This is a handy listing of new and upcoming US DVD and Blu-ray releases.

Please support non-profit site Horrorpedia by buying from our affiliate Amazon.com.

The list will be updated very regularly, so return to this page for the latest US DVD and Blu-ray release information. If the title of the film has a link it is on Horrorpedia already and you can click to read more info and reviews. Click on images to enlarge. There are separate listings of new and upcoming UK DVD and Blu-ray releases.

SEPTEMBER 23

Stagefright (Blu-ray): Blue Underground

SEPTEMBER 2

Deadly Weekend: Phase 4

AUGUST 26

Hell of the Living Dead + Rats: Night of Terror (Blu-ray): Blue Underground

Tree walker’s head and arm move when you remove the Blu-ray set from the base!

Buy The Walking Dead Blu-ray Limited Edition from Amazon.com

Buy The Walking Dead Season 4 Blu-ray | DVD from Amazon.com

AUGUST 19

Leviathan (Blu-ray): Shout! Factory

AUGUST 5

Phantom of the Paradise (Blu-ray): Shout! Factory

Without Warning (Blu-ray): Shout! Factory

AUGUST

The Legend of Hell House (Blu-ray): Shout! Factory

Motel Hell (Blu-ray): Shout! Factory

JULY 22

Buy All Cheerleaders Die on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Buy Destroy All Monsters on Tokyo Shock Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Buy Ginger Snaps Collector’s Edition on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Buy Godzilla vs. Megalon on Media Blasters Blu-ray from Amazon.com

JULY 15

Buy Deadly Eyes aka Rats on Shout! Factory Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com

Open Grave

Buy Scanners on Criterion Collection Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com

Buy SX_Tape on DVD | Blu-ray from Amazon.com

JULY 8

Buy Lake Placid Collector’s Edition Blu-ray from Amazon.com

JULY 1

Buy The Final Terror Shout! Factory Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com

JUNE 24

Dog Soldiers (Blu-ray/DVD combo): Shout! Factory

The Legend of Six Fingers (special edition): Bloody Earth

JUNE 17

Buy Adjust Your Tracking 2-DVD special edition, VHS/2-DVD combo from Amazon.com

Buy Blood Soaked on Wild Eye DVD from Amazon.com

Buy Dark Souls on Eagle One DVD from Amazon.com

Buy A Measure of the Sin on Brinkvision/MVD DVD from Amazon.com

Buy Psychopaths: Sex with Hostages DVD from Amazon.com

JUNE 10

Buy Huh Jung’s Hide and Seek on RAM Releasing DVD from Amazon.com

Buy Robocop on MGM Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD | DVD | HD Amazon Instant from Amazon.com

JUNE

Buy The Monkey’s Paw on Shout! Factory Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Buy Ravenous on Shout! Factory Blu-ray from Amazon.com

MAY 27

Buy Death Spa on Gorgon/MPI Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com

Buy Ghostquake on MTI DVD from Amazon.com

Buy House in the Alley on Shout! Factory DVD from Amazon.com

Buy Patrick: Evil Awakens on Phase 4 Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com

Buy Sleepaway Camp on Shout! Factory Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com

MAY 20

Buy Bloodmarsh Krackoon on Independent Entertainment DVD from Amazon.com

Buy Box of Bigfoot: Snowbeast + The Curse of Bigfoot + Beauties and the Beast on CFS/MVD DVD from Amazon.com

Buy Camp Blood: First Slaughter on Sterling/MVD DVD from Amazon.com

Buy Cannibal Lolita + Cannibal Lolita: A Love Story (2-DVD edition) on Psycho Junkie/MVD from Amazon.com

Buy Chainsaw Killer on SRS Cinema/MVD DVD from Amazon.com

Buy House of Dust on Anchor Bay DVD from Amazon.com

Movies 4 You: Horror – The Vampire + The Bat People + The Screaming Skull + The Vampire Lovers: Shout! Factory

Buy on DVD from Amazon.com

Buy Nosferatu the Vampyre on Shout! Factory Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Buy Sars + Sars: The Dead Plague on Psycho Junkie/MVD 2-DVD from Amazon.com

Buy Shark Attack Pack: Shark Kill + Great White Death + Shark! on CFS DVD from Amazon.com

Buy Tourist Trap on Full Moon Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Buy Way of the Wicked on Image Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Buy Zombie Games: The Knackery on Eagle One DVD from Amazon.com

MAY 13

Buy Cowboys vs. Zombies on Phase 4 DVD from Amazon.com

Buy Evilspeak on Shout! Factory Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Buy Final Exam on Shout! Factory Blu-ray | DVD from Amazon.com

Buy The Zombinator on Inception DVD from Amazon.com

MAY 6

Buy Axeman on Midnight Releasing DVD from Amazon.com

Buy The Birds on DVD + Digital Copy | Blu-ray + HD Ultraviolet from Amazon.com

THE DINOSAUR EXPERIMENT: Phase 4

THE EVIL WITHIN (special edition): Phase 4

4 FILM FAVORITES: COLOSSAL MONSTER COLLECTION (JACK THE GIANT SLAYER, 10,000 B.C., CLOVERFIELD, KING KONG; Blu-ray set): Warner

4 FILM FAVORITES: TIM BURTON COLLECTION (BEETLEJUICE, SLEEPY HOLLOW, CORPSE BRIDE, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY; Blu-ray set): Warner

Buy Godzilla on Monster Island?/Godzilla vs. Gigan on Special Edition Blu-ray from Amazon.com

GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER/EBIRAH, HORROR OF THE DEEP (new special edition, Blu-ray): Kraken/Section23

GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER/GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH (new special edition, Blu-ray): Kraken/Section23

Buy on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

INGLODA: THE POSSESSION WITHIN: Hannover House

JURASSIC PARK (Steelbook Blu-ray/DVD combo): Universal

KING KONG (2005; Steelbook Blu-ray/DVD combo): Universal

MR. JONES (DVD, Blu-ray): Anchor Bay

POE: PROJECT OF EVIL: Brain Damage

666: DEVILISH CHARM: Rapid Heart

APRIL 29

Buy The Black Torment on Redemption/Kino Lorber Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Buy Dead Shadows on Shout! Factory Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Buy The Demons on Redemption/Kino Lorber Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Buy Devil’s Due on Fox Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com

GAMERA ULTIMATE COLLECTION VOLUME 1

Buy Blu-ray from Amazon.com

GAMERA ULTIMATE COLLECTION VOLUME 2

Buy Blu-ray from Amazon.com

APRIL 22

Buy Ancient Demon Succubi on Chemical Burn DVD from Amazon.com

Buy Dark Satanik Magick on World Wide Multi Media/MVD DVD from Amazon.com

15 MURDERS: INSIDE THE MIND OF A SERIAL KILLER: World Wide Multi Media/MVD

Buy 15 Murders DVD from Amazon.com

GILA! (special edition): Polyscope

Buy Gila! on DVD from Amazon.com

THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW: Scorpion Entertainment

Buy The House on Sorority Row Blu-ray from Amazon.com

INSANE (special edition): Eagle One

THE LEGEND OF THE PSYCHOTIC FOREST RANGER (special edition): Level 33

LONG LIVE THE DEAD (special edition): Wild Eye

MAKING OFF: Apprehensive

PANIC BUTTON: MASSACRE AT 30,000 FEET: Phase 4

SCREAM PARK (special edition): Wild Eye

UNSEEN EVIL: Sterling/MVD

Buy DVD from Amazon.com

THE VISITANT (special edition): Eagle One

Buy DVD from Amazon.com

YETI: GIANT OF THE 20TH CENTURY: CFS/MVD

Buy DVD from Amazon.com

APRIL 15

BLOOD SHED: Phase 4

Buy Blood Shed from Amazon.com

CAMP DREAD: Image

Buy Camp Dread on DVD from Amazon.com

DEATH DO US PART (special edition): Anchor Bay

Buy Death Do Us Part on DVD from Amazon.com

PLAYDATE: MTI

Buy Playdate on DVD from Amazon.com

RIPPER STREET: Season Two (3-DVD, 3-Blu-ray sets): BBC

Buy Ripper Street on US 3-disc BBC Blu-ray Disc from Amazon.com

APRIL 8

DEAD ON APPRAISAL (special edition): Brain Damage

Buy DVD from Amazon.com

FIELDS OF THE DEAD: Viva Pictures

Buy DVD from Amazon.com

HOLLISTON: The Complete Second Season (Blu-ray): Image

Buy Blu-ray from Amazon.com

THE JEKYLL AND HYDE PORTFOLIO + A CLOCKWORK BLUE: Vinegar Syndrome

Buy Vinegar Syndrome DVD from Amazon.com

LUST OF THE DEAD 3: Tokyo Shock/Media Blasters

Buy Lust of the Dead 3 from Amazon.com

Buy Nurse on Lionsgate Blu-ray | DVD | HD Amazon Instant from Amazon.com

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES (DVD, Blu-ray/DVD combo): Paramount

APRIL 1

KING KONG ESCAPES (Blu-ray): Universal

Buy King Kong Escapes on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (Blu-ray): Universal

Buy King Kong vs. Godzilla on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

666: KREEPY KERRY: Rapid Heart

Buy DVD from Amazon.com

FUTURE UNDATED
AMERICA’S DEADLIEST HOME VIDEO (special edition): Camp Motion Pictures
ANIMOSITY: Bloody Earth
AT MIDNIGHT I’LL TAKE YOUR SOUL (new special edition): Synapse
THE BATTERY (special edition, Blu-ray): Shout! Factory
BURIED ALIVE (2012): Hannover House
CALL GIRL OF CTHULHU: Camp Motion Pictures
CAULDRON OF BLOOD: Olive
COUNTESS DRACULA (Blu-ray/DVD combo): Synapse
COWBOYS & VAMPIRES (2012): Hannover House
CURTAINS (special edition): Synapse
DEADLY EYES (Blu-ray/DVD combo): Shout! Factory
DR. FRANKENSTEIN’S WAX MUSEUM OF THE HUNGRY DEAD: Wild Eye
DR. TERROR’S HOUSE OF HORRORS: Olive
FALLS THE SHADOW: THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE (2012): Hannover House
THE FINAL TERROR (Blu-ray/DVD combo): Shout! Factory
GINGER SNAPS (Blu-ray/DVD combo): Shout! Factory
GRINDHOUSE TRAILER CLASSICS VOLUME 1: Severin
A GUN FOR JENNIFER (special edition): Mondo Macabro
HELLHOLE (Blu-ray/DVD combo): Shout! Factory
HOMICYCLE (special edition): Camp Motion Pictures
THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (new special edition): Severin
HUMAN EXPERIMENTS (special edition): Scorpion
I WILL NOT DIE ALONE: Synapse
LAKE PLACID (Blu-ray): Shout! Factory
LORD OF ILLUSIONS (Blu-ray): Shout! Factory
THE MACABRE SARCOPHAGUS: Camp Motion Pictures
THE MAN IN THE MAZE: R Squared/MVD
MY FAIR ZOMBIE (special edition): Camp Motion Pictures
NOSFERATU IN BRAZIL: Camp Motion Pictures
100 TEARS (new special edition): Unearthed
PATIENT ZERO (DVD, Blu-ray): Hannover House
PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (Blu-ray): Shout! Factory
PHENOMENA (new special edition, Blu-ray): Synapse
POPCORN (special edition): Synapse
PROM NIGHT (special edition): Synapse
THE RETURN (1980; new DVD): Scorpion
ROOMS FOR TOURISTS: Synapse
THE SCARLET SCORPION: Camp Motion Pictures
SECRET OF THE MUMMY: Camp Motion Pictures
THE SEVEN VAMPIRES: Camp Motion Pictures
SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS (Blu-ray/DVD combo): Synapse
SUSPIRIA (new DVD, Blu-ray): Synapse
TENEBRE (new special edition, Blu-ray): Synapse
THIS NIGHT I’LL POSSESS YOUR CORPSE (new special edition): Synapse
THUNDERCRACK! (special edition): Synapse
VIDEO NASTIES—THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (3-DVD set): Severin
VIOLENT SHIT Collection (VIOLENT SHIT 1-4; DVD box): Synapse
WATCH ’EM DIE: Synapse
A WEREWOLF IN THE AMAZON: Camp Motion Pictures

We are grateful to Michael Gingold’s Fangoria Chopping List for much of this info. Thanks also to Bruce Holecheck’s Cinema Arcana for altering us to some new titles sooner than we’d noticed them on Amazon! Cheers to Michael and Bruce…

Godzilla: Final Wars (ゴジラ ファイナルウォーズ Gojira: Fainaru Wōzu) is a 2004 Japanese science fiction Kaiju film directed by Ryuhei Kitamura (Versus), written by Wataru Mimura and Isao Kiriyama and produced by Shogo Tomiyama. It is the 28th installment in the Godzilla film series, and the sixth in terms of the series’ Millennium era. The film stars Masahiro Matsuoka, Don Frye, Rei Kikukawa, Kane Kosugi, Maki Mizuno and Kazuki Kitamura.

As a 50th anniversary film, a number of actors from previous Godzilla films appeared as main characters or in cameo roles. In addition, various Kaiju (monsters) made reappearances, as most were last seen more than 30 years earlier. Godzilla: Final Wars premiered on November 29, 2004 in Los Angeles, California and was released on December 4, 2004 in Japan. Before the world premiere, Godzilla received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Director Ryuhei Kitamura has compared Godzilla: Final Wars to that of a musician’s “Best of” album, stating “We picked lots and lots of the best elements from the past and combined it in a new way. It’s what I love about Godzilla and what I don’t love about recent Godzilla movies”.

The music in Godzilla: Final Wars was composed by Keith Emerson (Inferno; Murder Rock; The Church) Daisuke Yano and Nobuhiko Morino, while the band Sum 41 contributed the song “We’re All To Blame” to the soundtrack (and received high billing in the film’s opening credits sequence). Some critics expressed concern with the music of Final Wars, arguing that Emerson’s score would be better suited for a campy made-for-television movie or video games, while others pointed out that it made a refreshing change from the music of previous Godzilla films.

Plot teaser:

In 2004, endless warfare and environmental pollution has resulted in dangerous kaiju and the Earth Defense Force (EDF) is created to protect the planet. The organization is equipped with the best technology, weapons and soldiers, as well as mutants with special abilities. Godzilla is the EDF’s only unstoppable opponent. The EDF’s best combat vehicle, the Gotengo, corners Godzilla at the South Pole and buries him under the Antarctic ice, freezing him alive.

Forty years later, the EDF discovers a mummified space monster. The mutant soldier Shinichi Ozaki and the United Nations biologist Dr. Miyuki Otonashi are sent to research it. Shortly thereafter, the two encounter the Shobijin, fairies of the guardian monster Mothra, who reveal that the monster is Gigan, an alien cyborg sent to destroy Earth 12,000 years earlier. They also warn that a battle between good and evil will happen soon and that Ozaki, because of his mutant capabilities, must choose between the two.

