After the release of Shaw Scope Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3, I’m excited to report that the fourth edition may be the best yet.

Here’s what’s on it:

Super Inframan: One of Shaws’ most beloved cult classics, Hua Shan’s tokusatsu tribute Super Inframan stars Danny Lee (The Killer) as the titular high-kicking superhero, defending the planet against a demon queen and her legion of subterranean mutant minions.

Oily Maniac and Battle Wizard: Lee also stars as a monster vigilante issuing vicious justice in Ho Meng-hua’s creeptastic Oily Maniac and as the prince granted magical powers in Pao Hsueh-li’s fantastical wuxia Battle Wizard.

Black Magic and Black Magic II: Director Ho next treats us to a double-helping of occult mayhem with Black Magic and its sequel, where Ti Lung battles wicked voodoo doctors with the power to cast spells and raise the dead.

Bewitched, Hex, Hex After Hex, Hex vs. Witchcraft: Four more doses of unhinged madness follow from Kuei Chih-hung in the form of Bewitched and the Hex trilogy, an unforgettable quadruple serving of possession and witchcraft that presaged his notorious brain-melting classic The Boxer’s Omen.

Bat Without Wings: Master filmmaker Chor Yuen adds a hefty dose of horror to his trademark wuxia-mystery style in Bat Without Wings, in which a young sword fighter must end a deranged martial arts master-turned-multiple murderer’s perverted rampage.

Bloody Parrot: Hua Shan returns with Bloody Parrot, an eye-poppingly vivid horror fantasy about two swordsmen hunting a demon that offers to grant wishes, only to leave a messy trail of destruction in its wake.

The Fake Ghost Catchers and Demon of the Lute: Lau Kar-wing’s kung fu jiangshi comedy The Fake Ghost Catchers sees two conmen unwittingly enlisted to battle spirits from the underworld, while Tang Tak-cheung’s hair-raising wuxia fantasia Demon of the Lute has to be seen to be believed.

Seeding of a Ghost and Portrait In Crystal: Yang Chuen’s gruesome splatterfest Seeding of a Ghost has a taxi driver enlist a necromancer’s help in avenging the murder of his wife, with sickening results; and Hua Shan returns with Portrait in Crystal, a deliriously imaginative tale of a murderous swordswoman brought to life through a crystal sculpture.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: Last but not least, Alex Cheung’s Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is an out-of-this-world comedy in which city girl Cherie Chung is abducted by aliens and taken to a galaxy far, far away…

This limited edition box set includes high definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of all sixteen films, all newly restored in 2K from the original negatives by Arrow Films. There’s an iIllustrated 60-page collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by David West, Jonathan Clements and Grady Hendrix, plus cast and crew listings and notes on each film by Ian Jane. You also get new artwork by Matt Frank & Jolyon Yates, Mike Lee-Graham, Chris Malbon and Ilan Sheady.

The last disc includes Hong Kong: The Show of Mister Shaw, a 1972 French TV profile of Shaw Brothers; a video essay on Ho Meng-hua written and narrated by Grady Hendrix; appreciations of  Super Inframan by Leon Hunt, Luke White and Kim Newman, Bat Without Wings by Wayne Wong, Demon of the Lute by Luke White and Battle Wizard and Demon of the Lute by Victor Fan. There are also theatrical trailers for most of the films in the set, some never seen on video before.

This is the kind of set that I dream about. As always, perfection from Arrow Video. This is the best of the sets for me, as it expands on what people expect from Shaw Brothers to really get into some of the stranger films that they made.

You can get this from MVD.

Founded in 2006, Wild Eye Releasing has carved out a name as a driving force in low-budget, underground, and outsider cinema, earning a cult following among filmmakers and fans alike. Wild Eye champions horror, action, sci-fi, exploitation, arthouse, documentaries, and vintage gems from across the globe, delivering them worldwide via home video, digital and theatrical avenues. They also produce their own in-house features and mockbusters like the fan-favorites Cocaine Shark, Amityville in Space and the Ouija Shark and Jurassic Shark series, while proudly distributing VHS era classics such as Splatter Farm, Zombie Bloodbath, Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell and The Necro Files via their sister imprint, Visual Vengeance.

Here are the first three partner label releases:

The Disco Exorcist: Rex Romanski is a 1970s disco god and notorious porn stud who beds the wrong beauty—voodoo priestess Rita Marie. Now, only Rex can stop her wicked wave of possession, bloodshed, and revenge before she takes his newest flame, Amoreena Jones, straight to hell.

