Starring: Haley Bennett, Austin Stowell, Denis O’Hare
Pregnant housewife Hunter (Haley Bennett) suddenly develops a case of pica—a psychological disorder involving the desire to consume inedible objects. The more her husband and his family try to stop her compulsions, the gruesomely deeper she falls into this harmful obsession until her perfect home becomes a patriarchal prison. Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ metaphorically rich feature debut is a body horror film that feels utterly essential from its timely commentary down to Bennett’s jaw-dropping lead performance.
Starring: Herbert Lom, Udo Kier, Olivera Katarina
Rated ‘V’ for Violence! Banned in 13 countries! Mark of the Devil follows a master witch hunter and his bright eyed apprentice (a baby-face Udo Kier) as they capture and torture the women of a small Austrian town. As the master’s atrocities pile up, the apprentice begins to see their work for what it is: a means of control over the poor, an outlet for sexual insecurity and a seizure of power from embedded aristocrats.
Morbid Anatomy and Nitehawk Cinema bring the lurid thrills of the Grand Guingol to Brooklyn with a vicious tale of patriarchy and perversion, Michael Armstrong’s Mark of the Devil. Preceding our 35mm presentation of the film will be a pair of shorts presented by The Midnight Archive: Grand Guiginol: The Theatre of Fear and Terror, and The Occult Collector, whose subject, Calvin Von Crush, will be joining us for a twisted show-and-tell.
Morbid Anatomy has been surveying the interstices of art and medicine, death and culture, since 2007. Their means of communication have included a blog, an open to the public collection and research library, classes, lectures, exhibitions, spectacles, symposia, field trips, books, screenings and parties.
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Paz Vega, Yvette Monreal, Sergio Peris-Mencheta
Almost four decades after he drew first blood, Sylvester Stallone is back as one of the greatest action heroes of all time, John Rambo. Now, Rambo must confront his past and unearth his ruthless combat skills to exact revenge in a final mission. A deadly journey of vengeance, Rambo: Last Blood marks the last chapter of the legendary series.
Starring: Allan Berendt, Hope Stansbury, Patricia Gaul
A howlingly-good time awaits this October on THE DEUCE – when gutter-auteur Andy Milligan’s monster-mash-up BLOOD spills across the screen – eliciting more laughs than screams – as it did with the scuzzballs at Times Square’s Selwyn Theater in 1974… or was it 1976? Or both!?!
With 1970s Staten Island doubling for “1930s London” – the Wolfman’s son and Dracula’s daughter live in less-than marital bliss and spend their time raising blood-sucking plants!?! While blood-thirsty bats turn townsfolk into cannibals!?! With real-estate chicanery and philandering leading to multiple murders!?! And then come even more plot improbabilities to make your mind spin! Mad scientists with deformed lab assistants, vampires, and man-eating plants are just the beginning – but there’s seemingly no end to the hatred spewed by and at everyone involved!!
Yet again Milligan cobbles together his usual mix of over-the-top theatrics and acting (with muse extraordinaire, Hope Stansbury in a stand-out performance), paltry period costumes, and a non-stop barrage of bitter dialogue – sprinkled with some cut-rate gore and skin-crawly “sex” to pander to the perverts of his Times Square “audience” – and fashions what may be the best of his singular, stridently demented, lunatic dreams… it’s actually atmospheric!
Starring: Claudia Jennings, Sam Gilman, Douglas Dirkson
Sink your teeth into a Cajun feast of fury this November when THE DEUCE serves up a hot-plate of back-woods revenge with Beverly and Ferd Sebastian’s everglades-exploitationer GATOR BAIT – heating it up as it did the denizens of Times Square’s Harris Theater in the sweaty summer of 1974!
