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Films I saw for the first time in November 2010

11:44 PM / Cinema / 2 Comments

• Friday, November 5, 2010: ALIEN (USA/UK, 1979) 10/10
• Tuesday, November 9, 2010: AN EDUCATION (UK/USA, 2009) 6/10
• Thursday, November 11, 2010: FANTASTIC MR. FOX (USA/UK, 2009) 4/10
• Thursday, November 11, 2010: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (USA, 2007) 2/10
• Saturday, November 13, 2010: ALIENS (USA/UK, 1986) 7/10
• Saturday, November 20, 2010: ALIEN 3 (USA, 1992) 6/10
• Sunday, November 21, 2010: SOLDIER OF ORANGE (Netherlands/Belgium, 1977) 8/10
• Monday, November 22, 2010: FROZEN (USA: 2010) 8/10
• Thursday, November 25, 2010: ALIEN: RESURRECTION (USA, 1997) 7/10

BDs and DVDs I bought or received in November 2010

11:38 PM / Blu-ray / DVD / No Comments

• Monday, November 8, 2010: TÉNÈBRES (BD, Region ABC, France)
• Monday, November 8, 2010: GIALLO (BD, Region B, Italy)
• Wednesday, November 17, 2010: ASTÉRIX ET LA SURPRISE DE CÉSAR (BD, Region ABC, France)
• Wednesday, November 17, 2010: ASTÉRIX CHEZ LES BRETONS (BD, Region ABC, France)
• Wednesday, November 17, 2010: LE COUP DU MENHIR (BD, Region ABC, France)
• Thursday, November 18, 2010: VIDEO NASTIES: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (DVD, Region 0, UK)
• Saturday, November 20, 2010: WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY (DVD, Region 1, USA)
• Wednesday, November 24, 2010: FANTASIA / FANTASIA 2000 (BD, Region A, USA)
• Wednesday, November 24, 2010: MICMACS (BD, Region B, UK)
• Saturday, November 27, 2010: VIDEODROME (BD, Region A, USA)
• Tuesday, November 30, 2010: SPLICE (BD, Region B, UK)

Just arrived...

3:29 PM / Blu-ray / 1 Comment

#1016: SPLICE (BD, Optimum, Region B, UK)

Just arrived...

9:53 PM / Blu-ray / 5 Comments

#1015: VIDEODROME (BD, Criterion, Region A, USA)

Pixar, I are impressed

10:24 AM / Web / 3 Comments

Just arrived...

6:48 PM / Blu-ray / 12 Comments

#1013: FANTASIA / FANTASIA 2000 (BD, Buena Vista, Region A, USA)

#1014: MICMACS (BD, E1 Entertainment, Region B, UK)

Just arrived...

6:27 PM / DVD / 4 Comments

#1012: WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY (DVD, Buena Vista, Region 1, USA)

A fascinating documentary about the Disney studio from the mid-80s to mid-90s - i.e. just before and during the so-called "second golden age" of Disney animation - consisting entirely of archival footage and voice-over commentary from the people who experienced it first-hand. With Trudie Styler's THE SWEATBOX continuing to be suppressed, I doubt we're going to see a more critically biting inside look at Disney any time soon... and one sanctioned by Disney themselves, no less.

Just arrived...

8:12 PM / DVD / 10 Comments

#1011: VIDEO NASTIES: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (DVD, Nucleus Films, Region 0, UK)

An insightful documentary about the "video nasties" panic of the 80s, trailers and introductions to all 72 films that ended up on the DPP's infamous list, 50 minutes' worth of pre-cert video idents... and an absolutely delightful menu video featuring Emily Booth mangling VHS tapes in a manner of creative ways inspired by the films themselves. Drill action, anyone?

Just arrived...

