ARROW - May 2024 Line-up (2024)

PREPARE FOR PANDEMONIUM IN MAY

IN MAY, ARROW PRESENTS OTHERWORLDLY TERROR,
THE MADDEST STORY EVER TOLD, JENNIFER REEDER SELECTS & MORE

Not to be missed in May on the expertly curated cult streaming service ARROW - Pandemonium, a unique cinematic blend of fantasy, drama and humour, exclusive to ARROW, a gruesome horror classic from Tobe Hooper, and Jack Hill’s western short The Host and his unique and disturbing gem Spider Baby. Plus, superb shorts, director Jennifer Reeder chooses her favourite ARROW titles, and the exquisite and Jules Dassin’s influential film noir Rififi.

In May, exclusively on ARROW, the brand new title Pandemonium, from French director Quarxx (All the Gods in the Sky.) Prepare to be taken on a chilling journey, as three interconnected stories unravel in this macabre exploration of tales depicting fallen souls. From the intricacies of everyday drama to the realms of supernatural intrigue, each narrative weaves a haunting tapestry that blurs the lines between the mortal and the supernatural. Be the first to experience Pandemonium, only on ARROW!

Also in May, best to check Tripadvisor before you book into the Starlight Hotel, the setting for legendary horror director Tobe Hooper’s mouth-wateringly nasty Eaten Alive. The man behind The Texas Chain Saw Massacre piles on the shocks in this superb slice of Southern gothic starring Chain Saw star Marilyn Burns, Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Neville Brand (Without Warning).

And be sure to experience the peculiar delights of Spider Baby, the first solo feature by exploitation legend Jack Hill (Coffy, Switchblade Sisters, Foxy Brown), and a film self-proclaimed as 'the maddest story ever told', starring Lon Chaney Jr. in one of his most memorable late career performances.

This May also gives you the chance to enjoy a seminal work of crime filmmaking, Jules Dassin's Rififi, declared by François Truffaut as "the best Film Noir I have ever seen.” An influence on films including Reservoir Dogs and Ocean's Eleven, the film nabbed Dassin the best director prize at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, and features a wonderful central performance from Jean Servais as a master thief planning one final job.

Seasons in May include:

Jennifer Reeder Selects, with picks from the acclaimed director of Perpetrator, Knives and Skin and Night's End, including campy culty chaos and feral femme fetish such as Switchblade Sisters, The Sacred Spirit and Lady Morgan’s Vengeance.

Cunning Folk, a collection focussing on folklore and folktales including The Wyrm of Bwlch Pen Barras, Threshold and Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji.

The City That Never Sleeps, with nightmarish films set in New York, including The Driller Killer, Basket Case and Mammoth.

The Ick, guaranteed to gross you out and featuring the downright skeeziest films on ARROW, including Doom Asylum, Hellish Flesh and The Baby.

Heaven or (Mostly) Hell, with ARROW choosing between purgatory or the pearly gates, including Pandemonium, Hotel Poseidon and A Ghost Waits.

MAY RELEASE CALENDAR

New Titles – From May 3
The Host - 1960
The Adventures of Denchu-Kozo - 1987

From May 10
Legs- 2022
Afterlife Bureau - 2019
Ouzo and Blackcurrant - 2019

From May 17
Eaten Alive - 1976
Spider Baby - 1967

From May 27
Pandemonium - 2023

From May 31
Rififi - 1955

New Seasons this May

May 3: Jennifer Reeder Selects

Jennifer Reeder - The director of Perpetrator, Knives and Skin and Night's End (starring Michael Shannon), was recently named by Bong Joon Ho as a filmmaker to watch in the 2020s. Her films, which could be classified as ‘noit camp’, have shown at festivals and museums around the world, including Sundance, Berlin, Rotterdam, SXSW, Tribeca, BFI-LFF, and The Whitney Biennial and the Venice Biennale. Knives and Skin, premiered at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival and was released theatrically by IFC Films.

"Campy Culty Chaos. Feral Femme Fetish. Glorious Goopy Gore. Nasty Neo Noir. My list of ARROW Selects range from some undeniable classics by genre auteurs to more recent films from stylish storytellers who are just getting started. Generally, I am drawn to films that are peripherally or directly related to the films I make both in terms of form and content. I am a visual storyteller and I prioritise allegory over reality which is also what I appreciate about the films on this list. Each of these films, for me, is an unrelenting celebration of cinema as a profound form of fine art."

