Dario Argento’s superb 1970 directorial debut, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, is released in a gorgeous, brand new 4K restoration from the camera negative in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, produced by Arrow Video exclusively for this release. Fans of Argento and Italian cinema can now see the film that reshaped the screen incarnation of the giallo in all its terrible beauty, as it was originally intended.

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 limited edition from Arrow Video!

AND THIS IS WHAT YOU GET • Brand new 4K restoration of the film from the camera negative in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, produced by Arrow Video exclusively for this release • High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations • Original mono Italian and English soundtracks (lossless on the Blu-ray Disc) • 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 Alexandra 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 (this 30-minute monologue is a real treat and very instructive) • New interview with actor Gildo Di Marco (Garullo the pimp) • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Candice Tripp • Double-sided fold-out poster • 6 Lobby Card reproductions • Limited edition 60-page booklet illustrated by Matthew Griffin, featuring an appreciation of the film by Michael Mackenzie, and new writing by Howard Hughes and Jack Seabrook

From master of horror Dario Argento (Suspiria) comes Phenomena – one of his most eccentric and unique thrillers, featuring telepathic insects, maggots, and a razor-wielding chimp!

Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly, Labyrinth), daughter of a famous movie star, arrives in the so-called “Swiss Transylvania” to attend an exclusive girls’ school. However, a killer is targeting the pupils, and sleepwalker Jennifer finds herself in the assassin’s headlights when her nocturnal wanderings cause her to witness the death of a fellow pupil.

Aided by paraplegic entomologist John McGregor (Donald Pleasence, Halloween) and her own uncanny ability to communicate telepathically with insects, Jennifer sets out to track down the killer before she herself becomes the latest victim…

Released in 1985, towards the end of Argento’s decade-long golden age as a director, Phenomena  features lush cinematography by Romano Albani (Inferno) and a pounding prog rock score by Goblin (Deep Red).

Presented here in a sumptuous new 4K restoration of the film and with a newly created hybrid English/Italian audio track on the full length 116-minute Italian version, this is the definitive release of Argento’s creepy classic.

A must for horror fans who want to see the film like never before.

From Arrow Video comes the 2k restoration release of Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava's 1950's sci-fi horror classic Caltiki: The Immortal Monster.

Crawling, Crushing Colossus of Terror! A team of archaeologists led by Dr John Fielding (John Merivale, Circus of Horrors) descends on the ruins of an ancient Mayan city to investigate the mysterious disappearance of its inhabitants. However, the luckless explorers get more than they bargained for when their investigation of a sacrificial pool awakens the monster that dwells beneath its waters – the fearsome and malevolent god Caltiki.

Though Riccardo Freda received sole directing credit, a significant portion of the film was in fact the work of Mario Bava, who also served as its cinematographer and was responsible its striking special effects. Drawing on a diverse array of influences, from The Quatermass Experiment to the works of HP Lovecraft, Caltiki the Immortal Monster is a unique and unforgettable sci-fi chiller which showcases these two legendary filmmakers at their most inventive.

READ MORE HERE…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG3qxVlvFss

Step inside, we’ve been expecting you! Arrow Video brings the House saga together on Blu-ray for the first time in a dual format box set. Scary, funny and downright entertaining, the four films – from the team that brought us Friday the 13th – are a barmy slice of late 1980s and early 1990s horror. Packed with great visual effects, they tell tales of hauntings, magic, monsters and mayhem involving undead Vietnam vets, zombie cowboys, murderers that refuse to die and possessed pizzas!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EERknRSHNCs

House: The Complete Collection features brand new 2K restorations of all four films in high definition Blu-ray (1080p) and standard definition DVD presentations, with optional English subtitles, and is loaded with brand new extras. A limited edition 60-page book featuring new writing on the franchise alongside archive material accompanies the release.

So grab a beer and a slice of pizza (hopefully not singing), and settle in to enjoy one of the most entertaining horror franchises of all time.

The vintage classic horror, Tower of London, from King of the B's Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price gets a dual format (Blu-ray/DVD) from Arrow Video.

Having made their mark on American horror cinema with three colourful adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe, Vincent Price and director Roger Corman enjoyed a brief hiatus from the macabre author with 1962's Tower of London. Shot in black and white, the film was loosely based on Universal’s 1939 horror picture of the same name, but with a big nod to Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Richard III.

That master of menace, Vincent Price, plays Richard of Gloucester, brother to a dying king and eager to take his place on the throne. When he is overlooked in favour of the Duke of Clarence, things get nasty as Richard goes on a murderous rage, only for the ghosts of those he has slain to begin to haunt him...

Price relishes the opportunity to take on an iconic Shakespearean character, and Roger Corman works wonders with his low budget, thanks to some atmospheric photography and some impressive set design. If you’ve ever wondered what a drive-in Shakespeare film would look like, then look no further...

READ MORE ON THE FILM WITH THESE 20 FRIGHTFULLY FUN FACTS

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS • High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the feature, transferred from original film elements by MGM, with original 1.0 mono audio (uncompressed on the Blu-ray) and optional English subtitles • Audio commentary by Hollywood historian David Del Valle and Tara Gordon, daughter of actor-screenwriter Leo Gordon • Producing Tower of London: archive interview with producer Gene Corman • Archive interview with director Roger Corman • Photo gallery • Collector’s booklet containing new writing on the film by Julian Upton (First pressing only)

Brought together for the first time on Blu-ray - including a stunning new 4K restoration of the original film overseen by JJ Abrams - the legendary Phantasm series is back with added balls in a limited edition box-set on dual format from 24 April from Arrow Video.

Phantasm series. From its deadly flying silver spheres through to its hooded dwarf minions, and of course, the towering figure of arch villain The Tall Man himself, the imagery conjured up by the Phantasm films remains etched in the psyche of genre fans everywhere.

Beginning with the 1979 original through to 2016’s Phantasm: Ravager, the five films follow young Mike (A Michael Baldwin) as he battles against the enigmatic Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) - an extraterrestrial being intent on harvesting the human race as slaves for his home planet. Aided by friend Reggie (Reggie Bannister) and his trusty four-barrelled shotgun, Mike resolves to vanquish the Tall Man before he wipes out humanity altogether…

LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL PHEATURES • All 5 movies together on blu-ray for the first time! • Limited Edition Bonus Disc featuring Exclusive Pheatures • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for all films • Exclusive 152-page book with new writing on the Phantasm universe from Kim Newman and Bill Ackerman alongside a wealth of archive material, all fully illustrated with original stills and posters • Replica Sphere • Limited Edition Packaging with newly-commissioned artwork from Gary Pullin

Pre-order now from Amazon

In the 1970s, director William Friedkin made The French Connection and The Exorcist. In the 1980s, he equalled them with To Live and Die in L.A. Now, the stylish thriller is out on dual format following a brand new 4K restoration.

A pre-CSI William Petersen turns in one of his best movie roles as US Secret Service agent Richard Chance who goes after suspected forger Eric Masters (Willem Dafoe at his villainous prime) when he swears to break all the rules to avenge the death of his partner at the hands of a killer…

Fasten your seat belts for an explosive, dizzy ride that hits a high in a stupendous car chase – the wrong way up a freeway! To Live and Die in L.A. marked director William Friedkin's return-to-form and is 1980s action at its most stylistic – complete with flashy photography from Robby Müller (Paris, Texas) and a rowdy rock soundtrack by British new wavers Wang Chung.

