British distributors Arrow Video have revealed that they will add three titles to their Blu-ray catalog: Jörg Buttgereit's
Nekromantik, Mario Bava's
The Gir Who Knew Too Much, and
Vincent Price and Roger Corman Present: Six Gothic Tales.
Nekromantik
Nekromantik is the one-of-a-kind shock classic from cult director Jörg Buttgereit. Never before released on home video in the UK (until now, no distributor even dared submit it for classification), Nekromantik plunges the viewer into an unremittingly bleak world of depravity and necrophilia – weaving the tale of Rob Schmadtke (Daktari Lorenz), a young man who finds himself competing for the affections of his girlfriend with a putrefying cadaver.
Rob is employed by Joe's Streetcleaning Agency, a company which handles the unenviable task of cleaning up grisly accidents and crime scenes. But Rob has a particular reason for liking his chosen profession, allowing him as it does to indulge in his hobby of choice – collecting body parts, which he keeps preserved in jars around his flat. Tasked with transporting the body of a young man from a murder scene, Rob seizes the opportunity to abscond with the corpse – bringing it home, much to the delight of his equally unhinged girlfriend, Betty. A twisted love triangle ensues, resulting in some of the most shocking scenes ever committed to celluloid.
Nearly 30 years after its original release, Nekromantik, with its grotesque imagery and shocking subject matter, still retains the power to offend – a point borne out by the fact that it remains banned in a number of countries. But Buttgereit's film is much more than a shock piece; Nekromantik shares as much in common with the movies of the preceding New German Cinema movement as it does with splatter films of its era. Arriving on Blu-ray in a brand-new Director-approved transfer, Arrow Video is proud to present this underground classic – finally classified for UK release in its fully unexpurgated form.
Special Features:
- Limited Edition (3000 copies) featuring exclusive new artwork by Gilles Vranckx
- New High Definition Digital Transfer approved by writer-director Jörg Buttgereit
- High Definition Bluray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
- Original Stereo audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- Optional English subtitles
- Audio Commentary with Buttgereit and co-writer Franz Rodenkirchen
- The Making of Nekromantik – featurette comprising behind the scenes footage shot in Super 8, transferred in HD
- Buttgereit 10th Anniversary Interview
- Hot Love (40 mins) – a 1985 short film by Buttgereit featuring Daktari Lorenz
- Complete collection of Jörg Buttgereit film trailers (Nekromantik, Der Todesking, Nekromantik 2, Schramm)
- Extensive collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Graham Rae, David Kerekes, author of Sex Murder Art: The Films of Jörg Buttgereit, and much more, all illustrated with original archive stills and posters
- Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD
- More to be Announced...
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
With a nod to Hitchcock and a wink in the direction of Agatha Christie, The Girl Who Knew Too Much inadvertently created a genre that would dominate Italian cinema for years to come: the giallo.
A young American secretary with a taste for lurid paperbacks witnesses a murder whilst visiting Rome – or does she? Nobody will believe her, but she appears to have stumbled upon the work of a serial killer active ten years earlier. The victims' surnames began A, B and C… and hers begins with the letter D!
Starring the striking Letícia Román and John Saxon (Enter the Dragon, Tenebrae, A Nightmare on Elm Street), The Girl Who Knew Too Much is presented in both its original Italian version and the longer US cut, entitled Evil Eye, that was re-edited and re-scored by American International Pictures.
Special Features:
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of two versions of the film: The Girl Who Knew Too Much – the original Italian version; and Evil Eye – the re-edited and re-scored US version prepared by American International Pictures
- Original uncompressed 2.0 mono PCM audio for both versions
- Optional English subtitles for The Girl Who Knew Too Much
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for Evil Eye
- Audio commentary by Mario Bava's biographer Tim Lucas
- Introduction by writer and critic Alan Jones
- All About the Girl – Filmmakers Luigi Cozzi (The Killer Must Kill Again) and Richard Stanley (Dust Devil), alongside authors Alan Jones (Profondo Argento) and Mikel Koven (La Dolce Morte) reflect on Mario Bava's classic giallo
- International trailer
- US trailer
- Reversible Sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
- Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Kier-La Janisse
Vincent Price and Roger Corman Present: Six Gothic Tales
From the Merchant of Menace, Vincent Price, and the King of the Bs, Roger Corman, come six Gothic tales inspired by the pen of Edgar Allan Poe.
In The Fall of the House of Usher, a young man learns of a family curse that threatens his happiness with his bride-to-be. In Pit and the Pendulum, a brother investigates the untimely death of sister, played by Barbara Steele. Tales of Terror adapts three Poe classics, Morella, The Black Cat and The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, each starring a horror icon. The Raven is a comic take on the famous poem concerning three rival magicians. In The Haunted Palace, a newcomer in a New England town is suspected of being a warlock. And in The Tomb of Ligeia, filmed in Norfolk and at Stonehenge, a widower's upcoming marriage plans are thwarted by his dead first wife.
The six films boast a remarkable cast list: not just Price and Steele (Black Sunday), but also Boris Karloff (Frankenstein), Peter Lorre (M, The Beast with Five Fingers), Lon Chaney Jr (The Wolf Man, Spider Baby), Basil Rathbone (The Black Cat) and a very young Jack Nicholson. Adapted for the screen by Richard Matheson (The Twilight Zone, I Am Legend) and Robert Towne (Chinatown), these Six Gothic Tales now rank as classic examples of sixties horror cinema.
Special Features:
- LIMITED EDITION BOXED-SET (2000 COPIES)
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of all six features, presented across six Blu-rays
- Original uncompressed mono PCM Audio for all films
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for all films
- Numerous new and archive commentaries, interviews and featurettes for each film!
- The Directors: Roger Corman, an hour-long documentary on the filmmaker featuring contributions from James Cameron, Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard
- Original Theatrical Trailers
- Reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork for all six films
- Limited edition 200-page collector's book containing new writing on all films plus reprints and reproductions to be announced soon!