Suddenly, kaiju appear in major cities. The EDF attempts to drive them away. The monsters include Anguirus in Shanghai, Rodan in New York City, King Caesar in Okinawa, Kamacuras in Paris, Kumonga in Arizona, Zilla in Sydney and Ebirah near Tokyo. Despite defeating Ebirah, the EDF is unsuccessful in destroying the monsters. After destroying most of the cities, the monsters vanish and an enormous alien mothership appears over Tokyo. The aliens, known as Xiliens, say that they are friendly and have eliminated the monsters…

Reviews:

” … brief missteps are not enough to undermine the film, which is a pulse-pulverizing bit of special effects and martial arts mayhem that truly is good enough to deserve a stateside release. Certainly, the film is over-the-top and utterly fantastic.” Steve Biodrowski, Cinefantastique

“The Matrix influence extends to slow-motion bullets, 360-degree freeze-pans, and Ozaki’s understanding of his divine purpose — but, really, all this tosh accomplishes is to pad Godzilla: Final Wars for a good 35 minutes longer than is necessary. Godzilla himself doesn’t even show up for the first hour and a half, since he’s kept on ice under the South Pole specifically for occasions like this. After a while the shoot-outs, fistfights, and bellowing latex bleed into one unending blur, and you find yourself actively pining for the earth to be destroyed so the end credits can come up.” Ty Burr, Boston Globe

“.. a blithely campy, altogether good-natured love letter to the classic Godzilla films of the 1960s and 1970s directed by… Japan’s adolescent action stylist.” Sean Axmaker, Static

Buy Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. + Godzilla: Final Wars on Sony Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Wikipedia | IMDb | Godzilla on Horrorpedia

‘Their beautiful bodies defiled by the ultimate immoral atrocity!’

House of Whipcord, made in 1973 (released April 1974), is one of the most significant British horror films of the 1970s, a bleak, grim and unsavoury slice of cinema that helped signal the end of the gothic and the rise of a decade of nastiness. It was roundly hated by the horror establishment, then – as now – suspicious and contemptuous of anything new and challenging. But for a new generation of fans, this was much more exciting than the old-fashioned films, such as The Ghoul,  being made by the likes of Tyburn in the mid-seventies.

Opening with a pointedly cynical statement to the hanging and flogging brigade: “This film is dedicated to those who are disturbed by today’s lax moral codes and who eagerly await the return of corporal and capital punishment”, the film tells the story of Anne Marie (Penny Irving), a French model who meets a young man at a party, and despite his name being Mark E. Desade (Robert Tayman, Vampire Circus), agrees to leave with him. Before long, she’s captive in a disused prison, where Mark’s parents (Barbara Markham and Patrick Barr) run a quasi-judicial punishment regime for girls who have strayed from the path of ‘righteousness’. Along with psychotic warder Walker (Sheila Keith), they strip, torture and abuse the girls in a hypocritical attempt to punish them for their sins’. But things soon start to fall apart, as Anne-Marie plans her escape…

With a sharply savage screenplay by David MacGillivray (Frightmare, Satan’s Slave) – his first horror film and first movie for Peter Walker in what would be a sometimes fractious relationship -House of Whipcord rises above the exploitative nature of the material, without compromising on the sleaze factor. Meanwhile, Walker delivers solid, no-nonsense direction. Irving and hardened exploitation starlet Anne Michelle get naked, there’s some gratuitous yet mild whipping and an overwhelming air of grubbiness, but the film nevertheless makes its point smartly, skewering the double standards of the so-called Moral Majority.

Of course, that same Moral Majority was out to get the film, and it suffered cuts at the hands of the BBFC – though less than you might expect, BBFC Head Stephen Murphy apparently appreciating the knowing attack on ‘moral reformers’. The movie received a couple of positive reviews in the press, such as Films and Filming: “Shows that something worthwhile in the entertainment-horror market can be done for the tiny sum of £60,000″. However, it was more memorably dismissed by Russell Davies in The Observer as “a feeble fladge-fantasy” and the Evening News: “as nasty an exploitation of sadism as I can recall in the cinema.”

Writing in his 1977 book Horror Films, genre fan and critic Alan Frank pronounced it to be “a silly and tawdry exploitation film with ill-conceived characters written as cliches … in a series of voyeuristic scenes of sadism and violence … British exploitation cinema at its lowest common denominator.”  In more recent years, however, the film has built a substantial fan following, and for many remains the definitive Pete Walker film.

Buy House of Whipcord on Redemption Blu-ray from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Buy The Pete Walker Collection on Redemption Blu-ray Disc from Amazon.com

The film was re-released in the USA by United Producers as Stag Model Slaughter and later, with a misleading ad campaign that made it look like a soft porn film. The Photographer’s Models. In France, it was known simply as Flagellations.

Buy Odeon Entertainment Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

“I’ve always thought that this film was going to be one of those seedy, underground 1970s sexploitation films with no plot and lots of naked women being whipped left right and centre. However, I’m pleased to say that while it is low budget, with the odd flash of unnecessary flesh it is also quite a reasonable little horror that at times can be quiet harrowing.” Spooky Isles

“An above average sexploitation/horror that has been put together with some polish and care from a fairly original script. The film is dedicated ironically to all those who wish to see the return of capital punishment in Britain, and it’s about a senile old judge and his wife who are so appalled by current permissiveness that they set up a gruesome house of correction for young girls. The only trouble is that the film undercuts its potentially interesting Gothic theme by some leering emphases, and the final result is likely to be seen and appreciated only by the people who will take the dedication at its face value” David Pirie, Time Out

Buy Making Mischief: The Cult Films of Pete Walker from Amazon.co.uk

Cast, in credits order:

• Barbara Markham … Mrs. Wakehurst
• Patrick Barr … Justice Bailey
• Ray Brooks … Tony
• Ann Michelle … Julia
• Sheila Keith … Walker
• Dorothy Gordon … Bates
• Robert Tayman … Mark E. Desade
• Ivor Salter … Jack
• Karan David … Karen
• Celia Quicke … Denise
• Ron Smerczak … Ted
• Tony Sympson … Henry
• Judy Robinson … Claire
• Jane Hayward … Estelle
• Celia Imrie … Barbara
• Barry Martin … Al
• Rose Hill … Henry’s Wife
• Dave Butler … Ticket Collector
• And introducing Penny Irving as Ann-Marie Di Verney

IMDb | Wikipedia | We are grateful to Wrong Side of the Art!, Temple of Schlock and Tumblr Lobby Cards for images above

Buy movie poster print from Amazon.com

Scriptwriter David McGillivray can be seen on the right hand

Stage Fright is a 2014 American horror/musical film written and directed by Jerome Sable. It stars Minnie Driver, Meat Loaf (The Rocky Horror Picture Show), Allie MacDonald, Douglas Smith, Kent Nolan, Brandon Uranowitz, Ephraim Ellis, Melanie Leishman, James McGowan, Steffi DiDomenicantonio, Ryan Bobkin, Leanne Miller, Adrianna Di Liello.

The film marks Jerome Sable’s feature film debut after working on several shorts, including the horror/musical The Legend of Beaver Dam. Magnet Releasing are making Stage Fright available on VOD on April 3 and via a theatrical release on May 9.

Plot:

When teenager Camilla Swanson, a starry-eyed kitchen hand, lands herself a role in the Broadway-bound showcase at the musical theater camp where she works, but just when rehearsals begin, blood starts to spill. The camp is being terrorized by “Metal Killer”, a masked slasher who screams death metal rock while hunting down every last pretentious cast member of the show…

Official trailer:

Reviews:

“For a weird genre mash-up that’s both legitimately funny and graced by a handful of great original songs (yes, it’s that kind of musical!), Stage Fright is not dainty when it comes to the kills. The movie is not very scary, which is fine, given what the filmmakers are clearly shooting for, but it is occasionally creepy and frequently quite gory.” Scott Weinberg, FEARnet

“In the hands of a lesser director (or lesser cast for that matter), this film would’ve been a flat “isn’t that funny… no need to watch that again” one off, but instead what you get is a melodic blend of gore, music, and whimsical fun. Would I drop $9.00 to see this thing in theaters? Yep. Great date movie with a dash of something for everyone – a rarity.” Muldoon, Ain’t It Cool News

Red band trailer (viewer discretion advised):

“The highs (like that opening musical number) are just wonderful and sharp and super fun. The slasher elements are done with style and flair and are (in more than one instance) a damned bloody mess. But the balance, at times, feels off. Not to make a pun, but the rhythm of the film sometimes feels about a beat slow from where it should be so when we get to that big slasher-reveal and culmination, the up and down nature of everything taken all together leaves said reveal and the climax not as scary or gut-punching as it should be.” Flay Otters, Horror-Movies.ca

Buy Stage Fright on Magnet Releasing Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Bonus Features:

• Audio Commentary
• The Making Of Stage Fright
• Outtakes
• Deleted Scenes
• Interviews: Writer/Director Jerome Sable
• Co-Composer Eli Batalion
• AXS TV: A Look at Stage Fright
• “The Legend Of Beaver Dam”
• Original Trailer

Wikipedia | IMDb | Facebook

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (also known as Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning or Friday the 13th Part V) is a 1985 American slasher horror film directed by Danny Steinmann (The Unseen; Savage Streets) from a screenplay by he co-wrote with David Cohen and Martin Kitrosser. The film includes 20 deaths (22 if you include the opening nightmare sequence). This Paramount release took $21,930,418 at the U.S. box office.

Plot teaser:

A young Tommy Jarvis stumbles upon a graveyard while walking through the woods on a rainy night, where he witnesses two grave robbers digging up the corpse of Jason Voorhees. Jason rises from the grave and murders the two grave robbers before advancing towards Tommy.

The graveyard sequence turns out to be just a nightmare, and Tommy, now a teenager, awakens from the dream in the back of a van. Tommy has been shifted between various mental institutions after killing the mass murderer Jason Voorhees six years earlier, who attacked him and his sister and murdered their mother. He arrives at the Pinehurst Halfway House, a medical center for troubled teens secluded in the woods. The body count continues…

Reviews (spoilers):

“By the fifth film, fans weren’t looking for anything terribly original. Rather, they were looking for sex, violence and creative kills. This was delivered, including a pretty risqué and quite awesome sex-in-the-woods sequence, which was actually trimmed by the censors of the day. However, even with some plot twists, this movie really was one of the least of the bunch.” Kevin Carr, 7(M) Pictures

“The spiciest entry in the series, it boasts the most T&A, an incredible double homicide, a witty reference to A Place in the Sun, and yokels chopping chickens.” Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

“Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning doesn’t deserve its bad rap. I’d rather watch it than half the entries in the series, and genuinely respect the producers for trying to find an organic way to continue the series without ‘cheating’” Gabriel Powers, DVD Active

Buy Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th on Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com

Crystal Lake Mammaries (sorry, couldn’t resist)

“The end is a serious letdown, either because you hadn’t figured out who the killer was and were disappointed when you found out, or because you HAD figured it out and were disappointed to learn you were right. You should know that in the end, the killer’s Jason-like hockey mask is placed in someone’s hospital room, apparently as a souvenir, which is questionable enough already, but really just as an excuse for setting up the “creepy” final shot, which is even more askew. We really should permit only grown-ups to make movies.” Eric D. Snider

Buy Friday the 13th: A New Beginning on Instant Video | DVD from Amazon.com

Choice dialogue:

“You big dildo! Eat your fuck’n slop!”

“And our forecast is sunny in the valleys and snow flurries up your nose.”

Censorship:

There were numerous graphic scenes, all of which were either cut or trimmed for appearing to be “X” by the MPAA, such as:

Joey’s death, which showed an inserted frame of blood splashing seconds after getting hacked with an axe to his back; there was a wide frame shot of Vinnie getting the road flare shoved into his mouth, but the entire scene was ultimately reduced to a brief close-up shot instead;

Pete’s death originally showed the machete slicing across his throat; however, this single frame was excised from the final cut, resulting in a close-up shot of his reaction and the aftermath of his death;

Billy’s death was cut of excessive blood flow from an axe to his skull;

Lana’s entire death scene was cut and recreated; the original scene showed an axe to her chest, followed by her subsequent reaction of horror (which was omitted for appearing as “too real”), ending with a view of her body twitching on the ground;

Farmhand Raymond’s death showed an inserted frame of the knife twisting in his stomach;

Eddie and Tina had extended scenes of sex, all of which were cut, followed by Tina’s death from a pair of hedge shears to her eyes and a gory view of her remains;

Eddie’s head crushed against the tree was deemed “too strong,” resulting in a less intense, trimmed version;

Anita’s death was slightly altered with “version 1″ and “version 2″ in existence; the first version shows a close-up shot of her face and slit throat; version 2 has an additional wide POV shot of her body from inside the outhouse;

Demon’s torturous demise was also deemed as “too strong” and originally showed his subsequent reaction of vomiting blood after being impaled with a tent spike through his stomach;

Ethel’s death scene showed a single frame of the cleaver lodged in her forehead;

Junior’s decapitation originally showed his head bounce and roll along the ground;

This shot includes blood on victim’s face but shot above doesn’t

Jake suffered a violent attack from a meat cleaver to the face; there were additional frames omitted from the original death scene itself, resulting in a brief close-up shot of his initial reaction from the effect.

Robin was impaled with a machete, which entered through her back and emerged from between her bare chest; this single shot was excised entirely.

Buy Friday the 13th: A New Beginning on Deluxe Edition DVD from Amazon.com

Cast:

• Melanie Kinnaman as Pam Roberts
• John Shepherd as Tommy Jarvis
• Shavar Ross as Reggie
• Corey Feldman as Tommy Jarvis (age 12)
• Richard Young as Matt
• Marco St. John as Sheriff Tucker
• Juliette Cummins as Robin
• Carol Locatell as Ethel
• Vernon Washington as George
• John Robert Dixon as Eddie
• Tiffany Helm as Violet
• Jerry Pavlon as Jake
• Caskey Swaim as Duke
• Mark Venturini as Vic Faden
• Anthony Barrile as Vinniek
• Dominick Brascia as Joey
• Richard Lineback as Deputy Dodd
• Bob DeSimone as Billy
• Jere Fields as Anita
• Ric Mancini as Mayor Cobb
• Miguel A. Núñez, Jr. as Demon
• Corey Parker as Pete
• Rebecca Wood as Lana
• Ron Sloan as Junior
• Debi Sue Voorhees as Tina
• Dick Wieand as Roy Burns/Jason Voorhees copycat
• Tom Morga as Jason (opening sequence)
• Kimberly Beck as Trish Jarvis (Voice Only)

Wikipedia | IMDb | Related: Fangoria

Related: Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th | Friday the 13th (1980) | Friday the 13th (2015) | Friday the 13th (video game) | Friday the 13th: No Man’s Land | Friday the 13th Part 2 | Friday the 13th Part III | Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter | Friday the 13th: A New Beginning | Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday | Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI | Freddy vs. Jason

The Slasher Classics Collection is a series of Blu-ray releases from British-based “boutique” label 88 Films. The releases were announced on July 16, 2014 and consist of Unhinged (1982); Don’t Go in the Woods (1981), Graduation Day (1981) and Mother’s Day (1980)

Press release:

‘A CELEBRATION OF TEEN-KILL CARNAGE – UNCUT, UNLEASHED AND UNHINGED

Ask any self-respecting slasher buff about the genre’s ‘golden age’ and they will doubtlessly wax poetic about the plasma-packed pot-boilers of the 1980s – the decade of destruction that gave us Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger and the transsexual teen-tormenter of the Sleepaway Camp series. Given the label’s name, what better way for 88 Films to celebrate this halcyon era of horror than with a series of numbered and collectible sanguine-splashed shockers from the period of VHS and video nasties?

