8 Found Dead (2023)

After its UK premiere at this year's Grimmfest, Travis Greene's 8 FOUND DEAD gets a digital release from High Fliers.

Two young couples prepare to spend Memorial Day weekend at an isolated desert retreat while the daughter of the owner busies herself cleaning it up from previous renters before relaxing by the pool. But who's that wielding an axe and why when the first couple gets there is there another, older couple already in residence? Meanwhile the local police are investigating a 911 distress call that claims multiple murders. Could everything possibly be linked?

A film told through the medium of a fractured narrative (which becomes more apparent as the story progresses), 8 FOUND DEAD desperately wants to be in the same mode as the recent, and superior, BODIES BODIES BODIES, but lacks both the wit and the creativity to do so. Instead it quickly becomes apparent that its jostling of timelines is nothing more than a gimmick to spice up a tired idea, with not even all the shuffling around sufficient to make the 82 minute run time feel anything other than very stretched out by the end. From the press quotes on the poster one can only assume that 'Bains Film' hasn't watched very many horror films. Or possibly any.  

Travis Greene's 8 FOUND DEAD is out on digital from High Fliers on Monday 23rd October 2023

The Others (2001)

"Classic Ghost Story gets an Upgrade"

Alejandro Amenabar's THE OTHERS gets a UHD, Blu-ray and DVD with new extras (as well as the archival ones ported over) from Studio Canal.

Jersey, 1945. Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman) lives with her two children Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley) in a remote country house, the curtains of which are always kept closed because of a condition from which the children suffer. Their life is interrupted by the arrival of three servants seeking work who claim they were employed at the house before. Meanwhile Anne claims to have a ghostly friend called Victor who visits her regularly and when the piano begins playing itself Grace becomes convinced the house is haunted. Things are further complicated with the arrival of Grace's husband Charles (Christopher Eccleston), thought to have been killed in the war. The strange occurrences continue until an ultimate, shocking revelation.

It was certainly shocking back in the day when THE OTHERS was released and it still packs a punch today. There aren't many films that deserve the appellation 'instant classic' but writer / director / composer Alejandro Amenabar's film was rightly compared with genre classics like THE CHANGELING (1980) and THE INNOCENTS (1961) pretty much from the off and if anything time has merely served to cement its reputation as one of cinema's all-time classic ghost stories.

Studio Canal's new disc comes with a couple of new extras. A Look Back at THE OTHERS is a 51 minute compilation of new interviews with Amenabar, producer Fernando Bovaira, and stars Kidman and Eccleston, covering all aspects of the production and discussing the movie's cinematic antecedents. Amenabar's role as composer is covered in a separate 5 minute featurette.

Other features have been ported over from older releases, including a making of (21 minutes), and pieces on visual effects, the director, and Xeroderma Pigmentosum, the light-sensitive skin condition suffered by the children in the film. There are also the usual still galleries and a trailer.

Alejandro Amenabar's THE OTHERS is out on UHD, Blu-ray and DVD from Studio Canal on Monday 9th October 2023

The Rev (2023)

"The Vicar Did It"

Exactly what he did is just one of the fascinating things detailed in this true crime documentary, and the possible reasons why is another. THE REV, the true story of the bizarre facts in the case of the Reverend Emyr Owen, is getting a digital release on the Icon channel before being distributed on all major UK digital platforms.

It all 'started' in 1985 when Detective Constable Glyn Owen Roberts reached the culmination of his investigations into a series of poison pen letters in a small Welsh seaside town. His investigations led him to the house of a local minister who quickly confessed to the crime. However nothing prepared the police for what they found when they searched his house. As well as a number of books on cannibalism and gay pornographic magazines, they also found sets of slides that showed that the Reverend Emyr Owen had mutilated the bodies of three of his deceased male parishioners prior to their burial, removing the genitals and using them for his own purposes. 

The subsequent court case, which was without precedent in the UK, the case files, transcripts and subsequent psychiatric analysis of Owen are all detailed in this 93 minute documentary, which includes interviews with as many of the involved parties as are still living as possible. It's a fascinating and frequently sad story, soberly told for the most part, although the wheeling on of a graphologist who claims she can tell if somebody is homosexual from their handwriting does threaten to overbalance the story into ludicrous speculation early on. Even so, THE REV is a well-told story of one of the more bizarre cases (he never killed anyone and, as is gone into in welcome detail, didn't technically commit any serious crime) in Welsh criminal history. Here's the trailer:

THE REV is on the Icon Film Channel from Monday 9th October 2023 and all other major UK digital platforms from Monday 8th January 2024

The House by the Cemetery (1981)

"Arrow Give a Fulci Classic the UHD Treatment"

One of the all-time classics of Italian horror cinema gets a UHD release from Arrow, utilising Blue Underground's 4K scan and including all the new extras from their US release for UK viewers to now enjoy, as well as including a plentiful pile of archival extras as well.

