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29 March 2018

Kino Lorber falls in love in PORTO (Review)

In Anton Yelchin's final film, he plays an American expatriate who shares an intense night of lovemaking with a French archaeology student that ends on bad terms.  Years later, they are haunted by their time together and their separately reflections on the events reveal regret and loss.

REVIEW LINK: Kino Lorber (US) Region A Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

PORTO Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 and 1.37:1 pillarboxed widescreen
  • English/Portuguese/French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 stereo
  • Optional English, English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles
  • Audio Commentary by director Gabe Klinger
  • "Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater" documentary (70 minutes)
  • Making-of
  • Outtakes
  • Portuguese News Report
  • Super 8mm Footage with unused Chantal Akerman narration
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Booklet by Michael Sicinski

Kino Lorber ventures NOWHERE IN AFRICA (review)

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, NOWHERE IN AFRICA is the story of a Jewish family to flee the Nazis to Kenya where their new existence is threatened by wartime persecution of German refugees as enemy aliens and husband and wife growing apart.

REVIEW LINK: Kino Lorber (US) Region A Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

NOWHERE IN AFRICA Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen
  • German/Swahili/English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo
  • Optional English subtitles
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Interviews:
    • Caroline Link, Peter Herrmann and Stefanie Zweig
    • Sidede Onyulo
    • Merab Ninindze
    • Juliane Kohler
    • Matthias Habich
  • Making-of Documentary
  • Storyboard Comparison
  • U.S. Trailer
  • German Trailer

28 March 2018

Warner reanimates THE ROBOT CHICKEN WALKING DEAD SPECIAL (review)

The writers of ROBOT CHICKEN and THE WALKIGN DEAD come together with the original cast for an outrageous comic sendup involving zombies, bestiality, and the Negan Dip!  Andrew Lincoln, Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Michael Rooker, Seth Green, and more star.

REVIEW LINK: Warner Home Video (US) Region 1 NTSC DVD (DVDCompare)

THE ROBOT CHICKEN WALKING DEAD SPECIAL DVD specs:
  • 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
  • English Dolby Digital 5.1
  • Optional English SDH subtitles
  • Audio Commentary by Robot Chicken producers Matthew Senreich, Tom Sheppard, and Seth Green & The Walking Dead producers Scott M. Gimple and Robert Kirkman
  • Audio Commentary by Robot Chicken writers Seth Green, Josh McDermitt, Tom Root, and Tom Sheppard
  • "Inside Robot Chicken The Walking Dead: Look Who's Walking"
  • Eight Cut Sketches (with introductions by the writers)
  • "Sketches to Die For"
  • "Bawkward"
  • Behind the Scenes

Also available on Blu-ray:

27 March 2018

Acorn Media and BBC present REQUIEM (review)

After her mother inexplicably commits suicide before her eyes, cellist Matilda Gray discovers a connection between her mother and a girl who went missing in Wales twenty-four years before.  Arriving in a small Welsh village, she finds her attempts to stir up the past unwelcome and an unnatural presence awaiting her return to a country manor house holding deep dark secrets.  From the makers of THE MISSING.

REVIEW LINK: Acorn Media (UK) Region 2 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

REQUIEM DVD specs:
  • Six episodes on two dual-layer DVDs
  • 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
  • English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
  • Optional English subtitles
  • Cast and Crew Interviews
  • Picture Gallery

25 March 2018

Second Sight is taken BREATHLESS (review)

Richard Gere deconstructs his AMERICAN GIGOLO sex symbol image as the comic book reading, Jerry Lee Lewis-loving car theif in this Americn take on the French New Wave classic BREATHLESS from the director of THE BIG EASY and the writer of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2.

REVIEW LINK: Second Sight (UK) Region B Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

BREATHLESS Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen
  • English LPCM 2.0 mono
  • Optional English HoH subtitles
  • "Mark Kermode on BREATHLES" featurette
  • "Still BREATHLESS" interview with actress Valerie Kaprisky

Second Run chronicles HEIMAT (review)

Edgar Reitz's epic German television saga chronicles the changes to a German village from 1919-1982 as seen through the eyes of the Simon family torn apart and brought together by war, compassion, greed, love, and lust.