9:47 PM / Blu-ray / 13 Comments

#1008: ASTÉRIX ET LA SURPRISE DE CÉSAR [ASTERIX VS. CAESAR] (BD, Gaumont, Region ABC, France)

#1009: ASTÉRIX CHEZ LES BRETONS [ASTERIX IN BRITAIN] (BD, Gaumont, Region ABC, France)

#1010: LE COUP DU MENHIR [ASTERIX AND THE BIG FIGHT] (BD, Gaumont, Region ABC, France)

A big thanks to Bobafett for pointing out to me that these had been released... and a big thanks too to Gaumont for delivering three very nice-looking discs that, despite some mild issues (which I'll discussing in an upcoming post), are a lot more impressive than any of Disney's bells and whistles "Diamond Edition" BDs. Let's just say that they've taken more of a NAUSICAÄ-style than a SNOW WHITE-style approach...

BD impressions: Aliens

2:19 PM / BD Impressions / 28 Comments

As we all know, there's an immense amount of back and forth over whether ALIEN or ALIENS is the better film. Having seen both for the first time recently, for me there's no contest: ALIEN by a country mile. Although it continues the story of lone survivor Ripley, ALIENS is effectively a straight remake of its predecessor, with a bigger cast, larger scale, louder explosions, more bloated running time and a fraction of the tension.

And yes, I know I'm going to take a lot of flak for this.

Once again it's a technical phenomenon, although I think ALIEN has aged better thanks to the restraint Ridley Scott used in revealing the titular alien to us. "Restraint" is not a word in James Cameron's vocabulary; nor are "subtlety" or "complexity". Whereas ALIEN gave us a crew of seven, each with clearly delineated personalities, ALIENS basically gives us Ripely, a gaggle of stereotypical (not to mention interchangeable) soldier jocks and that old mainstay the sassy butch Latina. ALIEN managed to avoid those stereotypes, in part (I suspect) because all the characters were originally written with no defined race or gender; in ALIENS, you can smell the ugly testosterone in the air, resulting in a strange situation where a film released in 1979 feels infinitely more progressive than one made almost a decade later (and set over half a century later). Whereas Scott gradually ramped up the tension, making us care about his characters before starting to dispatch them, Cameron's main focus seems to be gun porn, which does nothing for me and left me feeling a little unfulfilled.

About half-way through the film, I suddenly realised I was actually rooting for the monsters rather than the crew, hoping each and every one of them would be dismembered in the most painful, gruesome ways possible. And that's when it hit me: ALIENS is the FRIDAY THE 13TH to ALIEN's HALLOWEEN. It replaces well-drawn characters with annoying cannon fodder and trades suspense and mood in favour of increasing the spectacle. As an approach, this isn't wholly without merit - I enjoy action movies as much as the next person, and I don't want to give the impression that I DISLIKED the film - but in my opinion the end result compares unfavourably to ALIEN, a far classier, more inventive and grown-up production in every sense.

Image quality:

"It's spectacular. We went in and completely de-noised it, de-grained it, up-rezzed, color-corrected every frame, and it looks amazing. [...] We got rid of all the grain.

- James Cameron

Erm... no, that really doesn't tally with what I'm seeing, Jim...

When I first read that quote from the film's director, I was absolutely horrified, expecting another PREDATOR fiasco. Thankfully, that's not the case, and in fact ALIENS has arguably been afford the most film-like transfer of the series. Grain is present throughout and looks completely natural, so if any reduction WAS performed, those responsible did a top-notch job. So what happened? Did someone sneak back in and undo the "de-graining" after Cameron had signed off on the master? Or was he just talking nonsense in an attempt to placate the "grain is teh suxx0rs!!!11~" kiddies? Who knows.

Detail is excellent - close to jaw-dropping in some close-ups, with only a handful of shots (mainly opticals, I'm assuming) faring slightly worse (see Example 9). I'm actually somewhat amazed by how good this disc looks - the 80s are typically not well represented on BD in terms of image quality, but to use a tired (but no less accurate) cliché, this looks a damn sight better than many films shot in the last year.

