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A samurai travels through time and winds up on the set of a samurai TV show in A Samurai in Time.

The Japanese sci-fi comedy will be released August 5 on Fandor and VOD.

At the end of the Edo period in Kyoto, a samurai prepares to fight against an opposing clan member when a flash of lighting hits. He wakes up to find himself transported through time to the present day, and the location where he was about to duel is now a samurai TV show set.

He is mistaken for an extra and immediately thrust into the world of period drama productions. Due to his very ‘authentic’ look and speech, he starts working on many productions and finds himself playing the role of a “kirareyaku,” a swordsman whose job is to die spectacularly on film.

Junichi Yasuda writes and directs. Makiya Yamaguchi, Norimasa Fuke, Yuno Sakura, Rantaro Mine, Ken Shonozaki,...

You may have seen The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III before, but never like this.

The sequels were originally written and shot as one movie, but directors Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz ended up with so much footage that they broke it up into two installments.

36 years later, the initial vision for the sequel has been reconstructed under its original title, Mr. Melvin. Watch the exclusive trailer below.

The 127-minute movie will premiere as part of Troma-Thon 2025 at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater in Lehighton, Pa on July 18-19, followed by a screening at Popcorn Frights Film Festival in Fort Lauderdale, Fl on August 8.

The filmmakers gave Andrew L. Miller, Kaufman’s assistant, and Adam Peltier, star of Troma’s upcoming film The Power of Positive Murder, their blessing to edit the two sequels together from the recently unearthed original script.

Toxie actor Ron Fazio provides new voiceover for Mr.

Fighting crime doesn’t pay, but selling out does in Mr. Melvin, a new reconstruction of The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III based on the original script.

Get an exclusive look at the official poster by Emmy Award-winning artist Dean Haspiel below. No stranger to Toxie, Haspiel illustrated a variant cover for Ahoy Comics’s The Toxic Avenger comic, in addition to working with the likes of Marvel and DC.

The film will premiere as part of Troma-Thon 2025 at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater in Lehighton, Pa on July 18-19, followed by a screening at Popcorn Frights Film Festival in Fort Lauderdale, Fl on August 8.

“The fellas sent me a link to the Mr. Melvin cut that combined and edited Toxic Avenger II and III back into its original screenplay, and we discussed the best approach to the poster,” Haspiel tells Bloody Disgusting.

“They wanted Toxie...

As most Troma fans know, The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III were originally written and shot as one movie, but directors Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz ended up with so much footage that they broke it up into two installments.

36 years years later, the filmmakers’ initial vision for the sequel has been reconstructed under its original title, Mr. Melvin.

Andrew L. Miller, Kaufman’s assistant, and Adam Peltier, star of Troma’s upcoming film The Power of Positive Murder, unearthed the original script and edited footage from the two films together as originally intended.

Toxie actor Ron Fazio provided some new voiceover for Mr. Melvin. He stars alongside Phoebe Legere, John Altamura, Rick Collins, John Altamura, Rikiya Yasuoka, and Lisa Gaye.

Clocking it at around two hours, the Mr. Melvin cut will premiere as part of Troma-Thon 2025 at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater in Lehighton, Pa...

Stephen King's It miniseries was one of the great horror releases of the 90s, and still terrifies audiences more than 30 years after release. Featured within In Search of Darkness 1990-1994, we have an exclusive clip with director Tommy Lee Wallace, who talks about the world's fear of clowns, and bringing Pennywise to life with Tim Curry!

Ready to explore the best of ‘90s horror films and TV? In Search of Darkness 1990-1994, a five-plus-hour documentary featuring brand-new interviews with the greatest line-up of horror icons and experts, is now available to pre-order exclusively at 90sHorrorDoc.com until Midnight Halloween (Pacific Time) on October 31st, 2024. Audiences will have their last chance to have their names alongside their favorite horror icons in the credits!

From Creatorvc, the creative minds behind the In Search of Darkness ‘80s horror trilogy and Aliens Expanded documentary, In Search of Darkness: 1990-1994 delves into an...

