Full Moon fights for the future in CRASH AND BURN (review)

The inhabitants of a pirate television station in the middle of the desert in an apocalyptic future are stalked by a robot that has had its prime directive not to harm humans removed in one of the earliest Full Moon sci-fi flicks.  Bill Moseley, Megan Ward, and Ralph Waite star.

REVIEW LINK: Full Moon (US) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

CRASH AND BURN Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 Widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo
• Optional English SDH Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by actor Bill Moseley and director Charles Band
• Behind the Scenes
• Bloopers
• Trailer
• Bonus Trailers

Order from AMAZON! 

MVD Visual sinks its teeth into VAMPIRE AT MIDNIGHT (Review)

The "Vampire Killer" is leaving a trail of blood-drained women around the Hollywood Hills with nothing tying the victims together until an L.A. detective becomes suspicious of a celebrity hypnotherapist who has set his sights on his concert pianist girlfriend.

REVIEW LINK: MVD Visual (US) Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVDCompare)

VAMPIRE AT MIDNIGHT DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 1.33:1 pillarboxed fullscreen
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
• Optional English SDH Subtitles
• Video Trailer

Order from AMAZON! 

Eureka Video explores STRANGE NEW WORLDS: SCIENCE FICTION AT DEFA (review)

In East Germany, DEFA Studios proposed a Utopian take on science fiction compared to the dystopian West.  In THE SILENT STAR - better known in the U.S. as FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS - an international expedition to Venus traces an alien signal.  In SIGNALS: A SPACE ADVENTURE, a captain uses a routine repair mission to scour the ends of the galaxy for another ship that mysterious broke up in a meteor shower.  In EOLOMEA, eight ships vanish from the same base and a female scientist suspects one of her mentors knows more than he claims with regard to an old project rejected by the U.N.  In IN THE DUST OF STARS, a rocket responds to an emergency call on a distant planet but its inhabitants are a pleasure-loving bunch whose seductive surface hides an ugly secret.

REVIEW LINK: Eureka Video (UK) Region B Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

STRANGE NEW WORLDS - SCIENCE FICTION AT DEFA Blu-ray specs:

• Disc One - The Silent Star:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 Widescreen
• German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 Stereo
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film scholar by Rolland Man, presented by David Melville Wingrove
• "Red Skies" interview with Soviet cinema expert Claire Knight
• "Robot" 1968 animated short by Klaus Georgi, produced by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film
• "British Filmmaker Visits DEFA" 1959 newsreel documenting Anthony Asquith's visit to the set
• "A Rocket in the Soviet Zone" 1959 newsreel covering the making of "The Silent Star"
• German Theatrical Trailer 
• "Strange New Worlds" Box Set Trailer
• Disc Two:
• Signals - A Space Adventure:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 Widescreen
• German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 Stereo
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film scholar by Rolland Man, presented by David Melville Wingrove
• Eolomea:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.20:1 Widescreen
• German LPCM 2.0 Stereo
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film scholar by Rolland Man, presented by David Melville Wingrove
• "Blast Off" interview with science fiction scholar Mark Bould
• "Jana and the Little Star" 1971 animated short by Christl Wiemer, produced by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film
• "Cosmonaut Dreams - Made in Babelsberg" documentary featuring special-effects cameraman Kurt Marks, costume designer Barbara Müller-Braumann, and technician Jan-Peter Schmarje
• German Theatrical Trailer
• Disc Three - In the Dust of the Stars:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 Pillarboxed Widescreen
• German LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film scholar by Rolland Man, presented by David Melville Wingrove
• "Marx Attacks" video essay by film scholar Daniel Jonah Wolpert
• "Love 2002" 1972 DEFA documentary short by Joachim Hellwig
• "Dusting Off After 30 Years" 1990 interview with cinematographer Peter SuringGerman 
• Theatrical Trailer
• Limited collector's edition of 2,000 copies including a hardcase featuring new artwork by Carly A-F and 60-page collector’s book featuring an introduction by Mariana Ivanova, Academic Director of the DEFA Film Library, and new writing by DEFA historians Sebastian Heiduschke, Sonja Fritzsche and Evan Torner.
  

Cauldron Films check into THE HOUSE OF LOST SOULS (review)

A team of young geology students on their way down from the mountains gets stranded by a landslide and takes shelter in a hotel only to discover that it is not just closed for the season but for good as the ghosts of murder victims seek new victims in this too-gory-for-television film from Umberto Lenzi.

