Videodrome

release date: 24th October 2022

 

Combining the bio-horror elements of his earlier films whilst anticipating the technological themes of his later work, Videodrome exemplifies David Cronenberg’s extraordinary talent for making both visceral and cerebral cinema. Max Renn (James Woods) is looking for fresh new content for his TV channel when he happens across some illegal S&M style broadcasts called “Videodrome”. Embroiling his girlfriend Nick (Deborah Harry) in his search for the source, his journey begins to blur the lines between reality and fantasy as he works his way through sadomasochistic games, shady organisations and body transformations stunningly realised by Oscar-winning makeup effects artist Rick Baker. Hailed by his contemporaries John Carpenter (“he’s better than all of us combined!”) and Martin Scorsese (“no one makes films like he does”) as a genius, Videodrome was Cronenberg’s most mature work to date and still stands as one of his greatest.

 

•  Brand new 4K restorations from the original camera negative by Arrow Films of both the full-length director’s cut and the US theatrical cut, approved by director David Cronenberg 

  • 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) 

  • Original lossless mono soundtrack 

  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing 

  • Audio commentary by Tim Lucas, the on-set correspondent for Cinefantastique Magazine and author of Videodrome: Studies in the Horror Film 

  • David Cronenberg and the Cinema of the Extreme, a documentary featuring interviews with Cronenberg, George A. Romero and Alex Cox on Cronenberg’s cinema, censorship and the horror genre

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The Count Yorga Collection

release date: 24th October 2022

 

Count Yorga, Vampire was among the first to successfully transpose the classic vampire, cloak and all, to a modern day setting as the Count played unforgettably by Robert Quarry arrives in the United States and settles in a Southern California mansion with his mysterious “brides”. A drive-in favourite from the moment it was released, a sequel soon followed. The Return of Count Yorga ups the ante and sees the sardonic Count on the streets of San Francisco, his sights set on an orphanage as a potential source of sustenance.

 

• Brand new 2K restorations by Arrow Films of Count Yorga, Vampire and The Return of Count Yorga from new 4K scans of the original 35mm camera negatives

• High Definition Blu-Ray (1080p) presentations of both films

• Original lossless mono audio

• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Illustrated perfect bound collector’s book featuring new writing by film critic Kat Ellinger and horror author Stephen Laws, plus archive contributions by critic Frank Collins and filmmaker Tim Sullivan

• Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Heather Vaughan

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Lost Highway

release date: 31st October 2022

 

Mystery thriller directed and co-written by David Lynch. Saxophonist Fred Madison (Bill Pullman) receives a series of videos showing the exterior, then the interior, of the house he shares with his wife Renee (Patricia Arquette). Then, after meeting a mysterious man at a party, he receives another tape showing him with Renee’s dismembered corpse. Found guilty of her murder, Fred is put in prison, where he inexplicably transforms into another person – mechanic Pete Dayton (Balthazar Getty) – who is set free and goes to work for Mr Eddy (Robert Loggia), a gangster who is dating Alice (also Arquette), Renee’s blonde doppelganger.

 

 

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director David Lynch, with new 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack

• Alternate uncompressed stereo soundtrack

• For the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features

• Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch, a feature-length 1997 documentary by Toby Keeler featuring Lynch and his collaborators Angelo Badalamenti, Peter Deming, Barry Gifford, Mary Sweeney, and others, along with on-set footage from Lost Highway

• Reading by Lynch and critic Kristine McKenna of excerpts from their 2018 book, Room to Dream

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Dragons Forever

release date: 31st October 2022

 

Hotshot lawyer Jackie Lung (Jackie Chan) is hired to defend the owner of a factory which, unbeknownst to him, is the centre of a clandestine narcotics syndicate. He enlists resourceful acquaintances Wong Fei-Hung (Sammo Hung) and Dung Dak-Biu (Yuen Biao) to assist in the case, but loyalties begin to falter when romance blossoms between both sides.

 

• Brand New 4K Remaster of the Original Hong Kong Version

• Remastered Cantonese Mono with Newly Translated Subtitles

• Remastered Cantonese 5.1 DTS-HD MA created exclusively for this release with Newly Translated Subtitles

• Classic English Dub Hybrid Audio [Golden Harvest soundtrack, filled with Fortune Star’s for sections not present in export version]

• Audio Commentary by Hong Kong cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema

• Benny Forever: Interview with Benny “The Jet” Urquidez

• The Legacy of Dragons Forever Featurette with todays actors & martial artists including Troy Sandford, Chris Jones, Ross Boyask, Maria Tran, Mike Leeder, Jean-Paul Ly, Mark Strange, Mike Moeller, George Clarke, Jude Poyer & Steve Lawson

• Hong Kong Cinema Forever: Interview with Mike Leeder

• Working with the Dragons: Interview with Jude Poyer

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Take Back The Night

release date: 10th October 2022

 

An allegorical story of violence against women and the dangers of victim-blaming wrapped in a classic monster movie, writer-director Gia Elliot takes no prisoners in her multi award-winning debut feature Take Back the Night. Finding herself the victim of a violent monster attack, Jane launches a vigilante campaign to hunt the beast that tried to kill her. But her troubling history of drug use and mental illness bubbles to the surface, causing her family, community and the authorities to question her account. Alone in her fight, Jane starts to doubt her own memory of the attack… and to wonder if the monster exists at all. Fuelled by formidable female talent both in front of and behind the camera, Take Back the Night is a terrifying suspense thriller that’s both an eye-opening exposé and a powerful rallying cry.

