Sew Torn (2025)

 

SEW TORN, a quirky (and occasionally quite violent) tale of a young seamstress in a quiet Swiss town who finds herself involved in a drug deal gone wrong is getting a digital release from Vertigo.

Barbara Duggen (Eve Connolly) runs a sewing business that's in trouble. Her shop is closing down and she rarely gets call out bookings. On an occasion she does she loses a button and has to return to her shop to replace it. On the way to the shop she drives past the scene of an accident. Two bodies, guns, bags of white powder and, most importantly, a case of money are strewn across the road, leaving Barbara with three options: steal the money, call the police, or just drive away and pretend she never saw it.

The rest of the film details the three timelines that would ensue were she to plump for each of these choices, and it wouldn't be a spoiler to say that each tends to end in violence and death. The participation of other characters in the timelines, including the local law enforcement (K Callan from KNIVES OUT), one of Barbara's customers (Ron Cook from HOT FUZZ) and an irate bride (Caroline Goodall from DORIAN GRAY and SCHINDLER'S LIST) all have different contributions to make in the different timelines.

This all makes for very entertaining stuff indeed, with the standout being Barbara's own Heath Robinson-style affairs where she employs needle and thread to engineer complex actions, escape from custody and even kill people. This combined with the interesting cast who all pitch their performances just right and the Swiss setting to add a little bit of extra eccentricity means SEW TORN is a quirky delight. Freddy Macdonald directed it. It's his first feature and he certainly seems worth keeping an eye on. Here's the trailer:

SEW TORN is out on digital platforms on Monday 31st March 2025 from Vertigo Releasing

Scanners 4K UHD / Blu-ray (1981)

 

The fourth of David Cronenberg's films in which a scientist's biological innovation turns out to be not quite what they expected gets a new 4K restoration supervised by Cronenberg. Second Sight are releasing it in both UHD and Blu-ray editions, with the limited edition containing both, plus the usual assemblage of bits and bobs to make the package even more special.

This time out the scientist is bio-pharmacist Patrick McGoohan, his invention is the thalidomide-like drug ephemerol, and the unexpected side effect from having a 'plain sailing pregnancy' is that the children who are born can make people's heads explode. Well, the first couple of them who happen to be the scientist's own children, anyway.

A huge success when it was released (it was the number one film in the film in the US the weekend it came out) the film came in for criticism at the time from Cronenberg purists (oh yes there were plenty of them around by then) who complained that some of the elements that likely contributed to its mainstream success were at the cost of the careful character development seen in his previous films.

Stephen Lack's Cameron Vale has lived as a derelict for most of his life but a quick jab of ephemerol from McGoohan and suddenly he's able to go all Canadian James Bond, able to carry himself off at a posh art gallery and infiltrate the evil corporation making ephemerol where he has no trouble at all using their computers.

That said, SCANNERS is a deserved success. While it's not the potential Oscar winner that THE BROOD now feels like, it is well-paced and extremely entertaining and the fact that these two film came out within a short space of time just demonstrate Cronenberg's increasing versatility as a director. 

Second Sight's new extras are a commentary track from Caelum Vatnsdal (who performed similar honours on Second Sight's CRIMES OF THE FUTURE disc recently), and a visual essay on the film from Tim Colman. Other extras have been ported over, either from Second Sight's previous Blu-ray release of 2013 or elsewhere. These include interviews with Stephen Lack (24 minutes), Lawrence Dane (5 minutes), DP Mark Irwin (15 minutes), FX artist Stephan Dupuis (10 minutes) and executive producer Pierre David (14 minutes) all from the Second Sight release and Howard Shore (19 minutes), FX artist Chris Walas (21 minutes) and Michael Ironside (30 minutes) all from 2017. Finally, the limited edition comes with a 120 page book with new writing, six art cards and a slipcase.

David Cronenberg's SCANNERS is out from Second Sight on Monday 31st March 2025 in a limited edition dual format UHD and Blu-ray edition and standard separate Blu-ray and UHD discs.

The Brood 4K UHD / Blu-ray (1979)

"Second Sight Gives Cronenberg an Upgrade"

Second Sight Films are bringing out David Cronenberg's version of KRAMER VS KRAMER (his words) in a smartly presented new extras-packed 4K restoration in UHD and Blu-ray editions. 

Frank Carveth (Art Hindle) is becoming increasingly concerned about the treatment of his ex-wife Nola (Samantha Eggar) at the Somafree Institute of Psychoplasmics. As if being a patient at a David Cronenberg Hospital for Body Horror isn’t bad enough, the place also happens to be run by Oliver Reed who plays institute head Dr Hal Raglan. Raglan’s experiments have centred on psychiatric patients making their symptoms, and especially their rage, physical. As Nola’s increasingly psychotic anger is vented during her sessions, brutal murders begin to befall those at whom it’s directed. When Frank’s daughter is abducted he is led to Raglan’s institute and a final deliciously gruesome confrontation that, if you are not familiar with it, is not going to be spoiled for you by this review.

