Incense for the Damned

Film Skool


If you think you've seen everything British horror had to offer, you haven't seen this.

A mysterious collapse, the starting point for one of British horror's most sexually charged and transgressive vampire films. Not all vampires wear capes. Some disappear to Mykonos and never come back the same.

Incense for the Damned follows Patrick Mower as Richard Fountain, an academic runaway who disappears into obsession on a sun-drenched research trip to Mykonos. It's a psychedelic mod-horror that doesn't just blur the line between the supernatural and the erotic — it weaponises it, exploring addiction, desire and moral collapse in ways mainstream horror rarely dared.

Co-starring Patrick Macnee, Imogen Hassall, Alex Davion, Johnny Sekka, Edward Woodward and horror royalty Peter Cushing.
Restored in high definition for the first time anywhere in the world from original film elements, with three versions of the film included.

Steve Lacy

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doom, new music + visual from Steve Lacy.

The Womack Sisters

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If I Let You, new music + visual from The Womack Sisters.

Johnny Huynh

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Delusional, new music + visual from Johnny Huynh.

Love Spells

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Don't Touch, new music + visual from Love Spells.

MNEK

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OH NO!! ALL THE BOYS!!, music + visual from MNEK.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Film Skool


The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) remains one of Hollywood’s most haunting adaptations of Oscar Wilde’s classic Gothic tale. Steve Hayes reviews MGM’s lavish supernatural drama starring Hurd Hatfield, George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Donna Reed, and Peter Lawford.

The Tired Old Queen At The Movies explores director Albert Lewin’s eerie vision of Dorian Gray, a beautiful young man who wishes to remain forever young while his portrait bears the scars of his corruption. The result is a macabre cautionary tale about vanity, temptation, lost innocence, and the dangerous price of getting exactly what you wish for.

Steve discusses Hurd Hatfield’s striking performance in the title role, George Sanders’s urbane wickedness, and Angela Lansbury’s heartbreaking portrayal of cabaret singer Sibyl Vane, which earned the young actress her second Academy Award nomination. He also considers Donna Reed and Peter Lawford, Harry Stradling’s Oscar-winning black-and-white cinematography, the film’s startling color portrait sequences, and MGM’s sumptuous treatment of Oscar Wilde’s celebrated novella.

Why did director Albert Lewin ask Hurd Hatfield to suppress nearly every facial expression? How did the role affect Hatfield’s later career? And what happened when Steve met the unforgettable actor decades later at the Metropolitan Museum of Art? For fans of classic Hollywood, Oscar Wilde adaptations, Gothic horror movies, supernatural dramas, MGM films, Angela Lansbury, George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, and vintage movie reviews, The Picture of Dorian Gray offers beauty, decadence, terror, and one of cinema’s most unforgettable portraits.

Natalie Imbruglia

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Just Drive, music + visual from Natalie Imbruglia.

Their muscles met the demands of the city, and the city met the demands of their muscles

Qué Rico!

Keiynan Lonsdale

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Don't Be Such A, music + visual from Keiynan Lonsdale.

The Double

Film Skool


Giovanni (Jean Sorel, Rosa la rose, fille publique) is shot in an underground parking garage by a mysterious bearded man. As his life flashes before his eyes, through flashbacks we learn about his life and what led to this moment. His flirtatious wife, Lucia (Ewa Aulin, Death Smiles on a Murderer) and the fissures her behaviour creates, complications with the family business, Lucia’s relationship with a travelling hippie and her beautiful mother-in-law (Lucia Bosé, Satyricon).


With its delirious editing, continually returning us to the site of his murder, Giovanni’s life turns in on itself as the film explores masculinity, eroticism, and the uncanny. One of the undiscovered greats of the genre, Romolo Guerrieri’s (The Sweet Body of Deborah) The Double is a sexy, metaphysical giallo newly restored and officially released for the first time since VHS.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one

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B2K

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|Mileage, music + visual from B2K.

The Creeping Unknown

Film Skool


Before Ridley Scott's Alien, before decades of "man slowly becomes a monster" horror, there was this: the original 1955 trailer for The Quatermass Xperiment, released in the US as The Creeping Unknown.

The film follows Professor Bernard Quatermass as he races to contain the sole survivor of a doomed rocket mission, a man who's slowly turning into something no longer human. It's widely credited with helping define British sci-fi horror for decades to come.

Ryan Beatty

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|White Lightning, music + visual from Ryan Beatty.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one

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Tony Tacheny

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|Glitter, music + visual from Tony Tacheny.