Out now on dual format from Arrow Video, this explosive release includes the following features…

• Brand new 4K restoration from the original 35mm negative supervised and approved by director William Friedkin • High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations • Optional 5.1 Surround and 2.0 Stereo audio (with DTS-HD Master Audio and Uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray) • Optional English subtitles • Audio commentary with William Friedkin • Taking a Chance: Interview with actor William Petersen • Doctor for a Day: Interview with actor Dwier Brown • Renaissance Woman in LA: Interview with Debra Feuer • So In Phase: Scoring To Live and Die in LA: Interview with composers Wang Chung • Wrong Way: The Stunts of To Live and Die in LA: Interview with stunt co-ordinator Buddy Joe Hooker • Counterfeit World: The Making of To Live and Die in LA: Archive featurette containing interviews with Friedkin, actors William Petersen and Willem Dafoe, and others • Alternative ending • Deleted scene • Stills gallery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2f1BRCTSCo

Roy Scheider and Adam Baldwin take centre stage in director Eric Red's hitman versus hit man 1980s thriller, which gets a feature-packed, director-approved dual format release in the UK from Arrow Video.

When a young boy called Travis (Harley Cross) witnesses a gangland killing, two professional hitmen – grizzled, experienced Cohen (Roy Scheider) and impetuous, psychopathic Tate (Adam Baldwin) – kidnap the boy and transport him from Oklahoma to their bosses in Houston.

A nightmarish journey ensues, with the jaded Cohen increasingly angered by the lunatic ramblings of his violent sidekick. Added to this is their young hostage, who sets the men up against each other and concocts various escape plans…

This blood-soaked atmospheric thriller marked the directorial debut of Eric Red, who penned the excellent screenplays for The Hitcher (1986) and Near Dark (1987). Combining the unnerving suspense of his celebrated road horror classic The Hitcher with some psychological horror elements, chase action aplenty, and some darn fine performances, its one of those 1980s action pics that totally went under my radar when first shown, but Arrow Video’s director-approved dual format edition provides the perfect excuse to revisit this blast from the past.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS • High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations • Original stereo audio (uncompressed on the Blu-ray) • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing • Audio commentary by writer/director Eric Red • A Look Back at Cohen & Tate: a retrospective documentary featuring Eric Red, cinematographer Victor J Kemper, editor Edward Abroms, and co-stars Kenneth McCabe and Harley Cross • Original, uncut versions of the farmhouse and oilfield shoot-outs • Original theatrical trailer • Extensive stills gallery • Eric Red’s original storyboards for the opening farmhouse shoot-out (BD-ROM/DVD-ROM Content) • Newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys

https://youtu.be/7DPqNgVI5sY

From Dan Curtis, creator of the classic Gothic soap Dark Shadows, comes the 1976 horror Burnt Offerings. Now out on Blu-ray and DVD from Arrow Video.

When college lecturer Ben Rolf (Oliver Reed) and his family rent a remote country mansion at a bargain price, they believe they’re in for an uneventful summer. Little do they realise that they’ve just moved into a veritable house of horrors! As the malevolent force that dwells within its walls exerts its dark influence on the minds of its new inhabitants, and the sinister occurrences begin to mount up, it grows increasingly clear that this is a holiday they’ll never forget... provided any of them live to tell of it.

Also starring Karen Black, Bette Davis and Lee Montgomery, Burnt Offerings provides a unique and chilling portrait of a modern family in meltdown. Presented in high definition for the first time in the UK, there has never been a better time to revisit – or discover for the first time – this unforgettable slice of American Gothic.

Burnt Offerings is out in the UK on dual format (Blu-ray and DVD) from 18 October.

SPECIAL FEATURES • High Definition Blu-ray and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the feature, transferred from original film elements by MGM. • Original uncompressed PCM mono audio. • Optional English subtitles. • Audio commentary with Dan Curtis, Karen Black and William F Nolan. • Audio commentary with film critic Richard Harland Smith. • Acting His Face: Interview with actor Anthony James.. • Blood Ties: Interview with actor Lee Montgomery. • From the Ashes: Interview with screenwriter William F Nolan. • Animated gallery • Trailer • Collector’s booklet (first pressing only).

From Arrow Video comes the restored, limited edition release on Blu-ray and DVD of Italian director Luciano Ercoli's stylish 1970s thrillers Death Walks on High Heels and Death Walks at Midnight starring Nieves Navarro (aka Susan Scott).

In 1971’s Death Walks on High Heels, Navarro plays Parisian nightclub dancer Nicole, the daughter of a murdered jewel thief, who encounters a black-clad assailant with piercing blue eyes demanding to know the location of her father’s stolen diamonds. Suspecting her jealous lover Michel (Simón Andreu) is her assailant, Nicole leaves for London with her wealthy admirer, Dr Robert Matthews (Frank Wolff). But death stalks her at every turn…

In 1972’s Death Walks at Midnight, Navarro takes on the role of glamour model Valentina, who allows her photographer and on/off lover Gio (again played by Simón Andreu) to film her whilst under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. In the midst of the high she witnesses a murder, which turns out to have taken place six months earlier. When Valentina sees the murderer again, she turns amateur sleuth to solve the mystery…

The limited edition Arrow Video release (3000 copies) feature new 2K restorations of both films from the original film elements, presented on Blu-ray and standard DVD, with the original Italian and English soundtracks to choose from, and new English subtitles. A 60-page book is included along with an array of special features on each disc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkyc8P1P8_0

From legendary Italian horror maestro Dario Argento (Suspiria), comes his giallo masterpiece, Deep Red, in a must-have release from Arrow Video. Limited to 5000 copies, this 3-disc box-set includes the new 4k transfer of both the international cut and the director’s cut, plus a mausoleum’s worth of bonus content, alongside the complete 28-track original soundtrack recording, an exclusive booklet, a postcard set, and newly commissioned artwork.

When the Screaming starts and the Blood begins to flow...

One night, musician Marcus Daly (David Hemmings), looking up from the street below, witnesses the brutal axe murder of a woman in her apartment. Racing to the scene, Marcus just manages to miss the perpetrator… or does he? As he takes on the role of amateur sleuth, Marcus finds himself ensnared in a bizarre web of murder and mystery where nothing is what it seems…

Aided by a throbbing score from regular Argento-collaborators Goblin, Deep Red is a hallucinatory fever dream of a giallo punctuated by some of the most astonishing set pieces the sub-genre has to offer.

READ MORE… CLICK HERE

Out from Arrow Video is the world premiere Blu-ray release of the knockout 1967 Japanese crime thriller Massacre Gun.

Directed by Yasuharu Hasebe, Massacre Gun stars Japan’s legendary Jô Shishido as yakuza hitman Kuroda, who turns on his employers after being forced to execute his lover. Joining forces with the hot-headed Eiji (Tatsuya Fuji) and aspiring boxer Saburô (Jirô Okazaki), the trio escalate their retaliation into an all-out turf war…

Boasting stylish art direction, stunning monochrome camerawork, a sultry lounge jazz soundtrack, and tight direction, this Japanese crime thriller is as cool as it gets.

Featuring a restored high definition transfer and newly translated English subtitles, alongside interviews with star Jô Shishido and critic Tony Rayns on the Nikkatsu studio’s history, trailers and a collector’s booklet, this new Arrow presentation makes for a great companion piece to their 2014 release of Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill.

• Retaliation, Jô Shishido and Yasuharu Hasebe’s follow-up to Massacre Gun, is also available from Arrow Video (11 May), as well as the Meiko Kaji-fronted Stray Cat Rock series, which features three entries directed by Hasebe.

Massacre Gun is available on Blu-ray now (including Amazon) http://youtube.com/v/1zw8uwWf4QE

In a corporate-controlled future, conflict is a thing of the past, but blood continues to be shed on the tracks of Rollerball – a violent gladiatorial spectacle that pits players in a televised battle of life and death. When Houston Rollerball captain Jonathan E (James Caan) becomes bigger than the game and the totalitarian government targets him for retirement, the icon decides to make a stand against his masters…

Based on the 1973 Esquire short story, Roller Ball Murder, by William Harrison (who also wrote the screenplay), this big-budget United Artists sci-fi action directed by Norman Jewison was a flop in the US, but ran for almost a year in French cinemas and remains, amongst fans of 1970s sci-fi, one of the best of the era.

