Thursday, May 31, 2007

THE NEXT MONDO MACABRO DVD!!!

They've updated their website at last - on August 28th THE BLOOD ROSE will be unleashed!



DIRECTOR : Claude Mulot

(France 1970)

CERTIFICATE: Unrated

1.66:1 Anamorphic

French language with English subs / UK dub

NTSC DVD



When his new bride's face is hideously disfigured in a fire, Frederic Lansac, a famous society painter, is determined to restore her beauty. He seeks out a notorious plastic surgeon who is on the run from the authorities. Using Lansac's remote castle as a base, the two of them hunt down and imprison a series of young girls. Their skin is to be used in a serious of experiments aimed at restoring the face of Lansac's wife.



The Blood Rose was widely touted as one of the first films to mix sex and horror. Its director went on to make some of the most famous French erotic movies of all time. Here, with a cast of France’s most beautiful young actresses and genre veteran Howard Vernon (Seven Women for Satan), he weaves a dark and disturbing tale that is one of the most sought after rarities for the Euro horror fan.



Special Features:

* World DVD premiere
* Brand new anamorphic transfer taken from the negative
* Filmed interview with Mulot's lifetime friend & assistant director
* Extensive notes, text essays & photo galleries
* Mondo Macabro preview trailer
* Scene access



Yes! French Erotic Horror is real big for us so this is a total no-brainer. It is for you too, if ya know what's good for ya.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Japanese Cinema Extremities and Mexican Monster Weirdness Coming Soon to R1 DVD!!!!!!!!!!

From the Fangoria website:

HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN



• Audio commentary by film critic and 2003 Ishii retrospective programmer Mark Schilling
• New documentary featurette including interviews with cult directors and Ishii fans Shinya (TETSUO) Tsukamoto and Minoru (THE CALAMARI WRESTLER) Kawasaki
• Ishii’s video introduction from the 2003 Far East Film Festival
• Original Japanese theatrical trailer
• Ishii and author Edogawa Rampo biographies
• Poster galleries and trailers from other Ishii and Rampo films

SNAKE WOMAN'S CURSE



• Audio commentary by Japanese film scholar Jonathan Hall
• Original Japanese theatrical trailer
• Nakagawa biography
• Poster gallery and trailers for other Nakagawa films

More extras are to be announced. Both movies will be presented in fully restored anamorphic 2.35:1 transfers, in Japanese with new removable subtitles, and will sport reversible covers with the original Japanese poster artwork. Each disc retails for $24.95.

And from the CasaNegra website ....

WORLD OF VAMPIRES



Wonderfully atmospheric and gothically charged, World of Vampires is a subterranean world dripping in unbridled evil. As the dreaded vampire, Count Subotai (Guillermo Murray), plays his pipe organ of human bones, summoning an army of the undead, a band of intrepid adventures led by Mauricio Garcés and Silvia Fournier must confront the Count and his terrifying minions.

CasaNegra is proud to present this Mexican horror classic uncut and in never-before-available pristine quality.

Special Features:

* Original Uncut Version
* Completely Re-Mastered Picture & Sound from Newly Restored Vault Elements
* Bilingual Menus in English & Spanish
* Cast Biographies
* Poster and Stills Gallery

THE LIVING HEAD



A terrifying, adventure-filled shocker straight from the Aztec ruins of Mexico. A group of archaeologists uncover the tomb of an ancient Aztec Indian warlord Acatl, awakening the dead warrior’s head and sending his undead servant out to take revenge on them. Will the curse of The Living Head be broken or will all those who crossed the ancient path of Acatl perish?

La Cabeza Viviente takes gothic horror, scientific themes, and some fantastic touches straight out of old pulp fiction and creates a virtually avant-garde genre mutant that’s a true cult-film legend.

CasaNegra is proud to present this Mexican horror classic uncut and in never-before-available pristine quality.

