Christmas on ARROW – The Leech, The Grudge Collections, video nasties, the best of 2022 and more

In December ARROW are exclusively showing THE LEECH, a terrifically twisted offering from writer/director Eric Pennycoff (Sadistic Intentions), a Christmas cautionary tale about the perils of opening your door to a stranger. Agonisingly intense and rib-ticklingly funny in equal measure, THE LEECH serves as both a festive frightmare and a microcosm of the fault lines of contemporary America.and you can see it first on ARROW!

Also showing in December, dare you watch the terrifying JU-ON films? “Ju-On”: the name given to a deadly curse spawned when someone dies in the grip of a violent rage. All who come into contact with it are doomed… writer-director Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-On: The Grudge series represents the flesh-crawling pinnacle of Japanese chillers that swept the globe at the turn of the millennium – and they’re all available for you to watch on ARROW this December.

Seasons in November include Fright Christmas, a collection of snowbound chills and thrills in the form of The Deeper You Dig, Kolobos and The Chill Factor, to celebrate the new Christmas thriller THE LEECH showing on ARROW; J-horror Legends, selecting choice cuts from the 90s J-horror genre; a selection of Video Nasties as well as two excellent Video Nasties documentaries; and The Best of 2022 rounding up the exclusive releases on ARROW from the past year, including Jim Cummings’ The Beta Test, ufology conspiracy thriller The Sacred Spirit, and the latest absurdist quirk fest from Quentin Dupieux, Incredible But True.

As well as all that, there’s a fantastic triple bill of Paul Joyce documentaries including the introspective Stanley Kubrick: The Invisible Man, reflective Out of the Blue and Into the Black, and striking observation on Robert De Niro through Quentin Tarantino’s contribution in You Talkin’ To Me?.

ALSO SHOWING: The Christmas slasher Black Christmas, camp erotic Las Vegas classic Showgirls, Moorhead and Benson’s dazzling The Endless, ghoulish chiller The Monster Club and much more…

DECEMBER RELEASE CALENDAR

New Titles – From December 2

• Black Christmas

New Titles – December 5

• The Leech

New Titles – From December 9

• Showgirls
• House of Flying Daggers

New Titles – From December 12

• Ju-On: The Curse
• Ju-On: The Curse 2
• Ju-On: The Grudge
• Ju-On: The Grudge 2
• Ju-On: Black Ghost
• Ju-On: White Ghost

New Titles – From December 16

• The Endless
• Out of the Blue and Into the Black

New Titles – From December 23

• The Monster Club
• ‘You Talkin’ To Me?’ Robbery De Niro

New Titles – From December 30

• Stanley Kubrick: The Invisible Man

New Seasons this December

December 9: Fright Christmas

Happy Holidays and welcome to Fright Christmas! As well as a New Cult Christmas classic that genre hounds are bound to watch every Yule — The Leech — there’s snowbound chills and thrills in the form of The Deeper You Dig, Kolobos and The Chill Factor. But this isn’t a shelf just for festive ho-ho-horror, there are also crackers shorts from The Adams family, Nicholas Santos and Jim Cummings, and even a merry kaiju and a POW movie classic starring David Bowie and ‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano!

Titles Include: The Leech, Black Christmas, Holiday Fear

December 12: J-horror Legends

In the 90s the J-horror phenomenon swept the globe and horror fans were enthralled by a new kind of scary movie. The antithesis of gory 80s slashers, J-horror films were more restrained, but utterly terrifying nonetheless. Focussing more on the psychological and on ghost stories and curses inspired by and based on folklore and superstition, as well as a fear of the effects of new technology and the disintegration of the family unit, a whole host of incredible horror cinema was unleashed and J-horror Legends collects together some of the very best films of the sub-genre.

Titles Include: Ju-On: The Curse, Ju-On: The Grudge, Ju-On: White Ghost

December 23: Video Nasties

“Video Nasties”. Those two words send a shiver of fear up the spine of the moral majority, and a shiver of anticipation up the spine of horror fans. Used to describe any of the films on the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) List put out in the UK in the 80s, these films were deemed to be “obscene” and could be seized by a confused British police force.

You can learn all about what went down in our two excellent Video Nasties documentaries, but if you just want to see what all the fuss was about (or tick some titles off your list) then go gorge yourself on an incredible unmatched collection of nasties that would make the Daily Mail pee it’s pants.