Titles include: Switchblade Sisters, The Sacred Spirit, Lady Morgan’s Vengeance

May 10: Cunning Folk

Cunning Folk is a collection focussing on folklore and folktales, the locals who believe in them and the outsiders who inevitably fall foul of them. If you know what's good for you, you will fear, respect and uphold the Old Ways of the Cunning Folk. Or else...

Titles include: The Wyrm of Bwlch Pen Barras, Threshold, Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji

May 17: The City that Never Sleeps

Welcome to the city so good they named it twice, New York, New York. But, on ARROW, the Big Apple is known as The City That Never Sleeps because the films set on its streets will give you nightmares!
Psychopathic gangsters, deranged killers, out-of-control street gangs, even zombies and misshapen, deadly ex-conjoined twins, get a taste of an older, scarier, grittier, scuzzier New York in The City That Never Sleeps.

Titles include: The Driller Killer, Basket Case, Mammoth

May 24: The Ick

Guaranteed to gross you out and featuring the sleaziest and skeeziest films on ARROW, this one is bound to give you The Ick.

Titles include: Doom Asylum, Hellish Flesh, The Baby

May 31: Heaven or (mostly) hell

Recently dead and stuck in limbo with a very important choice to make: up or down. Who knows if we get a choice of paradise or the abyss à la the beginning of Quarxx's film Pandemonium? We've tried to give you a choice in this collection, but let's be honest, on ARROW the choice favours purgatory more than the pearly gates!

Titles include: Pandemonium, Hotel Poseidon, A Ghost Waits

MAY TITLES - IN DEPTH

FROM MAY 3: THE HOST (1960)

Written and directed by Jack Hill THE HOST is a little-seen western short with a twist, with genre icon Sid Haig (who appears in Hill’s Spider Baby, also showing on ARROW in April) in his debut role as a fugitive gangster who seeks refuge but finds trouble, in an isolated, dilapidated house. It’s been said THE HOST might well have had an influence on Apocalypse Now, directed by Hill’s film school classmate Francis Ford Coppola.

THE ADVENTURES OF DENCHU-KOZO (1987)

Hikari is a boy who is bullied at school because he has an electricity pole growing out of his back. One of his classmates named Momo comes to his rescue and he thanks her by sharing his secret possession with her: a time machine. Activating the time machine transports him 25 years into a dark, dystopian, world of the future. There he encounters members of the Shinsengumi Vampire Gang who are hunting a woman named Dr. Sariba who is revealed to be Momo's future self. He and he alone must save the world

FROM MAY 10: LEGS (2022)

Joy and Harry are trying to have a baby. One night, Joy swallows a spider in her sleep. When Joy subsequently develops an insatiable appetite for flies, it dawns on her that there may be more than one way of becoming a mother.

AFTERLIFE BUREAU (2019)

"There's something which comes after death and before you meet your maker… paperwork". The Afterlife Bureau is a dark comedy in which brings Earthly nuisances such as bureaucracy to the afterlife.

OUZO AND BLACKCURRANT (2019)

Two old friends take a trip down memory lane, but they are not alone - there's someone there who never left.

FROM MAY 17: EATEN ALIVE

Nearly a decade before he donned Freddy Krueger's famous red and green sweater, horror icon Robert Englund delivered a supremely sleazy performance in Eaten Alive another essay in taut Southern terror from Tobe Hooper, director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Deep in the Louisiana bayou sits the ramshackle Starlight Hotel, destination of choice for those who like to check in but not check out! Bumbling Judd, the patron of this particular establishment, may seem like a good-natured ol Southern gent but he has a mean temper on him, and a mighty large scythe to boot...

Oozing atmosphere from its every pore (the entire film was shot on a sound-stage which lends it a queasy, claustrophobic feel), Eaten Alive matches The Texas Chain Saw Massacre for sheer insanity helped in no small part by some marvellous histrionics from Chain Saw star Marilyn Burns and William Finley (Phantom of the Paradise).

