ARROW PULLS THE STRINGS IN MAY

ARROW UNLEASHES PUPPET MASTERS, BRONX WARRIORS, BRITSPLOITATION, AND ALL MANNER OF B-MOVIE MAYHEM!

ARROW is now available on Xbox

Key highlights this MAY on the essential, alternative streaming service ARROW include more Puppet Master films than you could shake a stick at, a bonanza of blood, gore, sex and non-stop action from exploitation legends Enzo G. Castellari, Norman J Warren and José Larraz, another volume of utterly deranged cinematic excess from Vinegar Syndrome, and much much more...

In May, the unstoppable behemoth that is the Puppet Master franchise hits ARROW. The flagship series of B-movie mogul Charles Band's horror, sci-fi and fantasy studio, Full Moon Pictures, the first Puppet Master film became a video rental store legend in 1989 and multiple sequels have regularly followed with the series still ongoing and popular to this very day. Settle in for our enormous collection of murderous marionette movies featuring a brilliant cast of killer puppets offing their victims in fun and imaginative ways. With new toys and expansions and explanations of the lore constantly keeping the series fresh and exciting, the Puppet Master Collection will keep you laughing and gasping for literally days - and you can see it all on ARROW!

Also in May, ARROW presents the fourth, and arguably craziest yet collection of the from the esteemed protectors and restorers of the underground gems VINEGAR SYNDROME COLLECTION: VOL. IV. The films for your delectation include the gleefully pervy prisonsploitation Fugitive Girls, deliciously debauched nightmare Sweet Trash, and the extraordinarily weird and unforgettable Runaway Nightmare, which features worm farmers (it's a thing) being kidnapped by a gang of female gun-runners and used as sex slaves.

Seasons in May include films from legendary 70s English sexploitation and exploitation film director Norman J. Warren, packed with saucy sex and grimace-inducing gore, including the Satan's Slave and Bloody New Year; a selection of works by cult Spanish genre filmmaker José Ramón Larraz, dripping with sex and blood; pulpy futuristic gang warfare trilogy The Bronx Warriors Trilogy from famed Italian genre director Enzo G. Castellari, as a well as a clutch of thrillers from this prolific and versatile filmmaker including The Big Racket, The Heroin Busters and Cold Eyes of Fear.

ALSO SHOWING: Tinto Brass’s Salon Kitty, completely uncensored and in HD; Bela Lugosi in The Devil Bat; cult chills in The Psychic Killer; the Golden Age slasher Girls Nite Out, and more.

MAY RELEASE CALENDAR:

New Titles – From May 1

● Puppet Master

New Titles – From May 2

● Fugitive Girls
● Sweet Sugar
● The Hang Up
● Sweet Trash
● Runaway Nightmare
● Puppet Master II
● Viva
● Her Private Hell
● Satan’s Slave

New Titles – From May 3

● Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge

New Titles – From May 4

● Puppet Master 4

New Titles – From May 5

● Puppet Master 5

New Titles – From May 6

● Anatomia Extinction
● Curse of the Puppet Master
● Salon Kitty
● The New Barbarians
● Escape from the Bronx
● 1990: The Bronx Warriors

New Titles – From May 7

● Retro Puppet Master

New Titles – From May 8

● Puppet Master: The Legacy

New Titles – From May 9

● Demonic Toys

New Titles – From May 10

● Puppet Master: Axis of Evil

New Titles – From May 11

● Puppet Master X: Axis Rising

New Titles – From May 12

● Puppet Master: Axis Termination

New Titles – From May 13

● Blade: The Iron Cross
● The Devil Bat

New Titles – From May 16

● LFO
● New York Ripper
● Manhattan Baby
● Girls Nite Out

New Titles – From May 20

● Death Spa

New Titles – From May 23

● Psychic Killer
● Harmonium

New Seasons this May

From May 2:

Vinegar Syndrome Collection:

Volume 4 of the ARROW Vinegar Syndrome Collection is full to the brim with all the cult craziness and sleazy zaniness we have now all come to expect and love from protectors and restorers of the underground gems, Vinegar Syndrome. For the fourth collection, things are getting especially saucy with another naughtiness to get the straightest-laced viewer hot under the collar.

