SPAMFLIX: Duffner And Duarte’s Celebrated Cult Film Platform Launches Mobile And Smart TV App

With the Coronavirus leaving movie theaters unoccupied and consumers quarantined at home, cult film brand Spamflix officially launched its own mobile and smart TV-compatible VOD platform app on Tuesday.

Spamflix originally launched in 2018 by Locarno Film Fest project manager Markus Duffner, and former film fest producer at São Paulo, Julia Duarte. The banner grew immense popularity from coverage by sites like Forbes and Geek Spin, dubbed by the latter as “Netflix for cult film fans”.

Described as “a treasure trove for cult film enthusiasts with a specialty focus on black comedy and adult animation”, Spamflix is host to a library comprised of rare genre titles, many of which garnered acclaim on the festival circuit only to land without significant distribution.

As of Tuesday, both website and app users can rent individual films for 72 hours for the uniform price of $5 USD, or acquire multiple titles in a Film Pack deal, with special discounts and a Free Film Coupon to newly registered users until May 22, 2020. This includes full catalog access to a wide range of feature and short films from around the globe which you can check out at the bottom of the article.

“With the app we aim to reach a larger audience through a variety of devices, all offering the same catalogue and attention to showcasing cult and genre cinema that Spamflix excels in,” says Duffner. “However, when we planned this months ago we couldn’t have accounted for the current worldwide situation, and hope that releasing it now helps those stuck indoors to pass their days more pleasantly.”

The Spamflix app is available for iOS, Android, AirPlay and Chromecast. Read the announcement further below, and visit the official Spamflix website, or check out Google Play or the Apple Store to suit your needs.

Spamflix’s diverse library, which includes film categories like Black Comedy, Crime, Nonsense, WTF Did I Just Watch? And the timely #staythefuckhome tag, contains festival hits such as Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra’s Good Manners (Winner – Best Directors, Locarno 2017), and films by notable cult filmmakers such as Alex Cox, Denis Côté (who each have retrospectives specially curated by Spamflix on the platform), Sion Sono, Quentin Dupieux, Peter Strickland, Davide Manuli, Yeon Sang-ho and Hitoshi Matsumoto.

Recent additions include acclaimed art-house erotic fantasy The Wild Boys by Bertrand Mandico, surreal Ethiopian sci-fi Crumbs by Miguel Llansó, Ten Animated Stories, a collection by Signe Baumane, festival darling For Some Inexplicable Reason by Gábor Reisz, comedic mockumentary Burning Love by Alberto Caviglia and Shugo Fujii’s mutant J-horror Mimicry Freaks.

Additional titles to come include: Neurotic Quest for Serenity dir. Teodoro Poppovic Paulinho Caruso (21/05), In the Crosswind dir. Martti Helde (June), Thee Wreckers Tetralogy dir. Rosto (July), Occidental dir. Neïl Beloufa (July) and fantasy debut and Fanastic Fest and Sitges 2019 selection Cosmic Candy dir. Rinio Dragasaki (September).

Spamflix is also proud to offer special short film programs from partnering festivals. Currently available in the library is the Fantasia Shorts Programme 2019, a collection of Quebecois shorts from the celebrated genre fest in Montreal, the Trieste Science + Fiction Shorts Programme, curated by the internationally acclaimed Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, and shorts from the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, with upcoming slates from NIFFF (May 14th), Fantastic Fest (May 28th), Lund Fantastik Film Fest (June 11th), Phenomena Film Fest (June 25th), and Morbido Film Festival shorts (TBD), BIFFF (TBD), Maskoon Fantastic FF (TBD) and Court Métrange (2021).

With over 50 films on the platform for each region, and more being added every month, below is a spotlight selection of titles for the US, Canada, and UK, in addition to recent additions available in multiple territories, including The Anooki, a block of french Animation shorts from David Passegand and Moetu Batlle, Old Man Cartoon Movie, by Oskar Lehemaa and Mikk Mägi, and Bruno Aleixo’s Film, by João Moreira & Pedro Santo.

•Available in the USA

Crumbs (2015)
Dir. Miguel Llansó

Curling (2010)
Dir. Denis Côté + a selected retrospective on the director

Fish & Cat (2013)
Dir. Shahram Mokri

For Some Inexplicable Reason (2014)
Dir. Gabor Reisz

France is a Gas (2015)
Dir. Benoit Forgeard

Gandu (2010)
Dir. Q

The Legend of Kaspar Hauser (2010)
Dir. Davide Manuli

Liza the Fox-Fairy (2015)
Dir. Károly Ujj Mészáros

Scabbard Samurai (2010)
Dir. Hitoshi Matsumoto

And animated short films by Signe Baumane

•Available in Canada

The ABCs of Death 1 & 2 (2012 & 2014)
Anthology

Carcasses (2009)
Dir. Denis Côté + a selected retrospective on the director

Good Manners (2017)
Dir. Marco Dutra & Juliana Rojas

How to Get Rid of the Others (2007)
Dir. Anders Rønnow Klarlund

Love & Other Cults (2017)
Dir. Eiji Uchida

Symbol (2009)
Dir. Hitoshi Matsumoto

The Whispering Star (2015)
Dir. Sion Sono

The Wild Boys (2017)
Dir. Bertrand Mandico

Wrong Cops (2013)
Dir. Quentin Dupieux

•Available in the UK

The Bra (2018)
Dir. Veit Helmer

Cold Fish (2010)
Dir. Sion Sono + seven-film retrospective and documentary

Death by Death (2016)
Dir. Xavier Seron

The Fake (2013)
Dir. Yeon Sang-ho

Fish & Cat (2013)
Dir. Shahram Mokri

The Legend of Kaspar Hauser (2010)
Dir. Davide Manuli

Ruined Heart: Another Lovestory Between a Criminal & a Whore (2014)
Dir. Khavn

Suffering of Ninko (2016)
Dir. Norihiro Niwatsukino

Straight to Hell Returns (2010)
Dir. Alex Cox + five film retrospective

The Wild Boys (2017)
Dir. Bertrand Mandico