DVD and Blu-ray Releases: April 18, 2017
Sean Brickley
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Well, after last week’s epic list, this week’s 11 releases will seem rather short, but there are still some gems to discuss.
First up, we’ve got Donne Darko with a four-disc limited edition set. Personally, I don’t consider Donnie Darko to be a horror movie, but it showed up on my radar so I figured some people might find the information useful. This includes both Blu-ray and DVD formats of the movie for the Theatrical and Director’s cuts. There’s a ton of additional features as well.
Split, the psychological thriller featuring James McAvoy, will also be released on both formats this week. Be sure to check that out.
Up next is the Blu-ray release of 1995’s Tales from the Hood. SPOILER ALERT: Clarence Williams III does not actually have a forked tongue in real life.
There is also a small handful of classic releases this week. From 1971 we have the Blu-ray release of The Mephisto Waltz and The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave. From 1972, The Red Queen Kills Seen Times will also be out on Blu-ray.
On the newer side of the fence is Arbor Demon (formerly known as Enclosure) from the prolific Patrick Rea.
One interesting title being released this week is Shock Festival. This is a collection of hard-to-find exploitation and grindhouse trailers – 7 HOURS worth of trailers. It definitely sounds like it could be a lot of fun.
Keep checking back each week as the next month at least is pretty loaded with titles. As always, pleasant viewing.
MOVIES
Arbor Demon (2017)
Starring:
Kevin Ryan, Jake Busey, Fiona Dourif
Synopsis:
A woman with a dark secret goes on a camping trip with her husband, hoping the serene setting will help her summon the courage to confide in him. Before she is able, a group of nearby hunters are slaughtered by an unknown force. With a shapeless predator roaming the forest, the couple’s too terrified to emerge from their tent. Is the evil outside trying to get in, or is it something they have spawned from inside their enclosure?
Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies (2017)
Starring:
Laurie Calvert, Gabriela Marcinkova, Oscar Dyekjaer Giese, Margarete Tiesel, Karl Fischer
Synopsis:
When a scientific experiment conducted by a local entrepreneur unleashes an epidemic of zombies and mutant wildlife in the Austrian alps, three young snowboarders find themselves in an epic battle for survival where they must use their killer snowboarding skills to defeat the raging aprés-ski undead once and for all.
Contamination .7 (1993)
Starring:
Mary Sellers, Jason Saucier
Synopsis:
People from a small town are attacked by evil radioactive tree roots growing in the forest.
Donnie Darko (4-Disc Limited Edition) (2001)
Starring:
Jake Gyllenhaal, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Patrick Swayze, Drew Barrymore, Jena Malone
Synopsis:
Fifteen years before Stranger Things, Richard Kelly set the template and the high-water mark with his debut feature, Donnie Darko. Initially beset with distribution problems, it would slowly find its audience and emerge as arguably the first cult classic of the new millennium.
Donnie is a troubled high school student: in therapy, prone to sleepwalking and in possession of an imaginary friend, a six-foot rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world is going to end in 28 days 06 hours 42 minutes and 12 seconds. During that time he will navigate teenage life, narrowly avoid death in the form of a falling jet engine, follow Frank’s maladjusted instructions and try to maintain the space-time continuum.
Described by its director as ”The Catcher in the Rye as told by Philip K. Dick”, Donnie Darko combines an eye-catching, eclectic cast pre-stardom Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, heartthrob Patrick Swayze, former child star Drew Barrymore, Oscar nominees Mary McDonnell and Katharine Ross, and ER star Noah Wyle and an evocative soundtrack of 80s classics by Echo and the Bunnymen, Tears for Fears and Duran Duran. This brand-new 4K restoration, carried out exclusively for this release by Arrow Films, allows a modern classic to finally receive the home video treatment it deserves.
The Mephisto Waltz (1971)
Starring:
Alan Alda, Jacqueline Bisset, Barbara Parkins, Bradford Dillman, Curt Jurgens
Synopsis:
When was the last time you were afraid? Really afraid? Brace yourself for the ultimate transplant… the human soul! The devil is in the music in this sleek and scary piece of movie necromancy – when a failed musician-turned-journalist (Alan Alda, “M*A*S*H”) interviews a reclusive aging pianist (Curt Jurgens, The Enemy Below), he doesn’t realize he’s being interviewed himself… to be the vessel for the Satanist’s dying soul! Back in a youthful body, the pianist plans for a long life in the spotlight, but when the journalist’s wife (Jacqueline Bisset, Bullitt) realizes her husband’s twice the man he used to be, she prepares to make his new life a living Hell! Television veteran Paul Wendkos (Cannon for Cordoba) directs this cult horror classic, based on a novel by Fred Mustard Stewart (The Norliss Tapes) with a screenplay by Ben Maddow (The Asphalt Jungle). The stellar cast includes Barbara Parkins (Valley of the Dolls), Bradford Dillman (Chosen Survivors), Pamelyn Ferdin (The Beguiled), and William Windom (TV’s “The Farmer’s Daughter”).
