December is going to be a great month for movies fans on the Arrow Video Channel as they have announced a collection of titles that you can check out over the festive period.
So for fans of something different to check out at Christmas here’s what’s coming up on the Arrow Video Channel:
The Bloodhound
A creepy and intense story of the insidious and dangerous effects of isolation on a damaged mind, The Bloodhound, a remarkably assured first feature from writer/director Patrick Picard, is a unique and stylish take on Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic classic, The Fall of The House of Usher.
Claustrophobic, Kubrickian, and elegantly constructed, The Bloodhound is as if Wes Anderson had made The Shining. Set in a single location – an elegant and foreboding house that recalls the architectural character of Parasite – the characters become bound within its glass walls. With touches of cult genre hits Ex Machina and After Midnight, The Bloodhoundis short, sharp and highly unsettling – the perfect slow-burning chamber piece for the lockdown era.
CRASH
Technology and sexuality meet in a head-on collision in Crash – director David Cronenberg’s stunning and hypnotic tour de force starring James Spader and Holly Hunter, a highly controversial adaptation of writer J.G. Ballard’s hugely transgressive 1973 novel. Awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival for originality, daring and audacity, Crash remains an incredibly subversive and confrontational piece of cinema – Cronenberg himself describes it as “a dangerous film”.
Survivor Ballads (Arrow Channel Exclusive)
Throughout the 1980s, Shohei Imamura (The Pornographers, Profound Desires of the Gods), a leading figure of the Japanese New Wave era of the 1960s, cemented his international reputation as one of the most important directors of his generation with a series of films that all competed at Cannes to great critical acclaim. This exclusive season presents restored versions of three late career classics – Black Rain, The Ballad of Narayama and Zegen – from the legendary filmmaker which epitomise his almost documentary style of filmmaking, exposing the vulgar yet vibrant and instinctive underbelly of Japanese society.
Arrow Channel Christmas Collection
He’s making his list, and checking it twice,… Santa’s gonna be in with a fright! From tearaway teens to maniacal killers – Santa’s naughty list is going to be mighty busy this year! Time to snuggle down and settle in and marvel at the good, the bad and the just plain deranged only on ARROW!
December 1st: NAUGHTY OR NICE?
He’s making his list, and checking it twice,… Santa’s gonna be in with a fright! From tearaway teens to maniacal killers – Santa’s naughty list is going to be mighty busy this year! Time to snuggle down and settle in and marvel at the good, the bad and the just plain deranged only on ARROW!
Films featured: See teenage hellcats gone wild in The Violent Years; killer kids running amok in horror favourites Bloody Birthday and Children of the Corn; very very bad behaviour indeed in the incredible The El Duce Tapes; partying teens meeting their grisly fate in Doom Asylum; and drugs dealers getting greedy in The Hooked Generation.
December 7th: IT’S COLD OUTSIDE
Temperatures are low but the possibility of murder and mayhem is high, in a chilled to perfection collection of Arrow’s most snowbound and chilling titles that will send shivers up your spine.
Films featured: a snowmobiling trip turns into a waking nightmare in The Chill Factor; something’s buried in the cold dark forest in The Deeper You Dig; Santa is unearthed with shocking consequences in Rare Exports; it’s the choice between a raging hurricane or a homicidal slasher in The Wind; and it’s hoodlums versus cannibals, underground, in Trapped Alive.
December 21st: EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY!
Fancy feeding your festive spirit? Well grab a spoon and get ready to dig in with this decadent feast that will give you that warm feeling inside (you may want to see a doctor about that…)
Films featured: Italian provocateur Marco Ferreri’s decadent attack on the bourgeoisie La Grande Bouffe; the superbly sordid 1980s splatter spectacular Microwave Massacre; cult craziness in Lake Michigan Monster; the surreal and brilliant horror-comedy The Happiness of the Katakurisis; Larry Cohen’s spot-on consumer satire The Stuff; the infectiously funny rom-zom-com Zombie for Sale; and veg turns lethal, again, in the riotous Return of the Killer Tomatoes.
ARROW ESSENTIALS: WESTERNS
Saddle up for some seriously good oaters, as ARROW canters into the wild west for gunfights, rustling, and good old fashioned bar brawls, with the likes of Tonino Valerii and Ferdinando Baldi at the reins.
Films featured include: Lee van Cleef is a sharpshooter without equal in the superb Day of Anger; Franco Nero is out for revenge in Texas Adios; and the caped wanderer, played by Gianni Garco, in The Sartana Collection puts the spice into the spaghetti western.
It’s the perfect time to check out the channel for some of the best cult movies, tune in now and start your 30 days free trial on Amazon (UK).
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
