❉ Arrow premieres a trio of terror treats from British horror legend Norman J Warren and more!
Key highlights this January on the essential, alternative streaming service ARROW include the exclusive premiere of the creepy and extremely strange Hotel Poseidon, superb sci-fi horror from the late, great Norman J Warren, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s stunning anti-war trilogy, a rediscovered ’80s cult thriller starring Steve Railsback, vampires, aliens, zombies, Kenny Everett with an axe, Mario Bava, Tobe Hooper and more…
In January, ARROW premieres Hotel Poseidon, the debut feature from Belgian writer/director Stefan Lernous. Imagine David Lynch filming at the Overlook from The Shining, with interior decoration akin to the Hotel Earle from Barton Fink, and you’ve got Hotel Poseidon – a seriously run down, and extremely strange place where nightmares and reality collide. An unconventional story, bordering on the surreal and at times the fantastic, the film eschews conventional narrative rules in favor of the enigmatic internal logic of a nightmare. As curious characters occupy the rooms and corridors of the hotel, we find ourselves in a dream-like universe infused with grotesque surrealism: a style imprinted on the Belgian artistic DNA. The last thing you’ll have is a relaxing stay – but it’ll certainly be a memorable one. The film will be screened with a host of exclusive extras on the making of the film.
There’s more horror in January, in the form of Deadly Games, an intriguing early ’80s slasher starring Steve Railsback (Lifeforce), long-overlooked and given a brand new restoration from the recently-unearthed camera negative; as well as Robert Englund in Tobe Hooper’s adaptation of a Stephen King story, The Mangler a bold, brash and politically aware frightener that takes on the bloodthirsty machinery of capitalism itself!
Also in January, ARROW presents Nobuhiko Obayashi’s stunning anti-war trilogy – in Casting Blossoms to the Sky, Endo Reiko visits the city of Nagaoka and learns how war ravaged and changed the city; in Seven Weeks, a former hospital director runs an antiques shop in Ashibetsu with her family; and his luminous new feature Hanagatami delivers a timeless story of the pureness of youth beset by the chaos of war.
Also screening is Still Tickin’: The Return of A Clockwork Orange, a fascinating documentary on Stanley Kubrick’s legendary, controversial and enduring masterpiece, to mark the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking and hugely influential film.
Also Showing: A trio of terror treats from British horror legend Norman J Warren; cult anthology chiller Cradle Of Fear; Mario Bava’s Shock; a duo of deadly delights from Álex De La Iglesia, horror comedy in Vampira and Bloobath At The House Of Death; and more…
New Seasons this January
FROM JANUARY 3RD: New Year Body Transformation
This New Year, how about a new you? Well, on ARROW that’s doesn’t mean some dodgy weight-loss fad – but sprouting teeth and claws to become the creature of the night you always dreamed of being, getting a rad new tattoo for some confidence-boosting and to aid you in living your best life or even trying a boxing class to let off some steam for a bit of self-care. Titles include: Irezumi, Tokyo Fist, Wolf Guy
Hail Satan!
Praise the dark lord, we have lots of deliciously devilish satanic content on ARROW. So, if you are in the mood for hailing a certain somebody, strip off and dance around your TV while watching these wicked and diabolical tales unfurl. Titles include: Terror, The Devil’s Nightmare, Satanic Panic, Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things, Cradle of Fear
RIP Advisor
A selection of ARROW films featuring put-you-ups that you may not survive staying in long enough to leave a one-star review of. If the creepy, damp and decrepit HOTEL POSEIDON gave you a taste for edgy lodgings, give one of these hotels, motels, boarding houses or new digs a try – you’ll check in, but you might not check out. Titles include: Hotel Poseidon, The Possessed, Basket Case, Inferno.
Best of 2021 (UK/US/CA/IRE)
ARROW have had an incredible year for new releases this year and this selection brings together the absolute cream – the titles that have made the service the special place it is – so make sure you haven’t missed out on a single one of them. Every last film in here is an absolute belter that will see your 2021 off in style and set you and us up for a somehow even better 2022. Featured titles will be revealed in January.
Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Anti-War Trilogy
In Casting Blossoms to the Sky, Endo Reiko visits the city of Nagaoka and learns how war ravaged and changed the city; in Seven Weeks, a former hospital director runs an antiques shop in Ashibetsu with her family; and, fulfilling his filmmaking dream of 40 years, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s luminous new feature Hanagatami delivers a timeless story of the pureness of youth beset by the chaos of war. Titles include: Casting Blossoms to the Sky, Seven Weeks, Hanagatami.
JANUARY TITLES – IN DEPTH
January 3rd: HOTEL POSEIDON (EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE)
David reluctantly pretends to be the manager of Hotel Poseidon, where fungus covers the walls and comments such as “faded glory” and “has seen better times” completely fall short to describe this establishment. He wanders the corridors of his personal Overlook Hotel like a zombie, being a passive spectator to what happens around him. Whether it’s clients without cash, his mother castrating him with her sharp tongue or the recently deceased aunt in the hallway whose pension kept the place going. David will gradually lose his balance and tumble into a waking nightmare, in which his hotel is transformed into an existential purgatory. With inner demons on the booze, lustful creatures tempting his lonely soul to sin and a big plunge into the proverbial metaphysical shithole, David can expect some strong comments on Trip Advisor.
ARROW’s exclusive presentation of HOTEL POSEIDON will include a host of extras, with the filmmakers giving fascinating extra insight into this extraordinary and multilayered viewing experience.
JANUARY 3: VAMPIRA
In order to revive his long hibernating bride, Vampira, Count Dracula takes blood samples from several beautiful models, but during the transfusion, Vampira’s race turns from white to black.
JANUARY 3: HELGA SHE WOLF OF STILBERG
Helga moves the action to South America, where she lords over a castle of female political prisoners, who are stripped and tortured at whim.
JANUARY 3: SHOCK
In a career spanning four decades and encompassing virtually every genre under the sun, Mario Bava inspired multiple generations of filmmakers, from Dario Argento to Martin Scorsese and Tim Burton. Best remembered for his gothic horror movies, for his final feature, Shock, he eschewed the grand guignol excesses of Black Sabbath or Blood and Black Lace for a more intimate portrait of mental breakdown in which true horror comes from within. Released in the United States as a sequel to Ovidio G. Assonitis’s Beyond the Door, Shock more than lives up to its name, proving that, even at this late stage in his career, Bava hadn’t lost his touch for terror. Now restored in high definition for the first time, the Maestro of the Macabre’s chilling swansong disturbs like never before in this feature-laden release from Arrow Video.
JANUARY 7: COLD EYES OF FEAR
Respectable lawyer Peter picks up Anna, an Italian woman of dubious virtue, from the club and takes her back to his Uncle’s place. They soon discover they are not alone. A gunman Quill (Julian Mateos), is waiting for them.
JANUARY 7: INSEMINOID
A crew of interplanetary archaeologists is threatened when an alien creature impregnates one of their members, causing her to turn homicidal and murder them one by one.
JANUARY 7: PREY
A deadly shape-shifting alien infiltrates a country house occupied by two lesbians, and proceeds to study their behaviour, for a sinister purpose.
JANUARY 7: DEADLY GAMES
Steve Railsback (famed for his unhinged performance as Charles Manson in 1976’s TV mini-series Helter Skelter) is at his sinister best as a troubled Vietnam Vet in 1982’s Deadly Games – a tale of madness, murder and adultery from writer/director Scott Mansfied. A masked maniac with a penchant for a horror-themed board game is playing his own twisted game with the women of a small American town. Each time the dice is rolled, another victim meets a grisly end. Returning home to mourn the death of her murdered sister, Keegan (Jo Ann Harris) befriends local cop Roger and oddball cinema projectionist Billy (Railsback) – but soon finds herself in the killer’s sights. Originally entitled Who Fell Asleep, Deadly Games is an intriguing early ’80s slasher oddity which benefits from focusing as much on the development of its female-led cast as it does on its scenes of stalking and slashing. ARROW is proud to present this long-overlooked creepy gem in a brand new restoration from the recently-unearthed camera negative!
