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Carolyn Bracken, who plays the blind protagonist of Damian McCarthy’s recent chiller “Oddity,” and veteran character actress Caroline Goodall are set to star in Italian director Andrea Corsini’s psychological horror film “Beasts of Prey.”

Cameras recently started rolling in Italy’s northern regions of Lombardy and Piedmont on the English-language “Beasts of Prey,” which is being described as a “complex and thrilling story about the never-ending struggle between the rational and the animal side of human nature” in promotional materials.

“Beasts of Prey,” which is Corsini’s first feature, expands on the director’s short by the same title — about a strange woman who lives in an abandoned villa on the edge of a wild forest — that launched from the 2019 Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week.

“The life of a rich art collector is shattered by a tragic event. Destroyed by this unbearable pain, an instinctive and primordial...

“Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” is finally in theaters and the accompanying soundtrack is as dripping with nostalgia as film.

For those worried, yes “Day-o” by Alfie Davis and the Sylia Young Theatre School Choir is once again in the film. Other familiar hits included on the songlist include “Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffet, “Tragedy” by the Bee Gees, and “MacArthur Park” by both Donna Summer and Richard Harris.

Other artists on the list include composer Danny Elfman, Sigur Rós, and Mazzy Star.

For a complete list of all the songs in the “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” soundtrack keep reading:

“MacArthur Park” by Donna Summer “Margaritaville” by Jimmy Buffet “Tragedy” by the Bee Gees “Day-o” by Alfie Davis and the Sylia Young Theatre School Choir “Lucia di Lammermoor Act 1: ‘Regnava Nel Silenzio Alta La Notte e Bruna” by Maria Callas “Somedays” by Tess Parks “Cry, Cry” by Mazzy Star “Where’s The Man” by Scott Weiland...

Plenty of bananas and a gruesomely gorgeous wedding cake get praise in musical moments in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Several 80s artists like Donna Summer, Jimmy Buffet and The Bee Gees have songs featured in the film, which is a followup to the 1988 original starring Michael Keaton as the ghost with the most, Winona Ryder as goth girl Lydia Deetz and Catherine O’Hara as Lydia’s stepmother Delia Deetz.

Wednesday’s Jenna Ortega joins the sequel in addition to other newcomers, and she has another fun dance moment set to one of the songs in the film’s soundtrack below. A choir sings a beautiful rendition of “Day-o” which can be heard in the film’s trailer. Of course, there wouldn’t be a musical dance moment — or more — without some possessed bodies and souls. The Afterlife provides ample opportunity to feature more genre songs from the 80s, as...

Summer’s official start may not be for a few more weeks, but tell that to the weather. The blistering hot sun is already here, bringing with it buzzy box office releases and lots of exciting new horror. That includes this week’s theatrical release of In a Violent Nature, an experimental slasher that frames the bloody events from the perspective of the undead killer.

On the small screen, “Pretty Little Liars: Summer School“ is currently embracing sun-scorched slasher thrills on Max. So, this week’s streaming picks belong to summer slashers of all varieties, from quintessential summer camp slashers to comedic riffs on the subgenre.

Here’s where you can stream them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

The Burning – MGM+, Prime Video, Tubi

When a group of campers decide to scare the crap out of Camp Blackfoot caretaker, Cropsy, they giggle as they...

I’ve always felt that the 1979 horror film Tourist Trap (watch it Here) deserves a lot more respect and attention than it gets – and that star Chuck Connors (best known for The Rifleman) deserved the “genre icon” career he was aiming for when he signed on for the movie. Barbara Crampton is someone who did achieve a genre icon career, and she clearly believes there was something great going on with Tourist Trap, because our friends at Bloody Disgusting have learned that she is producing a remake of the film!

Crampton is the Vice President of Production & Development at Alliance Media Partners, and the company has just acquired the rights to make a new version of Tourist Trap. Crampton will be producing the film alongside Bob Portal, who is Amp’s Managing Director & Head of Production.

Produced by Full Moon founder Charles Band, the original Tourist Trap stars Connors as Mr.

Arrow Video’s January release is the 1970s horror masterwork Carrie, starring Sissy Spacek as a telekinetic title character. If you’ve got a taste for terror – make sure you grab Carrie on 4K Uhd from Arrow Video.

The release includes commentaries and visual essays, a wealth of interviews and archive featurettes, and comes in limited edition packaging, with a 40-page perfect bound book, a fold-out double-sided poster, six collector’s postcards!

In 1974, Stephen King published his first novel, the story of Carrie White, a troubled young girl, bullied by her peers and daughter to a fanatical fundamentalist mother, who discovers she has telekinetic powers. In 1976, it became the first of his works to be adapted for the big screen and, to this day, remains one of the very best.

Carrie marked Brian De Palma’s arrival as a major director, following smaller cult films such as Sisters, Phantom of the Paradise and Obsession,...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Contagion 4K Uhd from Warner Bros.

