Scorpion Releasing sings OPERA (review)

Dario Argento takes to the opera stage for an aria of violence in his 1987 gory thriller about a young understudy who makes her debut in the female lead of Verdi's Macbeth, a play that brings bad luck.  Soon after, her friends are being murdered by a vicious killer who makes her watch them die.

REVIEW LINK: Scorpion Releasing (US) Region A Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

OPERA Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen
• English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo
• Interview with director Dario Argento
• Interview with actor William McNamara
• U.S. Theatrical Trailer
• Export International Trailer
• Italian Teaser Trailer

Scorpion Releasing is initated into THE SECT (Review)

Jamie Lee's sister Kelly Curtis stars in this nineties Italian occult thriller as a schoolteacher terrorized by a sinister Satanic cult intent on bringing about the fall of God.  Herbert Lom also stars in this Dario Argento production directed by Michele Soavi.  Released on VHS and laserdisc in the United States as THE DEVIL'S DAUGHTER.

REVIEW LINK: Scorpion Releasing (US) Region A Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

THE SECT Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen
• English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono
• Interview with director Michele Soavi
• Interview with actor Tomas Arana
• Theatrical Trailer
• Previews 

Scream Factory howls for FULL MOON HIGH (review)

Before TEEN WOLF, Alan Arkin brought the teenage werewolf back to high school in the eighties with Larry Cohen's comedy FULL MOON HIGH about a football captain who gets bitten by a werewolf on a trip to Romania who returns to school after thirty years to break his team's jinx and win the big game.

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

FULL MOON HIGH 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 director Larry Cohen
• Theatrical Trailer

Signature Entertainment conjures PYEWACKET (Review)

From the producers of THE WITCH and THE VOID comes PYEWACKET in which a girl who has lost her father finds comfort in the occult.  When her grieving mother uproots her from her home, school, and friends, she conjures up a demon.  As the relationship between daughter and mother starts to improve, strange things start to happen in the house and there may be no way of sending the demon back.

REVIEW LINK: Signature Entertainment (UK) Region 2 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

PYEWACKET DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo
• Optional English HoH subtitles
• Cast Interviews
• Behind the Scenes
• Start-up Trailers

Umbrella Entertainment busts out MONEY MOVERS (review)

Between his arthouse hits DON'S PARTY and BREAKER MORANT, director Bruce Beresford (DRIVING MISS DAISY) mounted this tense and violent heist flick based on a true story.

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

MONEY MOVERS DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
• "Count on Your Toes!" featurette with actors Terence Donovan, Bryan Brown, Tony Bonner, Candy Richmond, and director Bruce Beresford
• Theatrical Trailer
• Bruce Beresford Trailers

First Run Features dreads IT TAKES FROM WITHIN (review)

An unmarried and miserable couple arrive in a town for a funeral and confront images of dread and despair that threaten to trap them.

REVIEW LINK: First Run Features (US) Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVDBeaver)

IT TAKES FROM WITHIN DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1
• Optional English SDH subtitles
• Audio Commentary by director Lee Eubanks

Code Red unearths THE BONEYARD (Review)

 "Dare to enter, try to leave... THE BONEYARD" in this underservedly obscure cult item from the early nineties in which a psychic and a pair of detectives are trapped with the crew of a coroner's office when the not-so-dead bodies of three flesh-eating zombie children get up off the slab and recruit new members into their fold.  Phyllis Diller and Norman Fell co-star.

REVIEW LINK: Code Red (US) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

THE BONEYARD Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen
• English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
• Audio Commentary with James Cummins and Richard F. Brophy
• Interview with actress Phyllis Diller
• Interviews with director James Cummins and producer Richard F. Brophy
• "The Little Ghoul Grows Up" interview with actress Sallie Middleton
• Reversible Cover

LionsGate takes on BRAVEN (review)

Jason Momoa stars in this thriller as a logging company manager whose trip with his father and daughter to the family cabin turns into a war when heroin runners surround the property in search of a hidden stash of drugs.  Stephen Lang, Jill Wagner, and Garret Dillahunt star.

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

BRAVEN Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.40:1 widescreen
• English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• Optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles
• "The Braven's Views" featurette
• Trailers

Kino Lorber becomes STAGE STRUCK (Review)

Gloria Swanson plays a waitress who decides to become a big star when her pancake flipping crush falls for a riverboat performer in the comedy STAGE STRUCK featuring two-color Techicolor sequences.

