The Man With The Severed Head-Review

Hello Folks,
Well i got to see the new release from Arrowdrome The Man with the severed head and indeed it is off it's head! I remember seeing this or vaguely remember seeing it many years back on good  old grainy VHS and with seeing this new print which is rather nice i must say i still loved it as much as i did then.
The Basic story revolves around the star man Paul Naschy who plays Jack Surnett, the robbery of a jewelers goes badly wrong and he takes a bullet in the brain so his gang decide to transplant his brain into the corpse of their enemy a mean mo fo gangster called The Sadist(what a great name!!) which then turns him basically into a raving lunatic.



A weird combination of a Frankenstein and crime movie it's easy to see why this has become a cult classic,
The film starts and mainly revolves around the motley crue of the gang of which there is some great nasty female characters, It's your basic heist gone wrong 70's crime film with a superb twist of Naschy having a new brain, there are apparently and have been over the years several cuts of this including one where the erotic scenes have been removed but now restored with Naschy said to have not been in the scenes and his body double looks nothing like him, the film is full of fun, sex and gore, so kick back, get a few beers in and raise a glass to 70's film eurpean film making,  Tarantino is said to have been a huge fan of this film so imagine his remake or if he had done Reservoir Dog's with a Mr Pink brain transplant!
The part is played superbly by spanish grand master Paul Naschy with all the passion and gusto as with all his classics and if youv'e ever seen a Naschy film you'll know what i mean but if you never have this is a great place to start, exploitation at it's finest.
8/10 Jonny T,

The Man with the severed head is out on Monday September 12th from Arrow Films , Go get it!!

The Man With The Severed Head on DVD!

Hello Folks,
Finally this obscure classic is finally getting a DVD release! I saw this way back on the good old VHS super grainy and super great fun but with the great label that is Arrowdome I'll finally get to see and enjoy this classic yet again!
Enjoy,
Jonny T.

THE MIND OF A MAN, THE HEAD OF A KILLER.

From the dusty vaults of Eurociné, the production grindhouse that’s left a permanent stain on cinema’s reputation, ArrowDrome brings you The Man With The Severed Head.

Spain’s greatest horror icon Paul Naschy is transformed into a raging psychopath in this sleazy ride to murder and depravity from a time when exploitation cinema ruled the fleapits of Europe.

When a jewellery heist goes awry, Jack Surnett (Naschy) finds himself with a bullet in his head and few options. Luckily, his gang have the novel idea to transplant his brain into the corpse of their arch nemesis, a gangster called The Sadist. But as he settles into his new body, Jack feels sinister urges welling up inside, urges that will lead him down a path to madness, torture and murder.

The Man With The Severed Head (cert. 15) will be released on DVD (£tbc) by ArrowDrome on 12th September 2011. Special Features include: additional erotic scenes; featurette with star Paul Naschy; “Paul Naschy In America: An Interview With Distributor Sam Sherman” booklet.



If you Don't like Horror Films??????????



So, i saw this video on you tube and it does annoy me, this guy's reaction to seeing the new Lucky Mckee film The Woman is hillarious but does fuel the Horror Haters and preachers that say we are all sick and twisted, yes that is YOU!!! (And me) ha!!
Jonny T.



The Woman- A Preview.

Hello folks!
Just been sent over this preview for the Great looking The Woman from horror director Lucky Mckee, it will be getting a limited cinema release, all dates and info below, i hope it comes to a cinema near me!
Enjoy,
Jonny T.

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE.

