News

Scream Factory has announced The Mario Bava Collection featuring 12 of the influential Italian director’s films on Blu-ray.

Available exclusively from Shout Factory, the deluxe box set is limited to 2,500 and costs $179.98. The first 1,000 orders receive a 24×18 poster featuring the new artwork by the Crp Group.

Each film is packaged in its own clear Blu-ray case, housed inside a rigid slipcase alongside a 52-page booklet with behind-the-scenes information and commentary by journalist Staci Layne Wilson.

Disc 1 features the 1960 gothic horror film Black Sunday (also known as The Mask of Satan) in its international version.

In 17th-century Moldavia, the evil Princess Asa is condemned to death for witchcraft and vampirism, along with her brother Prince Igor Javutich. Two hundred years later, two doctors discover her crypt and accidentally set her resurrection in motion! With the help of Javutich and others whom she enthralls with her cold, dead kiss, Asa sets her...

Though there had been earlier efforts, like Ealing Studios’s Dead of Night from 1945, the horror anthology film came into its own in the 1960s with titles like Kobayashi Masaki’s Kwaidan and the Poe-centric Spirits of the Dead from directors Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, and Federico Fellini. Hammer Films’s rival Amicus churned out no fewer than seven of them in a 10-year period starting with Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors. But the one that really got the omnibus rolling was Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath from 1963, an Italian-American co-production that resulted in two different versions of the film.

After the success of 1960’s Black Sunday, American International Pictures took a more active hand in producing several of Bava’s later films, altering them in the process to suit American audiences that tended to skew younger. The Aip cut of Black Sabbath rearranges its three segments, tones down some...

One of Robert Hossein’s most popular roles as the dashing Count of Peyrac opposite Michèle Mercier in Angelica – Marquis of Angels (Angélique Marquise des Anges) (Photo Unifrance) Photo: Unifrance The celebrated French actor and director Robert Hossein, who made more than 115 screen appearances as well as directing 15 features and several lavish theatre productions, has died on the day after his 93rd birthday (31 December).

Robert Hossein Photo: Unifrance He was the son of composer André Hossein, who had Iranian roots, and a comedy actress from Kiev Anna Minevskaya. Hossein Snr’s scores were signed under his pseudonym André Gosselain. Robert Hossein was born in Paris on 30 December, 1927. He trained at the Cours Simon theatre school and made his first steps on the stage of the Theâtre du Grand Guignol in Pigalle where he worked both as director and actor.

He progressed to make over the helm of the Theâtre Populaire...

Fear No Evil / Ritual of Evil

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1969, 1970 / 196 Min. / 1:33.1

Starring Louis Jourdan, Wilfred Hyde-White, Bradford Dillman

Cinematography by Andrew J. McIntyre, Lionel Lindon

Directed by Paul Wendkos, Robert Day

Just as she hops into bed with Charles Aznavour in Shoot the Piano Player, Michèle Mercier exclaims, “Television is a cinema that you can see at home.” Et voilà—from Michèle’s lips to Studio City’s ear, Hollywood responded with a new kind of home entertainment, movies made exclusively for TV. The first examples of this awkward hybrid began to appear in the mid-sixties, but it wasn’t the first time the small-screen tried to expand its horizons; CBS beat movie studios to the punch with Playhouse 90‘s original productions of The Miracle Worker in 1957 and Judgment at Nuremberg in 1959. And there was the occasional holiday treat like NBC’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin starring Van Johnson...

The Wonders of Aladdin

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1961 / 93 Min. / 2:35.1

Starring Donald O’Connor, Vittorio De Sica

Cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli

Directed by Henry Levin

Henry Levin was a more than reliable director of Hollywood entertainments, most notably the unassailable widescreen thrills of Journey to the Center of the Earth. Donald O’Connor was a first-class, multi-faceted actor. Mario Bava was a visionary genre trickster. And Vittorio De Sica was one of world cinema’s greatest artists. Shocking, then, that their 1960 collaboration, The Wonders of Aladdin is just another movie… a non-event, a Saturday matinee misfire.

O’Connor promoted the fantasy with a bit of brazen ballyhoo: “The story of Aladdin has been done by everyone but this is its first time around as a comedy.” Dave and Max Fleischer would beg to differ—their 1939 Popeye cartoon, Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, serves up more laughs, not to mention more magic,...