SPIDER BABY (1967)

This was the first solo feature by Jack Hill (Coffy, Switchblade Sisters, Foxy Brown), whom Quentin Tarantino dubbed 'the Howard Hawks of exploitation filmmaking', and it remains one of his wildest and weirdest.

The credits dub this 'the maddest story ever told', a promise that's well on the way to being fulfilled in the opening scene alone, when Virginia traps and kills a hapless deliveryman in her makeshift web.

She's one of three siblings who suffer from a unique genetic disorder that causes them to regress back to childhood, while retaining the physical strength and sexual maturity of adults.

Lon Chaney Jr. gave one of his most memorable late performances as Bruno, their guardian and protector, who has managed to cover up their crimes until two distant relatives lay claim to their house. When they insist on moving in, Bruno has to cross his fingers and hope that the 'children' behave towards their new guests...

EXCLUSIVE FROM MAY 27: PANDEMONIUM (2023)

Director Quarxx (All the Gods in the Sky) explores the peculiar, welcoming all those hungry for wonder, in Pandemonium, a unique cinematic blend of fantasy, drama, genre, and humour.

Nathan (Hugo Dillon) and Daniel (Arben Bajraktaraj) are caught in a road accident that kills them both. As they come to grips with their deaths, Nathan confronts his past and the consequences of his actions. Now trapped in the hellish void of Pandemonium, he encounters tortured souls like Jeanne (Manon Maindivide), a disturbed child; Julia (Ophélia Kolb), a grief-stricken mother; and Norghul (Jean Rousseau), the guide of the great void. Will he find a way to escape the torment that awaits him for eternity?

Pandemonium takes the viewer on a chilling journey as three interconnected stories unravel in this macabre exploration of tales depicting fallen souls. From the intricacies of everyday drama to the realms of supernatural intrigue, each narrative weaves a haunting tapestry that blurs the lines between the mortal and the supernatural.

FROM MAY 31: RIFIFI (1955)

RIFIFI (ri-f' -fi) n. French argot. 1. Quarrel, rumble, free-for-all, open hostilities between individuals or gangs, rough and tumble confrontation between two or more individuals. 2. A tense and chaotic situation involving violent confrontations between parties.

A seminal work of crime filmmaking that lead the young critic François Truffaut to declare "the best Film Noir I have ever seen", Jules Dassin's Rififi [Du rififi chez les hommes] has influenced films as diverse as Reservoir Dogs and Ocean's Eleven since its release.

Following Tony, le Stéphanois (Jean Servais), a master thief fresh out of jail, wearing a harried look and suffering ill health, he refuses to be involved with crime until he finds his girlfriend shacked up with a rival gangster. With little reason to keep living he plans a final job. Tony sets about finding his crew and meticulously planning the job; a robbery of the jewellery store Mappin & Webb. Rififi revolves around the central heist, famed for its finite detail and incredible tension, but the drama does not end at the heist like so many other crime films. Dassin's film is a humanist tale that hinges on the loyalty among thieves and draws on the fatalistic, doom laden lives common to crooks and thieves in pulp literature.

Where to get it
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About ARROW

From Arrow Films, a recognised world-leader in curation and creation, ARROW is a premium platform giving you an unparalleled viewing experience across multiple devices, so you can explore the films and TV shows that the Arrow brand is famous for.

Specially curated by members of the ARROW team, ARROW will be home to premium film and TV entertainment, exclusive new premieres, cutting edge cinema, international classics and cult favourites - such as the works of Lars Von Trier, Brian De Palma, Dario Argento, David Cronenberg and Park Chan-wook - plus the very best in acclaimed TV series, including The Bridge and Italian crime series Gomorrah, and brand-new short films from both new and established filmmakers. In the coming months, ARROW will be adding Oscar-winning hits, European classics, Asian cinema masterworks, rediscovered Westerns, offbeat gems and much more, along with such festival favourites The Sacred Spirit and Dinner in America as part of ARROW’s international strategy to support and celebrate the medium of film.

ARROW will also be home to ARROW Stories - an ever-growing collection of interviews, trailers, documentaries and additional extras, newly created just for the service and from its extensive archives. The service will be updated regularly with fresh content, new curation focuses and never-before-seen content, all selected by the ARROW team as well as the filmmakers themselves. With a slickly designed and user-friendly interface ARROW is the new alternative place to go for the very best in On-Demand entertainment.