The Return of the Living Dead 4K (1985)

 

One of the best zombie movies of all time is getting a 4K release from Arrow Films in both UHD and Blu-ray editions, with two discs in each set.

In the years running up to the release of both RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD and George A Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD (also 1985) the movie press had been full of speculation about how Romero and his NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD co-writer John Russo would separately take  things forward, as the two of them had both retained the legal right to make sequels to the 1969 film. A 'tie-in' paperback, written by Russo, had even hit US and UK bookshops with mention that 'A sequel film will be released soon' on the cover, even though the plot of the eventual RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD movie bore little relation to it.

Full credit, then, to writer-director Dan O'Bannon who solved the tricky legal problem of 'How do you do a sequel to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD without it feeling it could be in the same universe as DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)?'. He did it very cleverly, too, slyly suggesting, with a twinkle in his eye that RETURN was set in the 'real' world and giving the film a punky, bouncy aesthetic that felt very different to Romero's sequels but somehow also managed to squeeze a little bit of satire in amongst all the fun. 

Arrow's 4K transfer looks far more vivid than any previous version, but if you are an ROTLD obsessive be warned that the music track Deadbeat Dance by The Damned is still removed due to rights issues. Obsessives will also want to know that the tarman's voice is still the redubbed version, as is the voice of the confederate soldier who asks them to 'send more cops'. Also, a curious music edit sees Roky Erikson's Burn the Flames cutting out much earlier than in previous versions so you are just left with Frank's unaccompanied scream. 

        Extras include four commentary tracks ported over from the previous Shout Factory release - Dan O'Bannon and production designer William Stout; Stout and the cast; actors Thom Mathews and John Philbin with FX artist Tony Gardner; and a fan track by Gary Smart and Chris Griffiths.

Other extras are essentially archival from the Shout Factory double disc Blu-ray set from 2016, including an interview with Russo (15 minutes), a featurette on the effects (33 minutes), a making of (21 minutes), location tour (10 minutes), designing the dead (14 minutes), a piece about 1980s horror classics (24 minutes) and a featurette on the film's soundtrack (30 minutes). Talking of the soundtrack, why has nobody interviewed (or even mentioned) British composer Francis Haines who provides the memorable main title music ('The Trioxin Theme')? This is a man who has done everything from SPLIT SECOND to CBeebies, and the story behind The Trioxin Theme itself is surely worthy of a featurette, originating as it did from a Dungeons and Dragons cassette tape ('The First Quest') that was then revamped for the movie.

Arrow's set comes with a second Blu-ray disc in both editions featuring the two hour long documentary More Brains which tells you all you need to know about the film (apart from what I've mentioned above about the soundtrack). This disc also comes with Dan O'Bannon's final interview (29 minutes), 15 minutes of deleted scenes from the documentary, a 10 minute location tour and ROTLD in 3 minutes from the interviewed cast members. The set comes with a reversible sleeve (no Graham Humphreys artwork, by the way) double sided poster and a booklet with new writing on the film.

Dan O'Bannon's THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD is out from Arrow on 4K in a two disc set (either UHD and Blu-ray or two Blu-rays) on Monday 13th October 2025

The Island (1985)

"The Hill Have Eyes: Chuckle Brothers Edition"

Eureka are releasing Northampton-born director Po-Chih Leong's TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE-inspired Hong Kong comedy horror on Blu-ray.

Mr Cheung (John Sham) decides his class of geography students are so useless that the only way to get them to pass their exams is to take them on a field trip to an island he used to visit in his youth. What he doesn't realise is that the island is now home to three insane brothers whose mother has just passed away, with her dying wish being that they find a wife for the least intelligent and able of them so he can carry on the family line. Mayhem ensues. Eventually. And after quite a bit of mucking about.

The swings from horror to humour and back again are extremely broad in THE ISLAND, so broad in fact that this one isn't going to be to everyone's taste. The humour especially tends to be of the BBC children's pantomime show variety, and if you don't find the repeated use of words like dickhead funny you may find it all gets a bit wearisome.