REVIEW LINK: Cauldron Films (US) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

THE HOUSE OF LOST SOULS Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 Widescreen
• English and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
• Optional English SDH and English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film historian Samm Deighan
• Audio Commentary by film historians Rod Barnett and Adrian Smith
• "Working with Umberto" interview with effects artist Elio Terribili
• "The House of Rock" interview with composer Claudio Simonetti
• "The Kriminal Cinema of Umberto Lenzi" 2001 documentary featuring an interview with director Umberto Lenzi (52 minutes)
  

Order from AMAZON!

Cauldron Films investigates THE HOUSE OF WITCHCRAFT (Review)

A journalist suffering from recurring nightmares about an old witch is spirited away to the countryside by his mysterious wife, but the villa she has rented is the one in his nightmares in Umberto Lenzi's too-gory-for-television production THE HOUSE OF WITCHCRAFT.

REVIEW LINK: Cauldron Films (US) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

THE HOUSE OF WITCHCRAFT Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 Widescreen
• English and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
• Optional English SDH and English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by film historians Eugenio Ercolani, Nathaniel Thompson, and Troy Howarth
• "Artisan of Mayhem" interview with effects artist Elio Terribili
• "The House of Professionals" interview with cinematographer Nino Celeste
  

Order from AMAZON!

VCI Video exposes "The Witchmaker" as THE NAKED WITCH (review)

Six women have turned up bloodless deep in the bayou prompting rumors of a witch.  When a team of psychic researchers isolate themselves in a remote cabin to investigate the phenomena, their psychic sensitive becomes the target of Luther the Berserk, aka "The Witchmaker" in this 1960s horror gem featuring GREEN ACRES' Alvy Moore and DRACULA VS FRANKENSTEIN's Anthony Eisley.

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

THE NAKED WITCH Blu-ray/DVD Combo specs:

• Blu-ray:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 Widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
• Optional English SDH Subtitles
  
• DVD:
• 16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1 Widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
• Optional English SDH Subtitles
  
• Audio Commentary by film historian Robert Kelly
• "1960s Horror: A Decade of Innovation and Fear"
• THE WITCHMAKER Theatrical Trailer, TV Spot, and Radio Spot
  

Order from AMAZON!

Radiance Films goes noir with HARDBOILED: THREE PULP THRILLERS BY ALAIN CORNEAU (Review)

The director of LOVE CRIME and ALL THE MORNINGS OF THE WORLD dabbles in the French strain of film noir in this trio of HARDBOILED pulp thrillers.  In POLICE PYTHON 357, a lone wolf cop must stay ahead of his own colleagues to avoid becoming the prime suspect in the murder of his lover who he suspects was actually killed by her previous lover whose identity is as secret as his own.  In SERIE NOIRE, a door-to-door salesman falls for "a hell of a woman" and becomes entangled in a web of lies and murder.  In CHOICE OF ARMS, a reformed gangster must fall back on old habits when he is threatened by a violent and impulsive young punk.  Yves Montand, Catherine Deneuve, Sylvia Sandrelli, Simone Signoret, and Gerard Depardieu star.

REVIEW LINK: Radiance Films (US/UK) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

HARDBOILED - THREE PULP THRILLERS BY ALAIN CORNEAU Blu-ray specs:

• Disc One - Police Python 357:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 WidescreenFrench LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English Subtitles
• Audio Commentary by The Projection Booth Podcast's Mike White
• "Maxim Jakubowski on Police Python 357's Source Novel and Adaptation"
• 1976 Belgian television interview with director Alain Corneau and actor François Périer
• Disc Two - Serie Noire:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 Widescreen
• French LPCM 2.0 Mono
• Optional English Subtitles
• "Série noire: The Darkness of the Soul" 2013 documentary
• Interview with director Alain Corneau and actress Marie Trintignant
• 1981 Belgian television set interviews with director Alain Corneau and actors Patrick Dewaere and Miriam Boyer
• "A Hollyhock in a Cornfield: Jim Thompson on Screen" visual essay by film historian Patrick Martinovic
• Theatrical Trailer
• Disc Three - Choice of Arms:
• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 Widescreen
• French LPCM 2.0 StereoOptional English Subtitles
• Introduction by documentary filmmaker Jérôme Wybon
• "Shooting Choice of Arms" 1981 interviews with the cast and crew including behind-the-scenes footage
• 1981 interviews with actors Catherine Deneuve, Yves Montand, and Gerard Depardieu from the set
• Interview with critic Manuela Lazic on Yves Montand in the 1970s
• Theatrical Trailer
• Limited edition of 2,500 copies, presented in a rigid box with full-height Scanavo cases and removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings, reversible covers for each disc, and an 80-page booklet featuring new writing by Charlie Brigden, Andrew Male, Nick Pinkerton, Travis Woods, and newly translated archival interviews with Alain Corneau.
  

Order from AMAZON!