 “THE WOMAN” SEDUCES FANS AND CRITICS AT FRIGHTFEST.Director Lucky McKee’s harrowing study of the darkness of human nature, The Woman, wowed horror fans at this year’s five-day Film4 Frightfest and proved to be one of the most talked about and enthusiastically received films of the entire festival.Following its UK Premiere screening at the Empire Cinema in London’s Leicester Square on Saturday 27th August, The Woman was voted Best Film of the Day (beating both Troll Hunter and Fright Night) by fans attending Frightfest and received Total Film’s Frightfest Awards for Best Actress (Pollyanna McIntosh) and for the Third Best Film of the Festival.In addition to being one of the leading fan favourites of the weekend’s films, The Woman also garnered unprecedented critical acclaim with post-festival reviews hailing it as “one of the best horror movies I’ve seen… purposefully disturbing, truthful and above all a film that makes you think long after you have left the cinema” (London Horror Comic), “an intensely atmospheric, intelligent, character-based tale of abuse, intimidation and inhumanity… a film we will still be watching and talking about in years to come” (Brutal As Hell) and “utterly compelling… a tour de force” (CinemaRoll.com).Reaffirming the fans’ opinion of the film, Little White Lies claimed “The Woman proved to be one of the best of the fest”, ThisIsFakeDIY.com called it “the most brutal, gut-wrenching and shocking film of the weekend, but the most intelligent, powerful, and responsible film out there… worthy of discussion, and quite rightly the biggest talking point of the festival… an extraordinary achievement” while Serene Velocity regarded it as “the best film of this Frightfest or any other for that matter.”Synopsis: When lawyer and proud family man Chris Cleek (Bridgers) stumbles across a wild, feral woman (McIntosh) bathing in a woodland stream near his isolated country home, he immediately makes a decision that will dramatically change both their lives.Chris captures the woman and chains her up in the fruit cellar below his house, intending to tame and civilize her. To assist him, he enlists the help of his long-suffering wife Belle (Bettis), their two teenage children, Peggy and Brian, and even their youngest daughter, Darlin’. But when the task at hand proves to be more difficult than first imagined, the Cleek family’s fascination and well-intentioned compassion quickly turns to abhorrence and sadistic cruelty. Now, the animal in everyone is about to be revealed, along with one or two of Chris’ other little secrets. Release info: The Woman (cert. tbc) is released by Revolver Entertainment and will open at selected UK cinemas from 30th September 2011. Revolver Entertainment have also united the UK's leading horror festivals and film clubs who will come together for the very first time to showcase the film at special screenings around the country from 30th September 2011. These include: Cigarette Burns at the Prince Charles Cinema, London; Celluloid Screams at The Showroom, Sheffield; Abertoir at The Arts Centre, Aberystwyth; TerrorVision at Film Base, Dublin; Mayhem at The Broadway, Nottingham; Dead By Dawn at The Filmhouse, Edinburgh; Grimm Up North at the AMC, Manchester, Dundead at the DCA, Dundee, Shock & Gore Nights at The Electric, Birmingham.

Stills from. The Woman.



13 Assassins-Takashi Miike UK release.

Hello people!

Next Monday see's the release on DVD and Blu-Ray of Takashi Miike's epic 13 Assasins and i have been fortunate to see the Blu-Ray and it's amazing!

The story is losely based upon the classic Seven Sanmurai and is full of honour and the story told in the unique style that is the legend Takashi Miike, The story starts with a rogue ruler that is basically doing what he wants to who ever he wants tottally against the law of anyone including the Samurai, We see a girl horribly disfigured by him along his trail of rape,plillage and torture, this sets up the premise for the collaberation and coming together ofthe elite 13 Assassins in an effort to put a stop to the tyrants rule, the first half hour or so of the film is a slow burn story build up and coming together then when they are all teamed up the rest of the film is one HUGE battle and it is epice, we see the tyrant and his followers ride into what seems like a seemingly normal village but unknown to them this is where the 13 Assassins are lying in wait, as soon as they are through the gates the village are sealed off, no way out, let the battle begin! One of  the 1st things you see is a heard of bulls set on fire and sent rampaging into the gang and this looks great, the battle continues as the baddies fall one by one and en mass, it is truly relentless, this is more of a normal kind of film for the often obsure filmaker Miike and it was great to see it in the cinema and the Blu-ray is truly stunning, so i would say wether your a fan of Miike or not this is a definate must have and i can easily see it being heraled as a classic in years to come, pure brilliance.

9/10

Jonny T.

 

“TRIUMPHANT… PURE JOY!” (FIVE STARS) – TIME OUT.

Following a hugely successful UK theatrical release that saw it garnering a Five Star review in Time Out and Four Star reviews in Loaded, The Sun, the Daily Express, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Telegraph and Nuts magazine, 13 Assassins comes to DVD and Blu-ray this September riding a wave of critical acclaim hailing it as “one of the greatest samurai movies ever made… stunning” (Loaded), “one of the most memorable – and shocking – action films in an absolute age… brutal, bloody, brilliant” (Daily Mirror) and “an immediate action classic… magnificent” (Mail On Sunday).

