Don't Forget! MYSTICS IN BALI comes out next week!!

Mondo Macabro's deluxe re-issue of the international trash ultra-classic MYSTICS IN BALI comes out in but days. Are you ready?
Check out the clips below for a preview of the freakery:





Be sure and also get the 2nd volume of the essential FILMS OF KENNETH ANGER series out from Fantoma Films on the same day. That's October 2, Y'all!!

Check back soon for new content, we're taking a couple weeks off for some rest and relaxation!
Later, dudes!

Rapi Films Original Poster Art Extravaganza!!!

Check out these amazing artifacts of the Indonesian film industry!
From the Rapi Films official website!
Thanks to one Mr. Jack J. of Denmark for bringing them to our attention!

Movie Review: GHOST STORY OF YOTSUYA

aka TOKAIDO YOTSUYA KAIDEN
Directed by Nobuo Nakagawa
Japan; 1959

Nobuo Nakagawa's 1959 gothic classic GHOST STORY OF YOTSUYA was the apex of a series of groundbreaking horror films he made for doomed studio Shintoho during the 1950s. Although he would accomplish his ultimate masterpiece a year later with the delirious JIGOKU, GHOST STORY was at the time regarded as the finest work of the 'Japanese Hitchcock' and for damned good reasons. The movie is based on a 19th century piece of Kabuki theater and had already been filmed many times since the silent era but Nakagawa takes this deeply Japanese ghost story and crafts something truly hallucinatory and unsettling, even for those of us unfamiliar with its traditional origins.



A samurai of no social position, egged on by an unscrupulous pal, murders the father of the woman he longs to marry and so begins to weave an insidious web of deceit which ends up trapping him in a loveless marriage with a sick wife and a child he cares nothing for. An accomplished warrior, he impresses a high standing official and his beautiful daughter and so begins to contrive of ways to rid himself of his current missus and latch on to this new, and rich, honey. Or course, more murder is the only answer. Nakagawa stages this drama, at least initially not unlike a theater piece, with the action mostly set on a sound stage and recoding the events with long, almost static takes with few if any close-ups. He builds a tightening grip of karmic retribution with this method and releases the eventual supernatural vengeance in a flood of bewildering phantasmagorical imagery.



The astonishing conclusion generates some genuine shudders as the ghostly apparitions of the doomed samurai’s victims haunt him into a fit of murderous madness. The ghosts are creepy, blood-drenched and horrific, though are essentially passive, different from the aggressive specters of western gothics, but a common trait in Japanese yarns. Trust me, you won’t be unmoved by the uncanny site of the deformed spirit of the samurai’s wife arising out of bubbling blood pool in the middle of a otherwise peaceful pond. GHOST STORY is bizarre and baroque in technique, leaving any vestiges of realism far behind. It creates its own unique version of the universe, hemmed in only by the grotesque fates of the characters depicted. All in all, a marvelous and strange movie that has held up remarkably well over the last nearly 50 years, and is worthy of Criterion-like care for a domestic DVD release. It’s a true classic of world cinema in overdue need of wider recognition.

TARZAN goes to ISTANBUL via Onar Films!!!!

Here's the smashing info, courtesy Miltos Kordas and his CINEHOUND Forum!



TARZAN ISTANBUL'DA
Country: Turkey
Year: 1952
Director: Orhan Atadeniz
Actors: Tamer Balci, Hayri Esen, Necla Aygul, Cemil Demirel, Kunt Tulgar
Label: ONAR FILMS (Greece) - http://www.onarfilms.com
Price: $19.90
Coming Early October !!


SYNOPSIS: The first TURKISH TARZAN used to be a legend among collectors of the obscure. For the others, it simply did not exist or sounded like a joke. Now, time for the legend to turn into vivid reality. Gathering dust since 1952, this classic Turkish Cinema pioneer ended up in Onar's gentle hands. The only surviving elements were in relic-like condition but with a decent remastering the result is not bad anymore!

DVD FEATURES:
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1200 numbered copies
Turkish audio with English & Greek subs
Dolby Digital 2.0
Interview with Kunt Tulgar
Photogallery
Biographies
Filmographies
Trailers

Worldweird Trailer Show: The late 60s/early 70s Films of Lucio Fulci

Our fave Italian director's earlier work sometimes gets passed over in favor of his more outrageous early 80s horror films. But as wonderfully demented as they are, they are not always the best examples of Fulci's full artistry. These trailers represent some of his most extraordinary motion pictures, when the maestro was truly at the height of his powers, during the slide of the late 60s into the early 1970s. Enjoy!

MASSACRE TIME (1966)




ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER/PERVERSION STORY (1969)



BEATRICE CENCI (1969)



LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN (1971)



FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE (1975)