Akira Kurosawa

In 2009, Slenderman sparked a revolution in independent online creation and spawned a legacy that inspires artists to this day. "Slenderverse: Building the Slenderman" from director Alex Hera chronicles the untold story of the Slenderverse: the biggest internet horror movement of the 2010's, centered around the viral icon Slenderman. The film reveals new information and stories about the development of the Slenderman myth, from its birth on the SomethingAwful forums, development through webseries Marble Hornets and EverymanHYBRID, and a network of immersive blogs. Through incisive interviews with Slenderverse community members including Tim Sutton of "Marble Hornets", Jeffery Koval and Evan Jennings of "EverymanHYBRID", Slenderman blog authors Andrew Koerner and Tom Horan, internet horror influencer Night Mind, as well as famed horror artist Trevor Henderson, "Slenderverse: Building the Slenderman" tells a story of collaborative mythmaking and horror on the early internet. Part of "Slenderverse: A Documentary Film Series", a three film series which tells the dramatic history of the independent artists behind the Slenderverse movement and documents Slenderman's rise as an independent horror icon, and fall to the status of a dangerous internet meme through interviews with 19 internet horror legends, extensive live action reenactments, and exclusive archival content.

A widow, Emma Cullen, left heartbroken by the tyrannical rule of the unjust industrialist, Bartholomew Bogue , seeks the help of a bounty hunter Sam Chisolm, who gathers a team of seven associates to battle against Bogue.

In 1930, Jericho, a backwater Texan town 50 miles from the Mexican border, two crime syndicates, the Italian mob led by Fredo Strozzi (Ned Eisenberg), and the Irish mob led by "Mr. Doyle" (David Patrick Kelly), compete for control of the lucrative border smuggling pipeline. The authorities have been ineffective at keeping the peace, and have have stopped trying. The current Sheriff, Ed Galt (Bruce Dern), actually seems to be exploiting the conflict for personal gain. John Smith (Bruce Willis), a self-described loner without a conscience, enters Jericho and immediately gets into trouble through a careless glance at Doyle's girl Felina (Karina Lombard). Doyle's henchman, Finn (Patrick Kilpatrick), notices Smith ogling Felina and confronts him. After some mutual trash talk, Finn smashes the windshield of Smith's car and slashes his tires, then casually directs him to the Sheriff's office. Smith pays a visit to Sheriff Galt and his mute deputy, Bob, who refuse to get involved. Galt advises Smith to buy a gun. Smith enters the town saloon, finding it empty except for the owner - Joe Monday (William Sanderson), and orders a whiskey. He takes a set of guns from his pack, and walks back across the street to the Irish HQ to have a word with Finn. John asks tentatively if he will cover the damages. Finn draws first - but is sent flying across the street with a few bullets in his chest. Smith shoots up the place - the others don't move. Soon, Strozzi offers Smith a job on his team. Smith gets a room at the Italian controlled Hotel, and free meals. Smith meets Strozzi's attractive girlfriend, Lucy (Alexandra Powers), and learns more about Doyle's most fearsome enforcer, Hickey (Christopher Walken). At a communal meal for all Strozzi's men, Giorgio (Michael Imperioli) Strozzi's bad tempered cousin, arrives late - and immediately takes a dislike to Smith. Smith leaves, and returns to the saloon. He becomes dissastisfied with Strozzi's leadership style, and it is implied that Strozzi and Giorgio are incompetent. That night, while spending time with the prostitute Wanda (Leslie Mann), the Irish plan a hit on Smith - but he manages to kill both assassins. Smith was set-up by Wanda. She is hysterical. He knocks her out, and later learns that she was blackmailed. He leaves her to be arrested by Galt. Soon, Smith is summoned to a hideout in the middle of the desert by Strozzi, a roadside diner. They plan a hit on Doyle's next shipment from Mexico... At the border, Smith is given the job to approach the convoy of trucks. He offers the Mexican commandant in charge, Ramirez, an offer to turn on Doyle's men. The Mexicans take it up - and massacre the Irish men under their protection. Later, Smith