Big Plans for 2017!

2016 may have seemed like the downfall of civilization for many, but it was a pretty good year for Mondo Macabro!

We had five Blu-ray releases - LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN, SYMPTOMS, PRIVATE VICES PUBLIC VIRTUES, SUDDENLY IN THE DARK, and NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND DESIRES - and one DVD-only release, MEDOUSA, making this our busiest year in almost a decade!

And we are just getting started!

We already have several amazing titles announced for 2017, including the unlimited retail release of SUDDENLY IN THE DARK in February, our BD upagrade of Franco's COUNTESS PERVERSE, the Spanish giallo THE FOX WITH A VELVET TAIL and two Paul Naschy masterpieces, EL CAMINANTE and INQUISITION, all on Blu! But we've saved the best and biggest titles for our final announcement of the year!

Coming to BD for the first time in the US: two total classics of 70s Spanish horror - WHO CAN KILL A CHILD and THE BLOOD-SPATTERED BRIDE!

We're currently working with the licensor in Spain to make sure we get the best possible HD elements to ensure these will be the definitive editions of these films for years to come.


Hopefully we'll have these ready by summertime! More info TBD/TBA!

Beyond that, we are still looking into a lot of new, exciting projects for the rest of 2017, including more Asian films on Blu-ray, another entry in our Greek Collection, and our first forays into the wild and unruly world of regional US exploito-horror! Start saving your pennies now!!

Coming this Halloween! K-horror classic SUDDENLY IN THE DARK on Blu-ray!

Coming October 31st: The world exclusive Blu-ray debut of the Korean horror classic SUDDENLY IN THE DARK!

Limited Halloween Release! 500 copies! Numbered red case edition with an exclusive booklet! *

Pre-order starts Monday October 10th only at the Mondo Macabro webstore!Featuring reduced shipping: $3 US, $5 CAN, $9 ROTW

A woman’s idyllic middle-class life is disrupted when her husband brings home a beautiful young orphan to be their maid. At first she welcomes the pretty girl, in fact seems oddly fixated on her, but soon comes to suspect the girl of having an affair with her husband. At the same time odd, unexplained incidents - most involving the maid’s mysterious wooden doll - began to make her question her own sanity. Soon it all spirals out of control as the film climaxes in a fever pitch of sexual jealousy, murder, and supernatural vengeance, all set to a pounding synth score.

Almost completely unknown outside of its home country, SUDDENLY IN THE DARK is one of the best examples of pre-millennial K-horror. It was made at a time when censorship law were being liberalized, igniting a boom in both horror and erotic films. Elements of both are present here, directed with bizarre flair by Go Yeong-nam in a style often compared to the wilder Italian films of the 70s and 80s.

Mondo Macabro is proud to present this classic of Korean horror on Blu-ray for the first time anywhere in the world. Our presentation has been restored from the best available elements from the Korean Film Archive, and features brand new extras produced exclusively for this release.

Special Features

Interview with producer Suh Byung-gi
Interview with critic Kim Bong-seok on the history of Korean horror films
K-Horror VHS Cover Art Gallery
Teaser Trailer
Mondo Macabro Promo Reel
Brand New Cover Illustration by Naomi Butterfield
Limited edition booklet with brand new essays on the film by Grady Hendrix and Christopher Koenig

*A retail release in a standard case without the booklet will be available sometime Spring 2017. If the LE sells out quickly it's possible that we will do another limited red case run, but no more another 500, and probably un-numbered.

SUDDENLY IN THE DARK - Coming soon to Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro on Vimeo.

New Blu-ray Title Announcement Round-up!

We've made three brand new title announcements over at our Facebook page this week, but in case you missed it:

We couldn’t be more excited about this first new Blu-ray announcement, the 1981 psycho-sexual South Korean horror film SUDDENLY IN THE DARK!

This amazing, almost unknown film is full of uncomfortable sexuality, cheap visual effects, creepy dolls, shamanism, butterflies, and murder – all set to a searing, original synth score!

Contrary to some popular belief, Korean horror didn’t start in the late 90s, it had been a staple genre in that country for many decades prior, with the early 1980s being a particularly rich period. Unfortunately, these films remain almost completely unknown outside of the ROK. Just the sort of challenge we love! SUDDENLY IN THE DARK is one of the very best pre-millennial K-Horrors: genuinely frightening and utterly bizarre.

This will be our next blu release after PRIVATE VICES, we hope to have it out by early October. We are currently hard at work cleaning up the HD master given to us by the Korean Film Archive, so it will look miles better than any of the versions have have been floating around the internet. We're really digging back into our "worldweird" roots with this one, and we hope you'll follow us down! More details to be revealed in the coming weeks, including a brand new cover illustration by artist Naomi Butterfield!

