The Arrow Thread

[Susan Foreman]

NEW US/CA TITLE: Giallo Essentials [Yellow Edition] (Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Release date: December 7

Arrow US RRP: $70:00

"Arrow Video continues its exploration of Italian cult cinema with this volume of Giallo Essentials, bringing together three more suspense-filled exemplars of the genre!

In Massimo Dallamano’s What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1974), hot-headed Inspector Silvestri (Claudio Cassinelli, The Suspicious Death of a Minor) and rookie Assistant District Attorney Vittoria Stori (Giovanna Ralli, Cold Eyes of Fear) investigate the apparent suicide of a teenage girl, leading them to a sordid prostitution ring whose abusers occupy the highest echelons of Italian society. Sergio Martino’s Torso (1973) helped lay the groundwork for the American Slasher Movie: when a ruthless killer begins to target the female university students of Perugia, Jane (Suzy Kendall, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) and her friends flee for the peace of the countryside, only to discover that the threat isn’t far behind. Andrea Bianchi’s Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975) delivers depravity in droves as ambitious photographer Magda (Edwige Fenech, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key) and her on-off boyfriend, love rat Carlo (Nino Castelnuovo, The English Patient), team up to solve the spate of highly sexualized murders that are rocking a prestigious Milanese fashion house.

Featuring grisly murders, amateur sleuths and motorcycle-riding maniacs, these iconic gialli are restored in 2K from their original negatives and are presented alongside a raft of juicy extras!"

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• 2K restorations from the original camera negatives of What Have They Done to Your Daughters?, Torso and Strip Nude for Your Killer
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations of each film
• Two versions of Torso, the original 94-minute Italian cut and 90-minute English cut
• Original lossless mono Italian and English soundtracks*
• English subtitles for the Italian soundtracks
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtracks
• Rigid box packaging with newly designed artwork by Haunt Love in a windowed Giallo Essentials Collection slipcover
• Reversible sleeves for each film featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Adam Rabalais and Graham Humphreys

Disc One: What Have They Done To Your Daughters?

• Audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films
• Video essay by Kat Ellinger, author and editor-in-chief of Diabolique Magazine
• Eternal Melody, an interview with composer Stelvio Cipriani
• Dallamano’s Touch, an interview with editor Antonio Siciliano
• Unused hardcore footage shot for the film by Massimo Dallamano
• Alternate English opening titles
• Italian theatrical trailer
• Image gallery

Disc Two: Torso

• Audio commentary by Kat Ellinger, author of All the Colours of Sergio Martino
• Video interview with co-writer/director Sergio Martino
• Video interview with actor Luc Merenda
• Video interview with co-writer Ernesto Gastaldi
• Video interview with filmmaker Federica Martino, daughter of Sergio Martino
• 2017 Abertoir International Horror Festival Q&A with Sergio Martino
• Video interview with Mikel J. Koven, author of La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film
• Option to view the film with the rare alternate US opening title sequence
• Italian and English theatrical trailers

NOTE: The English audio track on the original, longer cut of Torso has some portions of English audio missing. English audio for these sections was either never recorded or has been lost. As such, these sequences are presented with Italian audio, subtitled in English.

Disc Three: Strip Nude For Your Killer

• Audio commentary by HORRORPEDIA.com’s Adrian J. Smith and David Flint
• Sex and Death with a Smile, a video essay by author and critic Kat Ellinger on giallo and sex comedy icon Edwige Fenech
• A Good Man for the Murders, an archival video interview with actor Nino Castelnuevo
• The Blonde Salamander, a video interview with actress Erna Schurer
• The Art of Helping, a video interview with assistant director Daniele Sangiorgi
• Jack of All Trades, a video interview with actor and production manager Tino Polenghi
• Two versions of the opening scene: tinted and untinted viewing options
• Original Italian and English theatrical trailers
• Image gallery

[Mojo]

Originally Posted by Justin101

There is a USA only Giallo box set as well collecting their previous USA only titles;

What Have They Done To Your Daughters?
Torso
Strip Nude For Your Killer

All of which have been with Shameless in the UK, but I'm tempted to pick up this box set if I can get a good price somewhere.

