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‘Dead-End Drive-In’ and More Coming From Arrow Video in September!
Arrow Video has released their September lineup and it’s glorious. Three titles are coming to Blu-ray in the month of September – Dead-End Drive-In, The Hills Have Eyes and Slugs. These are three films you need in your collection, especially Dead-End Drive-In, which is an underrated classic. And now with The Hills Have Eyes we should finally have a proper Blu-ray of that Craven gem. Full details below!
Dead-End Drive-In [Blu-ray] (September 20th)
THE PRICE OF ADMISSION IS THE REST OF YOUR LIFE
One of Quentin Tarantino’s favourite directors, Brian Trenchard-Smith was a key figure in the Ozploitation movement, responsible for The Man from Hong Kong, Stunt Rock, Turkey Shoot, BMX Bandits… and dystopian cult classic Dead-End Drive-In!
Set in a near-future where the economy has crumbled and violent gangs play havoc in the streets, the powers-that-be have decided to lure the delinquent youth into drive-in cinemas and keep them there. No longer just a place to watch trashy movies and make out, these outdoor picture shows have become concentration camps for the unruly and unwanted.
With its day-glo colour scheme, new wave soundtrack and extraordinary stunt work, Dead-End Drive-In is in the tradition of Ozploitation milestones Mad Max and The Cars That Ate Paris only very, very eighties.
Bonus Materials
* Brand new 2K restoration from original film materials
* High Definition (1080p) Presentation
* Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
* Audio commentary by director Brian Trenchard-Smith
* The Stuntmen, Trenchard Smith’s classic television documentary on Grant Page (Mad Max, Road Games) and other Australian stunt performers
* Hospitals Don’t Burn Down, Trenchard-Smith’s 1978 public information film told in pure Ozploitation fashion
* Behind-the-scenes gallery by graffiti artist Vladimir Cherepanoff
* Theatrical Trailer
* Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon
The Hills Have Eyes [Blu-ray] (September 27th)THE LUCKY ONES DIED FIRST
Horror master Wes Craven achieved critical and commercial success with the likes of Scream and A Nightmare on Elm Street – but for many genre fans, the director’s seminal 1977 effort The Hills Have Eyes remains his masterpiece.
Taking a detour whilst on route to Los Angeles, the Carter family run into trouble when their camper van breaks down in the middle of the desert. Stranded, the family find themselves at the mercy of a group of monstrous cannibals lurking in the surrounding hills. With their lives under threat, the Carters are forced to fight back by any means necessary.
As grueling a viewing experience today as it was upon initial release, The Hills Have Eyes stands alongside the likes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Night of the Living Dead as one of the defining moments in American horror cinema.
Limited Edition Contents
* Brand new 4K restoration of the film, supervised by producer Peter Locke and viewable with both original and alternate endings
* High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
* Original Uncompressed PCM Mono Audio
* Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
* 6 Postcards
* Reversible Fold-out Poster
* Limited Edition 40-page booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Brad Stevens and a consideration of the Hills franchise by disc producer Ewan Cant, illustrated with original archive stills and posters
* Brand new audio commentary with actors Michael Berryman, Janus Blythe, Susan Lanier and Martin Speer
* Brand new audio commentary by academic Mikel J. Koven
* Audio commentary with Wes Craven and Peter Locke
* Looking Back on The Hills Have Eyes – making-of documentary featuring interviews with Wes Craven, Peter Locke, actors Michael Berryman, Janus Blythe, Robert Houston, Susan Lanier, Dee Wallace and director of photography Eric Saarinen
* Brand new interview with actor Martin Speer
* The Desert Sessions – brand new interview with composer Don Peake
* Never-before-seen Outtakes
* Alternate Ending, in HD for the first time
* Trailers and TV Spots
* Image Gallery
* Original Screenplay (BD-ROM Content)
* Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Paul Shipper
Slugs [Blu-ray] (September 27th)THEY SLIME. THEY OOZE. THEY KILL.
From celebrated Spanish director Juan Piquer Simon, the man behind the truly demented slasher flick Pieces (1982), comes a terrifying tale of mutant slugs on the rampage in small-town America. The townsfolk of a rural community are dying in strange and gruesome circumstances. Following the trail of horrifically mutilated cadavers, resident health inspector Mike Brady is on the case to piece together the mystery. He soon comes to a terrifying conclusion – giant slugs are breeding in the sewers beneath the town, and they’re making a meal of the locals! Based on the novel by acclaimed British horror author Shaun Hutson, Slugs outdoes its creature feature peers by adding an extra dose of gross-out gore into the equation, culminating in one of the most squirm-inducing animal attack movies ever to slither its way across screens.
