B-to-Z double bill at Cinematek | Offscreen
Every last Friday of the month, we collaborate with the Cinematek's B-to-Z rendez-vous in Brussels, a moment in the history of alternative cinema that shouldn't be missed. Unearthed from the dark recesses of the archive: hilarious B-movies, blood-chilling thrillers, Gialli, slashers and other exploitation cinema gems… Take advantage of the 2-for-1: two films with a common theme for the price of a single ticket.
24 June 2016
The release of "The Force Awakens" reinforced the status of George Lucas' space opera as the most succesful film franchise ever to play the theatres. The 1977 release of the saga's first film was already a massive hit and led to a whole series of rip-offs and spoofs....
27 May 2016
Hospitals: we'd rather get out of them than wind up in them. Painful examinations, misdiagnosis and medical blunders: the corridors of the medical institutions are full of dread of illness and death. Genre filmmakers are eager to tap into this fear. The little known...
29 April 2016
Blind heroes chased by mysterious killers: nail-biting tension and masterful mise-en-scène in this double bill."Blind Terror" is a hidden gem of suspense cinema with Mia Farrow in one of her best acting performances as a blind woman chased by a mysterious maniac....
26 February 2016
"The Reflecting Skin" is the first film by the British director Philip Ridley (who made only three films in twenty years). A creepy, dreamlike journey into the magical universe of childhood, set in a disquieting and unreal decor of rural America. A young Viggo...
29 January 2016
On the occasion of the release of Quentin Tarantino's “The Hateful Eight”, this B-to-Z offers you a trip to the western all'italiana universe that inspired the American filmmaker.“Il Pistolero dell'Ave Maria” (“Forgotten Pistolero”) is one of the highlights from the...
25 December 2015
Voodoo is a religion that was imported by African slaves to the West-Indies. Hollywood used it for the first time as a theme in “White Zombie” (1932) but it would soon be a staple in the horror genre.The excellent Hammer production “The Plague of the Zombies” bathes in...
4 December 2015
A special B-to-Z double bill, as part of the Christopher Lee retrospective, with two films featuring Christopher Lee as Count Dracula.The British Hammer studio became famous for its updates on the Universal horror classics from the 1930's. Several of these were...
27 November 2015
Genre movies, exploitation films and B-series typically portray women as helpless victims or brainless bimbos. But this B to Z program will feature women in all their superb, intrepid and rebellious glory.The Roger Corman production "The Great Texas Dynamite Chase" is...
30 October 2015
This month, the zombies are ready to attack!"La Rebelion de las muertas" ("Vengeance of the zombies"), with its female zombi-ettes, is a Spanish B-movie classic straight from the 70s. Featuring the highly-experienced, man-of-all-genres Leon Klimovsky in the director's...
25 September 2015
Vampires descend upon a troupe of ballerinas, a Japanese pop star is stalked by a sadistic fan: artists everywhere are in danger!Renato Polselli's "L'Amante del vampiro" ("The Vampire and the Ballerina") is one of the first Italian Gothic horror films, released the...
28 August 2015
After the international success of the kung fu productions coming out of Hong Kong in the early seventies, Western film studios were eager to jump on the bandwagon. The first of these crossover films was "Enter the Dragon" with Bruce Lee, but others followed suit....
31 July 2015
One of the most popular recipes of Italian B-cinema were copycat versions of American blockbusters, spiced up with blood and sex while definitely made for a whole less money. “Mad Max”, “The Exorcist” and “Star Wars” all got the Italian make-over. Enzo G. Castellari...
26 June 2015
For the first B-to-Z of this summer, we head for Taiwan. The country produced great classic films, but also plenty of weird cult curiosa, of which we'll present two perfect examples.While not quite as well known as King Hu, Joseph Kuo nevertheless made several low...
29 May 2015
In the eighties Wes Craven created the character Freddy Kreuger, who became a staple of the horror genre and led to a successful series of "Nightmare on Elm Street" films.By "Shocker", Craven wants to create a Freddy for the nineties. The adventures...
24 April 2015
The title "L'assassino è al telefono" seems to point at one of the typical codes of the giallo (the anonymous call from the assassin), but the film has more in common with a conspiracy thriller, and finds its inspiration in films like "Les ...
Offscreen photostream
