle entitled The Vikings in 1958, Italians were quick to jump on this particular bandwagon as well, resulting in a seven-year cycle of Viking films. And Mario Bava, best known for his proto-slashers and horror vehicles, was not averse to climbing on the bandwagon occasionally himself.

Director Greydon Clark is not a name thrown around a lot. Horror fans will know him (probably) for 1977’s Satan’s Cheerleaders. The rest of filmdom need not apply. However, his best film, Without Warning (1980), would end up resonating in such a way as to inspire Predator (1987), Schwarzenegger’s Alien in the Jungle box office smash. And when I say inspire, I mean they stole the concept. But what Without Warning lacks in testosterone and Hollywood bankrolls, it makes up in B movie charm and a winsome personality. You can’t help but fall in love with the damn thing.

Released by Filmways Pictures in New York, in September 1980, Without Warning (Aka It Came…Without Warning) had a scattered release – dribs and drabs in smaller markets, and don’t forget Finland (who could?). Made for a meager $150,000 Us the film was given a real dine and dash release, I’m...

Stars: Jamie Gillis, Michael Gaunt, Tiffany Clark, Milton Ingley, George Payne, Samantha Fox, Tanya Lawson, Marilyn Gee, Tish Ambrose, Kelly Nichols, Nicole Bernard, Bobby Astyr | Written and Directed by Roger Watkins

“One man’s fantasy is another man’s reality!”

Finding himself with a debt that he just can’t pay off, Williams (Jamie Gillis, Dracula Sucks) is tasked by shady mafia-like Franklin (Michael Gaunt, Maraschino Cherry) with something of a retrieval mission to a mysterious warehouse containing three coloured rooms; a blue, a red and a black one, each housing a beautiful woman. Williams sends his associate Alan (George Payne, The Taming of Rebecca) to carry out the task on his behalf, but with balls of steel, Alan has taken the item for himself and has disappeared. This leads Williams to pursue him down a gaping glory… I mean rabbit hole. Frustrated and desperate, Williams visits a seedy, desolate...

Violent sorta-sequel Toolbox Murders 2 gets UK DVD release. Director Dean Jones’ sorta-sequel to Tobe Hooper’s effectively arch 2004 quasi-remake of the notorious Cameron Mitchell-starring 1978 psychodrama The Toolbox Murders has an odd but wildly amusing history. Lensed in 2011, the ultra-gory movie has had early, unfinished cuts screen to dismal response at festivals, was…

The post “Final cut” of Toolbox Murders 2 gets UK DVD release appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

We're back with a special round-up, taking a look at three upcoming horror film Blu-rays, two of which star the legendary Vincent Price. Scream Factory revealed the bonus features for the anthology horror film, From a Whisper to a Scream, Kino Lorber has announced they're bringing Jacques Tourneur's War Gods of the Deep, a.k.a. The City Under the Sea, out on Blu-ray with a new extra, and Olive Films has slated a Satan's Blade 30th anniversary Blu-ray for a spring release.

From a Whisper to a Scream: Scream Factory will release From a Whisper to a Scream on Blu-ray beginning April 28th, with bountiful bonus features included.

From Scream Factory: "**Extras for From A Whisper To A Scream Revealed!**

Fans of this underrated 1987 gem with Vincent Price (in his last role in a horror film) are in for a super treat. Check out the extensive line-up...

We’re back with another horror round-up. This time around, we focus on the slight delay in the upcoming premiere of Penny Dreadful Season 2, a new teaser for the second season of Salem, and details on the new street date for Scream Factory’s From a Whisper to a Scream Blu-ray.

Penny Dreadful: Showtime announced today that Penny Dreadful‘s Season 2 premiere, originally scheduled to air on April 26th, will now instead debut one week later on Sunday, May 3rd at 10pm Et.

“This season, Vanessa and Ethan form a deeper bond as the group, including Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton), Dr. Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway), and Sembene (Danny Sapani), unite to banish the evil forces that threaten to destroy them. Meanwhile, Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney), the Creature (Rory Kinnear) and Brona (Billie Piper) are all waging battles of their own. Patti LuPone will guest star as a mysterious character of...

