Amelia (Rebecca Liddiard) is an unreliable narrator, if you will. She’s just getting over a bad breakup — maybe — with a man who was wrong for her — perhaps — and is trying to improve her mental health. Or stop taking her pills and ignoring every time her mother calls. She’s found her way to a rougher part of the city, living with a roommate named Melinda (Camille Stopps) who may have even more issues than she does.

And oh yes. Their house might be haunted.

Deadbolt is directed by Mars Horodyski and written by Michael Rinaldi (Meet the Killer Parents). It has a nice glossy look that doesn’t betray its Tubi origins. And it does a great job of making us wonder who is really trying to drive its heroine even madder.

Amelia has to stay on her meds or she starts to hallucinate. This being a potentially haunted house, that’s not a good thing. Nor is the fact that her ex-boyfriend Colin (Joey Belfiore) is continually stalking her, while Melinda’s addict boyfriend Mark (Thomas Duplessie) keeps crashing on their couch and speaking of Melinda, what’s with that rash that’s overtaking her face?

There’s a bright spot. Amelia meets an artist named David (Jamie Spielchuk) who is very protective of her in the face of everything she’s dealing with, like rats in the basement, a fire in the neighborhood and Bruno (Bill MacDonald), a neighbor who seems threatening but is just dealing with dementia.

Sure, this seems like it could be a Lifetime movie, but is that a bad thing?

You can watch this on Tubi.

Yoshie Nomoto (Miyuki Kuwano) is a young and naive woman from the countryside who has come to the big city and fallen for Eiji Kitami (Mikijiro Hira), a young gangster who pushes her into a life of ill repute. But when we first meet her, she’s already been living this life for some time and despite Hiroshi Fujii (Keisuke Sonoi) thinking he can save her from it, it seems like she’s trapped forever.

Directed by Noburo Nakamura, The Shape of Night is a gorgeous film, one that is filled with the most lush colors and a filmmaking style that makes the heart sing. Speaking of the heart, this proves that love can’t stop an unhappy ending, but such is how it works sometimes in the movies.

Yoshie loves Eiji, no matter how harsh the life he has led her into. There’s a harrowing scene where his bosses take advantage of her and he must watch. It’s not an easy scene to sit through, which is something one can say for the drama of this entire film.

This limited edition of 3,000 Radiance Films release comes with a isual essay on the artistic upheavals at Shochiku studios during the 1960s by Tom Mes, a trailer, a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow, a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Chuck Stephens and it’s all presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings.

You can get it from MVD.

Così fan tutte comes from Tinto Brass, who started his career as an avant-garde director but is best-known for his erotic cinema like Salon Kitty, The Key and P.O. Box Tinto Brass. He wrote the script with Bernardino Zapponi — who wrote Deep Red with Argento — and Francesco Costa. It’s based — somewhat — on the Mozart/da Ponte opera.

The American script and dubbing is by Ted Rusoff, who was the husband of the voice of all your favorite giallo queens, Carolyn De Fonseca.

It stars Claudia Koll, who is almost supernaturally gorgeous, and it’s not without reason that every man in this movie wants her. She works in a lingerie shop for Silvio (Renzo Rinaldi), who constantly is trying to make love to her, and is married to the nice yet boring Paolo (Paolo Lanza). She tries to spice up their love life by telling him stories of her being with other men, which he thinks are fantasy, but are all quite true after she gets pushed by her friend Antonietta (Isabella Deiana) and her sister Nadia (Ornella Marcucci).

She becomes obsessed with an antiques dealer named Donatien Alphonse (Franco Branciaroli) who is turn obsessed with her backside — Tinto Brass is living through his characters — and he leaves marks on her that Paolo discovers which places their marriage in jeopardy.

As for Koll, she passed what Brass called his “coin test.” The director said, “I have them presented in their skirts and without panties, then I drop a coin on the floor. Depending on what they let me see in the bow, I sense their cinematic potential. Believe me… it’s an infallible method.”

As you can see, this is a dirty movie. Yet it’s filled with sophistication, incredible cinematography and an actual story. And wow — a score by Pino Donaggio.

The Cult Epics blu ray release of this movie has a ew 4K transfer and restoration from the original negative. Plus, it has audio commentary by Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth, trailers, an interview with Brass, outtakes, a phoro gallery, a double-sided sleeve with original uncensored Italian poster art, a 20-page illustrated booklet with liner notes by Eugenio Ercolani and Domenico Monetti and a slipcase to hold it all.

