Up! (1976)

"(Not the Pixar Disney Film...Obviously)"

...although Russ Meyer was tagged in publicity of the period as 'The Walt Disney of Skin Flick'. Anyway, the film the producer-director-cinematographer-editor and all-round auteur made in between SUPERVIXENS (1975) and BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRAVIXENS (1979) is now getting to join those two movies in getting a 4K UHD and Blu-ray release from Severin Films, scanned and restored from the original 35 mm negative.

UP! was obviously conceived as a follow-up to SUPERVIXENS in its attempt to recreate another crazy world filled with sexually-inspired daftness featuring women with enormous breasts. The mix isn't quite as successful this time around, but if you like Meyer's other films and have a penchant for his singular and colourful take on storytelling then this will satisfy your desire for more of the same quite nicely.

After some extremely dubious sexual shenanigans Adolf Hitler is murdered in his bath by a black-gloved piranha-wielding killer. Meanwhile immensely busty Margo Winchester (Raven de la Croix) arrives in the small American town where Hitler was 'hiding out' (in his castle on the hill). Who was responsible for Hitler's death swiftly takes second place to Margo's interactions with all the men in the immediate area in yet another of Meyer's depictions of weird small town life in rural America. 

We do find out who killed Hitler in a crazy climax that features as much large-breasted naked running through countryside as the rest of the film (which is a lot). Francesca 'Kitten' Natividad acts as a kind of bouncy naked Greek chorus to regularly remind you what's supposed to be going on. Before the climax there's some surprisingly graphic business in a bar that culminates in the use of both an axe and a chainsaw. All this plus almost as many shots of wobbling fried eggs as wobbling breasts to keep the discerning viewer entertained.

As with the other films they have released, Severin's 4K transfer is absolutely stunning, with colours at least as eye-popping as some of the camera angles. Extras on their UHD / Blu-ray set include an archival interview with Raven de la Croix which goes some way to explaining why she wasn't cast in Meyer's next film. New to this release is a commentary track from film, academic and UP! enthusiast Elizabeth Purchell which spends a good 20 minutes talking about Meyer's career up to the film before getting stuck in to the action.

Russ Meyer's UP! is out from Severin Films in a UHD / Blu-ray combo or just the Blu-ray on Monday 28th April 2025

Four Flies on Grey Velvet 4K Restoration (1971)

 

The third in writer-director Dario Argento's celebrated 'Animals' trilogy is getting a new 4K restoration from Shameless, in both Blu-ray and limited edition UHD releases.

Roberto (Michael Brandon) is a drummer with a successful prog jazz band. He's happily married, lives in a glossy modern early 1970s house, and has a circle of arty friends. But someone is following him. One night, when Roberto gives chase and finds himself in an abandoned theatre, he ends up killing the mysterious man - or so he thinks. 

What's more worrying (aside from the fact that he's in an Argento film) is the weirdly-masked individual who photographs him in the act and then leaves  the photos lying around, that is when they're not whispering to him or leaving a dead cat on one of his shelves. Then the killings start, with the final one providing a clue as to who the killer is.

We're firmly in Italian giallo-land with FOUR FLIES. The concept of the final image a victim sees being imprinted on the retina is at once ingenious and ridiculous - giallo in a nutshell, if you like. No spoilers here, though - you'll have to watch the film to find out what I'm talking about.

And, as with so much of this sort of cinema, who cares? FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET is so stylish, with endearing characters (Jean-Pierre Marielle's private investigator channels Eddi Arent from the Rialto Edgar Wallace mysteries) and a style that's still impressive over fifty years later. 

Shameless' new transfer is a big improvement over their previous Blu-ray release, and  there are some excellent new extras as well. Foremost amongst these is a 41 minute interview with Michael Brandon who remembers everything about the production and his time in Rome, including tea with Fellini (although how could one ever forget that?). There's a new 31 minute interview with Argento where he talks not just about the film but his three animals trilogy and his life leading up to them being made. 

An archival 41 minute interview with co-writer and assistant director Luigi Cozzi has been ported over and you get introductions to the film from both Brandon (new) and Cozzi (archival). You also get English opening and closing credits, trailers, a TV spot and an image gallery. Finally, the limited edition UHD disc includes a booklet by Alan Jones, two art cards, and a poster all inside a slipcase.

Dario Argento's FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET is out in a 4K Restoration in both limited UHD and regular Blu-ray editions on Monday 28th April 2025

The Coffee Table - Blu-ray Release (2022)

 

After its successful UK release on digital from Second Sight last year, Caye Casas' excruciating, shocking and at times hilarious (depending on your sense of humour) horror film gets a disc release, with a limited edition offering some extra features as well.

