November is that special month where we toss out Jack-O-Lanterns and gobble down pumpkin pies. Are you already having visions of being half awake from a Thanksgiving food orgy? Well the good news is you can stock up on this month’s Blu-ray releases from Arrow Video. First up is another warm fuzzy film from the Godfather of Gore Herschell Gordon Lewis. Wizard of Gore makes you ponder if the secret of a magician in sawing a woman in half is not caring if she does get sliced in half. Teruo Ishii’s Orgies of Edo promises even more blood from Japan. For those wishing a bit of manners there’s Gosford Park. The film teamed up director Robert Altman with Julian Fellowes (creator of Downton Abbey) for a murder mystery with a stellar cast. Finally there’s Gas, Food and Lodging from Allison Anders. The film has Ione Skye and Fairuza Balk as sister’s coming of age in the desert. This is truly a fine experience that so deserves a Blu-ray upgrade from my old VHS. Here’s the press release from Arrow Video:
As the weather gets chilly, Arrow continues to heat up!
As we enter the heart of autumn and sweater weather, Arrow continues to do their best to keep us nice and cozy with the warm loving glow of our television sets. With four brand-new releases hitting shelves in November you’ll have plenty to keep you busy on those days that you just don’t want to venture outside.
Arrow Video gets things started on November 13th with the release of The Wizard of Gore from the wizard himself, Herschell Gordon Lewis. Montag the Magnificent wows audiences with his macabre magic act, but before long his volunteers start to wind up dead. Is Montag a modern day wizard or just your everyday serial killer? A TV talk show hostess investigates in this splatter classic! This release comes fully load with all the blood soaked special features you could want, including the addition of 1968’s How to Make a Doll.
On November 20th audiences will get the chance to purchase Teruo Ishii’s anthology, Orgies of Edo. This bloody entry takes viewers along for a ride featuring three stories each with a corrupt moral center. Politically incorrect, each tale is that of tragic heroines caught up in unspeakable violence. First pressings of this release will include an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by author Tom Mes.
On the Arrow Academy side of things we have Gas Food Lodging hitting Blu-ray on November 13th. Based off a novel by Richard Peck and directed by Allison Anders, this story of a young single mother desperately trying to find love was a hit at the 1992 Berlin International Film Festival. This newly restored release comes director approved and contains a number of special features including Chris Rodley’s 1995 documentary, Cinefile: Reel Women.
November comes to a close with Arrow Academy’s November 27th release of Robert Altman’s Gosford Park. With a stunning cast that includes Alan Bates, Kristin Scott Thomas, Bob Balaban, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Clive Owen and a whole lot more, Altman created a murder-mystery masterpiece like only he could. With a brand-new 2K restoration from a 4K scan approved by director of photography Andrew Dunn and a load of new bonus features, this is one release every cinefile is sure to want.
The Wizard Of Gore
From the crazed madman of the macabre, late splatter movie pioneer Herschell Gordon Lewis (Blood Feast, Two Thousand Maniacs!), comes his most fiendish feat of terrifying onscreen trickery yet – behold, The Wizard of Gore! You’ve all seen the trick in which the magician saws his glamorous assistant in half – but what about the spike through the brain gag? Or the good old smashing punch-press? Montag the Magnificent’s blood-curdling onstage performances shock and dazzle his audiences in equal measure. But when his participants start winding up dead, local TV talk show hostess Sherry Carson suspects his gruesome “act” may be more sinister than it first seems… Featuring some of the most notorious gory setpieces in all of director H.G. Lewis’ blood-soaked career, The Wizard of Gore is a stomach-churning, Grand Guignol production that’s less sleight of hand and more slice of hand!!!
Bonus Materials
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original Uncompressed PCM Mono Audio
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Bonus Feature! 1968’s How to Make a Doll
Feature-length audio commentary with Herschell Gordon Lewis and Mike Vraney
Montag Speaks – an interview with Wizard of Gore actor Ray Sager
Stephen Thrower on The Wizard of Gore
The Gore the Merrier – An interview with Jeremy Kasten, director of the 2007 Wizard of Gore remake
The Incredibly Strange Film Show – an episode of the cult documentary series focusing on the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis
Original theatrical trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Twins of Evil
Orgies Of Edo
Legendary Toei director Teruo Ishii tells three stories of moral sickness set during Japan’s prosperous Genroku era in this bloody follow-up to his sexploitation classic Shogun’s Joy of Torture, and the fourth entry in Toei’s ‘abnormal love’ film series. Ishii’s politically incorrect moral lessons paint a trio of tales of tragic heroines caught up in violence, sadomasochism, incest and torture. Told in anthology style by an impassive physician (Teruo Yoshida), the first story follows Oito (Masumi Tachibana), an innocent young girl deceived by a handsome yakuza and sold into prostitution who finds herself in a doomed love affair with the man who brought her to ruin. The tale of Ochise (Mitsuko Aoi) is about the daughter of a rich merchant whose insatiable appetite for filth and perversion draws her deeper into violence, darkness and betrayal. Finally, the story of Omitsu (Miki Obana) follows a sadistic lord (Asao Koike) whose eye is caught one day by a beautiful member of his harem who shares his strange taste for pain and blood, but who holds a secret of her own that will destroy his entire household. A stylistic about-face from the director’s prior work for Toei on the successful Abashiri Prison action series starring Ken Takakura, Ishii’s erotic films grew increasingly shocking, violent and strange, and Orgies of Edo finds him combining period film detail with carnivalesque grotesquerie to create his own particular vision of love and sex. This landmark ‘ero-guro’ film allowed Ishii to experiment with elements that would later show up in his masterpieces Horrors of Malformed Men and Blind Woman’s Curse, including the participation of sideshow performers and butoh dancer Tatsumi Hijikata.
