News

As secrets come out and the body count grows, a character in Bloodmoon says to another: “This is nightmare night, the end-of-the-fuckin’-world night… all the bugs and the bats and the goblins are coming out tonight and no one can stop them.” Based on that rather dramatic statement, one delivered by actor Christine Amor without her even batting an eyelid, this underseen 1990 Australian film sounds a bit deranged. Rest assured, that assumption isn’t off the mark. Of course, this shouldn’t come as a surprise; audacity and nuttiness tend to go hand in hand in classic Ozploitation. Nevertheless, director Alec Mills and screenwriter Robert Brennan’s collaboration was not quite like anything to come out of Aussie Horror at the time. Even today, parts of Bloodmoon feel singular when compared to films from that first slasher cycle.

Warning: Major spoilers below.

Based on one of its several striking...

Severin Films kicks off the new year with three North American premieres that bring “one of the best labels in physical media” (Polygon) into 2024 replete with classic monsters, barbed-wire garrotes, ‘80s Italo-Sleaze in Uhd and arguably the most depraved bedtime accessory ever created.

For January, Severin presents the ultimate version of Jess Franco’s 1972 mash-up Dracula, Prisoner Of Frankenstein; the rarely-seen Ozploitation slasher Bloodmoon, complete with infamous ‘Fright Break Challenge’; and Andrea Bianchi’s off-the-rails zombie carnage classic Burial Ground, now in eye-popping, flesh-ripping 4K.

To further celebrate everyone’s favorite shambling Etruscans, an all-new Burial Ground t-shirt and Michael Pillowcase will be available in two of this month’s bundles.

January also brings much-requested wide-release versions of previously limited-edition titles — Frank Henenlotter’s black comedy shocker Bad Biology, controversial ‘80s sleaze classic Nightmare and Lucio Fulci’s giallo masterpiece The Psychic — all fully restored in 4K Uhd.

Dracula, Prisoner...

For this perplexing British production Peter Sellers fronts a solid cast in a numbingly literal tale of seven men buried alive in a wartime warehouse of supplies and foodstuffs — and who are forced to stay there for years, praying for rescue. Stories of this kind usually come with a heavy moral or dramatic pyrotechnics, but after the opening barrage that drives the men underground, the balance of the film is a slow march toward the inevitable. The supply of candles lasts for an entire two years . . . and then runs out. Excellent extras cover the production in detail, and a 1945 documentary about the Channel Islands is an unexpected delight.

The Blockhouse

Region Free Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. (both versions) / Street Date January 17, 2021 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99

Starring: Peter Sellers, Charles Aznavour, Jeremy Kemp, Per Oscarsson, Peter Vaughan, Nicholas Jones, Leon Lissek, John Levene, Alfred Lynch.

Cinematography: Keith Goddard

Art Directors: Low Austin,...

Hammer have had something of a renaissance on Blu-ray recently, with StudioCanal releasing a number of classic titles in new hi-def editions. And now, released as part of Network’s ‘The British Film’ collection, comes two of Hammer’s “sexier” films of the 70s: the infamous Twins of Evil, starring Playboy Playmates Mary and Madeleine Collinson; and Countess Dracula, which features a career-defining performance from Ingrid Pitt in the titular role.

Despite being made during Hammer early-70s fallow period, where the studio was running out of stories, out of budget and were being left behind by more “extreme” horror films and exploitation movies emanating from the Us (after all this was just after the release of Night of the Living Dead which ultimately changed the face of the genre forever), both Twins of Evil and Countess Dracula are beloved by fans of the studio, and with good reason.

Twins of Evil

Stars: Peter Cushing,...