Showing posts with label cult. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cult. Show all posts
7 May 2018
2 May 2018
13 July 2015
27 October 2014
10 October 2014
29 September 2014
Blu-ray Review - Night Of The Comet (1984)
Genre:
Horror, sci-fi
Distributor:
Arrow Video
Rating: 15
Release Date:
29th September 2014 (UK)
Director:
Thom Eberhardt
Cast:
Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelli Maroney, Robert Beltran,
buy:Night of the Comet [Dual Format DVD & Blu-ray]
Night of the Comet is a very entertaining 80s B-Movie. It’s a crossbred of teen movie, sci-fi and horror film. It wears its cinematic influences on its sleeve and its influences are obvious like Dawn of the Dead, The Omega Man, Invasion of the Body Snatchers etc. It would in turn also become a big influence on Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
A comet is set to a hit the earth and it’s the first time there has been one of this ilk since the destruction of the dinosaurs. The teenager Reggie Belmont (Catherine Mary Stewart) works at a local movie theatre and stays over night in the projection room with her boyfriend Larry (Michael Bowen). However outside of the cinema everybody has turned to red dust or has become a zombie. A zombie soon kills her boyfriend and Reggie runs back and finds her sister Samantha also survived so they have to survive the post-apocalyptic landscape Southern California.
The film is very much of its time, it has the big hair, the neon clothes, the cheesy power pop soundtrack that are stereotypical of 80s films. It also has a relatively witty screenplay by its director Thom Eberhardt, you find out in the special features the tone was also problematic but it ended up being a comedy. It’s certainly not the greatest film ever made but it has enough charm and humour to entertain pretty much anyone and it’s also refreshing to see girls as the protagonists in these kinds of films.
The transfer Arrow has used showcases’ the film’s vibrant neon aesthetic quite well. It features 3 commentaries, one by director, one by the film’s star and one by the production designer. It also features about an additional 45 minutes of interviews with cast and crew. It’s finished out with the film’s theatrical trailer and a booklet with new writing on the film.
★★★
Ian Schultz
16 September 2014
Mark 29th September For The Arrow Video Release of Mark The Devil
After it's Film 4 Frightfest Halloween last year the UK Blu-ray and DVD release of Mark of the Devil, once proclaimed as “positively the most horrifying film ever made”, Mark of the Devil finally arrives uncut in the UK on 29th September 2014 with both English and German audio tracks.
With Mark of the Devil, writer-director Michael Armstrong created a bloody and brutal critique of state-funded brutality and religious corruption with a doomed romance at its centre. The use of real torture implements, which Armstrong had found in the Mauterndorf Museum, added to the realism of the picture and made it all the more shocking and the violence unpalatable. In America Mark of the Devil was distributed with the marketing gimmick of a free sick bag provided for every patron.
In the UK the BBFC were obliged to sit through the entire uncut film and deemed it “vicious and disgusting.” They recommended that a certificate be refused entirely and provided a list of required cuts to make the film acceptable for an X certificate.
Altogether the required cuts amounted to 2,100 feet of film; approximately twenty-four minutes running time. However, despite being awarded an X certificate, Mark of the Devil never received a theatrical release in the UK. In 1993 Redemption Films resubmitted the uncut film with cuts still demanded which amounted to more than four minutes. Described by the BBFC as a film whose “primary urge is with the dynamics of inquisitorial torture”
Another ten years later a DVD was released by Anchor Bay Entertainment which was also cut, although by only 38 seconds. Three cuts were made to the scene in which the blonde woman is tortured on the rack. The cuts removed her naked breasts as it was an unacceptable combination of sexually titillating and violent images under the BBFC guidelines at that time.
Other special features included on the disc include, Hallmark of the Devil, which sees author and critic Michael Gingold looks back at Hallmark Releasing, the controversial and confrontational distributor that introduced Mark of the Devil to American cinemas and Mark of the Devil: Now and Then which looks at the film’s locations and how they appear today.
The disc will also feature interviews with composer Michael Holm and actors Udo Kier, Herbert Fux, Gaby Fuchs, Ingeborg Schöner and Herbert Lom. Alongside this, the Blu-ray will also feature outtakes, the original theatrical trailer, a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys and a sizable collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Adrian Smith and Anthony Nield, plus an interview with Reggie Nalder by David Del Valle, all illustrated with original stills and artwork.
Synopsis
A bloody and brutal critique of religious corruption, Mark of the Devil sees horror icon Udo Kier (Flesh for Frankenstein, Suspiria) play a witchfinder’s apprentice whose faith in his master (Herbert Lom) becomes severely tested when they settle in an Austrian village. Presided over by the sadistic albino (a memorably nasty turn from Reggie Nalder), the film presents its morality not so much in shades of grey as shades of black.
Written and directed by Michael Armstrong, who would later pen Eskimo Nell, The Black Panther and House of the Long Shadows, this classic shocker has lost none of its power over the years – especially now that British audiences can finally see it in one piece.
Special Features
· High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the feature, transferred from original film elements – available uncut in the UK for the first time!
· Optional English and German audio
· Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
· Newly translated English subtitles for the German audio
· Audio commentary by Michael Armstrong, moderated by Calum Waddell
· Mark of the Times – exclusive feature-length documentary from High Rising Productions on the emergence of the ‘new wave’ of British horror directors that surfaced during the sixties and seventies, featuring contributions from Michael Armstrong, Norman J. Warren (Terror), David McGillivray (Frightmare), Professor Peter Hutchings (author of Hammer and Beyond) and famed film critic Kim Newman
· Hallmark of the Devil – author and critic Michael Gingold looks back at Hallmark Releasing, the controversial and confrontational distributor that introduced Mark of the Devil to American cinemas
· Interviews with composer Michael Holm and actors Udo Kier, Herbert Fux, Gaby Fuchs, Ingeborg Schöner and Herbert Lom
· Mark of the Devil: Now and Then – a look at the film’s locations and how they appear today
· Outtakes
· Gallery
· Reversible Sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
· Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Adrian Smith and Anthony Nield, plus an interview with Reggie Nalder by David Del Valle, all illustrated with original stills and artwork
27 July 2014
19 July 2014
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