You can get it from MVD.

Richard Zanuck and David Brown paid Jaws writer Peter Benchley $2.15 million for film rights to the novel and a first draft of the screenplay, plus 10 percent of the gross, five percent of the soundtrack sales and approval of all of the crew and the locations.

Needless to say, in 1980, Peter Benchley was a big deal.

Blair Maynard (Michael Caine) is British-born but American, which explains how he could be Michael Caine. Anyways, he used to be in the Navy, now he’s a journalist and he’s also a dad whose son Justin (Jeffrey Frank) kind of hates him. So he takes him to Florida, supposedly for Disney World, but also to shoot guns and fish and oh yeah, get kidnapped by an unknown colony of French pirates.

For some reason — the last name — everyone thinks that the Maynards are related to the captain who killed Blackbeard, Robert Maynard. So they let them live, making Blair their writer — and he also gets to keep their in-bred gene pool a little less in-bred — and Justin the adopted son of their leader Nau (David Warner).

Director Michael Richie also made the films Smile, Downhill Racer, The Golden Child, Semi-Tough, The Bad News Bears, Fletch, Fletch Lives and wrote Cool Runnings. He also — as Alan Smithee — directed Student Bodies.

The poster promises that this is going to be a horror movie and it’s…I don’t know. It’s kind of Straw Dogs but not as good, despite the high concepts of pirates hanging out on a secret island in the Bermuda Triangle for three centuries. At least Ennio Morricone did the soundtrack (he did thirteen movies in 1980).

Benchley also had The Deep, another pirate story, made into a movie and that made more than Jaws  did its first weekend. It also has Jacqueline Bisset in a see-through white t-shirt and this movie didn’t have any success or Bisset almost nude.

Man, people were busy in 1980. Richie also made Divine Madness and Caine was in Dressed to Kill.

The Dead Girls are a shock rock band whose members are Gina Verelli, who goes by Bertha Beirut and is played by Diana Karanikas (Click: The Calendar Girl Killer); Dana Grant, who is Lucy Lethal and is played by Angela Eads (Fatal Images); Amy is Nancy Napalm and is played by Kay Schaber (Fatal Images);  her brother Mark, who is Randy Rot and played by Steven Kyle and Susie Stryker who is Cynthia Slain and is played by Angela Scaglione.

Their manager Artie (Brian Chin) has ideas to make them go mainstream, but the girls realize that they are mainly known for their death-obsessed lyrics more than their abilities. Much like the Stained Class and Ozzy Osbourne lawsuits that inspired this story, the band’s fans have been inspired by their lyrics to engage in a mass suicide. The biggest problem for Gina is that her sister Brooke (Ilene Singer) was one of them and barely survived. Now, Aunt Annie (Carol Albright) and Uncle Jim (Robert Morris) — who raised them with good Christian values — think that Gina is to blame.

The band decides to take a two week vacation to a remote cabin, bringing along Brooke, the band’s assistant Jeff (Jeff Herbick), Gina’s old boyfriend from home Mike (David Chatfield) and a groupie named Karen (Mara Holland). Moments after they depart, Artie is murdered by a masked person. Also along for the ride is a nurse (Deirdre West) who is helping Brooke to recover.

The small place they’re staying it is frightening from the beginning. Elmo (David Williams), the developmentally challenged handyman seems to be stalking everyone. And when they send the groupie away, she’s soon killed. The murder doesn’t stop, as Susie is drowned in the lake by the killer and her body is found by Amy. Her body disappears and the band think that it’s a prank, as she has died on stage several times and worked with a magician to learn how to slow her heart and breathing.

If you think that this feels like a giallo, that’s no accident. Writer Steven Jarvis was influenced by the Italian genre.

The next morning, Amy find Susie and Jeff’s corpses in a barn. Gina runs, trying to stop the nurse who is taking Brooke to the hospital. She doesn’t get to her, stranding the group in a place with cut phone lines and a sheriff (Robert Harden) who thinks that they’re all pulling a stunt. Dana believes that Amy and Gina are behind the murders and the group begins to battle amongst themselves.

Amy is obsessed with the military — after all her name is Nancy Napalm — and she sets bombs up all over the barn trying to stop the killer. Dana and Gina start to believe that Mark is the killer and while they’re discussing that, Amy is dismembered with an axe just as Mark returns with firewood. Gina finds her body and takes her gun, returning to find Dana tied up and Mark holding a pistol.

