Stars: Jay Pickett, Tom Skerritt, Mason McNulty, Gattlin Griffith, Callder Griffith, Cody Jones, Peter Facinelli | Written by Jerry Robbins | Directed by Michael Feifer

Westerns seem to be popping up all over the Dtv and VOD markets in the last year or so. From Hell on the Border, Righteous Blood and the upcoming Apache Junction to western/horror hybrids like The Pale Door and Skinwalker, it seems the Old West is new again. Catch the Bullet is a new one written by Jerry Robbins and directed by Michael Feifer. Should you catch it? Or dodge a bullet and watch something else?

Marshal Britt MacMaster, played by the late Jay Pickett and to whom the film is dedicated, has just gunned down a bank robber and his two accomplices. For the three months it took to track them, his father is watching his twelve-year-old son Chad.

When he finally returns he finds...

“You tell your father Garry Hamilton is back in town and I will see him at sundown”

Vengeance Trails – Four Classic European Westerns From the 1960s Available on Blu-ray July 27th From Arrow Video. Ordering information can be found Here. Check out this trailer:

Gathered for the first time are four of the most bloodthirsty westerns with the kind of men that live only to kill!

In the mid-1960s, the runaway success of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy gave rise to an explosion of similar productions as filmmakers by the dozen sought to capitalize on this new, uniquely Italian take on the western, characterized by their deeply cynical outlook, morally compromised antiheroes and unflinching depictions savage violence. This specially curated selection gathers together four outstanding examples of the genre from the height of its popularity, all centered around a theme of revenge. In Lucio Fulci’s Massacre Time (1966), Franco Nero...

Die Falle

(La morte ha fatto l’uovo a.k.a Death Laid an Egg, A Curious Way to Love & Plucked)

1968, dir: Giulio Questi

Jean-Louis Trintignant (The Great Silence) stars as Marco, a wealthy man who runs a high-tech chicken farm (living the dream right there!) with his wife Anna, played by Gina Lollabrigadia (Beat the Devil). When not taking care of business, Marco has a nasty little habit. He likes to murder prostitutes. Yep, a guy who breeds chickens with no bones or heads for a living needs some sort of distraction right? Not only that, but he also has a thing for his lovely young and nubile secretary Gabrielle, played by Ewa Aulin (Death Smiles at Murder). She lives with the married couple in their grandiose estate. Unsurprisingly, Anna is rather suspicious of her husband and his hobbies. Uncertainty in relationships becomes a running theme with pretty much...

Il tempo di massacro (Massacre Time)

Directed by Lucio Fulci

Written by Fernando Di Leo

Italy, 1966

Lucio Fulci’s Massacre Time is playing at Fantasia in conjunction with the Festival du Nouveau Cinema as part of the The Django Project. The series takes a look at the western genre, as appropriated by other cultures, as it blends with irony, excess and pop-art. Though best known for his giallo thrillers, Fulci’s Massacre Time is an exuberant and exciting spaghetti western. Starring Franco Nero in a role obviously evocative of his work in Django, he plays a prospector who must return to his home and reclaim his family’s ranch from a man named Scott and his sadistic son Junior.

Massacre Time opens with a bewildering pre-credit sequence demonstrating Fulci’s greatest assets as a filmmaker: The ever moving camera, the swift cuts and the perverse penchant for sadism. Following a...

From the Fantasia Film Festival press release:

The Festival du nouveau cinéma de Montréal and the Fantasia International Film Festival are teaming up for a second year running to present the Django Project, a retrospective that traces a parallel history of the Western. On the heels of the successful Nikkatsu retrospective organized last year, the two festivals will continue working together through a joint programming initiative. The Django Project will take the form of a two-part series that looks at the way a mythical genre was reappropriated – with irreverence, irony and outrageous excess – by other cultures.

The retrospective will begin during the 17th Fantasia festival (July 18 to August 6) with a first section featuring five films: Lucio Fulci’s Massacre Time (1966), Enzo Barboni’s They Call Me Trinity (1970), its sequel, Trinity Is Still My Name (1971), as well as two other films to be revealed at a later date.

Head to the...

Italian actor and one-time spaghetti western star Franco Nero announced his involvement with Quentin Tarantino in his next feature, a spaghetti western no doubt, which will also star Inglourious Basterds star Christoph Waltz. The announcement came from Nero when speaking at the Los Angeles Italia festival where his latest effort, Pasquale Squitieri‘s Father made its world premiere. Nero was quoted saying:

“The film will be called The Angel, The Bad And The Wise and is a tribute to Sergio Leone. It’s a movie that contains humor, lots of action, but also a great plot,” Nero said (via Movieplayer). “We have already been signed by a dozen people who will be part of project. Among the filmmakers involved include Quentin Tarantino , Keith Carradine, Treat Williams, fifteen people in all Americans who want to do this movie and so we are trying to produce it outside of Italy.”

There has...

Todd's much deserved praise for Amer reminded me of his upcoming French premiere  as pre-opening event of the second edition of the Festival des Maudits Films in Grenoble. 

Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani's magnificient hommage to the giallo subgenre will be presented on January the 26th at 8Pm at the beloved Cinéma Le Club.

If you happen to be in town, you will definitely want to stay till the end because the following days will be an exciting marathon of retro titles. What's on the menu ? Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Fulci's Tempo di Massacro, a midnight screening of Plan 9 from Outer Space, an avalanche of shorts and more ! There will also be panels and all the feature films will be shown on print. 

Sounds great doesn't it ? I wish I could make it, but sadly can't afford to go to France right now. This...