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,...

This month’s installment of Deep Cuts Rising features a variety of horror movies. Some selections reflect a specific day or event in February, and others were chosen at random.

Regardless of how they came to be here, or what they’re about, these past movies can generally be considered overlooked, forgotten or unknown.

From a killer bear to a man-eating demon, here are five hidden horror gems and deep cuts that you can check out in February 2023.

Trapped (1973)

Directed by Frank De Felitta.

In this offering from ABC Movie of the Week, James Brolin plays a divorced father looking for a certain gift for his daughter. Had he not tried to thwart a mugging, though, his character might have been able to deliver the gift on time. Instead, the protagonist is rendered unconscious until he wakes up alone in the mall. Well, not completely alone because the grounds are...

Hello, dear readers! We have this week’s horror and sci-fi home media releases on tap for you today, and there’s a lot of great stuff hitting a variety of formats today. In terms of new genre offerings, David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future and Men from Alex Garland arrive on Blu-ray and DVD, and we have a few older titles getting some love this week, too. Doom is getting a special 4K release, James Bond III’s Def by Temptation is celebrating a brand new Blu-ray release, and Paramount has given Paul W.S. Anderson’s Event Horizon a 4K upgrade this week as well.

Other titles headed home on August 9th include L.A. AIDS Jabber and the 2010 indie horror YellowBrickRoad.

Crimes of the Future

As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. With his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux...

Happy Saturday, everyone! Yesterday, we took some time to celebrate all the independent horror movies released throughout the 1990s, so it only made sense that for today’s installment of our “Saturday Streams” series that we put the spotlight on an assortment of indie films from that decade. I wanted to focus more on either the first movies of a franchise or movies that ended up being these singular cinematic offerings, so you won’t see any sequels included here.

So if you’re looking for some fun stuff to watch this weekend, read on to see where you can stream some killer indie horror from the 1990s! Enjoy!

Jacob’s Ladder (Streaming on Paramount Plus & Epix)

A Vietnam War veteran, now a New York City postal worker, struggles with flashbacks and hallucinations. With the help from his new bride, he fights to keep sane.

Def by Temptation

A succubus is...

Exclusive: Heather Graham (Half Magic), Brandy Norwood (Queens), Jason Biggs (Outmatched) and Matt Cedeño (Power) have signed on to star in the Netflix holiday film Best. Christmas. Ever. from director Mary Lambert.

The film written by Charles Shyer (Father of the Bride) and Todd Calgi Gallicano (Sam London Adventure book series) centers on Jackie (Norwood), who every Christmas, without fail, sends a boastful holiday newsletter that makes her old college friend Charlotte (Graham) feel like a lump of coal. When a twist of fate lands Charlotte, her husband Rob (Biggs), and their family on Jackie’s and her husband Valentino’s (Cedeño) snowy doorstep just days before Christmas, Charlotte seizes the opportunity to prove her old friend’s “perfect” life can’t possibly be that perfect. But in her overzealous attempt to expose Jackie, Charlotte nearly ruins Christmas for both families and must team...

Welcome back to Let’s Scare Bryan to Death, where this month we’re joined by multi-multi-multi-hyphenate horror journalist Zena Dixon, a.k.a. The Real Queen of Horror. For those few of you who aren’t familiar with Dixon, let me see if I can get through her list of bona fides in one paragraph: (deep breath) in addition to her website that features news in the horror genre, Dixon hosts a YouTube channel that celebrates all of her favorite flicks. She’s also one of the hosts of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast, and, when she gets a few minutes here and there she also makes her own short films.

Dixon selected this month’s film, James Bond III’s Def by Temptation, for a pretty simple reason: she adores it. And after giving it my first watch, I have to say I get the love for this cult...

New Order will release a comprehensive box set of their second album, Power, Corruption and Lies — which broke them into the U.K. Top 10 — this fall.

