Arrow Video transgresses YAKUZA LAW (review)

From JOYS OF TORTURE director Teruo Ishii comes an anthology of Yakuza warfare and depravity in three different time periods where the strict laws of Yakuza mean brutal and dire consequences for those who break them and those who manipulate them.

REVIEW LINK: Arrow Video USA/MVD Visual (US) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

YAKUZA LAW Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 Widescreen
• Japanese LPCM 1.0 Mono
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by author and critic Jasper Sharp
• "Erotic-Grotesque and Genre Hopping: Teruo Ishii Speaks" interview
• Image Gallery
• Reversible Cover
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Tom Mes

 

Arrow Video ignites an INFERNO OF TORTURE (Review)

From the director of HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN Teruo Ishii comes a series of intertwining stories of torture and depravity during Japan's Edo period focusing on a geisha house and warring tatoo artists.

REVIEW LINK: Arrow Video/MVD Visual (US) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

INFERNO OF TORTURE Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 Widescreen
• Japanese LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by Japanese film expert Tom Mes
• "Erotic Grotesque Nonsense & the Foundations of Japan’s Cult Counterculture" condensed version of Jasper Sharp's Miskatonic Institute lecture
• Theatrical Trailer
• Reversible Cover
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Chris D (Desjardins)

 

Umbrella Entertainment goes on WALKABOUT (review)

When their father suddenly tries to murder them, a British teenager and her younger brother escape into the Outback and meet an Aboriginal boy who shows them how to survive.  The journey changes all three of them, but not in ways one would expect in Nicolas Roeg's second feaure film starring Jenny Agutter, Luc Roeg, and David Gulpilil.

REVIEW LINK: Umbrella Entertainment (AUS) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVD Drive-in)

WALKABOUT Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 Widescreen
• English/Aboriginal DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
• Audio Commentary by director Nicolas Roeg and actress Jenny Agutter
  

Umbrella Films reaches the POINT OF NO RETURN (Review)

Ozploitation cinematographer Vincent Monton steps into the director's chair for this little-seen action flick in which a mercenary serving a prison sentance makes a daring escape to discover who murdered his brother.  Marcus Graham and Nikki Coghill star.

REVIEW LINK: Umbrella Entertainment (AUS) Region 0 PAL DVD (DVD Drive-in)

POINT OF NO RETURN DVD specs:

• 16:9 Anamorphic 1.78:1 Widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
  

Umbrella Entertainment liberates CULT GIRLS (Review)

Rescued during the raid of a pagan cult and raised in a Catholic convent, Daalia is haunted by the guilt of being separated from her younger sisters and leaves the convent to find them.  She believes that only a hermit death metal rocker can provide the answers she seeks, but little does she know that the cult's still-active followers are stalking her and plan to use her in a rebirthing ceremony.

REVIEW LINK: Umbrella Entertainment (AUS) Region 0 PAL DVD (DVD Drive-in)

CULT GIRLS DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 2.40:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1
• Audio Commentary by director Mark Bakaitis and casting director Nathan Hill
• "Video Deities: The Making of CULT GIRLS"
• MERCY KILL 1993 short film
• Music Videos
  

Second Run gets extreme with LIBERTÉ (review)

Three aristocrats ousted from the court of Louis XVI flee to Germany where they plot to export and impose the philosophy of libertinism in Albert Serra's idiosyncratic follow-up to his prestigious THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV.

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

LIBERTÉ Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 Widescreen
• French/German/Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 Stereo
• Optional English Subtitles
• Introduction by director Albert Serra
• "Albert Serra on LIBERTÉ" director interview
• 24-page booklet featuring a new essay by curator and author Jason Wood, and an interview with Albert Serra by film critic Manu Yáñez-Murillo

Masters of Cinema gets THE LAST WARNING (review)

Years after a famous actor was murdered on stage in the middle of his performance and his body never found, a producer reunites the cast and crew to restage the play with a lurking phantom threatening that history will repeat itself in THE LAST WARNING.  From the director of THE CAT AND THE CANARY and shot on the sets of Lon Chaney's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.

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

THE LAST WARNING Blu-ray specs: 

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 Pillarboxed Fullscreen
• Arthur Barrow Music Score DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo
• English Intertitles
• Audio Commentary by horror and fantasy authors Kim Newman and Stephen Prince
• "Paul Leni and THE LAST WARNING" video essay by John Soister
• Collector's Booklet featuring an essay by Philip Kemp and Arthur Barrow's notes on the score
• The first 2,000 copies come with a limited edition slipcover