John Landis Selects

John Landis Selects

Here is a list of titles I have chosen from the gigantic Arrow catalogue. You’ll find some documentaries, some martial arts, some horror, some truly great films, and some just wacky. You’ll see the work of directors I’ve never heard of, and directors I love like Takashi Miike, David Cronenberg, Joe Dante, Marcel Ophuls, Fritz Lang, Dario Argento, Jules Dassin, Richard Kelly, Mario Bava, Michael Lehmann, and of course, Russ Meyer. 

-John Landis

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John Landis Selects
  • 100 Monsters

    1968 • Japan • Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda

    A greedy slumlord’s attempts to forcefully evict his tenants invite the wrath of the titular spirits when a cleansing ritual is botched, with terrifying results.

  • Audition

    2001 · Japan · Directed by Takashi Miike

    One of the most notorious J-horror films ever made, Takashi Miike’s Audition exploded onto the festival circuit at the turn of the century to a chorus of awards and praise. The film would catapult Miike to the international scene and pave the way for such...

  • Basket Case

    1982 • United States • Directed by Frank Henenlotter

    The feature debut of director Frank Henenlotter (Brain Damage, Frankenhooker), 1982's Basket Case is a riotous and blood-spattered "midnight movie" experience, now presented for the first time ever in 4K.

    Duane Bradley seems like a pretty ord...

  • Blood and Black Lace (Italian version)

    1964 • Italy • Directed by Mario Bava

    SIX MODELS. SIX VICTIMS FOR A CRAZED MASKED KILLER.

    The Cristian Haute Couture fashion house is a home to models… and backstabbing… and blackmail… and drug deals… and MURDER. Having established a template for the giallo with The Girl Who Knew Too Much, Mari...

  • Category III: The Untold Story Of Hong Kong Exploitation Cinema

    2018 • United Kingdom • Directed by Calum Waddell

    The rise and fall of Hong Kong's notorious Category III cinema which reached a peak during the years 1988 and the lead-up to the Handover in 1997.

  • Challenge of The Masters

    1976 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chia-Liang Liu

    After masterminding the spellbinding martial arts choreography on dozens of Shaw Brothers’ biggest hits, Lau Kar-Leung became an extraordinary director in his own right. His second film, the thrilling and deeply personal Challenge of the Masters, dra...

  • Cheap Thrills

    2013 • United States • Directed by E.L. Katz

    A razor-sharp blend of thriller and the blackest of comedies, Cheap Thrills takes an ordinary night out among friends and turns it into a cruel, twisted game of survival. Fired from his job and facing eviction, this might be the worst night of Craig's...

  • Dead End Drive-In

    1986 • Australia • Directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith

    One of Quentin Tarantino’s favourite directors, Brian Trenchard-Smith was a key figure in the Ozploitation movement, responsible for The Man from Hong Kong, Stunt Rock, Turkey Shoot, BMX Bandits… and dystopian cult classic Dead-End Drive In!

    ...

  • Dead or Alive

    1999 • Japan • Directed by Takashi Miike

    Beginning with an explosive, six-minute montage of sex, drugs and violence, and ending with a phallus-headed battle robot taking flight, Takashi Miike's unforgettable Dead or Alive Trilogy features many of the director's most outrageous moments set alongs...

  • Dead or Alive 2: Tôbôsha

    2000 • Japan • Directed by Takashi Miike

    Dead or Alive 2: Birds casts Aikawa and Takeuchi together again, but as new characters, a pair of rival yakuza assassins who turn out to be childhood friends; after a botched hit, they flee together to the island where they grew up, and decide to devote t...

  • Dead or Alive: Final

    2002 • Japan • Directed by Takashi Miike

    In Dead or Alive: Final, Takeuchi and Aikawa are catapulted into a future Yokohama ruled by multilingual gangs and cyborg soldiers, where they once again butt heads in the action-packed and cyberpunk-tinged finale to the trilogy.

    As a side note, Dead or...

