You can’t argue with disc collectors eager to rediscover movies they loved at age 10, in terrific kiddie matinees. Cowboy star Rory Calhoun makes a perfectly fine Italian vagabond ladies’ man for this very un-serious ‘oriental’ adventure, and Yôko Tani is the requisite princess who needs kissing lessons. Tim Lucas’s welcome, info-packed commentary satisfies our curiosity about the long-unavailable title — it’s different than the A.I.P. release we (barely) remember.
Marco Polo
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1962 / Color/ 2:35 widescreen / 104, 95 min. / Street Date , 2023 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Rory Calhoun, Yôko Tani, Camillo Pilotto, Pierre Cressoy, Michael Chow, Thien-Huong, Franco Ressel.
Cinematography: Riccardo Pallottini
Production Designer: Zoran Zorcic
Art Directors: Aurelio Crugnola, Franco Fumagalli, Miodrag Miric, Jovan Radic
Film Editor: Ornella Micheli
Costume design: Mario Giorsi
Original Music: Angelo Francesco Lavagnino / Les Baxter
Written by Oreste Biancoli, Ennio De Concini, Eliana De Sabata, Antoinette Pellevant, Piero Pierotti, Duccio Tessari
Produced by Luigi Carpentieri,...
Marco Polo
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1962 / Color/ 2:35 widescreen / 104, 95 min. / Street Date , 2023 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Rory Calhoun, Yôko Tani, Camillo Pilotto, Pierre Cressoy, Michael Chow, Thien-Huong, Franco Ressel.
Cinematography: Riccardo Pallottini
Production Designer: Zoran Zorcic
Art Directors: Aurelio Crugnola, Franco Fumagalli, Miodrag Miric, Jovan Radic
Film Editor: Ornella Micheli
Costume design: Mario Giorsi
Original Music: Angelo Francesco Lavagnino / Les Baxter
Written by Oreste Biancoli, Ennio De Concini, Eliana De Sabata, Antoinette Pellevant, Piero Pierotti, Duccio Tessari
Produced by Luigi Carpentieri,...
- 1/31/2023
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Italian screenwriter and director Ruggero Deodato, whose lengthy career was most noted for the controversial horror film “Cannibal Holocaust,” died Thursday at age 83, according to multiple reports.
The 1980 film, a “found footage” pseudo-documentary pioneer, depicts an anthropologist from New York University played by Robert Kerman leading a team into the Amazon rainforest to find crew of documentary filmmakers that went missing. They discover their bodies, but are able to recover the crew’s film reels, which a US television station then wants to air, despite gory footage of real violence against animals, sexual assault and exploitation of the native Amazonian populations.
The graphic violence in the film raised objections, including an arrest of Deodato on a series of charges including murder after rumors said some of the deaths depicted in the film were real. Deodato later brought the actors to court to prove they were alive, and the charges were dropped.
The 1980 film, a “found footage” pseudo-documentary pioneer, depicts an anthropologist from New York University played by Robert Kerman leading a team into the Amazon rainforest to find crew of documentary filmmakers that went missing. They discover their bodies, but are able to recover the crew’s film reels, which a US television station then wants to air, despite gory footage of real violence against animals, sexual assault and exploitation of the native Amazonian populations.
The graphic violence in the film raised objections, including an arrest of Deodato on a series of charges including murder after rumors said some of the deaths depicted in the film were real. Deodato later brought the actors to court to prove they were alive, and the charges were dropped.
- 12/29/2022
- by Eileen AJ Connelly
- The Wrap
Gothic Fantastico-Four Italian Tales of Terror
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
Starring Barbara Nelli, Helga Liné, Franco Nero, Erica Blanc
Written by Giovanni Grimaldi, Bruno Corbucci
Directed by Massimo Pupillo, Alberto De Martino, Mino Guerrini, Damiano Damiani
The success of 1957’s I Vampiri, a grimly beautiful fantasy directed by Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava, provoked an unexpected trend in the country known for neo-realism; Italian horror films began to embrace the classical romanticism of Rebecca over the modernistic shocks of Psycho. Elegant nightmares like Bava’s Black Sunday cast their spell and soon this new breed of gothics—united by sumptuous black and white photography—dominated movie theaters with tbeir come-hither promise of seductive spirits and strategically lit negligees.
A few of these thrillers were more brazen in their approach—flaunting their teasing nudity and blood-soaked denouements, exploitation fare like Atom Age Vampire and The Playgirls and the Vampire took aim at...
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
Starring Barbara Nelli, Helga Liné, Franco Nero, Erica Blanc
Written by Giovanni Grimaldi, Bruno Corbucci
Directed by Massimo Pupillo, Alberto De Martino, Mino Guerrini, Damiano Damiani
The success of 1957’s I Vampiri, a grimly beautiful fantasy directed by Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava, provoked an unexpected trend in the country known for neo-realism; Italian horror films began to embrace the classical romanticism of Rebecca over the modernistic shocks of Psycho. Elegant nightmares like Bava’s Black Sunday cast their spell and soon this new breed of gothics—united by sumptuous black and white photography—dominated movie theaters with tbeir come-hither promise of seductive spirits and strategically lit negligees.
A few of these thrillers were more brazen in their approach—flaunting their teasing nudity and blood-soaked denouements, exploitation fare like Atom Age Vampire and The Playgirls and the Vampire took aim at...
- 10/25/2022
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Pepla! Pepla! Rah Rah Rah! These two remastered Italo muscleman pix could be the start of something big. A pair of relatively early Maciste epics became Samson vehicles in American-International’s Hollywood-ized revisions. Mark Forest & ex-Tarzan Gordon Scott overthrow tyrants in Egypt and Cathay, while hurling boulders and kissing exotic damsels like Chelo Alonso, Yôko Tani and Hélène Chanel. Separate releases from Kino Lorber.
Samson Double Bill
Son of Samson + Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World
Blu-ray Separate Purchases
Kl Studio Classics
1960 + 1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen /
Starring: Mark Forest, Chelo Alonso; Gordon Scott, Yôko Tani, Hélène Chanel, Valéry Inkijinoff.
Cinematography: Riccardo Pallottini
Original Music: Carlo Innocenzi
Produced by Luigi Carpentieri, Ermanno Donati
Directed by Carlo Campogalliani, Riccardo Freda
Is it true? Will the neglected Italian costume pictures known as ‘sword ‘n’ sandals, Pepla & muscleman epics finally be released on disc in editions of worthwhile quality? We ‘fifties kids were raised...
Samson Double Bill
Son of Samson + Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World
Blu-ray Separate Purchases
Kl Studio Classics
1960 + 1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen /
Starring: Mark Forest, Chelo Alonso; Gordon Scott, Yôko Tani, Hélène Chanel, Valéry Inkijinoff.
Cinematography: Riccardo Pallottini
Original Music: Carlo Innocenzi
Produced by Luigi Carpentieri, Ermanno Donati
Directed by Carlo Campogalliani, Riccardo Freda
Is it true? Will the neglected Italian costume pictures known as ‘sword ‘n’ sandals, Pepla & muscleman epics finally be released on disc in editions of worthwhile quality? We ‘fifties kids were raised...
- 8/20/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
There’s no getting around it — Mario Bava’s one space opera is now confirmed as a classic. Barry Sullivan and Norma Bengell must oppose invisible aliens that possess the corpses of their fellow space men. Bava’s ‘gothic’ Haunted Planet recipe just adds more weird colored lights and swirling fog to his supernatural Gothic formula. The designs are excellent and the results unique, from the odd spacecraft to the kinky costumes. The show is also genuinely influential, as should be well known to every fan of more modern sci-fi / horror films. The new HD remaster is an improvement, too!
