01.10.2025
DEADBEAT AT DAWN (1988)
dir. Jim Van Bebber, 81 min. English languageIn the post industrial, urban decaying, gang infested wasteland of Dayton, Ohio, gang leader Goose, played by writer director Jim Van Bebber, seeks to leave a life of crime behind in search of greener pastures with his girlfriend Christy. While out doing one last deal to get the money he needs to start a new life, rival gang members break into his apartment and murder Christy, leaving Goose in a downward spiral. When his gang presents him with one last chance to make the money he needs, Goose will have to fight his way through every other deadbeat in Dayton if he wants to get out alive.
If the Soviet Union paid Hong Kong Category III film makers to craft an anti-American propaganda remake of THE WARRIORS it would probably look like DEADBEAT AT DAWN. Filmed on a shoestring budget using real life run down locations and no thought for safety, the film screams through action set pieces that are a hair away from criminality and character drama that plays out with overwhelming nihilism. The texture that Van Bebber creates is crusted with grit and grime, and his vision of the world is simultaneously hilariously cartoonish and crushingly anti-humanist. The rare gang film that depicts street crime as the coolest and vilest thing you can do to yourself.
08.10.2025
KNIFE+HEART (2018)
dir. Yann Gonzalez, 102 min. French language w/English subsParis, the summer of 1979: Everyone is having the très fun & sexy time except Anne (Vanessa Paradis), a low-budget adult entertainment producer, and Karl, a performer in Anne’s work who has just met with a grizzly end. Trying to reconcile with her former lover/editor Loïs and working with her loyal assistant/best friend Archibald to salvage their upcoming film, Anne struggles to separate fantasy from reality as a mysterious killer cuts a swathe through the adult underground of Paris.
Audience Note: This film contains high-impact violence and a depiction of sexual assault
The central figure of KNIFE+HEART is loosely based on Anne-Marie Tensi, pioneering producer of titles Jeux homosexuels and Les saliveuses from the “golden age” of French adult cinema. Gonzalez uses these heady, pre-HIV days of fast & loose filmmaking to explore a demi-monde of mingled pragmatism and sensuality where the lines between bodies and consciousness blur. Genuine care and community are disrupted by violent intruders from both outside and within in this passionate, perversely unreconstructed giallo.
15.10.2025
CRIME WAVE (1985)
dir. John Paizs, 80 min. English languageWriter/director/producer/leading man John Paizs, The Pride of Winnipeg, created a singular vision of half-realised creative dreams and childhood fears in CRIME WAVE. Steven (Paizs) is a quiet man, living above a family’s suburban garage and fighting a valiant nightly battle against writer’s block as he tries to find a middle for his “colour crime story” beginnings that always end in violent death. In an attempt to help, young daughter Kim (Eva Kovacs) sends Steven's rejected script pages to a mysterious benefactor- but when he sets out for a glamorous film career in Kansas, Steven is thrown into a surreal prairie world of menacing cowboys and small-town psychosis.
Equal parts brush-your-teeth PSA and portrait of rural horror CRIME WAVE was ahead of its time, a technicolor nightmare from the North about the agonies of trying to write something, anything, Oh God. A singular vision of silent comedy, bitter relatability and the creeping darkness at the edge of childhood memories, this 2K version of John Paizs’ masterpiece has been stunningly restored and signed off on by the director himself. If you’ve ever thought about trying to think about making movies or moving out of your parents’ house, this one’s for you.
22.10.2025
THE WOLF HOUSE (2018)
dir. Cristóbal León, Joaquin Cociña, 75 min. Spanish language w/English subsAn incredible achievement of stop-motion animation, THE WOLF HOUSE is a rich fantasy hiding a dark secret. Young María has been forced out of the isolated religious Colony she was raised in, fleeing to the relative security of a secluded woodland house- inhabited by a pair of talking pigs who she names Ana and Pedro. As reality shapes itself around her, María resists the temptations of the Wolf trying to lure her back to the Colony, but as food grows scarce and the woods begin to close in she realises she may have exchanged one cage for another.
Recalling the work of Jan Švankmajer, León and Cociña bring this disquieting fable to life with a kaleidoscope of materials- clay, puppets, everyday objects and papier-mâché all meshed in writhing life, constantly in motion. THE WOLF HOUSE uses ever-shifting perspectives to illustrate a particularly brutal period in Chilean history, filtered through the memories of a disintegrating psyche.
29.10.2025
BRAIN DAMAGE (1988)
dir. Frank Henenlotter, 86 min. English languageYoung Brian has turned his slump around and made a new best friend; a blue, parasitic, slug-like creature of yore named Aylmer that deals him psychotropic drugs direct to the brain stem in exchange for a fresh supply of human brains. As his new friend’s supply and demands grow, Brian struggles to maintain appearances for his girlfriend and his brother as his nocturnal actives get more depraved and deadly, leading to an ever growing pile of bodies to go along with his trips that are beginning to blur the line between fantasy and reality that threatens to damn Brian’s body and soul in his search for just one more fix.
Grindhouse maestro Frank Henenlotter’s second genre masterwork, after BASKET CASE and before Pink Flamingo favourite FRANKENHOOKER, BRAIN DAMAGE is a tale of addiction and woe told with equal parts flair and sympathy. All of Henenlotter’s renowned talent for gore and grime is on display, along with an oddly touching emotional sensibility that brings a degree of credence to Aylmer’s influence on Brian and his willingness to act on his terms. Filmed guerilla style on the run down streets of old New York City, the film’s wonderful cinematography and brilliant effects work create a magical realism that informs the film’s textual dynamics without overpowering its genre sensibilities. The most fun you can have with drugs without doing them.