Faraway signals from way-out cinema
A religious prophet has just recruited the latest naive member into his weird, isolated cult. However, her rich father is dedicated to her safe return. Before long, a martial artist private investigator is in hot pursuit, racking up parking tickets, moving violations, and mangled fenders along the way.
A seasonally appropriate 1980s action movie gem that will stuff you with riveting car chases, massive explosions, a crazed villain, and Adam Ant wielding stolen firearms.
This feels like the sort of underappreciated horror movie one would find in a stack of DVDs at a rural chalet you booked through Airbnb. For my money, it’s probably good enough to take home with you along with the stolen silverware.
A group of martial artists from a California karate club board a cruise ship destined for Warrior’s Island, a remote stomping ground for zombie martial artists. Will they make it to their destination or be forced back to port on account of a norovirus outbreak?
I’ve used plenty of ride share apps and I’d like to think that if my driver ever said, “if you gotta piss, piss out the window. Cause I’m on a quest … I’m searching for the gates of hell,” that I would launch myself from the moving vehicle ASAP. If I somehow survived, I would never get in a stranger’s car again. This is one of the lessons from BLUE VENGEANCE, a strange film I enjoyed.
If you love weird and wild action cinema of the 1980s, you owe it to yourself to find a copy of this film. It features an incredible cast, a Japanese-influenced sword fight, wild shoot-outs, rocket launcher attacks, dirtbike chases, dirtbike crashes into cardboard, carsplosions, hand-to-hand fights, throat rips, and a single, spiked fingerless glove.
A martial arts special agent travels halfway across the world to help a team of archaeologists hunt for treasure. Along the way, they’ll fight ninjas, zombie ninjas, a zombie ninja final boss, and a jerk from Florida with a mustache.
An entertaining and low-budget gang-violence-via-martial-arts romp that served as a cinematic launchpad for some of the bigger figures in the American martial arts b-movie scene of the 1980s.
It seems almost far-fetched now, but there was once a time when San Francisco was filled with leather bars and martial arts schools instead of unaffordable housing and tech startups. Like a limp body flying over the bar and smashing only the bottom-shelf vodka, THE WEAPONS OF DEATH comes out of nowhere to surprise and delight.
The decade of the 1980s was a banner era for the fantasy film all across the globe. KUNG FU WONDER CHILD probably isn’t the only one to feature bathroom humor alongside martial arts and magic, but it might be the only one that has a monster with blonde bangs and Yukari Oshima kicking dudes into trees.
A mystical sword formed from a meteorite. A nun in a wheelchair flying off a cliff. A motorcycle riding hero in a red cocktail dress. All these random threads converge in the misshapen, cable-knit sweater of a 1980s action film that is SWORD OF HEAVEN.
It’s a bit counterintuitive, but transparent masks are visually disturbing. In this 1981 short film, they transform a simple story with stiff dialogue into an otherworldly and unsettling nine minutes of moralistic terror.
American cowboys have whisky, James Bond has the martini, and Euro-Cops have J&B. The Greek protagonist of 1985’s CRIME KILLER, has ouzo, the anise-flavored liqueur best served before, during, or after a meal.
A kickboxing movie which teaches us that even if your father hates your lifestyle choices, and your karate teacher threatens to kill you over your accomplishments, and your girlfriend sees no future with you, you should still pursue your dreams.
Nearly two decades after creating the horror classic, CARNIVAL OF SOULS, director Herk Harvey terrified machinery operators the world over with this violent safety film.
Death Ray Dive 