The island location itself is quite something and the direction get creative with a number of interesting shots. The film starts off with scenes of horror and downright oddness that are pleasingly disorientating, and the climax is horror all the way, so if you want to see an interesting variation on a theme visited repeatedly and done to death by American horror cinema then THE ISLAND is worth a look.

Extras include two commentary tracks, one from Frank Djeng who, amongst other things was involved with Severin's ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE, and the other with Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. Both tracks offer highly enthusiastic and engaging commentators who have a lot of interesting things to say, not just about the film but its cultural context, too. Tony Rayns provides a 17 minute talking head piece that includes the history of production company D & B Films (who made THE ISLAND), influences on the film, and its curious lack of a screenwriting credit. There's also a Po-Chih Leong 'masterclass' from 2023 which is essentially a very pleasant roundtable discussion with the director. Eureka's disc also comes with a booklet with production notes and an interview and a limited edition O-card slipcase.

Po-Chih Leong's THE ISLAND is out on Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment on Monday 13th October 2025

Delivery Run (2024)

"Like DUEL with a Snow Plough...a Bit"

After its UK premiere at last year's Grimmfest, director (and co-writer) Joey Palmroos' Minnesota-set (and Finland-filmed) chase movie is getting a digital release through Plaion Films.

Lee (Alexander Arnold) is a hopeless loser. He owes a lot of money to a lot of people and has lost a lot more of it in a card game. He wants to buy a food truck to start his own business but will likely never raise the $18999 needed to buy it at the rate he's going. 

He is working as a delivery driver during a Minnesota winter where there's been heavy snowfall. An altercation with a snow plough driver results in a chase he eventually manages to escape from. Meanwhile the police are searching for two hikers who have gone missing. Could one of Lee's food deliveries possibly bring together the narrative plot threads of the missing hikers and the maniacal snow plough driver?

It's easy to see what kind of film DELIVERY RUN wants to be (basically Spielberg's DUEL in the snow) and it deserves praise for trying to achieve that on a low budget (with some obvious model shots near the end that render a climax that should be explosive into something altogether more charming). Its biggest problem is the central character of Lee who just isn't developed sufficiently from his initial 'idiot loser' persona to make us care enough about him by the time it really matters. Arnold is okay in the role, coming across as somewhere between Joel David Moore and a cut price Justin Long, both of whom might have been able to better engender audience sympathy.

That said, the chase sequences are fun and suspenseful, and full marks are due to composer Tuomas Kantelinen whose full-blooded music score makes it feel we're watching a much bigger movie than we actually are. If you're undemanding and fancy watching a chase between a snow plough and a car on frozen roads DELIVERY RUN should pass the time nicely. Here's a trailer:

DELIVERY RUN is out on digital platforms from Plaion Films on Monday 6th October 2025

Baby Blood (1990)

"If Frank Henenlotter and Peter Jackson had a French Baby"

Studio Canal are releasing Alain Robak's funny, gory French horror picture in an impressive, crystal clear 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative on UHD and Blu-ray.

A leopard is transported from Africa to a French zoo where it explodes. The creature that was living inside it makes its way to the caravan of Yanka (Emmanuelle Escourrou), where it burrows into her womb and communicates with her telepathically, ordering her to drink human blood to feed it.

Yanka leaves the circus (understandably) and ends up in Paris where she starts killing men as her pregnancy continues to develop. Once she reaches term it's time for even more gory horrors, posing the question: who will survive and what will be left of Yanka?

A gory, funny, over the top piece of French horror that doesn't just channel Frank Henenlotter or early Peter Jackson but also features a sequence that wouldn't be out of place in a Ray Cooney bedroom farce, BABY BLOOD also offers a number of in-jokes for those more familiar with French cinema of the period. French writer and director Jacques Audiard (EMILIA PEREZ) appears in it as a jogger who ends up as one of Yanka's victims, and there's a cameo from BAXTER the bull terrier from Jerome Boivin's 1989 the film of the same name, played by the same dog actor (Chimbot). 