Contagion will infect 4K Ultra HD on February 27 via Warner Bros. The 2011 thriller has been newly restored in 4K from the original camera negative, overseen by director Steven Soderbergh, with High Dynamic Range.

The ensemble cast features Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Ehle, and Sanaa Lathan. Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum) wrote the script.

Three previously released featurettes are included: “The Reality of Contagion,” “The Contagion Detectives,” and “Contagion: How a Virus Changes the World.”

Body Double Vinyl Soundtrack from Waxwork Records

The soundtrack from Brain De Palma’s Body Double is coming to vinyl for $40 from Waxwork Records.

Officially announced this morning, Brian De Palma’s classic Stephen King adaptation Carrie is getting a 4K Ultra HD upgrade from Arrow Video, and it’s up for pre-order now.

The Limited Edition 4K release will be available on January 22, 2024. Restored in 4K from the original negative, this collector’s edition “provides the film’s definitive release.”

Special Features include…

4K restoration from the original camera negative 4K (2160p) Uhd Blu-rayTM presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) Lossless mono and DTS-hd 5.1 Master Audio soundtracks Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Commentary by Lee Gambin, author of Nope, Nothing Wrong Here: The Making of Cujo, and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, author of Cultographies: Ms. 45 and Devil’s Advocates: Suspiria Acting Carrie – archive featurette containing interviews with director Brian De Palma, actors Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, William Katt and others More Acting Carrie – additional interviews with the...

“Nothing is what it seems.” A seemingly offhand remark made early in Don’t Look Now is slowly revealed to be the theme around which the film revolves.

Nicolas Roeg’s directorial efforts may not have always connected with audiences immediately, but his impressionistic approach has aged like fine wine. Don’t Look Now, in particular, was decades ahead of its time upon its release in 1973.

The screenplay — written by Allan Scott and Chris Bryant (The Awakening), based on a 1971 short story by Daphne du Maurier — analyzes the psychological effects of trauma through a horror lens; a motif we’ve seen explored many times over in recent years, from Ari Aster’s filmography to David Gordon Green’s Halloween trilogy.

Following the tragic drowning of their young daughter, architect John Baxter and bereaved wife Laura travel from their English country home to Venice to oversee the restoration of a church. After a...

Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now is driven by a crushing sense of emotional desolation. The phrase “psychic thriller,” which was used to market the film, is technically true, but misleading, given that psychics are normally used by directors as springboards for action set pieces or as agents for ushering forth the explicit arrival of ghosts. There are certainly ghosts in Don’t Look Now, and maybe even the kind that populate traditional horror stories, but the prevailing specters here are those that people come to know through disappointment or tragedy as allusions to things lost or desired, which have a way of suddenly opening mental portals to the past, and, in the case of this film and quite a bit of supernatural fiction, the future. Don’t Look Now suggests a ghost story that Faulkner may have written, as it offers characters who’re at the mercy of their streams of consciousness.

Plot: In 1984, Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) tries to recruit Michael Jordan as a Hail Mary to save the fledgling basketball shoes division.

Review: Ben Affleck‘s Air allows the director to play to all his strengths as a director and actor. Like Argo, it shines a light on an intriguing event from the eighties, but unlike that film, the stakes here aren’t necessarily life and death. But, if you think the idea of a movie about Michael Jordan being signed to Nike is minor, you’d be wrong, as this is a truly involving, entertaining depiction of everything that went into the landmark deal. And this deal forever changed the way athletes are compensated the world over.

Matt Damon is at his best as the plucky Vaccaro. A passionate devotee of the game, he’s trying to put Nike on the map amongst basketball players at a time when Nike,...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Body Double (Brian De Palma)

When rewatching Body Double for the third time, its most striking element was, as on my first viewing, Craig Wasson’s performance. As central character Jake Scully, Wasson turns his conventionally attractive looks into an endlessly fascinating nebbishness and awkwardness. In an early scene, Jake simply walks to his car and jumps in the driver’s seat, yet Wasson manages to turn this casual action into one of the most amusing instances of purposefully bad acting. This unquestionably intended ridiculousness in fact informs an audience of the approach required by the entire film: just as it is difficult to take this ludicrous failed actor and naïve man seriously, Body Double itself is better enjoyed with a grain of salt.

Oscar-nominated actress Amy Irving is ready to release her first album.

The performer tells The Hollywood Reporter that Born In a Trunk, featuring 10 cover songs pulled from her life and career, will be released digitally on April 7. “Why Don’t You Do Right?” — the first single which Irving sang as Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit — will be available on digital platforms on March 3.

Irving, 69, made her film debut in Brian De Palma’s Carrie in 1976 and two years later was in supernatural thriller The Fury. Her role in Yentl earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress and she scored best actress Golden Globes nominations for Crossing Delancey and Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna. She also has a number of stage credits, earning an Obie Award for her off-Broadway performance in a production of The Road to Mecca.

