John Connor [Celluloid 09.18.19] horror cult thriller



For his first studio picture, filth maestro John Waters took advantage of his biggest budget yet to allow his muse Divine to sink his teeth into a role unlike any he had played before: Baltimore housewife Francine Fishpaw.

Blessed with a keen sense of smell and cursed with a philandering pornographer husband, a parasitic mother, and a pair of delinquent children, the long-suffering Francine turns to the bottle as her life falls apart—until deliverance appears in the form of a hunk named Todd Tomorrow (vintage heartthrob Tab Hunter).

Enhanced with Odorama technology that enables you to scratch and sniff along with Francine, Polyester is one of Waters’ most hilarious inventions.



onwards




The hills are once again alive with the sound of screaming in Wes Craven s hugely entertaining follow-up to his own groundbreaking 1977 The Hills Have Eyes.

A motocross team on their way to trial a new super-fuel head out across the desert lead by Rachel, who, unbeknownst to the rest of the group, is a survivor of the cannibal clan which menaced the Carter family several years before. Opting to take an ill-advised shortcut across the desert, the busload of youngsters drive straight into the path of the remnants of Rachel s demented cannibal kin - the menacing Pluto, and a hulking, blood-hungry brute by the name of The Reaper.

Made by Wes Craven immediately prior to his smash-hit A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes Part II diverges from the grim tone of its predecessor in favour of fun action-horror thrills and spills replete with mutants, motorbikes, and - oh yes - dog flashbacks!





It s not human, and it s got an axe! One of the most underrated efforts to hail from the slice-and-dice boom, The Prey at last emerges from the VHS wilderness in a brand new 2K restoration from the recently unearthed original camera negative.

Three young couples set off into the mountains for a weekend of climbing, drinking and lovemaking. But little do they know that they are stumbling into the terrain of a fearsome predator - a wild man, horrifically burned as a child many years ago in a fire which engulfed his gypsy camp and left only him alive. Now he roams the woods in search of his next human prey.

Filmed in 1979-1980 - making it a contemporary, rather than an imitator, of the likes of Friday the 13th - but not released until 1984 when it was picked up by New World Pictures, The Prey is a unique woodsy slasher gem ripe for reappraisal in this extras-packed, 40th anniversary edition!





Former Bond star George Lazenby (On Her Majesty s Secret Service, The Man from Hong Kong) headlines this classic giallo directed by Aldo Lado (Short Night of Glass Dolls, Night Train Murders) as compelling for its haunting atmosphere, twists and turns as for its parallels with another great Venetian horror/thriller Nicolas Roeg s Don t Look Now.

Sculptor Franco Serpieri (Lazenby) welcomes Roberta (Nicoletta Elmi, Deep Red) his young daughter from a failed marriage to Venice, unaware that a disturbed child-killer is stalking the city s canals. When Roberta s body is found floating face-down in the river, the lives of Franco and his estranged wife Elizabeth (Anita Strindberg, The Case of the Scorpion s Tail) are ripped asunder. Desperate for vengeance, Franco turns detective in a bid to track down his daughter s killer, and in the process unearths shocking evidence of depravity and corruption which implicates some of the most respected figures in Venetian society.

Released at the height of the giallo boom, this gripping mystery thriller boasts some of the most iconic names associated with the genre on both sides of the camera. Co-starring Dominique Boschero (The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire) and Adolfo Celi (Thunderball), and featuring one of the all-time greatest scores from maestro Ennio Morricone (What Have You Done to Solange?), Who Saw Her Die? thrills anew in its high definition debut.

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