The Stacks

This week it's a folk horror double feature, with the first ever Soviet horror film, 1967's Viy (directed by Konstantin Ershov and Georgy Kropachyov, running 0:00-1:07:56) followed by the 1970 Spanish true crime-themed folk horror Forest of the Wolf (aka The Ancines Woods, directed by Pedro Olea, running 1:07:56-2:11:10), and as always we conclude with discussion of other physical media we've watc...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. continue covering the Zatoichi series with the fourth entry, 1963's Zatoichi the Fugitive (directed by Tokuzo Tanaka, running to 1:15:17), followed by Bo Widerberg's 1976 police procedural The Man on the Roof (1:15:17-2:06:50), concluding as always with discussion of the other physical media we've watched in the past week and decisions on what to cover next we...

This week, Shana and j. start off the third year of The Stacks with an in-depth look at a fundamental modern classic, the 1999 David Fincher action satire Fight Club (0:00-2:03:35), followed by discussion of Al Adamson's 1964-1971 feature(s) Psycho A-Go-Go / Fiend With the Electronic Brain / Blood of Ghastly Horror (2:03:35-3:00:21), concluding as always with discussion of other physical media we'...

This week, we celebrate 100 episodes of The Stacks with Brian De Palma's 1996 blockbuster Mission: Impossible (0:00-1:16:40) and the 1988 Albert Pyun / Cannon Films fairytale Alien From L.A. (1:16:41-2:23:22), concluding with a look back on the 100ish movies we've watched in the past year, in the Stacks Awards. The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

This week on The Stacks, we dig into some truly brain-fried regional horror  with Tim Ritter's 1987 16mm slasher satire Killing Spree (0:00-1:19:02), followed by the Tulsi & Shyam Ramsey 1988 Bollywood horror blast Veerana (1:19:02-2:32:35), concluding as usual with discussion of all the other physical media we've watched in the past week and deciding what to cover next week. The live list of The...

This week on The Stacks, we're talking about John McNaughton's 1998 beer ad noir Wild Things (0:00-1:25:25) and Michael J. Murphy's strange no-budget 1985ish meta-slasher Bloodstream (1:25:26-2:23:45), followed by discussion of all the other physical media we've watched since last time. The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

This week on The Stacks, in a bit of a change of pace, we're covering a collection of short films for our first part, the Mondo Macabro / Altered Innocence joint release Apocalypse After, collecting surrealist shorts from Bertand Mandico (discussion running 0:00-2:27:31), followed by Joe Swanberg's 2011 mumblecore drama Silver Bullets (2:27:31-3:24:19), concluding as usual with capsule reviews of...

This week on The Stacks, we're returning to Arrow's Shawscope Volume 1 with Lau Kar-leung's great 1978 kung fu comedy Dirty Ho (0:00-1:12:48), followed by the 1967 James Bond feature You Only Live Twice, directed by Lewis Gilbert (1:12:49-3:02:20), concluding as usual with discussion of the various other physical media we've watched this week and choosing our picks for next week. The live list of...

This week on The Stacks we're watching a couple deep vibes blue-tinted films involving erotic longing and mortality. First, we continue with our ongoing coverage of the films of Shinya Tsukamoto with 2002's blue pink film A Snake of June (and fill in a gap with a brief discussion of his early short film The Adventure of Denchu-kozo) (0:00-1:29:41), followed by our first venture into the moody roma...

This week on The Stacks, we're delving into some wild 70s crime cinema, beginning with the 1970 Roger Corman "true crime" self-examining exploitation film Bloody Mama (0:00-1:16:23), followed by Stelvio Massi's dense, bloody 1978 poliziotteschi Convoy Busters (1:16:24-2:22:16), and concluding as always with discussion of all the other physical media we've watched this week and our picks for next w...

This week on The Stacks, we're diving into Kinji Fukasaku's Yakuza Papers series with the sprawling super-dense chaos of its first entry, 1973's Battles Without Honor and Humanity (0:00-1:25:15), followed by Eric Red's silly, elevated 1991 evil limbs film Body Parts (1:25:16-2:22:57), then into The Watched Stacks, where we talk about all the other physical media watched this week and decide on nex...

This week on The Stacks, we've got a pair of British films, starting with Sidney J. Furie's 1965 cool domestic espionage thriller The Ipcress File (0:00-1:19:53), first in the Harry Palmer series starring Michael Caine, followed by the 2008 Academy Award winner for best picture, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (1:19:53-2:51:37), as always concluding with capsule discussions of various other movi...

This week on The Stacks it's a Brian De Palma double feature, beginning with his landmark 1976 Stephen King adaptation Carrie (0:00-1:35:47), followed by the underappreciated 1998 Nic Cage ultra version of a locked-room murder mystery Snake Eyes (1:35:47-2:45:24), then The Watched Stacks, with capsule reviews of other physical media watched this week and our decisions on what to cover next. The li...