In addition to a remastered version of the album, the group has dug deep into its vaults to provide a holistic look at the making of the album. The set includes an LP, two CDs, two DVDs and a book and will drop on October 2nd.

The band also included previously unreleased writing sessions, Peel sessions and instrumentals, in addition to many of the...

From indie classics like Do the Right Thing to blockbuster mega hits such as Infinity War, Samuel L. Jackson has cemented himself as one of the most recognizable actors of modern American cinema. But for every great movie he’s been in, he’s also played a part in some truly atrocious, yet nonetheless entertaining titles. And so on that note, here are his best and worst films, according to IMDb’s rating system.

Let’s start with the worst and work our way to the top from there. First up we got a movie called Def by Temptation. Released in 1990 and directed by a guy named James Bond III, it stars Jackson alongside Kadeem Hardison and Bill Nunn, both of whom have since become household names in their own right. The story of an “evil succubus” preying on young black men in New York, it’s a hodgepodge of...

"You don't have to be scared of mommy." In a near future New York City, Black Vampires walk amongst us. Suicide by Sunlight is an impressive short film made by up-and-coming filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu, and it originally premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival last year. It's finally online to watch in full - all 17 minutes of it and it's worth just a bit of your time to view. Valentina, a day-walking Black vampire protected from the sun by her melanin, finds it difficult to suppress her bloodlust when a new woman is introduced to her estranged twin daughters. This stars Natalie Paul as Valentina, with a cast including Teren Carter, Motell Gyn Foster, Ellie Foumbi, and Souleymane Sy Savane. The filmmaker has been earning tons of buzz for years for her shorts, and this yet again proves that she has a knack for fresh, vibrant storytelling. Thanks to Short of...

It’s almost time, dear readers! Halloween is nearly upon us, and we have one last batch of killer Blu-ray and DVD releases to get us ready for All Hallows’ Eve this week. One of the best films of 2018—Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy —arrives on both formats this Tuesday, courtesy of Rlje Films, and both Slender Man and Our House come home as well. The Matrix Trilogy is getting a much-deserved 4K treatment from Warner Bros., and a series that I really enjoyed back in the day—Chillers, hosted by Anthony Perkins—is headed to DVD, and I’m so excited to get the opportunity to finally revisit it.

Cult film fans will definitely want to pick up a copy of the Special Edition of Torso from Arrow Video, and Vinegar Syndrome is doing the Dark Lord’s work with a quartet of releases they have on tap as well, including The Incubus,...

The sole directorial effort from child actor James Bond III, who also wrote, produced, and starred, Def by Temptation is a macabre, neon-tinged portrait of late 80s Brooklyn, blending supernatural horror and religious mysticism, punctuated by an electrifying hip-hop and R&B soundtrack. Featuring an early performance from Samuel L. Jackson alongside character actor Bill Nunn […]

The post Sam Jackson’s Def By Temptation Hits Blu-ray This Halloween appeared first on Dread Central.

Jordan Peele’s latest career incarnation could have been fodder for “Key & Peele,” the hit Comedy Central sketch show in which he and Keegan-Michael Key skewered modern racial issues. But Peele wrote had written a horror movie about race, and it needed a director. That created a challenge: After William Crain (“Blacula”), Bill Gunn (“Ganja & Hesse”), and Ernest Dickerson (“Bones,” “The Walking Dead”), how many black horror directors can you name? (The savviest genre fans out there might also remember James Bond III, very much a real person, who directed “Def By Temptation” 27 years ago.)

Needless to say, it was slim pickings. “I first pitched this as a movie no one would make,” Peele said. “About halfway through writing the script, I realized I was the only person who could direct it.”

However, Peele’s feature directing debut, “Get Out,” also brings him into the rarified class of horror directors...

