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ARROW FILMS SET TO BRING BRITISH DARK COMEDY HORROR HIT A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE TO NORTH AMERICA RELEASING ON iTUNES AND DIGITAL HD JANUARY 13, 2020
Arrow Films is thrilled to announce that it will be releasing the critically acclaimed jet-black British comedy feature film A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE in the US and Canada on iTunes and Digital HD on January 13th, 2020.
Described as “Sightseers meets Thelma and Louise” (Deborah Haywood, Pin Cushion), A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE is the debut feature film from Writer-Director Staten Cousins Roe, produced by Forward Motion Pictures – a multi award-winning production company run by husband-wife duo Staten Cousins Roe and Poppy Roe, in addition to producers Charity Wakefield and Giles Alderson. A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE was inspired by the duo’s acclaimed short film This Way Out, which screened on HBO and Sundance Channel and received multiple awards.
Following its successful UK premiere at Arrow Video FrightFest 2019 in August, female-led A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE is a must-see this January, starring Olivier Award-winning Katie Brayben (Doctor Who, King Charles III, This Way Out), Poppy Roe (This Way Out, Drawn, The Leisure Class), Ben Lloyd-Hughes (Divergent, Me Before You, Malevolent) and Emmy-nominated Sian Clifford (Fleabag, Vanity Fair, Dodgy Dave).
A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE follows Lou Farnt (Katie Brayben): a 30-something, self-help addict who wants nothing more than to escape her overly controlling mother and the dead-end seaside town where she grew up. So when strange and strikingly confident new life coach Val (Poppy Roe) suddenly arrives on the scene and invites her on a road trip of alternative therapies, Lou finds the perfect opportunity to leave, and the perfect person to become. Unfortunately for Lou, Val’s a serial killer!
A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE is guaranteed to satisfy the self-help generation, and the modern human’s blood lust.
Staten Cousins Roe said:
“I started my first feature film ‘A Serial Killer’s Guide’ to Life with a small dedicated team and a tiny budget – we shot at over 30 locations in only two weeks and edited it ourselves at home. At the festival premiere the audience response was immense, and since then it’s gathered brilliant reviews. And now I’m excited to have my funny & violent road trip comedy become available to disturb audiences across the world. I followed the do-it-yourself first film approach of my heroes Christopher Nolan, the Coen brothers and Stanley Kubrick, and have made a truly independent film as my debut feature.”
A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE will be released on iTunes and Digital HD from 13th January 2020.
US: iTunes pre-order link
CAN: iTunes pre-order link
You can find out more about A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE on the website and Twitter
ABOUT ARROW FILMS: Arrow Films is a leading independent all-rights entertainment company, established in1991, operating in the UK, Republic of Ireland, U.S.A and Canada. Arrow Films is firmly dedicated to new cinema, developing an enviable slate of critically acclaimed films which will additionally enjoy a lasting lifespan across all of our ancillary channels, brands and labels, including Arrow Video and Arrow Academy. Recent acquisitions include Harpoon, Immortal, The Villainess, Aquarius and Hounds of Love. Additionally, Arrow Films is widely considered to be the global market leader in the Premium Home Entertainment market, fuelled by state-of-the-art in-house film restoration and highly sought-after Blu-ray editions of classic and cult cinema. www.arrowfilms.com
ABOUT FORWARD MOTION PICTURES: Forward Motion Pictures is a multi-award-winning independent production company based near Brighton, England. Run by husband and wife team Staten Cousins Roe and Poppy Roe, their first short film This Way Out was BAFTA-long-listed, played at over 30 Festivals, won 5 international awards and screened on HBO Europe & the Sundance Channel Europe. After producing Staten’s debut feature film, A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life, Forward Motion Pictures’ slate involves development across film and television, including a series adaptation of This Way Out, and Staten’s next horror feature film. www.forwardmotionpictures.com
BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Stuff (1985)
BLU-RAY REVIEW: Bride of Re-Animator (1989)
By Nick Durham
Oh Arrow Video, how you spoil me. No more having to watch that crap, out-of-print (and edited) DVD version from Artisan, here we are with a wonderful Blu-ray release of the underappreciated Bride of Re-Animator. Like they did with their Society release, Arrow has gone above and beyond with the treatment they’ve given this film, and this package is quite the sight to behold. This is a film I have held in relatively high regard, even if some of it feels a little cheaper in overall quality compared to the original.
