June 4, 2026
was almost entirely dormant by the '90s, a few countries apparently didn't get the memo. Case in point: 1991's Intensive Care, a Dutch horror movie built around a few minutes of footage with George Kennedy and a starring role for pop star Koen Wauters, as well as familiar TV presenter Nada van Nie as the final girl. In the middle of an operation, jittery professor-surgeon Felix Bruckner (Kennedy) throws a violent puncturing fit and retires to his office where he's informed that his latest grant has been denied-- and his current experiments involving brain-swapping among mammals have to stop immediately. On the way home he's so agitated he plows headfirst into a truck, and for the next seven years he languishes in a mangled coma where he also turns into a totally
different actor covered in latex burn makeup. Bruckner wakes up and isn't amused by the insults being hurled at him by the staff, so he kills one nurse and sets his sights on another, the wildly obnoxious jerk and saxophone fan Peter (Wauters), and his neighbor crush Amy (van Nie). Soon the entire neighborhood is a hunting ground during its fireworks planning for the mad doctor, and who can stop his rampage? There's a definite Rabid Grannies / Absurd vibe to this one, presented on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome in its English-language director's cut (a Dutch one was also prepared) taken from a 2K scan of the negative with a few bits taken from a 35mm answer print (with obvious differences but still pretty solid quality). Kennedy and the two leads speak English and do fine, while the rest of the cast is dubbed and mostly appears to be speaking phonetically with mixed (and often hilarious) results. Audio options come in DTS 5.1 or 2.0 stereo choices (both sound fine if modest) with optional English SDH subtitles. An audio commentary by Yfke van Berckelaer and Bram Roza pretty much comments about what's happening on screen. The new "35 Years Later” (22m45s) features director Dorna X. van Rouveroy chatting with Bonnie Williams about the differences between the two versions (basically a lot of smoking) and making the first and so far only female-directed Dutch horror movie. Also included are an 8m54s behind-the-scenes featurette and the international trailer. Buy here.
Lovecraftian and slasher send-up of a certain well-known Hollywood-based cult created by L. Ron Hubbard. After an opening in which a young woman is terrorized by knife-wielding hooded cultists and then grabbed by a giant tentacle, we settle into the story of struggling college student Bob (Vinnie Bilancio) who rents a room in the home of Crystal (Wendi Winburn), who gradually talks him into signing up for her religion of choice, Crystalnetics. When he isn't dealing with tempting offers of getting "call waiting, for free," he's getting initiated into the faith which involves a flashy ceremony and oddities like changes in his complexion and mirror reflection. Meanwhile a
cop is investigating the mysterious disappearances of numerous members, which indicates that maybe the self-improvement sect isn't as positive as it appears. The satire here may not be subtle, but it gives a nice kick to this enthusiastic monster movie that captures a very particular moment in time around the turn of the millennium when its subject seemed like the weirdest pop culture element out there. (Needless to say, times have changed a lot.) Leroy later went back and retooled the film into The Screaming: Reborn, which uses some of his beloved CGI (and believe me, nobody uses it like him!) to update some of the effects shots, music, and editing. Both are charming in their own way and worth a look on the 2026 Blu-ray from Visual Vengeance, with the original version featured DTS-HD 2.0 English stereo audio with English subtitles as well as a fun audio commentary by Weng's Chop's Tony Strauss who covers the two versions, Leroy's filmography, and all of his "nerd knowledge" about the production history and satirical topics. The alternate updated version comes with a commentary by Leroy, producer Dave Sterling, and Bilancio looking back at shooting the film in 1999, making the revisions, stories from the set, a callout to Married... with Children, and the whereabouts of various participants. The making-of featurette "Screaming and Screaming Again" (8m45s) opens with a funny updated reunion between Bilancio and actor Joe Haggerty after which they join Leroy for a walking tour and reminiscence around where it was filmed (plus separate material with Sterling). Then "Composing a Cult Classic" (6m57s) features composer Jay Woelfel (whose score is included as a bonus CD) chats about being inspired by Herrmann, Goldsmith, and Carpenter for his first Leroy score as well as giving it a New Age vibe. Finally you get a 1m35s image gallery, and three trailers. Buy here or buy here.