So which is the best of the seminal horror films Lucio Fulci directed in the late 1970s and early 1980s? HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY is certainly in the running and it's a fine example of the director's approach to horror cinema. It has a horrible premise, plenty of graphic gore, a fantastically monstrous creation responsible for it all, and an ending that culminates in arguably the most nightmarish sequence the director ever created. The fact that ultimately the film doesn't make a lot of sense will by the icing on the cake to enthusiasts, while being a possible stumbling block for those who aren't. 

I'm not going to reveal much about the plot because if you're a horror fan and you've never seen HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY you're in for a treat, suffice to say that, over 40 years since it was made, it remains the ultimate in mad zombie doctor horror films.

Arrow's 4K UHD presentation looks excellent, with a crisp, clear, chilly feel to the picture that has never been quite so successfully presented in previous transfers.  Extras kick off with the new commentary recorded for Blue Underground by Troy Howarth, as well as two archival commentaries, one with star Catriona MacColl and the other with star Sylvia Collatina.

The other new extras from Blue Underground's 4K are also included, consisting of a new interview with co-writer Giorgio Mariuzzo, a Catriona MacColl Q&A, and an interview with Stephen Thrower. There's also a ton of other interviews with cast and crew (including the one with Giovanni Frezza where he apologises for the dubbing of Bob even though he had nothing to do with it), a deleted scene, alternate credits with different music, a cast Q&A from 12 years ago, trailers, TV spot and image galleries.

Exclusive to Arrow's set is limited edition packaging with a reversible sleeves featuring new and original art, plus a 60 page perfect bound book featuring new writing on the film, a fold-out double-sided poster and six double-sided collector's postcards.

Lucio Fulci's HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY is out on limited edition 4K UHD from Arrow Films on Monday 9th October 2023

Short Sharp Shocks Volume 3 (1951-1985)

The BFI provides another welcome release in their series of strange, eerie, and occasionally positively eccentric short subjects that were intended for the nation's cinema screens back in the day. Like volumes one and two, we once again have a two disc set with a number of subjects from across those decades. So let's take a look at what we get this time:

Disc One:

Return to Glennascaul (1951)

Orson Welles suffers a spot of actor's block on the set of his OTHELLO and sets off for a bit of a drive in his car. He picks up a man having car trouble and then relates to us the story the man told him about picking up two female hitchhikers who took him back to their place. Oscar nominated for best short subject that year, RETURN TO GLENNASCAUL is a slight but entertaining enough tall tale which I'm not going to spoil for those who haven't seen it.

Strange Stories (1953)

Two short stories in 45 minutes, the first related by Valentine Dyall as he drives John Slater to the railway station and telling of the story of a man named Bartleby (the always watchable John Laurie) who applies for a job at a solicitors specifically because it has been there for a hundred years. The second is related by Slater after he has missed his train. This one's an entertaining mini-romp as a murderer and his wife try to escape justice by getting on the slowest boat ever to Tasmania. Familiar faces amongst the cast include Helen Horton (as the wife) whose other credits include PHASE IV, ALIEN, The Benny Hill Show and Dick Emery. What a CV. 

Strange Experiences: Grandpa's Portrait and Old Silas (1956)

Two very short (three minutes) and extremely slight weird tales which are worth watching for entertainment value. 

Maze (1969)

The only film in the set that may have you scratching your head, MAZE is 12 minutes of a camera following different people around London and documenting their interactions. And that's about it.

Extras on disc one include a fascinating seven minute piece from Vic Pratt about the company that made STRANGE STORIES, while director Bob Bentley discusses MAZE (and does explain it) in a piece that lasts longer than his film did.

