Vinegar Syndrome has announced its October batch of 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray releases. They are: Mark of the Devil (1970), Mother's Day (1980), Bloodsucking Freaks (1976), and Rabid Grannies (1988). All releases will be available for purchase on October 31.
Description: In the midst of the European witch trials, a small Austrian town is subject to the sadistic whims of self-appointed witchfinder Albino, who inflicts torture and agonizing death on those he accuses of conspiracy with the Devil. But when the zealous Lord Cumberland arrives, along with his executioner and aristocratic young attendant Christian, to take over the responsibility of local witch-hunting, the town is plunged into even greater depths of terror and depravity as he metes out ever more brutal tortures on the populace, all in the name of God. As Lord Cumberland's maniacal practices reach a fever pitch, and Christian's would-be love interest, Vanessa, ends up as his latest target, Christian is thrown into a crisis of faith, as the perilous edge of violence draws ever closer.
The result of an intensely troubled production which saw British writer/director Michael Armstrong (House of the Long Shadows) virtually at war with producer, famed Austrian actor Adrian Hoven (Kiss Me Monster), MARK OF THE DEVIL became an immediate international hit, generating equal parts acclaim and condemnation, with the film being banned in the United Kingdom and promoted in the U.S. by infamous distributor Hallmark Releasing with vomit bags and the slogan "Rated V for Violence!" Featuring the first starring role for future genre icon Udo Kier (Flesh for Frankenstein), the film set a new benchmark for onscreen bloodshed with its graphic and unflinching portrayal of torture and dismemberment, culminating in the much-talked about tongue-ripping scene.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
THREE-DISC SET (ONE 4K BLU-RAY DISC/TWO BLU-RAY DISCS)
NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
Audio Commentary track with director Michael Armstrong, moderated by Calum Waddell
"Performing God's Work" - a new interview with director Michael Armstrong
"The Devil's Apprentice" - a new interview with actor Udo Kier
"Words of the Devil" - a brief guide to the screenplays of Michael Armstrong with lecturer and film historian Dr. Adrian Smith
"A Hell of a Place" - the locations of MARK OF THE DEVIL
"Mark of the Times" - a documentary from 2014 on the new wave of British horror filmmakers which emerged in the '60s and '70s
"Hallmark of the Devil" - author and filmmaker Michael Gingold on Hallmark Releasing, the controversial distributor behind MARK OF THE DEVIL's original U.S. release
Description: Andy Lo and his comedic sidekick, Pancho, are freelance special agents who are called in by the Hong Kong police department when they have a mission that needs to be kept "off the books." One day, Andy receives a letter from a former colleague in need of help and, together with Pancho and Andy's young nephew, Bin Bin, heads to Greece on a secret mission masquerading as a vacation. After Andy's colleague is killed, Bin Bin accidentally ends up with a suitcase that contains a magical talking crystal. Soon, a group of KGB agents, lead by the sadistic Karov, are after Andy and his family in an attempt to retrieve this mysterious artifact. With the help of two Interpol Agents, Andy must stop the KGB and uncover the secret behind the magic crystal before it's too late.
