The Arrow Thread

[Susan Foreman]

NEW US/CA TITLE: Silent Running (Blu-ray)

Release date: November 17

A haunting and prescient sci-fi classic that resonates even more strongly today than it did at the time of its original release.

"In 1968, visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull (The Andromeda Strain, Close Encounters of the Third Kind) contributed to the ground-breaking special photographic effects of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Four years later, he stamped his own indelible mark on the science fiction genre with his mesmerising directorial debut – Silent Running.

In the not-so-distant future, Earth is barren of all flora and fauna, with what remains of the planet’s former ecosystems preserved aboard a fleet of greenhouses orbiting in space. When the crews are ordered to destroy the remaining specimens, one botanist, Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern, The ’Burbs), rebels and flees towards Saturn in a desperate bid to preserve his own little piece of Earth that was, accompanied only by the ship’s three service robots.

Featuring a captivating central performance by Dern, visual effects that rival anything in 2001 and a powerful ecological message, Silent Running is a haunting and prescient sci-fi classic that resonates even more strongly today than it did at the time of its original release."

Special features:

• Brand new 2K restoration from the original camera negative, approved by director Douglas Trumbull and produced by Arrow Video exclusively for this release
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
• Original lossless mono audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Brand new audio commentary by critics Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw
• Original audio commentary by Douglas Trumbull and actor Bruce Dern
• Isolated music and effects track
• No Turning Back, a new interview with film music historian Jeff Bond on the film’s score
• First Run, a new visual essay by writer and filmmaker Jon Spira exploring the evolution of Silent Running’s screenplay
• The Making of Silent Running, an archival 1972 on-set documentary
• Silent Running by Douglas Trumbull and Douglas Trumbull: Then and Now, two archival interviews with the film’s director
• A Conversation with Bruce Dern, an archival interview with the film’s lead actor
• Theatrical trailer
• Extensive behind-the-scenes gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Arik Roper
• GUARANTEED THROUGH PREORDERS FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Barry Forshaw and Peter Tonguette

[Susan Foreman]

Full details:

NEW UK/US/CA TITLE: Lake Michigan Monster (Blu-ray)

Release date: November 2

An inventive, irreverent and riotously entertaining ode to the classic monster movies of yesteryear

"LAKE MICHIGAN MONSTER – BANNED IN FOUR LAKES!

All aboard! The combined spirits of H.P. Lovecraft, early Sam Raimi and Mystery Science Theater 3000 inhabit this action-packed tale of nautical derring-do and monster mayhem – winner of the Audience Award for Best International Feature at the 2019 Fantasia Film Festival.

On the shores of Lake Michigan, the eccentric Captain Seafield (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, who also writes and directs) enlists a colourful crew of misfits in a bid to slay the hellish sea monster that prowls the murky depths. But as Seafield’s obsession with exacting revenge on the creature that killed his father threatens to consume him, can weapons expert Sean Shaughnessy (Erick West), sonar whiz Nedge Pepsi (Beulah Peters) and former N.A.V.Y. – Nautical Athletes and adVenture Yunit – officer Dick Flynn (Daniel Long) hold the show together?

Shot in gloriously retro black and white on a shoestring budget, with most of the cast also performing multiple roles behind the camera, Lake Michigan Monster is an inventive, irreverent and riotously entertaining ode to the classic monster movies of yesteryear: an absurdist urban legend guaranteed to appeal to the big kid in all of us."

Special features:

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 stereo soundtracks
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Two cast and crew audio commentaries featuring writer/director/actor Ryland Tewls and actors Daniel Long, Beulah Peters, Erick West and editor Mike Cheslik – one sober, one drunk!
• Critics’ audio commentary with Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Emma Westwood
• Effects Breakdown comparison of the film’s underwater sequence, including storyboards and pre-composited footage
• Dear Old Captain Seafield – the Captain Seafield theme song, performed by the Seafield Monster Sextet
• Interview in a Cabin – interview with Ryland Tews and Daniel Long at the Fantasia International Film Festival
• Interview in a Bar – interviews with the cast and crew at the Beloit International Film Festival
• Interview by a Fire – interview with Mike Cheslik on Mark Borchardt’s Cinema Fireside radio show
• The first season and pilot episode of L.I.P.S., Ryland Tews and Mike Cheslik’s hybrid animation/live action sci-fi comedy web series
• Theatrical trailer
• Behind the scenes photos
• Reversible sleeve featuring original artwork by Jade Watring and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Barry Forshaw

[Susan Foreman]

Full details:

NEW UK/US/CA TITLE: Burst City (Blu-ray)

November 9

An explosive Molotov cocktail of dystopian sci-fi, Mad Max-style biker wars and riotous performances from members of the real-life Japanese punk bands

"Burst City is an explosive Molotov cocktail of dystopian sci-fi, Mad Max-style biker wars against yakuza gangsters and the police, and riotous performances from members of the real-life Japanese punk bands The Stalin, The Roosters, The Rockers and INU.

In a derelict industrial wasteland somewhere on the outskirts of Tokyo, two rival punk bands and their unruly mobs of fans gather for a Battle of the Bands-style protest against the construction of a nuclear powerplant, bringing them head to head with the yakuza industrialists behind the development of their turf.

