Here’s what’s on the Arrow Player in January: 

January 6: Start the new year with the favorites of filmmaker, comic writer and producer Adam Egypt Mortimer. The writer-director of SpectreVision’s Daniel Isn’t Real and Archenemy, these Adam Egypt Mortimer Selects, presented in three parts: Demented Spiritual Quests, Kinetic Masterminds and Fucked Up Monsters. Movies include The Sacred Spirit, Bad Black, The Great Yokai War and Gwilliam. Also available: Teruo Ishii’s The Executioner and The Executioner II: Karate Inferno.

January 13: Reel Women is a vintage program of interviews with women directors working in Hollywood and Europe in the early 1990s, exploring the opportunities and obstacles that face them. Also available: Lady Whirlwind, Lady Kung Fu and Season of Ravenous Cannibals which has Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death, Trapped Alive and Malatesta’s Carnival of Blood.

January 20: Experience breakout directorial debuts with The First Time, which includes A Ghost Waits, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage and Donnie Darko. Also available: Look into the six decades of work of one of the most iconic actors of the twentieth century in Marlon Brando: Wild One, an examination of the craft of Marlon Brando, narrated by professionals of the film industry. Plus: Bad Moon and Screamers.

January 27: The Lukas Moodysson Collection: Now Moodysson’s eclectic filmography can now be appreciated as the work of a singular filmmaking voice, as avowedly uncompromising and unabashedly political as it is keenly observed, deeply felt and frequently hilarious. Titles Include: Show Me Love, Together and Mammoth.

Head over to ARROW to start watching now. Subscriptions are available for $6.99 monthly or $49.99 yearly. ARROW is available in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland on the following Apps/devices: Roku (all Roku sticks, boxes, devices, etc), Apple TV & iOS devices, Samsung TVs, Android TV and mobile devices, Fire TV (all Amazon Fire TV Sticks, boxes, etc), and on all web browsers at https://www.arrow-player.com.

This January, the Kino Cult linear FAST channel streams deep cuts of cult horror titles as thematically-paired “midnight movie” double features throughout the month all free with ads. They play at midnight EST.

Tuesdays remain dedicated to “Tune In, Turn On,” a weekly programming slot for mind-bending and psychedelic cinema; and on Saturday nights Kino Cult introduces “Midnight Mass,” a series of double features showcasing nunsploitation films, religious horror and the occult.

Kino Cult is a free ad-supported streaming destination for genre lovers of horror and cult films, Kino Cult also has hundreds of new and rare theatrically released cult hits, all presented in beautiful high definition. Additionally, Kino Cult offers an ad-free subscription plan for $4.99 per month.

My recommendations:

January 1: Ms. 45 and I Spit On Your Grave

January 3: A Virgin Among the Living Dead and Black Magic Rites

January 8: Angel and Demons

January 19: Shining Sex and Macumba Sexual

January 22: She Freak and Night Tide

January 29: Death Promise and Miami Connection

Building on the awesomeness that was Shawscope Volume 1, Arrow Video has released a second collection of films from Shaw Brothers, including several films from the final years of the studio. This is an incredible set, as you get 14 movies and so many hours of bonus features, including commentaries, features on each film and even a documentary series on the impact of the studio.

Nearly every movie has newly restored uncompressed Mandarin, Cantonese and English audio as well as newly translated English subtitles and optional hard-of-hearing subtitles for the English versions.

There ars high definition 1080p blu ray presentations of all fourteen films, including nine new 2K restorations by Arrow Films, as well as an illustrated 60-page collectors’ book featuring new writing by David Desser, Jonathan Clements, Lovely Jon and David West, plus cast and crew listings and notes on each film by Simon Abrams. Plus, you get new artwork by Mike Lee-Graham, Chris Malbon, Kagan McLeod, Colin Murdoch, “Kung Fu” Bob O’Brien, Lucas Peverill, Ilan Sheady, Tony Stella, Darren Wheeling and Jolyon Yates, hours of never-before-seen bonus features including several cast and crew interviews from the Frédéric Ambroisine Video Archive and two CDs of music from the De Wolfe Music library as heard in several of the films, exclusive to this collection.

I loved the first set so much — it’s been on repeat for days at a time — and I’m beyond pleased with this set, as it really gives you even more of the experience of Shaw Brothers. Seeing as how they made nearly a thousand movies, here’s hoping that there are many more of these sets in the future.

The films include (click on any of the links to see a full review of the movie):

Invincible Shaolin: The Venom Mob stars in the tale of General Pu (Lung-Wei Wang), who tries to destroy both the north and south Shaolin schools through trickery.

The Boxer’s Omen: One of the wildest movies of all time, a film in which more happens in the first ten minutes than every other movie I’ve watched this year put together. Worth the price of the entire set.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin: Considered to be one of the greatest kung fu films and a turning point in the careers of star Gordon Lio and director Lau Kar-Leung, this is also known in the U.S.. as The Master Killer. It tells the story of San Te, a legendary Shaolin martial arts disciple who must train and ascend through each of the 36th chambers of the training school.

