Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment Announces Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Black & Chrome Edition

“Furiosa will blow you away”

“One of the best prequels ever made” - ROGEREBERT.COM / Robert Daniels

FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA BLACK & CHROME EDITION

AND MAD MAX 5-FILM 4K COLLECTOR’S EDITION

Debuts for Premium Digital Ownership on August 13

4K UHD Arrives on August September 24

George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which reveals the captivating, never-before-told origin of Furiosa and her unrelenting drive to find her way back home, will be released in a Black & Chrome Edition for purchase Digitally at home on August 13 and on 4K UHD on September 24.

The full high-octane action film franchise from visionary director Miller will also be available Digitally on August 13 and on 4K UHD on September 24.

The Mad Max 5-Film 4K Collector’s Edition will include 1979’s acclaimed post-apocalyptic action film Mad Max, 1981’s Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road and 2024’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. In addition to the 5 films, the Collector’s Edition also includes special features from the five films along with the Black & Chrome Editions of Mad Max: Fury Road and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

Created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy, Miller directed or co-directed all five films in the Mad Max franchise.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Black & Chrome Edition is a version of the theatrical film which has the color removed in favor of a black a chrome aesthetic. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Black & Chrome Edition will feature an introduction by director George Miller.

As the world fell, young Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.

On August 13, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Black & Chrome Edition and the Mad Max 5-Film 4K Collector’s Edition will be available for Digital Ownership at home on participating digital platforms where you purchase movies, including Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Fandango at Home, and more.

On August 13, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Black & Chrome Edition and the Mad Max 5-Film 4K Collector’s Edition will be available to own on 4K UHD from online and physical retailers. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Black & Chrome Edition and the Mad Max 5-Film 4K Collector’s Edition will also continue to be available to own in high definition and standard definition from participating digital retailers.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is directed by Academy Award-winning director George Miller (Academy Award for Best Animated Feature – Happy Feet, The Mad Max franchise, The Witches of Eastwick). Miller wrote the script with Mad Max: Fury Road co-writer Nico Lathouris. The film is produced by Doug Mitchell and George Miller.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga stars Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queens Gambit) as Furiosa and Chris Hemsworth (Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Rush) as Dementus. The film also stars Alyla Browne (Three Thousand Years of Longing) and Tom Burke (BBC’s War & Peace and The Musketeers).

BASICS
Premium Digital Ownership: August 13, 2024
4K UHD Street Date: September 24, 2024
4K UHD and Blu-ray: ATMOS TrueHD, DLBY/DGTL

THE CREDITS
Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth star in Academy Award-winning mastermind George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the much-anticipated return to the iconic dystopian world he created more than 40 years ago with the seminal Mad Max films. Miller now turns the page again with an all-new original, standalone action adventure that will reveal the origins of the powerhouse character from the multiple Oscar-winning global smash Mad Max: Fury Road. The new feature from Warner Bros. Pictures is produced by Miller and his longtime partner, Oscar-nominated producer Doug Mitchell (Mad Max: Fury Road, Babe), under their Australian-based Kennedy Miller Mitchell banner.

As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.

Taylor-Joy stars in the title role, and along with Hemsworth, the film also stars Tom Burke and Alyla Browne.

Miller penned the script with Mad Max: Fury Road co-writer Nico Lathouris. Miller’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes first assistant director PJ Voeten and action designer Guy Norris, director of photography Simon Duggan (Hacksaw Ridge, The Great Gatsby), composer Tom Holkenborg, supervising sound editor Robert Mackenzie, editor Eliot Knapman, visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson and supervising colorist Eric Whipp. The team also includes other longtime collaborators: production designer Colin Gibson, editor Margaret Sixel, production sound Ben Osmo, costume designer Jenny Beavan and hair and makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt, each of whom won an Oscar for their work on Mad Max: Fury Road.

Warner Bros. Pictures Presents A Kennedy Miller Mitchell Production, A George Miller Film, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The film is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.

THE LINGUINI INCIDENT (1991) (MVD Marquee Collection Blu-ray Review)

THE LINGUINI INCIDENT (1991) 

Director's Cut 

Label: MVD Marquee Collection 

Region Code: Region-Free 

Rating: R

Duration: 92 Minutes 49 Seconds 

Audio: English PCM 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 

Director: Richard Shepard 

Cast: David Bowie, Rosanna Arquette, Buck Henry, Marlee Matlin, Viveca Lindfors, James Avery, Maura Tierney

The early 90's were a fertile time of quirky, independent cinema and The Linguini Incident (1991) is certainly an oddball gem full of whimsy and weirdness. It's a bit of a romantic-comedy, but also a bit of a heist-caper, but then again, it's not real focused on that either, regardless, it's an entertaining watch, and I loved seeing David Bowie and Rosanna Arquette teamed-up as the leads of this way-out bit of weirdness. 

In it Lucy (Rosanna Arquette, Pulp Fiction) is a waitress at "Dali", a very hip underground eatery in New York City. There she meets a new bartender, the charming and mysteriously compulsive liar Monte (David Bowie, The Hunger), a Brit who is desperate to marry so that he can become a citizen, before he gets deported back to England, where apparently some sort of life-ending comeuppance it waiting for him. He sets his sights on Lucy but she's not too keen on him and the marriage-idea, but later when she alone is at her apartment practicing her Houdini-esque nightclub escape act she nearly hangs herself and is stuck in a pair of handcuffs with a noose around her neck. A random phone call from Monte seems the only way to get out of her predicament and the end result is that Monte ends up coming to her apartment to save the day, and also offers him yet another opportunity to propose another proposal for marriage.

Still into convinced by his charms she is more intrigued when she overhears him on the phone talking about knocking over the eatery, so she inserts herself into his heist plans,. Now officially in cahoots they recruit her neighbor gal pal Viv (singer/actor Eszter Balint, Stranger Than Paradise), a designer of self-defense brasiers, to rob the place and solve their mutual financial woes, but the trio are not quite the criminals masterminds that they think they are, and things expectedly do not quite go as planned. Sparks between them eventually do eventually start to fly, turning this into a quirky romantic-caper chock full of chemistry between out three leads, and some terrific turns from Andre Gregory (My Dinner with Andre) and Buck Henry (The Player) as the eateries fussy and malicious owners, and Marlee Matlin (TV's Picket Fences) as a deaf hostess at the eatery with a stunning pretzel hairdo. .

The colors of the film are wonderfully lush and vibrant, the world it creates both inside the restaurant and around this off kilter NYC neighborhood look terrific. Additionally the one-liners are pretty snazzy, I could see this becoming a bit of cult-classic now that we have a fabulous Blu-ray available. Before MVD announced this I will admit that I had never even heard of this one, and what a gem it is, this is an exciting release, it'd apparently been quite hard to come by till now. Just having Bowie and Arquette teamed-up front and center here is worth the price of admission alone, I don't think I've ever seen Bowie in such a humorous role, there's bit of low-key sinister to him as well, but he's so dang charming and funny here. Arquette is a known quantity and she brings a lot to it, I always felt she should have had more lead roles, and she really shines here as the offbeat waitress. 

Audio/Video: The Linguini Incident (1991) makes it;s worldwide Blu-ray debut from the MVD Marquee Collection, also marking the first-time-ever that the director's cut has been available on home video, presented here in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1) which is advertised as being "struck from a brand new 4K transfer from film interpositive". The image looks terrific, depth and clarity are modest, it's authentically grainy, and colors are well-saturated, especially the inside of the restaurant has a ubique green color palette to it that looks terrific in HD. Textures and fine detail is also pleasing, the oddball assortment of fashion styles have nice textures to them, and close-up reveals plenty of stubble, skin pores and wrinkling in the facial features. Audio comes by way of English PCM 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles, dialogue and atmospherics are well prioritized, and the score from Thomas Newman (The Shawshank Redemption) sounds terrific, as does the stray Meat Puppets tracks on the soundtrack!

