The month will usher in the wider 3-disc release of Paul Morrissey’s vampire masterpiece BLOOD FOR DRACULA, and a pair of Blu-ray premieres: AN ANGEL FOR SATAN, Barbara Steele’s final Italian gothic chiller (hitting home video for the first time ever), and a Jess Franco noir double-feature, DEATH WHISTLES THE BLUES and RIFIFI IN THE CITY. Rounding out the Samhain slate rounding out the Samhain slate are the wide releases of Guy Magar’s video-era horror hit RETRIBUTION and mad maestro Claudio Fragasso’s BEYOND DARKNESS. Read on for full details!
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AN ANGEL FOR SATAN:
In the final film of her Italian Gothic period, the legendary Barbara Steele (BLACK SUNDAY) stars in one of the most startling erotic shockers of her entire career: When a cursed statue is recovered from a villa’s lake, a young heiress (Steele) will inflict a torrent of depraved seduction and homicidal madness on the local village. Anthony
Steffen (THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE), Claudio Gora (DANGER: DIABOLIK) and Marina Berti (NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS) co-star in “a EuroHorror classic featuring Steele in all her mid-‘60s glory” (DVD Drive-In), co-written and directed by Camillo Mastrocinque (CRYPT OF THE VAMPIRE) and scanned in 2K from the original negative – with both the Italian and thought-lost English tracks – recently discovered in a Rome vault.
Special Features:
● Audio Commentary With Actress Barbara Steele And Horror Film Historian David Del Valle
● Audio Commentary With Kat Ellinger, Author Of “Daughters Of Darkness”
● The Devil Statue — Interview With Actor Vassili Karis
● Barbara & Her Furs — 1967 Short Film By Pierre Andro Based On “Venus In Furs” Starring Barbara Steele With Optional Partial Commentary By Steele
● Trailer
● Extended Trailer
FRANCO NOIR DOUBLE FEATURE:
Following his international breakthrough with THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF, director Jess Franco next delivered a startling pair of crime-thrillers that pistol-whipped European notions of film noir while lighting the fuse on Uncle Jess’ own insane aesthetic. Set in New Orleans and based on a novel by the authors of VERTIGO, DEATH WHISTLES THE BLUES is a hard-boiled tale of betrayal, violence and revenge featuring smoky jazz compositions by Franco himself. Jean Servais of RIFIFI fame stars in RIFIFI IN THE CITY, a nihilistic trip through a pulp underworld of thugs, snitches, nightclub dames and black-gloved giallo-style murders. Both films – which led an impressed Orson Welles to hire Franco as his assistant on CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT – now feature HD scans from the original negatives for the first time ever.
Special Features:
● Franco Noir — Interview With Stephen Thrower, Author Of “Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema Of Jesús Franco” (67 mins)
BLOOD FOR DRACULA UHD/BLU-RAY COMBO:
Immediately after completing FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN, writer/director Paul Morrissey and star Udo Kier created what remains sumptuously depraved Euroshocker, cunning political allegory and “wickedly funny horror that obliterates the line between art and bad taste” (Pop Culture Beast): Desperate for virgin blood, Count Dracula – Kier in the performance Flavorwire calls “one of cinema’s Top 5 best Draculas” – journeys to an Italian villa only to discover the family’s three young daughters are also coveted by the estate’s Marxist stud (Joe Dallesandro of Morrissey’s FLESH, TRASH and HEAT). Stefania Casini (SUSPIRIA) and BICYCLE THIEVES director Vittorio De Sica co-star – with an unforgettable cameo by Roman Polanski – in “one of the most unique vampire films in history” (Oh, The Horror!), now scanned uncut in 4K from the original negative for the first time ever.
Special Features:
● Exclusive slip case
● Trans-Human Flesh and Blood – Interview with Director Paul Morrissey
● Rubinia’s Homecoming – Interview & Location Visit with Actress Stefania Casini
● Blood For Udo – Interview with Actor Udo Kier
● Little Big Joe – Interview with Actor Joe Dallesandro
● Conversation With A Vampire – Audio Interview with Actress Milena Vukotic
● Bloodthirsty – Interview with Assistant Director Paolo Pietrangeli
● Black Cherry – Interview with Art Director Gianni Giovagnoni
● The Blood Of These Whores… – Interview with “Murderous Passions” Author Stephen Thrower
● Sad, Romantic Dracula – Interview with Soundtrack Composer Claudio Gizzi
● The Roman Connection – Interview with Producer Andrew Braunsberg
● Trailers
● CD SOUNDTRACK – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Composed, Orchestrated, and Conducted by Claudio Gizzi
RETRIBUTION:
For his 1987 feature film debut, co-writer/director Guy Magar delivered what Bleeding Skull hails as “relentless, squishy joy that makes us angry we’ve lived this long without having seen it”: On the seedy side of Hollywood, an emotionally fragile painter miraculously survives a horrific suicide attempt. But when a series of grisly murders rocks the city, he discovers he may be possessed by the vengeful spirit of a murdered local hoodlum. Dennis Lipscomb (EYES OF FIRE), Leslie Wing (THE FRIGHTENERS), Suzanne Snyder (WEIRD SCIENCE) and Hoyt Axton (GREMLINS) star in this “great lost gem with jaw-droppingly inventive splatter” (Blood Capsules) featuring a terrific score by Alan Howarth (THEY LIVE, PRINCE OF DARKNESS), now scanned in 2K from recently discovered pre-print elements with 2+ hours of all-new Special Features.
Special Features:
● Theatrical Cut Version + Extended Dutch Video Release Version
● Audio Commentary with Co-Writer/Director Guy Magar
● Writing Wrongs – Interview with Co-Writer Lee Wasserman
● Shock Therapy – Interview with Actress Leslie Wing
● Angel’s Heart – Interview with Actress Suzanne Snyder
● Santa Maria, Mother Of God, Help Me! – Interview with Actor Mike Muscat
● Settling The Score – Interview with Soundtrack Composer Alan Howarth
● Visions Of Vengeance – Interview with Special Effects Artist John Eggett
● The Art Of Getting Even – Interview with Artist Barry Fahr
● Living In Oblivion – Interview with Production Designer Robb Wilson King
● BINGO – Student Short by Guy Magar with Optional Director Commentary
● Stills & Poster Gallery
● Trailer
● CD SOUNDTRACK
BEYOND DARKNESS
Shortly after completing TROLL 2, writer/director Claudio Fragasso and co-writer Rossella Drudi (SHOCKING DARK) returned to America to combine elements of THE EXORCIST, POLTERGEIST, THE BEYOND and their own insane aesthetic for what critics – and Fragasso/Drudi themselves – consider to be their horror masterpiece: When a Satanic child killer is executed, she transforms the new home of a young reverend and his family into a portal to Hell. Gene LeBrock (METAMORPHOSIS), David Brandon (CALIGULA 2) and Michael Stephenson (child star of TROLL 2 and director of BEST WORST MOVIE) star in this “batsh*t crazy good time” (EuroCult AV) shot by Joe D’Amato with costumes by Laura Gemser, an epic score by Carlo Maria Cordio (NIGHT KILLER) and released in Italy as EVIL DEAD 5, now featuring new interviews produced exclusively for this edition.
Special Features:
● Beyond Possession – Interview with Director/Co-Writer Claudio Fragasso
● The Devil In Mrs. Drudi – Interview with Co-Writer Rossella Drudi
● Sign Of The Cross – Interview with Actor David Brandon
● Trailer
● CD SOUNDTRACK
For full specs and to pre-order, please visit the Severin Films website.