Hence, 88 Films is proud to announce the launch of a new “SLASHER CLASSICS” line – kicking off with a digitally re-mastered DVD release of Don Gronquist’s notorious censor-baiting backwoods sickie Unhinged (1982). Further fearful fun will be delivered with Don’t Go in the Woods (1981) – the effortlessly enjoyable “hunt ‘em and kill ‘em” epic that once had British authorities outlawing its very exhibition! Directed by James Bryan, Don’t Go in the Woods is a catalogue of splatter-slapstick craziness which lines up a group of campers and crushes them in increasingly comical ways. Take it from us: this maddening mash-up of absurdity and arteries really does have to be seen to be believed!

Following on from this bout of bad-actor bludgeoning will be a new BluRay bow for Herb Freed’s student-filleting frightener Graduation Day (1981), in which high school pupils meet a sticky end from a mysterious stalker in a fencing mask. Adding to the onscreen allure of Graduation Day is a cast of cult veterans that includes Christopher George (City of the Living Dead, Pieces), beloved Scream Queen Linnea Quigley (Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Return of the Living Dead) and future small screen celebrity, and Playboy cover girl, Vanna White.

Buy Graduation Day from Amazon.co.uk

Finally (at least for now) 88 Films is proud to present Charles Kaufman’s Mother’s Day (1980) – a macabre movie so effective that Hollywood A-lister Brett Ratner (director of the Rush Hour series and this summer’s Hercules) produced a 2010 remake headlined by Rebecca De Mornay. As usual, though, it is the original which packs the biggest punch. Boasting a tone that is both sinister and satirical – Mother’s Day has three female friends accidentally stumble upon the land of the most dysfunctional family this side of Leatherface and his clan. What follows is not for the faint-hearted – indeed, in his original review the late, great Roger Ebert accused this controversial creeper of wallowing in “images of vile and depraved sadism”!!! You can make up your own minds when Mother’s Day arrives on UK Blu-ray in early 2015.

Each release in this very special collection will boast a numbered spine, additional features, a reversible sleeve and an informative new booklet, with writing on each respective film, from author Calum Waddell – the erstwhile producer of such documentaries as 88 Films’ own Slice and Dice: The Slasher Movie Forever. Most importantly, of course, we can promise uncut prints – with each hack em’ up epic looking bloodier and better than ever before!’

‘Evil comes in all sizes’

Puppet Master (also known as Puppetmaster) is a 1989 American horror film written by Charles Band and Kenneth J. Hall, and directed by David Schmoeller (Tourist Trap; Crawlspace). It is the first film in the Puppet Master franchise and stars Paul Le Mat, Irene Miracle (Inferno), Matt Roe, Kathryn O’Reilly, Barbara Crampton and William Hickey.

Originally intended for theatrical release, Puppet Master was pushed to direct-to-video on October 12, 1989, as Charles Band felt he was likely to make more money this way. The film was very popular in the VHS market and developed a large cult following that has led to the production of an amazing ten sequels.

Buy Puppet Master + II + III on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Plot teaser:

In 1939 Bodega Bay, California, an old puppeteer named Andre Toulon is putting the finishing touches on a living puppet called Jester. A living oriental puppet, named Shredder Khan, stares out of the window for Blade, another living puppet, as Blade scouts the grounds of the Bodega Bay Inn that Andre is staying. Two Nazi spies get out of a car and head for Toulon’s room but Blade beats them there and Andre puts Blade, Jester and Shredder Khan into a chest with the Indian puppet, named Gengie, before hiding the chest in a wall panel. As the Nazis break down the door, Toulon shoots himself in the mouth with a pistol.

Fifty years later, in 1989, psychics Alex Whitaker, Dana Hadley, Frank Forrester and Carissa Stamford make contact with an old colleague of theirs, Neil Gallagher, and conclude he found Andre Toulon’s hiding place. Each one of them experiences a different vision…

Buy Puppet Master on 88 Films Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“Even though the original is a bit slow at times, it’s still a pretty well done little slasher (once the slashing begins). The colourful cast of characters adequately complement the puppets, as they find themselves in some memorable situations (BSDM escapades go a little bit further when Tunneler and Leech Woman are involved!). The Bodega Bay hotel setting is effective as well, and there’s enough twists and turns in the plot to keep things interesting.” Oh, the Horror!

” …the puppet effects are great and their designs creative and memorable enough that their appearances are worth sticking around for. It’s easy to see why they captured the imagination of viewers and inspire such loyal fandom that figures, models and masks continue to be sold year after year. Nevertheless after the 1939 opening, it’s fairly slow going until the last twenty minutes or so. Better things were to come in some of the sequels…” Mysterious Universe

“Although Puppet Master is great fun, it’s not without its problems. The film relies heavily on psychic vision sequences that aren’t implemented well in a few cases, making a lot of the narrative of the film seem disjointed and confusing.” UK Horror Scene

Buy Empire of the ‘B’s: The Mad Movie World of Charles Band from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Buy Puppet Master + Killjoy 12 ultra-bargain film collection from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Cast:

William Hickey as Andre Toulon
Paul Le Mat as Alex Whitaker
Irene Miracle as Dana Hadley
Jimmie F. Skaggs as Neil Gallagher
Robin Frates as Megan Gallagher
Matt Roe as Frank Forrester
Kathryn O’Reilly as Carissa Stamford
Mews Small as Theresa
Barbara Crampton as Woman at Carnival
David Boyd as Man at Carnival
Peter Frankland as Assassin #1 (Max)
Andrew Kimbrough as Assassin #2 (Klaus)

Featured puppets:

Blade
Jester
Pinhead
Tunneler
Leech Woman
Shredder Khan
Gengie

Wikipedia | IMDb

Scream Factory is an American digital production company dedicated to releasing horror and science-fiction films with a cult following; it is an imprint of Shout! Factory. Scream Factory has released a slate of fan-favourites from the 1970s, 80s and 90s, many of which have never been available on Blu-ray before.

Each title is presented in anamorphic widescreen, and most are released in a “Collector’s Editions” with new bonus content, archival materials, a collectible cover featuring newly rendered retro-style artwork, a reversible wrap with original theatrical key art and more.

The series was launched on September 18, 2012 with special edition DVD and Blu-ray releases of Halloween II (1981) and Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

Almost all of Scream Factory’s releases are on Blu-ray. Some are a Combo Pack of both Blu-ray and DVD discs and are released separately as both. Additionally, some titles are released as Collector’s Editions, indicating a release with all new special features and reversible artwork.

Scroll down to the end of this entry for all the latest and upcoming Scream Factory releases…

#	Title	Home Video Release	Theatrical Release	Format(s)	Artwork	Notes
01	The Stepfather	June 15, 2010	January 23, 1987	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Originally a Shout! Factory release, but now considered a retroactive Scream Factory release.
02	Halloween II – Click to read Horrorpedia entry	September 18, 2012	October 30, 1981	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Collector’s Edition – includes rare Network TV Cut – Buy from Amazon.com
03	Halloween III: Season of the Witch – Click to read Horrorpedia entry	September 18, 2012	October 22, 1982	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.com
04	The Funhouse	October 16, 2012	March 13, 1981	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Collector’s Edition
05	Terror Train – Click to read Horrorpedia entry	October 16, 2012	October 3, 1980	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.com
06	They Live	November 6, 2012	November 4, 1988	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.com
07	Death Valley – Click to read Horrorpedia entry	December 11, 2012	May 7, 1982	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Buy from Amazon.com
08	The Island – Click to read Horrorpedia entry	December 11, 2012	June 13, 1980	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Buy from Amazon.com
09	Deadly Blessing – Click to read Horrorpedia entry	January 22, 2013	August 14, 1981	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.com
10	The Nest – Click link to read Horrorpedia entry	February 19, 2013	May 13, 1988	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Buy from Amazon.com
11	Prison – Click link to read Horrorpedia entry	February 19, 2013	March 4, 1988	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.com
12	TerrorVision – Click to read Horrorpedia entry	February 19, 2013	February 14, 1986	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Buy Double Feature from Amazon.com
13	The Video Dead - Click to read Horrorpedia entry		November 1987
14	From Beyond – Click link to read Horrorpedia entry	March 26, 2013	October 24, 1986	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	New	Buy Collector’s Edition Unrated Director’s Cut from Amazon.com
15	Phantasm II – Click to read Horrorpedia entry	March 26, 2013	July 8, 1988	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.com
16	The Vampire Lovers – Click link to read Horrorpedia entry	April 30, 2013	October 4, 1970	Blu-ray	Original	Buy from Amazon.com
17	The Burning – Click link to read Horrorpedia entry	May 21, 2013	May 8, 1981	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.com
18	The Town That Dreaded Sundown – Click link to read Horrorpedia entry	May 21, 2013	December 24, 1976	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Also includes The Evictors as a bonus feature. Buy from Amazon.com
19	The Evictors		April 19, 1979
20	Ninja III: The Domination	June 11, 2013	September 14, 1984	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original
21	The Howling – Click to read Horrorpedia entry	June 18, 2013	April 10, 1981	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.com
22	Lifeforce - Click to read Horrorpedia entry (NB. contains full-frontal nudity)	June 18, 2013	June 21, 1985	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	New	Buy Collector’s Edition – includes rare U.S. Theatrical Cut – from Amazon.com
23	Dead Souls	June 25, 2013	October 12, 2012	Blu-ray and DVD	Original
24	The Fog – Click to read Horrorpedia entry	July 30, 2013	February 1, 1980	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.com
25	The Incredible Melting Man – Click to read Horrorpedia entry	July 30, 2013	December 9, 1977	Blu-ray	Original	Buy from Amazon.com
26	Swamp Thing	August 6, 2013	February 19, 1982	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk
27	X-Ray (aka Hospital Massacre) – Click to read Horrorpedia entry	August 20, 2013	April 1982	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Buy Double Feature from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
28	Schizoid – Click to read Horrorpedia entry		September 1980
29	Dark Angel	August 27, 2013	September 28, 1990	Blu-ray	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
30	Q: The Winged Serpent - Read Horrorpedia entry	August 27, 2013	October 29, 1982	Blu-ray	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
31	Cockneys vs Zombies	September 3, 2013	August 2, 2013	Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Copy	Original	Buy from Amazon.com
32	Scanners II: The New Order – Read Horrorpedia article	September 10, 2013	June 28, 1991	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Buy Scanners Double Feature from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
33	Scanners III: The Takeover - Read Horrorpedia article		May 14, 1992
34	Day of the Dead	September 17, 2013	July 19, 1985	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
35	Prince of Darkness – Click link to read Horrorpedia entry	September 24, 2013	October 23, 1987	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
36	Psycho II – Click link to read Horrorpedia entry	September 24, 2013	June 3, 1983	Blu-ray and DVD	Original	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
37	Psycho III – Click link to read Horrorpedia entry	September 24, 2013	July 2, 1986	Blu-ray and DVD	Original	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
38	The Amityville Horror	October 1, 2013	July 27, 1979	Blu-ray	Original	Buy Amityville Horror Trilogy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
39	Amityville II: The Possession - Click to read Horrorpedia entry		September 24, 1982
40	Amityville 3-D		November 18, 1983
41	What’s the Matter With Helen?	October 8, 2013	June 30, 1971	DVD	Original	Buy All Night Horror Film Marathon from Amazon.com
42	The Vagrant – Click to read Horrorpedia entry		May 15, 1992
43	The Godsend – Click to read Horrorpedia entry		January 25, 1980
44	The Outing – Click to read Horrorpedia entry		September 11, 1987
45	Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear – Click to read Horrorpedia entry	October 22, 2013	May 16, 2013	Blu-ray and DVD	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
46	House of Usher – Click for Horrorpedia entry	October 22, 2013	June 22, 1960	Blu-ray	New	Buy The Vincent Price Collection from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
47	The Pit and the Pendulum - Click for Horrorpedia entry		August 12, 1961
48	The Haunted Palace – Click for Horrorpedia entry		1963
49	The Masque of the Red Death		June 24, 1964
50	Witchfinder General - Click for Horrorpedia entry		August 14, 1968
51	The Abominable Dr. Phibes - Click for Horrorpedia entry		May 18, 1971
52	The Dungeonmaster - Click for Horrorpedia entry	October 29, 2013	February 1985	DVD	Original	Buy All Night Horror Film Marathon Volume Two from Amazon.com
53	Catacombs		March 24, 1993
54	Cellar Dweller - Click for Horrorpedia entry		September 20, 1988
55	Contamination 7		December 29, 1993
56	Body Bags - Click for Horrorpedia entry	November 12, 2013	August 8, 1993	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
57	Assault on Precinct 13	November 19, 2013	November 10, 1976	Blu-ray	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
58	Eve of Destruction	November 19, 2013	January 18, 1991	Blu-ray	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk
59	Night of the Comet - Click for Horrorpedia entry	November 19, 2013	November 16, 1984	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
60	The Horror Show - Click for Horrorpedia entry	November 26, 2013	April 28, 1989	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Buy from Amazon.com
61	Saturn 3	December 3, 2013	February 15, 1980	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk
62	The Initiation of Sarah	December 10, 2013	February 6, 1978	DVD	Original	TV Terrors
63	Are You in the House Alone?		September 20, 1978
64	The Beast Within - Click for Horrorpedia entry	December 17, 2013	February 12, 1982	Blu-ray and DVD	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
65	Crawlspace - Click for Horrorpedia entry	December 17, 2013	May 21, 1986	Blu-ray	Original	New Audio Commentary by director David Schmoeller “Please Kill Mr. Kinski” –- a short film by David Schmoeller Interview with Make-up effects artist John Vulich Theatrical Trailer Buy Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
66	Cat People – Click for Horrorpedia entry	January 21, 2014	April 2, 1982	Blu-ray	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
67	Die, Monster, Die!	January 21, 2014	October 27, 1965	Blu-ray	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk
68	The Beast of Hollow Mountain	January 28, 2014	1956	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Buy Double Feature from Amazon.co.uk
69	The Neanderthal Man		1953
70	Night of the Demons – Click for Horrorpedia entry	February 4, 2014	September 9, 1987	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
71	Witchboard – Click for Horrorpedia entry	February 4, 2014	December 31, 1986	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
72	Bad Dreams	February 18, 2014	April 8, 1988	Blu-ray	Original	Buy Double Feature from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
73	Visiting Hours – Click for Horrorpedia entry		May 28, 1982
74	Darkman	February 18, 2014	August 24, 1990	Blu-ray	New	Collector’s Edition
75	The Slumber Party Massacre – Click for Horrorpedia entry	March 18, 2014	November 12, 1982	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
76	Beneath – Click for Horrorpedia entry	March 25, 2014	May 3, 2013	Blu-ray	New	Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
77	Dead Shadows	April 22, 2014	April 27, 2013	Blu-ray and DVD	Original
78	Evilspeak – Click for Horrorpedia entry	May 13, 2014	February 26, 1982	Blu-ray	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
79	Final Exam – Click for Horrorpedia entry	May 13, 2014	June 5, 1981	Blu-ray	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
80	Nosferatu the Vampyre – Click for Horrorpedia entry	May 20, 2014	October 5, 1979	Blu-ray	Original	Buy from Amazon.com
81	House in the Alley	May 27, 2014	October 25, 2013	DVD	Original
82	Sleepaway Camp - Click for Horrorpedia entry	May 27, 2014	November 18, 1983	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	New	Buy Collector’s Edition Uncut Version from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
83	Ravenous – Click for Horrorpedia entry	June 3, 2014	March 19, 1999	Blu-ray	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
84	The Monkey’s Paw	June 17, 2014	October 8, 2013	Blu-ray and DVD	Original
85	The Final Terror	July 1, 2014	May 1, 1983	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original
86	Lake Placid	July 8, 2014	July 16, 1999	Blu-ray	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
87	Deadly Eyes – Click for Horrorpedia entry	July 15, 2014	May 16, 1983	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
88	Ginger Snaps – Click for Horrorpedia entry	July 22, 2014	September 10, 2000	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
89	Phantom of the Paradise - Click for Horrorpedia entry	August 5, 2014	October 31, 1974	Blu-ray	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
90	Without Warning - Click for Horrorpedia entry	August 5, 2014	September 26, 1980	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
91	Motel Hell – Click for Horrorpedia entry	August 12, 2014	October 18, 1980	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
92	Leviathan	August 19, 2014	March 17, 1989	Blu-ray	Original	Buy from Amazon.com
93	The Legend of Hell House - Click for Horrorpedia entry	August 26, 2014	June 15, 1973	Blu-ray	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
94	Pumpkinhead - Click for Horrorpedia entry	September 9, 2014	October 14, 1988	Blu-ray	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
95	The Battery – Click for Horrorpedia entry	September 16, 2014	October 13, 2012	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Buy from Amazon.com
96	Halloween – Click for Horrorpedia entry	September 23, 2014	October 25, 1978	Blu-ray	New	Halloween: The Complete Collection Limited Edition Boxed Set Includes the ultra-rare Network TV Cut of the originalHalloween, the original mono audio track and both versions of the original Blu-ray release and the remastered 35th Anniversary Version with the original mono track added back in. the Network TV Cut of Halloween II, the never-before-released Producer’s Cut of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, and the Unrated Versions of Rob Zombie’s Halloween and Halloween II. Set will come with hours of new bonus features including new interviews with cast and crew from the entire franchise. Also included will be a limited edition 40-page book written by Michael Gingold of Fangoria. Collectible packaging will include a newly commissioned illustration on the outer case and each film will be in its own black Blu-ray case with original theatrical one sheet as the key art.Buy Blu-ray Collection from Amazon.com
97	Halloween II – Click for Horrorpedia entry		October 30, 1981
98	Halloween III: Season of the Witch		October 22, 1982
99	Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers		October 21, 1988
100	Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers		October 13, 1989
101	Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers		September 29, 1995
102	Halloween H20: 20 Years Later		August 5, 1998
103	Halloween: Resurrection		July 12, 2002
104	Halloween		August 31, 2007
105	Halloween II		August 28, 2009
106	Nightbreed: The Director’s Cut - Click for Horrorpedia entry	September 30, 2014	February 16, 1990	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Buy ‘The Director’s Cut’ from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
107	Hemlock Grove: The Complete First Season- Click for Horrorpedia entry	October 7, 2014	April 29, 2013	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Buy from Amazon.com
108	Tales from the Crypt - Click for Horrorpedia entry	October 14, 2014	March 8, 1972	Blu-ray	Original	Buy Double Feature from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
109	Vault of Horror		March 1973
110	Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings	October 21, 2014	October 19, 1994	Blu-ray	Original	Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
111	The Squad	October 21, 2014	October 7, 2011	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Buy from Amazon.com
112	The Last Man on Earth - Click for Horrorpedia entry	October 21, 2014	March 8, 1964	Blu-ray	New	Buy The Vincent Price Collection II from Amazon.com
113	The Comedy of Terrors		January 22, 1964
114	Dr. Phibes Rises Again - Click for Horrorpedia entry		July 1972
115	The Tomb of Ligeia – Click to read Horrorpedia entry		January 20, 1965
116	The Raven		January 25, 1963
117	Return of the Fly – Click to read Horrorpedia entry		July 1959
118	House on Haunted Hill		February 17, 1959
119	Nightbreed: The Director’s Cut	October 28, 2014	February 16, 1990	Blu-ray and DVD	New	Limited Edition Will also include the original R-rated theatrical version.
120	Squirm – Click for Horrorpedia entry	October 28, 2014	July 30, 1976	Blu-ray	New	Buy Collector’s Edition from Amazon.com
121	The Dark Half	November 2014	April 23, 1993	Blu-ray	Original
122	Dolls	November 2014	March 6, 1987	Blu-ray + DVD Combo	New	Collector’s Edition
123	Monkey Shines	November 2014	July 29, 1988	Blu-ray	Original
124	The Doctor and the Devils	Fall 2014	October 4, 1985	Blu-ray	Original
125	Lord of Illusions	Fall 2014	August 25, 1995	Blu-ray	New	Collector’s Edition
126	Hellhole	2014	March 1985	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	Original
127	Dog Soldiers	Early 2015	July 20, 2002	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	New	Collector’s Edition
128	Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh	2015	March 17, 1995	Blu-ray	Original
129	Escape from New York	2015	July 10, 1981	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	New	Collector’s Edition
130	Invaders from Mars	2015	June 6, 1986	Blu-ray	Original
131	Mad Max	2015	April 12, 1979	Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack	New	Collector’s Edition
132	New Year’s Evil	2015	December 19, 1980	Blu-ray	Original
133	Phantom of the Opera	2015	November 4, 1989	Blu-ray	Original
134	Scarecrows	2015	September 28, 1988	Blu-ray	Original

