Wednesday, 15 January 2025

The Cell (2000)

 


Arrow Films are releasing Tarsem Singh's stunning directorial debut feature in both 4KUHD and Blu-ray editions, with two discs in each set.

Psychologist Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) is part of a pioneering experiment to treat psychological trauma by entering into the subconscious of the individual. Meanwhile, serial killer Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) has abducted his latest victim and locked her up in a tank where she is subjected to 40 hours of isolation before eventually being drowned, after which he turns his victims into life-sized dolls. 



The FBI are closing in on Stargher but before they can apprehend him he suffers a massive catatonic episode and becomes uncommunicative in a form of locked in syndrome that serves THE CELL's plot. The only way to find his final victim (who is still alive) is for Jennifer to enter his mind and confront what she finds there. And it's not pleasant.

It does, however, consist of a series of remarkable tableaux that are achievements not just of direction but of costume and production design and photography, too. In fact it could be argued that the entire plot is just an excuse to get to the gorgeous visuals, and there's nothing wrong with that. Lopez isn't entirely convincing as a psychologist but D'Onofrio is his usual superb self, while Vince Vaughn provides an important reality anchor as the chief FBI officer investigating.



Arrow's set comes either with one UHD and one Blu-ray disc, or two Blu-rays. The first disc gives you two cuts of the film - theatrical and director's with the latter being about two minutes longer. Extras on disc one include two new commentary tracks - one from writer and producer Mark Protosevich moderated by Kay Lynch, and another academic commentary with Josh Nelson and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. There are also two archival commentaries - one with Singh and the other with other members of the crew including composer Howard Shore and director of photography Paul Laufer. There's an excellent new feature length interview with director Singh who covers all aspects of his experience with the production (and inevitably repeats some of what's on his commentary track, and a lengthy 43 minute career overview interview with Lauter.



Disc two contains a previously unreleased version of the film in 1.78:1 aspect ratio and with different colour grading which does make the 'dream' sequences less grainy but providing overall a more subdued image. Extras on disc two include Paul Laufer talking about this different version and how it arose from his use of two different types of lenses (11 minutes), a ten minute piece on the costume design, and a 12 minute visual essay from Heller-Nicholas about the director's predilection for combining popular movie genres with art history . Archival extras include a 12 minute featurette on director Singh, six deleted scenes and two extended scenes with optional commentary, special effects vignettes, trailers and an image gallery.



Finally both sets come with an illustrated collector's book with new writing and a reversible sleeve.


Tarsem Singh's THE CELL is out in a two disc set from Arrow in 4KUHD and Blu-ray editions on Monday 20th January 2025

Friday, 10 January 2025

The Silent Hour (2024)


Director Brad Anderson's latest film is currently showing on Amazon Prime through Signature Releasing. It's the story of Frank (Joel Kinnaman from SUICIDE SQUAD and the first season of ALTERED CARBON) a Boston detective who loses his hearing. When a drug dealer is killed and the only witness is the deaf Ava (Sandra Mae Frank) the recently returned to work Frank accompanies old partner Doug (Mark Strong) to question her in the rundown apartment building where she lives.



After they leave, Frank discovers he has left his phone there and returns just in time to witness a group of dodgy policemen trying to kill Ava. He saves her, and thus begins an action-packed pursuit of the two of them through the building.



Director Brad Anderson made a big splash with SESSION 9 in 2001, following it up with the Christian Bale-starring THE MACHINIST in 2004, with his subsequent career being somewhat chequered in terms of quality. The core of THE SILENT HOUR is the chase in the building, and very good it is. However the setup is so perfunctory and clunky that the film risks losing viewers before they have a chance to get to the good stuff. Kinnaman does his best to invest Frank with a personality but our introduction to him almost feels as if it was directed by someone with little to no interest in character development and a great impatience to get to the action. It's surprising considering Anderson's involvement, but perhaps twenty years in the film business can do that to a man.



Overall, though, THE SILENT HOUR makes for action-packed low budget entertainment, the kind of B movie it was a pleasure to watch back in the days of home video, with a cast of familiar faces including Mekhi Phifer (Zack Snyder's DAWN OF THE DEAD remake, the ER TV series) and Michael Eklund (ERRORS OF THE HUMAN BODY, ANTLERS). Here's the trailer:





Brad Anderson's THE SILENT HOUR is out now from Signature Entertainment & is currently available to watch on Amazon Prime

Thursday, 9 January 2025

Werewolves (2024)


"Hugely Entertaining"


The latest from director Steven C Miller (whose THE AGGRESSION SCALE I reviewed here) is getting a UK DVD and Digital release from Signature Entertainment. It's a film that, in its unashamed efforts to entertain by delivering the gory goods, encapsulates much of what was great about 1980s exploitation cinema, while at the same time not paying the slightest lip service to that movie decade (which in itself is refreshing).