This release is packed with extras, we start of with a 2-min Introduction by Director Richard Shepard, then onto a brand new Audio Commentary with Director Richard Shepard, actors Rosanna Arquette and Eszter Balint, co-producer Sarah Jackson and co-screenwriter Tamar Brott, moderated by “Cereal at Midnight’s” Heath Holland, plus a second Audio Commentary by Director Richard Shepard.

On top of that we get the 104-min The Making of The Linguini Incident - a feature-length documentary with interviews from co-writer/director Richard Shepard, co-writer Tamar Brott, actors Rosanna Arquette, Eszter Balint Marlee Matlin, Richard von Ernst, producer Sarah Jackson, production designer Marcia Hinds. This is an in-depth and fun exploration of the quirky film, production woes, and working with Bowie. Disc extras are buttoned-up with a 6-min Photo Gallery with Commentary by Richard Shepard; the 98-min Original Theatrical Version of The Linguini Incident in SD; a 2-min 2024 Theatrical Trailer, and the 2-min Original Theatrical Trailer.

The single-disc release arrives in a clear keepcase with a Reversible Wrap, plus a Limited Edition Slipcover and 16-Page Illustrated Booklet with essays from film historian Graham Rinaldi and director Richard Shepard, both the slipcover and wrap of are only available with the first-pressing. 

Special Features: 
- High Definition (1080p) presentation of the director’s cut of the main feature in 1.78:1 (struck from a brand new 4K transfer from film interpositive)
- Introduction by Director Richard Shepard (2:26) 
- Audio Commentary with Director Richard Shepard, actors Rosanna Arquette and Eszter Balint, co-producer Sarah Jackson and co-screenwriter Tamar Brott, moderated by “Cereal at Midnight’s” Heath Holland
- Audio Commentary by Director Richard Shepard
- “The Making of The Linguini Incident” - Full length documentary feat. interviews with Richard Shepard, Tamar Brott, Rosanna Arquette, Eszter Balint Marlee Matlin, Sarah Jackson, Marcia Hinds & Richard von Ernst (1:44:26, HD, w/ optional English subtitles)
- Photo Gallery with Commentary by Richard Shepard (5:55)
- The Linguini Incident – Original Theatrical Version (98:22) SD
- 2024 Theatrical Trailer (1:42) HD
- Original Theatrical Trailer (2:18) HD
- MVD Trailers: Mr. Jealousy, A Guide to Reorganizing Your Saints, Highball, Zariville, Art School Confidential 

- Reversible Sleeve of Artwork
- Limited Edition Slipcover (First Pressing Only)

- 16-Page Illustrated Booklet with essays from film historian Graham Rinaldi and director Richard Shepard (First Pressing Only)

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STRANGER'S KISS (1983) (Fun City Edition Blu-ray Review)

STRANGER'S KISS (1983) 

Label: Fun City Editions 

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 94 Minutes 12 Seconds 

Audio: English 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Matthew Chapman

Cast: Peter Coyote, Victoria Tennant, Blaine Novak, Dan Shor, Richard Romanus, Linda Kerridge
 
Directed by Matthew Chapman,the indie noir-ish gem Stranger's Kiss (1983) is a film about the making of a 1950s noir 'Strange and Dangerous', a sort of a fictional account of the making of Stanley Kubrick's second film, Killer's Kiss (1955). The film's first-time director Stanley (Peter Coyote, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) and producer Farris (Dan Shor, Strange Invaders) scrape together money for the production from a known gangster/Hollywood producer Frank (Richard Romanus, the voice of Harry Canyon from animated cult-classic Heavy metal!) whose girlfriend Carol (Victoria Tennant, Inseminoid) is the female lead in the role. Cast opposite her as a boxer is her romantic co-lead, Stevie (Blaine Novak, Up the Creek), who doesn't look the part of a boxer but has plenty of passion. 

The director, looking to get the best performance of his leads, who are supposed to be lovers, attempts to fan the flames of passion between them, meanwhile Stevie need little help falling for the noir blonde bombshell, but the film's financier, who again is the actresses boyfriend, and an abusive one at that, is starting to get steamed by the obvious chemistry between the leads. I love me a film-with-in-a-film and this one is quite fascinating, a wonderful recreation of 1950s Hollywood, lots of pulpy melodrama, Hollywood shenanigans and noir-leaning romance. I also quite dug how when they are shooting a scene the film goes from color to black and white, and it's got a wonderful jazzy sax-centric a score that s quite intoxicating. 

I was quite enamored with this homage to noir and the early film of Kubrick, and stands on its own as a quirky movie about the making of movies, and how fraught that process is. My favorite scenes are Peter Coyote and Shor as the first-time director/producer navigating the world of independent filmmaking, being manipulative towards the actors and demanding, but also having to appease the increasingly jealous producer, and in the end, selling the finished film to a studio, all of which was quite fascinating. 

The film has long been out of circulation on home video, so I appreciate Fun City Editions for unearthing it and giving it such a wonderful HD release, loaded with extras and attractive packaging options. If you order director from Fun City Editions you can choose between two variant slipcovers, and DiabolikDVD also carries one of the variant covers, both are limited tot he first-pressing.   

Audio/Video: Stranger's Kiss (19883) makes it;s worldwide Blu-ray debut on region-free disc from Fun City Editions presented  in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen (1.85:1) derived from a 4K from its original 35mm internegative. The image looks great, there's very minor blemish by way of speckling and whatnot but overall this is impressive, Colors and skin tones look accurate and natural, and the period costuming and set decoration reveals plenty of fine detail and texture in the close-ups, facial detail also impress. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with optional English subtitles. The track has some minor sibilance in spots but nothing that I found ruinous by any means, for the most part dialogue and atmospherics are  well-balanced, and the saxophone heavy score by Gato Barbieri (Last Tango in Paris) sounds great. 

FCE go all out with the extras for this one, which is quite storied, we get the 25-min Comradeship and Love - Video Interview with Matthew Chapman; the 24-min It Felt Like Magical - Video Interview with Victoria Tennant; the 24-min An Enemy of Cliche - Video Interview with Co-Writer/Actor Blaine Novak which is utterly fascinating, his career trajectory is really quite interesting as is the backstory to this production of this film, and his connections to the doomed Bogdanovich film They All Laughed. Additionally there's the 33-min Distributor To Producer - Video Interview with Doug Dilg. All of the interviews are terrific, lots of talk about Bogdanovich and the Dorothy Stratton murder that doomed They All Laughed, the production of this film, it;s promotion, and plenty of interesting name-dropping. Disc extras are buttoned-up with the 10-min Stanley Film - Video Essay by Chris O'Neill; a 3-min Theatrical Trailer, 2-min Image Gallery, and an Audio commentary by Walter Chaw. 

The single-disc release arrives in a clear Viva Elite keepcase with a Reversible Wap with legacy artwork, plus a Limited Edition Slipcover with retro-style front and back artwork sourced from the rare French VHS tape that is embossed and spot-glossed, which is available on the First Pressing Only. Inside there's a 16-Page Illustrated Booklet with essay by Peter Tonguette, also First Pressing Only,, featuring new writing on the film by way of 'Stranger's Kiss: A Dangerous Beauty' by Peter Tonguette, cast and crew information, and a vintage article about the film from the L.A. Time from 1984. 

