Arrow Video September Titles
The Criterion of cult, Arrow Video, posted their September Blu-ray announcements on Friday, and it’s an interesting mix of giallo, horror, thriller, and weirdo cult films.
Being that Arrow is a British company, keep in mind that not all of their titles will be released both in the U.K. and the U.S., due to distribution rights. However, Arrow always makes it perfectly clear which Blu-rays will be offered in both the U.K. and U.S. versus which ones are U.K. only.
Listed below are the disc descriptions directly from the Arrow Video Facebook page:
UK TITLE: Heathers (DVD & Blu-ray)
Widely acknowledged as a true cult classic of modern American cinema.
Release date: 3 September
Widely acknowledged as a true cult classic of modern American cinema, Heathers has captured the imaginations of troubled teenagers the world over with its acerbic satire of the sugar-coated high school movies of the 1980s…
At Westerburg High School, an elite clique of snobby girls known as “Heathers” reign supreme. Smart and popular, Veronica (Winona Ryder, Stranger Things) is a reluctant member of the gang and disapproves of the other girls’ cruel behaviour. When Veronica and her mysterious new boyfriend, J.D. (Christian Slater, True Romance), play a trick on the clique leader, Heather Chandler (Kim Walker), and accidentally poison her, they make it appear a suicide. But it soon becomes clear to Veronica that J.D. is sociopath intent on vengefully killing the school’s popular students. She races to stop J.D., clashing with the clique’s new leader, Heather Duke (Shannen Doherty), and leading to an explosive final confrontation with her troubled former lover.
Directed by Michael Lehmann, Heathers pushed the teen comedy into dark and nightmarish territory and is distinguished by the career defining central performances of its stars Winona Ryder and Christian Slater. The film is presented here in an exclusive 30th Anniversary 4K restoration with a wealth of extra material, providing unprecedented insight into the making of this hilarious and shocking film.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- New restoration from a 4K scan of the original camera negative by Arrow Films
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original 1.0 mono audio and optional 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary by director Michael Lehmann, producer Denise Di Novi and writer Daniel Waters
- Newly filmed interview with director Michael Lehmann
- A newly filmed appreciation by the writer, actor and comedian John Ross Bowie (The Big Bang Theory)
- Pizzicato Croquet, composer David Newman and director Michael Lehmann discuss the music of Heathers
- How Very: The Art and Design of Heathers, production designer Jon Hutman, art director Kara Lindstrom and director Michael Lehmann discuss the look of Heathers
- Casting Westerberg High, casting director Julie Selzer discusses the casting process for Heathers
- Poor Little Heather, a new interview with actress Lisanne Falk
- Swatch Dogs and Diet Coke Heads, an archival featurette with extensive cast and crew interviews providing an in-depth look at the making of Heathers
- Return to Westerberg High, an archival featurette providing further insight into the film’s production
- Original trailers
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Robert Sammelin
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Bidisha, Anna Bogutskaya and an archival interview with cinematographer Francis Kenny
UK TITLE: Incident in a Ghostland (DVD & Blu-ray)
A terrifying excursion into abject horror from Martyrs director Pascal Laugier.
Release date: 3 September
From director Pascal Laugier, who in 2008 shocked audiences around the world with his gruelling genre game-changer Martyrs, comes Incident in a Ghostland – a terrifying excursion into abject horror filled with creepy antique dolls, murderous maniacs and thrilling jump scares.
The subject of a brutal home invasion along with her mother and sister several years ago, horror novelist Beth has found solace in her writing – detailing the harrowing ordeal in her latest book, “Incident in a Ghostland”. But when she receives a call from her sister Vera, apparently in a state of extreme distress, Beth is prompted to return to the isolated family home where the terrifying truth of that awful night soon begins to unravel…
Combining the intensity of Martyrs with the spine-tingling chills of his later The Tall Man, Incident in a Ghostland confirms director Pascal Laugier’s status as a fully-fledged master of horror, having scooped up numerous awards on the film festival circuit and now finding its rightful home on Blu-ray with Arrow Video.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Uncompressed 5.1 and Stereo audio options
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Exclusive, newly-produced interview with writer-director Pascal Laugier
- The Phantom Image – feature-length documentary taking a look behind-the-scenes of Incident in a Ghostland
- Interviews with actors Crystal Reed, Emilia Jones and director Pascal Laugier
- Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring two artwork options
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Alan Jones
UK/US/CAN TITLE: Horrors of Malformed Men (Blu-ray)
A unique oddity of Japanese cult cinema.
Release date: 17/18 September
Cult director Teruo Ishii (Shogun’s Joy of Torture, Blind Woman’s Curse) presents a nightmarish, hallucinogenic tale drawn from the fevered imagination of Japan’s celebrated pioneer ofero-guro (“erotic grotesque”) literature, Edogawa Rampo.
Medical student Hirosuke Hitomi slips out of the asylum in which he has been wrongfully confined and stealthily assumes the identity of a recently deceased nobleman with whom he bears an uncanny resemblance. Hirosuke eases his way into the nobleman’s household and his dead double’s marital bed. But as long-repressed memories begin to bubble to the surface, he soon finds himself drawn to a remote isle where he is confronted by a mad scientist and his malformed men, and discovers the key that will unlock some long-suppressed mysteries of his own.