Born In a Trunk also features Irving covering songs...

Calling all vinyl lovers: back up for grabs today is 2023’s deluxe subscription service from our friends at Waxwork Records, which notably includes five vinyl soundtrack releases *exclusive* to the service.

The stacked lineup reveals what’s ahead for their 2023 releases.

Waxwork explains “We are so excited to announce the return of the Waxwork Records Subscription! 2023 marks our eighth year offering an exclusive and deluxe subscription service. With this service, we are proud to present the absolute best quality re-mastered soundtracks and film scores on vinyl, featuring all new artwork, and with high quality packaging. In addition to Six subscriber-exclusive colored vinyl soundtracks, you get some dope goodies and discounts throughout the year.”

The lineup includes…

Dawn Of The Dead Original Theatrical Soundtrack Library Music 3xLP (1978)

“You’ve been asking for it, and we listened! For the very first time on vinyl, you’ll be able to enjoy the complete...

Scream Factory has been upgrading many classic horror movies to 4K Ultra HD, and up next is Brian De Palma’s Carrie, of course the classic 1976 adaptation of the Stephen King novel.

Carrie is coming to 4K Ultra HD on December 13, 2022!

You can pre-order the release in several different forms over on Scream Factory’s website, including SteelBook packaging and special bundles featuring pins, posters, and more.

Bonus Features include…

Disc One (Uhd):

New 2022 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative In Dolby Vision (Hdr 10 Compatible) Audio: 5.1, Original Mono Track

Disc Two (Blu-ray):

New 2022 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative Audio: 5.1, Original Mono Track Theatrical Trailer Carrie Franchise Trailer Gallery

Disc Three (Blu-ray):

Writing Carrie – An Interview With Screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen Shooting Carrie – An Interview With Director Of Photography Mario Tosi Cutting Carrie – An Interview With Editor Paul Hirsch Casting Carrie – An Interview With Casting...

Christopher Young‘s brilliant Hellraiser score is nearly as synonymous with the film as Pinhead — but if writer-director Clive Barker had his way, the soundtrack would have been composed by British industrial music pioneers Coil.

Barker first became aware of Coil through Forbidden Planet, the UK’s enduring genre bookshop where band member Stephen Thrower worked. When Barker happened into the store, Thrower mentioned that he was a fan of his Books of Blood, and the two hit it off. Thrower eventually played him some of Coil’s music, and Barker was immediately won over.

Barker was quoted as saying that Coil is “the only group I’ve heard on disc whose records I’ve taken off because they made my bowels churn.” That’s high praise coming from the master of the macabre. Shortly after completing the script for Hellraiser, he told Coil that he wanted them to compose the music.

Traveling with strangers can be hard, but traveling with strangers and a murderous alien parasite proves considerably worse in “The Passenger.” This sharply executed, good-humored horror opus represents a promising first dual directorial effort for Fernando Gonzalez Gomez and Raul Cerezo, each of whom has a number of shorts under his belt. . Dark Star and Bloody Disgusting are releasing to limited U.S. theaters on June 3, with VOD and DVD release June 28.

The requisite “first victims” prologue finds two English-speaking backpackers on a rural road having an alarming encounter with a ghoulish woman in a silver red-carpet dress. Then we meet Blasco (Ramiro Blas), a middle-aged man who’s purportedly had past professional lives in the bullfighting and rock-band milieus. But now he’s living off the beloved if somewhat decrepit old camper van he calls “Nella” as a driver for hire. His customers today are all women, which is a tad unfortunate,...

Two books feature in director Jeff Baena’s new irreverent brainchild “Spin Me Round”: One is the quintessentially sentimental and aggressively life-affirming “Eat, Pray, Love,” while the other, likely more obscure for American audiences, is Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez’s gritty, nonfiction crime saga “News of a Kidnapping.”

An Olive Garden commercial that devolves into “Eyes Wide Shut,” the film fluctuates between the two distinct modes of these tomes: the artificial, improbable fantasy of a vibrant European trip where all inhibitions are put on hold, and the fear-inducing suspicion that something perverse and worthy of uncovering might be unfolding right under the surface.

True to its title, Baena’s latest takes us through more than a few tonal twists and plot turns, even if they don’t always land smoothly or humorously, in its exploration of how fooling oneself into believing a fantastical fiction can provide dangerous respite from a bland,...

