Halloween-Season Horror From Lionsgate Home Entertainment In The Form Of Talk To Me On Oct. 03

Lionsgate Home Entertainment has picked Oct. 3 as the street date for its Halloween-season entry, Talk to Me, from the directing tandem of Danny and Michael Philippou.   This will be a full-spread home entertainment packaged media launch.

The ARR comes in at 67 days and the box office take currently stands at $44.6 million.

 

Heading home on Oct. 3 are Combo Pack selections for both the 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray) and Blu-ray (with DVD) formats, plus a stand-alone DVD buying option.

 

Bonus features for this supernatural horror tale include commentary from Danny and Michael Philippou, deleted scenes and the featurette titled “In the Grip of Terror.”

 

 

*ARR is short for Asset Rollover Rate, which measures the number of days between a film’s theatrical launch and its subsequent move to the home entertainment marketplace.

 

Director Charles Tonderai Mudede’s Thin Skin Makes Its Blu-ray Debut On Sept. 26 From Bayview Entertainment

Bayview Entertainment has selected Sept. 26 for the Blu-ray debut for director Charles Tonderai Mudede’s award winning, soul-searching dramatic gem, Thin Skin, featuring a masterful performance by Ahamefule Joe Oluo.

 

Based on Oluo’s own semi-biographical stage play (an off-Broadway run), who is also making his film debut, we quickly learn that Oluo is the real deal.   He is a musician, a composer and the founding member of the award-winning jazz-punk quartet, Industrial Revelation.  

 

And, perhaps just as important for the role, he is also a stand-up comedian — that means he has a sense of timing and just the right touch of pathos … and he delivers a performance that you will not soon forget.

 

As the story unfolds, we find Aham is stuck in a no future job, which is made all the more complicated by his boss (played by Jennifer Lanier — Bride and Zoom, The Last Champion) who wants to save him.  She means well, but with the load he is carrying, it makes it harder, not necessarily easier. 

And speaking of a heavy load, Aham, a single father with two kids, has dreams of being a professional musician and spends his nights at the various clubs (filmed in Seattle) … literally burning the candle at both ends.  

 

Exhausted, he needs the job to support his family, which also includes his “eccentric” mother, Susan (Annette Toutonghi — The Paper Tigers, Money Buys Happiness), who is white, and his older sister, Ijeoma (playing herself — his actual sister).  

There’s more — animals, his mother is in her own little world — the noise, the tight quarters … there is no rest.

Throw in the long-since-gone father — it’s hard to say whether Aham or Ijeoma have the greater resentment for him — who is arrogant and judgmental.   It is a breaking point physically for Aham … a very tough period for him, sick and exhausted.  And does it show!!

 

We will not reveal the semi-twist ending, because it really needs to be experienced.   Surreal for sure, but very up-lifting.

 

Thin Skin is a labor of love, an indie film with a heart.   If this is in your viewing wheelhouse, then be sure to check it out on Blu-ray from Bayview Entertainment on Sept. 26.

 

 

 

 

Director Justin Simier's Haunted Mansion Arrives In The Home Entertainment Packaged Media Marketplace From Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment On Oct. 17

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has selected Oct. 17 as the release date for a full spread of home entertainment packaged media buying selections for director Justin Simien’s Haunted Mansion.

 

The ARR* works out to 81 days and the domestic box office haul was $64.7 million.

 

Planned for distribution are Combo Pack editions for both the 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray) and Blu-ray (with DVD) formats, plus a stand-alone DVD SKU.

 

The studio has inserted an Oct. 04 VOD purchasing window (also Disney+ streaming), which means that inevitability the professional “helper” community will have a two-week window to unload their own Blu-ray editions to unsuspecting consumers.   The studio provides a pristine master and the “helpers” deliver a quality product (they have it down to a science), with slick packaging and many consumers may not fully realize that the product they purchase is not quite on the up-and-up.

 

Bonus features include a gag reel, eight deleted scenes and two featurettes — “Making Haunted Mansion” and “999 Happy Haunts.”

 

*ARR is short for Asset Rollover Rate, which measures the number of days between a film’s theatrical launch and its subsequent move to the home entertainment marketplace.

