Arrow Video has announced its March Blu-ray and UHD releases, which have been announced as Lucio Fulci's 1972 giallo masterpiece Don’t Torture a Duckling and Brian De Palma’s controversial 1980 thriller Dressed to Kill on 4K UHD, Renny Harlin's shark-infested action-thriller Deep Blue Sea on UHD and Blu-ray, and Mike Hodges’ film version of Michael Crichton's The Terminal Man and Masumura Yasuzō's erotically charged 1970 drama Play it Cool on Limited Edition Blu-ray. Full details of each of the releases below.
DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING [NON SI SEVIZIZ UN PAPERINO] (Italy 1972)
Limited Edition 4K UHD | 24 March 2024 | £29.99
From Lucio Fulci, the godfather of gore (City of the Living Dead, The House by the Cemetery), comes one of the most powerful and unsettling giallo thrillers ever produced: his 1972 masterpiece, Don’t Torture a Duckling.
When the sleepy rural village of Accendura is rocked by a series of murders of young boys, the superstitious locals are quick to apportion blame, with the suspects including the local “witch”, Maciara (Florinda Bolkan, A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin). With the bodies piling up and the community gripped by panic and a thirst for bloody vengeance, two outsiders – city journalist Andrea (Tomas Milian, The Four of the Apocalypse) and spoilt rich girl Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times) – team up to crack the case. But before the mystery is solved, more blood will have been spilled, and not all of it belonging to innocents…
Deemed shocking at the time for its brutal violence, depiction of the Catholic Church and themes of child murder and implied pedophilia, Don’t Torture a Duckling is widely regarded today as Fulci’s greatest film, rivalling the best of his close rival rival Dario Argento. Arrow Films presents this uniquely chilling film in its 4K debut.
4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
- Brand new 4K restoration from the original 2-perf Techniscope camera negative by Arrow Films
- 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Newly restored original lossless mono Italian and English soundtracks
- Optional English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
- Audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films
- Giallo a la Campagna, video discussion with Mikel J. Koven, author of La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film
- Hell is Already in Us, video essay by critic Kat Ellinger
- Lucio Fulci Remembers, rare 1988 audio interview with the filmmaker
- Who Killed Donald Duck, interview with actress Barbara Bouchet
- Those Days with Lucio, interview with actress Florinda Bolkan
- The DP’s Eye, interview with cinematographer Sergio D’Offizi
- From the Cutting Table, interview with editor Bruno Micheli
- Endless Torture, interview with makeup artist Maurizio Trani
- Theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ilan Sheady
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by Barry Forshaw and Howard Hughes
DRESSED TO KILL (USA 1980)
Limited Edition 4K UHD | 3 March 2024 | £29.99
Upon its release in 1980, Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill was as acclaimed for its stylish set-pieces and lush Pino Donaggio score as it was condemned for its sexual explicitness – but the glee with which the writer/director turns this material inside out is completely infectious, as he delves deep inside the troubled psyches of his characters to undermine expectations at every turn.
After sexually frustrated housewife Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) has a session with her psychiatrist, Dr Elliott (Michael Caine), she silently seduces a man in an art gallery – an assignation that ends in murder and the only witness, high-class prostitute Liz Blake (Nancy Allen), being stalked by the killer in turn.
One of De Palma’s darkest and most controversial suspense thrillers, Arrow Video presents this iconic neo-Hitchcockian masterwork in stunning 4K alongside a raft of archival and newly commissioned bonus features.
4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
- 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-rayTM presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original lossless 1.0 mono soundtrack
- Optional lossless 5.1 soundtrack
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary by critics Drusilla Adeline and Joshua Conkel
- Audio commentary by critic Maitland McDonagh
- Beyond Good and Evil, brand new visual essay by critics BJ and Harmony Colangelo
- The Empathy of Dressed to Kill, brand new visual essay by critic Jessica Crets
- Strictly Business, 2022 interview with actress Nancy Allen
- Killer Frames, 2022 interview with associate producer/production manager Fred C. Caruso
- An Imitation of Life, 2022 interview with actor Keith Gordon
- Symphony of Fear, 2022 interview with producer George Litto
- Archival interviews with actors Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen and Keith Gordon
- The Making of a Thriller, archival documentary on the making of the film
- Unrated, R-rated and TV-rated comparison featurette
- Slashing Dressed to Kill, archival featurette examining the changes made to avoid an X rating
- Photo gallery
- Theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
- Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Sara Michelle Fetters, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Matthew Sorrento and Heather Wixson
DEEP BLUE SEA (USA / Mexico 1999)
Limited Edition 4K UHD | Limited Edition Blu-ray | 7 March 2024 | £34.99 (UHD), £29.99 (Blu-ray)
From Renny Harlin, maximalist director of Die Hard II, Cliffhanger and The Long Kiss Goodnight, comes Deep Blue Sea, a shark-infested action-thriller where everyone is on the menu.
