Mar 20, 2020

STAY HOME - STREAM, RENT, OR BUY DIGITAL HXFF SELECTIONS

A message from Hexploitation Film Festival director Aaron Allen


Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, we are living in unprecedented times. The seriousness of the COVID-19 virus cannot be overstated: even if you do not believe it is a health risk to yourself, the contagion is certainly a health risk to others in your communities and is already wreaking havoc on global health care systems and economies. The world is not ending -- I repeat, the world is not ending -- but the situation is very serious and we all must do our part to stop the spread of this disease. How can you, as an individual, help? Two words.

STAY HOME. 

Unless absolutely necessary, stay home. Practice social distancing. Do not attend public gatherings or entertainment events. Do not visit with friends. Act like you already have the virus and you need to prevent spreading it to those at risk in your community. Do your part. Support front line healthcare workers and those whose jobs require them to remain in public. Stay home and save lives. 

Social distancing is, however, a thankless task. In gratitude, and to help you combat the boredom of  self-isolation, I have compiled an easy-to-reference list of every feature-length Hexploitaton Film Festival official selection that are available in Canada to stream, rent, or buy online. This index starts with our most recent 2020 festival and goes back all the way back to 2013  Catch up on films you missed this year or catch up on some fan favorites. And don't forget: wherever possible, support indie and local filmmakers and businesses. Support each other. This too shall pass.

All the bloody best,

- Aaron Allen

HXFF OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
ONLINE STREAMING RESOURCES

Official Selections: 2020

TO YOUR LAST DEATH 
2019, DIR. JASON AXINN. 92 MIN. USA
In this groundbreaking 2D animated feature film, Miriam -- the sole survivor in a deadly revenge game set up by her wealthy industrialist father to punish his children -- receives an offer from a supernatural entity to go back in time and try again. Now, Miriam must survive both her father’s bloodlust and the extra-dimensional Gamemaster’s ever-changing rules to save her siblings as she relives the worst night of her life.


SLAUGHTERHOUSE SLUMBER PARTY
2019, DIR. DUSTIN MILLS. 84 MIN. USA
What started as the debauched annual slumber party for a tight knit group of gal pals becomes a fight for their lives when supernatural evil threatens to destroy the world--and even worse, ruin the one night of the year the ladies get to have a nude pillow fight. Trapped by magic, surrounded by evil, and very underdressed, will they survive the night? Or will this slumber party become a slaughterhouse? SLAUGHTERHOUSE SLUMBER PARTY is the unholy hybrid of HARD TO DIE, EVIL DEAD II, and PARKS & REC the world never knew it needed.


Official Selections: 2019

FP2: BEATS OF RAGE  
2018, DIR. JASON TROST. 89 MIN. USA
Despite hanging up his boots after saving his home of the FP, JTRO, the legendary Beat-Beat Revelation warrior, must return to the deadly dance sport one last time. JTRO and KCDC - his mystical hype man - will quest deep into The Wastes, a land decimated by the Beat Wars, to compete in the ancient Beat-Beat tournament, "Beats of Rage," and face AK-47 the sole stealer, JTRO's most powerful and personal foe yet.




JOHNNY GRUESOME
2018, DIR. GREGORY LAMBERSON. 90 MIN. USARebellious high school senior Johnny Grissom is murdered while on a drunken joyride. Soon, Johnny's classmates turn up dead, murdered by an unknown assailant. Johnny's best friend Eric begins to suspect Johnny has returned from the grave to wreak havoc on those who wronged him.


Official Selections: 2018


RUIN ME
2017, DIR. PRESTON DEFRANCIS. 87 MIN. USA
Alexandra reluctantly tags along for Slasher Sleepout, an extreme event that is part camping trip, part haunted house, and part escape room. But when the fun turns deadly, Alex has to play the game if she wants to make it out alive.





THE VELOCIPASTOR
2017, DIR. BRENDAN STEERE, 70 MIN. USA

After losing his parents, a priest travels to China, where he inherits a mysterious ability that allows him to turn into a dinosaur. At first horrified by this new power, a hooker convinces him to use it to fight crime. And ninjas.


Official Selections: 2017



THE LURE
2015, DIR. AGNIESZKA SMOCZYNSKA. 92 MIN. POL

In an alternate version of 1980s Poland, a pair of mermaid sisters come ashore and join an adult night club as strippers and singers. While one seeks love with humans the other hungers to dine on the human population of the city. A monster mermaid musical!




RED CHRISTMAS
2016, DIR. CRAIG ANDERSON. 82 MIN. AUS

A cloaked stranger interrupts the Christmas Day festivities of a strong willed matriarch (Dee Wallace) who is celebrating with her dysfunctional family. When the stranger goes on the offensive, the family is subjected to an un-silent night of holy terror in which the cinematic carnage that makes victims of naughty and nice alike.




