Unboxing Two Wild Eye(s)- Kung Fu Rascals and Despiser on Home Video!

Wild Eye Releasing’s Visual Vengence is knocking it out of the park with blu-ray editions of fond classics from the 80s and 90s, and we got an unboxing video showing what to expect from their latest.

Kung Fu Rascals and Despiser Unboxing VideoThere’s been a lot of treats that Otaku no Culture has been looking at this month! Not only do we have a ton of terrific material to get caught up on from online (streaming or otherwise), but also there are books and home video releases we’re very excited to go through! One such offering is from Visual Vengeance, a subsidiary of Wild Eye Releasing, that we’re going to unbox, and will offer a more detailed write-up when the Halloween season is over (along with some reviews of series as a whole rather than separate episodes).

Kung Fu Rascals and Despiser (Amazon links) are works meant to be enjoyed as simple popcorn entertainment back when they first released. As Steve Wang pointed out (my interview with him can be read here), his film was his first foray into directing, and admitted there were problems. Despite some flaws, it’s a work to be appreciated because it helped show to Hollywood what he was capable of.

As for other works in this distributor’s catalog, one can find other movies were their final film school project, or perhaps something else. Some were attempts to test the waters of some genre, others designed for fun, and the rest–it’s like a roulette wheel: one can never be too sure if it’d be a wild success or not. Whatever the case, this label has a commitment to revive these works to show that it’s possible to love these lowbrow works for what they are. 

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Piercing Cameron Beyl’s The Veil and Forbidden Mysteries Answered–An Interview

Many people have said The Veil is like a lost episode of the Twilight Zone, and they’re right! The themes explored and just cinematography just nails what made this series special, and we can expect more from Cameron Beyl.

Cameron Beyl HeadshotSome movies like Cameron Beyl’s The Veil need to be savoured, and while the wait for it to arrive on home video/streaming felt long, that’s because to find the right window to release it meant waiting for a certain time of the year to arrive. People believe that the curtain separating the world of the living from the dead is at its thinnest during Halloween. Readers can check out my original review here.

As an enthusiast who has studied the behaviours of spirits through reading other case reports and participating in client-based (not the holiday style) paranormal investigations, everything told in fiction felt spot on. But in order to understand everything that went on in this film, the opportunity to interview this filmmaker to learn about his thought process made this movie what it is:

For readers unfamiliar with your work, can you please introduce yourself?

I’ve been making films, using the DIY approach, ever since I was eleven, and went to Emerson College to get a formal education. I made my feature debut with So Long, Lonesome (2009), and a couple of years later, made Here Build Your Homes. During that time, I made other short films, did commissioned jobs and also worked on documentaries. My “The Director Series,” is well known [it delved into examining notable talents like Stanley Kubrick, David Fincher and Paul Thomas Anderson -ed], and after that The Veil. Continue reading “Piercing Cameron Beyl’s The Veil and Forbidden Mysteries Answered–An Interview”

Continuing on Revealing All The Deets on All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Volume Two

The world tour continues in part two of our detailed look at what’s coming in All The Haunts Be Ours Volume Two. Trailers are included (where possible), and the focus here is on Asian films!

All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium Of Folk Horror Vol. 2
Available to pre-order on Amazon USA

Release Date: Nov 12, 2024

In part two of our reveal in what’s to be contained in All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Volume Two, we look at volumes five to eight. These works curated and produced by Kier-La Janisse, really dives into what this film historian belives is the best of the best, and that’s going to be hard to argue!

Although some of these works can be found online, they won’t be the same quality as this blu-ray release, and they don’t include the bonus material that’s included to expand one’s appreciation of each film.

Continue reading “Continuing on Revealing All The Deets on All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Volume Two”

All The Deets on All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Volume Two

Due to the huge amount of information presented, this breakdown on what will be offered in All The Haunts Be Ours Volume Two will be split into three articles.

All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium Of Folk Horror Vol. 2
Available to pre-order on Amazon USA

Release Date: Nov 12, 2024

Everything fans of folk horror want to know but were afraid to ask is continuing to be explored in an all new continuation, simply titled All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror Volume Two. And when I own a copy of the first set, there’s no turning back! Not only am I a rabid completist but also this new collection offers recent movies that define what this genre is all about.

As for older works that can’t be easily found online or not available, half the list includes films making their debut on the optical medium. The care and attention put into these collections says it all. I’m particularly glad there’s a lot more to explore. What’s offered is an extension of the documentary that started it all, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched Documentary (review link)

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Everything Bold and Viceral in Gou Tanabe’s Call of Cthulhu Needs A Deluxe HC Reprint!

Gou Tanabe's Call of Cthulhu
Available to purchase on Amazon USA

Dark Horse Comics

I really hope Gou Tanabe continues to adapt more of H.P. Lovecraft‘s stories into a visual medium. After the release of Call of Cthulhu, I’m really craving more. And with what’s presented in a tankōbon format, I can’t wait to see what the inevitable deluxe edition will look like. That’s because to marvel at the details put into showing off the city of R’lyeh can mean I can put away those magnifying glasses. Even though my digital copy allowed me to zoom in to marvel at the fine lines and strange hieroglyphs, that did not mean I found Easter eggs.

What makes this release work is that most readers know the basics of this story. Francis Wayland Thurston needs closure following‌ the death of his grand-uncle. He left behind some curious artefacts, including a strange statue of some hybrid octopus and humanoid creature, to his next of kin. But when curiosity gets the better of the young man, I swear he should have died at least five times over! When he goes globetrotting to discover more of these statues exist, there’s a conspiracy that he must get answers to. However, that doesn’t get far when a sailing expedition to locate a tribe gets interrupted and he finds an uncharted isle, and unwittingly unleashes some giant sized amorphous inhabitant!

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In Guy Maddin’s Rumours, What’s Amazing is That There’s No Secret Societies At Work Here

There’s lots of absurdist moments in this polticial satire set during the apocalypse in Rumours. What’s offered is more than just a movie review here, but also an analysis about what it all means!

Guy Maddin's Rumours Movie PosterNow playing at select theatres
Spoiler Alert

When Guy Maddin’s Rumours gets heavy with absurdist humour and presents a group of world leaders as inept, this movie may well be his most bizarre to date. That’s because of the setup: these folks have gathered to deal with some unknown global crisis. And as for whether the mud people they discover is part of it or not, that’s a mystery they’ll have to figure out, if they don’t kill each other first! I suspect these subplots had the help of co-directors Evan and Galen Johnson during filming, and reminded me of the classic soap opera, Dark Shadows.

By the time everyone agrees on how to enact a plan against some strange mauraders, it’s too late. Here, we meet German premier Hilda Orlmann (Cate Blanchett) trying to keep it together, but I suspect she’s ready to crack. And the people who are there to represent other extremes include Antonio Lamorle (Rolando Ravello) from Italy; Maxime Laplace (Roy Dupuis) from Canada; Sylvain Broulez (Denis Ménochet) from France; Tatsuro Iwasaki (Takehiro Hira) from Japan; Cardosa Dewind (Nikki Amuka-Bird) from the UK, and US President Edison Wolcott (Charles Dance). While most of them are caricatures of certain leaders we know in our world, the folks who don’t get lost in the shadows.

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