Planet of the Vampires
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1965 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 88 min. / Terrore nello spazio, Planet of Blood, The Demon Planet / Street Date July 26, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Barry Sullivan, Norma Bengell, Ángel Aranda, Evi Marandi, Stelio Candelli, Franco Andrei, Fernando Villena, Mario Morales, Ivan Rassimov.
Cinematography: Antonio Rinaldi,...
Planet of the Vampires
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1965 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 88 min. / Terrore nello spazio, Planet of Blood, The Demon Planet / Street Date July 26, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Barry Sullivan, Norma Bengell, Ángel Aranda, Evi Marandi, Stelio Candelli, Franco Andrei, Fernando Villena, Mario Morales, Ivan Rassimov.
Cinematography: Antonio Rinaldi,...
- 8/2/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Masque of the Red Death, Roger Corman’s masterful 1964 adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, has been fully restored and can now be seen in all its diabolical splendor. The seventh of eight “Poe Cycle” films Corman made in the 1960s, Masque is arguably the best. Before its release, Poe had already delivered Corman from the low budget black and white films he shot in 10 days in the 1950s to the relative luxury of three-week shoots and psychedelic underworlds.
The new DVD/Blu-Ray is the first fully uncut, extended version of the film to be available. Besides restoring cinematographer Nicolas Roeg’s sumptuous camerawork, we get extra scenes which were cut by censors. The package also includes a 20-page booklet with a new essay from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ film preservationist Tessa Idlewine.
The original “The Masque of the Red Death” short story...
The new DVD/Blu-Ray is the first fully uncut, extended version of the film to be available. Besides restoring cinematographer Nicolas Roeg’s sumptuous camerawork, we get extra scenes which were cut by censors. The package also includes a 20-page booklet with a new essay from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ film preservationist Tessa Idlewine.
The original “The Masque of the Red Death” short story...
- 1/29/2021
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
[This October is "Gialloween" on Daily Dead, as we celebrate the Halloween season by diving into the macabre mysteries, creepy kills, and eccentric characters found in some of our favorite giallo films! Keep checking back on Daily Dead this month for more retrospectives on classic, cult, and altogether unforgettable gialli, and visit our online hub to catch up on all of our Gialloween special features!]
One of my favorite professors in college would start and end every class session with the same sage words of wisdom, “You don’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been.” This quote, resonating loudly in the absence of video stores, in the disposal of physical media by major retailers, with the undeniable influence of social media on creative output and in the shadow of a global pandemic, paints an entirely new perspective on the future of film and the paths that will be taken based on the past already paved.
The narrative theme we will describe as “looking back” is not a new concept for storytelling. Whether searching history for stories about famous figures, critical moments, or rare circumstances, returning to the past is grounds for interesting stories.
Looking back at the footprints set by genre film; from Méliès to Wiene, from Murnau to Browning,...
One of my favorite professors in college would start and end every class session with the same sage words of wisdom, “You don’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been.” This quote, resonating loudly in the absence of video stores, in the disposal of physical media by major retailers, with the undeniable influence of social media on creative output and in the shadow of a global pandemic, paints an entirely new perspective on the future of film and the paths that will be taken based on the past already paved.
The narrative theme we will describe as “looking back” is not a new concept for storytelling. Whether searching history for stories about famous figures, critical moments, or rare circumstances, returning to the past is grounds for interesting stories.
Looking back at the footprints set by genre film; from Méliès to Wiene, from Murnau to Browning,...
- 10/29/2020
- by Monte Yazzie
- DailyDead
Barbara Steele is a horror mainstay who, like Vincent Price and Christopher Lee, found a place in the genre during the gothic heyday of the 1960s and made a comfortable home there for years. Also like Price, Steele has a look that, when the time calls for it, she can manipulate to ooze sinister intentions. Somehow she can turn just a little extra cock of her eyebrow into a visage that makes the audience squirm, and she’s employed this knack for the malevolent over the course of several decades in films like Black Sunday, Piranha, and Shivers. So when I went diving into Steele’s filmography, I wanted to find something that tapped into that evil streak, and I found it tucked in a little Italian gothic noir film from 1963 called The Ghost.
The original Italian title was Lo Spettro, which is such a cooler name. I know spettro...
The original Italian title was Lo Spettro, which is such a cooler name. I know spettro...
- 2/26/2020
- by Bryan Christopher
- DailyDead
Above: Italian poster for The Possessed [La donna del lago]. Artist: Piero Iaia.Starting next Friday, the Quad Cinema in New York is playing six newly restored Italian gialli in "Fresh Meat: Giallo Restorations Part II," a follow-up to last fall’s "Perversion Stories: A Fistful of Giallo Restorations." Titles are very important in Italy’s giallo genre, the more baroque and evocative the better, like “Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion” and “The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire.” The Italian word for “yellow,” the term giallo was initially used in post-war Italy to denote pulp fiction mystery novels with yellow paperback covers. Within Italy today the term giallo in cinema refers to any thriller or murder mystery, but in the English-speaking world giallo has come to refer exclusively to the Italian horror-thriller genre which had its heyday in the late ’60s and ’70s. The posters for the five films in the series,...
- 7/12/2019
- MUBI
Described in ads as a “Slimy Glob of Doom”, this large economy-size micro-organism found in a Mayan temple out-slithers The Blob. Directed by Italy’s Riccardo Freda, in collaboration with Dp-turned-first time director Mario Bava. Formerly a staple of late-nite TV Creature Features, this one has been hard to see in recent years but is now available as a packed-with-extras Blu ray from Arrow.
The post Caltiki, The Immortal Monster appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post Caltiki, The Immortal Monster appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 7/12/2019
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
Italian actress Valentina Cortese, Oscar-nominated for her performance in François Truffaut’s 1973 drama Day For Night, has died aged 96, according to Italian news service Ansa.
The prolific actress, whose career spanned more than 50 years, started out in Italian films of the early 1940s, leading to internationally acclaimed roles in Riccardo Freda’s 1948 Italian movie Les Misérables and the 1949 British film The Glass Mountain (1949), which led to a number of roles in American features.
Cortese starred in movies including second world war thriller Malaya with Spencer Tracy and James Stewart, Jules Dassin’s Thieves’ Highway with Richard Conte, and Joseph L Makiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa with Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner.
In Europe she later starred in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Le Amiche, Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen and Franco Zeffirelli’s Brother Sun, Sister Moon.
In 1975, Cortese received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role...
The prolific actress, whose career spanned more than 50 years, started out in Italian films of the early 1940s, leading to internationally acclaimed roles in Riccardo Freda’s 1948 Italian movie Les Misérables and the 1949 British film The Glass Mountain (1949), which led to a number of roles in American features.
Cortese starred in movies including second world war thriller Malaya with Spencer Tracy and James Stewart, Jules Dassin’s Thieves’ Highway with Richard Conte, and Joseph L Makiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa with Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner.
In Europe she later starred in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Le Amiche, Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen and Franco Zeffirelli’s Brother Sun, Sister Moon.
In 1975, Cortese received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role...
- 7/10/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Arrow Video seems to be staging a bit of a Riccardo Freda renaissance. Several weeks after recuperating his odd 1971 Irish giallo The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire, they unleash his London set Double Face, which straddles the line between the popular Edgar Wallace krimi genre (which it was marketed as in West Germany) and a giallo in Italy. But what’s most notable about this late period Freda offering is for a subdued performance from the inimitable Klaus Kinski as a cuckolded businessman haunted by the notion his recently deceased wife is alive and well and making local pornographic films, no less.…...