WHO'S WATCHING OLIVER?
2017, DIR. RICHIE MOORE. 87 MIN. USA

WHO'S WATCHING OLIVER tells the story of a mentally unstable loner lost in a life of depraved violence forced upon him by his psychopathic mother. His only savior and possible way out of a life of sleazy violence comes in the form of the beautiful Sophia. Or will she end up like all the beautiful women in his life: cut up into little pieces?




BLOOD HUNTERS
2016, DIR. TRICIA LEE. 90 MIN. CAN

A character-driven horror film about a single mother who wakes up in a medical facility to find that everyone is dead and she's nine months pregnant. And to make matters worse, strange blood-hungry creatures are lurking in the darkness. Starring Julian Richings (Man of Steel, The VVITCH, Cube), Lara Gilchrist (Battlestar Galactica), Mark Taylor (Flashpoint), and Torri Higginson (Stargate: Atlantis).




POOL PARTY MASSACRE
2017, DIR. DREW MARVICK. 81 MIN. USA

What starts out as a relaxing summer day by the pool for a group of high-maintenance socialites quickly turns into a gory nightmare as the unknown killer begins to stalk and murder the young girls in increasingly bloody ways. Definitely a pool-side treat for fans of bodacious, blood-soaked bikini body counts. 

https://www.justwatch.com/ca/movie/pool-party-massacre



LONG LIVE THE KING
2016, DIR.  FRANK DIETZ & TRISH GEIGER. 66 MIN. USA

Feature documentary about the enduring legacy of the character King Kong, and how the 1933 film has inspired countless artists, writers and filmmakers. Featuring interviews with Joe Dante (Gremlins), Doug Jones (Hellboy), Dana Gould (The Simpsons), Bob Burns (monster movie historian and collector), Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead) and more.


Official Selections: 2016



BRACKENMORE
2016, DIR. CHRIS KEMBLE & J.P. DAVIDSON. 72 MIN. UK

After the untimely death of an uncle she never knew she had, a young woman must return to her ancestral home on a tiny rural village in Ireland where she soon discovers that the suspicious townsfolk and secluded estate of her dead family is harboring a dark and ancient secret.




ATTACK OF THE LEDERHOSEN ZOMBIES
2016, DIR. DOMINIK HARTL. 78 MIN. AUT

Zombie action in the Alps: a group of young snowboarder is stuck in a remote mountain ski resort, where an all-night aprés-ski party soon turns into a hellish nightmare of zombie mayhem.





THE DARK TAPES
2016, DIR. MICHAEL MCQUOWN. 98 MIN. USA

A genre-defying mixture of horror, sci-fi, myth, mystery and thrills told as four interlocking tales in one intelligent anthology. Ghosts, spirits, creatures, demons and more from the paranormal world collide with rational curiosity.

https://www.justwatch.com/ca/movie/the-dark-tapes




NOVA SEED
2016, DIR. NICK DILIBERTO. 64 MIN. CAN

Beneath the decay of a dying world lives the Mad Doctor Mindskull. Using the planet's power of creation he has created the ultimate Weapon. Can mankind find a way to stop this Evil before time runs out?





NIGHT OF SOMETHING STRANGE
2016, DIR. JONATHAN STRAITON. 94 MIN. USA

Five teenage friends set out for the beach on their Spring Break vacation. Good times are cut short when one of the group contracts a deadly sexual transmitted disease during a gas station bathroom. But this is no ordinary STD! When they stop for the night at an isolated motel, the STD virus starts running rampant, turning those infected into sex-crazed and oozing living dead mutants.

https://www.justwatch.com/ca/movie/night-of-something-strange




BONEJANGLES
2016, DIR. BRETT DEJAGER. 78 MIN. USA

A rag-tag group of cops tasked with transporting an unstoppable killing machine must survive a hellish pit stop: a cursed town where the dead rise from their graves!





THE BARN
2016, DIR. JUSTIN SEAMAN. 88 MIN. USA

Its Halloween 1989, best friends Sam and Josh are trying to enjoy what's left of their final Devil's Night before graduating high school. But trouble arises when the two pals and a group of friends take a detour on their way to a rock concert, finding an old abandoned barn and awakening the evil inside. Now it's up to Sam and Josh to find a way to protect their friends and defeat the creatures that lurk within "The Barn".





BUNNY THE KILLER THING
2015, DIR. JOONAS MAKKONEN. 88 MIN. FIN

A group of Finnish and British people get stuck at a cabin when they are attacked by a creature that is a half human, half rabbit

https://www.justwatch.com/ca/movie/bunny-the-killer-thing




KILLBILLIES (aka. IDYLL)
2015, DIR. TOMAZ GORKIC. 83 MIN. SVN

After a night of carousing, the amateur photo model Zina heads for a fashion shoot in the nature, accompanied by the ambitious Mia, apathetic Dragica and snobby photographer Blitcz. On the idyllic location, a supposedly ordinary fashion shoot soon turns into a fierce fight for survival.





