The Game (1984) – Bill Rebane.

Three jaded millionaires eccentrically get their jollies by elaborately staging a prank-laden 'Game', offering a million dollars to the most stalwart participant able to surmount their very worst fears. Following the HD restoration of singularly splendid home-spun Sci-shockers, indie horror hero Bill Rebane's wickedly entertaining genre features are deservedly gaining a wider audience. Enjoyably camp, and devilishly mysterious, The Game's credibility endures due to a playful text, and its ghostly jackanapes, remaining a quirky, modestly creepy 80s terror treat. The performances prove colourful, the rudimentary FX are frequently fun to behold, and the sinisterly smoke-smothered, spook-slathered climax provided a memorably goofy climax. The Game is tremendous fun, and fans of Norman J. Warren's identically tweaked Bloody New Year may especially appreciate the freaky-deakey charm of Rebane's boisterously bizarro B-Horror funhouse!

 Mesmerized (1985) – John Laughlin.

A subtly sinister 19 century crime thriller from new Zealand, concerning the melodramatic misfortunes that befell innocent foundling Victoria (Jodie Foster) who, once married to crass businessman Oliver (John Lithgow) must endure his unsavoury peccadilloes! As one would expect, Jodie Foster is both sympathetic, and distractingly lovely as the naive teenage bride, with John Lithgow being especially well cast as her drunken, increasingly oppressive husband. Based on a true crime history, Mesmerized proved to be more of an intriguing curiosity than essential cinema. The performances are all exemplary, there are picturesque rural locations, and exacting period detail, while I was never completely mesmerized, it is certainly well made, and would be a decent watch to more avid fans of Lithgow and Foster.

 Before Tonight is Over (1965) – Peter Solan.

Peter Sloan's dazzling multi-character drama, perhaps, remains one of the lesser-seen masterpieces of the 60s Czech new wave. Set over one especially eventful night in a wintry ski-resort hotel, the increasingly inebriated guests colourful interactions make for unusually compelling cinema. Not dissimilar to Milos Forman's ensemble masterclass Fireman's Ball, Sloan's vibrant, immaculately performed narrative does occasionally suggest that the plot may suddenly take a much darker turn. While Before Tonight is Over is frequently playful and witty, there's a tangible sense of melancholy throughout, imbuing the motivations of these increasingly noisome revellers with a profound pathos. While Solan's fascinating film is manifestly of its time, the deleterious malaise following WW2 and the incumbent ogre of Soviet communism are undeniable, but Before Tonight is Over remains strikingly relevant, and deeply relatable, potently crackling with the galvanic intensity of Dogma manifesto Festen. I adore vibrant European cinema that inspires, offering compelling insights into a country's beleaguered history, and in many instances I am called to reflect upon the old adage 'the more things change, the more they stay the same!'

 Hotel (2003) – Jessica Hausner.

Irene (Franziska Weisz), a sensitive, pretty, increasingly anxious young woman takes a position at a Hotel, she then discovers that the previous employee she replaced, only just recently disappeared without a trace, seemingly engulfed by the surrounding, ill omened forest! A uniquely unsettling vision, captivatingly visual, eerily off-beat, and seductively mysterious, Hotel can be read as a glacial thriller, refracted darkly through a folk horror lens. With immaculate performances, and exquisite photography, what I found most compelling about Hotel are those elements the director chose not to reveal, thereby allowing imaginations to run rampant over the especially Grimm horrors that befell the doomed young women! The blurb on the Artificial Eye DVD references Hitchcock, Lynch and Haneke, and for me, Hotel also recalls Ulrich Seidel, and the earlier works of Aki Kaurismaki. Completed over 20 years ago, Jessica Hausner's sublime, desperately inhospitable Hotel is ripe for rediscovery, and remains utterly essential viewing for all those who appreciate artfully enigmatic chills. 

 Deadly Instincts (1997) – Paul Matthews.

