Movie Review: The New York Ripper (1982, Blu-ray, Shameless)

There are a handful of films that even with my jaded tastes make me wanna soak in a shower for hours, lathering myself up until my lumpy frame wrinkles up like a prune. One of note that does just that incredibly well is Lucio Fulci's highly controversial, The New York Ripper. Censored just about everywhere it's been released because of it’s over the top sadistic violence towards women,The New York Ripper has a special place in many a gore fans black heart. It's truly a unique beast as it's not only horrific but it's also hilarious. Shameless Screen Entertainment has taken this Video Nasty on by creating the most complete version ever to be released in the UK. This Shameless Blu-ray release, although slightly cut, is still the longest version of the movie available.

Buy New York Ripper Fan Edition Blu-ray on Amazon UK!

Movie Review: Blood Rage (Arrow, Blu-ray)

Reviewed By: Hal Astel

Oh my goodness Blood Rage was bad, and I don't just mean bad I mean really truly beyond all reason bad. This now occupies the dubious position of 'Worst Film of the 1980s' in my ratings and it may just stay there for a long while. Everything about it is bad: the direction, the writing, the dialogue, the acting, the concept, you name it. And for a film in which almost all the female characters get naked to be this bad is almost unheard of. The best part of it is a short appearance by Ted Raimi as a condom salesman and it's over in about five seconds. He's outcredited by a baby.

The lead character Maddy is a mother of twins and we start the film with her cuddling and kissing with her boyfriend in a car parked at the drive through. The twins wake up and sneak out of the car but one of them, Terry, is rather unhappy about what his mum is getting up to, so kills a rutting couple in another car with an axe and blames his brother Todd. Yes, the axe is just hanging around somewhere. No, his brother doesn't say anything to contradict Terry's statement. No, nobody notices that Terry is covered in blood and Todd just has some on his cheek. It's all taken as read and off Todd goes to the looney bin.

Movie Review: Bloody Moon (Blu-ray)

                                               Review By:
                                               James D.





Jess Franco's Bloody Moon is his stab at the slasher film genre. Our main character, Miguel, we learn early on that he was sent away for murdering a woman who was turning him on. Well, years pass and he seems that he is healed and is set free from the asylum. He comes back to the scene of the crime which now is a resort his family owns and soon after he is back as you can guess, the body count starts to rise. Is Miguel truly healed, or is something worst going on? Bloody Moon is not Franco's best work nor is it anywhere near his worst, this film lies somewhere in the middle. It seems that when Franco goes away from his comfort zone as in films like this, he does try to resort to some of his old tricks which make this film really shine above your standard 80s slasher.

Movie Review: Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape (2010; Nucleus Films/Severin)

...and to think that we've had it bad, here in the States, with regards to an established movies rating board, and it's effect on horror films, or even the whole of motion pictures, itself; well actually, if one gets right down to it, it isn't necessarily the viewers who have it bad here...it's the film makers, and their desire to get their uncut and unexpunged 'vision' out for the genre-favoring public to see (...though, in favor of the filmmakers, their 'vision' is often eventually realized and seen, upon home video release, giving the avid and indiscriminant viewer a choice between the rated and the unrated). The domestically based MPAA ratings board has gone through a whole spectrum of transition, since it's untried 1922 inception...it's staunch, disciplined and assumedly morally driven members...reputably considered a responsible and morally sound lot...yet, often going back and forth and back again, from easy and liberal, to strict and militant. One cannot help but view the more contemporary archival evidence of the past, in taking an overview of this transition, and be quite taken aback...from a day when an imported Dracula film, exuding blatant images and concepts of sex, immorality, drunkenness, lesbianism, atheism, the domineering/surrendering of religion by/to the forces of evil, grave violation, church desecration, and downright violent imagery of blood-gushing death, dismemberment and impalement, garnished a 'G' rating (...circa 1968, Hammer's "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave"...don't believe me?? Check out the movie's page at IMDB. A misprint, you say?? Now check out the back cover of the home video)...to today's ratings board atmosphere, where mere cigarette smoking can make the difference between a 'PG' and 'PG-13' rating, and the difference between a 'PG-13' and "R' rated movie is sometimes dependent upon how many times the word 'fuck' is used in the film. Hypocritical, you say?? As the great Al Jolson once said, "...you ain't seen...or in this case, 'heard' nothing yet!!" Let's take a trip across the seas, to our neighboring continental British counterpart, shall we?? You just ain't gonna believe this...

Movie Review: Frightmare (Blu-ray,1974)

It seems whenever there is some strong discussion on controversial horror directors from the UK, one name that almost always gets thrown around, is Peter Walker. The sleazy and often bloody works of Peter Walker (The Flesh and Blood Show, Die Screaming Marianne, House of Whipcord) aren't for everybody but neither is Tyler Perry.  Recently Walker’s films have gotten the high definition treatment thanks to the folks at Redemption Films. One of his masterpieces of note that fans of 70’s horror and Peter Walker might want to track down is the latest incarnation on the Blu-ray format for Frightmare.