13 Assassins sees director Takashi Miike, the man behind such uncompromising and unforgettable movies as “Audition” and “Ichi The Killer”, indelibly stamping his trademark style on the Samurai genre with an ultra-violent, all-action, blood-spattered epic.



One of the most prolific, wildly unpredictable and controversial directors in cinema, here Miike reinvents himself once more “in top, slash-tastic form” (Variety), throwing in several obvious nods to the works of Akira Kurosawa and enough grotesquery to satisfy his loyal legions of fans to produce a “breathtaking ballet of blades and bloodshed” (Bizarre) that culminates in “a virtuoso 45-minute bloodbath you won’t easily forget… a sustained frenzy of blistering choreographic skill that Hollywood won’t top all year” (Daily Telegraph).



Executive produced by Toshiaki Nakazawa (producer of ‘Departures’, the winner of the 2009 Oscar for Best Foreign Film) and Jeremy Thomas (The Last Emperor; Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence), Miike’s remake of Eichi Kudo’s classic 1963 samurai period action-drama ‘Jusan-nin No Shikaku’ boasts a heavyweight cast featuring some of the biggest names in contemporary Japanese cinema, including Koji Yakusho (Babel; Memoirs Of A Geisha), Takayuki Yamada (252: Sign Of Life), Yusuke Iseya (Sukiyaki Western Django; Memories Of Matsuko; Casshern), Mikijiro Hira (Goemon) and Hiroki Matsukata (Tajomaru: Avenging Blade; Ichi).

Nominated for the prestigious Golden Lion award at the 2010 Venice International Film Festival, this year 13 Assassins was the winner of four Japanese Academy Awards (for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Lighting and Best Sound).



Synopsis
In mid-19th Century Japan the era of the samurai is beginning to fade as the feudal nation begins to enjoy a rare period of peace. But the fragile calm is soon threatened by the bloody rise of Lord Naritsugu, the Shogun’s sadistic, psychopathic younger brother, whose position places him above the law and free to rape, mutilate and murder on a whim. Concerned that Naritsugu’s actions will eventually destroy the Shogunate, top Shogun official Sir Doi covertly calls on esteemed and noble samurai warrior Shinzaemon Shimada to assassinate the evil Lord before it is too late. Shinzaemon willingly agrees and immediately gathers together an elite group of samurai to assist him in the task, knowing that what they are about to embark upon may well prove to be a suicide mission.

Following weeks of training and preparation, Shinzaemon and his men head off on a perilous journey through the mountains, hoping to ambush Lord Naritsugu and his entourage. However, on finally coming face to face with their target, the 13 samurai discover Naritsugu’s men hugely outnumber them. Disregarding the odds, the fearless assassins continue with their plan and initiate a bloody showdown that they cannot allow to end until Naritsugu lies dying.

13 Assassins (cert. 15) will be released on DVD and Blu-ray by Artificial Eye on 5th September 2011.

Also HMV are doing an awesome looking exclusive DVD and Blu-Ray release!!

Pieces-Fantastic Release From Arrow Films.



 

Hello Folks!

Well i have just seen the Arrow films DVD release of 80's slasher Pieces and all i can say is WTF????

I never got chance back in the day to catch up with this and was recently listening to the great podcast Motion picture massacre when Vaughn reviewed it, it sounded crazy so i had to get it and boy I'm glad i did, it really is quite insane to say the very least.

The story starts off with a small child innocently sitting in his room doing a jigsaw puzzle when his mum comes in to discover that the jigsaw he is doing is of a naked lady and flips out big time screaming "You remind me of your father, he's a dirty pervert!" and proceeds to smash up his room, you could say doesn't take very kindly to this so decides to smash her head in with an axe, whack! You see the full gory onslaught and the aftermath with a blood splattered room, in the meantime there is some lady trying to get in the house but she can't so the police come around and they break in to discover the Young boy cowering in the cupboard making out that someone else must have done it, sneaky!