I know there has been quite a bit of debate about the colour palette, with several people alleging that Cameron has completely altered the look of the film for this release - and certainly, comparing it to screen captures from earlier DVD releases, it's clear that this BD looks noticeably different from its home video predecessors. However, having only seen the film for the first time I feel unqualified to comment on this aspect beyond saying that, to my eyes, it looks very good indeed. (Of course, "good" and "correct" aren't synonymous, so your mileage will probably vary considerably.) 9.5/10

Aliens
studio: 20th Century Fox; country: UK; region code: ABC; codec: AVC;
file size: 36.3 GB (theatrical cut), 40.7 GB (special edition);
average bit rate (including audio): 37.88 Mbit/sec (theatrical cut), 37.77 Mbit/sec (special edition)

BD impressions: Giallo

9:50 PM / BD Impressions / 2 Comments

See my previous post for my thoughts on GIALLO after my most recent viewing of the film.

Image quality: When I first saw GIALLO, at the Edinburgh International Film Festival last June, I wasn't impressed by the presentation at all, and I get the impression that the print itself was the problem rather than any wrongdoing on the part of the Filmhouse Cinema. It was extremely soft, something which really stood out when it came to the subtitles for the dialogue between the two Japanese women at the start of the film. On balance, I'd say this BD offers a superior presentation of the film, though it's still rather underwhelming.

The end titles include credits for a digital intermediate, but the source here is clearly a print at least a generation down - there is both black and white print damage. Detail is not amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but it's passable at least and (not taking into account the obvious difference in screen size) better defined than the print shown at the EIFF. The dynamic range looks crushed to my eyes, and the night scenes look overly grey with some heavy and clumpy grain (which gives the film a rather incongruous look, given that during the brighter scenes grain is absent to the point of looking smoothed over). I get the feeling the entire image has been brightened. It's passable enough, but Wild Side's BD of TENEBRAE, nearly thirty years this film's senior, looks noticeably better. 6/10

By the way, it's worth pointing out that, although this disc includes lossless Italian audio in both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio flavours, the only track featuring the original English is a plain old 448 Kbps Dolby Digital affair. It doesn't sound back, but during the first eighteen and a half minutes or so there is a slight but noticeable synchronisation issue (it pops back into sync right after Brody says "Shit!" to a pizza and there is a somewhat jarring cut). Additionally, the brief segments of Japanese dialogue spoken by the two tourist women during the opening scenes are subtitled in Italian only (burned-in). It's not too much of an issue, though - they don't say anything significant to the plot and you can basically get the gist of their conversation from their actions.

Giallo
studio: Dall'Angelo Pictures; country: Italy; region code: B; codec: AVC;
file size: 20 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 31.04 Mbit/sec

Giallo revisited

10:21 PM / Cinema / 7 Comments

See my original review of GIALLO here.

Finally got to see this film for the second time - first viewing was at the Edinburgh International Film Festival premiere over a year ago. And, while I suspect my 7/10 rating back then was overly generous, I'm still inclined to say that the film really isn't all that bad.

Rewatching it without the interruptions of a wise-ass audience, the moments that stuck out as the biggest howlers at the EIFF screening (Enzo's revelation, Linda going ape-shit at the hospital receptionist) didn't seem half as bad. The biggest problem, I feel, apart from a script that doesn't really have anything to say (and certainly nothing about the giallo movement, with which this film has virtually nothing to do despite its title), is the casting. Emmanuelle Seigner seems to be sleepwalking and most of her dialogue sounds painfully insincere, while Elsa Pataky is OK when she isn't screaming "You're ugly! You disgust me!" (which unfortunately accounts for about 75% of her dialogue). As for the infamous Adrien Brody... quite honestly I don't know what he was thinking. As Enzo he's all over the place, half the time behaving as if he's in a different movie from anyone else, and giving line readings that have little to do with the situation. I get that he was going for "oddball", but the result is that it feels as if he wandered on to the wrong set. As for his other role... I wish someone had just told him "Listen Adrien, you're a swell guy, but that's a REALLY stupid idea."