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

STAGE STRUCK Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 pillarboxed fullscreen
• Andrew Simpson Piano Score DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo
• Audio Commentary by film historian Frederic Lombadi
• Essay booklet by film historian Farran Smith Nehme

Universal Pictures infiltrates DEN OF THIEVES (review)

Gerard Butler, Pablo Schrieber, O'Shea Jackson Jr., and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson star in the heist thriller DEN OF THIEVES in which the Los Angles County Sheriff's Department are on the hunt for armored car thieves after a shootout that leaves four of their own dead.

REVIEW LINK: Universal Pictures (US) Region A Blu-ray/Region 1 NTSC DVD (DVDCompare)

DEN OF THIEVES Blu-ray/DVD combo specs:

• Blu-ray:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.40:1 widescreen
• English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• DVD:
• 16:9 anamorphic 2.40:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1
• Optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles
• Audio Commentary
•  with Director Christian Gudegast and Producer Tucker Tooley
• Alternate Ending
• Featurettes:
• Alpha MalesI
• Into the Den
• Alameda Corridor
• Outtakes - Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Two Theatrical Trailers

Vinegar Syndrome reels in BLOOD HOOK (review)

At the height of Muskie Madness season, one fisherman is out to hook more than fish as he reels in innocent victims with a giant fish hook in this eighties Troma slasher.

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

BLOOD HOOK Blu-ray/DVD combo specs:

• Blu-ray:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen
• English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono
• DVD:
• 16:9 anamorphic 1.66:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 1.0 mono
• Optional English SDH subtitles
• Interview with director Jim Mallon
• Interview with actress Lisa Todd
• Interview with effects artist Jim Suthers
• Audio Interview with cinematographer/editor Marsha Kahm
• Theatrical Trailer
• Revesrible Cover

Kino Lorber 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, Kino Lorber presents the film in its orignial three hour director's cut.

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

LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen
• Chinese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono
• Optional English subtitles
• Interview with film historian Tony Rayns
• Video Essay by Travis Crawford
• Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery
• Booklet by Grady Hendrix

Paramount and Comedy Central visit BROAD CITY: SEASON 4 (Review)

Ilana and Abbi return for season 4 of BROAD CITY confronting new challenges from jobs and relationships to orgasms and witches!

REVIEW LINK: Comedy Central/Paramount Pictures (US) Region 1 NTSC DVD (DVDCompare)

BROAD CITY: SEASON 4 DVD specs:

• Ten episodes on two dual-layer DVDs
• 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo
• Optional English SDH subtitles
• "Hack into BROAD CITY" web shorts
• "Behind BROAD CITY" featurettes
• Deleted and Extended Scenes/Outtakes

Paramount and Netflix list 13 REASONS WHY (review)

When high school student Hannah Baker suddenly commits suicide, she leaves behind seven tapes citing thirteen reasons for her decision that rock the lives of those who were close to her and set them against each other in an effort to keep the reasons a secret in this Netflix series based on the novel by Jay Asher and executive produced by Selena Gomez.

REVIEW LINK: Netflix/Paramount Pictures (US) Region 1 NTSC DVD (DVDCompare)

13 REASONS WHY: SEASON 1 DVD specs:

• Thirteen episodes on three dual-layer DVDs
• 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1 and English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
• Optional English and English SDH subtitles
• Featurettes:
• "Hannah & Clay: An Unfinished Love Story"
• "Justin Foley: Not Your Typical Jock"
• "Discovering Jessica Davis"
• "Bringing the Book of Life"
• "13 Things About Me: Dylan Minnette"
• "13 Things About Me: Justin Prentice"
• "Beyond the Reasons" Netflix Special

Severin Films hunts down EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS (Review)

Globetrotting photojournalis Emanuelle heads to the Amazon with her anthropologist lover, a virginal missionary girl, a smoking hot nun, and a gamehunting couple to find a lost cannibal tribe, but they are soon the ones who are being hunted.

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

EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen
• English and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono
• Optional English subtitles
• Interview with composer Nico Fidenco
• Interiew with actress Annamaria Clementi
• Interview with actor Donald O'Brien
• Interview with actress Monika Zanchi
• Audio Interview with actress Laura Gemser
• Theatrical Trailer

Limited Edition with Slipcover and CD Soundtrack:

Standard Edition:

Vinegar Syndrome is struck by TERROR (review)

British independent director Norman J. Warren channels SUSPIRIA with this delirious seventies horror film about a witch's curse that haunts the last two members of an aristocratic family along with their friends who are shooting a horro film about the curse.