Like a bayou bobcat, ‘Desiree Thibodaeu’ has a ferally fine time supporting her siblings by poaching from the bounty of the swamp she calls home… until some slack-jawed rednecks and a long-standing family feud lead to a bout of brutal barbarity that pits our gutsy gal of action against a putrid patriarchy of psychos, sickos, and prejudiced scumbags who soon discover they’ve bitten off more than even a gator could chew… when they become the hunted at the hands of the hillbilly hell-cat hell-bent on revenge!
With the verdant setting evocatively lensed by Ferd and a screenplay by Beverly that strikes a stridently feminist note, it’s still the incomparable Claudia Jennings – in her second film with the husband-wife Sebastian directing team – igniting the sun-scorched steamy swamp as ‘Desiree’ – and dishing out some well-deserved comeuppance on everyone who done her and her family wrong – that sets this no-budget exploitation actioner on fire!! And you won’t stop singing her theme song, “Desiree,” to yourself either… yes-sir-ee, I gar-run-tee!
Starring: Regina Baff, Mildred Burke, John C. Becher, Annie McGreevey, Jane O’Brien, Sierra Pecheur
This September, THE DEUCE is gonna grab you by the throat and hit ya BELOW THE BELT… the low-budget, shot-in-1974, all-female wrestling romp that walloped the weirdos of Times Square’s Selwyn Theater when it finally hit the screen in 1980!
Bored with her going-nowhere job, NYC waitress Rosa Rubinsky decides to take a career turn into the wrestling ring – reinventing and redubbing her Polish persona into “The Mexican Spitfire”! Tedious travelling between two-bit towns and trying to survive on bout-to-bout bounty take the forefront in this gritty behind-the-scenes slice of a subculture in its pre-TV glitter days… Low on glamor and glory but brimming with gusto – these gutsy gals give it their all as real actors mix it up with real wrestlers – like the dirty-dealing, mostly toothless Jane “Tommy The Terrible” O’Brien!
Engagingly adapted from Rosalyn Dexter’s semi-autobiographical novel To Smithereens by Sherry Sonnet and director Robert Fowler, BELOW THE BELT is a scrappy ride with a real feel for time and place and a real care for its characters… A rarely seen road movie of camaraderie and choke-holds that takes a wild ride with some amazing women… BELOW THE BELT hits the spot! We have a winner!!
Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Maika Monroe, Kyra Sedgwick, Jeffrey Donovan
Mickey and Jules are lovers on the run, headed southbound for a fresh start in the Sunshine State. When their car dies after a gas station robbery, they break into a nearby house looking for a new set of wheels. What they find instead is a dark secret, and a sweet-as-pie pair of homeowners who will do anything to keep it from getting out.
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer
Three small-town friends, Alexandra (Cher), Jane (Susan Sarandon) and Sukie (Michelle Pfeiffer), each having lost the man in their lives, are feeling unfulfilled — until a furtive stranger, Daryl Van Horne (Jack Nicholson), arrives and begins courting each of them in turn. Eventually, Daryl tells them that they are witches. But as the three friends spend more time at his mansion, enjoying themselves and learning about their powers, they begin to worry about Daryl’s ultimate intentions.
Starring: Rick Jason, Millie Perkins, Lonny Chapman, Vanessa Brown
Molly is haunted by vivid memories of abuse and molestation at the hands of her father, who was a ship’s captain; now middle-aged, Molly is obsessed by the ocean and images associated with pirates and sailing lore, which fill her with both fascination and loathing. Single and lonely, Molly longs for a man, and is openly attracted to strong, burly types, but at the same time she bears a deep hatred for them, and sometimes murders and dismembers the men she lures into her home.
Starring: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hayley Squires, Leo Bill, Julian Barratt, Steve Oram, Gwendoline Christie
Part of the nation-wide 2019 Art House Theater Day.
A lonely woman (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), recently separated from her husband, visits a bewitching London department store in search of a dress that will transform her life. She’s fitted with a perfectly flattering, artery-red gown–which, in time, will come to unleash a malevolent curse and unstoppable evil, threatening everyone who comes into its path.
