J. Hurtado's 10 (ish) Favorite Blu-ray/DVD Releases Of 2015

First up is a pair of Duke Mitchell Blu-rays from Grindhouse Releasing. These films are unique gems, even in the world of exploitation cinema. Mitchell was an auteur who was unappreciated in his time, and forty years later his ability to tell stories completely on his own terms is astonishing to watch. It's amazing what a filmmaker can do when no one tells them no.

I reviewed these discs earlier in the year and left extensive notes, but here are some choice cuts from Massacre Mafia Style:

Grindhouse Releasing's Blu-ray release of Massacre Mafia Style is a monumental improvement over the old tape sourced DVD. The image quality of the older disc, which I described as "ugly" is no more. It is replaced with an impossibly clean and polished looking restoration from Grindhouse that makes this grimy film look like it could have been shot yesterday. The quality is truly amazing, and for the fans of film grain out there, you're in for a treat. Gone is the rusty, drab looking VHS dub and now we get real, honest to goodness film grain to replace it. I can't shower enough praise on the team at Grindhouse for this restoration, it is amazing. As I suspected, the film does crop beautifully to 1.85:1 from the original open matte DVD, well done, guys. The audio, which was less terrible on the old DVD, gets a substantial upgrade with a new lossless audio mono track that, again, brings the film into the modern era without skipping a beat.

And Gone With the Pope:

Like Massacre Mafia Style, Gone With the Pope underwent an amazing restoration from Grindhouse Releasing and the resulting Blu-ray presentation is beautiful. It's hard to believe that this footage sat around for nearly 30 years before someone finally decided to do something with it. There is a restoration featurette on the disc that shows just how extensive the work had to be, and it is impressive. This was no pristine print, there was a lot of color and damage correction that had to be done, but the beautiful filmlike image is completely worth it.

In terms of extras, Grindhouse has gone the extra mile again, no big surprise. First up is a lengthy making of documentary, more a series of interviews, with everyone from the performers like Jim LoBianco to both editors who worked on the film, a cinematographer, Mitchell's pal Matt Cimber, and more. This documentary is an invaluable piece of evidence in decoding the successes and failures of the film. Even more interesting to me was the footage from the 2010 world premiere at The Egyptian in LA which includes the Q & A from after the film where Bob Murawski and Jeffrey Mitchell talk about the genesis of the project at length. This is totally fascinating to listen to and brings yet another level of interest to the film.

Grindhouse doesn't stop there, though, and the features continue, though none are as interesting as the two listed above. There are deleted scenes and additional musical performances cut from the film. These are all minor, but welcome additions to an already stacked disc. While Gone With the Pope will never unseat Massacre Mafia Style for me, it's a genuine curiosity that any fan of '70s exploitation cinema shouldn't be without. Highly recommended

When Severin Films release Jess Franco's Vampyros Lesbos and She Killed in Ecstasy, I decided I'd wait for the verdict before plunking down my hard earned cash. Franco has always been hit and miss for me, but these were tempting. After I read our review from Charlie Hobbs over the summer, I decided to take the plunge and he was right, these are fantastic! Here's a bit of his gushing over these remarkable releases from Severin, first up Vampyros Lesbos:

Severin Films presentation of Vampyros Lesbos is a definitive look at a film that certainly needs a bit of context. The appearance of the film is quite good, certainly an improvement over the previous home video options, and even better looking than She Killed in Ecstasy with less subtle damage. The original German dub also sounds better than Ecstasy's problematic mix. While Ecstasy was largely very clear, the audio damage was very apparent at several points, and I don't recall having that experience with Vampyros Lesbos. Also included in the set is a DVD of the “bootleg” version of the Spanish dubbed version which is at least 7 minutes shorter, due in large part to Francisco Franco era censorship, and contains a different score from the German version. The bootleg looks rough, but as an artifact, it's definitely worth having

And She Killed in Ecstasy (my favorite of the two):

She Killed in Ecstasy is presented as the original German dub, the film was a German production, so the German dub was essential to recouping costs. The image quality, while not as pristine as some films from the era, is more than acceptable, even with frequent damage on the print. The clarity and colors are mostly gorgeous, and if anything, the film's presentation here illustrates Franco's frequent disregard for plane of focus in his films. What could easily have been just the damage inherent to shitty bootlegs is now shown to be on the actual prints of the film. Actors wander in and out of focus, seemingly with no regard for the final product, it's quite bizarre at times, but definitely a staple of Franco's work. The audio is not quite as impressive as the video, with there being a couple of demonstrably jarring sections in which the audio either completely drops out or is replaced by loud hissing. However, the film almost certainly sounds better than it ever has on home video, including the fantastic trademarked jazzy score that makes Franco's odd little films all the more compelling.