REVIEW: Second Sight (UK) Region B Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

HEIMAT Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080i50 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen
  • German LPCM 2.0 mono
  • Optional English subtitles
  • Eleven episodes on five Blu-ray discs
  • Bonus Blu-ray disc featuring:
    • "HEIMAT - The Hunsrück Villages: Stories From The Film Locations" Edgar Reitz's 2-hour documentary 'prologue' to HEIMAT
    • Interview with Edgar Reitz
    • "Maria's Story: Marita Breuer on Heimat" featurette
    • "Christian Reitz: Restoring HEIMAT" featurette
    • "Showing Not Talking: Jan Harlan on HEIMAT" featurette
    • Visual Essay by Daniel Bird
  • Limited Edition fifty-page booklet featuring liner notes by Carmen Gray, "The Collaboration with Gernot Roll" by Edgar Reitz and 'Germany as Memory' by Anton Kaes

22 March 2018

Vinegar Syndrome in the spotlight of STAR TIME (review)

Schizophrenic Henry Pinkle lives for television.  When his favorite family sitcom is cancelled, he tries to commit suicide but is saved by a mysterious "talent agent" who puts him on a one-way ticket to stardom as "The Baby Mask Killer".

REVIEW LINK: Vinegar Syndrome (US) Region ALL Blu-ray/Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVD Drive-in)

STAR TIME Blu-ray/DVD combo specs:
  • Blu-ray:
    • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen
    • English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo
  • DVD:
    • 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
    • English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo
  • Optional English SDH subtitled
  • Audio Commentary by director Alexander Cassini
  • "Shooting STAR TIME" interview with cinematographer Fernando Argüelles
  • "The Great Performance" short film by Alexander Cassini
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Reversible Cover

A limited edition with slipcover is also available directly from Vinegar Syndrome.

Vinegar Syndrome presents BABYFACE 2 (review)

Careena is getting married and her friends are throwing a party.  Their boyfriends think it is just a wedding shower and are keen to find some action of their own, but it is actually a raucous bachelorette party complete with novelty toys and a sexual genie played by Jamie Gillis.

REVIEW LINK: Vinegar Syndrome (US) Region ALL Blu-ray/Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVD Drive-in)

BABYFACE 2 Blu-ray/DVD combo specs:
  • Blu-ray:
    • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen
    • English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mon
  • DVD:
    • 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
    • English Dolby Digital 1.0 mono
  • Optional English SDH subtitles
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Reversibel Cover

MVD Rewind Collection pilots BLACK EAGLE (Review)

Sho Kosugi and Jean-Claude Van Damme hit the video shelves with the nineties action classic BLACK EAGLE.  When an American military jet carrying an advanced laser guidance missile system is shot down over Malta, the American and the Soviets scramble to get to it first.

REVIEW LINK: MVD Rewind Collection #3/MVD Visual (US) Region ALL Blu-ray/Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVD Drive-in)

BLACK EAGLE Blu-ray/DVD combo specs:
  • Blu-ray:
    • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen presentations of the 93 minute theatrical and 104 minute extended cuts
    • English Dolby Digital 5.1 (theatrical cut) and LPCM 2.0 mono (both cuts)
  • DVD:
    • 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen presentations of the 93 minute theatrical and 104 minute extended cuts
    • English Dolby Digital 5.1 (theatrical cut) and Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (both cuts)
  • "Sho Kosugi: Martial Arts Legend" featuring new interviews with Sho Kosugi, Shane Kosugi, and more
  • "The Making of Black Eagle" featuring new interviews with director/producer Eric Karson, screenwriter Michael Gonzalez, and stars Sho Kosugi, Doran Clark, Shane Kosugi and Dorota Puzio
  • "Tales of Jean-Claude Van Damme" new interviews with cast and crew tell stories about working with the legendary action star
  • "The Script and the Screenwriters" new interviews featuring Michael Gonzales, Eric Karson and more
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Previews

Mondo Macabro woos LOVERS BEYOND TIME (review)

Three years after breaking up with intense lover Angelos who has since died, Sylvia begins to experience strange sensations as if an invisible presence were making love to her, plunging her into an erotic and dangerous mystery with a sci-fi twist.

