Author: Peter 'Witchfinder' Hopkins

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s dystopian sci-fi epic World on a Wire was way ahead of its time, with fascinating themes that would later be explored in films such as The Matrix, Bladerunner, and TV series like Westworld. Now this hugely influential classic arrives as a stunningly restored Limited Edition Blu-ray Box Set from Second Sight in February, with a host of outstanding new special features and a 50- page booklet. Originally created for TV by the radical and often controversial filmmaker, it centres around Simulacron 1, a highly advanced project designed to elevate conventional computer technology to a new level by…

SRS Cinema is excited to present an all-new release that compiles as many of the trailers that they can from their movies over the nearly 10 years. Digging back as much as possible, including trailers that date back to their earliest days starting from their founding as Salt City Home Video in 1992. Tho these trailers have been included randomly on various SRS releases, this is the first time they have all been put together on one epic release in “Backyard Cinema – the SRS Cinema Trailers”. In addition, as a bonus, they are reaching out to their indie filmmaker…

STRANGE NATURE ** USA 2018 Dir: James Ojala. 100 mins A low-budget variation of John Frankenheimer’s underrated 70’s eco-horror PROPHECY, set against an appropriately depressing back drop of post-economic-crash small town U.S.A. – all boarded-up shops, unhealthy locals and corrupt politicians. Former teen pop star Lisa Sheridan returns home to a frosty reception thanks to earlier badmouthing of the town and the scandalous reveal that she didn’t sing on her records. She finds a spate of missing persons, deformed local children, and mutated frogs in the woods that may be connected to pesticides and an off-camera monster killing guest stars…

DAWN OF THE CRESCENT MOON ** USA 2014 Dir: Kirk Loudon. 95 mins This indie horror subverts expectations set by its archetypal skinny-dipping slasher style opening sequence – becoming a relatively ambitious story blurring past, present, dreams and reality via different storytellers and perspectives. A young couple in a small Texas town, affectionately referred to as “Bumfuck, Nowhere”, research the legend of “Blood Lake” with a little help from tetchy but good hearted bartender Cyrus (Barry Corbin), the kind of booze gatekeeper who doesn’t serve wine because it brings unwanted city folk. He relates the story of a group of…

ALIVE ** Canada 2018 Dir: Rob Grant. 91 mins In one of the more over-familiar narrative tropes of 21st century genre cinema, a heavily wounded, amnesiac Thomas Cocquerel wakes up at the start of ALIVE in the care of an overly chipper British doctor (Angus Macfadyen) and with a stranger (Camille Stopps) in the next bed. Prone to sobbing in a self-created nursery, Macfadyen’s light-hearted demeanour and enthusiasm for nature and healthy eating conceals the obvious fact that he is batshit crazy. As generic and forgettable as its oft-used title, this joins an endless array of post-CUBE horror movies in…