We ultimately end up with a muddled film that lacks any semblance of a unifying vision. You've got a script that tries to be a love letter to Argento films without really understanding what constitutes an Argento film (PELTS suffered from exactly the same problem), actors who look like they should be somewhere else, a musical score that, while doing a reasonable job of aping Danny Elfman, doesn't really belong... and Argento doing his best to inject some life into the visuals (the yellow-tinted flashbacks to Enzo's childhood are great, the lush architecture is put to good use and those night-time shots of the killer's taxi cruising the streets of Turin feel suitably ominous) but, for the most part, seeming to be working on auto-pilot. It's a minor entry in his filmography (if indeed you want to include it at all - everything we've heard suggests the man himself has disowned it), but it is for the most part competently made and fares considerably better than his other recent outings with US producers - his two MASTERS OF HORROR episodes.

Having finished watching this, I'd like to see Argento tackle a proper giallo again (we haven't had one since SLEEPLESS in 2001) but I really think he needs to go back to writing his own scripts or at least collaborating with writers who understand his sensibility - people like Franco Ferrini and Carlo Lucarelli. 6/10

You can't scare me

12:46 PM / Cinema / 15 Comments

I don't find horror movies scary. I like 'em a great deal, especially when they're done well. I count the likes of SUSPIRIA, THE OMEN, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, THE SHINING, CARRIE, THE BIRDS and ROSEMARY'S BABY among my favourite films of all time, and I recently had the great pleasure of experiencing ALIEN for the first time. I have a great affection for every single one of these films and many more that I haven't listed here... but I don't find any of them remotely frightening.

I sometimes worry that this is a problem. Horror, like comedy, is one of those "primal" genres where the execution tends to be far more important than the content itself. I forget who it was that said it, but someone once told me that, in stand-up comedy, the best comedian can turn the world's most unfunny joke into an absolute howler by virtue of his/her gift for delivery. In contrast, a comedian with bad delivery can absolutely slaughter something that was hilarious on paper. I think it's the same with horror, and as a result, a lot of horror movies that don't necessarily have good plots or acting have legions of fans by virtue of the fact that they managed to instil fear in them.

Unfortunately, this doesn't work for me, and as a result I often wonder whether I love the films I listed above IN SPITE OF them being horror movies rather than BECAUSE they're horror movies. SUSPIRIA is an audio-visual treat and I love it because of that, but it doesn't even remotely give me the willies. Likewise, for me THE DESCENT's pleasures lie in the well-drawn personalities of the six women, their relationships and the performances of the actors playing them, rather than any fear instilled by the creatures they encounter underground.

Last night, I watched PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, a horror movie in the BLAIR WITCH PROJECT tradition that was made for a pittance and earned back its meagre budget more than a hundred times over at the box office. Word of mouth for the film was highly encouraging. Everyone said it was incredibly scary...

...and I thought it was crap. Absolute grade-A crap. To me, it felt like the director had only gone for the "mockumentary" format to paper over his lack of experience and/or skill as a filmmaker: the "it's MEANT to look amateur" excuse that I have little time for. (I was going to mention the low budget as another excuse, but I think it's a poor one: even $11,000, dwarfed though it is by the budget of the average Hollywood blockbuster, isn't exactly pocket change.) I found it to be tedious, cheap-looking, poorly made, unconvincingly acted, and not in the least bit scary. Due to its more or less non-existent plot, it didn't even manage to generate any tension. In this regard, I'm very much in the minority, and I think I know why: other people were so scared by it that all the negatives I've listed ceased to matter. But when you take away the fear factor, it has nothing left to fall back on.

So I guess what I'm wondering is whether I'm actually a horror fan at all? I like to THINK I am, but when you actually break it down it seems that I can, for the most part, take or leave the actual horror elements in these films.

Is anyone else in the same boat as me - i.e. do you love horror movies but don't find them scary? I'm generally curious to find out whether anyone else is in my position.

