The Day of the Locust (1975)

The film MIDNIGHT COWBOY director John Schlesinger made just before MARATHON MAN is getting a Blu-ray release from Arrow. Adapted by Waldo Salt (who also wrote the screenplays for MIDNIGHT COWBOY and SERPICO) from Nathanael West’s novel, it’s a film that lifts up the rock that is tinseltown to dispassionately examine the squirming creatures it finds beneath.

Hollywood, 1937 or thereabouts. Tod Hackett (William Atherton) gets a job at Paramount Pictures as a production illustrator. He gets on well with studio executive Claude Estee (Richard Dysart) and is soon moving up in the world, producing drawings for a production about the battle of Waterloo.

Meanwhile in his private life Tod is quickly becoming besotted with Faye (Karen Black) an extra who is happy to string Tod along while also entertaining the attentions of a number of other men including cowboy Earle (Bo Hopkins). Faye’s father Harry (Burgess Meredith) sells cleaning solvent door to door having failed to make the big time. Faye eventually moves in with bewildered accountant Homer Simpson (Donald Sutherland), but she soon leaves him, his resultant emotional trauma coinciding with the premiere of a new Cecil B DeMille movie leading to a climax of spectacularly grim and nightmarish proportions.

THE DAY OF THE LOCUST runs 144 minutes and in that time we meet hardly a single character who has any redeeming features. Instead they are all self-obsessed, unpleasant, lacking in empathy or morals and frequently just plain bizarre. The film has been likened to David Lynch’s later MULHOLLAND DRIVE and it’s easy to believe Lynch was influenced by many of the elements of this when he made his classic, from the place where Tod lives to the presence of a mysterious cowboy and the apparitions of strange screaming figures. Even so, the climax still comes out of left field and is not to be spoilt if you’ve never seen this. As well as the above, interesting faces amongst the cast include a very young Jackie Earle Haley as a disturbing child, and William Castle as the director of the Waterloo epic. The location used for his 1959 HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL puts in an appearance as well. 

Arrow’s Blu-ray features a 2K remaster from the original negative, with mono, lossless 5.1 and stereo 2.0 audio options. In 2004 the BBFC cuts scenes of cockfighting for the DVD release and it looks as if these have not been restored (which is of course unsurprising). 

Extras on the disc include a commentary track moderated by the late Lee Gambin that features an assembly of cast and crew members including costume designer Ann Roth, actors Grainger Hines and Pepe Serna, and title designer Dan Perri. Gambin returns for a visual essay on the film (25 minutes) and there’s another visual essay from costume and film historian Elissa Rose (18 minutes) which also features comments from costume designer Ann Roth, while critic Glenn Kenny provides an appreciation of the film (25 minutes). You also get behind the scenes galleries, radio spots, a reversible sleeve and a booklet featuring new writing on the film. 

John Schlesinger’s THE DAY OF THE LOCUST is out on Blu-ray from Arrow on Monday 6th April 2026

The Good Boy (2026)

“Top Notch Thriller ” 

Jeremy Thomas and Jerzy Skolimowski, both individuals with track records for making quality cinema, have their names at the front of this British-Polish co-production (once you have got past a staggering 13 logos) which is currently playing in selected UK cinemas from Signature Releasing. 

        If you're reading this in the US the film has been retitled HEEL to avoid understandable confusion with Shudder’s recent dog-starring ghost story movie. Indeed, the onscreen title on UK prints is GOOD BOY so presumably the ‘THE’ has been added here to try and help differentiate it as well. Whatever the title, it’s an excellent piece of cinema and well worth catching if you can.

Tommy (Anson Boon who played John Lydon in Danny Boyle’s PISTOL) is a monstrously awful 19 year old who spends his days bullying and stealing, and his nights living it up in a coke-fuelled haze. During one especially massive bender he’s kidnapped and wakes to find himself chained up in a cellar belonging to Christopher (Stephen Graham) and his wife Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough) who, it turns out, live in a remote country house with their son Jonathan (Kit Rakusen). 