- 6/25/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Klaus Kinski in Ricardo Freda’s Double Face will be available on Blu-ray June 25th From Arrow Video
In the post-war years, the proliferation of transnational European co-productions gave rise to a cross-pollination of genres, with the same films sold in different markets as belonging to different movements. Among these, Riccardo Freda s Double Face was marketed in West Germany as an Edgar Wallace krimi , while in Italy it was sold as a giallo in the tradition of Mario Bava s Blood and Black Lace, combining elements from both genres for a unique and unforgettable viewing experience.
When wealthy businessman John Alexander’s unfaithful wife Helen dies in a car crash, it initially looks like a freak accident. However, the plot thickens when evidence arises suggesting that the car was tampered with prior to the crash. And John s entire perception of reality is thrown into doubt when he discovers...
In the post-war years, the proliferation of transnational European co-productions gave rise to a cross-pollination of genres, with the same films sold in different markets as belonging to different movements. Among these, Riccardo Freda s Double Face was marketed in West Germany as an Edgar Wallace krimi , while in Italy it was sold as a giallo in the tradition of Mario Bava s Blood and Black Lace, combining elements from both genres for a unique and unforgettable viewing experience.
When wealthy businessman John Alexander’s unfaithful wife Helen dies in a car crash, it initially looks like a freak accident. However, the plot thickens when evidence arises suggesting that the car was tampered with prior to the crash. And John s entire perception of reality is thrown into doubt when he discovers...
- 5/20/2019
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
To celebrate the release of The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire – available on Blu-ray today from Arrow Video – we’re giving away a Blu-ray and the official soundtrack on limited edition 12″ vinyl!
One of several ‘animal-in-the-title’ cash-ins released in the wake of Dario Argento’s box-office smash The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a gloriously excessive giallo that boasts a rogues gallery of perverse characters; violent, fetishized murders, and one of the genre’s most nonsensical, red-herring laden plots (which sees almost every incidental character hinted at potentially being the killer).
Benefitting from a sumptuous score by Stelvio Cipriani and exuberant supporting performances from Valentina Cortese and Dagmar Lassander, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a luridly over-the-top latter-day entry in the filmography of acclaimed director Riccardo Freda. An archetypal giallo from the genre’s heyday, Freda’s film...
One of several ‘animal-in-the-title’ cash-ins released in the wake of Dario Argento’s box-office smash The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a gloriously excessive giallo that boasts a rogues gallery of perverse characters; violent, fetishized murders, and one of the genre’s most nonsensical, red-herring laden plots (which sees almost every incidental character hinted at potentially being the killer).
Benefitting from a sumptuous score by Stelvio Cipriani and exuberant supporting performances from Valentina Cortese and Dagmar Lassander, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a luridly over-the-top latter-day entry in the filmography of acclaimed director Riccardo Freda. An archetypal giallo from the genre’s heyday, Freda’s film...
- 4/10/2019
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
To celebrate the release of The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire – available on Blu-ray April 8th from Arrow Video – we’re giving away a copy.
One of several ‘animal-in-the-title’ cash-ins released in the wake of Dario Argento’s box-office smash The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a gloriously excessive giallo that boasts a rogues gallery of perverse characters; violent, fetishized murders, and one of the genre’s most nonsensical, red-herring laden plots (which sees almost every incidental character hinted at potentially being the killer).
Benefitting from a sumptuous score by Stelvio Cipriani and exuberant supporting performances from Valentina Cortese and Dagmar Lassander, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a luridly over-the-top latter-day entry in the filmography of acclaimed director Riccardo Freda. An archetypal giallo from the genre’s heyday, Freda’s film is presented here in a stunning new...
One of several ‘animal-in-the-title’ cash-ins released in the wake of Dario Argento’s box-office smash The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a gloriously excessive giallo that boasts a rogues gallery of perverse characters; violent, fetishized murders, and one of the genre’s most nonsensical, red-herring laden plots (which sees almost every incidental character hinted at potentially being the killer).
Benefitting from a sumptuous score by Stelvio Cipriani and exuberant supporting performances from Valentina Cortese and Dagmar Lassander, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a luridly over-the-top latter-day entry in the filmography of acclaimed director Riccardo Freda. An archetypal giallo from the genre’s heyday, Freda’s film is presented here in a stunning new...
- 4/8/2019
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
The unstoppable Arrow Video have announced their Us/UK/CA release line up for June 2019, and it's another set of killers for fans of horror and cult cinema. First up and most exciting is the long awaited second installment of their American Horror Project (Us/UK/CA) series, a new box set with three new films that have slipped under the radar for years, Dream No Evil, Dark August, and The Child. They also continue excavating the deep mine of Italian horror with Riccardo Freda's Double Face (Us/UK/CA). Arrow also dip into nuclear/biological weapon scare cinema with Robert Wise's adaptation of The Andromeda Strain (Us/UK/CA) and Def-Con 4 (UK). Last up is psychic terror, The Sender (UK). Check out the full details in the gallery below....
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 3/29/2019
- Screen Anarchy
The Iguana With The Tongue Of Fire will be available on Blu-ray April 9th From Arrow Video
One of several animal-in-the-title cash-ins released in the wake of Dario Argento s box-office smash The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a gloriously excessive giallo that boasts a rogues gallery of perverse characters; violent, fetishized murders, and one of the genre s most nonsensical, red-herring laden plots (which sees almost every incidental character hinted at potentially being the killer).
Set in Dublin (a rather surprising giallo setting), Iguana opens audaciously with an acid-throwing, razor-wielding maniac brutally slaying a woman in her own home. The victim s mangled corpse is discovered in a limousine owned by Swiss Ambassador Sobiesky and a police investigation is launched, but when the murdering continues and the ambassador claims diplomatic immunity, tough ex-cop John Norton is brought in to find the killer…...
One of several animal-in-the-title cash-ins released in the wake of Dario Argento s box-office smash The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a gloriously excessive giallo that boasts a rogues gallery of perverse characters; violent, fetishized murders, and one of the genre s most nonsensical, red-herring laden plots (which sees almost every incidental character hinted at potentially being the killer).
Set in Dublin (a rather surprising giallo setting), Iguana opens audaciously with an acid-throwing, razor-wielding maniac brutally slaying a woman in her own home. The victim s mangled corpse is discovered in a limousine owned by Swiss Ambassador Sobiesky and a police investigation is launched, but when the murdering continues and the ambassador claims diplomatic immunity, tough ex-cop John Norton is brought in to find the killer…...
- 3/21/2019
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Our friends at Arrow Video continue to deplete my already non-existant retirement fund with their latest annnouncement of new releases for April of 2019. In this month they'll bring several older films to Blu-ray for the first time as well as a contemporary Japanese sci-fi from a current cult champ, Miike Takashi. See the gallery below for details regarding Richard Friedman's Scared Stiff (Us/UK), Riccardo Freda's The Iguana With The Tongue Of Fire (Us/UK), Harley Cokeliss' Black Moon Rising (UK), Enzo Castellari's Keoma (Us), and Miike Takashi's Terra Formars (Us/UK)....
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 1/25/2019
- Screen Anarchy
Even after all of your presents are unwrapped and your tree is packed away (or put on the curb), Arrow Video will continue to give the gift of new horror Blu-ray releases for fans looking to expand their collections. The company just announced their impressive February 2018 slate of Blu-rays, including a limited edition version of Frank Henenlotter's Basket Case, The Gruesome Twosome, and much more!
From Arrow Video: "Time for our new announcements! First up two titles coming from Arrow Records and Books this December…
New Arrow Book: The Hitcher (Book)
Pre-order now: http://bit.ly/2BqKmWx
Release date: 29th December
Robert Harmon’s 1986 film The Hitcher is a complex beast: reviled at the time of its release, it has been adored in the long term as one of the most intoxicating, unrelenting highway cult films ever made. Starring Rutger Hauer in the title role whose alluring villainy...
