Thursday, April 28, 2011

Arrow Video unleash deluxe editions of The Funhouse, Slaughter High and Kentucky Fried Movie in July

Arrow Video have announced the titles for release in July and it more of the same - pure awesomeness. It's been a banner year for the UK label with the launch of their classic cinema imprint Arrow Video releasing seminal cinema titles. May will see the release of Dario Argento's debut film The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) while Argento's early 80's shocker Tenebrae (1982) get a June release as does the Linda Blair revenge vehicle Savage Streets (1984) and Brian De Palma's dizzying thriller Obsession (1976). Mind you these are all deluxe editions with all-new special features, remastered and with newly commissioned artwork from the likes of Rick Melton and Tom Hodge.

Well, this magnificent streak of titles continues in July when we'll see deluxe editions of John Landis' madcap comedy Kentucky Fried Move scripted by The Zucker Brothers (Airplane, Top Secret), the stalk n' slash video classic Slaughter High (1986) and Tobe Hooper's criminally underrated slasher The Funhouse (1981). Again, these are all new deluxe edition with exclusive content, remastered picture and sound and some sweet artwork from Graham Humphreys . Being a slasher fan it is The Funhouse and Slaughter High that have me pumped but I do love me some Kentucky Fried Movie and it's a two-disc edition jammed with content.
 


THE KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE (1977) Blu-ray
Release Date: July 4th 2011

Audio: English subtitles for the hard of hearing
Region Code: Region 0 PAL
Rating: 15 Certificate
Duration: 85 mins
Director: John Landis
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Bill Bixby, Bong Soo Han
Tagline: A bargain bucket of classic comedy!


SYNOPSIS: Welcome to Kentucky Fried Movie, the Citizen Kane of bad taste, gross out, screwball movies. This is the film that birthed a thousand low rent comedies, a million playground quotes and brought the ancient mysteries of Kung Fu to the West in the awe inspiring mini-movie, A Fistful of Yen.


Hollywood legends The Zucker Brothers (Airplane, Top Secret) team up with John Landis (Ghostbusters, The Blues Brothers) for an adults-only comedy trip through the worlds of advertising, TV, movies and, of course... SEX!


THIS EDITION CONTAINS
- 4 panel reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork
- Double-sided fold-out artwork poster
- Collector’s booklet featuring a new interview with director John Landis and new writing on the film by critic and author Calum Waddell


DISC 1 CONTAINS:
- Feature presented in Widescreen 1.85:1 and Full Frame 1.33:1
- Original mono audio
- Original Trailer
- The audio recollections of director John Landis, writers Jerry Zucker, David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and producer Robert K. Weiss


DISC 2 CONTAINS:
- A conversation with David and Jerry Zucker: A feature length interview with the co-creators of The Kentucky Fried Movie, Airplane and The Naked Gun about their lives and career, from growing up and starting out in show business to their comedy influences and spoofing Midnight Cowboy!
- Jerry Zucker’s on-set Home Video shot during the making of the movie
- Behind-the-scenes photo gallery
- Original art by Graham Humphreys – http://www.grahamhumphreys.com/
- Subtitles: English, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish




SLAUGHTER HIGH (1986) DVD
Release Date: July 11th 2011


Audio: English subtitles for the hard of hearing
Region Code: Region 0 PAL
Rating: TBA
Duration: 87 mins
Director: George Dugdale, Mark Ezra, Peter Litten
Starring: Caroline Munro, Simon Scuddamore, Carmine Iannaccone
Tagline: For Marty, School Days were the worst days of his life...




SYNOPSIS: When the alumni of an all-American high school make a trip to attend a class reunion, they reconnect with their pasts in ways more bloody and fatal than they could possibly imagine in the 80s slasher classic Slaughter High.


On arrival, they discover the school shuttered and in disrepair, as if the reunion were just a ruse to drag them back. Still, the old pupils decide to break in and celebrate anyway. A deadly error considering that Marty, the nerd whose teenage life they made a living hell, is lurking in the dank, dark corridors, waiting to bring fear, torment and slicing, dicing murder to each and every one of them.


A Stalk ‘n’ Slash video store classic from the golden era of bottom shelf horror starring scream queen Caroline Munro (Maniac, The Last Horror Film).


THIS EDITION CONTAINS
- Reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork
- Double-sided fold-out artwork poster
- Collector’s booklet featuring brand new writing on the film by author Troy Howarth


SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Available on DVD for the first time in the UK!
- Introduction by co-writer/ co-director Mark Ezra
- Jesters and Jolts: Interview with co-writer/co-director Mark Ezra
- Lamb to the Slaughter: The Scream Queen Career of Caroline Munro
- Audio Commentary with star Caroline Munro, DVD World editor Allan Bryce and author and critic Calum Waddell
- Audio Commentary with co-writer/ co-director Mark Ezra moderated by Teenage Wasteland author J. A. Kerswell
- Original art by Graham Humphreys http://www.grahamhumphreys.com/






THE FUNHOUSE (1981) Blu-ray
Release Date: July 18th 2011


Audio: English subtitles for the hard of hearing
Region Code: ABC
Rating: 15 Certificate
Duration: 95 mins
Director: Tobe Hooper
Starring: Elizabeth Berridge, Shawn Carson, Miles Chapin, Jeanne Austin, Jack McDermott
Tagline: Something is alive in The Funhouse!


SYNOPSIS: The carnival is a place for fun and laughter, but not for Amy and her friends. When their childish dare to stay all night in the spooky funhouse backfires, it leaves a trail of dismembered teenagers a mile long in Tobe Hooper’s classic video nasty era slasher.


Will anyone escape the clutches of the stumbling madman that stalks to sideshow? Is there no end to the carnival barkers chilling sadism? The only way to find out is ascend into the funhouse, where the games have no rules and the only prize on offer is a grisly demise.


Join us in The Funhouse. So much fun that you’ll never leave...Alive!


THIS BLU-RAY EDITION CONTAINS:
- Brand new transfer of the film in glorious High Definition (1080p)
- 4 panel reversible sleeve options with original and newly commissioned artwork
- Double-sided fold-out artwork poster
- Collector’s booklet featuring brand new writing on the film by critic and author Kim Newman.


SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Audio commentary with The Funhouse S/FX wizard Craig Reardon and Jeffrey Reddick (creator of The Final Destination series)
- Audio commentary with producer Derek Power and genre scholar Howard S. Berger
- Audio commentary with Justin Kerswell, author of ‘Teenage Wasteland’ and host of the slasher cinema website Hysteria Lives, and author Calum Waddell
- Stuck in the Funhouse with director Tobe Hooper
- Carnage at the Carnival: Tobe Hooper Remembers ‘The Funhouse’
- Miles of Mayhem: Acting in Tobe’s Funhouse with star Miles Chapin
- A Trilogy of Terror: The Make-up Madness of Craig Reardon, the S/FX wizard recollects his collaborations with Tobe Hooper; ‘Eaten Alive’, ‘Poltergeist’ and ‘The Funhouse’
- Master Class of Horror: Mick Garris, the director of Sleepwalkers and The Shining reflects on the crimson-covered career of his longtime colleague
- Live Q&A with Tobe Hooper from San Francisco
- Never before seen behind the scenes photographs from the collection of Craig Reardon