REVIEW LINK: Mondo Macabro (US) Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVD Drive-in)

LOVERS BEYOND TIME DVD specs:
  • 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
  • Greek Dolby Digital 1.0 mono
  • Optional English subtitles
  • "Strangers in a Strange Land" 90 minute documentary on Greek genre cinema
  • "The Last Meal" episode of a Greek TWILIGHT ZONE-type anthology series
  • Interview with director Dimitris Panayiotatos
  • Theatrical Trailer

Scream Factory wakes THE NIGHT WALKER (Review)

Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor star in this spine-"tingler" from William Castle about a widow who is being haunted by dreams of a mystery lover and nightmares of her disfigured husband who died in a lab explosion.

REVIEW LINK: Scream Factory/Shout! Factory (US) Region A Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

THE NIGHT WALKER Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen
  • English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono
  • Optional English SDH subtitles
  • Audio Commentary by film historian Steve Habermann
  • Still Gallery
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Radio Spot

18 March 2018

Severin Films conducts Jess Franco's SINFONIA EROTICA (review)

Jess Franco returns to Spain with this work of Sadeian transgression in which an aristocrat, his young male lover, and a runaway nun scheme to murder the man's mentally-fragile wife.

REVIEW LINK: Severin Films (US) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

SINFONIA EROTICA Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen
  • Spanish LPCM 2.0 mono
  • Optional English subtitles
  • "Jess Franco on his first wife Nicole Guettard" featurette
  • "Stephen Thrower on SINFONIA EROTICA" featurette

Severin Films surrenders to Jess Franco's THE SADIST OF NOTRE DAME (review)

Jess Franco himself stars as a mad former seminary student whose obsession with sexual purity and divine punishment causes him to take on the role of Grand Inquisitor and slash his way through Paris' ladies of the night before turning his sights on the practioners of a phony Black Mass that he believes is real.

REVIEW LINK: Severin Films (US) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

THE SADIST OF NOTRE DAME Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen
  • English, French, and Spanish LPCM 2.0 mono
  • Optional English subtitles for the Spanish tracka and English SDH subtitles for the English dub
  • "The Gory Days of Le Brady" interview with writer/former projectionist Jacques Thorens on the legendary Parisian horror cinema
  • "Stephen Thrower on Sadist of Notre Dame" interview with the author of "Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco"
  • Selected Scenes Commentary with "I'm in a Jess Franco State of Mind" webmaster Robert Monell
  • "Treblemakers" interview with Alain Petit, author of "Jess Franco ou Les Propserites des Bis"

17 March 2018

Umbrella Entertainment chases RUN, CHRISSIE, RUN! (review)

When her ex-IRA boyfriend comes looking for her and the loot she wound up with after a botched bank robbery, Eve and her teenage daughter take to the road, pursued by her ex-boyfriend, the assassins chasing him, and a skinhead gang in this eighties slice of Ozploitation.

REVIEW LINK: Umbrella Entertainment (AUS) Region 0 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

RUN, CHRISSIE, RUN! DVD specs:
  • 4:3 non-anamorphic 1.33:1 fullscreen
  • English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
  • Video Trailer

Umbrella Entertainment toasts THE CHAMPAGNE MURDERS (review)

Suffering from alcoholism and blackouts, playboy Paul Wagner wakes up beside a strangled prostitute while on a trip to Hamburg with his best friend Chris, whose wife decides to use the crime to gain leverage over Paul in a business deal.  When more bodies pile up, Paul wonders whether he is a killer or if someone is setting him up.  Anthony Perkins, Yvonne Ferneaux, Maurice Ronet, and Stephane Audran star in Claude Chabrol's THE CHAMPAGNE MURDERS. 

REVIEW LINK: Umbrella Entertainment (AUS) Region 2/4 NTSC DVD (DVDBeaver)

THE CHAMPAGNE MURDERS DVD specs:
  • 16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen
  • English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono

16 March 2018

Masters of Cinema tells the LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN (review)

From A TOUCH OF ZEN's King Hu comes the ghost story LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN in which demons and ghosts menace a scholar tasked with copying a sacred Buddhist sutra that allows its owner to navigate the realms of life and death.  Long available only in a version running over eighty minutes shorter, Masters of Cinema presents the film in its orignial three hour director's cut.