Special Features: 
- Comradeship and Love - Video Interview with Matthew Chapman (24:36) 

- It Felt Like Magical - Video Interview with Victoria Tennant (23:58) 

- An Enemy of Cliche - Video Interview with Blaine Novak (24:28) 

- Distributor To Producer - Video Interview with Doug Dilg  (32:33) 

- Stanley Film - Video Essay by Chris O'Neill (9:40) 
- Theatrical Trailer (2:37)

- Image Gallery (2:23) 
- Audio commentary by Walter Chaw
- 16-Page Illustrated Booklet with essay by Peter Tonguette (First Pressing Only)
- Limited edition slipcover with retro-style front and back artwork sourced from the rare French VHS tape. First Pressing Only)
- Double-sided wrap with legacy artwork
 -New 4K Restoration from the film's original 35mm internegative

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DEMONS (1985) + DEMONS II (1986) (Synapse Films 4K Ultra HD Reviews

DEMONS (1985)

Standard 4K Ultra HD 

DEMONS II (1986)

Standard 4K UHD 

It's starting to look like like Demons I & II films are Synapse Film's version of what the Evil Dead franchise was to Anchor Bay and now Lionsgate, and I say that in a loving way, because I have owned at one time or another every fucking version of the Evil Dead trilogy, and now Demons and Demons II, on every digital home video format since VHS, and I was pleased as punch to buy every one of 'em! Now here we are with a pair of standalone 4K UHD releases, which is the first time they've offered them on 4K UHD as separate releases, previously available in a now OOP Special Limited Edition 4K UHD set with both films.

DEMONS (1985)

Label: Synapse Films

Duration: 91 Minutes

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: R

Audio: English or Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 and 5.1 Surround, English DTS-HD MA English 2.0 U.S. Theatrical Mono Audio  with Optional English SDH Subtitles

Video: HDR10 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.66:1)

Director: Lamberto Bava

Cast: Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Geretta Geretta, Bobby Rhodes

In the splatter-tastic Italian horror Demons (1985), directed by Lamberto Bava (A Blade in the Dark), a young woman named Cheryl (Natasha Hovey) is approached by a menacing looking guy (Michele Soavi, City of the Living Dead) wearing a metal mask in the Berlin subway, alarmed by his appearance she attempts flee but it turns out he's only trying to give her free passes to a invite-only movie screening at the Metropol Cinema. That night she is joined by her friend Kathy (Paola Cozzo, Demonia) to the screening where they meet two young flirtatious men; George (Urbano Barberini, The Black Cat) and Ken (Karl Zinny, Delirium).

Also in attendance are a bad-ass pimp (Bobby Rhodes, Demons 2) named Tony and two of his prostitutes, one of which is named Rosemary, played by Garetta Garetta (Rats: Night of Terror). In the lobby of the theater there is a movie prop of a samurai riding a motorcycle wielding a samurai sword and wearing creepy kabuki-style metal mask, not dissimilar to the one the guy handing out the free tickets was wearing. Rosemary pulls the mask off the mannequin and wears it for a second as a lark, but when taking it off it scratches her slightly on her face, drawing blood. I love it when the pimps reprimands here with "That's what you get for touching stuff"!, and the English-dubbing of the pimp is awesome.

As the movie begins we see that movie they're attending is a demonic horror film involving a group of teens and the prophecies of Nostradamus. It's a fun movie-with-a-movie device, as the story line in the movie unfolds on screen it seems to mirror what is happening in the theater at the same time. The hooker that was scratched by the mask starts to feel ill and heads to the bathroom where she discovers the scratch has become grotesquely infected, the pulsating boil erupts in a spray of demonic green jizz as she transforms into a gnarly toothed, green slime drooling demon with a fierce set of claws.

As the movie goers slowly become aware that something terrifying is happening in the theater they're helpless to escape as the doors have been barred. The pimp Tony takes charge of the situation, hollering a barrage of quotable gems as they attempt to thwart the demonic siege that is well underway. The gruesome make-up effects from Sergio Stivaletti (Cemetery Man) are plenty of fun with loads of torn flesh and gouged-eyes with an excess of blood and gore. A scene of a demon being birthed from the back of one of the infected is quite violent and fun - definitely a film that does not disappoint with a steady barrage of squirm inducing practical in-camera special effects. I also loved seeing Nicoletta Elmi, the creepy girl from The Night Child, show up here as Ingrid the movie usher! 

Demons is directed by Lamberto Bava (A Blade in the Dark) and produced and co-written by Dario Argento (Four Flies On Grey Velvet) and the great Italian screenwriter Dardano Sachetti (The Beyond). The film has a distinct Argento flavor about it with some great moody lighting and stylistic choices - this is a very vibrant film with some fantastic colors throughout. Away from the Argento influence it should be noted that Bava (son of the legendary Mario Bava, A Bay of Blood) is quite a good director in his own right with the films A Blade In The Dark (1983) and Macabre (1980) under his belt, that said it's the Demons movies he's probably most known for but I recommend digging into his other films to discover a few fun late-era Giallo entries.

The film has a few storytelling hiccups along the way such as the introduction of a group of coked-up punk rockers forty-minutes into the film whom add very little to the story other than some appreciated nudity. At times it does feel like a series of gore skits patched together and the pacing suffers at points, but not enough to suck out the fun, because this is a party movie, a blast from start to finish. The onscreen action comes at you fast and furious with a fun sword-swinging spin on a motorcycle through the theater and a helicopter which crashes through the ceiling of the theater all set to a fun metal-infused soundtrack, this is a damn fun party film with an apocalyptic ending.

Demons (1985) is a classic Italian splatter film and a Hell of a fun watch, while it can be a bit disjointed at times - like so many Italian horror films, but it earns high marks for the sweet gore and fist-pumping metal soundtrack. Demons is right up there with The Return of the Living Dead and Trick Or Treat as  a horror flick with a terrific soundtrack, it never fails to deliver the demonic goods, and is easily one of my favorite Italian splatter-platters of the 80's.

DEMONS 2 (1986)

Label: Synapse Films

Duration: 89 Minutes 

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: R

Audio: English or Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 and 5.1 Surround, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 True Stereo Theatrical Mix with Optional English SDH Subtitles

Video: HDR10 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.66:1)

Director: Lamberto Bava

Cast: David Edwin Knight, Nancy Brilli, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Asia Argento

At the start of the sequel the demonic plague unleashed in the first film bleeds over into the confines of high rise when a sad birthday girl is infected by her TV screen in a scene lifted straight outta David Cronenberg's Videodrome. Now transformed into a snarling, blood-spewing demon she attacks her party guests and more demonic mayhem ensues.

We have a nice change of venue as we go from the cinema of the first film to a high rise, which sort of brought to mind Cronenberg's Shivers. Another nice change is that the demonic possession is initially transferred via the medium of a TV screen and not a movie screen or the demonic metal mask from the first film. It's definitely a sequel that takes the Gremlins 2 approach of throwing everything and the kitchen sink into the sequel with the wonderful additions of demonic dog, Alien-esque acidic blood and a demonic child that all add new levels of absurd intensity to the demonic onslaught.

There are also quite a few nods to the original, I appreciated that they brought back badass Bobby Rhodes (The Great Alligator) who played the pimp in the first film, this time as an ass-kicking gym instructor who leads a group of shirtless muscle heads and leg warmer wearing foxy ladies who find themselves trapped in the parking garage up against a horde of the demon-possessed, but sadly he meets a nut-shredding fate.

I loved the make-up effects of the demons in this sequel even more than the first film. I don't recall the demons in the first film spewing so much blood from their face, in fact some of the blood is acidic and eats through the floor and into the level below, some of which is lapped up by a cute dog who transforms into a snarling demon-beast. Plus we have an infected child thrown into the mix who torments an expectant mother before dying, at which time a winged baby demon is spawned from it's corpse!

The most memorable demon after the child is that of the sad birthday gal named Sally (Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Opera) who is the first to be infected by watching a demon-possession flick on her TV and then further spreads the demonic plague as she tears birthday revelers apart. She gets a sweet transformation scene with the gnarly teeth and claws popping out from her fingertips. A top-notch sequel that amps up the insanity with fun gore gags and a fun soundtrack that changes up the metal soundtrack of the first film with a terrific new-wave flavor featuring the Smiths, the Cult and Peter Murphy among others.