Wikipedia

“Deep Breath” is the first episode of the eighth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One and released in cinemas worldwide on 23 August 2014. It was written by executive producer Steven Moffat and directed by Ben Wheatley (Kill List; Sightseers; Freakshift).

The episode stars Peter Capaldi in his first full episode as the Twelfth Doctor, alongside Jenna Coleman as his companion Clara Oswald. It also features Neve McIntosh, Catrin Stewart, and Dan Starkey reprising their roles as Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax. Capaldi’s predecessor, Matt Smith, also appears at the episode’s conclusion.

Plot teaser:

In Victorian London, the Paternoster Gang, comprising of Silurian Madame Vastra, her human maid and wife Jenny, and Sontaran butler Strax, are summoned by the police force when a dinosaur suddenly materialises outside the Houses of Parliament. Vastra observes that the dinosaur has something stuck in its throat, and moments later it spits out the TARDIS onto the banks of the Thames. The Paternoster Gang announce that they will deal with the dinosaur, before heading down to the TARDIS, only for the Doctor to emerge, closely followed by a confused Clara Oswald. As the Doctor deliriously begins speaking to the dinosaur, and struggles to remember who the people around him are, Clara explains that the Doctor has just regenerated. Overwhelmed, he collapses, and the Paternoster Gang take him and Clara back to their residence.

Vastra manages to trick the Doctor into sleeping, while she confronts Clara on her prejudiced attitude to his changed face. Clara admits that she is struggling to adapt to the new Doctor, due to his stark difference to the old one. The Doctor awakens and heads down to the river, hearing the dinosaur’s pleas for help due to its loneliness. However, as he arrives, closely followed by his concerned friends, the dinosaur bursts into flames. Angry and seeking answers, the Doctor discovers that this is not the first case of spontaneous combustion in London recently, and after spotting a seemingly unfazed man across the river, he jumps into the Thames to begin investigating…

Buy Doctor Who Complete Series 1 – 7 on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“The direction from Ben Wheatley is very effective when it comes to conveying a tense atmosphere, and there’s definitely something a little more unnerving and unpredictable about Capaldi’s Doctor that is conveyed by the visuals. Flimsy plotting aside, this is a hugely confident introduction to the new Doctor that showcases some really brilliant performances. Its ambition isn’t always realised and many of the jokes fall flat, but when the show relies on Capaldi or Coleman to sell either the quieter moments or the more hyperactive ones, it’s a delight.” Ben Cocks, Twitch

The Guardian‘s Euan Ferguson responded positively to the episode, labelling Capaldi’s performance as “intimidating, bold and unsettling”, and praising Ben Wheatley’s direction in the episode’s tenser moments, calling it “the stuff of true terror and wonderment” although decried the plot as “demented”.

Matt Smith’s cameo as the Eleventh Doctor was criticised by Richard Beech in The Mirror. However, it ultimately labelled the episode “impeccable” and stating that Capaldi “has all the hallmarks of a great Doctor … If you watched “Deep Breath” and you don’t want to watch the rest of series 8, then there truly is something wrong with you,” he wrote.

The Telegraph’s Michael Hogan said Capaldi “crackled with fierce intelligence and nervous energy”.

“The plot runs secondary to the emotional throughline here.” wrote US critic Geoff Berkshire in Variety. But he added: “What Capaldi lacks in youthful energy, he more than makes up for in gravitas and wry eccentricity, whether marvelling at his “independently cross” eyebrows or gleefully embracing his Scottish accent as a license to complain.”

The episode was also met with negative reviews, most notably Forbes, who panned the story as “strangely recessive, unheroic, [and] dull” calling both Capaldi and Coleman’s characters “insipid”.

Wikipedia | IMDb

Inferno is a 1980 Italian supernatural horror film written and directed by Dario Argento. It stars Leigh McCloskey, Irene Miracle, Eleonora Giorgi, Sacha Pitoeff, Daria Nicolodi, Alida Valli and Veronica Lazar.

The cinematography was by Romano Albani and Keith Emerson composed the film’s thunderous musical score. The story concerns a young man’s investigation into the disappearance of his sister, who had been living in a New York City apartment building that also served as a home for a powerful, centuries-old witch.

A thematic sequel to Suspiria (1977), the film is the second part of Argento’s Three Mothers trilogy. The concluding entry, The Mother of Tears, was released in 2007. All three films are partially derived from the concept of “Our Ladies of Sorrow” (Mater Lachrymarum, Mater Suspiriorum and Mater Tenebrarum) originally devised by Thomas de Quincey in his book Suspiria de Profundis (1845).

Argento invited his mentor, Mario Bava, to provide some of the optical effects, matte paintings and trick shots for the film. Some of the cityscape views seen in Inferno were actually tabletop skyscrapers built by Bava out of milk cartons covered with photographs. The apartment building that Rose lived in was in fact only a partial set built in the studio—it was a few floors high and had to be visually augmented with a small sculpture constructed by Bava. This sculpture was set aflame toward the end of production and served as the burning building seen in the climax.

Bava also provided some second unit direction for the production. Film critic Maitland McDonagh has suggested that Bava had his hand in the celebrated watery ballroom scene, but that sequence was shot in a water tank by Gianlorenzo Battaglia, without any optical effects work at all.Bava’s son, Lamberto Bava, was the film’s assistant director.

Unlike Suspiria, Inferno received a very limited theatrical release and the film was unable to match the box office success of its predecessor. While the initial critical response to the film was mostly negative, its reputation has improved considerably over the years. Film critic Kim Newman has called it “perhaps the most underrated horror movie of the 1980s.” In 2005, the magazine Total Film named Inferno one of the 50 greatest horror films of all time.

Plot teaser:

A young woman called Rose (Irene Miracle) becomes curious about her gloomy apartment block having found a reference to it in an old book about alchemy called “The Three Mothers”. Increasingly spooked by her strange discoveries, she writes a letter to her brother Mark (Leigh McCloskey), an American music student living in Rome. Mark’s girlfriend Sara (Eleonora Giorgi) sees the letter first and, intrigued, heads for Rome’s central library to look for the book Rose mentioned.

Supernatural forces menace Sara in the bowels of the building, and on her return home she and a neighbour (Gabriele Lavia) are murdered. Traumatised by Sara’s death, and worried for his sister’s safety, Mark travels to New York, however he finds that Rose has gone missing. In the course of his investigations he meets Rose’s friend the Countess Elise (Daria Nicolodi), a rich neurotic who lives in the same block, and a neighbouring antique dealer, the bad tempered Kazanian (Sacha Pitoeff), from whom Rose bought the book. Neither are much help, and soon Mark too is beset by occult forces. To survive he must attempt to decode a riddle pointing to an ancient evil hidden somewhere close by…

Review:

If Dario Argento’s Suspiria had some critics backing off with their hands over their ears, its 1980 follow-up Inferno bamboozled them altogether. Taking the daring colour extravagance and shrieking rock music of Suspiria down just a few notches, and selecting a cast from areas as diverse as TV soap opera Dallas (Leigh McCloskey) and art-house classic Last Year in Marienbad (Sacha Pitoeff), Argento plunged deep into his most avant-garde cinematic labyrinth.

Inferno blends Gothic mystery and modernist abstraction into something utterly unique. The story, though watchable separately to Suspiria, is linked to its sister film by references to the opium-derived writings of 19th Century decadent author Thomas De Quincey. One piece in particular, from the collection of essays “Suspiria de Profundis”, provided Argento with a few tantalizing fragments on which to base his occult mysteries. “Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow” told of the dominion of three female spirits, Mater Lachrymarum, Mater Suspiriorum and Mater Tenebrarum. Argento eagerly adopted these manifestations and begins Inferno with a voice-over that relishes their names as a litany of evil.

On first viewing, Inferno is complicated to the point of incomprehensibility. The storyline is gossamer-thin yet tangled, dissolving away as one tries to put a finger on its labyrinth of mysteries. The process of searching for clues is itself the theme of the film, so that the quests conducted by the protagonist and the viewer become enmeshed.

“What’s that, a riddle? I’m not good at riddles,” snaps one of Inferno’s gallery of grotesques, and viewers with a low tolerance for confusion and mystery may feel the same; Inferno communicates vital information with casual misdirection, while lingering enigmatically on facets that prove to be little more than weird, picturesque non-sequiturs. It requires our engagement beyond the level of narrative comprehension, and teases with the suggestion of codes to be deciphered and connections to be made.

Argento, who suffered heavily with viral hepatitis during the shoot, took his fevered fascination with the occult to greater lengths here than Suspiria. The dominant theme this time is alchemy, not witchcraft, but nevertheless both films share the mystic’s mistrust of language. (“Wherever we have spoken openly we have actually said nothing. But where we have written something in code and in pictures we have concealed the truth,” attests the genuine alchemical grimoire “Rosarium philosophorum”, published in 1550.)