This week on The Stacks we conclude Arrow's Yokai Monsters box with the 2005 Takashi Miike remake/reboot The Great Yokai War (0:00-1:59:19) and puzzle over the bizarre 1998 Macedonian candidate for best foreign film, Goodybe 20th Century, directed by Darko Mitrevski & Aleksandar Popovski (1:59:19-3:01:08), concluding with capsule reviews of other physical media we've watched this week and our deci...

This week on The Stacks we're digging deep into the 1955 Alfred Hitchcock voyeur suspense masterpiece Rear Window (0:00-2:02:46), followed by the 1977 Stelvio Massi poliziotteschi Highway Racer (2:02:46-3:16:00), concluding as always with discussion of all the many other things we've watched on physical media in the past week and deciding what we'll be covering next week. The live list of The Stac...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. explore the boundaries of life and death with Joel Schumacher's 1990 morality play Flatliners (0:00-1:45:08) and Wilson Yip's 1998 Hong Kong mall zombie apocalypse picture Bio-Zombie (1:45:08-3:07:20), followed as always by discussion of all the other stuff we've watched on physical media since last week, and we decide on what we'll be covering next week. The...

This week on The Stacks we return to our coverage of the classic kaiju series Gamera with its fifth entry, Noriaki Yuasa's 1969 picture Gamera vs Guiron (0:00-1:24:31) featuring cannibal ladies from space and a big knife-headed monster who shoots shurikens out of his nose, followed by Justin Lin's 2011 film Fast Five, the fifth in the Fast & Furious superhero / action figure / carsploitation franc...

This week on The Stacks we're spending some time in desolate arid western landscapes with Budd Boetticher's 1957 noir western The Tall T (0:00-1:17:13) and Ray Dennis Steckler's exploitation slow cinema proto-slasher The Chooper (aka Blood Shack, 1:17:13-2:49:34), as always concluding with discussion of the other physical media stuff we've watched since last time and deciding on what we're coverin...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. discuss the 1997 Swedish coming-of-age LGBT romance Fucking Åmål (directed by Lukas Moodysson, discussion running to 1:28:46) and the most recent entry in the Alien franchise, 2017's Alien: Covenant (directed by Ridley Scott, discussion continuing to 2:47:59), as usual concluding with a run-through of all the other boutique blu-ray stuff we've watched this wee...

This week on The Stacks, we're continuing our coverage of classic Alfred Hitchcock with his ambitious 1948 film Rope, loosely based on the Leopold & Loeb true crime case (0:00-1:40:33), followed by Danny Boyle's landmark 1996 film about heroin addicts in Scotland, Trainspotting (1:40:33-3:10:35), and concluding as always with The Watched Stacks, discussing additional movies watched this week and d...

This week on The Stacks, we're talking some fundamental stylish horror with 1963's Black Sabbath, directed by Mario Bava (discussion running to 1:33:45), followed by the 1996 black comedy / crime thriller Freeway, directed by Matthew Bright (discussion continuing to 2:32:25), as always concluding with some talk about other movies we've watched this week and decisions on what we'll cover next week....

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. make a foray into the filmography of Werner Herzog with 1977's melancholy masterpiece Stroszek (discussion running to 1:20:27), followed by Ridley Scott's unfairly maligned 2012 quasi-prequel to Alien, Prometheus (discussion continuing to 3:06:46), which we come to praise, not to bury. Apologies for some audio issues in the first fifteen minutes and dropouts d...

This week on The Stacks, continuing our January resolutions month, Shana and j. go long on Francis Ford Coppolla's 1971 landmark The Godfather (discussion running to 2:14:46), followed by Henri-George Clouzot's also classic but very different 1947 crime film Quai des Orfevres (discussion continuing to 3:35:21), concluding as usual with some capsule reviews of other films we've watched in the past...

This week in The Stacks, we're discussing Orson Welles' essay film on forgery and expertise, F for Fake (1973, discussion running to 1:36:55), followed by the early Satansploitation oddity The Mephisto Waltz (1971, directed by Paul Wendkos, discussion continuing to 2:59:31), followed as always by discussion of other movies we've watched during the week, and decisions on what we'll be covering next...

We kick off 2023's Resolutions Month in The Stacks with the high-octane 1989 jidaigeki Shogun's Shadow (directed by Yasuo Furuhata, discussion running to 1:12:53), followed by the original slasher, 1974's Black Christmas (directed by Bob Clark, discussion continuing to 2:47:37), as always concluding with discussion of various other movies watched in the previous week. The live list of The Stacks i...