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Scales (2019) Douban IMDb WikiData TMDB
Sayidat Al Bahr
director: 沙哈德·阿米恩 actor: Basima Hajjar / Yagoub Alfarhan
other title: 天平 / Sayidat Al Bahr
Hayat, a 12-year-old strong-willed girl, lives in a poor fishing village governed by dark tradition, in which every family must give away a daughter to the sea creatures who inhabit the waters near by. In turn, the sea creatures are hunted by the men of the village. Saved from this ordeal by her father, Hayat is outcasted by her village and considered a curse. But Hayat never surrenders. When Hayat’s mother gives birth to her new-born brother, Hayat must accept the brutal custom by sacrificing herself to these creatures or find a way to escape.
The Present (2013) Douban IMDb TMDB
禮物
7.5 (17 ratings) director: 谢文明 actor: Ming-shiou Tsai / Yu-Jane Liu
other title: 礼物 / 禮物
A married man on a business trip checks into a hotel. The hotel manager’s daughter falls for him at first sight. Rejected by the man, she embarks on a journey of revenge...
Ieodo (1977) IMDb Douban TMDB WikiData
이어도
6.5 (6 ratings) director: 金绮泳 actor: 李花诗 / 金正哲
other title: 异鱼岛 / 이어도
A company hopes to open a spa hotel named after Ieodo, a mythical island inhabited by the souls of drowned sailors. During a study trip to the proposed location of the hotel, a journalist disappears under mysterious circumstances. One of the contractors goes to Ieodo's neighboring island, populated by widows of the dead sailors, to unravel the mystery.
Towers of Silence (1975) Douban IMDb TMDB
Towers of Silence
director: Jamil Dehlavi actor: Judy Van Hook / 贾米勒·德拉维
other title: 寂静之塔 / 寂靜之塔
Tells a story of a Pakistani boy's experience and obsession with death and the Zoroastrian rituals of purification and regeneration. Shows how he develops into a young revolutionary and confronts love, religious conflict, and his own death.
The Crazy Family (1984) WikiData Douban TMDB IMDb
逆噴射家族
8.1 (30 ratings) director: 石井岳龙 actor: 小林克也 / 倍赏美津子
other title: 역분사가족 / 逆噴射家族
The Kobayashi family finally are able to move out of their tiny, cramped Tokyo apartment to the suburban house of their dreams. But things are not as perfect as they seem: the house is infested by termites and the family starts going crazy. As the Kobayashi's house begins to crumble, so does the sanity of its inhabitants. Father Katsuhiko takes it upon himself to keep them from the asylum… at any cost.
March 16, 2026 watched
A pretty wild ride, and impossible to predict what might happen next with this family - they're crazy!
An insane take on how doing what's perceived as proper within a society and right for and by your family is a great way to drive everyone mad.
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Born Of Fire (1987) Douban IMDb WikiData TMDB
Born Of Fire
director: 贾米勒·德拉维 actor: 彼得·费尔斯
other title: 火之永生 / 火之重生
For reasons unknown, a flautist and an astronomer find themselves drawn to one another. But, when the flautist stumbles upon a secret regarding his late father, the two wind up in a celestial duel against the ancient Master Flautist for earth's future.
Guns and Guts (1974) Douban IMDb TMDB
Las viboras cambian de piel
director: 勒内·小卡多纳 actor: 乔治·里维罗 / Pedro Armendáriz Jr.
other title: 枪与胆 / Las viboras cambian de piel
An outlaw and a scorned husband both team up to track down and kill the man that wronged them. Along the way, the two men meet a hired gun that loves money just as much as he loves the company of women, so the two men decide to hire him in order to help them on their mission. However, things become complicated when the man they all seek to kill has risen to become a wealthy sheriff with a small army of gunmen at his disposal.
Feb. 23, 2026 watched
Pretty slow and kind of boring, but a little funny at parts and kind of a fun first 10 minutes and last 10 minutes.
