Santa Sangre (1989)

"Superb 4K Restoration of an Art House Horror Classic"

Severin Films are releasing a gorgeous, extras-packed four disc set of Alejandro Jodorowsky's classic 1989 SANTA SANGRE.

Fenix (Axel Jodorowsky) is an adult inmate at an institution. We see through a lengthy flashback that he spent his early years in the circus, being the son of Orgo the knife thrower (Guy Stockwell) and Concha the trapeze artist (Blanca Guerra). Unfortunatelty Orgo had designs on the tattooed lady (Thelma Tixou) leading to a liason that was rudely disrupted by Concha pouring acid on his genitals. In revenge Orgo sliced off her arms before cutting his own throat.

The film then moves back to the present day. The significance of showing the grown Fenix at the very beginning suggests the flashback we see may be just in his mind rather than real events, and that sets up how we are expected to view the rest of the film.

Spying Concha through an open window, Fenix escapes and the two go on to create a bizarre act where Fenix acts as his mother's hands. He also becomes her hands when she feels the need to kill women, and soon a patch of land near where he lives is filling up with bodies. Might his salvation lie with Alma, a girl from his past who cannot hear or speak but is now actively searching for him?

SANTA SANGRE was previously released on UK Blu-ray by Mr Bongo Films. Severin's new restoration is an absolute eye-opener compared with that disc and anyone who loves this film needs to get the Severin edition. Discs one and two have the film - on 4KUHD and 1080p Blu-ray respectively. Only the Blu-ray was provided for review but even that is a vast improvement over the previous release, with the colours being so vibrant it's like the film was made yesterday.

Extras ported over from the old Blu-ray include a Jodorowsky-Alan Jones commentary, both on the film and on seven minutes of deleted scenes of VHS quality. New to the disc is a 32 minute talking head piece from the director who talks about the making of the film.

Disc three is packed with extras, including a wealth of interview material - producer Claudio Argento (38 minutes), DP Daniele Nannuzzi (42 minutes), editor Mauro Bonanni (21 minutes), writer Roberto Leoni (29 minutes) and executive producer Angelo Iacono (21 minutes). Other bits and pieces include the film's 30th anniversary showing in Mexico City (a bit heavy on the mime, that one), a 2003 Jodorowsky interview (33 minutes) and London Q&A (25 minutes). There's also a Simon Boswell music video and Boswell and Jodorowsky in conversation. Disc four is the original soundtrack album by Simon Boswell.

Alejandro Jodorowsky's SANTA SANGRE is out in the UK in a special four disc set from Severin Films on Monday 29th July 2024

Die, Monster, Die! aka Monster of Terror (1965)

 

It's time for a UK Blu-ray release of the feature directorial debut of AIP art director Daniel Haller, and the second of AIP's HP Lovecraft adaptations (after 1963's THE HAUNTED PALACE). It may seem a bit odd for the BFI to be releasing an American horror picture but given that DIE, MONSTER, DIE! aka MONSTER OF TERROR (it was obviously 'lack of inspired titles' day at the AIP offices) was shot in the UK and features both some familiar locations and actors it actually fits very nicely into their 'Flipside' series.

Whereas THE HAUNTED PALACE was an adaptation of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and starred Vincent Price, here we have Boris Karloff, Freda Jackson, Suzan Farmer and Nick Adams all rather shoehorned into a 'bares bones and before its time' version of The Colour Out of Space, a story that recently received a much better adaptation from writer-director Richard Stanley. But that doesn't mean DIE, MONSTER, DIE doesn't have its points of interest. In fact any fan of 1960s BritHorror will want it in their collection.

Because - this is the only time you get to see mid-1960 Surrey doubling as Lovecraft's Arkham, and Oakley Court as the home of Lovecraftian horrors. Then there's that still disquieting shot of those weird rubbery monsters that live in the greenhouse, familiar faces like Patrick Magee, Sydney Bromley, Leslie Dwyer, Harold Goodwin and Terence De Marnay all doing their bit in their only Lovecraft adaptation and a music score by Don Banks (Hammer's THE MUMMY'S SHROUD, Lippert's WITCHCRAFT). The BFI's print isn't a restoration but does represent a considerable upgrade from the DVD. 

A release like this, which will appeal most to those who already know the film inside out, is going to stand or fall on its extras and as always, the BFI has gone the extra mile to provide some fascinating stuff. First off is an excellent, lively commentary track from Flipside standbys Vic Pratt and William Fowler where they discuss not just the film but its literary basis, managing to get in a couple of mentions of the works of Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood as well. Stay till the end for Vic's list of 25 Gothic Tropes you can see in this film.