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

TERROR 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
• Extensive Audio Interview with director Norman J. Warren conducted by Diabolique Magazine's Kat Ellinger
• Video Interviews:
• director Norman J. Warren
• writer David McGillivray
• actress Carolyn Courage
• actress Tricia Walsh
• actress Mary Maude
• actor Peter Craze
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Reversible Cover

88 Films drifts into SEA FOG (review)

In the midst of the IMF financial crisis of 1997, a fishing boat captain desperate to keep his boat and his crew reluctantly agrees to transport some illegal cargo and discovers that he is smuggling Chinese immigrants to South Korea.  With the coast guard breathing down their necks and a torrential storm on the horizon, the captain goes to extremes to maintain control of his ship even if that means turning it into a hell on water.

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

SEA FOG Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.40:1 widescreen
• Korean DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 stereo
• Optional English subtitles
• Visual Effects Reel
• Interview with deputy Asia editor and Korea correspondent for Screen International Jean Noh about filmmaker Joon-ho Bong

88 Films gives Communion to ALICE, SWEET ALICE (Review)

When young Karen Spages is murdered on the day of her first communion, suspicion turns towards her older sister Alice who plays cruel pranks on people and wanders her apartment building in a monster mask.  As more murders occur, Alice swears the killer is the ghost of her sister.  Is she crazy or is there something more sinister stalking her family?

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

ALICE, SWEET ALICE Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen
• English LPCM 2.0 mono
• Optional English Hard-of-Hearing subtitles
• Audio Commentary by wrtier/director Alfred Sole, editor Edward Salier, and make-up effects assistant Bill Lustig
• Restoration Demo
• Poster and Video Artwork Gallery
• Theatrical Trailer
• TV Spot
• Reversible Cover

VCI spotlights THE TWILIGHT PEOPLE (review)

A soldier of fortune is abducted by a mad doctor experimenting with human mutations in this Filipino twist on "The Island of Dr. Moreau" with John Ashely, Pat Woodell, and Pam Grier.

REVIEW LINK: VCI Home Video (US) Region ALL Blu-ray/Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVD Drive-in)

TWILIGHT PEOPLE Blu-ray/DVD combo specs:

• Blu-ray:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen
• English LPCM 2.0 mono
• DVD:
• 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
• Optional English SDH subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film historians David Del Valle and David DeCoteau
• Interview with director Eddie Romero
• Theatrical Trailer
• Radio Spots
• Reversible Cover

VCI vists the CITY OF THE DEAD (review)

Christopher Lee stars in the first Amicus horror film, an atmosphere-drenched tale of the supernatural that shares ideas and visuals with the simultaneously-released PSYCHO and BLACK SUNDAY.  A college student travels to a New England village to write a paper on witchcraft.  When she does not return, her brother, boyfriend, and a concerned local investigate and find themselves in the clutches of a bloodthirsty coven.

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

CITY OF THE DEAD Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen
• English LPCM 2.0 mono
• Optional English SDH subtitles
• Audio Commentary by actor Christopher Lee, moderated by Jay Slater
• Interview with Christopher Lee conducted by Brad Stevens
• Theatrical Trailer

Kino Lorber and Gloria Swanson get MANHANDLED (review)

Gloria Swanson plays a shopgirl who climbs the ladder as a model, an aristocratic impersonator, and a high society mingler under threat of getting MANHANDLED in this comedy collaboration with director Allan Dwan.

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

MANHANDLED Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 pillarboxed fullscreen
• Makia Matsumara Piano Score DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo
• Audio Commentary by film historian Gaylyn Studlar
• Booklet by Peter Labuza

Kino Lorber's ode to A WOMAN'S DEVOTION (review)

Ralph Meeker, Janice Rule, and Paul Henreid (who also directors) star in A WOMAN'S DEVOTION in which a honeymooning couple in Acapulco are torn apart when the war hero husband starts experiencing blackouts and women turn up dead.  Restored in 4K from the original 35mm Trucolor negative and positive separations.

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

A WOMAN'S DEVOTION Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen
• English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono
• Bonus Trailers

Eureka's Masters of Cinema unearths EARLY HOU HSIAO-HSIEN (review)

 Before he was voted "Director of the Decade" by a Village Voice and Film Comment poll in the nineties, director Hsiao-Hsien Hou was a hired gun developing his craft through formulaic studio fare and quickly finding his voice, and Eureka's Masters of Cinema collection Early Hou Hsiao-Hsien illustrates the through-line from a fluffy yet technically-nuanced treatment of a romantic comedy to a more episodic and psychologically ambiguous vision.