You might remember paying Oldfield a visit via 1987’s horror anthology film, From a Whisper to a Scream, aka The Offspring, which starred the legendary likes of Vincent Price and Clu Gulager. With their “Shocktober” festivities in full force, Scream Factory is giving fright fans a chance to return to the town of terror with their announcement that they are bringing From a Whisper to a Scream to Blu-ray in February:

“Our month-long “Shocktober” celebration continues with another film to reveal. In Feb 2015, the 1987 anthology horror film From A Whisper To A Scream (also known as The Offspring) will make its debut on the Blu-ray format.

Directed by Jeff Burr (The Stepfather 2, Pumpkinhead II, Texas Chainsaw Massacre III and Puppetmaster 4 & 5), the film stars legendary king of horror Vincent Price, Clu Gulager (The Return of the Living Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2), Susan Tyrell (Angel, Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker) and Cameron Mitchell (Silent Scream,...

The Equalizer comes to the big screen with Denzel Washington in the lead. Here's Ryan's review of a bruising action thriller...

Readers of a certain vintage might remember The Equalizer, the 80s television series starring Edward Woodward, but it’s unlikely they’ll remember it being quite as action-packed and brutal as Antoine Fuqua’s full-blooded film adaptation.

Denzel Washington replaces Woodward as Robert McCall, a Diy store worker with a chequered past. Living alone in his modest Boston apartment, McCall barely sleeps and spends the greater proportion of his nights at a 24-hour diner, reading classic literature, arranging the condiments in neat rows and quietly brooding away the hours before dawn.

One of the diner’s few other patrons is Elena, a young prostitute played by Chloe Grace Moretz. When she’s viciously beaten up by her Russian pimp, Slavi (David Meunier), McCall leaps to her defence, using a...

Summer is officially right around the corner, which means horror DVD and Blu-rays are starting to heat up as well. This week, we’ve got several cult classics hitting high definition for the first time, another special edition set of the first three seasons of The Walking Dead,and the recent RoboCop reboot directed by Jose Padilha and starring Joel Kinnaman.

As if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a special Doctor Who David Tennant-themed collection being released, several indie creature features and we’re finally seeing the official arrival of the Video Nasties documentaries stateside on Tuesday. Check out all the horror and sci-fi fun you can add to your home collections this week below!

Spotlight Titles:

Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (Cult Epics, Blu-ray)

Prepare yourselves… The strangest bedtime story ever told! Cult Epics brings you Death Bed, George Barry’s uniquely weird journey through a world of wind demons,...

Afm 2013 came to a close yesterday, but we still have a few tales to tell from the huge event... such as the latest on Hitchhiker Massacre, which debuted a new trailer and poster art at the show, both of which we have right here!

Retrofocus Pictures' slasher horror film Hitchhiker Massacre is directed by James L. Bills (Refuge of Last Resort) and produced by J. Horton (Monsters in the Woods, Edges of Darkness). Retrofocus is the brainchild of executive producer Ivan Nagy, who created the HBO series "The Hitchhiker" and directed Skinner.

The film stars Ely Lamay, Calista Carradine, John Barrymore, James Bartholet, Veronica Lavery, and Katherine Cronyn.

"Hitchhiker Massacre is a love letter to the slasher flicks I loved as a kid: Friday the 13th, Halloween, The Toolbox Murders, The Slumber Party Massacre. Gone is the self-referential, jokey comedy that infected so much horror post-Scream. I just wanted to make an honest,...

Seeing as how it’s still the Halloween season…we’re going to go right on featuring some fantastic horror posters by some amazing artists! You’re all right with that right? I mean…if you’re not you’d tell me? Oh…really? Hrm…well I suppose we have a problem because…well I picked out the posters first and…they’re all there right now…after the jump. I’m actually writing this last so…hrm…well this is awkward.

So…click the link to continue reading…or…you know…don’t.

First up we have this awesome poster for The Evil Dead by Peter Strain.

Next up is a poster for The Toolbox Murders. I love horror posters from this era, they’re all kind of similar and sort of cheap looking but…there’s just something about them that’s so appealing. Plus they all needed...

If youve been waiting for a fun enlightening documentary about the beloved slasher subgenre Slice and Dice The Slasher Film Forever is the pic for you. Tons of celebrity guests cool visuals and thrilling archival footage waits Slice and Dice isnt likely to disappoint. Its a blast to watch. Loaded with countless clips from some absolutely classic gems (including Motel Hell The Hills Have Eyes The Burning Slaughter High Monster Man Sleepaway Camp Halloween Friday the 13th A Nightmare on Elm Street Childs Play The Toolbox Murders and many many more) thorough conversations as to the relevance of the final girl the trend of excessive gore and what it requires to escape a slasher film in one piece.