Other extras include a couple of scene reads from the as-yet unfilmed picture about LET ME DIE A MONSTER. The 14 minute piece also features an introduction by co-writer Ken Hollings and an outro by co-writer David McGillivray. The two also return to talk about Nick Adams and DIE MONSTER DIE! for a seven minute featurette. A Karloff Konversation is 20 minutes of chat about all things Boris between Vic Pratt and Stephen Jacobs. Otherwise there's 12 minutes of unit publicist Tony Tweedale's memories of working on the film, an image gallery and trailer, and a curious 16 minute black and white short entitled THE PEACHES. Finally, there's a booklet with new writing on the film, LET ME DIE A MONSTER, and H P Lovecraft.

DIE, MONSTER, DIE! is out on Blu-ray from the BFI on Monday 22nd July 2024

The Last Breath (2024)

 

"Unexpectedly Entertaining"

For enthusiasts of a certain kind of cinema there's plenty to be tickled by in THE LAST BREATH, a diving adventure movie (plus shark) that's just been released on Blu-ray and DVD by Signature in the UK.

In 1944 the USS Charlotte is sunk by a German torpedo just off the British Virgin Islands. Surviving navy officer Jimmy bobs around in the water for a bit and tries to save a colleague but ends up pulling the man's severed arm out of the water. His nonchalant response to this grisly discovery suggests such a thing may well have been an everyday occurrence for him. Who knows, perhaps it was.

The ship remains undiscovered for 60 years until, in the present day, Noah (Jack Parr) dives a few feet down from the boat of his friend Levi (the late Julian Sands) in just the right place and lo and behold, there it is. At the same time, four of his very broadly drawn caricatures of college friends turn up for a diving holiday. The obnoxious Wall Street one offers $50 000 for them to be taken down to the wreck. The one who acts like the comedy relief in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon has his mask and flippers fall off when he dives, while the overly sincere surgeon (more about her in a bit) turns out to be Noah's ex-girlfriend who left him due to his proposed slacker way of life.

Yes, there's a shark, but it takes a while to appear. Before it does we witness scenes and ideas lifted from Neil Marshall's THE DESCENT as well as TITANIC and THE ABYSS. In fact, while director Joachim Heden seems to want to emulate James Cameron, crappy dialogue like "Sharks don't have ears do they?" coupled with a terrible attempt at underwater surgery and the repeated demonstration of inaccurate diving techniques (thanks to Mrs Probert for that) ultimately mean this one is more like having Bruno Mattei, the director of such epics as CRUEL JAWS and SHOCKING DARK, back with us again.

All of this is to say that, approached in the right way, THE LAST BREATH is actually very entertaining, in an Italian early 1980s direct to VHS shark movie ripoff kind of way. There's even a final shot of New York where you can add your own bit about how zombies have entered the building. Here's the trailer:

THE LAST BREATH is out now on Blu-ray and DVD from Signature Entertainment

Soldier Blue (1970)

"A Real Horror Western"

Ralph Nelson's controversial and brutal revisionist western gets a brand new restoration, now out on UHD, Blu-ray and DVD from Studio Canal.

Colorado Territory, 1877. A patrol of US cavalry officers are escorting Cresta Lee (Candice Bergen) to meet her fiancé who is the right hand man of Colonel Iverson (John Anderson). The Cheyenne waylay the patrol and massacre nearly everyone, with the only survivors being Cresta and Private Honus Grant (Peter Straus) who then have to make the four day journey on foot to Fort Reunion, dealing with hunger, native Americans and Donald Pleasence along the way. When they finally get to their destination, they end up involved in an horrific massacre of the defenceless Cheyenne in revenge for the attack on the patrol.

The climax of SOLDIER BLUE is based on the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, one of the most infamous and horrific incidents in the history of the American frontier. The film itself was part of a short burst of savagely brutal westerns including Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH, Michael Winner's CHATO'S LAND and Don Medford's THE HUNTING PARTY. SOLDIER BLUE, however, may well be the most extreme and affecting of the lot, so those of a more delicate disposition may well need to think twice before letting themselves in for the lengthy, brutal, mutilation and rape-filled final twenty minutes in which genuine amputees were recruited from Mexico City to add to the authenticity.

A massive hit in the UK and everywhere around the world except, perhaps unsurprisingly, in the US, SOLDIER BLUE has been called one of the most radical films in the history of American cinema, and belongs to a sub-genre of western that arose very much in reaction to the Vietnam war and, according to director Nelson in this case, the My Lai massacre in particular. 

Studio Canal's new 4K scan has undergone picture and sound restoration using the original 35mm picture and sound negatives and the landscape here looks just fabulous. According to the BBFC site the film has undergone minor cuts mainly for trip-wired horse falls and this is likely the fullest version the UK is going to get. The disc comes with a 12 minute interview with Bergen where she talks about her dog and giggles quite a bit, and a commentary track from Steve Mitchel and Howard S Berger recorded during lockdown.

Ralph Nelson's SOLDIER BLUE is out on UHD, Blu-ray and DVD from Studio Canal on Monday 15th July 2024

Sting (2024)

"The Spider From Mars?"