Titles Include: The Driller Killer, Tenebrae, Blood Feast

From December 30: The Best of 2022

It’s been another incredible (but true) year for new and exclusive releases on ARROW. From the dark side of Hollywood in Jim Cummings’ The Beta Test to ufology conspiracy thriller The Sacred Spirit, from a theological battle for the soul in The Righteous to the latest absurdist quirk fest from Quentin Dupieux, and from the essential feminist monster stalking of Take Back the Night to the grimy and crazy splendid scuzz of Hotel Poseidon.

We will always strive to bring you the wildest coolest new Cult films here on ARROW, so dive into this collection and make sure you’ve missed nothing and rewatched your favourites and we’ll work on trying to top ourselves for you in 2023!

Titles Include: Two Witches, The Righteous, The Sacred Spirit

DECEMBER TITLES – IN DEPTH
DECEMBER 2: BLACK CHRISTMAS

Terror is coming home for the Holidays. Crazed killer Billy Lenz has escaped from a psychiatric hospital and is determined to be home for Christmas. This means that for the current occupants of his house, sorority sisters Melissa, Heather, Dana and Kelli it’s going to be a very bloody Christmas.

DEC 5: THE LEECH

From Black Christmas to Rare Exports, there has long been a symbiotic relationship between horror and the season of good cheer. Now, writer/director Eric Pennycoff (Sadistic Intentions) continues this proud tradition with The Leech, a cautionary tale about the perils of opening your door to a stranger.

DEC 9: SHOWGIRLS

A young drifter named Nomi arrives in Las Vegas to become a dancer. When she catches the eye of Cristal, the main attraction at the Stardust stage show, Nomi is on the brink of realizing her dreams. But as she bumps and grinds her way to the top, Nomi realizes that there is only room for one starlet on the marquee… and that either she or Cristal will have to take a fall!

HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS

Hero director Zhang Yimou throws scene after stunning scene at you in House Of Flying Daggers, a dazzling epic of true breathtaking action, passionate romance, Oscar nominated cinematography and serene beauty. Hoping she will lead them to her fellow assassins, two captains (Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau) hatch a plan to capture and trick Mei (Ziyi Zhang – Hero; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), a beautiful dancer suspected of having ties to the House Of Flying Daggers, a powerful revolutionary faction. From there belongs a long trail of dangerous encounters, impossible love triangles and plot twists, in which people are rarely as they seem. With some of the most beautiful martial arts scenes ever filmed, this is a visual masterpiece and a feast for the senses.

DEC 12: JU-ON: THE CURSE

In a jealous rage, a man kills his wife and son in their home, and everyone who visits falls prey to a terrible curse.

JU-ON: THE CURSE 2
On his request, the sensitive sister of a real estate agent visits a house he intends to put on sell, only to cross paths with its resident curse.

JU-ON: THE GRUDGE
Volunteer home-care worker Rika is assigned to visit a family, she is cursed and chased by two revengeful fiends: Kayako, a woman brutally murdered by her husband and her son Toshio. Each person that lives in or visits the haunted house is murdered or disappears.

JU-ON: THE GRUDGE 2
While driving , the pregnant horror-movie actress Kyôko Harase and her fiancé are in a car crash. She loses her baby and her fiancé winds up in a coma. Kyôko was cursed together with a television crew when they shot a show in the haunted house where Kayako was brutally murdered by her husband years ago. While each member of the team dies or disappears, Kyôko is informed that she has a three-and-a-half-month-old fetus in her womb.

JU-ON: BLACK GHOST
There is a darkness in Fukie’s body that grows and spreads to all who touch her life.

JU-ON: THE CURSE: WHITE GHOST
The spiteful ghosts of an abused girl and her grandmother, both mercilessly murdered, return to haunt and take victims under their grudge.

DEC 16: THE ENDLESS
Among the most exciting voices in genre cinema to emerge in recent years, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead return with their third feature, The Endless.

OUT OF THE BLUE AND INTO THE BLACK
Paul Joyce’s insightful documentary surveying American independent film production post-Easy Rider includes interviews with Peter Bogdanovich, Dennis Hopper, Monte Hellman and Roger Corman.

DEC 23: THE MONSTER CLUB
A vampire attacks a horror author on the street and then invites him to a nearby club as a gesture of gratitude, which turns out to be a meeting place for assorted creatures of the night. The vampire then regales him with three stories, each interspersed with musical performances at the club.

‘YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?’
Profiling the legendary Taxi Driver and Goodfellas actor Robert De Niro with commentary from Quentin Tarantino.

STANLEY KUBRICK: THE INVISIBLE MAN
After studying Stanley Kubrick’s work and making four documentaries about aspects of his career, director Paul Joyce initiates a definitive and lasting tribute to one of the greatest film directors of all time.

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