Woodlands Dark And Days Bewitched

Singular Rural

Woodlands Dark 
And Days Bewitched
USA 2021
Directed by Kier-La Janisse
Severin Films Blu Ray Zone A/B/C

Just a little shout out to a newish (at time of viewing/writing, I'm still not all the way through the box) three and a quarter hour folk horror documentary called Woodlands Dark And Days Bewitched. I watched this as part of a project I believe it kickstarted, as the first disc in Severin’s humongous, ‘pricey but worth it’ Blu Ray box, All The Haunts Be Ours - A Compendium Of Folk Horror (although you can also purchase the documentary feature from them as a stand alone edition). The film is written and directed by Kier-La Janisse and I’ve enthused about her on a number of occasions on this blog, most notably in my reviews of a documentary movie made about her called Celluloid Horror (reviewed here) and also the absolutely brilliant, essential, part reference text and part autobiographical tome which she wrote partially as a reaction to that title, called House Of Psychotic Women (which I reviewed here). 

The documentary originally started life with the director wanting to make a short, accompanying featurette on folk horror to accompany Severin’s Blu Ray release of Blood On Satan’s Claw from a few years ago but, as she started researching and putting it together, she realised that there was more to the topic than just a select set of UK folk horror references and the featurette project was dropped in favour of a full and, breezily paced but actually somewhat essential documentary feature. You can just tell by some of the things the great lady has chosen to throw at this that many researchers are going to be taking elements of this for their own books, articles and documentaries for many years to come.

Strangely enough... and due to something that the animator of the title sequence let slip (the same animator who directed Borley Rectory, reviewed here and who animated many interesting sequences for this movie), I’m not sure this is as complete a coincidence as I originally thought when I watched this... the opening titles took me straight back to my childhood by using a slower cover version of the same rhyme set as song of the famous verse that used to open the old kid’s UK TV show Magpie in the 1970s. So that was a nice touchstone for me, so to speak. The film opens with voices of various of the people interviewed here trying to define folk horror and what it is to them, before the structure of the piece reveals itself and we go on to six chapters. 

Chapter one is entitled The Holy Trinity and it looks at a famous group of films which, yeah okay, certainly seem to define folk horror to many although, if you know me and are a regular reader here, you’ll probably figure out that only one of those three would make it through my simple definition of what belongs in the horror genre. Those three are Witchfinder General, Blood On Satan’s Claw (reviewed here) and the original version of The Wicker Man. I especially liked the connection made in this segment between the cult of youths in Blood On Satan’s Claw and what it was saying about the British establishment at the time the movie was made, with its built in critique of ‘the youth of today’. 

The second chapter, Who Is This Who Is Coming? Signposts of British Folk Horror, takes a more in depth look at the various manifestations of the British offerings over the years, with a nice emphasis on the ghost stories of M. R. James (who seems to be having a revival of late, at least in terms of the 1970s BBC adaptations of the annual Christmas Ghost Stories he used to write at his university) and, of course, the continuing influence of Nigel Kneale, particularly in reference to such works as his third and fourth Quatermass serials and shows such as Beasts. They’ve even got a nice couple of clips from the Doctor Who story The Daemons (which I reviewed here).

Chapter 3, We Don’t Go Back- Paganism and Witchcraft looks at various movies documenting witchcraft over the years while Chapter 4, Call Me From The Valley - American Folk Horror, looks at US colonial history, native American Indians, backwoods people and aspects of the Southern Gothic... not to mention the way in which some of the tales of H. P. Lovecraft dovetail into folk traditions.

The fifth chapter, All The Haunts Be Ours - Folk Horror Around The World looks at various internationally produced folk horror films and their legacy, including such countries as Australia, Poland, Guatemala, France, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Japan, Italy, Venezuela and Brazil and, I’m glad to say a few of my favourites like Onibaba, Kuroneko, Kwaidan and the Yokai Monster myths were included, as the director tries to demonstrate (and rightly so, as far as I’m concerned) how the genre is actually existing in a much wider geographic space than the casual observer may at first imagine. The movie then ends with a sixth chapter called Folk Horror Revival which highlights some of the more recent entries that have taken up the same themes, such as The VVitch and Midsommar. 

Ultimately, this is a really fun and informed movie. There are a range of interviewees including two of my favourites, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Jonathan Rigby... along with a whole host of people such as familiar names and faces like Jasper Sharp, Samm Deighan and Kat Ellinger, plus some not so expected but very welcome people such as Alice Lowe. She even utilises famous actors Linda Hayden and Ian Ogilvy to read various bits of verse in voice over during certain sequences of the film. 

And as we’re treated to a range of historical facts and the way the various movies highlighted draw from some of them, some interesting themes and definitions start to come to light... although, I have to disagree a little with the guy who says folk horror is not a genre at all. As far as I’m concerned it’s a very specific sub-genre but, then again, I may be accused of looking at things in a more black and white manner than many. 

What stuck with me, though, are themes like... it’s often an outsider coming into a small or rural community and discovering or finding themselves at odds with an established belief system and that it’s often about a clash between ‘the old ways’ and modern technology (with modern technology usually crumbling in defeat against the long standing traditions). And, especially summed up with the question... “What if the old ways were right?”... something I think the character Edward Woodward played in The Wicker Man may have certainly had a strong opinion about. There’s also a nice observation that the reasons a lot (not all) of folk horror succeeds in unsettling the viewer is because they’re more about tapping the fear of what you don’t see but what’s suggested, quite often.

So yeah, I think Woodlands Dark And Days Bewitched is a splendid documentary, actually. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think some people will be unfamiliar with a lot of the films and books included here and come out of this thing with a long list. I’ve heard there have been some complaints as to what’s not included but, come on people, this kind of exploration is never going to have time to included everything and, yeah, you’re getting three and a quarter hours of collective knowledge right here in the form of an entertaining presentation, all bound together with a nice score by Jim Williams, which is also included on a CD in Severin’s All The Haunts Be Ours box. I think Kier-La Janisse did a wonderful job with this one and, like I said, I suspect it will be getting a lot of shout outs for years to come. So if you’re at all into the idea of exploring this topic, this is the baseline film from which you should start... and I’m looking forward to exploring the specific films included in this boxed edition (many of which I haven’t seen, as it happens). So yeah, well done to Kier-La and also much thanks to Severin for enabling projects like this one... a great service to the arts, for sure.

One last tip before I finish though... it always pays to read the t-shirts of some of the people being interviewed on these things. My world is a richer place now that I know there was a 14th Wine and Film Festival in one country... this sounds like a great idea. 

New Year's Day 2026

 

Happy New Year 2026

Well, it’s been a terrible year for me. 

Started okayish and I had a good couple of weeks off from work in August but, yeah, everything this year was overshadowed by the passing of my father at the end of October. Still picking up all the pieces for that one and probably for a long time to come.

Half the stuff I wanted to get up on the blog last year happened and, some of it didn’t. So, as per usual, this is a very rough guide to what you might expect to see reviewed on the blog this year...

So the Dirty Harry films for sure, the Bruce Lee movies and more secret agent titles. I’m hoping to finish off Severin’s magnificent All The Haunts Be Ours box so I can start putting those up too. Plus the remainder of the Jesse Stone TV movies. I’m also hoping to finally get around to watching and reviewing the first few Emmanuelle (with a double M) films, along with a whole raft of Black Emanuelle (with a single M) films, plus a few other sexy titles (... “there’s an old piano and they play it hot behind the green door”, is all I’m saying... along with a ‘Thanks very much Melusine label’!).

Oh... and thanks to the likes of Vinegar Syndrome and Severin, I should be revisiting some unreviewed Dario Argento titles in new transfers too. 

So, a little to look forward to there at least, I would say.

Anyway, have a Happy New Year and, like always, normal review service returns tomorrow.

My 2800th Blog Post

The Bane Of The Box Set

That’s 2800 blog posts. 

If you’re still with me here then, thanks for being one of my readers.

And if you’ve been here long enough you’ll know my 100 marker blog posts and anniversarys posts tend to be articles (or sometimes designs or sketches etc) rather than an actual review. So I thought I’d say a little bit about the problems caused by the times we movie watchers are living in... the Golden Age of Physical Media (despite what some of the big companies may be telling you... but the boutique labels know, we’ve never had it so good). 

However, the abundance of beautifully restored and transferred special editions on the Blu Ray market over the last six or seven years also has its down side, in terms of the touchy problem of storage.

Now I’m not in any way a collector of movies but I do like to pick up the odd film or eight of the UK releases, when I go into London every now and again, to augment the wealth of films I have to import from places like the US and Australia. And it gets somewhat problematic in terms of actual floorspace in your dwelling as to where you can actually walk and not worry about accidentally knocking over piles of the many thousands of Blu Rays (and the occasional DVD) on your ‘to watch’ stash. 

And I know I’m not alone in this. I’ve seen photos of people’s kitchens on Twitter, even, where they’ve had to resort to emptying the kitchen cupboards of food and utensils in order to be able to fit all the Blu Rays into their homes (I don’t have access to kitchen cupboards for this sort of thing so, I’m definitely not that bad... right?).