Studio Canal's disc comes with plentiful extras. Kim Newman provides a new 20 minute piece where he talks about the film, its influence, and very helpfully points out even more of the French cinema in-jokes that many likely miss. There are two commentary tracks, the first with director Robak and star Escourrou which is a jolly chat, while the second with Lee Gambin and Jarret Gahan is more laid back but also more academic. A batch of interviews filmed in 2019 include Robak (18 minutes), Escourrou (20 minutes), DP Bernard Dechet (12 minutes), and actors Jean-Francois Gallotte (8 minutes) and Christian Sinniger (6 minutes). The set also comes with four art cards. 

Alain Robak's BABY BLOOD is out from Studio Canal on 4K UHD and Blu-ray on Monday 6th October 2025

The Hellbenders (1967)

"Great Downbeat Western from the Director of DJANGO"

Studio Canal are releasing a 4K restoration on Blu-ray, with extras and a set of art cards, of Sergio Corbucci's THE HELLBENDERS, one of the films he made in between his classic DJANGO (1966) and THE GREAT SILENCE (1968), . 

The American Cilvil War has just ended, but Colonel Jonas (Joseph Cotton) and the remains of his regiment of confederate soldiers known as the Hellbenders, is determined to help the South rise again with the aid of the money they steal from their former enemies during a raid and which they store in a coffin they then claim belongs to a confederate captain.

They've even brought along Kitty (Maria Martin) to pretend to be the captain's widow, but when things don't work out and she ends up stabbed by one of Jonas' sons they pick up Claire (Norma Bengell) from a nearby town to play the part. Will they make it back home with the money? Or will one of the numerous hindrances they encounter stop them?

THE HELLBENDERS fits into that transitional period where westerns were becoming bleaker and more brutal but hadn't yet reached the grim depths of movies like Don Medford's THE HUNTING PARTY (1972). The film doesn't suggest you should take any sides, but instead just watch as Colonel Jonas' party tries to get through a post-war landscape with a stack of hidden cash.

An Italian-Spanish co-productions, fans of European cinema of the period will enjoy spotting familiar faces such as Norma Bengell (Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES), Ennio Girolami (TENEBRAE, THE BRONX WARRIORS) and Julio Peña (WEREWOLF SHADOW, HORROR EXPRESS). The music score is by Ennio Morricone (credited as Leo Nichols) and the film is written by Albert Band (ZOLTAN HOUND OF DRACULA ) and Ugo Liberatore (DAMNED IN VENICE). 

Extras on Studio Canal's Blu-ray include a commentary track by cult director (and Italian western expert) Alex Cox who covers much of what is also to be found in Howard Hughes' 20 minute piece on the making of the film and its antecedents. There's a 22 minute interview with assistant director Ruggero Deodato (of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST infamy) from 2021, and a seven minute introduction to the film from French critic Jean-Baptiste Thoret who, as with Cox's commentary, argues that THE HELLBENDERS is the third Corbucci western that could be considered a classic. There are also a couple of trailers and a still gallery.

Sergio Corbucci's THE HELLBENDERS is out in a 4K restoration on Blu-ray from Studio Canal on Monday 6th October 2025

The Curse of Frankenstein 4K (1957)

 

"Ultimately Irresistible for Fans" 

The latest in Hammer Films' ongoing series of releases of definitive collector's editions of the company's films is the 4K of one of the most influential and important horror films ever made. THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, Hammer's groundbreaking adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel starring Peter Cushing as the Baron and Christopher Lee as his creation has been restored in 4K, and is being released in a six disc limited edition (which will have everything) and in separate 3-disc standard editions in either Blu-ray or UHD formats which will be without 'disc six' and all the extra printed material that comes with the limited set. Seeing as the limited's the one with the most stuff let's take a look at what you get:

Disc One (UHD) and Disc Three (Blu-ray)

These two discs have the same material on them, presenting the film in two aspect ratios 1.66:1 theatrical and 1.37:1 'as filmed', with obviously more picture information available with the latter. Perhaps needless to say the image here is a vast improvement over the previous UK region B Blu-ray release and is quite a bit better than the more recent US region A release, too. Jonathan Rigby and Marcus Hearn's commentary from the original UK Blu release has been ported over to the 1.37:1 version, while the 1.66:1 version has a brand new commentary from Barry Forshaw, Kim Newman and Stephen Jones, which is excellent. Those used to their commentaries won't be surprised to learn that they never stop talking and there's enough new conjecture and observation here to make it worth listening to by even the most obsessive of fans.

