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Saurians / Colony Mutation / The Paranormal

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Blessed be the tastemakers! All due respect to those leaning on Letterboxd, but it’s boutique physical media companies like Visual Vengeance that are really introducing fans to films they might have otherwise overlooked. And in the case of their latest trio of titles, films even their creators never expected to debut in such extravagant special editions. Tapping into that specific strain of low-budget ambition, Saurians (1994) has the kind of earnestness that’s too hard to fake. Filmmaker Mark Polonia shoots for Jurassic Park -level action using a blend of stop motion, hand puppets and oversize models...all on Super 8. But it’s the awkward dubbing, sleepy acting and hammy dialogue that will be most appealing to fans of homemade cinema. Saurians is cringey in the best possible way, but Polonia stays fully committed to the idea he’s making something special. And, in that respect, he succeeds. Colony Mutation (1988) lifts its inspiration from the work of David Cronenberg, whos...
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The Crawling Hand / The Slime People

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Fans of ’50 and ‘60s sci-fi monster movies are a dying breed. In the CGI age, does anyone have patience for rubber suits, cosmic rays and scenes filmed in rented trailers passing themselves off as mission control? I’m willing to bet there are a few of us left tracking down unseen gems like The Crawling Hand and The Slime People now out on a remastered Blu-ray double-feature courtesy of VCI Entertainment. It looks like a bargain bin special, but the 4K scans from the original negative say otherwise. In The Crawling Hand (1963), the severed arm of an infected astronaut washes up on a California beach where the microorganisms inside infect an ambitious college student. Meanwhile, the hand itself skitters away from a pair of scientists and the local sheriff (Alan “Skipper” Hale, Jr.) as they attempt to solve a string of mysterious strangulations. Well, duh! Taking a fairly serious approach to the low-budget material, director Herbert L. Strock was no stranger to the teenage horror m...
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Cutter's Way

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The catchphrase for ‘70s cinema was ambiguity . Not that David Lynch nonsense that leaves every scene open to interpretation, but the sort of morally murky, post-Watergate cynicism where the answers matter less than the questions they leave behind. Cutter’s Way was actually released in 1981, but it’s soaked in the neo-noir of Chinatown , the bleach-blond decay of Shampoo and the lazy disillusionment of Five Easy Pieces . So much so that when director Ivan Passer wrings it out to dry, the movie leaves its audience just as spiritually empty. Richard Bone (Jeff Bridges) is a layabout lothario who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. After witnessing a murder, he casually identifies the suspect as one of the Santa Barbara elite, a man above reproach and, perhaps, above the law. Bone is happy to leave well enough alone, but his friend, Alex Cutter (John Heard), a disfigured and disillusioned Vietnam vet, sees an opportunity to dispense justice and make some money at th...
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Confessions of a Police Captain

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Director Damiano Damiani has built a career on corruption. Not the obvious, everyday swindlers, but the insidious variety that seeps into government institutions and can’t be removed without killing the host. In 1971’s Confessions of a Police Captain, he reunites with Franco Nero and Martin Balsam in a dissection of the Italian justice system, staging a chess match in which the rules were fixed before the game began. Captain Bonavia (Balsam) is the experienced cop who understands there is more than one way to get your man. District Attorney Traini (Nero) is his naïve counterpart, shocked at the suggestion of city officials working with mafiosos to line both their pockets. They approach the same case from different angles as the pressure to take down a dirty land developer ruffles feathers in the underworld and the judicial bench. The chess match metaphor is particularly relevant to Bonavia and Traini’s relationship. In a rare leading role, Balsam excels as the jaded mentor who has...
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Soldier

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Kurt Russell’s name doesn’t pop up when it comes to action heroes, yet his career is littered with iconic performance in the genre: Escape from New York, Big Trouble in Little China, Tango & Cash, Stargate, Breakdown and about a half dozen others on the fringes. But 1998’s Soldier might be his most on-the-nose attempt hang with Stallone and Schwarzenegger, a ‘80s throwback full of weaponry, explosions and enough macho posturing to embarrass a Greek god. Raised on warfare from birth, Sgt. Todd (Russell) and his corps of space soldiers are deemed “outdated” after a new program introduces genetically engineered commandos who can kick ass more cost effectively. Literally thrown out with the trash, Todd lands on a waste disposal planet populated with displaced colonists who find his demeanor at odds with their peaceful existence. But when more space baddies arrive to cause trouble, he’s the only things standing between them and complete destruction. Written by David Webb Peoples (...
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The Dancing Hawk

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We can all agree that, for the most part, spoilers are bad. But when you’re talking about experimental films that intentionally rearrange the narrative and visual DNA of cinema itself, it helps to have a cheat code. And that’s certainly the case with The Dancing Hawk (1977), an avant-garde Polish drama that follows the professional success and personal failings of one Michal Toporny, a rural farmhand seduced by the Soviet bureaucracy into a life of ruthless ambition. Director Grzegorz Krolikiewicz follows the narrative structure of Citizen Kane but takes wild creative swings that cleverly disguise the tribute to Welles’ classic. Born into a proud sort of poverty, Toporny (Franciszek Trzeciak) begrudgingly agrees to pursue an education in the city, leaving behind a wife and son in hope of securing a better future for them all. But as his career takes off, Toporny scrubs himself clean of all traces of his humble beginnings, remarrying into a better family and spurning the political req...
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The Eye (2002)

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Yet another take on the “possessed limb” genre which includes legit classics like Mad Love (1935) and the absurd but underrated Body Parts (1991), the supernatural threat from The Eye (2002) is caused by a corneal transplant that allows the new recipient to see the recently deceased. Pulling more inspiration from The Sixth Sense than any of films previously mentioned, this Hong Kong-Singapore production follows the same playbook as other millennial Asian horror entries, but delivers a few shocks you won’t see coming. Blind since the age of two, Mun (Angelica Lee) has her vision surgically restored and immediately realizes there are unintended side-effects. Shadowy figures can be seen leading off patients in the hospital ward and disturbing strangers pop up that no one else can see. Enlisting the aid of a psychologist, the duo travel to Thailand to hunt down the original donor and unravel the psychic trauma left behind. Disjointed, scattered and swimming in editorial cliches of t...
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