Available to ALL territories are Fugitive Girls - gleefully pervy prisonsploitation penned by Ed Wood himself; Sweet Trash - the deliciously debauched nightmare of a sailor dodging thugs and lusty women; The Hang Up - this tale of an LA vice cop having a forbidden affair with a prostitute pairs perfectly with Sweet Trash; talking of sweetness, there's also Sweet Sugar - the story of a nymphomaniac entrapped and forced onto a sugar can chain gang; and Runaway Nightmare, which features worm farmers (it's a thing) being kidnapped by a gang of female gun-runners and used as sex slaves.
Titles include: Runaway Nightmare, Sweet Sugar, Fugitive Girls, The Hang Up

Sangre y sexo: The Films of José Larraz

Blood and sex. Brilliant. We love it and cult Spanish genre filmmaker José Ramón Larraz's films are dripping in it.

Collecting together six of Larraz's best films, Sangre y Sexo provides a perfect cross-section of Larraz's work - from the higher-brow but still full of sauce and slayings Whirlpool, to the horror houses of Rest in Pieces and Deadly Manor, and from the charming slasher Edge of the Axe to the bloody bawdy Vampyres and The Coming of Sin.

Titles include: Deadly Manor, Whirlpool, Edge of the Axe, The Coming of Sun

From May 6

The Bronx Warriors Trilogy:

1990 Bronx Warriors, The New Barbarians and Escape From the Bronx make up Italian genre director Enzo G. Castellari's The Bronx Warriors Trilogy.

Having previously also directed A Few Dollars for Django and the original The Inglorious Bastards, Castellari was tasked with creating a triptych of post-apocalyptic science-fiction action movies and wrote, prepped and filmed his pulpy futuristic gang warfare trilogy in just six months.

Full of influences from the likes of John Carpenter, Walter Hill and Sergio Leone, and elements of everything from Mad Max 2, Escape From New York and The Warriors, these three films will absolutely thrill genre and exploitation fans.

In 1990 Bronx Warriors we follow Ann, a teenage runaway, into the lawless wasteland that was once New York and is now fought over by rival gangs The Zombies and The Riders; The New Barbarians sees a pair of mercenaries including Fred Williamson (From Dusk Till Dawn) protecting peaceful nomads from bikers following a nuclear holocaust; Escape From the Bronx is a sequel to 1990 Bronx Warriors that sees the leader of The Riders return as a guerilla terrorist fighting a corporation who want to clear the Bronx and all the gangs' turf to make way for their city of the future.

Collection includes: The New Barbarians, Escape from the Bronx, 1990: The Bronx Warriors

The Puppet Master Collection:

The behemoth that is the Puppet Master franchise hits ARROW, ready to make you make very sure that any toy boxes are securely locked before you go to bed tonight.

The flagship series of B-movie mogul Charles Band's horror, sci-fi and fantasy studio, Full Moon Pictures, the first Puppet Master film became a video rental store legend in 1989 and multiple sequels have regularly followed with the series still ongoing and popular to this very day.
Settle in for our enormous collection of murderous marionette movies featuring a brilliant cast of killer puppets offing their victims in fun and imaginative ways. With new toys and expansions and explanations of the lore constantly keeping the series fresh and exciting, the Puppet Master Collection will keep you laughing and gasping for literally days.
Titles include: Puppet Master, Puppet Master 4, Demonic Toys, Retro Puppet Master

From May 11

Britsploitation: The Norman J. Warren Collection:

English sexploitation and exploitation film director Norman J. Warren took the 70s by storm, shaking up the traditional-until-then idea of what British horror was and could be with a sharp increase in the saucy sexual and grimace-inducing gore quotients, as well as utilising modern settings and younger casts than the UK's traditional horror merchants: Hammer and Amicus.

Available in all territories are Her Private Hell, Satan's Slave and Bloody New Year. Her Private Hell is an example of the softcore sex films Warren began his career making in the 60s. While it does hold the title of the first British narrative sex film, NJW did not enjoy making that kind of movie - even stating that he did think the British were capable of making anything truly sexy because of our inherent Britishness! - and also did not want to be pigeon-holed, so for his benefit, and most definitely also ours, he pivoted into horror.

Titles include: Her Private Hell, Satan’s Slave, Bloody New Year

From May 20

Inglorious Enzo: The Castellari Collection:

Italian writer-director Enzo Castellari was not only an influence on Quentin Tarantino, who cast him in a cameo in Inglourious Basterds after taking title inspiration from Castellari's war film The Inglorious Bastards, he also made films across some of our absolute favourite genres here at ARROW.

Castellari made the giallo thriller Cold Eyes of Fear - which sees a playboy take a pretty girl home only to find a pair of angry convicts thirsting for vengeance waiting for him; the western, Keoma, starring the blue-eyed King of Cool: Franco Nero; action-packed Italian crime thriller poliziotteschi The Big Racket and The Heroin Busters; and The Bronx Warriors Trilogy - a trio of futuristic action pictures set in a post-apocalyptic future.

