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It’s fair to say, by and large, the found footage genre is a decidedly mixed bag, both in content & delivery. One of the finer examples of the genre is 2014’s Creep. The film focused on Arron (Patrick Brice), a young videographer, taking a job filming Josef ( Mark Duplass), who he believes to be a dying man, but as things unfold, it becomes clear that Josef is not dying, but he’s a cunning killer, and Arron is his next victim. The film blended awkward/ dark humour with some effective jumps and several unsettling moments. In 2017, there was a second film, Creep 2, which managed to keep the spirit of the first film and added to it. And then in 2024, we got The Creep Tapes, a six-part series on Shudder, which found us being presented with the tapes of victims from the killer's cupboard- with episodes playing out around the twenty-five-minute mark. Here we have a Blu-Ray release of the second series from Acorn Media International with commentary tracks for each of the six episodes from the lead actor, director, and editor.
18 Jun 2026
Jasper Sharp interview
In the year 1971, Nikkatsu, the oldest/ at one point, the biggest film production company in Japan. Did something quite daring/ some would say crazy- they completely switched over their production to softcore adult films, which would become known as Roman Porno. Between 1971 and 1988, the company produced around 850 of these titles. The thing that made these films stand out from general softcore films is the often creative & inventive choices made- yes, the films primal focus is sleaze, but great examples of the genre are so much more than that. In the last year or so, there has been a spate of reissues of films in the genre from labels such as 88 Films, Third Window Films, and Klubb Super 8. One of the key figures/contributors behind these releases is Jasper Sharp- one of the world's experts on the genre, and the wider Pink genre it’s connected to. Jasper kindly agreed to give us an email interview discussing his history with the genre, his contributions to releases, and the new/updated edition of his book Behind The Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema on Fab Press.
4 Jun 2026
Post-production is our reality; the musical one, too. That’s stating the obvious, I realise, but it helps maybe to couch how things once marshalled in service of a final, organic whole, have now splintered into effects that any DAW-savvy doofus can cull together. While that may sound derisive, it might just be a way to come to terms with the jarring, cut-and-paste aesthetic of Forest Factory’s (Elvin Brandhi and Andreas Trobollowitsch) Holzweg.
From the late 70’s, Dead Mountaineer's Hotel is an Estonian film which mixes neo noir, with drama & mystery- finished off with light touches of surrealism, sci-fi & (very) low key horror. It’s set in an isolated/end-of-the-road/snow-bound hotel, where a policeman is called out seemingly by mistake to get involved with a selection of quirky guests, a murder, criminal intrigue, and possible aliens.. Here from Deaf Crocodile is a dual UHD & Blu-ray release of the film. It features a new 4k scan, a commentary track, and a blend of new & archive extras.
NEA Ensemble — Orizzontale
17 Jun 2026Signal One — Signal One(VOD)
17 Jun 2026Sigh — Hail Horror Hail( 2CD)
16 Jun 2026Sigh — Ghastly Funeral Theatre ( 2CD)
16 Jun 2026Raté — Prenez Votre Ticket
16 Jun 2026Pink Wool — Limbic System & Nostalgia
16 Jun 2026The Good Boy — The Good Boy( VOD)
16 Jun 2026The Last Match — The Last Match(Blu Ray)
16 Jun 2026
King Futile Interview
King Futile is the new project from Scotland-based Lea Cummings( Kylie Minoise, Official Music Team, etc), and it’s a big departure from his normal noise or retro sample & electronica sound. It's lo-fi acoustic music, with an outsider feel, and often quite tongue-in-cheek/ sharply sarcastic tone to the lyrics. So far, the project has put out three albums- Casual Misery, How To Have Fun, and Zen As Fuck. I tracked down Lea for an email interview.
Cliff Twemlow On Severin
One of last year’s real big surprises in the world of Blu-ray box sets was Bloody Legend: The Complete Twemlow Collection, as it was a wholly entertaining, fascinating, and at times heart-warming set. The Severin released boxset brought together the work of one of the UK’s unlikeliest movie moguls- Cliff Twemlow, a Mancunian bouncer/ body builder, who went on to write/star in/produce a series of low-budget/ largely SOV films in the early 80s to early 90s- these moved between action, thriller, sci-fi, and horror. His most notable/notorious film was 1983’s G.B.H., which landed on the video nasty list, though he was connected to other ten feature films, many of which got their first real full/proper release on the boxset. Opening up the set was the excellent 2023 documentary Mancunian Man: The Legendary Life of Cliff Twemlow, which really pulls you into the set. I caught up with Severn’s David Gregory and Jake West, director of Mancunian Man, to discuss the boxset and all things cliff.
The Fall
MES( Mark E Smith- The Falls main creator) possessed the ability to cram phrases into impossible spaces - “I’m hunting and I’m trying to find” delivered as “hut’na tryna find”; the eight-syllable “mere pseud mag editor’s father” hastily squeezed into a manipulation of time and space, heralded by the prior line “twice each at least”, the latter naturally repeated thrice.
Crude ‘n’ Hope-corroding Walled Noise
Back in 2024, I got my first taste of Absurd Reality, and I was so impressed by how crude and nasty its take on walled noise was. Behind the project is South Carolina-based Krys Marshall, who also runs the Filthy Sounds Recording label. He’s since gone on to form No Fun HNW, which pushes the levels of nasty crudeness even more. Krys kindly agreed to an email interview.