Never seen the movie? Check out the trailer!



Next up: Need more Franco in your life? Of course you do! 

We are extremely proud to present the North American home video premiere of Jess Franco’s underrated 80s supernatural-sex opus MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE!

A quasi-remake of his own earlier film NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT, this unusual thriller finds Franco at the height of his stylistic delirium:

 “The dreamlike atmosphere is everything here and the director gradually develops a layered nightmare. Humid tints, tilted set ups in cramped interiors, painterly compositions and the most beautiful seven note phrase ever written by Daniel White do the rest of the job.” – Robert Monell, I’m in a Jess Franco State of Mind 

We think this is one of best films of Franco’s fruitful partnership with Golden Films in Spain, perhaps the last extended period of greatness for the ever-prolific exploitation director, and couldn’t be more excited about bringing to an English speaking audience for the first time.

We hope to have this one out later this year, or perhaps early next. We haven’t yet seen the HD master and so don’t know what work still needs to be done, if any. More details to come in the following weeks, including brand new cover art by Justin Coffee!

And finally ...

Coming late 2016/early 2017: THE FOX WITH A VELVET TAIL!

Variously known as In the Eye of the Hurricane, Lusty Lovers, El Ojo del huracán, La volpe dalla coda di velluto and Suspicion this 1971 Italian/Spanish giallo is a hugely enjoyable and very stylish addition to the "Murder on the Med" strand of movies originally popularized by Umberto Lenzi and US star Carroll Baker.

Here, Spanish director José María Forqué - who later made the controversial It's Nothing, Mother, it's Only a Game (released in the US as Beyond Erotica) - brings together a talented and good looking cast, great Côte d'Azur locations, one of the best Spanish cinematographers of the day (Alejandro Ulloa) and a fantastic, lounge style score from Maestro Piccioni to create a twisty, if not twisted, tale of deception and revenge. The director's long career at the more prestigious end of Spanish cinema and the presence of award winning scripter Rafael Azcona - who worked with many top European film makers including Marco Ferreri and Luis García Berlanga - give the film an edge of sophistication alongside its enjoyably devious narrative.

From its very first seconds, the film has a unique and hard to define atmosphere, almost dreamlike. Everything seems a little out of kilter. It's apt that the French release title of the film was Suspicion, not only for its Hitchcockian wrong echoes but also for the way it suggest that nothing here is to be taken at face value. There are constant doubts about minor details, about characters who seem to emerge, without warning, from the past. We feel, while watching it, as though under the influence of a benign narcotic. Only gradually do we realise what's going on and, as we do, the film builds to a tense and gripping final act, with Rosanna Yanni rising to the occasion as a gold digging harpy. Her obvious pleasure in tormenting poor Analía Gadé is genuinely upsetting to watch.

The film is like the smooth blue waters of the Mediterranean where it's set. It looks inviting and seductive, the sun glistening off the gentle waves; but just beneath the surface, sharks are swimming, and they're hungry for prey...

The cast includes top Spanish diva Analía Gadé, giallo staple Jean Sorel, Kommissar X star Tony Kendall and the lustrous Rosanna Yanni in one of her most memorable roles.

Expect a brand new 4k scan from the negative and a sparkling blu ray presentation with original art work from illustrator Justin Coffee.

Miklós Jancsó's PRIVATE VICES PUBLIC VIRTUES on Blu-ray! Spec and Pre-order info

Pre-order starts 8 AM PST/11AM EST this Friday, July 29th exclusively at our webstore!
We estimate shipping to start around the week of August 22-26

Limited, numbered edition!
Exclusive slipcover! 
Booklet with a brand new essay by Max Weinstein and Joe Yanick!
Reduced shipping rates! $3 US, $5 Canada, $10 ROTW!

Disc Content

World exclusive region-free Blu ray
Brand new HD transfer from negative
English and Italian language tracks with optional English subtitles
Interview with Michael Brooke on director Miklós Jancsó
Interview with actress Pamela Villoresi
Interview with screenwriter and assistant director Giovanna Gagliardo

A retail version of this disc without the slipcover or booklet will be available in October with an SRP of $29.99

Miklós Jancsó (1921-2014) was one of the giants of European art cinema. He had been making films in his native Hungary since 1958, but in 1966 he exploded onto the world scene at Cannes with THE ROUND UP. The international critics had never seen anything like it. Combining cinematography with choreography, Jancso films crowds of soldiers on horseback, peasants, and partisans as they perform a ritualistic dance of love, life and death on the bleak Hungarian plains. Ostensibly a costume piece about the 1848 revolt against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the film was widely interpreted as a thinly veiled attack on the aborted 1956 Hungarian uprising against Soviet Russia.

