Arrow Video has announced its May Blu-ray releases, which include a superb spaghetti western, a pair of gems from exploitation maestro Roger Corman, a seriously gruesome Japanese thriller, a crowd-pleasing 80s-style sci-fi, and a freshly unearthed cannibal horror, all beautifully packaged and stacked with extras.

First up is The Grand Duel, an archetypal spaghetti western starring the legendary Lee Van Cleef (The Big Combo, Day of Anger) in a film that boasts many of the genre’s classic hallmarks including action-packed gunfights, wild stunts and an impressive climactic showdown. The Blu-ray features a new 2K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative, a new audio commentary, newly filmed interviews with director Giancarlo Santi and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, and an Illustrated collector’s booklet.

Next in May is Roger Corman protégé Carl Colpaert’s In The Aftermath, a unique mash-up of 1980s B-movie nuclear paranoia and hauntingly lyrical animation, featuring two soldiers stumbling through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. This lavish Blu-ray is presented in a stunning new restoration with new interviews and a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork.

Also from producer Corman comes The Annihilators, a brash, no-holds-barred slice of vigilante justice from the golden age of B-movie action. Directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr. (Silent Night, Deadly Night), the release includes a brand new 2K restoration from the original 35mm interpostive, a new video interview with actor Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, a new video interview with filmmaker David O’Malley on the early career of The Annihilators’ director, and new sleeve artwork by Graham Humphreys.

Then it is time for something brutal, bewildering and definitely not for the faint-hearted, as director Teruo Ishii (Blind Woman’s Curse, Horrors of Malformed Men), the Godfather of J-sploitation, presents Yakuza Law, that takes place during three distinct periods of Japanese history, bringing to the screen some of the most brutal methods of torment ever devised, presented here with a wealth of extras and a gloriously gruesome collector’s booklet.

Also in May is Mega Time Squad, Tim van Dammen’s 80s-throwback supernatural crime caper, dubbed by critics as “a grounded sci-fi mini-odyssey with lots of creativity and even more laugh-out-loud gags”, in which a brilliant ensemble works with sharp dialogue to deliver an endearingly odd and endlessly entertaining slice of Kiwi life.

Finally, Arrow have breathed new life into neglected horror Trapped Alive, with genre regular Cameron Mitchell (The Toolbox Murders) in a thrilling tale of escaped hoodlums and underground-dwelling cannibals. This brand new 2K restoration comes with a new commentary, a new making-of documentary that includes an interview with director Leszek Burzynski, and a collector’s booklet all about this flesh-munching find.

The Grand Duel [ Il grande duello] | Blu-ray | 6 May 2019 | £24.99

The Grand Duel is an archetypal spaghetti western which boasts many of the genre’s classic hallmarks including action-packed gunfights, wild stunts and an impressive climactic showdown...

Genre stalwart Lee Van Cleef stars as a gnarled ex-sheriff called Clayton who comes to the aid of young Philipp Wermeer (Alberto Dentice), a fugitive framed for the murder of a powerful figure called The Patriarch. Clayton helps Philipp fend off attacks from bounty hunters in a series of thrilling shootouts before the two make their way to Jefferson to confront three villains known as the Saxon brothers, and reveal who really killed The Patriarch.

A complex tale of revenge penned by prolific giallo writer Ernesto Gastaldi (Torso, The Case of the Scorpion's Tail), The Grand Duel benefits from a beguiling central performance from Lee Van Cleef and assured helmsmanship from Giancarlo Santi (assistant director to Sergio Leone on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West). Add to this brew a memorable and tuneful score by composer Luis Bacalov (Django, Milano Calibro 9) and the stage is set for one of the grandest of all the Italian westerns.

