Signal One (2026)

 

“Thoughtful, Well-Made Science Fiction”

SIGNAL ONE, a new and engrossing piece of ‘quiet SF’ is getting a digital HD and DVD release from Signature Entertainment.

Annika (Isabelle Fuhrman from the ORPHAN movies) is a quantum physicist who has made great progress in the analysis of dark matter. She is offered a job by tech billionaire Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid) to work for him for a year on a secret project on an isolated island off the coast of Cuba. The twist is she won't know what she's working on until she gets there.

When she arrive she finds herself joined by an electronics wizz (Josh Hutcherson) and they both quickly realise they are there to assist David Thewis’ former alcoholic and drug abusing pioneering astrophysicist. He has built a machine that he believes can communicate with alien life. The two of them are essentially there to iron out a few teething problems which prove to be minor, leaving them to debate the question: should they send the message and thus reveal the earth’s existence to the rest of the universe, or not?

Of course it would be a less interesting film if they didn’t, so rest assure they go ahead, but what happens as a result will provide as much fodder for post-film thought and discussion as whether or not they should have in the first place. 

        SIGNAL ONE is well shot, well acted and, at 87 minutes, doesn’t outstay its welcome. In fact it feels very much like a good old-fashioned television play - more interested in ideas and philosophical concepts than special effects, although the ones we get are absolutely fine. It could therefore could be considered to sit in the same subgenre of speculative SF as Denis Villeneuve’s ARRIVAL. And if you liked that then you’ll certainly want to give SIGNAL ONE a look. Here’s the trailer:

SIGNAL ONE is out on Digital HD and DVD from Signature Entertainment on Monday 15th June 2026

Affection (2026)

 

Blue Finch are releasing writer-director B T Meza’s AFFECTION on Digital platforms. It’s a film you can’t say too much about in reviews for fear of spoilers, but let’s take a look at the setup.

Ellie (Jessica Rothe from the HAPPY DEATH DAY movies) wakes up one morning to find herself married to someone she doesn’t recognise and with a daughter she doesn’t know. In fact she’s convinced she has a son and that, in fact, she has a completely different name from the one her husband Bruce (Joseph Cross) says she does. 

But Ellie has other problems, too. Bruce tells her she suffers from a rare neurological condition that involves seizures causing her brain to ‘reset’, and that she has been prescribed complete isolation in order for her to rehabilitate. Of course that’s not what’s going on at all but to say any more would be to spoilt it. 

Seasoned viewers of Hammer psycho thrillers, LES DIABOLIQUES ripoffs and all kinds of classic television (including at least one episode of The Avengers) will be wondering which variation on a well-worn plot AFFECTION is going to use. So be assured it doesn’t use any of them and begins its second act with some very strange stuff indeed that will have you wondering where it's all going. 

The leads performances are good, with Rothe giving another likeable and sympathetic performance, and while AFFECTION is essentially “a couple of people on a farm with a kid” it transcends this setting to become something quite original. Here’s the trailer:

AFFECTION is out on digital platforms from Blue Finch Releasing on Monday 8th June 2026

Invaders From Mars 4K (1953)

“Impressive Restoration of a SciFi Classic”

The BFI are releasing William Cameron Menzies’ classic tale of a young boy who helps thwart a martian invasion, in its new 4K restoration on UHD, Blu-ray, Apple TV and Amazon Prime.

Early one morning during a terrible storm David McLean (Jimmy Hunt) witnesses a flying saucer land in a sandpit beyond the fields next to his home. The next day his engineer father (Leif Erickson from NIGHT MONSTER and THE HIGH CHAPARRAL)  goes off to investigate and comes back changed. Soon other people are behaving strangely and it’s up to David with Dr Pat Blake (Helena Carter whose final film role this was before she left show-business) and astronomer Stuart Kelston (Arthur Franz) to convince the authorities that the threat is real.

Shot in colour in a way that suggests the process was as novel for the film-makers as it would be for the audience of the period, INVADERS FROM MARS is obviously low budget but benefits immensely from both the creative use of colour and from director William Cameron Menzies’ production design which allows for some images to exhibit great depth. In fact, while some sources suggest the film was supposed to be in 3D this actually wasn’t the case, but with those long corridor shots (and the title design) it’s easy to see why. The film also scores points for having an alien that isn’t a simple man in a suit (although there are also four of those) but is instead ‘an advanced human’ - all head and tentacles.