Titles include: The Big Racket, The Heroin Busters, Escape From the Bronx

MAY TITLES - IN DEPTH

MAY 1: PUPPET MASTER

Alex Whittaker and three other gifted psychics are investigating rumours that the secret of life has been discovered by master puppeteer Andre Toulon. But the psychics quickly discover Toulon's secret of death in the form of five killer puppets-each one uniquely qualified for murder and mayhem.

MAY 2: FUGITIVE GIRLS

Beautiful Dee is implicated in a fatal liquor store shooting committed by her boyfriend. Sent to an all-female work camp, she quickly finds herself at the mercy of four other violent and sex crazed prisoners who force her into their daring escape plan. Once on the outside, the five fugitives embark on a brutal and sex filled rampage across the countryside, while making their way to a mystery site rumored to have a buried suitcase full of money! Director A.C. Stephen's most accomplished film, FUGITIVE GIRLS is a quick paced hybrid of action and sexploitation, which co-stars the beautiful Rene Bond and Tallie Cochran, and featuring a typically jaw-dropping screenplay from Ed Wood (who also appears in the film!).

SWEET SUGAR

The beautiful Phyllis Davis (TV's Vegas) stars as Sugar, a fun loving nympho traveller, who's entrapped by a corrupt cop and sent to a female prison camp hidden deep in the tropical jungles of South America. Assigned a position on the notorious sugar cane gang, Sugar soon discovers that the plantation's owner, Dr. John, uses the prisoners in violent and diabolical experiments. Sugar may soon become another of his victims, that is, unless she can bust out first... Director Michel Levesque's (Werewolves On Wheels) much sought after and over the top women-in-prison thriller, Sweet Sugar, is an action and violence packed exploitation classic, filled with blood, nudity, and a barrage of absurd twists.

THE HANG UP

John Hayes was one of the most unique cinematic voices to emerge from the underground film scene in the 1960s and 70s. A failed playwright, Hayes' films were bleak, sexually charged morality tales that combined the troubled souls of Tennessee Williams with the exploitation styling's of Lee Frost and company. The Hang Up follows the forbidden affair between a tempted LAPD vice cop and a beautiful, but mysterious, young prostitute. Set against a world of pimps, pushers and sexual deviates, it;s is a powerful indictment of law-enforcement hypocrisy. With a wonderful mix of love-ins and sleazy betrayal The Hang Up is a creative commentary on the sexual revolution and human nature.

SWEET TRASH

An alcoholic longshoreman, deep in debt to the mob, is forced into an increasingly debauched nightmare as he tries to avoid the thugs out to get him. Along the way, he meets local oddballs, violent criminals, and lusty women. With a mysterious computer controlling everyone's actions this grimy artistic film with almost science fiction-esque fear of future mind control was made well before it's time.

RUNAWAY NIGHTMARE

After discovering a woman buried alive, two Death Valley worm farmers are kidnapped by an all-female cult of gun runners who, after making the men into their sex slaves, force them to assist in a plan to steal a suitcase full of platinum from the mafia. Combining black comedy with elements of horror, action, thriller, and surrealist cinema, director/writer/producer/editor/star Mike Cartel's (Pets, Bitter Heritage) Runaway Nightmare stands as one of the most fiercely unique works of outsider/cult cinema to emerge from the 1970s and 80s. Also featuring a co-starring performance from Georgia Durante, author of The Company She Keeps and crewed by Rowdy Harrington (director of Road House) and Daryn Okada (cinematographer of Mean Girls).

PUPPET MASTER 2

Tunneler, Leech Woman, Pinhead and the rest of the puppets return to exhume their beloved creator in Puppet Master II, the sequel to the hit horrorfest, Puppet Master. This time, the little devils are after the special fluid that keeps them alive, which is only found in human brains.

VIVA

Viva is a cult retro spectacle about a bored 1970s housewife who gets sucked into the sexual revolution. Abandoned by her perfect Ken-doll husband, Barbi is dragged into trouble by her girlfriend, who spouts women's lib as she gets Barbi to discard her bra and go out on the town. Barbi becomes a Red Riding Hood in a sea of wolves, and quickly learns a lot more than she wanted to about the different kinds of scenes going on in the wild '70s, including nudist camps, the hippie scene, orgies, bisexuality, sadism, drugs, and bohemia.

HER PRIVATE HELL

A young Italian girl comes to London, and is tricked into posing nude for risqué magazines.

SATAN’S SLAVE

A woman travelling with her parents to her uncle's house crashes near his house. Her parents die but she survives. She stays with her uncle, but it becomes clear that he and his son are planning something sinister for her.

