Bluebeard 4K (1972)

 

        Studio Canal are releasing, on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray, this rather singular and frequently outrageously entertaining piece of EuroTrash from the early 1970s. Mind you, at first glance BLUEBEARD looks like it might actually be rather classy. Produced by Pierre Spengler and the Salkinds just before their blindingly good adaptations of THE THREE MUSKETEERS & THE FOUR MUSKETEERS, starring Richard Burton and Raquel Welch, and with music by Ennio Morricone, the film’s pedigree doesn’t suggest the pile of deliciously lurid nonsense that it actually is. 

But just scrape beneath the surface and we see the cast also includes Sybil Danning (BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS and HOWLING II), Agostina Belli (HOLOCAUST 2000) and Karin Schubert (COLD EYES OF FEAR, BLACK EMANUELLE). But the real secret as to where this film is coming from lies with its director, Edward Dmytryk, the man who, during a somewhat chequered career, gave us movies like Universal’s CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943). 

Richard Burton gets out of his biplane, takes off his cunning concealing leather mask to reveal...a blue beard! Cue the titles in case we didn’t quite get that. There’s something about his face being mutilated during the war but as this is mixed in with something about how much his beard tickles it’s all a bit confusing. Richard is very rich Kurt von Sepper, who explains all this beardy stuff to Karin Schubert just before marrying her. For reasons that aren’t yet quite clear Karin dies in a hunting accident when Richard accidentally points his gun at her and shoots her. A lot of actual animals also get actually shot in the run up to this sequence so be warned. Retiring to play his massive organ while his dog wanders in to the most inappropriate introductory music for a canine in movie history, we then flash forward unannounced to Joey Heatherton’s over the top dance act. 

Bewitched by her dainty clodhopping in red high heels Richard is soon inviting her back to his castle, marrying her and giving her surreptitious glimpses of his old serving woman Martha brushing the hair of the corpse of his dead mother before pushing Martha down the stairs. Joey has a nervous breakdown. Richard goes to Vienna, leaving her the keys to his castle but saying that on no account must she use the gold one. That’s because it opens a secret chamber where the preserved naked bodies of his former wives are kept. Unfortunately his naughty latest wife opens Pandora’s Box, which all proves to be a trap for her unwary self. Because he loves her more than any of his other wives Richard says that before he kills her he’s going to tell her all about why he did all of the other wives in. 

We’re about halfway through this two hour film now and the series of flashbacks that now ensue are the excuse for a string of cameos from various Euro-actresses who get done in by Richard in a number of silly ways including an eagle, a giant elephant tusk, being flogged and then drowned in wine, and being nailed inside a coffin. Most of them manage to end up naked before they die, except for Raquel Welch, probably more because it was in her contract than because she plays a nun in a series of increasingly revealing outfits. The whole thing is rounded off with the kind of revelation we've all been expecting, followed by an appropriate come-uppance.

The first twenty minutes of BLUEBEARD are a triumph of ludicrous dialogue, beautiful women and opulent sets, but this one really needed a Robert Fuest or someone similarly mad to bring it all off. But the film isn’t an entire dead loss by any means, and any movie that has Richard Burton putting several bullets into a stuffed owl he has turned into a taxidermy alarm clock so it won’t frighten his wife deserves an albeit very tiny place in cinema history.

Studio Canal’s disc also comes with a commentary track from Howard S Berger and Nathaniel Thompson who enthusiastically embrace the lunacy of all I have described above. There’s also a new interview with Anna Bogutskaya who discusses both the movie and Richard Burton's career in relation to it, and an archival interview with Edward Dmytryk's wife Jean Porter which covers his career (34 minutes). Finally the set comes with a 12 page booklet featuring new writing on the film by Peter Raleigh.

Edward Dmytryk’s BLUEBEARD is out from Studio Canal in 4K on both UHD and Blu-ray on Monday 28th September 2026

Lenore (2026)

        After its UK premiere at Horror On Sea last January, this intriguing ultra low budget Australian attempt at giving us a variation on ‘Poe for the internet age’ is getting a digital release from Seven Tales.

In a grim basement room filled with monitors, computers and recording equipment Max Wren (Nicolas Jaquinot) is putting together a documentary on Lenore. Up until recently Lenore, whose real name is Victoria Brand (Ruby Duncan), has been an online phenomenon and internet personality, with millions of followers thanks to her variety of chat, music videos and immense number of costume changes. 

But Lenore has disappeared after what seems to have been a controversial publicity stunt where seven minutes of her having a miscarriage in the bath was edited into prime time children’s TV show Play School (a real Australian show and, of course a major one in the UK from 1964 - 1988). Max intends the documentary as a tribute but strange things start to happen. Someone visits with a tape that reveals part of Victoria’s early life and other messages start to appear on Max’s monitor. Is he going insane or is something else going on?

The surnames of the protagonists (Wren and Brand) are steals from David Cronenber’s VIDEODROME, but the aesthetic here is closer to Poe in its conceit. LENORE is ultra low budget but opens very well indeed and also has a banger of an ending, to the extent that it can be forgiven for a middle sequence that drags and feels garbled and confusing. Performances are all absolutely fine and if you fancy a low budget tale of incipient claustrophobic madness, LENORE is worth a watch.