The BFI’s disc comes with a new commentary track from Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw which is up to their usual excellent standard. You might want to watch Tobe Hooper's 1986 remake before playing this and some of the other extras, though. There's also a new short piece (16 minutes) from Nic Wassell about the twin subtexts of paranoia and hope in the film. Other extras have been ported over from the 2022 Ignite Films release and include a piece from Menzies biographer James Curtis (16 minutes), an interview with Jimmy Hunt (11 minutes), a 22 minute discussion between directors John Landis, Joe Dante, editor Mark Goldblatt, VFX specialist Robert Skotak and film preservationist Scott MacQueen, a seven minute piece on the 4K restoration, a festival introduction to the film from film-maker John Sayles (7 minutes), director Ernest Dickerson talking about the film (5 minutes) and two sequences seen in European prints (6 minutes in all). There’s also a trailer and image gallery with plenty of publicity materials as well as images from the BFI National Archive. Finally, the first pressing comes with a booklet featuring new writing on the film by Deborah Allison and Barry Forshaw and more. 

William Cameron Menzies’ INVADERS FROM MARS is out in 4K from the BFI on UHD, Blu-ray, Apple TV & Amazon Prime on Monday 11th May 2026 

Soldier 4K (1998)

Director Paul W S Anderson’s big budget Kurt Russell-starring SF actioner SOLDIER, a film that went straight to video in the UK back in the day, finally gets a whistles and bells 4K release from Arrow Films.

We’re in the world of BLADE RUNNER. It’s not specifically spelled out but there are clues which are confirmed in the extras. Todd (Russell) has been literally been trained from birth to be a soldier, as we see in the film’s opening sequence. He’s been victorious in battle many times (check out his commendations in the bottom right hand corner of the profile we are shown) but now his kind of operative is on the way out, to be replaced by Jason Isaacs’ elite genetically engineered commandos, the most massive of which is Caine (Jason Scott Lee).

Dumped on a garbage planet, our hero discovers a community that includes Sean Pertwee and Connie Nielsen. He tries to fit in but is eventually banished for not being as successful as the others would like. However, Jason Isaacs is on his way with his new task force to unleash havoc and Todd is going to have to save them all.

SOLDIER looks expensive, boasting massive sets, impressive military vehicles, and Michael Bay levels of explosions. It’s admittedly all a bit one-note and for a film many of its praisers consider to be ‘SHANE in space’ there’s far less concentration on character and a lot more on hardware. That said, it’s an entertaining B movie and would have looked (and sounded) great on the big screen it didn’t even reach in the UK.

Arrow’s 4K restoration is director approved and really allows you to see the amount of detail that’s gone into both the production design and the explosive stunts. Director Anderson and co-producer Jeremy Bolt provide an excellent (archival) commentary track and they’re joined by Jason Isaacs about 43 minutes in. 

Extras new to Arrow’s disc include a bunch of interviews with actor James Black (10 minutes), 1st a.d. Dennis Maguire (13 minutes), associate producer Fred Fontana (10 minutes), production designer David L Snyder (14 minutes), the VFX team (19 minutes), Danny Stewart who wrote the making of book (7 minutes), and film historian Heath Holland who offers a reappraisal of the film (12 minutes). There’s also a five minute piece on the VFX with commentary by FX supervisor Craig Barron.

Other archival extras include the electronic press kit consisting of featurette (7 minutes) and 15 minutes of behind the scenes footage, plus a bunch of tiny interviews (some less than a minute) with the cast. You also get trailers, a still gallery and the limited edition also comes with a booklet with new writing on the film, plus a reversible sleeve.

Paul W S Anderson’s SOLDIER is out on 4K UHD from Arrow Films on Monday 27th April 2026

Dark Star 4K (1974)

 

Fabulous Films are bringing out John Carpenter's (and Dan O'Bannon's) DARK STAR, in both limited edition 4K UHD website exclusive and standard Blu-ray editions. 

The scout ship Dark Star is twenty Earth years and three 'real' years into its mission of finding unstable planets that could prevent human colonisation and blowing them up. Time has not been kind to the Dark Star or its crew of five, one of whom is already dead when the film begins. All the toilet paper has been destroyed, a beach ball-type alien rescued as a 'mascot' is keen to cause havoc, and an encounter with a meteor storm causes a communication laser to malfunction. When one of their talking bombs gets stuck in the bomb bay it may finally be all over for our increasingly frustrated / insane crew members.

Created on a shoestring (O'Bannon cites $55 000 in the extras), DARK STAR was made during what was arguably America's Golden Age of SF film production, one that began with the release of PLANET OF THE APES in 1967 and which continued with such US-driven thought-provoking pieces as 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, SILENT RUNNING, SOYLENT GREEN and PHASE IV until the release of STAR WARS in 1977 killed it pretty much stone dead, to be replaced with slick, profitable, but essentially non-challenging space adventure pictures. 

