Arrow Video USA Announces Its First 4 Months Of Releases. Jaws Drop.

Release Date: 24th March 2015 Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD Starring: Meiko Kaji, Hoki Tokuda, Makoto Satô Directed by: Teruo Ishii

From Teruo Ishii “The King of Cult”, Blind Woman’s Curse (also known as Black Cat’s Revenge) is a thrilling Yakuza film featuring eye-popping visuals, sensational fight sequences and the gorgeous Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood, Stray Cat Rock), in her first major role.

Akemi (Kaji) is a dragon tattooed leader of the Tachibana Yakuza clan. In a duel with a rival gang Akemi slashes the eyes of an opponent and a black cat appears, to lap the blood from the gushing wound. The cat along with the eye-victim go on to pursue Akemi’s gang in revenge, leaving a trail of dead Yakuza girls, their dragon tattoos skinned from their bodies.

A bizarre blend of the female Yakuza film and traditional Japanese ghost story, with a strong dash of grotesque-erotica (the same movement was a sensibility of Edogawa Rampo whose works were adapted by Ishii in Horrors of Malformed Men), Blind Woman’s Curse is a delirious mash-up of classic genre tropes, of which Ishii was no stranger, having directed everything from Super Giant films to Biker movies!

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

• New high definition digital transfer of the film prepared by Nikkatsu Studios
• Presented in High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD
• Uncompressed mono PCM audio
• Newly translated English subtitles
• Audio commentary by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp
• Original Trailer
• Trailers for four of the films in the Meiko Kaji-starring Stray Cat Rock series, made at the same studio as Blind Woman’s Curse
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
• Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Japanese cinema expert Tom Mes, illustrated with original archive stills.

Region: ABC/0 Duration: 85 mins Language: Japanese Subtitles: English Aspect Ratio: 2.44:1 Audio: Mono 2.0 PCM Colour MSRP $39.95

Release Date: 17th March 2015 Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD Starring: Herbert Lom, Udo Kier, Olivera Katarina Directed by: Michael Armstrong

Once proclaimed as “positively the most horrifying film ever made”, Mark of the Devil arrives in a director-approved edition featuring a new restoration of the feature.

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.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the feature, transferred from original film elements
• 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 director and co-writer 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 theaters
• 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

Region: A+B/1+2 Duration: 108 mins Language: German / English Subtitles: English / English SDH Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Audio: 1.0 Mono Colour MSRP $39.95

Synopsis: When Sergio Leone turned Lee Van Cleef into a major star with For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the actor sensibly stayed in Italy to make several more spaghetti westerns, including this one from Leone’s former assistant Tonino Valerii that genre aficionados rank amongst the best ever made.

Giuliano Gemma plays street cleaner Scott Mary, relentlessly bullied by the people of the small town of Clifton. When legendarily ruthless master gunfighter Frank Talby (Van Cleef) rides into town, Scott seizes the opportunity to lift himself out of the gutter, and possibly even surpass Talby’s own skills. But what is Talby doing in Clifton in the first place?

This lively, intelligent western, notable for the chemistry between its charismatic leads, some memorable action set-pieces (including a rifle duel on horseback that has to be seen to be believed), and a jazzy Riz Ortolani score, is presented here in an exclusive high-definition restoration from the original Techniscope negative.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

• Brand new restoration from the original 35mm Techniscope camera negative
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of both versions of the film: the original Italian theatrical release, and the shortened version that was screened internationally
• Original uncompressed mono audio, with English or Italian soundtracks on the longer cut and an English soundtrack on the shorter one
• Newly translated English subtitles for Italian audio and optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for English audio
• Brand new interview with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi
• Brand new interview with Tonino Valerii’s biographer Roberto Curti
• Previously unreleased 2008 interview with Tonino Valerii
• Deleted scene
• Theatrical trailers
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Reinhard Kleist
• Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Howard Hughes (author of Spaghetti Westerns), illustrated with original poster designs

Synopsis: Genre icon Jô Shishido stars in this tense and violent yakuza yarn from genre stalwart and Seijun Suzuki’s former assistant, Yasuharu Hasebe (Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song).

