"Actor: Kim Newman"

• Mannequin | DVD | (06/01/2003) from £5.48   |  Saving you £7.51 (137.04%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Made in 1987, Mannequin represents everything that was naff about late-80s Hollywood: from its bland, boxy, electro-rock soundtrack to its sub-Sarah Ferguson fashion sense to its tawdry sets, flimsy characterisation and cheap slapstick humour (including the mandatory amusing dog). It might be centuries before its radioactive awfulness dies down enough to make it watchable, even as kitsch. Mannequin is notionally a romantic comedy in which Andrew McCarthy plays a luckless department store employee and Kim (Sex and the City) Cattrall is an Egyptian Princess reincarnated as a shop window dummy, who comes to life when she encounters McCarthy, only to revert to mannequin status when anyone but McCarthy is watching her. With her encouragement, he becomes emboldened in his career as a window decorator as well as falling in love with the Princess. James Spader's oily, stammery executive is just one of the many examples of a film that tries way too hard to be funny, the sort of characterisation that would be barely adequate for a comic TV ad, let alone a 90-minute movie. Still, for fans of Sex and the City who might want to feast upon the spectacle of a younger Kim Cattrall, Mannequin might offer a measure of relief. On DVD: Mannequin on disc has just the original trailer as an extra, while no amount of DVD enhancement can conceal the tawdry feel of this movie. --David Stubbs

• Hitchcock Complete Boxset | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £34.95   |  Saving you £-1.29 (N/A%)   |  RRP £33.66

  From the 'Master of Suspense' this box set features many of his very best films. Titles comprise: 1. Vertigo 2. The Birds 3. Rear Window 4. Marnie 5. Frenzy 6. Topaz 7. The Trouble With Harry 8. Torn Curtain 9. Psycho: Special Edition (includes the Bonus disc the Hitchcock legacy) 10. Family Plot 11. Saboteur 12. Shadow Of A Doubt 13. The Man Who Knew Too Much 14. Rope For individual synopses please refer to the individual products.

• Seance On A Wet Afternoon | DVD | (05/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A woman who masquerades as a medium has her husband kidnap a girl so that she can gain celebrity by holding seances and helping the police to 'find' the victim...

• Picnic | DVD | (19/06/2006) from £16.98   |  Saving you £-3.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  It's Labour Day weekend and fresh off a freight train is Hal Carter (William Holden) a happy-go-lucky drifter who's looking for a brand new start in life. A robust handsome show-off Hal has come to Kansasito seek gainful employment in his old fraternity brother Alan's family granary. But despite his high hopes and expectations Hal's ambitious plans soon go away when his sexual magnetism attracts every woman in town including 19-year-old Madge Owens (Kim Novak) - the alluring you

• Hitchcock Vol. 2 | Blu Ray | (23/09/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  The Volume 2 of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest films including The Birds Vertigo Frenzy Topaz Marnie Torn Curtain and Family Plot. Vertigo (1958)A San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the activities of an old friend's wife whilst becoming dangerously obsessed with her. Special Features: Obsessed with Vertigo: New Life for Hitchcock's Masterpiece Partners in Crime: Hitchcock's Collaborators Hitchcock / Truffaut Interview Excerpts Foreign Censorship Ending The Vertigo Archives Feature Commentary with Associate Producer Herbert Coleman Restoration Team Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz and Other Vertigo Participants Feature Commentary with Director William Friedkin 100 Years of Universal: The Lew Wasserman Era Theatrical Trailer Restoration Theatrical Trailer The Birds (1963)A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a Northern California town that takes a bizarre turn when birds of all kinds begin to attack people in increasing numbers and with increasing viciousness. Special Features: Deleted Scene Original Ending The Birds: Hitchcock's Monster Movie - New! (Blu-ray Exclusive) All About The Birds Storyboards Tippi Hedren's Screen Test Hitchcock-Truffaut Interview Excerpts The Birds Is Coming (Universal International Newsreel) Suspense Story: National Press Club Hears Hitchcock (Universal International Newsreel) Production Photographs 100 Years of Universal: Restoring the Classics 100 Years of Universal: The Lot Theatrical Trailer Marnie (1964)Mark marries Marnie although she is a thief and possesses serious psychological problems. Mark tries to help her confront and resolve the issues. Special Features: The Trouble with Marnie The Marnie Archives Theatrical Trailer Torn Curtain (1966)An American scientist defects to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the solution for a formula resin and has to figure out a plan to escape back West. Special Features: Torn Curtain Rising Scenes Scored by Bernard Herrmann Production Photographs Theatrical Trailer Topaz (1969)A French intelligence agent becomes embroiled in Cold War politics first uncovering the events leading up to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and then back to France to break up a Russian spy ring. Special Features: Alternate Endings Topaz: An Appreciation by Film Historian and Critic Leonard Maltin Storyboards: The Mendozas Production Photographs Theatrical Trailer Frenzy (1972)A serial killer is murdering women in London with a necktie the police have a suspect but he isn't the correct man... Special Features: The Story of Frenzy Production Photographs Theatrical Trailer Family Plot (1976) Plotting Family Plot Storyboards: The Chase Scene Production Photographs Theatrical Trailer Family Plot (1976)Suspense film about a phony psychic/con artist and her taxi driver/private investigator boyfriend who encounter a pair of serial kidnappers while following a missing heir in California.

