Cinemaniac Mark

Here's an unboxing video for the new Celluloid Dreams release of the giallo classic BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA (1971). Full review coming soon! To get your copy: Celluloid Dreams

  Out today from Arrow Video, Ted Kotcheff's disturbing Australian Outback cult gem WAKE IN FRIGHT (1971), in a new 4K UHD edition, porting over extras from previous releases and adding a few new examinations and appreciations of the nearly-lost tale of an introverted schoolteacher finding Hell in other people when stranded in a remote mining town. Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/4faWP5f (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Full review here:

  This was one that never really connected with me, but the new Arrow Video 4K UHD release of RED SONJA (1985) is such a fun and informative dive into Italian genre filmmaking in its copious extras, featuring career-spanning interviews with various artists and stunt men, that it makes up for the film's shortcomings. Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/4sQhRL0 (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

  Arrow Video brings Michael Crichton's WESTWORLD (1973) to 4K UHD looking great, with sharp-shooting extras featuring interviews with stars Richard Benjamin and James Brolin, and a wealth of anecdotes and analysis on the Sci-Fi thriller that spawned a sequel and two TV series. A luxury theme park for adults who want to live out their fantasies in Roman, Medieval, or Old West worlds? What could go wrong...go wrong...go wrong... Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/4ujZj74 (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Full review here:

  Arrow Video brings Lee Cronin's EVIL DEAD RISE (2023) to 4K UHD with a ton of extras and razor sharp transfer. I wasn't a fan of this in the theater, but can now appreciate the filmmaking and shocks upon second viewing, and the extras show the love and respect the crew had for the Raimi originals. Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/49E6Q8C (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Full review here:

  Arrow Video brings the seminal graffiti/hip hop/breakdancing docudrama WILD STYLE (1982) to 4K UHD and Blu-ray in sharp and colorful transfer, the best it's ever looked, with a wealth of interviews and archival footage featuring the real-life artists more or less playing themselves in the film, the players reflecting on their lives before and after the film in interviews spanning decades. A vibrant, upbeat look at a time and place long gone, but artistic movements that have reverberated for generations, and the pioneers who first gave them life by expressing their passions in a landscape crumbling around them. Available as a 4K set with the film and commentaries on Disc 1, a second loaded Blu-ray bonus disc, and a CD of the original soundtrack. The Blu-ray edition is identical, with the main feature disc a standard HD replication of the 4K Disc 1. Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/49n7My2 (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Full review here:...

  Arrow Video brings the live-action cartoon comedy THE MASK (1994) to 4K UHD in a set loaded with new and archival extras, looking great, and reminding everyone that Jim Carrey was his own special effect in those days. Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3NewlUV (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Full review here:

  Abel Ferrara's classic 80s vigilante thriller MS. 45 (1981) hit 4K UHD from Arrow Video, looking better than ever, with extras that shed light on the life of its troubled star, Zoe Tamerlis. A gritty, grimy, look at a creep-filled NYC that plays as much like a horror film as a survival drama. Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3YoDioT (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Full review here:

  Arrow Video brings Andrew Davis' 90s action classic UNDER SIEGE (1992) to 4K UHD, featuring Steven Seagal as "just a cook" on a nuclear-laden battleship taken over by baddies, who must put down the spatula and pick up anything that's handy to slice and dice his way to victory at sea. With Erika Eleniak, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey, and Bernie Casey. The new transfer is the best the film has ever looked, and fun and insightful extras keep interest afloat until the last anecdote is fired. Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/4beMnbp (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Full review here:

  88 Films dips back into the realm of Eurosleaze with their new 4K UHD+Blu-ray release of Joe D'Amato's softcore erotic melodrama ELEVEN DAYS, ELEVEN NIGHTS 2 (1991 - actually the third film in the series). What's a saucy lady to do when a freshly-deceased ex-lover asks her in his will to determine which of his conniving and perma-randy family members should inherit his business and fortune? Accept the challenge, of course, and get naked a lot. Unintentionally hilarious in its English-language audio option, as the American cast was apparently chosen more for looks and willingness to disrobe than acting ability, with some of the flattest line readings this side of Amber Waves. Notable for a late-period (and very chaste) appearance by Laura Gemser, who actual voice can be heard on the English track. The set includes a 4K UHD disc with the film, commentary, and Italian opening and closing credits as an extra, and a Blu-ray with those and many more insightful and amusing suppl...

