Severin Films Releasing 3 Genre Classics on Blu-Ray: THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH, SATAN’S SLAVE & HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND
Josh Millican
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On May 26th, Severin Films is releasing a hat trick of seminal international horrors: Italian Giallo maestro Sergio Martino’s masterpiece The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh with giallo queen Edwige Fenech, the original Indonesian haunting masterpiece Santan’s SLave, and long thought lost German mind melter Horrors of Spider Island are all making their glorious high definition US disc debuts packed with bonus features!
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh: A year before they stunned the genre with All the Colors of the Dark, director Sergio Martino, co-writer Ernesto Gastaldi, and stars Edwige Fenech & George Hilton made their collaborative giallo debut with this “incredible piece of cinema” (Flickering Myth) that is “every bit as thrilling as Argento’s best” (Goomba Stomp): Fenech “at her most luminous” (Digitally Obsessed) stars as an unfaithful diplomat’s wife who finds herself hunted by a razor-wielding sex maniac while simultaneously haunted by her own depraved desires. Alberto de Mendoza (Horror Express), Cristina Airoldi (Torso) and Ivan Rassimov (Eaten Alive!) co-star in the “daring shocker that set the pace for years to come” (Mondo Digital) – also known as Blade of the Ripper and Next! – newly scanned in 4k from the internegative and loaded with new & archival Special Features.
Satan’s Slave [Featured Image]: In 1980, Indonesian exploitation studio Rapi Films and writer/director Sisworo Gautama Putra (Primitives, The Warrior) unleashed the singular chiller that rocked the Muslim nation, transformed the country’s genre film industry, and remains one of the most influential shockers in Asian horror history: While mourning the death of his mother, a troubled teen discovers a nightmare world of restless spirits, supernatural vengeance and occult terror with “an intense creepiness that stands the test of time” (The Jakarta Post). Ruth Pelupessy (The Snake Queen) and W.D. Mochtar (Mystic in Bali) star in this “classic from the Golden Age of Indonesian horror” (Monster!) – whose 2017 Joko Anwar remake became an international festival favorite and one of Indonesia’s biggest hits ever – now scanned from the original negative and packed with all-new Special Features.
Horrors of Spider Island: Produced in 1960 as Body in the Web, it became a notorious Adults Only feature throughout Europe(though banned in the UK). Three years later and sheared of its nudity, it was repackaged for American audiences as a brain-melting monster movie filled with stripper catfights, skimpy lingerie and radioactive arachnids. Alexander D’Arcy – whose Hollywood career ranged from Leo McCarey’s The Awful Truth to Al Adamson’s Blood of Dracula’s Castle – and ‘The German Jayne Mansfield’ Barbara Valentin (Berlin Alexanderplatz) star in “the ultimate exploitation movie” (PsychotronicReview.com), produced by Wolf C. Hartwig of Bloody Moon and Schoolgirl Report infamy. Severin Films is proud to present both the complete uncensored version – scanned from the Düsseldorf dupe negative – as well as the alternate U.S. release – scanned from a pristine low con print – now together for the first time.
Are you excited to pick up these cult classics from Severin Films? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.
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