From Arrow Video: "Time for our new announcements! First up two titles coming from Arrow Records and Books this December…
New Arrow Book: The Hitcher (Book)
Pre-order now: http://bit.ly/2BqKmWx
Release date: 29th December
Robert Harmon’s 1986 film The Hitcher is a complex beast: reviled at the time of its release, it has been adored in the long term as one of the most intoxicating, unrelenting highway cult films ever made. Starring Rutger Hauer in the title role whose alluring villainy...
- 11/27/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Review by Roger Carpenter
During the first half of the 60’s Mario Bava created several genuine horror classics that remain high-water marks in the genre over a half century later. Films such as Black Sunday (1960), Black Sabbath (1963), The Whip and the Body (1963), and Blood and Black Lace (1964) either pushed the boundaries of horror or helped to establish cinematic tropes still used in modern horror. Always saddled with shoestring budgets and bad deals, Bava nevertheless remained optimistic in the face of his cinematic struggles. A case in point is the troubled production of Kill, Baby…Kill! which ran out of money midway through the shoot. The cast and crew were so loyal to Bava they worked for free to finish the film—a film, by the way, which only had a 30-page script with no dialogue when filming commenced. Bava had the actors make up their own lines, preferring to resolve...
During the first half of the 60’s Mario Bava created several genuine horror classics that remain high-water marks in the genre over a half century later. Films such as Black Sunday (1960), Black Sabbath (1963), The Whip and the Body (1963), and Blood and Black Lace (1964) either pushed the boundaries of horror or helped to establish cinematic tropes still used in modern horror. Always saddled with shoestring budgets and bad deals, Bava nevertheless remained optimistic in the face of his cinematic struggles. A case in point is the troubled production of Kill, Baby…Kill! which ran out of money midway through the shoot. The cast and crew were so loyal to Bava they worked for free to finish the film—a film, by the way, which only had a 30-page script with no dialogue when filming commenced. Bava had the actors make up their own lines, preferring to resolve...
- 11/7/2017
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
What a great sales hook — a feature film with a Bernard Herrmann music score that we hadn’t heard of. And one of the writers was Martin Scorsese, before Boxcar Bertha and Mean Streets! But wait, it isn’t as simple as that. The new release is more than a little confusing. Its own ad copy first calls this Dutch production ‘obscure,’ and not four sentences later describes it as a ‘classic exploitation film.’
Obsessions
Blu-ray + DVD
Cult Epics
1969 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame (should be widescreen) / 91 min. / Bezeten – Het gat in de muur / Street Date May 9, 2017 / 34.95
Starring: Alexandra Stewart, Dieter Geissler, Tom van Beek, Donald Jones, Elisabeth Versluys, Marijke Boonstra, Vibeke, Michael Krebs, Hasmig Terveen, Fons Rademakers, Victoria Naelin, Adrian Brine, Sara Heyblom.
Cinematography: Frans Bromet, Hubertus Hagen
Film Editor: Henri Rust
Original Music: Bernard Herrmann
Written by Pim de la Parra, Wim Verstappen, Martin Scorsese
Produced by Pim de la Parra,...
Obsessions
Blu-ray + DVD
Cult Epics
1969 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame (should be widescreen) / 91 min. / Bezeten – Het gat in de muur / Street Date May 9, 2017 / 34.95
Starring: Alexandra Stewart, Dieter Geissler, Tom van Beek, Donald Jones, Elisabeth Versluys, Marijke Boonstra, Vibeke, Michael Krebs, Hasmig Terveen, Fons Rademakers, Victoria Naelin, Adrian Brine, Sara Heyblom.
Cinematography: Frans Bromet, Hubertus Hagen
Film Editor: Henri Rust
Original Music: Bernard Herrmann
Written by Pim de la Parra, Wim Verstappen, Martin Scorsese
Produced by Pim de la Parra,...
- 7/15/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Rome Open City, Paisan, Germany Year Zero: Filmed mostly on the streets in newly-liberated territory, Roberto Rossellini’s gripping war-related shows are blessed with new restorations but still reflect their rough origins. The second picture, the greater masterpiece, looks as if it were improvised out of sheer artistic will.
Roberto Rosselini’s War Trilogy
Rome Open City, Paisan, Germany Year Zero
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 500 (497, 498, 499)
1945-1948 / B&W / 1:37 & 1:33 flat full frame / 302 minutes / Street Date July 11, 2017 / available from the Criterion Collection 79.96
Starring: Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani; Dots Johnson, Harriet White Medin; Edmund Moeschke, Franz-Otto Krüger.
Cinematography: Ubaldo Arata; Otello Martelli; Robert Julliard.
Film Editor: Eraldo Da Roma
Original Music: Renzo Rossellini
Written by Sergio Amidei, Alberto Consiglio, Federico Fellini; Klaus Mann, Marcello Pagliero, Alfred Hayes, Vasco Pratolini; Max Kolpé, Carlo Lizzani.
Directed by Roberto Rossellini
Criterion released an identical-for-content DVD set of this trilogy in 2010; the new Blu-ray...
Roberto Rosselini’s War Trilogy
Rome Open City, Paisan, Germany Year Zero
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 500 (497, 498, 499)
1945-1948 / B&W / 1:37 & 1:33 flat full frame / 302 minutes / Street Date July 11, 2017 / available from the Criterion Collection 79.96
Starring: Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani; Dots Johnson, Harriet White Medin; Edmund Moeschke, Franz-Otto Krüger.
Cinematography: Ubaldo Arata; Otello Martelli; Robert Julliard.
Film Editor: Eraldo Da Roma
Original Music: Renzo Rossellini
Written by Sergio Amidei, Alberto Consiglio, Federico Fellini; Klaus Mann, Marcello Pagliero, Alfred Hayes, Vasco Pratolini; Max Kolpé, Carlo Lizzani.
Directed by Roberto Rossellini
Criterion released an identical-for-content DVD set of this trilogy in 2010; the new Blu-ray...
- 6/19/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
By Darren Allison
It’s been a very long time since I last sat down to watch Caltiki - The Immortal Monster. It was back in a time when like-minded friends would exchange and trade (decidedly dodgy) VHS copies of obscure monster movies such as this. The term ‘dodgy’ of course is used in retrospect; at the time they were pure gold dust, a rare opportunity to watch something which was out of reach to mainstream admirers. You needed to put in the leg work and research, but becoming part of that community offered so many rich rewards.
Today, it’s a society that has basically become redundant. There is simply little demand for an ‘under the counter’ or private exchange community. Instead we appear to be rather satisfied, accepting and respectful of the efforts provided by the speciality labels. To a large degree, the industry has taken over the...
It’s been a very long time since I last sat down to watch Caltiki - The Immortal Monster. It was back in a time when like-minded friends would exchange and trade (decidedly dodgy) VHS copies of obscure monster movies such as this. The term ‘dodgy’ of course is used in retrospect; at the time they were pure gold dust, a rare opportunity to watch something which was out of reach to mainstream admirers. You needed to put in the leg work and research, but becoming part of that community offered so many rich rewards.
Today, it’s a society that has basically become redundant. There is simply little demand for an ‘under the counter’ or private exchange community. Instead we appear to be rather satisfied, accepting and respectful of the efforts provided by the speciality labels. To a large degree, the industry has taken over the...
- 5/8/2017
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Tuesday, April 25th boasts an array of diverse Blu-ray and DVD offerings with a great assortment titles both new and old. Lionsgate is releasing one of the best zombie films I’ve seen as of late, The Girl With All the Gifts, on both formats, and the most recent sequel in the Underworld franchise, Blood Wars, arrives this week on 4K Blu-ray, as well as the typical Blu and DVD discs, too.
