American Horror Project

Discuss releases from Arrow and the films on them.

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Ribs
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Re: American Horror Project

#26 Post by Ribs » Wed Dec 27, 2017 8:40 pm

Witch Who Came From the Sea is by far considered the best of these, but this is like deciding to start with foreign art films and heading straight for the World Cinema Project set. It's not really *for* those just dipping their toes into this kind of movie, but those who've been into it for a while and want to enrich their understanding further. (Actual quality highly debatable)

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Re: American Horror Project

#27 Post by domino harvey » Wed Dec 27, 2017 8:42 pm

Honestly, pick up one of those 42nd Street Forever comps and jot down a few films that seem worthwhile, keeping in mind that few if any will ever be as good as their trailers seem!

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Re: American Horror Project

#28 Post by swo17 » Wed Dec 27, 2017 8:49 pm

Ribs wrote:this is like deciding to start with foreign art films and heading straight for the World Cinema Project set
It's actually more like deciding to start watching foreign art films and then heading straight for some bad foreign art films.

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Re: American Horror Project

#29 Post by Ribs » Wed Dec 27, 2017 8:54 pm

I was trying to think of an example of "lovely project, lots of good work put into it, films all are 'pass'es though" and nothing came to mind. Maybe something like trying to get into foreign films and starting with the Guitry Eclipse set?

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Re: American Horror Project

#30 Post by domino harvey » Wed Dec 27, 2017 8:56 pm

swo17 wrote:
Ribs wrote:this is like deciding to start with foreign art films and heading straight for the World Cinema Project set
It's actually more like deciding to start watching foreign art films and then heading straight for some bad foreign art films.
"Jess Franco box set? This will be a great way to finally get into French and Spanish cinema!"

Ribs: I feel like that describes most of Arrow's output anymore. Lots of energy extended on releases that don't merit any

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Re: American Horror Project

#31 Post by TMDaines » Fri Jan 05, 2018 1:01 pm

Yeah, most of Arrow’s output is films that don’t merit any effort. C’mon...

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Re: American Horror Project

#32 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jan 05, 2018 1:10 pm

Most of Arrow Video's output in the last year is absolutely filled with films that dont merit lavish editions. I know you like to make sport of doing the forum equivalent of subtweeting me, but I stand by my claim and do so directly, TMDaines

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Re: American Horror Project

#33 Post by swo17 » Fri Jan 05, 2018 1:15 pm

At least they're mostly interesting and unexpected films that don't merit the effort.

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Re: American Horror Project

#34 Post by tenia » Fri Jan 05, 2018 1:20 pm

In some ways, between what Arrow (Video) and Vinegar Syndrome is doing, it always surprises me to see these movies being lavishly restored and preserved and everything while many other movies much more unanimously considered as "vital" movies are still waiting to receive the same kind of treatment. Jess Franco before Fellini or Truffaut.
So yeah, when you see what Arrow Video is doing with Blood Rage or The Mutilator, or VS with Ice Cream Man or Nightmare Sisters, sometimes, one can wonder...
domino harvey wrote:Most of Arrow Video's output in the last year is absolutely filled with films that dont merit lavish editions.
Maybe not the whole last year. I think Arrow Video had a very good Q4 with The Thing, the Romero set, The Villainness, A Fish Called Wanda, Don't Torture a Duckling, JD's Revenge, and Carrie of course. But Shock Treatment ? The Slayer ? Madhouse ? Evil Ed (3 discs for that ? :lol: ) ? Even the 4 House movies, while fitting Arrow's line of work, are mostly average at best.

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Re: American Horror Project

#35 Post by Drucker » Fri Jan 05, 2018 1:36 pm

I would have to venture a guess that the rights owners of what VS and AV put out are much less precious about their films. Think about how protective and greedy the Eustache estate is, for example. Getting the correct and best elements of the greatest films of all time surely must be harder than a less famous 80s slasher film. Think about how these companies get raked over the coals for bad encoding. I have to imagine gaining access to original camera negatives for Fellini films is usually harder than the the films in American Horror Project.

