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New to Blu – Week of 1/19/2016
Each week here at Bloody Disgusting we like to highlight some of the new Blu-ray releases hitting shelves across the world. Please note that this isn’t every release for the week, just a few of the ones that jumped out at us.
Some good releases in the US and UK this week. In particular I’m looking forward to Scream Factory’s release of The Guardian and Arrow’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Luther the Geek interests me quite a bit as well. Sounds like the type of weird cinema Vinegar Syndrome is known for.
US Releases
Nightmare Weekend (Vinegar Syndrome, Region Free)
Synopsis:
A maniacally evil woman manipulates a computer and uses it to warp people’s minds and turn them into crazed mutanoid zombies.
The Guardian (Scream Factory, Region A)
Synopsis:
William Friedkin, the Academy Award-winning director of THE EXORCIST, delivers a new kind of fairy tale for adults. When a wealthy young couple (Carey Lowell and Dwier Brown) hires a beautiful nanny (Jenny Seagrove) for their newborn baby, the cradle will rock with a secret of unspeakable horror. Based upon the bestselling novel THE NANNY, and featuring gruesome state-of-the-art special effects, THE GUARDIAN is a classic chiller of erotic intrigue and shocking twists.
The Ice Pirates (Warner Archive, Region A)
Synopsis:
In the far future water is the most valuable substance. Two space pirates are captured, sold to a princess, and recruited to help her find her father who disappeared when he found information dangerous to the rulers. A real Space Opera with sword fights, explosions, fighting robots, monsters, bar fights and time warps.
Harlock: Space Pirate (Twilight Time, Region A)
Synopsis:
In the future, mankind has discovered a way to travel faster than light and has built colonies on thousands of planets. But even the resources of the universe are starting to dwindle, so five hundred billion humans begin the long journey back home. The desire to repopulate Earth starts the so-called Coming Home War, until the universal government of the Gaia Coalition declares Earth a sacred, and thus inaccessible, place. In this dying universe, the space pirate Captain Harlock travels with his immensely powerful flagship, the Arcadia, to fulfill a mysterious purpose. The young Yama, brother of the Fleet Commander Ezra, is chosen to infiltrate the Arcadia’s crew and discover the objective of the pirate captain.
Luther the Geek (Vinegar Syndrome, Region A)
Synopsis:
As a child, Luther Watts was deeply affected by seeing a circus geek (someone who bites the heads off live chickens in a circus sideshow). Finally paroled after serving 20 years in prison, he terrorizes the residents of his hometown by making chicken noises, crowing like a rooster and attacking people. He winds up at a farm run by a woman and her daughter, where he takes them captive and then starts killing off her neighbors. The mother realizes she and her daughter must escape before he kills them, too.
UK Releases
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Arrow, Region B)
Synopsis:
Fun-loving bombshells Kelly, Casey and Pet have a rock band, and they’re headed to Hollywood to make it big. Thanks to Kelly’s well-connected aunt, they soon find themselves at a hedonistic love-in thrown by eccentric music promoter Ronnie “Z-Man” Barzell. He takes them under his wing, and a new world of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll unfolds. Superstardom is within reach, if only their newfound distractions don’t get in the way!
The Ninja Trilogy (Eureka, Region B)
Synopsis:
Enter the Ninja (1981)
Franco Nero plays a westerner initiated into the arts and life of a ninja. A wealthy farmer engages Nero’s services to defend him from the evil intentions of an oil baron and his band of thugs. Because he is an American, and good at his trade, he is hated by his Japanese rivals and the feet and fists start flying.
Revenge of the Ninja (1983)
Martial arts action thriller. After his family is killed by ninjas in his homeland of Japan, Cho Osaki (Shô Kosugi) travels to America to make a new life for himself. His first job, however, involves working unwittingly as a front for drug smugglers, a situation which leads him on a collision course of deadly proportions.
Ninja III: The Domination (1984)
The body of a sexy aerobics instructor is invaded by the evil spirit of a dying ninja. At first, changes in her behavior is limited to having strange interactions with an arcade game, doing sexy things with V8 juice, and being attracted to an unusually hairy police officer. But soon enough, she’s systematically killing, ninja-style, the officers responsible for the ninja’s death, and can only be stopped by another ninja!
Blade II (Zavvi Steelbook, Region B)
Synopsis:
Blade forms an uneasy alliance with the vampire council in order to combat the Reaper vampires who feed on vampires.
Blade Trinity (Zavvi Steelbook, Region B)
Synopsis:
Deep in a remote desert, vampire leaders are resurrecting Dracula, the horrific creature who spawned their race. Now known as Drake, this awesome vampire has unique powers that allow him to exist in daylight. To make things even more difficult for Blade, the vampiric leadership launches a smear campaign against him, targeting him as a murderous monster and sendingthe FBI after him. After Blade and his mentor, Whistler, have an explosive showdown with FBI agent Cumberland and hismen, it’s evident that the Daywalker will need some assistance. Blade reluctantly teams up with the Nightstalkers, a group of human vampire hunters led by Whistler’s beautiful daughter, Abigail, and the wisecracking Hannibal King. While their blind scientist Sommerfield works on creating a final solution for the vampire problem, the Nightstalkers launch a relentless series of battles against Dracula’s gang of the undead, led by the powerful vampire Danica Talos and her fanged acolytes Asher and Grimwood. Ultimately, Blade finds himself taking on the greatest vampire of all time, as his own fate and that of humanity hang in the balance.