LENORE is out on Digital from Seven Tales on Monday 21st September 2026

 

Where Darkness Dwells (2025)

         Following its UK premiere at Grimmfest’s digital festival last December, director, co-writer and actor Michael May’s low budget piece of cosmic horror is getting a digital release from GrimmVision.

Trish Bostwick (Tara Perry) works for an online magazine where she spends her days compiling top tens and then posting inflammatory remarks in the comments under an alias in order to help drum up traffic. When she latches on to the report of a recently missing hiker that may be connected to other disappearances she convinces her editor to let her pursue the story.

Her investigations take her to a remote hospital in New Hampshire where the inmates all take part in strange art therapies and where the doctors seem to be distinctly odd. Driving away she encounters a man armed with a knife who is trying to escape the place, after which she wakes up in one of the hospital beds, herself now a patient. What exactly is going on and is the whole thing the front for some esoteric cult?

You can probably guess the answer to that one. WHERE DARKNESS DWELLS is half a reasonably decent ultra low-budget film, but once things start to get strange the movie doesn’t really know what to do with itself. The “ancient book” of magic that is all of “two hundred years old” will raise a smile from many reading this who no doubt have older and better behaved books on their own shelves, although I suppose these things have to be written sometime. Unfortunately the whole thing is all just a little bit too homemade and just not sufficiently odd enough for that to count in its favour. 

WHERE DARKNESS DWELLS is out on GrimmVision on Monday 21st September 2026

The Wave (2019)

“Scorsese’s AFTER HOURS meets Joseph Kahn’s DETENTION”

Quirky, entertaining and really quite strange at times, director Gille Klabin’s THE WAVE is getting a digital release in the UK from Miracle Media.

Frank (Justin Long in a typical Justin Long role) is a lawyer who specialises in spotting issues with life insurance claims to make sure the company he works for doesn’t have to pay out. After facilitating the company’s denial of a $4 million payout to a fireman who died of a heart attack, Frank decides to leave his nagging wife for the evening and spend a night on the town with buddy Jeff (Donald Faison from Scrubs).

They meet a couple of girls at a bar and move on to a party where Frank is given an unspecified hallucinogen. The next morning he wakes up in the house to find everyone has left, the place is in a mess, and the owners (who have been away) calling the police. But that’s only the beginning of Frank’s problems.

Because as well as being a hallucinogen the drug has the side effect of distorting not just space but time. Frank’s wallet has been stolen and his bank account cleared out. Theresa (Sheila Vand) who he met the previous night might be able to help but she has disappeared. As reality starts to bend and Frank is thrown backwards and forwards in time he begins to realises that the universe might have a purpose in all this.

Reminiscent of Joseph Kahn’s DETENTION in the way seemingly unrelated events all fit together neatly by the end, Frank’s journey to find his purpose also involves him meeting some curious characters, making him a little like Griffin Dunne in AFTER HOURS. It takes a little while for you to realise what’s going on but by the end THE WAVE is a satisfying and extremely neat drama that’s worth a look.

THE WAVE is out on Digital from Miracle Media on Monday 21st September 2026

Misery 4K (1990)

“Benefits Immensely From its 4K Presentation”

The late Rob Reiner’s masterful adaptation of Stephen King’s novel is getting a 4K release from Arrow on UHD. You might not think that a film that is essentially one person terrorising another in a house would benefit that much from the upgrade, but Arrow’s presentation here really sparkles, especially in the exterior shots of the snow-covered landscape. 

Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is a writer famous for a series of best-selling historical romances featuring the character of Misery Chastain. But his most recent Misery novel is to be the last. He has killed her off and has written a new novel he hopes will gain him critical accolades.

He sets off with the only typewritten copy of what looks like his rather short novel into a snowstorm which causes him to crash, Thankfully help is on hand from the psychotic Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates who won the Oscar for this) who prises him from the wreckage and begins nursing him back to health. She also happens to be, or believes herself to be, Sheldon’s number one fan. However, when the latest Misery novel hits the bookstands she is less than impressed with how it turns out and becomes determined to get Paul to write a new one, even if it means breaking most of the bones in his body to do it.

MISERY was one of a number of Stephen King adaptations from Castle Rock Entertainment who, as explained by director Reiner in one of the extras on here, steered away from more overt horror and concentrated on the character pieces like STAND BY ME and THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. The combined talent of everyone involved here didn’t necessarily mean MISERY would be a great movie but it very much is, and a fine example of transferring a book to the big screen.

Just how it was transferred is discussed in the two archival commentary tracks on here - one from Reiner and the other from screenwriter William Goldman. There’s also a brand new commentary from Teri Gamble and Julia Marchese of the Horror Movie Survival Guide podcast which, after all the welcome technical detail from Reiner and Goldman, nevertheless feels like a chatty breath of fresh air.