What makes DARK STAR stand out in this golden period is that it's a comedy, which must have been something of a surprise to audiences back in the day. O'Bannon would further develop some of the ideas here in his screenplay for ALIEN (1979) but in 1974 it must have seemed pretty radical to have scruffy astronauts bickering, dancing, getting bored and working in one of the most claustrophobic and cramped control rooms ever committed to celluloid.

Fabulous Films' disc includes both the original 71 minute director's cut and the 83 minute expanded theatrical release. DARK STAR has always been a pretty grainy film but the 4K here looks as excellent as it possibly could, with good detail and no picture noise even on the brightest monitor setting. Extras on the disc start with the 2010 documentary on the making of the film that's almost two hours long and which includes interviews with a bunch of familiar names including Carpenter and O'Bannon (his final recorded interview), Tommy Lee Wallace, Jeff Burr and producer Jack Harris.

Other archival extras include a commentary from 'superfan' Andrew Gilchrist, Alan Dean Foster talking about the film and his career for 35 minutes (essential stuff if you haven't read his memoir), actor Brian Narelle's behind the scenes stories and life and career overview (40 minutes), a 3D guide to the Dark Star ship, and a written introduction from O'Bannon that's rather fun. There are also poster and still galleries, written biographies of Carpenter, O'Bannon, Harris and Narelle and some trivia notes all ported over. New to this release is a booklet containing an essay by Michael Doyle from his forthcoming massive (and still increasing in size according to FAB publisher Harvey Fenton last week) book on John Carpenter and 'Commander Powell's Mission Log' which is also a nice bit of extra fun.

Fabulous Films, a company best known for decent reissues of older movies and TV shows, have pushed the boat out with their DARK STAR 4K UHD package. As well as the disc with all the extras above, the set boasts a slipcase around a rigid clamshell box that includes a sew-on mission patch, and a cardboard case containing 'mission files', which actually includes reproductions of the front of house still set, a double-sided UK quad poster repro showing that the infamous David Hamilton Grant was responsible for bringing this film to Britain, and a copy of the Bryanston Pictures press-book. Exceedingly posh and all very nice to have.

John Carpenter's DARK STAR is now available on Blu-ray and 4K UHD from Fabulous Films. The 'O' ring / clamshell / sew-on patch limited edition of 500 is only available from the Fabulous Films Website. 

Outland 4K UHD (1981)

Arrow Films are releasing writer-director Peter Hyams' 1981 'space western' in a limited edition 4K restoration from the original 35mm negative.

At a mining facility on Io, one of Jupiter's moons, workers are going crazy and killing themselves. New marshal William O'Niel (Sean Connery) with the aid of the station doctor (Frances Sternhagen) discovers that the number of instances has risen dramatically over the last 12 months. Could the mine's increased productivity over that time have anything to do with it? And what about station boss Mark Sheppard (Peter Boyle) and the members of O'Niel's force he is paying off? Can one man take a stand against the corruption on the station, even as hired hit men are on their way there to make sure O'Niel is no longer a problem?

Peter Hyams had apparently been lamenting the death of the western before realising that westerns had moved 'into space' which prompted the screenplay for OUTLAND. But there's much more to this than just HIGH NOON on a moon. The look and feel of the movie is very much informed by Ridley Scott's ALIEN of just two years before. Space has become less the domain of bold explorers and is now just another place to have factories filled with workers. You can also see how the look of OUTLAND informed James Cameron's subsequent ALIENS (1986) and indeed David Fincher's ALIEN 3 (1992). 

The model work and photography are excellent, complemented by Jerry Goldsmith's score. We all know Jerry Goldsmith was God in movie music, but he really did know how to nail the emptiness and yet at the same time the claustrophobia of space. Acting-wise it's Connery's show all the way but the rest of the cast ably support that.

Arrow's 4K comes with a new commentary from Chris Alexander that's my favourite kind - informal, chatty and feels like you're watching with a good friend. Peter Hyams' archival commentary is also on there and reveals he has a wicked sense of humour. There's a fantastic new interview with Hyams conducted by Howard S Berger that's 52 minutes long and has him talking about his career up to and including OUTLAND. Berger also interviews DP Stephen Goldblatt (29 minutes) and VFX supervisor for the Introvision process used in the film, William Mesa (34 minutes), and returns for a piece on 'Peter Hyams as Auteur' in which he argues the case well for those who don't already think the man deserves more recognition than he has so far had. 

Academic Josh Nelson gives us an 18 minute video appreciation of the film and we get the usual trailers and image galleries. Arrow's limited edition also includes a booklet featuring new writing on the film, a double sided poster and a reversible sleeve.

Peter Hyams' OUTLAND is out in a limited edition 4K UHD set from Arrow on Monday 3rd November 2025