THE BROOD represented an important milestone in David Cronenberg’s career. It was his first film to be made with Canada’s Filmplan International, with whom he went on to make SCANNERS (1981) and VIDEODROME (1983); it was his first film to have a reasonable budget, allowing him to employ two major movie stars; and it was the first of his films to feature the creative team he would work with on his next few projects (including art director Carol Spier whose book cover design for Raglan’s The Shape of Rage was used to illustrate pretty much everything written about the director at the time, and director of photography Mark Irwin) and in the case of Howard Shore it would result in a composer-director relationship that exists to this day.

New to this release is a commentary track by Kat Ellinger and Martyn Conterio that's here in addition to an archival commentary track from William Beard. Also new to this release is a 22 minute visual essay by Leigh Singer that looks at the depiction of rage in THE BROOD and other movies including CARRIE, 28 DAYS LATER and the appearances of the Incredible Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Archival material has also been ported over from Second Sight's previous Blu-ray release. This includes ‘Producing the Brood’ - an interview with Pierre David, who explains how he ended up involved in the production of the movie and how easy it was to deal with everyone involved - except Oliver Reed. Depending on how you view the antics of dear old Olly will determine whether you’ll be chuckling with affection or shaking your head in despair at David’s tale of Mr Reed’s nude bet that caused him to end up in police custody. 

Fangoria editor Chris Alexander talks to stars Art Hindle and Cindy Hinds in 'Meet the Carveths' and takes them back to the school location used for the film. Mark Irwin talks about his involvement with the project and about Oliver Reed, and there’s an interview with Robert Silverman (THE BROOD, SCANNERS, EXISTENZ) which reveals him to be the unique personality many have probably always suspected him to be. There's also a short interview with composer Howard Shore who talks about his 'live recording' approach to the score. David Cronenberg himself is interviewed in ‘Cronenberg - The Early Years’. Finally, the limited edition comes with a 120 page book with new writing on the film, six art cards and a slipcase. 

David Cronenberg's THE BROOD is out in both a limited dual format UHD and Blu-ray edition and standard separate UHD and Blu-ray discs from Second Sight on Monday 31st Match 2025

Maria (2024)

 

Director Pablo Larrain completes a fascinating triptych of movies on the theme of famous women alone that started with JACKIE (2016), continued with SPENCER (2021) and now we have MARIA, which is getting a DVD and Blu-ray release from Studio Canal and starring Angelina Jolie as opera singer Maria Callas.

The film follows Callas during the final week of her life. Only in her early 50s but on a number of medications, some prescribed, some not, she complains to her faithful servants Ferrucio and Bruna (bravura performances from Pierfrancesco Favino and Alba Rohrwacher respectively) that she sees visions and is haunted by the ghost of her now dead ex-lover Aristotle Onassis. 

She is visited regularly by a film crew who are documenting her life, the twist being that they don't actually exist (I'm giving nothing away here, by the way), with interviewer Mandrax (Kodi Smit-McPhee) likely being a product of the drug she is taking of the same name. 

Like both JACKIE and SPENCER, MARIA is less a biopic and more a rumination and as such it's very moving. Jolie offers a multi-layered portrayal of a woman who is sick and whose talent is fading (and she knows it) but is still possessed by the desire to be adored and appreciated, not least by Maria herself.

Not as full-on a horror film as SPENCER, MARIA is nevertheless graced with sufficient macabre touches that fans of a certain kind of European horror cinema will find much to appreciate. Callas' relationship with her servants echoes both Gloria Holden's in Lambert Hillyer's 1936 DRACULA'S DAUGHTER and Delphine Seyrig's in Harry Kumel's 1971 DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS. Larrain's prowling camera renders Callas' luxurious French apartment sinister, with the set dressing of numerous plaster busts and costumes adding to the haunting atmosphere. The constant moving of a piano reflects Callas' own restlessness and the excellent screenplay by Stephen Knight (who also wrote SPENCER) is filled with dialogue that could as easily be being spoken by an aeons-old vampire as an opera diva ('Happiness never produced a beautiful melody.')  It's interesting to note that Larrain's film before this, EL CONDE, portrayed the historical figure of Augusto Pinochet as an actual vampire, suggesting Larrain's body of work is building into something that promises to become even more fascinating than it is now. Studio Canal's Blu-ray has no extras apart from different sound mixes. Here's the trailer:

Pablo Larrain's MARIA is out on Blu-ray and DVD from Studio Canal on Monday 31st March 2025

Don’t Torture A Duckling 4K UHD (1972)

Lucio Fulci's superior, downbeat giallo gets a brand new 4K restoration from the original 2-perf Techniscope camera negative from Arrow Films.

Someone is murdering little boys in a remote Italian town. Is it naked Barbara Bouchet with her wave tank and drug problem? Or mad Florinda Bolkan who likes to stick pins in wax effigies and bury them next to the skeleton of her aborted child? Or is it someone else entirely?