For a couple of decades now, Steven Soderbergh’s “little” movies — the lo-fi dramas, often quirky thrillers, that he makes as palate cleansers in between his higher profile projects — have been a pleasurably idiosyncratic, off-on-his-own-cloud thing. Some of them are good (like “Bubble” and “Side Effects”), some are meh (like “Haywire”), and one is great (“The Girlfriend Experience”); none of them make much of an impact in the marketplace. Yet you feel the pulse of filmmaking fervor in them. You could say they’re Soderbergh’s protest against blockbusterization, a way of reminding his audience, and maybe himself, that a few simple elements — story, actors, camera angles — can still add up to what a movie is. Only now, at a time of slow-motion crisis in the industry (will audiences come back to theaters?) and seriously over-inflated budgets, Soderbergh’s latest little movie, the nimble and sinister cyber-age corporate thriller “Kimi,...

Director Ron Underwood discusses a few of his favorite westerns with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Pearl Harbor (2001)

Mighty Joe Young (1998)

Speechless (1994)

Heart and Souls (1993)

Stealing Sinatra (2003)

City Slickers (1991)

Tremors (1990) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Tourist Trap (1979) – David DeCoteau’s trailer commentary

The Seduction (1982)

Puppet Master (1989)

The Boondock Saints (1999)

Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952)

Capricorn One (1977) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Panic In The Streets (1950) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

Back When We Were Grownups (2004)

Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell (2018)

Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020)

The Howling (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing

Red River (1948) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Johnny Guitar (1954) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Searchers (1956)

Seven Samurai (1954) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary

The Magnificent Seven (1960) – Jesus Treviño’s trailer commentary

The Magnificent Seven (2016)

Westworld...

Blue Underground continues to give their catalogue of films the 4K Uhd treatment and next up is George A. Romero and Dario Argento's Two Evil Eyes, which is being released on August 24th!

The Masters of Modern Horror -George Romero and Dario Argento - bring you an unprecedented pair of shockers inspired by the tales of Edgar Allan Poe. In Romero's The Facts In The Case Of Mr. Valdemar, a conniving wife (Adrienne Barbeau of The Fog) and her lover use a hypnotic trance to embezzle a fortune from her dying husband, only to receive some chilling surprises from beyond the grave. Then in Argento's The Black Cat, a deranged crime scene photographer (Harvey Keitelof From Dusk Till Dawn) is driven to brutal acts of madness and murder by his girlfriend's new pet. But will this cunning feline deliver a final sickening twist of its own?

Martin Balsam (Psycho...

In June 1970, Elvis Presley made the trip east from his Graceland home in Memphis to Nashville, where he holed up in RCA Studio B on Music Row for five days of recording. Presley, who was in the midst of his Las Vegas comeback at the International Hotel, was joined by Music City sessions players like Charlie McCoy and Norbert Putnam — the legendary “Nashville Cats.” The result came to be known among fans as the “marathon sessions.”

Now, a new four-disc compilation assembles the masters from those halcyon days and captures Presley at his energetic best.

Part of our on-going series Notebook Soundtrack Mixes.Forever on the edge of one's seat, giallo is the provider of all the glamorous and hallucinatory emotions. The film genre and its musical sister is somewhat a crown jewel when it comes to detailed niches, sub-genres, and die hard fans. Original LP records from the giallo genre can cost a hefty sum and the blossoming vinyl reissuing industry (an exciting addition over recent decades) proves how enduring the genre and its sub-genres are. This giallo bonanza comes in just shy of two hours and you will find both influential and cherished moments and secluded moments on the sidelines. That, for me, showcases its textures and ultimately what a fun, trippy genre it is. The work of the masters is in full swing, beloved composers such as Bruno Nicolai, Nora Orlandi, Riz Ortolani, and Goblin all have turns. And of course, the...

When I think about the American New Wave, I’m always traveling through the vast open roads of North America, its forever-changing landscapes and mythical American dreams, with all its bittersweet promise. Sonically speaking, I’m in that space, too. So much of the New Hollywood cinema is vast Americana; Death Valley and desert-hot gas stations, the ultimate nihilistic road movie. But so much of it is everywhere else too; sleek Manhattan apartment blocks, the old Wild West, and the outer regions of space. In my head it’s a mixtape of philosophical and artistic ideas, one of cinema’s counter-culture melting pots where more questions are raised than answered and the plot is not driven by a desire for resolution.This mix was dreamed up as a mixtape: driving across state lines, re-adjusting the radio station on the dashboard as the trip moves further towards a destination that is unknown.

Many horror fans are already familiar with Creepy Co. from their scary good swag and eerie apparel, but now the company is bringing their love of horror from the wardrobe to the big screen by teaming up with Chicago's Music Box Theatre for midnight movie screenings of 1979's Tourist Trap.

Sponsored by Alter, the 35mm screenings of Tourist Trap will take place at midnight on Friday, September 13th and Saturday, September 14th.

In case you missed it, read Scott Drebit's Drive-In Dust Offs article on Tourist Trap, visit Creepy Co. online to learn more about their apparel, and for additional details on the Tourist Trap screenings, read the official announcement below and visit:

https://www.facebook.com/events/759280561195464/?active_tab=about

"Creepy Co. and Music Box come together to bring you the unheralded 1979 classic, Tourist Trap. On the surface it appears to be just another teens-lost-in-the-woods slasher flick, but as...