most offensive film in the entire Wild Eye Releasing catalog. And that’s saying something. An Australian slasher movie with a heavy sexual assault angle guaranteed to push a lot of viewers’ buttons, the story chronicles the very strange murder rampage of Ted (Matthew C. Vaughan), a man who decides to murder nine people while he’s dressed in a crazy black cat mask and claws. He also commissions a spiky phallus as well to make things even more unpleasant for his victims, all for reasons eventually involving his recently deceased cat Patrick he keeps in a freezer. Meanwhile Claire (Shian Denovan) has made some of a viral sensation
out of her kitty, Imelda, which attracts the attention of a deranged stalker fan whose actions send her and Ted’s paths crossing with horrific results. Greatly extrapolated from an earlier short film by director David Anthony Jackson, this is definitely a film you should approach with caution and will be received very differently depending on your frame of mind. It could be seen as a very diseased black comedy, a pet owner’s crackpot wish fever dream, or an updating of the loner crazy guy slasher variant that seemed to be everywhere in the early ‘80s complete with a thumping John Carpenter-style soundtrack. No matter what though you’ll never forget the sight of Ted going about his business in his full killer cat gear, and the kill scenes are outrageous with a sort of Art the Clown-ish spirit to give you an idea. You'll never look at a certain dreaded veterinary accessory the same way again after the finale either.
even what you'd remotely expect, the gonzo 2021 experimental art film Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is easily one of the wildest Golden Bear winners around and a standout film for Romanian director Radu Jude, who more recently delivered his own idiosyncratic version of Dracula. In the very unflinching opening sequence (including a canny mix of prosthetics and body doubles),
teacher Emi (Katia Pascariu) makes a sex tape with her husband who uploads it to a niche adult site. The video ends up going wide throughout their community, with parents already dealing with the height of the pandemic calling for her dismissal. From there the film dives into a satirical, explicit, and sometimes utterly insane dissection of modern cultural attitudes, becoming more stylized and surreal as it heads into an unforgettable, Clue-inspired resolution that will have your jaw on the floor. You've never seen social commentary done quite like this, including a hilarious and borderline experiment midsection that pulls no punches. Jude also prepared an optically censored version (which is very funny by itself), but the 2026 Blu-ray from Magnolia is the uncensored version in all its explicit, insane glory, with optional English subtitles. The video extras include a trailer and a new video interview with Jude (16m39s) about how weird it is already looking back at the film as a snapshot of the pandemic and his own approach to comedy including a comparison to Buster Keaton. A booklet is also included featuring a new essay by John Semley. Buy here or buy here.
action for decades ever since the big '80s porn crackdown on home video content, which meant that anything even slightly transgressive -- including some mild violence here and a couple of martial arts fight scenes -- had to be cut. Fortunately the Blu-ray from Quality X is completely uncut thanks to the discovery of the original camera negative, which had been something of a lost holy grail for several years. Here Butler stars in arguably his greatest role as Eddie, a struggling actor working at a diner who gets prompted by his buddy Danny
(Joey Silvera), a part-time hardcore performer, to come by and visit a film shoot. Eddie gets roped into doing a scene under the guidance of taskmaster director Carolyn (Lisa Deleeuw), which leads to more roles that could be a problem when Eddie gets a legit gig on a TV soap. The opening disclaimer about the use of subliminal images that could cause sexual arousal is enough to blast you back in time to when people actually cared about that, and the whole film is a wild ride with lots of intense melodrama, goofy humor, action, tons of great New York City scenery, and of course, a lot of sex scenes with familiar faces like Rhonda Jo Petty, Taija Rae, Danielle, and newbie Cassandra Leigh. The image quality here is immaculate (a far cry from the old fuzzy VHS version or the chopped-up DVD from that old tape master), and you also get a fun audio commentary by producer and screenwriter Joyce Snyder with The Rialto Report's Ashley West covering the locations, cast, rationale for the nuttier creative decisions, and much more. The late Butler is represented by a two-part audio interview from The Rialto Report (80m34s each) that's as candid and entertaining as you'd expect given his infamous autobiography named after this film, followed by interviews with Snyder, "The Kind of Porn Film That I Wanted to See" (37m50s), and director-cinematographer Larry Revene, "Journeyman of the Raw" (20m12s), about peers in the industry like Armand Weston and Radley Metzger, the height of the adult NYC industry, the concept behind the script, the casting, their previous work together on Public Affairs, and more. Also included are a 5m4s "Jerry Butler monologue," a 2m35s image gallery, a 9m3s script-to-screen comparison, and the trailer, plus an insert booklet with new essays by Steven Morowitz and Dino Proserpio. Buy here or buy here.
