May releases...

May is going to be a great month for Cult fans here in the UK, with a triple-bill of sleazy goodness coming our way from Arrow Video and Shameless Screen Entertainment!



THE DEFINITIVE DVD AND BLU-RAY RELEASE OF LUCIO FULCI’S ZOMBIE CLASSIC.

One of the most revered zombie films of all time amongst horror fans, Lucio Fulci’s classic City Of The Living Dead gets the full Arrow Video treatment on DVD and Blu-ray in May 2010, presenting the film fully restored and uncut and complete with a host of unique and exclusive extras and featurettes specially commissioned for this must-have release.

Among the many extras are a newly recorded audio commentary with actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice, an introduction to the film by star Carlo De Mejo, ‘Carlo Of The Living Dead’, a 17-minute featurette in which De Mejo reflects upon his time working with the Italian master of splatter, Lucio Fulci, plus ‘Penning Some Paura’ in which the film’s screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti shares his recollections of writing an Italian horror classic.

The 50-minute ‘The Many Lives And Deaths Of Giovanni Lombaro Radice’ presents an extensive biography of the legendary screen victim, who guides viewers through the making of his most famous gut-crunching classics including ‘House On The Edge Of The Park’, ‘Cannibal Apocalypse’, ‘Cannibal Ferox’ and, of course, ‘City of the Living Dead’.

In addition to providing an alternative audio commentary to the main feature, legendary horror actress Catriona MacCall recalls playing the role of Mary in the film in ‘Dame Of The Dead’ and reflects upon the film 30 years on. Catriona also appears alongside Giovanni Lombardo Radice in a 20-minute retrospective Q&A session exclusively filmed live at the Glasgow Film Theatre following a recent special screening of the film.

Filmed in the Profondo Rosso shop in Rome, ‘Profondo Luigi: A Colleague’s Memories Of Lucio Fulci’ focuses on director Luigi Cozzi (Contamination; Starcrash; The Killer Must Kill Again) who talks about his own memories of Lucio Fulci and the Italian boom in zombie horror, while in ‘Fulci’s Daughter: Memories of the Italian Gore Maestro’, Antonella Fulci, the daughter of the legendary filmmaker, reflects upon ‘City Of The Living Dead’, the experience of visiting her father’s sets and about his enduring legacy.

Both the DVD and the Blu-ray releases of ‘City Of The Living Dead’ also come with four sleeve artwork options, double-sided poster, six postcards and a newly commissioned booklet, ‘Fulci Of The Living Dead’, written by Calum Waddell and featuring exclusive new interviews with Sergio Stivaletti (Wax Mask), Carlo De Mejo, Antonella Fulci and Ian McCulloch (Zombie Flesh Eaters) among others, providing an in depth career retrospective on the Grand Old Man of Italian Gore.

Directed by Lucio Fulci (The House By The Cemetery; The Beyond; Zombie Flesh Eaters) and starring Christopher George (Mortuary; The Exterminator; Grizzly), Catriona MacColl (The House By The Cemetery; The Beyond), Carlo De Mejo (The House By The Cemetery; Alien Contamination), Giovanni Lombardo Radice (Cannibal Apocalypse; Demons 3 and 4) and Michele Soavi (Demons; Phenomena; Tenebrae), City Of The Living Dead begins with the suicide of a priest in a church cemetery in the small town of Dunwich, New England. A sacrilegious act, the priest’s death mysteriously results in the opening of the gates of hell and, as fate would have it, it falls upon a reporter, a young psychic, a psychiatrist and his patient to team up and find a way to close the portal before All Saints Day, when the dead will rise and feed upon the living.

A hugely influential and much-admired work of horror cinema by one of the genre’s undisputed masters, City Of The Living Dead, taken purely as a stand-alone film, is a must-see horror classic. Now, this definitive special release from Arrow Video is, without doubt, a must-have for every horror fan.

City Of The Living Dead (cert. 18) will be released a two-disc DVD (£17.99) and single-disc Blu-ray (£22.99) by Arrow Video on 24th May 2010.

Special Features include: newly recorded audio commentary by actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice; audio commentary by actress Catriona MacColl and author Jay Slater; introduction to the film by star Carlo De Mejo; ‘Carlo Of The Living Dead featurette; ‘The Many Lives And Deaths Of Giovanni Lombardo Radice’ featurette; ‘Dame Of The Dead’ featurette; ‘Fulci’s Daughter: Memories Of The Italian Gore Maestro’ featurette; ‘Penning Some Paura’ featurette; ‘Profondo Luigi: A Colleague’s Memories Of Lucio Fulci’ featurette; Catriona MacCall and Giovanni Lombardo Radice Q&A session at the Glasgow Film Theatre; ‘Fulci In The House – The Italian Master Of Splatter’ featurette.

UK exclusive features directed by Calum Waddell and edited and produced by Naomi Holwill with associate producer Nick Frame.

