Arrow Video continues its assault on pocketbooks on both sides of the Atlantic with its latest releases. We've taken a look at three of their recent Blu-ray discs for you. First up is Gordon Hessler's early '80s ninja classic, Pray for Death starring Sho Kosugi, then is the never before available on digital home video VHS shelf mainstay The Mutilator, directed by Buddy Cooper, finally we turn to director William Girdler for AIP era Pam Grier vehicle Sheba, Baby. All three are a lot of fun and deserve a spin, check out the details below!
A ninja leaves his life in the shadows to start anew in the land of opportunity in Gordon Hessler’s Pray for Death. As you may be able to tell from the film’s title, it doesn’t go so well. When Akira Saito (Kosugi Sho) lands in a questionable neighborhood in Houston, Texas and specifically in a dilapidated house that had been used as storage for the local mob, he finds himself and his family in some deep trouble. Akira and his wife Aiko (Donna Benz) and two young boys Takeshi and Tomoya (Kane and Shane Kosugi) get tangled up in some very mean-spirited gangland warfare that ends up costing the Saito family dearly. Akira has no choice but to go back into the shadows of his ninja past, and by the end, Limehouse Willie (writer/co-star James Booth) and his cronies will Pray for Death!
This film marked one of Kosugi Sho’s finest leading roles in an American film production after years of work as an extra before landing major supporting roles in Cannon’s original Ninja trilogy opposite Franco Nero in Enter the Ninja, then Revenge of the Ninja, and finally the wackadoo denouement Ninja III: The Domination. Pray for Death gave Kosugi the opportunity to stretch his dramatic muscles a bit more than in previous films as he doesn’t actually perform martial arts for large sections of the run time. It is truly one of his finest moments.
Director Gordon Hessler had long been a house talent with AIP before taking on this Pray for Death for Transworld Entertainment, but it was almost like he was born to the genre. Combining Kosugi’s effective fight choreography with James Booth’s wonderfully over the top writing and some top notch special effects and set pieces, Pray for Death became an instant home video classic in the heyday of the VHS rental market in the 1980’s.
Ninja films had been one of the staples of Japanese cinema since at least the 1960’s, but the Japanese ideal for a ninja is notably different from what American ninja films became. Japanese ninjas worked in the shadows and were largely seen as assassins who worked as soldiers of fortune, only interested in creating chaos or getting paid. Not terribly savory characters, but with films like the Cannon Ninja trilogy, the American ninja series, and this Ninja series, the characters forsook the shadows for ridiculous flashy costumes and in Kosugi’s case, a massive medieval style metal helmet. Far from discreet, the new ninjas were large and in charge and didn’t care who knew it.
Pray for Death was cut to receive an R rating for theatrical release and for years the only home video releases in the US were using this same version of the film, including a fairly recent Fox MOD DVD release. Arrow Video has stepped up their game in including the noticeably gorier and nastier uncut version that has been available on overseas home video for a while. The added footage definitely adds a grittier tone to the film, which is already pretty nasty, but the practical effects utilized in these scenes of violence definitely deserve to be seen.
Thanks to Arrow Video, we now have what is the definitive version of this delightfully over the top movie. Pray for Death does exactly what it sets out to do, and that is to entertain with really awful bad guys, really upstanding good guys, and a whole lot of ninja action. If you ever made ninja stars out of your notebook paper as a kid in school, you’re going to love it!
The Disc:
Arrow Video’s presentation of Pray for Death is superb on all fronts. The image quality on this disc is spectacular; bring an astonishing amount of fine detail and clarity to an image that I was not expecting. Not only is the image clear, the colors are natural, there’s a decent amount of shadow detail, and remarkably little print damage. The only places in which the film falters are in the unrated inserts, which were sourced from a 35mm print from Germany. These inserts are quite noticeably darker and grainier, often leaving the image muddled. However, these scenes are often brief, so it doesn’t take away from the overall appearance of the film, and I’d rather have them this way than not at all. However, if the image bothers you, the R-rated version is also available on the disc without the inserts.