It’s clear that Kathryn has undergone some previous trauma and there’s talk of a ‘Charlie’ who isn’t in the house any more. It’s never made clear who Charlie was, or indeed if Jonathan is their actual son or someone else they’ve kidnapped. Meanwhile Christopher takes the lead in ‘rehabilitating’ Tommy using various methods including playing the boy TikTok videos, Ludovico treatment-style, of his past crimes. Will the attempts at reforming Tommy work or will he escape and carry out the violent threats he keeps screaming at Christopher and his family?

THE GOOD BOY has a strong 1970s vibe, reminiscent of everything from Kubrick’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE to Eloy De La Iglesia’s MURDER IN A  BLUE WORLD with a touch of Pete Walker’s HOUSE OF WHIPCORD for good measure. However as the film continues (and Tommy’s rehabilitation develops) fans of UK TV may also be reminded of the 2006 series LIFE ON MARS. 

        Even if you’ve not seen any of the above be assured that THE GOOD BOY is a fine thriller that will keep you guessing. As to the ending - I won’t say if it’s nihilistic or uplifting, because that’s for you to find out, and, like all the best EuroHorrors from back in the day, perhaps chat about in the car on the way home. Highly recommended and with excellent performances from all the leads. Here’s the trailer:

THE GOOD BOY is out in UK and Irish cinemas now from Signature Entertainment

Salem’s Lot 4K (1979)

“Excellent Tobe Hooper King Adaptation Still Holds Up”

Arrow are releasing a two disc set of Tobe Hooper’s 1979 TV adaptation of Stephen King’s SALEM’S LOT in 4K, with the original mini series on one disc and the feature film cut on the other, along with a bunch of extras.

Writer Ben Mears (David Soul) returns to his birthplace, the small town of Salem’s Lot, to research a new book and take inspiration from the old Marston House, a place with a grim reputation that always disturbed him as a boy. His arrival coincides with Straker (James Mason) making his preparations for the opening of a new antique shop to be run by himself and his mysterious business partner Kurt Barlow (Reggie Nalder) who is always absent. 

However, when two workmen are employed to bring a mysterious crate from the docks and install it in the Marston House it’s the signal for all manner of vampire mayhem to start infecting the town. Only Ben’s old schoolteacher Jason Burke (Lew Ayres, best known to horror fans as the one who succumbs to an icy fate in DAMIEN OMEN II) suspects the truth, and soon he is dead too, leaving Ben and a couple of other townsfolk fight the vampire menace that lurks in the Marston House. But the disease is spreading too rapidly and only the destruction of the fountainhead itself can possibly halt its progress.

The equivalent of what is now called ‘Water cooler TV’, everyone was talking about SALEM’S LOT back in the day, certainly on its first BBC1 screening. Most of the conversation was about eerie floating vampire children and it’s an effect that still holds up, thanks to a mixture of practical effects, contact lenses and grubby fangs, and the skill of Tobe Hooper’s direction. 

And yes, whoever thought of getting Tobe TEXAS CHAINSAW DEATH TRAP Hooper to direct this deserves plaudits themselves, as Hooper proves himself to be not just a master of restraint but a master at pushing the boundaries of what one could get away with in the notoriously restricting arena of American television. Several changes were made to the novel (in particular how Barlow was represented) and these are dealt with in the extras.

Arrow’s 4K set comes with two UHD discs. The first has the mini-series and gives you the option of watching it as TV intended, or as a single 183 minute piece with no recaps, etc. The two commentary tracks on here accompany that latter version. First is an archival commentary from Tobe Hooper who stays the course but there are a few gaps so if you’re wondering just keep listening and Tobe picks things up again. Far more chatty is the new commentary from the always excellent Amanda Reyes and Bill Ackerman. Disc one also has commercial bumpers, the US broadcast version of the ‘antlers death’ and the shooting script, which clocks in at an understandable whopping 197 pages. 