MAY 3: PUPPET MASTER III: TOULON'S REVENGE

After hearing that Andre Toulon's puppets have no strings but rather seem to have a life of their own, Dr. Hess, a Gestapo henchman during World War II, sends the Gestapo to the theatre to kidnap them. During the melee, Toulon's wife ELSA is killed and Toulon is whisked away by the Nazis. Now Toulon begins to plan his revenge and creates new puppets; Six Shooter, Blade and Leech Woman.

MAY 4: PUPPET MASTER 4

A young scientist working on an artificial intelligence project is the target of strange gremlin-like creatures that are out to kill him and thus terminate his research. By coincidence, in one of the rooms he uses, there's a mysterious case containing the puppets of the "puppet master". When the puppets are brought to life, they help destroy the creatures.

MAY 5: PUPPET MASTER 5

The puppets return, this time they hunt some Paranormal Researchers in order to take their brain fluid for the dead/living puppet master, Andre Toulon.

MAY 6: ANATOMIA EXTINCTION

A salaryman sees a murder in the subways and is soon pursued by the killer, who wants him to join a group called The Engineers, who have taken it upon themselves to reduce Japan's overpopulation. Despite not wanting any part of joining, the man begins to mutate, running throughout Japan and fighting his urge to kill.

CURSE OF THE PUPPET MASTER

In a desperate attempt to duplicate the great Andre Toulon's work, Dr. Magrew has been experimenting with his human assistants. As captives in Magrew's "House of Marvels," the puppets have watched silently as lives have been destroyed with every experiment. Now, the puppets' hunger for revenge is the only means to stop this legacy of evil.

SALON KITTY

From Tinto Brass, the director of Caligula, comes his own EXTENDED DIRECTOR’S CUT of Salon Kitty. Completely uncensored and presented for the first time in HD, this fully restored wide-screen version finally allows this film s extreme, almost hard-core, content to be seen as originally intended by its director; as well as showcasing the stunning sets of Oscar®-winner Ken Adams (designer of most James Bond films and Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon). Based on a true story, this shockingly controversial film is an unflinching portrayal of the criminal depravity of the Nazi party and the ruthless use of sex to destroy opponents and control the Third Reich. Berlin, 1939, the start of the World War II, SS Officer Wallenberg (Helmut Berger) is instructed to train twenty of the most beautiful staunch young Nazi women as prostitutes and put them to work in the opulent brothel of Madame Kitty (Ingrid Thulin).

THE NEW BARBARIANS

Two mercenaries help wandering caravans fight off an evil and aimless band of white-clad bikers after the nuclear holocaust.

ESCAPE FROM THE BRONX

A rag-tag group of people must fight extermination squads amid their ruined city.

1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS

In a post-apocalyptic New York City, a policeman infiltrates the Bronx, which has become a battleground for several murderous street gangs.

MAY 7: RETRO PUPPET MASTER

In this origin story, Greg Sestero (The Room) stars as a young Andre Toulon, living a peaceful life as a puppeteer. But the strings of fate pull him into an unexpected direction after meeting the renegade sorcerer Afzel, who has stolen the secrets of life from the dark god Sutekh. When Sutekh attacks, it ís up to Toulon and his army of puppets to stop him at any cost!

MAY 8: PUPPET MASTER: THE LEGACY

As a young boy, Eric was saved from the hands of Hitler's SS by toymaker Andre Toulon. Fascinated with the toymaker's seemingly supernatural ability to breathe life into his carefully crafted figurines, Eric spends his entire life attempting to unlock the secret behind the toymaker's magic. When a rogue agent named Maclain breaks into his lab and tortures him for his valuable secret.

MAY 9: DEMONIC TOYS

Dr. Lorca is back and continues to collect strange oddities; along with the help of Caitlin and her boyfriend. Along the way, they collect the mysterious pieces of the Demonic Toys. They continue their search at a mysterious castle in Italy, where there have been rumours of an ancient puppet alive and walking around. When not looking, the puppet brings the Demonic Toys back to life!

MAY 10: PUPPET MASTER: AXIS OF EVIL

In a Stateside hotel during the height of World War II, Danny Coogan finds a crate of mysterious living puppets and must fight with them to stop an Axis of Evil.

MAY 11: PUPPET MASTER X: AXIS RISING

After foiling a Nazi plot, Danny Coogan finds that his troubles have just begun. One of Toulon's Puppets has been kidnapped, and under the watchful eye of Commandant Moebius, the Puppets' life-giving serum is synthesized to create his own NAZI PUPPETS!