So one of the things I’ve been doing for about 20 plus years now is to buy plastic or cardboard storage boxes of a similar size to shoe boxes, along with a bunch of sleeved up lever arch files plus CD sleeves and, once I’ve watched a movie, the disc goes into the plastic sleeve which is then put with the other few hundred in that particular box, while the sleeve artwork and any other ephemera (such as the booklet, postcard, poster, top seal label... on US films... and, if it was attached to the shrink wrap, a front sticker with typography relating to the film used on said sticker also goes onto the binder sleeve to join the many others in that particular lever arch file (although these often get so full and bulgy that the mechanism breaks and I have to buy some more).Then the virgin plastic case goes into the recycling bin... thus saving lots of space... just not enough space to leave much room for footfall in my sexy movie lair. 

I have a day job so, since I don’t get to watch nearly as many films these days (I maybe get through two to four a week on average... instead of the twelve to fifteen I was getting through when I had more time and didn’t write this blog), I’m probably ‘emergency purchasing’ (aka limited editions before they go out of print for good) more than I am getting to watch and file on a monthly basis, sad to say.

But, it’s a good idea in principal. 

A good idea scuppered by the rise of the box set, it has to be said.

Now, I get it, the increased frequency of the sheer amount of boutique label Blu Ray boxes on the market since the pandemic (not too sure on why the correlation but I have some suspicions) is primarily because the labels have realised that people who wouldn’t buy a title or two they have the rights to, would pay extra for a themed boxed edition which also contains movies they would normally purchase. And much as the cynic in me says this is a sly move on the part of said labels, I know from podcasts with some of the people behind the labels that it cuts both ways. There’s also a huge benefit which is a) they are giving people the opportunity to see something which they might not have had the opportunity to see and that they themselves love and belive in (genuinely, I believe people at labels like Severin and Vinegar Syndrome think like this). And b) it means films that would not have been saved from the ravages of vinegar syndrome (the condition, not the label), are lovingly restored from prints and negatives that have been tracked down (sometimes over a number of years) and scanned in and saved for the ages by these labels. So, one downer and two more nobler factors for sure. 

Well maybe two downers, actually. 

The thing is, Mr. or Mrs. Blu Ray watcher and shoebox filer needs to be watching his/her single edition films as quickly as he/she can. So what this means is, if a box set is started, you know it’s going to take a number of weeks to get through (and sometimes a lot longer with those big, thorough products like All The Haunts Be Ours Volumes 1 & 2, The Sensual World Of Black Emanuelle, Shawscope Volumes 1 - 3 and The incredibly Strange Films Of Ray Dennis Steckler, for example). Which means, although you really want to watch some of these movies, you tend to not start any boxed editions because you know you won’t be filing anything away for a while. Which is annoying but, sometimes needs must, as they say.

So there you have it... box sets are great (and I’m talking about physical media here... not those stupid streaming box sets housed in a virtual box which isn’t really there... that’s a term that needs to be taken out of circulation in the digital realm, for sure) but, as much as everyone loves them (don’t we all), they are also a burden when they pile up unwatched... especially when you know the packaging doesn’t allow you to file them away. 

Oh well, the downside of owning the odd movie, I guess. And if you have been reading this blog for a while... you’ll know the odder the better, right?

Anyway, that’s me done ranting on my 2800th blog post. Regular review service will resume on Saturday. All the best to you.

Trust Your Market Place - 15th Anniversary Post

My 15th Anniversary Blog

Trust Your Market Place

Well that makes 15 years of the NUTS4R2 blog.

As regular readers will know, I don’t usually do an actual review on anniversary blogs or posts ending with a 00 number. So this time I thought I’d talk about something which really annoys me about the decisions, presumably economically minded decisions, in the world of the boutique media labels.

We’re in a golden age of physical media right now and collectors and modest film fans alike have never had it so good. And this isn’t an attack on the boutique labels and, as you’ll know from my recent 2700th post (right here), I love what these labels are doing, but, seriously, they need Paddington Bear to come along  and give some of them a long hard stare when it comes to releasing only partial series’ of films…

I was in Fopp records about 8 weeks ago when I saw that the 88 Films label had put out a Blu Ray of Erotic Ghost Story, which had somehow escaped my attention. I know nothing about the film but I’m always happy to learn about any cinematic history which involves supernatural shenanigans combined with naked, sexy ghost ladies. All well and good but, literally a week or two after I’d bought it, 88 Films announced a box set (already on the shelves now for a few weeks) of the Erotic Ghost Story Trilogy. What can I say? If I’m learning about sexy gals n’ ghosts then I really need to stretch that degree to a masters but… why the heck did they put out a single edition when a box set was in the works? To punish people who bought the single edition and make them double dip… again?

Similarly, let’s look at Arrow films (who are great but also do seem to be all about money for old rope these days)… I was fortunate enough to grab their box set of all four Psycho films pretty much the week it was released. Lucky me then because, literally a couple of weeks after, it was already unavailable and Arrow had reissued it as a Psycho Sequels box set, excluding the first movie. What the heck? Who would want that without the first film? And sticking with Arrow, they’re about to make me double dip with the ‘badly described because none of these films feature the same characters’ Sergio Leone Dollars Trilogy. But here’s the thing, instead of releasing it as a box set as you might imagine would be the best format to release these films, they’re stupidly releasing it as three single editions, one per month. I mean, what the heck? And don’t get me started on their missing film from their Coffin Joe box set... I mean, I’d almost rather they didn’t issue any of them if they’re going to have one missing.

Eureka Masters Of Cinema are another much respected label doing some bizarre ‘odds and ends’ releases too. I got hold of their Mr. Vampire release one year and, the very next year, they released a Mr. Vampire sequel set of the other ones closely (but still somewhat loosely) related to that movie. I’ll get to why I think they and 88 Films have been doing this stuff to us in a minute but… let me just reel off another couple of examples for you…

I’ve been saying to my friends (and anyone who will listen) that, with all these gazillions of Shaw Brothers releases seeing the light of day on Blu Ray these last few years, somebody should put out a box set of one of the jewels in their crown, the four Monkey movies based on the Chinese tome Journey To The West (best known over here in the UK from the Japanese TV show adaptation called Monkey, in the 1980s). It seems to me that a box set like this would be like a licence to print money. Monkey money. Well, the Australian label Impact has just released three Shaw Brothers movies into the wild, similarly themed but in single editions and… one of them is the first Monkey movie. I mean… what? Surely they must realise their target audience for these will be happy to pay out for all four in a nice slipcase? What the heck?

Let’s turn our attention to Severin Films now. Severin, for a while now, have been putting out huge boxed editions covering subjects like Al Adamson, Ray Dennis Steckler, Folk Horror, Black Emanuelle and even Psychotic Women. And for years now, I’ve been wondering why they or someone else hasn’t put a Russ Meyer box set out onto the market, which would surely sell well? And Severin would, of course, be the perfect fit for those films… except… a few months ago, Severin put out Meyer’s Vixens, SuperVixens and Beneath The Valley Of The UltraVixens as single editions… with a couple more single editions following a month or so after that. What’s going on? Surely they must know a box set would get even more bucks in for them?*

One last example before I carry on... Curzon cinemas have their own Blu Ray label that releases ‘comprehensive’ box sets covering directors (their words, not mine) and lovely things they are too. Why then do their box sets for Wim Wenders and Lars Von Trier both have at least one film missing? What’s the point of that then?

Okay then...here’s what I think is going on in some of these cases (or slipcases). Single editions before boxed versions such as Mr. Vampire, Erotic Ghost Story and The Monkey Goes West may well be testing the waters to see if anyone wants to buy them. But come on, trust your market place people! The kinds of customers who buy this stuff, even it’s a blind buy, known their movies and have done their research. They are as likely to splash out on a boxed edition as they are a single edition. And in the case of someone like me, less likely to buy the single editions. For example, I’ve never bought Blu Ray editions of The Exorcist or Trancers movies because I can’t find them all in the same boxed venue. I dont want to have to do the work tracking down different distributor’s versions around the world because legal can’t get all the films in one place. So deal me out, there are a gazillion other films already taking up my time and valuable shelf space.

And if it is a case of testing the financial waters on a release before repackaging it with the sequels... sure, some people will buy it but, there are just as likely going to be people who won’t because they’re optimistic a box set will be coming down the line at some future point. In which case, you’re just not getting an accurate reading on how well the full monty would do on the shopfloor (real or virtual).

So yeah, my message for my 15th Anniversary post is... please labels, trust your customers a little. We want the movies you’re putting out, for sure, but we want them all in one place, properly curated. Definitive editions are definitely the way to go with these things. Anything else just leads to customer frustration.

And for those of you who have been reading this blog over the years... thanks very much. Normal service will return again tomorrow.


* Since writing this last week, I’ve listened to one of their always excellent Severin Podcasts which explained that, due to their growing relationship with the rights holder and the rigid art direction and production of these coming from the estate, the Russ Meyer titles are not something they can get all the licences for, at present. So that lets them off the hook as far as those are concerned and let’s just be happy with what they managed to achieve.

My 2700th Post - 31 Best Boutique Blu Ray labels

Blu-tique Fashion

My 2700th Post -
31 Best Boutique
Blu Ray labels

This listing, or something probably very much different to it, was originally due to have come to this blog a few years ago, as one in an occasional series of articles exploring the best boutique labels for DVD and Blu Ray. However, when I started researching it and trying to figure out who I wanted to include this time around, I came to the realisation that independent physical media labels are not just easily surviving in this so called age of the digital revolution... they’re thriving. This made it very difficult to properly do that article justice, I would have to include around 60 labels, many of them only a few years old.