Return to the 36th Chamber: In this kind of, sort of sequel, Liu plays Chu Jen-chieh, a con man posing as a Shaolin monk who ends up actually becoming one.

Disciples of the 36th Chamber: Gordon Liu comes back to the role of San Te and mentors a younger monk who must learn to contain his ego and rage, Fong Sai-Yuk.

The Kid with the Golden Arm: Chang Cheh directs the Venom Mob in a story of martial arts masters, a shipment of gold, chicanery and a fighter who can break a sword with his bare hands.

Five Superfighters: When a martial arts master humbles another teacher and his four students, they must go on a spiritual quest to reclaim their fighting skills.

Mad Monkey Kung Fu: A street performer who throws candy to children was at one time the world’s greatest martial artist. Now, he tries to atone for a drunken mistake that cost him his family and his abilities.

Martial Arts of Shaolin: The only collaboration between film director Lau Kar-leung and actor Jet Li, this movie has Li playing Lin Zhi-ming, a young man training to become one of the best fighters in the Northern Shaolin school.

Mercenaries from Hong Kong: What if Show Brothers made Wild Geese? Watch all of this, because oh man, the last ten minutes have more action that every film that will come out next year.

Magnificent Ruffians: What good are martial arts in a world of guns? A lot, as it turns out, as four ruffians find one another and the joy of practicing combat.

Ten Tigers of Kwangtung: Two shadowy killers are wiping out the legendary Ten Tigers and their disciples in a movie that flashes back to their past and present. Will they have a future?

My Young Auntie: This aunt isn’t an old maid. Instead, she’s tougher than all of the jerks trying to take her estate away.

The Bare-Footed Kid: Directed by Johnnie To, this is a remake of Chang Cheh’s Disciples of Shaolin and stars Aaron Kwok as  Kwan Fung-yiu, the bare footed kid of the title.

This December, the Kino Cult linear FAST channel streams deep cuts of cult horror titles as thematically-paired “midnight movie” double features throughout the month all free with ads. They play at midnight EST.

Kino Cult is a free ad-supported streaming destination for genre lovers of horror and cult films, Kino Cult also has hundreds of new and rare theatrically released cult hits, all presented in beautiful high definition. Additionally, Kino Cult offers an ad-free subscription plan for $4.99 per month.

My recommendations:

December 2: Zombie Lake and A Virgin Among the Living Dead

December 7: The Killing Kind and Night Tide

December 9: Schizo and The Flesh and Blood Show

December 11: The Awful Dr. Orloff and Dr. Orloff’s Monster

December 19: Justine and Sinfonia Erotica

December 30: Fascination and Night of the Hunted

Arrow Player will have the following movies in December:

December 5: Start your holiday early with The Leech, one of the wildest movies I saw this year.

December 9: Fright Christmas has cold weather thrillers like The Deeper You Dig, Kolobos and The Chill Factor. Plus, check out Horror Hospital and Ghost House.

December 12: J-Horror Legends include Ringu, Ringu 2, Ringu 0, Ringu: Spiral, Dark Water, Audition, One Missed Call, One Missed Call 2 and One Missed Call Final.

December 16: Go back in time with Paul Joyce’s documentary Out of the Blue and Into the Black, a look at American independent film production post-Easy Rider, which has interviews with Peter Bogdanovich, Dennis Hopper, Monte Hellman and Roger Corman.

December 23: The Monster Club, The House That Dripped Blood and You Talkin’ to Me, which is the story of Robert De Niro with commentary from Quentin Tarantino.

Video Nasties: The Driller Killer, Tenebrae and Blood Feast.

December 30: The Stepfather II, The Stepfather III and Stanley Kubrick: The Invisible Man.

The Best of 2022: The Beta Test, The Sacred Spirit, The Righteous, Take Back the Night, Hotel Poseidon and Two Witches.

Head over to ARROW to start watching now. Subscriptions are available for $6.99 monthly or $49.99 yearly. ARROW is available in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland on the following Apps/devices: Roku (all Roku sticks, boxes, devices, etc), Apple TV & iOS devices, Samsung TVs, Android TV and mobile devices, Fire TV (all Amazon Fire TV Sticks, boxes, etc), and on all web browsers at https://www.arrow-player.com.

Shudder is finishing 2022 in the scariest way possible. Plans start at under $5 a month and you can get the first week free when you visit Shudder.

Click on any of the links to see an in-depth article on the movie.

December 1: The premiere of the Shudder exclusive A Wounded Fawn, plus Night of the Comet and every single A Nightmare On Elm Street movie. You can read about those movies in our multiple-part series: part one, part two and part three.

December 9: Christmas Bloody Christmas

December 12: Shudder has so much giallo showing up, including The Police Are Blundering In the Dark, The Killer Is One of Thirteen, Girl In Room 2A, The French Sex Murders, My Dear Killer, Autopsy, Murder Mansion, Crazy Desires of a Murderer, Arabella Black Angel, The Killer Is Still Among Us and The Sister of Ursula.

December 16: The Apology and Joe Bob’s Ghouldtide Get-Together

December 22: Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge

December 29: Burial

Plus The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Titans and the premiere of two new series, Doomsday and Beyond the Dark.