bizarre cast including Phantasm's Angus Scrimm and Reggie Bannister. In between the gore,
puking, and strobing, here's the story of two damned souls, gay panicking homeless serial killer Marc (Don Wood) and strung-out junkie Wendy (Christine Spencer) who dabbles in paganism and getting an occasional abortion. Both of them have dark, red cloudy visions and seem to be prodded constantly by a pair of mischievous devils played by Larry Fessenden and Bradford Scobie. Debbie Rochon and Michael Berryman are also on hand to lend support here in what feels like a comic book spoof of Christian and Reefer Madness-style drug scare films, something hammered home by the opening disclaimer. How you respond to this one will depend how receptive you are to its swaggering riffing on American Christian conventions with subliminal flashes and nods to terrifying mortal perils like tarot cards giving you an idea of where writer-director James Felix McKenney is coming from. Like absolutely nothing else in the Glass Eye Pix catalog (apart from their always unpredictable Tales from Beyond the Pale audio productions), this first appeared on DVD in 2011 from TLA Releasing's Danger After Dark imprint but fares a lot better on Glass Eye's Blu-ray special edition which looks great and features DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 stereo audio options (with English SDH subs). McKenney is joined by cast and crew members Laree Love and Noah De Filippis for a lively audio commentary about the casting, actors' whereabouts, and related projects they all did together, plus a trailer, six sections of uncut TV segments seen in snippets in the finished film (including Max Brooks and a lot more Scrimm), a 22m30s making-of featurette, two "Creepy Christmas" shorts ("December 23" and "Eighteen Reindeer"), and a trailer. Buy here or buy here.
classification to Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape, a compilation saluting the "outsider video artist" works of the late Kati Kelli who adopted a string of colorful personae for her
online shorts. It isn't much of a surprise that the central mixtape here is the handiwork of Jane Schoenbrun and Kelli's husband Jordan Wippell since this feels a lot like what's on the screen in We're All Going to the World's Fair, and the YouTube creator's premature death gives the whole thing an unearthly feeling even more surreal than they would have under regular circumstances. On top of that, she's extremely funny with an attitude and aesthetic that captures the feeling of a child at play on an alien planet that looks a lot like a girl's bedroom. In keeping with the recent relaxing of attitudes to unorthodox online content (with YouTube creators even ruling the box office more recently), this even got some film festival play and works best either on a hazy afternoon or very, very late at night. The main 79-minute mixtape is a colorful, dizzying collage of characters, digital overlays, and gags, climaxing in her ambitious short film Total Body Removal Surgery complete with a very Bruce Campbell-style surgeon. Also included is the entire 14-episode cycle of "Marva the MILF" shorts, with Kelli essentially bouncing between a crazy quilt of personalities with their own hairstyles and wardrobes with outsized personalities to match. Almost half of it is ASMR though, so your enjoyment will largely depend on your tolerance for that. Also included are a quick, impressionistic "Inside the Body: The Making of Total Body Removal Surgery" (1m53s), the horny 10m1s short film Spring Barbies and a 3m6s behind-the-scenes featurette, and "Pop Purgatory" and "It Girl" photo galleries. Buy here or buy here.
Pyrenees in France with 2020's Teddy, another spin on the coming-of-age werewolf movie with a twist in both its locale and main character. Here Teddy (Anthony Bajon) is a shaven-headed,
frustrated high school dropout living with his disinterested aunt and uncle, not to mention being surrounded by complacent, oddball townspeople. While out walking one night, Teddy falls afoul of the clawed presence that's been attacking livestock in the area, and when he ends up with deep scratches in his back, it's only a matter of time before he starts to change... horribly. The actual werewolf material here in minimal at best (an eyeball transformation here, some furry feet there), with directors Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma wringing humor and gradual tension out of Teddy's evolution and his struggle to adapt to a society where he can barely even hold down a part-time job helping out at a massage parlor. Of course there's a sexual factor here as well like any modern werewolf movie, though that also is more implied than explicitly shown. One particular advantage here is how the actors look and act like real rural people instead of cosplaying actors, which helps sell the eventual third act mayhem quite well. This was a Shudder pick-up which debuted several years before its eventual Blu-ray debut from the label, which looks and sounds excellent apart from their irritating continuing practice of burning on the subtitles instead of making them optional. This really should have stopped many, many years ago. (An additional SDH option is included which can be switched on and off.) Extras include an interview with the twin brother directors (33m39s) who talk about the influence of Hollywood and modern pop culture on people's media tastes, the evolution of the film's concept, and the rationale behind the setting. Also included is a 6m36s batch of deleted scenes, a 1m26s storyboard gallery, and the French trailer. Buy here or buy here.
