When it comes to releasing obscure and cultish titles on DVD and Blu-ray, Mondo Macabro is one of the leaders. The UK-based company has been exposing the wild side of cinema since 2002 and during that time they’ve released some true gems that otherwise would have gone ignored (such as Pasquale Festa Campanile’s The Slave).

Bloody Disgusting is pleased to announce that Mondo Macabro will be presenting for the first time ever on home video a lost classic of Euro-horror cinema, Jose Ramon Larraz’s Symptoms.

Official Press Release:

For years only viewable as a blurry bootleg derived from an early 80s British TV broadcast, this haunting thriller can now be seen as it was intended with a brand new HD transfer of the recently discovered negatives. It’s taken us more than 15 years of searching and negotiating to get here, but with the indispensable assistance of the BFI we can finally bring this film to the world on Blu-ray and DVD.

Symptoms is an intense and claustrophobic study of a woman’s descent into madness and murder. Made in the same years as Larraz’s better known Vampyres with much of the same crew and a similar vibe, Symptoms is more atmospheric and ambiguous, and less exploitative. But it casts a powerful spell and is perhaps the most potent example of director Jose Larraz’s unique style.

Starring Angela Pleasance (From Beyond the Grave) in what is probably her best ever role, Symptoms is a film whose time has finally come. After premiering at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival as the official UK entry and a brief theatrical run, the film sank into almost complete obscurity until being rescued from oblivion by books like Tohill and Tombs’ Immoral Tales and the ever-diligent video underground. With this stunning new blu ray release Symptoms can now be seen as the masterpiece of 70s horror that it truly is.

Mondo Macabro’s Blu-ray and DVD releases will be out in early spring, and will include the following extras:

• The 2011 documentary on Jose Larraz, ON VAMPYRES AND OTHER SYMPTOMS
• FROM BARCELONA to TUNBRIDGE WELLS, a 1999 TV documentary on Larraz, part of the EUROTIKA! series
• New interviews with stars Angela Pleasence and Lorna Heilbron and editor Brian Smedley-Aston

The retail version of this release will be preceded by a limited, numbered version (500 copies only) with exclusive extras, only available through our webstore MondoMacabro.BigCartel.com