By James Whittington, 25th February 2023
THE VINTAGE VAULT continues to haunt Sunday nights with its popular classic genre double-bills, headed up this month by the Channel premiere of Sidney Hayers' notorious British cult classic, CIRCUS OF HORRORS.
Here's what the VINTAGE VAULT has lined-up for March:
March the 5th brings sci-fi shudders to your screens starting with THE MONOLITH MONSTERS. A meteor crashes in the desert, leaving behind huge black chunks. While being analysed in a science lab, the crystalline stones are accidentally drenched with water and begin to grow to gargantuan dimensions. A sudden rainstorm further exacerbates the situation, causing the monoliths to grow to hitherto unimagined heights. Can the world be saved by the saline solution which the scientists are hurriedly developing in the lab? This is followed by an invisible enemy in FIEND WITHOUT A FACE. A scientist's thoughts materialize as an army of invisible brain-shaped monsters (complete with spinal-cord tails!) who terrorize an American military base in this nightmarish chiller. This independently made British black-and-white cult classic was directed by Arthur Crabtree and stars Marshall Thompson, Kynaston Reeves, Michael Balfour, and Kim Parker.
The following Sunday will have you grabbing your crucifix as Hammer's DRACULA is first on. On a search for his missing friend, Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen), vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) is led to Count Dracula's (Christopher Lee) castle, where he finds an undead Harker in Dracula's crypt and discovers that the count's next target is Harker's ailing fiancee, Lucy Holmwood (Carol Marsh). With the help of her brother, Arthur (Michael Gough), Van Helsing is determined to protect Lucy and put an end to Count Dracula's parasitic reign of terror. We follow this with a drive-in classic, THE BLOB. Two teenagers, Steve (Steven McQueen) and his best girl, Jane (Aneta Corseaut), notice a shooting star fall to earth, destroying an elderly man and growing to a terrifying size. The blob continues to grow, killing many, until the teenagers, with the aid, of policeman Dave (Earl Rowe) discover a way to stop it.
More classic chills from Hammer on the 19th, this time we have the horror all wrapped-up in THE MUMMY. In 1895 Egypt, a team of British archaeologists led by John Banning, opens the tomb of Princess Ananka, despite warnings of a death curse which will fall upon any desecrators. Three years later in England, a vengeful Egyptian man arrives and unleashes the living mummy Kharis on the men. This superior Hammer Films production reunites the director, Terence Fisher, with stars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. After this you get a chance to meet the FIRST MAN INTO SPACE. Brash U.S. Navy test pilot, Lieutenant Dan Prescott, hungry for fame, rockets himself beyond Earth's atmosphere on test flight Y-13, only to become encrusted with cosmic dust and return to earth as a blood-drinking monster. Directed by Robert Day, it stars Marshall Thompson, Marla Landi, Bill Edwards, and Robert Ayres.
The Channel Premiere of CIRCUS OF HORRORS kicks of our final VINTAGE VAULT for March. A deranged plastic surgeon (Anton Diffring) takes over a traveling circus, then transforms horribly disfigured young women into ravishing beauties and coerces them to perform in his three-ring extravaganza. But when the re-sculpted lovelies try to escape, they begin to meet with sudden and horrific accidents. "The Grisliest Show on Earth" is about to begin. Donald Pleasence and Yvonne Monlaur co-star in this notorious 1960 British cult classic from director Sidney Hayers. Our final movie for the month is a true classic, 13 GHOSTS. When occultist Dr Plato Zorba leaves a huge ramshackle house to his nephew Cyrus and his impoverished family, they are shocked to find the house is haunted. Their new residence comes complete with Doctor Zorba's housekeeper, Elaine Zacharides, plus a fortune in buried treasure and twelve horrifying ghosts. However, there is someone in the house who is also looking for the money and is willing to kill for it...This infectious supernatural horror is directed by William Castle and stars Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow, Rosemary DeCamp, Martin Milner and Donald Woods.
Related show tags: DRACULA, THE MUMMY, THE MONOLITH MONSTERS, THE BLOB, FIEND WITHOUT A FACE, FIRST MAN INTO SPACE, CIRCUS OF HORRORS, 13 GHOSTS MORE FEATURES Carpenter, Verhoeven, Winner and Neil Marshall lead LEGEND charge of Channel premieres in April Posted on 29th March 2025
Some of the our most iconic films will receive their Channel premieres on LEGEND this April, including John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, starring Kurt Russell, Micheal Winner's DEATH WISH, starring Charles Bronson, Paul Verhoeven's BASIC INSTINCT, starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, and Neil Marshal's CENTURION, starring Michael Fassbender and Dominic West.
Other premieres include Brit revenge crime thriller VENDETTA, starring Danny Dyer, and John Badham's DROP ZONE, in which Wesley Snipes freefalls into new heights of crime-fighting.
Plus, LEGEND presents six classic afternoon 'matinee' premieres, including the celebrated 1976 version of KING KONG,...
LEGEND will take you on an exhilarating ride in March with ten channel premieres Posted on 27th February 2025
It's starry thrills all the way on LEGEND this March with ten channel premieres - from Terence Young's THE JIGSAW MAN, starring Michael Caine and Lawrence Olivier, Nick Love's THE SWEENEY, starring Ray Winstone and Damian Lewis, to Taylor Hackford's PARKER, starring Jennifer Lopez and Jason Statham.
Statham also pops up as a cage-fighting ex-cop in Boaz Yakim's high-octane SAFE, whilst Jean-Claude Van Damme kickboxes his way out of trouble in LIONHEART and Denzil Washington and Mark Wahlberg are all guns blazing in buddy cop action comedy 2 GUNS.
