The BFI has announced three more home entertainment releases for October and November 2024, making them available for pre-order from today. All three titles have a horror connection and our final release of the year, the 50th release in the BFI Flipside series – the home for cinematic oddities, dedicated to rediscovering forgotten British and Irish films and filmmakers who would otherwise be in danger of disappearing from our screens forever – is a true rarity, Vincent Price’s 1970s TV cookery show. Details below, which will be confirmed and updated closer to the release date of each title.
STARVE ACRE (UK 2023)
Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) | 21 October 2024 | £16.99
Daniel Kokotajlo’s impressive follow-up to his award-winning Apostasy is a brilliant adaptation of Andrew Michael Hurley’s acclaimed novel.
In 1970s Yorkshire, Richard and Juliette relocate to Richard’s childhood home, hoping the idyllic country surroundings will benefit their young son. However, a sudden tragic event drives a wedge through the family, which triggers Richard, an academic archaeologist, to bury himself in obsessively exploring a local folkloric myth.
Kokotajlo’s mysterious slow-burn folk horror feels tangibly of the moist Yorkshire earth, while evoking the spellbinding nature of great supernatural and occult horror films from the 70s. It is a wildly eerie piece, tightly stitched together with genuine chills and two bold, unflinching performances from Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark.
DUAL FORMAT FEATURES:
- Presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
- Newly recorded audio commentary by director Daniel Kokotajlo, production designer Francesca Massariol and sound designer Ben Baird
- Newly recorded interview with composer Matthew Herbert (2024)
- Newly recorded interview with author Andrew Michael Hurley (2024, 20 mins)
- Interviews with stars Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark (2023, 10 mins)
- Interview with the ‘Hare Team’ (2023, 19 mins): creature effects supervisor Sharna Rothwell and lead puppeteer Aidan Cook discuss their work
- Behind-the-scenes footage (2023, 5 mins)
- Deleted scene (2023, 1 min)
- Actor Sean Gilder reads ‘The Hare, a folk song’ from the original Starve Acre novel by Andrew Michael Hurley (2024, 1 min, audio), accompanied by a selection of stills from the film
- Stills galleries
- Theatrical trailer
- Newly created audio description track for the blind and visually impaired
- Newly created optional English descriptive subtitles
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated booklet featuring new writing on the film by Professor Catherine Spooner, new writing on contemporary folk horror by Dr Adam Scovell and a text by director Daniel Kokotajlo
THE OBLONG BOX (UK 1969)
Blu-ray | 21 October 2024 | £16.99
Masters of terror Vincent Price and Christopher Lee are both at their spine-chilling best in this grisly Gothic tale of the macabre, inspired by an Edgar Allan Poe story.
In shadow-shrouded Victorian England, Sir Julian Markham (Price) is a landowner hiding a terrible family secret, while Dr Neuhartt (Lee) is a surgeon carrying out dreadful experiments upon stolen cadavers. When their disparate destinies entwine – and a mysterious murderer in a red mask begins a mission of vengeance – a series of brazen, bloody atrocities ensue.
Actors and crew that worked on the horror classic Witchfinder General were brought together again for this stylishly shot, fast paced slice of Grand Guignol – featuring customarily powerful performances from its charismatic cast.
BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- Presented in High Definition
- Audio commentary by film historian Steve Haberman (2022)
- Interview with Victoria Price (2024): the daughter of the legendary Vincent Price recalls the period in his career when he starred in The Oblong Box
- The Pit (1962, 27 mins): experimental gothic short, adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum
- The Bells (1913, 14 mins): a poignant poem by Edgar Allan Poe underpins this rare short silent film which tells a melodramatic tale of love and death
- Prelude (1927, 7 mins): Rachmaninoff's wonderfully disturbing ‘Prelude in C Sharp Minor’ sets the tone for Castleton Knight's silent, nightmarish reverie on Poe's The Premature Burial
- Roger Corman on Edgar Allen Poe (2013, 9 mins): the legendary director and producer discusses his Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, including The Pit and the Pendulum and The Masque of the Red Death
- Original trailer
- Optional English descriptive subtitles
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated booklet featuring a new writing by Peter Fuller and Benjamin Halligan
COOKING PRICE-WISE (UK 1971)
BFI Flipside Blu-ray | 25 November 2024 | £16.99
You don’t need to be a master chef to join cinema’s master of terror Vincent Price in the kitchen for this brilliantly bizarre crash-course in very-1970s cookery! Early in that delicious decade, while he was on a sojourn in England, the legendary screen-star and fine-dining aficionado took an unlikely break from the macabre movies to rustle up this long-sought-after labour-of-love six part television series, encouraging bored British housewives to serve up something different. From melon monsters to crocodile cucumbers, not forgetting the perfect soufflé, the marvellous Mr Price is your genial and garrulous host amid the paisley-patterned saucepans, as he demonstrates favourites recipes from around the world – in this fantastic full-fat celebrity cookery show unlike any other!
BFI Flipside is dedicated to rediscovering the margins of British film, reclaiming a space for forgotten movies and filmmakers who would otherwise be in danger of disappearing from our screens forever. It is a home for UK cinematic oddities, offering everything from exploitation documentaries to B-movies, countercultural curios and obscure classics, If it's weird, British and forgotten, then it's Flipside.
Browse more BFI Flipside titles.
BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- Standard definition presented on Blu-ray
- Victoria Price on Cooking Price-Wise (2024): Vincent Price’s daughter, writer and inspirational speaker Victoria Price, reflects upon her father’s love of the finer things in life
- Monster Munch (2024): Queen of the Kitchen Jenny Hammerton - of silverscreensuppers.com - demonstrates how you too can prepare a classic Vincent Price dish in this all-new kitchen caper
- A Treasury of Great Recipes (2024): Jenny Hammerton celebrates Vincent Price’s writing on cookery and his love of all things edible
- Cooking Vincent Price's Goulash (2013, 7 mins): Nathalie Morris and film archivist Jenny Hammerton demonstrate how to make a deliciously sinister goulash courtesy of the acting legend
- The Good Housewife “In Her Kitchen” (1949, 9 mins): tricks and tips on food preparation - 1940s-style - in this imaginative Central Office of Information short
- Other extras tbc
- Optional English descriptive subtitles
- LIMITED EDITION: Includes O-card and booklet featuring new writing by Victoria Price, Peter Fuller, Vic Pratt and Jenny Hammerton
|