• Kim Newman's Guide To The Flipside Of British Cinema - Flipside | DVD | (17/05/2010) from £8.44   |  Saving you £-4.45 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  If classic and cult British films - from Alfie to Performance, from The Devils to Withnail and I - are your cup of tea, then this indispensable guide to a previously uncharted, alternative history of British cinema is for you. In an all-new documentary, produced exclusively for the BFI, the UK's most knowledgeable and well-respected cult film critic, Kim Newman, explores such questions as how the director of Help! and Superman II came to make one of the world's greatest, but little-known, black comedies, and lifts the lid on which previously unseen British film features Helen Mirren in her debut role. With a selection of original trailers and short films - including one that's exclusive to this release, Tomorrow Night on London - this is your passport to the exciting and surprising world of the Flipside. Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of British Cinema (2010, 37 mins): all-new, exclusive documentary Carousella (1966, 25 mins): controversial documentary on the lives of a group of striptease artistes, directed by John Irvin (Hamburger Hill, Raw Deal) Tomorrow Night in London (1969, 5 mins): vibrant and fast-paced tourist board short extolling the virtues, and fashions, of London's nightlife The Spy's Wife (1972, 27 mins): a modish tale of international intrigue and extra-marital relations with Tom Bell (The L-Shaped Room, Prime Suspect) and Ann Lynn (Screamtime, Separation) BFI Flipside trailer reel Fully illustrated booklet with essays and film credits

• Requiem for a Fighter | DVD | (26/11/2018) from £3.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Lucas A former Danish Army Officer has travelled to Derry, Northern Ireland to clear up details of his estranged son's death and finds that there was another side to his son's life and the people he was friends with.

• Skokie | DVD | (11/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  In a comfortable Chicago suburb the advantages of life are abundant but when a politically astute Nazi organizer selects Skokie as the site of his next rally feelings run riot. This film drama spans over a year of legal battles and explores the very meaning of freedom in America.

• Halloween - 25 Years of Terror (Special Edition) | DVD | (15/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In 1978 his horrific rampage through Haddenfield changed movie history. His name was Micheal Myers and the night was Halloween... 25 years later discover the triumphs controversies and groundbreaking influence of the series with the most comprehensive Halloween documentary ever produced featuring rare behind the scenes footage and interviews with cast and crew including John Carpenter Debra Hill Jamie Lee Curtis Moustapha Akkad plus fans like Rob Zombie Clive Barker Kim Newman and Edgar Wright.

