Arrow Video will add six new titles to their Blu-ray catalog in September:
The Mutilator (1985),
Zardoz (1974),
Requiescant (1967),
The Firemen's Ball (1967),
Closely Watched Trains (1966), and
Hard to Be a God (2013).
Please note that the announcement includes upcoming UK and U.S. releases.
Zardoz
In-between the Hollywood productions of Deliverance and Exorcist II: The Heretic, John Boorman embarked on one of the strangest films ever to come from a major studio, Zardoz.
The year is 2293. Society as we know it has broken down centuries ago with the Earth's population split into three classes: the Brutals, who work the land and are forbidden from reproducing; their overseers, the Executioners; and the highly-civilised Eternals, who are protected from the outside world by a force-field. But when an Executioner, Zed (Sean Connery, light years from James Bond), smuggles himself into their isolated paradise, he risks unbalancing the system and threatening the status quo…
Photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth (2001: A Space Odyssey) and designed by Anthony Pratt (Excalibur), dystopian science-fiction has rarely looked so beautiful – or been so odd – as it appears in Zardoz.
Special Features:
- New 4K digital restoration by Twentieth Century Fox
- Uncompressed mono 1.0 PCM audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Audio commentary by writer-producer-director John Boorman
- Brand new interview with Boorman
- Brand new interviews with actors Sara Kestelman and Niall Buggy
- Brand new interviews with production designer Anthony Pratt, special effects creator Gerry Johnston, camera operator Peter MacDonald, and hairdresser Colin Jamieson
- Theatrical trailer
- Radio spots
- More to be announced!
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin
- Collector's booklet containing new writing on the film by Julian Upton and Adrian Smith, plus archive interviews, illustrated by original production stills.
UK STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 14.
The Mutilator
Although the slasher film was in decline by the mid-1980s, there were still some grisly delights to be had… and they don't come much grislier than writer-director Buddy Cooper's sickening stalk-and-slash classic The Mutilator!
When Ed receives a message from his father asking him to go and lock up the family's beach condo for the winter, it seems like the perfect excuse for an alcohol-fuelled few days away with his friends. After all, his dad has forgiven him for accidentally blowing mom away with a shotgun several years ago… hasn't he? But no sooner are the teens on the island than they find themselves stalked by a figure with an axe (and a hook, and an onboard motor) to grind…
Originally entitled Fall Break (watch out for the incongruous theme song of the same name!), The Mutilator has earned a reputation amongst horror fans as one of the 'holy grails' of 80s splatter mayhem due to its highly inventive (and not to say, decidedly gruesome) kill sequences, courtesy of FX wizard Mark Shostrom (Videodrome, Evil Dead II). Finally making its long-awaited bow in High-Definition, The Mutilator has returned to terrorise a whole new generation of horror fans!
Special Features:
- Brand new 2K restoration from original vault materials of the R-rated and Unrated versions of the film
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Original mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new interviews with cast and crew
- The Mutilator locations visit
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork to be revealed
- Fully-illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film alongside archive articles from Fangoria magazine
- PLUS MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED!
UK STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 28.
U.S. STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 29.
Requiescant
Directed by Carlo Lizzani (Wake Up and Kill, The Hills Run Red) and with a superb soundtrack by Riz Ortolani (Day of Anger, Cannibal Holocaust), Requiescant – Latin for 'Rest in Peace' – ranks among the finest Spaghetti Westerns. Alex Cox named it the "one film to prove that the Italian Western was not solely Sergio Leone's".
Lou Castel (Fists in the Pocket, A Bullet for General) plays a young man who was raised to be a pacifist by a travelling preacher after Confederates massacred his family. But when his step-sister runs away, the pursuit reveals a natural talent as a sharp-shooter as well as a bloody and unexpected confrontation with his past.
Joining Castel are an impressive array of performers, including Mark Damon (Black Sabbath, The Fall of the House of Usher) as the sadistic aristocratic villain, Franco Citti (Accattone, The Godfather) as his henchman, and the great Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini (Salň) in a rare acting role as a revolutionary priest.
Special Features:
- Brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Optional English and Italian soundtracks in uncompressed PCM mono audio
- Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
- An all-new interview with Lou Castel, recorded exclusively for this release
- Archive interview with director Carlo Lizzani
- Theatrical Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
- Illustrated collector's booklet containing new writing on the film by Pasquale Iannone
UK STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 21.
U.S. STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 22.
The Firemen's Ball
t's the annual firemen's ball in a small Czech town, and the organisers decide to liven up the usually dull event with a raffle and a beauty contest. But with the former plagued by thievery and the latter by bribery, the event rapidly descends into farce – and that's before a fire breaks out...