MAGIC CRYSTAL is best described as an "everything but the kitchen sink" Hong Kong actioner, directed by the always outrageous, Wong Jing. Featuring elements of sci-fi, adventure, comedy, and of course kung-fu, MAGIC CRYSTAL remains one the most unique martial arts movies of the 80s, due to its blending of genre elements combined with some truly impressive martial arts choreography. Featuring one of Hong Kong's most famous stars, Andy Lau (House of Flying Daggers), in one of his early leading roles, as well as a who's who of international martial arts actors, including America's Cynthia Rothrock (Righting Wrongs), Hong Kong's Max Mok (Once Upon a Time in China 2), and Australia's Richard Norton (China O'Brien), as well as comedic performances by Kien Shih (Enter the Dragon), Taiwanese child star Bin Bin, and the director himself, Wong Jing, as Pancho. Vinegar Syndrome Archive is proud to present MAGIC CRYSTAL for the first time on Blu-ray in the U.S., newly scanned and exclusively restored for this release by Vinegar Syndrome from the original camera negative, and complete with all the martial arts mayhem one could ask for including a show-stopping fight scene between Cynthia Rothrock and frequent co-star Richard Norton.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
NEW 2K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
Presented in its original Cantonese language soundtrack with newly translated English subtitles, along with a English language dub track
Brand new and exclusive commentary track with critics Frank Djeng and Ric Meyers
"Just Don't Kill Me" - a brand new interview with actress Cynthia Rothrock
"Bin-Bin on Magic Crystal" - a brand new interview with actor Wen "Bin Bin" Chao-Yu
Description: Sardu, with the help of his dwarf servant Ralphus, operates New York's most controversial theatre, Sardu's Theatre of the Macabre, where each performance is an expertly staged display of gruesome acts of torture. Divisive as his take on "entertainment" might be, arrogant theatre critic, Creasy Silo, is having none of it and makes it his mission to put an end to Sardu's grisly "dramas." However, what audiences and critics alike do not realize is that each of these shocking shows is completely real; with innocent nude women being maimed and murdered live on stage! When Sardu sets his eyes on beautiful ballerina Natasha, he's immediately smitten and determines that she must "star" in his next production, whether she wants to or not, and that her stage partner will be none other than Creasy Silo…
A foundational film in establishing legendary genre cinema distributor, Troma Entertainment, Joel M. Reed's masterpiece of gore-fueled debauchery, BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS (aka Sardu, Master of the Screaming Virgins), remains one of the most notorious, disgusting, shocking, perverse, and outrageously funny cult horror films to emerge from the sick and twisted 1970s. Starring acclaimed Shakespearian actor, Seamus O'Brien as the fiendish Sardu and Luis De Jesus (Let My Puppets Come) as the equally deranged Ralphus, and featuring a host of New York's top sex starlets as the demented duo's assorted victims.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
TWO-DISC SET (4K BLU-RAY/BLU-RAY)
NEW 4K RESTORATION FROM THE INTERNEGAITVE
HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
Brand new commentary track with John Szpunar, author of Blood Sucking Freak: The Life and Films of the Incredible Joel M. Reed
Archival commentary track with Eli Roth, filmmaker and fan of BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS
"Freaks Come Out at the Drive-In" - a featurette about the TROMA-THON 2023 screening of BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater in Lehighton, PA - including an interview with Troma president Lloyd Kaufman
Live commentary from a 2009 screening with director Joel M. Reed, Art Ettinger and Ken Kish
Q&A with Joel M. Reed
Cinema Wasteland hotel room interview with Joel M. Reed
Archival introduction by Lloyd Kaufman
Archival cast & crew interviews
Archival interview with Eli Roth, BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS fan & filmmaker
Archival interview with Chris Jericho, BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS fan & professional wrestler
Description: Elizabeth and Victoria Remington are two sweet, elderly ladies who are looking forward to celebrating their shared birthday with their family at their enormous country mansion. Little do they realize that their obnoxious relatives - which include a freeloading playboy, an unscrupulous arms dealer, a brash condom manufacturer and a terse lesbian magazine editor - are only interested in keeping in their aunts' good graces in the hopes of inheriting their vast wealth. The festivities are not long underway when a strange and sinister woman appears at the gates to deliver an unexpected gift from an estranged member of the family - a mysterious, engraved wooden box, which, when opened, instantly transforms the two old dears into ravenous, flesh-hungry hags! The terrified partygoers scatter throughout the mansion as, one by one, they meet a fittingly gruesome end at the clawed hands of the ghoulish geriatrics.