Note: The film I'm about to review is not a remake of the obscure 1986 Klaus Kinski psycho thriller Crawlspace. I feel silly even having to mention this, but Hollywood has remade The House on Sorority Row, The Crazies, and The Toolbox Murders, so I don't even know what qualifies as "obscure" anymore.

  If you combine the phrases "Australian," "science fiction," and "horror" into the description of a new movie, I'll be the first guy in line to see it. Attribute my affection for Aussie cinema to childhood screenings of films like Patrick, Razorback, and Mad Max 2 (aka The Road Warrior), but I've always appreciated the indie Aussies' approach to mood, tension, action, and enthusiasm for car chases, fist fights, gun battles, crazy monsters, and violence with an outback attitude. I say all this because the most recent export from Australia's genre department is more or less a disappointment. The...

It’s the month of October. It’s Halloween. No, not the day itself, but tis the season. That means we need to focus on some truly excellent 80’s horror surrounding our beloved holiday. Sure we could give the rehash job to Halloween and its subsequent sequels, but that’s not entirely in spirit of the game although I can assure you that I’m working on something that focuses on the Carpenter magnum opus. Today we’re going to focus on some horror flicks that are about Halloween, but aren’t John Carpenter’s Halloween. Let’s talk about The Day After Halloween, Trick or Treats, Lady in White in our first It Came From 1980X triple feature offering. Each of these movies incorporates something of the Halloween spirit and only one of them actually gets any street cred for being an honest to goodness creep out. There’s...

Cinefamily’s upcoming month-long horror celebration is pretty much the raddest thing ever. Presented in partnership with Elijah Wood’s The Woodshed Horror Company, Nightmare City is a 30-day midnight video nasty watch-a-thon to commemorate the 30 year anniversary of the video nasty uproar in the U.K.

Yep. It’s a nightmare come true. 30 days of over-the-top brain smashing, blood-gushing nasty goodness. To sweeten the deal Cinefamily is offering prizes to the fans who sit through the most movies:

3Rd Place: the 3-dvd all-region UK box set Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide

2Nd Place: a vintage large-format French theatrical poster for The Burning + the 3-dvd all-region UK box set Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide

1St Place: the chance to guest-program an upcoming Cinefamily midnight movie screening + the 3-dvd all-region UK box set Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide. In the event of a tie for first place, we will hold a...

There are a few fan favorites from the VHS era that are favorites solely because of they are completely indicative of the VHS boom in the mid 80’s. One movie that would qualify for this distinction would be Terror on Tape. It’s got one of the sexiest covers in the history of media packaging and is ripe for the nostalgic horror fan who sees a VHS tape being squeezed by a monster hand as a symbol of their own frustration and adoration for this somewhat lost medium (somewhat lost because it’s making a creeping comeback). Comet Video and Continental (same thing different name) put this one out as a sort of advertisement for the titles that Continental was distro-ing. Little did they know that the film itself would take on its own life as a piece of iconographic advertising. It’s a collection of short clips from some...

The 2004 shocker The Toolbox Murders makes its long-awaited big-screen debut (locally at least) this weekend when it plays at the Tivoli Theater in St. Louis Friday and Saturday nights at midnight as part of the Tivoli’s Reel Late series. Brent Roam, one of the film’s stars and a St. Louis native, will be attending both nights to answer questions and sign autographs.

The Toolbox Murders tells the tale of Nell and Steven Burrows (Angela Bettis and Brent Roam), who move to Los Angeles to start a new life together. When they move into the Lusman Building, a historic Hollywood apartment complex, Nell and Steven find themselves caught into a web of terrifying evil. A ruthless killer lurks inside, somehow moving sight unseen from apartment to apartment murdering various unsuspecting victims. They are beaten to death with hammers, gored with drills, shot with nailguns, and get the top half...

I have an absolute gem for all of you to sink your teeth into this week as "Wtf Movies" continues. This is the story of a dog and his companion in search of a new master, who just happens to be in the bloodline of the most famous bloodsucker in all of vampire lore. Released in 1978, I give you..."Zoltan: Hound of Dracula"! I had no idea this existed until I went to a double feature of "Prom Night" & "The Toolbox Murders" one evening years ago.…...

