A “Feast of Fulci” and More from Severin Films in August
Josh Millican
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Fulci and Franco and Beasts, oh my! On August 25th, Severin Films brings an all-new batch of European genre giants to your Blu-Ray realms. These titles enter wide release following their limited availability during Severin’s record-setting Mid-Year Sale, which proved wildly successful despite technical issues and website hiccups.
Hot off its successful festival run, hybrid documentary Fulci For Fake makes its disc debut, along with new restorations of Fulci’s late-career hits Aenigma and Demonia. Jess Franco’s Shining Sex is an eye-popping new scan of the sleaze rarity, and The Beast Must Die (previously released exclusively in Severin’s The Amicus Collection) returns with a new 4k scan from a pristine 35mm element recently discovered in France.
Fulci For Fake
He was known as The Maestro of Splatter and The Godfather of Gore. But who was the real Lucio Fulci? When an actor (Nicola Nocella of Easy and Pupi Avati’s The Youngest Son) agrees to portray the infamous director, he sets out to research the triumphs, tragedies and truths behind Fulci’s life, work and legacy. Through never-before-seen home movies, rare behind-the-scenes footage from his classic films, audio confessions from Fulci himself, and revealing interviews that include composer Fabio Frizzi, cinematographer Sergio Salvati, former actor/assistant Michele Soavi and for the first and final time, the dual participation of daughters Antonella and Camilla Fulci, writer/director Simone Scafidi creates an unflinching portrait of one of the most visceral, controversial and immortal horror filmmakers of all time.
Aenigma
For his final horror hit of the ‘80s, writer/director Lucio Fulci combined elements of Carrie, Phenomena, and Suspiria with the grisly surrealism of his own past classics for one last shocker packed with “brooding, ominous imagery and signature Fulci style” (The Horror Syndicate): When a bullied student at a New England girls school becomes comatose after a prank gone wrong, her tormenters will suffer graphic telepathic punishment that includes the infamous ‘death by snails’ scene. Jared Martin (Dallas), Lara Lamberti (A Blade in the Dark) and Ulli Reinthaler (Zombie 3) star in this “blast from start to finish, with some of the most bonkers imagery Fulci ever put on film” (The Video Vacuum) co-written by Giorgio Mariuzzo (The Beyond, House by the Cemetary) and scanned in 4k from the original negative for the first time ever in America.
Demonia
In what fans consider his last great film, Godfather of Gore Lucio Fulci returns to the startling imagery and bloody excesses of his ‘70s/‘80s classics for an unholy saga of demonic nuns and supernatural carnage: When a Canadian archeological team begins excavating the ruins of a medieval Sicilian monastery, they will unleash the vengeance of a crucified coven of satanic sisters with full-on Fulci fury. Brett Halsey (The Devil’s Honey), Lino Salemme (Demons), Christina Engelhardt (Skinner), Al Cliver (The Beyond, Zombie) and Fulci himself star in this “solid horror from a true master” (Blu-ray Authority) co-written by Piero Regnoli (Burial Ground, Malabimba), now scanned in 4k from the original negative recently discovered in the attic of a Collevecchio convent.
Shining Sex
[Trailer Banned by YouTube]
One of the most provocative films of writer/director Jess Franco’s career has been virtually impossible to experience in its complete and uncut form…until now: Lina Romay is at her most explicitly seductive as an exotic dancer whose body is inhabited by a being from another dimension to explore desire, depravity and death, while Uncle Jess himself portrays a wheelchair-bound psychic obsessed with the paranormal. Shot on location in the seaside resort of La Grande Motte, Evelyne Scott (Devil’s Kiss), Monica Swinn (Barbed Wire Dolls) and Olivier Mathot (The Sadist of Notre Dame) co-star in this 1975 Eurociné production – previously available only in a shortened French version or as a censor-fogged Japanese bootleg – now scanned from the original negative for the first time ever anywhere.
The Beast Must Die
In the swansong horror production from ‘The Studio That Dripped Blood’, Peter Cushing, Calvin Lockhart (Cotton Comes to Harlem), Charles Gray (The Devil Rides Out), Anton Diffring (Circus of Horrors) and Marlene Clark (Ganja & Hess) star in a ‘70s whodunit like no other. An eccentric millionaire has invited a group of eight colleagues to his island estate to hunt the deadliest game of all: One of the guests is a werewolf, and will be stalked and slaughtered for sport. But who is the lycanthrope, and do they have a shocking plan of their own? Michael Gambon (Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies) co-stars in this “fast-moving and enormously entertaining” (SexGoreMutants) shocker from director Paul Annett (EastEnders), featuring cinematography from Oscar-winner Jack Hildyard (The Bridge on the River Kwai) and now fully restored – including the infamous ‘Werewolf Break’ – from a brand new 4k scan.
Special Features for Fulci For Fake:
- Interview with Director Simone Scafidi
- Crew Interviews
- Camilla Fulci Uncut – The first and only video interview with Lucio Fulci’s daughter
- Lucio Fulci & Friends – Interview outtakes with Sergio Salvati, Fabio Frizzi, Paolo Malco, Michele Soavi and Enrico Vanzina
- The Eye Of The Witness – Biographer Michele Romagnoli recalls his relationship with the director
- Looking For Lucio – Rare home movies from Fulci’s private life and location scouts, with accompanying commentary by Romagnoli and Fulci
- Lucio Fulci’s Audio Tapes – Audio highlights from conversations between Fulci and Romagnoli for the writing of Fulci’s memoir
- Zombie Parade at the Venice Film Festival
- Trailer
Special Features for Aenigma:
- Audio Commentary with Troy Howarth, Author of “Splintered Visions — Lucio Fulci & His Films” and Mondo-Digital.com’s Nathaniel Thompson
- Writing Nightmares – Interview with Screenwriter Giorgio Mariuzzo
- Italian Aenigma – Appraising Late Day Fulci Featurette
- Trailer
Special Features for Demonia:
- Holy Demons – Interview with uncredited Co-Writer / Assistant Director Antonio Tentori
- Fulci Lives – Interview with Lucio Fulci on set of DEMONIA
- Of Skulls and Bones – Interview with camera operator Sandro Grossi
- Audio Commentary with Stephen Thrower, Author of “Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci”
- Original Trailer
Special Features for Shining Sex:
- In the Land of Franco Pt. 3
- Shining Jess – Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of “Murderous Passions and Flowers of Perversion”
- Never Met Franco – Interview with Filmmaker Gerard Kikoine
- Very NSFW Outtakes
- Franco At Eurociné – Interview with Producer Daniel Lesoeur
- Commentary with Authors/Podcasters Robert Monell and Rod Barnett
- Filmmaker Christophe Gans on Franco
- Trailer
Special Features for The Beast Must Die:
- Audio Commentary with Director Paul Annett and Filmmaker Jonathan Sothcott
- And Then There Were Werewolves – Audio Essay by Horror Historian Troy Howarth
- Directing the Beast – Archival Interview with Director Paul Annett
- Audio Interview Excerpt of Milton Subotsky on BEAST MUST DIE – Interviewed by Philip Nutman
- Audio Interview with Producer Max J Rosenberg – Interviewed by Jonathan Sothcott
- Original Theatrical Trailer with Optional Commentary by Genre Scholars Kim Newman & David Flint
Are you excited to snag these upcoming releases 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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