Scream Factory is resurrecting both The Screaming Skull and I Bury the Living on Blu this Tuesday, and Arrow Video has put together a fantastic 2-Disc Special Edition set for Caltiki The Immortal Monster that fans definitely will want to pick up.
Other notable titles coming home on April 25th include a special edition release of The Vampire Bat, Mean Dreams, Detour, From Hell It Came, and Psycho Cop Returns.
Caltiki The Immortal Monster: 2-Disc Special Edition (Arrow Video,...
Scream Factory is resurrecting both The Screaming Skull and I Bury the Living on Blu this Tuesday, and Arrow Video has put together a fantastic 2-Disc Special Edition set for Caltiki The Immortal Monster that fans definitely will want to pick up.
Other notable titles coming home on April 25th include a special edition release of The Vampire Bat, Mean Dreams, Detour, From Hell It Came, and Psycho Cop Returns.
Caltiki The Immortal Monster: 2-Disc Special Edition (Arrow Video,...
- 4/25/2017
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
It creeps and leaps and slides and glides along the wall… and then it eats your face, dude. Mario Bava and Riccardo Freda’s ultimate monster mastication epic now looks sensationally gory, thanks to a full restoration. Arrow’s disc has pretty much everything, including two transfers and two audio commentaries. And Savant has a guilty admission to make — it was the tripe, the whole tripe, and nothing but the tripe.
Caltiki, The Immortal Monster
Blu-ray + DVD
Arrow Video USA
1959 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 76 min. / Caltiki, il mostro immortale / Street Date April 11, 2017 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95
Starring: John Merivale, Didi Sullivan (Perego), Gérard Haerter, Daniela Rocca, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Daniele Vargas, Arturo Dominici, Gay Pearl
Cinematography: John Foam (Mario Bava)
Special Effects: Mario Bava
Film Editor: Mario Serandrei
Original Music: Roberto Nicolosi
Written by Filippo Sanjust
Produced by Bruno Vailati
Directed by Robert Hamton (Riccardo Freda) & Mario Bava
Who says that Blu-ray is dying?...
Caltiki, The Immortal Monster
Blu-ray + DVD
Arrow Video USA
1959 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 76 min. / Caltiki, il mostro immortale / Street Date April 11, 2017 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95
Starring: John Merivale, Didi Sullivan (Perego), Gérard Haerter, Daniela Rocca, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Daniele Vargas, Arturo Dominici, Gay Pearl
Cinematography: John Foam (Mario Bava)
Special Effects: Mario Bava
Film Editor: Mario Serandrei
Original Music: Roberto Nicolosi
Written by Filippo Sanjust
Produced by Bruno Vailati
Directed by Robert Hamton (Riccardo Freda) & Mario Bava
Who says that Blu-ray is dying?...
- 4/22/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Arrow Video isn't playing any April Fools' Day joke on horror and thriller fans with their Blu-ray releases for next month, which include the respective House: Two Stories (previously scheduled for a March 21st release) and Donnie Darko box sets, Wolf Guy, Caltiki the Immortal Monster, and more.
Press Release: Mvd Entertainment Group furthers the distribution of Arrow Video in the Us with several titles for April 2017. On April 18th comes The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave (Blu-ray and DVD) and The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (Blu-ray and DVD), two giallo chillers from director Emilio P. Miraglia which were previously only available in the limited edition box set entitled Killer Dames. Miraglian blends the grisly whodunnit of the giallo with gothic and supernatural elements to create some truly unique chills in tales of revenge from beyond the grave and killer curses.
One of Emilio P. Miraglia's supernatural,...
Press Release: Mvd Entertainment Group furthers the distribution of Arrow Video in the Us with several titles for April 2017. On April 18th comes The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave (Blu-ray and DVD) and The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (Blu-ray and DVD), two giallo chillers from director Emilio P. Miraglia which were previously only available in the limited edition box set entitled Killer Dames. Miraglian blends the grisly whodunnit of the giallo with gothic and supernatural elements to create some truly unique chills in tales of revenge from beyond the grave and killer curses.
One of Emilio P. Miraglia's supernatural,...
- 3/7/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
It is said that stars do not need scripts or mere stories to thoroughly inhabit a motion picture. Histories without language, or even thought, quiver behind their eyes. Their presence—ineffable, diaphanous, seductive—provides the audience a beacon to follow a prefabricated narrative to its only meaningful conclusion. Outside the realm of this splendid cosmology, movies that rely on actors and 'acting,' the common tools of theater, tend to miss the mark when these metaphysics come into play.There are eyes that photograph as soulful, as opposed to merely expressive—allowing the onlooker a glimpse into the funnel end of eternity. Think Robert Mitchum and Humphrey Bogart, whose eyes invite inquiry into the unwritten histories behind them. If the eyes are the windows of the soul, great movie stars are constantly defenestrating their spirit essence right down the lens. Joan Crawford could scrub bathtubs by merely gazing at them.
- 11/29/2016
- MUBI
While horror films have been dominated by American directors and films, most casual horror fans seem to forget that some of the most unique, frightening and innovative horror films spawned from countries other than the Us. Italy of course played a great part in this, bringing forth some of the most innovative directors. Started by Mario Bava (“Black Sabbath” 1963) and Riccardo Freda (“The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock” 1962) in the 60s, who inspired a list of great directors such as Dario Argento (“Profondo Rosso” 1975), Lucio Fulci (“The Beyond” 1981), Michele Soavi (“Deliria” 1987), Pupi Avati (“The House With the Laughing Windows” 1976), Lamberto Bava (“Demons” 1985) as well as the more exploitative cinema of Ruggero Deodato (“Cannibal Holocaust” 1980), Umberto Lenzi (“Cannibal Ferox” 1981)...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 9/24/2016
- Screen Anarchy
"Death will take you as you sleep! A sleep as deep as Death!" Barbara Steele doesn't realize that her husband is using her to recover a forbidden sexual thrill. Riccardo Freda's film plays games with Alfred Hitchcock's filmography, but it also generates a Euro-horror spell like no other. Outrageous in 1962, it was a Technicolor ode to funereal surrealism. New in this review -- a crazy theory that might upend story assumptions about L'orribile segreto del Dr. Hichcock. The Horrible Dr. Hichcock Blu-ray Olive Films 1962 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 77 88 min. / Street Date September 13, 2016 / L'orribile segreto del Dr. Hichcock; Raptus The Secret of Dr. Hichcock, The Terror of Dr. Hichcock / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98 Starring Barbara Steele, Robert Flemyng, Montgomery Glenn (SIlvano Tranquili), Teresa Fitzgerald (Maria Teresa Vianello), Harriet White (Harriet White Medin), Spencer Williams, All Christianson, Evar SImpson, Nat Harley. Cinematography Donald Green (Rafaele Masciocchi) Film Editor Donna Christie...
- 9/12/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Luis Buñuel's most direct film about revolutionary politics brandishes few if any surreal touches in its clash between French star Gérard Philipe and the Mexican legend María Félix. Borrowing the climax of the opera Tosca, it's an intelligent study of how not to effect change in a corrupt political regime. La fièvre monte à El Pao Region A+B Blu-ray + Pal DVD Pathé (Fr) 1959 / B&W / 1:37 flat (should be 1:66 widescreen) / 96 min. / Los Ambiciosos; "Fever Mounts at El Pao" / Street Date December 4, 2013 / available at Amazon France / Eur 26,27 Starring Gérard Philipe, María Félix, Jean Servais, M.A. Soler, Raúl Dantés, Domingo Soler, Víctor Junco, Roberto Cañedo, Enrique Lucero, Pilar Pellicer, David Reynoso, Andrés Soler. Cinematography Gabriel Figueroa Assistant Director Juan Luis Buñuel Original Music Paul Misraki Written by Luis Buñuel, Luis Alcoriza, Charles Dorat, Louis Sapin from a novel by Henri Castillou Produced by Jacques Bar, Óscar Dancigers, Gregorio Walerstein...