A sinister extraterrestrial conveniently crash lands next to a college campus, proceeding to perpetrate its slimy shenanigans in gloopy 90s creature feature Deadly Instincts. Dazzlingly nubile bombshell student Samantha Womack, dully handsome prof Todd Jensen, and Oliver Tobias's prototypically surly cop make heavy work of dispatching this galactic grotesquery. There's a deliciously faux quality throughout, nothing feels remotely authentic, crass set design, sketchy US accents, hilariously bogus Boston PD, and second hand dialogue, excepting the magnificent man-in-a-suit alien which is a bona fide B-Monster marvel! One of the more joyous aspects of Deadly Instincts is seeing Womack and Jensen stoically delivering the execrable text, while a clearly disinterested Tobias phones it in like a boss. Deadly Instincts proved revelatory, being one of the most goofily entertaining Sci-schlockers I have enjoyed in quite some time. Like Ed Wood before him, Paul Matthews apparent inability to appreciate the howling absurdity of his vision is no small part of Deadly Instinct's sensationally Schlocky appeal! Arguably more fun when viewed today, than upon its initial release, this fun, gratuitously goo-clotted British creature feature is surely destined for B-Cult status!

 Monster A-Go Go. (1964) – Bill Rebane.

Following the crash landing of a U.S space module, the horribly mutated, deadly radiation emitting astronaut lumbers hither thither upon its not altogether convincing killing spree in the somewhat disingenuously titled Monster A-Go Go! While I don't share the director's belief that this is the worst film ever made, since malign muck-spreaders The Asylum/Blumhouse regularly make 'the worst film ever made' every month or so, but it certainly 'ain't the most auspicious film making debut. The goofy 1^st act provides hugely enjoyable Z-Movie larks, act 2 suffers greatly from radiation sickness, and the climax was, sadly, pronounced dead on arrival. It is almost unpardonable for a vintage creature feature to feature such a prodigious lack of creature, but to its credit, Monster A-Go Go acts as a dry run for 'The Incredible Melting Man', and for that reason alone, I'm willing to give it a pass. Monster A-Go Go is often entirely static, it still beheld an odd fascination, the pockmarked monster, if utilized more judiciously had potential, and the colourful narration by maestro H.G Lewis remains a psychotronic treat! Monster A-Go Go's greatest legacy is that it's better to make a bad film than merely planning to make a brilliant one, especially since Mr. Rebane went on to produce some genuinely lovely films not long thereafter.

 Force of Execution (2013) – Keoni Waxman.

I still maintain that Seagal is far more authentic when portraying ruthless villains than ruthless heroes, and Keoni Waxman's gritty gangbanger Force of Action finds Steven 'thunder thighs' Seagal in stone-cold gangster mode as Karate chopping kingpin Mr. Alexander. Force of Execution concerns a bloody turf war, a prodigious willie waggling context betwixt glacial Ice Man (Ving Rhames) and Mr. Alexander (Steven Seagal), no prizes given for guessing who has the biggest! The energized action scenes are remarkably compelling, proving more acrobatic than expected, crippled shadow warrior (Bren Foster) ably executes an exhilarating array of truly blistering combat moves. Keoni Waxman's explosively violent actioner Force of Execution caught me wholly by surprise, with strong performances, bravura action, suitably salty B-Movie badinage, and beloved DTV legend Danny Trejo's chef/Scorpion wrangling Aztec shaman being a genuine highlight!

'Did I fuck you last week? Yes. Stop wasting my dick time!!!!'

 The El Duce Tapes. Rodney Ascher & David Lawrence.

Compellingly edited from a multitude of VHS tapes, the unusually candid interviews with Mentors madman El Duce in various degrees of inebriation provides fascinating insight into his volatile, pointedly self-destructive life. The El Duce Tapes is an unfiltered, painfully frank, queasily visceral document, this deliciously Dementored dissection of a maniacal musical misfit probes balls deep into the sleazy underbelly of punk's most divisive bogeyman. When audibly cogent, El Duce comes across as an impish, melancholic, honest, vastly contradictory, strangely endearing poltroon, contrasting the altogether nihilistic interludes of depressive, boorishly incoherent drunkenness, culminating inevitably in alcoholic annihilation. As a fan of The Mentors, the archival material proved revelatory, featuring invaluable insight from band members, and their musical peers, especially edifying are the impactful contributions from his beloved sister. Pieced together from Standard VHS, The El Duce Tapes is not only a cohesive, and massively entertaining work, it is also a testament to the innate watchability of its subject, and a credit to all those talented individuals who made this exemplary Blu-ray possible. It isn't all that often that I'll know intuitively beforehand that I'll love a film, and in this even rarer instance, The El Duce Tapes proved far more righteous than I had imagined.

