START THE NEW YEAR WITH GOOD VIEWING RESOLUTIONS

RAIMI THRILLS, A JAPANESE HORROR ANTHOLOGY, SHATNER’S LOST GEM, MICHAEL ROUSSELET SELECTS & MUCH MORE

Make 2025 a year of viewing discovery with the expertly curated cult streaming service ARROW. January comes packed with all manner of must watch movies, including an outstanding Sam Raimi thriller with an A-list cast, a beautifully restored William Shatner gem, a stylish Japanese erotic chiller, a martial arts bonanza, a season of out there action, 5secondfilms’ Michael Rousselet chooses his ARROW favourites, and much more.

In January, exclusively on ARROW in the UK, a late Christmas present in the form of The Gift, where director Sam Raimi combines the spooky underpinnings of his early work with his newly proven talent for handling powerful drama in a gripping supernatural thriller. Raimi coaxes nuanced performances from a star-studded cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Greg Kinnear, Katie Holmes, Keanu Reeves and Hilary Swank - bringing a superb script by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson (One False Move) to life. Made right before a certain web-slinger finally catapulted Raimi from the cult fringes onto Hollywood’s A-list, The Gift is an underappreciated but vital entry in his filmography that is ripe for reappraisal, and you can see it on ARROW.

Also in January, Rampo Noir, with four filmmakers from completely different backgrounds bringing their radically personal takes to the stories of Japan’s celebrated master of the macabre, Edogawa Rampo (Horrors of Malformed Men, Blind Beast). Produced by the same team behind Ichi the Killer and Uzumaki, and with a cast featuring some of Japan’s top stars, including Tadanobu Asano (Maboroshi, Silence) and Ryuhei Matsuda (Blue Spring, Gohatto), Rampo Noir is a stylistic tour-de-force that vividly evokes the “erotic grotesque” worlds created by Japan’s pioneering proponent of horror and mystery fiction.

If you want something a little bit different, a little bit off the wall, and a little bit crazy, look no further than slasher comedy Dude Bro Party Massacre III, made by the comedy troupe 5secondfilms. With cameos from Patton Oswalt, Andrew W.K. and Larry King, Bloody Disgusting calls the film a ‘gut-busting, beer-soaked fever dream’.

Talking of off the wall, ARROW also presents Incubus, Leslie Stevens’ beautifully restored, unique monochrome marvel Incubus. Starring a pre-Star Trek William Shatner as a soldier encountering demonic seductresses, this is an eerie and unforgettable American folk horror from the creator of The Outer Limits. Scripted in the obscure Esperanto language, and stylishly filmed in Big Sur and other California locations by cinematographer (and future Academy Award winner) Conrad L. Hall, Incubus is a film unlike any other.

Finally in January on ARROW, a selection of martial arts films that will ensure an action packed start to the New Year, including Once Upon a Chinese Hero Kickboxer, Five Fighters from Shaolin, The Leg Fighters, Ninja Hunter, as well as the mockumentary Kali Karate: The 2nd Beginning.

Also streaming in January: Maisie Williams and Maxine Peake in the girls’ school mystery Falling, and riotous French Canadian zom-com Brain Freeze

Seasons in January include:

Explosive Action!, a collection of adrenalin-infused action films that put the bang in bangers including Kali Karate: The 2nd Beginning, Five Fighters from Shaolin and Ninja Hunter

Michael Rousselet Selects, where the co-director of Dude Bro Party Massacre III, writer on 3 seasons of Creepshow (and the man who created the cult phenomenon surrounding The Room),
picks some faves from the ARROW catalogue, including Buddha's Palm, The Ballad of Narayama, and Nekromantik

00s Cult, a ride through the films of the naughty noughties, which saw Cult filmmakers looking forward to the future and wanting to shake up norms with new approaches, with titles including A Hole in My Heart, Vital, and The Great Yokai War

JANUARY RELEASE CALENDAR

From January 3
The Falling - 2014

From January 6
Rampo Noir - 2005

From January 10
Dude Bro Party Massacre III - 2015

From January 13
Incubus - 1966

From January 17
Brain Freeze - 2021
Once Upon a Chinese Hero Kickboxer - 1993

From January 24
Kali Karate: The 2nd Beginning - 2023

From January 27
The Gift - 2000

From January 31
Five Fighters from Shaolin - 1984
The Leg Fighters - 1980
Ninja Hunter - 1989

New Seasons this January

January 3: Explosive Action!

Start the year with a bang!

ARROW presents a collection of adrenalin-infused action films that put the bang in bangers, with belters like Bloodstone and White Fire, as well as a fistful of martial arts mayhem, this is the action film, ARROW style!

Titles Include: Kali Karate: The 2nd Beginning, Five Fighters from Shaolin, Ninja Hunter and Once Upon a Chinese Hero Kickboxer

January 10: Michael Rousselet Selects

Michael Rousselet is a founding member of 5secondfilms, the vanguards of micro-content est. 2008, co-director of Dude Bro Party Massacre III (showing in January on ARROW), writer on three seasons of Creepshow, and he is infamously known as "Patient Zero" for creating The Room cult phenomenon, for that he's sorry -but not that sorry.

Titles Include: Buddha's Palm, The Ballad of Narayama, Nekromantik

January 17: 00s Cult

A new century saw Cult filmmakers looking forward to the future and wanting to shake up norms with new approaches. There was also a burgeoning distrust in the technology which was becoming a bigger and more important part in all of our lives. Boundaries were being pushed and challenged, and new stars and auteurs were beginning to emerge that would go on to define the Cult film scene for years to come.