- 5/21/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
What is this -- a naughty sex odyssey as absurdist art? Or a non-pc slice of sleazy art film exploitation? Either way it's a (minor) Polanski masterpiece of direction, influenced by the Italian setting. Is what turns Polanski on? The entire excercise is a Kafka comedy of erotic discomfort. What? Blu-ray Severin 1972 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 110 min. / Che? / Street Date April 26, 2016 / 29.95 Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Sydne Rome, Hugh Griffith, Guido Alberti, Gianfranco Piacentini, Romollo Valli. Cinematography Marcello Gatti, Giuseppe Ruzzolini Production Design Aurelio Crugnola Film Editor Alastair McIntyre Original Music Claudio Gizzi Written by Gérard Brach, Roman Polanski Produced by Carlo Ponti Directed by Roman Polanski
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
It's a slippery slope, I tell you: art films are the gateway to surrealism, and surrealism connects straight to bondage and kinky costume play, which is a direct conduit either to Comic-Con or being forced to resign from the P.T.A.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
It's a slippery slope, I tell you: art films are the gateway to surrealism, and surrealism connects straight to bondage and kinky costume play, which is a direct conduit either to Comic-Con or being forced to resign from the P.T.A.
- 5/7/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Here's where angels sit down to weep next to devils -- the often-brilliant Guillermo del Toro's big Gothic romance / gory ghost epic looks mighty fancy but is a mess in too many ways to count. Say it Ain't So, Guillermo! Crimson Peak Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD Universal / Legendary 2015 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 119 min. / Street Date February 9, 2016 / 34.98 Starring Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, Jim Beaver. Cinematography Dan Laustsen Film Editor Bernat Vilaplana Original Music Fernando Velásquez Written by Guillermo del Toro, Matthew Robbins Produced by Guillermo del Toro, Callum Greene, Jon Jashni, Thomas Tull Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Quite the wonder child of fantasy and horror, Guillermo del Toro has made near masterpieces in the Spanish language but not fared as well breaking through the Hollywood blockbuster barrier. His top-grossing American film might be Blade II. His equally talented compatriot Alfonso Cuarón has...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Quite the wonder child of fantasy and horror, Guillermo del Toro has made near masterpieces in the Spanish language but not fared as well breaking through the Hollywood blockbuster barrier. His top-grossing American film might be Blade II. His equally talented compatriot Alfonso Cuarón has...
- 2/2/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Above: Pedro Costa's Horse Money
The Locarno Film Festival has announced their lineup for the 67th edition, taking place this August between the 6th and 16th. It speaks for itself, but, um, wow...
"Every film festival, be it small or large, claims to offer, if not an account of the state of things, then an updated map of the art form and the world it seeks to represent. This cartography should show both the major routes and the byways, along with essential places to visit and those that are more unusual. The Festival del film Locarno is no exception to the rule, and I think that looking through the program you will be able to distinguish the route map for this edition." — Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director
Above: Matías Piñeiro's The Princess of France
Concorso Internazionale (Official Competition)
A Blast (Syllas Tzoumerkas, Greece/Germany/Netherlands)
Alive (Jungbum Park, South Korea)
Horse Money (Pedro Costa,...
The Locarno Film Festival has announced their lineup for the 67th edition, taking place this August between the 6th and 16th. It speaks for itself, but, um, wow...
"Every film festival, be it small or large, claims to offer, if not an account of the state of things, then an updated map of the art form and the world it seeks to represent. This cartography should show both the major routes and the byways, along with essential places to visit and those that are more unusual. The Festival del film Locarno is no exception to the rule, and I think that looking through the program you will be able to distinguish the route map for this edition." — Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director
Above: Matías Piñeiro's The Princess of France
Concorso Internazionale (Official Competition)
A Blast (Syllas Tzoumerkas, Greece/Germany/Netherlands)
Alive (Jungbum Park, South Korea)
Horse Money (Pedro Costa,...
- 7/25/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Euro Horror is a very pleasurable genre in which to be steeped. I am ridiculously proud to be a Euro horror fan in the way that some people follow a football team, or a style of music. This is why I produce so many articles on the genre. Enthusiasm is infectious, and if my article provokes just one reader to buy a copy of The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue, my work here at WhatCulture is achieved.
Cannibal Holocaust is maybe one of the top five Euro Cult Horror films, but I have written about it so often, I am not going to bore you again by going over the same old territory. In this article, I have picked some critically acclaimed stalwarts of the Euro Horror genre which will hopefully make an interesting read for you.
Please give your feedback below.
10. Bloody Pit Of Horror (1965)
Directed by Massimo Pupillo,...
Cannibal Holocaust is maybe one of the top five Euro Cult Horror films, but I have written about it so often, I am not going to bore you again by going over the same old territory. In this article, I have picked some critically acclaimed stalwarts of the Euro Horror genre which will hopefully make an interesting read for you.
Please give your feedback below.
10. Bloody Pit Of Horror (1965)
Directed by Massimo Pupillo,...
- 10/6/2013
- by Clare Simpson
- Obsessed with Film
Mario Sesti programmes retrospective and preview strand in new museum Maxxi.
The Rome Film Festival (Nov 8 -17) is renewing Cinema at Maxxi, the series of film events curated by Mario Sesti.
Before the festival, between September 14 – November 6, recently launched museum Maxxi (the National Museum of 21st Century Arts) will host retrospectives, meetings with actors and directors, lectures and previews of documentaries and features.
Series The Forgotten will offer a retrospective of classics spanning postwar Italian cinema to the end of the seventies, opening with Pietro Germi’s Divorce Italian Style (Divorzio all’Italiana), followed by a conversation with Italian actor and director Carlo Verdone and curator Mario Sesti.
The strand will also include films by Mario Monicelli, Antonio Pietrangeli, Riccardo Freda, and Steno among others.
Doc series Meet Exceptional Men and Women launches with Girl Models, by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin. The festival’s preview series will include Alicia Scherson’s The Future with Rutger Hauer and Nicholas...
The Rome Film Festival (Nov 8 -17) is renewing Cinema at Maxxi, the series of film events curated by Mario Sesti.
Before the festival, between September 14 – November 6, recently launched museum Maxxi (the National Museum of 21st Century Arts) will host retrospectives, meetings with actors and directors, lectures and previews of documentaries and features.
Series The Forgotten will offer a retrospective of classics spanning postwar Italian cinema to the end of the seventies, opening with Pietro Germi’s Divorce Italian Style (Divorzio all’Italiana), followed by a conversation with Italian actor and director Carlo Verdone and curator Mario Sesti.
The strand will also include films by Mario Monicelli, Antonio Pietrangeli, Riccardo Freda, and Steno among others.
Doc series Meet Exceptional Men and Women launches with Girl Models, by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin. The festival’s preview series will include Alicia Scherson’s The Future with Rutger Hauer and Nicholas...
- 8/6/2013
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
While not as high-profile or prolific as some legendary Italian horror/thriller auteurs we've covered on these pages, director Emilio Miraglia has developed a bit of a cult following, mainly due to a pair of creepy and twisty films: the 1972 release The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, and this oddity from the previous year. I picked this one for today's feature, not because it's the better-made of the two – Red Queen is a slicker production, much closer in style and tone to the popular gialli of the period – but because Evelyn is so defiantly weird, and also to emphasize the strange beauty of co-star Erika Blanc. Fans of Euro-horror are already familiar with Erika's work – which includes a breakout role in Mario Bava's Kill, Baby, Kill! and a knockout performance as a sexy but terrifying succubus in the occult thriller The Devil's Nightmare. Her role in this film is nearly as memorable,...
