The Devil Went Down to Islington (2023)

"Laugh Out Loud British Comedy Horror"

It's actually something of a joy to report that THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO ISLINGTON, which is getting a digital release from Bulldog Distribution, is that rarest of beasts, a horror comedy that's actually funny.

Be warned beforehand that it's not terribly scary, though. In fact it's not scary at all. We're firmly in the sub-genre of movies like CARRY ON SCREAMING or COCKNEYS VS ZOMBIES with this one, with a host of faces familiar to aficionados of British television comedy and a cheery sense of knockabout fun that's you'll find extremely entertaining if that's your kind of thing.

Hopelessly unlucky music teacher John Robertson (Spencer Brown) and his dodgy friend Nick (James Lance) sell their souls to the devil (Dominic Coleman) one night after a few too many beers. For the next three days their luck changes. John falls in love, wins a scooter and acquires a winning scratch card while Nick wins the lottery. However they soon latch on to why they've suddenly acquired such good fortune, and with the help of mad exorcist Father Crowley (Michael Smiley) they realise their only chance of escaping hell is to reverse everything that has happened to them.

THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO ISLINGTON features likeable lead performances from Brown and Lance who obviously have good comedy chemistry together and there are turns from Ronni Ancona as John's headmistress, Tessa Peake-Jones as John's mum, and Mark Benton as porn producer Barry Grossman whose latest opus is THE SEXORCISM OF EMILY'S ROSE. It's a bit bumpy at the start but after that becomes frequently laugh out loud funny. Director Daniel Wilson could just be a new Edgar Wright in the making. I laughed a lot and I'd certainly watch something else from the same team. Let's have a trailer:

THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO ISLINGTON is out on Digital platforms from Bulldog Distribution on Monday 23rd October 2023

Hellraiser: Quartet of Torment (1987 - 1996)

"A Box Set that will be Legendary, Even in Hell"

Well it's hard to think there will be another collection devoted to the first four films in the HELLRAISER franchise that's going to contain such a wealth of extras old and new, as well as all four films looking the best they ever have. Arrow Films have gone the extra mile here in putting together their UHD set so let's take a look at what it includes:

Disc One: Hellraiser (1987)

Clive Barker's seminal film, that despite the sterling efforts of its unit publicist (more about him in just a minute) still took UK cinema audiences unawares with its mixture of BODY HEAT by way of Greek tragedy with dollops of sado-masochism and body modification mixed in, looks better than it ever has done before in Arrow's UHD transfer (and which looks a lot better than the Blu-ray of a few years ago). 

Like many 1980s classics, time has weathered HELLRAISER a little. The cracks show a little more now, especially on UHD. It's still a great, timeless, story, and the opening half an hour is beautifully put together. It becomes in danger of losing its focus towards the end, but it still deserves its reputation as a classic, with iconic monsters, a superb central performance from Clare Higgins, and one of the best horror movie scores of all time.

Arrow have provided a plethora of extras new and archival, starting most significantly with a new commentary from Stephen Jones and Kim Newman. It's significant because Steve Jones was the unit publicist on the film and he has plenty of behind the scenes stories. 

Other new highlights include writers Alexandra Benedict and Guy Adams each providing 20 minute pieces on what HELLRAISER means to them. The extremely loveable Mr Adams (watch the piece to discover why I made a point of saying that) is filmed being tattooed while his calm, settled tones recount a personal history that's anything but. Ms Benedict isn't featured onscreen, leaving it to the viewer to imagine what she's actually up to as she discusses the film as being the 'ultimate unboxing video'. There's also a bunch of newly discovered press material "found in Steve Jones' attic" which is introduced by Jones and Kim Newman. Finally, there are two new academic discussions on the film, one between Sorcha Ni Fhlainn and Karmel Kniprath and the other, celebrating the queerness of Clive Barker's writing, between Paula D Ashe and Eric La Rocca. Each runs for nearly an hour

Finally, some (but not all) of the archival material from the Blu-ray has been ported over, including the two previous commentaries (one with Clive Barker and Ashley Laurence, the other with Barker alone) pieces on Sean Chapman, Doug Bradley, and Stephen Thrower's piece on the rejected Coil score. Plus there are the usual image galleries, trailers and TV spots.