Blu-ray Special Edition contents:

• New 2K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Uncompressed mono 1.0 LPCM audio
• Original English and Italian soundtracks, titles and credits
• Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
• New audio commentary by film critic, historian and theorist Stephen Prince
• An Unconventional Western, a newly filmed interview with director Giancarlo Santi
• The Last of the Great Westerns, a newly filmed interview with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi
• Out of the Box, a newly filmed interview with producer Ettore Rosboch
• The Day of the Big Showdown, a newly filmed interview with assistant director Harald Buggenig
• Saxon City Showdown, a newly filmed video appreciation by the academic Austin Fisher
• Original Italian and international theatrical trailers
• Extensive image gallery featuring stills, posters, lobby cards and home video sleeves, drawn from the Mike Siegel Archive and other collections
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Griffin
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Kevin Grant and original reviews

In The Aftermath | Blu-ray | 6 May 2019 | £24.99

Following in the footsteps of Francis Ford Coppola and Peter Bogdanovich, Roger Corman protégé Carl Colpaert (The Crew) made his directorial debut by combining repurposed excerpts from a foreign film – in this case, Mamoru Oshii’s (Ghost In The Shell) spellbinding 1985 anime Angel’s Egg – with new live action footage shot in America. The result is In The Aftermath, a haunting post-apocalyptic vision like no other.

In a radiation-soaked wasteland, two surviving soldiers, Frank and Goose, search for essential supplies amid the rubble. After a violent confrontation, Frank is haunted by visions of an angelic young girl holding a giant egg, herself a refugee from another world altogether. Could the egg be the key to saving both their worlds?

A unique mash-up of 1980s B-movie nuclear paranoia and hauntingly lyrical animation, In The Aftermath is presented in a stunning new restoration that highlights Oshii’s visionary genius and Colpaert’s low-budget ingenuity.

Blu-ray Special Edition contents:

• Brand new 2K restoration from original film elements, exclusively restored by Arrow Films
• Presented on High Definition Blu-ray (1080p)
• Original uncompressed stereo PCM audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• The Path To Aftermath, a newly filmed interview with producer Tom Dugan
• Apocalypse Then, a newly filmed interview with star Tony Markes
• Before The Aftermath: The Influence of Angel’s Egg, a new appreciation of Mamoru Oshii’s original film by anime expert Andrew Osmond (author of Arrow Books’ Ghost In The Shell)
• Still and poster gallery
  
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Corey Brickley
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jon Towlson

The Annihilators | Blu-ray | 13 May 2019 | £24.99

As the 1980s rolled on, a new, bullish attitude to war took hold in America, the weary cynicism of the previous decade giving way to an unabashed celebration of military might. Numerous filmmakers and producers sought to capitalise on the emerging mood… among them New World Pictures, the company founded by the legendary Roger Corman. 

In The Annihilators, the war comes home as a group of army vets, battle-scarred from their travails in the jungles of Vietnam, are forced to dust off their combat moves once again when one of their own meets his demise at the hands a violent criminal gang. Deciding that enough is enough, the self-styled Annihilators, led by the redoubtable Bill (Christopher Stone – The Howling, Cujo), set out to equip the beleaguered citizens of downtown Atlanta with the skills they need to rid their streets of crime and vice. 

Directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr. and co-starring Gerrit Graham (Phantom of the Paradise) and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (Death Wish), The Annihilators is a brash, no-holds-barred slice of vigilante justice from the golden age of B-movie action.

Blu-ray Special Edition contents:

• Brand new 2K restoration from the original 35mm interpostive
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original lossless mono soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• The New Heat on the Street, a new video interview with actor Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs
• In Search of Charles E. Sellier Jr., a new video interview with filmmaker David O’Malley on the early career of The Annihilators’ director
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys

Yakuza Law [akuza keibatsu-shi: Rinchi!] | Blu-ray | 13 May 2019 | £24.99

Director Teruo Ishii, the Godfather of J-sploitation, presents Yakuza Law (AKA Yakuza’s Law: Lynching) – a gruelling anthology of torture, spanning three district periods of Japanese history and bringing to the screen some of the most brutal methods of torment ever devised.

In this deep dive into the world of the Yakuza, meet the violent men who rule the Japanese underworld and the cruel punishments inflicted on those who transgress them. The carnage begins in the Edo Period with a violent tale of samurai vengeance starring Bunta Sugawara (Battles Without Honour and Humanity), before shifting to the Meiji Period as the exiled Ogata (Minoru Oki – Shogun Assassin) returns to face punishment for his past transgressions… and, ultimately, to take his revenge. Finally, the action is brought right up to date with a tale of gang warfare set in then-present-day 60s Japan and headlined by Teruo Yoshida (Ishii’s Orgies of Edo), as a powerful crime syndicate seeks bloody vengeance for the theft of one hundred thousand yen.