Happy New Year, friends! I come bearing a belated gift featuring not one, but two horror icons in the form of the 1963, Mario Bava-directed, Boris Karloff-starring anthology film Black Sabbath. And in case you’re wondering, yes this title inspired a band that would go on to make some of the most well-known metal songs of all time (that’s good!) and whose lead singer kicked off the celebrity reality TV craze (that’s bad!). Oddly enough, I found the film in Shudder’s “Unhappy Holidays” section, even though after watching it I’m having trouble finding any connection to the holiday season. But I’m not here to start another “is it a Christmas movie?” debate. I just want to bone up on my Bava, as I’ve seen very little of his work and I also like the idea of getting more Karloff, who pulls double...

Brooklyn's own Nitehawk Cinema has announced their programming guide for October and it includes Mario Bava's Kill Baby, Kill, Black Sabbath, and so much more. Also: check out a clip from Red Christmas before its home media release on October 17th, and we also have details on the Blu-ray release of Web of the Spider.

Nitehawk Cinema's October Programming Revealed: To learn about the October programming at Brooklyn's Nitehawk Cinema, read the details below or visit them online.

“New Horror

We are in the midst of a horror film resurgence. A significant group of contemporary horror films made in the past couple of years is reminiscent of the socio-political classics of the 1960s and 1970s in that they are boldly confronting the terrifying undercurrent of life today. Like their predecessors, these films tackle class, gender identity, and race in a way that shows us both where we are and how far we,...

Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Black Sabbath is playing on Mubi in the Us through November 13, and Bay of Blood is playing on Mubi in the Us October 15 - November 14.Starting as a cinematographer and director of documentaries and shorts, Mario Bava would ultimately explore a variety of genres, from spaghetti westerns and sword-and-sandal adventures, to a modish detective film and even a romping sex comedy. It is his work within the horror genre, however, for which he is most widely, and justly, lauded. Among the Italian filmmakers who rose to prominence on the international horror scene of the 1960s and 70s, few would attain his degree of diverse stylistic virtuosity, nor would they cover the genre in such an expansive fashion. As the years of his career happened to fall, Bava ended up documenting the horror film in the process of profound transition.

Filmed during the height of the Euro Western craze of the late 60’s, Robert Hossein’s Cemetery Without Crosses is an obscure gem rejuvenated by Arrow Video. A French production, the title was actor/director Hossein’s first Western, obviously influenced by Sergio Leone, whom the film is dedicated to (Leone was in the midst of production on Once Upon a Time in the West when Hossein was underway with his feature). A simplistic and familiar narrative is enhanced by its inspired set designs and notable production value, featuring a winning score. Existing on the bleak end of the Spaghetti Western spectrum (or perhaps more aptly the ‘Baguette Western,” an Alex Cox coined term Ginette Vincendeau discusses in an included insert essay), it’s an entertaining bit of style over substance, and is an uncommon French entry in otherwise familiar climate. However, as much as Hossein pays homage to Leone,...

A Spaghetti Western with a French director and star may seem an odd combination, but this is exactly what we get with Cemetery Without Crosses aka The Rope and the Colt. Inspired by the success of the Dollars trilogy and dedicated to Sergio Leone, this is yet another addition to the Arrow Video classic releases.

After a family of Bandits lynches her husband, Maria Caine (Michèle Mercier) turns to old an old friend Manuel (Robert Hossein) to exact her revenge. At first reluctant to help, he finally gives in, donning his black glove and infiltrating the family to force a showdown between them and Caine which may just lead to all of their dooms.

Directed by and starring Robert Hossein, the first thing that makes the Western stand out is the catchy theme song sung by Scott Walker. The lynching this leads into sets up the revenge and leads us to the introduction of Manuel,...

For the third week of July, genre fans have quite a few Blu-ray and DVD titles to look forward to as we’ve got a great selection of horror and sci-fi films making their home entertainment bow on the 21st. Kino Lorber is keeping themselves busy this Tuesday with a pair of cult classics—Black Sabbath and Madhouse—that are getting an HD overhaul and the fine folks over at Scream Factory are releasing Tibor Takács' I, Madman on Blu as well. The critically-acclaimed horror comedy What We Do in the Shadows also arrives on both formats this week and for those of you kids at heart out there, Scooby-Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery, is also coming home on DVD and Blu-ray.

What We Do in the Shadows (Paramount, Blu-ray & DVD)

Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav are vampires who are finding that modern life has them struggling with the mundane—like paying rent,...