Extras include 2025 commentary with director Richard Griffin and producer Ted Marr; archival 2012 commentary with Griffin, Marr, Sarah Nicklin and Michael Reed; a deleted scene; an image gallery and trailers. Yes, yes, you get a slipcover too. Get it from Vinegar Syndrome.

Model Hunger: A former model (Lynn Lowry) cast aside by the beauty-obsessed entertainment industry takes brutal revenge on young, attractive women. But when a new couple (Tiffany Shepis, Carmine Capobianco) moves in next door, they begin to suspect something sinister. The list of missing girls is growing—and all signs point to Ginny’s basement. What horrors has she been hiding all these years… and who will survive her hunger for revenge?

This has a complete and uncensored Director’s Cut; commentary with director Debbie Rochon; another Commentary with producer / co-writer James Morgart and Adam Torkel; a third commentary with Rochon and David Marancik; an essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas; a Debbie Rochon career retrospective; interviews with Rochon, Morgart, composer Harry Manfredini; Lowry and Shepis; a short film; a music video; a 24-page booklet with new introduction and short story and a reversible sleeve featuring alternate art. Get it from Vinegar Syndrome.

Asylum of Darkness: After awakening in a mental asylum, a patient plans his escape to freedom while fighting off supernatural forces in both the real world, and some that may only live inside his head. But once on the outside,  he learns that the life awaiting him is more twisted and dangerous than anything he could conjure in his head, one that is luring him back to the asylum forever. Starring genre icons Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica), Tim Thomerson (Near Dark, Trancers, Air America), and Tiffany Shepis (Sharknado, Tales of Halloween).

This film has a director supervised transfer from the original 35mm elements; an introduction by director Jay Woelfel; two commentaries (director Jay Woelfel and actor Nick Baldasare; the other by Tony Strauss of Weng’s Chop Magazine) interviews with Woelfel, Thomerson, Amanda Howell, Brian Spears, John Ellis and Scott Spears; an FX demo reel; deleted scenes; a trailer; short films and a 12-page booklet by Tony Strauss. You can get this from Vinegar Syndrome.

Visual Vengeance has so many cool things coming in 2026, and I can’t wait! You can learn about all of the other Visual Vengeance releases here.

Colony Mutation: When genetic scientist Meredith Weaver finds out about her husband’s affair, she doses him with an experimental and very unstable serum, which causes his body parts to separate from his torso and take on monstrous lives of their own, all of them now craving human flesh. Soon, he’s stalking the streets in search of young women to quench the now insatiable hunger of his evil appendages.

Tom Berna’s rarely seen, stop-motion heavy Super 8mm body horror plays out like an alternate universe Lifetime movie directed by David Cronenberg that delivers both the gruesome FX set pieces, but also serves as a cautionary tale of male sexual addiction and unchecked passion.

This has a new, director supervised 2K transfer and restoration from original Super 8 film elements; commentary from producer/ director Tom Berna and a second commentary from Tony Strauss of Weng’s Chop Magazine; interviews with Berna, star David Rommel and music composer Patrick Nettesheim; an archival public access interview with Tom Berna; alternate VHS and DVD cuts; the original script; an image gallery; a teaser trailer; stick your own VHS stickers; a booklet with liner note sby Tont Strauss; a poster and a limited edition O-Card with art by Justin Coons. You can get this from MVD.

The Paranormal: Something is haunting the Englewood movie theater – an unseen force that comes alive after dark. Paranormal investigator Kyle Jennings is called in, but the moment he steps inside, the nightmare begins. The theater seals itself shut, the screen tears open like a doorway, and the low-budget zombie movie playing suddenly becomes real. With the undead spilling into the aisles, Kyle must uncover the source of the disturbance before the entire theater becomes a feeding ground, and the only clues may be trapped inside the film itself. First time ever on disc, following its 1998 VHS release, this is a long-overlooked and scarcely distributed film. Todd Norris’ The Paranormal is one of the outstanding lost achievements of the SOV era. Smart, sharply structured, and performed with an unexpected level of polish, it pushes well beyond the scrappy expectations of its budget. Norris brings a true filmmaker’s eye to every frame, blending genre thrills with an apparent affection for the moviegoing experience itself. For fans who think they’ve seen every corner of the Shot-on-Video landscape, The Paranormal is a revelation, and proof that the video format was capable of far more than it was ever given credit for.