REVIEW LINK: Masters of Cinema/Eureka Video (UK) Region B Blu-ray/Region 2 NTSC DVD (DVDCompare)

LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN Blu-ray/DVD combo specs:
  • Blu-ray:
    • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen
    • Chinese LPCM 1.0 mono
  • DVD:
    • 16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen 
    • Chinese Dolby Digital 1.0 mono
  • Optional English subtitles
  • "Screen Legend: The Magic of King Hu" David Cairns Video Essay
  • "Tony Rayns on LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN"
  • Still Gallery
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Collector's Booklet

14 March 2018

Strand Releasing dives into FOAM PARTY! (Review)

Hoping to cheer up his paraplegic friend Milo on his birthday, Gus decides to throw an all-out orgy that attracts a crowd in search of excitement, diversion, and even true love.

REVIEW LINK: Strand Releasing (US) Region 1 NTSC DVD (DVDBeaver)

FOAM PARTY! DVD specs:
  • 16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen
  • Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
  • Optional English subtitles
  • Trailer
  • Previews

Film Movement has a vision of PARADISE (review)

A French police captain collaborating with the Nazis, a SS officer, and the Russian countess with which they are both obsessed navigate ther ways through WWII and the concentration camps in the latest film from Andrei Konchalovsky.

REVIEW LINK: Film Movement (US) Region 1 NTSC DVD (DVDBeaver)

PARADISE DVD specs:
  • 16:9 anamorphic 1.33:1 pillarboxed fullscreen
  • Russian/German Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo
  • Optional English subtitles
  • Short Film "Red Snow"
  • Trailers

88 Films has a CAT IN THE BRAIN (review)

Lucio Fulci's new nightmare finds the director haunted by vivid hallucinations from his newest film that make him start to believe that he is going crazy and possibly the culprit behind a series of brutal murders in a film that uses stock footage a handful of Fulci's lesser-seen productions from the eighties.

REVIEW LINK: 88 Films (UK) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

CAT IN THE BRAIN Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen
  • English and Italian LPCM 2.0 mono audio
  • Optional English subtitles
  • “Brain Food: Analysing Late Day Fulci” documentary
  • “Frizzi 2 Fulci North American Tour 2015: Hollywood”
  • Original Trailer
  • Reversable sleeve
  • 4-page liner notes leaflet “Fulci’s Feline Fear” by Calum Waddell

88 Films woos THE GHOST LOVERS (review)

When a young woman becomes ill and dies suddenly, her wet nurse sacrifices herself to fulfill the girl's dying wish of wedding and spending one night with the man who she was arranged to marry in childhood.  Anyone who gets in between the ghosts and their goal is the target of supernatural retribution in this early seventies ghost flick from the Shaw Brothers.

REVIEW LINK: 88 Films (UK) Region B Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

THE GHOST LOVERS Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen
  • Mandarin LPCM 2.0 mono
  • Optional English subtitles
  • Liner Notes Booklet by Callum Waddel
  • Collector's slipcover when ordered directly from 88 Films.

Raro Video USA is caught up in LA SEDUZIONE (Review)

Maurice Ronet (PURPLE NOON) plays a Sicilian who returns to his home town and becomes involved with his first love (Lisa Gastoni) and her teenage daughter (Jenny Tamburi) in director Fernando Di Leo's LOLITA-esque tale.

REVIEW LINK: Raro Video USA (US) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

LA SEDUZIONE Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.95:1 widescreen
  • English and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono
  • English subtitles for the Italian track and English subtitles for portion of the English track that were not dubbed
  • "Erotic Notes" featurette
  • Booklet by Bret Wood

Raro Video USA exposes the TEENAGE PROSTITUTION RACKET (review)

Carlo Lizzani blows the lid off THE TEENAGE PROSTITUTION RACKET in this seventies slice of sleaze and social commentary.

REVIEW LINK: Raro Video USA (US) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

THE TEENAGE PROSTITUTION RACKET Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen
  • English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono
  • Documentary Featurette
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Credits
  • Booklet by Bret Wood

10 March 2018

Second Sight remembers ONCE WERE WARRIORS (Review)

The award-winning New Zealand film ONCE WERE WARRIORS tells the story of a Māori family as mother Beth tries to keep her family together as her husband Jake who wields violence against enemies, friends, and family alike is tearing them apart.

REVIEW LINK: Second Sight (UK) Region B Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

ONCE WERE WARRIORS Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen
  • English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 Stereo
  • Optional English HoH subtitles
  • "Once Were Warriors: Where Are They Now" documentary
  • "Directing The Warriors" new interview with director Lee Tamahori

09 March 2018

Second Run listens for SILENCE AND CRY (review)

In the third of Miklos Jancso's early trilogy comprised of THE ROUND UP and THE RED AND THE WHITE, SILENCE AND CRY finds a soldier on the run from anti-communist persecution taken in at a farm in a remote village only to discover that the family is under police investigation and the local gendarme knows his real identity.