Tenebrae region coding update

9:28 PM / Blu-ray / 4 Comments

A brief correction to my review of the French BD release of TENEBRAE: the disc is in fact coded for all regions, NOT Region B only as I previously reported (thanks to Kannisto for pointing this out). The reason for the confusion stems from the packaging, which erroneously labels the disc as Region B. Apologies for the confusion.

BD impressions: Alien

1:11 PM / BD Impressions / 8 Comments

It's always nice when you finally get round to watching a film widely considered to be a classic and it completely lives up to the hype. It doesn't really happen all that often for me, probably owing to my somewhat eclectic taste in films. As such, I sat down to watch ALIEN hoping for the best but knowing there was a strong chance it wouldn't have quite the impact on me that it did on so many other people.

How wrong I was. I honestly don't think I need to tell you that ALIEN is an utterly brilliant exercise in tension and terror, brilliantly realised by one of the most gifted directors in the business. I doubt there's anything I can say about the film that hasn't been said a million and one times by other people, so I'm simply say I thought it was absolutely superb - a pinnacle of the horror genre - and leave it at that. I just wish I hadn't had prior warning of what I'm sure should have been one of the most unexpected and shocking moments in the movie. Curse you, Channel 4, and your "100 Top Scariest Moments" countdown.

Image quality: Because I hadn't seen ALIEN until watching it on this BD, I don't really feel qualified to talk about the film's look and whether or not this new transfer is faithful to it. I do know that it was supervised and approved by Ridley Scott, so we can pretty reasonably assume that it looks the way he wants it to, if not in 1979 then certainly in 2010. Anyway, it's a very impressive offering with excellent encoding and rich detail. It looks to me like some grain reduction has been carried out, but it's not particularly intrusive and, while personally I would have preferred a completely natural-looking image, this level of digital manipulation is a long, long way indeed for the horrors of the likes of PATTON and the re-release of PREDATOR (two name two Fox titles that most assuredly WERE mangled). 9/10

Alien
studio: 20th Century Fox; country: UK; region code: ABC; codec: AVC;
file size: 30.2 GB (theatrical cut), 29.9 GB (director's cut);
average bit rate (including audio): 37.19 Mbit/sec (theatrical cut), 36.99 Mbit/sec (director's cut)

Some thoughts on Wild Side's new Tenebrae BD

5:01 PM / BD Impressions / Blu-ray / 23 Comments

I can honestly say I had no idea this BD had been released until it was pointed out to me by Neil over at Dark Discussion... which is a bit unusual, because I'm normally one of the first off the mark when it comes to new Argento releases. Anyway, Wild Side Video is releasing a bunch of Argento classics on BD in France, with THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, THE CAT O' NINE TAILS, SUSPIRIA, INFERNO and PHENOMENA to follow (I believe that's the line-up, but someone correct me if I'm wrong). I'm not holding out much hope for SUSPIRIA, which as far as I can gather is sourced from the same ugly contrast-boosted master already used for the Italian and French BDs, and it seems that BIRD, unlike its Blue Underground counterpart, has been cropped to cinematographer Vittorio Storaro's "universal" aspect ratio of 2:1 (à la THE LAST EMPEROR and earlier releases of APOCALYPSE NOW), but I'm very much looking forward to CAT and PHENOMENA, particularly if this release of TENEBRAE is any indication of what we can expect... EDIT: Seems that only TENEBRAE, SUSPIRIA and INFERNO will be making it to BD for the time being...

The packaging

The cover art is fairly generic, but does look quite classy on the whole (no attempts to pass the film off as trash, as is so often the norm with these films - though it strikes me that the French have always had more respect for Argento's output than many other nationalities), and it does come in a rather nifty black case (as opposed to the usual blue), which is a nice touch. There's nothing inside the case except the disc itself - overall, it doesn't exactly feel like Wild Side have pushed the boat out for this release.