Over his next five features he developed and refined a hypnotic and fluid technique via long, sweeping camera moves and crane shots. Filming in color, his productions became like dazzling "happenings", combining music, dance, naked bodies, horses, men in uniform and spontaneous bursts of singing into a seemingly eternal tracking shot. His films were widely screened at festivals and in art house cinemas. His was a name to drop, an influence to quote.

Then, in the early 1970s, Jancso moved to Italy and began working with new collaborators. Times were changing. It was a post-1968 world and a new explicitness was being seen onscreen, coupled with a certain sense of betrayal about the ideals that had seemed so achievable only a few years before. PRIVATE VICES PUBLIC VIRTUES, made in 1975, reflected both these factors.

The story is based on the famous Mayerling incident where Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria was found dead beside his 17 year old lover in an apparent joint suicide. However as with his earlier productions, the director only used history as a jumping off point. The film is pure Jancso. The long tracking shots are there, the horses are there, the naked bodies are there, as are the snatches of folk music and group singing.

The main difference between this film and his more acclaimed earlier works is that it features a host of increasingly bizarre sexual incidents. When it screened as an official entry in the 1976 Cannes Festival and viewers caught on to some of the shocking things that it contained ... well, let's just say that it caused a scandal and in some ways Jancso's reputation never recovered. Like Borowczyk before him, he was almost written off as a one time great film maker who had strayed too far into porn and lost his artistic mojo.

In fact PRIVATE VICES PUBLIC VIRTUES now plays like an overlooked masterpiece. There really is nothing like it in world cinema. The controversy long behind us, we can see that this is one of those rare erotic productions where the point of the film lies in its excess. There's nothing gratuitous about it. Known in Germany as THE BIG ORGY (Die Grosse Orgie), this amazing piece of subversive 70s cinema has never been well treated on home video - pirated, cut and generally not given the respect it deserves. This new release from Mondo Macabro, a world Blu-ray exclusive taken from the original negative, will bring this forgotten classic of world cinema back into the spotlight. It's a film that once seen cannot be forgotten, and it deserves a place in the home of all adventurous film lovers.

 
PRIVATE VICES, PUBLIC VIRTUES - uncensored trailer from Mondo Macabro on Vimeo.

The SYMPTOMS Aspect Ratio Controversy

The restored version of Symptoms that Mondo Macabro are releasing in the US and the BFI are releasing in the UK is framed at the Academy ratio of 1.37:1.

This does not mean that the film was cropped or compromised in any way. This was the full image on the negative from which the restoration was made. The original framing was obviously chosen quite meticulously for a 1.37:1 composition. There are no microphone booms or lighting rigs visible at the top of the frame and no cables or other unwanted equipment at the bottom of the screen. The frame you are seeing is the frame director José Larraz and cameraman Trevor Wrenn wanted to be recorded onto film and to be visible to viewers.

We have released films in Academy ratio before. Countess Perverse, The Wife Killer, Alucarda etc. In all previous cases, as with this one, we believe this to be the correct ratio for viewing the film. There could be any number of reasons why that frame was originally chosen for Symptoms. Maybe there was thought of a possible TV sale, maybe the film's producers wanted it to be screenable in as many territories as possible, some of which at that time would have been quite used to projecting at that ratio. Maybe José Larraz, as a former comic book artist, felt happier with a squarer frame. It certainly suits the mood of the film making the landscape shots more open and the interiors more oppressive, with the dark shadows surrounding the frail figures in the frame.

The most important thing is that the film looks great. To those who have seen it only in muddy, multiple generation VHS dupes it will be revelation.

- Pete Tombs, April 2016

Provided below are a few screenshots, presented at both 1.37:1 and 1.66:1. We invite you to take a look and judge for yourself. 

And the restored trailer, also in 1.37:1 ... 



SYMPTOMS trailer from Mondo Macabro on Vimeo.

Pre-Order the Limited Edition of SYMPTOMS now!

The limited Red Box edition of SYMPTOMS is now available for pre-order direct from Mondo Macabro!

1000 numbered copies featuring the following exclusive extras:

Larraz on Larraz! Bonus DVD featuring a two-hour long archival interview with Jose Ramon Larraz! - Conducted in the late 90s and used as the basis for the Larraz episode of UK TV show Eurotika! (included as an extra on the main disc), the majority of this career-spanning interview has never been seen before.

Exclusive booklet featuring a brand new essay from Writer/Critic Samm Deighan! – Samm is the editor of the Satanic Pandemonium blog, co-host of the Daughters of Darkness podcast, and the assistant web editor for excellent horror magazine Diabolique. She has contributed to Fangoria, Paracinema, and the book Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s, and is currently writing a book about WWII and cult cinema.