Mickaël Pouvin

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The Darkest Night, new music + visual from Mickaël Pouvin.

Dune: Part Three

Film Skool


Dune: Part Three is set nearly two decades after Paul Atreides seized control of the Imperium. Now a ruthless Emperor, Paul must face the consequences of his reign as old allies return, terrifying new threats emerge, and betrayal lurks in every shadow. Haunted by visions of Imperial collapse and the reappearance of his long-lost love, Paul is drawn into a sweeping conspiracy, with Chani at the heart of its unfolding mystery. As rebellion brews and enemies close in, Paul must confront the true cost of power and the fate of those he loves the most.

Marius

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Cry Again For Me, from Marius.

We walk about under a load of memories which we long to share and somehow never can

Mass in Motion

Identity

Film Skool
IDENTITY IS A SECRET. IDENTITY IS A MYSTERY. IDENTITY IS A KILLER.

Before reinventing both the racing film with Ford v Ferrari and the superhero blockbuster with Logan, filmmaker James Mangold directed Identity, a high-concept thriller that fuses Agatha Christie-style mystery with nerve-shredding psychological horror.

When a torrential downpour strands ten strangers at a remote Nevada motel, tensions soon fray to breaking point. Among the reluctant guests are a limo driver (John Cusack), a washed-up actress (Rebecca DeMornay), a troubled cop (Ray Liotta) transporting a violent criminal, and a grieving couple (John C. McGinley and Amanda Peet). But as the guests are picked off one by one, it becomes clear this is no random gathering. With paranoia mounting and identities unraveling, the survivors must uncover the connection that links them together – before the killer strikes again.


Released amid a boom in thrillers with twist endings, Identity channels classic whodunit conventions into something far more chilling, anchored by a razor-sharp screenplay that delivers shocks, psychological intrigue and a finale that lingers long after the lights come up.

54

Film Skool


New York City, 1979: working class Jersey City teenager Shane (Ryan Phillippe, Cruel Intentions) becomes infatuated with Studio 54, a lavish Manhattan nightclub known for decadence. Shane’s time at 54 introduces him to a cast of characters including real life nightclub owner Steve Rubell (Mike Myers, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery), busboy Greg (Breckin Meyer, Clueless), coat checker Anita (Salma Hayek, Traffic), and actress Julie (Neve Campbell, Scream).

Written and directed by Mark Christopher, 54 was originally heavily re-shot ahead of its theatrical release in 1998 before being re-assembled in a long awaited director’s cut in 2015, with over forty minutes of different footage used. Anchored by an impressive, star-making, performance from Ryan Phillippe along with a bombastic, period appropriate soundtrack, 54 is an essential ode to old New York that’s ripe for re-discovery. Cinématographe is proud to present the definitive release of 54, including a new 4K restoration of the 1998 theatrical version as well as the 2015 director’s cut, offering an exemplary case study in how drastically different a film can be between two different edits.


Additional info:

- 3-Disc Set: 4K Ultra HD + Region A Blu-ray x 2

- New audio commentaries with writer/director Mark Christopher, moderated by Cinématographe's Justin LaLiberty, on both cuts of the film

- New audio commentary with filmmaker and writer Drew Burnett Gregory on the theatrical cut

- Archival audio commentary with Mark Christopher and director of photography Alexander Gruszynski on the director's cut

- I'm Dead - a new video interview with Mark Christopher

- Nothing Is for Certain - a new video interview with editor Lee Percy

- 54-ness - a new video interview with producer Dolly Hall

- Awesome Party - a new video interview with associate producer Jonathan King

- Let's Do the Work - a new video interview with director's cut editor David Kittredge

- In the Trenches Together - a new video interview with Alexander Gruszynski

- Finding Yourself - a new video essay by film historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

- If You Could Read My Mind...The Making of 54: The Director's Cut - an archival featurette from 2016

- Deleted Scenes - including footage not found in the director's cut

- Never before seen B-roll from the production

- BTS photo gallery

- Photo galleries from festival premieres and the director's cut re-release in France

- BTS footage from the director's cut mixing sessions

- New text essays by writer Sean Abley, author of Queer Horror: A Film Guide; film programmer Alex Gootter and Dan Mecca, editor of The Film Stage

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one

Unreal

The distinguishing mark of man is the hand, the instrument with which he does all his mischief