Brutal, bewildering and definitely not for the faint-hearted, Yakuza Law represents Japanese popular cinema at its most extreme… and most thrilling.

Blu-ray Special Edition contents:

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original lossless mono Japanese soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles
• New audio commentary by author and critic Jasper Sharp
• Erotic-Grotesque and Genre Hopping: Teruo Ishii Speaks, a rare vintage interview with the elusive director on his varied career, newly edited for this release
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jacob Phillips
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Tom Mes

Mega Time Squad | Blu-ray | 20 May 2019 | £24.99

Push the Button. You’ll Know When.

Welcome to Thames, New Zealand. Population: 7,518 – and falling. Unless of course you’re Johnny (Anton Tennet), the new member of a local gang led by Shelton (Jonathan Brugh – What We Do in the Shadows). He’s multiplying. 

After Johnny is foiled in an effort to double-cross Shelton at his own game of masterminding the sleepy town’s unsurprisingly tame criminal underbelly, he inadvertently steals an ancient bracelet with which he can turn back time – and in the process create multiple clones of himself. This gives Johnny the ability to literally form his own gang against Shelton’s. The only problem is: how can you learn to live your best life, when you’re also having to figure out which one of you exactly that is? Oh, that and there’s a demon after him for bending the rules of time, physics and just general common sense. 

Tim van Dammen directs this 80s-throwback supernatural crime caper, dubbed by critics as “a grounded sci-fi mini-odyssey with lots of creativity and even more laugh-out-loud gags”, in which a brilliant ensemble works with sharp dialogue to deliver an endearingly odd and endlessly entertaining slice of Kiwi life.

Blu-ray Special Edition contents:

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation 
• Original 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and uncompressed stereo PCM soundtracks
• 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio music and effects track 
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing 
• Audio commentary by director Tim van Dammen
• Mega Time Squad: The FrightFest TV interview, director Tim van Dammen talks to FrightFest's Paul McEvoy
• Extensive image galleries
• Original trailers

Trapped Alive | Blu-ray | 20 May 2019 | £24.99

Genre regular Cameron Mitchell stars in this thrilling tale of escaped hoodlums and underground-dwelling cannibals from director Leszek Burzynski and Hellraiser producer Christopher Webster.

One wintry night, pals Robin and Monica are making their way to a Christmas party when they’re carjacked by a gang of crooks recently escaped from the local penitentiary. With the two young women taken as hostages, things take an even darker turn when their vehicle plummets down an abandoned mine shaft, trapping them underground with the dangerous crooks - and a mutant cannibal.

Filmed in 1988 under the title of Forever Mine but not released until 1993, Trapped Alive was the first film to come out of Wisconsin’s now-defunct Windsor Lake Studios, which would go on to produce a number of films under the Fangoria Films label in the early-90s, including 1992’s Bruce Campbell-starring Mindwarp.

Blu-ray Special Edition contents:

• Brand new 2K restoration from the original camera negative
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original mono audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Brand new audio commentary with director Leszek Burzynski
• Brand new audio commentary with special effects artist Hank Carlson and horror writer Josh Hadley
• Brand new audio commentary with The Hysteria Continues
• There’s EVIL Underground… - brand new making-of documentary featuring interviews with director Leszek Burzynski, cinematographer Nancy Schreiber, production manager Alexandra Reed and actors Alex Kubik and Sullivan Hester
• Upper Michigan Tonight - 1988 television documentary on Windsor Lake Studios, featuring footage from behind the scenes of Trapped Alive and contemporary interviews with director Leszek Burzynski, producer Christopher Webster and production designer Brian Savegar
• Leszek Burzynski: The Early Years – the Trapped Alive director discusses his early forays into genre movie-making
• Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Justin Osbourn 
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Zach Carlson