Demons 2 is a fun amped up sequel with nods to Cronenberg's high-rise set parasitic horror Shivers and the mind-bending reality of Videodrome, plus the pint-sized creatures of Gremlins and Alien among others. A bit sillier than the original with a non-stop parade of awesome gore from start to finish, a sequel that in my opinion stands toe-to-toe with the original.

Audio/Video: Both Demons and Demons 2 are presented on separate 4K UHD releases presented in 2160p HD framed in 1.66:1 widescreen, remastered from the same 4K restorations from the original 35mm camera negatives Synapse released in 2021. For Demons 1 & 2 we get both the full-length original cut in English and Italian, plus the shorter U.S. version of Demons featuring alternate dubbing and sound effects. As stated these are the same gorgeous scans from the OCN released by Synapse in 2021, if you own those there is no need to upgrade unless your a completist, and they they still looks absolutely fantastic. The 4K UHD offering an appreciable uptick in quality over the still quite solid Blu-ray counterparts with tighter looking grain and clarity throughout  fine details are enhanced by the 4K resolution and the Dolby Vision (HDR10) color-grading offers deeper and richer primaries, and as I said this is a very colorful film so it pays off, also deepening black levels and improving contrast. The Blu-ray edition looks terrific, but the 4K UHD is phenomenal. 

Audio, for Demons we have an uncompressed English and Italian DTS-HD 2.0 and 5.1 audio mixes on the original cut derived from the archival audio masters, plus English DTS-HD MA 2.0 U.S. theatrical mono audio newly remastered back in 2021 by Synapse Films. Demons 2 has uncompressed DTS-HD MA English 5.1 and Italian 5.1 or 2.0 audio mixes derived from the original archival audio masters, plus uncompressed DTS-HD MA English 2.0 true stereo theatrical mix also remastered in 2021 by Synapse Films. Both films feature newly translated optional English SDH subtitles for the English versions, and newly translated English subtitles for the Italian versions. The audio sounds crisp and dynamic throughout with terrific soundtrack selection, including Motley Crue, Billy Idol and Accept on the first film alongside a fantastic Claudio Simonetti (Goblin), and a more new wave/goth tinged soundtrack on the sequel with choice cuts from Dead Can Dance, The Cult and The Smiths, with a score by Simon Boswell (Hardware).

As with the transfer these releases feature the same set of extras as the previous releases with each film, with the caveat that if you only owned the 2-disc Special Edition Blu-ray double-feature release from Synapse that set was a few extras shy compared to the 4K UHD version, and these standalone 4K UHD releases have all the extras. 

On the Demons disc we have a brand new Audio Commentary by Kat Ellinger and Heather Drain, co-hosts of the Hell’s Belles podcast, who turn in a top-notch discussion of the splatter-classic, plus we get a new 27-minute visual essay, Produced by Dario Argento, by author and critic Michael Mackenzie exploring Argento's career as a producer. For Demons 2 we get an Audio Commentary by film critic Travis Crawford, and another 27-minute video essay, Together and Apart on the space and technology in Demons and Demons 2 by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. Additionally we have hours of archival extras ported over from the previous Synapse steelbook editions.

The separate single-disc standard 4K UHD releases of Demons and Demons 2 arrive in black keepcases with a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring botht he original theatrical artwork plus new artworks that mirror the North American VHS designs with a twist, by designer Chris MacGibbon. Inside we get some cool ephemera by way of a reproduction of the original movie ticket from Demons with information about the transfer on the reverse side, plus we get a Demons 2 birthday party invitation with notes about the transfer as well. 

Demons Special Features:  

- Two versions of the film: the full-length original cut in English and Italian, and the shorter U.S. version featuring alternate dubbing and sound effects

- Uncompressed DTS-HD MA English & Italian 5.1/2.0 audio mixes on the original cut derived from the archival audio masters

- Uncompressed DTS-HD MA English 2.0 U.S. theatrical mono audio newly remastered in 2021 by Synapse Films

- Audio commentary by critics Kat Ellinger and Heather Drain, co-hosts of the Hell’s Belles podcast

- Audio commentary with director Lamberto Bava, SPFX artist Sergio Stivaletti, composer Claudio Simonetti and actress Geretta Geretta

- Monstrous Memories: Luigi Cozzi on Demons (29 min) (4K UHD Exclusive) 

- Splatter Spaghetti Style: interview with long-time Argento collaborator Luigi Cozzi, Carnage at the Cinema: Lamberto Bava and His Splatter Masterpiece (34 min) (4K UHD Exclusive) 

- Profondo Jones: The Critical Perspective (13 min) (4K UHD Exclusive) 

- Produced by Dario Argento: a new visual essay by author and critic Michael Mackenzie exploring the legendary filmmaker’s career as a producer (27 min)

- Dario’s Demon Days: interview with writer/producer Dario Argento (11 min)

- Defining an Era in Music: interview with Claudio Simonetti (9 min)

- Dario and the Demons: Producing Monster Mayhem (16 min)

- Splatter Stunt Rock: interview with Ottaviano Dell’Acqua (9 min)

- Original Italian Theatrical Trailer (2 min)

- Original English International Theatrical Trailer (2 min)

- U.S. Theatrical Trailer (2 min)

- Newly translated optional English SDH subtitles for the English version

- Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian version

Demons II Special Features: 

- Uncompressed DTS-HD MA English 5.1 & Italian 5.1/2.0 audio mixes derived from the original archival audio masters

- Uncompressed DTS-HD MA English 2.0 true stereo theatrical mix remastered in 2021 by Synapse Films

- Audio commentary by film critic Travis Crawford.

- Bava to Bava: interview with Luigi Cozzi on the history of Italian horror, Demonic Influences: Federico Zampaglione Speaks (10 min) (4K UHD Exclusive) 

- The New Blood of Italian Horror featuring Sergio Stivaletti (16 min) (4K UHD Exclusive) 

- Creating Creature Carnage: interview with Sergio Stivaletti (20 min)

- The ‘Demons’ Generation: Roy Bava discusses a legacy in lacerations (35 min)

- Screaming for a Sequel: The Delirious Legacy of DEMONS 2 with Lamberto Bava (16 min)

- A Soundtrack for Splatter: interview with composer Simon Boswell (27 min)

- Together and Apart: Visual essay on the space and technology in DEMONS and DEMONS 2 by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (27 min)

- Original Italian Theatrical Trailer (3 min)

- Original English Theatrical Trailer (3 min)

- Newly translated optional English SDH subtitles for the English version

- Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian version

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THE EPITAPH VOL. 83

THE EPITAPH VOL. 83

UNDER WESTERN STARS (1938) - SWINGERS (1996) - CLASSS (1983) - WAREHOUSE 13 - THE COMPLETE SERIES (2009-2014) - CHALLENGERS (2024) - TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY (2024) 

UNDER WESTERN STARS (1938) 

Label: Film Masters

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 64 Minutes 58 Seconds 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.O Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: B&W 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.37:1) 

Director: Joseph Kane 

Cast: Roy Rogers, Smiley Burnette, Carol Hughes, Maple City Four

Under Western Stars  (1938) was Roy Rogers starring role film debut, playing a likable singing-cowboy who at the start of the film is helping some water-starved farmers free some much needed H20 from greedy water baron John Fairbanks (Guy Usher), causing a bit of a ruckus at the damn. His actions are reported to the authorities but he ends up only being fined $1 by a sympathetic judge, who then encourages Rodgers to follow in his father's footsteps and make a run for Congress, eventually travelling to Washington to try his hand as a politician and to get some legislation passed to free-up the water supply in the territory. These quaint westerns starring Rogers were never by cup o' tea and while I did think it was a breezy 65-minute watch it still doesn't do much for me, but I did think that Film Masters restoration look pretty snazzy, though it should be noted this is not a pressed disc but an MOD BD-R, but I had no issues with playback. The black & white image is quite pleasing, the source shows minor imperfections by way of vertical lines and white speckling and occasional blemish, but grain structure looks solid with pleasing contrast and grayscale. Audio comes by way of English  DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with optional English subtitles. There's some minor background hiss throughout, the track shows it's pre-WWII vintage with an authentic shallow depth and fidelity I'd expect from this vintage, but it does the job. Dialogue is easily discernible, and the Roy Rogers tunes sound terrific. Sadly, there are no extras for this one, it arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork. 