A sequel to Tobe Hooper's 2004 'Toolbox Murders' is currently shooting in La. Dean C. Jones, who acted as second unit director on the first installment, is taking the helm for the follow-up which will see Christopher Doyle reprise his role. The film, in fact based on the 1978 Dennis Donnelly movie 'The Toolbox Murders', is also set to star the gorgeous actress and model Chauntal Lewis (below), Brian Krause, Ethan Phillips and the legendary Lance Henriksen. Jones is probably better known for his makeup FX work on a whole host of movies such as 'Night of the Living Dead 3D', 'Fast and Furious' and the upcoming Disney sequel 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides'. The follow-up was announced a couple of years and you can check out the original plot below....

This week sees a ton of genre movies coming out on DVD and Blu- Ray. The biggest being Predators, followed up by the remake of the cult classic Night of the Demons, a sequel to Mirrors, and Anniversary editions for Rocky Horror Picture Show and Psycho. Add to that a slew of indie and classic horror and there is a lot to choose from.

Predators

Directed by Nimród Antal

Robert Rodriguez presents Predators, a bold new chapter in the Predator universe. Adrien Brody stars as Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors mysteriously brought together on a jungle planet. But when these cold-blooded human “predators” find themselves in all-out war against a new breed of alien Predators, it’s the ultimate showdown between hunter and prey. Predators also star Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Walton Goggins, Danny Trejo, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Oleg Taktarov, and Louis Ozawa Changchien.

The number of home video releases on October 19th is not as abundant as in recent weeks, and fewer re-released titles means those that are available are much more special. In this batch one Adrien Brody flick competes with another, and at least two independent horror titles are making a splash. Two beloved classic films return in Blu-ray where one is supplemented by a documentary treatment of it.

Also, don't forget to strum & drum out with some tunes from Rob Zombie on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Finally, foreign horror gives us an over-the-top Japanese gorefest, a British zombie flick where the $70 budget was spent on tea and biscuits for the zombies, and Norwegian black metal.

Predators

Directed by Nimród Antal

Robert Rodriguez presents Predators (review), a bold new chapter in the Predator universe. Adrien Brody stars as Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors mysteriously brought together on a jungle planet.

Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide

The UK in the early 1980’s. The birth of the video age and the birth of one of the most notorious periods in British movie history – the era of the Video Nasty!

As the proliferation of home video grew, independent video distributors filled the gap left by a Hollywood system too afraid to release films on video with a mind-boggling selection of movies – in fact almost anything they could lay their hands on! From obscure horror films, to sex films, kung-fu, cult classics, obscurities and outright trash, all these and more could be found in local video rental stores located on almost every high street in the country. That was until 1984 when the tabloid newspaper moral panic whipped up by clean-up campaigner leader Mary Whitehouse and fanned by newspapers like the Daily Mail and their infamous “Ban the Sadist Videos” headline finally brought about the Video Recordings Act…...

Nucleus Films are set to release the definitive guide to the Video Nasties phenomenon next month – covering all the dirty secrets of one of the most controversial eras in the history of British film. For the first time on DVD, all 72 films that fell foul of the Director of Public Prosecutions are trailer-featured with special intros for each title, in a rather snazzy three-disc collector’s edition box-set, alongside a brand new documentary - Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship And Videotape, directed by Jake West. Disc One presents the 39 titles that were successfully prosecuted in UK courts and deemed liable to deprave and corrupt. These included: ‘Absurd’, ‘Cannibal Holocaust’, ‘The Driller Killer’, ‘I Spit on Your Grave’, ‘Nightmares in a Damaged Brain’, ‘Snuff’ & ‘Zombie Flesh-Eaters’. Disc Two presents the 33 titles that were initially banned, but then subsequently acquitted and removed from the Dpp's list. These included: ‘Death Trap’, ‘Deep River...

Carlsbad - LEGOs…those colorful blocks that snap together so easily. Many view them as a childhood toy, but they’re serious fun among collectors and adult builders. They can vacation at the American LEGOland. They can get those rare pieces at Lego stores across the country in malls. Lego video games featuring Star Wars, Batman and Indiana Jones are all the rage. Keeping up with what’s happening in Lego is about as foreboding a task as your mother keeping up with your LEGOs.