pays to release Wanda from the cells, and gives her money to take the next bus out of town. He gives a tip to the Sheriff about the convoy heist, and hears another story about Hickey. Back in Lucy's room, Smith offers money for information on Strozzi, and seduces her. Soon enough, Doyle and another of his henchmen, Jack (R.D. Call), attempt to hire Smith to assassinate Strozzi, as his position inside Strozzi's gang makes him perfect. Smith expresses discomfort at the offer and Doyle misinterprets this as a rejection. So Smith decides to play both sides. He quits working for Strozzi. Strozzi pulls a gun on Smith, angrily reminding him "nobody quits me." Smith beats up Giorgio, and then engages Strozzi in an armed standoff. Convinced that Giorgio is a "halfwit" that's not worth dying for, Strozzi stands down. For his next move, Smith does his best to stay sober a few days as he waits for Hickey to show. He learns from the mechanic that Giorgio has been snooping around, trying to get the dirt on him. Smith delivers a tip to Giorgio - to watch out for Ramirez, in case he turns sides again. Giorgio takes the bait and leaves for Mexico. Smith then tells the Irish where Giorgio will be, and also that he will be with the Mexicans that betrayed him - and stole his money and trucks. He is paid for the info, but still won't commit. He finally meets Hickey, who is immediately suspicious of him. Hickey returns to Mexico. He enters a cantina, shoots Ramirez, then a border patrol cop, and captures Giorgio. Meanwhile, Smith meets with Felina in an abandoned church to hear her story. Back in Jericho, Captain Pickett from the Texas Rangers arrives in town to warn Smith and the Sheriff that he is investigating the murder of the border cop. He will return in ten days with more Rangers - and will tolerate one gang in the town, but not two. And he wants Smith to be gone. Hickey returns - and offers a deal to Strozzi -- $100 grand and the trucks for Giorgio. At the drop-off Strozzi pulls a fast one - he has kidnapped Felina. They swap Giorgio for Felina as Smith looks on. It's war! Lucy meets with Smith, she tells him that Strozzi and Giorgio found out that she slept with him, and subsequently beat her and mutiliated one of her ears. Smith falls for her story, and gives her $500 to get the next bus out of town. Smith accepts Doyle's offer - but wants $1000 up front. He tells Doyle that he "heard a rumor" that Strozzi has more trigger men arriving in town that night, playing on Doyle's fears that Felina could be targeted again. Doyle sends Smith to the hideut where Felina is being kept. The place is heavily guarded. He steps in through the front door. Immediately, Doyle's men know something is up. Smith opens fire. He kills every last one of them. Smith puts Felina in a car, and tells her to flee across the border. She gives John her cross. Smith knows he should leave, but instead he waits at the hideout to deliver the bad news to Doyle. Doyle arrives the next morning, and believes his story that Felina was taken. He is devastated. But Hickey is on to him. Smith returns to Jericho, and takes a bath. Hickey drops by - someone had seen Felina over the border, where she had sold the car. In the room, they find her cross. Smith is taken to a basement over at Doyle's hideout. Jack and Hickey mercilessly beat Smith as Doyle talks about how he "saved" Felina from a crappy life in Mexico. When it becomes clear that Smith will not give up any information, he is left for dead. The next day two goons return - but Smith is missing. Suddenly he jumps out from a metal cabinet, and using the smaller man as a shield pumps about a dozen bullets into the larger thug. He escapes. Doyle's men try to find him. First he hides out in the saloon, in the walls behind slabs of ice. He relays some intel to Galt. Galt tells Doyle that Smith is at Slim's Roadhouse in the desert, but knowing really that the Italians are hiding there. Doyle's men set the building ablaze, and proceed to shoot everyone who attempts to escape the flames. Strozzi and Giorgio admit defeat, promising to leave town if they are spared, but Doyle's men coldly gun them down. The Irish assume that Smith has died in the blaze. Smith returns to the abandoned church to heal. Joe brings him food and bandages everyday, but soon enough