ARROW'S TOP TWENTY OF TWENTY TWENTY
So. 2020 eh? Wow. Er. Hmmmm.
Well, it wasn't the best year was it? But you know what got us through it here at ARROW? Films. We all watched a disgusting amount of films. New and old. You think you've seen a lot? Well, let us tell you something, we doubt that. Our retinas have been scarred with the shapes and delights of countless absolute insanely good movies and by pure circumstance they are all on ARROW! Yes we at ARROW love every tiny thing about ARROW - It is us that are picking all these films coming your way you know, not some big, scary, maybe-becoming self-aware AI based system tHat usEs an aLgorithm to Perfectly select 'content' for yoU baSed on your behaviour. That would be insane!
Anyway, the team here all went away and we have selected 20 of the best titles on the platform this year. Boy, was it hard to get it down to 20. But we went away, drew up our lists, fought, made up, fought again, shouted, made back up and then bring you these incredible titles that we feel are simply the best of 2020.
Let's try and make 2021 a bit better though yeah?
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Tetsuo - The Iron Man
A strange man known only as the "metal fetishist", who seems to have an insane compulsion to stick scrap metal into his body, is hit and possibly killed by a Japanese "salaryman", out for a drive with his girlfriend. The salaryman then notices that he is being slowly overtaken by some kind of dis...
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Lake Michigan Monster
All aboard! The combined spirits of H.P. Lovecraft, early Sam Raimi and Mystery Science Theater 3000 inhabit this action-packed tale of nautical derring-do and monster mayhem - winner of the Audience Award for Best International Feature at the 2019 Fantasia Film Festival. On the shores of Lake Mi...
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Gamera 2: Attack of Legion
One year after the events of the previous Gamera film, Earth's ecosystem is under attack by an insect lifeform from outer space bent on colonizing our world. As the city of Sendai is destroyed, Gamera must protect the planet from the monster Legion and gets some help from Japan's Self Defense For...
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The El Duce Tapes
In the early 90s, aspiring filmmaker (and General Hospital co-star) Ryan Sexton lugged a giant camcorder into some of the seediest clubs and filthiest apartments in Hollywood. There he filmed hour upon hour of VHS footage of the jaw-droppingly offensive Shock Rock band The Mentors, focusing on th...
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The Happiness Of The Katakuris
2002 ･ Japan ･ Directed by Takashi Miike
From Takashi Miike, the prolific director of such shocking hits including Audition and Ichi the Killer comes “The Sound of Music meets Dawn of the Dead”!
The Katakuri family run a peaceful country inn at the foot of Mount Fuji. A little more peaceful th...
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Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion
1972 • Japan • Directed by Shun'ya Itô
After being used and betrayed by the detective she had fallen in love with, young Matsu is sent to a female prison full of sadistic guards and disobedient prisoners.
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Mako: The Jaws of Death
A man accidentally learns that he has a mystical connection with sharks, and is given a strange medallion by a shaman. Becoming more and more alienated from normal society, he develops an ability to communicate with sharks telepathically, setting out to destroy anybody who harms sharks. People en...
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The Woman
Almost a decade after Lucky McKee burst upon the indie horror scene and became a 'Master of Horror' in the making thanks to his directorial debut May, he teamed up with legendary cult author Jack Ketchum for his most shocking and brutal film to date: The Woman, an instant cause célèbre on its Sun...
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The Bloodhound
First-time feature director Patrick Picard brings a fresh take to one of the best-known stories from the master of mystery and the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, in his new slow-burner horror-thriller The Bloodhound, a hauntingly atmospheric tale described by The Holly...
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Deadbeat At Dawn
Written by, directed by and starring Van Bebber, Deadbeat follows the story of Goose - a gang leader whose girlfriend is brutally slaughtered when he attempts to leave the thug life behind. Pulled back into the gang, who've now formed an uneasy alliance with the thugs that butchered his girl, Goo...
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The Deeper You Dig
2019 • United States • Directed by John Adams and Toby Poser
Themes of family, loss and survival intersect on the thin line that separates the living from the dead in 'The Deeper You Dig', the latest feature written, directed by and starring filmmaking family the Adams Family ('Knuckle Jack', 'R...
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Scary Movie
Never legitimately distributed until this very moment, SCARY MOVIE is a joyous horror triumph starring Academy Award© nominee John Hawkes (EASTBOUND AND DOWN). On Halloween night, big-time nerd Warren (Hawkes, channeling a mix of Buster Keaton and Crispin Glover) attends a spookhouse in a small T...
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Brain Damage
Meet Elmer. He’s your local, friendly parasite with the ability to induce euphoric hallucinations in his hosts. But these LSD-like trips come with a hefty price tag. When young Brian comes under Elmer’s addictive spell, it’s not long before he finds himself scouring the city streets in search of ...
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Audition
2001 · Japan · Directed by Takashi Miike
One of the most notorious J-horror films ever made, Takashi Miike’s Audition exploded onto the festival circuit at the turn of the century to a chorus of awards and praise. The film would catapult Miike to the international scene and pave the way for such...
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Who Killed Captain Alex?
Welcome to Wakaliwood, Uganda: home of “DA BEST OF DA BEST MOVIES!” and the vanguards of DIY commando cinema. Under the guidance of writer/producer/director Nabwana Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey (IGG) and with producer/star Alan Ssali Hofmanis, this crack crew of self-taught filmmakers and martial arts ...
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Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway
What do you get when you cross Afro-futurism, Cold War paranoia, the dystopian world of Philip K. Dick and 60s exploitation cinema, along with a hefty dose of Lynchian surrealism? The answer: 'Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway', the second feature by Miguel Llanso ('Crumbs') and one of the m...
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We Are the Flesh
A visionary and bizarre slice of Mexican arthouse cinema, We Are the Flesh is an extraordinary and unsettling film experience, a sexually charged and nightmarish journey into an otherworldly dimension of carnal desire and excess, as well as a powerful allegory on the corrupting power of human des...