Shishido stars as Kuroda, a mob hitman who turns on his employers after being forced to execute his lover. Joining forces with his similarly wronged brothers, hot-headed Eiji (Tatsuya Fuji, In the Realm of the Senses) and aspiring boxer Saburô (Jirô Okazaki, Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter), the trio escalate their mob retaliation to all-out turf war where no one will stop until one faction emerges victorious.

Strikingly violent for the period and gorgeously photographed in monochrome like genre siblings Branded to Kill and A Colt is My Passport (Shishido’s other films from 1967), Massacre Gun is a bold iteration on the genre featuring some stunning compositions and the assured direction of Hasebe.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

• Limited Edition Blu-ray (3000 copies only)
• Restored High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation, on Blu-ray for the first time in the world!
• Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
• Newly translated English subtitles
• Brand new interview with star Jô Shishido
• Interview with renowned critic and historian Tony Rayns
• Original theatrical trailer
• Gallery featuring rare promotional images
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan
• Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp, newly illustrated by Ian MacEwan and featuring original archive stills

Release Date UK: 20th April 2015 Release Date North America: 21st April 2015 Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD Starring: Udo Kier, Marina Pierro, Patrick Magee Directed by: Walerian Borowczyk

Synopsis: “Potent and poetic, mischievous and macabre, Borowczyk’s film shows how many imaginative worlds the horror movie can open up when the right artist holds the keys” (Nigel Andrews, Financial Times)

It’s the engagement party for brilliant young Dr Henry Jekyll (Udo Kier) and his fiancée, the beautiful Fanny Osbourne (Marina Pierro), attended by various pillars of Victorian society, including the astonishing Patrick Magee in one of his final roles. But when people are found raped and murdered outside and ultimately inside the house, it becomes clear that a madman has broken in to disrupt the festivities – but who is he? And why does Dr Jekyll keep sneaking off to his laboratory?

We know the answer, of course, but Walerian Borowczyk’s visually stunning adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s much-filmed tale is crammed with wildly imaginative and outrageously perverse touches characteristic of the man who scandalised audiences with Immoral Tales and The Beast, not least the explicitly sexualised nature of Mr Hyde’s primal urges.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

• Brand new 2K restoration, scanned from the original camera negative and supervised by cinematographer Noël Véry
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the film, released on both formats for the first time anywhere in the world
• English and French soundtracks in LPCM 1.0
• Optional English and English SDH subtitles
• Introduction by critic and long-term Borowczyk fan Michael Brooke
• Audio commentary featuring archival interviews with Walerian Borowczyk, Udo Kier, Marina Pierro and producer Robert Kuperberg, and new interviews with cinematographer Noël Véry, editor Khadicha Bariha, assistant Michael Levy and filmmaker Noël Simsolo, moderated by Daniel Bird
• Interview with Marina Pierro
• Himorogi (2012), a short film by Marina and Alessio Pierro, made in homage to Borowczyk
• Interview with artist and filmmaker Alessio Pierro
• Video essay by Adrian Martin and Cristina Alvarez Lopez
• Eyes That Listen, a featurette on Borowczyk’s collaborations with electro-acoustic composer Bernard Parmegiani
• Jouet Jouyeux (1979), a short film by Borowczyk based on Charles-Émile Reynaud’s praxinoscope
• Introduction to Jouet Joyeux by production assistant Sarah Mallinson
• Returning to Méliès: Borowczyk and Early Cinema, a featurette by Daniel Bird
• Reversible sleeve with artwork based on Borowczyk’s own poster design
• Booklet with new writing on the film by Daniel Bird and archive materials, illustrated with rare stills
• More to be announced!