We then flip forward 40 years later to see a you girl on a college campus trying to study quietly on the lawn when a guy in the Bush's starts up a chainsaw so she shouts him to be quiet and emerges to take her head clean off with the chainsaw, wallop! and all this is in the 1st 10 minutes of the film, so you know what your in for and it's great!
Starring the great Christopher George who is a detective on the hunt for whoever is chainsawing people to death you can really see where a hell of a lot of slasher movies got their idea's from such as the Wes Craven classic Scream series which bears more than a nod to this film, college campus, killer on the loose, many suspects, twist ending, you get the picture.
Released under the spanish title "Mil gritos tiene la noche" in 1982 it instantly caused a huge stir of protest for the level of violence, With the movie TheTexas chainsaw massacre you never got to see any real gore or chainsaw chopping but in this you certainly do and nothing is left to your imagination, the scene that caused particular alarm amongst the censors was the death of the tennis playing girl, this scene seems so real even if you watch it today and the reason for that is(no she didn't die!) is that they used an actual dead pig as a skin double and we see in close up the chainsaw tearing through the flesh, on the chainsaw note the tagline on the original cinema poster was "You don't have to go to Texas for a chainsaw massacre" Genius!
Also on another little note type fact, the most WFT? moment surely has to be when the undercovercop playing a tennis teaching coach is walking around the campus at night a chinese guy jumps out at her and starts doing kung before collapsing then waking up and says "Sorry, i must have had some bad noodles" then runs off, i kid you not, the reason this guy is in the film is because the producer Dick Randall was also at the time working on Kung-fu films and the guy was playing a Bruce Lee imitator in another one of his films so he gave a cameo, Needless to say that the film was a success for the makers from a quite low budget it grossed over $2 million at the box office.
So we do find out who the killer is of course after countless killings, dismemberment in a lift, poolside limb removal and a great death scene on a waterbed and i have to say if like me you have yet to see it do so, and if you have already seen it this release is a definate must have for your collection,
8/10 Jonny T.

Press Release.

“A MASTERPIECE OF EARLY 80s SLEAZE.” – ELI ROTH, DIRECTOR OF “HOSTEL” AND “CABIN FEVER”.

From cult Spanish exploitation king, director Juan Piquer Simón (Slugs; Monster Island), comes Pieces, a brilliantly perverse 80s slasher starring Christopher George (The Exterminator; City Of The Living Dead), Lynda Day George (Beyond Evil; Mission: Impossible) and Jack Taylor (The Ninth Gate; Conan The Barbarian) that proves “you don’t have to go to Texas for a chainsaw massacre.”

Jigsaw puzzles can be maddening. They can drive you to distraction. You might even go so crazy as to take your own mother down with an axe... and that’s only the beginning for one repressed teenager.

On a Boston university campus, forty years later, young girls are missing out. Missing out on hands, feet, arms and heads as a certain puzzled psychopath carves a bloody swathe through the college’s female population. Only one tough cop has the stones to bring him in, but can he track down the slayer before all the girls are mincemeat?

Described by TerrorTrap.com as “sick, sleazy, demented and twisted… one of our guiltiest of guilty pleasures… deliriously fun”, Pieces is a must-see movie for 80s exploitation movie aficionados and slasher fans everywhere.

Pieces (cert. 18) will be released on DVD (£15.99) by Arrow films on 5th September 2011.

Special Features
Introduction by star Jack Taylor; “Pieces Of Jack: An Actor’s Experience Of Spanish Splatter” – Actor Jack Taylor recollects his experiences of performing in “Pieces”; “Pieces of Deconstruction: Looking Back At A Grindhouse Gorefest” – “Hostel” producer Scott Spiegel, filmmaker Howard S. Berger, Fangoria’s Michael Gingold and horror historian Santos Ellin Jr. reflect on the lasting legacy of “Pieces”; audio commentary by Fangoria magazine’s Tony Timpone; reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork; double-sided fold out artwork poster; collector’s booklet featuring brand new writing on the film by Stephen Thrower, author of “Nightmare USA”; original 1.66:1 (16x9) anamorphic aspect ratio; original English and Spanish mono audio options.



The Wrekage-Reviewed and Contest.