This extraordinary celebration of Japan’s punk music scene of the early 1980s thrust Sōgo Ishii (now known by the name of Gakuryū Ishii), the underground filmmaking wunderkind behind such works as Half Human: Einstürzende Neubauten (1986), Angel Dust (1994) and Electric Dragon 80,000V (2001), to the next level and is regularly cited as an early landmark in Japanese cyberpunk cinema."

Special features:

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original lossless mono Japanese soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles
• Brand new audio commentary by Japanese film expert Tom Mes
• The Punk Spirit of ’82: Sōgo Ishii on Burst City, an exclusive new 56-minute interview with the director
• Bursting Out, an exclusive 27-minute interview with the academic and independent filmmaker Yoshiharu Tezuka on jishu eiga and the making of Burst City
• Original Trailer
• Image Gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Mark Player

[Susan Foreman]

Full details:

NEW UK/US/CA TITLE: He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection (Limited Edition Blu-ray)

November 23

Bringing together seven of Grefé’s most outlandish features, all new to Blu-ray, He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection packs in a macabre menagerie of demented jellyfish men, zombified witch doctors and seductive matrons

"Killer sharks and human jellyfish and living mummies, oh my! Arrow Video is proud to present the first ever collection of works by William “Wild Bill” Grefé, the maverick filmmaker who braved the deep, dark depths of the Florida everglades to deliver some of the most outrageous exploitation fare ever to go-go dance its way across drive-in screens.

Bringing together seven of Grefé’s most outlandish features, all new to Blu-ray, He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection packs in a macabre menagerie of demented jellyfish men (Sting of Death), zombified witch doctors (Death Curse of Tartu), homicidal hippies (The Hooked Generation) and seductive matrons (The Naked Zoo) – not to mention the ubiquitous go-go dancing college kids – to create one of the most wildly entertaining box-sets of all time!"

Films included:

• Sting of Death (1966)
• Death Curse of Tartu (1966)
• The Hooked Generation (1968)
• The Psychedelic Priest (1971)
• The Naked Zoo (1971)
• Mako: Jaws of Death (1976)
• Whiskey Mountain (1977)

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• Brand new, extended version of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures’ definitive documentary They Came from the Swamp: The Films of William Grefé
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations on 4 Blu-ray discs
• Original uncompressed mono audio for all films
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Fully illustrated collector’s booklet featuring an extensive, never-before-published interview with William Grefé and a new foreword by the filmmaker
• Reversible poster featuring newly commissioned artwork by The Twins of Evil
• Reversible sleeves featuring newly commissioned artwork for each of the films by The Twins of Evil

STING OF DEATH (1966) + DEATH CURSE OF TARTU (1966)

• Brand new introductions to the films by director William Grefé
• Archival audio commentaries for both films with William Grefé and filmmaker Frank Henenlotter
• Sting of Death: Beyond the Movie – Monsters a-Go Go! – a look into the history of rock 'n' roll monster movies with author/historian C. Courtney Joyner
• The Curious Case of Dr. Traboh: Spook Show Extraordinaire – a ghoulish look into the early spook show days with monster maker Doug Hobart
• Original Trailers
• Still and Promotion Gallery

THE HOOKED GENERATION (1968) + THE PSYCHEDELIC PRIEST (1971)

• Archival audio commentaries for both films with director William Grefé and filmmaker Frank Henenlotter
• Hooked Generation behind-the-scenes footage
• Hooked Generation Original Trailer
• Still and Promotion Gallery

THE NAKED ZOO (1971) + MAKO: JAWS OF DEATH (1976)

• William Grefé’s original Director’s Cut of Naked Zoo
• Alternate Barry Mahon re-release cut of Naked Zoo
• Original Mako: Jaws of Death Trailer and Promo
• Still and Promotion Gallery

WHISKEY MOUNTAIN (1977) + THEY CAME FROM THE SWAMP: EXTENDED CUT (2020)

• Whiskey Mountain Original Trailer
• Still and Promotion Gallery
• They Came from the Swamp: The Films of William Grefé – the definitive documentary presented for the first in High-Definition and in a brand new, extended cut

Extras subject to change

[g053584398]

I like the sound of The William Grefe Collection.

[SymbioticFunction]

Originally Posted by J Harker

Looking on IMDB this William Grefe Collection could actually be the most interesting release from Wheelbarrow in some time. I didn't realise he was the director of Live and Let Die on of my favourite Bonds.

I'm sure that Guy Hamilton directed Live & Let Die? Perhaps this person directed second unit material.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by SymbioticFunction

I'm sure that Guy Hamilton directed Live & Let Die? Perhaps this person directed second unit material.

My apologies, it seems you are right. It came up on imdb amongst the films he was recognised for.

[Rob4]

Crash and Grefe for me. Never heard of Burst City but sounds good.

[Trashforcash]

A much stronger line up. Crash set looks great, but I'm getting that William Grefe set pre ordered right now! I've only seen Mako, but it's hilarious and I think its worth checking out the rest. Shame Silent Running is A locked, but a decent month overall. One day The Blob will arrive...one day...

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

NEW US/CA TITLE: Silent Running (Blu-ray)

I'm a little surprised this doesn't have a single contribution from Mark Kermode, one of the film's biggest fans and public champions, and somebody who has written about it for the BFI and has been collecting Silent Running memorabilia for 40 years!