Eureka Classics is terrorized by BEASTS UNLEASHED (review)

From the fringe of 1950s Hollywood comes two low-budget sci-fi treats.  THE BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES terrorizes a family in the middle of the desert with attacks by birds, cows, dogs, and eventually possessed humans in this effort produced and partially directed by Roger Corman.  THE BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN is the real culprit behind cattle and human disappearances that have a cowboy and a rancher at each other's throats south of the border.

REVIEW LINK: Eureka Video (U.K.) Region B Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

BEASTS UNLEASHED Blu-ray specs:

• The Beast with a Million Eyes:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 Widescreen Presentations of the Theatrical Cut and the Extended Television Cut
• English LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English HoH Subtitles
• "Terror from Beyond the Stars" interview with science fiction expert Mark Bould
• Theatrical Trailer 
• The Beast of Hollow Mountain:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 Widescreen
• English LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English HoH Subtitles
• "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" interview with critic Kim Newman
• Theatrical Trailer 
• The first pressing comes with a limited O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Mute and booklet featuring new writing by genre film expert Christopher Stewardson on special effects artist Paul Blaisdell and The Beast with a Million Eyes and a new essay by film journalist Sean McGeady on Weird Westerns and The Beast of Hollow Mountain. 

Second Sight Films deduces THE NAME OF THE ROSE (review)

A Franciscan monk with a yen for logic and philosophy and his young novice seek out a human culprit for a series of brutal murders in a Northern Italy abbey when the brotherhood themselves suspect the Devil and want to summon the Holy Inquisition in this West German/French/Italian big-budget adaptation of Umberto Eco's bestselling novel starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater.

REVIEW LINK: Second Sight (U.K.) Region ALL 4K UltraHD/Region B Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

THE NAME OF THE ROSE 4K UltraHD/Blu-ray specs:

• 2160p24 HEVC Dolby Vision and 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 Widescreen Discs
• English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• Optional English SDH Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film historian James Marsh
• Audio Commentary by director Jean-Jacques Annaud
• "Charm of Humanity" interview with director Jean-Jacques Annaud
• "A Boy and His Dog" interview with actor Christian Slater
• "Bringing the Mustard" interview with actor Ron Perlman
• "Liquidating the Disk" interview with screenwriter Andrew Birkin
• "The Abbey of Crime: Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose" 1986 documentary 
• Comes in a rigid slipcase with new artwork by Liza Shumskaya and includes a 120-page book with new essays by Eugenio Ercolani and Gian Giacomo Petrone, Francesco Massaccesi, Sam Moore, Gregory Mucci, Dan Schindel, and Nadine Whitney, as well as six collectors' art cards.

Also available in separate standard edition 4K UltraHD and Blu-ray editions. 

Radiance Films and Transmission tune in to TWO BOXES: TELEVISED TERROR IN FRANCO'S SPAIN (review)

During General Franco's dictatorship in Spain, the public had veiled concerns of "disapperance" and passive disengagement explored to terrifying ends in two short television projects.  In LA CABINA, a middle-aged businessman becomes a public spectacle when he becomes trapped in a telephone box.  In EL TELEVISOR, a family man finally realizes his dream to own a color television set only to realize that it actually owns him in this short feature from Narcisco Ibanez Serrador (THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED, WHO CAN KILL A CHILD?).

REVIEW LINK: Radiance Films (U.K.) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

TWO BOXES: TELEVISED TERROR IN FRANCO'S SPAIN Blu-ray specs:

• La cabina (1972):
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 Pillarboxed Fullscreen
• Spanish LPCM 1.0 Mono
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by writers and film-makers Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton
• "Jose Luis Garci on La cabina" screenwriter interview
• "Antonio Mercero Santos on La cabina" location manager interview 
• El televisor (1974):
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 Pillarboxed Fullscreen
• Spanish LPCM 1.0 Mono
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by critics and horror experts Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons
• Interview with Spanish film expert Antonio Lazaro-Reboll
• 1999 Press Conference with Narciso Ibanez Serrandor promoting "El televisor" 
• Limited edition of 5,000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings, including an O-card and reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Justin Coffee, and booklet featuring new writing from Alex Mendibil and Paul Martinovic. 

Acorn Media and Lucy Lawless investigate MY LIFE IS MURDER: SERIES 5 (review)

Lucy Lawless plays a former detective who returns to Auckland to settle into a retirement baking sourdough bread only to keep getting involved in murder mysteries as a police consultant with her hacker friend and ex-con brother.