That’s when it all comes out. Dana and Mark wanted to kill Amy and Gina, thinking that they were the murderers. And then, the real killer shows up and slices Dana’s throat.  Gina runs with the killer following her. Mark kills Elmo and we think that’s the end…except…

Spoiler warning…

Mark is the real killer. He’s a religious man who thinks that the Dead Girls had to die to end their music and save teenagers. He accidentally steps on a bomb and blows up, just as the nurse returns, finding Gina tied up. Thinking — just like Mark — that they’re all evil, she leaves Gina tied up and drives away.

Director Dennis Devine (Things II, Fatal Images) said that the weather and cold temperatures made this the most difficult film of his career. I love the idea that the band is being killed by weapons from their songs. I just wish that they actually had a chance to play their songs. It’s so close to being a great metal movie and that would push it over the top.

John Duncombe (Anthony Quayle), the British consul in Florence, has come home from his wife’s funeral and makes the decision to tell his son Andrea (Stefano Colagrande) that his mother is dead. He hides the truth from his other son, Milo (Simone Giannozzi). 

Andrea has to become a grown-up well before he should, while Milo is allowed to be a child and can act has badly as he wants. As for their father, he becomes absent from their lives until it is almost too late.

Director Luigi Comencini understands the time that exists and is so fragile between being a child and an adult. He shows how all three of these men navigate this loss in their own ways. It’s a really dramatic film that made me consider how I went from a child to a grown-up and how my father made his journey as well.

This was remade in 1984 as Misunderstood with Gene Hackman in the lead role.

The Radiance Films blu ray of Misunderstood has a 2K restoration from the original negative, as well as extras such as interviews with co-screenwriter Piero De Bernardi, Cristina Comencini and Michel Ciment; a visual essay by David Cairns on Comencini and the filmmaker’s affinity for childhood stories and a trailer. This limited edition of 3000 copies is presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings. There’s also a reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original promotional materials and a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by critic Manuela Lazic and a newly translated archival interview with Comencini.

You can get it from MVD.

Vincent Moon (Ice-T) has had it with the hundred people — a hundred people! — who have done him wrong. He lures them all to the prison that his crime syndicate has built — yes, this script is insane — and hides $10 million dollars. Only three people will be allowed to survive, as he’s also left guns throughout and gives everyone six hours to be the last person standing. If more than three people are alive in six hours, his kill squad will wipe everyone out and if anyone tries to escape, he has snipers ready to shoot them.

Albert Pyun knew how to set up a movie.

In the middle of all this violence, four people come together: killing machines Marcus (Michael Halsey), D (Kimberly Warren) and Lou (Christopher Lambert) as well as Cam (Deborah Van Valkenburgh, The Warriors but yeah, also Too Close for Comfort!), an accountant who tried to do the right thing and tell the police about what Moon’s syndicate is doing. Cam is in shock at all the bloodshed, but surrounded by these three stone cold assassins, she may survive.

In the midst of all this chaos, Lou also has a daughter, Lucy (Hunter Doughty), who is waiting in a car. He takes care of her and wants the money to make sure she has a future.

The killers are all as Pyun infused as you hope they would be, played by actors like Yuji Okumoto (Chozen, the best bad guy of all time, from The Karate Kid Part II) and Thom Mathews (The Return of the Living Dead and Tommy Jarvis from Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives). James Mathers, who was Dr. Jekyll in Dr. Jekyll’s Dungeon of Death, also is in this.

Shot in Los Angeles’ The Twin Towers Correctional Facility — which was empty at the time of filming, due to budget problems (thanks Schlock Pit!) and where Blast was also made by Pyun — this movie looks so much better than its budget would let you believe. It also has, as much Pyun movies do, a cast that makes it work, as Ice-T seems to be having the time of his life as a silver grilled mambo loving maniac.

In case you’re wondering why there’s hardly any blood while everyone is being killed, well, they couldn’t get the prison dirty. And everyone only had one costume for the duration of shooting.

Credit also goes to Andrew Witham’s script, which is filled with tough killer dialogue and little bursts of weirdness. Sure, it’s The Most Dangerous Game, but this movie is a marvel of low budget magic, as it has so many wild lines, a Three Stooges-style suitcase bomb death and even a line — “You’re Now In The Purgatory Network. Audio and Visual surveillance is constant by Lucifer Command.” — that can be read that the entire prison is in the afterlife.