Intended to be a condemnation of brutality as entertainment, this surprisingly violent ‘future sport’ flick came out just two months after Death Race 2000, Roger Corman's live-action Wacky Races-styled exploitation drive-in movie, which ended up trumping Rollerball at the US box office (well, it was made for the fraction of the cost).

Rollerball's chilly Bafta-winning art direction and clinical cinematography was wholly inspired by European arthouse cinema and Stanley Kubrick's 1971 sci-fi A Clockwork Orange, especially in its use of Munich's modern architecture (like BMW's HQ, the Olympic Audi Dome basketball park, and the athlete's village) as a symbol of souless dystopia; while the use of classical music was another steal – and another reason to put off the popcorn crowd, but excite cineastes.

Jewison's sci-fi certainly has some well-executed action sequences, but US audiences just didn't 'get' its political agenda – as they were far more interested in actually playing the made-up game itself. Today, however, Rollerball's central themes are freakishly prescient, especially with regards to the power of corporations and the media on our way of life; the unreliability of digital information (I still think cloud storage is suspect); and our growing desensitisation towards violence. There's certainly a lot going on outside Jewison's roller track, which only makes this is one of the smartest sci-fi's of the 1970s and a 'future sport' flick that the likes of The Running Man and The Hunger Games remain indebted to. It's also far superior to that mis-guided, soulless 2002 remake.

THE UK BLU-RAY RELEASE The Arrow Video http://youtube.com/v/vvnctbktn0k

In 1976, acclaimed American dramatist Paddy Chayefsky and film director Sidney Lumet, delivered a scathing attack on the medium in which they made their names, in the black satire Network.

Peter Finch won a posthumous Best Actor Oscar (he died while promoting the film in January 1977) as well as a Golden Globe and a Bafta, playing veteran anchorman Howard Beale, who, facing the axe, flips his lid and announces he is going to blow his brains out live on air – which sends his show’s ratings through the roof, giving ruthless suits, Faye Dunaway and Robert Duvall, the perfect opportunity to exploit their ‘mad prophet of the airwaves’.

Chayefsky's Oscar-winning script may have been an all-out rant against the power of TV media and those pulling the strings, but watching it today – especially in light of the News International phone hacking scandal and reality television programming – it seems just as relevant.

Faye Dunaway also scored an Oscar for her forceful performance as one of the TV chiefs, as did Beatrice Straight for her tour de force turn as William Holden's neglected wife; while Holden puts in one of his last truly solid performances in his later career.

Although Lumet missed out on an Oscar nomination, he did score a Golden Globe for his incendiary direction; which includes an electrifying scenes in which Finch's viewers head to their windows during a thunderstorm to scream out loud: ‘I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!’. So effective is this scene, you’ll find it hard to stop yourself from following in their wake…

THE UK BLU-RAY RELEASE Network gets its UK Blu-ray release from Arrow Video on 23 March 2015, with a raft of new special features, including a new documentary exploring Lumet’s career. A collector’s booklet is also include with new writing on the film by Mike Sutton and an American Cinematographer http://youtube.com/v/xxajGBZeQZc

From Jacques Tourneur, director of the horror classics, Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie and Night of the Demon, comes the 1963 horror spoof, The Comedy of Terrors, starring four masters of the macabre - Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff - coming to DVD and Blu-ray from Arrow Video on 16 February.

SYNOPSIS Inebriate undertaker Waldo Trumbull (Price) is running a New England funeral home business owned by his ageing father-in-law (Karloff)… straight into the ground. Hounded by his penny-pinching landlord Mr Black (Rathbone) for non-payment of rent, Trumbull and his put-upon assistant Felix Gillie (Lorre) hatch a plan to boost business. But murder is just not their forté, especially when their latest ‘client’ refuses to stay dead…

THE LOWDOWN As the roguish Waldo Trumbull, Price is at his ‘delicious boozy hammiest’, and has a whale of a time making the most of the film's venomous dialogue – in particular his put-downs of Lorre's wanted fugitive Felix (who is terrible at DIY coffin-making). Their slapstick misadventures evoke comedy greats, Laurel and Hardy – with Price even reappropriating their famous catchphrase: ‘A fine mess you’ve made of things again!’ Sadly, this was also the last time that the two pals got to act together, as the ailing 59-year-old Lorre died just two months after the film’s release. Fittingly, it was Price who delivered the eulogy.

Veteran stars Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff are also game for a laugh in the Arsenic and Old Lace-styled affair (that classic 1941 play also sent up Boris Karloff's horror screen persona), with Rathbone especially good as the Shakespearean-spouting cataleptic who refuses to ‘shuffle off his mortal coil’, while also playing on his swashbuckling antics in 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood.

The downside to Tourneur's film, however (it was the director's second-to-last feature before retiring), is that it's rather stagey and old-fashioned (especially for the 1960s teen crowd that it was aimed at). It remains, however, a firm favourite of mine – a gleefully ghoulish slapstick affair with a classy never-to-be-repeated cast of old Hollywood greats.

THE ARROW UK BLU-RAY/DVD RELEASE The Comedy of Terrors is presented on Blu-ray and DVD, with the HD master being made available by MGM via Hollywood Classics, and includes optional English subtitles. For an in-depth look at the extras, check out Pete's full review (click here).

DID YOU KNOW?

Cleopatra is played by one of Hollywood’s most celebrated animal stars, Rhubarb (aka Orangey) – a 12-pound marmalade tabby who won two American Humane Association’s PATSY awards for 1951’s Rhubarb and 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s (in which he has almost seven minutes of screen time), and who also appeared in The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) and Village of the Giants (1965). In The Comedy of Terrors, Rhubarb, who has been present throughout the madcap mayhem, gets an inspired silent comedy scene in the closing credits, creeping over the bodies that have piled up during what was the director's second-to-last feature, before he moved into television then retired in France.

Out this week comes Arrow Video's UK Blu-ray and DVD release of Mario Bava’s 1963 thriller thriller The Girl Who Knew Too Much, completely restored.

SYNOPSIS Young American secretary Nora Davis (Letícia Román) loves reading murder mystery novels, but never dreamed she’d end up in a real life case. Whilst visiting an elderly aunt in Rome, she witnesses a murder on the famed Spanish Steps. But with no body, the police and a young doctor, Marcello Bassi (John Saxon), refuse to believe her story. Nora then starts researching a 10-year-old case involving the Alphabet Killer, only to end up his next intended victim. Can she convince Marcello that she isn’t imagining things before the bodies start piling up?

THE LOWDOWN Intended as an homage to Hitchcock and a macabre twist on fluffy European vacation romcoms like 1954's Three Coins in the Fountain, Mario Bava's La Ragazza Che Sapeva Troppo ended up laying the blueprint for all those gory Italian thrillers that followed in its wake. Indeed, if it weren’t for this, Dario Argento may never have had the career he's had. Bava’s striking chiaroscuro lighting and masterful camerawork certainly comes to the fore in this, his last black and white feature, while his innate style makes this thriller something special indeed.

THE UK DUAL FORMAT RELEASE Digitally re-mastered from the original pre-print film elements, Arrow presents the film in both its original Italian version (La Ragazza Che Sapeva Troppo) and the longer US cut, entitled Evil Eye. Both versions contain new English subtitle track, and a High Rising featurette in which filmmakers Luigi Cozzi and Richard Stanley and authors Alan Jones and Mikel Koven reflect on Mario Bava’s first true giallo. Also included are special features that were originally included on the Starz/Anchor Bay box-set released in 2007).