Before the story begins a supermoon has caused all humans to develop the tendency to turn into werewolves when exposed to its rays. Supermoons are rare, we are told (by Lou Diamond Phillips), but another one is imminent and so precautions need to be taken. There's a moonlight-blocking cream that has been developed but so far it has been untested.

It's tested.

It doesn't work.

Werewolves end up everywhere.




And so the film quickly becomes THE PURGE with werewolves (it even stars Frank Grillo of the second and third PURGE sequels), with those who wish to remain unchanged barricading themselves in their homes while gun nuts prepare to go wild. The action comes thick and fast with some well-staged sequences and once the film gets going it doesn't stop. The werewolves themselves are pretty decent creations (with only minimal use of CGI) and, importantly, there are plenty of them. There are some nice subtle touches, too. In the background are posters for 'The Right to Change' while early on someone mentions what is going on in other countries while America prepares. 



WEREWOLVES looks far more expensive than it probably was, is based on a crazy premise, and with its laboratory setting in its first act featuring people in Hazmat suits and essentially a 'you want werewolves? Well here are werewolves!' attitude, the film emulates the kind of early 1980s Italian exploitation ripoffs (frequently directed by Bruno Mattei) that are still being talked about and enjoyed to this day. If that sounds like your kind of thing then be assured it definitely is. Here's a trailer:





Steven C Miller's WEREWOLVES is out on Digital from Signature Entertainment on Monday 13th January 2025 and DVD on Monday 3rd February 2025

Tuesday, 7 January 2025

Incubus (1965)

 


Arrow are releasing, on both 4KUHD and Blu-ray formats, this interesting black and white piece from writer-director (and one of the guiding lights of the original Outer Limits TV show) Leslie Stevens. That it stars William Shatner and was filmed in Esperanto (a 'constructed language' intended for international communication) makes it all the more worth a watch for fans of curious cinematic oddities.



In the village of Nomen Tuum resides a coven of witches who prey on sinful men by seducing them and killing them, thus ensuring their souls will end up in hell. Kia (Allyson Ames) sets her sights on Marc (William Shatner) who has just returned from war wounded and essentially a hero. She is warned off trying to seduce him as if he dies he will go to heaven. However she is unable to help herself.



Her falling in love with him sets in motion a series of supernatural events, not least of which is the summoning of an incubus (Milo Milos) to take Mark's sister Arndis (Ann Atmar). Mark sets out to save her but if he uses violence his own soul may be compromised in the process.



Filmed in Big Sur and making the most of the Californian coastline in that area, INCUBUS, like MESSIAH OF EVIL (1973) or Stephanie Rothman's THE VELVET VAMPIRE (1971) fits into a subset of low budget independent US cinema that's more intent on dwelling on the weird than on standard exploitation elements. Some may feel it has a touch of Bergman about it, while BritHorror fans will be reminded of John Moxey's 1959 CITY OF THE DEAD. The story itself feels like myth, the movie is photographed imaginatively by Conrad Hall, Shatner is fine in the lead, and the use of Esperanto for dialogue is the crowning note of what adds up to a singular piece of weird cinema. 



Arrow's transfer is the same as that used by Le Chat Qui Fume, namely a 4K restoration from the last known surviving 35mm print which every now and then exhibits remnants of its original French subtitles at the bottom of the screen. If you want to read those subtitles better (and see more picture information as a whole) then  Arrow have provided the open matte version as an extra. You also have the option of playing the film with an isolated score track which will be of especial interest not just to film music aficionados but also fans of The Outer Limits as a lot of composer Dominic Frontiere's score for this consists of repurposed tracks from that TV show.



Other extras include a new commentary from David J Schow and it's an invaluable addition to the similar contributions he provided on Kino Lorber's Outer Limits box set. There are also two archival commentaries - one from William Shatner, and another from producer Anthony Taylor, DP Conrad Hall and camera operator William Fraker. The three are also interviewed by David J Schow in another archival piece (19 minutes).



Stephen Bissette provides an excellent 43 minute talking head piece about Esperanto and INCUBUS and finishing off by showing us a stack of low budget horror films all made in the language by Christopher Mihm. In case you wanted to know even more about Esperanto Arrow have thoughtfully provided a piece by Esther Schor who has written a book on the subject.

Finally you get a trailer, a reversible sleeve and a booklet with new writing on the film.



Leslie Stevens' INCUBUS is out from Arrow Films in 4KUHD and Blu-ray editions on Monday 13th January 2025

Friday, 3 January 2025

The Usual Suspects (1995)


Director Bryan Singer's and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie's classic Oscar winning (for original screenplay and for Kevin Spacey as best supporting actor) 1995 neo-noir gets a 4K restoration limited edition UHD and Blu-ray release from Arrow Films.



After a massacre on a cargo ship leaves 27 men dead and one Hungarian burns victim in intensive care, FBI man Jack Baer (Giancarlo Esposito) investigates the case while customs officer Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) interviews the one survivor capable of walking and talking, con artist Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey). 