I wish this was as good as *[Hot Snake](https://boxd.it/d7peAz)* (1978).
own blu-ray alone
Hot Snake (1978) IMDb WikiData TMDB
Víbora caliente
other title: Víbora caliente / 毒蛇
A sadistic and ruthless outlaw has been terrorizing the town of Hot Snake. A bounty hunter named Emiliano is hired by the local sheriff to hunt down the outlaw after he murders a woman and steals money belonging to the Army. Warned by a local bruja not to take the bounty, Emiliano soon finds himself the target of a mysterious man who seeks to settle a personal vendetta.
Feb. 13, 2026 watched
Bounty hunting in the West, three-layer deep revenge, and a soothsaying bruja with her flautist partner make for an enjoyable watch.
A good score and fine camera work elevate it some as well.
Great to see baths being taken, too!
own blu-ray alone
Retake - Making the World's First Haida-Language Feature Film (2018) TMDB
Retake - Making the World's First Haida-Language Feature Film
Retake follows the journey of co-directors Gwaai Edenshaw (Haida) and Helen Haig-Brown (Tsilhqot'in) as they work to produce The Edge of the Knife, a feature-length film told entirely in the critically-endangered Haida language. The film tells the story of a traditional Haida legend, showcasing the Haida culture in many ways that have never been seen by a broad audience.
Edge of the Knife (2018) Douban IMDb WikiData TMDB
SGaawaay K'uuna
director: 格瓦伊·埃登肖 / 海伦·黑格-布朗 actor: 泰勒·约克 / Curtis Brown
other title: 刀刃 / SGaawaay K'uuna
Edge of the Knife is a feature length Haida language film about pride, tragedy, and penance. Adiits’ii, the lead character in the film, is mentally and physically pushed to the brink of survival and becomes Gaagiixiid/Gaagiid - the Haida Wildman. The Gaagiixiid is one of Haida’s most popular stories, sustained over the years though song and performance. This project is a community initiative with strong support from the Haida people as well as from the Council of the Haida Nation.
Nalujuk Night (2021) TMDB WikiData IMDb
Nalujuk Night
director: Jennie Williams
other title: Nalujuk Night (short film)
Nalujuk Night is an up close look at an exhilarating, and sometimes terrifying, Labrador Inuit tradition. Every January 6th from the dark of the Nunatsiavut night, the Nalujuit appear on the sea ice. They walk on two legs, yet their faces are animalistic, skeletal, and otherworldly. Snow crunches underfoot as they approach their destination: the Inuit community of Nain. Despite the frights, Nalujuk Night is a beloved annual event, showing that sometimes it can be fun to be scared. Rarely witnessed outside of Nunatsiavut, this annual event is an exciting chance for Inuit, young and old, to prove their courage and come together as a community to celebrate culture and tradition. Inuk filmmaker Jennie Williams brings audiences directly into the action in this bone-chilling black and white short documentary about a winter night like no other.
Feb. 4, 2026 watched
A cute, short doc about the Labrador Inuit new year tradition of Nalujul Night. When the kids wish a happy new year to the Nalujuit with such trepidation, well that's enough to warm my heart and also melt all the ice and snow that covers their community.
own all the haunts be ours 2 blu-ray alone
Haida Carver (1964) TMDB IMDb
Haida Carver
On Canada's Pacific coast this film finds a young Haida artist, Robert Davidson, shaping miniature totems from argillite, a jet-like stone. The film follows the artist to the island where he finds the stone, and then shows how he carves it in the manner of his grandfather, who taught him the craft.
Feb. 4, 2026 watched
Informative short doc about the dying art of Haida totem carving and its downsizing from massive tree trunks to black slate. I hope the art has survived and demand a follow up doc!
own all the haunts be ours 2 blu-ray alone
The Nightside of the Sky (2024) TMDB IMDb
The Nightside of the Sky
director: Rhayne Vermette
In this experimental short film specially commissioned from celebrated Métis filmmaker Rhayne Vernette for Severin's All the Haunts Be Ours vol. 2, images from The White Reindeer are reanimated through contact printing and optical printing.
A Witch Drum (1982) TMDB IMDb
Noitarumpu
director: Kari Kekkonen actor: Matti Ruohola
other title: Noitarumpu
In a barren, snowy Lapland landscape a man in a reindeer sled escorts a shaman's corpse to its final resting place. In the pale moonlight the fear is starting to take over, since something has awakened the shaman.
