Arrow has announced its March disc releases, which consist of Limited Edition 4K UHD releases of a pair of modern horror favourites in the shape of Nakata Hideo's 2002 Dark Water and Lucio Fulci's 1980 City of the Living Dead.
DARK WATER [HONOGURAI MIZU NO SOKO KARA] (Japan 2002)
Limited Edition 4K UHD | 18 March 2024 | RRP £29.99 (£22 pre-order from Arrow Store)
After terrifying audiences worldwide with the blockbuster J-Horror classic Ringu and its sequel, director Nakata Hideo returned to the genre for Dark Water, another highly atmospheric, and critically acclaimed, tale of the supernatural which took the common theme of the "dead wet girl" to new heights of suspense and drama.
Based upon on a short story by Ringu author Suzuki Koji, Dark Water follows Yoshimi, a single mother struggling to win sole custody of her only child, Ikuko. When they move into a new home within a dilapidated and long-forgotten apartment complex, Yoshimi begins to experience startling visions and unexplainable sounds, calling her mental well-being into question, and endangering not only her custody of Ikuko, but perhaps their lives as well.
Beautifully shot by cinematographer Hayashi Junichiro (Ringu, Pulse), and featuring an especially unnerving sound design, Dark Water successfully merges spine-tingling tension with a family's heart-wrenching emotional struggle, creating one of the very finest and most unsettling contemporary Japanese horror films.
4K UHD BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original lossless 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Ghosts, Rings and Water – interview with director Hideo Nakata
- Family Terrors – interview with author Koji Suzuki
- Visualizing Horror – interview with cinematographer Junichiro Hayashi
- Archive interviews with actors Hitomi Kuroki & Asami Mizukawa and theme song artist Shikao Suga
- Original 'making-of' documentary
- Trailers and TV Spots
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain
- Illustrated collector's booklet featuring writing on the film by David Kalat and Michael Gingold
CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD [PAURA NELLA CITTÀ DEI MORTI VIVENTI] (Italy 1980)
Limited Edition 4K UHD | 25 March 2024 | RRP £34.99 (£30 pre-order from Arrow Store)
From the Italian godfather of gore, Lucio Fulci, comes City of the Living Dead, a notoriously nauseating, compellingly corporeal masterpiece of apocalyptic zombie horror.
A medium has a mysterious vision of a priest hanging himself... A seemingly dead woman awakes screaming in her coffin... And in the sleepy New England town of Dunwich, a girl vomits up her intestines and a local misfit has a drill bit ploughed into his cranium... These hallucinogenic, often grotesque visions punctuate a skeletal story telling of a reporter (Christopher George, The Exterminator, Pieces) and a psychic (Catriona MacColl, The House by the Cemetery, The Beyond) who must race against time to prevent hordes of rotting corpses spewing forth from the gates of hell...
Stridently going beyond the classical stylings of his horror hit Zombie Flesh Eaters, City of the Living Dead sees Fulci eschew conventional narrative logic in favour of a delirious, oneiric mode of storytelling which stresses visuals, surrealism and atmosphere (as well as offering up bucket-loads of brains, blood and guts!). Presented here in a 4K restoration with a wealth of extras, Fulci's gore-drenched classic can now be devoured as never before!
4K UHD BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- Restoration from a 4K scan of the original camera negative by Arrow Films
- 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original uncompressed 1.0 mono, 2.0 stereo and optional 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
- Original English and Italian soundtracks
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
- Optional English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
- Audio commentary with star Catriona MacColl and journalist Jay Slater
- Audio commentary with star Giovanni Lombardo Radice and writer Calum Waddell
- We Are the Apocalypse – interview with writer Dardano Sacchetti
- Through Your Eyes – interview with Catriona MacColl
- Dust in the Wind – interview with cameraman Roberto Forges Davanzati
- The Art of Dreaming – interview with production designer Massimo Antonello Geleng
- Tales of Friendship – interview with cinematographer Sergio Salvati
- I Walked with a Zombie – interview with actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice
- They Call Him "Bombardone" – interview with special effects artist Gino De Rossi
- The Horror Family – interview with father and son actors Venantino and Luca Venantini
- Songs from Beyond – interview with composer Fabio Frizzi
- Carlo of the Living Dead – interview with actor Carlo De Mejo
- Building Fulci's City – video appreciation by Stephen Thrower, author of the definitive tome, Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci
- Reflections on Fulci – appraisal of Fulci's Gothic period by actor, writer and director Andy Nyman (Ghost Stories)
- The Dead Are Alive! – video essay by Kat Ellinger on Lucio Fulci and the Italian zombie cycle
- Behind the Fear – behind the scenes 8mm footage with Roberto Forges Davanzati audio commentary
- The Gates of Hell – alternative US theatrical release opening titles
- Original trailers and radio spots
- Extensive image gallery featuring over 150 stills, posters and other ephemera from the FAB Press and Mike Siegel archives
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch
- Double-sided fold-out poster
- Six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproductions
- Limited edition 60-page booklet featuring writing by Travis Crawford and Roberto Curti, excerpts from archival interviews with Lucio Fulci, and original reviews
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