It’s seems strange to me that the big companies like Warner Brothers, Disney, Universal, MGM and the like are releasing less and less product on physical media, preferring instead to capture the digital streaming market which, as fans of physical media know, is a very shaky proposition and, as more stuff gets deleted from the servers, I think people are realising their only salvation a lot of the time is in Blu Ray and UHD for the significant, near future.

So, yeah, that left me with a dilemma of who do I include when, half of these labels I don’t have any examples of myself. So the project stayed in limbo for a few years until now, a few weeks before this is to go live. I realised nobody is really going to do justice to it all... so I thought I’d just do a top ten labels list and leave it at that. And, of course, it quite quickly got to the point where ten seemed like a poultry amount as I tried to whittle it down to that small number. So, yeah, here we go then... here’s my look at my most essential 31 labels and, if you’re a buyer of physical media, you might find yourself pitching up in some interesting places if you read further.

Each label title has an embedded link taking you to their web site.

AGFA (American Genre Film Archive)
Okay, so to learn how AGFA started, you need to read the book Warped And Faded (reviewed here) which explains why this is a label devoted to rescuing, saving and restoring zero budget projects by people who can’t really afford to make movies... but do anyway. It’s a partner label of two of the other labels you’ll find on this list... Vinegar Syndrome in the US and 101 Films in the UK. So if you want to check out such trash as Godmonster Of India Flats (yeah, not watched it yet but it’s in the pile), the Lady Streetfighter collection, The Sword And The Claw or even the Wakaliwood Supa Action Volume 1 collection then, yeah, you know where to go.

Arrow Films (and Arrow USA and incorporating Arrow Academy)
What can one say about Arrow Films? Sometimes they get it wrong and repressed discs have to be distributed to their customers. Sometimes a release will sell out on pre-order. Sometimes they’ll miss a deadline or two. But with such heavy hitting box set releases as their three (to date) Shawscope collections delving into the abundant past of the Shaw Brothers action film catalogue (licensed to them by Celestial Pictures, naturally) and such cinematic confections as Yokai Monsters, Gamera, a definitive Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest box and J-Horror... not to mention various horror and giallo classics from the likes of Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, then you have to cut them some slack. Bottom line is, with releases as good as these, you can’t ignore them (much as you might like to on occasion).

BFI (British Film Institute)
I always used to think of both BFI and Eureka Masters Of Cinema as being a kind of UK equivalent to America’s great label, the Criterion Collection. Now, of course, there is also a much less prolific but equally high quality UK arm of Criterion too... but BFI has some great releases in their vaults. With titles such as the inaugural release of Scala!!!, four boxes of Essential Bergman movies, some epic Kurosawa classics and their impressive Flipside range of peculiarities, not to mention modern classics like Starve Acre… they’re a much more impressive label than you may at first realise.

Blue Underground
When the once great US DVD label Anchor Bay got kind of diminished and became pretty much a shadow of its former self, Blue Underground started up to, in my opinion, carry on what Anchor Bay used to do best. And they’re still, surprisingly, at it. Maybe not all of their output is headline grabbing stuff these days but with titles like the definitive restoration of Daughters Of Darkness, The New York Ripper and Argento and Martin’s Two Evil Eyes in their listings... they’re still an essential label, in my book.

Cauldron Films
Cauldron Films ship exclusively to Canada and North America but if you want to import them to someplace like the UK, you can generally pick them up at the excellent Diabolik.com web store. Without these people we wouldn’t have had such releases as Murder In A Blue World, Crimes Of The Black Cat and the amazing 1974: La posesión de Altair to explore.

Criterion Collection (and the less prolific Criterion UK)
What can you say about Criterion? Source of the wonderful Criterion Closet episodes on YouTube and purveyors of the best in classic World Cinema since the days of Laser Disc and VHS. Including important selections from the likes of Fellini, Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, Bergman, Godard, Truffaut, Wenders, Ackerman... you name it and they’ve got all the giants. Admittedly they’re still very expensive compared to the majority of their competitors (you pay for the quality extras and restorations) but, over the last few years, some of the other UK and US labels have been matching their asking price and then some on occasion (I’m looking at you Second Run and Severin!) so, still a high quality ‘go to’ label and still with the power to surprise with some of their left of field releases, it seems to me (I never expected to own The Roaring Twenties on a decent home video format, for example). Plus they have some seriously refreshing cover artwork.

Cult Epics
If you know who people like Walerian Borowczyk, Tinto Brass, Just Jaekin and Radley Metzger are (no, don’t google them if you’re at work) then it’s nice to know this label is out there, faithfully restoring some of their classic works in a world where their particular style of cinematic excess hasn’t made a come back in the way that other genres and sub-genres have. Although, I suspect Arrow and 88 Films in the UK may start taking a crack at these at some point too, judging from some of their recent output.

Curzon
The famous chain of high brow London art cinemas have their own Blu Ray label too now. They have produced some nice box sets over the years which, while not always quite definitive (their Wim Wenders and Lar Von Trier sets have a film apiece missing, for example), are always a quality and much desired release. Such as their wonderful box dedicated to Kieslowski’s Three Colours Trilogy. Although I draw the line at a Peter Strickland set, to be honest.

Diskotek Media
This once great label was always more about Anime releases than anything else but they also have some quality product you can’t get anywhere else, including lovely Blu Ray versions of live action classics such as Uzumaki, Sex And Fury and Female Yakuza Tale... which still makes them an interesting label for sure.

88 Films
88 Films have always been a UK friend to Italian giallo movies and Italian horror films but they’re continuing to go from strength to strength. After they (and Eureka) cracked the Shaw brothers and Hong Kong action film markets in the UK (with Shout Factory in the USA and Arrow in the UK jumping onto that same band wagon) they are now releasing some pretty snazzily branded label collections devoted to Japanarchy, Nikkatsu Roman Porno, French Erotica, Hong Kong Category III titles and a beautifully branded tribute to the British Tigon Studios classics. What’s not to like?

Eureka Masters Of Cinema
This label has always had their finger on the pulse of quality film releases, embracing many of the classic silent films such as Pandora’s Box, Diary Of A Lost Girl, Nosferatu, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis and, just recently, the sold out within a few days (glad I pre-ordered my copy) box set of Louis Feuillade’s French silent serials of Fantômas, Judex, Les Vampires and Tih-Minh. But they’ve also been releasing some essential Japanese samurai movies, not to mention some much loved Hong Kong action comedies of late. And where else would you find diverse titles such as Message From Space (Japanese Star Wars), Sam Fuller movies and the silent films of Laurel And Hardy all under one brand. They continue to do essential work within the boutique Blu Ray market.

Hammer
British stalwart Hammer Films are, like the title character in their Dracula films of the 1950s through to the 1970s, back from the dead. Their inaugural release from their back catalogue was unleashed just over a month ago with an outstanding, big box presentation of the great Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter... literally days before the actor who played him died. Not only is the packaging and extras (and wealth of accompanying printed materials) absolutely top notch but they’ve also printed various logos and quotes from the film in the sturdy cardboard packaging in which their product is sent through the post. Next up from them is a similar treatment of the classic Four Sided Triangle... which is a film I also love.

Imprint (Via Vision)
With the exchange rate on US currency, not to mention their postal charges, now officially having ‘gone through the roof’, it’s time to look at countries with much cheaper exchange rates and Australia is an especially good one because they have two really great boutique labels who are happy to send their products overseas too. Imprint particularly has my gratitude because the fourth volume in their ‘take it or leave it hodge podge’ Tales Of Adventure series of boxes features restorations of no less than seven Republic theatrical serials, comprising King of The Rocket Men, Flying Disc Man from Mars, The Invisible Monster, Radar Men From The Moon, Zombies of the Stratosphere, Mysterious Doctor Satan and Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe. Not only that but they’ve also started releasing some of the British TV shows of the 1960s and 1970s that the great Network label were releasing before they went bankrupt a few years ago in, by all accounts, some very nice editions.

Indicator (Powerhouse Films)
Wow. What a success story in the limited edition market British label Indicator have become in the nine years since they started up. With definitive boxes in numerous volumes dedicated to Ray Harryhausen, Hammer Horror, William Castle, Jean Rollin (the usual suspects admittedly but in such nice editions, some of which are uncut in the UK for the first time... don’t throw those old US editions away just yet, though), Mexploitation films and even early Columbia horror movies. A wealth of cinematic exploration just waiting for your retinas to join in the fun.

Kino Lorber
US label Kino Lorber has a really diverse mix of titles from all walks of cinema and in huge amounts, it has to be said. Now, the caveat emptor with Kino is that, in some cases, a cheaper and sometimes better version of their film can be gained in your own country… I mistakenly bought They Might Be Giants thinking it was the only version available, only to find out that Indicator had released a slightly better version on my home turf in the UK, for example. That being said, there’s a lot of stuff you just can’t, at time of writing, get anywhere else such as the trilogy of 1960s comedy/spoof versions of Fantômas, five of the OSS117 movies and two of the three Warner Oland Fu Manchu films. So with titles such as these, they’ve more than proven their essential status in the boutique Blu Ray world.