The film opens with married couple Jesús (David Pareja) and Maria (Estefania de los Santo) in a furniture shop where Jesús wants to buy a coffee table that Maria is distinctly unimpressed by. Over the course of their conversation we learn that Maria has made all the major decisions in the relationship, right down to the naming of their newborn son.

They buy the table and take it back to their flat. Jesús' brother and his much younger girlfriend are coming over for tea, while the 13 year old girl upstairs is under the delusion that Jesús wants to run away with her but has yet to tell his wife. Maria goes shopping, leaving Jesús to mind the baby.

So far, so Alan Ayckbourn or Fawlty Towers-type in its set up for something to happen that needs to be covered up and will cause mounting tension throughout the rest of the film. It's this event that results in the following hour  displaying some of the broadest swings between humour and horror ever put on screen. Many, of course, will not find the film funny at all and it likely takes a very special kind of black sense of humour to appreciate it. Suffice to say this is a film you probably need to think twice about viewing if you're a parent, and even if you're not it's definitely going to be a bit much for some.

New extras on Second Sight's Blu-ray include a commentary track by 'extreme cinema enthusiasts' (a good choice) Zoe Rose Smith and Amber T, interviews with the director (23 minutes), stars David Pareja (15 minutes) and Estenfania de los Santos (12 minutes), and DP Alberto Morago (11 minutes). Rebecca Sayce contributes a 19 minute visual essay that looks at the film from the perspective of post partum depression and anxiety, and we get two Casas short films: RIP and Nada SA (both 16 minutes). The limited edition comes with a 120 page book with new writing on the film and six art cards with a rigid slipcase to keep it all in.

Caye Casas' THE COFFEE TABLE is out in both limited and standard edition Blu-ray sets from Second Sight on Monday 28th April 2025

Cloud (2024)

 

The new film from director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who gave us CURE (1997), PULSE (2001), and CREEPY (2016) amongst others is getting a UK cinema release through Blue Finch.

Yoshii (Masaki Suda) works in a factory but makes most of his money by being a scalper, buying up quantities of limited editions and fake products and then selling them at vastly inflated prices online. When his boss offers him a promotion Yoshii's response is to resign, move to an isolated house, and do his scalping full time.

However, unknown to Yoshii, there is a growing online community devoted to finding his true identity and his address with the intention of exacting a terrible punishment for how he has ripped them off. Eventually, a gang descends on his house, drugs him, and takes him to an abandoned factory to mete out revenge. 

Interviewed about CLOUD, director Kurosawa said he deliberately made the character of Yoshii complex and ambiguous, such that while the men who come to torture him could be said to have good reasons, the second half of the film becomes an exercise in the viewer trying to decide who to root for, if any. Apparently the story itself was inspired by newspaper reports of violent attacks in Japan which, when investigated, were found to be the result of petty internet grievances that had been blown out of proportion.

The overall result is a film of two halves - the first demonstrating a fine sense of building dread as the character of Yoshii is developed to the extent that, while we understand what he does, it's difficult to feel any sympathy for him, and yet once he's tied to a chair and being threatened with a blow torch we do, or at least we probably should do.  The main body of the second half then moves to being a lot like an action-packed Western-style shootout. You may not know how to feel during CLOUD, but chances are you'll have a lot to talk about afterwards. Here's a trailer:

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's CLOUD is in UK cinemas from Friday 25th April through Blue Finch Releasing

Eclipse (1977)

 

"Ultra-Obscure Late 1970s Weird British Oddity"

That alone should be enough to cause a veritable stampede of enthusiasts of arguably the most interesting decade for British cinema (and certainly British horror cinema, of which this could be considered to be a part - at a stretch). Simon Perry's ECLIPSE is coming out on Blu-ray in a 2K remaster from the best 35mm elements available on the BFI Flipside label.

Twin brothers Geoffrey and Tom (Tom Conti in a dual role) are at sea at night in their little schooner, intent on seeing a lunar eclipse. During the darkest part of the eclipse something happens and Geoffrey ends up overboard and drowned, with Tom unclear at the inquest as to exactly what happened. 

Tom travels to his remote childhood home on the Scottish coast to spend Christmas with Geoffrey's wife Cleo (Gay Hamilton) who has an impressive collection of gin bottles hidden away in every room, and Geoffrey's son Giles (Gavin Wallace, who delivers every line of dialogue as if he is much further away from the person he's talking to than he actually is). Over the Christmas period Tom and Cleo talk, Tom and Giles play with a train set, and dark secrets are revealed.

But what exactly is going on in ECLIPSE? It's not a spoiler to say that there's no straightforward answer, and the film doesn't so much end as come to a bit of an abrupt halt (one of the places where the commentary track is helpfully enlightening). Despite that, 1970s BritHorror fans will find much to enjoy, with the location and atmosphere appropriately moody and a menacing synthesiser score from the late Adrian Wagner that sounds similar at times to Ivor Slaney's work on Norman J Warren's TERROR.

