Something we’re hoping to keep you up to date on here at Warped Perspective is news of the most exciting upcoming home entertainment releases – we’re talking DVDs and Blu-rays, predominantly, of the hot new genre films and the best in cult classics. There are so many great specialist labels out there now that sometimes it can be hard to keep track (and I can’t promise I’ll manage to cover everything, so give me a shout if I’ve left out anything great!).
As it’s the start of the year here are some of the highlights of January’s upcoming releases, in case any have slipped under your radar, as well as a couple of exciting recent announcements.
The ever reliable and impressive Arrow Video bring out Takashi Miike’s early works Shinjuku Triad Society, Rainy Dog and Ley Lines together in the Black Society Trilogy boxset (Jan 16th – pre-order here), and Sam Peckinpah’s complex classic Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia (Jan 23rd – pre-order here). If you’re a fan of Pieces, keep an eye out for pre-orders for their epic limited edition release – including CD, vinyl and jigsaw in addition to the 3-disc release of the film – via a special website which goes live this Friday!
88 Films release the Hong Kong “erotic gore-fest” Seeding of a Ghost on Blu-ray this coming Monday (Jan 16th), but if you’re a collector you might want to take a look at the limited edition slipcase version exclusive to their website, which drops on the 20th. Eureka release Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s recent hit Creepy on their Masters of Cinema imprint, which includes an extensive new interview with Kurosawa as well as a booklet with new writing on the film (Jan 23rd). Another two of last year’s best horror films (if you ask me) are released this month too: Under the Shadow (Signature, Jan 23) and The Wailing (Kaleidoscope, Jan 30), though both are sadly DVD-only.
Third Window Films this week revealed two very exciting releases for the first half of 2017 – Tetsuya Mariko’s Destruction Babies (April 10th) and Shinya Tsukamoto’s Fires on the Plain (June 12th). I’m so happy to see Fires on the Plain finally hit the UK! I was lucky enough to see it back in 2015 and I’ve been desperate to see it again since – and none finer to bring it to disc than Third Window, who have released a great deal of Tsukamoto’s filmography on wonderful Blu-ray editions. Meanwhile, Destruction Babies will also be touring as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Programme, so do keep an eye out if it’s playing a cinema near you! Mariko won Best New Director at Locarno for the film, and it features the wonderful Nana Komatsu (The World of Kanako) in the cast, so it’s one I’ve definitely got my eyes on.
Terracotta Distribution also unveiled and upcoming release recently, and it’s the brilliantly bonkers Bloody Muscle Body Builder In Hell – also known as The Japanese Evil Dead. It’s just over an hour’s worth of madness, and while it’s a bit of a one-joke film, it’s wildly entertaining and is really quite convincingly retro-styled. It’s pastiche of The Evil Dead is spot on, but it’s not so much of a parody as to make it boring. The film will be released on April 10th, but you can pre-order it now.