Sinister Cinema

A superb Finnish fantasy epic about an evil witch who steals the sun and causes just about everything on the Earth to freeze. Also featured are magic harps, fields of snakes, a wizard, and a magic mill. Released here by AIP. Disc One features the original foreign language edition, Sampo, subtitled in English and taken from a mint 35mm anamorphic widescreen print with beautiful color. Disc two is the AIP American edition, dubbed in English and taken from a nice 16mm color print.

Being that this is a communist film from Czechoslovakia, it's quite well done and genuinely exciting at times a little grim, too, in places. The story concerns the Czech border guards of the late 1940s and their constant challenges in keeping the smuggler and refugee problem in check (pun intended). It's easy, though, to cheer for the "wrong guys." Subtitled in English. From 16mm.

Like any good train murder mystery, there is an assortment of interesting characters, each seemingly with something to hide an American movie star, illicit lovers, a golfing aficionado, there's even a Hercules Poirot-type French police inspector. But perhaps the most tantalizing characters are Hardwicke and his assistant, who share a strange love-hate relationship. Yet it is Veidt who is the most mysterious, playing a suave yet sinister fellow who boards the Rome Express on the trail of a...

Dullea, as Devon, has been seriously injured. Rowan, as Rachel, sends out a request for help to an astro-medic ship. However, there is an alien spacecraft in the area also seeking help. With lives hanging in the balance, the astro-medics are torn over whom to respond to first. Meanwhile, a power-hungry servant hatches a sinister plot to take over the biosphere. Nice color.

A classic spectacle film with a 7.1 IMDB rating. This is the story of Khvicha, a young boy from a Georgian (Russian) village is kidnapped, sold into slavery, and raised as a Mamluk warrior in far off Egypt. He is reunited with his childhood friend (also kidnapped), only to be torn apart again. Years later, during the French invasion of Egypt, fate pits him against a most unexpected foe in a grand battle sequence. This film is filled with wonderful moments. Khvicha is torn between his Georgian...

Tim plays agent Bill Carson again, who, disguised as a sinister bandit, "The Phantom," seeks out the man who killed his partner. The murderer is after a local ranch and his gang are rustling its cattle. Bill, again posing as the Phantom, soon crashes head-on with the killer. From a great 16mm print.

There's a werewolf afoot in a sinister old castle! It all centers around the surviving admirers of an aging countess (wonderfully played by Whitelaw) who have gathered in her isolated castle to pay their respects. However, it doesn't take them long to realize that they will never be permitted to leave alive! There are scores to settle from the past and a vicious lycanthrope is out for revenge. And furthermore night is beginning to fall. The climax of this short British made-for-TV feature...

A classic Japanese horror movie. The conniving mother of a Samurai warrior convinces her son to do away with his wife. He poisons her and kills her "supposed" lover. But the two come back from the grave and haunt him, seeking revenge. The scene where the dead rise from the swamp is amazing. And when the ghosts materialize, no samurai sword can fend them off. Chilling is an understatement. The climactic graveyard sequence is unforgettable. Wow. Creepy B&W cinematography. In Japanese with...

A young couple relocates out in the British countryside. They are shocked, though, when they discover a strange mummified animal in the wall of their cottage. What is its strange secret and is it really dead? The wife begins to feel an impending sense of doom in this short but extremely well-made short British TV feature. Great ending! Penned by master horror and sci-fi screenwriter, Nigel Kneale. Nice color.

Harry is a taxi driver who finds an odd contraption on the back seat of his cab that renders him invisible. He soon uses it to gain wealth and fame. Watch for the scene at the racetrack where Harry scores a fortune. His servant, though, has other ideas, stealing the device and robbing a major bank. The climactic chase seen is great fun, with a cool twist ending. Piel made three sci-fi films in the '30s. This was the first. With English subs. 35mm.

Brennen plays a gorgeous young blonde (but a total bitch) who is lured by the excitement of the carnival business. So she leaves her waitress job at a greasy spoon and joins up with a local carnival. She soon meets all kinds of sordid characters, including the bizarre, physically deformed players of the carnival's freak show. Some of them are monstrous in appearance. Before long she finds herself falling into a web of carnival intrigue: marrying her boss, cheating on him with the ferris wheel...

Over 100 minutes of mindless Japanese superhero sci-fi fun. This two-disc set is in Japanese with no subtitles but the plots are so simple that it's pretty darn easy to figure out what's going on. Our hero, Starman, battles enemy agents galore, all the while befriending a group of school children and concerned adults. There are lots of lab scenes, fistfights, and space opera thrills, with our hero, Starman, flying across the heavens. This volume includes the Space Giant episodes, parts one and...