One of the few feature-length horror movies to emerge from Belgium in the 1980s, Emmanuel Kervyn's RABID GRANNIES was a passion project for producer Johan Vandewoestijne (who had previously helmed the corpse-loving serial killer shocker Lucker the Necrophagus), and serves as the Flemish answer to the early splatter films of Peter Jackson (Bad Taste, Dead Alive). Packed with histrionic performances, gloriously atrocious dubbing and wall-to-wall gore gags - including head chomping, bodies slammed into railings, copious limbs being lopped off and even a spot of child mutilation, all served up via ultra stylized photography and with a deliciously black comedic streak. Most often seen in a heinously edited version which removed much of its over-the-top gore, the black sheep of boutique film distribution, Vinegar Syndrome, have seen fit to resurrect RABID GRANNIES for its uncut Blu-ray premiere, now newly restored in 4K from original 35mm film elements - and appearing in its longest version ever released in the US - complete with a wealth of both new and archival extras, including a feature-length documentary about the history of Flemish horror.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
NEW 4K RESTORATION FROM AN INTERPOSITIVE
Commentary track with The Hysteria Continues!
"Shit Happens" - a brand new interview with producer Johan Vandewoestijne
"What Can I Do With This?!" - a brand new interview with editor Philippe Ravoet
"Pretty Violent Stuff" - a brand new interview with Troma president Lloyd Kaufman
"Forgotten Scares: An In-depth Look at Flemish Horror Cinema" - a feature-length 2016 documentary on the history of Flemish horror
"Rabid Grannies: The Story Behind the Film" - an archival making-of documentary
"RABID GRANNIES" 88-minute cut version (sourced from tape) with an optional commentary track by director Emmanuel Kervyn
Archival interview with Producer Johan Vandewoestijne
Description: Every year, former college roommates Jackie, Abbey and Trina take turns organizing a mystery getaway for the three of them. This year it's Jackie's turn, and she's chosen a weekend of camping in New Jersey's Deep Barons. Despite ominous warnings from a local shopkeeper, the young women set off into the wilderness with high spirits, and it's not long before they're skinny dipping in the nearby lake and generally making the most of the great outdoors - blissfully unaware that they're being watched. As the friends settle in for the night, they're suddenly attacked by a pair of sadistic brothers, Ike and Addley, who drag them in their sleeping bags back to their dilapidated house in the middle of the woods to meet Mother… who turns out to be even more sick and twisted than they are. Subjected to violence, torture and assault beyond their worst nightmares, the women are forced to channel their inner savages in a desperate bid to fight back against these backwoods degenerates.
One of the earliest and best films to come from the then-burgeoning slasher wave, Charles Kaufman's MOTHER'S DAY pre-empted (and arguably transcended) the Friday the 13th-era bodycount craze of the early 1980s with this smart and perversely humorous subversion of the slasher template, which is as intent on unsettling the viewer with its scenes of bloody carnage (which led to the film becoming banned in the United Kingdom) as it is with delivering a biting satire of consumerism and pop culture. Now restored in 4K from its original 35mm camera negative by the backwoods dwellers at Vinegar Syndrome, fans can celebrate MOTHER'S DAY all over again with this UHD world premiere, packed with archival material and a shockingly extensive array of brand new bonus features sure to make any mother proud!
Special Features and Technical Specs:
TWO-DISC SET (4K BLU-RAY/BLU-RAY)
NEW 4K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
Commentary track with director Charles Kaufman and assistant art director Rex A. Piano
"You're a Sick Woman!" - an interview with actress Nancy Hendrickson
"My Brother and Me" - an interview with actor Michael McCleery
"Writing to Mother" - an interview with co-writer Warren Leight
"The Book of Mother's Day" - an interview with producer Michael Kravitz
"The Last House in the Woods" - an interview with production designer Susan Kaufman and costume designer Ellen Lutter
"Cutting Mother" - an interview with editor Daniel Loewenthal and assistant editor Richard W. Haines
"Celebrating Mother's Day" - an interview with assistant art director Rex A. Piano
Director Charles Kaufman interviewed by Lloyd Kaufman
Interview with actress Tiana Pierce
"Messin' Up In Deep Barons: The Locations of Mother's Day" - a tour of the shooting locations with assistant art director Rex A. Piano and MOTHER'S DAY superfan Brandon Hall
Archival interview with director Charles Kaufman
Charles Kaufman and Darren Bousman talk MOTHER'S DAY at Comic Con 2010
Eli Roth on MOTHER'S DAY
8mm behind-the-scenes with commentary by Charles Kaufman
Archival interview with assistant art director Rex A. Piano