PATIENT ZERO gets UK TV premiere on Horror Channel. Plus YOU’RE NEXT & LET ME IN get channel prems.

Horror Channel has five UK TV premieres in October, including pandemic action thriller PATIENT ZERO, which stars Matt Smith, Natalie Dormer, Stanley Tucci and Agyness Deyn. Humanity is battling intelligent, adrenaline-fueled creatures born from a viral super-strain. After being bitten, human survivor Morgan (Matt Smith) realises he is asymptomatic and can communicate with the infected, leading the last survivors on a hunt for Patient Zero and a cure. 

There are also UK premieres for LAKE PLACID: THE FINAL CHAPTER and LAKE PLACID: LEGACY - two of the popular series of monster crocodile horror/comedy films created by David E. Kelley. Plus, ghosts rule in the sinister haunted house chiller THE UNSPOKEN and Mario Sorrenti’s supernatural mindbender DISCARNATE, which are also broadcast for the first time.

Adam Wingard’s ground breaking home invasion movie, YOU’RE NEXT gets its Channel premiere. A family reunion goes terribly wrong when the Davison family is violently attacked by a gang of masked killers. Unfortunately for the killers, they picked the wrong family to target, as one of their victims proves to have a lethal talent for fighting back.

There is also a Channel premiere for Matt Reeves’ critically-acclaimed vampire fantasy LET ME IN. When a strange young girl, Abby, moves in to the apartment next door, 12 year old Owen is pleased to have found a friend. But as a series of grisly murders take place in their small town, he starts to realise she is not what she seems...An adaptation of the Swedish language Let The Right one In from director Tomas Alfredson.

Plus, there are first time Channel outings for the post-apocalyptic thriller VANISHING ON 7TH STREET, starring Hayden Christensen and Thandie Newton, the thrilling slasher sequel, I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and the terrifying supernatural thriller PAY THE GHOST, starring Nicholas Cage.

Film times in transmission order:

Fri 4 Oct @ 21:00 – LAKE PLACID: THE FINAL CHAPTER (2012)

Sat 5 Oct @ 21:00 - LET ME IN (2010)

Fri 11 Oct @ 21:00 – LAKE PLACID: LEGACY (2018)

Sat 12 Oct @ 21:00 – PATIENT ZERO (2018)

Sun 13 Oct @ 21:00 – VANISHING ON 7TH STREET (2010)

Fri 18 Oct @ 21:00 – YOU’RE NEXT (2011)

Sat 19 Oct @ 21:00 – THE UNSPOKEN (2015)

Fri 25 Oct @ 21:00 – DISCARNATE (2018)

Sat 26 Oct @ 21:00 – I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (1998)

Oct @ 21:00 – PAY THE GHOST (2015)

Horror Channel: Be Afraid

TV: Sky 317 / Virgin 149 / Freeview 70 / Freesat 138

Website: http://www.horrorchannel.co.uk/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/horrorchannel

Twitter: https://twitter.com/horror_channel

UPGRADE with Logan Marshall-Green on Limited Edition Blu-ray

The critically acclaimed breakout Sci-Fi hit of 2018, Upgrade from director Leigh Whannell (Insidious, Saw) and the team behind Get Out, gets its highly anticipated enhanced release as a Limited Edition Blu-ray, complete with a host of brand new special features from Second Sight Films.

In a near-future world, where technology controls everything, technophobe Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green – The Invitation, Spider-Man: Homecoming) is the victim of a brutal mugging that leaves his wife dead and him paralysed. 

A reclusive billionaire inventor offers him an experimental cure, an A.I. implant called STEM. Grey accepts and is immediately transformed into an unstoppable killing machine with enhanced strength and agility. Now it’s payback time.

Genre specialist Blumhouse and the visionary creator of the Saw franchise team up to create an instant cyberpunk classic.

Your Upgrade is due on 18 November 2019.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Audio Commentary with director Leigh Whannell

• Not Action. Not Sci-Fi. More: A new interview with Leigh Whannell

• Permission Granted: A new interview with producer Kylie Du Fresne

• Future Noir: A new interview with cinematographer Stefan Duscio

• Hacking Upgrade: A new interview with editor Andy Canny

• The Art of Fighting Without Fighting: A new interview with fight choreographer Chris Weir

• Optional English subtitles for the hard of hearing

LIMITED EDTION CONTENTS

• Rigid slipcase featuring new artwork by Adam Stothard

• Poster featuring the new artwork

• 40 page soft cover book with new essays by Jon Towlson and Scott Harrison 

 Buy the UK BD from Amazon.co.uk

Horror ‘ITSY BITSY’ available on-demand from 14th OCTOBER

Kew Media Distribution will be releasing the new horror feature ITSY BITSY on UK digital platforms from 14th October. 

Directed and produced by Micah Gallo (Wick - short) alongside special effects master Dan Rebert (True Blood), ITSY BITSY stars Bruce Davison (Longtime Companion, X-Men), Elizabeth Roberts (Old Fashioned, CSI), Denise Crosby (Pet Sematary, Star Trek: The Next Generation), Arman Darbo (And Then I Go, Kung Fu Hero) and Chloe Perrin (Mary, Single Parents).

