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“ROBOWAR,” “NIGHT KILLER,” “THE BEAST IN HEAT”—more Italian insanity from Severin!

Thursday, May 16, 2019 | Blu-ray/DVD, News

By MICHAEL GINGOLD

Following up on their previous releases of ZOMBIE 3 and 4 and SHOCKING DARK, Severin Films has two additional spaghetti shockers from Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso coming on Blu-ray, plus a WWII atrocity flick. Jump past the jump for full details, cover art and a trailer.

Arriving June 25 (with DVDs also available) are: ROBOWAR, a jungle-set ROBCOP/PREDATOR knockoff directed by Mattei and scripted by Fragasso and Rossella Drudi, starring Reb Brown, Catherine Hickland, Massimo Vanni and Jim Gaines; NIGHT KILLER (pictured above), written and directed by Fragasso with additional gore scenes by Mattei, about a killer with a razor-fingered glove and issued in Italy as TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 3 (!), starring Peter Hooten and Tara Buckman; and THE BEAST IN HEAT, a Nazisploitation opus written and directed by Luigi Batzella. All three have been scanned from the original negative materials, ROBOWAR and NIGHT KILLER in 4K; the special features are:

ROBOWAR:

  • “Robo Predator”: Interview with co-director/co-writer Claudio Fragasso
  • “Italian Rip Off”: Interview with co-writer Rossella Drudi
  • “Violence She Wrote”: Career interview with screenwriter Rossella Drudi
  • “Robo-Lady”: Interview with actress Catherine Hickland
  • “Papa Doc’s War”: Interview with actor John P. Dulaney
  • “The Robowarrior”: Interview with actor Jim Gaines Jr.
  • “War in the Phillipines”: Interview with actor/stuntman Massimo Vanni
  • Catherine Hickland’s behind-the-scenes home movies
  • Trailer

NIGHT KILLER:

  • “The Virginia Claw Massacre”: Interview with director Claudio Fragasso
  • “Mindf*ck”: Interview with screenwriter Rossella Drudi
  • Trailer

THE BEAST IN HEAT:

  • FASCISM ON A THREAD—THE STRANGE STORY OF NAZISPLOITATION CINEMA: A new feature-length documentary featuring interviews with Dyanne “Ilsa” Thorne, Malissa “Elsa” Longo, filmmakers Sergio Garrone, Mariano Caiano, Rino Di Silvestro, Liliana Cavani, Bruno Mattei and many more.
  • “Nazi Nasty”: Interview with Stephen Thrower, author of MURDEROUS PASSIONS
  • Trailer

The first 3,000 units of ROBOWAR will come with a CD containing Al Festa’s score. There are also bundles available for these titles containing exclusive bonus items; head over Severin’s webstore to check ’em out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6naVKZdJDs

Michael Gingold
Michael Gingold (RUE MORGUE's Head Writer) has been covering the world of horror cinema for over three decades, and in addition to his work for RUE MORGUE, he has been a longtime writer and editor for FANGORIA magazine and its website. He has also written for BIRTH.MOVIES.DEATH, SCREAM, IndieWire.com, TIME OUT, DELIRIUM, MOVIEMAKER and others. He is the author of the AD NAUSEAM books (1984 Publishing) and THE FRIGHTFEST GUIDE TO MONSTER MOVIES (FAB Press), and he has contributed documentaries, featurettes and liner notes to numerous Blu-rays, including the award-winning feature-length doc TWISTED TALE: THE UNMAKING OF "SPOOKIES" (Vinegar Syndrome).