• For more on this film, check out Pete's full review (click here)

http://youtube.com/v/3gRRzInFNpw

Arrow Video has announced a limited edition and personalised dual format Blu-ray and DVD box-set of the cult classic Withnail and I, set for release on 20th October 2014 in a stunning new 2k restoration. Available in 4 different numbered and personalised boxes, each limited to 500 copies only. Fans can choose their favourite of four artworks available as well as having their names printed on the back of their set. Their names will also feature alongside one of fifteen favourite quotes for a truly unique and personal edition which can be purchased at http://withnailfilm.com/ 2000 additional copies will be available featuring the classic poster artwork.

Special Edition Contents • New 2K restoration of Withnail and I from the original camera negative, supervised and approved by director of photography Peter Hannan • Bruce Robinson’s follow-up feature, How to Get Ahead in Advertising, newly transferred from original film elements and approved by director of photography Peter Hannan • High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD Presentation of both films • Original uncompressed mono 1.0 PCM audio for both films • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing • Audio commentary by writer-director Bruce Robinson • Audio commentary by critic and writer Kevin Jackson • All four original ‘Withnail Weekend’ documentaries, first screened on Channel 4 in 1999 • Newly filmed interviews with key members of Withnail and I’s behind-the-scenes team (TBC) • Theatrical trailers for both films • Exclusive limited edition hardback book packaging (2,000 copies)

More to be announced!

From Arrow Video comes the limited edition release of The Complete Dr Phibes, which includes both The Abominable Dr Phibes and its sequel Dr Phibes Rises Again starring horror icon Vincent Price.

“What more could a horror freak desire?” asked Motion Picture Guide of The Abominable Dr Phibes back in 1971, in which Vincent Price in one of his signature roles, played the wealthy and mysterious Dr Anton Phibes, a disfigured genius who elects to wreak revenge on nine doctors who failed to save his wife Victoria with a murderous campaign inspired by the Ten Plagues of Egypt, including death by bats, boils, blood and more.

Filled with wonderful Art Deco sets, dark humour and a legendary performance by Price, The Abominable Dr Phibes and its sequel Dr Phibes Rises Again have since gone on to become classics, and also prefigure the Saw movies with their increasingly fiendish set of murder devices…

Featuring a bumper crop of fantastic extras, Arrow Video’s box set includes Dr Phibes and the Gentlemen, an all-new discussion with the The League of Gentlemen (Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Jeremy Dyson), in which they fondly recall these two British horror classics; the featurette Daughter of Phibes, in which Victoria Price discusses her father Vincent Price’s career; and The Doctor Will See You Now, an interview with film reviewer, David Del Valle.

Alongside this, the Blu-ray extras include two audio commentaries on The Abominable Dr Phibes, the first with the late director Robert Fuest and the second with Dr Phibes author William Goldstein, while Dr Phibes Rises Again includes an audio commentary with Video Watchdog's Tim Lucas.

The limited edition box-set also features original trailers for both films, plus a 100-page booklet featuring new writing, on-set recollections from actress Caroline Munro, and an interview with Tim Burton.

The Complete Dr Phibes is out on Monday 16 June http://youtube.com/v/1fcClP3qDRM

This June, Arrow Video, the UK home entertainment label responsible for distributing the best in cult cinema, will celebrate its 5th year anniversary. To kick off the celebrations, six commemorative Steelbook re-issues are being released exclusively through Zavvi, starting with Maniac Cop (already sold out) and Day of the Dead on 30 June, followed by Black Sunday, Inferno, City of the Living Dead and Phenomena. Inside one of these limited edition Steelbooks will be a Golden Ticket, which will win one lucky fan the entire Arrow Video back-catalogue and all upcoming 2014 titles.

Later in the year, Arrow also plans to hold a series of talent-led fan-events, offer unique merchandise and unveil some interactive competitions. So stay tuned for some special announcements being made in the coming weeks…

This has been a great week for Vincent Price fans. Hot on the heels of the Arrow Video release of Theatre of Blood comes the release of The Pit and the Pendulum, director Roger Corman's 1961 follow-up to The Fall of the House of Usher.

SYNOPSIS 16th-century Spanish nobleman Nicholas Medina (Vincent Price) is a haunted man: he fears his late wife Elizabeth (Barbara Steele) was prematurely interred and now stalks his gloomy seaside castle as a vengeful spirit. But he’s mistaken. Elizabeth is very much alive and is using a childhood trauma – Nicholas witnessed his mother being entombed alive at the hands of his inquisitor father as a child – to drive him insane. But her sick plan works only too well – Nicholas goes over the edge and becomes his own raving mad father, which spells deep trouble for Elizabeth’s brother Francis (John Kerr) and the rest Medina household…

THE LOWDOWN On its original release, The Pit and Pendulum became an instant hit with both critics and audiences alike, with the plaudits ranging from ‘a physically stylish, imaginatively photographed horror film’ (Variety) to ‘a thoroughly creepy sequence of horrors’ (New Yorker) and - my favourite - 'Engagingly cornball insanity-in-the-castle hokum, with Vincent Price in fine eyeball-rolling, scenery-chomping form.' (Joe Dante, Castle of Frankenstein)..

Certainly director Roger Corman succeeded in crafting one of the most arresting openings in any Gothic horror film and, after drawing you into a nightmarish world of cobwebs, secret passages and gruesome blood-stained torture chamber, balancing it with a grislyheart-stopping finale. But topping it all is Vincent Price's scene-stealing performance. If 1960's House of Usher officially launched Price as the Master of Menace, it was Pit and the Pendulum that truly crowned him the new king of Horror and made seeing 'a Vincent Price movie' an annual event for 1960's cinemagoers.

THE ARROW BLU-RAY RELEASE Arrow Video's High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the feature is transferred from original film elements by MGM. The bonus features includes audio commentaries with director-producer Roger Corman and critic Tim Lucas, and a 'making of' documentary. Alongside this is the 1970 TV special An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe in which Price reads four of Poe’s classic stories. Another great extra is an added TV sequence which was shot in 1968 to pad out the film for the longer TV time slot. Plus, there’s a collector’s booklet featuring an essay by Gothic horror author Jonathan Rigby, illustrated with original archive stills and posters.

FOR MORE ABOUT THIS RELEASE, READ PETE'S FULL REVIEW (CLICK HERE) http://youtube.com/v/TwbjiQBQFtk

SYNOPSIS In the former copper-mining town of Globe, Arizona, a woman has been found brutally murdered in her home. Detective Charles Mendoza (Art Evans) travels from Tucson to investigate. High on his list of suspects is Paul White (David Keith), an opera-loving hi-fi repairman whose wife Joan (Cathy Moriarty) soon has good reason to fear her husband is not be all that he appears…

THE LOWDOWN With its über cool 1980s style magazine imagery, grainy flashbacks, rapid edits, sublime steadicam shots and other artistic flourishes, White of the Eye is certainly not you run-of-the-mill slasher, and greatly echoes director Donald Cammell’s best-known work, Performance, which he made alongside Nicolas Roeg – another maverick 1970s director with penchant for the bizarre.

Heaped with symbolism drawing on Apache Indian lore and the black holes of astrophysics, the desert-set thriller speaks more about metaphysics than mystery, nevertheless it’s an accomplished, enthralling piece of arthouse cinema, and gives Cathy Moriarty and David Keith their career-best performances. Set to an eclectic score co-written by Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, White of the Eye is a dazzling, hypnotic trip into mind of one of cinema’s true one-offs.

THE UK ARROW VIDEO RELEASE The UK dual format release of the restored print (taken directly from the original camera negative) is the first time that the film has been released on Blu-ray in the UK. The special features include the documentary 'Donald Cammell: The Ultimate Performance' (1998), Donald Cammell’s short film, The Argument http://youtube.com/v/UHKVya-n298

It's never been tougher to be a critic than in 1973's Theatre of Blood, one of the greatest horror comedies of all time. Vincent Price gives a career best performance as Edward Lionhart, a veteran Shakespearean actor who, when passed over for the coveted Critic's Circle award for Best Actor takes deadly revenge on the critics who snubbed him. Featuring a superb cast, including Diana Rigg, Harry Andrews, Jack Hawkins and Arthur Lowe, Theatre of Blood is a deliciously macabre cult classic that's worth a revisit.