Typical gialli of the early 1970s tended to emphasise 'with it' characters living in fashionable apartments and enjoying glossy lifestyles. DUCKLING's setting is an Italian peasant town, with sometimes dressed (and whenever she is it's always fashionably) Barbara Bouchet looking as anachronistic as the concrete highway that towers over the landscape and olde worlde town where all the action takes place. DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING's story unfolds not in the world of high rise penthouses and devious scheming murderers, but in a far more old-fashioned milieu of superstitious peasant folk and the all-pervading presence of religion. 

Fulci's directorial style is thoroughly dispassionate throughout - we are shown the events but are only rarely encouraged to relate to the characters on screen. It's interesting to note that the one time we are it's when Fulci involves us in the horrific torture and murder of Bolkan's character by a quartet of local men seeking revenge. Fulci's bleak bitter view of humanity comes to the fore here, where not only is Bolkan portrayed more sympathetically than at any other time in the film, but extra emphasis is placed on the unwillingness of those driving past the cemetery in which the attack takes place to stop and help. And as if he's worried the audience hasn't been manipulated enough Fulci rams his point home by having Riz Ortolani's music play a sweet and soulful song as Florinda gets beaten to death with chains. 

      Again contrary to many of the gialli of the time, the reason for the murders is anything but ludicrous and despite its catchpenny title DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING has one of the better (and less ridiculous) giallo denouements, with a typically horrific end for the killer. 

Extras have al been ported over from Arrow's previous Blu-ray and DVD release include an excellent commentary track from Troy Howarth, Hell Is Already With Us - a video essay by Kat Ellinger, archive interviews with Fulci (audio - 33 minutes) Bolkan (28 minutes), Bouchet (18 minutes), DP Sergio D'Offizi (46 minutes), editor Bruno Micheli (25 minutes) and make up artist Maurizio Trani (16 minutes), and Giallo in the Countryside - a video discussion by Mikel J Koven.

Lucio Fulci's DON'T TORTURE A DUCKING is out on 4K UHD from Arrow Films on Monday 24th March 2025

 

Audrey (2025)

 

"John Waters-Style Comedy From Australia"

After its European premiere at the BFI LFF, director Natalie Bailey's pitch black Australian comedy is getting a digital release through Vertigo Releasing.

Many years ago Ronnie Lipsick (Jackie van Beek) won awards for her acting and even had 'a two episode arc on Neighbours'. But then marriage and kids intervened and now she's a miserable and frustrated housewife with two teenaged daughters - Audrey (Josephine Blazier) and Norah (Hannah Diviney) and a somewhat bizarre husband in the shape of Cormack (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor).

When the ghastly Audrey falls off the roof of the family home during a tantrum and ends up in a coma, it turns out to be the best thing that could have happened for the rest of the Lipsicks. Audrey's planned place in a prestigious drama class is taken by her mother posing as a teenager, wheelchair-bound Norah gets to have fencing lessons, while handyman Cormack is booked to fit cupboards at a local church hall but ends up getting involved in the pastor's sideline job of making porn for Christian couples, as well as having an affair with the pastor himself.

But then Audrey recovers and everything gets worse again. What's to be done? And might Ronnie being cast as Medea in a local amateur dramatics production give her ideas?

AUDREY is quirky and entertaining and, at times, in bad enough taste that the easily offended are quite likely to be upset. Calling it an Australian John Waters film might be going a little bit too far but the Lipsicks are certainly the kind of dysfunctional family who scream at each other a lot that Waters excelled at portraying, even if everything is a little more airbrushed than what the Pope of Trash used to give us. Here's the trailer, which will give you a good idea if this one's for you:

Natalie Bailey's AUDREY is out on digital platforms from Vertigo Releasing on Monday 17th March 2025

The Rule of Jenny Pen (2025)

 

Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow star in the new film from director James Ashcroft (COMING HOME IN THE DARK) which is getting a UK cinema release this week.

During the sentencing of a case, Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush) suffers a stroke. Soon he is in an elderly care home with the intention that once he is sufficiently rehabilitated he will be able to return home. His progress is slow but that's not the least of his problems. Long-term patient Dave Crealy (Lithgow) holds a reign of terror over the other patients with the aid of a bizarre glove puppet whom he calls Jenny Pen, and Mortensen is soon within his sights. However, Mortensen may just be a bit more than Crealy can handle.

An absorbing, tightly constructed and frequently downright disturbing piece of work, especially for anyone who might have elderly relatives resident in such an institution, with its gloomy corridors and persistent sense of menace, James Ashcroft's film at times feels like Kubrick's THE SHINING and at others like Alan Clarke's SCUM set in an old people's home. 

      Lithgow is terrifying as Crealy, while Rush underplays expertly as his main foil. Ashcroft's visuals cleverly illustrate the gulf between how well Rush's character believes himself to be progressing and how he is actually doing, and the film sustains an impressive intensity right up until the closing minutes. All this and the best use of the themes from Follyfoot and Van Der Valk ever in a horror film. Top stuff. Here's the trailer:

THE RULE OF JENNY PEN is out in UK cinemas on Friday 14th March 2025 from Vertigo