A dark labyrinth of the monstrous and perverse that fuses mystery and horror while incorporating motifs from a myriad of Rampo’s tales, Horrors of Malformed Men boasts astonishing carnivalesque art design and haunting performances. Withdrawn from cinemas by its own studio after its original scandalous release nearly fifty years ago, the film is among the very best screen interpretations of the author’s macabre brand of horror-fantasy fiction, and a unique oddity of Japanese cult cinema.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- Brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original negative
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
- Uncompressed mono 1.0 PCM audio
- Newly translated optional English subtitles
- Two audio commentaries by Japanese cinema experts Tom Mes and Mark Schilling
- Malformed Movies: a new video interview with Toei exploitation movie screenwriter Masahiro Kakefuda
- Malformed Memories: Filmmakers Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo the Iron Man) and Minoru Kawasaki (The Calamari Wrestler) on the career of director Teruo Ishii
- Ishii in Italia: Ishii and Mark Schilling visit the Far East Film Festival
- Image Gallery
- Theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Dan Mumford
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Jasper Sharp, Tom Mes and Grady Hendrix
UK/US/CAN TITLE: The Pyjama Girl Case (Blu-ray)
A uniquely haunting latter-day giallo from the tail end of the genre’s boom period
Release date: 17/18 September
Throughout the late 1960s and into the 70s, the Italian giallo movement transported viewers to the far corners of the globe, from swinging San Francisco to the Soviet-occupied Prague. Only one, however, brought the genre’s unique brand of bloody mayhem as far as Australia: director Flavio Mogherini (Delitto passionale)’s tragic and poetic The Pyjama Girl Case.
The body of a young woman is found on the beach, shot in the head, burned to hide her identity and dressed in distinctive yellow pyjamas. With the Sydney police stumped, former Inspector Timpson (Ray Milland, Dial M for Murder) comes out of retirement to crack the case. Treading where the “real” detectives can’t, Timpson doggedly pieces together the sad story of Dutch immigrant Glenda Blythe (Dalila Di Lazzaro, Phenomena) and the unhappy chain of events which led to her grisly demise.
Inspired by the real-life case which baffled the Australian police and continues to spark controversy and unanswered questions to this day, The Pyjama Girl Case is a uniquely haunting latter-day giallo from the tail end of the genre’s boom period, co-starring Michele Placido (director of Romanzo Criminale) and Howard Ross (The New York Ripper), and featuring a memorably melancholic score by veteran composer Riz Ortolani (Don’t Torture a Duckling).
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- Brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original lossless mono Italian and English soundtracks
- Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
- New audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films
- New video interview with author and critic Michael Mackenzie on the internationalism of the giallo
- New video interview with actor Howard Ross
- New video interview with editor Alberto Tagliavia
- Archival interview with composer Riz Ortolani
- Image gallery
- Italian theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
UK/US/CAN TITLE: The Baby (Blu-ray)
One of the most bizarre horror movies ever committed to celluloid.
Release date: 24/25 September
Still traumatised by the loss of her husband, well-meaning social worker Ann Gentry (Anjanette Comer, The Loved One) throws herself into her latest assignment: the case of “Baby”, a 21-year-old man with the mind of an infant – who crawls, cries and has yet to make it out of nappies. But Baby’s family – the tyrannical “Mama” Wadsworth (Ruth Roman, Strangers on a Train) and her two demented daughters – aren’t the only ones with a warped conception of familial relations, and the full horror only begins when Ann sets her sights on liberating the drooling man-child… and in so doing unleashes the wrath of the Wadsworth women.
45 years after its original release, this film remains one of the most bizarre horror movies ever committed to celluloid. Directed by Ted Post (Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Magnum Force) and co-starring Marianna Hill (Blood Beach, Messiah of Evil), The Baby is a twisted, psychedelic nightmare of suburban depravity.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- 1.85:1 and 1.33:1 versions of the feature
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original uncompressed PCM mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary by Travis Crawford
- Down Will Come Baby – a new retrospective with film professor Rebekah McKendry
- Tales from the Crib – archival audio Interview with director Ted Post
- Baby Talk – archival audio Interview with Star David Mooney
- Theatrical Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by The Twins of Evil
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Kat Ellinger
US/CAN TITLE: The Day of the Jackal (Blu-ray)
A nail-biting cinematic experience and one of the greatest political thrillers of all time
Release date: 25 September
In 1971, Frederick Forsyth shot to bestseller status with his debut novel, The Day of the Jackal – taut, utterly plausible, almost documentarian in its realism and attention to detail. Two years later, director Fred Zinnemann (High Noon) turned a gripping novel into a nail-biting cinematic experience.
August 1962: the latest attempt on the life of French President Charles de Gaulle by the far right paramilitary organization, the OAS, ends in chaos, with its architect-in-chief dead at the hands of a firing squad. Demoralized and on the verge of bankruptcy, the OAS leaders meet in secret to plan their next move. In a last desperate attempt to eliminate de Gaulle, they opt to employ the services of a hired assassin from outside the fold. Enter the Jackal (Edward Fox, Ghandi): charismatic, calculating, cold as ice. As the Jackal closes in on his target, a race against the clock ensues to identify and put a stop to a killer whose identity, whereabouts and modus operandi are completely unknown.
Co-starring a plethora of talent, including Michael Lonsdale (Munich), Derek Jacobi (The Odessa File) and Cyril Cusack (1984) and featuring striking cinematography by Jean Tournier (Moonraker), The Day of the Jackal remains one of the greatest political thrillers of all time.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Original uncompressed 1.0 mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- New interview with Neil Sinyard, author of Fred Zinnemann: Films of Character and Conscience
- Two rare archival clips from the film set, including an interview with Fred Zinnemann
- Theatrical trailer
- Original screenplay by Kenneth Ross (BD-ROM content)
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by critic Mark Cunliffe and film historian Sheldon Hall