REVIEW LINK: Second Run (UK) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

SILENCE AND CRY Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen
  • Hungarian LPCM 2.0 mono
  • Optional English subtitles
  • Three Short Films by Miklos Jancso
  • Essay booklet by Tony Rayns

08 March 2018

Kino Lorber is RUNNING WILD with W.C. Fields (review)

W.C. Fields plays a henpecked husband and lowly accountant who gains the heart of a lion when a hypnotism act goes wrong in RUNNING WILD.

REVIEW LINK: Kino Lorber (US) Region A Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

RUNNING WILD Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 pillarboxed fullscreen
  • Donald Sosin Piano Score in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo
  • Audio Commentary by W.C. Fields historian James Neibaur

Kino Lorber and W.C.Fields discover IT'S THE OLD ARMY GAME (review)

W.C. Fields plays a hapless pharmacist who becomes entangled in a real estate scam when his shop assistant (Louise Brooks) falls for a New York con man in his first star vehicle IT'S THE OLD ARMY GAME.

REVIEW LINK: Kino Lorber (US) Region A Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

IT'S THE OLD ARMY GAME Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 pillarboxed fullscreen
  • Ben Model Organ Score in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo
  • Audio Commentary by W.C. Fields historian James Neibaur

07 March 2018

Fox solves a MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (Review)

Kenneth Branagh directs and stars as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in his most challenging case solving a MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS with Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, and Michelle Pfeiffer.

REVIEW LINK: Twentieth Century Fox (US) Region A Blur-ray (DVDCompare)

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.40:1 widescreen
  • English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, English Audio Descriptive Dolby Digital 5.1, Czech Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Hindi Dolby Digital 5.1, Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1, Polish Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, Thai Dolby Digital 5.1, Turkish Dolby Digital 5.1, and Urdu Dolby Digital 5.1
  • Optional English SDH, Arabic, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Croatian, French, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Korean, Malay, Mandarin (Traditional), Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese subtitles
  • Audio Commentary by actor/director Kenneth Branagh and screenwriter Michael Green (with optional English, French, Korean, and Spanish subtitles)
  • "Agatha Christie: An Intimate Portrait"
  • "Let's Talk About Hercule Poirot"
  • "Unusual Suspects" three-part featurette
  • "The Art of Murder"
  • "All Aboard!: The Making of Murder on the Orient Express"
  • "The Music of Murder on the Orient Express"
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Extras feature optional subtitles in English, Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Mandarin), Czech, French, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Korean, Polish, Portugese, Spanish, Thai, and Turkish.

Arrow Academy peers into IMAGES (review)

Susannah York's mind splits in Robert Altman's IMAGES.  A children's book author starts experiencing vivid and violent hallucinations and is whisked by her husband to the countryside, but even there she is not safe from both the living and the dead.

REVIEW LINK: Arrow Academy (US) Region A/B Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

IMAGES Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen
  • English LPCM 1.0 mono
  • Optional English SDH subtitles
  • Audio Commentary by Diabolique Magazine's Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan
  • Selected Scenes Commentary by Robert Altman
  • "Imagining Images" interview with Robert Altman
  • Interview with actress Cathryn Harrison
  • An appreciation by musician and author Stephen Thrower
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by the Twins of Evil
  • FIRST PRESSING ONLY: an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Carmen Gray and an extract from Altman on Altman

Arrow Video sharpens SCALPEL (review)

Robert Lansing and soap star Judith Chapman star in this Hitchcockian thriller about a plastic surgeon who transforms a beaten stripper into the likeness of his daughter for more than an inheritance scheme.  From the director of BLOOD RAGE.

REVIEW LINK: Arrow Video USA (US) Region A/B Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

SCALPEL Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen presentations of two versions: one graded by Arrow Video and one graded by cinematographer Edward Lachman
  • English LPCM 1.0 mono
  • Optional English SDH subtitles
  • Audio Commentary by film historian Richard Harlan Smith
  • Interview with director John Grissmer
  • Interview with actress Judith Chapman
  • Interview with cinematographer Edward Lachman
  • Image Gallery
  • Theatrical Trailer 
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by The Twins of Evil
  • FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Liner notes booklet with new writing on the film by Bill Ackerman

Vinegar Syndrome busts out of PENITENTIARY II (review)

Too Sweet (Leon Isaac Kennedy) returns in PENITENTIARY II when his girlfriend is murdered by escaped criminal Half Dead (Ernie Hudson).  Training with Mr. T, Too Sweet takes on his old enemies in the ring.