Special Features: 

- None 

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SWINGERS (1996) 

Label: Paramount Pictures 

Rating: R

Duration: 96 Minutes 25 Seconds 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo, 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 

Director: Doug Liman 

Cast: Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Ron Livingston, Patrick Van Horn, Heather Graham

Before Jon Favreau made it big as a big-time Hollywood writer, director and producer he made this mid-90s indie comedy, starring himself as a struggling stand-up comic named Mike (Favreau, Daredevil) who moves to L.A. from NYC after his girlfriend of six years dumped him. In L.A. he hangs out with his womanizing pal Trent (Vince Vaughn, Return to Paradise), who does his best to lift Mike's spirits and get him to move on from his last relationship, but Mike;s a sad, neurotic sack and prefers to wallow in his misery. At the top of the film they embark on a roadtrip to Las Vegas where they hope to win bit at the casino and make it with some ladies. They don't win big and when they do hook up with a pair of waitresses Mike's ruins it by obsessing over his ex. Back in L.A. the guys hang with their friends, all of whom are seemingly trying to make the L.A. scene, hanging at bars and parties. Eventually Mike meets a lovely young lady named Lorraine (Heather Graham, Boogie Nights), but the question remains, is he willing or able to move-on from the memory of his ex, or will he fuck it up? I remember watching this on VHS when it hit home video and having quite a bit of fun with it, but I had not rewatched it since, so this was a fun revisit. It holds-up quite nicely, it's a pretty fun bro-mance, it's fast-paced, and both Vaughn and Favreau are terrific. The dialogue is aces and the actors have great chemistry with each other,  it still feels fresh even though there have been tons of bromance comedies since this came around, but few have done it better. I'd forgotten how much fast-talking Trent says, stuff like "You're so money!" and "That's money!", it's actually quite irritating, but entertaining. A scene of Mike calling and leaving cringe voicemails on an answering machine to his ex are still my favorite scene in the film, and it was also great to see Ron Livingston (Office Space) in an early role as a struggling actor pal of Mike's who is always complaining about being cast as Goofy at Disney world. It's a fun time capsule of 90's L.A. nightlife, the dating scene, and the world of struggling actors just trying to navigate the scene and find sex and/or love. This release is not a pressed Blu-ray but an MOD BD-R, but it played flawlessly on my player and looks top-notch, and we get an array of archival extras, this hip indie buddy-comedy from the mid-90's comes recommended. 

Special Features: 

- Audio Commentary with Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn 

- Audio Commentary With Director Doug Limon and Editor Stephen Mirrione 

- Making It In Hollywood (49:19) 

- Cutting Room Floor (13:56) 

- Swing Blade (3:27), 

- Also from Lionsgate: Rounders, Hostage, Good Will Hunting, Warrior,  (5:32)

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CLASS (1983) 

Label: MGM

Region Code:

Rating: R

Duration: 98 Minutes 28 Seconds 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) (1.85:1) 

Director: Lewis John Carlino

Cast: Rob Lowe, Jacqueline Bisset, Andrew McCarthy, Stuart Margolin, Cliff Robertson, John Cusack, Rodney Pearson, Alan Ruck, Remak Ramsay, Casey Siemaszko

This 80's coming-of-age flick is one I thought I had never watched before, but I must have seen it on cable just once because it was vaguely familiar to me as I watched, and a welcomed re-visit of what I would consider to be an underrated gem. It's set at a prep-school where son-of-privilege senior Skip (Rob Lowe, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery) gets a new awkward roommate by way of  Jonathan (Andrew McCarthy, Pretty in Pink). They initially pulls pranks on each other and bond over there mischievousness, and when Skip finds out that his new pal has yet to bust his cherry he is intent on helping Jonathan lose his virginity. Jonathan eventually goes into Chicago alone after a prank gets him banned from the school dance, and hooks up with a very sexy older women named Ellen (Jacqueline Bisset, The Sunday Woman) who plucks his cherry, afterward they start secretly seeing each other on the regular, with Jonathan lying about his age, and she keeping secrets herself, but she dumps him when she finds out he's a teenager. Later when Skip invites Jonathan home for Christmas break, to help him get over his mystery lady,  things start to unravel when it's discovered that the older woman he was sleeping with was Skip's Mom! Also, and she's married, to Skip's father Mr. Burroughs (Cliff Robertson, Obsession)! This is a teen sex-comedy with a lot more heart and nuance than other early 80's flicks of this ilk, making  this one is quite a gem. It's also quite notable for featuring a young cast , many of whom would go onto later stardom, we have early sightings of John Cusack (One Crazy Summer), Casey Siemaszko (Three O'Clock High), Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), and Virginia Madsen (Candyman), who are all so young and babyfaced, it was a trip seeing them all so young and fresh-faced! The Blu-ray from MGM looks and sounds terrific, sadly no extras but has no extras, not even a trailer, but I am glad to see that MGM vast cataloged is getting physical media releases under Amazon;s ownership, keep it up folks, I am loving it! 

Special Features:

- None 

Buy it: 

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WAREHOUSE 13 - THE COMPLETE SERIES (2009-2014) 

Label: UPHE 

Region Code: A

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 2776 Minutes 

Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD WIdescreen (1.78:1) 

Cast: Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly, Saul Rubinek,

The five season SyFy series Warehouse 13 (2009-2014) gets a Blu-ray repackage from Universal, featuring all five seasons. This was a terrific sci-fi mystery-adventure show about the secretive Warehouse 13 where the strangest and most dangerous artifacts from around the world are kept under lock and key, items imbued with potentially dangerous energies are gathered by Secret Service agents Lattimer (Eddie McClintock, TV's Shooter), Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly, TV's Vanished), Claudia Donovan (Allison Scagliotti, Chastity Bites), Steve Jinks (Aaron Ashmore, The Shrine), and Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek, Amazon Prime series Hunters), who each episode embark on  missions to obtain the harmful historical heirlooms. The show certainly smacks of X-Files by way of the Friday the 13th TV series, but it was always charming and never wore out it's welcome with a blend of comedy, drama, and science fiction, as well as the charisma of the main characters and the creative, often uncanny adventures while in pursuit of ancient antiquaries with the help of modern technology. If you missed this show the first time around this 15-disc set is a great way to revisit it, all five seasons collected here, each season getting it owns dedicated keepcase, the five season set is housed in a slipbox, and the discs are absolutely loaded with extras with a bevy of deleted scenes, gag reels, animated wed episodes, holiday specials, commentaries and loads of featurettes. 

Special Features: 

- Two Special Holiday Episodes

- Two Animated Web Series

- Deleted and Extended Scenes

- Gag Reels

- Episode Commentaries with Cast & Crew; Eureka Crossover Episode; and more!