In both Suspiria and Inferno the protagonists find language inadequate and obstructive, whereas the breakthroughs are invariably conducted in silence. Inferno’s Mark, who is trying to solve the mystery of his sister’s disappearance in a rambling old New York apartment block, discovers little of value by quizzing the other occupants, and finds simple verbal exchanges fraught with opaque significance. Sharing a lift with a nurse, he tries to make small-talk about his study of musicology, only to have the chit-chat go askew when she persists in hearing the word as ‘toxicology’. Another inhabitant communicates from room to room by means of a network of air vents permeating the building – her voice, which at first seems to come from nowhere, drifts in and out of audibility as it is wafted by capricious air currents.

Buy Inferno on Arrow Video Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

Elsewhere, telephone calls are broken up by static, a mute character struggles to pass on a secret message by scratching with his fingernail, and an attempted seduction is pointillised by a loud classical record switching on and off, fitfully in synch with a flickering power failure. Even the clearly heard lines sound like the efforts of aliens to fake the English language: “He says it’s his heart. We must give him some heart medicine,” announces a gargoyle-faced woman when Mark suffers a mysterious collapse.

Mystics believe that truth can be heard “more freely, distinctly or clearly [...] with a silent speech or without speech in the illustrations of the mysteries, both in the riddles presented with figures and in words” (C. Horlacher, “Kern und Stern der vornehmsten Chymisch-Philosophischen Schrifften”, 1707). This is a theme to be found in both Suspiria and Inferno.

During the films’ respective climaxes Suspiria’s heroine Suzy and Inferno’s Mark advance along the route to knowledge in silence (although Suzy has her every move accompanied by a raging score from Goblin and Mark rides pillion with prog-rocker Keith Emerson’s ‘switched-on Verdi’ ).

Mark in particular, in a film filled with music, makes a key discovery by looking in silence at a drawing of the building where his sister disappeared, and by quietly observing an ant disappearing into a tiny hole between the floorboards of her old room. Meanwhile, on a visual level, Argento fills the screen with images of ravishing beauty. There are rooms and spaces and characters and situations in this film that feel like the syntax of dreams caught on celluloid. Argento may have fallen from grace over recent years, with a string of dubious or dreadful films, but really, who can complain when he gave us something as bold and strange and magical as this?

Inferno sits in the middle of the most intense and inventive period of Argento’s career, and in many ways can be seen as the high watermark of Italian horror. Revelling in the creative freedom afforded by the massive success of Suspiria, Argento was free to explore his vision without restraint: the result is the most daringly avant-garde horror film ever to emerge from his native country.

Stephen Thrower, Horrorpedia

Offline reading:

Dario Argento: The Man, The Myths & The Magic by Alan Jones (FAB Press) – Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Dario Argento by James Gracey (Kamera Books) – Buy from Amazon.co.uk

Dawn of the Dead (also known internationally as Zombies and Zombi) is a 1978 American horror film written and directed by George A. Romero. It was the second film made in Romero’s Living Dead series but contains no characters or settings from Night of the Living Dead, and shows in a larger scale the zombie plague’s apocalyptic effects on society. In the film, a plague of unknown origin has caused the reanimation of the dead, who prey on human flesh, which subsequently causes mass hysteria. The cast features David Emge (Basket Case 2, Hellmaster), Ken Foree (Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, The Devil’s Rejects), Scott Reiniger (Knightriders) and Gaylen Ross (Creepshow) as survivors of the outbreak who barricade themselves inside a suburban shopping mall.

The chaotic WGON television newsroom is attempting to make sense of the evidently wide-spread phenomenon of the dead returning to life to eat the living. Their main efforts are being channelled into simply staying on air to act as a public information system for those still alive to find places to shelter. Outside tensions have erupted at a tenement building where the residents are refusing to hand over the dead bodies of their loved ones to the authorities for them to dispose of, resulting in a SWAT team assembling to resolve the issue by force. As both sides suffer casualties at their own hands and those of the reanimated corpses, four by-standers gravitate towards each other and plot to escape this madness; SWAT soldiers Roger (Reiniger) and Peter (Foree) and a couple who work at the station, Francine (Ross) and Stephen (Emge) – it is agreed that they will take the company’s helicopter and seek sanctuary.

With the helicopter liberated, they stop off for fuel, narrowly avoiding the attention of both zombie adults and children – on a human angle, it is clear the soldiers come from very different worlds to Fran and Stephen. Still short of fuel, they set off again and happen upon a shopping mall – though surrounded by the living dead, the opportunity presented by an abundance of food and provisions, as well as a place to the secrete themselves is irresistible. Devising a system of clearing the zombies already in the mall, during which Roger is bitten but survives, and creating their own living quarters behind a false wall, they learn (Stephen included) that Fran is four months pregnant. Roger and Peter are keen to look for other survivors but under the circumstances, the others feel that staying put and essentially quitting whilst they’re ahead would be the safest option.

The images they witness on their looted television give little hope but before a decision can be agreed upon, they realise that the mall has also attracted the attention of an army of local bikers, not looking for anything except target practise and goods. Their defences breached, the foursome face a seemingly impossible situation where both human and zombie foes have designs on their hides. Can they reclaim the mall or get to the helicopter before they find themselves wandering the mall for eternity?

Although in gestation for some years before making it to the screen, the follow-up to Romero’s seminal Night of the Living Dead appeared a full ten years later. The slow-burn effect of this film, plus George’s notoriously poor grasp of finances led to producer Richard Rubinstein looking further afield for investment to get the project off the ground. Salvation came in the form of the genius Italian film director, Dario Argento (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage; Deep Red; Suspiria) who had long admired Night and could see the value in producing a sequel of some kind.

And so began an arrangement whereby the funds were made available to make the film in exchange for international distribution rights and Argento’s option to make an entirely different cut of the film for a Continental audience. Romero ensconced himself in a small apartment in Rome where he quickly wrote the screenplay, allowing for filming to begin in Pennsylvania in November 1977. Key to Romero’s vision for the film was the iconic mall setting, already firmly imprinted in his mind due to the owners of the Monroeville Mall, east of Pittsburgh, in existence since 1969 and one of the first really large out of town shopping districts. His connections were enough for the owners, Oxford Development, to allow out-of-hours filming. Romero had been given a private tour of the facility and was privy to sealed off areas which had been stocked with civil defence equipment in case of a National emergency – a fact fully exploited in the film.

Casting for the film was the responsibility of John Amplas (star of Romero’s Martin and later Day of the Dead) who also has a small role of a Mexican, shot by the SWAT team in the early exchange of fire. The cast was made up of largely local actors who had featured in theatre rather than film roles – indeed few of them went on to have significant film careers but still trod the boards at provincial theatres. Friends and acquaintances were coerced into appearing, amongst their number, George’s wife and assistant director, Christine Forrest (also appearing in several other of his films in an acting capacity, including Martin and Monkey Shines) George himself (seated alongside her in the TV studio sequence), Pasquale Buba (later to edit the likes of Day of the Dead and Stepfather 2), special effects guru Tom Savini and Joe Pilato (Day of the Dead‘s Rhodes). Such economy and camaraderie was to pay off spectacularly. Even minor characters are given hinted-at histories which are endlessly intriguing – an eye-patched Dr Millard Rausch (Richard France) opines thoughtfully on television: “These creatures cannot be considered human… they must be destroyed on sight! … Why don’t we drop bombs on all the big cities?”

Filming at the mall could hardly have commenced at a more inconvenient time, the freezing cold temperatures and busy festive season meaning that shooting times were extremely tight (between 10pm and 8am), resulting in several occasions when members of the public were forces to consider why their shopping trip looked more like an ghoul-invested abattoir. Exterior shots were even harder to come by, only half a day a week was allotted to get the shots of the swarms of zombies roaming the car park, without pesky customers getting in shot. Scenes such as mall breakers revelling in the local bank’s bundles of bank notes necessitated a great deal of care to ensure light-fingered crew members didn’t make off with the ‘props’. The most familiar location in the mall, JC Penney’s department store, has since closed, though the mall remains, in a surprisingly familiar state (see below). Other locations employed, such as the abandoned airfield, the gun store and the quartet’s hideout, were shot locally too, the latter being constructed in Romero’s production offices, Laurel.

Make-up and special effects were the responsibility of Tom Savini and team, also including Gary Zeller and Don Berry, who later both worked on such films as Scanners and Visiting Hours. Having already developed his talents on Deranged and Martin, Savini was far from an enthusiastic amateur, though it was this film and the free reign Romero gave him, that helped establish his name as the go-to for gore effects for many years to come. Signature effects on Dawn include the flat-headed zombie being semi-decapitated by helicopter blades (a ludicrously dangerous effect involving an admittedly obviously fake head-piece) and the exploding head in the tenement sequence (so redolent of a similar effect in Scanners) by shooting a fake heads packed with condoms filled with fake blood and scraps of food. One bone of contention with many is the unrealistic blue/grey make-up the zombies sport, a mile away from the decaying cadavers of, say, Lucio Fulci’s Zombie Flesh Eaters. Romero has ‘validated’ this by claiming it was always his aim to have a comic-book feel to the film, though this smacks slightly of convenience. What is true is that the never-redder blood is a real eye-opener and lends itself to large-screen viewing. What the zombies lack in biological realism, they certainly gain in back story (all walks of life are considered from bride, to Buddhist monk to nurse) and gait – the now familiar stagger now being the blueprint for the correct way for all animated corpses to adopt.

Buy Dawn of the Dead 4-disc DiviMax Special Edition from Amazon.com

DISC 1: The original unrated director’s cut. NOT THE EXTENDED EDITION, which is not truly Romero’s director’s cut. This disc includes commentary with George Romero, Tom Savini, and Chris Romero along with Theatrical trailers and radio spots.

DISC 2: The extended edition, often mistaken for a ‘director’s cut.’ This disc includes an additional 12 minutes of glorious footage. Also includes commentary by producer Richard Rubinstein. The disc has a commercial for the Monroeville Mall and a memorabilia gallery.

DISC 3: The Dario Argento cut. This version of the film has less humor and more drama, released in Europe with additional music from Goblin. This version includes commentary by all four stars of the film.

DISC 4: This disc contains several documentaries including the all new ‘The Dead Walk’ (75 min) and the classic ‘Document of the Dead'; a feature-length documentary shot during the making of Dawn of the Dead. This disc also includes home movies from the set and a tour of the Monroeville Mall with actor Ken Foree.

To complement the garish visuals, Romero favoured library music, a technique he used to good effect in Night of the Living Dead. The De Wolfe library, still in regular use, was employed for this task and a variety of styles from the waltzy muzak of the shopping centre to atmospheric electronic drones to a song by The Pretty Things, “I’m a Man”, a song co-written by one Peter Reno, better known as Mancunian zero-budget film legend, Cliff Twemlow and his working partner, Peter Taylor. The most famous piece, unavailable until relatively recently, is The Gonk, by Harry Chappell (who had his own library business), written in 1965.This trumpet/xylophone led polka-like march is deliciously out of place and yet completely in keeping with the absurdity of the situation. Argento’s vision of the film as a fast-paced action movie with geysers of blood throughout required a different approach and he used the Italian-based band Goblin (incorrectly credited as “The Goblins”) extensively. Goblin was a four-piece Italian/Brazilian band that did mostly contract work for film soundtracks. Argento, who received a credit for original music alongside Goblin, collaborated with the group to get songs for his cut of the film.

A completely different ending was originally planned and, rather like its predecessor, had a resolutely unhappy ending with Peter shooting himself and Fran either purposely or accidentally stepping into the helicopter blades, only for the blades to stop spinning at the conclusion to the end credits, an indicator that they were doomed anyway. These are both hinted at in the filmed version though all signs point to them being ultimately only existing on the page.

Dawn of the Dead has received a number of re-cuts and re-edits, due mostly to Argento’s rights to edit the film for international foreign language release. Romero controlled the final cut of the film for English-language territories. In addition, the film was edited further by censors or distributors in certain countries. Romero, acting as the editor for his film, completed a hasty 139-minute version of the film (now known as the Extended, or Director’s, Cut) for premier at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival. This was later pared down to 126 minutes for the U.S. theatrical release. In an era before the NC-17 rating was available from the Motion Picture Association of America, the US theatrical cut of the film earned the taboo rating of X from the association because of its graphic violence. Rejecting this rating, Romero and the producers chose to release the film un-rated so as to help the film’s commercial success. United Film Distribution Company eventually agreed to release it domestically in the United States. It eventually premiered in the US in New York City on April 20, 1979, fortunately beating Alien by a month. The film was refused classification in Australia twice: in its theatrical release in 1978 and once again in 1979. The cuts presented to the Australian Classification Board were Argento’s cut and Romero’s cut, respectively. Dawn of the Dead was finally passed in the country cut with an R18+ rating in February 1980. It was banned in Queensland until at least 1986.

Dawn Of The Dead was submitted to the BBFC in Britain for classification in June 1979 and was viewed by six examiners including the then Director of the BBFC, James Ferman.

BBFC examiners unanimously disliked the film, though acknowledged that the film did have its merits in terms of the film-making art. The main bone of contention were the zombies themselves – were they shells without feelings or dead people with families? One examiner felt so strongly that the film glorified violence that he excluded himself from any further screenings or discussions surrounding the work.

It was agreed that cuts to the film were necessary, Ferman as self-appointed editor extraordinaire, stating that the film featured violence perpetrated against people which was “to a degree never before passed by the Board” and subsequently issued a cuts list that amounted to approximately 55 separate cuts (two minutes 17 seconds). These included images of zombie dismemberment, the machine gunning of a child zombie, a machete cutting open a zombie’s head (one of the most famous scenes!) and the shot of a zombie’s head exploding.

The following month a cut version of the film was re-submitted for re-examination and this time another team of examiners viewed the film. All of the examiners still disliked the film and some were convinced that cutting was not the solution to alleviating the possible desensitising effect that the film might have on vulnerable audiences. Despite this view, the suggestion of further extensive cuts was made and the film was once again seen by James Ferman, who subsequently issued a further one minute 29 seconds of cuts to more scenes of gory detail. At this point the distributor (Target International Pictures) was worried that the film would not be ready in time to be screened at the London Film Festival, so James Ferman suggested that the BBFC’s in-house editor create a version that would be acceptable within the guidelines of the X certificate.

In September 1979 Ferman wrote to the distributor exclaiming that “a tour de force of virtuoso editing has transformed this potential reject from a disgusting and desensitising wallow in the ghoulish details of violence and horror to a strong, but more conventional action piece…The cutting is not only skilful, but creative, and I think it has actually improved a number of the sequences by making the audience notice the emotions of the characters and the horror of the situation instead of being deadened by blood and gore”.

When the work was first submitted for classification for video in 1989 it arrived in its post-BBFC censored version, now clocking in at 120 minutes 20 seconds. However, under the Video Recordings Act 1984 (VRA) , the film was to be subjected to another 12 seconds of cuts to scenes of zombie dismemberment and cannibalism. In 1997 Dawn Of The Dead was picked up by a new distributor (BMG) who took the decision to submit the film in its original uncensored state, with a running time of 139 minutes.

