Arrow Video Takes Aim at September with an Array of Titles for US and UK Fans
With so many companies pumping out more and more classic and cult horror titles on Blu-ray of late, horror fans are reaping the whirlwind (and potentially going broke in the process – RIP Matt Serafini’s son’s college fund). Arrow Video just announced five more fully loaded special edition discs guaranteed to drain the bank accounts of US and UK horror fans.
First up from Arrow is a cult favorite from the land Down Under. From Brian Trenchard-Smith, the director of Stunt Rock, Turkey Shoot, BMX, Megiddo: Omega Code 2, and Leprechaun in Space, comes the dystopian sci-fi actioner Dead End Drive-In.
Set in a near-future where the economy has crumbled and violent gangs play havoc in the streets, the powers-that-be have decided to lure the delinquent youth into drive-in cinemas and keep them there. No longer just a place to watch trashy movies and make out, these outdoor picture shows have become concentration camps for the unruly and unwanted.
With its day-glo color scheme, new wave soundtrack, and extraordinary stunt work, Dead End Drive-In is in the tradition of Ozploitation milestones Mad Max and The Cars That Ate Paris, only very, very Eighties.
Special Features:
- Brand new 2K restoration from original film materials
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Audio commentary by director Brian Trenchard-Smith
- The Stuntmen, Trenchard Smith’s classic television documentary on Grant Page (Mad Max, Road Games) and other Australian stunt performers
- Hospitals Don’t Burn Down, Trenchard-Smith’s 1978 public information film told in pure Ozploitation fashion
- Theatrical trailer
- First pressing only: fully-illustrated collector’s booklet containing writing on the films by Cullen Gallagher and Neil Mitchell
UK STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 19.
U.S. STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 20.
Now, on to a film that holds a special place in my bad movie heart… Squirm may get all the wormy love, but my heart belongs to Slugs, the slimy Eighties nature gone amok gorefest from Juan Piquer Simon, aka the director of Pieces.
The townsfolk of a rural community are dying in strange and gruesome circumstances. Following the trail of horrifically mutilated cadavers, resident health inspector Mike Brady is on the case to piece together the mystery. He soon comes to a terrifying conclusion – giant slugs are breeding in the sewers beneath the town, and they’re making a meal of the locals!
Based on the novel by acclaimed British horror author Shaun Hutson, Slugs outdoes its creature feature peers by adding an extra dose of gross-out gore into the equation, culminating in one of the most squirm-inducing animal attack movies ever to slither its way across screens.
Special Features:
- Brand new restoration from original film elements
- Original Uncompressed PCM Stereo audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary by writer and filmmaker Chris Alexander
- Here’s Slugs In Your Eye – an interview with actor Emilio Linder
- They Slime, They Ooze, They Kill: The Effects of Slugs – an interview with special effects artist Carlo De Marchis
- Invasion USA – an interview with art director Gonzalo Gonzalo
- The Lyons Den – an interview and locations tour with production manager Larry Ann Evans
- 1988 Goya Awards promo reel
- Original Theatrical Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Wes Benscoter
- Fully-illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by writer Michael Gingold
UK STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 26.
U.S. STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 27.
Now for the one that will probably excite you the most: Wes Craven’s 1977 seminal horror opus The Hills Have Eyes is getting a new collector’s edition loaded with so many extra features they still haven’t announced them all yet.
Taking a detour whilst en route to Los Angeles, the Carter family run into trouble when their campervan breaks down in the middle of the desert. Stranded, the family find themselves at the mercy of a group of monstrous cannibals lurking in the surrounding hills. With their lives under threat, the Carters are forced to fight back by any means necessary.
As grueling a viewing experience today as it was upon initial release, The Hills Have Eyes stands alongside the likes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Night of the Living Dead as one of the defining moments in American horror cinema.
Special Features:
- Brand new 4K restoration from original film elements, supervised by producer Peter Locke
- Original mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- 6 x postcards
- Reversible fold-out poster featuring new and original artwork
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Brad Stevens and a consideration of the Hills franchise by Ewan Cant, illustrated with original archive stills
- Audio commentary with Wes Craven and Peter Locke
- Looking Back on The Hills Have Eyes – making-of documentary featuring interviews with Craven, Locke, actors Michael Berryman, Dee Wallace, Janus Blythe, Robert Houston, Susan Lanier and director of photography Eric Saarinen
- The Desert Sessions – brand new interview with composer Don Peake
- Alternate ending, in HD for the first time
- Trailers and TV Spots
- Image Gallery
- Original Screenplay (BD/DVD-ROM Content)
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Paul Shipper + MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED!
UK STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 26.
U.S. STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 27.
Arrow has two more titles coming in September that are exclusive to the UK only. Although in the case of Brian De Palma’s Hitchcock-ian chiller Raising Cain, US audiences have the Shout Factory release of this one to fall back on.
John Lithgow plays three roles: child psychologist Carter; his evil twin brother, Cain; and their Norwegian father, Dr Nix, who likes to experiment on the young. Carter’s wife is concerned that her husband isn’t quite paying their daughter the right kind of attention; she’s also having an affair which, upon discovery, threatens to send him into a psychotic rage…
A relentless blend of murder, multiple personalities, cross-dressing, crazed parents, bizarre dream sequences, and stunning cinematic assurance, Raising Cain harks back to those twin masterpieces Psycho and Peeping Tom, but is pure unadulterated De Palma.
Special Features:
- Brand new 2K restoration from original film materials
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Brand new interview with John Lithgow
- Theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Nathanael Marsh
- MORE to be announced!
- First pressing only: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by David Jenkins
UK STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 12.
Lastly, one that kind of breaks my heart to report on because I don’t live in the UK and I don’t own a region-free Blu-ray player: Joe Dante’s love letter to atomic age monster movies and the men who made them, Matinee.
HALF MAN… HALF ANT… ALL TERROR!
So says the advertising campaign for Matinee, the latest low-budget schlock-horror classic from cigar-chomping producer Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman, The Big Lebowski), who more than makes up for his films’ lack of production values by festooning them with gimmicks that would turn even William Castle (The Tingler) green with envy.
But the most potent gimmick of all is accidental: Woolsey schedules a sneak preview of Matinee in Key West, Florida, in October 1962, unaware that the Cuban missile crisis is about to flare up. Will the threat of genuine nuclear war distract the locals from the movie, or will they find it doubly terrifying?
Directed by the legendary Joe Dante (The ‘Burbs), this delightful film isn’t just an affectionate love letter to the sci-fi and horror films that he grew up with in the 1950s and 60s, it’s also a witty and intelligent exploration of the way that the most successful genre films worked by preying on the very real fears of their audiences about everything from Soviet satellite launches to atomic mutation.
Special Features:
- High definition digital transfer supplied by NBC Universal
- Lossless stereo audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Paranoia in Ant Vision, a discussion with director Joe Dante about the making of the film
- Mant!, the full length version of the film-within-a-film
- Discussion with Joe Dante on the effects of Mant!
- Vintage ‘making of’ featurette
- Rare on-set footage, sourced from Joe Dante’s personal collection
- Original theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
- First pressing only: Booklet featuring new writing on the film by David Jenkins
UK STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 12.
So, are you broke yet?
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