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CHALLENGERS (2024) 

Label: WBDHE
Region Code:

Rating: R

Duration: 131 Minutes 

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen 

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Cast: Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, Mike Faist

I don't consider myself a sport-film fan, and it's for that reason Challengers didn't jump out at me initially, but I was drawn in eventually because it's directed by Luca Guadagnino (Suspiria, Bones and All) who I find to be an incredibly intriguing and exciting director, and stars Zendaya (Dune: Part II) who more often than not chooses some rather interesting roles. Here she plays former tennis superstar Tashi, a former college prodigy who was severely injured during her college career at Stanford. She's now married to Art Donaldson (Mike Faist, The Bikeriders) a player in the pro tour and is now trying for a career Grand Slam, but whose confidence has been jostled after an injury. Tashi pulls Art off the tour and puts him in a a lower level Challenger tournament in New Rochelle, NY, where he plays against old friend turned rival, Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor, TV's The Crown), a seemingly washed-up player looking to make a comeback. The wrinkle is that he was once Art's best mate and also dated Tashi, which dredges up a lot of baggage from the couple's past. The non-linear story is chock full of tasty sexual flashbacks to the trios past, told with an abundance of style and not a whole lot of substance, but that's fine by me. This tennis-centric love-triangle makes for terrific viewing, especially the early scenes of their initial meeting with both Art and Patrick pursuing Tashi during her heyday, she having total control over the sexual dynamic, including a bit sexual tension between the two men. Highly stylized and full of flashy editing this is a sports melodrama with a sexual bite to it, but sadly the sexual exploits are quite tame, but the tension and manipulation is thick, and while it does feel a bit self-indulgent, and the characters are a truly unlikable, cold and arrogant sort, I still found it quite engrossing.

Special Features: 

- None

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TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY (2024) 

Label: WBHE 

Rating:

Duration:

Audio: 364 Minutes 

Video: 1080p HD WIdescreen 

Director:  Issa López

Cast: Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, John Hawkes, Christopher Eccleston, Fiona Shaw, Finn Bennett, Anna Lambe, Aka Niviâna, Isabella Star Lablanc, Joel D. Montgrand.

True Detective: Night Story, the fourth season of the anthology crime show, is set in the rural town of Ennis, Alaska where Police Chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster, Silence of the Lambs) and State Trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) join forces to investigate the disappearance of eight scientists from the Tsalal Arctic Research Station. The two had previously worked on a case involving the still unsolved murder of an indigenous woman, causing bad blood between the pair, with Navarro quickly convinced that the new missing persons case is entangled with the decade old cold case when a severed tongue is found on at the scene that belonged to that earlier victim. I thought this season was pretty fantastic, Foster and Reis are the heart of the show and they fantastic, both characters have tons of pathological peccadillos that fueled by love of the season. Written and directed by showrunner Issa López (Tigers Are Not Afraid) this season was a fine return to form for the series, it has plenty of atmosphere, set during the time when Ennis is dark for 24-hours a day, the frigid snow-bound setting is frightful, intriguing indigenous characters and indigenous mythology, interesting side characters (especially Fiona Shaw (The Butcher Boy) as the enigmatic  Rose), and some terrific supernatural vibes that kept me guessing right up until that last shot. The bodies of ten scientist are eventually found huddled naked together in a twisted frozen mass, which really does bring to mind John Carpenter's The Thing. I also really dig the connection back to the first season of the series, and how committed showrunner Lopez is to fully commit to supernatural leanings, and how dread filled this season gets, it's quite dark, and well shot by Florian Hoffmeister (Tár) who brings a gorgeous darkness to the eerily frigid location. In my opinion this is the best season since the first, I was quite enamored with it, and was sad it only lasted six episodes, I would have been down for six more I was so pulled into it. Sadly no 4K UHD for this stellar season that aired in 4K with HDR and Atmos audio on HBO, but Blu-ray is top-notch and sounds terrific just the same, plus we get a handful of extras, none of which are in-depth enough for my tastes, and the the season itself I wanted more.   

Special Features:  

- Meet the True Detectives - Cast Q&A (2:56) 

- New Chapter – Issa López (Showrunner/Writer/Director) and cast discuss Night Country’s unique role in the series (2:59) 

- Exploring Indigenous Themes - Delves into Alaska Native culture and how it has informed this season. (2:43)

- Max Inkblots - Get to know cast through show-themed inkblot interpretations. (3:13) 

- Setting Featurette - Sets up Alaska as a pivotal character in the story. (2:17) 

- Atmospheric Teases - Social environmental shots to tease key moments from the series.

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TAROT (2024) (SPHE Blu-ray Review)

TAROT (2024)

Blu-ray + Digital 

Label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 

Region Code: A

Rating: PG-13

Duration: 92 Minutes 

Audio: English, French (Doublé au Québec) 5.1 DTS-HD MA, Spanish, English & French (Doublé au Québec) Audio Description Tracks 5.1 Dolby Digital with Optional English, English SDH, French, Spanish Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1).

Directors: Spenser Cohen & Anna Halberg

Cast: Harriet Slater, Adain Bradley, Avantika, Wolfgang Novogratz, Humberly González, Larsen Thompson, Jacob Batalon

Based on the 1992 YA novel 'Horrorscope' this PG-13 supernatural-horror romp is centered on seven friends; Elise (Larsen Thompson, Bloodline), Paxton (Jacob Batalon, Spider-Man: Homecoming), Paige (Avantika Vandanapu, Mean Girls remake), Lucas (Wolfgang Novogratz, Assassination Nation), Madelyn (Humberly Gonzalez), and couple recently split couple Haley (Harriet Slater, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) and Grant (Adain Bradley), who at the start of the film are on a weekender in the Catskills, staying at AirBNB, drinking and having a good time.When they run out of alcohol they break into a locked basement looking for basement booze but instead find an creepy collection of magic and occult items. Among the dusty relics is a box of hand painted tarot cards, and Haley, who has some experience reading tarot cards does a reading for herself and her friends, though she does give a bit of warning that a sacred rule of tarot is that you never read from someone else's deck. The tarot reading results in 

Elise gets The High Priestess; Lucas gets The Hermit; Madeline The Hanged Man; Paige gets The Magician, Paxton  The Fool, Grant receives The Devil, and Haley reads her own horoscope and gets Death. 

Haley should have heeded her own warning, reading from someone else's deck was a very bad idea, and she has unknowingly unleash a cursed evil, The Astrologer,  that is trapped within the cursed cards, and one by one each the friends must face their fate as  foretold in their readings, but with a dark twist. 

The friends stalked by fate certainly smacks of Final Destination, and I am not complaining about that, I dig it, and for a PG-13 film chock full of jump scares I had a pretty decent time with this one. I think it skews towards a younger audience, and while the idea and execution lack originality I thought it was well-made, looked terrific with some cool, creepy set-pieces, and when the characters end up being killed off by evil supernatural killers that corresponds to each characters the tarot readings. 

The PG-13 prevents any gory set-pieces but the kills are set-up and executed well within that parameter. Of course we get an origin story for the cursed tarot deck thanks to the group tracking down an astrologer named Alma (Olwen Fouere, Mandy), who has previously encountered the horrors of the tarot deck, and survived, so of course the group track her down hoping to get some sort of insight as to how to survive what is happening to them. 

It's all fairly cookie-cutter, the characters are one-note, the kills are neutered, and the scares and outcome are predictable. I will say that it does manage to conjure up some solid atmosphere, and the Final Destination of it all is familiar but fun. I also appreciated some of the practical effects work that brought the tarot characters to life, I just wish the film overall had a bit less familiarity and more bite to it; but for a fright flick aimed at younger teens I can see this being pretty fun stuff, but as an old fart who's watched A LOT of horror, I found it quite predictable and old hat, well-made, but too familiar.    

Audio/Video: Tarot (2024) arrives on Blu-ray from Sony look solid, the digital-shot flick is quite dark looking and the Blu-ray image rises to the occasion with deep blacks and excellent shadow detail. The image is drained of color, there's a nearly monochromatic/sepia earthiness to it which I didn;t love, but the Blu-ray translates that well. Fine detail, depth and clarity are pleasing throughout. Audio comes by way of an immersive English language DTS-HD MA 5.1 with optional English subtitles. The score by Joseph Bishara (Malignant, Insidious) sounds terrific, and the sound design is pretty creepy as well. 