The extras

Again, a fairly limited line-up. We get the French theatrical trailer in standard definition, a filmography for Argento, a stills gallery featuring some behind the scenes photographs I'd never seen before, and a new 26-minute documentary featuring interviews with Argento and cinematographer Luciano Tovoli (in French) and composer Claudio Simonetti (in Italian with French subtitles). They discuss the usual subjects: the misogyny charge and the film's status as a response to it, the creation of an ultra-modern Rome, the ultra-bright cinematography, the Louma crane shot... There's nothing in here that can really be classed as new information, and to be honest, I'm not convinced there's much left to be said about TENEBRAE that hasn't already been said. However, it's all presented in a fairly slick and enjoyable fashion... provided you understand French.

A/V Presentation

Now we get into the good stuff... The disc is dual layer and features an AVC encode with a decent bit rate, as well as English, Italian and French audio, all in lossless mono. All three tracks sound decent, with the English track more or less on par with its counterpart on the Dutch A-Film release, and considerably less scratching and degraded than the mix on the Anchor Bay releases.

As for the image quality... it's pretty bloody good. For someone like myself who has watched more DVD copies of TENEBRAE than I care to mention and has never seen an actual print of it, this is like looking at a new film. I mean that in an entirely good way, not in an "Oh my God, they've screwed around with it and now I can't even recognise it" way. If we're being honest, none of the DVD releases of TENEBRAE were up to par, and it wasn't that the best releases (the Japanese, Dutch and French ones) were GOOD so much as simply the best option available by virtue of being better than the deeply unimpressive UK, US and Italian versions. With a brand new HD transfer, TENEBRAE is finally able to shine. Once the rather soft and DNR-laden opening title sequence is out of the way, detail is excellent and grain reduction, while apparent, is rarely intrusive. Barring some weirdness at 00:37:34 with a yellow envelope Anthony Franciosa opens (and a handful of other assorted but far more minor instances), this is what I'd consider to be the acceptable end of grain reduction. (For the unacceptable end, see PATTON, DARK CITY or the re-released PREDATOR...)

Apart from the aforementioned DNR weirdness, I did notice some other slight anomalies. In the second half of the film, the right hand side of the image appears slightly softer than the left and centre, there is a tiny bit of ringing around high contrast edges (optical, I suspect - you can see something similar on the BD releases of SUSPIRIA), and I noticed a number of instances in which the hightlights were slightly overblown. However, given Argento and Tovoli's desire to make a film in which harsh light is omipresent, I'm not sure whether this is a genuine error or simply the way the film was meant to look. There's no indication on the packaging as to whether Argento and/or Tovoli approved the new transfer, so it's anyone's guess. Either way, it's nothing like as bad as the contrast issues on the SUSPIRIA BDs.

In terms of colour timing, this release is closest to the master used for the Dutch (A-Film) and French (TF1) DVD releases, although the night scenes are noticeably brighter, particularly the blood-soaked finale, which always looked much darker on those DVDs than on the Anchor Bay release. It's in no way a radical re-imagining, but the film does look somewhat different from any previous DVD, so I suspect there's going to be a bit of a debate as to whether or not it can be considered "correct". Myself, I'm happy with it. I'm still not a fan of the over-lit TV cop show look Argento and Tovoli went for with the film (visually, it's my least favourite out of all Argento's 70s/80s films), but I can now appreciate what they were going for much better.

In terms of how it measures up against other BD releases of Argento's films, it blows Arrow's disappointing INFERNO BD clean out of the water. In terms of detail, it's fairly close to the Nouveaux Pictures SUSPIRIA BD, but much better overall because it doesn't suffer from anything approaching the level of contrast boosting that plagued that release. The overly soft opening credits, slight grain reduction, isolated DNR artefacts and a couple of instances of moiré (see the walls in the airport bathroom shot near the start of the film) prevent it from ranking as highly as Blue Underground's highly impressive THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE and TWO EVIL EYES, but it's close. (You'll notice I've deliberately left BU's THE STENDHAL SYNDROME out, given the ongoing debate surrounding the "legitimacy" of its grain.) If we're talking numbers, on my scale it ranks as a low 8/10.