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

EARLY HOU HSIAO-HSIEN Blu-ray specs:

• Disc One:
• Cute Girl (1980):
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen
• Mandarin LPCM 2.0 mono
• Optional English subtitles
• The Green, Green Grass of Home (1982):
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen
• Mandarin LPCM 2.0 mono
• Optional English subtitles
• Disc Two:
• The Boys from Kengfuei (1983):
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen
• Mandarin LPCM 2.0 mono
• Optional English subtitles
• "Happy New Year" video essay on "Cute Girl"
• "A Sweet Little Village" video essay on "The Green Green Grass of Home"
• "I'm Still There" video essay on "The Boys from Kengfuei"
• Limited Edition O-card with the first pressing of 2,000 copies
• Essay booklet by Glenn Kenny

Masters of Cinema goes to the ball with THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA (review)

Ava Gardner and Humphrey Bogart star in the story of a Spanish dancer's meteoric rise to Hollywood stardom and her tragic crash down to Earth as THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

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

THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen
• English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 Stereo
• Optional English Hard of Hearing Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film historians Julie Kirgo and David Del Valle
• Theatrical Trailer
• Liner Notes Booklet by Glenn Kenney

AGFA stares down THE SOULTANGLER (review)

Lensed in 1985 as RE-ANIMATOR was completing production, the Long Island video obscurity THE SOULTANGLER is an even more budget-starved but no-less deranged and delirious gore-drenched tale of a doctor who has developed a drug that allows souls to inhabit and reanimate the bodies of the recent dead.  A reporter starts looking into a series of recent abduction and walks right into danger.

REVIEW LINK: American Genre Film Archive/MVD Visual (US) Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVD Drive-in)

THE SOULTANGLER DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 1.33:1 pillarboxed fullscreen
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
• Audio Commentary by director Pat Bishow
• Alternate shorter director's cut version
• Behind the Scenes
• Video Trailer
• Trailer for the unreleased THE DEAD OF NIGHT TOWN
• Music Video directed by Pat Bishow
• Reversible Cover

88 Films reaps a BLOOD HARVEST (review)

Wisconsin auteur of such epics as THE CAPTURE OF BIGFOOT and INVASION FROM INNER EARTH tried his hand at the slasher genre in the mid-eighties as a star vehicle for Tiny Tim with BLOOD HARVEST.  A girl returns from college to discover her parents missing along with anyone else who gets close to her and is then stupid enough to visit the creepy barn on her family's isolated property.  A young Peter Krause of SIX FEET UNDER and SPORTS NIGHT co-stars.

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

BLOOD HARVEST Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 pillarboxed fullscreen
• English LPCM 2.0 mono
• Optional English HoH subtitles
• Behind the Scenes
• "Tiny Tim in Niagara Falls" 1987 concert
• "Tiny Tim performs the BLOOD HARVEST Wrap Party"
• Alternate NIGHTMARE Opening Credits
• Reversible Cover and Slipcover

88 Films bestows OFFERINGS (review)

Ten years after neighborhood wierdo Johnny Radley fell into a well, the kids who bullied him are in for payback while the one girl who felt sorry for him begins receiving grisly tributes in the form of her friends' severed body parts in this Oklahoma-lensed slavish tribute to or ripoff of John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN.

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

OFFERINGS 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
• Trailer
• Reversibel Cover

88 Films digs up THE BONEYARD (review)

"Dare to enter, try to leave... THE BONEYARD" in this underservedly obscure cult item from the early nineties in which a psychic and a pair of detectives are trapped with the crew of a coroner's office when the not-so-dead bodies of three flesh-eating zombie children get up off the slab and recruit new members into their fold.  Phyllis Diller and Norman Fell co-star.

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

THE BONEYARD Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen
• English LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English HoH subtitles
• Audio Commentary by director James Cummins and producer Richard F. Brophy
• Interveiw with actress Phyllis Diller
• Interview with director James Cummins
• Interview with producer Richard Brophy
• Theatrical Trailer
• Reversible Cover

Synapse Films breathes in SUSPIRIA (review)

Dario Argento's SUSPIRIA comes to eye-popping psychedlic life in Synapse Film's gore-geous 4K restoration.  Jessica Harper stars as a ballet student who enrolls at an academy in Germany where students have a habit of disappearing and turing up brutally murdered.  Is a psycho or a witches coven behind the strange goings on?