  • Deep Red

    From Dario Argento, maestro of the macabre and the man behind some the greatest excursions in Italian horror (Suspiria, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage), comes Deep Red - arguably the ultimate giallo movie. One night, musician Marcus Daly (David Hemmings, Blow Up), looking up from the street be...

  • Gorgo

    1961 • United Kingdom • Directed by Eugène Lourié

    (New 4K restoration!) A volcanic eruption in the North Atlantic brings to the surface a 65-foot prehistoric monster. Two treasure divers capture the creature and take him to London where he is made the star attraction at a circus. But when a scie...

  • Hundreds of Beavers

    2024 • United States • Directed by Mike Cheslik

    A drunken applejack salesman must go from zero to hero and become North America's greatest fur trapper by defeating Hundreds of Beavers.

  • Mighty Peking Man

    1977 • Hong Kong • Directed by Meng-Hua Ho

    When Hollywood announced a big-budget remake of King Kong, Shaw Brothers followed suit with perhaps the most unhinged giant monster movie ever made: Mighty Peking Man. Fresh off directing the smash hit Black Magic horror series for Shaw, director Ho Men...

  • Mike Hodges: A Film-Maker’s Life

    2022 • United Kingdom • Directed by David Cairns

    Get up close and very personal with this documentary about the Cult British director behind Get Carter, Flash Gordon and more, Mike Hodges: A Film-makers Life. This feature-length in-depth sit down with a leading figure in UK cinema sees Hodges ta...

  • Mute Witness

    1995 • Germany • Directed by Anthony Waller

    Director Anthony Waller (The Piper, An American Werewolf in Paris) combines cat-and-mouse suspense with classic intrigue in Mute Witness, an updated take on the Hitchcockian thriller in which the only witness to a brutal crime can neither speak nor cry...

  • Ms. 45

    1981 • United States • Directed by Abel Ferrara

    From Abel Ferrara, director of The Driller Killer and King of New York, comes a terrifying revenge-thriller in the tradition of Death Wish and Taxi Driver... Ms. 45 (aka Angel of Vengeance) will blow you away.

    New York, 1980. Raped at gunpoint on ...

  • One Missed Call

    Tapping into the same brand of terror as the Ring and Grudge movies, visionary director Takashi Miike ('Audition', 'Blade of the Immortal') presents a modern, high-tech twist on that mainstay of Japanese folklore, the yurei or vengeful spirit, in the form of its own iconic antihero - the terrifyi...

  • The Return of Daimajin (English Dubbed)

    1966 • Japan • Directed by Kenji Misumi

    On the shores of the mystical Lake Yakumo sit three villages. The despotic Lord Danjo Mikoshiba (Takashi Kanda) has his eye on the fertile lands of the peaceful Chigusa clan, and takes the opportunity to invade during a ceremony marking the passing of Lord...

  • Russ Meyer's Vixen

    1968 • United States • Directed by Russ Meyer

    Amid the cultural chaos of 1968 and armed with a budget of only $70,000, producer/director/cinematographer Russ Meyer transcended sexploitation by crafting this "bosomacious melodrama" (Time Magazine) about racism, communism, bush pilots, draft dodge...

  • Russ Meyer's Supervixens

    1975 • United States • Directed by Russ Meyer

    Following the 'serious' features THE SEVEN MINUTES and BLACK SNAKE, this 1975 return to form written, photographed, edited, produced and directed by Russ Meyer remains perhaps his most over-the-top and savagely entertaining epic of all: When a hot-bl...

  • Tenebrae

    A notorious horror classic returns in all its depraved glory. This infamous video nasty updated the classic Giallo blueprint for the gorified 80s, courting controversy and drenching the viewer in crimson arterial spray.

    A razor-wielding psycho is stalking the horror writer Peter Neal, in Rome to...

  • Terror By Night

    1946 • United States • Directed by Roy William Neill

    Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) has his hands full in this jewel heist/murder mystery. Holmes has been hired to safeguard one of the Earth’s greatest treasures, The Star of Rhodesia 423 Karat diamond, by the son of the current owner, the ecce...