There was also an element of looking back too. Acknowledging the past and giving praise to the films that the current generation had grown up on, but also giving them a fresh spin. Not only with sequels and remakes that wanted to make what came before relevant for the audience of now, but also documentaries that delved deep into what had made the films of the previous century classics.

Take a ride through the films of the naughty noughties in OOs Cult.

Titles Include: A Hole in My Heart, Vital, The Great Yokai War

JANUARY TITLES - IN DEPTH

FROM JANUARY 3: THE FALLING

It's 1969 at a strict English girls' school where charismatic Abbie and intense and troubled Lydia are best friends. After a tragedy occurs at the school, a mysterious fainting epidemic breaks out threatening the stability of all involved.

JANUARY 6: RAMPO NOIR

Four filmmakers from completely different backgrounds bring their radically personal takes to the stories of Japan’s celebrated master of the macabre, Edogawa Rampo (Horrors of Malformed Men, Blind Beast).

In “Mars’s Canal”, by music video director and visual artist Suguru Takeuchi, a lone man encounters the other side of his psyche beyond the reflective surface of a circular pond set in a desolate landscape. Japanese New Wave auteur and longtime director of the Ultraman series Akio Jissoji (This Transient Life, Mandala) harnesses his distinctive stylistic sheen in his story of a mad mirror maker, “Mirror Hell”. “Caterpillar” sees the singular vision of cult director Hisayasu Sato (The Bedroom, Naked Blood) at its most grotesque, in his portrait of a wounded war veteran who returns from the frontline as little more than a bloody torso, helpless to defend himself against the increasingly perverted caprices of an embittered wife. Finally, a famous actor is subjected to the obsessive attentions of her limo driver in “Crawling Bugs”, the directorial debut of internationally acclaimed manga artist Atsushi Kaneko (Bambi and Her Pink Gun).

Produced by the same team behind Ichi the Killer and Uzumaki, and with a cast featuring some of Japan’s top stars, including Tadanobu Asano (Maboroshi, Silence) and Ryuhei Matsuda (Blue Spring, Gohatto), Rampo Noir is a stylistic tour-de-force that vividly evokes the “erotic grotesque” worlds created by Japan’s pioneering proponent of horror and mystery fiction.

JANUARY 10: DUE BRO PARTY MASSACRE III

In the wake of two back-to-back mass murders on Chico's frat row, loner Brent Chirino must infiltrate the ranks of a popular fraternity to investigate his twin brother's murder at the hands of the serial killer known as "Motherface”.

JANUARY 13: INCUBUS

Evil has never been so seductive. On a strange island inhabited by demons and spirits, a man battles the forces of evil.

JANUARY 17: BRAIN FREEZE

A fertilizer used in a rich gated community becomes the source of a genetic mutation that transforms its residents into zombies. Can a teenager and his baby sister break free from the quarantined island before turning into grass?

JANUARY 17: ONCE UPON A CHINESE HERO KICKBOXER

While master Wong Fei Hung is away traveling, the impulsive Lau Zhai (Yuen Biao), an initiate into Wong's kung fu school, begins wandering the town. He soon allies with police chief Panther, in order to offer assistance in toppling an opium distribution ring.

JANUARY 24: KALI KARATE: THE 2ND BEGINNING

A mockumentary following the comeback of washed up prize fighter and action star, Sensai Houston. After blackmailing a B-list Hollywood producer, he gets his martial arts talk show fully financed, in hopes of getting his ex wife back.

JANUARY 27: THE GIFT

THE ONLY WITNESS TO THE CRIME WAS NOT EVEN THERE

In rural Georgia, recently widowed psychic Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett) works as a tarot reader to support her young family. When she is introduced to her son’s affable school principal (Greg Kinnear) and his socialite fiancée (Katie Holmes), Annie has a grisly premonition of things yet to come. After her violent vision comes true, all eyes turn to Annie, leaving her with no choice but to use her clairvoyant abilities to find the culprit herself. Could it be the abusive husband (Keanu Reeves) of one of Annie’s regular clients (Hilary Swank)? Or the nervy mechanic (Giovanni Ribisi) whose yearning for friendship masks an uncontrollable rage? Or is another terrible secret hiding in plain sight?

JANUARY 31: FIVE FIGHTERS FROM SHAOLIN

Five disciples, each a grand master in a particular style of kung fu, are banded together by a wise old drunken monk. He leads the band of fighters on a mission to catch a group of evil martial arts experts and white-haired wizards from China.

THE LEG FIGHTERS

Tan, a Northern Chinese kung fu expert, kills a man using his lethal boot work in self defence. He's then hired to train a bratty princess and her servant in kung fu. While, the brother of the man Tan killed is out for revenge and he'll get him at any cost.

NINJA HUNTER

Wu Tang villain, Abbot White, wants to destroy the Shaolin monks and become a supreme martial artist. In order to do so, he teams up with a clan of Ninjas, led by three masters – gold lamé ninja, white mustachioed ninja and black ninja – and succeeds in destroying the Shaolin temple and most of its inhabitants. However, there are some survivors. It's their job to pass on the knowledge of the Shaolin finger jab to a new generation, who must defeat the ninjas and Abbott White, if peace and order is to be restored.

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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.

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