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Re: American Horror Project

#36 Post by TMDaines » Fri Jan 05, 2018 4:38 pm

domino harvey wrote:Most of Arrow Video's output in the last year is absolutely filled with films that dont merit lavish editions. I know you like to make sport of doing the forum equivalent of subtweeting me, but I stand by my claim and do so directly, TMDaines
You’d said Arrow previously and now it’s Arrow Video. Don’t get annoyed if people jump on your obvious and nonsensical hyperbloe!

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Re: American Horror Project

#37 Post by tenia » Fri Jan 05, 2018 5:45 pm

Drucker wrote:I would have to venture a guess that the rights owners of what VS and AV put out are much less precious about their films.
I don't doubt this most likely is the case for most of these, but the end result is the same, and it can legitimately be perceived as a bit "silly" in a way. I had the pleasure to chat with Michel Ciment and he made a similar point about some retrospective at the Cinemathèque which took 30 years to do something about John Huston but did very quickly retrospective for Wes Craven and Jess Franco.

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Re: American Horror Project

#38 Post by What A Disgrace » Sat Jan 06, 2018 1:52 pm

I imagine dual US/UK rights issues are a major milestone to clear for a second volume of similarly unusual 70s horror titles. Lemora: A Child's Tale would be an ideal item for a second volume, but I believe Synapse Films owns the US rights (though it doesn't appear in their 2018 catalogue, so maybe?).

I, for one, am only disappointed in the quantity of announcements from Arrow Video in the past few months, but the quality has been on par with the usual. You'd have to be a little myopic to think that Scalpel, Hounds of Love, Der Todesking, the Ringo Films or Killer Klowns are at all unusual for them. And the likes of Cat O Nine Tails and Basket Case, well, nobody who specializes in horror films needs to apologize for putting them out. And of course that much delayed Suzuki box.

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Re: American Horror Project

#39 Post by dwk » Sat Jan 06, 2018 2:52 pm

What A Disgrace wrote: Lemora: A Child's Tale would be an ideal item for a second volume, but I believe Synapse Films owns the US rights (though it doesn't appear in their 2018 catalogue, so maybe?).
No, Synapse has said multiple times that they are working on a Blu-ray.

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Re: American Horror Project

#40 Post by Robin Davies » Sun Jan 07, 2018 9:45 am

zedz wrote:Having kicked these films around a bit, I have to say that the commentary for Malatesta's Carnival of Blood is absolutely first rate. It's one of those encyclopaedic 'here's everything I could find out about everybody involved in this film' commentaries, but rather than just read out imdb printouts, he's actually done proper research, and turned up way more fascinating gobs of trivia than you'd ever expect. He's also mercifully light on special pleading. All in all, this commentary is way more entertaining than anything else in this set (so far).

I wish I could properly credit the guy who did such great work, but this feature isn't even listed on any of the online sources I checked, not even Arrow's own website.
The commentator, Richard Harland Smith, is credited on the disc menu on my set, which I bought in the Arrow Christmas sale and have just started digging into. I'm a bit surprised that none of the extras mention the obvious lift from the H. P. Lovecraft story The Picture in the House in part of Malatesta.

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Re: American Horror Project

#41 Post by M Sanderson » Mon Jan 08, 2018 7:02 am

Not everyone is going to be happy with Arrow’s line up. They are a very eclectic label, and they cater to high and low culture, and many of their releases blur the lines between these. (The films and directors they cover might appeal to readers of Eyeball and Flesh and Blood magazines and compendiums; or people who enjoyed the published books of FAB Press...)

Whereas Scream Factory cater to that ‘80s video shop nostalgia, horror movies they rented out back then. And Criterion embrace a lot of the trendy, cool contemporary directors like Soderberg, Fincher, Anderson. Each label overlaps yet has their own identity.

I’ve been very happy with Arrow’s output this year. I haven’t even had time to watch all their releases I bought, and others I just will never have the time nor the money.

In the past year, Arrow Video brought us major titles like The Thing, Carrie, Romero From Night To Dawn, the Phantasm Box. Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Raising Cain. The Phenomena and Bird with the Crystal Plumage LEs. Don’t Torture a Duckling and Kill Baby Kill. Ronin. Pulp.

And, crucially, NEW films like The Ghoul and We Are the Flesh also in good editions.

To think, they’re sourcing new and accomplished restorations, or undertaking their own first rate restorations. This line up is no joke.