 

Paramount Home Entertainment Selects Oct. 31 For The Home Entertainment Launch Of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One

Paramount Home Entertainment has selected Halloween — that’s right, Oct. 31 — as the street date for a full spread home entertainment packaged media launch of director Christopher McQuarrie’s adrenaline rush, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One, starring the indestructible Tom Cruise as IMF agent Ethan Hunt.

The ARR* works out to 109 days and the domestic box office tally was $170.6 million.

 

Planned for release are stand-alone editions across all three formats — 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD — plus a SteelBook 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack buying option.

 

Paramount has inserted a VOD purchasing window beginning on Oct. 10, which in today’s wild west marketplace gives professional “helpers” a three-week window to capture Blu-ray MOD sales to unsuspecting consumers … or consumers who simply don’t care and have gotten used to buying from their favorite back-alley source (“helpers,” like it or not, who deliver high quality merchandise from pristine masters willingly served up by the rights owner).

 

It’s a crazy business selling “paperback” editions before the “hard cover” copies, but that’s the way things are these days.   Any “leakage” to “helper” sources is simply viewed as a cost of doing business.

 

Bonus features include commentary by director Christopher McQuarrie, who was the Oscar-winner for his The Usual Suspect script, Oscar-nominated for his Top Gun: Maverick script and also shared the Oscar-nomination for the Top Gun: Maverick as Best Picture.   This is McQuarrie’s third Mission: Impossible outing as director, having previously delivered Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation in 2015 and Mission: Impossible – Fallout in 2018.   He is joined for the commentary option by editor Eddie Hamilton.

 

Other bonus goodies include deleted scenes and seven production featurettes — “Abu Dhabi,” “Rome,” “Venice,” “Freefall,” “Speed Flying,” “Train” and “The Sevastopol.” 

 

In other release news from Paramount Home Entertainment, they will be getting into the spirit of the Halloween season in a “monster” way with the five-film Paramount Scares, Vol. 1 4K Ultra HD collectible box set on Oct. 24.

 

This is a very cool collection for genre fans.   Not only do you get the newly-minted 4K Ultra HD edition of director Roman Polanski’s 1968 horror classic, Rosemary’s Baby (due out on Oct. 10 as a stand-alone), but 4K Ultra HD selections of Pet Sematary (original 1989 version), writer/director Parker Finn’s creep-out Smile and filmmaker Alexandre Aja’s “jaws in a basement” thriller, Crawl.    

But wait!   There is more!!  Paramount is including a fifth selection, which is a “mystery.”  What is the mystery film?   The only hint that is being given is … “rated R for graphic bloody violence” (sounds delightful).

As mentioned, Rosemary’s Baby will be available as a 55th anniversary 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack edition on Oct. 10.  So, the choice is: buy Rosemary’s Baby on Oct. 10, or delay for two weeks and upgrade your genre library with five films … either way this is a winner.

Bonus goodies included with Rosemary’s Baby are included on the companion Blu-ray disc … and these are: ”Rosemary's Baby - A Retrospective” and the featurette titled “Mia and Roman.”                                          

 

Included in the box set — in addition to the films and all of the bonuses associated with each title — are a Paramount Scares enamel pin, unique stickers and access to a Digital Copy of each title.

 

*ARR is short for Asset Rollover Rate, which measures the number of days between a film’s theatrical launch and its subsequent move to the home entertainment marketplace.

Cauldron Films Tabs Dec. 12 For The Double-Disc Blu-ray Release Of Director Gordon Ho's Kill Butterfly Kill

Well, that’s interesting.   Yes, indeed … interesting, very interesting.

Word arrived this past week that Cauldron Films, with sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has assigned a street date for a film that they’ve unearthed … an exceeding rare exploitation film from prolific filmmaker Gordon Ho.  

 

Being released in association with the “Neon Eagle Video” label, Kill Butterfly Kill is a new 4K film restoration from what is believed to be the “best surviving elements” of the English-dubbed export version.   

 

But wait, there’s more, because it’s Cauldron Films they’ve gone extra mile and included two additional cuts of the film for fans, film buffs and the curious to delve into.   

 

First, there is Underground Wife, which is the original Mandarin language version in standard definition (filmed in Taiwan circa 1982).   

 

But the big bonus here is the 1987 re-cut version of the film titled American Commando 4: Kill Butterfly Kill.   This is one of those IFD Films & Arts Limited “specials” with additional footage spliced in — and with additional actors — to take advantage of the untimely death of the film’s star.   It is an entirely different storyline that is only loosely connected to the original. 