Release Date UK: 13th April 2015 Release Date North America: 14th April 2015 Format: Blu-ray Starring: Cameron Mitchell, Eva Bartok, Thomas Reiner Directed by: Mario Bava

Synopsis: SIX MODELS. SIX VICTIMS FOR A CRAZED MASKED KILLER.

The Cristiana Haute Couture fashion house is a home to models… and backstabbing… and blackmail… and drug deals… and MURDER.

Having established a template for the giallo with The Girl Who Knew Too Much, Mario Bava set about cementing its rules with Blood and Black Lace. In doing so he created one of the most influential films ever made – an Italian classic that would spearhead the giallo genre, provide a prototype for the slasher movie, and have a huge effect on filmmakers as diverse as Dario Argento and Martin Scorsese.

Newly restored from the original camera negative and presented here in its original, uncut Italian form, this dual-format release allows fans to see Blood and Black Lace afresh and offers newcomers the ideal introduction to a major piece of cult filmmaking.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

• Limited Edition SteelBook featuring original artworks
• New 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Optional Italian and English soundtracks presented in original uncompressed mono PCM audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English audio
• Brand new audio commentary by Mario Bava’s biographer Tim Lucas
• Psycho Analysis – a new documentary on Blood and Black Lace and the origins of the giallo genre featuring interviews with directors Dario Argento (Suspiria) and Lamberto Bava (Demons), screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (All the Colors of the Dark) critics Roberto Curti and Steve Della Casa, crime novelist Carlo Lucarelli and others
• An appreciation by Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, the creative duo behind Amer and The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears
• Yellow – the much-acclaimed neo-giallo by Ryan Haysom & Jon Britt
• Gender and Giallo – a visual essay by Michael Mackenzie exploring the giallo’s relationship with the social upheavals of the 1960s and 70s
• Panel discussion on Mario Bava featuring Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava and Steve Della Casa, recorded at the 2014 Courmayeur Film Festival
• The Sinister Image: Cameron Mitchell – an episode of David Del Valle’s television series, devoted to the star of Blood and Black Lace and presented in full
• The alternative US opening titles, sourced from Joe Dante’s private print and scanned in 2K especially for this release
• Original theatrical trailer, with optional English and Italian audio
• Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Howard Hughes, author of Cinema Italiano and Mario Bava: Destination Terror, and an interview with Joe Dante, David Del Valle on Cameron Mitchell and more, all illustrated with archive stills and posters

Release Date: 11th May 2015 Region: Free Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD Starring: Akira Kobayashi, Jô Shishido, Hideaki Nitani, Meiko Kaji Directed by: Yasuharu Hasebe

Synopsis: In 1969 future sexploitation specialist Yasuharu Hasebe (Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter) teamed up with the inimitable Jô Shishido (Tokyo Drifter, Branded to Kill) for a follow up to their yakuza hit Massacre Gun.

A tale of gang warfare that features a raft of the period’s most iconic stars, Akira Kobayashi (Battles Without Honor and Humanity, The Flowers and the Angry Waves) is a yakuza lieutenant who emerges from jail to find his gang dispersed and his aging boss in his sickbed. Shishido is the rival waiting to kill him and a young Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood) is the girl caught in the crossfire.

Gritty and cynical, Retaliation is a hardboiled precursor to Kinji Fukasaku’s revisionist yakuza pictures of the 1970s.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

• Limited Edition Blu-ray (3000 copies only)
• Restored High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation, on Blu-ray for the first time in the world!
• Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
• Newly translated English subtitles
• Brand new interview with star Jô Shishido
• Interview with renowned critic and historian Tony Rayns
• Original theatrical trailer
• Gallery featuring rare promotional images
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan
• Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp, newly illustrated by Ian MacEwan and featuring original archive stills

Release Date: 25th May 2015 Region: Free Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD Starring: Robert Behling, Jane Lyle, Jessica Dublin Directed by: Nico Mastorakis

Synopsis: THE LUCKY ONES GOT THEIR BRAINS BLOWN OUT!!