When you get to titles like The Slayer, which divide people, bear in mind titles such as this really fit into the Nightmare USA / American Horror Project criteria. It was featured in Thrower’s exceptional book, and he’s also curator of the AHP, and it seems an appropriate film for Arrow...

Some questioned the merits and inclusion of Pieces but it’s a popular gore film, and it’s from a truly outstanding restoration (by Grindhouse).

Of course they’re not perfect. Not all the films are interesting (Evil Ed). Given their productivity not everything will be great. Brain Damage didn’t look so good, Pulse, an astonishing film by a major modern auteur, by all accounts doesn’t look right. Not many of the Asian titles do, for that matter. We got another discoloured Sergio Martino film, sadly.

This is not even getting into Academy titles, the Godard, Rohmer, Film Noir, Fassbinder, Woody Allen boxes that I’ll never be able to afford let alone have time for. Voice of the Moon, Legend of the Holy Drinker looking amazing, Tree of Wooden Clogs colour corrected...Story of Sin, Ludwig! ... One Eyed Jacks... New films Untamed, Clash, Aquarius... People find something to moan about? seriously?... I’ve just finished watching The Apartment- wow!

Yet I gave this label more time and money than Eureka (Daughter of the Nile, Creepy, Harmonium), Indicator (Last Detail, See No Evil, Pumpkin Eater, Fragment of Fear, Fear Warning, Deadly Affair, Fat City, Bunny Lake, Ghosts of Mars, Vampires) , Criterion UK (Solaris, Stalker), Shout (Trespass, Misery), Blue Underground (Stendhal Syndrome, Death Line).

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Re: American Horror Project

#42 Post by tenia » Mon Jan 08, 2018 7:50 am

I think the issue is more with the Video line-up than the Academy one. While the Video line-up certainly has plenty of good to very good movies in often very good releases, one can always wonder if We Are The Flesh is worthy of such curated releases (etc etc).

I understand how the movies fit in Arrow Video's line-up, but it's more a question of movie quality. It's positively fascinating in a way, but it just seems so crazy to see these often-mediocre movies getting preserved so well.

It certainly has to do with each individual's tastes, but do we really need a 4K restoration of Hired to Kill or The Zero Boys ? Are Jorg Buttegereit's movies that worthy of their premium releases ?

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Re: American Horror Project

#43 Post by Finch » Mon Jan 08, 2018 8:55 am

I may not care for Hired To Kill or The Zero Boys or the Buttgereit movies but it says something positive about Arrow that they don't turn their noses up over these and treat them with the same care as, say, the Yoshida set etc. Yeah, I suppose you could argue their Arrow Video line should restore films widely considered to be "more worthy" than the above but then that risks only canon titles (so to speak) getting due care. I'll be honest, I've not found their Video line-up particularly appealing personally (apart from Alfredo Garcia and The Thing, I don't think I bought anything else from AV in 2017) but the Academy Line more than compensated for that, and everyone else has offered so much worthwhile that I have to agree with M Sanderson, why complain? It goes easy on your wallet and it encourages the fans of those films you don't give a fiddler's fart about to seek out the rest of Arrow's selections and support titles they may not have looked into otherwise. Regardless of what we think of individual titles or even boxsets, I absolutely think Arrow's adventuruous and "all films are equal" approach is to be supported/defended.

FWIW, we could nitpick other labels' choices too (Indicator starting out with low tier Carpenter, Eureka releasing Twilight's Last Gleaming, Criterion etc etc).

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Re: American Horror Project

#44 Post by MichaelB » Mon Jan 08, 2018 10:11 am

Finch wrote:FWIW, we could nitpick other labels' choices too (Indicator starting out with low tier Carpenter,
I don't see what there is to nitpick. If you've just launched a new label with a runaway hit like Christine, you'd have to be some kind of idiot not to arrange a followup release in a similar vein as quickly as possible, and those were the other two Carpenter titles that were available. And it's the early success of those titles that helped subsidise far riskier releases like Housekeeping and Mickey One - and indeed increase the output from two or three titles a month a year ago to the present four or five.