Shivers, vertigo and cold sweat, this fourth edition of La Samain du Cinéma Fantastique in Nice, French Riviera, promises a festival filled with discoveries and events.

From science-fiction to horror including documentary and fantasy, the audience and the jury directed by the French actress Michèle Mercier will discover 14 eclectic feature films coming from all around the world. Blockbusters, directorial debut, confidential works, there will be something for everyone including:

Gravity, the new Alfonso … Continue reading →

Horrornews.net...

French film director who attracted big stars and box-office success but was disdained by the Nouvelle Vague

Denys de La Patellière, who has died aged 92, was of the generation of French film directors described with ironic contempt by François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and other critics turned Nouvelle Vague directors as representing le cinéma de papa. But De La Patellière had several huge box-office hits in France in the 1950s and 60s, featuring some of the biggest internationally known French stars of the period such as Lino Ventura, Danielle Darrieux, Michèle Mercier, Pierre Fresnay, Bernard Blier and, above all, Jean Gabin, whom he directed in six films.

"I was a commercial director, which for me is not a pejorative word," De La Patellière recalled. "I never had the ambition to become an auteur, but to make entertaining films that pleased general audiences." In a way, his first film, Les Aristocrates (1955), could...

Stars: Boris Karloff, Michèle Mercier, Lidia Alfonsi, Jacqueline Pierreux, Gustavo De Nardo, Mark Damon, Susy Andersen, Massimo Righi | Written by Mario Bava, Alberto Bevilacqua, Marcello Fondato | Directed by Mario Bava

Mario Bava had been steadily working away in Italian cinema before he hit it big with 1960s Black Sunday, a film which introduced many to both his work and to Italian horror cinema in general. In fact his 1960 opus was such as success that a horror follow-up was eagerly demanded. An so came Black Sabbath, a three-part horror anthology blending modern and period stories, featuring the iconic Boris Karloff as host and star of one of the segments.

Black Sabbath opens with the Victorian-era ‘The Drop of Water’, in which a nurse steals a ring from the corpse of a dead spiritualist, who naturally tries to get it back. This is swiftly followed by the giallo-style ‘The Telephone’, where a...

★★★★☆ Mario Bava's playful portmanteau piece Black Sabbath (1963) is reissued by Arrow Video this week in a comprehensive two-disc set. Featuring three horrific tales of varying effectiveness, each introduced by the legendary Boris Karloff in tongue-in-cheek vignettes, the film owes a great deal to Alfred Hitchcock Presents. It also serves a great showcase for Bava's talents, all shorts being of a different tone and tackling different genre with assurance. Up first is The Drop of Water, a creepy piece focusing on Nurse Helen (Jacqueline Pierreux), called to tend the body of a recently deceased medium by her distraught maid.

While dressing the corpse for burial, Helen can't resist pilfering the old dear's ring, only to be haunted by the eerie sound of dripping and some unexpected visions upon returning home. Comprised of gorgeous sound and lighting design (deep reds, greens and purples glaze the screen throughout), this is atmospheric, unsettling...

Ah FrightFest how I love thee. Yes, my annual excursion to Scotland for Glasgow FrightFest continues this year, and I couldn’t be happier! This years line-up is strong, Very strong, with plenty of variety and some great film picks by Alan, Ian, Paul and Greg. Plus the appearance of Norwegian drama Hellsfjord! Of all the films showing this year there’s one that I most excited to see – Detention of the Dead… I’ve tried my hardest to cover the film as much as possible over the past year as it looks like my “cup of tea”, so for it to show at FrightFest is awesome (although to be fair I already knew that was in the line-up). However the real big surprise is the appearance of Neil Jordan’s Byzantium in the line-up – the Scottish crowd is notoriously “blood-thirtsy” so I hope Jordan’s film isn’t too sedate for the Glasgow crowd.

After doing the rounds on VoD for a few weeks, where many of you will have seen it, Sarah Polley's "Take This Waltz" starts to roll out in theaters from tomorrow, and we can't recommend it enough; it's a messy, sometimes frustrating film, but a deeply felt, beautifully made and wonderfully acted one, and we named it last week as one of the best of the year so far. It is not, however, recommended as a date movie, fitting into a long cinematic tradition of painful examinations of broken, decaying, collapsing or dead relationships.

After all, it's one of the more universal human experiences; unless you get very lucky, everyone who falls in love will at some point have the wrenching experience of falling out of it, or being fallen out of love with. And when done best in film, it can be bruising and borderline torturous for a filmmaker and an audience,...