The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971)
Starring:
Anthony Steffen, Marina Malfatti
Synopsis:
At the height of the Italian giallo boom of the early 1970s, scores of filmmakers turned their hand to crafting their own unique takes on these lurid murder-mystery thrillers.
In The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, director Emilio P. Miraglia (The Red Queen Kills Seven Times) melds the giallo s trademark twisty whodunit storytelling with gothic chills, concocting a gripping horror/thriller hybrid. Troubled aristocrat Alan Cunningham (Anthony Steffen, Django the B*stard), haunted by the death of his first wife Evelyn, tries to move on by marrying the seductive Gladys (Marina Malfatti, All the Colours of the Dark). Marital bliss is short-lived, however, as various relatives meet untimely and gruesome deaths, prompting speculation that a vengeful Evelyn has risen from the grave…
Populated by an array of Euro cult stars, including Giacomo Rossi Stuart (Caltiki the Immortal Monster) and the unforgettable Erika Blank (Kill, Baby… Kill!), and featuring a lush lounge score by giallo maestro Bruno Nicolai, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave offers up a beguiling, unique and downright insane twist on a familiar formula.
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972)
Starring:
Barbara Bouchet, Sybil Danning, Ugo Pagliai
Synopsis:
At the height of the Italian giallo boom in the early 1970s, scores of filmmakers turned their hand to crafting their own unique takes on these lurid murder-mystery thrillers.
In The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, an age-old family curse hits sisters Kitty (Barbara Bouchet, Milano Calibro 9) and Franziska (Marina Malfatti, All the Colours of the Dark) following the death of their grandfather Tobias (Rudolf Schündler, The Exorcist, Suspiria). Every hundred years, so the legend goes, the bloodthirsty Red Queen returns and claims seven fresh victims. Was Tobias just the first… and are Kitty and Franziska next?
Director Emilio P. Miraglia (The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave) once again combines a conventional giallo whodunit narrative with supernatural chills, concocting a gripping horror/thriller hybrid which moves effortlessly between the world of high fashion and creepy gothic locales. Co-starring B-movie legend Sybil Danning (Grindhouse, Howling II), The Red Queen Kills Seven Times shows that there s more to gialli than black-gloved killers!
Shock Festival (2017)
Starring:
Various
Synopsis:
A 3-Disc (2 DVDs, 1 CD-ROM with MP3) audio and video exploitation extravaganza featuring over 7 hours of the most rare and unusual exploitation trailers, TV ads and radio spots from the Age of Grindhouse Cinema! Plus original new content inspired by the amazing fictional b-movie world of Stephen Romano’s exploitation novel, Shock Festival. Take a wild journey through the exploitation movie scenes of the 1970s and 1980s with this collection of hundreds of actual previews of coming attractions, television commercials and radio spots for the sleaziest, sexiest most off-the-wall films ever made – all digitally re-mastered from Original Film Elements. Collection also includes Brand New Media Inspired by the Best, Worst and most Outrageous Trailers from Horror and Exploitation Cinema. Directors: Bill Lustig, Al Adamson, Larry Cohen, Richard Griffin, Stephen Romano. Bonus features: 300 Horror and Exploitation Radio Spots on an MP3 CD-ROM.
Split (2017)
Starring:
James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula
Synopsis:
While the mental divisions of those with dissociative identity disorder have long fascinated and eluded science, it is believed that some can also manifest unique physical attributes for each personality, a cognitive and physiological prism within a single being.
Though Kevin (James McAvoy) has evidenced 23 personalities to his trusted psychiatrist, Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley), there remains one still submerged who is set to materialize and dominate all the others. Compelled to abduct three teenage girls led by the willful, observant Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy, The Witch), Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those contained within him—as well as everyone around him—as the walls between his compartments shatter apart.
Tales from the Hood (1995)
Starring:
Clarence Williams III, David Alan Grier, De’aundre Bonds, Corbin Bernsen
Synopsis:
Stories of racism, child abuse, police brutality and gang violence have a supernatural twist.
The Watcher (2017)
Starring:
Erin Cahill, Edi Gathegi, Denise Crosby, Riley Baron, Kevin Daniels
Synopsis:
Unaware of its terrible history, a young couple purchases their dream home. But it soon becomes clear that they may not be alone in the house… and that someone – or some thing – is determined to drive them out.
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