REVIEW LINK: Synapse Films (US) Region A Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

SUSPIRIA Blu-ray specs:

• Disc One:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen
• English DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• Optional English SDH subtitles for the English track and English subtitles for the Italian track
• Audio Commentary by Argento historian Derek Botelho and film historian David Del Valle
• Audio Commentary by film historian Troy Howarth
• Disc Two:
• "A Sigh from the Depths: 40 Years of Suspiria" documentary
• "Do You Know Anything About Witches?" visual essay by Michael Mackenzie
• "Suzy in Nazi Germany" featurette
• "Olga’s Story" interview with actress Barbara Magnolfi
• “International Classics” English “Breathing Letters” alternate opening credit sequence from U.S. Version
• Two U.S. Theatrical Trailers
• International Theatrical Trailer
• Three U.S. TV Spots
• Five U.S. Radio Spots
• Reversible Cover

Film Movement swallows DEEP THROAT in PANDORA AND THE MAGIC BOX (review)

The third volume of the Joseph W. Sarno Retrospect series features four of his softcore comedies.  In DEEP THROAT PART II, Linda Lovelace is targeted by the CIA, the KGB, and Consumer Protection when one of her sex therapy clients has the plans for a government super computer in his head.  In PANDORA AND THE MAGIC BOX, Theseus goes in search of the rightful heir of the kingdom of Crete but the current king sends Pandora to guide him to the islands of cannibal Circe and the Amazon Warriors.  In A TOUCH OF GENIE, a nerdy antique shop dealer rubs a lamp and a genie turns him into his favorite porn stars to get lucky with the girl of his dreams.  In THE SWITCH, homely Shirley Jekyll develops a drug that turns her into sexy Cheri Hyde and makes all men and women desire her.


REVIEW LINK: Film Movement (US) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

DEEP THROAT PART II/PANDORA AND THE MAGIC BOX Blu-ray specs:

• Disc One:
• Deep Throat Part II (1974)
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
• Audio Commentary by director Joseph W. Sarno and actor Richard Livermore, moderated by Michael Raso and Michael Bowen
• Interview with director Joseph W. Sarno
• Theatrical Trailer
• Pandora the Magic Box (1965) 
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
• Teaser
• Disc Two:
• A Touch of Genie (1974)
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 widescreen (upscale from standard definition)
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
• Interview with actor Doug Stone
• Interview with Joseph W. Sarno
• 2007 Screening featurette 
• Trailer
• The Switch (1974)
• 1080i60 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 fullscreen (upscale from standard definition VHS master)
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
• burnt-in Swedish subtitles
• Interview with Joseph W. Sarno
• Booklet by Video Watchdog's Tim Lucas

Arrow Video USA drips DEEP RED (review)

Dario Argento's ultra-violent follow-up to his animal trilogy brings has another brutal murder for BLOW UP's David Hemmings to witness as a jazz pianist living in Rome.  As he starts his own investigation after being targeted by the killer, he unearths a web of dark and twisted secrets.


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

DEEP RED Blu-ray specs:

• Disc One:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen presentation of the Italian director's cut
• Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 1.0 mono
• Hybrid English/Italian LPCM 1.0 mono
• Optional English subtitles for the Italian track, subtitles for the Italian sections of the hybrid English/Italian track, and full English SDH subtitles
• Audio Commentary with Argento expert Thomas Rostock
• Introduction to the film by Claudio Simonetti of Goblin
• "Profondo Giallo" visual essay by Michael Mackenzie
• "Rosso Recollections: Dario Argento's Deep Genius" featurette
• "Lady in Red: Daria Nicolodi Remembers Profondo Rosso" featurette
• "Music to Murder For!: Claudio Simonetti Remembers Profondo Rosso" featurette
• "Rosso From Celluloid to Shop" featurette
• Italian Theatrical Trailer
• Disc Two (Limited Edition Exclusive):
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen presentation of the English export version
• English LPCM 1.0 mono
• Optional English SDH subtitles
• Theatrical Trailer
• 6 lobby card reproductions
• Reversible fold-out poster
• Reversible sleeve
• Limited edition booklet featuring a writing on the film by author Mikel J. Koven and an archival essay by Alan Jones.

Breaking Glass Pictures conceives THE CROSSBREED (review)

A pair of reporters - one devout, one a skeptic - travel to a mysterious town to investigate the phenomeon of "crossbreeds" (half-demon, half-human creatures) in time for a sacrifice to bring about the birth of the antichrist.

REVIEW LINK: Breaking Glass Pictures (US) Region 1 NTSC DVD (DVDBeaver)

THE CROSSBREED DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo
• Closed Captioning
• Behind the Scenes
• Interview with Director Biray Dalkiran
• Biray Dalkiran Showreel
• Trailer
• Previews