Saw (Zavvi Steelbook, Region B)
Synopsis:
Obsessed with teaching his victims the value of life, a deranged, sadistic serial killer abducts the morally wayward. Once captured, they must face impossible choices in a horrific game of survival. The victims must fight to win their lives back or die trying…
The Visit (Universal, Region B)
Synopsis:
A single mother finds that things in her family’s life go very wrong after her two young children visit their grandparents.
Scream Factory brought Frank LaLoggia’s 1988 Halloween movie Lady in White to Blu-ray several years back, and now Vinegar Syndrome gives the film a 4K Ultra HD upgrade.
Vinegar Syndrome’s Lady in White 4K release is available now and shipping now!
Watch the trailer below and grab your copy from Vinegar Syndrome today.
This limited edition 4-disc 4K UHD/Blu-ray x 3 set comes with a spot gloss hard slipcase + slipcover combo (designed by Dylan Haley), includes a 40-page perfect bound book and is limited to 8,000 units. It is only available on their website and at select indie retailers.
The full Special Features package includes…
- 4-disc Set: 1x 4K Ultra HD (High Bitrate BD100) / 3x Region A Blu-ray
- 4K UHD presented in Dolby Vision High-Dynamic-Range
- Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative
- Presented in three versions: 126-min Pre-Release Director’s Cut (UHD+BD), the 118-min Extended Home Video Cut (BD), and the 113-min Theatrical Cut (BD)
- New group commentary track with writer/director Frank LaLoggia, alongside actors Lukas Haas, Joelle Jacobi, and Len Cariou for the Pre-Release Director’s Cut
- New commentary track with Frank LaLoggia, moderated by Scott Neumyer for the Extended Home Video Cut
- New commentary track with authors Emma Westwood and Stephen A. Russell for the Extended Home Video Cut
- Archival commentary track with Frank LaLoggia for the Extended Home Video Cut
- “Learning How to Fly” (10 min) – an interview with actress Karen Powell
- “A Snapshot in Time” (9 min) – an interview with actress Lisa Taylor
- “Human Touches” (6 min) – an interview with actress Lucy Lee Flippin
- “Still Relevant” (16 min) – an interview with actress Rose Weaver
- “75% Listening, 25% Editing” (9 min) – an interview with editor Steve Mann
- “Welcome to Willowpoint Falls” (6 min) – a location featurette hosted by Benjamin Scrivens, founder of Fright-Rags
- “Dream Talking: Looking Back” – a visual group commentary for the Pre-Release Director’s Cut with Frank LaLoggia, and actors Lukas Haas, Joelle Jacobi, and Len Cariou (103 min)
- Deleted Scenes with introduction and optional commentary by writer/director Frank LaLoggia (36 min)
- Behind-the-scenes footage with introduction and optional commentary by writer/director Frank LaLoggia (16 min)
- Extended behind-the-scenes footage (73 min)
- Introduction from the 20th anniversary dvd release
- Promotional ‘industry sales’ trailer (7 min)
- 40-page perfect bound book with essays by film historians Molly Henery, Mark H. Harris, and Heidi Honeycutt (limited edition only)
- Multiple radio spots
- Theatrical trailer
- Multiple TV spots
- Workprint trailers (7 min)
- Still gallery
- Reversible sleeve artwork
- English SDH subtitles
1962. Nine-year-old Frankie Scarlatti enjoys a homespun childhood in a rustic Western New York town. The entire community gets into the spirit of Halloween, but then two bullies prank Frankie by locking him in his school cloakroom, leaving him trapped for the night. Alone and afraid, his slumber is interrupted when the ghost of a little girl appears, and Frankie witnesses the specter of her murder by an unseen assailant. Later, while recovering at home, the girl’s ghost appears to him again. With help from his older brother, Frankie begins investigating the circumstances of her death. He soon discovers that her murder was one of several unsolved crimes connected to a local child-killer. As the town’s bucolic veneer fades and long-buried secrets and tensions bubble to the surface, all of the clues to the mystery seem to point towards a huge mansion inhabited by a reclusive woman known as “The Lady in White.”
A nostalgia-driven ghost story wrapped within an intricate murder mystery and coming-of-age drama, writer-director-composer Frank LaLoggia’s passion project Lady in White remains one of the most beautiful and original American horror films of the 1980s. Featuring acclaimed actors Alex Rocco (The Godfather), Len Cariou (Executive Decision), and Sydney Lassick (Carrie, The Unseen), it boasts the first starring role by Lukas Haas (Mars Attacks, Inception) as well as breathtaking photography by Academy Award® winner Russell Carpenter (True Lies, The Lawnmower Man). Vinegar Syndrome is honored to bring this genre masterpiece to 4K UHD, newly restored from its original 35mm camera negative and presented in three versions: its pre-release director’s cut, its extended home-video version, and its original theatrical version, along with an abundance of both new and archival extras.
Paul Lê wrote here on Bloody Disgusting back in 2023, “Over the years, fans have described this film as gateway horror, but they liken it more to The Watcher in the Woods than, say, Hocus Pocus or Casper. There are chilling moments that warrant its PG-13 rating.”
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