2010s
Plot: backpacking tourists encounter mercenaries in the jungles of Thailand. There’s something to be said about the tenets and profound effects of globalization when a contemporary Mainland Chinese jungle action-adventure in the 2010s plays out by the exact same beats and character ur-archetypes as the Thai jungle actioners of
2010s
Plot: vacationers run afoul of escaped masked serial murderer. It’s been a strange and confusing journey going from the barely there slashing of Playing with Dolls (2015) to the functional competence of Playing with Dolls: Bloodlust (2016) only to arrive at the utterly minimalist and brutally utilitarian Playing with
2010s
Plot: sleepy farming hamlet is terrorized by fierce spectral predator. As far as we’re aware Thailand never had much of a horror scene in spite their rich history in being a reliable provider of the most wickedly insane action exploitation. Whereas Indonesia had Suzzanna and Malaysia had Maria Menado
2010s
Plot: superhuman vigilante leads the rebellion against an oppressive regime. Twelve years removed from the first Cutie Honey (2004) there were bound to be some significant differences between the original and its eventual sequel. Cutie Honey: Tears (2016) takes more after Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) and Christopher Nolan’s
2010s
Plot: masseuses by day, sexy government spies by night. It’s party time! Filipino exploitation is alive and well. The old Charlie's Angels (1976-1981) recipe remains as popular and fertile as ever. Extra Service is both a straightforward action-comedy on the Charlie's Angels (1976-1981) (itself reimagined
2010s
Plot: two mermaids wash ashore in 1980s Poland. One is friendly, one is not. You have to commend Agnieszka Smoczyńska for attempting something like this on what couldn’t have been too much of a budget. Córki Dancingu (or Daughters Of Dancing, for some reason released on the international market
2010s
Plot: the sins of a young man’s past come back to haunt him in the present. Revenge of the Pontianak sees yet another classic Asian horror monster resurrected for the modern age. The movie is part of a recent and larger mini-trend in Asian horror cinema that sees young
2010s
Plot: twins wreak havoc on corrupt governments and corporations. Neil Breen is, or at least should be, considered the preeminent hack of the 21st century. As the Donald Farmer of low budget fringe cinema and Christian proselytizing he has somehow helmed 4 more features since debuting with Double Down (2005)
2010s
Plot: urbanites are haunted by strange apparitions in their luxurious villa. Cold Pupil (冷瞳 or, alternatively, Dark Eye in some markets) is another Chinese ghost story. Not just any story. A Mainland China ghost story so inoffensive, so vanilla, so telegraphed and obvious that it might as well be a
2010s
Plot: not everything is what it seems in an utopian elite community… Perfect-Lover.com (程序戀人 domestically and Perfect-Lover.com 2036 internationally) is in all likelihood the finest new robot lover feature. Not that things weren’t pointing to such eventuality with South Korea delivering I’m Not A Robot (로봇이
2010s
Plot: pregnant woman is murdered… and comes to haunt her wrongdoers. To Indonesians (and weird cinema aficionados around the world) Suzzanna was, is, and remains an indisputable icon that has stood the test of time. She was for Indonesian horror cinema what Barbara Steele was to the Italian gothic, what
2010s
Plot: workaholic ad executive dies for the job… and comes to regret it. Argentine vampire horror has come a long way. In the Golden Age of exploitation Latin – and South American gothics took primarily after Universal Horror and Hammer Films, respectively. Reflective of our more enlightened times Dead Man Tells