ARROW FEBRUARY RELEASE SCHEDULE
Arrow Video have a whole slew of new releases to enjoy this February on DVD, Blu-ray and dual format. Below you will find the release schedule for this month.
WILLIE DYNAMITE
Release date: 6th February 2017
Format: Dual Format DVD & Blu-Ray
Directed by: Gilbert Moses
HE’S TIGHT, TOGETHER, AND MEAN.
“The hands-down winner of the all-out best blaxploitation movie of the seventies,” declares author and artist Darius James in That’s Blaxploitation! Willie Dynamite may not be as well-known as John Shaft, Sweet Sweetback or Super Fly’s Youngblood Priest, but he certainly deserves to be.
Who is Willie Dynamite? He’s the flashiest pimp in New York – he drives a personalised purple-and-gold Cadillac and wears some of the most eye-catching outfits ever seen on a cinema screen. He wants to be number one, but with the police, the D.A., fellow pimps and a tough-talking social worker on his tail, can a man as arrogant and amoral as Willie D avoid a downfall?
Willie Dynamite competes with the best of blaxploitation on all levels. Roscoe Orman dominates with his central performance – a star turn that’s the equal of Richard Roundtree in Shaft or Pam Grier in Coffy. Multi-award-winning director Gilbert Moses balances action and social commentary as deftly as Gordon Parks, Jr. did with Super Fly. And the score by J.J. Johnson featuring Motown legend Martha Reeves is as catchy as anything composed by Isaac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield or James Brown.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the feature, transferred from original film elements by MGM
Original 1.0 mono audio (uncompressed on the Blu-ray)
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Kiss My Baad Asss, a guide to blaxploitation hosted by actor and musician Ice-T, and featuring interviews with Richard Roundtree, Melvin van Peebles, Isaac Hayes and others
Theatrical trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips
First pressing only: Fully illustrated collector’s booklet containing new writing on the film by Cullen Gallagher
Region: B
Rating: TBC
Duration: 102 mins
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: 1.0 mono
Colour
Discs: 2
TOWER OF LONDON
Release date: 13th February 2017
Format: Dual Format DVD & Blu-Ray
Directed by: Roger Corman
MOTHER ENGLAND MEETS FATHER TERROR!
Having made their mark on American horror cinema with three colourful adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe – The Fall of the House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum and Tales of Terror – Vincent Price and director Roger Corman enjoyed a brief hiatus from the macabre author with Tower of London. Shot in black and white, the film was loosely based on the Universal horror picture of the same name as well as two Shakespeare plays: a dash of Macbeth and a dollop of Richard III.
Price plays Richard of Gloucester, brother to a dying king and eager to take his place on the throne. When he is overlooked in favour of their sibling, the Duke of Clarence, things take a murderous turn. Richard goes on a murderous rage, only for the ghosts of those he has slain to return from the grave and haunt him…
Less well-known than the Poe movies, Tower of London is no slouch. Price relishes the opportunity to flex his Shakespearean muscles, just as he would eleven years later with Theatre of Blood, and Corman works wonders, as usual, with his low budget. If you’ve ever wondered what a drive-in Shakespeare film would look like, you’re in the right place!
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the feature, transferred from original film elements by MGM
Original 1.0 mono audio (uncompressed on the Blu-ray)
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Brand-new audio commentary by Vincent Price’s biographer David Del Valle and Tara Gordon, daughter of actor-screenwriter Leo Gordon
Interview with director Roger Corman
Producing Tower of London, an archive interview with producer Gene Corman
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Dan Mumford
First pressing only: Fully illustrated collector’s booklet containing new writing on the film by Julian Upton
Region: B
Rating: TBC
Duration: 80 mins
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Aspect Ratio: TBC
Audio: 1.0 mono
Black and white
Discs: 2
WE ARE THE FLESH
Release date: 13th February 2017
Format: Blu-Ray & DVD
Directed by: Emiliano Rocha Minter
A visionary and bizarre slice of Mexican art house cinema, We Are The Flesh is an extraordinary and unsettling film experience, a sexually charged and nightmarish journey into an otherworldy dimension of carnal desire and excess, as well as a powerful allegory on the corrupting power of human desire.
Key talent:
Noé Hernández (Sin nombre, Miss Bala)
Maria Evoli
Emiliano Rocha Minter (Writer/Director)
Synopsis:
A young brother and sister, roaming an apocalyptic city, take refuge in the dilapidated lair of a strange hermit. He puts them to work building a bizarre cavernous structure, where he acts out his insane and depraved fantasies. Trapped in this maddening womb-like world under his malign influence, they find themselves sinking into the realms of dark and forbidden behaviour.