Extras include a handful of EPK-style featurettes, we get the 

6-min A Twist of Fate: Making the Film; the 7-min Circle of Friends; and 2-min of Killer Outtakes, plus a redemption code for a Digital HD copy of the film. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork. 

Special Features: 
- A Twist of Fate: Making the Film (6:18) 
- Circle of Friends (6:41) 
- Killer Outtakes (2:27)
- Digital Code 

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DANZA MACABRA VOLUME 3: THE SPANISH GOTHIC COLLECTION (1971-1975) (Severin Films Blu-ray Review)

DANZA MACABRA VOLUME 3: THE SPANISH GOTHIC COLLECTION (1971-1975) 

New Box Set Features Worldwide Blu-ray Premieres of Four Horror Classics;

Coming June 4th! DANZA MACABRA VOLUME 3: THE SPANISH GOTHIC COLLECTION is the latest in our acclaimed series of Gothic Horror Blu-ray box sets and the first to focus on Spain’s tradition of Gothic Horror, which – particularly during the Franco dictatorship – was characterized by daring concepts, lush visuals, extreme sexuality, and a startling aesthetic all its own. These four classic shockers from the 1970s represent the genre at its most audacious: 

In NECROPHAGOUS, the debut feature by writer/director Miguel Madrid, a fractured family in a crumbling castle conceals a grisly graveyard secret. The anthology film CAKE OF BLOOD – never previously available outside of Spain – presents a quartet of supernatural tales by four young filmmakers. Hammer Films director John Gilling brings his inimitable style to the occult thriller in CROSS OF THE DEVIL. And a terminally ill woman is enticed by eternal life in Leon Klimovsky’s vampire masterwork, NIGHT OF THE WALKING DEAD. Each film in this collection has been scanned from its original negative – with over 8 hours of Special Features – for the first time ever in America.

NECROPHAGEOUS (1971) 

aka The Butcher of Binbrook

aka Graveyard of Horror

Label: Severin Films 

Region Code: Region-Free 

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 87 Minutes 23 Seconds 

Audio: English or Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual- Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Miguel Madrid 

Cast: Bill Curran, Frank Braña, Victor Israel, Beatriz Elorrieta

First-up is the Spanish gothic shocker Necrophagous (1971), directed Miguel Madrid  (Killer of Dolls) nobleman Michael Sherrington (Bill Curran, Jaguar Lives!) returns to his family estate after being away for business only to learn that his wife Elizabeth (Inés Morales, The Witches Mountain) has died during childbirth, and that their child was stillborn. Mysteries pile up quickly here, largely without answers, like why is her coffin empty, and what were the circumstances of her death? His creepy mother-in-law Barbara (Maria Paz Madrid) and two sisters-in-laws Pamela (Marisa Shiero), Lady Anne (Catharine Ellison) and Lilith (Titania Clement) are not want to come forth with any answers, only his niece Margaret (Beatriz Elorrieta) seems to be helpful,  resulting in Michael having to search for answers on his own, losing the plot along the way and barely touching on other mysteries around the castle. We also have a scientist Dr Lexter (Frank Braña, Love Brides of the Blood Mummy) who has been performing experiments in the castle alongside Michael's brother Sir Robert (John Clark, Captain Apache) who has recently gone missing, which becomes the main mystery with the dead wife seemingly falling to the wayside. Along the way we have off character's in robes and masks roving the grounds of the cemetery, and an odd cemetery caretaker played by the very recognizable Victor Israel (Horror Express). 

I won't lie, I was a bit befuddled by this Spanish Gothic set in 

England with the rocky outcrops of mountainous Spain standing in for the English countryside. The initial mystery sort of dissolves away as were sucked into a spooky and gloomy graveyard and mad science monster weirdness full of icy characters and unknowable (or unexplained) mysteries that, but once the hideous green-skinned monster arises from it's blood-fed grve I went straight into a monster-kid delirium and all was forgiven. 

Audio/Video: Necrophagous (1971) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Severin Films in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1) advertised as being "scanned in 4K from the recently discovered negative for the first time ever." Audio comes by way of English or Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with optional English subtitles 

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary With Andy Marshall-Roberts, Host Of The Nasty Pasty Podcast
- Something You've Never Seen – Appreciation By Ángel Sala, Head Of Programming At The Sitges Film Festival (8:06)  
- The First Horror Film Festival In The World – Remembrance By Maria Pilar Rafáles, Daughter Of Sitges Film Festival Founder Antonio Rafáles (11:02) 

- The Butcher of Binbrook Trailer (2:10) 
- Graveyard of Horror Trailer (1:35) 

CAKE OF BLOOD (1971) 

aka Pastel de sangre 

Label: Severin Films 

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: 

Duration: 90 Minutes 24 Seconds 

Audio: Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 

Director: José María Vallés, Francesc Bellmunt, Emilio Martínez-Lázaro

Cast: Julián Ugarte, Eusebio Poncela, Marisa Paredes, Luis Ciges

Next up is the Spanish Gothic anthology film Cake of Blood (1971) with segments directed by José María Vallés, Francesc Bellmunt, and Emilio Martínez-Lázaro, the four tales involve witches, ghosts, Frankenstein's monster, and ancient Christians versus Celtic vampires, but tackling the subject matter with an offbeat perspective and arthouse eye. Up first is "Tarot" directed by José María Vallés, starring Julián Ugarte (All the Colors of the Dark) as a knight during Middle Ages wandering the plague ridden lands, encountering robed cultists and a creepy kid who wears anachronistic masks. 

The second story "Victor Frankenstein" directed by  Emilio Martínez-Lázaro (The Other Side of the Bed) is a unique take on the Frankenstein story. in it Victor Frankenstein (Ángel Carmona Ristol) has created his monster (Eusebio Poncela, Cannibal Man), but in a twist he's no hideous stitched together monstrosity, but a gorgeous young man, who Frankenstein unleashes upon the world, telling it to return to Frankenstein's castle, where the creature imitating what it sees and what he is subjected to, so all he knows is sex and death, also starring the gorgeous Marisa Paredes (In a Glass Cage) 

My favorite among the stories is "Terror Among the Christians" from director  Francesc Bellmunt, a vampire tale set during Roman times when vampires set upon Roman soldiers  after the death of Christ. Gorgeously lut and shot this is the most visually striking of the bunch with fog-drenched forests. 

Last is "The Dance or Emotional Survivals" from director  Jaime Chávarri (Co-writer of Jess Franco's Vampyros Lesbos) which has never before been available outside of Spain. A home evasion thriller that's also a haunting ghost story starring Luis Ciges (The Creature). About a vagrant who is recruited by a mysterious stranger to rob a woman alone in her rural estate, tying her up, this one has a pretty fantastic ghostly twist. The four tales offer s a solid mix of the Gothic and folkloric, I thought all four were quite fascinating, I liked the unusual approach tot he material, and the arty film school aesthetic. 