Courtesy of Arrow Video in the UK, the cult black comedy is now making its debut on Blu-ray and in a Blu-ray Steelbook tomorrow (Monday 19 May) featuring an incredible array of bonus features, including an hilarious commentary from TV’s The League of Gentlemen (Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson).

For more about this must-have release, check out Pete’s full review (by clicking here). http://youtube.com/v/t8Ew8x-cljM

SYNOPSIS Street punk Rick Bowman (Richard Davalos) winds up in jail after an illegal race goes wrong. Bailed out by stock car race promoter Grant Willard (Brian Donlevy), Davalos is put in a deadly new track called The Figure Eight, where he comes up against maniacal winner Hawk Sidney (Sid Haig)…

THE LOWDOWN Featuring a great cast of character actors including Brian Donlevy (in his final film appearance), Ellen Burstyn (in her third film, as Ellen McRae), and Spider Baby’s Sid Haig and Beverly Washburn, Pit Stop (aka The Winner) might be one of cult director Jack Hill’s lesser known films, but its arguably one of his best. Filmed on an actual Figure-8 track, Hill and his crew were able to capture gripping real-life car wreck scenes lending the film a brilliant sense of realism. Following Arrow Video’s release of Hill’s blaxploitation classic Foxy Brown and cult favourite Spider Baby, Pit Stop has been treated to an all-new restoration that hopes to bring fresh interest to the 1960s actioner.

THE ARROW RELEASE Arrow Video’s dual-format Blu-ray and DVD edition includes an audio commentary with JackHill, interviews with the director, Sid Haig and producer Roger Corman, and a demonstration of the extensive restoration work by James White (watch the clip here). The collector’s booklet includes essays by film critic Glenn Kenny and a history of the Seattle psych band The Daily Flash and their soundtrack to Pit Stop.

DID YOU KNOW? Richard ‘Dick’ Davalos (East of Eden) graces The Smiths’ 1987 album, Strangeways Here We Come.

http://youtube.com/v/5_H0YGmeZ_o

SYNOPSIS After some weird goo erupts from the Earth, a couple of miners discover it tastes so good they decide to market it. The American public laps up the new dessert known as The Stuff but, unfortunately, it has a life of its own and the not-so-friendly bacteria starts turning people into Stuff-craving zombies. Having seen the yucky yoghurt crawling around the fridge one night, young Jason (Scott Bloom) teams up with wisecracking industrial saboteur Mo (Michael Moriarty) and advertising executive Nicole (Andrea Marcovvici) to put a stop to The Stuff and the organisation behind its distribution…

THE LOWDOWN Coming courtesy of horror auteur Larry Cohen (It’s Alive/Maniac Cop), The Stuff is a titillating treat for the taste buds, which blends elements of films such as Street Trash with the straight-up B-movie flavour of The Blob. So grab a spoon and dig on into The Stuff – the taste that delivers… much more than you bargained for!

THE ARROW RELEASE Arrow Video’s UK dual format release (and a UK first for the Blu-ray) features a high definition restoration of the film from a new 2k scans of the original negative, with original stereo 2.0 audio and optional subtitles.

The bonus features include a brand new documentary Can’t Get Enough of The Stuff: Making Larry Cohen’s Classic Creature Feature, a Trailers From Hell intoduction by self-confessed fan, Saw II and III director, Darren Bousman, and a collector’s booklet. The deluxe edition features packaging showcasing Gary Pullin’s fantastically gloopy artwork and a reversible sleeve adorned with the original UK VHS art by Graham Humphreys.

DID YOU KNOW? Buckets of Häagen-Dazs ice cream, various yoghurts, shaving cream and gallons of vile-smelling fire retardant foam were all used to create the creamy delicacy that is The Stuff. If you want to know more fun facts about this cult classic, check out Pete's review (just click here http://youtube.com/v/CviPtdhR_oM

SYNOPSIS Composer Winslow Leach (William Finley) is framed, robbed and mutilated by an evil music producer Swan (Paul Williams) who then dupes Winslow into signing away his soul in order to finish his Faust rock opera for the woman he loves, aspiring singer Phoenix (Jessica Harper). But when the evil Swan replaces Phoenix with a glam rocker, Winslow begins terrorising the impresario's new rock palace, The Paradise…

THE LOWDOWN Director Brian De Palma's rock opera puts a 1970s spin on Phantom of the Opera, the Faust legend and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. The visuals are exciting, and the sly record-industry jabs are frighteningly prescient (Swan’s like a cross between Phil Spector and Simon Cowell). But it’s the film’s rocking score by Paul Williams, which was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe, that dominates and stays with you long after the phinal curtain call.

Phantom of the Paradise is a film that’s dated and undated over the past 40 years, but you really don’t need to know all the cinematic references to get it. And when you think that director Guillermo del Toro is its ultimate fan (he even named his daughter after Jessica Harper’s character in the movie), then you know it's a bona fide cult that's a must see, as is this release from Arrow Video, which is packed with extras and boasts a gorgeous HD Blu-ray presentation of the feature, a first for the UK.

If you want to know more about the film and a full list of specs on the Arrow release, check out Pete's review (just click here).

Phantom of the Paradise is released on Blu-ray on Monday 24 February from Arrow Video

THE STORY Discovering she has psychic powers, teenager Gillian (Amy Irving) volunteers to attend a research clinic, which turns out to be under the control of an intelligence organisation, headed by Ben Childress (John Cassavetes), who want to turn her gift into a weapon. Using her powers, Gillian then helps Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) find his telepathic son Robin (Andrew Stevens), who has also been kidnapped by the nefarious Childress...

THE LOWDOWN Although The Fury didn't take the box-office by storm on its release in 1978, Brian De Palma's telekinetic thriller has a lot going for it. You've got Hollywood heavyweight Kirk Douglas as the often-shirtless hero Peter (he looks amazingly fit at 61), John Cassavetes (of Rosemary's Baby fame) as the villainous Childress, and the future Mrs Steven Spielberg, Amy Irving, as the terrified teen Gillian - who helps Peter search for his son, who is being brainwashed and seduced by a wicked temptress played by the excellent Fiona Lewis.

Featuring one of the best-ever scores from composer John Williams, some great make-up effects from the legendary William Tuttle, and some of De Palma's most outstanding cinematic flourishes, The Fury sounds and looks brilliant in this newly-restored print and is so deserving of critical reappraisal and a revisit.

THE ARROW VIDEO RELEASE Arrow Video's 35th-anniversary edition comes with a selection of new special features and bonus material (listed below), as well as an in-depth collector’s booklet.

• Blood on the Lens - A revealing interview with cinematographer Richard H Kline. • Spinning Tales - A rare interview with actress Fiona Lewis. • The Fury, A Location Journal - A hugely enjoyable behind-the-scenes interview with former intern (now film director) Sam Irvin. • Original archive interviews from the 1978 promotional tour, featuring Brian De Palma, producer Frank Yablans and stars Carrie Snodgress and Amy Irving. • Double Negative - Short film tribute to Brian De Palma by Sam Irvin, starring The Phantom of the Paradise's William Finley http://youtube.com/v/KFqplLGM2o4

THE STORY Three aliens in suspended animation are brought back to Earth from their dying spacecraft hidden inside Halley’s Comet. But while undergoing examination by a team of British scientists, the aliens - cloaked as perfect humanoid specimens - escape by feeding on the lifeforce of their captors. Running amok in London, the vampire trio create an epidemic that turns the populace into soul-sucking ghouls. With the alien’s spacecraft on a collision course for Earth, only one man can stop them - shuttle crew survivor (Steve Railsback), who has a strange connection with the alien’s leader (Mathilda May).