Bonus Materials
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
The Orgies of Ishii – an exclusive, newly filmed interview with author Patrick Maccias
Theatrical trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Griffin
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by author Tom Mes
Gosford Park
TEA AT FOUR. DINNER AT EIGHT. MURDER AT MIDNIGHT. In 2001, Robert Altman (MASH, The Long Goodbye) took the unexpected step into Agatha Christie territory with Gosford Park, a murder-mystery whodunit set in an English country house starring a host of British acting greats and with an Oscar-winning screenplay by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes. It would become a huge success with audiences and critics alike. Set in 1932, the action unfolds during a weekend shooting party hosted by Sir William McArdle (Alan Bates), and his wife Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas) at his estate, Gosford Park. Among the guests are friends, relatives, the actor and composer Ivor Novello (Jeremy Northam), and an American film producer (Bob Balaban). When Sir William is found murdered in the library, everyone – and their servants – becomes a suspect. Also starring Charles Dance, Michael Gambon, Richard E. Grant (Withnail & I), Helen Mirren, Clive Owen, Maggie Smith, Emily Watson and many more, Altman produced another masterpiece deserving to be ranked alongside Nashville and Short Cuts as one his finest forays into ensemble drama.
Bonus Materials
Brand new 2K restoration from a 4K scan, carried out by Arrow films exclusively for this release, supervised and approved by director of photography Andrew Dunn
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary by director Robert Altman, production designer Stephen Altman and producer David Levy
Audio commentary by writer-producer Julian Fellowes
Brand-new audio commentary by critics Geoff Andrew and David Thompson (author of Altman on Altman)
Introduction by critic Geoff Andrew
Brand new cast and crew interviews recorded exclusively for this release
The Making of Gosford Park archive featurette
Keeping Gosford Park Authentic archive featurette
Q&A Session with Altman and the cast
Fifteen deleted scenes with optional Altman commentary
Trailer
Reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Sheila O’Malley and an archive interview with Robert Altman
Gas Food Lodging
THEY’RE SISTERS. BUT IT WILL TAKE A MIRACLE TO MAKE THEM A FAMILY. Adapted from the novel Don’t Look and It Won’t Hurt by Richard Peck, Allison Anders (Grace of My Heart) whipped up a storm at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival with her masterfully crafted tale of a young woman trying to find love while struggling to bring up her two daughters. Abandoned by her husband, Nora (Brooke Adams, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Stuff) waitresses to keep her head above water while raising two teenagers in a small New Mexico town trailer park. Beautiful and rebellious, Trudi (Ione Skye, Wayne’s World, Zodiac) quits school to work alongside her mother, while her sister Shade (Fairuza Balk, The Craft, American History X) whittles away her time watching old movie matinees. Their life is turned on its head when Trudi finds that she has fallen pregnant after a string of promiscuous relationships and the girls’ absent father returns with hopes of mending the relationships he broke when he left. A wonderfully engaging story of the woes of teenagers reaching adulthood, Gas Food Lodging is a distinctly American portrayal of a mother trying to raise two wayward teens with growing pains, who are learning about love, life and each other. This director-approved restoration finally affords this 90s modern classic the home video treatment it rightly deserves.
Bonus Materials
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation, approved by director Allison Anders
Original uncompressed 2.0 audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
The Road to Laramie: A Look Back at Gas Food Lodging, italicise title and remove commas a brand new interview with Allison Anders and Josh Olson
Cinefile: Reel Women italicise(Chris Rodley, 1995), a documentary looking at the challenges women face in the film industry from independent to studio filmmaking, featuring interviews with Allison Anders, Kathryn Bigelow, Jane Campion, Penny Marshall, Gal
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film
