ARENA (1989) shown from vintage VHS

• Director: Peter Manoogian
• Cast: Paul Satterfield, Hamilton Camp, Claudia Christian, Armin Shimerman
• 1989 | Film: 97mins | USA | Event: 20:45 – 23:10 | [18+]

“Tonight… Championship Grudge Match… Man Vs Monster!”

In the far future, a human becomes an unlikely rising star in the biggest fighting tournament in the galaxy.

Known affectionately as ‘ROCKY in space’, this sci-fi brawler rose like a phoenix from the financial flames that engulfed Charles Band’s B-movie studio, Empire Pictures, when it closed. 

ARENA is a spectacularly enjoyable sci-fi action adventure yarn from the same director (Peter Manoogian) and writing partnership (Paul De Meo and Danny Bilson) as a previous Bar Trash favourite, ELIMINATORS. It also features stunning alien designs, with work from rubbery SFX maestros, Screaming Mad George (SOCIETY) and Steve Wang (HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN).

Despite money problems scaling-back production and sending ARENA direct-to-video, this is a rare occasion when the finished picture more than matches the promise of the poster. We’re showing ARENA from a vintage, ex-rental VHS tape*.

“ARENA succeeds as a sci-fi adventure with all the trimmings: excellent special effects, a good score, marvellous alien creatures, likeable characters, and entertaining fight sequences.”

Dave Jay, Empire Of The Bs

*Polite notice: Our Bar Trash VHS titles do not have subtitles or captions and may encounter technical problems during playback (we have backup discs if needed).

Bar Trash is a celebration of cult and curious cinema, hosted by queer film fanatic, Token Homo. Films served with themed drinks, introductions, intermissions, prize giveaways, and subtitles/captions (where possible). Tickets £3.