JANUARY 10: THE MANGLER
IT WILL SCARE THE SHEET OUT OF YOU! Master of Horror Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw, Salem’s Lot, Life Force) returns to the works of Stephen King with this baroque and blackly comic adaptation of The Mangler. When a worker at Gartley’s Blue Ribbon Laundry is pulled into the titular laundry press and folded like a sheet, police officer John Hunton (Ted Levine, Silence of the Lambs) is called to investigate. Was it an accident, or is something more sinister going on? As more deaths and injuries occur under the watchful eye of owner Bill Gartley (Robert Englund), Hunton, with his demonologist brother-in-law Mark Jackson (Daniel Matmoor) come to believe the machine might be possessed, and the town itself to be hiding a much deeper secret. Like an EC horror comic come to life, The Mangler is bold, brash and politically aware as Hooper once again points his camera at the American Nightmare, this time turning it on the bloodthirsty machinery of capitalism itself!
JANUARY 10: PERDITA DURANGO
From writer/director Álex de la Iglesia (DAY OF THE BEAST) comes novelist Barry Gifford’s prequel to Wild At Heart featuring sociopath priestess Perdita Durango. Starring Oscar nominee Rosie Perez and Academy Award winner Javier Bardem in the “amoral love story” (DVD Talk) filled with human sacrifices, kidnapping, murder, fetus trafficking and the dogged DEA agent (James Gandolfini).
JANUARY 10: THE DAY OF THE BEAST
Writer/director Álex de la Iglesia delivers the smash hit that remains one of the best horror comedies of our time: When a rogue priest discovers the exact date The Antichrist will be born, he’ll enlist a Death Metal record store clerk and a cheesy TV psychic for an urban spree of “gore, sacrilege and twisted humor” (San Francisco Examiner) to prevent the Apocalypse by summoning Satan himself.
JANUARY 13: STILL TICKIN’: THE RETURN OF A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
Stanley Kubrick’s masterful classic A Clockwork Orange and its controversy through the years are discussed by contemporary film directors (like Sam Mendes, Mary Harron and Tony Kaye), critics and lead actor Malcolm McDowell, in this fascinating documentary about one of the greatest films ever made and also one of those most debated and controversial works of cinema of all time.
JANUARY 14: RED ANGEL
Directed by Yasuzo Masumura (Giants and Toys, Blind Beast), Red Angel takes an unflinching look at the horror and futility of war through the eyes of a dedicated and selfless young military nursen. Adapted from the novel by Yorichika Arima, Masumura’s harrowing portrait of women and war is considered the finest of his collaborations with Ayako Wakao (A Wife Confesses, Irezumi) and features startling monochrome scope cinematography by Setsuo Kobayashi (Fires on the Plain, An Actor’s Revenge).
JANUARY 14: TERROR
The descendants of a witch hunting family and their close friends are stalked and killed by a mysterious entity.
JANUARY 14: CRADLE OF FEAR
A gruesome homage to the cult Amicus anthology Asylum, Cradle of Fear unfolds four screamplays all linked by the unspeakable need of an incarcerated child killer to wreak vengeance on those responsible for his imprisonment. Helped by deranged angel Dani Filth, who leaves a trail of charnel house death in his crimson wake, the cannibal convict forces two Goth vamps to endure a one night stand from hell, two tough female robbers to see through each other, an obscenely rich coke-head to chop up more than a few lines and an internet surfer to descend into madness when he uncovers the ultimate web depravity.
JANUARY 14: CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS
Six friends in a theatrical troupe dig up a corpse on an abandoned island to use in a mock Satanic rite. It backfires with deadly consequences.
JANUARY14: BLOODBATH AT THE HOUSE OF DEATH
Six scientists investigate a strange phenomenon at the creepy Headstone Manor, the site of a mysterious massacre years earlier that took the lives of 18 guests in one night.
JANUARY 14: THE DEVIL’S NIGHTMARE
A group of tourists traveling on a bus take a detour to stay overnight in a castle owned by a family cursed with a history of Satanism and death.
JANUARY 17: CASTING BLOSSOMS TO THE SKY
Endo Reiko visits the city of Nagaoka and listens to a motley cast’s stories. She learns about the fireworks in the city and its history, how war ravaged and changed the city and the narrator’s lives. In the process much obscure information is offered and digested and there are hints of what constitutes the Japanese character.
JANUARY 17: SEVEN WEEKS
A former hospital director runs an antiques shop in Ashibetsu with her family.
JANUARY 17: HANAGATAMI
Fulfilling his filmmaking dream of 40 years, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s luminous new feature Hanagatami delivers a timeless story of the pureness of youth beset by the chaos of war.
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❉ News source: Fetch Publicity
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