Just so everyone knows here's the running time on these new extras:

Carlo of the Living Dead (17 minutes)

The Many Lives and Deaths of Giovanni Lombardo Radice (50 minutes)
Dame of the Dead (25 minutes)

Live from the Glasgow Film Theatre (20 minutes)

Fulci’s Daughter: Memories of the Italian Gore Maestro (27 minutes)

Penning Some Paura (18 minutes)

Profondo Luigi: A Colleague's Memories of Lucio Fulci (17 minutes)

Whilst the collector's booklet chips in at over 5000 words!

I was in attendance for the 'Live from the Glasgow Film Theatre' featurette and it promises to be a great watch.

Next up from Shameless is:

THE FIRST EVER UK RELEASE OF

MARIO BIANCHI’S EUROSLEAZE SHOCKER!

Horror, madness and fevered sexual tension build into a frenzy of unhinged lust and murder in Satan’s Baby Doll, a psychedelic slice of Eurosleaze madness that delivers all the twisted weirdness and cinematic insanity a cult movie fan could desire.

Now this cult classic from prolific porn director Mario Bianchi gets the full Shameless treatment on DVD, featuring an exclusive Shameless ‘Rebuild’ version of the film.

Satan’s Baby Doll features golden age porn diva Marina Hedman, trash movie queen Mariangela Giordano and, in her unique appearance, Jacqueline Dupré. The latter stars as a innocent teenage girl possessed by the wicked spirit of her dead mother; a slain woman who seeks revenge by driving her kin to the edge of sanity.

Now, in the crypt deep beneath a gothic castle, evil is stirring, ready to whip the residents into an orgy of carnal desire and bloody murder...

Satan’s Baby Doll (cert. 18) will be released on DVD (£15.99) by Shameless Screen Entertainment on 31st May 2010.

Special Features include: Shameless ‘Rebuild’ version of feature presentation with extra footage previously only available in XXX version; unique collector’s poster of the original artwork for the film; Mariangela Giordano biography (adapted from an article by Alan Jones and Mark Ashworth); alternate scenes; theatrical trailers; Shameless trailers; optional English subtitles

Reverse art:


This will be the third unique cut of the film, Severin Films is was just the softcore release while the X-Rated Kult release was the full-on hardcore version; this baby is somewhere in the middle!

Finally we have:

Caligula, one of the most notorious films in cinematic history, becomes the ultimate in high def decadence with Arrow Video’s release of Tinto Brass’ ludicrously opulent, multi-million dollar ‘porn epic’ as a spectacular two-disc Blu-ray edition, featuring the uncut version of the film in all its eye-opening glory.

Caligula – The Blu Edition comes complete with four alternate sleeves (including one especially commissioned for this release), a double-sided poster plus a special collector’s booklet.

Initially hauled over the coals (and drastically censored) in 1979 on the grounds that it was indecent and potentially obscene, almost 30 years later, in 2008, this uncut version of Caligula was finally granted an 18 Certificate by the BBFC. Notable for being the only major motion picture ever to star esteemed British actors of the calibre of Malcolm McDowell, John Gielgud, Peter O'Toole and Helen Mirren alongside scenes of extreme violence and explicit hardcore sex, Caligula is a true ‘porn epic', a veritable catalogue of depravity the likes of which have never been seen in one single film before or since.

A ridiculous and bombastic hymn to the decadence of the Roman Empire, this is definitely one movie that that has to be seen, if only to wonder, firstly, how the thing ever got off the ground, and secondly, how it was ever completed. Based on Suetonius's ‘Lives Of The Twelve Caesars' and scripted by celebrated author and historian Gore Vidal, the film was produced by ‘Penthouse' magazine publisher Bob Guccione, with the list of potential directors including the likes of John Huston and Nicolas Roeg. However, when Guccione chanced upon a preview screening of Tinto Brass's ‘Salon Kitty', he knew he had found the right man for the job. Unfortunately, Brass and Guccione's respective visions of what the film should be were worlds apart and no sooner had shooting started than the ‘artistic' bickering began with Vidal, Guccione and Brass all falling out with each other. Vidal was barred from the set and once principal photography was complete, Guccione banned Brass from the editing room and, after shooting extra footage of hardcore sex scenes, the ‘Penthouse' boss set about editing the film himself.

The result is the stuff of legend - an insane, pornographic orgy of a film that details the rise and fall of the titular Roman Emperor (brilliantly played by McDowell), his sexual passion for his sister, his marriage to Rome's most infamous prostitute (Mirren), and his spectacularly inventive ways of dealing with his enemies, all garnished with the totally inappropriate sexual rompings of a dozen or so Penthouse Pets. If nothing else, Caligula truly is cinematic madness on the grandest scale.

The two-disc Caligula – The Blu Edition (cert. 18) will be released on Blu-ray (£19.99) by Arrow Video on 3rd May 2010. Special Features include: deleted and alternate scenes; theatrical trailers; North American bonus footage; behind the scenes footage; ‘The Making of Caligula’; ‘My Roman Holiday’ with John Steiner; ‘Caligula’s Pet: A Conversation with Lori Wagner’; ‘Tinto Brass: The Orgy of Power’; stills galleries; DVD-ROM content.