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Re: American Horror Project

#45 Post by tenia » Mon Jan 08, 2018 12:42 pm

Finch wrote:I suppose you could argue their Arrow Video line should restore films widely considered to be "more worthy" than the above but then that risks only canon titles (so to speak) getting due care.
I guess that's basically where lies the culprit.
I understand your point, and it certainly is fun to see these "lower tier" movies receiving such care, but I also understand how they may simply make some eyebrows raising.

Note that in the end, I've simply learnt to be more careful in my blind buys, and I now simply find the whole situation funny, but again, I understand people not being overly thrilled by a premium release of a Buttgereit movie, or a HGL movie getting a stand alone re-release.

It's true that basically every label will get this kind of discussion, but I also suppose that the genre movies being maybe a bit more constituted by not-that-great movies than other other classic tropes, labels like Arrow might attract more this kind of remarks.

As for Indicator with the Carpenters (or even Eureka with Twilight Last Gleaming), I'd tend to think they're selling way more than, say, what Scalpel will do.
In a way, the time it took for the AHP Vol. 1 set to sell out (it's actually not even totally sold out, to be exact) can also be perceived of an indicator of how adventurous people are willing to be in the end.

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Re: American Horror Project

#46 Post by M Sanderson » Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:53 am

tenia wrote:I think the issue is more with the Video line-up than the Academy one. While the Video line-up certainly has plenty of good to very good movies in often very good releases, one can always wonder if We Are The Flesh is worthy of such curated releases (etc etc).

I understand how the movies fit in Arrow Video's line-up, but it's more a question of movie quality. It's positively fascinating in a way, but it just seems so crazy to see these often-mediocre movies getting preserved so well.

It certainly has to do with each individual's tastes, but do we really need a 4K restoration of Hired to Kill or The Zero Boys ? Are Jorg Buttegereit's movies that worthy of their premium releases ?
yet AV have delivered bigger titles - such as Al Garcia, The Thing, Carrie, the deluxe Argento editions, the Romero and Phantasm boxes - than usual. I’m still catching up watching these.

I’m glad they are giving new, international movies like We Are the Flesh a chance.

I think Buttgereit’s films, in particular Der Todesking, is a remarkable mixture of high and low culture, art and trash, perhaps the perfect film for Arrow. Too horrible for many, too arty for others, but just the right provocative mix for the adventurous soul...

Granted, there has been one or two utter trash titles - I was stunned that Frogtown and Hellgate would ever get a release, and the execrable, worthless (IMO) Creepshow 2 in America. But some ppl like them...or somebody remembers the good old days when they picked it up from the VHS rental shop and enjoys their nostalgia trip...and the highly professional presentations help.
Last edited by M Sanderson on Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:59 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: American Horror Project

#47 Post by M Sanderson » Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:56 am

MichaelB wrote:
Finch wrote:FWIW, we could nitpick other labels' choices too (Indicator starting out with low tier Carpenter,
I don't see what there is to nitpick. If you've just launched a new label with a runaway hit like Christine, you'd have to be some kind of idiot not to arrange a followup release in a similar vein as quickly as possible, and those were the other two Carpenter titles that were available. And it's the early success of those titles that helped subsidise far riskier releases like Housekeeping and Mickey One - and indeed increase the output from two or three titles a month a year ago to the present four or five.
Yes Christine, a conformed massive home video success, is an absolutely brilliant way to start. And the expert encode makes it a joy to explore Carpenter’s use of the widescreen.

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Re: American Horror Project

#48 Post by Finch » Tue Jan 09, 2018 3:35 pm

Low tier Carpenter was in relation to Vampires and Ghosts of Mars but I know it made commercial sense to release those on the heels of Christine.

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Re: American Horror Project

#49 Post by domino harvey » Fri Mar 29, 2019 2:05 pm

Vol 2 details:
Continuing its mission to unearth the very best in weird and wonderful horror obscura from the golden age of US independent genre moviemaking, Arrow Video is proud to present the long-awaited second volume in its American Horror Project series co-curated by author Stephen Thrower (Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents).

