Win An Awesome Arrow Video USA Prize Pack! ISLAND OF DEATH, DR JEKYLL & MISS OSBOURNE, RETALIATION, & SOCIETY!
Up for grabs are Nico Mastorakis' Island of Death, Borowczyk's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne, and the limited edition releases of Brian Yuzna's Society and Hasebe Yasaharu's Retaliation! If you weren't convinced before, check out the specs below (provided by Arrow Video USA) and the associated reviews. These are amazing releases, and they can be yours with just a simple e-mail.
No fancy schmancy contests or trivia. Just let me know that you want in! Send an email to josh [at] ScreenAnarchy [dot] net with Arrow Giveaway Part 2 in the subject line. In honor of our upcoming celebration of Independence, I'll pick one winner on July the 4th. Get your entry in! This contest is limited to the US only.
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:
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Brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative, approved by writer-director-producer Nico Mastorakis
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High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
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Original Mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
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Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
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Exploring Island of Death – film historian Stephen Thrower on the making of a cult classic
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Return to Island of Death – Mastorakis returns to the original Mykonos locations
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Archive interview with Mastorakis
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Alternative opening titles
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Island Sounds – five original tracks from the Island of Death soundtrack
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Original Theatrical Trailer
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The Films of Nico Mastorakis – four-part documentary charting the director’s filmmaking career [Blu-ray only]
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Nico Mastorakis Trailer Reel [Blu-ray only]
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Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
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Fully-illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by academic and film historian Johnny Walker
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:
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Brand new 2K restoration, scanned from the original camera negative and supervised by cinematographer Noël Véry
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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
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English and French soundtracks in LPCM 1.0
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Optional English and English SDH subtitles
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Introduction by critic and long-term Borowczyk fan Michael Brooke
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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
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Interview with Marina Pierro
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Himorogi (2012), a short film by Marina and Alessio Pierro, made in homage to Borowczyk
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Interview with artist and filmmaker Alessio Pierro
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Video essay by Adrian Martin and Cristina Alvarez Lopez
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Eyes That Listen, a featurette on Borowczyk’s collaborations with electro-acoustic composer Bernard Parmegiani
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Jouet Jouyeux (1979), a short film by Borowczyk based on Charles-Émile Reynaud’s praxinoscope
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Interview with Sarah Mallinson, former assistant to Borowczyk and fellow animator Peter Foldes
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Returning to Méliès: Borowczyk and Early Cinema, a featurette by Daniel Bird
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Theatrical trailer with optional commentary by editor Khadicha Bariha
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Reversible sleeve with artwork based on Borowczyk’s own poster design
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illustrated booklet with new writing on the film by Daniel Bird and archive pieces by Walerian Borowczyk and Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues
Synopsis: In 1969 future sexploitation specialist Yasuharu Hasebe (Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter) teamed up with the inimitable Jô Shishido (Branded to Kill, Youth of the Beast) 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:
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Limited Edition Blu-ray (3000 copies only)
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Restored High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation, on Blu-ray for the first time in the world!
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Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
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Newly translated English subtitles
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Brand new interview with star Jô Shishido
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Interview with renowned critic and historian Tony Rayns
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Original theatrical trailer
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Gallery featuring rare promotional images
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Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan
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Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp, newly illustrated by Ian MacEwan and featuring original archive stills
Synopsis: IT IS A MATTER OF GOOD BREEDING. REALLY.
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 hears an 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 Bill going mad or is there something seriously amiss in his neighborhood?
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 gag-inducing “climaxes”’ in all
of horror history.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
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Newly remastered 2K digital transfer of the film, approved by director Brian Yuzna
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High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
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Original Stereo 2.0 audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
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Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
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Brand new audio commentary by Yuzna
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Governor of Society – a brand new interview with Yuzna
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The Masters of the Hunt – a brand new featurette including interviews with stars Billy Warlock, Devin DeVasquez, Ben Meyerson and Tim Bartell
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The Champion of the Shunt – new featurette with FX artists Screaming Mad George, David Grasso and Nick Benson
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2014 Q&A with Yuzna, recorded at Celluloid Screams Festival
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Brian Yuzna in conversation backstage at the Society world premiere
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‘Persecution Mania’ – Screaming Mad George music video
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Limited Edition Digipak packaging featuring newly-commissioned artwork by Nick Percival
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Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Alan Jones, illustrated with original archive stills and posters
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Society: Party Animal [Limited Edition Exclusive] – the official comic sequel to Society, reproduced in its entirety in a perfect-bound book
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