Arrow Video Announces February Releases
HomeArrow Video Announces February Releases
Posted November 26, 2021 05:39 PM by Webmaster
Arrow Video has announced its February batch of 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray releases. They are: Don't Go in the House (1980), Phenomena (1985), Lies and Deceit: Five Films by Claude Chabrol, and Deadly Games (1982).
Deadly Games
Description: Steve Railsback (famed for his unhinged performance as Charles Manson in 1976's TV mini-series Helter Skelter) is at his sinister best as a troubled Vietnam Vet in 1982's Deadly Games - a tale of madness, murder and adultery from writer/director Scott Mansfied.
A masked maniac with a penchant for a horror-themed board game is playing his own twisted game with the women of a small American town. Each time the dice is rolled, another victim meets a grisly end. Returning home to mourn the death of her murdered sister, Keegan (Jo Ann Harris) befriends local cop Roger and oddball cinema projectionist Billy (Railsback) - but soon finds herself in the killer's sights.
Originally entitled Who Fell Asleep, Deadly Games is an intriguing early '80s slasher oddity which benefits from focusing as much on the development of its female-led cast as it does on its scenes of stalking and slashing. Available for the first time ever on disc, Arrow Video is proud to present this long-overlooked creepy gem in a brand new restoration from the recently-unearthed camera negative!
Special Features and Technical Specs:
UK STREET DATE: FEBRUARY 21.
Phenomena 4K Blu-ray
Description: From master of horror Dario Argento (Suspiria, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) comes Phenomena – one of his most eccentric and unique thrillers, featuring telepathic insects, maggots galore, and even a razorwielding chimp!
Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly, Labyrinth), daughter of a worldrenowned movie star, arrives in the socalled "Swiss Transylvania" to attend an exclusive girls' school. However, a vicious killer is targeting the pupils, and sleepwalker Jennifer finds herself in the assassin's headlights when her nocturnal wanderings cause her to witness the death of a fellow pupil. Aided by paraplegic entomologist John McGregor (Donald Pleasence, Halloween) and her own uncanny ability to communicate telepathically with insects, Jennifer sets out to track down the killer before she herself becomes the latest victim…
Released in 1985, towards the end of Argento's decadelong golden age as a director, Phenomena costars Dalila Di Lazarro (The Pyjama Girl Case), Patrick Bauchau (Clear and Present Danger) and Daria Nicolodi (Tenebrae), and features lush cinematography by Romano Albani (Inferno) and a pounding prog rock score by Goblin (Deep Red, Suspiria). Presenting all three versions of the film – including the radically different "Creepers" cut released in the US – in a sumptuous new 4K restoration, this is the definitive release of Argento's creepy classic.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
U.S. STREET DATE: Coming soon in collaboration with Synapse Films. (See listing here).
UK STREET DATE: FEBRUARY 28.
Lies and Deceit: Five Films by Claude Chabrol
Description: Too often overlooked and undervalued, Claude Chabrol was the first of the Cahiers du Cinema critics to release a feature film and would be among the most prolific. The sneaky anarchist of the French New Wave, he embraced genre as a means of lifting the lid on human nature. Nothing is sacred and nothing is certain in the films of Claude Chabrol: anything can be corrupted, and usually will be.
The hidden meaness of provincial life is at the heart of Cop Au Vin (Poulet au vinaigre), as deaths and disappearances intersect around the attempt by a corrupt syndicate of property developers to force a disabled woman and her son from their home. Actor Jean Poiret would prove so compelling as the laconic Detective Inspector Lavardin good cop/bad cop all in one that the sequel would be titled after him. Inspector Lavardin sees the titular detective investigating the murder of a wealthy and respected catholic author, renowned for his outspoken views against indecency, whose body is found naked and dead on the beach. In Madame Bovary, Chabrol directs one of his greatest collaborators, actress Isabelle Huppert, in perhaps the definitive depiction of Flaubert's classic heroine. Meanwhile Betty, adapted from the novel of the same name by Maigret author Georges Simenon, is a scathing attack on the uppermiddle classes, featuring an extraordinary performance by Marie Trintignant as a woman spiraling into alcoholism, but fighting to redefine herself. Finally, in Torment (L'enfer) Chabrol picks up a project abandoned by Henri Georges Clouzot, in which a husband's jealousy and suspicion of his wife drive him to appalling extremes. Francois Cluzet and Emmanuelle Beart give career best performances as the husband and wife tearing each other apart.