Mondo Macabro
Wow. Mondo Macabre continue to bring out the weird side of cinema, now in astonishing Blu Ray editions (although they’re usually quite expensive to import and tend to sell out and go out of print quickly, curse them). And with titles such as the Indonesian Warrior Trilogy, Café Flesh and Dr. Jekyll Meets The Wolfman, they continue to provide quality releases to connoisseurs of celluloid shenanigans.

Nucleus Films
Okay, so this British label doesn’t have a lot of publicity… so it’s easy to be in the situation where you suddenly see a title on the shelf at HMV or Fopp and had no idea that it had been released onto an unsuspecting public. Films like the unusual giallo Death Laid An Egg and other Eurosploitation fare such as Garden Of Torment, The Libertine and Jess Franco’s The Erotic Rites Of Frankenstein are among the titles they have on hand for the discerning enthusiast.

101 Films
UK label 101 Films are perhaps seen as nothing special with a true hodge podge of different titles, until you realise that there are a fair few gems in their catalogue such as Jack The Giant Killer, Spacehunter - Adventures In The Forbidden Zone and the Irwin Allen version of The Lost World. In recent years they’ve also become the British partner label for AGFA (see above) and I hope that’s going well for them because I somehow can’t see the British public getting behind many of the AGFA releases but, hey, it’s cheaper than importing certain titles.

Possible Films
Possible Films is owned and run by the great US independent film maker Hal Hartley and this is his way of taking back control of his own films and putting them out in the best possible editions (apart from No Such Thing, which I am assuming is being strangle-held by MGM and which definitely needs a Blu Ray version soonest). The downside is that the pricing is way beyond Criterion levels (my acid test for such things) but, if you want high quality releases from the greatest living American director… stuff like The Unbelievable Truth, Trust, Simple Men, The Girl From Monday etc… then you have to splash the cash.

Pulse Films
Pulse Films is a French label (although you can also get a few of their English friendly titles from Vinegar Syndrome and their new sister label Melusine) who specialise in movies of… an erotic nature (often hard core and uncut). They lionise some of the actresses in their films (and rightly so) with some nice supporting merchandise such as, in the case of the great Brigitte Lahaie and Marilyn Jess, beautifully designed hardback books detailing their careers. Also, depictions of their naked figures adorning skateboards (yeah, don’t ask, it’s a part of modern day culture that escapes me).

Radiance
British label Radiance has already cast a big shadow on the Blu Ray market here in the UK in just two years since its first releases. Beautifully handled, limited edition releases such as Black Tight Killers, Mario Bava’s sublime Planet Of The Vampires and a Daiei Gothic box set are among their many treasures. The downside is that the releases, especially the first wave limited edition versions, tend to sell out really quickly, sometimes just on pre-order, because so many people want them.

Second Run
Second Run are an often overlooked DVD and Blu Ray label based in the UK who specialise in World Cinema releases (especially Czechoslovakian it seems to me). A large and varied range of titles have been released by them such as the wonderful Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders, Morgiana and, of course, Daisies. There’s a whole lot of stuff I’ve never even heard of from this label and so, that gives them a special value to me as a lover of the occasional film to watch.

Second Sight
Second Sight films are known for ‘bells and whistles’ editions of film that have usually already been out on home video in some format but they have reissued definitive editions of films like The Blair Witch Project, Possessor, Inside (the original French version, naturally) and a very chunky box with many versions of Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead on it. Fair warning though, their editions are often very expensive, for some reason I’ve never been able to quite figure out (other than greed, maybe?).

Severin Films
Well, if I had to choose who is the best boutique label in the world right now it would be a tough call between this label and Vinegar Syndrome but, if pushed, I think Severin would just snag it. With essential box set editions such as The Sensual World Of Black Emanuelle, Al Adamson - The Masterpiece Collection (which reaffirmed my faith in film during the pandemic), the All The Haunts Be Ours boxes, the House Of Psychotic Women boxes, the Game Of Clones - Brucesploitation collections and some amazing stand alone releases such as Jodorosky’s Santa Sangre and Franco’s Vampyros Lesbos, this label just gets better every month (and causes my wallet severe and irreparable damage). They also have a wonderful, joyful podcast highlighting their upcoming releases when they’ve been announced and, of course, their Severin Cellar videos via YouTube.

Shameless Films
Shameless Films were a small British, yellow branded company specialising in Italian giallo, horror and exploitation films on DVD. Contrary to popular belief, they didn’t vanish overnight but are still with us, they’re just not that prolific as in days of old but have started getting maybe 5 or 6 great Blu Ray releases a year out (many of them upgraded versions of thier previous DVD titles). Don’t buy their UK editions of films like The New York Ripper and Cannibal Holocaust though… they’re still censored over here (no matter what language you couch that censorship in).

Shout Factory (including Scream Factory)
Shout Factory (and their sub label Scream Factory) have been around for years in the US, putting out a range of interesting products. Some of their recent and more interesting work being the various volumes of boxed collections of Shaw Brothers Classics and a wonderful steel-book edition of Battle Beyond The Stars bundled with an amazing action figure of Sybil Danning as Saint-Exmin the Valkyrie from that film. However, you might have to go the third party root for some of these great releases as they will only ship some of their titles to North America, directly. Which makes it a pain to get hold of certain editions.

Synapse
Yep, US label Synapse films are still going and they’re now releasing in the blu ray market too. And with titles like Radley Metzger’s S&M odyssey The Image (sorry, that’s BDSM to the kiddies these days) and some Dario Argento classics on their books… they’re still worth a look.

Third Window Films
Purveyors of cinema from the Far East (and I believe partnered/swallowed by Arrow during the pandemic), Third Window Films have some of the more unusual titles from places like Japan on their listings and they have a large number of them, too. Recent releases from them are Mermaid Legend, A Samurai In Time and the wonderful New Religion.

Treasured Films
Treasured Films have only been going for maybe just over a year but with films such as a definitive version of Mausoleum on their books, it won’t be long before they’re a much respected label, it seems to me. They also run a wonderful boutique Blu Ray shop in the UK, selling titles from many of the labels listed here, called Film Treasures (which you can find here). Be aware though, the prices don’t always come out as cheaper than ordering from the US so, do your research.

Umbrella
Umbrella is the other big Australian label and I’ve only got one of their releases to date, that being The Man From Hong Kong (which I hope to watch sooner or later) but, when they also include a CD of that film’s soundtrack, you know the label cares about the product they are putting out. I’ll be keeping my eye on this label, for sure.

Vinegar Syndrome (and Melusine)
Dedicated to rescuing exploitation and also films of a mainly adult nature (porn films from the 70s and 80s, okay?), Vinegar Syndrome are as prolific as their biggest rivals at Severin but they do manage to sometimes even release something complementary to what that label are putting out. For instance, one label did Blood For Dracula while the other issued Flesh For Frankenstein at more or less the same time. They’ve recently moved their straight porn films over to a sub-brand sister label called Melusine (who are also aligned with Pulse, see above) and they have put some essential releases out over the years but, as importantly, saved many films (that most other companies wouldn’t choose to touch) from extinction due to the state of celluloid degradation from which their company takes it’s name. From Curse Of The Devil and The Terrornauts to Michael Mann’s The Keep (finally) and their amazing series of Forgotten Gialli boxes, this company has something for everyone. 

One last honourable mention must go to Mubi but, trying to find a part of their website dedicated to their rich history of Blu Ray releases proved impossible for me so... just go in Fopp and have a look at their Mubi section, for sure.

Boutique - To Preserve And Collect

Label Legacy

Boutique -
To Preserve And Collect
Directed by Ryan Bruce Levey
USA/Canada 2024
Orama Filmworks
World Premiere FrightFest 2024 screening

I’ve never really understood the collector mentality myself but, I do buy an awful lot of Blu Rays (enough to keep me busy well into retirement before I get a chance to watch them) from various US Boutique labels (and more than a few of our own, home grown boutique labels here in the UK too), so it was a no brainer for me to make this movie the third of my four choices at this year’s FrightFest.

Boutique - To Preserve And Collect starts off with a look at the birth of the home video boom of the 1980s (although, curiously, the earlier bootlace cinema boom is not covered in this documentary) and how things developed over time with a special emphasis on the preservation of film. So we have stalwarts of the industry such as Severin Films co-founder David Gregory and Vinegar Syndrome co-founder Joe Rubin alongside many of their contemporaries, talking about how they started (there’s even an appearance from the great Kier-La Janisse and people like Samm Deighan).

Often this involves booting and then selling VHS cassettes to their friends for cash including the age old misdemeanour of filming cinema screenings and then putting them on tape. It was almost heart warming to hear one of the many talking heads in this picture explaining that the early films you purchased might have people standing up in front of the screen and walking across the picture... something that I remember happening more than a few times on the odd pirate copy during the 1980s and, actually, something I’ve seen happen when certain cinema films on ‘certain internet channels’ have somehow not managed to get their own HD transfer of a modern film (yeah, I know it’s charming but, I don’t watch pirates unless they’re full HD these days... I’m obviously a snob in this regard).

