April is over with but I'm still playing catch-up from last month Vault Dwellers! (Sorry!) This past week had a relatively small release slate, but as is typically the case, there are definitely some great new releases worth adding to your collections!
But the two Blu-ray discs that I was most excited for this past Tuesday were Scream Factory's THE BRAIN and TARANTULA! The former boasts a new 4K transfer and loads of new special features, while the latter has a new 2K transfer and audio commentary!
There's not much else worth bragging about this week, but if you're curious to see what else was released on DVD or Blu-ray, continue onward to scope out the full roster!
NEW TO DVD & BLU-RAY
Arctic
Death Warmed Up (Severin Films)
Emmanuelle and Francoise (Severin Films)
Escape from Women's Prison (Severin Films)
Even Lambs Have Teeth
Level 16
Police Story / Police Story 2 (Criterion Collection)
The Tutor
NEW TO BLU-RAY
Absolute Duo: The Complete Series
The Brain (Scream Factory)
City of the Vampires
Cujo (Limited Edition - Eureeka Classics! - Region B)
Deadly Crush
Gatchaman (Collector's Edition)
Grandmother's House (Vinegar Syndrome)
Hakyu Hoshin Engi: The Complete Series
Hannibal (Blu-ray & 4K UHD)
High School DxD Hero: Season Four
Kuffs (Shout Select)
Lupin the 3rd Part IV: The Italian Adventure
The Rolling Girls: The Complete Series
Skin Flicks (Vinegar Syndrome)
Tarantula (Scream Factory)
Unlisted Owner
NEW TO DVD
Appleseed: The Original OVA Series
The Best of Tobor the 8-Man: Volume 2
The Grim Reaper (1980 - Rogue Video)
The Hole in the Ground
Scream Bloody Murder (1974 - Rogue Video)
NEW MULTI-FILM COLLECTIONS ON BLU-RAY Fantomas: Three-Film Collection (Kino Lorber Studio Classics)
Contains: Fantomas, Fantomas Unleashed, and Fantomas vs. Scotland Yard.
X-Men Trilogy: Volume 1 (Limited Edition Steelbook)
Contains: X-Men, X2: X-Men United, and X3: The Last Stand.
X-Men Trilogy: Volume 2 (Limited Edition Steelbook)
Contains: X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and X-Men: Apocalypse.
BUSH RANGERS, MAD SCIENTISTS, & MEDIEVAL QUESTS AWAIT YOU IN UMBRELLA'S LATEST BATCH OF BLU-RAYS!
After a slow February and a decent March, Umbrella Entertainment is bringing the thunder from Down Under with a decent batch of new DVDs & Blu-rays that you'll want to add to your collections this month! As of April 3rd, you can watch Dennis Hopper terrorize South-Eastern Australia as MAD DOG MORGAN, witness a deranged killer wreak vengeance upon the man who experimented on him in DEATH WARMED UP, or go on a cinematic journey to save a village from the ravages of The Black Death in NAVIGATOR: A MEDIEVAL ODYSSEY!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
* On May 1st, Umbrella is bringing KRULL to Blu-ray with new cover art, cast & crew audio commentary, making-of featurette, and more! And as an added bonus, this is THE first time KRULL has been featured in its original theatrical aspect ratio!
* Also due out on May 1st is SIDECAR RACERS which is part of Umbrella's Ozploitation Classics line. Also be on the lookout for the fantastic anime adventure STEAMBOY, which is packed with special features!
* With Rob Zombie's 3 FROM HELL coming to theaters later this year, Umbrella is putting out TWO FROM HELL: HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES & THE DEVIL'S REJECTS! This title has new cover art and a ton of extras, including audio commentaries, cast & crew interviews, making-of featurettes, trailers, and more!
Synopsis:BEFORE DEATHGASM...BEFORE BRAINDEAD... BEFORE BAD TASTE... THERE WAS DEATH WARMED UP!
Locked away in a psychiatic hospital for the murder of his parents, no one believed Michael Tucker when he told them he was programmed by a genetic surgeon. Released into the world, he wants revenge.
Dr Archer Howell has been experimenting on humans at Trans Cranial Applications, drilling the skulls of his patients and injecting drugs into their brain to create psychotic killing-machines. Isolated on an island and left to his own devices, Dr Howell is about to have a deadly visitor...