Welcome to Mykonos, the holiday destination of choice for sun, sea and slaughter! From cult director Nico Mastorakis, Island of Death is a travelogue of atrocities with scenes so strong that the British Government was once compelled to ban it as a “video nasty”.

Arriving on the idyllic Greek island, Christopher and Celia appear to be every inch the perfect, handsome young couple. Little do the welcoming locals realise that they are in fact a pair of murderous degenerates, determined to spread their own particular brand of perversion across the island. DIY crucifixions, opportunistic bestiality, sexual peeing and murder by all conceivable forms ensue – including death by makeshift blowtorch, samurai sword, dump truck and more!

Shocking, brutal and totally politically incorrect in its outlook, Island of Death is a gruelling cinematic experience devised by director Mastorakis to out-do the excesses of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which he was hugely inspired by. Now fully uncut and newly-restored from the original negative, fans can enjoy Island of Death in all its sleazy, lurid glory.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

• Brand new restoration from the original negative
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
• Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Brand new interview with director Nico Mastorakis
• The Films of Nico Mastorakis – the director hosts this documentary covering his varied career in cinema, including a look at Island of Death
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
• Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film, illustrated with original archive stills and posters

Release Date: 16th June 2015 Region: A+B/1+2 Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD Starring: Lon Chaney Jr., Carol Ohmart, Sid Haig Directed by: Jack Hill

The credits dub this “the maddest story ever told”, a promise that’s well on the way to being fulfilled in the opening scene alone, when Virginia traps and kills a hapless deliveryman in her makeshift web. She’s one of three siblings who suffer from a unique genetic disorder that causes them to regress back to childhood, while retaining the physical strength and sexual maturity of adults.

Lon Chaney Jr gave one of his most memorable late performances as Bruno, their guardian and protector, who has managed to cover up their crimes until two distant relatives lay claim to their house. When they insist on moving in, Bruno has to cross his fingers and hope that the ‘children’ behave towards their new guests...

This was the first solo feature by Jack Hill, whom Quentin Tarantino dubbed “the Howard Hawks of exploitation filmmaking”, and it remains one of his wildest and weirdest.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the main feature, available in the UK for the first time
• Original 2.0 Mono Audio (Uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
• High Definition transfer of the feature supervised and approved by director Jack Hill
• English SDH subtitles for deaf and hearing impaired
• Audio commentary featuring Jack Hill and star Sid Haig
• Panel discussion from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences FILM-TO-FILM Festival, recorded September 2012, featuring Jack Hill and stars Quinn K. Redeker and Beverly Washburn
• The Hatching of Spider Baby - Interviews with Jack Hill, Sid Haig, star Mary Mitchel, fan Joe Dante and more on the making of the film
• Spider Stravinsky: The Cinema Sounds of Ronald Stein - The composer of ‘The Terror’ and ‘Attack of the 50 Foot Woman’ among others is remembered by Harlene Stein, Jack Hill, American Cinematheque’s Chris D. and others
• The Merrye House Revisited - Jack Hill revisits the original house that was used as the main location in the film
• Alternate opening title sequence
• Extended scene
• Original Trailer
• Gallery of behind-the-scenes images
• The Host (1960) – Jack Hill’s early short film featuring Sid Haig in his first starring role [30 mins]
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
• Collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by artist and writer Stephen R. Bissette, and an extensive article re-printed from FilmFax: The Magazine of Unusual Film and Television featuring interviews with the cast and crew, illustrated with original stills and artwork

Release Date: 18th May 2015 Region: Free Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD Starring: Billy Warlock, Devin DeVasquez, Evan Richards Directed by: Brian Yuzna

Synopsis: IT’S ALL ABOUT FITTING IN

After producing Stuart Gordon’s hit Re-Animator, Brian Yuzna (Bride of Re-Animator, Return of the Living Dead III) turned his hand to directing with 1989’s Society, and gave birth to one of the ickiest, most original body horror shockers of all time.