Overview:
Acclaimed by the Oscar-winning Mexican directors of The Revenant and Gravity, and playing to rave reviews and stunned audiences at genre film festivals around the world We Are The Flesh is that rare beast – an intelligent, beautifully-crafted art house film that is also provocative and deeply disturbing.
Mixing the graphic, powerful imagery of Gaspar Noé’s Love and Enter The Void with the surreal, hallucinatory impact of Alejandro Jodorowsky, and taking Mexican arthouse cannibal flick We Are What We Are to the next level, We Are The Flesh is a bizarre, psychedelic head trip, mixing intense, outrageously explicit imagery with a profound allegory on the nature of existence, to make this is an unforgettable, boundary-pushing experience unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
Visionary, unrelenting, and certainly not for the prudish or faint-hearted, We Are The Flesh is an erotic inferno of the senses that manages to pack all manner of delirium into its short running time, including incest, necrophilia, and cannibalism. This is extreme art cinema at its boldest and most taboo-bustingly bizarre.
Reactions and Quotes:
‘Disturbing’ ★★★★ Total Film
‘The most disturbing horror debut since Hellraiser’ ★★★★ SFX
‘Truly nightmarish and hypnotic’ ★★★★ SciFiNow
★★★★ HeyUGuys
‘Feverishly intense’ The List
‘Beautiful and hypnotising’ ★★★★ Flickering Myth
“I loved this film. It takes over our waking thoughts, like a recurring dream we try to forget, because we are fearful of finding out it may be a memory.” Gravity director Alfonso Cuaron
“We Are the Flesh is a very personal, very powerful film that deeply impressed me.” The Revenant director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu
Special Features and Disc Specs
First pressing only: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Anton Bitel, and a note from the producer on the film.
Blu-ray:
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation • 5.1 surround and uncompressed stereo 2.0 audio options • Optional English subtitles • A new video essay by critic Virginie Sélavy • New interviews with director Emiliano Rocha Minter and cast members Noé Hernández, María Evoli and Diego Gamaliel • Two short films by Emiliano Rocha Minter; Dentro and Videohome • Theatrical trailer • Stills gallery • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
DVD:
• High Definition digital transfer • 5.1 surround and stereo 2.0 audio options • Optional English subtitles • A new video essay by critic Virginie Sélavy • New interviews with director Emiliano Rocha Minter and cast members Noé Hernández, María Evoli and Diego Gamaliel • Two short films by Emiliano Rocha Minter; Dentro and Videohome • Theatrical trailer • Stills gallery • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
Region: A/B + 1/2
Rating: 18
Duration: 79 mins
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: Spanish 5.1 Surround
Colour
Discs: 1
The following title has now had a change to its release date. New release date 10th July 2017 but you can still pre-order it now.
PULSE
Release date: 10th July 2017
Format: Dual Format DVD & Blu-Ray
Directed by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Award-winning filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa delivered one of the finest entries in the “J-Horror” cycle of films with this moody and spiritually terrifying film that delivers existential dread along with its frights. Setting his story in the burgeoning internet and social media scene in Japan, Kurosawa’s dark and apocalyptic film foretells how technology will only serve to isolate us as it grows more important to our lives.
A group of young people in Tokyo begin to experience strange phenomena involving missing co-workers and friends, technological breakdown, and a mysterious website which asks the compelling question, “Do you want to meet a ghost?” After the unexpected suicides of several friends, three strangers set out to explore a city which is growing more empty by the day, and to solve the mystery of what lies within a forbidden room in an abandoned construction site, mysteriously sealed shut with red packing tape.
Featuring haunting cinematography by Junichiro Hayashi (Ring, Dark Water), a dark and unsettling tone which lingers long after the movie is over, and an ahead-of-its-time story which anticipates 21st century disconnection and social media malaise, Pulse is one of the greatest and most terrifying achievements in modern Japanese horror, and a dark mirror for our contemporary digital world.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
High Definition digital transfer
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
Original 5.1 audio (DTS-HD on the Blu-ray)
New optional English subtitle translation
New interview with writer/director Kiyoshi Kurosawa
New interview with cinematographer Junichiro Hayashi
The Horror of Isolation: a new video appreciation featuring Adam Wingard & Simon Barrett (Blair Witch, You’re Next)
Archive ‘Making of’ documentary, plus four archive behind-the-scenes featurettes
Premiere footage from the Cannes Film Festival
Cast and crew introductions from opening day screenings in Tokyo
Trailers and TV Spots
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tommy Pocket
First pressing only: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Chuck Stephen.
Region: B/A + 1/2
Rating: 18
Duration: 119 mins
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio:
Audio: DTS
Colour
Discs: 2