Shot in Auckland and Waiheke Island, New Zealand at the end of 1983, DEATH WARMED UP was reviled by conservatives but adored by fans around the world, becoming a cult hit in the home video era. Directed by David Blyth (ANGEL MINE) and written by Michael Heath (NEXT OF KIN), DEATH WARMED is a relentless assault of bold and startling images, unimaginable horror and driving soundtrack.
Disc Specs:
Rated R | Color | 80 minutes | Region Free
Video - 1080p Widescreen (16:9)
Audio - Dolby Digital 5.1 & 2.0 Surround Sound
Extras:
Audio commentary with Director David Blyth and Writer Michael Heath.
I'LL GET YOU ALL: Interview with actor David Letch.
Deleted/Missing scenes with optional audio commentary.
Original New Zealand 4:3 VHS cut
Interview featurette with David Blyth and Michael Heath
Theatrical trailer
VHS Trailers
TV Spot
Image gallery
ORDER "DEATH WARMED UP" FROM AMAZON.COM OR UMBRELLA ENTERTAINMENT (DVD | BLU-RAY)!
FREEDOM (1982)
Synopsis: From the award-winning director of Shine, Scott Hicks, comes this seminal Australian road movie tracing one man's search for speed..and freedom. Ron (Jon Blake - ANZACS, THE LIGHTHORSEMEN) is an angry young man with few work prospects having been sacked from his latest factory job. Rebelling against a society that offers him little hope, he lapses into fantasies of driving the highway in a sports car with a beautiful girl and decides finally to steal the Porsche of his dreams.
Ron escapes onto the open road and along the way meets the errant Sally (Jad Capelja - PUBERTY BLUES), who wants to retrieve her baby sent to live with foster parents. Chased by the law and their own demons, both risk all in a last attempt to fulfil their dreams. This retro Australian film classic features an all-star cast including Charles Bud Tingwell (INNOCENCE), Chris Haywood (JINDABYNE) and Candy Raymond (DON'S PARTY), while the fast-paced soundtrack was composed by Cold Chisel's Don Walker.
Disc Specs:
Not Rated | Color | 98 minutes | Region Free
Video - 480p Widescreen (16:9)
Audio - 2.0 Dolby Digital
Synopsis: Set in gold rush-era Victoria, and based on a true story, this violent, rollicking portrayal of infamous Irish outlaw Dan Morgan, a bravura performance from an intense Dennis Hopper (EASY RIDER, APOCALYPSE NOW) is a classic of Australia's '70s cinema renaissance. A prospector who turns to crime and opium after failing at gold mining, Dan Morgan spends six brutal years in prison before terrorizing country Victoria with a young Aboriginal, David Gulpilil (WALKABOUT, THE TRACKER).
Having escaped into NSW, the bush ranger and his accomplice easily dodge the police and mercilessly intimidate the wealthy land owners but wracked by madness and a lust to avenge an earlier attack from an irate squatter, the notorious Mad Dog makes a perilous journey back into Victoria. Combining an all-star Australian cast, including Jack Thompson, Bill Hunter and John Hargreaves, with a brilliant Dennis Hopper who called the role one of his great life experiences - director Philippe Mora (COMMUNION, HOWLING III) creates one of the great period action dramas.
Disc Specs:
Rated R | Color | 98 minutes | Region Free
Video - 1080p Widescreen (16:9)
Audio - 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
Extras:
All-new audio commentary with Director Philippe Mora and Jake Wilson, author of Australian Screen Classics: MAD DOG MORGAN!
Alternate audio commentary with Director Philippe Mora.
TO SHOOT A MAD DOG: Making MAD DOG MORGAN.
HOPPING MAD: Looking Back on Mad Dog Morgan.
Extended interviews from NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD: Philippe Mora, producer
Jeremy Thomas, camera operator John Seale and cast members Jack
Thompson, Roger Ward and Graeme Blundell.
MAD COUNTRY: SHOOTING LOCATIONS REVISITED with optional commentary.
Synopsis: A visionary boy, Griffin (Hamish Gough - AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE) leads five men from the 14th Century into a 20th Century city. Their quest: to save their village before sunrise. It is Cumbria 1348, the year of the Black Death. A medieval mining village lives in fear of the advancing plague. Griffin's older brother, Connor (Bruce Lyons) returns from the outside world in a state of despair, until Griffin tells of his dream – and reveals the only hope of survival. Make a tribute to God. Place a spire on a distant cathedral. Do it before dawn or the village is lost.