Audio/Video:  Cake of Blood (1971) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Severin Films in 1080p HD widescreen (2.35:1) advertised as being "scanned in 4K from the original negative for the first time ever." Audio comes by way of Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with optional English subtitles

Special Features: 
- Audio Commentary With Rod Barnett Of NaschyCast And The Bloody Pit, And Dr. Adrian Smith, Co-Author Of Norman J. Warren: Gentleman of Terror
- My Generation – Interview With Actress Marisa Paredes (4:31) 
- I Just Wanted To Have Fun – Interview With Co-Director Jaime Chávarri (21:06) 
- To Whoever Wants To Watch – Interview With Actor José Lifante (11:39) 
- An Arthouse UFO – Appreciation By Ángel Sala, Head Of Programming At The Sitges Film Festival (11:00)

CROSS OF THE DEVIL (1975) 

Label: Severin Films 

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: 

Duration: 97 Minutes 

Audio: Spanish DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)

Director: John Gilling 

Cast: Ramiro Oliveros, Carmen Sevilla, Emma Cohen, Eduardo Fajardo 

Written by Spanish horror icon Jacinto Molina (aka Paul Naschy, Panic Beats), based on stories by Spanish poet/writer Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, and directed by former Hammer Films ex-pat John Gilling (The Plague of the Zombies), which would be his last film), what we have here is in a Knights Templar tale very much in the vein of The Tombs of the Blind Dead. In it the hashish-smoking Brit-writer Alfred Dawson (Ramiro Oliveros, The Pyjama Girl Case), an author living in London, is the subject of recurring nightmares about a marauding cult of undead medieval Knights Templars on horseback tormenting a woman in white, which could be the product of hashish-fueled nightmares or perhaps something else. When he is summonsed to Spain by his sister Justine (Mónica Randall, The Witches Mountain) where she lives with her husband Enrique Carrillo (Eduardo Fajardo, Knife of Ice). He travels there only to find out that she has been murdered, attempting to slueth who murdered her, eventually this leads to an ancient occult order, and a mysterious woman named Beatriz (Emma Cohen, Horror Rises from the Tomb) who is the woman from his recurring nightmares. He eventually ends up in the eerie Devil's Cross region and in the crumbling  ruins of a Templars' castle, where 'natch he finds the undead Knights Templar and a magical sword. I found this to have a hypnotic pace about it, meaning it's quite slow at times, but it never grinds to a halt, I just wish we got more of the supernatural Knight Templar stuff happening, but even still  I was pretty absorbed by the at atmospheric 70s-ish of it all, it's well-acted and well-made, if you dig a slow-burn murder mystery/supernatural cinema that is comfortably predictable but still engrossing this will fit the bill. 

Audio/Video:  Cross of the Devil (1974) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Severin Films in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1) advertised as "now scanned in 4K from the negative with English subtitles for the first time ever.". Audio comes by way of Spanish DTS-HD MA Mono with optional English subtitles. 

Special Features: 
- Audio Commentary With Kim Newman, Author Of Anno Dracula, And Barry Forshaw, Author Of Brit Noir
- Fascinated By Bécquer – Interview With Screenwriter Juan José Porto (11:26) 
- The Real Templar Knights Movie – Appreciation By Ángel Sala, Head Of Programming At The Sitges Film Festival (8:55)  
- Fantasy And Imagination: The Legacy Of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer -  Video Essay By Xavier Aldana Reyes, Author Of Spanish Gothic: National Identity, Collaboration And Cultural Adaptation (12:53) 

THE NIGHT OF THE WALKING DEAD (1975) 

aka Strange Love of the Vampires 

aka El Extraño Amor De Los Vampiros 

Label: Severin Films 

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 88 Minutes 13 Seconds 

Audio: English or Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: León Klimovsky

Cast: Emma Cohen, José Ramón Larraz. Barta Barri, José Lifante

Directed by León Klimovsky (The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman) who is probably most well-known for his 
collaborations with Spanish horror star Jacinto Molina/Paul Naschy. This 1975 gothic tale is set in as 19th century village ruled by superstition and chock full of vampires. where a pretty girl named Miriam (Amparo Climent) is sickly, dying from what the doc diagnoses as anemia but what everyone else knows to be the early stages of vampirism. She "dies" and is buried at the village cemetery, where we discover the local custom of staking corpses through the face, to prevent them from rising from the grave as bloodsuckers. Well, this neat trick sort of works, but when the the local vampire Lord Rudolph de Winberg (Carlos Ballesteros) has his minions visit her grave and they pulls out the stake she comes around, ready to live the vampire life.  Winberg next sets his sights on Miriam's vulnerable sister Catherine (Emma Cohen, Horror Rises from the Tomb), whois terminally ill. Rudolph at first does not reveal his true-self to her, and attempts to seduce her, before she succumbs to her disease. Along the way we learn that he is a pretty thoughtful vampire, we get some of his back story and how he was turned, and how he still lives at his former, now decrepit castle, but tat vampires are able to enter a pocket dimension of sorts in order to evade human hunters who would drive a stake through their hearts. This is quite an intriguing take on the vampire tale, and it includes a scene that will be quite familiar to anyone who saw the later-made Salem's Lot (or the Stephen King novel which came out the same year as this flick), a scene of Catherine's sister visiting her outside a window and trying to get her sister to let her into the house, it's a terrific fog-shrouded scenes, and the way she is warded off with a crucifix scratched into the window pane is just a cool idea. It also defied my expectations at the end, showcasing the introspective nature of the vampire Winberg, and his seemingly deep affection for the afflicted Catherine. There;s also plenty of nudity, some arthouse style, and some special effects as the stakes are nailed into the faces of the recently deceased. 

Audio/Video: The Night of the Walking Dead   arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Severin Films in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1) advertised as being "scanned in 2K from the negative for the first time ever." Audio comes by way of English or Spanish DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English subtitles.

Special Features
- Audio Commentary With Kat Ellinger, Author Of Daughters Of Darkness
- A Deadly Invitation To Another Dimension – Appreciation By Ángel Sala, Head Of Programming At The Sitges Film Festival (10:03) 
- Leo's Signature – Interview With Writer Juan José Porto (8:08).
- Dead Man Walking – Interview With Actor José Lifante (18:32) 
- Spain's Cinematic Vampires – Video Essay By Xavier Aldana Reyes, Author Of Spanish Gothic: National Identity, Collaboration And Cultural Adaptation (24:39) 

- Alternate Spanish Credit Sequence (1:32) 

All four films are making their U.S. Blu-ray debuts with new widescreen scans that look terrific, with uncompressed audio,  both Night of the Walking Dead and Necrophagous have both English and Spanish audio, while Cake of Blood and Cross of the Devil are Spanish only. 

There are also over 8-hours of extras on this set! We get audio commentaries for each film; Necrophagous gets an 

 Audio Commentary With Andy Marshall-Roberts, Host Of The Nasty Pasty Podcast; Cake of Blood has an Audio Commentary With Rod Barnett Of NaschyCast And The Bloody Pit, And Dr. Adrian Smith, Co-Author Of Norman J. Warren: Gentleman of Terror; Cross of the Devil gets an Audio Commentary With Kim Newman, Author Of Anno Dracula, And Barry Forshaw, Author Of Brit Noir, while The Night of the Walking Dead gets a Audio Commentary With Kat Ellinger, Author Of Daughters Of Darkness. There are also interviews and trailers, but my favorite extras are the Appreciation by Ángel Sala, Head Of Programming At The Sitges Film Festival. 

The four-film 4-disc Blu-ray set arrives in a top-loading hardbox as did the first two sets. The artwork on this set is fantastic, an image of a Gothic monster holding an incapacitated woman in its arms, it certainly smacks of the iconic Frankenstein motif with a twist, the red-theme really catches the eye. Both spines features the title of the set and each of the films. Inside the box films are each presented in their own Viva Elite black keepcases with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring illustrated artworks, which look to be new illustrations, not original poster artwork, but I could be wrong about that. Whatever the case, they are probably my favorite artworks on any of the Danza Macabra sets from Severin; offering bold, vibrant illustration that really capture the vibe of each of the films.

Severin's Danza Macabra Volume Three: The Italian Gothic Collection is a fun Spanish detour for the series, offering four films that explore Spanish cinema's own brand of cobwebbed Gothic frights, all making their worldwide Blu-ray debuts with brands new scans from the original camera negatives. Of course it's chock full of over eight hours of tasty extras and features gorgeous packaging as well, making this a wonderful delight of the phantasmagoric fantasy. Severin are as passionate as ever about these dusty genre gems, I absolutely love the Danza Macabra box sets and I hope there's enough interest in these Gothics from around the world to keep  Severin dusting of these cobwebbed gems with new transfers and extras for at least three more sets! 

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