Here's something short and fun that I stumbled upon while researching Halloween movies with black characters, with Halloween just around the corner. Maybe you can add these to your watch lists, if you haven't already seen them - not that I can recommend every single one of them. But it's Halloween! Get in the spirit.  Filmmaker M. Asli Dukan ("Invisible Universe") created the video for a panel with author Nalo Hopkinson for Fire & Ink III in 2009. It includes clips from films previously covered on this blog, like "Ganja & Hess", "Def by Temptation", "Vamp", "Vampire in Brooklyn" and "Queen of the Damned." How...

Tiff’s Midnight Madness program turned 25 this year, and for two and half decades, the hardworking programers have gathered some of the strangest, most terrifying, wild, intriguing and downright entertaining films from around the world. From dark comedies to Japanese gore-fests and indie horror gems, the Midnight Madness program hasn’t lost its edge as one the leading showcases of genre cinema. In its 25-year history, Midnight Madness has introduced adventurous late-night moviegoers to such cult faves as Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused and Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. But what separates Midnight Madness from, say, Montreal’s three and half week long genre festival Fantasia, is that Tiff selects only ten films to make the cut. In other words, these programmers don’t mess around. Last week I decided that I would post reviews of my personal favourite films that screened in past years. And just like the Tiff programmers,...

James Bond III’s 1990 truly weird (and you have to admit) quite original vampire horror film Def by Temptation staring Kardeem Hardison, a young Samuel J. Jackson and Bill Nunn (whatever happened to him?) is like a vampire itself as the film that will never die.

S & A has profiled the film before (Here) and to be blunt it’s definitely not a horror film classic by any definition of the word, but it no doubt has its devoted fans and can be legitimately considered to be a ”cult” film.

And if you’ve never seem seen it here’s your chance and for free. Hulu.com currently has the film available for viewing. Take a peek at the trailer below and to the see the film go Here.

Hey, it’s Halloween weekend! Not to be a party pooper, but, frankly, I really could care less… So, don’t look for any pictures of me in a Blacula costume or some shit like that, because it’s not happening!

I hear Sergio is going to some party in Chi-town dressed as Armond White!

Anywho… all kidding aside… the horror film genre is one in which you don’t find much action where black directors and actors are concerned. I know Ice Cube said recently that, in this business, for black talent, comedy is the path of least resistance, which, while it might sound like bullshit to the ear, actually is easily proven when you consider the kinds of “black films” Hollywood often finances.

Sure, there’ve been a few “black horror films” in years past, but few that I can truly call seminal pieces of work. There’s Bill Gunn’s landmark film,...

It's a big week for horror titles arriving for in-home enjoyment. From indie-splatter to studio remakes, we've got the details on what you'll find this Tuesday - complete with last-minute additions and deletions.

Whether you prefer DVD or Blu-Ray, let's take a look at the full slate of offerings, in this weekly edition of the famous Fangoria Chopping List.

Available May 19th on DVD:

Bane

Four women awake in an underground cell with amnesia. The women soon discover that they are part of a secret experiment with no obvious purpose. They are visited, one by one, by the Surgeon who cuts a four digit number into each woman s skin...the exact time he will return to kill them. Each woman must quickly piece together the dark secret behind the gruesome experiment and somehow survive the Surgeon s nightly visits of pain, torture and grisly murder. Be prepared for a...

• Dark Sky Films gave Fango the scoop on the DVDetails for Plague Town, its first in-house production. The grisly killer-kids flick hits disc May 12.

Directed by DVD documentaries veteran David Gregory from a script he wrote with John Cregan, Plague Town is set in an Irish village where a family of stranded vacationers are terrorized by deformed children. The special features include:

• Audio commentary by Gregory • A Visit to Plague Town making-of featurette • The Sound of Plague Town featurette • Trailer

Retail price is $24.98. The movie will also hit more big screens (and our March Chicago and April La Fango cons) prior to disc; we’ll have that info shortly. See the official website here and read our set-visit report in Fango #281, on sale this month.

• E1 Entertainment, formerly Koch Entertainment, gave Fango the word that it will distribute Critical Mass’ DVDs of Maurice Devereaux’s End Of The Line and...