It's hard to resist interest in any film as bluntly titled as The Sadist, but more especially when you realise it was made not last year for release by Redemption, but back in 1963 and was the first feature photographed by Vilmos Zsigmond, Oscar winner for Close Encounters of the Third Kind and nominated for The Deer Hunter, The River and Black Dahlia.

Three people driving to Los Angeles for a Dodgers baseball game break down and pull into an old wrecking yard to look for repairs. However, they become held hostage by two psychotic teenagers with low morals and itchy trigger fingers. As the film progresses the hostages become ever more abused as their abductors uncaringly toy with their lives. Shot in 'real time', this was the first film to be inspired by the real life serial killers Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate, subsequently used as the influence for Badlands and Natural Born Killers.

Not widely seen but the subject of a small but devoted cult, The Sadist is a tense, gritty thriller whose themes of nihilistic violence and casual brutality are years ahead of its time. Produced by exploitation legend Arch Hall Sr (whose son takes the lead role), the time is perfect for this cult film par excellence to find its rightful audience.

The Sadist will be released on UK DVD on 12th January by Powis Square Pictures at the RRP of £12.99. Featuring a digitally remastered widescreen print struck from Joe Dante's personal 35mm copy, the disc also includes a feature length commentary by Vilmos Zsigmond who discusses the filming of The Sadist and his career as a cinematographer for films including McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Close Encounters of
The Third Kind.