cautionary tale
20 items

Talk to Me
When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.

Requiem for a Dream
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.

Richard Jewell
Richard Jewell thinks quick, works fast, and saves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives after a domestic terrorist plants several pipe bombs and they explode during a concert, only to be falsely suspected of the crime by sloppy FBI work and sensational media coverage.

The Bay
Two million fish washed ashore. One thousand blackbirds dropped from the sky. On July 4, 2009 a deadly menace swept through the quaint seaside town of Claridge, Maryland, but the harrowing story of what happened that Independence Day has never been told—until now. The authorities believed they had buried the truth about the tragedy that claimed over 700 human lives. Now, three years later, a reporter has emerged with footage revealing the cover-up and an unimaginable killer: a mysterious parasitic outbreak. Told from the perspective of those who were there and saw what happened, The Bay unfolds over 24 hours through people's iPhones, Androids, 911 calls, webcams, and whatever else could be used to document the nightmare in Claridge. What follows is a nerve-shredding tale of a small town plunged into absolute terror.

Caterpillar
Endlessly struggling to feel seen, David becomes infatuated with a mysterious company's promise to transform people's lives by permanently changing the color of their eyes. After traveling to India to get the controversial procedure, he begins to question if this artificial beauty will give him the fulfillment he truly seeks.

Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical
From an ominous Lecturer, a small 1930s middle American community learns of the Harper Affair, in which young Jimmy Harper finds his life of promise turn into a life of debauchery and murder thanks to the new drug menace marijuana. Along the way, he receives help from his girlfriend Mary and Jesus Himself, but always finds himself in the arms of the Reefer Man and the rest of the denizens of the Reefer Den.

Co-ed Call Girl
Thanks to a roommate's practical joke, bookish college student Joanna Halbert finds herself signed up with a Malibu-based escort service which promises her big money and an easy ride. Instead, she becomes entangled in a web of corruption, sleaze, and violence.

Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker
A rebellious 17-year-old girl ignores parental advice and joins her friends as a beach-bound regular on the local hitchhiking circuit, being picked up, ultimately, by a homicidal maniac.

Street of Forgotten Women
For those who thought "Reefer Madness" was the first exploitation movie you'll be interested to know that the genre was alive and well during the silent era. "Street of Forgotten Women" is the usual potboiler about a rich girl who is disowned by her father when she decides she wants a career in show business. After sinking her money in a stage production which immediately flops, she's forced to try and earn a living dancing in a saloon in her underwear. Even worse, she is forced into prostitution in a slum apartment that just happens to be owned by HER FATHER!!!!!

Coming Back for More
Funk legend Sly Stone disappeared from the limelight for more than 20 years. Musicians and the media tried to find the recluse but failed. In 2005 Willem Alkema started searching for Sly. Sly didn't want to be found or filmed, but Willem didn't give up and finally followed Sly in his first steps on stage in decades.

On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone
One man's search for the prolific funk legend, Sly Stone.

Fisher
In the small town of Eden, Tennessee, a neglected and naive teenage girl named Clara Banks has made a habit of deceiving people online for gifts, a gambit known as "catfishing." She thinks it's all fun and games until she hooks the attention of the wrong person. A short time later, events set into motion spiral out of control as someone begins stalking Clara and her friends. As the consequences of her actions return to haunt her, twisted messages start showing up at Clara's home, causing her to fear for her life. Will she ever feel safe again now that the evil has come knocking?

Subject: Narcotics
Educational film about drug addiction.

Capture
Following an awards ceremony, the ungrateful winner encounters an eager photographer who seems determined to get the perfect shot.
Etharnel! The Fire Monkey!
A traumatized teen who mutates into a half-human, half-monkey creature during a ruthless global war is forced to flee for his life. Hunted by militaries from every nation and stalked by three mysterious demonic entities with their own sinister agendas, he finds unexpected hope when a teenage girl and her old friends risk everything to help him hide, survive, and reclaim his humanity. Will the mutated monkey-boy survive long enough to tell his own story... or will one of the two forces hunting him-the armies fueled by fear, or the demons fueled by hatred-catch him first? There's only one way to know... See the story, Watch the fall, Witness the rise... if he gets one. "Etharnel!: The Fire Monkey"

Drug Addiction
Marty, a "good boy," experiments with marijuana and experiences "profound mental and emotional disturbances." As in all anti-drug films of this vintage, marijuana leads straight to "H," and Marty's decline continues until he is busted, rehabbed and reformed. Drug Addiction's stilted view of the urban drug culture and unrealistic portrayals of stoned slackers make it entertaining viewing today. It belongs to that little-known "second wave" of anti-drug films, the postwar scare stories about middle-class kids overcome by junkiedom. What this wave of films reveals is that drugs were an issue for white adolescents long before the psychedelic Sixties, and that the official response to the threat expressed a general, not specifically targeted paranoia.

...So I Took It!
Anti-shoplifting film co-produced by Sid Davis and Motorola.

Alcohol Is Dynamite
A carload of teenagers wants to buy some liquor, but the clerk at the liquor store won't sell them any because they're underage. They stop a pedestrian outside the store and ask if he'll buy them liquor. He proceeds to tell them a story about some teenagers he knew who drank and drove, and the consequences they suffered.

Storia di Filomena e Antonio: Gli anni '70 e la droga a Milano
Documentary on the penetration of drugs in Milan in the 70s. Filomena is only 24 years old and recounts with a lucidity that takes her breath away her journey as a child locked up in boarding school, ran away from home, taken back by her family and treated as a lost woman. She talks about her marriage to a boy who emigrated to Germany, and her inability to adapt to this new situation. She narrates the arrival in Milan, the meeting with Antonio and the one with drugs. A dialogue for two voices traces the ruthless picture of drug addiction, the daily search for the dose and the attempts to get out of it. It is a poignant document, above all for the lucidity, measure, maturity and intelligence of two unforgettable figures.

All My Tomorrows
A Centron Film presentation, produced by Gordon-Kerchoff, this color film is about a teenage girl who overdoses on alcohol and pills, and winds up in a coma, opens with the girl recovering in a hospital bed. This scare film from 1979 is essentially a public service announcement on the dangers of getting involved in drugs and the horrible effects that using drugs and overdosing can have on an individual and their loved ones.