Hello people,
Just got to see The Wreckage and i must say i was pretty impressed!
I thought it just looked like another slasher/ Supermarket DVD shelf filler but to me it seems to have more to it that pushed it above the usual DVD fodder.
The story starts with 2 young boys and their junkie mother at home when the local dealer arrives and interrupts the young boys TV watching threatening them etc, they don't take too kind to this and one of the boys flips out and gets a gun and proceeds to shoot the dealer square in the chest and then kills his mother, We then skip forward to see a criminal escape from jail who we later find out is the Psycho young boy that many years before committed the double murder.
We switch to a deserted car park where a young girl has broken down and awaiting her boyfriend to arrive and help when she is approached by a guy who offers his truck to keep her warm,you know what he's really after, after many times of saying no he attacks her and she makes a run for it screaming when we see the man killed, bang dead!!
We then get to meet the main cast that will be with us(well most of them!)throughout the movie, They arrange a local drag race and it takes place only for the belt to snap on their car and after an altercation with the other driver they are left stranded, the only local place they can find is the local "Wreckage" yard which guess who's hiding out there??
We see the first victim get shot in the stomach and the guy decides to run and get help, eventually the police turn up at the scene with paramedics by which time there has been more death, The thing i liked about it is the fact that you initially see just 4 people and think that OK here's the victims maybe one will survive so that leaves 3, you know the formulaic slasher film rules but with the arrival of the police and paramedics that certainly ramps up the body count considerably, the guy that arrives who owns the wreckage yard is really quite hilarious as well, a real Billy Bob character!
The film then follows the great formula of death after death, some very inventive as in the Final Destination films including a great death scene involving a car crusher, the killer is pretty cool looking as well, sporting a welding mask and overalls, very menacing!
So in summing up if you like your slashers this is a film for you or generally enjoy a horror film with a not too long running time and some great moments it's well worth checking out.
7/10 Jonny T.


PRESS RELEASE.

THE SPARE PARTS MAY BE YOUR OWN.
 



An automobile wrecking yard after dark provides the perfect location for a nail-biting slasher with a killer twist in Wreckage, directed by John Mallory Asher (One Tree Hill; Dirty Love) and featuring an attractive cast of young up-and-coming talent that includes Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad; Big Love; The Last House On The Left), Scoot McNairy (Monsters), Cameron Richardson (Harper’s Island; Point Pleasant), Kelly Kruger (Mysterious Skin; The Young And The Restless) and Mike Erwin (Chaos Theory).



When their car’s fan belt snaps during a drag race on a county road several miles outside their home town, best friends Jared (Erwin), Kate (Richardson), Rick (Paul), and Jessica (Kruger) find themselves stranded with two options: walk all the way back home or try their luck on finding a spare belt at a nearby scrap yard. Choosing the latter, but arriving after nightfall and finding the yard closed, they decide to climb the gate and go in search of the required part. Their situation goes from mildly inconvenient to seriously lethal in an instant when Rick’s careless horseplay with a loaded pistol leaves Kate wounded and in desperate need of medical attention.



Meanwhile, the local sheriff’s office has just received notification that a serial killer has escaped from the state prison and is thought to be hiding out somewhere in the area. Alerted to the situation at the wrecking yard by Jared, the police and ambulance crew arrive on the scene but can find no immediate sign of Rick, Jessica or the injured Kate. Moments later, the discovery of a mutilated body places Jared in the frame as the prime suspect in a murder investigation and leads to a long night of bloodshed and mayhem as a mysterious killer stalks the yard determined to slay everyone and leave no witnesses.

Wreckage (cert. 15) is out now on DVD (£12.99) by Chelsea Films.

WIN WRECKAGE ON DVD!!

So folks i have been very kindly give a copy of Wrekage on DVD for 1 of you lucky people to win!

For your chance to win just answer this simple question.

Aaron Paul the star of Wreckage was in which classic Wes Craven Remake?

A-The hills have eyes.

B- The Last house on the left

C-A nightmare on Elm Street

For your chance to win just email me at jonnyscultfilms@gmail.com with A,B OR C.

Contest will close on August 31st and the lucky winner will be informed by email,

Good Luck!

Jonny T.