Mass in Motion

The Hand of Night

Film Skool


Reeling from the recent death of his wife and two children in a car crash in England for which he was partly responsible, American architect Paul Carver is traveling to Morocco utterly dejected. Plagued with nightmares in which he relives the accident, amid what appear to be ominous premonitions, Carver is befriended on his flight by German archaeologist Otto Gunther, who invites him to a party that evening. While perusing Gunther’s home, Carver encounters a striking but strangely ethereal Moroccan woman named Marisa, who leads him to a remote, opulent palace. When, driving to their archaeological site the next morning, Gunther and his young assistant Chantal find Carver unconscious in the desert, they reject the tale he recounts as being a figment of his alcohol-addled imagination, claiming not to know of any such woman. But Gunther, well-versed in the region's ancient folklore, begins to fear that the forces of darkness may have their sights set on his new friend and that his very soul is at stake.

A true outlier in the annals of 1960s British horror, The Hand of Night (also released as Beast of Morocco) is a bewitching and highly singular take on the vampire mythos, trumping its Hammer peers by taking the - for the period - unusual step of filming largely on location in Morocco, lending the film a much greater sense of atmosphere and scope than many of its contemporaries. Featuring a host of notable American and British actors, including William Sylvester (Gorgo, Devil Doll), Diane Clare (The Haunting), and Edward Underdown (Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors), the celluloid archaeologists at Vinegar Syndrome Labs are delighted to dust off The Hand of Night for its first-ever disc release, newly restored for Blu-ray and accompanied by a host of new bonus features. 


Additional info: 

- Newly restored by Vinegar Syndrome from a studio-supplied 4K master

- Commentary track with film historians Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons

- "A New Breed of Vampire" (17 min) - an appreciation by author and film critic Kim Newman

- "Associated with British Pathé" (25 min) - a featurette on Associated British Pathé, the production company behind The Hand of Night, with sound editor Roger Voss and ABP production accountant Franz von Habsburg

- "An Associated British Pathé Budget" (8 min) - production accountant Franz von Habsburg discusses how an ABP production was budgeted

- Reversible sleeve artwork

The Abominable Snowman

Film Skool


In 1957, Peter Cushing went to the Himalayas to find the Yeti and came back with one of Hammer's most underrated films.

Today, The Abominable Snowman arrives in a stunning new 4K restoration, drawn from elements never used in any previous restoration.

This is the definitive version of a film that has deserved one for decades. Peter Cushing at his most quietly compelling, a Yeti you almost never see, and a script by the legendary writer of Quatermass, Nigel Kneale, that asks harder questions than most horror films dare to.


Two versions of the film. Three commentaries. Six new documentaries. A 120-page book.

Elevator Boys

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|Love Me Better, from Elevator Boys.

Paradise People

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Rewind to 1997 with Free, Gay & Happy, music + visual from Paradise People, featuring Kym Mazelle.

Why was it that they could never shout like that about something that mattered?

Mass in Motion


Union County

Film Skool


Assigned to a county-mandated drug court program, Cody Parsons embarks on the tenuous journey toward recovery amidst the opioid epidemic in rural Ohio.

Night School

Film Skool


In Boston, a young female teacher’s aide is found decapitated in a playground, her head discarded in a nearby bucket. Bearing striking similarities to a murder that took place the week before, Harvard-educated Lieutenant Judd Austin is brought onto the case, who quickly establishes that the latest victim had been enrolled in evening classes at Wendell College, a local girls' school. As suspicions fall on anthropology professor Vincent Millett — whose extra-curricular liaisons with his students are well-known — the black motorcycle helmet-wearing, Gurkha blade-wielding killer strikes again and again, each time decapitating a young woman connected with the school and disposing of the head in water. Can Lieutenant Austin unmask the maniac before the entire female student body loses their heads?


A superlative slasher hailing from the golden age of the slice-and-dice boom, 1981’s Night School was the final film from celebrated English director Ken Hughes (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), and the feature debut of Golden Globe-nominated actress Rachel Ward (The Final Terror, Fortress). Boasting cinematography from David Cronenberg regular Mark Irwin (Videodrome, The Fly) and a score by Brad Fiedel (The Terminator), Night School was branded a “video nasty” in the UK and censored due to its scenes of shocking violence. Now newly restored in 4K from its original camera negative and loaded with brand new bonus features, Vinegar Syndrome is thrilled to unveil this slasher classic on UHD for the first time ever in an edition that goes straight to the top of the class!

 
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