REVIEW LINK: Acorn Media (U.K.) Region 0 PAL DVD (DVDCompare)

MY LIFE IS MURDER - SERIES 5 DVD specs:

• Eight episodes on two dual-layer DVDs
• 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 Widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
• Optional English HoH Subtitles 

Arrow Video will never leave THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS (review)

THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS' Lino Capolicchio is an art restorer called to a remote village in the Po Valley to restore a rotting fresco that depicts a macabre rendition of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and gradually discovers that something is very wrong in the village related to the fresco's mysterious painter in this rural giallo from ZEDER director Pupi Avati.

REVIEW LINK: Arrow Video (U.S.) Region A Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 Widescreen
• Italian LPCM 1.0 Mono
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by critics Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson
• Audio Commentary by critics Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth
• "Painted Screams" 2025 documentary by Federico Caddeo featuring interviews with co-writer/director Pupi Avati, co-writer Antonio Avati, assistant director Cesare Bastelli, actors Lino Capolicchio, Fancesca Marciano, Giulio Pizzirani, and Pietro Brambilla, production designer Luciana Morosetti, assistant camera operation Toni Scaramuzza, sound mixer Enrico Blasi, and Emanuele Taglietti (son of assistant production designer Otello Taglietti (94 minutes)
• "La Casa e Sola" visual essay by critic Chris Alexander
• "The Art of Suffering" visual essay by critic Kat Ellinger
• Italian Theatrical Trailer 

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Cult Epics exposes the smutty letters of P.O. TINTO BRASS in 4K (review)

Having built up a reputation as a master of erotica, director Tinto Brass is inundated daily with letters, photos, and videos charting the erotic imaginations of his female fans.  With his sexy secretary, he probes these fantasies in search of inspiration in this erotic anthology film.

REVIEW LINK: Cult Epics (U.S.) Region ALL 4K UltraHD/Region A Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

P.O. BOX TINTO BRASS 4K UltraHD/Blu-ray specs:

• Disc One (4K UltraHD):
• 2160p24 HEVC 1.85:1 Widescreen (HDR10)
• Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
• Optional English Subtitles
• English Subtitles for scenes never dubbed into English
• Audio Commentary by film historians Troy Howarth, Jeremy Richey, Nathaniel Thompson, Eugenio Ercolani, and Heather Drain
• Theatrical Trailer 
• Disc Two (Blu-ray):
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 Widescreen
• Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
• Optional English Subtitles
• English Subtitles for scenes never dubbed into English
• Audio Commentary by film historians Troy Howarth, Jeremy Richey, Nathaniel Thompson, Eugenio Ercolani, and Heather Drain
• Interview with director Tinto Brass
• Image Gallery
• Theatrical Trailer 
• Comes with a 20-page booklet and slipcover.

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Also available from AMAZON in a Blu-ray single-disc edition.

Also available directly from CULT EPICS with a website-exclusive alternate slipcover, four lobby card reproductions, and a bonus disc featuring the documentary ISTINTOBRASS. 

Deaf Crocodile tucks us in for DEFA FAIRY TALES (review)

After World War II, West Germany embraced capitalist ideals and Hollywood-style cinema while Soviet-controlled East Germany took a Utopian approach to their cinema through DEFA studio using film to instill communist ideals including fairy tales whose moral lessons stressed the value of hard work and the corruption of greed with familiar-yet-unfamiliar tellings of SNOW WHITE and LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD along with the less-familiar stateside MOTHER HULDA in which a put-upon stepdaughter dives into a well to retrieve a lost spindle and finds herself high above in the clouds, THE DEVIL'S THREE GOLDEN HAIRS in which a young man travels to Hell to trick the devil in order to win the hand of a princess and save his death-ridden village, and SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED in which two sisters fight an evil mountain spirit to free the princes they love from a curse.

REVIEW LINK: Deaf Crocodile (U.S.) Region A Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

DEFA Fairy Tales Blu-ray specs:

• Disc One:
• Snow White:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 Pillarboxed Fullscreen
• German DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film historian Samm Deighan 
• Mother Hulda:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.37:1 Pillarboxed Fullscreen
• German DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
• Optional English and English SDH Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film historian Michael Brooke 
• Disc Two:
• Little Red Riding Hood:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.36:1 Pillarboxed Fullscreen
• German DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
• Optional English and English SDH Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film historians Shelagh Rowen-Lagg and Anne Golden 
• Disc Three:
• The Devil's Three Golden Hairs:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 Widescreen
• German DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
• Optional English and English SDH Subtitles 
• Disc Four:
• Snow White and Rose Red:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.37:1 Pillarboxed Fullscreen
• German DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
• Optional English and English SDH Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film historian Samm Deighan 
• "Socialist Fantasies, the Bros. Grimm and DEFA Studios: Fairytale Filmmaking in East Germany" visual essay by film historian Evan Chester
• Interview with comics artist, film historian, and author Stephen R. Bissette by Deaf Crocodile's Dennis Bartok (94 minutes)

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