July is shaping up to be Arrow Video’s very own blockbuster season with a multitude of new releases making up a perfect month of cult film viewing. If you, much like myself, are avoiding boob and ball sweat season like a vampire avoiding a sunburn, then sitting in the A/C with an icy-cold drink with some old favorites smothered in high resolution is the way to go.
Here’s what’s new to good ole’ Arrow Video this coming July.
The Complete Sartana [Limited Edition 5-disc Blu-ray] (7/3)
The crown jewel of Arrow’s July releases comes in the form of The Complete Sartana. This limited edition 5-disc set features all five original Sartana movies – If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death,
I Am Sartana Your Angel of Death, I Am Sartana Trade Your Guns for a Coffin, Have a Good Funeral My Friend…Sartana Will Pay and Light the Fuse…Sartana is Coming. Aside from having some of the greatest film titles in the history of cinema, the creation of the Sartana character is a landmark moment within the Spaghetti Western subgenre because rather than just be a cheap imitation of
The Man With No Name it created something new and interesting and borrowed from not only Westerns but from the likes of James Bond as well. This must-own set features all five films in brand-new restorations and a stable’s worth of special features.
The next gem from Arrow this month is the directorial debut of Wes Craven, The Last House on the Left. The film justly retains its reputation as one of the most harrowing cinematic experiences of all time, nearly half a century on from its original release making. This is the definitive edition of one of the true watershed moments in horror history.
Dario Argento further cements his reputation as the master of the giallo thriller in the classic The Cat O’ Nine Tails. Co-starring Catherine Spaak (Il Sorpasso) and Rada Rassimov (Baron Blood), and featuring another nerve-jangling score by the great Ennio Morricone (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly), this remains one of Argento’s most suspenseful and underrated films.
Fans of Seijun Suzuki’s yakuza films should be on the watch for Detective Bureau 2-3 Go to Hell Bastards!, which arrives on Blu-ray early in the month. Starring original Diamond Guy, Jo Shishido, this hard-hitting, rapid-fire yakuza film redefined the Japanese crime drama.
Horror fans are well catered for too, as 1980s splatter slasher Doom Asylum arrives on Blu-ray. Starring Kristen Davis of Sex and the City fame, it sees a group of randy teenagers go up against a hideously deformed maniac armed with a wide selection of surgical tools. Funny and gory in equal measure, it’s one of the best slashers of the 80s.
And if your horror bent turns to giallo, Arrow Video have that covered as well, with a 2K restoration of Sergio Martino’s The Case of the Scorpion’s Tale. Combining intricate plotting, shocking violence and beautiful views of the Greek coast, this is a classic gialli that overflow with European talent.
Arrow Academy releases a collection including the fifth and sixth films by the masterful South Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo (Women is the Future of Man and Tale of Cinema). Sangsoo has been favorably compared to the great French observer of human foibles, Eric Rohmer.
Arrow Video finishes the month by returning to genre-bending sci-fi with The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey. This New Zealand cult classic from Vincent Ward seamlessly blends time travel, sci-fi, and medieval fantasy to create a story unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Nightmare Nostalgia 