John Connor [DVD News 11.20.18] scifi horror action cult thriller



Music icon David Byrne was inspired by tabloid headlines to make his sole foray into feature-film directing with True Stories, an ode to the extraordinariness of ordinary American life and a distillation of what was in his own idiosyncratic mind.

The Talking Heads front man plays a visitor to Virgil, Texas, who introduces us to the citizens of the town during preparations for its Celebration of Specialness.

As shot by cinematographer Ed Lachman, Texas becomes a hyperrealistic late-capitalist landscape of endless vistas, shopping malls, and prefab metal buildings. In True Stories, Byrne uses his songs to stitch together pop iconography, voodoo rituals, and a singular variety show—all in the service of uncovering the rich mysteries that lurk under the surface of everyday experience.






Amid a brooding rock & roll landscape, the Bombers motorcycle gang, led by the vicious Raven Shaddock (Willem Dafoe, John Wick), kidnap diva Ellen Aim (Diane Lane, Man of Steel). Her hope for rescue lies with unlikely heroes: soldier of fortune Tom Cody (Michael Paré, Bad Moon) and his sidekick, the two-fisted beer-guzzling McCoy (Amy Madigan, The Dark Half).

Joined by Ellen’s manager, Billy Fish (Rick Moranis, Ghostbusters), the trio plunges headfirst into a world of rain-splattered streets, hot cars, and deadly assassins.

This cult favorite features a razor-sharp cast and original songs written by Jim Steinman, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty and Ry Cooder and performed by The Blasters and The Fixx. Directed by cult filmmaker Walter Hill (The Warriors, Southern Comfort, 48 Hrs.), Streets of Fire is a rock & roll shotgun blast to the senses.





This gut-wrenching thriller follows a graduate student whose research summons the spirit of the dead! When Helen Lyle hears about Candyman, a slave spirit with a hook hand who is said to haunt a notorious housing project, she thinks she has a new twist for her thesis.

Braving the gang-ridden territory to visit the site, Helen arrogantly assumes Candyman can’t really exist ... until he appears, igniting a string of terrifying, grisly slayings. But the police don't believe in monsters, and charge Helen with the crimes. And the only one who can set her free is Candyman.





When New England college student Natalie (Alicia Witt, TV’s The Exorcist) finds herself at the center of a series of sadistic murders seemingly inspired by urban legends, she resolves to find the truth about her school’s own legend: a twenty-five-year-old story of a student massacre at the hands of an abnormal Psych professor.

As the fraternities prepare to celebrate the macabre anniversary, Natalie discovers that she is the focus of the crazed killer’s intentions in the ultimate urban legend: the unfolding story of her own horrific murder.




In Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, the titular time travelers aren’t making history: they are history!

When an evil doer from the future sends eviler robot twins of Bill & Ted to assassinate and replace good, non-robot Bill & Ted, the guys wind up face to face with the Grim Reaper (William Sadler)! Can the now-dead duo escape, defeat their evil doppelgangers, and win their Battle of the Bands contest?




In this definitive Spaghetti Western, Franco Nero (Keoma, The Fifth Cord) gives a career-defining performance as Django, a mysterious loner who arrives at a mud-drenched ghost town on the Mexico-US border, ominously dragging a coffin behind him. After saving imperilled prostitute Maria (Loredana Nusciak), Django becomes embroiled in a brutal feud between a racist gang and a band of Mexican revolutionaries...

With Django, director Sergio Corbucci (The Great Silence) upped the ante for sadism and sensationalism in Westerns, depicting machine gun massacres, mud-fighting prostitutes and savage mutilations. A huge hit with international audiences, Django s brand of bleak nihilism would be repeatedly emulated in a raft of unofficial sequels.

The film is presented here in an exclusive new restoration with a wealth of extras including the newly restored bonus feature Texas Adios, which also stars Franco Nero, and was released as Django 2 in several territories.




Driven around Paris by a loyal driver (Édith Scob), a mysterious man (Denis Lavant) dresses up in costumes and plays a number of strange, semiscripted roles.

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