A 70s TV horror classic, more Fassbinder, and Anthony Perkins as Dr Jekyll! (NEWS)
Arrow Video’s June lineup includes a demonic double disc of Lucio Fulci, the Blu-ray debut of a magnificent 1970s TV horror that’ll send shivers up your spine, the third volume of films from Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and a superb restoration of an Eighties Anthony Perkins gothic chiller that really delivers.
The releases will come in Arrow Video’s superb packaging, with fantastic restorations of the films, backed with a host of extras including brand new commentaries and video essays, limited edition booklets, and outstanding new sleeve artwork.
June sees the release of legendary director Lucio Fulci’s Demonia, on a Limited Edition 2-disc Blu-ray. Like many of his contemporaries, Godfather of Gore Lucio Fulci (City of the Living Dead, Don’t Torture a Duckling) found his career on a downturn at the end of the 1980s as the bottom fell out of the Italian horror movie market. While much of his latter-day output went straight to video, these low-budget productions nonetheless offer up some diamonds in the rough, among them this 1990 tale of rampaging Satanic Sisters, regarded by many as his last great film. Originally destined for a theatrical release, Demonia is a return to the atmosphere and gory excesses of Fulci’s late 70s/early 80s output – a no-holds-barred Satanic shocker co-starring Lino Salemme (Demons) and Al Cliver (Zombie Flesh Eaters) and co-written by Piero Regnoli (Burial Ground) – presented here in a pristine restoration and accompanied, in this exclusive limited edition, by the feature-length documentary Fulci Talks, assembled from an in-depth archival interview with the man himself!
Also in June, the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Vol. 3 box set. Fassbinder, the enfant terrible of the New German Cinema, wrote, directed, produced and starred in over 40 films in his short but prolific life, before passing away of a drugs overdose in 1982 aged just 37. Volume 3 brings together a collection of his lesser seen works from various stages in his career - The American Soldier, The Niklashausen Journey, Gods of the Plague, Rio Das Mortes, Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven, Satan’s Brew - with high definition digital restorations prepared by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation.
Satantic secrets and telekenetic terror combine in The Initiation of Sarah, a classic made-for-TV horror movie starring Kay Lenz, directed by Hammer Films alumnus Robert Day (She), from a story co-written by Tom Holland (Fright Night), featuring cinematography by Ric Waite (48 Hrs). Making its Blu-Ray debut with an all-new restoration by Arrow Films from the original camera negative, The Initiation of Sarah has never looked better and comes packed with all new bonus materials.
In Edge of Sanity, Anthony Perkins builds upon his legendary status as cinema’s seminal psycho in this delirious conflation of Robert Louis Stephenson’s classic horror novella ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ and Jack the Ripper’s real-life reign of terror over Victorian London. Produced by exploitation maestro Harry Alan Towers (The Face of Fu Manchu, Count Dracula) and directed with a hallucinogenic intensity by Gérard Kikoïne (Lady Libertine, Buried Alive), Edge of Sanity plunges the viewer into a labyrinth of depravity from which there is no escape. The release includes new interviews and a collector’s booklet.
Also announced, Tremors, the pulse-pounding love letter to 1950s creature features that delivers horror and humour in equal measure. It’s a bonafide cult classic that has grabbed audiences’ affections ever since its release and spawned a successful franchise that continues to this day. Bursting with indelible characters, quotable dialogue and jaw-dropping special effects, Tremors is back and bigger than ever in this 4K-restored and fully loaded dual format SteelBook edition, exclusive to Zavvi.
New Releases
Demonia
On Limited Edition Blu-ray 6 June
A Canadian archaeological team, led by Professor Evans (Brett Halsey, The Devil’s Honey), descends on the ruins of a mediaeval Sicilian monastery to undertake an excavation. But when Evans’ protégé, Liza (Meg Register, Ministry of Vengeance), goes searching for an explanation to the disturbing visions she’s been experiencing, she awakens the spirit of three Satan-worshipping nuns put to death centuries earlier by a violent mob, unleashing an orgy of vengeful violence on the unsuspecting explorers.
The Rainer Werner Fassbinder Collection Vol. 3
On Limited Edition Blu-ray 13 June
The American Soldier sees Fassbinder continue to pursue the cinephilic homage to classic Hollywood crime films of his feature debut, Love is Colder than Death, in a tale of a German-American Vietnam vet turned small-time hoodlum who finds himself on the wrong side of the law in Munich, where he grew up. Unseen between its first television broadcast in 1970 and its rediscovery in 2002, The Niklashausen Journey chronicles the journey of a young peasant in the 15th century and his quest to overcome social injustice, in Fassbinder’s allegorical critique of the student movement.
Gods of the Plague portrays a newly released ex-con as he reacquaints himself with Munich’s criminal underworld to plan the robbery of a supermarket. In Rio Das Mortes, two feckless young friends, Michel and Günther, embark on a hare-brained scheme to look for lost treasure in Peru, against strong opposition from Michel’s fiancée.
Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven stars Brigitte Mira (Fear Eats the Soul) as a middle-aged housewife who is roused into revolutionary activity after her husband dies in an industrial accident. Based on a story by Asta Scheib, Fear of Fear features Fassbinder favourite Margit Carstensen (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant) as the young mother plagued with feelings of anxiety and depression as she is left to spend her hours alone surrounded by her judgemental in-laws while her husband spends his days at work. Satan’s Brew sees Fassbinder foray into riotous comedy, with Kurt Raab starring as a once famous poet stricken with writer’s block who inadvertently assumes the persona of the prewar symbolist Stefan George.
The Initiation of Sarah
On Blu-ray 20 June
Shy misfit Sarah Goodwin (Kay Lenz, House), has a secret gift: the ability to control — and destroy — with her mind. When Sarah goes off to college with her more outgoing and popular sister, Patty (Morgan Brittany, Sundown: The Vampire In Retreat), their plans to join the most prestigious sorority on campus are scuttled by snobby president, Jennifer Lawrence (Morgan Fairchild, Phantom of the Mall). Separated from her sister, Sarah is taken in by a rival, less popular sorority, whose mysterious house mother, Mrs. Hunter (Shelley Winters, The Night of the Hunter), is harbouring a secret of her own: a scheme to harness Sarah’s terrifying power for revenge. Betrayed by Patty, humiliated by Jennifer, it can only be a matter of time before Sorority Hell Week erupts in flame!
For more information and images please visit: LINK
Edge of Sanity
On Blu-ray 20 June
When his experiments into a powerful new anaesthetic go hideously awry, respected physician Dr Jekyll (Perkins) takes off into the night, casting aside the shackles of upper-class propriety as he disappears into the shadowy decadent demimonde of Whitechapel in pursuit of sensual pleasures under the guise of ‘Mr Hyde’. As his wife Elisabeth (Glynis Barber) passes her time in charitable work, rehabilitating the district’s fallen women, Hyde is drawn into an escalating cycle of lust and murder that seems to know no bounds.
For more information and images please visit: LINK
Tremors
Coming soon to Dual Format Steelbook (Limited Edition SteelBook 4K UHD)
Good-ol’-boy handymen Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward) are sick of their dead-end jobs in one-horse desert town Perfection, Nevada (population: 14). Just as they’re about to escape Perfection forever, however, things start to get really weird: half-eaten corpses litter the road out of town; the phone lines stop working; and a plucky young scientist shows evidence of unusually strong seismic activity in the area. Something is coming for the citizens of Perfection… and it’s under the goddamn ground!