And, of course, the irony is not lost that a lot of these people who started off this way are now saving the films and preserving them for future generations... in admittedly high priced Blu Ray editions but, that’s the way it is and, when you think about the amount of work which goes into finding, scanning and restoring these lost treasures (some of which, it’s very clear, would not have been expected to have been brought back from the dead) well... maybe those are not such high price tags after all. When the director went on stage for the Q and A at this premiere screening, he was very respectful of the customers who buy these things, I think... making the point that without the likes of people like me and our willingness to buy and explore films we’ve never heard of before, then the funding to rescue these disappearing treasures would not be there.

A couple of criticisms because, as you know, even with a great movie like this, I like to throw in a few things. So number one, the music is almost constant. It’s obviously needle dropped from a music library (I believe) and it does play over a lot of the talking heads. Sometimes this works okay but, on occasion it’s maybe just a little distracting and mixed just a little too high (remember, bass notes and percussion can sometimes be overwhelming at the wrong levels) but, to be fair, the director did mention it was a little ‘hot’ in some places and that he was going to fix it.

My only other criticism is that this was not quite, yet, the documentary I would personally have wanted. It would have been nice to see a project such as The Sensual World Of Black Emanuelle or All The Haunts Be Ours followed and taken through from initial meetings, tracking down scannable prints, combining different sources and scanning etc through to the finished product. That being said, though, this documentary does nod to those projects and there’s enough here to make it an important talking point... especially when it comes to the rescue and restoration of films which the likes of Criterion and Scorcese, perhaps, would not consider trying to rescue alongside the other great work they are already doing themselves in the world of film preservation.

So, yeah, Ryan Bruce Levey’s documentary Boutique - To Preserve And Collect is definitely one for the fans of those wonderful Blu Ray releases from the likes of Severin, Vinegar Syndrome, Altered Innocence, Criterion, Arrow, Second Sight and all the others I don’t have room to mention. If that’s your thing, one can only hope a Blu Ray release (alongside some hopefully fabulous extras) will be coming along at some point soon.

14 Years Of NUTS4R2

Lockdown Memories

14th Anniversary Blog Post

When this post goes live, it will be exactly 14 years since I started this blog, initially because I was feeling a lack of connection with certain other elements of my life (who or what will remain nameless here but... some things never change). It’s also, however, two days short of being the 4th anniversary of what was, for many people of my generation, a very unusual, seemingly quite unbelievable and surreal event in our lives... the first UK Government lockdown in response to the deadly Coronavirus outbreak which was whittling down various countries populations.

Now I’m not here to argue that Coronavirus wasn’t a terrible thing. So many people died and the worldwide response to the disaster was fairly tragic and badly thought out... destroying or changing people’s lives forever. I know some people take the view that the UK government were having to deal with something they were unprepared for (and that’s a different can of worms to begin with, lots of warnings by scientists for decades and an underwhelmingly slow and ill conceived response to the situation did not help) but, I personally can’t let the government off the hook so easily. For almost the entirety of the first year of lockdown (and I say this as someone who has never before taken an interest in politics), I just assumed the people in power were a sad combination of naivety and stupidity and couldn’t work out what they were doing there. Then, slowly, it dawned that these were all corrupt idiots who were not interested in helping people at all and were just in it to make money. They are criminals, for sure, there’s no getting around that.

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I wanted to say a few words about the actual positive aspects of lockdown... because I think they are important and I think our government has not learned anything from the situation or, most likely, just want to ignore the benefits to the majority of people. What a surprise eh?

Now don’t get me wrong. I know a certain amount of the population, presumably those suffering from severe extroverted personalities, found lockdown hard. I know some friends had some problems with their youngsters which intrigued me because, when I was a kid, I wanted nothing more than to not have to go to school and certainly not have to socialise with other people. But some people didn’t reap the same benefits of the lockdown lifestyle that others did and I think it’s worth remembering those unexpected perks because I reckon 80% of the UK population could still be better off from them if the UK government wasn’t so greedy and corrupt (and it’s certainly not just the UK government, for sure).

Okay, so for me, lockdown had so many benefits... and for my blog too, it has to be said.

I have elderly parents and that meant that, working from home, I could keep and eye on them and come running if either of them got into trouble. Something I can’t do again now with a two buses or more (depending on traffic) journey home. It goes without saying that I was saving thousands of pounds by not travelling to work, of course. Not to mention clawing back two to three hours a day for myself when I would normally be travelling. And I was getting through roughly a week’s work in a day by not being at the office... so could respond quicker to any emergencies that came up in a quick and efficient manner. Which was handy for people.

And there were the health benefits too. A colleague of mine said that she’d never been fitter than during the lockdown and I have to agree. The extra time saved meant I had time to go out for a 20 minute walk every night, straight after work. I was borderline diabetic when I went into lockdown... within a year I was completely out of it again. Now I’m back in the office my diabetes and other health issues are worse than they’ve ever been. And I get barely a half an hour a night which I can positively call ‘my own time’ on a week day.

But lastly and perhaps more relevantly in regards to this blog, being in lockdown meant I had time to watch movies after work and then write about them. Because there was more money saved, I ordered expensive box sets from Severin in America and the Al Adamson - The Masterpiece Collection box set (start here with that one) really captured my imagination and reignited my love of film. As a result, I still have well over 200 written reviews backlogged and waiting to be tweaked and published. I got through a lot of movies in that travel time and I felt inspired and uplifted to be exploring cinema again... more than I’d felt in a while.

So those, I think, for the record... were my main takeaways from lockdown. And my conclusion is... everyone who is capable of working from home should be... never mind the stupid government edicts and the businesses who want us all to suffer in an office again. If these entities were truly about looking after the people and treating them right, then many of us would be allowed to work from home and, to boot, the climate crisis may not be hanging around our necks so much either. Remember going out in lockdown for a walk and being confronted with no cars on the roads... just fresher air. The less cars on the road (because people are capable of working from home) means less pollution and other benefits. It’s a win/win but, unfortunately, the members of parliament just want to make the economy work for them, so they can continue lining their own pockets with the benefits of other people’s misery. Or, at least, that’s the way it seems to me.

Anyway, those are my memories and take aways from lockdown and, as always, that just leaves me to say ‘thank you for reading’ my anniversary post. Especially to those who have been with me all 14 years to date.

2400th Blog - Boutique Label Blues

A Funny Thing
Happened To Me
On The Way To
The Boutique
Blu Ray Label...

My 2400th Blog Post

Okay, for my 2400th blog I thought I’d have another little rant about one of the hobbies I hold dear to my heart... physical media. Not limited to but, for the sake of this mini article... Blu Ray movies. And, more specifically, the boutique labels which, to be honest, are the only thing which makes the world of physical releases a joy to invest in. Now regular readers must surely realise how much I enjoy and admire the products of boutique labels like Criterion, Severin, Vinegar Syndrome, Arrow, 88 Films and a whole host of others bringing out lovingly restored movies, many rescued from obscurity and given the kind of life they always deserved coming in from the cinematic wilderness. So please believe me when I say that none of what follows is a dig at any of these labels and the problems that I see in no way tarnish the wonderful reputation and good work that these and many other independent companies are doing.

However, there are two big negatives I’ve been thinking about lately and which I shall be getting into in a minute but, they both stem from/are symptoms of... the same issue, it seems to me. That issue is that, as the internet increases its grip over the world, whether we happen to like ot or not, we are living in a global community and, certainly many film fans are happy to embrace that pleasant state. And, as a British guy who is sick of seeing certain kinds of films censored in my own country, buying from global sources either because they have the best option or are, quite often these days, the only game in town... makes much more sense. A film lover in the UK probably would be in a lot of trouble if multi-zone Blu Ray machines were unavailable but, as it happens, they’re relatively cheap and easy to acquire and, humongous shipping rates of recent times aside (I used to be able to buy a US DVD of a film before it hit our cinemas for a much cheaper price than I would have been charged by my own country a year or so down the line), they open up the global market for everyone. However, the boutique Blu Ray labels of various countries (the UK and US especially included), either don’t seem to realise this, don’t want to lose a licensing deal or... you know... maybe they don’t care.

So what we have... and this is the unfortunate part... is wonderful labels such as those mentioned above releasing a film in ‘the best possible version’ and then, some months or even a year later, another label from another country releasing their edition of the movie in, you know, ‘the best possible version’. Sometimes it will be different masters of a film and sometimes it will be the same transfer with the other label’s credits showing up on the end title of, say, a special feature. And to make matters worse, some of these will have the same special features, some will have different special features, some will have a mixture of both and others will have a compelling extra such as a soundtrack CD of the score (often already released by another CD label in the past and in the exact same edition... yeah, that’s a similar grumble to what I’m talking about here).

So for the globally minded cinephile... and I don’t really know of any other kind among the physical media buyers I personally know...  if it’s a film they want then they will buy whichever label brings it out first, in whatever country that has to be. Unless, of course, they gamble and play the waiting game and take the chance that the first edition will be sold out before another version gets released, if it ever does. And it’s annoying as heck and I wish the labels would just liaise with each other and coordinate so we only have to have one version of a film coming out in the world within, say, a ten/twenty year period.

