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Features: Robert Eggers, Lawrence Gordon Clark, Piers Haggard, Alice Lowe, Jonathan Rigby | Written and Directed by Kier-La Janisse

After watching Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror you certainly can’t accuse writer/director Kier-La Janisse (Eurocrime! the Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the ’70s) of just skimming the topic’s surface. Book-ended by animated credits sequences and featuring paper collages by Guy Maddin Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched is a deep dive into the definition and history of folk horror. The film’s three hours and fifteen minutes are split into six chapters that make up three roughly hour-long segments.

The first segment deals with the “Unholy Trinity” of Witchfinder General, The Blood on Satan’s Claw and The Wicker Man. While it doesn’t deny their influence and importance, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched very quickly dispenses with the idea that they are the root of the genre,...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

17 Films by Anand Patwardhan

One of the greatest chroniclers of Indian history over the past half-century, Anand Patwardhan has caused controversy in his native country for his searing, in-depth political documentaries . Now, his complete filmography is available to view, from his first film Waves of Revolution made in 1974 through his most recent film Reason completed in 2018.

Where to Stream: Ovid.tv

Ammonite (Francis Lee)

Calling a Kate Winslet performance career-best is no easy statement, but her turn as 19th-century English paleontologist Mary Anning in Ammonite is certainly in consideration. Few writer-directors trust their actors to do so much with so little dialogue as Francis Lee. Like Josh O’Connor’s Johnny in Lee’s debut,...

Halloween may be over, but horror reigns supreme all year long on Shudder. The streaming service's November titles include Phantasm: Remastered, The Exorcist III, Penance, Happy Birthday to Me, Therapy, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, and many more must-watch movies.

Press Release: As many a horror fan is wont to say, Halloween is an all-year endeavor. And though Samhain has ended, you could say Shudder is just getting started. Following our premiere of the stellar miniseries Beyond The Walls, we’re all too excited to be the exclusive home of Phantasm: Remastered (joined by Phantasm III and IV). Headed by Jj Abrams and Bad Robot, this brand new restoration of Don Coscarelli’s American independent horror classic is the best you’ve ever seen it. Vividly rediscover the surreal journey of Mike, Jody and Reggie, up against the unknowable forces of The Tall Man, his extradimensional dwarves and the sphere.

Ten Silent Films Anyone Who Liked The Artist Should See

This year's Oscar race got serious when the Golden Globes picked their winners for Best Picture. The Globes haven't always been a good barometer for which film will actually take Best Picture but they do help films garner recognition and additional box office at a critical time of the year. This year's two winners, The Artist for Best Musical or Comedy and The Descendants for Best Drama, were already considered front-runners and although neither is considered a lock at this point, the wins at last weekend's Globes ceremony certainly didn't hurt their chances. Which brings me to a question for the audience. Is The Artist getting attention simply because it is a curiosity or is it really that good? I tend to agree with Brad's review when he suggested that "... 80 or so years ago I don't think it would have...

Before the 1950s, film wasn't always black and white. The early Thomas Edison shorts of the late 1890s were occasionally in color, produced by having artists hand-paint individual film frames (and you thought your job was dull). In the early teens, monochromatic film tinting became used to differentiate day scenes from night (often tinted blue). The problem that early filmmakers had with color film was the technology; color film had to be produced bypassing multiple, color filtered, negatives through a camera and then compositing them. It was an expensive process, driving shooting costs up nearly three times of black and white photography. With the exception of a handful of films throughout the 1930s-1940s (The Adventures of Robin Hood, Becky Sharp, some Walt Disney shorts), actual color film was a rare treat for filmgoers.

This began to change in the 1950s when television, film's adversary for the domination of the...

A look at what's new on DVD today:

"Gasland" (2010)

Directed by Josh Fox

Released by New Video Group

"Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work"

Directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg

Released by Mpi Home Video

"Exit Through the Gift Shop" (2010)

Directed by Banksy

Released by Oscilloscope Laboratories

If you haven't caught up on the year's best documentaries in time to fill out your top 10 list, three of them will be hitting DVD shelves this week, beginning with Josh Fox's Sundance award-winning "Gasland," an exploration of the "hydraulic fracturing" going on in own backyard, a type of drilling that has spread to 34 states in the U.S. and has left a host of reservoirs of toxic waste and frequent gas explosions along the way. For something less serious, but equally compelling, there is also Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work," which follows the...

Be Careful, citizens of Tolzbad! Of the big budget and fan-catered product that is going to be shoveled into Walmart for the holiday season, it warms my heart to see that Zeitgeist is preparing the Quintessential Guy Maddin, a box set containing five great films of mad Canuck filmmaker that at the least, starts to approach the magnitude of the 'quintessential' moniker. While My Winnipeg, Tales from the Gimli Hospital and The Saddest Music In The World would be very nice indeed to round out the set, anyone willing to delve into the strange and wild filmography of the Canadian auteur could do worse! Careful might just be Maddin's masterwork, and is a great entry point as well. The 4 Disc set does contain the following:

Disc One: Careful (1992, 100 min, Remastered and Repressed Edition):

Disc Two: Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997, 90 min) + Archangel (1990, 83 min):

Disc Three: Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary...

If this Sunday's True Blood finale leaves you with an appetite for more teeth-on-neck action, you're in luck...provided you live within MetroCard distance of Brooklyn.  The Brooklyn Academy of Music (or Bam, if you're hip) is in the middle of a truly spectacular festival of bloodsuckers they've dubbed "Bela Lugosi's Dead, Vampires Live Forever." After the jump, a list of what's on tap, along with my top picks. Sat, Sep 11 - Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary This silent, black & white oddity from Canadian art house fav Guy Maddin is more filmed ballet than conventional movie, light on scares and story but loaded with capital-r Romantic atmosphere. And Wei-Qiang...