The Stacks

This week on The Stacks, in part 1 (0:00-1:30:23) we discuss the landmark 1962 revisionist western Ride the High Country, directed by Sam Peckinpah, in addition to the 18th episode of Ultra Q, "The Rainbow's Egg." In part 2 (1:30-24:2:33:00), after some brief general talk on Millennium Actress, we discuss Satoshi Kon's next film, 2003's Christmas-themed anime adventure Tokyo Godfathers, as well as...

This week in The Stacks, Shana and j. are talking about six movies - in part one (0:00-1:14:13) we talk about the second entry in Jose Mojica Marins' legendary Coffin Joe series, 1967's This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse, in addition to the 17th episode of Ultra Q, "The 1/8th Project" (directed by Hajime Tsuburaya). In part two (1:14:14-2:52:48), we have five additional films - The Wachowksis' se...

On The Stacks this week, Shana and j. return to the Sartana series in part one (0:00-1:19:27) with the excellent third entry in the series, Sartana Is Here, Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin (1970), directed by Giuliano Carnimeo, as well as the 16th episode of Ultra Q, "Garamon Strikes Back!" directed by Samaji Nonagase. Next, in part two (1:19:28-2:27:07), we have four additional features - an impen...

On The Stacks this week, part one (0:00-1:17:14) features the next entry in the original Gamera series, Noriaki Yuasa's 1970 film Gamera vs Jiger, while in Ultra Q episode 15, "Kanegon's Cocoon" we encounter a yokai rather than a kaiju. In an extended part two (1:17:15-2:52:56), we discuss four additional features, going deep on Steve Barron's 1990 kids' movie classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,...

This week on The Stacks, in part one (0:00-1:21:52) we conclude the original Michael Caine Harry Palmer trilogy with Ken Russell's 1967 spy parody Billion Dollar Brain, in addition to the 14th episode of Ultra Q, "Tokyo Ice Age." In part two (1:21:53-2:32:57), we have four additional films - Bruno Mattei's 1983 Claudio Fragasso-penned entry in the Emanuelle series, Women's Prison Massacre (aka Bla...

This week on The Stacks, after an unplanned week off due to illness, Shana and j. are back with a full-bore exploitation week, continuing coverage of the Stray Cat Rock series in part one (0:00-1:34:33) with both Toshiya Fujita's Wild Jumbo and Yasuharu Hasebe's Sex Hunter (both released in 1970) in addition to the 13th episode of Ultra Q, "Garadama" directed by series creator Hajime Tsuburaya. In...

Breaking slightly with tradition for the titling this week, due to us covering six films this week (plus one TV episode). In part 1 (0:00-1:39:33), we discuss the next two entries in the All the Haunts Be Ours folk horror box set - the 1958 Norwegian film Lake of the Dead, directed by Kåre Bergstrøm, and the 1987 Icelandic TV movie Tilbury, directed by Viðar Víkingsson - as well as "I Saw a Bird,"...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. discuss Michael J. Murphy's 1995 direct-to-video folk horror The Rite of Spring and episode 11 of Ultra Q, "Balloonga" in part one (0:00-1:33:48), while part two (1:33:49-2:50:05) features three 70s film picks - Pedro Olea's 1973 Spanish exploitation drama It's Not Good for a Man to Be Alone, a 1978 entry in the long-running Black Emanuelle series, Joe D'Amato...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. return to the films of Al Adamson, with part one (0:00-1:15:56) discussing his 1960 directorial and acting debut, Half Way to Hell, as well as his 1969 psychotronic western Five Bloody Graves. In part two (1:15:57-2:42:47) we talk about three additional features - the 2000 Coen Brothers megahit O Brother Where Art Thou?, Enzo G. Castellari's brisk 1974 polizio...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. return to the films of Werner Herzog in part 1 (0:00-1:30:45) with 1977's Klaus Kinski character study Woyzeck, in addition to our ongoing coverage of Ultra Q with the tenth episode, "The Underground Super Express Goes West." In part 2 (1:30:46-3:08:03), we talk about three additional features - John McTiernan's classic 1990 cold war action-drama The Hunt for...

On The Stacks this week, Shana and j. bookend our February gore month with another Herschell Gordon Lewis feature, 1970's surrealist horror The Wizard of Gore, in addition to episode 9 of Ultra Q, "Baron Spider" to conclude part one (0:00-1:24:23). In part two (1:24:24-3:10:23), we cover three additional films - John McTiernan's peak action blockbuster Die Hard (1988), Pericles Lewnes' wild SOV Tr...

On The Stacks this week, Shana and j. conclude our bloody February with four films and one television episode. In part 1 (0:00-1:36:49), we cover Jess Franco's notorious lo-fi 1981 video nasty Oasis of the Zombies as well as "Terror of the Sweet Honey" - the 8th episode of Ultra Q. In part 2 (1:36:50-2:49:59), we discuss three additional films - Paul Morrissey's classic Marxist vampire satire Bloo...