Starting off with a little-seen 1970 offering from underrated cult auteur John Hayes (Grave of the Vampire, Garden of the Dead), Dream No Evil is a haunting, moving tale of a young woman’s desperate quest to be reunited with her long-lost father – only to find herself drawn into a fantasyland of homicidal madness. Meanwhile, 1976’s Dark August stars Academy Award-winner Kim Hunter (A Streetcar Named Desire) in a story of a man pursued by a terrifying and deadly curse in the wake of a hit-and-run accident. Lastly, 1977’s Harry Novak-produced The Child is a gloriously delirious slice of horror mayhem in which a young girl raises an army of the dead against the people she holds responsible for her mother’s death.

With all three films having been newly remastered from the best surviving film elements and appearing here for the first time ever on Blu-ray, alongside a wealth of supplementary material, American Horror Project Volume Two offers up yet another fascinating and blood-chilling foray into the deepest, darkest corners of stars-and-stripes terror.

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• Brand new 2K restorations from original film elements

• High Definition Blu-ray presentation

• Original uncompressed PCM mono audio

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Reversible sleeves for each film featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork by The Twins of Evil

• American Horror Project Journal Vol. II – limited edition 60-page booklet featuring new writing on the films by Stephen R. Bissette, Travis Crawford and Amanda Reyes

DREAM NO EVIL

• Filmed appreciation by Stephen Thrower

• Brand new audio commentary with Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan

• Hollywood After Dark: The Early Films of John Hayes, 1959-1971 – brand new video essay by Stephen Thrower looking at Hayes’ filmography leading up to Dream No Evil

• Writer Chris Poggiali on the prodigious career of celebrated character actor Edmond O’Brien

• Excerpts from an audio interview with actress Rue McClanahan (The Golden Girls) discussing her many cinematic collaborations with director John Hayes

DARK AUGUST

• Filmed appreciation by Stephen Thrower

• Brand new audio commentary with writer-director Martin Goldman

• Brand new on-camera interview with Martin Goldman

• Brand new on-camera interview with producer Marianne Kanter

• The Hills Are Alive: Dark August and Vermont Folk Horror – author and artist Stephen R. Bissette on Dark August and its context within the wider realm of genre filmmaking out of Vermont

• Original Press Book

THE CHILD

• 1.37:1 and 1.85:1 presentations of the feature

• Filmed appreciation by Stephen Thrower

• Brand new audio commentary with director Robert Voskanian and producer Robert Dadashian, moderated by Stephen Thrower

• Brand new on-camera interviews with Robert Voskanian and Robert Dadashian

• Original Theatrical Trailer

• Original Press Book

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Re: American Horror Project

#50 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Mar 29, 2019 6:30 pm

Very interesting. I have not properly seen any of these to be able to comment on them, but Stephen Thrower did a great appreciation of The Child on the second volume of the Video Nasties trailer compilation, stating that it was one of the films that inspired him to write his book Nightmare USA, so it might have given an indication that it would be next (I would not be surprised if Axe turns up on a future volume, since Thrower also particularly enthused about that one on the first Video Nasties set). The Child looks to be the major film here and looked really good in the trailer and the clips of it shown in Thrower's introduction, with a strangely otherworldly tone to it. It is the only film directed by Robert Voskanian and according to Thrower it is probably the only US film made by a director and producer of Armenian descent, which Thrower suggests might account for its unusual style!

According to imdb Dream No Evil stars Edmond O'Brien (The Killers, The Wild Bunch). The full film has recently appeared on YouTube, albeit dubbed into German without subtitles, so not in a particularly optimal form, but from the look of it seems to be heavily focused on childhood traumas still having an impact on future adult interactions. The imdb keywords for this one include "father daughter relationship", "preacher", "evangelist", "epilepsy", "dissociative identity disorder", "farm" and "disposing of a dead body"!

There is one clip of Dark August on YouTube, but be warned that this is the ultimate form of being a spoiler, as it is of the final couple of minutes of the film. Dark August was the next film by Martin Goldman after directing the better known first film in the run of un-sayable Fred Williamson westerns! Then that was Goldman's last directed film until 1997's Legend of the Spirit Dog, 21 years later.

I must admit that whilst I can understand these films being a hard sell individually, I kind of love the dreamily melancholic tone that many independent exploitation films of this era take to their material, often dealing with internal mental traumas as much as any threats from outside. Often the outside threats or eventual explosions of violence just serve as full stops which finally highlight for all to see the damage that already was done long ago.

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