- 3/29/2013
- by Gregory Burkart
- FEARnet
Fans of Lamberto Bava’s classic 80’s splatter-fests Demons and Demons 2 – listen up! You officially have permission to perform a jig of happiness as the UK’s Arrow Video announce brand new DVD, Blu-ray and Steelbook editions of Both flicks in feature-packed editions as badass as Bobby Rhodes himself! Hell. Fucking. Yes.
Alongside the films themselves, each package also contains a part of the brand new comic book sequel, Demons 3. Are you ready? Check this out!
From the Press Release
Arrow Films is pleased to announce the limited edition deluxe versions of Lamberto Bava and Dario Argento’s blood-curdling zombie horror classics Demons and Demons 2 - released as Blu-ray, DVD and Steelbook editions, alongside Demons 3, an exclusive and specially commissioned comic book by Stefan Hutchinson. All formats are released in the UK on Monday April 30th.
Restored from the original camera negatives by Cineteca di Bologna, these highly...
Alongside the films themselves, each package also contains a part of the brand new comic book sequel, Demons 3. Are you ready? Check this out!
From the Press Release
Arrow Films is pleased to announce the limited edition deluxe versions of Lamberto Bava and Dario Argento’s blood-curdling zombie horror classics Demons and Demons 2 - released as Blu-ray, DVD and Steelbook editions, alongside Demons 3, an exclusive and specially commissioned comic book by Stefan Hutchinson. All formats are released in the UK on Monday April 30th.
Restored from the original camera negatives by Cineteca di Bologna, these highly...
- 3/21/2012
- by Pestilence
- DreadCentral.com
Anna Magnani in (what looks like) Luchino Visconti's Bellissima At the end of Giuseppe Tornatore's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner Cinema Paradiso, small-town projectionist Philippe Noiret has died and the Nuovo Cinema Paradiso has become a pile of rubble. The bratty Italian boy Salvatore Cascio has grown into the classy Frenchman Jacques Perrin (like Noiret, dubbed in Italian), a filmmaker who sits to watch a mysterious reel of film the deceased projectionist had left him. It turns out the reel contains clips from films censored by the prudish local parish priest, whose family values found kisses, embraces, and bare breasts and legs a danger to society. Now, who's doing all that kissing, embracing, and breast/leg-displaying in that film reel? (Please scroll down for the Cinema Paradiso clip.) Here are the ones I recognize: Silvana Mangano and Vittorio Gassman in Giuseppe De Santis' Bitter Rice (1949); Mangano...
- 2/14/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Directed by: Riccardo Freda
Written by: Antonio Cesare Corti, Riccardo Freda, Simon Mizrahi, Fabio Piccioni
Cast: Stefano Patrizi, Martine Brochard, Henri Garcin, Laura Gemser, Anita Strindberg, John Richardson, Silvia Dionisio
While shooting a violent murder scene on a horror movie set, actor Michael (Stefano Patrizi) nearly chokes his co-star Beryl (Black Emanuelle Laura Gemser) to death in an uncontrollable rage.
Fortunately for Michael, it's his last scene before taking a break to visit his estranged mother, Glenda (genre vet Anita Strindberg), for a long weekend. The troubled thespian brings along his girlfriend, Deborah (Silvia Dionisio), to the old family mansion, a place he hasn't seen in years. They are greeted by creepy butler Oliver (John Richardson), who divulges to Michael that his mother is very ill but doesn't want him to know.
Once the pair have been shown to their separate rooms, Michael is reunited with sickly Glenda, who seems...
Written by: Antonio Cesare Corti, Riccardo Freda, Simon Mizrahi, Fabio Piccioni
Cast: Stefano Patrizi, Martine Brochard, Henri Garcin, Laura Gemser, Anita Strindberg, John Richardson, Silvia Dionisio
While shooting a violent murder scene on a horror movie set, actor Michael (Stefano Patrizi) nearly chokes his co-star Beryl (Black Emanuelle Laura Gemser) to death in an uncontrollable rage.
Fortunately for Michael, it's his last scene before taking a break to visit his estranged mother, Glenda (genre vet Anita Strindberg), for a long weekend. The troubled thespian brings along his girlfriend, Deborah (Silvia Dionisio), to the old family mansion, a place he hasn't seen in years. They are greeted by creepy butler Oliver (John Richardson), who divulges to Michael that his mother is very ill but doesn't want him to know.
Once the pair have been shown to their separate rooms, Michael is reunited with sickly Glenda, who seems...
- 2/4/2012
- by Bradley Harding
- Planet Fury
It’s time for another update from our friends at Arrow Video, this time previewing their April 2012 releases which include the long-awaited release of the two Demons movies and the ArrowDrome release of Maniac Cop.
Demons (Arrow Video) Limited Edition Blu-ray
Live and direct, straight from Hell! Lamberto Bava and Dario Argento bring you The Gonzo Horror movie of the 1980s with Demons, a frenzied slice of gore heavy shock cinema that gives up on logic and instead assaults the screen with a riot of X-Rated violence, face chewing Zombies and pounding Heavy Metal. In a mysterious cinema, an audience are watching a brutal horror flick when the horror rips out of the screen, unleashing a swarm of slathering Demons who are intent on spreading their evil plague across the globe.
Time to tool up and take no prisoners… The Demons are coming!
This Amazing Edition Includes:
Four option reversible...
Demons (Arrow Video) Limited Edition Blu-ray
Live and direct, straight from Hell! Lamberto Bava and Dario Argento bring you The Gonzo Horror movie of the 1980s with Demons, a frenzied slice of gore heavy shock cinema that gives up on logic and instead assaults the screen with a riot of X-Rated violence, face chewing Zombies and pounding Heavy Metal. In a mysterious cinema, an audience are watching a brutal horror flick when the horror rips out of the screen, unleashing a swarm of slathering Demons who are intent on spreading their evil plague across the globe.
Time to tool up and take no prisoners… The Demons are coming!
This Amazing Edition Includes:
Four option reversible...
- 1/27/2012
- by Phil
- Nerdly
Hailed by cinephiles for expertly restoring rare films by influential filmmakers and publishing them with compelling extras, Italian DVD label RaroVideo announces two rare horror titles slated for release on December 6th: Lamberto Bava's Body Puzzle and Riccardo Freda's Murder Obsession.
Lamberto Bava’s Body Puzzle tells the tragic and increasingly morbid story of the lovely widow Tracy (Gorky Park’s Joanna Pacula). Not only has her famous pianist husband Abe died in an auto accident, but someone keeps breaking into her house and leaving severed body parts lying around. A candy store owner is gutted, a poor woman has her hand lopped off in a public bathroom, a young swimmer is castrated, and so on. The investigating police officer, Michael (The Church’s Tomas Arana), strikes up a hot and heavy romance with her to keep Tracy’s mind off the rapidly accumulating trophies. Michael’s supervising...
Lamberto Bava’s Body Puzzle tells the tragic and increasingly morbid story of the lovely widow Tracy (Gorky Park’s Joanna Pacula). Not only has her famous pianist husband Abe died in an auto accident, but someone keeps breaking into her house and leaving severed body parts lying around. A candy store owner is gutted, a poor woman has her hand lopped off in a public bathroom, a young swimmer is castrated, and so on. The investigating police officer, Michael (The Church’s Tomas Arana), strikes up a hot and heavy romance with her to keep Tracy’s mind off the rapidly accumulating trophies. Michael’s supervising...