Disc Specs:
Rated PG | Color | 91 minutes | Region Free
Video - 1080p Widescreen (16:9)
Audio - 2.0 Dolby Digital
Extras:
Audio commentary with actor Paul Livingston and Production Designer Sally Campbell!
PATH OF THE NAVIGATOR: VINCENT'S ODYSSEY (40-minute interview featurette with Director, Vincent Ward).
UMBRELLA'S FEBRUARY SLATE IS PRETTY SPARSE, BUT MARCH IS CHOCK FULL OF WEREWOLVES!
Umbrella's February titles are now available (as of 02/06), but sadly there really weren't any new Cult, Horror, or Ozploitation films released. However, that doesn't mean that there's nothing worth mentioning! IN LIKE FLYNN has future movie star Errol Flynn (Thomas Cocquerel) on a quest for gold in Papau, New Guinea while WALKABOUT has two orphaned kids being rescued by a young Aborigine boy.
March is much more promising with the release of the completely bonkers HOWLING III: THE MARSUPIALS (which was recently released here in the States by Scream Factory) along with the HOWLING COLLECTION on DVD (which contains HOWLING III, IV, V, and VI: THE FREAKS)!
Also coming to DVD & Blu-ray in March are two family classics: STORM BOY, the enchanting story of a kid and his pet pelican, and WATERSHIP DOWN, which is a (not so) cute tale of warring bunnies! To learn more about these Umbrella titles, and two see the full list of all their new February and March releases, please continue reading!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
* On April 3rd, Umbrella is bringing THE NAVIGATOR: A MEDIEVAL ODYSSEY to Blu-ray with an audio commentary, an interview featurette with director Vincent Ward, trailer, and still gallery! This film will also be available on a bare bones DVD release.
* Also due out on April 3rd is DEATH WARMED OVER! This forgotten cult revenge flick comes to Blu-ray with a smattering of cool extras, including: Director's commentary, cast & crew interviews, the original New Zealand VHS cut, trailers, and more! This title will also be available on (bare bones) DVD.
* MAD DOG MORGAN joins Umbrella's Ozploitation Classics line on April 3rd, and gets the royal treatment on Blu-ray! Two audio commentaries, a making-of featurette, interviews, trailers, and more!
FEBRUARY 6, 2019
IN LIKE FLYNN (2018)
Synopsis: In 1930, before Errol Flynn (Thomas Cocquerel) became one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood, a young Errol, braving cannibals and crocodiles, searched the jungles of Papua New Guinea for his Eldorado. While serving as a guide for a Hollywood producer, Errol discovers a map on a dead prospector that he believes will lead to a fortune in gold.
Back on the streets of Depression-era Sydney, Flynn rounds up a ragtag crew to help him find the gold, including Rx, a Canadian ex-bootlegger, Dook, an English gentleman handy with a pistol and Charlie, a grizzled old salt. After stealing the Sirocco, a yacht belonging to Chinese Opium smugglers, Flynn and crew set sail.
They quickly learn just how perilous a voyage up the Australian east coast can be, running afoul of drunken cowboys, corrupt cops and local thugs before being intercepted by the Chinese smugglers, who are hell-bent on retrieving their Sirocco and the several pounds of opium stashed in the hold.
As Flynn and crew make a final dash for New Guinea they encounter their greatest foe yet, nature itself and sail straight into a treacherous reef. IN LIKE FLYNN is a mythical and satirical coming-of-age story about four men on a journey to find hope, adventure and fortune in an age when the world was spiralling into despair.
Disc Specs:
Rated MA | Color | 98 minutes | Region 4
Video - 480p Widescreen (16:9)
Audio - 5.1 Dolby Digital
Synopsis: Under the pretence of having a picnic, a geologist (John Meillon - CROCODILE DUNDEE) takes his teenage daughter (Jenny Agutter - The Avengers) and 6-year-old son (Lucien John - WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN) into the Australian outback and attempts to shoot them.
When he fails, he turns the gun on himself, and the two city-bred children must contend with harsh wilderness alone. They are saved by a chance encounter with an Aborigine boy (David Gulpilil - STORM BOY) who helps them survive, and in the process underscores the disharmony between nature and modern life.