This has a new director-supervised transfer from original tape elements, two commentaries (one by director Todd Norris and the other with Norris and composer Paul Roberts); new cast and crew interviews; Norris and Todd SHeets interview; bloopers; deleted scenes; The Paranormal Channel 5 TV Airing Bumpers; short films; trailers; a poster; Stick Your Own VHS stickers; a limited edition O-CARD featuring art by Uncle Frank; a Ghost Finder; a promo flyer and original sleeve art by The Dude. Get it from MVD.

I was on For God’s Sake Get Out: An Amityville Podcast talking about all things Amityville. Mostly Amityville Prison. But you know me. I can talk Amityville for a long time.

Listen here or use the player.

Next Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm EST, Erica Shultz will be drawing from her book The Sweetest Taboo: An Unapologetic Guide to Child Kills in Film to take a sharp-witted, irreverent approach to a subject that has made critics and censors clutch their pearls for decades.

Through film clips, historical context, and a healthy dose of gallows humor, this talk will dissect the genre biases, cultural contexts, and hypocrisies that dictate what is considered too far. Different cultures and historical moments have shaped how filmmakers portray child mortality, from the transgressive violence of Italy’s “Years of Lead”-era cinema to the reactionary moral panics of 1980s America. In Hong Kong cinema, shifting political landscapes before and after the Handover influenced the framing of youthful innocence—and its destruction.

Meanwhile, Hollywood’s unwritten rules dictate when a child’s death serves as tragedy, retribution, or exploitation. Mainstream, critically acclaimed films have long used child mortality as an emotional weapon, while horror films are branded exploitative for doing the same. Violent child deaths in action movies may remain PG-13, while horror films with similar content are punished with an R or NC-17. This conversation will also explore the difference between “Killer Kids” and “Killing Kids,” examining why a murderous child’s death in Pet Sematary, Mikey, or Who Can Kill a Child? is more palatable than the death of an innocent.

Beyond genre and censorship, the internet’s ever-growing influence has reshaped audience reactions, amplifying social media outrage and recontextualizing past films through contemporary lenses. Expect a lively discussion, controversial examples, and an unapologetic look at one of cinema’s most enduring taboos. If you’ve ever laughed, gasped, or cringed at an onscreen child kill, this is the class for you.

Erica Shultz is the co-host of the Unsung Horrors podcast, which focuses on horror films with fewer than 1000 views on Letterboxd. She has contributed booklet essays, visual essays, and commentary tracks for various boutique Blu-ray labels such as Vinegar Syndrome, Severin, Terror Vision, Fun City Editions, and Cinephobia releasing. Her 2024 self-published book The Sweetest Taboo: An Unapologetic Guide to Child Kills in Film categorizes and reviews nearly 1200 films that depict a child death. She is currently working on a second volume, and living blissfully child-free in Austin, Texas.

You can learn more here.

It Came From Texas is a feature-length documentary that dives headfirst into this untold story. Through interviews with filmmakers, actors, critics, and fans, plus rare footage and behind-the-scenes treasures, we’ll celebrate the creators who proved that you don’t need Hollywood to make movie magic — just grit, guts, and maybe a bucket of fake blood.

Texas is home to some of the strangest, most unforgettable B-movies ever unleashed on late-night TV, drive-in screens, and straight-to-VHS shelves. From the cult catastrophe of Manos: The Hands of Fate to gems like Blood Suckers From Outer Space, The Nail Gun Massacre, and Don’t Look in the Basement — the Lone Star State has carved its own wild legacy in the world of cult cinema.

To learn more, click here.

I just got this in my email and wanted to share it with you!

“We’ve embarked on our latest film adventure — Echoes — a new story that revisits the dark and imaginative world first glimpsed in Despiser. Our modest Kickstarter campaign is now live, and we’d love for you to be part of bringing it to life.

Your support can help us finish the film — and you can even claim a few Despiser props before they’re gone, or see your name appear in the credits!

Echoes of Dread introduces a new heroine, Samantha Rainer, a social media “View-Tuber” with a devoted following. In her quest to explore the macabre, she stumbles into a nightmare world…and accidentally unleashes it. Now, Samantha must find a way to put the genie back in the bottle — with the help (and hindrance) of old and new allies — as she fights for her life.

Our Kickstarter campaign runs for only a few more weeks, so please check it out today and consider joining us on this next cinematic journey.”

Cook says that this film is “peripherally connected to Despiser. It’s not a gonzo car-chase shoot ’em up, but rather a darkly quirky dip into some of Despiser’s themes—and a few of its surviving characters.”

Get on that Kickstarter now, there’s just a few days to go!

Visual Vengeance has more movies and I can’t wait! You can learn about all of the other Visual Vengeance releases here.