the Irish catch onto this. Joe is taken and beaten. Galt finds Smith and tells him about Joe. Hickey and Doyle are in Mexico, still looking for Felina. John takes Galt's gun, and heads off to Strozzi's old hotel - where Joe is kept. On his way there, he picks up his lucky hat - and stops by the window of the Undertaker's - one of his few friends in town! Smith storms in to the hotel. Bad guys are blown away like they're on bungee ropes with the force of each gunshot. John follows Jack to an upstairs room -- inside is Joe, tied up. Joe motions with his eyes - and Smith shoots through a cabinet dresser. Jack falls out, dead. Smith has been shot - but just the once. He pours some whiskey on his wound. He leaves a tommy gun against the door as a message for Hickey, and tells Galt that he'll be at Slim's Roadhouse waiting. Everyone is leaving town - Galt to Houston, and even the Undertaker is getting away while he can! Smith and Joe wait at the burnt-out building. Doyle, Hickey, and Bob arrive the following morning. Joe hides. Doyle wants a truce. He is lovesick - and just wants to find his girl. Joe jumps out and shoots him dead in retaliation for ruining his town. Bob raises his shotgun, so Smith fires a few rounds into his body. Hickey drops his tommy gun. He walks away - he doesn't want to die in Texas. He asks Smith if he would shoot an unarmed man in the back. Smith tells him he's done a lot worse. Hickey pulls out a pistol and turns - but Smith shoots him in the head. Smith takes the cross from Doyle's lifeless hand, gets in the car, and leaves to continue his journey.

A collection of tales based upon eight of director Akira Kurosawa's recurring dreams. This is essentially eight separate short films, though with some overlaps in terms of characters and thematic material - chiefly that of man's relationship with his environment. 'Sunshine Through The Rain': a young boy is told not to go out on the day when both weather conditions occur, because that's when the foxes hold their wedding procession, which could have fatal consequences for those who witness it. 'The Peach Orchard': the same young boy encounters the spirits of the peach trees that have been cut down by heartless humans. 'The Blizzard': a team of mountaineers are saved from a blizzard by spiritual intervention. 'The Tunnel': a man encounters the ghosts of an army platoon, whose deaths he was responsible for. 'Crows': an art student encounters 'Vincent Van Gogh' and enters the world of his paintings. 'Mount Fuji in Red': nuclear meltdown threatens the devastation of Japan. 'The Weeping Demon': a portrait of a post-nuclear world populated by human mutations. 'Village of the Watermills': a sunny portrait of a village whose population is entirely at one with nature. —Michael Brooke <michael@everyman.demon.co.uk>

The story follows the escape of two men from an Alaska prison, the efforts of a train dispatching office to safely stop the out-of-control train they are on, and the hunt by their warden to recapture them. Oscar "Manny" Manheim (Jon Voight) is a ruthless bank robber and hero to the convicts of Stonehaven Maximum Security Prison. After two previous escape attempts the doors to Manny's cell have been welded shut for three years. A court order compels Manny's nemesis, the vindictive Associate Warden Ranken (John P. Ryan), to release him back into the general prison population. Manny immediately sets his next escape plan into action. Buck (Eric Roberts) is another convict (convicted of statutory rape) who, due to his position in the prison's laundry room, is recruited to smuggle Manny out in a laundry trolley. Naive and unintelligent, Buck decides to escape with Manny, who doesn't care for company. After a freezing cross-country hike (involving a 300 ft drop into a river and subsequent swim) the two hop on board a train consisting of four locomotives at a remote Alaskan rail yard. Just as the train is set in motion, the elderly engineer suffers a heart attack. In attempting to stop the train and get off, the engineer does not close the throttle, instead pulling on the conductor's emergency brake lever, before collapsing off the still-moving train. Consequently, although the brakes apply, the locomotives overpower them, and the brake shoes burn off, making it now impossible to stop the train. Neither