So films like Suspiria, Two Evil Eyes and the like all have a couple of different versions available (at least), all in slightly modified variants with alternate extras. And I’m sure it must be affecting each label’s sales negatively because, more than likely, most people will only buy the first one on their radar and give a hard pass to the next one down the line. I only want to end up with one version guys! As I write these words (I’m guessing you’ll be reading them a few weeks later), the BFI have released a formerly hard to see Elisabeth Taylor film on Blu Ray called The Driver’s Seat. I would possibly have been enticed to buy this if, as it happens, I hadn’t already bought the same movie earlier this year (or it may have been late last year) in what I suspect is a much more ‘bells and whistles’ release from the US under it’s other title, Identikit, as part of Severin’s House Of Psychotic Women Rarities Blu Ray set. So I really don’t need to buy the new one (and won’t... for all I know it’s exactly the same transfer too). No longer a rarity then, I guess.

And don’t get me started on the masterful giallo from Dario Argento, Four Flies On Grey Velvet. This used to be absolutely impossible to see at one point and I have bought a few ‘improved’ bootlegs over the years, until it finally started getting official releases, all with a little more footage or in a much better scan as each one came out. This culminated for me last year on purchasing what I think may be my seventh version of the film, in a very limited ‘one week on sale only’ edition of it from Severin Films which includes, wouldn’t you know it, an additional hitherto unseen cut of the film. Okay, it was worth it then if you like the film but... wow... the UK label Cult Films just reissued their ‘better subtitles’ version of the film, which I suspect is more or less the same one their sister label Shameless issued a year or two before. Except this time its in a box of four Argento films comprising this and... three other Argento movies which have been out numerous times in the UK... including from this same label sometimes. Who the heck is going to bother to buy this set unless they’re a complete newcomer to this director’s works? It’s crazy.

At the other end of the spectrum, when 88 Films released A Black Veil For Lisa in a limited edition (now reissued as... um... a non limited edition), it only included the English cut of the film which, I knew from reading around, was not the best version. The full Italian cut is out in Italy but without the English subtilties. Luckily I already had a bootleg with both versions on it and, when I saw how different the Italian version is (and much more in keeping with the traditional cinematic interpretation of the genre... black glove killer included in a few shots of that version) and the different ending, which made a mockery somewhat of what one of the experts on the set was saying about the film (I hope that wasn’t deliberate and they’d just not seen the proper Italian version), then it means I am now chomping at the bit for a company to actually release a correct version of the movie on Blu Ray, rather than the one we’re stuck with at present. Similarly, 88 Films edition of Prozzie turned out to be 'not the complete version' and I had to re-acquire this one under another title, Olivia, in uncut form from Vinegar Syndrome in the US. It’s ridiculous guys... we just wanted one version and... we wanted the right version.

Arrow Films have been doing a lot of this unnecessary ‘lets add a new extra and repackage it’  malarky lately too. Their recent slew of ‘Essential Giallo’ boxed editions are almost exclusively anything but essential. These are boxes of gialli, with different colour themed packaging per box but, guess what? All but one of these boxes are just repackages of other releases still on sale from the same company in individual units. There’s just one edition to date, the Black edition, which actually had all the gialli included as premiere releases in this country (and possibly any English speaking country). I bet I know which one of their box sets sold the most units. Tellingly, the Black edition seems to have disappeared very quickly from physical shop shelves. I guess that did well for them but, if it did then they didn’t learn much from the experience, being as the next two ‘Essentials’ releases were ‘new money for old rope’ editions once again.

Okay, so there we have the two problems.. companies issuing similar or identical versions at the same time and companies repackaging the same versions and pretending it’s something shiny and new (most film fans would not fall for that tactic, I’m sure). I don’t want this rant to go on forever and so I’ll just leave it at that for now. I do love all these boutique labels but, they need to start talking to each other... I’m sure they’d get more sales by releasing products that like-minded labels are not also releasing around the same time (make that decade). Especially when there are thousands of movies out there which haven’t been issued even once yet... let alone their eighth time. For example, a number of times when Severin have announced titles like Blood For Dracula, Vinegar Syndrome have released a complementary title around the same time such as Flesh For Frankenstein. So one feeds into the other with increased sales for both, is my guess.

One last reminder though... if we didn’t have these kinds of labels at least making the effort and, in some cases, pouring a lot of love into their work, then the physical media landscape would be disappearing a lot faster than it already is. These labels are doing startling work and they need your support... just be carful which editions you go for. Buyer beware.

All The Colours Of Giallo

A Bava And Beyond
The Call Of Duty

All The Colours Of Giallo
USA 2017 Severin Films Blu Ray Zone A

There’s a moment during Kat Ellinger’s commentary track for a giallo trailer on Severin Films’ new release All The Colours Of Giallo, where she says “Thanks God for multiregion and bootlegs.” I’m so grateful someone finally said this because, for people who are accustomed to passing time in the shadowy world of the predominantly Italian giallo thriller, this is often the only way such films can be seen. If this kind of black market, cinematic contraband didn’t exist then I suspect the giallo film wouldn’t be experiencing the kind of popular resurgence that it has, internationally, since the dawn of the DVD age... for a number of reasons.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here.

All The Colours Of Giallo is a new, three disc Blu Ray set from Severin which you can/could buy either as a stand alone title or, as I did, with a special double slip case release (with a cool t-shirt and accompanying pin badges... always wanted an Edwige Fenech pin badge) housing both this and their newly restored, two disc edition of Sergio Martino’s All The Colours Of The Dark. I’m not cracking into the Martino film and accompanying soundtrack CD (which I hope is a remaster or is in some way different from the previous Digitmovies release) yet because I need to start watching and revisiting the genre with a fair few giallo Blu Ray upgrades from the last year or more but, I couldn’t resist breaking into the All The Colours Of The Giallo release before I watched anything else.

Imagine my surprise when I found out the main reason I was buying this set was, actually, the extras and not the main part of the release (although, frankly, that’s debatable because the extras are where the main meat of these discs are). The main attraction, so to speak, is supposed to be a feature length documentary about the genre which... I watched with interest but I certainly didn’t feel I was the target audience. I must have hundreds of these kinds of movies lining the shelves by now and I think the documentary from which this set gets its title is more for those viewers less experienced in the form and who would like a little more info about the history of the genre.

The documentary is predominantly one guy, Fabio Melleli, telling the audience about the history of the genre with a few other, ‘hands on’ talking heads from various movies of the time. Some of the usual suspects plus a few others. This includes discussing the meaning of the term giallo, which means yellow, coming from the yellow covers of the Mondadori thriller reprints in Italy and then goes on to cover some... but not all.. of the major players that were making these things. So, yeah, if you’ve been hanging around in the world of giallo for a while then you’re probably not going to have much of a takeaway from the documentary itself as you’ll already know it inside out but this piece, indeed the whole set, would be an absolute essential purchase for people who are only just starting to explore the field. Yes, there are some translation short cuts in the subtitles and, bearing in mind I know no Italian whatsoever, even I could see the damage done when the subtitles translate a very specific word, 'giallo', at one point as the resident expert uses it to illustrate a point, as 'gialli'... which is the plural and implies other films within the same genre, which isn’t what the guy was getting at in this particular instance. Even so, though, it’s a pretty good documentary for people who are new to this stuff and it also touches briefly on the influence of the German krimi movies of the time (okay... I’ll come back to that point a little later in this review).

I must admit, the documentary for me was a little disappointing but I didn’t mind that so much because the stuff I was after listed as extras was the real main course. However, before that main course there was another little starter, which is a mini documentary on the same topic called The Giallo Frames, an interview with John Martin, editor of The Giallo Pages and it’s something I found much more palatable but also a more or less compressed version of the other documentary on this disc. Again, like all the stuff here, this is an excellent introduction to the genre and I’m sure a lot of people who are just starting out watching these films will find it very informative.

And then we have 'the main course' of the first disc... the thing I was actually buying it for... the Giallothon. Which is 82 giallo trailers comprising just over four hours of viewing time. Now this is where the fun really begins... I’ve bought giallo trailer compilations before on DVD but this one, although it only has one trailer for each film it presents here, by far surpasses all of those previous trailer selections. Why? Well the reason is two fold. Surprisingly, two fold, in my case.

Firstly the quality of these trailers is amazing. I’ve never known some of these trailers to be in as good a shape as this and I can only assume the people at Severin have spent some time lovingly restoring them all... which is great. There are still a couple which are a of a slightly, dodgy quality but I suspect that speaks volumes about what terrible shape the material was in, in the first place. Seriously folks, the quality of these trailers is phenomenal.

Secondly, the whole four hours comes with an optional, continuous commentary track by Kat Ellinger. Now, I’ve read some of Ms. Ellinger's work in a couple of print venues and, I have to admit that in the past I have sometimes found her writing style a tad dry and academic for what she’s trying to say but, I have to say, after hearing this fantastic commentary I’m willing to give her another try and buy some more stuff with her writing in it (maybe her new book on Sergio Martino, one of my personal favourite giallo directors). Asides from the comfort issue of someone who sounds, just a little bit, like Eileen Daley... she really seems to know her stuff and comes across as quite chatty and knowledgeable about the subject. I was properly impressed because I’ve only seen about 70 of the movies Severin chose to showcase here (a few of my favourites were not included here, either) but Kat seems to know them all fairly well and, bizarrely, I found myself agreeing with almost everything she says on this track (yeah, that almost never happens).