In terms of extras, Severin is certainly no slouch, and the effort expended on this piece is well worth it for viewers. Jess Franco died a few years back and one would think that supplementary materials would be tough to come by, however, David Gregory at Severin had the foresight to record hours upon hours of interviews with the man before his death. These interviews have come out in pieces over the last five years on Severin and Intervision's various Franco releases. Everything from The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff, to Paula-Paula, to The House of Linda and their other releases have seen interviews from this session, and they are spell binding, and in this case, smartly subtitled. Even though Franco was speaking English at the time, the combination of his advanced age, poor health, and heavy accent did no favors to other releases. In addition to that there is a wonderful appreciation for the film from Franco authority, and author of the upcoming Murderous Passions: The Delirious Passions of Jesus Franco, Stephen Thrower, who has also authored definitive books on American drive-in horror and Lucio Fulci. The man is a wealth of information and a scholarly look at Franco is always appreciated.

I'm going to dedicate this entry to the immense pile of quality products put out by Arrow Video and Arrow Films this year. There's no way I could pick just one, and if I were only given ten slots it's highly likely that all of them would've have been from Arrow.

However, if we're talking about the absolute cream of the crop, here's how they'd rank for me:

1. Battles Without Honor and Humanity: This is a massive 13 disc set of one of Japanese cinema's most important film series from Fukasaku Kenji, inarguably the king of Japanese gangster cinema. While there are many who have made stellar gangster films, Fukasaku's overall output is a cavalcade of classics, and this release featuring his most well known films is only the tip of the iceberg. However, if you're ever going to go for just the tip, this is the time.

2. Videodrome: Sadly Arrow Video's tremendous limited edition release of David Cronenberg's early '80s masterpiece Videodrome is out of print. For those of us who are lucky enough to own this set, however, it is an amazing showpiece. Not only is the film in great shape, but Arrow's inclusion of Cronenberg's short films going back further than any previous home video collection is beyond impressive.

3. Society: Here's one I actually got to review, so here's what I said about it (though the version mentioned here is also sadly out of print):

Society is presented in beautiful high definition that belies it's age after the first few minutes. Society opens with such an outdoor shot that had me worried for the overall image quality of the film, however, once the action started and the cameras moved indoors, I was blown away by the remarkable detail and color reproduction on the disc. The film itself has a very light color palette, with much of the action taking place inside white walled buildings or during bright daylight, which this disc handles both beautifully. Close-up detail is remarkable, which does Screaming Mad George's work justice, as you can see just how slimy the set must've been for some of the wetter FX. The audio is also quite good, and Arrow have left the original stereo track alone, but it has no distracting pops or hisses, just clear dialogue and sound effects, disgustingly clear in come cases.

Where the disc really excels is in the expansive printed and video extras. I would've been quite happy with the film looking as good as it does and a 20 minute making of documentary, thankfully, Arrow Video went the extra mile and made this disc something very special. The disc features hours of interviews with Yuzna and several of the stars of the film including Billy Warlock, Devin DeVasquez, Ben Meyerson, Tim Bartell. The interviews are incredible because of the fondness that everyone involved holds toward the feature. They all knew they were doing something original, and it shows in their inextinguishable enthusiasm for the film, every 25 years later. Another amazing segment is an extended piece on the building of the FX for Society with Screaming Mad George, David Grasso, and Nick Benson, all of whom share a similar fondness for the film and the lengths to which they were allowed to go to make Yuzna's film as insane as they could. Those interviews are fantastic, but they are supplemented by a Yuzna audio commentary which is as fun and informative as the interviews, a Yuzna Q & A from 2014, footage of an archival interview with Yuzna before the film's 1989 world premiere, and a Screaming Mad George music video, just for fun!

Last, but certainly not least, there is the amazing embossed limited edition digipack packaging with comic. Society may never have spawned a movie sequel, but in 2002, Rough Cut Comics created Society: Party Animal, which is reproduced here in its entirety and disgustingly captures the essence of the film perfectly. This is a disc to own, well worth the price.

1. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne: This entry which fell just outside of the thematic boundaries of Arrow's Borowczyk box set in 2014 is another outstanding disc. Boro's one true full on horror film finds his nose just as deep in the dinge as ever, with an eye for detail and a unique style that has yet to be effectively replicated. Charlie Hobbs also reviewed this disc, and he was more eloquent than I in his description:

Holy shit, where to begin? Arrow Video's heroic effort on the Camera Obscura Boro box set was an awfully high bar for this follow up release, however, I've no doubt that the connections made there served this release well. The restoration is gorgeous, especially considering that it is the first digital release of the film anywhere in the world, previously it'd only been available in horribly damaged bootleg VHS copies. This Blu-ray is beautiful and sounds great in its bizarre variety of post-dubbed options.

One thing that the Borowczyk box set had in spades was supplemental material that significantly helped the casual viewer connect with an artist whose work can be frustratingly obtuse at times. The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Miss Osbourne nearly outdoes even that mighty effort with a wealth of bonus material that would make Borowczyk himself impressed. There is an audio commentary which features an interview with Borowczyk and many of his collaborators that many fans will be very excited about. However, my favorite pieces on the disc are the appreciation by Boro project co-lead Michael Brooke, an expert in eastern European cinema and tireless advocate for Borowczyk's work, and a brief documentary on the composer for the film, pioneering electronic music artist Bernard Parmegiani. It's one thing to read a bunch of scholarly work about an artist, it's another thing entirely to hear the enthusiasm in an academic's voice as they describe their own passions.

The extras don't stop there, we get interviews from more of Boro's associates and performers including Miss Osbourne herself, Marina Pierro, a couple of short films, one by Ms. Pierro and one unreleased Borowczyk piece, as well as an appreciation by another Boro fanatic and expert, Daniel Bird, who is Brooke's partner in the Borowczyk project, and a man largely responsible for getting the ball rolling in the first place.

The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Miss Osbourne is a fascinatingly singular work, perhaps more reminiscent of Europe's nascent arty thriller genre film than the horror label with which it was ultimately saddled. I cannot recommend this disc highly enough, a bargain at any price.

Army of Darkness was released by Scream Factory a few months ago, and.... Okay. I did not review this disc, and honestly I was a bit dubious about it when it was announced and released. I'd already purchased a very pricey six disc Blu-ray set from Germany and was very impressed with it. There was no way I thought this new set would bump it off of my top ten list.

However, after having actually been through the thing, I have to say that the improvements are well worth upgrading for. The new 4k transfers looks great and the extras from Red Shirt Pictures (one of the top producers of bonus content working these days) is outstanding. Three discs of Deadite-killing mayhem and joy. It's pretty cheap, too, considering what you get! Highly recommended!

Anurag Kashyap's masterpiece Gangs of Wasseypur took three goddamned years to make landfall in the US. Originally screened at the Cannes film festival in 2012, it was released theatrically in January 2015 in the US and on home video over the summer.

I saw it in the fall of 2012 via a shoddy Indian import DVD and was merely hoping for a moderate upgrade from that disc. What I got, however, was this mind-blowing disc in which the A/V is souped up to ten and we're graced with an incredible five and a half hour commentary track from pretty much every significant member of the crew. Amazing. This is only Cinelicious's second Blu-ray on the market and I'm already salivating at the thought of more.

It would be a huge oversight if I didn't mention Third Window Films' amazing Blu-ray release of Tsukamoto Shinya's A Snake of June. This film remains Tsukamoto's masterpiece in my eyes, and Third Window's treatment reflects that significance. Here's what I said in my recent review:

Third Window's new presentation of the film is very cognizant of the exceptionally elaborate nature of A Snake of June and its multitudes of thematic elements as well as Tsukamoto's complete command of mise en scene. Not a frame is out of place, every element has a meaning and a purpose, and each action of each character is saturated with meaning. In fact, the film is so incredibly dense with subtext that multiple viewings are not only a good idea, they are essential to begin peeling back the layers.

The most essential feature of this disc is a scholarly commentary from Tom Mes, writer of Iron Man: The Cinema of Shinya Tsukamoto. Mes obviously has a firm grasp of what makes Tsukamoto tick, and his commentary is far more than a simple scene specific retelling of the events on screen. He picks A Snake of June apart and brings the audience into its world to help us understand each and every visual motif, music cue, and all manner of meaning that in some cases lays just beneath the surface. Mes's commentary is among the finest I've ever listened to, and nearly supplants the film's actual audio as my preferred viewing method. In fact, I'll probably listen to the commentary again before revisiting the film's original dialogue track again because, like the film, I'm sure I missed a few bits and pieces the first time.