the two convicts nor the only railway worker left on the train, a locomotive hostler named Sara (Rebecca De Mornay), are aware of their situation (the convicts due to taking refuge inside the fourth car's toilet compartment, Sara due to being asleep in the second car). As the train accelerates, dispatcher Frank Barstow (Kyle T. Heffner) is alerted to the situation. Unaware of the failure of the brakes, Barstow authorises employees to allow the runaway out onto the main-line, arrogantly insisting that a computer-controlled signalling system of his creation will trigger a brake application on the locomotives. The last of the brake-shoes burn out and the dispatchers realise the severity of their situation, forcing them to keep the tracks clear. The runaway collides with the tail-end of a freight train that was in the act of moving out of its path. Learning that the train's excessive speed will most likely collapse an elderly trestle ahead, Barstow's superior orders him to derail it, believing that no one alive is on board. Upon doing so, the signal maintainer hears the whistle. Realising someone is indeed alive on the train, Barstow orders a reversal of the switch. The speeding train continues onwards towards the aging Seneca trestle, where emergency workers are gathering in expectation of a disaster. Warden Ranken concludes that his two escaped convicts are escaping by rail. Meanwhile, the two fugitives have found Sara on board when she climbs back to the fourth engine in the belief she'll be safer in a possible collision at the rear. Now aware the engineer must be dead, the three must get to the lead engine so they can press its emergency fuel cutoff switch. Sara informs them that they can't because the second locomotive is a streamlined F-unit with no forward catwalk. Its nose door, which would normally allow access to the lead engine, is jammed. At her suggestion, they are able to slow the train by disconnecting the electrical bus link cables supplying commands to the two rear locomotives, shutting them down. Unintentionally, this slows the train enough that it is able to safely cross the Seneca trestle. The dispatchers divert the runaway onto a branch after determining it only five minutes away from a head-on collision with a passenger train. This is only a brief respite, as further ahead the branch negotiates a tight curve adjacent to a chemical plant. Even at its reduced speed, the runaway is likely to derail on this curve and trigger a major chemical spill. His hand forced by his superiors, Barstow agrees that they must switch the runaway onto a stub-ended siding and crash it, thus sending the three people on the train to almost certain death, rather than risk a catastrophic chemical explosion. Warden Ranken refuses to wait, coercing Barstow's assistance in chasing down the train by prison helicopter. Manny shows an increasingly violent streak, repeatedly asserting his dominance over Buck. He eventually forces Buck to attempt a suicidal scramble around the outside of the second engine's nose (Buck already having tried once and failed). Sara's intervention on Buck's behalf forces an armed face-off between the two convicts. Emotionally broken, all three slump into a fatalistic depression, only broken when Ranken's helicopter catches up with the train. Spurred on by the appearance of his arch-foe, and resolved not to return to prison, even if it means his own death, Manny makes a perilous leap to the lead engine. There, after a struggle with Ranken (who has successfully boarded by helicopter), he handcuffs Ranken inside the cab. To the music of the second movement of Vivaldi's Gloria in D (Et In Terra Pax), Manny then uncouples the first engine from the rest of the train, leaving Buck and Sara safely behind. He refuses to stop the lead engine despite Buck's screamed pleas. With Ranken his prisoner now, Manny climbs onto the roof of the lone engine in the freezing cold and blowing snow, his arms stretched out in a cruciform shape, ready to meet his end. After a series of cross-cuts of Buck and Manny's fellow inmates mourning in their cells at Stonehaven, the film fades to white and closes with an on-screen quote from William Shakespeare's Richard III:- "No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. But I know none, and therefore am no beast."