Now, I have to admit, in regards to this commentary, I was expecting the subject to be about the trailers themselves and the way the companies were marketing the films but, no, this is actually Ellinger diving into various facts and figures about each giallo in question and giving a fairly good, informed critique of each one... not an easy thing to do with some of the shorter trailers and, I did note, that on a few of the promos she ran into the next one too, when she got really passionate about a subject. She also seems to have the same kind of knowledge of the home video industry of the last couple of decades that I have too so, there were some refreshing observations about availability of prints on here that I really appreciated.

Which brings me back to her brilliant “Thank God for multiregion and bootlegs” because, yeah, I suspect the popularity and availability of a lot of these movies over the years has increased because of these kinds of supplies, as people finally got to see the films and were able to appreciate them and look for better quality sources and transfers. So good for her and, again, if you are just starting out to explore the genre then you will find Kat Ellinger’s commentary track absolutely indispensable here. There were a few films trailered here which I personally didn’t think quite belonged in the giallo genre (and I suspect if I were to ever meet Ms. Ellinger we might come to verbal blows as to the validity of The Perfume Of The Lady In Black as a giallo... as great a film as it is... although that’s also not included here, either) but that just opens up people to seeing other Italian genre movies too so no real complaints from me here on that score. I would say that you might want to not try and watch all four hours (with or without commentary) in one straight sitting but, if you do attempt that, make sure you have a bottle of J&B by your side.

Okay so, after the main course of this set, as it were, we are given two discs of really great dessert...

Now the second disc is great for me because the subject matter is something I am a complete novice in... the German krimi. There’s a short, fairly informative documentary called The Case Of The Krimi which is presented by an interesting guy called Marcus Stiglegger and which does a similar thing to the documentaries on the other two discs. He talks about the origins of the Krimi in the red covered paperbacks of authors like Edgar Wallace, Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and, of course, as a giallo fan, I could immediately see the parallel. He also talks about the way the krimi and giallo films kind of overlap by influencing each other at a certain point in their respective cycles, which I also found fascinating. And then, of course, there’s the really great feature of this second disc... 32 beautifully restored Krimi trailers. No commentaries this time, which is a shame but, as someone who’s never had the bulk of these available to watch in my home country, I found the whole slew of trailers both fascinating and, in many cases, hilarious. And, my gosh, these krimi films must have kept the young Klaus Kinski in steady employment for years, by the looks of it. And Karin Dor, who Bond fans may remember from You Only Live Twice, is in a fair few of these too. And there’s even a couple which feature a young Christoper Lee here. I loved the fact that almost all of these were based on Edgar Wallace films and were almost all set in London which, as Stiglegger explained in his mini documentary, were almost always shot in places like Hamburg with English signs going up and cars imported to ‘do London on the cheap’, as it were. I absolutely loved this stuff and I’m so glad Severin included these because I would have never had known to bother to explore this strand of films until now.

Oh... and the third disc in this package is another thing I was highly anticipating. It’s a CD called The Strange Sounds of the Bloodstained Films... presumably as a mixed gialloistic, parody/homage of the title What Are Those Strange Drops Of Blood Doing on Jennifer’s Body? (which was an alternate title for The Case Of The Bloody Iris) and The Bloodstained Shadow. It’s basically a musical compilation of tracks from various gialli and, while I love this, I have to confess I was slightly disappointed because I have already got the full score CDs to all but one or two of the films represented here and I was hoping for some more obscure, previously unreleased tracks, truth be told. Still, that being said, it’s a lovely compilation and something people unfamiliar with some of the famous giallo scores outside of Argento’s collaborations with Goblin and Ennio Morricone might use as a kind of music sampler to allow them to go off and explore the full albums at some point.

So yeah, all in all, All The Colours Of Giallo is a blisteringly good release from Severin, who have really gone ‘a bava and beyond’ the call of duty to bring us this beautifully packaged set (I love that double slip case) and it’s something which should be on any cinephile’s movie shelves, as far as I’m concerned. Especially if they’re not into this material in the first place. This is an excellent place for newbies to start and I wish I’d had something like this to hand a few decades ago when I started being drawn into the genre. An absolutely first class release and something which shouldn’t be ignored. Try and grab one of these if you can... it’s one of the best releases of the year, so far.

My 1600th Post

Bride of DVD/Blu Ray Couture


My 1600th Post

It’s almost 9 years since I published my DVD Couture Remixed - Multiregion In The Boudoir listing (which you can read here) and, honestly, I really didn’t think I’d have to revisit it quite so soon. It was intended to be a helpful listing of some of the best boutique labels on the market for discerning multiregion DVD player owners (and now, multizone Blu Ray player owners) and of the labels I picked out, literally less than a handful are still in existence or, at least, not that relevant to the list anymore. And, much to my surprise, there has been a wealth of UK DVD/Blu Ray distributors that have hit the ground running over the last half a decade or more that more than challenge the US  labels that used to make up the majority of that list. So once great labels like Anchor Bay are no longer to be found here, although some of their old DVD editions are still very cool and are superseded only by Blu Ray transfers of more or less the same product on different labels.

And talking of Blu Ray... I guess I was wrong about it in some respects... or at least wrong as to the direction it’s taken. I no longer see it as just another con to get more money out of the same product from repeat custom. Early on that was probably very much the case but now the transfers that some companies are putting out, especially the smaller boutique labels like the ones that make up the majority of this list, are actually... well... not only better than the DVD versions but, in the case of some movies, better than the original cinema release versions (check out the restoration feature on MGM's big Bond box set from a few years ago for more information on how and why that can be the case with the right materials and the right people on the job).

So, yeah, I figured it was high time this list was updated so, here you go. Caveat Emptor time though... nobody is ever going to agree with anybody else’s list but, if there’s a cracking good label that isn’t a mainstream company that you know of (I’ve left Warner Archives off, even though they gave the world Blu Rays of Doc Savage and Dracula AD 1972), then please mention it in the comments section below and I can check them out when it comes time to write Son of DVD/Blu Ray Couture in 5 to 10 years. Anyway, if you’re a connoisseur of home cinema, I hope you enjoy this list. 

Alpha Video
www.oldies.com
I was in two minds as to whether I should leave Alpha Video on this list as they primarily deal with just DVD and streaming but, looking at their website, they are still very active and, frankly, you’re going to be hard put to find a lot of the films and serials they have on here anywhere else. Invisible Avenger, for instance, which is a TV pilot film based on the adventures of The Shadow. Or the 1950s Fu Manchu TV series. Or the, admittedly quite terrible and not a patch on the old 1930s serials, Flash Gordon German/US co-production TV show from the 50s. There are a lot of gems at this site and lovers of old movies and TV shows from the past would do well to check them out.

Arrow
https://www.arrowfilms.com
For a while now I’ve been referring to Arrow Films as the UK equivalent to Criterion in terms of pushing the boat out and getting a slew of quality extras to put with some beautiful Blu Ray and DVD restorations. True, they have made a few mistakes which irate fans have caught over the years and, yes, their Cult Films book project was a really badly designed product. I will get around to putting my review up for that at some point... I just hope they aren’t going to be reading it (to be fair, it does seem to be a generally well complained about tome elsewhere, it has to be said). However, these people obviously have a love for film and some brilliant product over the years. Recent releases which have stood out are things like the initial Ringu trilogy boxed edition or the boxed set of Blood Hunger: The Films of José Larraz. They also have several sub labels to their name such as Arrow Academy, where you can get a lovely Blu Ray set of the five films The Marx Brothers made at Paramount (basically, their best five movies). A couple of their acquisitions I’ve singled out here as separate labels (because I believe they once were) but I’ll mention their connection to Arrow when I talk about them. They seem dedicated to giallo, horror and slasher films... not to mention an increasing interest in the spaghetti western genre, with some stellar releases like their Sartana box set from last year enriching Western fans lives. I continue to reserve the right to say bad things about them when they make silly decisions or mistakes on the occasional release but, honestly, I think they really are probably second only to Criterion now, with the amount of care and love they put in to their titles. Hopefully the drain of streaming media culture won’t be slowing down their output anytime soon.

Artsploitation
http://www.artsploitationfilms.com
Artsploitation is a relatively new label to me and I only have two of their titles. I found out about them when they were pretty much my only source to buying a subtitled Blu Ray of last year’s amazing ‘sexorcist’ movie Luciferina (reviewed by me here) and as I looked over their product listings I realised this was quite a unique label. They seem to be the place to go for sexual kink and horror dressed as high art and, of course, that middle ground where those two things merge so well together. It’s a label I definitely need to explore more because these are very specialised films which, it seems to me, aren’t being given a chance to survive on any of the other labels. And looking at the plots and premises of some of these things... that would be a great shame if these shiny movies were not given the chance to project their twisted light out into the world. Check them out if you want to see something a little different.

BFI
https://shop.bfi.org.uk/dvd-blu-ray/bfi-dvd-blu-ray.html
The British Film Institute have their own label and, as you would expect, it’s full of classic cinema from the silent period up to the contemporary scene. As well as all the usual, very welcome suspects they also have a sub label called BFI Flipside which has a lot of rare gems you wouldn’t necessarily expect to see released in a Blu Ray format... especially not by them, at any rate. So you have José Larraz’ Symptoms available there and also stuff like Deep End, London In The Raw and Primitive London. Lots to look out for.