Every year, Scream Factory gives horror fans a bunch of new home media releases to look forward to at their annual Comic-Con panel, and this year is certainly no exception, as they've announced an exciting slate of horror Blu-rays on the horizon, including Collector's Editions for Silver Bullet, Big Trouble in Little China, Pet Sematary II, and My Bloody Valentine (1981), as well as The Fly Collection and new Neca figure collaborations for Night of the Demons (1988) and The Slumber Party Massacre.

Complete special features will be revealed at later dates, and we'll be sure to keep Daily Dead readers updated as more details are revealed. In the meantime, we have a look at Scream Factory's full announcement and images of their exclusive Neca figures for Night of the Demons and The Slumber Party Massacre. For more Comic-Con news, visit our online hub to catch up on all of our convention coverage!

One of three editors on Sam Esmail’s Homecoming, Rosanne Tan was asked to tap into the visual and sonic style of “paranoid thriller movies [from] the past,” working within a broad conceptual framework set by Esmail, while trying to surprise him with the choices she made.

Based on a podcast by co-creators Micah Bloomberg and Eli Horowitz, the series is set at Homecoming, a facility claiming to help soldiers in their transition back to civilian life. Cutting back and forth between two time periods, the half-hour drama’s focal point is Heidi (Julia Roberts), a social worker at the facility who comes to intuit a much more sinister agenda on the part of her employer.

Cutting four episodes of Homecoming, Tan played a pivotal role in shaping the series’ tone and visual style. After working on the third season of Mr. Robot, the editor knew Esmail’s preference for unconventional,...

Music supervisor Maggie Phillips had her hands full on “Homecoming” and “The Umbrella Academy,” but for very different reasons. When director Sam Esmail insisting on using only pre-existing classic soundtracks to score his conspiracy thriller, Phillips found herself in uncharted territory, which turned into a licensing nightmare. And even though the series about an adopted sibling superhero rivalry offered a more conventional challenge, Phillips was still keen on pushing the nostalgic factor in fresh musical ways.

“All of my projects before [‘Homecoming’] I’ve chosen songs and editors are temping in score, and then the composer comes in and replaces,” Phillips said. “And sometimes I’ll help with the temp score, but that’s not very common. But Sam wanted all pre-existing soundtracks as cues [to evoke the paranoia vibe] of ‘All the President’s Men,’ ‘Klute,’ and ‘The Conversation,’ and then that list got expanded and changed out of necessity because of the licensing...

With his Amazon series Homecoming, Sam Esmail strived to create a paranoid thriller in the vein of those from decades past, turning to his sound team to ratchet up the dread through experimental means. Three of the series’ key creatives, Kevin W. Buchholz (Supervising Sound Editor), Ben Zales (Music Editor) and John W. Cook II (Re-recording Mixer) did so, while coming to redefine the term “Original Score.”

Based on a fictional podcast by co-creators Micah Bloomberg and Eli Horowitz, the Golden Globe-nominated series is set at Homecoming, a facility claiming to help soldiers transition back to civilian life. Cutting back and forth between two time periods, the story centers on Heidi (Julia Roberts), a social worker at the facility who eventually comes to recognize its much more sinister agenda.

Drawing inspiration from films like The Conversation, Homecoming was using “a very specific set of paints” to tell a very specific story,...

Note: Following this week’s feature, New to Streaming will be taking a two-week hiatus and return on June 28.

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’re highlighting the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.

All Good (Eva Trobisch)

What immense health German cinema has found itself in lately. Since the turn of the decade, audiences of a certain ilk have grown accustomed to seeing names like Ade, Petzold, Grisebach, Schanelec, and Köhler show up on art-house and festival screens. We may soon need to add Eva Trobisch to that list. Yes, if All Good (Alles ist gut)–her snare drum taut and timely feature debut–is anything to go by, the East Berlin-born writer-director should provide that rich vein of deutsche Regisseure will its latest transfusion.

Both Amazon Prime’s “Homecoming” and Netflix’s “Russian Doll” provocatively play with the 30-minute format, cramming their existential journeys with confusing timelines and visual detail. But, thanks to binge watching, the two shows actually function like long movies, according to editors Rosanne Tan (“Homecoming”) and Laura Weinberg (“Russian Doll”).

In “Homecoming,” the ’70s-style conspiracy thriller from director Sam Esmail (“Mr. Robot”), social worker Heidi (Julia Roberts) tries to help troubled soldiers transition back to civilian life in one timeline (shot in a wide aspect ratio), while attempting to solve the strange mystery of her memory loss as a result of a nefarious plot in a future timeline (shot in a shorter aspect ratio). And, in “Russian Doll,” the black comedy from showrunner/star Natasha Lyonne, her self-absorbed software engineer, Nadia, repeatedly dies on her 36th birthday in a “Groundhog Day”-like loop, only to discover fellow traveler, Alan (Charles Barnett), also stuck in time.