SHE WHO MUST BURN 
2015, DIR. LARRY KENT. 90 MIN. CAN

When Angela (Sarah Smyth) refuses to leave her planned-parenthood clinic after it is shut down by the state, a family of fanatical evangelists vow to make her pay.

https://www.justwatch.com/ca/movie/she-who-must-burn

Official Selections: 2015

THE BABADOOK
2014, DIR. JENNIFER KENT. 94 MIN. AUS

A single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book titled "Mister Babadook" manifests in their home.

https://www.justwatch.com/ca/movie/the-babadook


LATE PHASES
2014, DIR. ADRIÁN GARCÍA BOGLIANO. 95 MIN. USA

When deadly beasts attack from the forest, it is up to a grizzled veteran to uncover what the residents of a secluded retirement community are hiding.



WOLFCOP
2014, DIR. LOWELL DEAN. 79 MIN. CAN

As a series of strange and violent events begin to occur, an alcoholic policeman realizes that he has been turned into a werewolf as part of a larger plan.


LATE NIGHT DOUBLE FEATURE
2015, DIR. VARIOUS. 89 MIN. CAN

During a late night taping of Dr. Nasty's Cavalcade of Horror, bloody chaos takes place while screening two features (Dinner for Monsters and Slit). Samantha/Nurse Nasty is frustrated with how the show is being run by its womanizing director and its drunk and crazy host, Dr. Nasty.

https://www.justwatch.com/ca/movie/late-night-double-feature


THE EDITOR
2014, DIR. ADAM BROOKS & MATTHEW KENNEDY. 95 MIN. CAN

Rey Ciso was once the greatest editor the world had ever seen. Since a horrific accident left him with four wooden fingers on his right hand, he's had to resort to cutting pulp films and trash pictures. When the lead actors from the film he's been editing turn up murdered at the studio, Rey is fingered as the number one suspect. The bodies continue to pile up in this absurdist giallo-thriller as Rey struggles to prove his innocence and learn the sinister truth lurking behind the scenes.



BLOODY KNUCKLES
2014, DIR.  MATT O'MAHONEY. 85 MIN. CAN

Travis is an underground comic book artist with a penchant for the obscene. When one of his comics insults a Chinatown crime boss, the gangster punishes Travis by removing his drawing hand. A daunted Travis retreats into a life of alcoholic misery. That is, until his hand returns from the grave...

Official Selections: 2014

RETURN TO NUKE'EM HIGH (Volume 1)
2013, DIR. LLOYD KAUFMAN. 85 MIN. USA

When the other students begin to undergo mutations, a lesbian couple must solve the mystery and save Tromaville High School.


ON AIR (aka. RADIO SILENCE)
2012, DIR. MARCO J. RIEDL & CARSTEN VAUTH. 95 MIN. GER

The serial killer "Nachtschlitzer" keeps the city holding its breath. With the police always one step behind the murderer, only the radio DJ Doc Rock can lure him out of his hiding place




SILENT RETREAT
2013, DIR. TRICIA LEE. 95 MIN. CAN

Janey is sent to a silent meditation retreat, in the woods, for rehabilitation, only to realize that the men who run it are brainwashing women, and if she breaks the rules, she'll discover what lurks beyond the trees.






BAG BOY LOVER BOY 
2014, DIR. ANDRES TORRES. 77 MIN. USA

Oddball hotdog vendor and love-lorn loser Albert is shocked to find himself thrust into the world of perverse fetish art photography when an an enigmatic NYC photographer named Ivan plucks him from obscurity to be his bizarre new muse and model. However, when Ivan accidentally leaves Albert with the keys to his studio, Albert decides that his best way to woo women is to become a freelance photographer. Soon, Albert is luring call girls and drunken women away from parties with the promise of modelling gigs that in his inept hands soon turn deadly and increasingly depraved.

https://www.justwatch.com/ca/movie/bag-boy-lover-boy

Official Selections: 2013

JOHN DIES AT THE END
2012, DIR. DON COSCARELLI. 99 MIN. USA

A new street drug that sends its users across time and dimensions has one drawback: some people return no longer human. Can two college drop-outs save humanity from this silent, otherworldly invasion?




CALIBRE 9
2011, DIR. JEAN-CHRISTIAN TASSY. 90 MIN. FRA

In a town riddled with corruption, Yann, a naïve urban planner, acquires a 9mm handgun possessed by the soul of Sarah, a recently murdered prostitute. Working together the two eliminate the city's criminals one by one, seeking to restore order by hunting down the man at the head of the corruption... the mayor himself.





ADJUST YOUR TRACKING
2013, DIR. DAN M. KINEM, LEVI PERETIC. 84 MIN. USA

ADJUST YOUR TRACKING: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE VHS COLLECTOR is a documentary that sheds light on the underground VHS culture and the people who still collect and cherish what many call a "dead format." Working with Horror Boobs and Lunchmeat Magazine, directors Kinem and Peretic bring together and capture an entire community who share a love of the VHS format in a stylish and quirky documentary sure to speak to nostalgia nuts and horror freaks alike.