The holiday season gets the DIA treatment with an assortment of reviews and ads for films taking place during Thanksgiving, Xmas & New Years. Black Christmas, Home for the Holidays, Silent Night Bloody Night, Rene Cardona’s Santa Claus…. and many, many more! Visit Groovy Doom on Etsy to buy.

While you’re there, you can also get the 1979 Yearbook, Tribute To Horror Hosts, 1981 Yearbook and  back issues containing ads and articles about some of your favorite movies.

I’m so excited for everything that Cauldron Films is putting out. Every release has been so good but their pre-Thanksgiving announcement is packed with three incredible releases, as well as Kill Butterfly Kill, the first release from new label Neon Eagle.

There are also great deals on everything else they’ve released so far!

Here’s what I’m so excited about, the three new releases. Click on any title to purchase.

Convoy Busters: Maurizio Merli (Violent Naples and The Cynic, The Rat, and The Fist) is busted down from Homicide to Emergency Squad. Despite his demotion, he is not content with letting Rome’s criminal element run rampant and his violent nature soon finds him the target of both the press and the local mob. After a bloody attempt on his life, he is transferred to a quiet coastal town to run a local department but, never one to leave things alone, he quickly finds a dangerous smuggling ring is using the cover of the sea and darkness to run their operations in his sleepy district.

Shanghai Joe: According to the Spaghetti Western Database, lead actor Chen Lee may have been a Japanese karate instructor, but according to director Mario Caiano (Eye In the Labyrinth), he worked in a laundry, not in a dojo, and was picked because he looked like a young Dustin Hoffman. Some think his real name was Mioshini Hayakawa, which is Japanese, not Chinese. That said, if that being racist — not knowing the difference between two countries nearly 1,900 miles away from one another — then this movie is not for you.

Seriously, nearly every race gets denigrated in this movie audibly and physically. Luckily, Shanghai Joe ends up killing every single offender.

Also — the Bruno Nicolai music — recycled from Have a Good Funeral, My Friend… Sartana Will Pay — is so good you’ll want to stick around for the whole movie.

Shanghai — or Chin Hao — has come to this country and instead of finding whatever it is he’s looking for — he has tattoos much like Kwai Chang Caine — he’s found that aforementioned racism and a love interest in Cristina (Carla Romanelli, Fenomenal and the Treasure of Tutankamen, The Lonely Lady).

Our hero’s skills as a fighting man make their way to cattle rancher Stanley Spencer (Piero Lulli, Kill, Baby…Kill!), who is really enslaving Mexicans to do his work. That means that the bad guys decide to kill him, but none of them can get it done.

Spencer ends up hiring four different killers, much like video game bosses, to do his work for him. There’s Tricky the Gambler (Giacomo Rossi Stuart, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave), Pedro the Cannibal (Robert Hundar, Sabata), Buryin’ Sam (Gordon Mitchell, who improvised and sang the song “Chin-Chin Chinaman” while carrying a shovel to try to kill Shanghai) and Scalper Jack (an astonishing Klaus Kinski, who is obsessed with hair and you genuinely fear for the life of Romanelli in their scene).

Finally, Mikuja, the only person who has the same martial arts technique and tattoo as our hero, is hired to kill him. Their battle may not be a fight on the order of a Shaw Brothers technical battle, but it’s still fun.

This movie is incredibly strange, because every time I thought it was going to be normal, it would go from slapstick to our hero plucking out a bad guy’s eye and blood spraying all over the place. It’s closer to a horror film set in the West with martial arts than a straight-up Italian Western, but it’s better for that difference.

Frankenstein ’80: Dr. Otto Frankenstein works in his lab all day and to the normal daytime world, he seems like an ordinary doctor. But at night, he works on perfecting his own form of life, Mosiac, putting together this inhuman human from several dead bodies. Then, once completed, Mosiac repays him by killing him and we still have an hour left.

Directed by Mario Mancini (who was the cinematographer for Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks and The Girl in Room 2A), this is a film featuring real surgical footage, nonsensical dialogue and a total lack of plot. Suffice to say I loved it.

Mosiac spends the rest of the movie replacing his constantly failing organs, which means that he must murder and murder and murder some more. Have you ever wondered, “What if someone used a giant leg bone to kill someone?” this would be the movie that answers your inquest.

Also, in whatever nameless city in some unknown country that this is supposed to be set in, possibly Germany, the women in the night have no issues with a gigantic monster in a leather Nazi-esque outfit picking them up with merely a few grunts. No money discussion — he kills them way before they tell him how much a half and half costs.

This movie was inspired by Italian horror, sex and gore comics, like Oltretomba. If you’re offended by the blood and guts and books of this film, consider this a stern warning: avoid these comics at all costs. They take it even further. And then further. And then some.

There’s a new blu ray of this that’s been released — the film is in public domain — that finally fixes the rough prints that are out there right now. It’s nearly impossible to find, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop looking. For all the foibles of this film, it has a certain something.

As a bonus, here’s some artwork that I did of the film.