Pyun also pulls off some small budget miracle here as while Lambert was paid half the budget, he was only available for a third of the shooting days. Most of his scenes were done in two eleven-hour days and the rest is all clever shots and fake Shemps, as Sam Raimi would credit.

It also looks wild, as Director of Photography George Moordian had secured free film stock by Moordian from Fuji Film and loved how Se7en had bleached the film. He fought to get the same look and it totally works, making this feel like it is inside some strange past future.

All in all, this is a near perfect movie.

The MVD blu ray of Mean Guns has an introduction and commentary by Pyun along with new interviews with producer Gary Schmoeller, executive producer Paul Rosenblum and compose Anthony Riparetti as well as a trailer. It all comes in a limited edition slipcover along with reversible art and a collectible mino-poster.

You can get Mean Guns from MVD.

On April 7, 2021, four men made their way to Travis Rudolph’s house — a former wide receiver for Florida State and the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins — to confront him about a fight he had with his girlfriend Dominique Jones. It got violent, he grabbed an AR-15 and as they ran, Rudolph fired 39 rounds at them, killing Sebastien Jean-Jacques as he made it to the passenger seat of a black Cadillac.

During the trial, Rudolph asked Judge Jeffrey Gillen to dismiss the case last year because of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows the use of deadly force to protect someone against death or bodily harm.

Gillen denied his request. It was up to the jury to decide if it was self-defense or murder.

During the trial, Rudolph would not back off the idea that he fired those shots in self-defense. Text messages introduced into evidence by his legal team proved that his ex-girlfriend sent text messages to her brother and the others, telling them to go “shoot up” Rudolph’s home because he had been cheating on her.

This Tubi special tells the entire story and you can see how the jury decided. It’s an interesting case and one everyone needs to consider, especially if they have guns and are ready to use them to defend themselves.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Alex (Natalie Brown) and her problem child daughter Nicole (Lola Flanery) have moved to a new town to get over the death of Alex’s husband (and Nicole’s father). Nicole is also — was also? — a famous social media influencer who ended up with a bad drug habit in the wake of that tragedy and needs to be watched like a hawk by her mother.

Then, as you can tell by the images of the poster, this turns Spirit store Eyes Wide Shut and a bit giallo as there’s a secret party in this town that determines who will be rich and famous. Everyone’s dying to get in, everyone wears masks and somehow, it all ties to the real reason that Alex has moved here: the bridge that cost her husband his life that keeps claiming innocent people with the reason supposedly being that everyone who dies there is a suicide.

It all looks much nicer than its budget suggests and yes, everyone acts like a moron and gets in way over their heads, but isn’t that what movies like this are made for?

Directed by Monika Mitchell (Deadly Midwife) and written by Miriam Lyapin and Helen Marsh (who wrote Festival of the Living Dead as a team), this is certainly much better than Lyapin and Marsh’s zombie failure. I’m all for more of Mitchell’s films, as they have no issue with being absurd and I use that word with the best possible feelings.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Directed and written by Jem Gerrard, who also made Slay for Tubi, this starts with Kay (Khosi Ngema) and her friend Riley (Matthew Vey) sneaking into the home of pharma king Pierce Patton (Francis Chouler) and his girlfriend Jessica (Alex McGregor). Much like Parasite, they seemingly live in the spaces where rich people leave behind during the day, remaining hidden and enjoying the comforts of life that their jobs could never afford.

Except there’s some way strange things going on in this house.

You can tell that Pierce is insane right from the beginning, as when he sees a photo that a journalist (Grant Ross) has used for his cover story, he instantly reacts like it’s the biggest slight ever. It takes Jessica to calm his nerves and make him settle down at his party.

Spoilers from here on out…

When you buy an entire mountain so no one else can be near you, you’re probably the kind of maniac that is conducting secret body horror experiments in your basement. That said, I was surprised several times by this movie, as characters aren’t what they seem and the lure of power, money or medical innovation start to be more important than being a human being. Only Kay emerges as someone who just wants to escape and tell the world about what she has seen. There’s a good chance that no one is going to allow her to be so altruistic.

This is the second movie by Gerrard that I have enjoyed and I hope that Tubi keeps them coming.

You can watch this on Tubi.