Disc Two:

Skinflicker (1973)

A grim and intense forerunner of the found footage subgenre as three 'everyday normal people' - a teacher, a nurse and a parks gardener (played by Henry Woolf who was appearing in children's educational programme Words and Pictures around the same time) travel to the remote country home of 'a public figure' and proceed to kidnap him, brutally beating his wife and child in the process, before bringing him back to their London lockup where they torture and eventually kill him. The whole thing is recorded on a mixture of super 8mm and grainy 16mm footage with plenty of to camera commentary by the kidnappers that makes for an unsettling 44 minutes.

Broken Bottle (1973) and Don't Fool Around With Fireworks (1973)

Where would these discs be without a couple of public information films designed to wedge themselves into your brain in an attempt to deter you from, in these cases, leaving broken glass on the beach and throwing a firework in the face of a pretty girl.

The Terminal Game (1982)

This 33 minute piece is all about the sinister world of computers, and an evil tech company that's been rumbled by someone who has died under mysterious circumstances. His colleague follows in his footsteps and discovers he has to play an early 1980s text adventure game. After that it all gets a bit confusing but at least there's a decent music score from HAUNTING OF JULIA's Colin Towns

Wings of Death (1985)

Originally shown before Wes Craven's A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET during it's UK release from Palace Pictures, WINGS OF DEATH features Dexter Fletcher as a young man spending a disgusting, hallucinatory and occasionally seriously creepy night in a boardinghouse. The 20 minute short is actually all about drug misuse, something that 1985 audiences had no trouble picking up, but the rocket-breasted mother and the bit where Dexter pulls off the top of his skull to reveal his brain certainly evoked a response back in the day.

Extras in disc two include three featurettes of about half an hour each in which the respective directors (Tony Bicat, Geoff Lowe and Nichola Bruce & Michael Coulson) discuss SKINFLICKER, TERMINAL GAME and WINGS OF DEATH. Composer Colin Towns talks about the score for TERMINAL GAME and there's behind the scenes footage and an image gallery for WINGS OF DEATH. Finally, the set also includes a 34 page booklet featuring new writing on all the films included in the set. 

Short Sharp Shocks Volume 3 is out from the BFI on their Flipside label as a two Blu-ray set on Monday 9th October 2023

Bagpuss (1974)

"189 Minutes of Nostalgic Delight"

For those who grew up in the 1970s it might come as something of a surprise to learn that there are only 13 episodes of Bagpuss, and now Fabulous Films are releasing the lot on Blu-ray and DVD with a bunch of extras.

What? I hear you cry. Does early 1970s stop motion kids' animation shot on 16mm in a barn by two blokes (Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin) who did absolutely everything apart from a couple of the voices warrant the Blu-ray treatment? Well surprisingly enough Blu-ray really does make a difference, and if you've ever fancied revisiting the show this is the set to do it with.

For those few (and BAGPUSS really is a famous piece of TV, at least here in the UK) who are unfamiliar with the show, it's set in a nebulous sepia-tinted world (Postgate wanted it to have a 'timeless Edwardian feel') where a little girl called Emily (Firmin's daughter) owns a shop that, in the way of children's programmes of the period, doesn't actually sell anything.

What it does contain is lost objects, which Emily has found and brought home to Bagpuss, the saggy old cloth cat who sleeps in the shop window. Despite being constructed from pink and white wool (in reality he was meant to be marmalade but something went wrong during the dyeing process) Emily merely has to say a few magic words (which some reading this will likely be able to repeat now) to cause Bagpuss to wake up. 

And when Bagpuss wakes up, all his friends wake up, too. These friends consist of a weird jumble of characters typical of other Postgate-Firmin productions, in this case including a wooden woodpecker apparently inspired by Bertrand Russell (Professor Yaffle) and a toad (Gabriel) based on a character from the long-running radio soap The Archers.

Each 14 minute episode then consists of a story built around the object that has been brought in. There's often a song, and the mixture of folk music, fairy tale, and the comforting environment in which this all takes place has all likely contributed to Bagpuss' longevity.

Extras on Fabulous Films' disc include 10 minutes of Peter Firmin at Home With Bagpuss, The Story of Smallfilms (24 minutes) and the sequence from the BAFTA Children's Awards when Peter Firmin was given a special presentation. There's some duplication amongst the extras but fans will be delighted to see some of the original puppets and props, backdrops from shows like Ivor the Engine, and if you're a fan of Gabriel they even show you how he was worked. All superbly lovely stuff. 

BAGPUSS is out on DVD and Blu-ray from Fabulous Films on Monday 9th October 2023