Teenager Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock) has always felt like the odd one out in his wealthy, upper-class Beverly Hills family. For some reason, he just doesn’t seem to fit in. But his sense of alienation takes a sinister turn when he overhears a surreptitious audio recording of his sister’s coming-out party, which seems to implicate his family and others in a bizarre, ritualistic orgy. And then there are the strange things he’s been seeing – glimpses of people with their bodies contorted impossibly out of shape… Is Billy going mad or is there something seriously amiss in his neighbourhood?

Packing stomach-churning grue and thought-provoking social commentary in equal measure, Society is a biting horror satire which culminates in one of the most leftfield, gag-inducing “climaxes” in all of horror history – just don’t eat beforehand!

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
• Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• New Audio Commentary with Director Brian Yuzna
• Governor Of Society with Brian Yuzna
• The Masters Of The Hunt with stars Billy Warlock, Devin Devasquez, Ben Meyerson and Tim Bartell
• The Champions Of The Shunt with FX Artists Screaming Mad George, David Grasso and Nick Benson
• Screaming Mad George music video
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
• Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film, illustrated with original archive stills and posters

Release Date: 22nd June 2015 Region: A+B/1+2 Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD Starring: Kenji Sawada, Keiko Matsuzaka, Shinji Takeda Directed by: Takashi Miike

Synopsis: From Takashi Miike, the prolific director of such shocking hits including Audition and Ichi the Killer comes “The Sound of Music meets Dawn of the Dead”!

The Katakuris are a family trying to run a peaceful country inn but with a lack of guests there is much excitement for their first visitor, until they wind up dead! As each guest in turn dies in strange circumstances the family agree to hide the bodies but will the coverups come back to haunt them…

In The Happiness of the Katakuris scenes of grotesque stop motion animation, surreal musical numbers and zombies combine to make one of the finest horror-comedies ever made.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

• New High Definition digital film transfer
• Presented in High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD
• Original uncompressed Stereo PCM audio
• Audio commentary by director Takashi Miike
• The Making of the Katakuris – An original documentary from the film’s production featuring interviews and behind-the-scenes footage with the cast and crew
• Interviews with the Katakuris cast members Kenji Sawada, Keiko Matsuzaka, Kiyoshiro Imawano, Shinji Takeda, Naomi Nishida, Tetsuro Tanba and Miike
• Animating the Katakuris – A look at the creation of the film’s stop motion effects with animation director Hideki Kimura and Miike
• Trailer and TV Spots
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by the Twins of Evil
• Booklet featuring new writing on the film by author Johnny Mains and a re-printed interview with Miike conducted by Sean Axmaker, illustrated with original stills

Release Date: 29th June 2015 Region: A+B/1+2 Format: Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD Starring: Ian McCulloch, Louise Marleau, Marino Masé Directed by: Luigi Cozzi

Synopsis: Branded as a “video nasty” in the UK, director Luigi Cozzi’s Contamination takes the premise of Ridley Scott’s classic Alien and peppers it with exploding guts galore and a dangerously infectious soundtrack from celebrated Italian prog-rockers Goblin (Deep Red, Suspiria).

A cargo ship drifts up the Hudson River. Its crew: all dead, their bodies horribly mutilated, turned inside out by an unknown force. Its freight: boxes upon boxes of glowing, pulsating green eggs. It soon becomes clear that these eggs are not of this planet, and someone intends to cultivate them here on Earth. But who? And to what end?

Starring Italian horror veteran Ian McCulloch (Zombie Flesh Eaters), Contamination is an ultra-violent sci-fi epic that really gets under the skin. In space, no one can hear you scream – but on Earth, the terror rings loud and clear!

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
• Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• 2014 Q&A with Cozzi and star Ian McCulloch, recorded at Abertoir Film Festival
• Luigi Cozzi on the Creation of Contamination – an archive documentary hosted by the director and including behind-the-scenes footage
• Theatrical Trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin
• Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film, illustrated with original archive stills and posters