Grindhouse Nightmares is a 2017 horror anthology film that features three terrifying tales set in the seedy world of 70s exploitation cinema. The film stars horror icon Linnea Quigley, Steve Munroe, and Lorna Bliss, among others. The first segment, titled "Cannibal Claus," follows a group of college students who stumble upon a remote village inhabited by a cannibalistic cult that worships a grotesque figure known as "Cannibal Claus." As the students try to escape, they are hunted down one by one by the bloodthirsty cult members. Planet Terror extras include: “10 Minute Film School,” a streamlined making-of piece in which Rodriguez provides commentary on how the special effects and stunts were accomplished; featurettes on the cast, stunts, makeup effects; “Casting Rebel,” about Rodriguez working with his young son, including shooting alternate footage in which he survives to spare him the trauma; “The Friend, the Doctor, and the Real Estate Agent,” explores the casting of Rodriguez’s his real-life friend Tommy Nix, doctor Felix Sabates, and realtor Skip Reissig; “10 Minute Cooking School,” in which Rodriguez shares his award-winning Texas BBQ recipe; and a gallery of posters and lobby cards.

Another impressive cast, the women of Death Proof include Rosario Dawson ( Sin City), Tracie Thoms ( Rent), Mary Elizabeth Winstead ( Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), Vanessa Ferlito ( CSI: NY), Sydney Tamiia Poitier ( Knight Rider), Jordan Ladd ( Cabin Fever), and McGowan. It also features Tarantino as a bartender, Eli Roth, Omar Doom ( Inglourious Basterds), and writer Michael Bacall ( Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) as sketchy bros trying to score, and Parks as McGraw again. My own field of expertise in this genre is the cinema of Russ Meyer, and I was happy to see QT's closing homage to the tough girls and the beaten stud in "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" (1965), which John Waters has named as the greatest film of all time. One heroine even copies Tura Satana's leather gloves, boots and ponytail. I may have spotted, indeed, the most obscure quotation from Meyer. In an opening montage of his " Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" (1970), there is a brief, inexplicable shot of a boot crushing an egg. Rodriguez uses the same composition to show a boot crushing a testicle. So the Cinema marches on.After this episode ends, some eye-popping fake commercials show up. I won't give away the kind of thing you're in for, but let's put it this way: Driscoll's features may have often been accused of taking themselves too seriously in the past - to say that is not the case here is an understatement. This parody ad-break (featuring clips from Driscoll's 'Eldorado') is unlike anything you've ever seen: a cross between David Lynch and The Young Ones, in the gaudy style of 80s straight-to-video productions. You could say the joke goes on far too long, but there is no punch-line. In fact, despite the brief inclusion of comic actor Robin Askwith, there is no real joke, just some sniggering schoolboy 'Viz'-style moments. The extended cuts of each feature — the 105-minute version of Planet Terror and the 113-minute version of Death Proof — fill in some narrative gaps and flesh out character arcs, but the truncated versions in the Grindhouse cut (running a total of 191 minutes) benefit from snappier pacing. Moreover, the restoration of Planet Terror‘s “missing reel” in the extended cut robs it of one of Grindhouse‘s best gags. The all-new bonus content for Five Nights at Freddy’s gives a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the iconic animatronics and recreating the immersive world of the game.

Shattering all-time records at the box-office, Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s, the haunting new horror film based on the video game series created by Scott Cawthon, will be available with never-before-seen bonus content on Digital November 28, 2023, and 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD on December 12, 2023, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Death Proof closes out the double feature, blending motifs from Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Vanishing Point, and Halloween. True to its grindhouse roots, the movie features long stretches of characters hanging out interrupted by spurts of excitement. Patience is rewarded, as those moments — a trio of breathtaking car stunt sequences — hit especially hard.Overall, Grindhouse Nightmares is a fun, tongue-in-cheek tribute to the exploitation movies of yesteryear. It's not a film for everyone, but fans of this particular subgenre of horror are sure to find plenty to enjoy here. Most of this is wretched at a clinical level. Manhunt in particular is excruciatingly tedious, and coming on the heels of Quigley’s cue-card delivery, made me feel this was heading for a rare F grade. Things did improve somewhat, though only in a relative way. I genuinely laughed at one of the fake adverts, for an insurance company. The trailer for Nazi Bitches Must Die is so utterly inept and tasteless, it’s near-perfect (all that’s missing there is perhaps genuine concentration camp footage – it does have genuine Hitler footage). And, for all Stripper With a Shotgun‘s flaws, it does have a stripper, with a shotgun. You can’t argue with that. Throughout the film, the stories are intercut with fake trailers for fictitious exploitation movies, including "Bikini Bloodbath at the Amusement Park," "Zombie Grannies," and "The Diary of Anne Frankenstein." Planet Terror is the first part of the double bill, feeling something like The Return of the Living Dead meets Universal Soldier directed by John Carpenter for Cannon Films. Rodriguez leans into ’80s camp with over-the-top action, spontaneous explosions, and splattery gore that marries practical effects by Greg Nicotero & Howard Berger of KNB EFX ( Scream, From Dusk Till Dawn) with digital aid.