 Sex With the Stars (1981) – Anwar Kawadri.

A naïve, sexually inexperienced astrologist undertakes the far from disagreeable assignment of sleeping with a group of women with differing star signs and documenting his fleshly experiences! 80s curio Sex With the Stars features a bouncing bevvy of bonnie British lassies, plentiful soft-core romp-age, questionable humour, and a prodigious lack of political correctness. With an expectedly ribald text by iconic smut-slinger Tudor Gates, Sex With the Stars certainly doesn't lack for juicily jiggle-some jackanapes and deliciously dubious double entendres! Not often seen, and rarely, if at all hailed by film cultists, the demographic for Anwar Kawadri's Sex With The stars remains, perhaps, an obscure one. A frequently Capricorny, moderately titillating time-capsule, Sex With The Stars slow-mo slap n' tickle may not get your Scorpio rising, but the funky Saturday Night Libra score just might! As a final note, I must just add that a great many of the celestial bodies on display proved to be suitably stellar!

In a Violent Nature (2024) – Chris Nash.

Lacking the layered finesse of a single malt, In a Violent Nature is a moonshine shocker, a blisteringly raw, but certainly no less intoxicating blend of grisly slasher tropes. A lumbering simpleton was cruelly tormented to his accidental death, and according to local folk legend, wilfully disturbing his grave will unleash a most gruesome reckoning! Following ubiquitous fireside blarney, this relentless backwoods behemoth proceeds to remorselessly dispatch his prey with increasingly inventive brutality. While points are deducted for a prosaic text and blandly uninteresting characters, the unfiltered nastiness of the graphic executions proved sordidly compelling. Fans of 80s splatter classics The Mutilator and Madman Marz may appreciate this basic Canadian blood-spiller. While ultimately a somewhat hollow exercise in nihilistic B-movie butchery, I must openly admit to unapologetically blissing out to the gratuitous carnage herein!

 Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot (1976) - Ed Ragozzino.

Take a warmly fuzzy nostalgic trip deep into Sasquatch country, Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot remains highly regarded amongst the Yeti cognoscenti, and most definitely gets my personal stamp of approval. For me, this picturesque mockumentary milestone is a breathtaking feet of ingenious 70s cryptid cinematography. Frequently imitated, often satirised, but never once bettered, Ed Ragozzino's epic off-grid adventure Sasquatch The Legend of Bigfoot remains an utterly essential late-night Sasquatch! Happily, the prodigious entertainment quotient of this folksy, nature-lovin' Drive-In classic proves far less elusive than the forest-dwelling, frustratingly camera-shy backwoods behemoth himself. The appealing admixture of homespun humour, spectacular scenery, merry myth making and mother nature's ornery critters remains compelling. Observed through overly critical eyes Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot might appear contrived, yet I sincerely believe it to be an upbeat, gloriously goofy, wonderfully warm-hearted example of earnestly made exploitation cinema. Captured on film, shot on location, and the adult protagonists lend an authenticity to Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot entirely lacking in the cheapnis, artlessly CGI'd creature features of today.

 Monster (2023) – Kore-eda Hirokazu.

This beguiling, immaculately constructed drama by maestro Kore-eda Hirokazu is no less perfect than the very best of Clouzot and Ozu. Exquisitely acted, Monster frequently explores emotional depths and human fragilities with a deftness that you don't often see in cinema. Writer Sakamoto Yuji's luminous, delicately nuanced screenplay impactfully presents a captivating, finely wrought mystery which ultimately proves no less sublimely tumultuous than life itself. The dazzling, wholly humane way in which Kore-eda masterfully obscures the film's truth proved unusually compelling to me, and the utterly glorious final sequence is surely destined to become iconic. As an avid, life-long film fan, there is something uniquely edifying about discovering such an extraordinarily well-made contemporary film, from the very first playful exchange between loving mother and son, I instinctively knew Monster would be pure magic!