After over a decade and a half in an insane asylum an elderly cannibalistic fortune-teller (Shiela Kieth, The Comeback, and House of Long Shadows) is released to snack on the unknowing townsfolk. For all they know she’s just another polite granny, who in a lot of ways looks a bit like Mrs. Doubtfire. Her husband, Edmund (Rupert Davies) doesn’t help matters as he continues to enable her, as bodies begin to pile up in their farmhouse. Of course the local police are on it but like most lawmen in horror they just chase their tales.

Movie Review: House On Straw Hill (1976, Blu-ray/DVD combo, Severin)

Review By: Rob Sibley

Let me start off by saying I've been trying to track this film down since I was thirteen years old. I was twelve when I first saw "Blood for Dracula" which started my love for all things Udo Kier. I searched and searched for this film with no luck. Thirteen years later, finally the film sees the light of day in the U.S. on glorius Blu-ray no less from Severin. Which is a company run by fans for fans of cult cinema.

This release was easily the most anticipated release of 2013 for me. I mean waiting and searching 13 years for a film and then finally to see it announced I was nothing short of amazed. Now thirteen years is a lot of time to build up hype and expectations. Did the film live up to it's name, was it deserving the video nasty label and being banned? No, it should have been banned. Despite some violence and an abundance of excellent nudity, the film is directed with pure class by James Kenelm Clarke. Who's only film I was familiar with was "Let's get laid" starring sex kitten Fiona Richmond.

Movie Review: Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

Directed by Ruggero Deodato

Starring Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi and Perry Pirkanen

Cannibal Holocaust is basically set up as a 2 part movie. The first part of the film centers around a New York university professor who has been hired to trek into the Amazon jungle in search of 4 documentary film makers who have gone missing after trying to capture footage of a pair of cannibal tribes hidden deep in the jungle. Along with his savvy and experienced guide and his helper they manage to find the tribes and by using their wits they are able infiltrate their way into the inner social circle of these primitives, and soon discover that the four missing film makers have met a gruesome end. While trying to figure out why the tribe would slaughter them in such a barbaric way they happen across the canisters containing all of the original crews footage. Once they secure the footage, they make their way back to civilization.

Buy Cannibal Holocaust on DVD

Cannibal Holocaust Coming to Blu-ray from Shameless Screen Entertainment September 26th!

THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL FILM EVER MADE, NOW ON BLU-RAY FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER AND FEATURING A BRAND NEW EDIT BY DIRECTOR RUGGERO DEODATO.
Described by Film Threat in a Five Star review as “excellent… legendary… there’s no other film like it… there never will be”, director Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust remains one of the most shocking and controversial films of all time. Now, for the first time ever and in association with Shameless Screen Entertainment, Deodato has revisited his classic of horror cinema to produce a brand new Director’s Edit of the film especially for its High Definition debut on Blu-ray.

Buy Cannibal Holocaust on Blu-ray from Amazon UK!

New York Ripper Coming To Blu-ray June 27th From Shameless Screen Entertainment!

New York Ripper, director Lucio Fulci's (The Beyond; City Of The Living Dead) most notorious shocker, comes to Blu-ray on 27th June 2011 rebuilt with previously missing scenes that make it the longest and most complete version of the film ever seen in the UK. And, another first, the disc comes not in your usual run-of-the-mill Blu-ray case but in an eye-catching, Shameless Screen Entertainment exclusive, bright lemon “Yell-o-ray” case!

Buy New York Ripper Fan Edition Blu-ray or DVD at Amazon UK

Movie Review: Deep Red (1975, Arrow Video, Blu-ray)

When I think of the some of the more notable movies taken to task by British censors, the controversial "Video Nasties" come to mind. Some prime examples of what brought ire to the UK censors are without a doubt - the fetus-munching antics in Joe D'Amato's Anthropophagous, the ghastly animal cruelty in Cannibal Holocaust and of course the rape-heavy content in I Spit On Your Grave and Last House on the Left. Amazingly, Dario Argento, who was at the time adored by both critics and fans wasn't immune to the scissors of the censor-happy puritans known as the BBFC (British Board of Film Censors). One of Argento's masterpieces, Deep Red (AKA Profondo Rosso), that was forced to have critical scenes excised - now is seeing new life on Hi-Def completely uncut.

Buy Deep Red on Blu-ray or DVD

Movie Review: The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982, Blu-ray)

Way back in the mid-eighties when I was in my formative years grew an insatiable addiction to slasher films. One film of note that came on pretty late at night on our local UHF station in Chicago was The Dorm That Dripped Blood. My first crack at seeing this was interrupted by a very pissed off parent who wasn't happy with what I was viewing. About twenty-years later I finally was able to watch "Dorm" in its entirety (or so I thought) on some uber-shitty quality DVDs from both Vipco and Jef Films under the alternate title, Pranks. Yes, I watched the film though I could barely see what was going on and it completely marred any enjoyment I could have had if those companies could've put some effort in a restoration. Not only was it in horrible quality - the film was heavily cut. They say the third time's a charm, right? Synapse Films has now released The Dorm that Dripped Blood in a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. This may just be it.

Buy The Dorm That Dripped Blood [Blu-ray]