Brian De Palma has used the Italian film composer Pino Donaggio on and off for over 40 years, ever since their first (and still greatest) collaboration, “Carrie,” in 1976. Donaggio, with his lushly purple neo-Bernard Herrmann dissonant extravagance, is to De Palma what Angelo Badalamenti has been to David Lynch: a composer of rapturous dread-infused melodies that evoke a kind of meta-romantic Old Hollywood delirium. Yet to hear the unmistakable sounds of yet another lavishly orchestrated Donaggio swoonfest laid over the flat, static expository scenes of the choppy benumbed “international” police thriller “Domino” is to watch De Palma trying to create cinematic fire out of burnt-out match sticks.

There are legendary examples of directors claiming that their work was cut to ribbons by clueless producers: the 1954 George Cukor version of “A Star Is Born”, or Jonathan Demme’s “Swing Shift.” But what are we to make of a movie like “Domino,...

Brian De Palma’s “Domino” was a troubled production story for the ages: underfunded, shot by the seat of its pants, and cut to ribbons without the director’s approval or supervision. But that’s the least of the issues with the final product. There’s little indication this low-rent, high-minded terrorism shlock ever had any hope of being a better film than the version now making its way to VOD and a few sad movie screens. Too much of the material is intact to suggest that some kind of late-career masterpiece has been lost along the way, and too many of De Palma’s fingerprints are still visible to believe that additional money or context would have yielded a substantive thriller that’s more than the sum of its parts.

On the contrary, the most damning thing about “Domino” is that it reaffirms what all but the filmmaker’s...

Brian De Palma has a fetish for the histrionic. His films are governed not by the rules of reality, with its rigor and banality, but by the aberrant logic of cinema, that realm where spectacle holds sovereignty. Though a semblance of our world may seep in here and there, like a gelid breeze through a cracked-open window, De Palma’s films are concerned more with opulence that mimesis. They are shimmery and silly exercises in stylish indulgence, populated by lecherous characters who act not in their own best interest but in the interest of cinematic craftsmanship. Emotions and ideas are in service of the art, of that immutable, often imitated style, gaudy, glorious, and mottled with blood, those baroque set pieces around which expository scenes are wrapped like garland. As Pauline Kael wrote in her review of The Fury, “Most other directors save the lives of the kind, sympathetic characters...

You do not have to squint very hard to see Brian De Palma in Domino. Not literally, mind you … he doesn’t usually take his Hitchcock fetish to constant-cameo lengths. But he’s there in the ominous zoom-in to a gun that a Copenhagen cop named Christian (Game of Thrones‘ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has left on a chair in his apartment. He’s there in the sequence of Christian hanging perilously off a tall building’s breaking rain-gutter, chasing after the man who attacked his partner — a Vertigo reference writ large.

Even more than his studio-dominating, awards-securing, and fiercely independent (or so the canonized story goes) New Hollywood contemporaries, it could be said that Brian De Palma (save one or two studio jobs he’s since downplayed) makes movies exclusively for himself. His interests so clearly front-and-center, appreciation has become a kind of plug-and-play auteurist game: the pieces–the split diopters, slow zooms, split-screen, Pov shots, etc.–are ready to run, spark a smile or a groan, and spur comments about the nature of voyeurism, visual storytelling, etc.

It’s tempting, and not exactly inaccurate, to commend Domino, his first feature since 2012, by winnowing down myriad complications to the notion that merely looking at it is to feel his presence. But what are we looking at here? Impulses to just review what’s on the screen–in the case of un film de Brian De Palma, the screen, the screen-within-the-screen, for...

By Todd Garbarini

Laemmle’s Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre in Los Angeles will be presenting a 45th anniversary screening of Nicholas Roeg’s masterful 1973 thriller Don’t Look Now. The 110-minute film stars Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie as recently bereaved parents struggling to cope with the loss of their daughter, based upon the short story of the same name by author Daphne du Maurier and published in the 1971 story collection “Not After Midnight.”

The film will be screened on Tuesday, December 18th, 2018 at 7:30 pm.

Please Note: At press time the film’s cinematographer, Anthony Richmond, is scheduled to participate in a Q&A following the screening. Please Check Back With The Ahrya’S Website For Updates.

From the press release:

Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a tribute to director Nicolas Roeg with a screening of his eerie, atmospheric thriller, 'Don’t Look Now.' Roeg,...

For “Mr. Robot” creator Sam Esmail, classic thrillers were the inspiration to adapt Gimlet podcast “Homecoming” into an episodic series. He wanted to capture the tension and paranoia of films by directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Alan J. Pakula, Brian De Palma, and Stanley Kubrick.