This time the BBFC only insisted on six seconds of cuts. However, it was in 2003 that the film was finally passed at 18 uncut by the BBFC, with the examiners feeling that under the 2000 BBFC Guidelines it was impossible to justify cutting the work.

Internationally, Argento controlled the Euro cut for non-English speaking countries. The version he created clocked in at 119 minutes. It included changes such as more music from Goblin than the two cuts completed by Romero, removal of some expository scenes, and a faster cutting pace. Released in Italy in September 1978, it actually debuted nearly nine months before the US theatrical cut. In Italy it was released under the full title Zombi: L’alba dei Morti Viventi, followed in March 1979 by France as Zombie: Le Crépuscule des Morts Vivants, in Spain as Zombi: El Regreso de los Muertos Vivientes, in the Netherlands as Zombie: In De Greep van de Zombies, by Germany’s Constantin Film as Zombie, and in Denmark as Zombie: Rædslernes Morgen.

Despite the various alternate versions of the film available, Dawn of the Dead was successful internationally. Its success in the then-West Germany earned it the Golden Screen Award, given to films that have at least 3 million admissions within 18 months of release.

Recently, Romero has claimed that to be successful artistically, all horror films must be either political or satirical. Such a ludicrous statement may explain the director’s poor run of recent films but here it is rarely more apposite. The consumer-angle to the zombies mindless wandering is difficult to argue, though has now been stated so many times it’s in danger of overtaking the fact that the film is a magnificent piece of work; multi-layered in both character and plot (whatever became of the soldiers taking their boat down the river?) and influential to a generation of film-makers, as a horror film there are few better, a view echoed many, even the notoriously fickle Roger Ebert who gave it a great many thumbs up. The film has also spawned a range of spoofs, copycat films, a 2004 remake by Zack Snyder, toys, games and merchandise. In 1985, Romero temporarily concluded his zombie fascination with Day of the Dead and Dawn of the Dead was remade by Zack Snyder in 2004.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

With thanks to the BBFC for details about the film’s UK release and Nick Richmond for his recent snaps of Monroeville Mall.

Buy Dawn of the Dead on Arrow Video Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

Offline Reading:

101 Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die – Edited by Steven Jay Schneider, Cassell Illustrated, 2009

Zombies on Horrorpedia: The Astro-Zombies | Big Tits Zombie | Birth of the Living Dead | Bloodeaters aka Toxic Zombies | Burial Ground: Nights of Terror | Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things | The Coed and the Zombie Stoner | Daddy, I’m a Zombie | Dawn of the Dead (2004) | The Dead | The Dead 2: India | Dead Banging | Dead Heat (1988) | The Dead One | Empire of the Dead | Hell of the Living Dead | I Walked with a Zombie | I, Zombie: The Chronicles of Pain | The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies | Land of the Dead | Let Sleeping Corpses Lie aka The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue | Linnea Quigley’s Horror Workout | The Living Dead Girl | Marvel Zombies | Marilyn Monroe: Zombie Hunter | Milfs vs. Zombies | Night of the Living Dead | Night of the Living Dead 3D | | Night of the Living Dead 3D: Re-Animation | Night of the Zombies | Nightmare City | Plants vs. Zombies | The Return of the Living Dead | Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave | Revenge of the Zombies | Silent Night of the Living Dead | Virgin Among the Living Dead | Volcano Zombies | The Walking Dead (TV series) | World of the Dead: The Zombie Diaries 2 | World Zombie Day | Zombie 108 | Zombie-A-Hole | Zombie Christ | Zombie cocktail | Zombie Creeping Flesh (song) | Zombie Desert | Zombie Fight Club | Zombie Flesh Eaters | Zombie Girl: The Movie | Zombie Hunter Rika | Zombie Night | Zombie Nightmare | Zombie Pirates | Zombie Shark | Zombie TV | Zombie Virus on Mulberry Street | Zombie Zin Zinfandel | Zombies’ Lake | Zombies: The Beginning | Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! (book)

Monroeville Mall – then and now:

Nick takes the easier route.

Zombie-fleer or lift vandal, you decide.

‘Tops in total horror!’

Cauldron of Blood, also known as Blind Man’s Bluff and El coleccionista de cadáveres, is a 1967 (released 19700 Spanish/American horror film directed by Santos Alcocer (The Orgies of Dr. Orloff) from a screenplay by José Luis Bayonas (The Death Train) and Edward Mann (Island of Terror; The Mutations). It stars Jean-Pierre Aumont (House of the Damned), Boris Karloff, Viveca Lindfors (The Damned; The Hand; Creepshow), Rosenda Monteros, Milo Quesada (Tragic Ceremony), Dyanik Zurakowska (Sexy Cat; The Hanging Woman; The Vampires’ Night Orgy), Rubén Rojo, Manuel de Blas (Assignment Terror) and Jacqui Speed.

Karloff’s role was originally intended for Claude Rains (The Invisible Man; Phantom of the Opera), however the veteran actor died during pre-production. In an interview in Fleapits and Picture Palaces, producer Robert D. Weinbach (The Mutations; Shiver) has also said he considered Basil Rathbone, Edward G. Robinson and Jimmy Cagney for the role! In the US, the film was released on a double-bill with Crucible of Horror by Cannon.

Plot teaser:

Claude (Jean-Pierre Aumont), a photo-reporter for ‘Holiday’ magazine travels to Torremolinos in Spain to interview Franz Badulescu, a “doomed” blind sculptor who is working on his magnum opus unaware that the skeletons he has been using for armatures are apparently the remains of the victims of his evil wife Tania (Viveca Lindfors) and that he is the next target…

Buy Cauldron of Blood on Olive Films Blu-ray from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“At the time of its initial release, Cauldron of Blood was generally dismissed by horror fans; Karloff’s role wasn’t prominent enough, his expressive eyes were covered throughout (either by heavy black goggles or a grotesque makeup showing his eyes welded closed), and the modernist style of the film was jarring, its jazzy score (credited to Ray Ellis, though it sounds very much like a Spanish film score of its era) and its garish lighting not in keeping with the traditional qualities found in Karloff’s best pictures. Revisited today, with more familiarity with Spanish horror cinema and its own traditions under our belt, it’s easier to appreciate for what it is — not a good film by any means, but more interesting than previously thought.” Tim Lucas, Video Watchblog

Viveca Lindfors cracks a whip!

“Spliced into this rehash of the wax museum plots are swinging party vignettes, unconvincing red herrings, and pop culture references galore. It’s much more subdued, and consequently duller, than it sounds. However, an out-of-synch diversion comes in the way of a surreal nightmare vignette with Lindfors haunted by psychedelic images of her hubby transformed into a shrunken head (replete with equally psychedelic scoring). Tania undergoes a transformation herself, as a whip-cracking femme Nazi leering after and stalking female victims. Among Tania’s obsessions is Claude’s gal pal Elga (Euro sex kitten Dyanik Zurakowska), and her stalking concludes with a near fatal encounter with a vat of acid (Lindfors and Zurakowska standing in for Lionel Atwill/Fay Wray).” Alfred Eaker, 366 Weird Movies

“… the disconnectedness of the scenes, and the addition of several stylized sequences (including the opening title, and a dream one third through), make everything vaguely surreal. Its enjoyable in spite of itself. Karloff is mostly at the mercy of his fiery wife (Viveca Lindfors, who played a sculptor herself in These Are the Damned). His attractive seaside mansion has dungeons underneath!” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers

Buy Claws & Saucers book from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

IMDb | Image credits: Classic Horror Campaign | Wrong Side of the Art!

Monkey Shines – sometimes called Monkey Shines: An Experiment in Fear - is an American horror film originally released in 1988. Written and directed by George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead and sequels; Creepshow), the film is based on a novel with the same title authored by Michael Stewart. The film stars Jason Beghe, John Pankow, Kate McNeil and Joyce Van Patten.

Monkey Shines was Romero’s first studio film. The film’s distributor, Orion Pictures, was desperate for a hit, as it was in financial difficulty. First, the studio forced Romero to add a happy ending to the picture, a plot device which the director had long avoided in favour of more ambiguous endings. Second, after poor previews, the studio recut the film without Romero’s knowledge to add a “shock” ending.

The film grossed $5.345 million in the USA off a $7 million budget.

Plot teaser:

Allan Mann is an embittered paraplegic. His fickle ex-girlfriend, over-bearing mother and mean-spirited nurse don’t do much to comfort him, so he is relieved when the authorities provide him with Ella, a monkey trained to help him with every aspect of his daily life. But unbeknownst to him, Ella is also part of another, more sinister experiment, and what began as a convenience becomes a living nightmare as the monkey starts to anticipate his darkest thoughts and carry out gruesome acts of revenge…

Buy Monkey Shines on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Reviews:

“A restrained psychological horror effort from Pittsburgh’s greatest filmmaker, Monkey Shines vanished almost immediately upon its theatrical release and has remained strangely neglected ever since. While not Romero’s greatest work by a long shot, the film does display many of his savvy filmmaking gifts for suspense and characterization while spinning an entertaining and sometimes frightening yarn.” Mondo Digital

“Romero does a marvellous job for the most part showing the hero’s honest emotional reactions to his disability (on the negative side there’s the crude characterisations of the supporting cast that seems superficial but, nevertheless, gets over because the fight scenes between the monkey and the heavies are a hoot), showing how very much sexual attitudes influence any relationship and pointing out with extreme examples the obvious dangers of unchecked experiments on animals. That it somehow works, remains provocative, has a likable hero we care about and doesn’t seem all that unreasonable (all things considered), must be credited to the skill Romero brings as a director.” Ozu’s World Movie Reviews

“The greatest disappointment is that Monkey Shines does not feel like a Romero film. Going for a classic story about the psychotic lover who can’t handle a breakup, Romero eschews social commentary, the bread and butter on which he built his career. He could’ve made the film a statement on medicine, health care or our relationship with household pets, but instead he goes straight for the thriller aspect. And though it counts as a horror story, there’s barely any of Romero’s trademark gore.” Death Ensemble

Wikipedia | IMDb

WH

Stage Fright  – aka StageFright: Aquarius, Bloody Bird, Deliria - is a 1987 Italian horror film directed by Michele Soavi. The film stars Barbara Cupisti, David Brandon and Giovanni Lombardo Radice. Written by Anthropophagous actor George Eastman (as Lew Cooper), the story combines elements of the giallo and slasher film genres. Joe D’Amato served as the film’s producer. It was Soavi’s first feature film as director; he had previously worked as an assistant director for Joe D’Amato, Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava and had previously directed the music video “The Valley” for Argento’s Phenomena as well as the documentary Dario Argento’s World of Horror.

Plot teaser:

A group of young dancers rehearsing in an old theatre is accidentally locked-in for the night – but not alone. In the shadows, someone is watching, waiting and selecting victims at his demented leisure… tonight, deranged serial killer Irving Wallace has escaped and is about to put on his own real-life horror show!

The scene where Brett bows in front of the mirror to reveal Wallace standing directly behind him is a homage to Dario Argento’s film Tenebrae (1982), for which Michele Soavi was an assistant director.

During a screening at the Fantasia Film Festival fans threw white feathers from the theater balcony which showered down on the audience in a homage to the haunting finale of the film.

Stage Fright is showing at the 2014 Mayhem Film Festival in Nottingham.

Buy Stage Fright on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Reviews:

“Soavi’s direction is solid, displaying a keen visual eye for audacious giallo-styled frissons that bolster the production with a classy elegance all its own. In true Italian style, Soavi pulls no punches either when it comes to his marvelously gruesome murder setpieces, even managing to generate some well-handled tension along the way to the obligatory twist ending. Clearly derivative, but eminently unforgettable.” Sex Gore Mutants

“Here’s a maniac that finally seems to be having a grand old time, without disrupting scenes with endless one-liners (like that Krueger guy). All in all,Stage Fright is the last truly great slasher, maintaining the integrity of the form while making it leaner and even more cinematic, and spinning it with a self-reflexive twist.” Cinema Gonzo

“Stage Fright is far from perfect, of course. The acting is variable, the dialogue terrible and there are several moments that are likely to induce unsolicited laughter. There’s no escaping the fact that the owl mask is ludicrous, though once you get used to it, it becomes more effective. And it’s certainly an exercise in style over substance, all effort doing into making the film look great rather than hold together as a story. But it holds up rather better than you might expect for a film so wedded to Eighties imagery. It might ltimately be little more than fluff, but it’s entertaining fluff.” David Flint, Strange Things Are Happening

“The first two acts of the movie has some very stylish shots, but there’s no doubt that the pedestrian nature of the story (killer chases people) keeps things a tad neutral. However, the last 30 minutes are the movie’s saving grace, as the production design and Soavi’s interesting set-ups combine to create a slasher film with a very unique look. Also, the movie is able to create some actual suspense, which is actually rare for a movie of this genre.” DVD Sleuth

Wikipedia |  IMDb

WH

The Beast (French: La Bête) is a 1975 French erotic fantasy horror film written, edited, and directed by Walerian Borowczyk. Although sometimes compared with Beauty and the Beast, there are no parallels in the plot except that it features the relationship between a beast and a woman.

The Beast began life as part of Borowczyk’s 1974 short story collection Immoral Tales, with the story The True Story of the Beast of Gévaudan being the third tale in the film. The segment played at the London Film Festival in 1973 as part of a ‘work in progress’ screening, and caused immediate outrage – how could a respected director like Borowczyk lower himself to such filth, critics asked, and his mainstream reputation would never recover from the blow dealt to it by this segment in particular and Immoral Tales in general.

Buy Immoral Tales on Arrow Academy Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

By the time Immoral Tales was finally released, The True Story of the Beast of Gévaudan had been removed – not for censorship reasons, although it was certainly the most incendiary of the stories featured in the film, but because the finished film was considered too long (you can now see the complete cut on the Arrow Academy Blu-ray of Immoral Tales to see for yourself – personally, I think the decision was a sound one) and because Borowczyk was interested in expanding the sequence into a full length feature. When the finished film, La Bête, finally emerged in 1975, it was a big hit across Europe, but did nothing to salvage Borowczyk’s dwindling reputation – it’s only in recent years that anyone outside the cult and erotic film fan circles have started to acknowledge the value of these films, and even now, you’ll find people who see movies such as this as creatively worthless. More fool them.

In the UK, the film was banned by the BBFC, even in a cut version, and a GLC-approved London release was threatened with prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act in 1978 ; this same version emerged later on VHS, which is when I first saw the film. Already a fan of Borowczyk’s work by this time, I was blown away by the movie, even though it was missing much of the controversial footage; it wasn’t until some years later, when I picked up a Dutch tape of the film in Amsterdam, that I would get to see what all the fuss was about. And yes, I could understand the shock and anger – La Bête is gleefully outrageous, crossing one of the last sexual taboos (albeit in a non-realistic manner) and having a graphic nature that went beyond the limits of most softcore. That this footage now came wrapped in a sumptuous, remarkably witty drama that wasn’t particularly sexy in its own right (by mid Seventies standards, at least) somehow made everything seem all the more shocking. Thankfully, times change, and so La Bête is now available, uncut.