A Snake of June makes its world Blu-ray debut with Third Window's recent release and this is most definitely the essential edition at the moment. It will take quite an effort to unseat this disc from the throne. Highly recommended!

Next up is another recommendation from Charlie Hobbs that I picked up after reading his effusive review. Gerard Kargl's claustrophobic '80s horror Angst from Cult Epics. The film is incredible and certainly just as shocking and ruthless as it was upon its release. Hobbs had this to say in his review:

Angst is a film that is certainly not for the faint of heart, but for those of you who are ready for an intense experience, you've got your work cut out for you. Cult Epics does the world a great favor by releasing this film on a beautiful Blu-ray disc with wonderfully restored audio and video.

In addition to that, there is a massive number of quality bonus features that I couldn't help plowing through as soon as the credits rolled on the film. There is a commentary with director Gerald Kargl and moderated by film scholar Marcus Stiglegger, a veteran of many commentaries, including fine work here and with Germany's Camera Obscura, there is an archival interview with Kargl conducted by Jorg Buttgereit, and an interview with cinematographer Zbigniew Rybzcynski, the technical wizard behind Angst's innovative POV shots, and most entertaining to me, there is a 20+ minute interview with Edwin Leder about the film and his career. Leder's interview is fantastic as he obviously has a great affection for this film, and is quite the eloquent speaker, even when hunting for just the right word in English. In addition to the interview, Leder also takes us on a truncated location tour of the film, which proves quite entertaining. Lastly, though first on the disc if you want to be picky, is an introduction to the film by Gaspar Noe, the controversial director of films like Irreversible and Enter the Void, who describes Angst as one of the masterpieces of the '80s.

One element of this release that I would love to highlight is the massive 40-page booklet. The insert booklet is largely a dying medium, however, I love it because it allows me to take my curiosity with me to places where watching the disc just isn't possible. Cult Epics' booklet for Angst is not only huge, but absolutely packed with interviews with cast and crew, rare photos, and most interestingly, numerous newspaper clippings from Austria regarding the Werner Kniesek case and its aftermath. I think it is beautiful, and before I even put the disc in the player, the booklet had me sold. Huge thanks to Cult Epics for providing this wealth of information in a time when it seems that many companies are phasing booklets out.

Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy. This is a trio of films I only just saw this year, in spite of my specialty. Needless to say, I was mightily impressed with the films and even more so with The Criterion Collection's treatment of them.

I wrote a lot about these films and these discs, too much to properly scoop out a chunk and present it as representative of the whole, but suffice it to say that you can find my review and read it, or just trust me and every other reviewer on the planet telling you that this is something you need to own.

Next up is a rare bit of love for a studio release. I'd like to salute Sony for their new specialty line of catalog releases, the Supreme Cinema Series. The discs in the series so far have been treated to 4k remasters and all have gotten fancy book styled releases. But bells and whistles only go so far, without substance, the discs would be expensive wastes.

Thankfully, these remasters definitely deliver. Bram Stoker's Dracula has a stellar new transfer and a boat load to new extras featuring lots of interviews with Francis Ford Coppola along with vintage featurettes. The Fifth Element has probably the greatest audio surround track I've heard ever. Seriously, if you want to make your friends jealous, crank this disc, it'll do the trick. Along with the improved A/V, Sony has also ported over the older DVD extras that were left off of the previous 2 Blu-rays. And Leon: The Professional looks astonishingly good.

These discs are the reason I buy Blu-rays. They look and sound amazing and deliver everything I could ever want from my home video experience.

I also didn't review this but it's impossible to ignore its significance.

Penelope Spheeris's Decline of Western Civilization Trilogy has been the Holy Grail for home video collectors for nearly two decades now. Each of the three films had extremely limited runs on VHS, and even then only as rentals, never on sell-through as far as I know, so the only way a person could own a legitimate copy was to buy it from a video store going out of business or willing to sell off of their rental shelf.

I bought the first two films that way, the third film had an extremely limited release that I was never able to get my hands on. As DVD overtook VHS as the dominant format and eventually began giving way to Blu-ray, I held on tightly to my Decline VHS tapes because I wasn't going to give them up until I absolutely had to.

Hell, there was even a declinemovies.com website that promised updates on the films' progress toward DVD almost 15 years ago. I signed up, I never got any updates.

However, here we are in 2015 with all three films on Blu-ray in HD with a ton of extras. It's a beautiful world we live in. BUY THESE FILMS

(Then petition Shout! Factory to buy the rights to Dudes because I'd look to get rid of my last couple VHS tapes, SPHEERIS FOREVER!)