The one new interview here is an excellent 15 minutes with composer Marc Shaiman and his piano (and score!) where he talks about how he came up with a number of cues for the film. There are also archival interviews from 2017 with Reiner and physical FX maestro Greg Nicotero. From 2002 we get an archive making of (30 minutes) and piece on the film’s score (15 minutes). There’s also a set of curious featurettes from 2007 which are all about stalkers and feature forensic psychologists and others discussing the laws on staking and diagnosing Annie Wilkes’ mental illness. Finally you get trailers and image galleries. Arrow’s limited edition set also includes, along with the disc, a collectors’ booklet with new writing on the film and a reversible sleeve.

Rob Reiner’s film of Stephen King’s MISERY is out from Arrow on 4K UHD on Monday 21st September 2026

Obsession (2026)

 

“Great Horror from a Grand Tradition”

After its phenomenally successful theatrical run, during which it became one of the top ten moneymakers of the year, writer-director Curry Barker’s debut feature is now on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD from Universal.

Bear (Michael Johnston) is hopelessly in love with long-term friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette) but has no idea how to explain how he feels. When she drops he crystal necklace down the sink Bear sees it as an ideal opportunity to get her a new one with the plan of using it as an inroad to telling her everything. However, instead he comes out of the necklace shop with a ‘One Wish Willow’ - a piece of wood which the instructions claim will grant you a single wish, and that it will be forever. Bear makes the wish, snaps the wood, and his world changes.

Everything is okay for a bit, but then it becomes obvious that instead of just being the lover and friend Bear craves, his wish has turned Nikki into a pathologically (and homicidally) jealous monster, one that will stop at nothing to have her Bear with her all the time and forever. Is there any way the wish can be broken?

OBSESSION belongs to a very long tradition of horror based around the simple premise of ‘Clueless individual does something without thinking it through properly and disaster ensues’. Examples include everything from W W Jacobs’ classic tale The Monkey’s Paw through the tales of EC comics and Robert Bloch to mad scientist movies and more. What Barker’s film cleverly taps into is the very real concerns modern audiences have about loneliness, relationships, abuse and sexual politics. Nikki becomes a monster but Bear is very much the creator of that monster and, in that great horror tradition, he, and everyone around him including Nikki herself, suffer accordingly.

Add in the fact that Barker has hit the ground running in terms of his ability to create extremely effective, shocking and often violent moments of horror, and that he has the skill to sometimes have you laughing at the proceedings, and it’s not surprising that the film has done so well. Johnston is excellent as the bumbling, socially hopeless Bear but the breakout star of OBSESSION is Inde Navarrette who has quite justifiably received high praise for her interpretation of the role of Nikki. Navarrette evinces audience sympathy while at the same time terrifying them, while also possessing the skill to make the laugh out loud moments work deliciously well.

Universal’s disc comes with a 19 minute extra that features the main stars (Johnston, Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson and Megan Lawless) and Curry Barker discussing the film, while Barker returns for a feature length commentary track. As you might expect for a horror fan who has got to direct his first feature, he’s bursting with enthusiasm while at the same time extremely grateful to the talented newcomers who sound as if they gave their all to make OBSESSION as good as it is. A deserved hit, a future classic and an essential movie for every serious disc collector's library. 

Curry Barker’s OBSESSION is out from Universal on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD now

The Desperate Hours (1955)

 

        Arrow Films are releasing William Wyler’s tense and suspenseful THE DESPERATE HOURS on Blu-ray. It’s a film that, if you watch it in the right frame of mind, may well remind you of John Carpenter’s classic HALLOWEEN in places, with its suburban setting and the way in which the police hunt their quarry. But that’s getting ahead of things. 

Glenn Griffin (a wonderfully worn-looking Humphrey Bogart), his brother Hal (Dewey Martin) and their accomplice, the brutish Sam Kobish (Robert Middleton), escape from prison. They decide to hole up in the suburban home of Daniel Hilliard (Fredric March) and his wife and two children. Meanwhile the Griffins’ old foe Deputy Sheriff Jess Bard (Arthur Kennedy) is hot on their trail, but narrowing down exactly where they are will depend on the family they are terrorising giving the police a clue.

The screenplay for THE DESPERATE HOURS  is by Joseph Hayes and is based on both his novel and his play. For a film that takes place mainly in a single house, director William Wyler does a great job of making the story as cinematic as possible, with angled shots and composites that makes this feel anything but stagey. As I mentioned above, if you love HALLOWEEN you may be struck by a number of similarities, to the point where when Bogart is punching through a door you’ll be convinced John Carpenter must have seen this and been influenced by it to make his landmark slasher. Well written, well acted and supremely suspenseful, THE DESPERATE HOURS was quite likely the inspiration for a host of home invasion movies that followed.

Extras on Arrow’s Blu-ray include a new commentary track from Daniel Kremer, as well as a 39 minute appreciation from University of Warwick film specialist José Arroyo that goes into the background of the making of the film. Eloise Rose provides a 15 minute visual essay on the film and there’s a 12 minute audio interview with William Wyler’s daughter who was present on set at the time of filming. There’s also a trailer and lobby cards as well as a collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film from Philip Kemp and Neil Sinyard. 

William Wyler’s THE DESPERATE HOURS is out on Blu-ray from Arrow Films on Monday 14th September 2026 from Arrow Films