Ozone: Attack of the Redneck Mutants: When a toxic chemical spill tears open the ozone above rural Texas, backwoods locals mutate into drooling, slime-choked ghouls with an insatiable appetite for flesh. Environmental science student Arlene and hitchhiker Kevin stumble into the madness as small-town life collapses into a grotesque carnival of green vomit, yellow pus, and blood-soaked carnage. Dubbed dialogue, surreal padding, Americana weirdness, and gallons of inventive practical gore make Ozone unforgettable and stomach-churning. Director Matt Devlen’s infamous Super-8 splatter oddity–sister film to Bret McCormick’s The Abomination–remains a true DIY regional relic, long overshadowed by its limited VHS release in the late ’80s. Now, for the first time on Blu-ray, this Special Edition features deleted scenes, outtakes, lost short films, rare images, and fresh extras with the original creators.

It has a new director-approved SD master from original tape elements, plus two commentary tracks, one by producer Bret McCormick and star Blue Thompson and another with commentary with Sam Panico of B&S About Movies and Bill Van Ryn of Drive-In Asylum. Hey that’s me!

Plus you get a new Blue Thompson interview, an Ozone and The Abomination location visit, deleted scenes and outtakes from producer Matt Devlen’s personal archives, a Muther Video VHS intro reel, interviews with Devlen, a short film, acting reels, a public access review, a podcast, an image gallery, a trailer for Tabloid, Visual Vengeance trailers, a “Stick Your Own” VHS sticker set, a reversible sleeve featuring original VHS art, a folded mini-poster, a limited edition O-Card with alternate art by The Dude, a 12-page mini-comic book, an Ozone mutant puke bag and a Muther Video logo stick. You can get tjis from MVD.

Violent New Breed: A vicious new street drug called Rapture is flooding New York City, and two burned-out cops are sent to trace its source. What they don’t know is that the poison was cooked up by an army of demons festering beneath Manhattan–creatures who have also birthed the Antichrist! Now it’s a race through sleaze-soaked streets with Satan’s spawn in tow, hoping to deliver the hell-baby to the last Pastor in the city (blaxploitation legend Rudy Ray Moore) for a baptism before it unleashes hell on earth. The most ambitious, unpredictable effort from SOV auteur Todd Sheets, Violent New Breed swings for the fences, weaving clashing storylines, a sprawling cast, and Sheets’ trademark splatter and monster effects. Featuring drug deals, crooked cops, strip clubs, rituals, possessed kids and slimy births, the film channels the late-80s “satanic panic” and mixes it with Sheets’ raw camcorder fury and homemade charm, creating a cracked vision of a post-apocalyptic world that plays like a summer blockbuster from another dimension. Available for the first time on Blu-ray with over 12 hours of new and archival bonus content including four versions of the film.

This is a new director-approved, remastered SD master version from original tape elements with the plternate original DVD version, an alternate R-rated version as aired on The Movie Channel and an alternate original VHS release version. There are three commentary tracks, interviews, behind the scenes docs, the Q&A from the Nitehawk Cinema showing, news coverage, uncut sequences, a booklet with liner notes by Tony Strauss of Weng’s Chop Magazine, Visual Vengeance trailers, a reversible sleeve featuring original VHS art, a folded mini-poster of original Ghana art by Heavy J, a Ghana poster by legend Heavy J and a Birth Announcement’ vintage reproduction. Get it from MVD.

Date With a Vampire:Violet is a vampire who hungers for sexual pleasure as much as her victim’s blood. By night she prowls the city, luring both men and women into her web of lust and murder. Her latest unsuspecting prey, Chuck, is a lonely young man she meets in a smoky bar and draws into her orbit with a mix of charm, sensuality, and mystery. But what begins as flirtation soon becomes a hypnotic seduction–leading him straight into her bed and trapped in her world of erotic indulgence and eternal hunger.
Produced during the booming heyday of the shot-on-video era, Date with a Vampire captures a unique moment when softcore erotica and horror overlapped on the shelves of late-1990s and early-2000s video stores. Directed by Jeffrey Arsenault (creator of the cult vampire favorite Night Owl), written by prolific filmmaker Kevin J. Lindenmuth (Addicted to Murder), and featuring an appearance by cult east coast horror actor Joe Zaso (5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas), together they craft a stylish, lo-fi vampire tale that perfectly captures the raw, experimental creativity of New York’s no-budget horror scene of the time. First time ever on blu-ray and includes bonus SOV erotic horror film Blood Craving.