This week in The Stacks, our impromptu February gore month continues! In part one (0:00-1:09:42), we discuss David Cronenberg's 1983 body horror / media satire Videodrome, while part three (1:09:43-2:25:36) features three additional bloody films: Douglas Grossman's late-80s teen slasher Hell High, the Indonesian black magic / comedy sequel Santet 2 (as with the first, directed by Sisworo Guatama P...

Our bloody February continues this week - in part 1 (0:00-1:22:47) we discuss the sixth(ish) entry in the Black Emanuelle series, Joe D'Amato's 1977 sexploitation gore feature Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals, as well as the 7th episode in the Ultra Q series, "S.O.S. Mount Fuji." In part 2 (1:22:48-2:59:59) we have three additional features: Pasquale Squitieri's 1977 historical drama / poliziottes...

This week, we begin a bloody February in The Stacks, beginning with Herschell Gordon Lewis' 1963 landmark gore feature Blood Feast, joined in part 1 (0:00-1:24:35) with the weird, off-model sixth episode of Ultra Q, "Grow Up! Little Turtle!" In part 2 (1:24:36-2:32:53), we have two additional gory features - the first in José Mojica Marins' classic Coffin Joe series, 1964's At Midnight I'll Take Y...

This week on The Stacks, in part 1 (0:00-1:46:22) Shana and j. continue to dig into the work of legendary actor Lee Marvin with the 1984 French black comedy / crime satire Dog Day (aka Canicule, directed by Yves Boisset), as well as continuing to go through the classic 1966 Ultra Q TV series with its fifth episode, "Peguila Is Here!" In part 2 (1:46:22-2:55:03) we have two additional features, the...

This week on The Stacks, in part one (0:00-1:38:13) Shana and j. continue exploring the films of Lee Marvin with John Boorman's 1967 neo-noir masterpiece Point Blank as well as continuing our ongoing coverage of the Ultra Q TV series, with episode 4, "The Mammoth Flower." Then in part two (1:38:14-2:56:31), we have two additional features, the 1990 Tulsi & Shyam Ramsey Bollywood horror banger...

This week on The Stacks, in part 1 (0:00-1:12:46) we discuss John Carpenter's debut, the USC student film expanded to feature length of Dark Star (1974), an absurdist sci-fi satire about blue collar workers blowing up planets, in addition to continuing coverage of the Ultra Q TV series with its third episode ("The Gift From Space"). In part 2 (1:12:47-2:21:36) we discuss three additional films - I...

This week, continuing our New Years Resolutions month, we kick off in part one (0:00-1:47:56) with Alain Resnais' labyrinthine 1961 art film Last Year at Marienbad, followed in part two (1:47:57-3:06:08) by two 70s crime features - Michael Ritchie's 1972 New Hollywood meat and sex trafficking picture Prime Cut, and Enzo G. Castellari's 1976 ultra-violent high-octane poliziotteschi The Big Racket....

For the first entry in The Stacks recorded in 2024, we continue our ongoing coverage of Andy Sidaris' Malibu Bay Films with 1989's Savage Beach, as well as episode 2 of Ultra Q ("Goro and Goro" from 1966, directed by Hajime Tsuburaya) in part 1 (0:00-1:27:31), while in part 2 (1:27:32-3:02:58) we talk about the odd Amando de Ossorio Spaghetti Northern, 1965's oddly-named Hudson River Massacre, in...

This week on The Stacks, we close out 2023 with four features - in part 1 (0:00-1:07:35) we're discussing the second Harry Palmer film, Guy Hamilton's 1966 entry Funeral in Berlin, which remains satirical but hews closer to existing spy cinema, and in part 2 (1:07:35-2:37:05) we have a triple feature, discussing Richard Franklin's surprisingly good 1983 slasher legacy sequel Psycho II, the violent...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. talk Sonny Chiba, with the 1972 Ryuichi Takamori exploitation film Yakuza Wolf (0:00-54:01), followed by an extended part two (54:01-2:53:25) featuring a roundup of the last six pictures in the Indicator collection From Hollywood to Heaven: The Lost and Saved Films of the Ormond Family, concluding our discussion of the set, as well as some counter-programming...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. discuss Terry Gilliam's 1985 dystopian Christmas classic Brazil (0:00-1:54:30), followed in part two (1:54:30-2:56:49) by Makoto Naito's deranged 1975 yakuza exploitation film The 13 Steps of Maki as well as Luca Balser's 2023 New York anthology picture What Doesn't Float. Then we conclude as usual with discussion of all the other physical media we've watched...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. finally return to the Outlaw Gangster VIP series with its second entry, from 1968, directed by Keiichi Ozawa, featuring the continuing adventures of emotional swordsman Goro, quiet-quitting his yakuza position (0:00-1:09:18), followed by discussion of both Rene Cardona Jr.'s wild exploitation potboiler La casa que arde de noche (or The House That Burns in the...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. talk about a classic Toho Ishiro Honda kaiju picture, 1956's Rodan, as well as the first episode of influential kaiju TV series Ultra Q ("Defeat Gomess!" from 1966) in part one (0:00-1:00:42), followed in our second part (1:00:43-2:21:08) with discussion of Piotr Szulkin's 1986 dystopian sci-fi black comedy Ga-Ga: Glory to the Heroes and Michael J. Murphy's DI...