Pray for Death scored a major coup in the extras when it announced the inclusion of a career spanning interview with star Kosugi Sho. Kosugi hasn’t done many (any?) interviews for home video, so this one is very impressive on two fronts. Kosugi talks about his early life and decision to come to America after he had trouble finding his niche at home in Japan. He also talks about years trying to break into the movie business for he finally landed a role opposite Franco Nero in Enter the Ninja. The conversation covers a broad range of topics from his work to his children Kane and Shane, and more. The great thing is that this is only the beginning as the interview continues on Arrow Video’s upcoming release of Rage of Honor Blu-ray. Also included is a rare TV appearance contemporaneous to the release of Pray for Death in which Kosugi goes on a martial arts themed program to talk about his career and martial arts forms associated with the ninja. It is great oddball stuff, a neat little time capsule of the ‘80s martial arts phenomenon.
Pray for Death is more fun than it deserves to be, and the unrated inserts provide an edge to this release of the film over others. Definitely recommended!
A group of college friends are doomed to a week of boredom when their school goes on fall break and they have nowhere to go. When one of them casually mentions that his Dad has a beach house, they all get the bright idea to take the party to the beach, but things don’t go quite as planned. Someone is stalking these teens and taking them out one by one over the course of a very bloody night in Myrtle Beach. No fishing implement is spared as the partiers meet horrific ends when Big Ed shows up. Can they get away? Not likely, but you’ll want to stick around to see what’s left of them when The Mutilator is done.
Even with my affinity for cheesy ‘80s slashers, The Mutilator was a film that I had never seen prior to receiving Arrow Video’s Blu-ray release of the film. It’s not that I wasn’t aware of the film, The Mutilator was a staple in every VHS rental shop of my childhood, it’s that the cover image always scared me as a little kid. I didn’t come to horror fandom until the second half of my teen years, so when it became a possibility to see the film, the scars of what my younger self imagined happening in the film were so deep that it prevented me from making the leap. Thankfully I’ve overcome those fears and watching The Mutilator, or Fall Break as it was originally titled, was a delightful romp with impressive effects and only-in-the-‘80s style wacky comedy.
Slashers were a dime a dozen in the early ‘80s, and by the time The Mutilator rolled around in 1984, their popularity was already on the wane. However, thanks to the home video boom, many of these films developed rabid underground followings long after they’d passed beyond the theatrical market. This film, a marvel of independent regional filmmaking, deserved a lot more love than many from the same period that have seen umpteen releases over the years, and thankfully it gets that love here.
Director Buddy Cooper’s odd flair for mixing comedy and violence, along with a surprisingly adept cast, really makes The Mutilator work when it doesn’t seem like it’s going to. A single location shoot staged on the property of Cooper’s father with unknown performers in the leads and locals in supporting roles, it seems like a recipe for disaster. However, The Mutilator works seemingly on pure enthusiasm. Everyone in the film is excited to be there, and the actor’s performances really show that. As a bonus the film features very early work from FX wizard Mark Shostrom (who says in the bonus material that this was his favorite experience of his career) who has featured in films like Evil Dead II, From Beyond, and Phantasm II among dozens of others.
The Disc:
For whatever reason The Mutilator has been elusive on digital home video, but horror geeks have clamored for a release for a long time and Arrow Video’s Blu-ray doesn’t disappoint. The film has been impeccably restored in HD and looks as though it could’ve been shot yesterday. Plenty of fine detail, shadow detail, and pleasing colors make this release arguably the best the film has ever looked, even counting its theatrical release. The disc also includes a wonderfully robust original audio track which features clear dialogue and sound effects along with wonderfully bouncy music.
Arrow Video went above and beyond when it comes to the bonus material for this relatively obscure little movie, and their effort makes this one of their finest standalone releases. First and foremost there is a feature length retrospective documentary that visits all of the principal cast and crew, as well as some of the supporting cast and locals involved in the production. The documentary is fascinating and everyone involved in the film has nothing but positive things to say about it and its effect on their lives/careers, even though most have nothing to do with the industry anymore. In addition to that feature, there is a featurette examining the music, which includes the amazing “Fall Break” opening title song, there is a look back at the film with Mark Shostrom and his amazing gore effects, two audio commentaries (one with Buddy Cooper and one with the cast), screen tests, alternate titles, an original screenplay, and much, much more.
