In San Francisco everyone can hear Veronica (Alien) Cartwright scream. In the ultimate urban nightmare, to sleep is to die, to be replaced by a soulless alien duplicate. Less a remake of the 1956 classic of the same name, more a fresh vision of Jack Finney's source novel, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is the archetypal story of humans supplanted by unemotional "vegetable pods". A masterstroke is the introduction of SF icon Leonard Nimoy as a very West Coast relationships guru determined to explain everything in terms of urban psychological alienation, and the story does prove more unsettling on the big city's forbidding streets. This is very much an ensemble movie, with outstanding performances from Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams, and what proved to be the first of several key genre roles for Jeff (The Fly, Jurassic Park, Independence Day) Goldblum. With minimal effects and very little gore, but filled with unnerving camera angles and a underpinned by a chillingly effective score, the film is relentlessly suspenseful, culminating in a sequence of terrifying set-pieces and a truly spine-tingling finale. More resonant with each passing year, the story was reworked in 1993 as Body Snatchers. On the DVD: While the print is more than acceptable there is a loss of detail and some shimmering artefacts in the very dark scenes. The disc is not anamorphically enhanced, which really should be a standard DVD feature. Still, the picture is considerably ahead of VHS and the stereo sound is highly unsettling. An eight-page booklet gives an intelligent overview of all three Body Snatchers movies, and director Phil Kaufman's commentary is packed with information. --Gary S. Dalkin
Dual Format Edition containing the DVD and world premiere Blu-ray release of John Cassavetes’ groundbreaking debut feature, Shadows (1959), a film which gave birth to a radical new film language that has influenced the work of filmmakers for decades since its release. Shadows revolves around the inter-racial romance between a black woman and white man, and their relationship with her jazz singer brother. Its depiction of themes of inter-racial relationships and non-conformist lifestyles were way ahead of its time.Shot on location in 1950s New York, with a cast and crew made up primarily of amateurs, this radical, ground-breaking film is as devastatingly powerful now as ever. The film’s score features jazz legend Charlie Mingus. Extra features: Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition Audio commentary Seymour Cassell and Tom Charity Silent rehearsal footage (DVD only) Peter Falk on Cassavetes (Paul Joyce, DVD only) Original trailer
The unknown brings terror... Three beautiful TV reporters stay in an eerie house with an extremely odd couple when on an assignment in California. Their stay soon becomes a horrific nightmare when one by one they encounter the 'unseen' living nightmare.
A collection of films from famed actor and independent director John Cassavetes comprising: Shadows (1959): A depiction of the struggle of three black siblings to survive the mean streets of Manhattan 'Shadows' was Cassavetes' jazz-scored improvisational film exploring interracial friendships and relationships in Beat-Era (1950s) New York City made from a script entirely improvised by the talented cast heralding a vital new era in independent filmmaking. Faces (1968):
The name Christopher Lee has become synonymous with horror and he delivers a typically bravura performance in this atmospheric and tense chiller. A string of bizarre killings has struck fear into the hearts of Parisians. The victims were drained of blood which leads some to suspect a vampire. Clues lead the police to the Theatre of Death where horror presentations are a speciality. Could the murderer be its sinister director?
Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust is by consensus the great Hollywood novel, a poison-pen letter aimed squarely at the tinsel heart of the movie biz. Only in the 1970s could Hollywood actually hazard a film of this story, and the result is suitably corrosive. William Atherton is the observer Tod, Karen Black the blond starlet Faye, and Donald Sutherland the hulking Homer--but they are easily out-acted by the colorful supporting cast. In particular, Burgess Meredith's exhausted showbizzy salesman and Billy Barty's strutting dwarf are superbly crafted gargoyles in this Hollywood wax museum. Director John Schlesinger piles on the rancid atmosphere and rampant hypocrisy until the movie fairly drowns in its own grotesque vision. Long before the climactic apocalyptic riot, the film has torn itself up. There's no substitute for West's wicked prose, so the adaptation comes across as a literal-minded screech rather than a true bonfire of the vanities. --Robert Horton
The life of an ordinary young man is turned into stark horror when his sexy teen wife is beset by the devil. Against the odds he battles to bring her back from the dark realm of sexual depravity but with every passing moment he realises that the forces of evil are too much for her to resist... And she has become the devil's play thing!
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