THE LOWDOWN Tobe Hooper’s 1985 adaptation of Colin Wilson’s 1976 novel The Space Vampires was the American director’s big-budget homage to Hammer, fusing the 1950s sci-fi of the Quatermass films with the pert eroticism of their 1970s-made gothic bloodsuckers like The Vampire Lovers. Despite an editing hack job by the film’s purse-holders, Hooper’s Poltergeist follow-up is a delightfully insane sci-fi horror blockbuster.

There’s the stellar cast of wildly over-acting British thespians - including Peter Firth, Aubrey Morris, Frank Finlay and Patrick Stewart, a script by the Dan O’Bannon, who penned Alien, stunning make-up effects - the animatronic corpses are the highlight, John Dykstra’s superb special effects, and Mathilda May’s unforgettable nude vampire. If you've never seen this, then you are in for a surprise. If you are already a fan, then this restored release is a must-have. The only thing missing (besides a full-on director’s cut) is Henry Mancini’s classic music score.

THE RELEASE The Arrow Video (region B) release includes a HD Blu-ray presentation of both the international and theatrical versions, transferred from original elements by MGM with supervision by director Tobe Hooper. The amazing extras includes audio commentaries with Tobe Hooper, visual effects artist Douglas Smith and make-up effects artist Nick Maley; a making-of featurette, and new interviews with Hooper, Mathilda May and Steve Railsback.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07qiX-ytQEU&fs=1

THE STORY When a violent storm hits the small fishing town of Fly Creek, Georgia toppling an electricity pylon, millions of volts surge into the mud causing the local worms to transform into flesh eaters. With the power lines down, the townspeople and visiting city boy Mick (Don Scardino) soon face a fight for survival as a tidal wave of worms wriggle into town consuming everything in their path.

THE LOWDOWN Described as 'The Birds with worms', Squirm was the debut feature of Jeff Lieberman and is regarded as one of the best revenge-of-nature films of the 1970s. Some 250,000 real worms plus another 250,000 fake ones were used in the film and they are all up there on the screen to see, as whole rooms are filled with what looks like thick spaghetti. It’s a disturbing image that stays with you. As do the sounds of the worms (in fact, pigs being slaughtered) and the grisly make-up effects, which were designed by future Oscar-winner Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London).

THE RELEASE The Arrow Video dual format release includes a HD presentation on Blu-ray (SD on DVD) which has been restored uncut with the approval of the director, who also supplies a witty, entertaining audio commentary. The other special features include a Q&A session with Lieberman and Don Scardino from 2012, a critique of the film by Kim Newman, unrestored trailer, interchangeable artwork by Gary Pullin, and collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Lee Gambin, author of Massacred by Mother Nature, an interview with Lieberman, archive stills and posters.

This ‘dumb but fun’ 1977 demon car movie is a must for your cult movie collection.

THE STORY Roaming the desert highways of the American south-west, a driverless, demonically-possessed car mows down anyone in its path. When it terrorises the residents of Santa Ynez and knocks down and kills the local sheriff, it falls on police Captain Wade Parent (James Brolin) to come up with a plan to stop the killing machine before its picks off more innocent lives.

THE LOWDOWN 1983’s Christine is regarded as cinema’s definitive demon-car movie, but I have real soft spot for this 1977 supernatural auto thriller.

The original cinema poster read: ‘Is it a phantom, a demon, or the Devil Himself?’ Actually, it was just a big black car, in this case a custom built 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III, that kicks up lots of dust and runs down a few people before being turned into a giant fireball with a cartoon demon face appearing out of the smoke.

Director John Landis calls it ‘dumb but fun’ while Pacific Rim director Guillermo del Toro was so inspired he owns a replica of the car. And what’s not to like about a film that fuses Jaws, Duel and The Exorcist in one neat package; stars the ruggedly handsome James Brolin (aka Mr Striesand) from Westworld fame; and features a custom car by the legendary George Barris (he also did the Batmobile for the 1960s Batman TV series).

Director Elliot Silverstein (best known for another film fusion, the 1965 comedy western musical Cat Ballou) also makes great use of the stunning Utah desert-scapes, whose alien-ness is only made more epic by Leonard Rosenman’s scorching music score (that sounds very much like the ones he did for two Planet of the Apes sequels).

This is all capped off with one inspired death scene, in which the car, horns ablazing, crashes through a house in the middle of the night, and a spectacular finale set to a reworked, orchestral version of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. When all is said and done, this is one ‘turkey’ that deserves to be in your cult movie collection.

THE RELEASE The Arrow Video Blu-ray debut features a re-mastered HD print, audio commentary with director Elliot Silverstein, two featurettes featuring special effects artist William Aldridge and actor John Rubinstein, Trailers from Hell promo with an introduction from John Landis, collector’s booklet, and reversible sleeve featuring artwork by illustrator Joe Wilson.

http://youtube.com/v/aWL9W6gxqrA

DID YOU KNOW Real-life siblings Kim and Kyle Richards play James Brolin’s children in the film. Kim was Prudence in TV’s Nanny & the Professor, while Kyle was in Little House on the Prairie. Today, they are better known as Paris Hilton’s aunts.

THE STORY After her narcotics cop boyfriend is murdered; Foxy Brown (Pam Grier) infiltrates a prostitution and drugs ring tled by a kinky white couple. But when her cover is blown, she is kidnapped, drugged and raped by two redneck henchmen. Escaping their clutches, Foxy swears there’s gonna be hell to pay by calling on the assistance of her Black Power brothers to take the villains down...

THE LOWDOWN If you ever wanted to know where Quentin Tarantino got his mojo from, then you must check out this 1975-crime thriller from Spider Baby director Jack Hill. The formidable Pam Grier shows why she became the pin-up queen of the blaxploitation era in this sequel (despite the name) to Hill’s 1973 hit Coffy and why Tarantino chose to pay homage to Grier's iconic status in 1997's Jackie Brown. Grier’s sexy streetwise character is a ‘whole lot of woman’ that became a female empowerment symbol in the 1970s, while Hill’s film - which puts a Black Pride spin on classic thriller's like Jules Dassin's Rififi - set the bar for the genre. And let's not forget the 1970s fashion... the colourful threads worn by the cast are a knockout.

THE DISC The Arrow Video Blu-ray and Steelbook release features a restored high-definition transfer and a stack of special features and bonus material including an audio commentary with director Jack Hill, three new featurettes (featuring actor Sid Haig, stuntman Bob Minor and blaxploitation legend Fred Williamson), behind-the-scenes photos and publicity images, theatrical trailer and collector’s booklet. The only thing missing to make this the ultimate release however is Willie Hutch’s funky soundtrack and an interview with Grier.

http://youtube.com/v/GXvXtq0pICM

THE STORY Horror legend Lon Chaney Jr stars in this once lost 1960s black comedy as Bruno, a loyal chauffeur entrusted with the care of three orphan siblings, Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn), Virginia (Jill Banner) and Ralph (Sid Haig) – the last generation of the inbred Merrye family, who have inherited a disease that causes them to regress into murderous savages. When distant relatives Emily (The House on Haunted Hill's Carol Omhart) and Peter (Quinn Redeker) arrive with their lawyer to make a claim on the Merrye fortune, Bruno is forced to take drastic steps to protect the children.

THE LOWDOWN Like a demented take on TV's The Addams Family, this weird, wild monochrome cult classic from writer-director Jack Hill (who Quentin Tarantino calls 'the Howard Hawks of exploitation filmmaking') has a bit of a history behind it and certainly lives up to its alternate title ‘the maddest story ever told’.

