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This week on the Film Stories Podcast Network: Gothic monsters, award ceremonies, rubber-nippled heroes and more. Here’s what we’ve been up to…

At the Movies in the 90s

Get some drive thru and join A. J. Black and Mark McManus as the third season of their 90s podcast launches with a kitsch 1995 favourite, Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever…

Reel Talk

Sam Stokes bids you welcome to his coverage of the film on everyone’s lips – Robert Eggers’ remake of Nosferatu. In what could be some kind of contractual break, there is not a Vampire Videos host in sight, however, as Sam is joined by guests Ashley Thomas and Baz Greenland to bite into this one…

CineHistorians

Returning after a festive break, the New Wave focused first season of the podcast reaches strange proportions as Carl Sweeney and Raquel Stecher tackle 2009’s Dogtooth as they look at the Greek Weird Wave…...

In April 2002, the live-action adaptation of the hit Gokusen series premiered on Japanese television. After two decades, the show is finally available in its entirety for the first time for Prime Video subscribers in North America.

Based on a hit manga by Kozueko Morimoto, Gokusen is a comedic take on Japan's popular "yakuza" genre. Wtk -- an X (formerly Twitter) page that covers prominent anime streaming releases -- spotlighted the live-action Gokusen series soon after it launched on Amazon's Prime Video streaming service. The series is available in its original Japanese language track with various subtitle options, including English, Indonesian, Thai and Japanese.

Related Unique Feel-Good Anime's Removal From Prime Video Creates More Lost Streaming Media

The beloved Girls' Last Tour anime, combining a dystopia with a feel-good experience, has left its last available streaming platform in the U.S.

Gokusen Is the Perfect Watch for Fans of Yakuza Action...

Koji Suzuki's novel "Ring" was first published in 1991, and no one could have guessed that the simple, tech-based ghost story would spawn a decades-long, worldwide media franchise that incorporates multiple movies, crossovers, comics, audio dramas, and video games. If one does a deep dive into the entire "Ring" series, one will uncover a massively complicated mythos that repeatedly peels back layers of reality to reveal an onion-like media metafiction that Marshall McLuhan would be proud of.

The premise of "Ring" is wicked and fun, and would have been all the more terrifying in 1991 when VHS was still in vogue. In the book, an investigative reporter named Asakawa finds a cursed video cassette of a surreal, 20-minute short film. At the end of the video, a captain informs him that he has seven days to live. Asakawa takes the threat seriously, as several teenage girls who watched the video have already died.

Chinese horror film directed by J-horror pioneer is based on Ma Boyong’s popular internet novel.

Hong Kong-based sales company Autumn Sun has picked up international rights, excluding China, to Chinese horror film The Perilous Internet Ring, directed by Japan’s Norio Tsuruta.

Produced by Beijing-based Dasheng Legend, the film is based on popular internet novel She Died On Qq, written by Ma Boyong, who also executive produced the film.

Tsuruta was one of the pioneers of the J-horror boom, along with filmmakers such as Hideo Nakata and Takashi Shimizu, directing films including Ring 0: Birthday (2000), which was a prequel...

Shudder has a packed August lineup that should excite any horror fan, including exclusive premieres, classic titles, and special events. Here's a look at their offerings:

From the Press Release:

Host (premieres Thursday, July 30)

Six friends hire a medium to hold a séance over Zoom during lockdown but get far more than they bargain for as things quickly go wrong. Host was shot remotely during quarantine and features practical scares, stunts, and surprises, all filmed by the actors in their own homes. Director Rob Savage (Dawn of the Deaf) never set foot in the same room as his actors at any point during production and instead directed them remotely. Starring: Haley Bishop (Deep State), Radina Drandova (Dawn of the Deaf), Edward Linard (The Rebels), Jemma Moore (Doom: Annihilation), Caroline Ward (Stalling It) and Emma Louise Webb (The Crown). A Shudder Original (Also available on Shudder Canada and Shudder UK)

LA Llorona (premieres Thursday,...

Arrow Video is excited to announce the July slate of titles on their subscription-based Arrow Video Channel, including acclaimed undead comedy Zombie for Sale and Gamera: The Complete Collection, all twelve films starring mankind’s greatest defender: a fire-breathing mutant turtle.

An infectiously funny slice of modern Korean cinema where Train to Busan, The Quiet Family and Warm Bodies collide to create Zombie for Sale, a memorable rom-zom-com from debut director Lee Min-jae. For the first time ever, fans can trace the decades-long evolution of Gamera, from the “friend of all children” in his more light-hearted earlier films, to the Guardian of the Universe in the groundbreaking 1990s reboot series, often hailed as three of the best kaiju films ever made.