This 1989 sequel to Stuart Gordon’s 1985 classic Re-Animator, Bride of Re-Animator finds Brian Yuzna (who produced the first film, as well as being the director of Society, Return of the Living Dead 3, and tons more) in the director’s chair this time around. The film picks up eight months after the massacre at Miskatonic, with Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) and Dan Cain (Bruce Abbot) in Peru during a civil war as meatball surgeons. They’re both still testing the limits of West’s reagent serum, and eventually the two of them wind up back at Miskatonic. There’s a cop (Claude Earl Jones) scoping them out for his own personal reasons, a beautiful woman (Fabiana Udenio) that has caught Dan’s eye, and the re-animated head of Dr. Carl Hill (David Gale) has returned to wreck havoc. Oh, and the boys are trying to make their own Frankenstein-ish monster from dead body parts, including the heart of Dan’s late fiancé Megan (who was played by the great Barbara Crampton in the original film).
Yeah, things are a little convoluted to say it lightly in terms of the plot and story of Bride of Re-Animator. Some of the character’s motivations, particularly Dan Caine’s, are so all over the place it’s hard to really sympathize with him, especially when he makes puppy dog eyes to any female character with a pulse. Plus, as I had mentioned earlier, some elements of it feel kind of cheap. One thing I will say is that the grotesque gore and makeup effects from the then fledgling KNB Effects group as well as Screaming Mad George and John Carl Buechler are the bloody icing on the cake. Some of the puppet effects have definitely not aged well though, but in all honesty that isn’t too much of a surprise. Those flaws aside, I still find this film to be an underappreciated sequel that sadly doesn’t get enough of the recognition that it deserves.
What also isn’t a surprise is how much love and care that Arrow Video has put into this Blu-ray release. The film has been remastered in 2K for the unrated version, and the R-rated version is here too for shits and giggles. While the unrated version looks great, there is a noticeable degradation in the picture quality during the unrated scenes of the film (which honestly makes it easy to tell what got cut from the film during its original release). There’s a bunch of commentary tracks featuring Yuzna, Combs, Abbot, Kurtzman, and more besides; as well as a retrospective with Yuzna, a few looks at the film’s FX, deleted scenes, and more. This limited edition set from Arrow also features a booklet reprint of the awesome comic book prequel to the first film. Yes, this set is a thing of beauty.
So yeah, it goes without saying that you need to get your hands on this Bride of Re-Animator set from Arrow. It’s a beautiful sight to behold, and it’s more than worth your time and attention. Pick this up while you still can.
Rating: 5/5
BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Mutilator (1985)
By Nick Durham
The Mutilator is one of those slasher flicks from the 80s that you may kind of remember, but if you do, you don’t remember it too well. Chances are you know the title at least, and yes, that is a great title for a piece of slasher trash. Funny enough, the original title for the film was Fall Break, which actually makes more sense considering the story revolves around a group of college douche bags on their fall break, and the film even has a fucking theme song entitled Fall Break. Oh well, a lot of films of this type in the 80s had at least two different titles at some point, so this actually isn’t that much of a surprise.
The Mutilator, as I said already, revolves around the typical brand of 80s college douche bags (and we know they’re douche bags because a couple of them wear sweaters tied around their necks or draped over their shoulders) who decide to take a trip to the beach house of owned by the father of our lead Ed Jr. (Matt Mitler). Thing is though, Ed’s father went a little off the deep end some years back when young Ed accidentally killed his mother with daddy’s rifle. Throughout the years, Big Ed has hunted a lot and made trophies of his kills, and now he has his sights set on his son and his friends.
The film’s flimsy plot isn’t done any favors by the laughably bad acting peppered throughout The Mutilator. In fact, the film as a whole seems really fucking amateurish in terms of its direction and technical aspects. This isn’t really that much of a big deal, because in the mid-80s, everyone and their mother was making slasher flicks in their back yards with camcorders they rented from the local video store. Where The Mutilator shines though is with its gore effects. For its time, they are really fucking good, and even though it takes us a while to get there, the gore shots and kills are worth the trip.