“When we started talking about music, I started to talking to my editors about those classic scores by Pino Donaggio, Bernard Herrmann, John Williams and John Carpenter even,” said Esmail.

However, Esmail didn’t want to use these classic scores as a reference point, or temp music: He wanted to use the actual scores.

“I just started thinking, this is going to be really unfair to ask a music composer to ape David Shire’s ‘Conversation’ theme,” said Esmail. “That’s just ridiculous, or to ask someone to ape Michael Smalls’ theme from ‘Klute.'”

Esmail broached the subject with music supervisor Maggie Phillips when she first interviewed for the job.

Just based off his looks alone no one did creepy better than Klaus Kinski, even when he played a good guy; those bulging, searing eyes and cracked smile never made anyone feel at ease. So when he was given a role that went all in on villainy, he usually picked up the blade and ran with it. In the case of Crawlspace (1986) however, a creepy character study in obsession and escalating madness, he eases up on the throttle a little and in turn offers up one of his most memorable performances.

Produced and released by Charles Band’s Empire Pictures in late May stateside, Crawlspace wasn’t a success with critics or audiences; many found the subject matter of stalking and voyeurism tacky and distasteful (an Empire Pictures film distasteful? Never!) but did allow faint praise for Kinski’s work in the film. The praise should be more than a...

Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) is showing July 20 - August 19 and Don't Look Now (1973) is showing July 30 - August 29, 2018 in Germany in the series Double Feature: Nicolas Roeg.Illustration by Wbyk.“[Nicolas] Roeg has more visual strategies than any other director I can think of,” wrote Pauline Kael in 1975, reviewing the director’s melancholic sci-fi allegory The Man Who Fell to Earth. She goes on to enumerate them while insisting that in the end they don’t add up to much, echoing the qualms she had with the similarly virtuosic Don’t Look Now two years earlier: “this is the fanciest, most carefully assembled enigma yet put on the screen.” In both reviews, Kael’s admiration for Roeg’s compositional sense (“he can charge a desolate landscape so that it seems ominously alive”) conflicts with suspicions that there’s less going on in his impeccably framed and...

Following their standard edition Blu-ray release of Michele Soavi's The Sect in February, Scorpion Releasing will unleash 3,000 copies of a deluxe, two-disc edition of the Italian horror film, and we have a look at the special features and new artwork by Wes Benscoter.

From Scorpion Releasing: "We are very excited to announce the final specs for the deluxe 2 disc edition of The Sect. Only 3000 will be made, and It will come with an individually numbered slipcover (1 - 3000) and a bonus disc including over 2 hours of new bonus content. Individually numbered slip sleeve with custom art by Wes Benscoter. In English and Italian with English Subtitles (translated from the Italian track)

Disc 1:

• Featuring a new 2017 2K scan with extensive color correction

• Blood Brothers: Dario Argento

• Of Alchemy and Esotericism: Michele Soavi

• Interview with Tomas Arana

• Audio Commentary with author Troy Howarth

• Theatrical Trailer (Italian)

Disc 2:

• The Light...

Let’s talk memorable movie killers for a second. Since Mrs. Bates first slashed her way through the shower curtain in Room 1 of that roadside motel in Psycho (1960), franchise-minded murderers have had a hard time of it in the consistency department, regardless of how strong they may have lunged out of the gate. Established classics of the genre, like Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street have all given birth to an array of sequels, remakes and reboots that may have extended their nasty protagonists’ shelf life, but none could approach their origins in terms of frights or filmmaking quality.

The exception to this rule of inconsistency and ever-diminishing returns in serial killer movie franchises seems to be the maniac who may have been the most unlikely to succeed, or certainly to endure, to begin with. He would be Charles Lee Ray (played with customary intensity...

High school girls are cheering, yelling, laughing as they take part in a game of volleyball, an everyday scene that could be taking place in any high school, anywhere. The girls are seemingly confident; strong and resilient. That is, all the girls bar one, whom we soon learn is named Carrie (Sissy Spacek). After she misses a shot that causes her team to forfeit the match, a chorus of defeated whines erupts and the girls reprimand Carrie en route to the locker room. “Look at her. Just standing there!” Such is their disdain for her very existence. One girl who is especially disgusted by the Carrie’s presence even turns back and glares at her, spitting aggressively, “You eat shit!” Before we have time to process the words directed at Carrie, or to speculate as to the girls’ reasons for them, the voices of her angry teammates and the mood...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson)

Wes Anderson’s feature debut, the slyly comedic Bottle Rocket, positions its heroes, three young wannabe criminals with an eye for small-scale robberies, as blind innocents, lost in the unfamiliar world of adulthood. As part of his 75-year plan, Dignan (Owen Wilson) forms a gang, consisting of himself, Anthony (Luke Wilson) who’s fresh out of a voluntary psychiatric hospital, and Bob (Robert Musgrave) who...