The White Reindeer (1952) Douban TMDB IMDb WikiData
Valkoinen peura
6.8 (5 ratings) director: 艾瑞克·布隆伯格 actor: 米丽亚米·库奥斯马宁 / 卡莱尔沃·尼西莱
other title: 白色驯鹿 / Valkoinen peura
The Finnish film 'White Reindeer' is marketed in the USA and Britain as a horror movie, but that's not precisely accurate. This is a stark, moody film but not a scary one. It purports to be an authentic Lapp folktale about a woman named Pirita who turns into a white reindeer in order to feed upon men.
This story has elements of both the vampire and the werewolf legend, as well as the succubus. Apart from reindeer being native to Lapland, I can't imagine why the reindeer was chosen as the species for this folktale's version of the shape-changer legend. Bats and wolves are predators, and therefore scary. The reindeer is a domesticated herbivore that serves humans ... not very spooky, is it? In one sequence, the were-reindeer woman sprouts fangs. Actual reindeer don't have fangs, so why should these be part of her transformation? Female reindeer have antlers, so why doesn't Pirita sprout antlers?
Speaking of superstitions and myths: early in this film, a black cat scurries across the path of an approaching sledge, but the director gives this so little emphasis that it appears to have no significance. In Cornwall, it's considered *good* luck to have a black cat cross one's path, and this same thing is considered *bad* luck in America. Do Lapps have any superstitions concerning black cats?
Mirjami Kuosmanen, the actress who plays the central role in this film, is quite pretty ... but her performance as a native of northern Lapland is weakened by the fact that she is clearly wearing makeup. Due to the low production budget, we never actually see Pirita changing into the reindeer ... but the director cleverly gets round this by having his leading lady lunge towards the camera, then cutting to a shot of a reindeer in the same position. Still, I was hoping we would see a shot of a woman's shadow changing shape ... or a series of human footprints in the snow abruptly becoming hoof-marks.
The Lapp landscape in this movie is starkly beautiful and awesome but never frightening. The photography is excellent. There are two impressive dissolve shots involving flames, and a splendid montage sequence. I was extremely impressed by a night sequence over a bonfire. During the Midnight Sun sequences, there are two shots featuring a weird colonnade of white pillars: these appear to be artefacts of the Lapp culture, but we never learn what they are. A sequence in which a carved vertrebra dances magically across a shaman's drum has an eerie pagan power that made me think of Nijinsky's staging of 'The Rites of Spring'.
My one complaint about this film -- a minor grievance -- is that we never learn the time period in which the main action occurs. These Laplanders possess milled coins, a rifle, and loomed curtains. One sequence takes place at a prayer service that is clearly Christian, featuring a minister in geneva bands. Are we watching scenes in the twentieth century, or some earlier time? I'll rate this moody, compelling (but not frightening) film 8 out of 10. Oh, my deer!
Feb. 1, 2026 watched
A folksy Nordic tale of a woman born a witch that learns of her shape-shifting powers later in life. Sadly, as is the case with most witchiness or shape-shiftery, they sure don't do her or her community any favors.
A really great watch!
own all the haunts be ours 2 blu-ray alone
Soultangler (1987) Douban IMDb TMDB
Soultangler
director: Pat Bishow actor: Tom Ciorciari / Pierre Devaux
other title: 失魂落魄 / The Soultangler
The mad scientist Anton Lupesky invents a drug that can free the souls of the users and allow them to posses the bodies of corpses. The horrible side effect is sometimes fatal hallucinations, that leave the survivors incurably mad.
The Enchanted (1984) IMDb TMDB
The Enchanted
director: Carter Lord actor: Julius Harris / Larry Miller
Royce Hagan returns from the sea to claim and inhabit a 2000 acre ranch in one of the last wild places left in central Florida. Old family friend Booker T Robertson is welcoming but warns him not to get "too close" to a strange family living in the woods nearby. Royce falls in love with Twyla, the oldest daughter, and discovers the bizarre secret of the Hole in the Wall and the enchanted people who live there.