Release Date: March 1968 (Beverly Hills, California)
“John Cassavetes puts a disintegrating marriage under the microscope in the searing Faces. Shot in high-contrast 16 mm black and white, the film follows the futile attempts of the captain of industry Richard (John Marley) and his wife, Maria (Lynn Carlin), to escape the anguish of their empty relationship in the arms of others.
Featuring astonishingly nervy performances from Marley, Carlin, and Cassavetes regulars Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel, Faces confronts modern alienation and the battle of the sexes with a brutal honesty and compassion rarely matched in cinema.” – Criterion
Starring: John Phillip Law, Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli
Super-thief Danger Diabolik is a mysterious man, thin and dressed in black, who, along with his female counterpart Eva, manages to outsmart, outrun and outdrive every Euro bad guy he encounters. Money and jewels are his game, and he’ll kill to get them.
Mario Bava’s film adaptation of the popular Diabolik Italian comic books is a stunning visual experience that epitomizes the swinging style of the late 1960s. Bava’s scenic design and cinematography are at his innovative best here, particularly in our hero’s underground psychedelic crystal lair where he and Eva make magic happen… on a big ol’ pile of cash!
Release Date: January 18, 1968 (New Orleans, LA)
Jack Hill’s Spider Baby is an absolute horror classic about the Merrye family who have a rare recessive gene that turns them into cannibals after a certain age. Save for the occasional murderous mishap, all is managed just fine by the family butler who takes care of the children and the older cannibals housed in the basement until distant relatives come in to inquire about the estate.
Although in black and white, Spider Baby is full of colorful characters like the silently expressive Ralph Merrye (Sid Haig), the greedy Emily Howe (Carol Ohm), and the concerned caretaker Bruno (Lon Chaney Jr.). But it’s the young mischievous Merrye daughters who truly steal the show with their distorted grown-up behavior, vocal hatred of people, and the deadly game of playing spider.
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henried, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre
Casablanca is a classic and one of the most revered films of all time. Starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in a love triangle in the city of Casablanca which is a refuge for many fleeing foreigners looking for a new life during the war. Political romance with a backdrop of war conflict between democracy and totalitarianism. A landmark in film history.
Cast: Quinn Shephard, Nadia Alexander, Trieste Kelly Dunn, Marcia DeBonis, Tessa Albertson, Sarah Mezzanotte, Owen Campbell, Luke Slattery, Tate Donovan, Chris Messina
It’s the start of a new year at a small suburban high school. Abigail (Quinn Shephard) is an outcast who seeks solace in the worlds of the characters she reads about, much to the amusement of her manipulative classmate, Melissa (Nadia Alexander). When an intriguing new drama teacher (Chris Messina) casts Abigail over Melissa in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Abigail’s confidence blooms, and soon her relationship with Jeremy begins to move beyond just fantasy. Melissa, fueled by vengeful jealousy, begins to spiral out of control and concocts a plot against Abigail. This triggers a chain of events that will come to affect everyone around them, as well as reveal some dark truths.
In the final days of World War II, the Nazis attempt to use black magic to aid their dying cause. The Allies raid the camp where the ceremony is taking place, but not before a demon – Hellboy – has already been conjured. Joining the Allied forces, Hellboy eventually grows to adulthood, serving the cause of good rather than evil.
A rare mutation has occurred within the vampire community: The Reaper, a vampire so consumed with an bloodlust that they prey on vampires as well as humans, transforming victims who are unlucky enough to survive into Reapers themselves. With nowhere else to turn, the Vampire Nation turns to legendary vampire-hunter Blade for his help in preventing a nightmare plague that would wipe out both humans and vampires.
Faced with his own mortality, an ingenious alchemist tried to perfect an invention that would provide him with the key to eternal life. It was called the Cronos device. When he died more than 400 years later, he took the secrets of this remarkable device to the grave with him. Now, an elderly antiques dealer has found the hellish machine hidden in a statue and learns about its incredible powers. The more he uses the device, the younger he becomes…but nothing comes without a price. Life after death is just the beginning as this nerve-shattering thriller unfolds and the fountain of youth turns bloody.
Vincenzo Natali (Cube) directs and Guillermo Del Toro produces this twisted tale of a pair of rebellious scientists (Sarah Polley & Adrien Brody) who defy legal and ethical boundaries to forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named “Dren,” the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful human-chimera. The pair raise the creature as their own, but as Dren reaches maturity, their bond takes a turn towards the depraved and the deadly.
Starring: Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum
This wild, imaginative adaptation of Roald Dahl’s essential novel remains a childhood classic to this day. Even with its beautiful design and unforgettable scenes, Mel Stuart’s feature length version belongs to Gene Wilder and his amazing performance as a half-mad candy man on the hunt for a successor to his empire (spoiler alert?). Come relive childhood wonderment (or nightmares, in some cases).