American Commando 4: Kill Butterfly Kill is also a 4K film restoration from the original camera negative.

 

To be honest, we are not familiar with the film (regardless of its various titles), and the release has been on the radar for a while (a limited edition came and went) … until now!

 

Look, it’s backed by Cauldron Films, which has an impressive track record for delivering unique and cult films, so you pay attention when a double-disc Blu-ray edition of Ho’s 1982 (’87) film, Kill Butterfly Kill (aka: Underground Wife; aka: American Commando 4: Kill Butterfly Kill) gets a Dec. 12 release date.

 

As to the story itself, the exciting Juliet Chen Li-Yun (Li-Yun Chen — Commando Fury, The Vampire Dominator, Angel’s Blood Mission, etc.) has the lead as an attractive young woman, Tang Mei-Ling, who inexplicitly goes out walking one evening in a seedy part of town.  Sure enough, a quintet of young joy-boys spot her and decide to have their way with her (note, in the IFD re-cut her attackers are members of a drug gang).  

 

After all, any woman walking the streets after dark in this neighbor is obviously asking for it, so why not oblige!  Although skilled in martial arts, Mei-Ling holds her own in the early goings of the assault, but five against one eventually proves too much for her to handle and she is beaten and gang-raped.   

 

Bloody, humiliated and violated, she commits suicide by leaping to her death off a bridge.  But, as luck (or fate) would have it, she is rescued by a former killer-for-hire played by “Tattooer Ma” Sha (aka: Liu Jin-Zhen — The Witch with the Flying Head, Guns to Heaven, Ma! Don't Die on My Back, etc.), who nurses her back to health and spends the next few years imparting his skill-set as an assassin so that she can have her revenge … which she does!!   In the alternate IFD cut of the film, she has outside “help” bent on taking down a criminal drug-dealing enterprise.

 

As to bonus goodies, the Kill Butterfly Kill version has commentary by Kenneth Brorsson and Paul Fox, podcasters for the Fire Network.

 

 

 

Arrow Video Readies A 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack Edition Of Tremors 2: Aftershocks For Delivery On Nov. 28

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has something fun on Nov. 28.  

It is a bit of a surprise as how often does a direct-to-video sequel get a 4K film restoration from its original camera negative?   Don’t worry if such a thing doesn’t immediately spring to mind.  That is exactly what is happening with writer/director S. S. Wilson’s Tremors 2: Aftershocks. 

 

In 1990, the first Tremors was launched theatrically in the dead of winter — it’s a summer film; a fun film — and only did so-so at the box office.   The sequel got a green light, but when Kevin Bacon was busy with other productions at the time, Universal shelved the project.

No Tremors 2?   The original budget was revisited and with the tremendous success of Tremors on home video, a down-scale production for the direct-to-video marketplace was given a go … the results were beyond expectations.  

 

Tremors 2: Aftershocks was not only a worthy sequel, but a hit in the final year (1996) of the VHS-only world.  The DVD format would be launched the following year and both Tremors and Tremors 2: Aftershocks would make their respective DVD debuts in 1998.

 

Here we have a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack presentation from Arrow Video, and it comes loaded with extras.   Note, Tremors 2: Aftershocks will also be available on Nov. 28 as a stand-alone Blu-ray edition.

 

Bonus goodies include two newly-prepared commentaries.  The first features director/writer S.S. Wilson, who is joined by co-producer Nancy Roberts, while the second commentary option is with author Jonathan Melville (“Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors”).

 

There are also outtakes, an extensive image gallery and a trio of featurettes — “Graboid Go Boom,” “Critical Need-to-Know Information” and “The Making of Tremors 2.”

 

 

 

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Will Be Releasing A 4K Ultra HD Limited Edition SteelBook Of Director Roland Emmerich's 1998 Godzilla Reboot On Oct. 24

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will be issuing a Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack of director Roland Emmerich’s 1998 reboot of the Godzilla film series, which first came to life in the atomic age of post-war Japan in the 1950s.

This SteelBook edition of Godzilla will be available for fans and collectors to own on Oct. 24.

 

The companion Blu-ray disc contains the bonus features, which include visual effects commentary, two featurettes — “Behind the Scenes of Godzilla” and “All Time Best of Godzilla” — and The Wallflowers music video titled “Heroes.”