News

I, Madman and Sugar Hill are returning to Blu-ray in June as spines #31 and #32, respectively, in Kino Lorber‘s Kino Cult line.

1989 supernatural slasher I, Madman will be released on June 17.

Tibor Takács (The Gate) directs from a script by David Chaskin (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge). Jenny Wright, Clayton Rohner, and Randall William Cook star.

Special Features:

Audio commentary by Director Tibor Takács and Actor and Artistic Supervisor Randall William Cook Much of Madness, More of Sin – Visual Essay by Chris O’Neill Ripped From the Pages: The Making of I, Madman – Interviews with Director Tibor Takács, Actor and Artistic Supervisor Randall William Cook, Screenwriter David Chaskin, and Actors Clayton Rohner and Stephanie Hodge Behind the Scenes Footage with Commentary by Randall William Cook Theatrical Trailer

Book store clerk Virginia loves to lose herself in a good novel, but when she cracks the spine of a horror pulp called I,...

Before "Star Wars," there was "Thx 1138." A strange, dystopic science fiction movie packed with big ideas up to its eyeballs, "Thx 1138" is now mostly known as the feature directorial debut of one George Walton Lucas Jr. (though it also came back in conversation when the best episode of "Andor" paid homage to it). The future Lucasfilm founder originally created this story of repressed emotions and stymied sexuality as a student film, but by the time it was reimagined as a feature, it had gained backing from Warner Bros.

Lucas' American Zoetrope co-founder Francis Ford Coppola also had faith in the movie, and served as one of its producers. "Thx 1138" starred Robert Duvall, then already known for his work on stage and television, not to mention in films like "To Kill A Mockingbird," "M*A*S*H," and "True Grit." Future "Halloween" actor Donald Pleasence co-starred, along with a then-unknown actress named Maggie McOmie.

Blaxploitation Horror was a hot item in the ‘70s; in the aftermath of the initial wave of the Civil Rights Movement and a desperate lack of exploitation films portraying the Black experience, horror turned its lens towards an untapped audience. Black people wanted (and deserved) to see themselves up on the Saturday night screens and drive-ins across North America. Hollywood and independent studios began to look for ways to bring a new perspective to the screen, all while ensuring that the staples of the time - sex and violence - were firmly in place. Sugar Hill (1974) offers up none of the former and a muted stab at the latter, yet is still a very effective blend of ‘40s zombiedom with modern sensibilities.

Released by American International Pictures in a several month spring rollout, Sugar Hill did well with audiences, but as expected was a miss from mainstream critics, who dismissed...

Don Pedro Colley, an actor who appeared in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, in the first film directed by George Lucas and on the 1980s CBS series The Dukes of Hazzard, has died. He was 79.

Colley died Oct. 11 in his hometown of Klamath Falls, Ore., following a long battle with cancer, his friend William Sowles said.

Colley also had roles in The World's Greatest Athlete (1973), Herbie Rides Again (1974) and Piranha (1995) and in blaxpoitation films including The Legend of Nigger Charley (1972), Black Caesar (1973) and, playing a voodoo lord of the dead, Sugar Hill...

Dyer Straits Productions (Dsp) presents year three of St. Louis. only pop-culture, horror and sci-fi convention on June 15-17, 2012. Contamination 2012 3D takes place at the Renaissance St. Louis Airport and is bigger and better with film icons, TV stars, models/Playmates, super heroes, ghost hunters, filmmakers and musicians. Peter .Chewbacca. Mayhew (.Star Wars.) and a cast reunion of the original .The Munsters. TV show (Butch .Eddie. Patrick & Pat .Marilyn. Priest) are headlining this year along with an impressive lineup of icons at this highly anticipated follow-up event.

In addition to super heroes The Flash (John Wesley Shipp) and .Shazam.s. Captain Marvel (Jackson Bostwick), horror fans will get their fix with Michael Berryman (.The Hills Have Eyes 2.), Planet of the Apes enthusiasts will be able to meet Linda Harrison (Nova) from the Original “Planet of the Apes & Beneath the Planet of the Apes” along with Don Pedro Colley (“Ongero”) from...

Back in 2010, Dyer Straits Productions launched Contamination in St. Louis. Bringing Fred “The Hammer” Williamson along with some Day of the Dead cast, Contamination was a blast for all involved. Now, 2012 brings the third edition of this Pop-Culture, Horror & Sci-Fi Convention to St. Louis at the Renaissance Hotel! Read the press release below and get ready for a hell of a good time!

From the Press Release

St. Louis, Mo – May 7, 2012 – Dyer Straits Productions (Dsp) presents year three of St. Louis’ only pop-culture, horror and sci-fi convention on June 15-17, 2012. Contamination 2012 3D takes place at the Renaissance St. Louis Airport and is bigger and better with film icons, TV stars, models/Playmates, super heroes, ghost hunters, filmmakers and musicians. Peter “Chewbacca” Mayhew (“Star Wars”) and a cast reunion of the original “TheMunsters” TV show (Butch “Eddie” Patrick & Pat “Marilyn” Priest) are headlining this year along with an impressive lineup of...

Fans of classic horror and cheesy Eighties movies have just received the green light to shit their pants with joy! Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment’s Mod (Manufacturing on Demand) initiative is once again unleashing MGM's vaults with a stellar collection of long gone classics!

In September be prepared to break your banks as we have your first look at some of the upcoming hard to find titles that lay in the not too distant future!

The Living Ghost (1942) - James Dunn stars as Nick Trayne, a retired detective, hired to look for missing banker Walter Craig. During the investigation Craig shows up in a zombie-like state and murders his brother-in-law. But is the banker the killer or is someone controlling him? The trail leads Nick to the real culprit, a mad scientist, who has been conducting experiments on Craig. Stars James Dunn; Joan Woodbury; Paul McVey. Directed by William Beaudine.

George Lucas’ debut feature, the sci-fi classic Thx 1138, is out now on Blu-ray. Here’s our look back at what is possibly the director’s finest film…

Of all the various attempts to bring the literary dystopias of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four or Aldous Huxley's Brave New World to the screen, none succeeded in replicating the extraordinary atmosphere and tone of their source novels.

John Hurt may have been magnificent as the doomed Winston Smith, but Michael Radford's adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four never quite retained the savagery present in Orwell's stark, terrifying prose. Similarly, the 1998 TV movie of Brave New World couldn't capture the despair in Huxley's vision of a scrubbed-up future of state controlled sex and drugs.

George Lucas' debut feature Thx 1138, based on his own student film Electronic Labyrinth: Thx 1138 4Eb made four years earlier, captured the sentiment of those...

Thx 1138

Blu-ray | DVD

Directed by George Lucas

Starring Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence, Don Pedro Colley, Maggie McOmie, Ian Wolfe

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Release date: September 7, 2010

Complacent with his narrative and uninspired to produce anything more profound because he is relying on his visuals to do the work, director George Lucas attempts to create a 25th century utopian future gone awfully awry. Literary minds depicted such sterile, lifeless, and bleak environments with precise detail. Orwell (1984), Huxley (A Brave New World), and filmmaker Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey) tackled dystopian and futuristic atmospheres with a potent narrative behind it. They called to our attention truly believable and paradoxical relationships that integrated humanity with sterility, freedom with captivity.

Lucas’ 1971 science-fiction film Thx-1138 lacks his predecessors’ originality because he is not capable of excavating beyond his beautifully eerie aesthetics. If he would be able to he would find a story that...