I’d be up for this one too at a decent price.
The rest of the releases don’t interest me at all.

[Susan Foreman]

NEW UK TITLE: Rainer Werner Fassbinder Collection Volume 2 (Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Release date: December 6

Amazon UK RRP: £64:99

"Rainer Werner 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.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder vol. 2 brings together a collection of his key works from the mid-section of his career in high definition digital restorations prepared by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation. Among Fassbinder’s best-loved works, Fear Eats the Soul sees the director paying homage to the classic melodramas of Douglas Sirk in its poignant portrayal of a relationship between a widowed cleaning lady in her sixties and a Moroccan immigrant in his thirties that causes an outrage with her family, friends and neighbours. Fassbinder’s long-gestating adaptation of Theodor Fontane’s classic German novel Effi Briest, his most expensive production to date as well as one of his most ambitious, tells the tale of a seventeen-year-old girl who is married off by her parents to a wealthy Baron more than twice her age. Fassbinder himself plays the protagonist of Fox and His Friends, a sweet working class soul whose relationship with wealthy industrialist Eugen, he discovers, is based almost wholly on his unexpected lottery win. Chinese Roulette is a tense psychodrama set in an isolated house during a weekend break in which infidelities are revealed and families break down. Fassbinder’s international breakthrough film, The Marriage of Maria Braun charts the rise to prosperity of its tenacious and pragmatic central character across the post-war years as she holds out hope for the return of the young soldier she was married to for less than 24-hours before he was dispatched to the Russian front and later reported dead."

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• High definition digital transfers of all films prepared by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-rayTM presentations of all films
• Original uncompressed PCM mono 1.0 sound for all films
• Optional English subtitles for all films
• Exclusive 140-page collectors booklet containing archive articles and new writing by Deborah Allison, Geoff Andrew, Margaret Deriaz and Travis Miles

DISC ONE – FEAR EATS THE SOUL

• Audio commentary by critic and lecturer Mark Freeman
• My Name is Not Ali, Viola Shafik’s 2011 feature-length documentary on the life and death of El Hedi ben Salem, star of Fear Eats the Soul
• Interview with director of photography Jürgen Jürges
• Theatrical trailer

DISC TWO – EFFI BRIEST

• Audio commentary by Ken Moulden
• Interview with actor Ulli Lommel
• Interview with director of photography Jürgen Jürges
• Theatrical trailer

DISC THREE – FOX AND HIS FRIENDS & CHINESE ROULETTE

• Audio commentary by Hamish Ford on Fox and His Friends
• Interview with actor Ulli Lommel on Chinese Roulette
• Original theatrical trailers for both films

DISC FOUR – THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN

• Life, Love & Celluloid, a 1998 feature-length documentary on Fassbinder, written and directed by his regular editor, Juliane Lorenz
• Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1977, a candid 30-minute interview with the director
• The Fassbinder Family, featurette detailing the actors who worked with Fassbinder time and again throughout his career

[Susan Foreman]

NEW UK TITLE: The Last Matinee (Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Release date: December 6

HMV RRP: £17:99

"TERROR! SCREAMING! DEATH! COMING SOON TO THIS CINEMA!

A trip to the movies takes a deadly turn in this stylish neo-giallo love letter to classic slashers that will send your popcorn flying and have you diving behind your seat!

A cold, wet day. A declining cinema. All you want is to get out of the rain and watch a good film. But who else is in there, hiding in the dark? When Ana takes over projection duties from her ailing father, she doesn’t expect anything worse than a broken reel or a burned-out bulb. But there’s a sadistic killer in the auditorium, and soon blood is running in the aisles as he starts picking off the audience members one by one. Can Ana and the few remaining survivors escape the murderous madman, or will they be victims of his matinee massacre?