Special Edition Contents
* Brand new restoration from original film elements
* High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
* Original Uncompressed PCM Mono Audio
* Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
* Audio commentary with Slugs author Shaun Hutson
* Audio commentary with writer and filmmaker Chris Alexander
* Here’s Slugs in Your Eye – an interview with actor Emilio Linder
* They Slime, They Ooze, They Kill: The Effects of Slugs – an interview with special effects artist Carlo De Marchis
* Invasion USA – an interview with art director Gonzalo Gonzalo
* The Lyons Den – an interview and locations tour with production manager Larry Ann Evans
* 1988 Goya Awards promo reel
* Trailer
* Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Wes Benscoter
Night School, director Ken Hughes and writer Ruth Avergon‘s tale of a headhunting slasher on the streets of Boston, arrived in the early Golden Age of the slasher film and never quite broke through the endurance test that other films in the subgenre, like Friday the 13th, managed to pass with flying colors. Blame it on a more cerebral tone, a crowded market, whatever you like, but saying it’s a shame that the film didn’t break through doesn’t begin to cover it.
Night School isn’t just an underrated slasher, or an underseen one. For my money, it’s one of the best films the subgenre has ever produced, full stop, and Vinegar Syndrome’s new 4K UHD restoration, arriving just in time for the film’s 45th anniversary, is must-have proof. Stacked with special features highlighting the craft of the film and its place in slasher history, and headlined by a gorgeous restoration showcasing the wonderfully textured production, this is Night School as it’s meant to be seen for slasher devotees everywhere.
So, what makes the film so effective? It starts very simply, with the revelation that a killer with a very cool knife and a motorcycle helmet as a mask is murdering young women in Boston, taking off their heads, and dropping those heads in the nearest body of water (no matter how small).
Solving the case falls on Judd Austin (Leonard Mann), a detective with an academic background who traces all of the victims in one way or another back to a local night school. There, suspicion falls on a womanizing professor (Drew Snyder) who sleeps around on his research assistant and romantic partner, Eleanor (Rachel Ward), whose own death could be right around the corner.
I’m doing my best to stay as spoiler-free as possible here, not just because I think plenty of slasher fans still need to see Night School, but because the film is quite determined to be a whodunit in the classic Italian giallo sense. The kills are brutal and elaborate, the killer deliberately covered head-to-toe in leather and a gleaming black helmet, the knife and the headhunting a disturbing signature. Avergon’s script is well-versed in the trappings of exactly this kind of story, complete with red herrings galore. And yet, by the time it’s all wrapping up, there’s also the sense that the answer was right there in front of you the entire time, something the very best films by legends like Mario Bava and Dario Argento could also achieve.
But on to the restoration: Like the best of the gialli, Night School is also a beautifully engineered film full of colors and delicate camera compositions and sound design. The opening kill, which takes place on a playground carousel outside of a daycare, is rich in exactly this kind of thing, from the cityscapes that lead into the scene to the sound of a motorcycle slowly rolling forward, its engine already dead. Cinematographer Mark Irwin, best known for his many collaborations with David Cronenberg, paints the film in rich reds, absinthe greens, and haunting, chilled blue-white light on wet Boston streets, all of which are preserved beautifully by the restoration team at work on this one.
It’s a movie that very deliberately evokes a specific place – the aging streets of Boston in the 1980s, and the halls of relatively low-level academia – and then takes that place into haunted territory, saturating every frame with color and shadow that suggests a killer lurking just out of view.
Night School is not a massively gore-heavy film, but it does deliver the slasher goods with a series of tense, often unpredictable kills and body discoveries that range from the darkly comic to the flat-out jaw-dropping. That’s thanks to the sound design, the score, the editing from Robert Reitano, and more, all of which add to the film’s giallo soul.
In every case, the scene’s geography is outstanding, and it’s easy to see where the simplest possible kill shot might land, but the film never goes for the obvious. Throw in a surprisingly (for 1981, anyway) feminist bent to the storytelling and some very progressive moments for an early slasher film, and this one fits right in with Black Christmas and The Slumber Party Massacre as a film with depth you can just keep unpacking.
That depth, helped along by a load of featurettes and two new commentary tracks featuring members of the crew, is what stands out the most in this new 4K set. Night School may be a niche film recognized mostly by horror addicts and the slasher faithful, but it deserves to be something more, a landmark on the roadmap of slasher cinema history. It’s one of the best in the genre, and this restoration highlights, underlines, and shouts that from the rooftops.
Night School is now available in 4K UHD from Vinegar Syndrome.
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