Disc two gives us the ‘Theatrical Cut’ which is 110 minutes long and has an enthusiastic Chris Alexander commentary to accompany it. We also get new interviews with King biographer (and well-known anthologist back in the day) Douglas E Winter (21 minutes), author Grady Hendrix (26 minutes) who gives an appreciation, and Mick Garris (13 minutes). Elijah Drenner provides an excellent concise piece on the filming locations (7 minutes), Heather Wixson gives us a video essay on the hero characters of SALEM’S LOT (9 minutes) and Joe Lipsett and Trace Thurmann provide a 20 minutes mini making of and analysis. You also get trailers and  an image gallery. Arrow’s limited edition set also comes with a booklet featuring new writing on the film, a double-sided poster, reversible sleeve and a Salem’s Lot sign sticker!

Tobe Hooper’s version of Stephen King’s SALEM’S LOT is out on 4K in a two disc UHD edition from Arrow on Monday 30th March 2026

Fear in the Night 4K (1972)

 

Studio Canal are releasing the last of Hammer’s B-movie psycho thrillers (most of which were originally made to form the bottom half of a double bill) on 4K. The collector’s edition will include the film on both UHD and Blu-ray, as well as a 64 page booklet with new writing and a couple of posters.

Peggy (Judy Geeson) believes she has been attacked by an unseen assailant with one arm. She goes with her teacher husband Robert (Ralph Bates) to his new job at a remote public school. It’s out of term time so the only other people there, aside from a groundsman we see in a couple of shots, are the one-armed (aha!) headmaster Michael Carmichael (Peter Cushing) and his wife Molly (Joan Collins busy developing the persona that would do well for her in 1980s soaps). 

Peggy is attacked again. She believes it’s the headmaster, whom she shoots with a shotgun conveniently left by Robert when he goes to a convention. But when Robert returns Peggy’s in a daze and there’s no sign of a body. What’s going on?

With only four principal cast members, two of whom have very little screen time, it’s not too difficult to work out what must be happening, as we’re in ‘are they mad or are they being driven mad’ territory once again here. While FEAR IN THE NIGHT isn’t one of Hammer's best, it does boast a terrific setting of an empty boys’ school where the classrooms and corridors have been rigged up with the sound of the pupils so the headmaster can wander around and feel it’s still term-time. It’s a concept that makes the film worth watching and pretty much saves this from being nothing but the most routine of Hammer’s psycho-thriller output.

Studio Canal’s disc has a new extra of Kim Newman talking about the film for 26 minutes. Other extras are archival, including Studio Canal’s own making of from 2017 made to accompany the original Blu-ray release. There are also two commentary tracks, one with producer, director and co-writer Jimmy Sangster moderated by Marcus Hearn, and another with Troy Howarth, plus the usual trailer and stills galleries.

FEAR IN THE NIGHT is out in 4K in a two disc (UHD and Blu-ray) collector’s set from Studio Canal on Monday 23rd March 2026

Spaceways 4K (1953)

“Quite Possibly Not What You Might Be Expecting”

The next lesser known Hammer film to get the 4K treatment on UHD and Blu-ray from the studio is Terence Fisher’s SPACEWAYS. As David Flint notes on one of the commentary tracks on here, SPACEWAYS is one of those early 1950s pictures that never seemed to be on television in the 1970s and 1980s and was consequently missed by a generation of young Hammer fans keen to see everything from the studio.

As a result, from the title and the poster art, you might imagine SPACEWAYS to be a rollicking science fiction adventure set in space, but it isn’t. In fact, while getting into space forms part of the plot, it’s by no means a large part of it.

The film kicks off with Dr Stephen Mitchell (Howard Duff, best known to 1980s viewers as the villain in soap opera Flamingo Road) and his experiments to establish the first orbiting British satellite. He has also been launching mice into space as a presumed side project but we don’t hear much more about that .

His wife Vanessa (Cecile Chevreau) is having an affair with Mitchell’s colleague Dr Crenshaw (Andrew Osborn) while his other colleague Dr Lisa Frank (Eva Bartok) keeps giving Stephen adoring looks at cocktail parties. In fact the whole first act feels a bit like if Jackie Collins (or Jacqueline Susann) wrote Quatermass but thankfully things take a turn towards a murder mystery when Vanessa and Crenshaw disappear. Has Stephen killed them and put them in the rocket he’s sent up? Or are there other espionage shenanigans going on?