Uruguayan director Maxi Contenti marks himself out as a talent to watch with a film that Rue Morgue calls “Visually stunning… indulgently violent!” Arrow Video is proud to present The Last Matinee. It’s a killer time at the movies!"

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original uncompressed stereo and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio sound
• Optional English subtitles
• Audio Commentary with director Maxi Contenti
• VFX featurette exploring the special effects of the film
• Interview with director Maxi Contenti
• Killer Attractions: Maxi Contenti & Ricardo Islas in Conversation, discussion between the film’s director and star Ricardo Islas, director of Frankenstein: Day of the Beast
• At the Premiere, featurette on the film’s premiere
• Music video for ‘Espada’ by Phoro, directed by Maxi Contenti
• Puppet Pal V, Contenti’s first feature film
• Six short films by director Maxi Contenti: The Plastic Kingdom (2011) Popping Eyes (2009) Hobby Metal (2006) Les Escaliers Fruitiers (2005) La Galleta aka The Cookie (2003) Miedo aka Fear (2001)
• Deleted and extended scenes
• Trailers and teasers
• Image galleries including behind-the-scenes and promo stills, concept artwork, storyboards and posters
• Fan artwork image gallery
• Double-sided fold-out poster
• Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Anton Bitel
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Marc Schoenbach

[Susan Foreman]

NEW UK/US/CA TITLE: My Stepmother is an Alien (Blu-ray)

Release date: December 13

HMV RRP: £17:99

"He married a girl from out of town… Way out of town.

Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters), Kim Basinger (The Nice Guys) and Jon Lovitz (Southland Tales) star in a fish-out-of-water comedy with a sci-fi twist that questions whether a romance between two star-crossed lovers who are literally worlds apart can ever work.

When widowed astronomer Steve Mills (Aykroyd) inadvertently causes a gravitational disruption in deep space, a race of hyper-advanced alien lifeforms sends one of their own to investigate, disguised in the alluring human form of Celeste (Basinger). Tasked with seducing the lovelorn Steve in a bid to gain access to his scientific research, Celeste finds herself falling for the man she’s been sent to swindle. But they’ve reckoned without Steve’s young daughter Jessie (Alyson Hannigan, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), who’s none too thrilled by the prospect of a new mother – especially not one from another planet.

Funny and touching in equal measure, My Stepmother is an Alien is an offbeat and at times surprisingly risqué comedy that confirms the adage that what unites us is far greater than what divides us… even if what divides us happens to be an entire galaxy"

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• Brand new 2K restoration from the original camera negative
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
• Original lossless 2.0 stereo audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Brand new audio commentary by critic Bryan Reesman
• Cosmetic Encounters: Directing My Stepmother is An Alien, a brand new interview with director Richard Benjamin
• Original trailer
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Amanda Reyes

[g053584398]

Originally Posted by Justin101

There is a USA only Giallo box set as well collecting their previous USA only titles;

What Have They Done To Your Daughters?
Torso
Strip Nude For Your Killer

All of which have been with Shameless in the UK, but I'm tempted to pick up this box set if I can get a good price somewhere.

I don't like the colour-timing used on the Arrow release of Torso. The Blue Underground and Shameless releases look far better in that regard to my eyes.

[Dave]

I already have the titles in the Giallo box individually with booklets so it’ll just be The Last Matinee I think. I knew Goke was wishful thinking but it would fit in nicely with some of their recent releases and it looks like Criterion are in no rush to upgrade the old DVD.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I think i'll take the plunge with that then. It does look very nice and i haven't seen any of the films before.

Looking logically at it.

If i were buying four new releases of Marvel movies they'd be fifteen quid a pop and have feck all extras.

So getting these four with extras, posters, cards and two 80 page books suddenly seems like a bargain.

The second film is the weakest but the box is worth every cent!

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

How can you not want the Shameless release with the worst cover ever put on a disc (And that's saying something)

Ah...but the reverse.......

However,the Arrow transfer looks amazing!

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Last Matinee only for me.
I already own the seperate giallo releases.