Miklos Jancso's PRIVATE VICES, PUBLIC VIRTUES coming to Blu-ray later this year!

Coming Soon from Mondo Macabro! 
A World Blu-ray Exclusive! 

Miklos Jancso (1921-2014) was one of the giants of European art cinema. He had been making films in his native Hungary since 1958, but in 1966 he exploded onto the world scene at Cannes with THE ROUND UP. The international critics had never seen anything like it. Combining cinematography with choreography, Jancso films crowds of soldiers on horseback, peasants, and partisans as they perform a ritualistic dance of love, life and death on the bleak Hungarian plains. Ostensibly a costume piece about the 1848 revolt against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the film was widely interpreted as a thinly veiled attack on the aborted 1956 Hungarian uprising against Soviet Russia.

 Over his next five features he developed and refined a hypnotic and fluid technique via long, sweeping camera moves and crane shots. Filming in color, his productions became like dazzling "happenings", combining music, dance, naked bodies, horses, men in uniform and spontaneous bursts of singing into a seemingly eternal tracking shot. His films were widely screened at festivals and in art house cinemas. His was a name to drop, an influence to quote.

Then, in the early 1970s, Jancso moved to Italy and began working with new collaborators. Times were changing. It was a post-1968 world and a new explicitness was being seen onscreen, coupled with a certain sense of betrayal about the ideals that had seemed so achievable only a few years before. PRIVATE VICES PUBLIC VIRTUES, made in 1975, reflected both these factors.

The story is based on the famous Mayerling incident where Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria was found dead beside his 17 year old lover in an apparent joint suicide. However as with his earlier productions, the director only used history as a jumping off point. The film is pure Jancso. The long tracking shots are there, the horses are there, the naked bodies are there, as are the snatches of folk music and group singing.

The main difference between this film and his more acclaimed earlier works is that it features a host of increasingly bizarre sexual incidents. When it screened as an official entry in the 1976 Cannes Festival and viewers caught on to some of the shocking things that it contained ... well, let's just say that it caused a scandal and in some ways Jancso's reputation never recovered. Like Borowczyk before him, he was almost written off as a one time great film maker who had strayed too far into porn and lost his artistic mojo.

In fact PRIVATE VICES PUBLIC VIRTUES now plays like an overlooked masterpiece. There really is nothing like it in world cinema. The controversy long behind us, we can see that this is one of those rare erotic productions where the point of the film lies in its excess. There's nothing gratuitous about it. Known in Germany as THE BIG ORGY (Die Grosse Orgie), this amazing piece of subversive 70s cinema has never been well treated on home video - pirated, cut and generally not given the respect it deserves. This new release from Mondo Macabro, a world Blu-ray exclusive taken from the original negative, will bring this forgotten classic of world cinema back into the spotlight. It's a film that once seen cannot be forgotten, and it deserves a place in the home of all adventurous film lovers.


 

Pre-order MEDOUSA now!

You can now pre-order MEDOUSA direct from Mondo Macabro! $15 plus shipping. Copies will be mailed out as soon as stock arrives, likely ahead of the official street date.

In this surreal retelling of the ancient myth of the Medusa, bizarre, clothed statues of men are appearing all over Greece. Only Perseus, the leader of a gang of modern Athenian thieves, holds the answer to the mystery. It has something to do with a beautiful, long-haired women in black who is connected with his troubled childhood. One night his gang breaks into a deserted house in the countryside looking for goods to steal. What they find is entirely unexpected and leads Perseus on a dangerous journey into his past.

Medousa is one of the very few attempts to make a modern Greek horror film. Its intriguing plot unfolds in a surprising and yet entirely logical way, creating a memorably atmospheric thriller that reworks familiar myths into an original and highly personal narrative.

Mondo Macabro are very proud to be presenting for the first time on US video this overlooked gem of genre cinema. The film was screened at a number of international festivals and won a prize at World-Fest Houston in 1998. It’s a film ripe for rediscovery and this long overdue release announces the re-emergence of a unique film making talent.

SPECIAL DVD FEATURES
Interview with writer/director George Lazopoulos
Interview with lead actor Thanos Amorginos
Extensive background notes
Trailer
Newly created optional subtitles
Mondo Macabro previews
Newly commissioned cover art by Gilles Vranckx

TEASER TRAILER

COMING SOON

Original cover art by Gilles Vranckx!

Lucio Fulci's giallo classic LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN coming to BD!

OUT FEBRUARY 9th! 

Coming to DVD in April: MEDOUSA

Mondo Macabro is extremely proud to present this 90s art-horror gem for the first time on US home video, one of the few films of its kind made in Greece. Or anywhere! 

Out April 12th! Trust us, you really don't want to miss this one.