SPACEWAYS is extremely light on the ‘Space’ bit and is far more concerned with being a low budget espionage thriller. It’s nice to see Michael Medwin and Marianne Stone pop up, especially as the leads aren’t exactly electrifying. Considering the film is adapted from a story by the excellent British SF writer Charles Eric Maine it’s all rather disappointingly low-key. Some of the extras contributor on here do state that the film has acquired a somewhat poor reputation over the years and it’s easy to see why.

Hammer’s extras do set about doing their best to correct that, though. We get the UK and US versions of the film, both of which are exactly the same length and there are very few difference. Commentary duties on the UK version are by Sarah Morgan and Heidi Honeycutt while David Flint talks us through the US cut. Neil Sinyard and Melanie Williams have a 32 minute sit down conversation about the careers of Duff and Bartok, while Wayne Kinsey and Ted Bohus take us through an entertaining 20 minutes comparing the UK and US SF output for the 1950s. I especially liked Wayne Kinsey’s comparative table that he draws up for us. 

Tim Lucas and Stephen R Bissette discuss the film (and the Maine source) for a whopping 67 minutes, while Gavin Collinson and Richard Hollis have a sit down discussion about the career of star Alan Wheatley (27 minutes). There’s also the UK censor card, trailer and a still gallery. As usual with these deluxe editions you also get a book with new essays and a slipcase to keep it all in.

Terence Fisher’s SPACEWAYS is out in 4K from Hammer in a limited edition two disc UHD and Blu-ray set on Monday 23rd March 2026  

La Main Du Diable aka The Devil’s Hand (1943)

 

“ A Classic Piece of French Horror Fantasy Cinema”

Eureka are bringing out on Blu-ray French director Maurice Tourneur’s horror fantasy classic, made during the height of the German occupation of France.

At an isolated mountain hotel (which has a ruined abbey next door to it) cut off by an avalanche, the increasingly frustrated guests are surprised by the arrival of one-handed Roland (Pierre Fresnay). His only luggage is a mysterious wooden box wrapped in cloth. He is, apparently, being pursued by a man dressed in black and carrying a coffin, and Roland has a fascinating explanation for all of this.

Roland is, or was, an artist, one whose paintings are so poor his gold-digging girlfriend Irene (Josseline Gaël) plans to leave him. Depressed, the restaurant he finds himself in just happens to be owned by a chef who owns a magic talisman: a severed hand in a box. He says he will sell the talisman to Roland for an absurdly low sum so that the chef's soul may be saved from damnation. Roland eventually agrees and talent, wealth and Irene are suddenly all his. But it’s not long before a little man in a black suit turns up to explain to Roland that while this life may be great for him now, the afterlife most certainly won’t be.

THE DEVIL’S HAND is European horror from a time when there wasn’t an awful lot of it around. In fact ask any horror fan to name something genre from 1943 and they’ll probably say FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN. Maurice Tourneur’s film is a far cry from a monster rally, however. Its adult themes and arresting imagery make it feel much more like a feature-length version of the kind of story that might have ben included in Ealing’s classic DEAD OF NIGHT (1945). The acting across the board is perfect for the material, with Fresnay haunted and Pierre Palau as the devil appropriately mischievous while at the same time suggesting an entity of pure malevolence.

Extras on Eureka’s Blu-ray, a 1080p restoration by Gaumont, include an incisive and educational commentary from James Oliver who deals with not just the genre of ‘hand horror’ but contextualises the film within the historical period in which it was made. This is further expanded upon by Samm Deighan’s illuminating 19 minute video essay on French fantasy cinema under the German occupation. Finally there’s a 46 minute documentary on the film that’s been ported over from the French Gaumont release of 2010. The disc also comes with a collector’s booklet featuring new writing on director Maurice Tourneur by Barry Nevin.

Maurice Tourneur’s THE DEVIL’S HAND is out on Blu-ray from Eureka on Monday 16th March 2026