mervyn-verstellung's - Rented List

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Some horror films have gained notoriety for their abhorrent imagery (Cannibal Holocaust) or were as scary to film as they are to watch (The Exorcist) but none have ever been cursed to the point that they have led to deaths in the real world.

Such is the case with 'Antrum', a film from the 1970's rumoured to have been lost, until now.

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Starring powerhouse performances from Guillaume Gallienne and Guillaume Canet and from Academy Award nominee writer/director Daniele Thompson, 'Cezanne et Moi' ls a stunning tale of friendship, love and envy.

When Paul Cezanne and Emile Zola became friends as boys, they shared everything; hopes, dreams, curiosity and doubts. One rich, one poor, they left for Paris where the art scene of 1860s Montmartre quickly enveloped them. As their careers took different directions, Cezanne as an unrecognised painter and Emile, whose fame, money and marriage moved from strength to strength, their friendship, philosophies and lives were pushed to the very boundaries of all they knew.

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Continuing Tageshige Ishise's J-Horror series, Masayuki Ochiai's Infection takes place in a dark, isolated hospital, where one nurse's mistake has led to dire consequences for a patient. The night crew decides to cover up the incident, hiding the evidence deep in the bowels of the institution.

Shortly thereafter, a patient is left at the hospital doors dying of inexplicable symptoms. The patient's death triggers off a deadly infection that seems to target only those staff involved in the cover up. As the infection spreads, so does the terror as one by one, the mysterious disease strikes them down.

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Rachel Weisz shines as Hester Collyer, a young woman leading a privileged life in 1950's London as the beautiful wife of high court judge Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell Beale).

To the shock of those around her, she leaves her husband for dashing young ex-RAF pilot Freddie Page (Tom Hiddleston), with whom she has fallen passionately in love.

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Public schoolmaster Andrew Crocker-Harris (Michael Redgrave) has become a bitter, disillusioned man.

Stuck in a loveless marriage with a wife Millie (Jean Kent) who openly cheats on him, the enthusiasm he once showed for his career and his pupils has long since vanished and The Crock' has become a figure of disdain among the students whose life he has made a misery. With ill-health forcing him to resign his long-standing post, a simple act of kindness from one boy has a profound impact on the seemingly heartless master.

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Mitsuko (Reina Triendl) is the sole survivor of a bizarre paranormal incident that kills all of her classmates. Running for her life, Mitsuko seemingly slips into an alternate reality, but death and chaos seems to follow her everywhere.

As Mitsuko finds herself in increasingly surreal and violent situations, the true horror behind her nightmare is revealed.

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Shinya Tsukamoto, the cult director of the cyberpunk Tetsuo series, presents an unnerving film about mental instability. Kotoko (singer-songwriter Cocco), a young single mother, lives alone with her baby son.

Suffering from an unknown illness that makes her see double - especially people - and not knowing which version of the person is real, it severely impacts her day-to-day life, often leading to her to lash out violently. As her situation worsens and she becomes a liability, her son is taken from her and put in the care of her sister. Kotoko is left alone with her own thoughts - and for a person with an already broken mind that is a very scary place indeed.

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After his father commits suicide, Rendy and his family travel home to look after his mother. Unbeknownst to him, his mother's health is failing, and they find her mysteriously unable to speak, lying in bed in a silent trance.

When Rendy's mother attacks his wife (Kelly Brook) and children unexpectedly, he starts to realise the truth: an evil is seeping through his home and family, and his mother is haunted by a terrifying dark magic. Determined to entrench fear into the hearts of the living, the demons embark on a horrific rampage of attacks. Inflicting terror upon all who face it, will the family survive the black magic and escape alive?

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Live-in nurse Maud (Morfydd Clark) arrives to help Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), a famous dancer now frail from illness in her grand, isolated house.

Amanda is intrigued by the religious young woman, distracting her from her failing health, and Maud is bewitched by her patient, but she is not what she seems...Tormented by a violent secret from her past and ecstatic messages she believes are from God, Maud becomes convinced she was sent to Amanda not as a nurse, but as a divine saviour. As her grip on reality weakens, Maud is determined to save Amanda's soul, by any means necessary.

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Travel to the Beauregard Hotel where the eccentric guests all share one common trait - loneliness.

There's Major Pollack (David Niven), who hides a dark secret behind a polished military veneer; Sibyl Railton-Bell (Deborah Kerr), a shy, neurotic old maid who lacks the courage to break away from her domineering mother; John Malcolm (Burt Lancaster), a disenchanted writer who drowns his bitterness in a pool of alcohol; and Ann Shankland (Rita Hayworth), whose narcissism masks a deep fear of growing old alone and unloved. In one emotional evening, these four unhappy misfits will bare their innermost secrets...and change each other's lives forever.

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Set in the early 1950's, the film charts an imagined chapter in the life of Jackson (Elisabeth Moss), who has recently become a literary sensation.

When her philandering professor husband (Michael Stuhlbarg) invites a newlywed couple into their home, the reclusive writer is forced to change her routine, which heightens tensions in their already tempestuous household. This change acts as a catalyst, sparking inspiration for the anxiety-prone writer. As she becomes enamoured with Rose (Odessa Young), her unsuspecting new muse, Shirley's obsession plunges her into a quasi-delirium, awakening a repressed femininity that could inspire her next masterpiece.

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Parisian department store Les Grandes Galeries is failing. In a last-ditch effort to save the 100-year-old store, the board hire Mr. Lepetit (Fabrice Luchini) and give him one year to turn things around.

He begins with the staff, a microcosm of French society, who must learn to believe in themselves and each other.

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Philandering concert pianist Stefan arrives home to find a letter which begins 'by the time you read this I may be dead'. So unfolds the story of Lisa, one of many woman with whom he had shared a brief encounter over the years and swiftly forgotten.

Her life has been spent loving him unfalteringly and now he would learn the truth about his past.

A long time ago in a distant fairy-tale countryside, a young girl Gretel (Sophia Lillis) leads her little brother Hansel (Sammy Leakey) into a dark wood in desperate search of food and work, only to stumble upon a nexus of terrifying evil.

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One of the greatest foreign language films ever made, Roberto Rossellini "Rome, Open City" was filmed in the direct aftermath of World War II on the war-ravaged streets of Italy.

Based on real events that took place in the Nazi-occupied Italy in 1944, it examines the choices that people are forced to make in wartime. Centring on the Resistance and its members, this is a tragic and emotional exploration of human spirit and the effects of war.