Joe Meno organizes the Lego universe through BrickJournal magazine. The periodical announces upcoming products, events and how-to articles by top buildings. It’s a coffeetable magazine featuring all the Lego pieces your kids lost under the sofa. The pages are addictive even for someone mildly interested in Lego with illustrations that show how the plastic building blocks can snap into amazing works of art. For...

In the early 1980s, fearing that the morality of British youth was being corrupted by the explosion of ultraviolent film on home video, British authorities passed a sweeping new law on video content. It outright banned a total of seventy two films - though some would later be allowed on appeal - creating what ironically became the definitive list of extreme cinema for many collectors. These were the so-called Video Nasties.

In an age where everything you could possibly imagine is available for free on the internet the idea of controlling access to these titles seems sort of quaint but back in the day, if you were in the UK and wanted to see Cannibal Holocaust or I Spit On Your Grave the only way to do it was via illicit tape trading and an underground network of collectors.

And now, looking back on that era is Doghouse and Evil Aliens director Jake West,...

Nucleus Films have announced the UK DVD release of Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide in October, which follows the debut of the Jake West directed documentary Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship And Videotape (which forms a part of this release) at this years London Film4 FrightFest in August.

The three-disc DVD set covers the most notorious period in the history of British home entertainment and presents, for the first time ever on DVD, all 72 films that came under scrutiny from the Director of Public Prosecutions (Dpp) – making it the definitive source for all things “video nasty” and a must buy for horror fans everywhere. Check out the freshly released teaser trailer, which features contributions from Andy Nyman and Christopher Smith:

Disc One in this three disc set features the 39 titles which were successfully prosecuted in UK courts and officially deemed “liable to deprave and corrupt” – the standard by which all video nasties were measured.

After four days of guest blogs from author Joe R. Lansdale, the time has come to reveal the details of the contest tie-in for his new book collection The Complete Drive-In.

Dread Central, in association with Underland Press, is offering one lucky winner a "drive-in" pack that includes a copy of The Complete Drive-In plus the two movies that are playing at the Orbit Drive-In in the novels: The Toolbox Murders and Night of the Living Dead, along with a pack of microwave popcorn.

Synopsis:

Friday night at the Orbit Drive-in: a circus of noise, sex, teenage hormones, B-movie blood, and popcorn. On a cool, crisp summer night, with the Texas stars shining down like rattlesnake eyes, movie-goers for the All-Night Horror Show are trapped in the drive-in by a demonic-looking comet. Then the fun begins. If the movie-goers try to leave, their bodies dissolve into goo. Cowboys are reduced to tears.

One of the key features of Joe R. Lansdale's The Complete Drive-In is that two movies are playing at the Orbit Drive-In in the novels: Night of the Living Dead and The Toolbox Murders. Today Joe's guest blog discusses them both.

The question posed to Joe is: Tell us about the two movies that are playing at the theater. How did you choose them, and do you remember when you first saw them?

I saw Night of the Living Dead in Longview, Texas, I believe, at The River Road, and then I saw a midnight showing of it at an indoor drive-in in Tyler, Texas. I think it was The Tyler Theater, but it's been a long time. Both times it knocked me dead. Back then we didn't have videos or DVDs. You saw it when it came out or when it came on TV, usually years later and most likely cut to pieces,...

Rarely does the title of a film alone make us want to see it, but it does happen. For instance, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Nail Gun Massacre, Blood Sucking Freaks, and of course The Toolbox Murders. Yep, a good name can immediately make a horror fan's eyes open wide. Such is the case with Big Tits Zombie in 3D.

Takao Nakano's latest film is an adaptation of Rei Mikamoto's cult manga Kyonyo Dragon, and it features adult video star Sola Aoi (Sora Aoi, 蒼井そら) swinging chainsaws, fighting the undead and sushi(!) along with her band of stripper friends. Do you really need to know anything else? We didn't think so, but check out the latest trailer and the plot crunch for this promising new epic below courtesy of Twitch Film!

Synopsis

Rena Jodo (Sola Aoi) is a stripper who just got back from Mexico and has been offered...