As Baer gets to the bottom of what happened on the ship and who was responsible, Kint tells Kujan how he and four others were recruited by enigmatic crime boss Keyser Söze, whom they had all apparently and unwittingly previously stolen from, to stop a drug deal from taking place. But as more facts are uncovered it becomes apparent that Kint may not be the most reliable narrator of events.



A clever script that's given equally clever direction, THE USUAL SUSPECTS tells the viewer all they need to know to provoke nagging questions at the back of their own minds as events unfold. The denouement is extremely satisfying, not least because rather than saying 'fooled you' to the audience it instead confirms that all along they were right to be suspicious. Thirty years later it remains extremely effective and I have no intention of spoiling it here.



Arrow's 4K restoration looks splendid, and there are 5.1 and 3.0 sound potions. As far as it's possible to tell, extras on the disc are all archival. These include two commentary tracks (one from composer / editor John Ottman,  the other from Singer and McQuarrie), interviews with DP Newton Thomas Sigel (16 minutes), and John Ottman (18 minutes), a two part making of (51 minutes in total), a piece on Keyser Soze with cast interviews (18 minutes), the 1995 Cannes premiere (4 minutes), Polygram's EPK (Electronic Press Kit - 6 minutes), 10 minutes of deleted scenes introduced by John Ottman, a seven minute gag reel, three minutes of interview out-takes, trailers and a TV spot.




Arrow's limited edition UHD also comes with a booklet featuring new writing by Barry Forshaw, a double-sided fold out poster, and a reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned art.




THE USUAL SUSPECTS is out on limited edition 4KUHD and Blu-ray from Arrow Films on Monday 6th January 2025

Thursday, 2 January 2025

Rampo Noir (2005)


"Great Author. Great Shame About the Film"


Arrow Films are releasing 2005's RAMPO NOIR on Blu-ray. It's an anthology film by four different Japanese directors that purports to ‘adapt’ (and I use that term loosely but not as loosely as the people who made the film) four stories by the Japanese writer Edogawa Rampo (a play on 'Edgar Allan Poe' - his real name was Taro Hirai). Rampo became famous in his homeland for his detective novels, but many of his short stories contained controversial elements of what were termed 'ero guro nansesu' or eroticism, grotesquerie and the nonsensical. His tales of cruelty and psychological horror haven’t been translated into English much, although there is a nice little paperback from Tuttle publishing that includes the classic tales ‘The Hell of Mirrors’ and ‘The Caterpillar’, both of which have both been filmed here.



We start with the very brief 'Mars' Canal', which is essentially plotless and features a naked man wrestling with a naked woman who might be his reflection that he saw in a lake. There's some fascination with lighting and skin texture here but in terms of narrative there's very little of substance.



An emphasis on imagery (plentiful) over storytelling (mediocre at best) and pacing (terrible) is present in the second story which adapts the mirror tale, and adds to its bare bones source a plot about women being discovered with their faces burned off. It turns out they all have hand mirrors made by one particular man, who ends up inside the mirrored sphere of the original piece. Despite attempts to make a police procedural out of it, this is far too slow and far too in love with its own visual style to hold the attention.



After that we get ‘The Caterpillar’ one of the most outrageous of Rampo's stories as well as being one of the cruellest and most despairing. The story of a war hero who comes home without his arms and legs only to be tortured by his wife was banned by the Japanese government out of concerns it would affect their war effort, and it could have formed the basis for a painful, tragic meditation on loss and desire. Instead once again we get something that is far more concerned with imagery than narrative which, especially coming after the similarly dirge-like previous segment makes for testing viewing indeed. Finally comes 'Crawling Bugs', a story whose execution is confusing rather than ambiguous and the denouement silly rather than horrific.



I'm being more vitriolic than usual here because I'm a big fan of Rampo's stories and it would be awful if RAMPO NOIR was to put off new prospective readers. Here his stories have been hijacked by filmmakers who have seemed determined to turn some excellent pieces of short fiction into relentlessly dull and self-indulgent cinema, and that's a great shame.

Extras include a new commentary track from Jasper Sharp and Alexander Zahlten, a 76 minute making of from 2006, 15 minutes of footage from the Japanese premiere with the directors on stage, an image gallery, and a stack of new interviews.



The new interviews include Mars Canal director Suguru Takeuchi (14 minutes), Caterpillar director Hisayasu Soto (25 minutes), Crawling Bugs director Atsushi Kaneku (14 minutes), Caterpillar cinematographer Akiko Ashizawa (16 minutes), and Mirror Hell cinematography advisor Masao Nakabori (25 minutes) and actress Yumi Yoshiyaki (14 minutes). There are also image galleries for each story. The disc also comes with a reversible sleeve and an illustrated booklet with new writing on the film.



RAMPO NOIR is out on Blu-ray from Arrow Films on Monday 6th January 2025