Zombie for Sale and Gamera: The Complete Collection will be available July 1st on the Arrow Video Channel in the Us and the UK. Additional new titles available July 1st include Creepshow 2,...

Arrow Video is excited to announce the July slate of titles on their subscription-based Arrow Video Channel, including acclaimed undead comedy Zombie for Sale and Gamera: The Complete Collection, all twelve films starring mankind's greatest defender: a fire-breathing mutant turtle.

An infectiously funny slice of modern Korean cinema where Train to Busan, The Quiet Family and Warm Bodies collide to create Zombie For Sale, a memorable rom-zom-com from debut director Lee Min-jae. For the first time ever, fans can trace the decades-long evolution of Gamera, from the "friend of all children" in his more light-hearted earlier films, to the Guardian of the Universe in the groundbreaking 1990s reboot series, often hailed as three of the best kaiju films ever made.

Zombie for Sale and Gamera: The Complete Collection will be available July 1st on the Arrow Video Channel in the Us and the UK. Additional new titles available July 1st include Creepshow 2,...

The Ring Collection 3-Disc Special Edition Set wll be available on Blu-ray October 29th From Arrow Video

n 1998, director Hideo Nakata (Dark Water) unleashed a chilling tale of technological terror on unsuspecting audiences, which redefined the horror genre, launched the J-horror boom in the West and introduced a generation of moviegoers to a creepy, dark-haired girl called Sadako. The film s success spawned a slew of remakes, reimaginations and imitators, but none could quite boast the power of Nakata s original masterpiece, which melded traditional Japanese folklore with contemporary anxieties about the spread of technology.

A group of teenage friends are found dead, their bodies grotesquely contorted, their faces twisted in terror. Reiko, a journalist and the aunt of one of the victims, sets out to investigate the shocking phenomenon, and in the process uncovers a creepy urban legend about a supposedly cursed videotape, the contents of which causes anyone...

Franchises are a major part of the film industry – and the most popular, profitable ones seem to never die. One genre with a particular affinity for endless streams of sequels is horror. Whether they repeatedly resurrect a seemingly slain killer, string together loosely-related stories, or contort themselves into a convoluted back-and-forth web of sequels, prequels, and midquels, a horror series that make money have enough mileage to make a hybrid car blush.

But every once in a while something happens that endangers a franchise – legal troubles, production problems, or just a flat-out awful film. Sometimes this is enough to finally kill the series, but sometimes, if there still seems like there’s money to be made, the brave producers will stumble on and do their best to just pretend their missteps never happened at all. When this happens, we end up with sequels that suddenly no longer “count” – they’re...

I'm not entirely sure what Pov is exactly about - but it doesn't appear to be straying too far from a lot of J-Horror's signature visual cues. For me, I'm not all that intrigued just yet. But if it blows your (schoolgirl) skirt up I'm stoked to share the trailer with you. The film is directed by Norio Tsuruta (King's Game, Premonition and Ring 0: Birthday). There's a bunch of other stuff on the official site but it's all in Japanese - so any translators out there that want to keep us informed in the comments are certainly welcome to do so! Hit the jump to check out the trailer.

Utilizing all of the tropes we've come to expect from a "found footage" film comes the J-horror entry Pov. The film comes from filmmaker Norio Tsuruta who previously helmed Premonition, Ring 0: Birthday and the Masters of Horror entry "Dream Cruise."  The story unfolds during a taping for a TV show about spiritual phenomena until an unplanned video begins playing on the monitors.  You can check out the trailer inside and watch a bunch of school girls running about.

Read more...

Paramount Pictures is developing another addition to the 2002 hit The Ring. The third installment of the horror series is being called The Ring 3D.

The studio has hired relatively new screenwriter David Loucka to literally go back to the well and drudge up a creepy excuse for a girl with hair in her face to crawl out into the audience. Heat Vision says the new installment will likely be more “teen-centric” than the first two, which starred Naomi Watts as a curious journalist. Though details are a secret, the aim is to reinvent (reboot) the franchise.

This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with The Ringu films, the Japaneses series these remakes are based on. Ringu 2 became the foundation for the 2005 flop The Ring Two, but the next Asian follow-up was Ringu 0: Bâsudei (Birthday), a prequel that takes place 30 years before the original.

Perhaps the new...

CANNES -- Lions Gate International has acquired worldwide distribution rights excluding Japan to producer Taka Ichise's recently announced horror franchise J-Horror Theater. The package will feature a selection of six films each by Japanese filmmakers who have worked heavily in the horror genre. The directors on board for Ichise's franchise are Takashi Shimizu (Ju-on: The Grudge), Hideo Nakata (The Ring), Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure), writer-turned director Hiroshi Takahashi, Masayuki Ochiai (Parasite Eve) and Norio Tsuruta (Ring O: Birthday).