TWIN WARRIORS, MUSCLEBOUND BARBARIANS, UNDEAD HORDES, EVIL KINGS, ENSLAVED PEASANTS, MYSTICAL WARFARE, BLOODTHIRSTY GODS & PLAYBOY PLAYMATES…ALL ON A BUDGET!! In the wake of John Milius’ Conan the Barbarian (1982)   and the dawn of home video’s dominance in genre filmmaking spaces, independent studios kicked off a short-lived, but prolific series of B-to-Z grade sword & sorcery, fantasy, and barbarian movies. Join Gabe and returning guest Luana Saitta as we look at three film

Poliziotteschi are remembered for their outrageously dangerous stunts, not-so-casual misogyny, fascist power fantasies, ultraviolence, and sleaze factor, but the genre had its prestige entries, too. For example, Elio Petri’s Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Italian: Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto, 1970) won the Best Foreign Film Oscar and Francesco Rosi’s Illustrious Corpses (Italian: Cadaveri eccellenti, 1976) won Best Film and Best Director

The revisionist western is, by its nature, a subversion of storytelling tradition. In America, this typically meant pushing back against the romanticized, black & white mythology of the Old West. In Europe, particularly Italy and Spain, they used American history as a backdrop while examining their own modern politics. One of the rarer examples of western revisionism came from the Soviet Union, where the iconology of the Hollywood western was typically used to explore regiona

A truly innovative and unique filmmaker, Teruo ‘King of Cult’ Ishii’s prolific career encompassed almost 100 features, shorts, and television episodes, ranging from the children’s sci-fi serial Super Giant (Japanese: Sūpā Jaiantsu; aka: Starman and Spaceman, 1957-1959) to mainstream hit Abashiri Prison (1965), which inspired no fewer than 17 sequels. But his enduring legacy is a series of pinku eiga thrillers and ero guro shockers, including Shogun’s Joys of Torture (Japanese