Buy The Beast on Arrow Academy Blu-ray + DVD from Amazon.co.uk

Special Edition Contents:

• New high definition digital transfers of the feature and the shorts
• Uncompressed Mono 2.0 PCM Audio
• Optional English subtitles
• Introduction by film critic Peter Bradshaw
• Venus on the Half-Shell (1975)
• The Making of The Beast : camera operator Noël Véry provides a commentary on footage shot during the film s production
• Frenzy of Ecstasy, a new visual essay on the evolution of Borowczyk s beast and the sequel that never was, Motherhood
• Theatrical trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original poster design
• Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Daniel Bird and archive pieces by David Thompson and Craig Lapper, illustrated with original stills

This expanded version of the story is based around the house of the Marquis Pierre de l’Esperance (Guy Tréjan), an aristocrat down on his luck, who hopes to revive the family fortune by marrying his misfit son Mathurin (Pierre Benedetti) to Lucy Broadhurst (Lisbeth Hummel), the daughter of an old friend. Unfortunately, for her to inherit the estate, certain things need to be in place, according to the will of Philip Broadhurst. Firstly, it must take place within six months of his death, and the clock is tocking, with only 48 hours left; secondly, they must be married by Cardinal Joseph do Balo, the brother of Pierre’s uncle Duc Rammaendelo de Balo (Marcel Dalio). This throws up several problems. Rammaendelo disapproves of the marriage and has to be blackmailed into calling his brother, and the Cardinal refuses to have anything to do with the family as Mathurin has not been baptised. So as Lucy and her sour-faced aunt Virginia (Elisabeth Kaza) travel to the chateau, it is arranged for the local priest (Rolan Armontel) – a man who seems to have an unhealthy interest in choirboys – to come and carry out the baptism on the dim-witted son, who is far more interested in horse breeding than marriage. Inevitably, things start to go dreadfully wrong, as Pierre’s carefully laid plans start to fall apart.

All this is played out like an especially stylish version of a French farce, with its cast of eccentric characters and Pierre’s increasing desperation leading to subterfuge and panic as he refuses to accept that the marriage might be doomed not to take place. The film is surprisingly funny in the telling of this story – Borowczyk’s films, perhaps because of the sexual content, are rarely seem as comedic, but La Bête certainly is, often hilariously. This is despite being played with a straight face by most of the cast, and being shot with the director’s usual attention to detail, fetishisation of objects and long takes. Certainly, the film looks like a serious, straight-faced work, and every shot is remarkably well crafted and beautiful. The satire that is behind this straight face of course extends to religion – the pederast priest who comes to carry the baptism is a nicely on-the-ball dig at the priesthood, and also an interesting prediction of the scandals that would beset the Catholic church decades later.

Interestingly, this is a contemporary tale, which comes as a bit of a surprise – it’s only when we see Pierre’s horny daughter Clarisse (Pascale Rivault) clad in jeans and boots – in the few scenes where she isn’t banging the much put-upon servant Ifany (Hassane Fall), the constant interruption of their carnal activity being a running joke – that we realise that this film isn’t a period piece, so old-fashioned are the locations, the clothing and even the attitudes – arranged marriages in non-royal European families in the mid-Seventies?

For a supposed soft porn film, La Bête certainly takes its time in showing any sex. If we discount the startlingly graphic opening scenes of horse copulation – and unless you have very specialised tastes, it’s unlikely that you’ll find this footage especially erotic – then we are some 20 minutes into the film before we have any nudity, and the only sexual activity in the first hour involves Clarisse and Ifany in short bursts that are briefly explicit (we see a semi erect penis, for instance) but not exactly the stuff of soft porn. However, we are being lulled into a false sense of security.

When Lucy takes to her bed, her passions have been inflamed enough for her to spend the night masturbating, while dreaming about Romilda de l’Esperance (Sirpa Lane), who according to legend met a beast in the woods and shagged him to death. It’s this dream that makes use of the original Immoral Tales footage, as it is intercut with shots of Lucy, clad in a tantalising see-through night dress, rolls around on the bed, fingering herself, splashing water across her breasts and tearing off her clothes. These scenes alone are remarkably erotic – Lisbeth Hummel proves to be quite the sex kitten when given the chance, her exquisite body and brazen behaviour sure to turn on many a viewer. But it is the dream sequence that still has the power to startle.

This short story has Euro starlet Sirpa Lane (who went from high-end erotica like this and Roger Vadim’s Charlotte to rather more low rent cinema like Nazi Love Camp 27 and Papaya: Love Goddess of the Cannibals) being chased through the woods by the titular beast, a hairy bear-like creature with a dog-face and a growing erection. She loses her clothes along the way and is finally captured, whereupon the beast rapes her (though not before engaging in a spot of cunnilingus). However, once her passions are inflamed, she proves too much of a match for the Beast, and her sexual rapaciousness eventually causes him to expire as she masturbates, sucks and screws the poor creature into a deadly exhaustion.

This is astonishing stuff. Even if we leave aside the BBFC-baiting issue of a rape victim coming to enjoy her abuse – and I assume the censors realised that this hardly constituted realism and so was unlikely to encourage such beliefs – then we are left with scenes of a woman having vigorous sex with an animal, who continually ejaculates from his monster cock. Yes, it’s a man in a (surprisingly well-crafted) suit, not a real animal. But still, the mere implication is shocking enough – bestiality has not proved to be a subject that many respectable filmmakers have wanted to tackle – and the footage is so wonderfully outrageous and in such bad taste that it’s no wonder critics were appalled. Shot when hardcore porn was still a new thing for much of the world, you can imagine them wondering where the line might be drawn.

The film follows this dream sequence with an amusing and cynical coda that reveals just why this marriage was doomed to failure, though by this point I imagine the more delicate viewers would have long since stopped watching.

In many ways, La Bête feels like the archetypal Borowczyk film, despite the outrageous content of the Beast sequence. It’s the sort of film that would always confuse mainstream critics – a collision of high art and low taste, an unquestionably serious (if humorous) film that is masterfully crafted and yet which seems to be deliberately aiming at the lowest common denominator. How could anyone who drew a line in the sand between art and exploitation ever hope to understand a movie like this, so cheerfully crass and yet so obviously refined? It’s certainly the Borowczyk film I would suggest to someone exploring his (erotic) work for the first time, and it might well be his most popular film these days. I’m not sure it’s his best work, but it’s certainly his most unforgettable. And it’s also a film that rewards repeated viewing – the shock of the Beast scenes can be a bit overwhelming the first time round, but each time you watch it again, you’ll find some new little touches to entrance you. Those people who still think Boro pissed away his career with his erotic films should open their eyes and their minds – they’ll discover a filmmaker who found his niche, and made some of the most impressive, startling, exciting and challenging films of the 1970s in any genre.

This stunningly gorgeous new British Blu-ray edition includes Borowczyk’s 1975 animation Venus on the Half Shell, which is a nice complementary film, featuring as it does Bona Tibertelli de Pisis‘ paintings of men, women and snails; and an hour of silent behind the scenes footage from the making of the film, narrated by camera operator Noël Véry – fascinating stuff and a rare glimpse into Borowczyk’s intricate film making style.There’s also a short piece on the planned sequel Motherhood, which on paper sounds frankly ludicrous. But I would’ve trusted in Borowczyk’s ability to pull it off…

David Flint – this review first appeared on Strange Things Are Happening

Buy The Walerian Boroczyk Collection on DVD from Amazon.com

Wikipedia | IMDb

The first season of Hannibal set a new quality level for television, offering a potent mix of police procedural, psycho killer and gothic horror stories that worked perfectly as an extended narrative allowing individual episode stories to be told while developing a season arc that was affective and gripping. The series immediately swept aside any memories of Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, Mads Mikklesen’s portrayal of the character immediately becoming the definitive one, far removed from Hopkins’ increasingly camp portrayal.

The first season introduced us to the characters that were first portrayed in Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon, and this season continues with that pre-novel narrative development. The joy of a show like this, coming after the novel series has been (hopefully) completed is that it can reference things from the stories, telegraphing and expanding on moments that would be referenced as past events in the books (and films). This ensures that the series maintains a connection to the existing stories, even though it is telling a story that is new. So in this season, for instance, we get nods towards Lecter being interrupted by a census taker and are introduced to Mason Verger, a victim of Lecter’s who played a significant role in the novel and film Hannibal. This long goal approach – with the Hannibal Lecter narrative planned to be spread across several seasons – allows the story to develop nicely with what we know while bringing something fresh and new to the character.

At the end of season one, Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) was framed by Lecter as serial killer The Chesapeake Ripper and locked in a hospital for the criminally insane – the same location that we are used to seeing Lecter in from the movies. He’s determined to recover his lost memories, knowing that Lecter – the real ripper – has set him up, but not knowing how. Those who had worked with him as an FBI investigator in season one are understandably torn, unable to believe his accusations against Lecter yet wanting him to be proven innocent of the crimes – even though they believe him to almost certainly be guilty. And so much of the first half of the season follows Graham slowly convincing other people of Lecter’s possible guilt – or at least, of his own innocence. Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne), who brought Graham in as an investigator and feels guilt for having pushed the fragile investigator to breaking point, seems especially torn – wanting to believe, yet maintaining a friendship with Lecter that prevents him from seeing the true. Dr Alana Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas), Graham’s almost-love interest from season one is even more torn, especially when she starts a romantic relationship with Lecter. It’s Dr Frederick Chilton (Raúl Esparza), the arrogant psychiatrist in charge of the hospital, who first comes to believe that Lecter is a killer and a cannibal, while Lecter’s own therapist, Dr Bedelia Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson) also starts to fear her client. Lecter, meanwhile, does his best to sow seeds of doubt in Graham’s mind.

The second part of the season sees Graham freed, but his mental state becoming ever more fragile, as Lecter tries to bring him into his own world. It soon seems that Graham has indeed moved to the dark side, turning killer and possibly cannibal himself. Soon, the story twists into a game of bluff and double bluff, staying nicely ambiguous about which side Graham is actually on, all the way to the extraordinary and brutal final episode, which ends in a bloodbath as Lecter’s real personality is finally revealed. This is no spoiler – the show offer this upfront as the opening scene of the first episode, a spot of telegraphing that it can get away with because of our familiarity with the coming story. We know Lecter won’t stay undiscovered indefinitely, and this telegraphed opener – a powerful way to kick the season off – sets up our anticipation for a finale that still has plenty of twists to it.

The fear of a show like this is that it won’t be able to maintain the pace and the power of the first season, simply because we are already familiar with the storyline – all too often, TV shows will become variations on the same theme as they go along. That’s certainly not the case here. While it has the same overriding theme, the treatment of the characters and the narrative arc are a distinct development from the first season. This feels the same, but story wise, it’s rather different, with the imprisonment of Graham proving on ongoing story that is far removed from the first season. We get the introduction of new characters, most notably Mason Verger (Michael Pitt) and his sister Margot (Katherine Isabelle), both of whom become Lecter’s patients and pull the newly released Graham into their various schemes. We also see characters develop from the first season, notably Beverly Katz (Hettienne Park), part of the forensic team who agrees to investigate Graham’s case in exchange for his help in solving cases she is currently investigating (a nice twist o the familiar Lecter story). And people die. The loss of one established character is genuinely shocking and horrible – not only in the manner of the murder but in the loss of the character, but it certainly keeps the viewer aware that almost anything could happen here – and in this rewriting of the story, you don’t even feel secure that established characters from the novels like Crawford are safe. This series could easily kill them off.

As with the first season, Hannibal season two looks remarkably cinematic, and has some first rate talent involved as directors – Tim Hunter, David Slade, Peter Medak and Vincenzo Natali are among the people helming episodes. It’s deliberately paced – not slow, per se, but certainly less frantic than many a modern film or TV show – and remains eerily creepy throughout. As with the first season, it’s extremely gory. Most violence is off-screen, but the show certainly doesn’t hold back on showing the gruesome aftermath of murders, and has some genuinely grotesque moments that contrast nicely with the sophisticated look of the show. Of course, being a network show, it also exposes the lunatic nature of American television censorship – you can show brutal throat slashings, but naked female corpses have to have arms placed strategically and unconvincingly placed across breasts.

Like many shows these days, Hannibal seems to have been made with at least one eye on box set sales. At thirteen episodes, you could gorge on the whole season in a day – or at least a weekend, with a beak point nicely provided when Graham is released from the asylum – and the series certainly rewards multi-episode viewing, working as much like a single epic film as it does as a TV series.

Buy Hannibal Season 1 and 2 on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

Hannibal may well be the best thing currently on television. The ambition of the series is admirable and I hope the ratings allow the completion of the story (Season Three will take us into Red Dragon). This is close to perfection as a series, and shows that television is now the place for daring artistic expression, at least in the US.

David Flint – a version of this review first appeared on Strange Things Are Happening

‘Nothing so appalling in the annals of horror!’

Blood Feast is a 1963 American horror film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis. It concerns a psychopathic food caterer named Fuad Ramses who kills people so that he can include their body parts in his meals and perform sacrifices to his “Egyptian goddess” Ishtar.

Filming took place over a period of 4 days with a budget of $24,000 and was filmed in Miami, Florida. Director Lewis wanted something realistic for the scene where a woman gets her tongue ripped out, in order to accommodate this a sheep’s tongue was imported from Tampa Bay and used in the scene.

Blood Feast is generally considered the first splatter movie, and is notable for its groundbreaking depictions of on-screen gore. It was followed by a belated sequel, Blood Feast 2: All You Can Eat, in 2002.

Fuad Ramses was described by author Christopher Wayne Curry in his book A Taste of Blood: The Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis as “the original machete-wielding madman” and the forerunner to similar characters in Friday the 13th and Halloween. Lewis said of the film, “I’ve often referred to Blood Feast as a Walt Whitman poem. It’s no good, but it was the first of its type.”

Buy The Blood Trilogy on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Blood Feast is the first part of what the director’s fans have dubbed “The Blood Trilogy”. Rounding out the trilogy are the films Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) and Color Me Blood Red (1965). After the third film, producer David F. Friedman said, “I think that for now we’re going to abandon making any more ‘super blood and gore’ movies, since so many of our contemporaries are launching similar productions, causing a risk that the market will quickly reach a saturation point.”

Plot teaser:

In a suburban Miami house, a young woman arrives home and turns on her portable radio which broadcasts news of the latest of several recent murders. The woman turns off the radio and begins to take a bath. Suddenly a gray-haired, wild-eyed man appears in the bathroom and brutally stabs the woman in her left eye, killing her. The maniac hacks off her left leg with a machete and leaves with it.

Next day at the police station, detective Pete Thornton reviews the latest murder, noting that a homicidal maniac has killed four women without leaving any clues. The police chief orders Thornton to continue to pursue the case.