A warped, schizophrenic journey into the dark recesses of the mind, David Schmoeller’s Tourist Trap is a fragmented piece of cult cinema dripping in masked mayhem and macabre mannequins. Released in 1979, instead of the clichés of maniacal knife wielders that plagued the genre in the following decades, the film reveled in using elements of suspense, eerie cinematography, and a deeply unsettling score courtesy of Italian composer Pino Donaggio. After tracking down the original masters and re-working them perfectly for the vinyl grooves, Waxwork Records contracted Marc Schoenbach, artist from Sadist Art Designs, whose deadpan delivery was essential in carving out the lush visual imagery that mirrored the bleak but beautiful audio within.

Reflecting upon how he got caught up with the Tourist Trap reissue, Schoenbach explained, “When I quit my job as a psychologist (okay, I was fired, but they asked me to come back and I said no...

“Pimples are the Lord’s way of chastising you.”

Carrie (1976) screens Midnights this weekend (April 28th and 29th) at The Moolah Theater and Lounge (3821 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, Mo 63108) as part of Destroy the Brain’s monthly Late Night Grindhouse film series.

Over the past few decades, almost everything ever written by Stephen King has been filmed for either TV or the silver screen; however, very few of these adaptations have come close to matching the extremely high standard set by Carrie the first King novel to receive the movie treatment, way back in 1976 (which is when I first saw it at the old Webster Groves Cinema – double feature with Demon Seed!).

Directed by Brian De Palma, this superb supernatural horror stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a shy and awkward teenage girl who is mercilessly bullied at high-school and further tormented at home by her overbearing, religious zealot mother...

Looking back on this still-young century makes clear that 2007 was a major time for cinematic happenings — and, on the basis of this retrospective, one we’re not quite through with ten years on. One’s mind might quickly flash to a few big titles that will be represented, but it is the plurality of both festival and theatrical premieres that truly surprises: late works from old masters, debuts from filmmakers who’ve since become some of our most-respected artists, and mid-career turning points that didn’t necessarily announce themselves as such at the time. Join us as an assembled team, many of whom were coming of age that year, takes on their favorites.

Grindhouse was intended to be the ultimate homage to the kinda cool, kinda sexy, kinda divine (but not too divine as to make you realize you’re still dealing with trash), kinda exploitation cinema on which Quentin Tarantino...

Music has always played an integral part in setting the mood for Nicolas Winding Refn’s films, so the director’s recent announcement that he would be compiling a collection of songs that inspired his 2016 fashion industry horror flick “The Neon Demon” only made sense.

Read More: Listen: ‘The Neon Demon’s’ Seductive Score by Cliff Martinez Will Blow Your Mind

The vinyl album, titled “The Wicked Die Young,” will feature tracks from Dionne Warwick, Giorgio Moroder, Suicide, and the film’s composer Cliff Martinez, as well as Refn’s nephew, Julian Winding, who also contributed to “The Neon Demon.”

Winding’s “When You Want To Hurt Someone” fits perfectly with the electric, bumping mood of the film.

Read More: ‘The Neon Demon’: Nicolas Winding Refn Anatomizes Elle Fanning’s Audition Scene for the New York Times

About the song, Refn commented, “Julian Winding is a super-charged, esoteric-sounding, unadulterated,...

Also known as The Devil's Daughter, the 1991 horror film The Sect (helmed by Cemetery Man director Michele Soavi) is coming to Blu-ray this spring, and Scorpion Releasing has now revealed the official cover art and special features for the release.

According to Blu-ray.com, The Sect Blu-ray is expected to be released in May, and we'll keep Daily Dead readers updated as more details are divulged. In the meantime, check out the official bonus features and cover art below.

From Scorpion Releasing: "Here is our custom cover art for Michele Soavi's The Sect. done by artist Wes Benscoter.

The special features on the disc will be: New 2k scan with extensive color correction. English and Italian track with english subtitles New exclusive interview with the maestro himself, Dario Argento Interviews with Michele Soavi, screenwriter Gianni Romoli, actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice, composer Pino Donaggio, set designer Massimo Antonello Geleng,...

Nicolas Winding Refn’s glamorous and gruesome The Neon Demon was one of 2016’s more divisive releases. But its fans can have more to chew on when Refn debuts The Wicked Die Young, an album comprised of music that inspired him when undertaking the project. According to Pitchfork, the compilation will be available for purchase on vinyl April 14, with cover art of an eyeball peeking out from two parted lips—an image that may test your gag reflex if you’re familiar with the movie’s plot.

For the records, Refn selected songs from 999, Giorgio Moroder, and Sparks, while also nodding to the cinematic works that influenced him with the likes of Dionne Warwick’s “(Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls” and Pino Donaggio’s “The Shower (Theme From Dressed To Kill).” On Facebook, Electric Youth wrote that its entry, “Good Blood,” was written specifically for The ...