Disc Specs:
Rated M | Color | 101 minutes | Region B
Video - 1080p Widescreen (16:9)
Audio - 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
Extras:
Audio commentary.
ORDER "WALKABOUT" FROM UMBRELLA ENTERTAINMENT ON DVD OR BLU-RAY!
Synopsis: A strange race of human-like marsupials appears suddenly in Australia
and begins to create havoc. A sociologist who studies these strange
creatures falls in love with a beautiful woman who happens to be
marsupial.
Could this be a combination far too dangerous for the world
to see? The "Howling" terror continues...
Disc Specs:
Rated M | Color | 98 minutes | Region Free
Video - 1080p Widescreen (16:9)
Audio - 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Extras:
Audio Commentaries with Director Philippe Mora.
COLONIAL LYCANTHROPY: A Conversation with Philippe Mora.
Extended NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD interviews with Director Philippe Mora and Special Effects Artist Bob McCarron.
Synopses: This four-disc set contains the remainder of the original HOWLING franchise!
HOWLING III: THE MARSUPIALS - A strange race of
human-like marsupials appear suddenly in Australia, and a sociologist
who studies these creatures falls in love with a female one. Is this a
dangerous combination?
HOWLING IV: THE ORIGINAL NIGHTMARE - A successful author moves to a new town after suffering a mental breakdown and is tormented by demons and werewolves.
HOWLING V: THE REBIRTH - A group of strangers visit an ancient Hungarian castle and bring along a werewolf.
HOWLING VI: THE FREAKS - A villainous carnival owner traps a young werewolf to include in his growing menagerie of inhuman exhibits.
Disc Specs:
Rated M | Color | 390 minutes (total run-time) | Region Free
Video - 480p Widescreen (16:9)
Audio - ?
Synopsis: Storm Boy (Greg Rowe - BLUE FIN) lives with his recluse father, Tom (Peter Cummins - RETURN TO SNOWY RIVER) on South Australia's lonely and beautiful coast. Here his free spirit roams with his pet pelican, Mr. Percival, and his secret Aboriginal friend, Fingerbone Bill (David Gulpilil - CARGO).
He knows no other world. Suddenly there are intruders, the local school teacher who wants him to take lessons, a resentful wild-life ranger, duck shooters...
STORM BOY, growing up is forced to choose between a life of continued isolation and the challenges of the outside world.
Disc Specs:
Rated G | Color | 88 minutes | Region Free
Video - 1080p Widescreen (16:9)
Audio - 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
Extras:
STORM BOY theatrical trailer
STORM BOY VHS trailer.
Story Makers: Colin Thiele - 1988 documentary on the authour of Storm Boy.
BLUE FIN (1978) Bonus Feature Film!
Wild Reel: Hardy Kruger & Greg Rowe
Hardy Kruger Profile
BLUE FIN theatrical trailer
ORDER "STORM BOY" FROM UMBRELLA ENTERTAINMENT (DVD | BLU-RAY) OR AMAZON.COM (BLU-RAY)!
WATERSHIP DOWN (1978)
Synopsis: The timeless animation classic based on the best-selling novel by Richard Adams. Nestled among the peaceful meadows of country England lives an idyllic community of rabbits but when warned that their warren will be destroyed, a small group escapes into the unknown countryside in search of a new home.
Led by the visionary Fiver, the courageous Bigwig, the clever Blackberry, and the honourable Hazel, the rabbits face daunting challenges as they struggle to pursue their dream, battling the vicious General Woundwort, the cruel leader of another warren, but also making an unlikely friend - a batty seagull named Kehaar.
Director Martin Rosen brilliantly frames the tale from the rabbits' point of view, while the affecting, painterly animation style further allows the viewer to identify with each character's engrossing journey. Over 40 years since its initial release, WATERSHIP DOWN remains a compelling tale of courage, loyalty and thrilling adventure.
Disc Specs:
Rated PG | Color | 92 minutes | Region B
Video - 1080p Widescreen (16:9)
Audio - 2.0 Mono DTS-HD Master Audio
Extras:
None.
ORDER "WATERSHIP DOWN" FROM UMBRELLA ENTERTAINMENT ON DVD OR BLU-RAY!
As usual, all of the DVDs and mentioned in this post can be ordered directly from UMBRELLA ENTERTAINMENT, and are typically Region Free (unless otherwise noted)!