Unsurprisingly, water plays a major part, not just in Geoffrey's death but in the story we are then presented with - both Giles and a dress Tom has bought for Cleo are seen submerged and even Cleo's perpetually drunken state could be considered akin to seasickness, while both leads have dialogue that circles around what they really mean like a whirlpool.

As usual the BFI have come up with some excellent extras. The commentary by the always listenable Vic Pratt discusses the themes of the film as well as the careers of those involved, including their involvement in the kind of obscure bits of British TV and children's cinema for which Mr Pratt's enthusiasm is always appreciated.

We also get two short films - Channel 4's The Chalk Mark (1988) and Marooned (1994) starring Robert Carlyle as a ScotRail employee. Finally, as well as an image gallery and trailer, we get three public information films on the theme of drowning which will be greatly nostalgic to those of a certain age, consisting as they do of Joe and Petunia, Charley Says and everyone's favourite, Lonely Water.

Simon Perry's ECLIPSE is out on Blu-ray from the BFI in their Flipside series on Monday 21st April 2025

Freaky Tales (2024)

PULP FICTION-Style Anthology With Niche Maximum Appeal

FREAKY TALES, an anthology picture that consists of four interlinked tales, is getting a cinema and digital release in the UK from Lionsgate.

It's 1987, and after a curious introduction about possible alien intervention in the town of Oakland in California, we are presented with four stories that take place over more or less the same period of time. The first story has the nicest, most benign punks ever committed to film taking arms against a gang of neo-Nazis who regularly trash the club they attend. The second concerns two female rappers who end up in an on stage rap exchange with the star act at a different club. 

The third stars Pedro Pascal as Clint, money collector for a Mr Big, whose 'final' job is to collect a debt from a secret poker game taking place behind the curtain of a video rental store. The store's owner is played by Tom Hanks who gives us a star performance with his monologue about underdog movies. Finally, crooked police detective Ben Mendelsohn's plan to raid the homes of famous basketball players goes horribly wrong when the girlfriend of one of them, Sleepy Floyd (Jay Ellis), is killed and Floyd decides to enact bloody vengeance with his arsenal of classic martial arts weaponry.

The stories interweave such that characters in one may turn up in another, and everyone is to some extent involved in the final story. It's a lot of fun with a lot of references to cult movies of the period. However, apparently there's a lot more in here to enjoy for viewers who lived in the real Oakland during the time the film is set (locations, personalities some of whom have cameos, etc) which means the maximum appeal of FREAKY TALES could be considered to be rather limited, especially to international audiences who may well have never heard of the place. 

Like many anthology movies FREAKY TALES has highs and the occasional head-scratching low. At a running time of 107 minutes the second story could have been cut altogether but by the end you'll probably feel entertained, if perhaps a little confused as to the point of some of it. Here's a trailer:

FREAKY TALES is in select cinemas from Friday 18th April 2025 and on digital platforms from Monday 28th April 2025

Stéphane (2023)

Co-directors Timothée Hochet and Lucas Pastor's quirky found footage French comedy gets an exclusive streaming release on Arrow.

Timothée (Bastien Garcia) is trying to make a short film to enter in a competition. His attempts to make an FBI thriller haven't got very far when he meets Stéphane (Pastor) who wanders into shot one day and, when he realises a film is being made, demonstrates his ability to create explosions. Admiring Timo's equipment, Stéphane convinces Timo to accompany him to a local camera shop to buy something that will allow him to make his own movies in 4K. An altercation between Stéphane and the shop owner results in Timo missing his train home. 

After kicking the railway station bin to pieces, Stéphane offers to drive Timo home himself but they actually end up at Stéphane's boat and, after a drunken night, travel on it to Stéphane's personal island where Stéphane shows Timo around a house that's curiously empty of possessions. Nevertheless, the two of them decide to make a film about the Second World War with Timo also shooting a secret documentary about Stéphane on the side. But are Stéphane's regular outbursts of violence something Timo should be worrying about a bit more than he actually is?

STEPHANE is the kind of comedy that has you constantly wondering if everything is suddenly going to take a turn for the horrific, and I'm not going to spoil it and say whether it does or not, suffice to say that the (real) film-makers do a fine job of keeping you on a knife edge of wondering if what you're seeing is something you can safely laugh at or if there's actual cause for concern. It's not as brilliantly silly as the work of, say, Quentin Dupieux, but as a first feature it shows a great deal of promise and if you're a fan of French black comedy you won't want to miss it. Oh, and make sure you stay until the credits are over. Here's the trailer:

STÉPHANE is currently streaming exclusively on Arrow