Following its recent UK cinema release, Kiah Roache-Turner's alien arachnid movie gets a digital home premiere courtesy of Studio Canal.

That's right - the spider in this film is an alien that's concealed with a meteorite that crashes at the start of the film. It's christened 'Sting' by little Charlotte (Alyla Browne) who discovers it inside a doll's house and takes its name from her copy of Tolkien's The Hobbit. So all those of you worrying because spiders are generally considered to bite rather than sting can now rest easy.

Spiders don't exhibit the capacity to grow at a phenomenal rate either, but this one certainly does after Charlotte has fed it a few cockroaches and her new pet has escaped to consume a parrot and a cat before moving onto bigger prey. 

STING is set in a gloomy, claustrophobic apartment block. The recent French spider horror INFESTED aka VERMINES had a similar setting but this is a lot more fun and with much more likeable characters. Roache-Turner was also responsible for the highly entertaining 2014 post-apocalypse film WYRMWOOD and the sense of playfulness with the subject matter is in evidence here. It takes a little while to get going but creature feature nuts and those who fancy seeing an apartment block of eccentric and curious characters getting attacked by an (eventually) enormous alien spider thing will find lots to enjoy. Here's the trailer:

KIAH ROACH-TURNER's STING is still playing in some UK cinemas, will be available to buy or rent on digital platforms on Monday 15th July, and gets its Blu-ray release on Monday 19th August 2024

In A Violent Nature (2024)

"Revisionist Slasher Turns Out To Be Better Than An Awful Lot of Them"

Have you ever watched a slasher film and wondered what the killer was up to during those lengthy and frequently dull sequences where the victims-to-be were doing all the things deemed appropriate for gory punishment by the culture of 1980s Reaganite America? Well wonder no more as writer-director Chris Nash's film takes exactly that angle. 

Offscreen mumbling characters remove a locket from a grave, causing the resurrection of Jason Voorhees clone 'Johnny', his retrieval of said item becoming the raison d'etre for the next ninety minutes of carnage. We follow him as he makes his way through some beautifully shot rustic scenes, as he spies on some annoying teenagers who mumble their way through his back story, and then as he despatches them with the tools he finds in a museum exhibit.

A contemporary review of Steve Miner's FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 (1981) described it as 'short sharp shocks punctuate slabs of tedium', which is actually a pretty fair summation of most of that series. It's therefore a bit of a mystery why nobody has every thought of the most obvious way to make those slabs of tedium more interesting by telling most of the story from the point of the view of the killer. Which is just what IN A VIOLENT NATURE does. 

It also allows Nash to provide a little more nuance than these films usually offer. A scene where our hulking maniac plays with a toy car while teenagers squabble just out of view provides an almost 'Karloff as the monster' moment of sympathy that nearly all movies in this genre never even think to include.

On the downside, the lengthy shots where we follow Johnny are a little reminiscent of RPG computer games where you're aching to get to the first quest, and there's an attempt at an explanation for why slashers like Johnny behave the way they do that falls a bit flat but these are actually minor quibbles. IN A VIOLENT NATURE is head and shoulders above recent 'slasher tribute' movies like Eli Roth's THANKSGIVING or FOUNDER'S DAY in that it treats its subject matter both seriously and sympathetically. Here's a clip:

Chris Nash's IN A VIOLENT NATURE is on general UK cinema release from Altitude Films now

Thine Ears Shall Bleed (2024)

 

"Frontier Folk Horror"

...and not bad at all, especially considering its low budget. Ben Bigelow's American period piece gets a Digital release from Miracle Media.

In the American West of the 1860s, pastor Ezekiel Thatcher (Andrew Hovelson) sets out with his family into the American wilderness, equipped with a wagon, two horses, and enough food to last until they hope to be able to find some.

Entering a forest they are confronted by a fork in the trail. They take the right hand branch but it soon comes to a halt. A strange sound causes Ezekiel's ears to bleed and leads to the revelation that he believes himself to be God's instrument. The sound also restores his blind son's sight, while Ezekiel abandons the welfare of the family to scribble 'sermons' of inspiration in his notebook. Is it God or is it nasty? It's nasty of course but exactly what is going on I'll leave for you to discover.

There's a lot to like about THINE EARS SHALL BLEED, not least of which is the professionalism of the endeavour. Despite the low budget there's very little wobbly hand-held shakicam, and whoever chose the locations has done an excellent job as, for a change, there's a real sense of isolation amidst the impressive sweeping vistas. The film takes its time about things but the emphasis here is on atmosphere and as such, THINE EARS SHALL BLEED does a pretty good job. It's reminiscent of horror Westerns like Earl E Smith's SHADOW OF CHIKARA and if you're a fan of this subgenre this is one to check out. Here's the trailer:

THINE EARS SHALL BLEED is out on Digital from Miracle Media on Monday 15th July 2024