daniel-phillips's - Rented List

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In Pete Walker's 'Frightmare', a disturbed woman released from a psychiatric institution resumes her grisly killing spree with her husband.

Their gruesome acts of murder reveal dark family secrets, unleashing a chilling tale of psychological horror and bloodcurdling suspense that will leave viewers on the edge of their seats until the shocking finale.

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Upset by her widowed father's plans to remarry, Angel (Kumiko Ohba) sets off with six of her schoolgirl friends in tow for a summer getaway at her aunt's isolated mansion.

In this house of dormant secrets, long-held emotional traumas have terrifyingly physical embodiments and the girls must use their individual talents if any are to survive.

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A Japanese box-office sensation in 1968, Kuroneko is a sparse, atmospheric horror story, adhering to Kaneto Shindo's philosophy of using beauty and purity to evoke emotion.

Eccentric and more overtly supernatural than its breakthrough companion piece, Onibaba (1964), Kuroneko revisits similar themes to reveal a haunting meditation on duty, conformity and love. In this magnificently eerie and romantic film - loosely based on the Japanese folktale The Cat's Return - a mother and daughter-in-law (Nobuko Otowa and Kiwako Taichi) are raped and murdered by pillagers, but return from the dead as vampiric cat spirits intent on revenge. As the ghosts lure soldiers into the bamboo groves, a fearless samurai, Gintoki (Kichiemon Nakamura), is sent to stop their reign of terror.

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Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, 'Kwaidan' features four nightmarish tales (adapted from Lafcadio Hearn's classic Japanese ghost stories) about mortals caught up in forces beyond their comprehension when the supernatural world intervenes in their lives.

Breathtakingly photographed entirely on hand-painted sets, the film is an abstract wash of luminescent colours from another world.

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Onibaba is set during a brutal period in history, a Japan ravaged by civil war between rival shogunates.

Weary from combat, samurai are drawn towards the seven-foot-high susuku grass fields to hide and rest themselves, only to be ambushed and murdered by a ruthless team of mother (Nobuko Otowa) and daughter-in-law (Jitsuko Yoshimura). When Hachi (Kei Sato), a neighbour returning from the wars, brings bad news, he threatens the women's partnership.

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A series of murders have been committed by ordinary people who claim to have had no control over their horrifying actions.

Following the only link - a mysterious stranger who had brief contact with each perpetrator and their victim - detective Kenichi Takabe (Koji Yakusho) places his own sanity on the line as he tries to end the wave of inexplicable terror.

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In a remote Nineteenth Century Cornish village, an evil presence lurks within the darkness of the witching hour, a mysterious plague relentlessly taking lives at an unstoppable rate. Unable to find the cause, Dr. Peter Tompson enlists the help of his former tutor Sir James Forbes.

Desperate to find an antidote, what they find instead are empty coffins with the diseased corpses missing. Following a series of strange and frightening clues,Tompson and Forbes are led to a deserted mine where they discover a world of black magic and a doomed legion of flesh eating slaves... the walking dead.

Sylvia (Anne Raitt) leads a quiet life caring for her sister Hilda (Sarah Stephenson) who has complex care needs. Their lonely suburban existence is accentuated by a social awkwardness that detaches them from the community and fuels a life of seclusion and despair.

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"Trances" (Transes) is a picture unlike any other: a poetic, roving documentary-portrait performance-film based around the Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane.

In this rare, transformational work, Nass El Ghiwane perform their music at concerts at once fervidly rally-like and suffused with the spontaneity of a mass happening; recount their time working alongside the great chaabi musician Boudjemaa El Ankis in the 1970's; and generally philosophise and reflect upon life. True to its title, 'Trances' is an hypnotic, exhilarating masterwork.

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Audacious cat burglar Grant Henry (David Warbeck) steals more than just wealthy women's diamonds in this riotous 1973 British sex comedy.

The dashing gentleman thief becomes the talk of London, but a pretty insurance investigator (Diane Keen) and breast-obsessed policeman (Michael Armstrong) are hot on his heels.

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Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Documentary at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival, Palestinian filmmaker Raed Andoni's powerful feature is a hybrid of documentary, fiction and experimental film.

Gathering together a group of survivors from the infamous Al-Moscobiya prison, Israel's main interrogation centre, Andoni asks them to recreate the physical space of the jail - a place he was also detained as a teenager. As they build, together they confront their experiences of incarceration and torture. A boldly personal and uncompromisingly political work, 'Ghost Hunting' explores the ethics and meaning of re-enactment, questioning the complicity of both filmmaker and viewer in this provocative and cathartic experiment.

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What happens when an object of suspicion becomes a case of obsession? When detective Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) arrives on the murder scene, he begins to suspect the dead man's wife Seo-rae (Tang Wei) may know more than she initially lets on.

But as he digs deeper into the investigation, Hae-joon finds himself trapped in a web of deception and desire, proving that the darkest mysteries lurk inside the human heart.

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A Tokyo suburb buzzing with gossip is the backdrop to Ozu’s cheerful comedy, 'Good Morning' (1959). Disillusioned with the meaningless talk of their elders, two brothers take a vow of silence when their parents refuse to buy them a TV.

'Good Morning' pokes fun at the silliness of everyday chatter whilst gently acknowledging its fundamental necessity. Also included here is Ozu’s superb early comedy 'I Was Born, But...' (1932) The forerunner of 'Good Morning', this silent masterpiece contains many similar themes but has a darker edge. As brothers Ryoichi and Keiji struggle to outwit the local bully and scale the pecking order in their new neighbourhood they find out that injustice does not end with school.

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Halim (Saleh Bakri) and Mina (Lubna Azabal) run a traditional caftan store in one of Morocco's oldest medinas. The couple have lived for a long time with Halim's secret, his homosexuality, which he has learnt to keep quiet about.

Mina's illness and the arrival of a young apprentice will disturb this equilibrium. United in their love, each will help the other confront their fears.

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Jess Aarons (Josh Hutcherson) is an outsider at school and even in his own family, until he befriends a new girl at school, Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb). Leslie loves to tell stories of fantasy and magic. Jess loves to draw and together they create the secret kingdom of Terabithia.

A magical place that only they can escape to, by swinging on an old rope over a stream in the woods near their homes. There, the friends rule the kingdom, fight the Dark Master and his creatures and plot against the school bullies.