Special Features:

* Original Uncut Version
* Completely Re-Mastered Picture & Sound from Newly Restored Vault Elements
* Bilingual Menus in English & Spanish
* Cast Biographies
* Poster and Stills Gallery

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Movie Review: LORNA L'EXORCISTE



aka LORNA, THE EXORCIST
aka LES POSSEDEES DU DIABLE
aka LINDA
Directed by Jess Franco
France; 1974

LORNA is a dark, disturbing and fetid little dirtbag of a film. And something coming close to being a masterpiece. Jess Franco is infamous for making this kind of kinky, slimy exploitation film but as far as ones I’ve seen go, he really topped himself with this dank little weirdo. Exploring warped areas of demented sex magick as well as sensationalistic incest themes, Franco pulls out all the stops in what would otherwise just be another Z-grade sexploitation programmer. His personal, invigorating style permeates every frame, investing the exploitative elements with an artistic authorial voice all too uncommon in international softcore sinema. His life companion and sleaze-muse Lina Romay gives one of her sexiest and most unnerving performances and she pushes the film into territories uncovered by almost any other film-maker I can think of. What a woman. What a film. What an experience.



A Faustian tale of lust and greed, Romay portrays the daughter of a wealthy industrialist who is hiding a unnatural, occult past. His fortunes are tied to the desires of an ageless witch called, of course, Lorna. On the verge of his business collapse a chance encounter with this devious feminine force-of-nature enriches his fortunes at the cost of a deal that will deliver his then unborn daughter to Lorna on the day of her 18th birthday. When that day arrives, he tries, ultimately unsuccessfully to save his increasingly lust-filled daughter, until he and his wife are drawn into a unholy quagmire of sex, death and witchcraft.



Along the way we are treated to an unbelievable miscellany of steamy and bizarre details which will slice your synapses. One uncanny scene reveals a disgusting depiction of sand-crabs emerging from the mother’s cursed pussy. While achieved quite cheaply, the effect is truly disturbing and downright creepy. It adds to the unhealthy occultish atmosphere Franco has created, leading you into a murky territory which is both attractive and repulsive, somehow simultaneously. The weirdness builds. Franco regular Howard Vernon shows up for an exceedingly brief cameo, playing a henchmen for Lorna, summoned to put the wealthy industrialist in his place. He enters the room, and without a word picks up a spikey conch shell and batters the compromised father-figure with it. Then he leaves. Franco inspired such loyalty from certain of his collaborators that they felt no hesitation in showing up just for a day or even in this case, probably just an hour or two. Vernon probably wasn’t even paid for the appearance, he just did it. Maybe out of sharing a kindred spirit with Franco, a spirit dedicated to following the muse of filth and art wherever its dark path may lead.



Some of the more extreme details seem to be missing from the print that I witnessed. Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs’ essential tome Immoral Tales speaks of a scene missing from most of extant prints which features “a dildo, blood-licking and witchcraft” and I am much poorer for having not seen it. But either way LORNA L’EXORCISTE is a remarkable and very strange little film. Jess Franco had made upwards of 150 exploitation films since the late 1950s, and this is one of the best and most unique of his many pieces of utterly weird filth-films. You must seek it out. Hopefully it will be uncovered in a deluxe, remastered special edition DVD. Few exploito movies have ever been so deserving.



Available for rent at Scarecrow Video!

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Trailers for Asian DVD Nasties from Discotek!!

EBOLA SYNDROME
Out May 29, 2007


BLIND WOMAN'S CURSE
Out this Tuesday!

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

JODOROWSKY BOX SET OUT TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



The most important release in DVD history came out today.
Do you have yours yet?
We do, but since we saw the movies not too long ago in the theater, we're not gonna check 'em right away (instead we're gonna take in Jess Franco's nunsploitation freakout THE DEMONS tonight), and maybe wait for the right chemical enhancement to truly allow the cinemagick to flow.
Ignore the naysayers who bitch about FANDO Y LIS and LA CRAVATE not being "flagged for progressive scan" (who gives a fuck, these are essentially just elaborate extra features) or those who'll tell you to skip the box and to just pick up the individual releases of TOPO and MOUNTAIN as somehow being more economical than the set (they obviously can't do math very well).
The box is the way to go fer sure. Purchase this and maybe, just maybe enough will sell that it will inspire some greedy idiot producer to invest money in Jodo's next cinematic project.
Just go out and fucking buy the thing alright?
For Seattle readers, it's on sale this week at Scarecrow Video for only 29.98!!!!
Unbelievably great deal.