When Kara (Elizabeth Roberts) a single mother struggling to raise two children in New York City, receives a job offer to work as a private nurse in the mid-West, it’s an opportunity she can’t refuse. So, she uproots her family, moving them to the remote farm owned by Walter (Golden Globe-winner Bruce Davison), a semi-retired antiquities appraiser who has multiple sclerosis.

At first, things seem normal enough. But what Kara doesn’t know is that doom preceded their arrival in the form of a mysterious ancient relic. And, if her family are to survive the horrific nightmare now lurking in the shadows, they will need to confront their deepest fears and personal demons.

ITSY BITSY will be available on Sky Store, iTunes and UK digital platforms from 14th October

Digital Platforms include: Sky Store, iTunes, Xbox, Sony PS, Google Play, Amazon and Virgin Movies.

www.itsybitsythemovie.com

THE PREY - UK BD review

Obscure 1983 slasher THE PREY, from Director Edwin Brown (Producer – Human Experiments) finally emerges from VHS obscurity, making its Blu-Ray debut this month in an extras laden, 2-disc limited edition release from Arrow Video.

A group of teenagers decide to go backpacking through the woods of Northern California, only to come up against something big, mean and brandishing an axe (played with unholy relish by noted character actor Carel Struycken – Adams Family, Twin Peaks, Geralds Game).

One by one, the kids in the group are picked off in loving detail, by something hideously disfigured, with super-human strength. As the monsterous killer goes around axeing, strangling and even crushing his victims to death. As the hapless kids are left fighting for their lives, whilst stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Filmed back in 1980, after Halloween, but prior to Friday the 13th, the film was not actually released until 1984 . But even then, the version that most people got to see, was a re-edited version which, cut some scenes, whilst inserting a newly filmed back story for the origins of the killer.

The film has sadly languished in obscurity since the days of VHS. The good news though is that Arrow Video have got hold of the original elements and have put together what is probably the ultimate release of the film, which is brimming with extras and containing 3 different versions of the film.

Contents include…

DISC ONE - US THEATRICAL CUT

Brand new 2K restoration of the filmmaker-approved US Theatrical Cut from the original camera negative

Brand new audio commentary with producer Summer Brown

Brand new audio commentary with Amanda Reyes and Ewan Cant

Audio Interview with director Edwin Scott Brown

Brand new on-camera interview with actress Debbie Thureson

Brand new on-camera interview with actress Lori Lethin

Brand new on-camera interview with actor Carel Struycken

Brand new on-camera interview with actor Jackson Bostwick

In Search of The Prey - Ewan Cant and actress Debbie Thureson revisit the original shooting locations in Idyllwild, California

Q&A from Texas Frightmare Weekend 2019 with Lori Lethin, Carel Struycken and Jackson Bostwick

Texas Frightmare Weekend 2019 Audience Reaction Track

VHS Trailer and TV Spot

Original Script (BD-ROM Content)

DISC TWO - INTERNATIONAL & COMPOSITE CUTS

Brand new 2K restoration of the International Cut featuring the infamous “gyspy flashback” footage, added at a later date by the producers without the approval of the original filmmakers

Composite Cut combining footage from both the US Theatrical and International Cuts, for the ultimate Prey fan experience!

Extended Outtakes reel - 45 mins of never-before-seen outtakes

The discs come packaged with an exclusive slipcase cover featuring the original UK home video artwork and the case contains a reversible sleeve, with brand new artwork by Justin Osbourn

Clearly influenced by Halloween and in particular, The Hills Have Eyes, The Prey is something of an obscure gem, which not everyone might have heard of. Maybe the plot is a little slow in places, with the director padding the run time with images of wild life footage, but otherwise contains everything you would expect from a good 80s slasher. 

There's also a great selection of extras here, I particularly enjoyed the film locagion segment where actress Debbie Thureson re-visits some of the places where the film was shot.

This release is limited to 3000 units, so if you want to pick this up, be quick. 

THE PREY is out now on UK BD from Arrow Video.

Buy the UK BD from Amazon.co.uk

101 Films Present The Soska Sisters' RABID on UK BD October

Acclaimed horror directors Jen and Sylvia Soska aka ‘The Twisted Twins’ (American Mary) are back with their next nightmare – the bloody, brutal and deranged Rabid!

After aspiring fashion designer Rose (Laura Vandervoort) suffers a disfiguring traffic accident she undergoes a radical and untested stem-cell treatment. The experimental transformation is a miraculous success, transforming her into a ravishing beauty. But she soon develops an uncontrollable sexual appetite, resulting in several torrid encounters, which sees her lovers become rabid carriers of death and disease. 

As the illness mutates and the contagion spreads out of control, all hell breaks loose as the infected rampage through the city on a violent and gruesome killing spree.

Based on the original horror from David Cronenberg, Rabid has already courted controversy getting the Soska Sisters banned from Twitter for sharing an image from the film. So buckle up and prepare for a blood-soaked ride!