Oh, and all the snippets that were missing from the Anchor Bay release and other editions derived from that master (such as the Medusa and Sazuma releases) appear to be intact: this is the "integral" version.

Overall

The bad news is that this release is locked to Region B only and has forced French subtitles if you select English or Italian audio. I've tried changing the audio and subtitles on the fly, but you can only select them from the menu... which is a bit of a bummer, as I'm sure you'll agree. HTPC users with AnyDVD HD (or similar) will be able to get around this, but those with standard BD players are out of luck.

If you love the film, can play Region B titles and don't mind (or can get around) the subtitles, run out and buy this disc now. I can't stress enough how massive an upgrade over every previous release this constitutes. I don't currently know of any other pending BD releases of this film - it's not part of Blue Underground's upcoming line-up, as the rights to it (and PHENOMENA, TRAUMA and THE CARD PLAYER) are held by Anchor Bay, who haven't announced anything. For the time being, however, what we have is a decent presentation of a film considered by many to be a classic (not myself, though it does come close) accompanied by a fairly light sprinkling of extras, with a couple of technical hurdles (region coding, forced subtitles) to be overcome.

Screen captures follow...

Ténèbres
studio: Wild Side; country: France; region code: ABC; codec: AVC;
file size: 31.2 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 44.34 Mbit/sec

Updated Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 09:25 PM: As has been pointed out to me (thanks, Kannisto), this disc is in fact coded for all regions, NOT just Region B. Sorry for the misinformation. Additionally, thanks to Jerome for pointing out that, currently, only TENEBRAE, SUSPIRIA and INFERNO are scheduled for a BD release. The other Wild Side titles mentioned in the review appear to be DVD only.

Just arrived...

2:24 PM / Blu-ray / 1 Comment

#1007: GIALLO (BD, Dall'Angelo Pictures, Region B, Italy)

Today truly is Argento Day...

Just arrived...

1:55 PM / Blu-ray / 1 Comment

#1006: TÉNÈBRES [TENEBRAE, TENEBRE] (BD, Wild Side Video, Region B, France)

Did anyone realise this was shipping? It seems to be a Fnac exclusive, at least at present. I wouldn't have had any idea if Neil at Dark Discussion hadn't pointed it out to me. Impressions to follow...

Movie Matters now on iTunes

1:34 PM / Podcast / 12 Comments

Our Movie Matter podcast is now available through iTunes, so if you have it installed, you can download episodes for free by following the link:

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/movie-matters-podcast/id400991568

As a side note, I don't have iTunes, so I'd be eternally grateful if someone could let me know whether or not it's working properly.

Site maintenance

10:58 PM / Web / 2 Comments

I've been informed by my host, LDHosting, that they will be carrying out routine maintenance between 1.30 and 4.00 CEST tomorrow. As a result, my site may be inaccessible at certain points during these hours.

Movie Matters #2 - Halloween special

8:34 PM / Podcast / 5 Comments

All Hallows' Eve descends on the all-new Movie Matters podcast as co-hosts Lee Howard and Michael Mackenzie and special guest Rich Birkett of the Dedicated To Gamers podcast discuss three spooky seasonal treats: THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, TRICK 'R TREAT and THE EXORCIST. We also recommend five particularly impressive Blu-ray horror releases.

• http://www.landofwhimsy.com/moviematters/moviematters-episode2-01-11-10.mp3
• http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AJMT1HAL

The music sampled in this episode is from SUSPIRIA (Goblin), THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (Jeff Grace), TRICK 'R TREAT (Douglas Pipes), THE EXORCIST (Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells), HALLOWEEN (John Carpenter) and THE DESCENT (David Julyan). Special thanks to David Mackenzie for audio support.

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