With brand new digital restorations, this inaugural Arrow Video collection of Claude Chabrol on Bluray brings together a wealth of passionate contributors and archival extras to shed fresh light on the films and the filmmaker. Dark, witty, ruthless, mischievous: if you've never seen Chabrol before, you're in for a treat. If you have, they've never looked better.
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
Don't Go in the House
Description: A legendary title from the Video Nasties era, Joseph Ellison's relentlessly bleak and disturbing Don't Go In The House has lost none of its power to shock in the decades since it was first censored by the BBFC and seized by UK authorities.
Donny Kohler (The Sopranos' Dan Grimaldi in a gripping central performance), a disturbed loner unhealthily obsessed with fire, comes home from his factory job one day to find his abusive mother has died. Now all alone in the large Gothic mansion he calls home and consumed in an inferno of insanity, he is finally able to fulfil his violent revenge fantasies against her. Soon, any woman unlucky enough to enter is forced to come face to face with the worst fate imaginable in the secret steelclad chamber of death he has built in the house's depths…
Now fully uncut and making its UK high definition premiere in a brand new 2K restoration, the film that dares to ask "What if Norman Bates had a flamethrower?" is back in a definitive collectors' edition with both original and extended versions.
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
Deadly Games
Description: Steve Railsback (famed for his unhinged performance as Charles Manson in 1976's TV mini-series Helter Skelter) is at his sinister best as a troubled Vietnam Vet in 1982's Deadly Games - a tale of madness, murder and adultery from writer/director Scott Mansfied.
A masked maniac with a penchant for a horror-themed board game is playing his own twisted game with the women of a small American town. Each time the dice is rolled, another victim meets a grisly end. Returning home to mourn the death of her murdered sister, Keegan (Jo Ann Harris) befriends local cop Roger and oddball cinema projectionist Billy (Railsback) - but soon finds herself in the killer's sights.
Originally entitled Who Fell Asleep, Deadly Games is an intriguing early '80s slasher oddity which benefits from focusing as much on the development of its female-led cast as it does on its scenes of stalking and slashing. Available for the first time ever on disc, Arrow Video is proud to present this long-overlooked creepy gem in a brand new restoration from the recently-unearthed camera negative!
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- NEW 2K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
- Original uncompressed mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary with The Hysteria Continues
- Sooty's a Sh*t - a brand new interview with actor Jere Rae-Mansfield
- Practical Magic - a brand new interview with special effects and stunt co-ordinator John Eggett
- Extensive image gallery featuring never-before-seen production photos and promotional material
- Original Trailer
- Original screenplay under the title Who Fell Asleep [BD-ROM content]
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork by Ralf Krause
- First pressing only: Fully-illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing by film historian/author Amanda Reyes
UK STREET DATE: FEBRUARY 21.
Phenomena 4K Blu-ray
Description: From master of horror Dario Argento (Suspiria, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) comes Phenomena – one of his most eccentric and unique thrillers, featuring telepathic insects, maggots galore, and even a razorwielding chimp!
Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly, Labyrinth), daughter of a worldrenowned movie star, arrives in the socalled "Swiss Transylvania" to attend an exclusive girls' school. However, a vicious killer is targeting the pupils, and sleepwalker Jennifer finds herself in the assassin's headlights when her nocturnal wanderings cause her to witness the death of a fellow pupil. Aided by paraplegic entomologist John McGregor (Donald Pleasence, Halloween) and her own uncanny ability to communicate telepathically with insects, Jennifer sets out to track down the killer before she herself becomes the latest victim…
Released in 1985, towards the end of Argento's decadelong golden age as a director, Phenomena costars Dalila Di Lazarro (The Pyjama Girl Case), Patrick Bauchau (Clear and Present Danger) and Daria Nicolodi (Tenebrae), and features lush cinematography by Romano Albani (Inferno) and a pounding prog rock score by Goblin (Deep Red, Suspiria). Presenting all three versions of the film – including the radically different "Creepers" cut released in the US – in a sumptuous new 4K restoration, this is the definitive release of Argento's creepy classic.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- NEW 4K RESTORATION of the original 116-minute Italian version, the 110-minute international English version and the 83-minute U.S. "Creepers" version from the original camera negative by Arrow films
- DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION of all three versions
- Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Obviously Creative
- Illustrated collector's booklet featuring writing on the film by Mikel J. Koven, Rachael Nisbet and Leonard Jacobs
- Foldout doublesided poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Obviously Creative
- Six doublesided, postcardsized lobby card reproduction artcards
- Lossless Italian DTSHD Master Audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 stereo soundtracks, derived from the original 4channel Dolby Stereo elements
- Lossless "hybrid" English/Italian DTSHD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack*
- English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the hybrid soundtrack
- Audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of Murder by Design: The Unsane Cinema of Dario Argento
- Of Flies and Maggots, a featurelength 2017 documentary produced for Arrow Films, including interviews with cowriter/producer/director Dario Argento, actors Fiore Argento, Davide Marotta, Daria Nicolodi and Fiorenza Tessari, cowriter Franco Ferrini, cinematographer Romano Albani, production manager Angelo Iacono, special optical effects artist Luigi Cozzi, special makeup effects artist Sergio Stivaletti, makeup artist Pier Antonio Mecacci, underwater camera operator Gianlorenzo Battaglia, and composers Claudio Simonetti and Simon Boswell
- Archival interview with Andi Sex Gang musician Simon Boswell
- Original Italian and international theatrical trailers
- "Jennifer" music video, directed by Dario Argento
- Japanese pressbook gallery
- Lossless English DTSHD Master Audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 stereo soundtracks on the international version, derived from the original 4channel Dolby Stereo elements
- Lossless English PCM 1.0 mono soundtrack on Creepers, mastered from the original 3 track DME magnetic mix
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary on the international version by Argento scholar and author Derek Botelho and film historian, journalist and radio/television commentator David Del Valle
- The Three Sarcophagi, a visual essay by Arrow producer Michael Mackenzie comparing the different cuts of Phenomena
- US theatrical trailer
- US radio spots
U.S. STREET DATE: Coming soon in collaboration with Synapse Films. (See listing here).
UK STREET DATE: FEBRUARY 28.
Lies and Deceit: Five Films by Claude Chabrol
Description: Too often overlooked and undervalued, Claude Chabrol was the first of the Cahiers du Cinema critics to release a feature film and would be among the most prolific. The sneaky anarchist of the French New Wave, he embraced genre as a means of lifting the lid on human nature. Nothing is sacred and nothing is certain in the films of Claude Chabrol: anything can be corrupted, and usually will be.
The hidden meaness of provincial life is at the heart of Cop Au Vin (Poulet au vinaigre), as deaths and disappearances intersect around the attempt by a corrupt syndicate of property developers to force a disabled woman and her son from their home. Actor Jean Poiret would prove so compelling as the laconic Detective Inspector Lavardin good cop/bad cop all in one that the sequel would be titled after him. Inspector Lavardin sees the titular detective investigating the murder of a wealthy and respected catholic author, renowned for his outspoken views against indecency, whose body is found naked and dead on the beach. In Madame Bovary, Chabrol directs one of his greatest collaborators, actress Isabelle Huppert, in perhaps the definitive depiction of Flaubert's classic heroine. Meanwhile Betty, adapted from the novel of the same name by Maigret author Georges Simenon, is a scathing attack on the uppermiddle classes, featuring an extraordinary performance by Marie Trintignant as a woman spiraling into alcoholism, but fighting to redefine herself. Finally, in Torment (L'enfer) Chabrol picks up a project abandoned by Henri Georges Clouzot, in which a husband's jealousy and suspicion of his wife drive him to appalling extremes. Francois Cluzet and Emmanuelle Beart give career best performances as the husband and wife tearing each other apart.
With brand new digital restorations, this inaugural Arrow Video collection of Claude Chabrol on Bluray brings together a wealth of passionate contributors and archival extras to shed fresh light on the films and the filmmaker. Dark, witty, ruthless, mischievous: if you've never seen Chabrol before, you're in for a treat. If you have, they've never looked better.