The last film that Miloš Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus) made in his native country and language, The Firemen's Ball is a sparkling comedy that's also one of the best showcases of the director's uncanny ability to extract flawless performances out of an entirely non-professional cast largely made up of actual firemen.
It was nominated for an Oscar, but the Czech Communist authorities were so convinced that it was a satirical allegory about official incompetence that the film was officially "banned forever", or at least until the 1989 Velvet Revolution. It's now regarded as one of the greatest of all Czech films.
Special Features:
- New 4K restoration by the Czech National Film Archive
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Original Czech soundtrack in uncompressed PCM mono audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Appreciation by Czech film expert David Sorfa
- Archival interviews with director Miloš Forman, cinematographer Miroslav Ondříček and co-writer Ivan Passer
- New Wave Faces: Michael Brooke salutes the non-professional actors who made an indelible impression on 1960s Czech cinema
- Reversible sleeve featuring two pieces of artwork from the original release
UK STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 28.
Closely Watched Trains
Shy teenage virgin Miloš gets his first job as a railway dispatcher and is suddenly forced to confront the realities of the adult world, not least the temptations of the opposite sex. But they in turn are more attracted to his more experienced colleague Hubička and his distinctive way with an inkpad and rubber stamp…
This could easily have fuelled a light comedy, but Jiří Menzel's bittersweet feature debut is set during World War II in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, and the various farcical goings-on threaten to distract attention from the far more pressing business of staying alive – especially since German trains are being attacked by resistance fighters and everyone is under suspicion of collaboration.
Co-written by the great Czech novelist Bohumil Hrabal (author of the classic source novella), Closely Observed Trains won Menzel a Best Foreign Film Oscar when he was still in his twenties, and it remains one of the best-loved of all Czech films.
Special Features:
- New 4K restoration by the Czech National Film Archive
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Original Czech soundtrack in uncompressed PCM mono audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Appreciation by Peter Hames, author of The Czechoslovak New Wave
- Archival interviews with director Jiří Menzel, cinematographer Jaromír Šofr and film historian Jan Lukeš
- Closely Observed Films: Michael Brooke explores the six-film collaboration between Menzel and novelist Bohumil Hrabal
- Reversible sleeve featuring two pieces of artwork from the original release
UK STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 28.
Hard to Be a God
A group of scientists visits the distant planet Arkanar, and discovers a society still trapped in its own medieval era. Unable to interfere with the course of its history, they can only watch in mounting horror as all sparks of intelligent and independent thought are mercilessly snuffed out by Arkanar's cruel rulers. Will they remain enmired in their squalid existence for ever, or can the visitors subtly nudge the more open-minded in the right direction? Truly, it's hard to be a god.
Legendary Russian sci-fi authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (whose Roadside Picnic was filmed as Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky) wrote the source novel, and adapting it was director Aleksei German's dream project for decades. It would take six years of shooting, a further six of post-production and a posthumous premiere before his masterpiece was finally unveiled.
But masterpiece it is: a visually astonishing, almost tactile recreation of an unnervingly recognisable alternative universe, drenched in blood, mud and the tears of the oppressed.
Special Features:
- Original Russian soundtrack
- Optional English subtitles
- Exclusive interview with Aleksei German Jr, who completed his father's film after his death
- Interview with co-screenwriter Svetlana Karmalita, the director's widow
- The History of the Arkanar Massacre, an appreciation of the film by Daniel Bird
- The Unknown Genius: Michael Brooke looks at Aleksei German's creatively dazzling but politically hobbled career
- Imagery gallery
- Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Andrzej Klimowski (to be revealed)
UK STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 7.
Society
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.
Special Features:
- Newly remastered 2K digital transfer of the film, approved by director Brian Yuzna
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
- Original Stereo 2.0 audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary by Yuzna
- Governor of Society – a brand new interview with Yuzna
- The Masters of the Hunt – a brand new featurette including interviews with stars Billy Warlock, Devin DeVasquez, Ben Meyerson and Tim Bartell
- The Champion of the Shunt – new featurette with FX artists Screaming Mad George, David Grasso and Nick Benson
- 2014 Q&A with Yuzna, recorded at Celluloid Screams Festival
- Brian Yuzna in conversation backstage at the Society world premiere
- 'Persecution Mania' – Screaming Mad George music video
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork by Nick Percival
- Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Alan Jones, illustrated with original archive stills and posters
UK STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 7.
U.S. STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 8.