Filmed in just 12 days in 1964, Spider Baby was not released until 1968 due to a legal dispute, and for many years afterwards, the only way to see Hill’s Californian gothic was on poor quality pirate VHS tapes. It wasn’t until the director finally got his hands on the original negative – with the help of trash film historian Johnny Legend, Tarantino and Harvey Weinstein – that audiences would be able to see the film as it was meant to be.

Spider Baby maybe comical, but it also has some genuinely creepy moments, and that’s down to the masterful cinematography, lighting and art direction. It also has real heart that shines through the performances. Lon Chaney Jr gives a melancholy turn (even crying real tears in one scene) as the empathic custodian who tries to keep the mad Merrye kids from going over to the dark side with his homespun philosophy: ‘Just because something isn't good doesn't mean it’s bad’. But the film’s real stars are Jill Banner as the spider-loving Virginia and Sid Haig as the Harpo Marx-like Ralph. Banner, who was Marlon Brando's lover at the time, tragically died, aged 35, in a car crash in 1982. Haig, meanwhile, has become a cult hero in horror and exploitation circles.

Director Hill only made 19 films, but he certainly put a unique spin on the grindhouse and exploitation genre, and Spider Baby is his shining example of how a small movie can outlive some rather big ones. Dare you embrace the Spider again?

THE DISC The Arrow Video release contains a director’s cut (on both Blu-ray and DVD), transferred and restored in HD from the original 35mm negative under the supervision of Jack Hill. It’s also loaded with bonus material, including Hill’s 1960 short The Host, starring Sid Haig. Other extras include audio commentary with Hill and Haig, a 2012 cast panel discussion, a retrospective with Joe Dante, a profile on composer Ronald Stein, and a visit to the Merrye House location in Highland Park, Los Angeles. Plus, there’s an alternate opening sequence, extended scenes, original trailer, behind-the-scenes imagery, collector’s booklet, and a reversible sleeve featuring the original 1968 artwork and a new design by Graham Humphreys.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO LON CHANEY JR?

Spider Baby was one of the last films of Lon Chaney Jr, who was suffering with numerous health problems, including throat cancer, gout and cataracts, throughout the 1960s. The actor, who died of heart failure aged 67 on 12 July 1973, was a haunted man, both personally and professionally. Not only did he have the legacy of his famous father, Lon Chaney (the original Phantom of the Opera), stalking him throughout his life, he also had the ghosts of Lennie Small and Larry Talbot, the characters he played in 1939's Of Mice and Men and 1941's The Wolf Man, to contend with. Throughout his career, Chaney found himself typecast as either a simple-minded brute or sad derelict. As such, there is, in all of his films, a sense of pathos running through the characters he played. Chaney’s final film before his death was the Z-grade monstrosity Dracula vs Frankenstein in which he does little more than grunt, but its in Spider Baby http://youtube.com/v/yFMvPRvxV1Y

THE STORY Cheery Farmer Vincent (Rory Calhoun) and his sister Ida (Nancy Parsons) are famous for their organic hickory-smoked meats – but their secret ingredient is human flesh. The siblings ambush people they consider scum and bury them in a secret garden with their vocal chords slit to fatten them up for slaughter. But Vincent and Ida’s enterprise is soon under threat when a pretty young stranger called Terry (Nina Axelrod) catches Vincent's eye…

THE LOWDOWN Motel Hell is a 1980 tongue-in-cheek axe-ploitation film from the producers of Time After Time and the writer of Demon Seed that tiptoes the fine line between an all-out horror film and a comedy.

It was also the US debut of British director Kevin Connor, who scored great success with family friendly adventure films like 1975’s The Land That Time Forgot for Amicus. Moving into horror territory, Connor’s style is very much in the vein of 1950s EC Comics like Tales from the Crypt, fusing black humour with an American Gothic feel and a dollop of satire that takes a swipe at Ronald Reagan’s capitalist America.

Rory Calhoun, who made his name in Westerns like the late-1950s TV series, The Texan, perfectly balances the folksy friendliness of his character Farmer Vincent with the script’s dark humour; while you can’t help but love Nancy Parsons (of Porky’s fame) as the crazed Ida – pig-tails and all. The film also features Playboy centerfolds Rosanne Katon and Monique St Pierre and famed DJ Wolfman Jack in cameos. This film came out the same year as another EC Comics inspired horror, The Monster Club, which is also deserving of a HD restoration (well, I think so).

THE DISC The Arrow Video UK release of Motel Hell features a fully restored HD print of the film on DVD and Blu-ray (a world’s first). The bonus materials include director’s audio commentary and interviews with cast members, three brand new and exclusive featurettes, original trailers and promotional material, and a collector’s booklet featuring extracts from Motel Hell http://youtube.com/v/JjQ1R0hc6Og

DID YOU KNOW? Motel Hell was intended as a horror based on the Beauty and the Beast tale with Tobe Hooper (of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre fame) directing. The film didn’t end up having Hooper, but it does feature chainsaws in a now legendary duel scene – photos of which ended up on the cover of Issue 9 of the iconic horror magazine Fangoria. But the sight of Calhoun wearing a giant pig’s head wielding a blood-drenched chainsaw was deemed so disturbing that the issue was banned in both the United Kingdom and the United States.

THE STORY Boris Karloff plays master of ceremonies in 1963's Black Sabbath, an Italian trilogy of terror from director Mario Bava (Black Sunday, Lisa and the Devil). The Telephone, set in the 1960s, is a giallo-inspired story in which a prostitute gets blood on her hands when she asks a friend to help her escape from her former pimp. The Drop of Water, adapted from a tale by Ivan Chekhov, concerns a Victorian-era nurse who gets her comeuppance when she steals a ring from the corpse of a clairvoyant. While the final sequence, The Wurdalak, adapted from a Tolstoy story, stars Boris Karloff as the patriarch of a 19^th-century Russian family who turns out to be a vampire that feeds on the blood of his loved ones.

THE LOWDOWN Mario Bava, who kick-started the golden age of Italian horror with 1960's Black Sunday, followed his monochrome masterpiece with this colourful horror anthology that has since become a firm favourite among horror fans.

The first two stories are atmospheric ‘sting in the tail’ thrillers featuring Bava’s unique camerawork and lighting, while the final one is a remarkable stylistic achievement that is pure Bava thanks to its comical ending. The US release was edited to make it more of a spookfest and replaced Roberto Nicolosi’s music with a score from Les Baxter (who also scored many of Roger Corman’s Poe films). But UK fans can now see both versions in Arrow Video's deluxe release.

THE DISC The Arrow Video dual format (Blu-ray/DVD) deluxe edition features I tre volti della paura, the European version with the Nicolosi score, and Black Sabbath, the re-edited and re-dubbed US version with the Les Baxter score. Also included is a brilliant new featurette explaining the differences between the two versions, new subtitles, artwork from Graham Humphreys http://youtube.com/v/beAcj_XNt78 Black Sabbath adopted the film's title (they originally called themselves Earth) and changed their music style after seeing fans queuing up to see Bava's film at a local Birmingham cinema.

THE STORY In this 1981 American rural gothic chiller from director Wes Craven, Maren Jensen (Athena in TV’s original Battlestar Galactica) plays Martha, the wife of a farmer who is found crushed to death by his tractor. When she refuses to sell her farm to Isaiah (Ernest Borgnine), the leader of the ultra-religious Hittite community that her husband once belonged to, Martha finds herself branded an incubus and treated like a pariah. Then, a series of unsettling occurrences and a body in the barn leads her to suspect someone really does mean business…

THE LOWDOWN Deadly Blessing is a strange beast. Wes Craven, who was still three years away from making his signature slasher Nightmare on Elm Street, had successfully terrorised audiences with his home invasion horror Last House on the Left and the survival horror The Hills Have Eyes, but this psychological-cum-supernatural horror was a disappointment for fans and critics on its release. Mainly due to the lack of any real big scares or supernatural elements – except the twist ending, which was only added to give the film a Carrie moment.

