Arrow Video Announces Next Batch of US Genre Releases; 1987’s Blood Rage and More!
John Squires
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When Thanksgiving rolls around, one of the things we’re going to be thankful for is the fact that UK label Arrow Video finally started putting out US releases this year. And they’ve just announced the latest batch of upcoming titles, details of which are on tap for you today. So read on!
From the Press Release:
MVD Entertainment Group furthers the distribution of Arrow Video in the US with a strong schedule of new titles.
PIT STOP (1969) – JUNE 30, 2015
The most dangerous game ever devised, to pit man against man, flesh against steel – the figure-8 race! Jack Hill (Coffy, Foxy Brown) follows up Spider Baby, once again teaming up with Sid Haig (House of 1000 Corpses) in one of his greatest roles for this action-spectacular crash-o-rama!
Richard Davalos (East of Eden) stars as Rick Bowman, a street punk who winds up in jail after a street race goes wrong. Bailed out by race promoter Grant Willard, Davalos is put in the deadly track where he comes up against Haig’s maniacal winner Hawk Sidney. Featuring an outstanding supporting cast including Brian Donlevy (The Quatermass Xperiment) in his last film appearance, Ellen Burstyn, billed as Ellen McRae (The Exorcist), and Beverly Washburn (Spider Baby), Pit Stop is one of Hill’s lesser known films but arguably his greatest.
Filmed on a real figure-8 track, Hill and his crew were able to capture gripping real-life car wreck scenes, lending the film a brilliant sense of realism. You’ve never seen a motion picture like this before – can you take it?
Special Features:
- New High Definition digital transfer supervised and approved by director Jack Hill
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
- Original Mono 1.0 audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- New UK exclusive audio commentary with director Jack Hill moderated by his biographer Calum Waddell
- Crash and Burn! – Jack Hill on the making of Pit Stop
- Drive Hard – Actor Sid Haig speaks about his experience of acting in Pit Stop
- Life in the Fast Lane – producer Roger Corman on the genesis of Pit Stop
- Restoring Pit Stop – Restoration demonstration with Technical Supervisor James White
- Original Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw
- Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Glenn Kenny and musicologist and writer Gray Newell on the film’s soundtrack, illustrated with original stills and artwork
LA GRANDE BOUFFE (1973) – AUGUST 18, 2015
The most famous film by Italian provocateur Marco Ferreri (Dillinger is Dead), La Grande Bouffe was reviled on release for its perversity, decadence and attack on the bourgeoisie yet won the prestigious FIPRESCI prize after its controversial screening at the Cannes Film Festival.
Four friends, played by international superstars Marcello Mastroianni (Fellini’s 8½), Michel Piccoli (Belle de jour), Ugo Tognazzi (Barbarella) and Philippe Noiret (Zazie dans le métro), retreat to a country mansion where they determine to eat themselves to death whilst engaging in group sex with prostitutes and a local school teacher (Andréa Ferréol, The Tin Drum), who seems to be up for anything…
At once jovial and sinister, the film’s jet-black humour has a further twist as the reputed actors (whose characters use their own names) buck their respectable trend for a descent into fart-filled chaos that delivers a feast for the eyes and mind.
Special Features:
- Brand new 2K restoration of the original camera negative
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
- Original French audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- Newly translated English subtitles
- The Farcical Movie – A French television profile of Marco Ferreri from 1975 in which the director discusses, among other things, the influence of Tex Avery, Luis Buñuel and Tod Browning’s Freaks
- Behind-the-scenes footage of the making of La Grande Bouffe, containing interviews with Ferrari and actors Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Ugo Tognazzi and Philippe Noiret
- Extracts from the television series “Couleurs autour d’un festival” featuring interviews with the cast and crew recorded during the Cannes Film Festival
- A visual essay on the film with by Italian film scholar Pasquale Iannone
- Select scene audio commentary by Iannone
- News report from the Cannes Film Festival where La Grande Bouffe caused a controversial stir, including Ferreri at the press conference
- Original Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
- Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Johnny Mains, illustrated with original archive stills and posters
BLOOD RAGE (1987) – AUGUST 25, 2015
What do you get if you combine Thanksgiving, American TV star Louise Lasser (“Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman”), killer 80s synths and some of the most gruesome special effects in all of slasher history courtesy of Ed (Terminator 2) French? Why, it’s Blood Rage of course!
Todd and Terry seem like sweet kids – that is, until one of them takes an axe to the face of a fellow patron at the local drive-in. Todd is blamed for the bloody crime and institutionalised, whilst twin brother Terry goes free. Ten years later, and as the family gathers around the table for a Thanksgiving meal, the news comes in that Todd has escaped – and he’s heading their way. But has the killer twin in fact been in their midst all along? One thing’s for sure, there WILL be blood…
Filmed in 1983 at the tail end of the slasher golden era but not released until 1987, Blood Rage (also re-cut and released to theatres as Nightmare at Shadow Woods) has been lovingly restored from the original vault materials for its first ever appearance on Blu-ray and DVD. Happy Thankskilling!
Special Features:
- Brand new 2K restoration from original vault materials of three versions of the film: Blood Rage, the original “hard” version, completely uncut and uncensored in a Blu-ray/DVD world premiere; the R-rated Nightmare at Shadow Woods 1987 re-cut, and a third “composite” cut combining all the footage from both Blood Rage and Nightmare at Shadow Woods
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new extensive making-of documentary featuring interviews with various cast and crew
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork from Marc Schoenbach, to be revealed
- Fully-illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film
- PLUS MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED!
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