• The Hitchcock Collection, Volume 2 | DVD | (06/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  A welcome second volume of classics from the Master of Suspense, this seven-disc Hitchcock Collection box-set consists of the following: The Birds: Based on a Daphne Du Maurier short story, The Birds (1963) is Hitchcock at his most terrifying, as the residents of a small town are attacked by thousands of apparently homicidal birds. Marnie: Tippi Hedren and newly Bonded Sean Connery star in this excellent 1964 thriller, which finds a calculating thief who robs her employers pursued by a her new boss, who is desperate to unlock her secrets Torn Curtain: This 1966 spy thriller, pairing Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, finds Newman as a world-famous physicist intent on defecting to East Berlin in order to obtain funding for his latest project. Topaz: Based on the Leon Uris novel, Hitch's 51st film, made in 1969, concerns a CIA agent who learns of Russian missiles in Cuba. With the aid of a French agent, they negotiate a plethora of corruption and murder. Frenzy: This critically acclaimed 1972 film was Hitch's first British-made film for more than 20 years. A classic Hitch story of an innocent man accused of being the "necktie murderer"--a vicious sex criminal terrorising London--he eludes the authorities and seeks the real killer. Family Plot: Hitchcock's final film, made in 1976, is a blackly funny mix of murder, theft and kidnapping as a cab-driver and a psychic team up to find a dead man--not actually dead--in exchange for a $10,000 reward. Bonus Disc--Vertigo: An irreducible masterpiece, this 1958 double-identity thriller finds Hitch serving aces, as Jimmy Stewart's detective is drawn in to a complex plot when the girl he loves apparently falls to her death. On the DVD: Like the first volume, this is an equally impressive package that will satisfy the rotund fright-master's fans. Along with the standard selection of trailers, production notes and picture galleries, each disc houses an impressive "making of" documentary, each expertly detailing Hitch's meticulous work. The Birds features Tippi Hedren's screen test and--in storyboard form--deleted scenes and the alternative ending. Topaz has no less that three alternative endings, while Torn Curtain includes scenes scored by composer Bernard Herrmann before his music was rejected by Hitch. The Vertigo disc features an excellent group commentary from producer Herbert Coleman and restoration experts Robert A Harris and James Katz, as well as a documentary, "Obsessed with Vertigo". Housed in attractive fold-out packaging, this is an excellent opportunity to obtain a rich slice of Hitchcock's dark magic.--Danny Graydon

• Seance On A Wet Afternoon | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An intensely claustrophobic nail-biter to rival prime Hitchcock, 1964's Séance on a Wet Afternoon is a classic British thriller written and directed by Bryan Forbes. Set largely in an imposing Gothic house in north London, the film stars Richard Attenborough as Bill Savage, a man struggling to maintain his marriage to his increasingly unbalanced wife, Myra, played in an Oscar-nominated performance by the little-known but brilliant Broadway actress Kim Stanley. Myra, who believes she is a medium, plans a scheme that will make her famous, involving kidnapping then "psychically" locating a little girl. Attenborough (who won a BAFTA) and Stanley are both superb in what is part riveting battle of wills, part nerve-wracking kidnap thriller with, just possibly, a touch of the supernatural. Gerry Turpin's precise b/w cinematography and John Barry's chilling score add significantly to the atmosphere of dread, and if the plot has one or two gaping holes, Forbes's direction covers them deftly. Forbes explored female delusion again in The Whispers (1967) and The Mad Woman of Chaillot (1969); the film also marked a major entry in his long-term collaboration with John Barry and with his wife, the actress Nanette Newman. Séance clearly had an influence on Attenborough's own directorial contribution to the genre, the highly unsettling Anthony Hopkins vehicle, Magic (1978). On the DVD: Séance on a Wet Afternoon is presented in an excellent 16:9 transfer, anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions, that effectively captures the brooding look of Gerry Tupin's BAFTA-nominated cinematography. Unfortunately the print used, though generally very good, does show some damage, including some instances that appear to run through the best part of a reel. Though noticeable and sometimes distracting, they barely mar this gripping film. The mono soundtrack is fine, though there is the very occasional touch of distortion. The disc comes with optional English subtitles, the excellent original trailer and a new and first-rate 33-minute interview with Bryan Forbes in which he engagingly explains every aspect of the making of the film. --Gary S Dalkin

• Dead Hate The Living | DVD | (05/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The Dead Hate the Living is a love letter to the nightmarish scenarios and visual freakouts of Italian horror pictures, although it also echoes with such American genre classics as Phantasm, The Evil Dead, and Scream. What could be better than a bunch of Italian horror buffs making their own zombie flick in a spooky abandoned hospital? Being attacked by the real thing, of course. The hapless crew discover a creepy black altar (complete with its own decorative corpse) and incorporate it into their film. When their scripted ceremony opens a portal from another dimension and unleashes an army of rampaging zombies, the hallways become flooded in red and blue and green pools of light for no good reason other than it looks cool. The hospital is suddenly adrift in an alternative reality because... well, just because. Writer-director Dave Parker never tries to explain the madness (a zombie's exclamation, "Hate the living! Love the dead!" is as much motive as we're offered), choosing instead simply to plunge viewers into the inspired mayhem. What makes it all work is a love of the genre, a cast of energetic, likable performers, cool zombie makeup, and a sure, stylish hand. Horror movie mavens will pick up on oodles of clever references (a bumper sticker that reads "Fulci lives"; a zombie king commanding, "Make them die... slowly"), but these are merely asides in an accomplished, clever, and remarkably entertaining indie horror riff. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com