Extras on disc one include Beside the Sea which is a charming 50 minutes spent in the company of Hammer expert Wayne Kinsey and actress Madeline Smith as they talk about Peter Cushing's life and career while taking a tour of a (fortunately) sunny Whitstable, including the Cushing museum, the Cushing bench, and the outside of the Cushing house. There's an 8 minute piece on the restoration of the print, an 'alternative eyeball scene' (just over 1 minute) and the UK trailer and censor card. 

Disc Two (UHD) and Disc Four (Blu-ray)

These two discs also have the same material with the film presented in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio and accompanied by two commentaries - Steve Haberman and Constantine Nasr's from the US region A 2020 release and a new commentary from Heidi Honeycutt and Toby Roan which, if you're still in the mood for yet more commentary after the other three fact-packed ones, provides something of a more laid back, chatty change of pace. 

Recreating the Creature takes us to 'Igor Studios' where Dave Elsey recreates the iconic Phil Leakey creature makeup using the ever-patient James Swanton as his guinea pig. If you're interested in special effects makeup (and its history) this takes its time (35 minutes) and goes through all the stages, with added historical content. 

Other extras include Josephine Botting taking about costume designer Molly Arbuthnot (10 minutes), with a follow up piece on Costuming at Hammer (16 minutes). Good or Tuesday is a 40 minute piece in which writers David Pirie, Stephen Laws, Stephen Gallagher, Richard Klemenson and Wayne Kinsey discuss the career of Jimmy Sangster. They're all seasoned pros at this sort of thing and this is a very good piece on a writer who (as they are happy to admit) could be excellent, but not always.

Richard Klemensen returns for Painting with Fine Brushes (12 minutes) in which he shares his memories of, and his audio interview with, DP Jack Asher. Finally, Stephen Volk talks for 24 minutes on Frankenstein the novel, Hammer, the gothic in general and Ken Russells's GOTHIC (which of course he wrote) specifically. Comments on Peter Cushing vs Julian Sands in their willingness to lose their trousers will no doubt raise a smile.

Disc Five (Blu-ray in all sets)

Apart from a new 11 minute interview with third assistant director Hugh Harlow with contributions from Peter Allchorne (dressing and props) and Pauline Wise (secretary) pretty much everything on disc five is archival. This includes the 1997 FoFF interview with Jimmy Sangster by Stephen Laws (24 minutes), Frankenstein Reborn, a 35 minute making of from 2012, Life With Sir - secretary Joyce Broughton's memories of Peter Cushing from 2012 (13 minutes), Richard Klemenson's 2020 piece on Hammer as 'The Resurrection Men' (22 minutes), Sir Christopher Frayling's Hideous Progeny piece on the Gothic from 2020, and composer Christopher Drake talking about James Bernard and Hammer Film music (17 minutes, also 2020). There's also the black and white 8mm cut down of the film.

Disc Six (Blu-ray - Exclusive to the Limited Edition)

Disc six gives us Flesh and Blood, Ted Newsom's excellent 1994 documentary on Hammer that runs a staggering two and a half hours and is narrated by Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in their final collaboration. Harry Nadler's 1994 video record of the Lee / Cushing narration is also on there (48 minutes), as well as out-takes from the recording (21 minutes). The 1958 TV pilot Tales of Frankenstein is on here too with a commentary featuring Newsom, who also appears on the final extra, The Tale of Tales of Frankenstein. As you can see it's a Newsom-heavy disc but that's no bad thing and collectors will no doubt be very happy to have all this material in one place.

Finally, the limited edition comes with a stack of printed material including a 168 page book with new and archival writing, the House of Hammer comic strip adaptation, double sided poster and lobby cards, making it a package that's very difficult to resist even if you have a lot of this stuff from previous releases.

THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN is out in a limited edition 6 disc UHD and Blu-ray set, and in standard three disc UHD (two UHDs and one Blu-ray) and Blu-ray sets on Monday 13th October 2025