MAY 12: PUPPET MASTER: AXIS TERMINATION

To stop the Nazi war machine from winning World War II and affecting the outcome of the free world, BLADE, JESTER, PINHEAD and the rest of the indestructible Toulon puppets join forces with the masters of psychic powers! Teaming up with Toulon's bloodthirsty marionettes, these unlikely allies face off against a new pack of evil Nazis.

MAY 13: BLADE: THE IRON CROSS

Dr. Hauser, the Third Reich's maddest scientist, rises again with murder and mayhem on his mind. As the deranged Nazi doctor's perverse plot is revealed, psychic journalist Elisa Ivanov awakens her own angel of death in Blade and together, maiden and marionette get set to hammer the evil Hauser back into hell where he belongs.

THE DEVIL BAT

In The Devil Bat, Lugosi stars as a scientist who commands a mutant bat to avenge himself upon his enemies using a specially formulated after-shave lotion as the targeting device.

MAY 16: LFO

In this darkly comic sci-fi thriller, an amateur scientist hypnotises his neighbours with sound frequencies and subjects them to increasingly outlandish scenarios in order to fuel his megalomania.

NEW YORK RIPPER

NYPD’s most jaded cop is taunted by a razor-slashing maniac who carves his way through sexually active young women whilst making deranged Donald Duck voice imitation… Beyond Nasty: New York Ripper is so subversive that it was banned outright on its first foray into UK: the print, due for UK censors (BBFC) inspection, was legendarily escorted back to the border by the Police, without ever being screened. If you’ve recently revisited old video nasties only to be disappointed then this is the ultimate sex ‘n’ slash fest to test your nerve with; now rebuilt with previously missing scenes.

MANHATTAN BABY

A young girl on vacation in Egypt is given a mysterious charm, causing her archeologist father to be struck blind inside an unexplored pyramid tomb. But when the family returns home to Manhattan, a plague of supernatural evil and sudden violence follows. Can this ancient curse be stopped before it is unleashed on the streets of New York City?

GIRLS NITE OUT

A host of familiar genre faces including Hal Holbrook (Creepshow), Rutanya Alda (Amityville II: The Possession), Julia Montgomery (The Kindred) and Lauren-Marie Taylor (Friday the 13th Part 2) rounds out the cast of this gloriously mean-spirited slice from the slasher golden age, Girls Nite Out! The students of DeWitt University are preparing themselves for a night of fun and frolics in the form of an all-night scavenger hunt. Little do they know that they are in fact the ones being hunted… An unhinged assailant, disguised in the college’s goofy bear mascot outfit – and bearing knives for claws, two years before Freddy donned his famous gloves – is stalking the campus hellbent on carving up co-eds. Originally released under the only marginally more appropriate title of The Scaremaker, Girls Nite Out is a decidedly singular slasher flick which comes on like a frenetic cross between Animal House and Friday the 13th – veering from jovial frat antics to jarringly disturbing scenes of the killer shrieking obscenities as he slices up his victims. On this nite out, no one is coming home!

MAY 20: DEATH SPA

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. This one is shapely, gorgeous, demonic – and dead. She’s also insanely jealous – and one by one, the beautiful people of her husband’s health club become victims possessed by her evil spirit.

MAY 23: PSYCHIC KILLER

Jim Hutton stars as Arnold Masters, a harmless recluse committed to a mental hospital for a murder he didn’t commit. When his elderly mother dies from criminal neglect during his incarceration, Arnold develops psychic abilities to become an out-of-body killer exacting his revenge. This rare ‘70s shocker features a unique supporting genre cast.

HARMONIUM

Toshio (Kanji Furutachi) sees his seemingly ordinary life take an ominous turn when Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano), a mysterious friend from his past, arrives unexpectedly. Recently released from prison and in need of a helping hand, Toshio gives him a job and generously takes him in to live with his wife and daughter. Toshio soon regrets this decision, as Yasaka gradually disrupts the family before finally causing irreparable damage. Koji Fukada's acclaimed companion piece to his black comedy Hospitalite treads darker waters as it unravels a searing tragedy that has captivated critics and audiences alike.

ARROW is now available on Xbox

Where to get it

The Art of Cult. Head to ARROW and start your 30-day free trial. Available on the following Apps/devices: Xbox, Roku (all Roku sticks, boxes, devices, etc), Apple TV; iOS devices, Android TV and mobile devices, Fire TV (all Amazon Fire TV Sticks, boxes, etc), and on all web browsers at www.ARROW-Player.com.

Subscriptions are available for £4.99 monthly or £49.99 annually

For more information contact:
Fetch Publicity | Sadari Cunningham | sadari@fetch.fm

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.