Other adrenaline-fuelled premieres include action Western THE KID, starring Eithan Hawke, undersea drama STEEL SHARK...
LEGEND reveals action-packed line-up of Channel premieres for February 2025 Posted on 28th January 2025
From Stephen Soderbergh's revenge-tinged actioner HAYWIRE, starring a kick-ass Gina Carano, to Michael Apted's London-set spy-thriller UNLOCKED, starring a gun-toting Noomi Rapace, and Tony Maylam's futuristic sci-fi horror gem SPLIT SECOND, starring serial killer hunter Rutger Hauer, LEGEND has scheduled ten nail-biting Channel premieres for a full-on February schedule.
Other adrenaline-fuelled premieres include action thrillers THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY, starring Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver, BLACK EAGLE, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, BORN TO RAISE HELL, starring Steven Seagal and ROGUE, starring Megan Fox. British crime thrillers this month include the Channel premieres for WELCOME TO ...
LEGEND kicks off the New Year with thrilling round of premieres! Posted on 17th December 2024
From cult classics like Roy Ward Baker's LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES to legendary director Walter Hill's BULLET TO THE HEAD and Sacha Bennett's WE STILL STEAL THE OLD WAY, LEGEND has scheduled eleven channel premieres in January to kick off the New Year in thrilling fashion.
Other premieres include the classic mercenary thriller THE WILD GEESE, starring screen legends Richard Burton, Roger Moore and Richard Harris, sci-fi actioner LOOPER, starring Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt, sniper thriller DEADLY TARGET, crime drama EMPIRE STATE, starring Liam Hemsworth and Dwayne, biographical disaster movie DEEPWATER HORIZON, high-octane action thriller WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE, British ...
LEGEND unwraps sixteen premieres for December Posted on 26th November 2024
LEGEND unwraps sixteen channel premieres for December, filling the festive season with top-class thrillers, chillers and action-hitters, including Fred Zinnemann's 1973 classic THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, Robert Rodrigues' star-packed Machete sequel MACHETE KILLS (Lady Gaga, Mel Gibson), Michael Noer's gripping remake of PAPILLON (2017), the deadly diamond heist MOMENTUM, starring Oleg Kurylenko and the superb techno-thriller LIMITLESS, starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro. De Niro also stars in RIGHTEOUS KILL, alongside Al Pacino.
During the month, Hollywood's most-celebrated muscle men are in crime-thrilling action, including Steven Seagal in DRIVEN TO KILL and BEYOND THE LAW, Dolph Lundgren a...
LEGEND reveals a bumper sixteen premieres for November Posted on 27th October 2024
Sixteen action-packed Channel premieres light up LEGEND this November, including a double-dose of weird, stylish and depraved action with CRANK, starring Jason Statham and Any Smart, who both team up again for the sequel CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE. There are also two of legendary director Sidney Lumet's films - the intense crime saga FAMILY BUSINESS, starring Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick and his critically acclaimed crime-legal drama Q & A, starring Nick Nolte and Timothy Hutton.
Plus, there are first showings for John Irvin's underrated Vietnam war drama HAMBURGER HILL, Peter Berg's PATRIOTS DAY, based on the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, Brad Furman's slick Hollywood thriller RUNNER RUNNER,...
LEGEND reveals ten action-packed premieres for October Posted on 24th September 2024
Ten action-packed Channel premieres blast onto LEGEND this October, including Michael Mann's virtuoso cat-and-mouse thriller HEAT, starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, Steven Soderbergh's cult crime comedy OUT OF SIGHT, starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, Adrian Lyne's erotic thriller UNFAITHFUL, starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane, David Fincher's dangerous mystery thriller THE GAME, starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn and John Badham's cop action comedy THE HARD WAY, starring Michael J. Fox and James Woods.
Other primetime channel premieres are action thrillers DAYLIGHT, starring Sylvester Stallone, THE ENFORCER, starring Antonio Banderas and Kate Bosworth, Western THE VIRGINIAN, starring Ron Perlman, da...
LEGEND reveals ten epic premieres for September Posted on 29th August 2024
Ten epic adventures have their Channel Premieres this September, including the star-studded neo-noir thriller L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, Jim Mickle's twisty crime thriller COLD IN JULY, John G. Avidsen's powerful South African drama THE POWER OF ONE, John Amiel's masterful psychological mystery ENTRAPMENT, starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Robert Aldrich's classic violent Western ULZANA'S RAID starring Burt Lancaster.
Other primetime channel premieres are action thrillers CROSS THE LINE, starring Michelle Barton and Luke Goss, ASSAULT ON STATION 33, starring Weston Cage Coppola (Nicolas Cage's son), THE HUNTED, starring Christopher Lambert, THE NEGIOT...
LEGEND reveals Saturday night slate of premieres for August Posted on 27th July 2024
Saturday nights on LEGEND in August feature a slate of action thrillers including BUSHWICK, starring Dave Bautista, ARMED RESPONSE, starring Wesley Snipes and NIGHT HUNTER, starring Henry Cavill, Stanley Tucci and Ben Kingsley. Plus, there is epic adventure EDGE OF THE WORLD, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and psychological mystery thriller BACKTRACK, starring Adrian Brody and Sam Neill.
Also, the cult fantasy/science fiction anthology series THE TWILIGHT ZONE, continues on Saturday and Sunday nights with the Channel premiere of Season 3.
Here's everything you need to know.
Residing in the world of fantasy and science fiction, THE TWILIGHT ZONE has become the role model for TV anthologies, brilli...
PICK OF THE WEEK