  88 Films brings the Nazisploitation Eurosleaze nugget SS EXPERIMENT LOVE CAMP (1976) to 4K UHD looking great, with insightful extras, a very nice release of a very sleazy and unintentionally funny film that ultimately revolves around a ball transplant. Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/49OnhQc (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Full review here:

Arrow Video brings the 2006 prequel to the remake of the iconic 70s horror classic to 4K UHD, with a loaded edition of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING. Pretty much everything I don't like about prequels, remakes, and early 00s horror filmmaking, but if you're a fan, I can't imagine you'll find an edition better than this one. Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3K1v7ew (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Full review here:

  Arrow Video brings Peter Hyams' 1981 space western thriller OUTLAND to disc in sharp and loaded 4K UHD presentation, with Sean Connery starring as a new lawman on a remote mining colony on the Jupiter moon of IO. Things seem pretty routine until miners start offing themselves in gruesome ways, to the nonchalant reaction of mining supervisor Peter Boyle. It's up to Connery to stop the madness, if sinister forces don't stop him first... Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/4hRre8s (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Full review here:

Arrow Video brings THE NIGHTWATCH COLLECTION to Blu-ray, containing the original Denmark serial killer thriller NIGHTWATCH (1994) and its sequel, NIGHTWATCH: DEMONS ARE FOREVER (2023), both from director Ole Bornedal, and both excellent. The transfers look great, and the extras shed light on the film's origins, production, and legacy (including a US remake of the original film). Definitely a film that deserves more discussion and recognition, and a sequel that's one of the few decades-later follow-ups I've seen that I felt was worth the time. Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3WvxnNW (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Full review here:

  Arrow Video brings Marcus Nispel's 2003 remake THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE to 4K UHD, in a transfer sharper than a sawtooth, with voluminous extras carried over from the original deluxe DVD edition, along with a meatlocker full of fresh looks back at the film's production and reception. Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3LkbGhk (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Full review here:

  Blue Underground brings Gary Sherman's DEATHLINE (aka RAW MEAT - 1972) to 4K UHD and Blu-ray in a transfer that brings out the disturbing details in this tale of subterranean slaughter in the London Underground, with police inspector Donald Pleasence hot on the trail of the not-so-charming CHUD. Earlier transfers were too dark, murky, or soft to truly get all of the details (gruesome or otherwise) in the set, character, and rubble design, now all razor sharp, all the better to shock you with. My first viewing, years ago via a tape trade online, was a dark, multi-generational pan and scan copy that was more a series of screams and moans over black than a cohesive viewing experience, and Blue Undergrounds new edition was like seeing it for the first time. Extras are copious, porting over archive goodies from previous releases along with some new tidbits to shed light on the dark origins of the film, including the shocker that at one point Marlon Brando was lined up to play the non...

  After a long absence, COMING SOON returns! A quick pre-review look at upcoming November 2025 to February 2026 releases (with Amazon links for full specs and purchasing): https://youtu.be/vjluGCb7GUs A quick pre-review look at upcoming November 2025 to February 2026 releases (with Amazon links for full specs and purchasing): MIRROR LIFE (2025), on DVD from Cleopatra Entertainment (Street Date: 10/14/25): https://amzn.to/3LWgPN1 THE OGRE OF ATHENS (1956) on Blu-ray from Radiance Films (Street Date: 11/18/25): https://amzn.to/4pwGxWZ MALPERTUIS (1971) on Blu-ray from Radiance Films (Street Date: 10/28/25): https://amzn.to/3MiTUvl WICKED GAMES: THREE FILMS BY ROBERT HOSSEIN on Blu-ray from Radiance Films (Street Date: 11/18/25): https://amzn.to/3X8ZnY2 DEN ACE CHAOS on Blu-ray from SRS Cinema (Street Date: 2/10/26): https://amzn.to/3LTTUls SPLENDID OUTING (1978) on Blu-ray from Radiance Films (Street Date: 12/9/25): https://amzn.to/48ewMWr THE ISLAND CLOSEST TO HEAVEN (1984) on Blu-r...

  Blue Underground brings Jess Franco's pair of Christopher Lee-starring adaptations of Sax Rohmer's pulp thrillers Fu Manchu series to gorgeous 4K UHD with THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU (1968), in which the criminal mastermind and his minions operate from a jungle lair, infusing women with a potion that turns their kisses into blindness-inducing contact, and setting them loose on his enemies, in a plot to terrorize the world! Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3I9vSS2 (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Full review here:

Arrow Video brings Wolfgang Peterson's take on THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, POSEIDON (2006) to 4K UHD in a sharp and loaded edition. A remake that takes the basic premise of the original and goes in its own direction, this thrilling edge-of-your seat pulse-pounder is definitely worth a look for both fans of the original and newcomers. Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/4giJoiJ (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) Full review here:

  Crime is a disease. Meet the cure...in 4K! Arrow Video brings George P. Cosmatos' Sylvester Stallone supercop slasher saga COBRA (1986) to 4K UHD, porting over all the extras from the previous Shout! Studios edition, along with the extended TV version (ever wanted to see where the main maniac worked when not stalking the streets?). Get your copy now from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/4lWzV2M (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)