know that the legendary Shaw Brothers made many, many movies outside of its classic martial arts and supernatural productions, one of the lesser aspects of its waning days is its embracing of stylish art films. One of
these, 1985's My Name Ain't Suzie, would be impossible to peg as a Shaw Brothers film if you didn't see the opening logo; instead it feels very much like a proto-Wong Kar-wai film as it delivers an atmospheric, colorful look at Hong Kong's cultural shift from the late '50s into the early '70s. Director Angie Chen, who had just made an auspicious debut at the studio with Maybe It's Love, delivers a unique spin on an age-old story showing the lives of "salt water girls" working in the red-light district through the eyes of rebellious Shui-mei (Pat Ha Man-chik) who gets recruited by Betty Ting Pei to work at the sailor-frequented Luckybar. Meanwhile she enjoys an on-and-off flirtation with Asian-European greaser Jimmy (Anthony Wong, in his debut), which will go through its own ups and downs. The title itself is a response to The World of Suzie Wong, a solid but decidedly Hollywood-ized look at Hong Kong prostitutes, though this one is quite stylized as well with a melodramatic streak that works well. This one was released on DVD ages ago in Hong Kong but looks much better in a new 2K restoration from Kani on Blu-ray, cited as coming from the original camera negative and "best surviving elements." English-translated and SDH subs are included, plus great new interviews with Chen (12m1s and 9m32s) about this film and overall career in Hong Kong, plus screenwriter and planner John Chan (16m13s) about the original fog-centric title which sprang from the conception of the opening, the evocation of the time period, and the many aspects of Hong Kong he wanted to include. Wong himself appears in "Becoming Jimmy" (7m53s) along with Chen and Chan explaining how he got his first big break here and how the character was conceived. A trailer is also included, and the disc comes with a booklet featuring a new essay by Xueli Wang. Buy here or buy here.
if you ever wondered what the Japanese monster classic Matango might have been like shot in the U.S. with a camcorder on 1% of the budget, look no further than 2002's Fungicide. The brainchild of Dave and Mary Wascavage who gave you Suburban Sasquatch two years later, this also features both of them as actors with Mary playing the flighty New Age owner of a country getaway where her latest arrival is Silas (David Weldon), a crazed scientist sent away by his parents. Of course, he can't leave his work back home and unleashes
his dangerous new formula on some mushrooms which become enormous, sentient, and out for blood. Now it's up to everyone else on the property to fight back with any weapon at hand, be it sword, gun, or their own two hands. The sight of mushroom costumes and puppets beating up people and getting turned into shattering CGI critters is truly something to behold, and you even get some POV shots inside one of the killer shroom's mouths for that extra touch of cinematic magic. This one has been out on DVD and Tubi for ages, but obviously anyone with cultivated taste will want the Visual Vengeance Blu-ray for the full lo-fi experience complete with four(!) audio commentaries: the original DVD one with the Wascavages and Weldon, a new one with just the Wascavages looking back at it twenty years later, a new one with Sam Panico of B&S About Movies and Bill Van Ryn of Drive-In Asylum, and a new one from Schlock And Awe Films. They're about as loose, ridiculous, and sometimes amusing as you'd expect if you can handle 332 minutes of Fungicide analysis. If that wasn't enough, you also get the entire Rifftrax episode for the film which trims it down by ten minutes. Also included are an alternate main title sequence, a dispensable 1m28s deleted scene, a 5m14s outtake reel, a 6m55s gallery (just some fuzzy frame grabs), two trailers, and bonus trailers for Suburban Sasquatch, Tartarus, Infinities Lock, Zombies by Design, and Malevolent Ascent. As usual the first pressing of the packaging itself is a glorious piece of excess including a "grow your own killer mushroom" seed packet, a limited o-card, VHS sticker set, and folded poster. Buy here or buy here. PREVIOUS SICK PICKS:
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