REVIEW LINK: Vinegar Syndrome (US) Region ALL Blu-ray/Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVD Drive-in)

PENITENTIARY II Blu-ray/DVD combo specs:
  • Blu-ray:
    • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen
    • English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono
  • DVD:
    • 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
    • English Dolby Digital 1.0 mono
  • Optional English SDH subtitles
  • Audio Commentary by director Jamaa Fanaka
  • Isolated Score (in Dolby Digital 1.0)
  • Interview with director Jamaa Fanaka
  • Interview with actor Leon Isaac Kennedy
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Reversible Cover

03 March 2018

Masters of Cinema haunts HOUSE (review)

Director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi made his audacious feature debut with this spin on the traditional Toho horror film in which seven schoolgirls visit a house in the country that has an appetite for young female flesh.

REVIEW LINK: Masters of Cinema/Eureka Video (UK) Region B Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

HOUSE Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 pillarboxed fullscreen
  • Japanese LPCM 2.0 mono
  • Optional English subtitles
  • Archival Interviews with director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, co-writer Chigumi Ôbayashi, actress Kumiko Oba, and publicity coordinator Shoho Tomiyama
  • Video Essay by David Cairns
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • A collector s booklet featuring an essay by Paul Roquet, poster gallery, and archival imagery

Kino Lorber sparkles with TOPAZE (review)

John Barrymore and Myrna Loy star in this tale of an idealistic man's loss of innocence and embrace of corruption.  Fired from his position as a teacher for failing the spoiled son of a wealthy baron, Topaze finds himself hired by the same man to develop a curative tonic water.  Little does he know that he has just been hired to give respectability and legitimacy to fraud, and the temptations of wealth and respect from his colleagues may be too hard to resist when he discovers the betrayal.

REVIEW LINK: Kino Lorber (US) Region A Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

TOPAZE Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 pillarboxed fullscreen
  • English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono
  • Audio Commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger
  • Previews

01 March 2018

88 Films busts out of SLAUGHTERHOUSE ROCK (Review)

A young man's vivid nightmares lead him and his friends to confront his fears by visiting Alcatraz which has been closed to the public after the brutal murders of a punk rock band during a tour.  Toni Basil stars and Devo scores this obscure eighties supernatural slasher.

REVIEW LINK: 88 Films (UK) Region B Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

SLAUGHTERHOUSE ROCK Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen
  • English LPCM 2.0 Stereo
  • Optional English HoH subtitles
  • “Rock ‘N’ Shock: Back to the Slaughterhouse” featurette
  • Trailer
  • Reversable sleeve
  • 8-page liner notes booklet “A Life in Focus: An Interview with Cinematographer Nicholas von Sternberg” by Matty Budrewicz & Dave Wain

88 Films turns SWEET SIXTEEN (review)

All the boys drool over Melissa and all the girls envy her, but when every guy she dates turns up brutally murdered, the sheriff's daughter mounts an investigation of her own in this eighties slasher effort from the director of FORCED ENTRY.

REVIEW LINK: 88 Films (UK) Region B Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

SWEET SIXTEEN Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen
  • English LPCM 2.0 mono
  • Optional English SDH subtitles
  • Audio Commentary by The Hysteria Continues
  • Interview with "Legacy of Blood" author Jim Harper
  • Reversible Cover

88 Films is haunted by THE ENCHANTING GHOST (Review)

Before the Shaw Brothers brought sleaze and gore to Chinese horror films, they offered this restrained ghost story about a scholar who moves into a haunted house.  The beautiful and intelligent young woman he marries isn't a ghost when he meets her, but she will wreak supernatural vengeance upon those who harm the couple.

REVIEW LINK: 88 Films (UK) Region B Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

THE ENCHANTING GHOST Blu-ray specs:
  • 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen
  • Mandarin LPCM 2.0 mono
  • Optional English subtitles
  • Liner notes booklet by Lingge Dong