Tag: Horror

The horror films House on the Edge of the Park and Wild Beasts, the Italian film compilation Exorcismo: Defying a Dictator & Raising Hell in Post-Franco Spain, and the martial arts flick Fearless Dragons are being released on disc Jan. 27 from MVD Entertainment Group and Severin Films.

For his follow-up to Cannibal Holocaust, director Ruggero Deodato delivered a shocker packed with even more cruelty and controversy, House on the Edge of the Park (1980). More than 40 years later, it remains one of the most disturbing exploitation films of all time and is available on 4K UHD disc for the first time ever in North America. David Hess of The Last House on the Left infamy stars as a charismatic psychopath who — with his equally unhinged sidekick (Giovanni Lombardo Radice of City of the Living Dead) — turns a get-together of chic New Yorkers into an ordeal of class warfare and sexual violence. Annie Belle (Absurd), Christian Borromeo (Tenebrae) and Lorraine De Selle (Wild Beasts) co-star in this classic from the screenwriters of The New York Ripper, now scanned uncut in 4K from the original camera negative with more than three hours of bonus materials. Extras include audio commentary by Bruce Holecheck (Cinema Arcana) and Art Ettinger (Ultra Violent); “The Man Who Loved Women,” an interview with director Ruggero Deodato; “Lights On,” an interview with cinematographer Sergio D’Offizi; “Like a Prairie Dog,” an interview with actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice; “External Beauty & Internal Ugliness,” an archival interview with David Hess; “House Sweet House,” an interview with set designer Antonello Geleng; a photo gallery; and the film’s trailer.

For his final work, “Godfather of Mondo” Franco E. Prosperi (writer/director of Mondo Cane, Africa: Blood and Guts and Goodbye Uncle Tom) took on the “nature strikes back” genre with Wild Beasts, available on 4K UHD disc for the first time ever. In the film, when PCP gets into the water supply of a city zoo, the drug-crazed beasts — including tigers, lions, cheetahs, hyenas and elephants, as well as seeing eye dogs and sewer rats — go berserk and rampage through the streets of Frankfurt. What follows is a terrifying mix of actual animal attacks (supervised by professional circus trainers) and over-the-top ’80s Italian gore. Lorraine De Selle (Cannibal Ferox, House on the Edge of the Park) and Ugo Bologna (Nightmare City) star in the film, newly scanned in 4K from the original camera negative. bonus materials include “Altered Beasts,” an interview with Director Franco E. Prosperi; “Wild Tony,” an interview with actor Tony Di Leo; “Cut After Cut,” an interview with editor/Mondo filmmaker Mario Morra; “The Circus Is in Town,” an interview with animal wrangler Roberto Tiberti’s Son, Carlo Tiberti; “House of Wild Beasts,” a  visit to the home of Franco E. Prosperi; and the film’s trailer.

Exorcismo: Defying a Dictator & Raising Hell in Post-Franco Spain, a 19-film collection on 10 Blu-ray discs, includes the Severin Films documentary Exorcismo: The Transgressive Legacy of Clasificada “S” as well as a 168-page book of essays, stills and posters and more than 21 hours of special features. Under the Franco dictatorship, Spain’s rigid censorship laws controlled all national entertainment. But following Franco’s death in 1975, certain films began to embody a period in Spanish history when cinematic expression became political freedom. Spanish audiences considered these films — featuring graphic explorations of sex, violence and horror — to be a cultural “exorcismo.” These 18 films, including landmark features directed by Eloy de la Iglesia, León Klimovsky, Javier Aguirre and Eugenio Martín, range from those that dared to actively subvert the oppressive regime to productions made during the post-Franco era of ’70s and ’80s exploitation excess. In addition to the doc Exorcismo: The Transgressive Legacy of Clasificada “S” — narrated by Iggy Pop, in which writer/producer/director Alberto Sedano explores the history behind the notorious rating that rocked Spanish culture, changed the face of genre films and left its mark on global cinema forever — films in the collection include Far from the Trees, The Bell from Hell, Creation of the Damned, The Devil’s Exorcist, After… Part One: Can’t You Be Left Alone?, The People Who Own the Dark, Battered Flesh, The Priest, Sins of a Nympho, Dimorfo, Bloody Sex, Morbus, Faces, Triangle of Lust, That House in the Outskirts, Supernatural, Poppers, After… Part Two: Tied Up and Tied Up Well. The majority of the titles in the collection are worldwide Blu-ray premieres scanned in 4K from original camera negatives.

From iconic ’70s Hong Kong studio Goldig Films Ltd. (The Dragon Lives Again, Duel of the 7 Tigers) comes one of the favorite action comedies in the history of the genre, Fearless Dragons, available on Blu-ray Disc in North America for the first time. In the film, when two wily con men — martial arts movie legends Phillip Ko (The Dragon the Hero, The Invincible Armour) and Bryan Leung (Legend of a Fighter, Lightning Kung Fu) — are framed for hijacking a trunkful of charity funds, they join forces to find the real bandits in a wild series of adventures that lead to a final battle ranked among the most exciting two-on-one fight scenes ever. Johnny Wang Lung-Wei (Five Deadly Venoms), Lau Chan (Kung Fu Zombie) and Chin-Lai Sung (The Black Dragon’s Revenge) co-star in this old-school kung fu classic — also known as Two on the Road and The Fearless Jackal — directed by Lee Chiu (Shaolin Avengers), now scanned in 4K from the original camera negative. Bonus materials include audio commentary with Frank Djeng and Michael Worth, co-producers of Enter the Clones of Bruce; “Know a Hero, Respect a Hero,” an interview with director Lee Chiu; “Real Kung Fu,” in which actor Phillip Ko remembers Fearless Dragons; and the trailer.

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