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
- NEW 4K RESTORATIONS of Madame Bovary, Betty, and Torment (L'enfer)
- Original lossless French PCM mono audio on Cop Au Vin (Poulet au vinaigre), Inspector Lavardin, Madame Bovary, and Betty
- Original lossless French PCM stereo audio on Torment (L'enfer)
- Optional English Subtitles
- Fully illustrated 80page collector's booklet of new writing on the films by film critics Martyn Conterio, Kat Ellinger, Philip Kemp, and Sam Wigley plus select archival material
- Limited edition packaging featuring newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
- Brand new commentary by film critic Ben Sachs
- An Interview with Ian Christie, a brand new interview with film historian Ian Christie about the cinema of Claude Chabrol
- Claude Chabrol at the BFI, Chabrol discusses his career in this hour long archival interview conducted onstage at the National Film Theatre in 1994
- Claude Chabrol, Jean Poiret & Stephane Audran in conversation, an archival Swiss TV episode in which the director and cast discuss Cop Au Vin (Poulet au vinaigre)
- Archive introduction by film scholar Joël Magny
- Select scene commentaries by Claude Chabrol
- Theatrical Trailer
- Image Gallery
- Brand new commentary by film critic Ben Sachs
- Why Chabrol?, a brand new interview with film critic Sam Wigley about why the films of Claude Chabrol remain essential viewing
- Archive introduction by film scholar Joël Magny
- Select scene commentaries by Claude Chabrol
- Theatrical Trailer
- Image Gallery
- Brand new commentary by film critic Kat Ellinger
- Imagining Emma: Madame Bovary on screen, a brand new visual essay by film historian Pamela Hutchinson
- Archive introduction by film scholar Joël Magny
- Select scene commentaries by Claude Chabrol
- Theatrical Trailer
- Image Gallery
- Brand new commentary by film critic Kat Ellinger
- Betty, from Simenon to Chabrol, a brand new visual essay by French Cinema historian Ginette Vincendeau
- An Interview with Ros Schwartz, a brand new interview with the English translator of the Georges Simenon novel on which the film is based
- Archive introduction by film scholar Joël Magny Select scene commentaries by Claude Chabrol
- Theatrical Trailer
- Image Gallery
- Brand new commentary by film critics Alexandra HellerNicholas and Josh Nelson
- On Henri Georges Clouzot, an archival interview with Claude Chabrol in which he talks about fellow director Henri Georges Clouzot (Les diaboliques), whose original attempt to make L'enfer was abandoned, and how the project came to Chabrol
- An Interview with Marin Karmitz, an archival interview with Marin Karmitz, Chabrol's most frequent producer
- Archive introduction by film scholar Joël Magny
- Select scene commentaries by Claude Chabrol
- Theatrical Trailer
- Image Gallery
Don't Go in the House
Description: A legendary title from the Video Nasties era, Joseph Ellison's relentlessly bleak and disturbing Don't Go In The House has lost none of its power to shock in the decades since it was first censored by the BBFC and seized by UK authorities.
Donny Kohler (The Sopranos' Dan Grimaldi in a gripping central performance), a disturbed loner unhealthily obsessed with fire, comes home from his factory job one day to find his abusive mother has died. Now all alone in the large Gothic mansion he calls home and consumed in an inferno of insanity, he is finally able to fulfil his violent revenge fantasies against her. Soon, any woman unlucky enough to enter is forced to come face to face with the worst fate imaginable in the secret steelclad chamber of death he has built in the house's depths…
Now fully uncut and making its UK high definition premiere in a brand new 2K restoration, the film that dares to ask "What if Norman Bates had a flamethrower?" is back in a definitive collectors' edition with both original and extended versions.
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
- Limited edition Ocard featuring newly commissioned artwork by Christopher Shy
- Reversible sleeve and foldout doublesided poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Christopher Shy
- Illustrated collectors' booklet featuring new writing on the film by Lindsay Hallam and James Flower
- BRAND NEW 2K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL NEGATIVE BY SEVERIN FILMS
- TWO VERSIONS OF THE FILM: the 83-minute uncut Theatrical Version, and the 89minute Television Version with additional scenes and alternate footage
- Original lossless mono audio on both cuts
- Optional English audio description for the blind on both cuts
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing on both cuts
- Brand new commentary on the Theatrical Version by director Joseph Ellison and producer Ellen Hammill
- Archive commentary on the Theatrical Version by star Dan Grimaldi
- "House" Keeping, a brand new featurette by Severin Films interviewing associate producer Matthew Mallinson and cowriter/producer Joe Masefield
- We Went in the House, a brand new featurette by Severin Films with Michael Gingold revisiting the locations from the film, including the iconic house
- Playing with Fire, an archive interview with star Dan Grimaldi from 2005
- Original theatrical trailers and TV spots
- Image gallery
- High Definition presentation of the Extended Version (92 mins) of the film, with the additional scenes from the Television Version reinserted into the uncensored Theatrical Version
- Original lossless mono audio
- Optional English audio description for the blind
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary on the Extended Version by Stephen Thrower, author of Nightmare USA
- Minds on Fire, a brand new video essay by David Flint putting the film into context
- Burn Baby Burn and The Burning Man, two archive interviews with director Joseph Ellison
- Grindhouse AllStars: Notes From the Sleaze Cinema Underground, a documentary by High Rising Productions from 2017 interviewing exploitation filmmakers Matt Cimber, Joseph Ellison, Roy Frumkes and Jeff Lieberman