- 11/30/2011
- by The Woman In Black
- DreadCentral.com
After years of watching horror movie magazines wither on the vine, I’m surprised, and pleased, to find a new publication aimed at old school horror fans. Diabolique is a new full color magazine takes a scholarly perspective of the genre of Gothic horror in film, literature and art from around the world. While its approach to horror film journalism is more cerebral than something like Fangoria, the writing isn’t overly academic and it makes for a read that is both fun and informative. I was thoroughly impressed by the high quality of both the articles and overall layout of this outstanding new mag that’s filled with film reviews, articles on classic horror and foreign horror, details on a couple of ground breaking directors, and more. Issue #5 was the review copy I was given and the highlights for me in this issue were:
Barbara Steele: The Gothic...
Barbara Steele: The Gothic...
- 8/1/2011
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Since The Last Lovecraft: The Relic of Cthulhu just made its Slamdance Festival debut, I thought it would be proper to dedicate this Video Vault to a few noteworthy Lovecraftian horror flicks. Caltiki – The Immortal Monster, 1959 One of the earliest Lovecraftian horror efforts, directed by Riccardo Freda, with a then unknown Mario Bava (credited as John Foam) doing cinematography. Freda claimed that Bava did most of the directing uncredited. In Caltiki, archaeologists encounter a blob-like monster while exploring Mayan ruins. The team attempts to connect the monster with a comet that passed near earth at the time the Mayan civilization [...]
Post from: Screamstress...
Post from: Screamstress...
- 1/31/2010
- by Alison
- Screamstress.com
Proving yet again that Lucio Fulci didn’t make movies like anybody else, his Cat In The Brain (a.k.a. Nightmare Concert, coming in a two-dvd set March 31 from Grindhouse) is a difficult movie to nail down into a single genre. With almost equal parts psychological horror, faux self-documentary awareness and enough stock footage from the director’s previous films to almost make this movie feel like a clip reel, it is both a self-reflexive statement on the illusion machine known as cinema and an intellectual fart unleashed in a crowded elevator.
From the opening scene of a literal cat tearing its way through Fulci’s fevered brain to the final shot of the maestro sailing away with a young beauty on a yacht christened the Perversion, this film is a head-scratcher. So while this would be a terrible place for a Fulci neophyte to begin exploring, for those...
From the opening scene of a literal cat tearing its way through Fulci’s fevered brain to the final shot of the maestro sailing away with a young beauty on a yacht christened the Perversion, this film is a head-scratcher. So while this would be a terrible place for a Fulci neophyte to begin exploring, for those...
- 2/23/2009
- Fangoria
Fango heard from filmmaker/DVD producer David Gregory, who gave us the scoop on a new disc he’s working on for Severin Films. “We’ve picked up the rights to EXPOSÉ, a.k.a. House On Straw Hill, with Udo Kier and Linda Hayden,” he tells us.
The 1976 chiller, written and directed by James Kenelm Clarke, stars Fango fave Kier as a writer who retreats to a remote house in the British countryside to work on his new novel, accompanied by a secretary (Hayden) who turns out to have a dark side. “We will most likely release the DVD under the U.S. House title,” Gregory says, “though it’s better known to me and my UK-based Severin partner Carl Daft as EXPOSÉ, the title under which it was banned in England. We have a soft, nostalgic spot for any film that was tagged as a ‘Video Nasty’ in...
The 1976 chiller, written and directed by James Kenelm Clarke, stars Fango fave Kier as a writer who retreats to a remote house in the British countryside to work on his new novel, accompanied by a secretary (Hayden) who turns out to have a dark side. “We will most likely release the DVD under the U.S. House title,” Gregory says, “though it’s better known to me and my UK-based Severin partner Carl Daft as EXPOSÉ, the title under which it was banned in England. We have a soft, nostalgic spot for any film that was tagged as a ‘Video Nasty’ in...
- 12/23/2008
- Fangoria
Monday night, watched a 1959 movie called Venezia, la luna e tu (‘Venice, the Moon and You’), in which Alberto Sordi played a gondolier who – you’ve guessed it – gets involved with two silly foreign girls. With only Tonino Delli Colli’s colour photography to recommend it, the main surprise of the film was in seeing Sordi, Nino Manfredi, and director Dino Risi – all of whom, a year or so later, became leading figures in the commedia all’italiana movement which cast a critical eye on contemporary mores in a changing Italy – caught up in such an inconsequential piece of fluff.
Tuesday morning: As there was nothing kicking off on the Lido till the evening, I caught a vaporetto over to Dorsoduro and made my way to the church of San Nicolò dei Mendicoli, which Donald Sutherland worked so hard to restore in Don’t Look Now. Obviously, whoever took over...
Tuesday morning: As there was nothing kicking off on the Lido till the evening, I caught a vaporetto over to Dorsoduro and made my way to the church of San Nicolò dei Mendicoli, which Donald Sutherland worked so hard to restore in Don’t Look Now. Obviously, whoever took over...
- 9/1/2007
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
ROME -- Producer Carlo Ponti, one of the forces behind Italy's post-war film renaissance and the long-time husband of Italian film legend Sophia Loren, died early Wednesday at the age of 94.
Ponti produced more than 100 films during a career that spanned nearly 60 years. Among his most famous productions were David Lean's Doctor Zhivago(1965), Federico Fellini's La Strada (1954) and Vittorio De Sica's 1960 classic La Ciociara (Two Women), for which Loren won the 1962 Oscar for best actress.
"His was a life dedicated to cinema," Loren and her two sons, Carlo and Edoardo, said in a statement. "Surrounded by the love of his family, Carlo Ponti passed away serenely at the age of 94 during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva's hospital."
Ponti, who had been in relatively good health until December, had been admitted to the Geneva hospital on New Year's Eve for lung problems.
Ponti got his start in the industry distributing films in Milan during World War II. He produced a few small films during the war and immediately afterward, but began to make a name for himself with director Riccardo Freda's 1948 production of Les Miserables.
Ponti met Loren, named Sophia Villani Scicolone at the time, during a beauty contest in Naples in the 1950s and persuaded her to change her name to Sophia Loren and begin studying acting and English. They were married in 1957.
In 1956, La Strada, which he co-produced, won the Academy Award for best foreign film, as did Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow in 1964.
But it was his affair with the young ingenue Loren that captivated the public, rather than his work with top filmmakers such as Dino De Laurentiis, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Peter Ustinov, David Lean and Roman Polanski.
"I have done everything for love of Sophia," he said in a newspaper interview shortly before his 90th birthday in 2002.
Ponti produced more than 100 films during a career that spanned nearly 60 years. Among his most famous productions were David Lean's Doctor Zhivago(1965), Federico Fellini's La Strada (1954) and Vittorio De Sica's 1960 classic La Ciociara (Two Women), for which Loren won the 1962 Oscar for best actress.
"His was a life dedicated to cinema," Loren and her two sons, Carlo and Edoardo, said in a statement. "Surrounded by the love of his family, Carlo Ponti passed away serenely at the age of 94 during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva's hospital."
Ponti, who had been in relatively good health until December, had been admitted to the Geneva hospital on New Year's Eve for lung problems.
Ponti got his start in the industry distributing films in Milan during World War II. He produced a few small films during the war and immediately afterward, but began to make a name for himself with director Riccardo Freda's 1948 production of Les Miserables.
Ponti met Loren, named Sophia Villani Scicolone at the time, during a beauty contest in Naples in the 1950s and persuaded her to change her name to Sophia Loren and begin studying acting and English. They were married in 1957.
In 1956, La Strada, which he co-produced, won the Academy Award for best foreign film, as did Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow in 1964.
But it was his affair with the young ingenue Loren that captivated the public, rather than his work with top filmmakers such as Dino De Laurentiis, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Peter Ustinov, David Lean and Roman Polanski.
"I have done everything for love of Sophia," he said in a newspaper interview shortly before his 90th birthday in 2002.
- 1/10/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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