Starring Laura Vandervoort (Jigsaw, Bitten), Benjamin Hollingsworth (Cold Pursuit) and Phil ‘C.M. Punk’ Brooks (Girl on the Third Floor). Written and directed by Jen and Sylvia Soska.

Blu-ray Extras:

The Quiet Revolution: State, Society and the Canadian Horror Film – Part Two: An Emerging Revolution: New Territories & Diverse Fears, a brand new feature-length documentary exploring the social contexts behind Canadian horror cinema from filmmaker and author Xavier Mendik (exclusive to Blu-ray)

Behind the scenes with Jen & Sylvia Soska

An interview with Laura Vandervoor

FrightFest Presents The Soska Sisters' on set message to the FrightFest 2018 audience, with Paul McEvoy

Pre-order the UK BD from Amazon.co.uk

Pre-order the UK DVD from Amazon.co.uk

 

 

Logan Marshall-Green stars in 'The Invitation'

From acclaimed director Karyn Kusama (Girl Fight, Jennifer’s Body, Destroyer) comes taut psychological thriller The Invitation, which premiered to great acclaim at London Film Festival and now gets a Blu-ray release from Second Sight on 4 November 2019.

Reluctantly accepting a dinner party invitation from his ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard – Into the Woods) at the house they once shared, Will (Logan Marshall-Green – Spider-Man: Homecoming, Prometheus) and his new partner Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi – Roots, Ballers) gather with old friends to toast new beginnings.

But Will and his ex-wife share a tragic past, and as paranoia mounts and tensions build, he begins to wonder what is real and what is imagined. As the claustrophobic evening grows increasingly sinister, Will starts to realise the lives of everyone he loves might be in danger…will they make it through the night?

The gathering is also attended by John Carroll Lynch (Fargo, American Horror Story), Michelle Krusiec (Hawaii 5-0), Lindsay Burge (Her Smell, Frances Ha) and Mike Doyle (Jersey Boys, Green Lantern), while long-time collaborators of Kusama’s, Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi (The Boys, Clash of the Titans) pen the electric script. 

Get your RSVPs in now for The Invitation, but be warned: it’ll be a night to remember until the day you die…

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Commentary with director Karyn Kusama and Writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi

• Making of The Invitation

• Going Back Home – a new interview with director Karyn Kusama

• There Is Nothing to Be Afraid Of – a new interview with producer Nick Spicer

• Tonight’s the Night – a new interview with writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi

• Playing Sadie – a new interview with actor Lindsay Burge

• English subtitles for the hard of hearing

Pre-order the UK BD from Amazon.co.uk

THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART 2 - UK BD Spec Ed review...

Wes Craven’s entertaining, though oft maligned, sequel THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART 2 makes it’s UK Blu-Ray debut this month, in an extras laden, limited special edition release from Arrow films.

Several years after the events of Part 1, a group of motocross bikers encounter a similar fate to that which befell the Carter family, when they decide to take their tour bus on a shortcut across the desert, so they can get to their race meet on time.

Subsequently breaking down near to an old mine complex in the middle of nowhere, as night falls, they are quickly set about by another group of cannibals, lead this time by a chap called Reaper (John Bloom – Dracula Vs Frankenstein) and of course Pluto, who it seems wasn’t killed at the end of the last film after all (with Michael Berryman reprising his role). Who proceed to pick them off one, by, one.

Typical 80s slasher movie fare, the film was hastily shot after Wes Craven decided he needed to make some fast cash, after a period of inactivity, and hoped to capitalise on the success of the original, which had been a huge hit on home video in the early 80s.

The film is kind of goofy, in which the teens continue to lark about and play jokes on one another, even after they’ve been attacked and some of them have gone missing, and the films low budget is rather apparent, with the run time being padded out with flashback footage of the films returning characters (including the dog, believe it or not). 

But despite its flaws, the film still proves to be wildly entertaining, albeit for the wrong reasons. With Robert Houston and Janus Blyth also reprising their roles as Bobby and Ruby. Whilst Kevin Blair (Friday the 13th Part 7 : The New Blood) and Willard Pugh (The Guyver, Robocop 2) turning up in supporting roles. 

Extras include…

Brand new audio commentary with The Hysteria Continues podcast

Blood, Sand, and Fire: The Making of The Hills Have Eyes Part II - brand new making-of documentary featuring interviews with actor Michael Berryman, actress Janus Blythe, production designer Dominick Bruno, composer Harry Manfredini and unit production manager/first assistant director John Callas

Stills gallery

Original Theatrical Trailer

6 Postcards

Reversible fold-out Poster

Limited Edition 40-page booklet featuring new writing on the film by Amanda Reyes and an archival set visit from Fangoria

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Paul Shipper

The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 might not be to everybody’s tastes, indeed when the original was remade in 2006, they chose a totally new plot for the 2007 sequel. So one might question the necessity of a special edition release of this.

However, Arrow films seem to have made a pretty good job of it and makes a great companion piece to their earlier Hills Have Eyes special edition.

Buy the UK BD from Amazon.co.uk