New releases coming to the UK in February from Arrow films.
THE GRUSEOME TWOSEOME - on UK BD on 5th Feb 2018
The young women of a small-town American college have more than just split-ends to worry about… Down at the Little Wig Shop, the batty Mrs. Pringle and her socially-inept son Rodney are procuring only the finest heads of hair – by scalping the local co-eds!
Can they be stopped before they clear the entire campus of luxuriant-haired ladies?
Also including HG Lewis’ Dracula-inspired vampire epic A Taste of Blood as a bonus feature, this is one Gruesome Twosome that’s well worth flipping your wig over!
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Bonus Feature! 1967’s A Taste of Blood
• Introductions to the films by HG Lewis
• Archive audio commentaries for both films by HG Lewis
• Peaches Christ Flips Her Wig! – San Francisco performer Peaches Christ on The Gruesome Twosome
• It Came from Florida – filmmaker Fred Olen Ray (Scalps, The Alien Dead) on Florida Filmmaking
• HG Lewis vs. the Censors – HG Lewis discusses some of the pitfalls of the blood-and-guts business including local censorship and angry moviegoers
• Trailers and radio spot
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork by The Twins of Evil
THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE - on UK BD + DVD on 12th Feb 2018
Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante, We Own the Night), an American writer living in Rome, inadvertently witnesses a brutal attack on a woman (Eva Renzi, Funeral in Berlin) in a modern art gallery. Powerless to help, he grows increasingly obsessed with the incident. Convinced that something he saw that night holds the key to identifying the maniac terrorising Rome, he launches his own investigation parallel to that of the police, heedless of the danger to both himself and his girlfriend Giulia (Suzy Kendall, Spasmo)…
A staggeringly assured debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage establishes the key traits that would define Argento’s filmography, including lavish visuals and a flare for wildly inventive, brutal scenes of violence. With sumptuous cinematography by Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now) and a seductive score by legendary composer Ennio Morricone (Once Upon a Time in the West), this landmark film has never looked or sounded better in this new, 4K-restored edition from Arrow Video!
Blu-ray SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• Brand new 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative produced by Arrow Video exclusively for this release
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original lossless mono Italian and English soundtracks
• English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
• New audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films
• The Power of Perception, a new visual essay on the cinema of Dario Argento by Alexanda Heller-Nicholas, author of Devil’s Advocates: Suspiria and Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study
• New analysis of the film by critic Kat Ellinger
• New interview with writer/director Dario Argento • New interview with actor Gildo Di Marco (Garullo the pimp)
• Eva’s Talking, an archival interview with actor Eva Renzi (Monica Ranieri)
• Original Italian and international theatrical trailers
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Candice Tripp
DVD SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• Brand new 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative produced by Arrow Video exclusively for this release
• Standard Definition DVD presentation
• Original mono Italian and English soundtracks
• English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
• New audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films
• The Power of Perception, a new visual essay on the cinema of Dario Argento by Alexanda Heller-Nicholas, author of Devil’s Advocates: Suspiria and Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study
• New analysis of the film by critic Kat Ellinger
• New interview with writer/director Dario Argento
• New interview with actor Gildo Di Marco (Garullo the pimp)
• Eva’s Talking, an archival interview with actor Eva Renzi (Monica Ranieri)
• Original Italian and international theatrical trailers
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Candice Tripp
SCALPEL - on UK BD 19th Feb 2018
In Scalpel, Robert Lansing (Star Trek, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone) plays Dr. Phillip Reynolds, a man whose daughter Heather (Judith Chapman, As the World Turns, General Hospital) has run away from home a year prior following the suspicious death of her boyfriend. When he happens across a young woman one night, her face beaten beyond recognition, the unhinged Reynolds sees his an opportunity to put his trusty scalpel to use - hatching a plan to “reconstruct” her face in the image of his missing daughter, and so claim her sizeable inheritance.
Photographed by celebrated cinematographer Edward Lachman, who would go on to serve as DP on the likes of Erin Brockovich and The Virgin Suicides, Scalpel is an exemplary slice of Southern-fried gothic, filled finally rescued from VHS obscurity in this revelatory new Blu-ray edition from Arrow Video.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• Brand new 2K restoration from original film elements
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original Uncompressed Mono Audio Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Brand new audio commentary by film historian Richard Harland Smith
• Brand new crew interviews
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by The Twins of Evil
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet with new writing on the film by Bill Ackerman
DER TODESKING - on UK Dual format BD + DVD on 26th Feb 2018
The second feature film from German provocateur Jörg Buttgereit, director of Nekromantik and Nekromantik 2, Der Todesking (“The King of Death”) presents seven suicides across seven days of the week.
As a chain letter from the self-proclaimed “Brotherhood of the 7th Day” circulates encouraging its recipients to end their lives, a series of grim murder-suicides unfold. In one vignette, a young woman massacres a room of concert-goers before turning the gun on herself; in another, a man, driven to madness by some unspecified mental disturbance, repeatedly slams his head into a wall before collapsing in a pool of his own blood… These are just some of depictions of death and despair that make up the tortured fabric of Der Todesking.
Regarded by many as director Jörg Buttgereit’s most accomplished work, Der Todesking is an existential masterpiece - a powerfully haunting howl of rage from one of the genre’s most underrated filmmakers.
3-DISC DIRECTOR-APPROVED LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
• Director’s approved HD transfer from the original 16mm negative
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
• Original Stereo Audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
• Optional English subtitles
• Limited edition packaging featuring new artwork by Gilles Vranckx
• Limited edition certificate featuring original artwork
• Replica “Brotherhood of the 7th Day” Chain Letter
• Der Todesking Soundtrack CD
• Limited Edition 60-page book
DISC 1 [BLU-RAY] & DISC 2 [DVD] – ‘DER TODESKING’
• Audio commentary by Jörg Buttgereit and co-writer Franz Rodenkirchen
• From Bundy to Lautréamont - Jörg Buttgereit in conversation with journalist Graham Rae at the 2016 Manchester Festival of Fantastic Films
• The Making of Der Todesking - vintage production featurette
• Footage from the original 1990 Berlin premiere
• Corpse Fucking Art - 1992 documentary bringing together the making of featurettes of Nekromantik,
• Der Todesking and Nekromantik 2 Der Gollob (1983, 25 mins) - short film by Jörg Buttgereit, newly transferred in HD and viewable with optional director’s audio commentary
• Two short films by producer Manfred O. Jelinski: Die Reise ins Licht (1972, 27 mins) and Geliebter Wahnsinn (1973, 7 mins)
• Still Gallery Jörg Buttgereit
• Trailer Gallery
DISC 3 [CD] – ‘DER TODESKING’ SOUNDTRACK – LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE
• CD featuring the complete Der Todesking score
60-PAGE BOOK – LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE
• Exclusive perfect-bound book featuring new writing on the film from Graham Rae and Kat Ellinger, all illustrated with new artwork and original archive stills