Disc Two: Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (1988)

The sequel some people like more than the first gets the Arrow UHD treatment and again, the results are an improvement on the previous Blu-ray transfer. Arrow have also gone the extra mile to provide some cracking extras.

First and foremost (again) is the commentary track by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman which provides a detailed look at the movie with plenty of behind the scenes stories. The previous two archival commentaries, one with director Tony Randel, writer Peter Atkins and actress Ashley Laurence, and the other with just Randel and Atkins have also been ported over.

Also new to the UHD disc is a chatty, convivial and utterly enjoyable conversation between authors Kit Power and George Lea that lasts a whopping 85 minutes but never outstays its welcome, even though their comments on wishing they could have been old enough to see it on its original cinema release did remind me of my advancing age (I saw it twice on the big screen back in the day).  That Rat Slice Sound is 12 minutes of Guy Adams praising Christopher Young's music and I'll add my opinion to his that Young's score is more effective than the unused Coil themes because of the counterpoint it provides.

Otherwise there's a collection of electronic press kit material plus some archival extras including interviews with Sean Chapman and Doug Bradley, a short making of and the deleted surgery scene, plus the usual trailers, TV spots and image gallery.

Disc Three: Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth (1992)

'Far better than it had any right to be' is my contemporaneous review quote for HELLRAISER III, a film I still have a lot of time for and which sometimes is my favourite of the lot. Cheerfully 'franchise part 3 material' in nature, cleverly including backstory with the Kirsty Cotton tape, and literally raising hell on the streets of LA, the late Anthony Hickox's sequel is just ambitious enough to stay interesting without lurching into the wild incoherence of part II. And that final shot is still an absolute cracker.

Like all previous disc releases of HELLRAISER III you get the option of watching two versions of the film - the 'original theatrical' and an unrated version with all the cut material restored from a lesser quality pan and scanned master. New material is limited to another fascinating and insightful commentary from Stephen Jones & Kim Newman on the uncut version, which also has an archival commentary with director Anthony Hickox and Doug Bradley. An archival Pete Atkins commentary on the theatrical version has also been ported over.

Extras otherwise are archival - the electronic press kit, interviews, featurettes and a making of, plus trailers and an image gallery.

Disc Four: Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)

Follow the LeMarchand family on their somewhat filmically bumpy journey from the eighteenth century through 1996 to space in the year 2127 in this notoriously troubled production that saw director Kevin Yagher have his name removed from the credits. There's still plenty to enjoy, however, especially the full-blooded gothic opening and the full-blooded Valentina Vargas throughout.

Arrow's disc may well be the highlight of the entire set for HELLRAISER obsessives  - we get the fourth film in the franchise in UHD and it's accompanied by a markedly different workprint version recently discovered in Stephen Jones' attic. The actual highlight of the disc itself, however, might just be the commentary track in which Jones and Kim Newman chat to screenwriter Peter Atkins about the making of the film. It goes into detail about how it ended up the way it did, gives plenty of background on behind the scenes goings-on, and is frequently uproariously funny. A must listen.

Other extras include The Beauty of Suffering, a new 28 minute featurette on how the goth, BDSM and fetish cultures informed HELLRAISER, with interviews with some interesting individuals. The archival material ports over the documentaries from the fourth disc of Arrow's previous Blu-ray set, namely the HELLRAISER EVOLUTIONS documentary and the featurette on Clive Barker's books. 

The set also includes a 200 page hardbound book featuring new writing by Phil and Sarah Stokes.

HELLRAISER: QUARTET OF TORMENT is out on 4K UHD on Monday 23rd October 2023

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