At an isolated research facility in the middle of the ocean, a team of scientists, led by Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows), are working on a cure for Alzheimer’s by genetically altering the brains of sharks. When a shark escapes and attacks a pleasure boat, the company sponsoring the research threatens to pull its funding and sends corporate executive Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson) to investigate. McAlester has just 48 hours to prove the value of her work, but her experiments have made the sharks smarter. No longer happy to be injected, prodded, and caged, they begin to turn the tables. As a freak storm causes chaos on the surface, making it impossible to leave, the facility is flooded and the scientists must fight to survive against the rising water and the hungry sharks that now swim freely through the corridors.
Embracing action, horror and suspense with a knowing sense of humour and pushing them all as far as they can go, Deep Blue Sea is an adrenaline rush of pure entertainment presented in a brand new 4K restoration approved by director Renny Harlin. Come on in, the water’s great!
4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
- Brand new 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negatives by Arrow Films approved by director Renny Harlin
- 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation
- Original DTS HD-MA 5.1 and Dolby Atmos audio options
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary by screenwriter Duncan Kennedy
- Brand new audio commentary by filmmaker and critic Rebekah McKendry
- Archive audio commentary by director Renny Harlin and star Samuel L. Jackson
- From the Frying pan… into the Studio Tank, a new interview with production designer William Sandell
- Beneath the Surface, a new visual essay by film critic Trace Thurman
- When Sharks Attack: The Making of Deep Blue Sea, an archive featurette
- The Sharks of the Deep Blue Sea, an archive featurette
- Deleted Scenes with optional audio commentary by director Renny Harlin
- Theatrical Trailer
- Image Gallery
- Reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork by Luke Preece
- 60-page perfect bound collectors book containing new writing by film critics Josh Hurtado, Jennie Kermode, and Murray Leeder, plus previously unseen production art and designs
- Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Luke Preece
- Postcards from Aquatica
The Blu-ray release will have the same s[ecoal features and a High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of the film.
THE TERMINAL MAN (USA 1974)
Limited Edition Blu-ray | 10 March 2024 | £24.99
From the director of Get Carter and the writer of Jurassic Park comes a chilling techno-thriller. George Segal is… The Terminal Man.
Harry Benson (Segal) is a brilliant computer scientist who suffers from seizures that induce blackouts and violent behaviour. Undergoing experimental surgery, electrodes are implanted in his brain to detect oncoming seizures and stop them with an electrical impulse. But the pleasure centre of his brain becomes addicted to the stimulus, triggering seizures at shorter and shorter intervals. If they become continuous the blackouts will be permanent, and Benson a homicidal killer.
Much admired by Terence Malick, Stanley Kubrick and Robert Altman alike, Mike Hodges’ film of Michael Crichton’s novel is an unnerving slow-burn masterpiece long overdue for re-evaluation.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of both the theatrical and director's cut of the film
- Original lossless mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary by film historians Howard S. Berger and Steven Mitchell
- A (Misunderstood) Modernist Masterpiece, a new visual essay by film scholar Josh Nelson
- Who Am I If Not Myself, a new visual essay on Mike Hodges and The Terminal Man by Howard S. Berger
- The Skin I Live In, a new visual essay by film historian Howard S. Berger on Crichton, Hodges and cinematographer Richard Kline
- Mike Hodges on The Terminal Man, an archive interview
- Theatrical Trailer
- Image Gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sister Hyde
- Illustrated collector's booklet containing new writing by film critic and author Guy Adams
PLAY IT COOL [DENKI KURAGE] (Japan 1970)
Limited Edition Blu-ray | 3 March 2024 | £24.99
Play it Cool is a chic and erotically charged drama starring popular Japanese singer of the day Atsumi Mari as a college girl negotiating her way through the male-dominated hierarchies of Tokyo’s seductive but treacherous nightclub culture.
Yumi (Atsumi Mari) is a pretty fashion student who shares a cramped home with her mother Tomi (Negishi Akemi, The Saga of Anatahan) and good-for-nothing stepfather Ryoichi. Tomi works at a local hostess bar and hopes for a better fate for Yumi. When Ryoichi violently forces himself upon her blossoming daughter, Tomi is not afraid to take action to protect her, an act which lands her in jail. Left to fend for herself, Yumi is taken in by her mother’s former place of employment, where she finds herself fighting off the unwanted attentions of the men who swarm around her. Then one day, a rescue by handsome former lawyer Nozawa (Kawazu Yusuke, Cruel Story of Youth) from a vicious gangster seems to offer an escape into an
altogether glitzier world, albeit one that turns out fraught with similar dangers.
Arrow Films is proud to release this little-seen gem by one of Japan’s most highly regarded directors of the 1960s, Masumura Yasuzō (Giants and Toys, Irezumi), a filmmaker known for his social satires and powerful portrayals of women, as Play it Cool is released for the very first time for the home video market outside of Japan in a brand new high-definition transfer.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY CONTENTS:
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
- Original uncompressed mono audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Brand new audio commentary with critic and Japanese cinema specialist Jasper Sharp and professor and Japanese literature specialist Anne McKnight
- Too Cool for School, brand new video essay on Play it Cool and the career of writer-director Masumura Yasuzō by Japanese film scholar Mark Roberts
- Original theatrical trailer
- Image gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Earl Jackson
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