This features an SD master from original tape elements, commentary with director Jeffrey Arsenault; interviews with Arsenault, Kevin J. Lindenmuth, Cynthia Polakovich and Joe Zaso; location videos; an image gallery; an original trailer; commentary and interview on Blood Craving with Jeffrey Arsenault; an After Midnight Entertainment: trailer reel; Visual Vengeance trailers; a reversible sleeve featuring new Blood Craving art; a dflded mini-poster and a limited Edition O-Card by Rick Melton. Get it from MVD.

Highway to Hell: Convicted mass-murderer Toby Gilmore has escaped from prison, and the open desert becomes his playground for sadism and destruction. Determined to stop him after failing to execute him years earlier, officer Earl Dent (Richard Harrison) sets out on a relentless pursuit that turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse. But Gilmore has taken a hostage — Fran Tucker, a young woman caught in the wrong place at the worst possible time. As the chase hurtles across backroads and wastelands, Dent closes in, each mile bringing he and Gilmore closer to an explosive reckoning on the highway to hell. Shot in rural Texas, Highway to Hell stands as a prime example of the regional, low-budget filmmaking that fueled America’s video boom of the 1980s and ’90s. Originally released on VHS via Rae Don Home Video, the film showcases director Bret McCormick (The Abomination, Repligator), a key figure in the Texas exploitation underground, whose raw energy and ingenuity turn poverty row resources into a fast-paced, sun-baked thriller that captures the true spirit and grit of independent genre cinema. First time ever on Blu-ray and includes bonus SOV feature film, Redneck County Fever (1992).

Made from an SD master from original tape elements, this has a commentary and interview with director Bret McCormick; interviews with Blue Thompson, Richard Harrison, Gary Kennamer and Tom Fegan; an image gallery; a commentary track and interviews on Redneck County Fever with Bret McCormick and Gary Kennamer; Visual Vengeance trailers; a “Stick Your Own” VHS sticker set; a reversible sleeve featuring original VHS art; a folded Redneck County Fever mini-poster and a limited edition O-CARD featuring original poster art. You can get this from MVD.

September Drive-In Super Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre, September 19 and 20, 2025. Two big nights with four feature films each night include:

• Friday, September 19: Mark of the Devil, The Sentinel, The Devil’s Rain and Devil Times Five
• September 20: The Omega Man, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the Grindhouse Releasing 4K restoration drive-in premiere of S.F. Brownrigg’s Scum of the Earth and Eaten Alive

Admission is $15 per person each night (children 12 and under – accompanied by an adult guardian – are admitted free). Overnight camping is available (breakfast included) for an additional $20 a person per night. Advance online tickets (highly recommended) for both movies and camping here: https://www.riversidedrivein.com/shop/

Fell Out of Heaven

• 1 oz. amaretto
• 1 oz. Malibu rum
• 1 oz. Midori
• 6 oz. pineapple juice

1. Pour all ingredients over ice. Stir and say these words: “O Mighty light and burning flame of comfort, enter this body and cleanse it of its unworthy soul.”
2. Drink.

For the second night:

Poor White Trash Part II AKA Drunk Is a Family Affair

• 1.5 oz. tequila
• 1 oz. Cointreau
• .5 oz. lime juice
• 1.5 oz. pomegranate juice
• Pinch of salt

1. Mix all ingredients in a shaker, except the salt.
2. Pour over ice and place a pinch of salt in.

I’m always looking for more writers to be part of the site. Sure, it doesn’t pay, but I’m willing to let you write about just about any movie that you want to, at any length and in any style or format. The site gets around 1,200 visitors a day, and I share the reviews on Letterboxd, IMDB, Amazon, Rotten Tomatoes, Facebook and Twitter, so your work will get an audience.

For October, the prompts are:

Chiller Theater: Movies that played on Pittsburgh’s Chiller Theater.

Horror Gives Back: Follow the link for prompts to be part of Unsung Horror’s annual event while helping animals.

Scarecrow Video Psychotronic Challenge: The yearly event of the largest video store in the world.

The Important Cinema Club Super Scary Challenge: 31 days of deep cut horror prompts.

For November, the prompts are:

Mill Creek Legends of Horror: Every November, I try to make it through a 50-movie box set from Mill Creek. Please help!

Kaiju Day: Every Thanksgiving, I post 24 or more kaiju films. Share your favorites!

You can always send your pitch my way, and I’ll see if it fits the site.

If you want to be part of the site, just email me at bandsaboutmovies@gmail.com. I look forward to having you write for us and am easy on deadlines, have no limit on word count and am really excited to help you either get a new audience for your site or write about movies for the first time.