It’s hard to overstate the comprehensive nature of this release of a little known slasher film, but Arrow Video’s The Mutilator is the kind of release that makes a purchase worthwhile even if you aren’t a huge fan of the film in question. But if, like me, you haven’t seen it before and you like the genre, I can’t imagine you won’t love it. Highly recommended.
Sheba Shayne is a private dick. Her father is a business owner in Louisville, Kentucky who is being harassed by some local thugs in order to scare him into selling out. When Papa Shayne ends up in the hospital, Sheba heads back home to Louisville to clean up the mess and ends up on the wrong side of a turf war. Big baddie Pilot think he can rid his town of this nuisance pretty easily, but Sheba turns out to be a tough nut to crack, and all hell breaks loose in Louisville.
There are few women sexier than Pam Grier, and in 1974 she was in her prime. She had just come off a string of successful films at AIP like Coffy and Foxy Brown, and Sheba, Baby was the closer to that trilogy of powerful black women who take shit from no one. Sadly, Sheba, Baby is not the strongest of the three, but even in its position as the bronze medalist, it’s still one of the most entertaining black action films of the time.
In the early and mid ‘70s there was a glut of black action films inspired by the likes of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song and Shaft, and it’s no surprise that many of them, including this one, were helmed and financed by white producers and directors. William Girdler was a director who had made films like Day of the Animals and Grizzly, but he also wrote and directed Abby and Sheba, Baby. Girdler may not be a household name, but several of the ‘70s finest exploitation films had his fingerprints on them. With Sheba, Baby he had Pam Grier, the number one female Blaxploitation star, as his lead and he grabbed one of the genre’s most underrated character actors to play Pilot in D’Urville Martin, who cult film fans will also recognize from his role as Mean Willie Greene in Dolemite.
With solid performers in the main roles and protagonist and antagonist, the film has a solid foundation, but for me is lacks a certain panache that sets the two earlier Grier films (Coffy and Foxy Brown) apart. There’s something about those films and their willingness to go way over the edge that appeals to me. Perhaps it’s the participation of ‘70s directing legend Jack Hill at the helm that turns my crank, but in any case, they are certainly stronger films. In spite of my personal opinion, it’s difficult to argue with the fact that Grier plays her strongest character in Sheba, Baby. Even though she has her down moments, she’s always fully in control, and that is refreshing.
I really enjoyed revisiting this film after at least 15 years had passed since I watched it last. It definitely helped to remind me of why I love Pam Grier so much, especially as an adult with only slightly less prurient interests when compared to my teenaged self. Like I said above, Sheba, Baby may be the least of this particular thematic trilogy, but that still puts it on a pretty high pedestal for me, and if you’re a Blaxploitation fan, you certainly need to see this film.
The Disc:
Arrow Video’s Blu-ray of Sheba, Baby is excellent, in following along with their releases for both Foxy Brown and Coffy. The image quality is surprisingly good, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised anymore given the quality level of these discs has been consistently high. The uncompressed mono audio is also quite effective and provides a good level of dialogue when compared to effects and music. Overall, it is an excellent A/V presentation.
When it came to extras, the previous Pam Grier releases also set a high mark, and Sheba, Baby continues that trend with a pair of excellent interviews and a very informative commentary. The first interview is with David Sheldon, one of the writers and producers of the film along with Girdler. Sheldon provides a wonderfully colorful history of his partnership with Girdler and his work at AIP before Sheba, Baby. This lengthy interview is very interesting and full of wonderful anecdotes and background material surrounding this film and many others with which he was involved. The second interview is an overview of Pam Grier’s career at AIP by film historian Chris Poggiali that fills in the few gaps left by the Sheldon interview. The commentary features Sheldon and is moderated by Mondo-Digital webmaster Nathaniel Thompson who is always knowledgeable and helps keep the track moving along with insightful questions. Typically I only listen to commentaries when I have to, but this one was a joy. Round out the features with some quality writing on the film and director Girdler from Patty Breen and you’ve got a package well worth the money.
I love black action films of the ‘70s, and while Sheba, Baby is perhaps one of the most subdued of the bunch, even that distinction means relatively little when it comes to a genre that thrived on bombast. This is a classic that deserves a place in every collection.