Three decades on and Craven’s attempt at gothic is worth returning to, if only for Ernest Borgnine’s threatening performance, seeing a young Sharon Stone in her first speaking role, and revisiting the film’s two key scenes: Jensen sharing a steamy bath with a snake and Stone having a spider land in her mouth. It also gave me the chance to see my teenage crush Lisa Hartman (she starred in the Bewitched spin-off Tabitha) in glorious Blu-ray. It’s just a pity that Craven didn’t get to explore the film's more subversive elements, which is only hinted at when the killer is finally revealed to be… (No I won’t spoil it).

THE DISC The Arrow Video Blu-ray and DVD UK release includes an introduction by actor Michael Berryman, an audio commentary and interview with Wes Craven, and an interview with screenwriter Glenn M Benest. There's also a reversible sleeve with artwork from acclaimed artist Gary Pullin, and a collector's booklet.

Released 25 March 2013 http://youtube.com/v/SKQkF-j_RnM

THE STORY After getting lost in the labyrinthine streets of Toledo, German tourist Lisa (Elke Sommer) takes refuge in the crumbling mansion of a blind countess (Alida Valli), whose butler (Telly Savalas) could be the devil incarnate and whose son (Alessio Orano) believes Lisa to be his dead lover come back to life. Finding herself trapped in a waking nightmare, Lisa experiences increasingly morbid hallucinations that soon end in murder and necrophilia.

THE LOWDOWN 1973’s Lisa and the Devil (Il Diavolo e I Morti) is director Mario Bava’s most personal film, a hauntingly beautiful poem about decay and death that also showcases his supreme technical skills, but it failed to get a distribution – mainly due to the seismic shift that occurred in the wake of The Exorcist's box office success.

As such, Bava’s film was re-cut, with new scenes added, to create 1975’s The House of Exorcism (La Casa dell’Esorcismo), in which Robert Alda's exorcist is charged with casting out the demon that has caused Sommer to vomit up live toads.

While this hack job actually ended up a commercial success, it cannot touch Bava’s deliriously funereal trip through the looking glass. But for Bava completists, having both films together for the first time ever is a real treat.

THE DISC The Arrow release includes a HD Blu-ray and SD DVD presentation of both films, while the most interesting extras are producer Alfredo Leone’s audio commentary on House of Exorcism (probably the best way to view this film) and a featurette about the making of both films.

DID YOU KNOW? It was Mario Bava who came up with the idea of having Telly Savalas’ satanic butler suck on a lollipop in Lisa and the Devil. Savalas loved the idea so much he later adopted the prop in TV's Kojak - the rest, they say, is history.

Out on Dual Format (Blu-ray and DVD) from Arrow Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd0HR7cyDkE&fs=1

From the godfather of Italian horror, Mario Bava, comes a deliciously horrific new Blu-ray and DVD release of the seminal 1960 gothic chiller Black Sunday.

THE STORY In 17^th-century Moldavia, princess Asa (Barbara Steele) is sentenced to a cruel death for sorcery and adultery - a spiked mask is driven into her face. Two centuries later, Asa and her devil-worshipping lover Igor rise from their crypts to destroy the descendants of Asa’s cursed family…

THE LOWDOWN 1960’s Black Sunday (aka The Mask of Satan) is one of the most significant films in the annals of horror cinema. It was Mario Bava’s directorial debut and launched Barbara Steele's career as the decade’s queen of horror.

Evoking the Universal horrors of the 1930s and 1940s, while still offering the modern shocks found in Hammer films like The Curse of Frankenstein, Black Sunday gave Bava the chance to hone the romantic style that he had fashioned co-directing Riccardo Freda’s 1956 film I Vampiri (also included in this release).

The result is a hauntingly beautiful gothic chiller, with a host of classic sequences - from Asa’s grisly execution (which resulted in the film being banned in the UK for eight years) to Igor's frightening resurrection - that have ended up staples of the horror genre, and influenced generations of film-makers - from Roger Corman to Tim Burton. And behind the fake cobwebs and fog-shrouded sets, the film also contained a theme that would recur in future Bava films: the eradication of desire by men fearful of female sexuality. But that’s another story…

THE DISC Vintage horror completists will want to add Arrow Video’s new dual format release to their collection as it improves on the 1999 DVD version.

While that release contained the director’s cut (The Mask of Satan), Arrow's release allows you the choice of either the English or Italian soundtrack. And, in a must-have first, it also includes the US theatrical cut of Black Sunday, featuring a score by exotica maestro Les Baxter, and dubbing that is marginally better than the director's cut.

The extras are the same as the 1999 release, but include some exciting newbies, the best being Freda’s I Vampiri - now that's a real find. The slipbox editions also include new artwork from British illustrator Graham Humphreys.

Released 4 February, from Arrow Video

http://youtube.com/v/bDMTM9_MkM8

With its lurid title and promises of putrefied corpses coming back to life with worms oozing out of eye sockets, this was one Romero rip-off that was a must-see during the video nasty 1980s. But to see Lucio Fulci's Zombie Flesh-Eaters in all its uncut gory was only for European audiences until the film was finally passed uncut in 1999. Even so, the VHS and DVD print quality has always been terrible. Thankfully, this new restoration from Arrow Video is the best Chrissy present fans of the film can ask for.

The story With the help of a vacationing couple, scientist's daughter Anne (Tisa Farrow - yep, it's Mia's sister) and reporter Peter (Ian McCulloch) head to the picturesque Caribbean island of Matoul where Richard Johnson's Professor Menard is conducting experiments on the dead. But when the powers of voodoo cause re-animated corpses to overrun the island, our heroes find themselves holed up in a make-shift hospital with nowhere to run…

The lowdown Flesh fiends can gorge themselves on a host of special features that accompany the lush 2k HD restoration - which looks ace and breathes new life into Fabio Frizzi and Giorgio Tucci's collectable soundtrack. There's optional English/Italian sequences and audio; new subtitles; audio commentaries; collector's booklet; and exclusive artwork by Graham Humphreys (though not in the standard Blu-ray release); while five featurettes, spanning two discs, showcase the film's special effects, music and the history of the Italian zombie genre.

The upshot With its high gore content and relentless violence, Zombie Flesh-Eaters is without doubt the king of the video nasties, and its the sheer realism of Gianetto de Rossi's sfx that steal the show. Arrow's restoration gives Rossi's gruesome artistry and Fulci's horrific set pieces a whole new dimension, allowing fans (both old and new fans alike) to finally fully appreciate this bona fide cult classc.

Available through Arrow Video (DVD, Blu-ray, Limited Edition Blu-ray Steelbook)

Buy the Fabio Frizzi soundtrack through Death Waltz Recording Co in the UK on red vinyl or coloured vinyl and an artist proof print by Graham Humphreys (click here)

• Watch the trailer here

Lucio Fulci's 1979 horror masterpiece Zombie Flesh-Eaters rises again on Blu-ray, DVD and Limited Edition Blu-ray Steelbook on Monday 3 December following a brand new HD restoration from Arrow Films. Censored over its high gore content during the video nasty era of horror films in the 1980s, the cult classic is now restored uncut just the way it was meant to be seen.

Courtesy of Arrow, we have one copy of the highly collectable Blu-ray Steelbook for you to win. Just answer the following question and enter your details in the entry form below. And if you want a further chance at winning the Steelbook, check out Pete's review of the goreshow (click here).

Q: What was an alternative title for Zombie-Flesh Eaters? A. Shaun of the Dead B. Zombi 2 C. Cockneys Vs Zombies

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED. THE FOLLOWING WINNERS HAVE BEEN CONTACTED VIA EMAIL: NICK HOPKINS, COLETTE SMITH and SIMON SIMS.

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Competition closes 2pm Friday 14 December. Terms and Conditions apply.