Blue Underground
http://www.blue-underground.com
Blue Underground are still on this list because they are still around and, if you check out their website, they are still releasing important genre works on US Blu Ray. I guess they are much less a blip on my radar these days because some of the UK labels on this list are also putting out a lot of the same product and, more often as not, they’re doing it at least as well as Blue Underground, if not better. Once the natural successor to the once legendary and... now not even on this list, Anchor Bay, they can still come up with the odd surprise and for US readers they are probably still a fairly essential label. So, yeah, they made the list again.

Criterion Collection
www.criterion.com
Well what can you say about the Criterion Collection. Since the days of laserdisc they’ve been the gold standard against which all other movie releases on home video are released. Yes, they’re usually a fair bit pricier than the others but they go out of their way to give you the absolute best, restored transfer of their titles and try to sprinkle as many interesting and informative extras as they can. Also, check out some of the cool video articles they run on their website such as their brilliant ‘Criterion Closet’ videos, where famous names from the world of film are allowed into their stock cupboard to greedily grab free DVDs and Blu Rays and to say exactly why they are picking out certain titles. They also seem to have swallowed some territory from one of their sister labels which used to be on this list the last time I had a label roundup... so HVC titles like the Zatoichi and Lone Wolf & Cub series of movies are now in beautiful, restored Blu Ray boxed collections. Criterion are still the best label out there and I don’t think anyone would disagree with that.

Criterion UK
Okay, so I’ll include the new UK arm of Criterion here, even though I’d recommend their US label more. They don’t have anything like the titles the US have yet but they do have some cool ones like the box sets mentioned above (damn, I could have waited a few years for the cheaper, UK versions!) and some nice alternatives to the UK Tarkovsky releases put out by Artificial Eye. Speaking of Tarkovsky.... here’s why I trust the Criterion label a lot more than some of the more interesting labels which didn’t make this list. Last year they were due to release their full, uncut version of the great director Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterpiece Andrei Rublyev on Criterion UK. It’s about an hour longer than any version released in the UK and I own their old US DVD of this because, well, why the heck would you want a heavily truncated movie in your collection. So I own no UK versions on Blu Ray and was chomping at the bit to get this thing uncut on the UK region. But here’s the thing... it got pulled and only released in the US (yeah, I’ll be getting that one at some point, for sure). Why it got pulled was not made known but I suspect it would be because the BBFC were bound to want Criterion to cut out the horse fall sequences in the movie. Why? Because British movies are not supposed to be allowed to have horse falls in them (don’t get me started). My theory is that, instead of cutting this incredible artist’s great work, not to mention shelling out more time and money to get a print the BBFC were happy with, Criterion must have done the honourable thing and refused to cut it. Good for them. Who wants vandalised art? If my theory is correct then shame on the BBFC for even existing and censoring any art ever! The BBFC are truly adversaries of cinematic and artistic expression, there’s no question about that. Meanwhile, the result is that if a UK inhabitant wants to see a copy of this incredible film and they don’t have a multi-zone player, well... it’s going to be about an hour shorter than it should be. So while the BBFC should be hanging their heads in shame, I have to congratulate Criterion on doing the right thing here. Plus, on Criterion UK you can get a really nice copy of The Lure on Blu Ray so, you know, not a label to be sniffed at.

Cult Films
https://cultfilms.co.uk
Okay... I have absolutely no time for anyone or thing that continues the myth that there is such a thing as a ‘cult film’ but, while this label’s name is a huge turn off for me, you have to admire them for what they are starting to do over here in the UK. They’ve only been a blip on my radar for maybe less than a year but when they start putting out restored, uncut UK editions of films like Dario Argento’s Opera (and also one of the better transfers of Suspiria) then I am definitely sitting up and taking notice. I think their star is definitely in the ascendant so keep an eye on these people.

88 Films
https://88-films.myshopify.com
A nice label very much in the Arrow style with a wide range of genre and exploitation classics including some amazing, uncut UK Blu Ray editions of various gialli such as A Black Veil For Lisa, Eyeball and The Bloodstained Shadow. Also very good if you like Hong Kong martial arts and Shaw Brothers classics. They also are more than reasonably priced if the titles you want aren’t limited or slip case editions. A good label which you can use to fill up your shelves nicely.

Eureka - Masters of Cinema
https://eurekavideo.co.uk/
Eureka, much to my surprise when I started researching this list, are still going strong. A nice label which has given us some invaluable films over the years such as a much recommended Buster Keaton boxed set and a truly beautiful looking 90th Anniversary print and full restoration (yes, full in every sense of the word... they’ve more or less got the whole, full length cut now) of Fritz Lang’s classic gift to cinema, Metropolis.

Fright Fest
http://www.frightfest.co.uk/frightfest-presents--films.html
FrightFest used to have a really good label not so long ago bringing us quirky, independent horror movies on DVD (and occasionally Blu Ray) that were possibly the only way a lot of these films were ever going to see a home video release in this country. And some of them were truly great, such as Aaaaaaaah! (which I reviewed here) and Night Of The Living Deb (which I reviewed here). Then they kinda disappeared for a bit but now they’re back, rebranded as... um... no just repeat branded it seems but with a completely different slew of new and upcoming releases replacing their old catalogue such as the truly excellent Videoman (which I reviewed here). Definitely a very useful label for getting to watch some interesting films which other companies might not be willing to take a chance on.

Indicator
https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/
I first became aware of Indicator, a British label, a couple of years ago when they released their limited edition Blu Ray box of the Harryhausen Sinbad trilogy. Since then they’ve had some amazing releases including box sets devoted to some of the more obscure Hammer Films, a couple of Ray Harryhausen boxes, a couple of William Castle boxes and even a Sam Fuller boxed edition. They also have old treasures like the John Carpenter scripted Eyes Of Laura Mars on their books... and all of these released in immaculate, restored Blu Ray or dual format editions with some ‘above and beyond the call of duty’ extras. A really great little label, again putting out stuff that’s much better presented than what other labels who have had some of this material in the past have done with the content.

Mondo Macabro
https://mondomacabro.bigcartel.com/
Yes, US label Mondo Macabro is one of the few labels hanging on from the last version I did of this listing, although a lot of their old titles are no longer in print. However, they still have some really cool movies on their books and if you want Blu Rays of things like Lizard In A Woman’s Skin, The Fan or Perversion Story (aka One On Top Of The Other) then these are the people you need to get them from. Definitely still a vital label in the war against mediocrity.

101 Films
https://101-films-store.myshopify.com/
I only discovered 101 films when they had a sale earlier on in the year but, wow, what a sale. Again, these people have some cool movies in Blu Ray editions that you might not get anywhere else in the UK. Films like Truck Turner, The Mole People, Tarantula, The Alligator People... they’re all here.

Redemption US (Salvation)
http://www.salvation-films.com
Well, the old UK Redemption label was a dead loss in the end with a load of their film releases being sliced and diced at the whim of the BBFC. However, their US Blu Ray label has some really great little gems which are worth picking up, including a lot of uncut Jean Rollin, Mario Bava and Jess Franco titles along with British movies like Burke & Hare and Zeta One.

Severin
https://severin-films.com/
US label Severin are still, very much a vital label and they’ve been releasing some extraordinary, if expensive, Blu Ray titles lately such as their wonderful Blood Island box, All The Colours Of The Dark, All The Colours Of Giallo and a groovy Hemisphere Films set out this month. They also produce some beautiful looking t-shirts and pin badges to accompany some of their releases nowadays. Definitely a very hot label right now and one to keep an eye on.

Shameless Films
http://www.shameless-films.com/
I ummed and ahhhd about whether to keep Shameless on the list. The fact that a few of their films are cut and that there’s no warning on the boxes works against them but the majority of their stuff is uncut and, frankly, they are still here for outstanding services to giallo and horror in the UK. They have some really great titles on their books and their new partnership with Arrow should yield some interesting results.

Shout Factory
https://www.shoutfactory.com/
Still a force to be reckoned with in US Blu Ray stakes... Shout Factory continue to put out some nice looking genre films, loaded with extras such as Star Crash, Someone’s Watching Me and Humanoids From The Deep. It’ always worth checking if there’s a Shout Factory version of a film before deciding on your purchase.

Vinegar Syndrome
https://vinegarsyndrome.com/
I’ve talked about Vinegar Syndrome before on here in reference to the owner actually rescuing a lot of the films that are released and saving them from... well... the state of film decay the label takes its name from. I only have one film by them, Vixens Of Kung Fu (reviewed here) and a lot of their stuff is sleazy porn or bottom of the barrel exploitation but nobody else is going to touch this stuff. Nor indeed save the final existing prints from oblivion. Which is exactly what makes this such a great label worthy of your support. Check out their catalogue if this sounds like your kind of thing.

Wild East
https://www.wildeast.net
I wasn’t sure about still including Wild East on here as they’re not that active these days. However, my friend @cultofthecinema really wanted me to so I’m grudgingly leaving them here with the one positive thing in that Spaghetti Western fans around the world do owe them a lot of gratitude for a number of their past releases... some of which are still available from their website. I’m not sure how long they will still be relevant, however, with labels like Arrow beginning to get into the Spaghetti Western market.

And that’s my 1600th Blog Post done. If you have any other cool, boutique labels you want to bring to my attention, please leave them in the comments section below and I will check them out. All the best and thanks for reading.