 

• High Definition Blu-Ray (1080p) presentation

• Original 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround audio

• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Audio commentary by writer-director Gia Elliot and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas author of Rape Revenge Films: A Critical Study

• Please Don’t Say the Word ‘Monster’ on National Television, a visual essay by film critic Emma Westwood

• Trauma and Space, a visual essay by film critic Cerise Howard exploring the idea of ‘safe spaces’, sanctuary and vulnerability in Take Back the Night

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Take Out – The Criterion Collection

release date: 17th October 2022

 

The American dream has rarely seemed so far away as in the raw, vérité Take Out, by SEAN BAKER (The Florida Project) and SHIH-CHING TSOU (producer, Tangerine), an immersion in the life of an undocumented Chinese immigrant struggling to get by on the margins of post 9/11 New York City. Facing violent retaliation from a loan shark, restaurant delivery man Ming Ding (CHARLES JANG) has until nightfall to pay back the money he owes, and he encounters both crushing setbacks and moments of unexpected humanity as he races against time to earn enough in tips over the course of a frantic day. From this simple setup, Baker and Tsou fashion a kind of neorealist survival thriller of the everyday, shedding compassionate light on the too often overlooked lives and labor that keep New York running.

 

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by directors Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack

• Audio commentary featuring Baker, Tsou, and actor Charles Jang

• New interviews with Baker, Tsou, Jang, and actors Wang-Thye Lee and Jeng-Hua Yu

• Program about the making of the film

• Deleted scenes

• Trailer

• New English subtitle translation

• PLUS: An essay by filmmaker and author J. J. Murphy

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Deathsport

release date: 17th October 2022

 

Making its UK Blu-ray debut, DEATHSPORT: a Roger Corman-produced, futuristic-gladiators-on-motorcycles B-movie classic from 1978, starring David Carradine. One thousand years in the future, following the Great Neutron Wars, the world is divided into desert wastelands and isolated city states. Lord Zirpola captures the notorious “death ranger” Kaz (David Carradine) to fight to the death in his game, Deathsport. Now Kaz must face his past, fight for his future, and save the city from the war that Lord Zirpola is getting ready to wage.

 

 

• Commentary with Co-Director Allan Arkush and Editor Larry Bock

• Theatrical Trailer

• TV Spot

• Radio Spot

• Still Gallery

• English Subtitles

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Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror

release date: 17th October 2022

 

While groundbreaking director Mario Bava (Black Sunday, Black Sabbath) remains the most well-known purveyor of Italian Gothic horror, many other filmmakers tried their hand at the form throughout the 1960s as part of a hugely prolific and popular cycle. Gothic Fantastico presents four off-the-beaten path titles from this classic period, all of which demonstrate Italy’s ability to expand genre beyond the classic literary monsters that dominated elsewhere. Madness, obsession and messed up families are the order of the day in these four lesser-known monochrome gems from Italy’s peak Gothic period, now fully restored in 2K from their original camera negatives for the first time and presented alongside an array of in-depth extras.

 

• Brand new 2K restorations from the original camera negatives of all four films

• High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentations of each film

• Original Italian and English front and end titles on The Blancheville Monster, The Third Eye and The Witch

• Original lossless mono Italian soundtracks on all four films

• Original lossless mono English soundtracks on The Blancheville Monster, The Third Eye and The Witch

• Optional English subtitles for the Italian soundtracks

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Righting Wrongs

release date: 24th October 2022

 

Lawyer Ha Ling-Ching (Yuen Biao), fed up with the failings of the justice system and the way it allows criminals off the hook, vows to take the law into his own hands after a key witness and his entire family are murdered. However, his plans are soon complicated when he finds hotshot detective Cindy Sze (Cynthia Rothrock) on his tail. Shot throughout with intrigue and action, this slick Hong Kong thriller rattles along magically in a satisfyingly explosive manner. In this DELUXE presentation, Righting Wrongs is a must for all serious collectors of martial arts mayhem.

 

• Slipcase with brand-new artwork from Sean Longmore

• Double-sided foldout Poster

• 6 Replica Lobby Cards

• 80-page perfect-bound book featuring exclusive interview with Karen Sheperd and new writing on the film by Matthew Edwards + selected archive materials

• Reversible sleeve with original Hong Kong poster artwork 

• Frank Djeng Commentary [HK cut]

• Cynthia Rothrock Tai Seng Commentary [HK cut]

• Cynthia Rothrock Interview

• Cynthia Rothrock Scene-specific Commentary

• Peter Cunningham Interview

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Two Witches

release date: 17th October 2022

 

With its super-saturated colour palette, tenebrous art design and electrifying soundtrack, Two Witches presents two truly terrifying conjoined tales of witchery, paranoia and terror that hark back to the gory thrills of classic Euro horrors such as Suspiria, Shock  and The Beyond. First-time feature director Pierre Tsigaridis, who also shot, edited and contributed to the film’s soundtrack, singles himself out as one to watch in a deft and unnerving depiction of unspeakable evil that truly delivers.

 

• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation

• Original lossless stereo audio and optional 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround audio

• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Brand new audio commentary by director, cinematographer and editor Pierre Tsigaridis

• Brand new audio commentary by producer Maxime Rancon

• Behind the Movie, a two-part behind-the-scenes featurette

• Interview with  actor and associate producer Dina Silva

• The Boogeywoman, an interview with actor Marina Parodi

• The Original Score, an interview with composer Gioacchino Marincola

• The Piano Score, director Pierre Tsigaridis talks about the inspiration behind the piano score for Two Witches

• Test footage

• Grimmfest 2021 Q&A with Pierre Tsigaridis and Maxime Rancon

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