Arrow Video has done another fine job crafting a great Blu-ray set here. They’ve remastered the film in 2K, and somehow actually managed to piece together this rarely seen unrated version of the film as well. Somehow, someway, Arrow has managed to not make this movie look like shit. There’s a few different commentary tracks featuring writer/producer/director Buddy Cooper, as well as star Matt Mitler and female lead Ruth Martinez, and a new documentary featuring interviews with them and more besides. There’s a look back at the splatter effects of the film, screen tests, trailers, original and instrumental version of the film’s funky ass theme song, and a retrospective about the film’s super weird musical score (seriously, it’s weird). As usual, Arrow really packed in the goods special feature-wise.
So yeah, The Mutilator is an often forgotten 80s slasher trash fest that is gloriously awful, yet somehow endearing. It’s enjoyable in its badness though, and the film’s ending is a total hoot to say it lightly. Go check it out if you’ve never seen it before, and if you have seen the film before and have fond memories of it, pick up Arrow’s Blu-ray while you can.
Rating: 3/5 (film), 4.5/5 (special features)
BLU-RAY REVIEW: The Tenderness of the Wolves (1973)
By Nick Durham
Does the name Ulli Lommel ring a bell? If you’re a horror nerd (and chances are that you are since you’re here reading this) then you’ve no doubt heard of him, or at least been subjected to some of his more recent exercises in depravity. He really made a name for himself in the 80s with Boogeyman, which in itself was a pile of shit, but nowhere near as bad as his more recent, direct-to-DVD pieces of shit that he’s churned out at an alarming rate for Lions Gate. What you may not know however is that back in the day, Lommel was an up and coming director, and even an understudy of Andy fucking Warhol. His 1973 film, The Tenderness of the Wolves, is a surprisingly thoughtful and totally disturbing character study of infamous German serial killer Fritz Haarmann. It goes without saying that this is undoubtedly the best film that Lommel has ever made.
The late Kurt Raab plays Haarmann: a known homosexual in 1920s Germany (which was a crime by itself back then) that picks up and murders young men in horrific ways, and even moonlights into the fine delicacies of cannibalism to boot. As a known black-market criminal and homosexual, Haarmann becomes a police informant due to the poverty of the nation as a whole, which ends up finding him helping himself keeping the cops off his back so he can freely pick up and slaughter his victims. These scenes of Haarmann meeting and seducing his victims are where the real meat (no pun intended) of The Tenderness of the Wolves lies. They’re not super graphic or even really suspenseful honestly; but they really invoke how evil a son of a bitch this man is. This is both thanks to Lommel’s careful pacing, and Raab’s wonderful performance.
If there’s any drawbacks or flaws to The Tenderness of the Wolves, it’s that it doesn’t deal with the aftermath of when Haarmann is finally caught, or even deal with his origins either. The whole film is dedicated to this one particular fraction of time where he was at his most monstrous, which while incredibly effective, doesn’t do much to develop the character as a whole. Then again, this sick fuck was a real-life person after all, so maybe all we really need to know about Haarmann is what’s presented here.
Arrow Films has done another wonderful job with this Blu-ray release, but that shouldn’t be much of a surprise. The film itself has been remastered and looks glorious, and there’s even a new translation of the film’s English subtitles (which are way, way more accurate than any other American release of this film has ever been). There’s a commentary by Lommel, interviews with the film’s cinematographer Jurgen Jurges and actor Rainer Will (who plays one of Haarmann’s victims), an appreciation retrospective of the film, plus the film’s trailer and a fascinating booklet is included as well. Yeah, this is really good stuff here, which is the norm from Arrow.
Now in case you didn’t realize it by now, The Tenderness of the Wolves definitely isn’t for everyone. If you’re looking for a serial killer/thriller type flick, you’ll be disappointed here. This is a deliberate character study of a true monster, and Lommel doesn’t fuck around with expressing that to the audience. Still, with its brisk 82-minute running time, you don’t have much to lose by checking this out at the very least.
Rating: 4/5