At Fuad Ramses Catering store, wealthy socialite Dorothy Freemont arrives, where she arranges for Fuad to cater a party for her daughter Suzette. Fuad agrees and tells Mrs. Freemont that what he’s preparing hasn’t been prepared for over 5,000 years. Mrs. Freemont wants the catering done in two weeks, and Fuad assures her that he will have enough time to procure the last of his needed ingredients. After Mrs. Freemont leaves, Fuad ventures to the back storage room where he has displayed a large gold statue of the “mother of veiled darkness,” the goddess Ishtar. Fuad is preparing a “blood feast” – a huge vat containing the dead women’s body parts – that will ensure the goddess’s resurrection…

Buy A Taste of Blood: The Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis book from Amazon.co.uk

Buy the Herschell Gordon Lewis Collection on DVD from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Reviews:

“Impossible to take seriously on any level, Blood Feast compels the viewer simply by topping itself in the gore department. Unlike the Friday the 13th films which mostly tease the viewers with quick and timid flashes of grisly mayhem, Lewis and company trot out the whole dog and pony show under a spotlight. Legs are hacked off, skulls pulled open, tongues yanked out, and so on. Meanwhile the laughs build up faster than any slasher spoof (“Leg Cut Off!” yells one newspaper headline), while Arnold delivers a hand-wringing villainous performance that actually makes Tod Slaughter look subtle”. Nathaniel Thompson, Mondo Digital

“… Lewis’ listless direction shows all of the style and finesse of an early stag film (another genre with which he was fondly familiar). Blood Feast tastefully implies nothing, and instead plasters the screen in one lurid image after another, using as few camera set-ups and shots as possible for the minimal amount of coverage provided. Lewis and Friedman would tap Playboyplaymate Connie Mason to star as the beautiful young bride-to-be, who would also return for their follow-up 2000 Maniacs the next year. Mason, along with her fellow cast members, produce truly horrible performances, but the roles are so poorly acted and outrageously over-the-top that they give way to the highest level of camp.” I Like Horror Movies

“As Lewis had intended, Blood Feast was a mindless, virtually plotless, but high-spirited orgy of gore for gore’s sake, which, upon its initial release to drive-ins in the South, managed to shock both the popcorn eaters and the neckers alike into wide-eyed, open-mouther attention. Its like had never been seen before in a commercial feature film”. John McCarty, Splatter Movies (FantaCo Enterprises, 1981)

Herschell Gordon Lewis on Horrorpedia: Blood Feast | The Gore Gore Girls | The Gruesome Twosome | Monster A- Go Go | Two Thousand Maniacs! | The Wizard of Gore

Cast:

• William Kerwin as Detective Pete Thornton
• Mal Arnold as Fuad Ramses
• Connie Mason as Suzette Fremont
• Scott H. Hall as Frank, Police Captain
• Lyn Bolton as Mrs. Dorothy Fremont
• Toni Calvert as Trudy Sanders
• Ashlyn Martin as Marcy, girl on beach
• Sandra Sinclair as Pat Tracey
• Astrid Olson as Motel victim

Buy The Godfather of Gore Speaks book from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Buy The Godfather of Gore documentary on DVD from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

 Buy The Eye-Popping Sounds of Herschell Gordon Lewis CD from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Wikipedia | IMDb

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‘You will pay for your sins’

See No Evil 2 is an American slasher horror film directed by the Soska sisters, written by Nathan Brookes and Bobby Lee Darby, produced by Michael Luisi. It stars professional wrestler Kane (WWE’s Glenn “Kane” Jacobs), Danielle Harris and Katharine Isabelle (American Mary).

The film is a sequel to the 2006 See No Evil. Unlike the original, which had a theatrical release, this film was released in October 2014 direct to VOD, DVD and Blu-ray by Lionsgate.

Plot teaser:

A group of friends pays a late-night visit to the city morgue to surprise Amy (Harris) on her birthday. But the surprise is on them when the one-eyed corpse of brutal psychopath Jacob Goodnight (Jacobs) unexpectedly rises from a cold sub-basement slab. Their wild party quickly turns into a terrifying slay-fest as the sadistic mass-murderer resumes his savage rampage complete with hooks, surgical knives and power saws…

Reviews:

“In its skill and cleverness, in its playfulness and bawdiness, See No Evil 2 reminds me very much of John Carpenter’s Halloween, though it is set in an environment closer to that of the hospital in Halloween 2 – a perpetuation, perhaps, of the Soskas’ evident misgivings about the medical establishment. Unlike its oppressively heavy predecessor, it is something of a rare bird among today’s horror fare in that it is a horror film that intends its audience to enjoy it.” Tim Lucas, Video Watchdog

“With the first film absolutely lambasted for its lack of originality, one would think any attempt at a sequel would try to correct that flaw. Bringing in directors like the Soskas was a great start, but giving them a script to work with that is such a cookie-cutter slasher doesn’t help. The creepy location is set, the group of partiers who will be fodder for the killer arrive, and the slasher does his slashing. Thankfully, as mentioned, the F/X work is great and the Twins infuse enough of their own flavor that the familiarity of the story can be somewhat forgiven. Somewhat.” Scott Hallam, Dread Central

“Where the first film was carried by it’s unique kills and practical effects, See No Evil 2 is anything but. If you cast a 7ft giant of a man and have him play with a bunch of cool metal cutting tools, let him use them. With a little of half of the kills of the original, we are only treated to one solid practical kill, the rest were mostly off screen in done in extremely unoriginal ways. Being a big Soska fan, this was easily the biggest let down of the year.” Bloodbath and Beyond, Moviepilot.com

Buy See No Evil 2 on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

“The kills are bloody as hell, and filmed beautifully. The Soskas know how to make blood spray look pretty, and tragic. Particularly since they are shooting in a dark hospital, they were able to hold the picture together in very low levels of lighting. The Blu-ray makes it perfectly evident that they can craft attractive lighting setups with barely a lit match, and some of those lighting setups are very clever. They keep Goodnight in the shadows, and Kane maximizes the impact of his presence in the glimpses we see of him.” Fred Topel, Nuke the Fridge

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The Devil’s Business is a 2011 British horror film directed by Sean Hogan and starring Billy Clarke, Jack Gordon, and Jonathan Hansler.

Plot teaser:

Veteran hitman Pinner (Billy Clarke) and his young, inexperienced ward Cully (Jack Gordon) break into a house at night, awaiting the return of owner Kist (Jonathan Hansler) whom their gangland boss Bruno (Harry Miller) wants dead, with no questions asked. As midnight approaches, Pinner keeps the nervous Cully entertained with an eerie story about a previous hit he had carried out on a beautiful striptease dancer. Before he can finish his tale, a sound from outside the house draws them into the night, and to a horrifying discovery that plunges them into the shadowy darkness of their own tortured souls. The Devil hasn’t finished with them yet…

The film was shot in just ten days and features only five actors. It was released at the same time as another British film with a similar horrific premise, Kill List.

Buy The Devil’s Business on Mondo Macabro Blu-ray form Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“Director Sean Hogan (Little Deaths) keeps things well under control for the unusually short running time (just over an hour), resulting in a modest but effective little chiller that achieves far more than its means. It definitely won’t be a film for all tastes (there’s good reason Harold Pinter keeps being brought up by critics), but for anyone who likes a dose of cerebral art house attitude with their English chills, this one’s quite tasty.” Mondo Digital

“Amidst a slew of hackneyed, ill thought out horror the occasional gem shines like a bright beacon and this truly is the business. I can’t wait to see what Sean Hogan comes up with next.” Starburst

“The Devil’s Business is a likable micro-budget offering from a promising young indie writer-director who, with a little more money at his disposal, will surly have a good deal more to offer the genre in the future. This is an interesting attempt at traditional ghostly storytelling surrounded by the conventions of a contemporary crime thriller, and it is well worth giving it a chance.” Horrorview

Read an interview with Sean Hogan at Fangoria.com

IMDb

WH

‘The ultimate experience in gruelling terror’

The Evil Dead is a 1981 American horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi and executive produced by Raimi and Bruce Campbell, who also stars alongside Ellen Sandweiss and Betsy Baker. The Evil Dead focuses on five college students holidaying in an isolated cabin in a remote wooded area. After they find an audiotape that releases a legion of demons and spirits, members of the group suffer from demonic possession, leading to increasingly gory mayhem.

Five Michigan State University students: Ash Williams (Campbell, Bubba Ho-Tep, Maniac Cop) and his girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker, 2084, Witches’ Night), accompanied by Ash’s sister Cheryl (Sandweiss, Satan’s Playground, The Dread), their friend Scotty (Richard DeManincor), and his girlfriend Shelly (Theresa Tilly), venture into the Tennessee hills to relax in an isolated cabin during their spring break. The journey quickly escalates from small-talk to a near crash and then a portentous collapse of the bridge leading to their destination just as they’ve crossed it. That night, while Cheryl is making a drawing of a clock, her hand becomes violently possessed by a mysterious entity, causing her to draw a picture that looks like a deformed, evil face. She fails to mention the incident to the others, dismissing it as her imagination.

When the trapdoor to the cellar mysteriously flies open during dinner, Ash and Scotty go down to investigate and find the Naturon Demonto, a Sumerian version of the Book of the Dead, along with a tape recording of incantations – unable to resist, they play the tape and though finding the recording unnerving think little more of it, though the audience is now very aware that the recitation of the words have unleashed something within the woods outside. Cheryl becomes hysterical when a tree crashes through the window, and retires to her room but is soon awoken by voices beyond the cabin. She goes outside to investigate but away from the cabin and out of earshot, she is attacked and raped by demonically possessed trees. Returning to the cabin after the ordeal, the others do not believe her story but Ash agrees to drive her to town where she can find a place to stay for the night, only to find that the bridge connecting the cabin to the rest of the world has been destroyed. Back at the cabin, a card game takes an unexpected twist when Cheryl becomes possessed, telling them that demons will kill them, stabbing Linda in the ankle with a pencil – they see little option but to lock her in the trap-doored cellar.

Shelley too succumbs to possession and is decapitated by Scotty, who buries her outside. Scotty survives another tree attack whilst seeking an escape route – when he returns to the others, he finds only Ash is of sound mind, the two girls now under the control of demons but feigning innocence in a bid to be released. Ash stabs and kills Sally whilst defending himself and, after having second thoughts about dismembering her with a chainsaw, buries her too in the garden…only for her to rise again. Removing her head swiftly with a shovel, Ash finds Cheryl has been freed from the cellar, Scotty too now ‘under the influence’. Now armed with a gun, is there any hope left for Ash to survive the hoards of ancient demons?

Buy The Evil Dead trilogy on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

School friends Raimi and Campbell and harboured thoughts of The Evil Dead for some time prior to filming, eventually leading to the making of a short film, Within the Woods, an 8mm effort made for only $1600 (it set a precedent of sorts as it had never been necessary blow up the format for 35mm cinema projection). The film was used as a bargaining tool to gain funding for a full-length film along the same lines but Raimi was informed that a minimum of $150,000 would need to be raised to accomplish this. Raimi approached Phil Gillis, a lawyer to one of his friends, asking if he wanted to invest money into the production of a remake.

 Gillis was unimpressed with Within the Woods, but offered Raimi legal advice on how to approach further productions. Raimi approached several investors, “begging” for money, and eventually acquired nearly $90,000 of the funds needed and set out to make the movie anyway. As a paen to the writer H.P.Lovecraft, the film was originally to be called The Book of the Dead.

The cast were recruited via an advert in The Detroit News, though Campbell and Sandweiss were already in place from the previous film. Crew consisted of friends and family, including Tom Sullivan, who was in charge of make-up and effects and Joe LoDuca as composer, already a fixture on the local music scene. A location was found more through process of elimination than choice, though the cabin itself was already in existence and suitably remotely situated.

Buy The Evil Dead on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

It’s of credit to all involved that the budget and lack of experience were more evident to those participating than to audiences either then or now; injuries were common place from trips and falls to eye-lash ripping and the insertion of thick glass contact lenses to approximate demonic possession. To achieve to POV shots of the evil force hurtling through the woods, a camera was strapped to a piece of wood and two operators set off running, armed with the contraption, presumably with those watching praying they didn’t drop it.  In truth, the sound design is critical to the real success of this effect, the low, bassy rumble which seems to emanate from all angles. The cold, wet and swiftly decaying set left the actors miserable and filthy – the copious amounts of blood actually being corn syrup.

If anything about the film divides critics, it’s the fine line the film skirts between horror and humour. Laughter is often an involuntary defence mechanism against fear which is fine so long as:

a. You’re not sat near anyone who affects this quirk

b. You do not have humour unwilling thrust upon you.

Of the three original Evil Dead films, the original relies the least on humour, the broken resolve of the actors, fast shooting schedule and original intent being overriding factors. The low budget does reduce some scenes to a somewhat comedic level of depravity but the sure relentlessness of the danger, the obviousness of their plight and the impressively claustrophobic setting are an utterly engaging watch. Importantly, it is possible to disengage your brain and watch the film as a straight-ahead horror. The acting is perfectly acceptable and if anything a step above what many slashers made around this time could muster.

In the case of the tree-rape sequence, one which was highlighted by the BBFC and informed censorship on the film for several years, it’s a scene which sounds much worse than than what is seen on-screen – only three years previously, cinema audiences were being subjected to images of ferocious sexual attack in the film, I Spit on Your Grave, it would be absurd to compare the two further.

A ripped poster of The Hills Have Eyes (1977)  is visible at one point in the cabin. Ostensibly, this was in reference to a ripped poster for Jaws (1975) that appeared in that film; Sam Raimi and the others interpreted this as Wes Craven suggesting that “Hills” was much more frightening than “Jaws,” thus they showed a ripped “Hills” poster because their film was to be even scarier yet.

If anything, other than time, does a disservice to The Evil Dead, it’s the two sequels and the remake, all of which, perhaps unwittingly, are in some ways at pains to suggest that you need to move on and watch another film instead. The Evil Dead 2 is an attempt to fix alleged issues with the first with an improved budget, the third wants to create a mythology, the remake supposes we’re too dim to understand films and throws in a social angle for good measure. The end result is that two factions have appeared, those who buy-in to the franchise and those who despair of meddling and have reduced their opinion of the original accordingly. This is a shame as the film has a lot of heart and real invention, not to mention some effective jumps and originality.

The film attracted the interest of producer Irvin Shapiro, who helped screen the film at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. Horror author Stephen King gave a rave review of the film, which helped convince New Line Cinema to serve as its distributor. King later went on to hail Clive Barker as the future of horror and future endorsements of Ebola and famine seem likely. Though a meagre commercial success in the United States, the film made its budget back through worldwide distribution, and grossed $2.4 million during its theatrical run. Both early and later critical reception were positive and in the years since its release, The Evil Dead has developed an avid following from fans and regularly appears in published lists of the greatest horror films ever made.

As mentioned, the film spawned two sequels and a remake, not to mention comic book appearances by Ash, console games, a musical and an unlikely, if cult, star in Bruce Campbell. Raimi is now a major Hollywood director but showed with Drag Me To Hell that he still has an eye for horror.

Daz Lawrence, Horropedia

With thanks to The Wrong Side of Art and Silver Ferox for some of the pics