Chicago – If you’re like me, you forgot how totally weird the cult horror classic “The Toolbox Murders” actually is. Perhaps the dull, by-the-numbers Tobe Hooper remake (with the otherwise great Angela Bettis from “May”) warped our minds, but this is a trippy slasher film, a notable entry in the slasher genre now available in glorious B-movie High-Def for the first time.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0

Reportedly based on a true story (aren’t they all?), “The Toolbox Murders” caused quite a stink in 1978 when it was released. It’s not that graphically violent, but it is easy to see what turned people off in a film that, for almost the entirety of its first act, consists of intercut shots of a power tool and a screaming woman being murdered by said tool. Watching a woman masturbate before being killed by a masked man with a nail gun is not for everyone.

From Jigsaw to Jacko, this week's DVD release are a real mixed bag. Some of the higher profile films hitting a digital format today include Drew Barrymore's Whip It, the Bruce Willis sci-fi action film Surrogates, Saw VI, the poorly received comedy I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, and Michael Jackson's This Is It. Digging a bit deeper, we also have the indie drama Little Ashes, which stars Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali, Jennifer Baichwal's metaphysical documentary Act of God, and the direct-to-dvd Thomas Jane noir-thriller Give 'Em Hell Malone. All this plus the U.S. release of Pontypool and Parker Lewis Can't Lose: Season 2! What movies will be in your queue this week? Whip It [1] (+ Blu-ray [2]) Michael Jackson's This Is It [3] (+ Blu-ray [4]) Surrogates [5] (+ Blu-ray [6]) Saw VI [7] (+ Blu-ray [8]) Bright Star [9] I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell [10] The Boys are Back [11] Little Ashes [12] Pontypool [13] St. Trinian's...

The Alamo Guide

for January 8th, 2010

Apologies for the late email this week. I was celebrating 2010 out of town, and then when I got home I was distracted by the intensity of the Texas vs. Alabama game. Bummerrrr. Oh well. We can all drown our sorrows in some Alamo fun this weekend! First of all, The Monster Squad screening was so popular that we added a second one later that night so there’s still a chance to see the Cast And Creators In Attendance! Youth In Revolt, The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, and Crazy Heart all open up this weekend. Girlie Night presents Romy & Michele’S High School Reunion on Tuesday, so get your business women outfits ready (but please have your fake job description ready)! If you’re a foodie and love our Alamo feasts, The Alamo Iron Chef competition returns with a battle between Alamo kitchen and...

DVD Playhouse—December 2009

By

Allen Gardner

Public Enemies (Universal) Johnny Depp portrays legendary Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger in co- writer/director Michael Mann’s take on America’s first “Public Enemy Number One.” Like many big studio releases today, Public Enemies has it all: A-list talent before and behind the camera, but lacks a heart or soul that allows its audience to connect with it. Film plays out like a “true crime” TV show with re-enactments of famous events cast with top actors and shot by the best technicians in the business, with little, if any, character or story development to hold it together in between. A real disappointment from one of our finest filmmakers and finest actors. The lone standout: the great character actor Stephen Lang as a hard-eyed lawman who’s seen a lot, but manages to retain a tiny piece of his heart. For a better take on the same subject,...

Final specs have been announced for the Anthem Pictures DVD of the Bill Moseley-starrer Dead Air, arriving October 27. And indie filmmaker Gary Ugarek sent over cover art and details on two different discs of his own zombie opus, Deadlands 2, also arriving from Anthem on the 27th.

Directed by actor Corbin Bernsen and featuring Moseley’s Night Of The Living Dead 1990 co-star Patricia Tallman, Dead Air is set in a radio station where shock jock Logan Burnhardt (Moseley) and his staff receive increasingly frightening reports from outside of a terrorist bio-weapon attack and the resulting flesheating ghouls. The movie is accompanied by:

Audio commentary by Bernsen “The Making of Dead Air” minidocumentary Behind-the-scenes interviews with cast and crew In addition, the first 1,000 people to pre-order the DVD via the film’s official website will receive a limited-edition autographed mini-poster, hand-numbered by the director. Retail price is $19.95; see Fango #288, on sale in October,...

Blue Underground is revisiting the 1978 film Toolbox Murders on Blu-Ray. The distributor has a January 25, 2010 release date planned. According to Blu-Ray.com, the video will be presented in 1.66:1 1080p resolution, audio specs have not been finalized. Special features include an audio commentary with producer Tony Didio, Gary Graver (director of photography) and actress Pamelyn Ferdin; an I Got Nailed in The Toolbox Murders featurette; TV/radio spots; and a theatrical trailer.