Finding fame... or infamy

"It's arrived, it's arrived! In the name of God, it's arrived!"

This is the brand new Blu-ray release of Mario Bava's seminal giallo BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, for which I provided a 38-minute visual essay, essentially a condensed version of the first half of my PhD thesis on gender in the giallo. Much credit must go to Michael Brooke, who succeeded in giving my ramblings some semblance of structure with his excellent editing and choice of clips.

This has been a totally new but incredibly rewarding experience for me, and I can't deny that seeing my name in lights, as it were, is an incredibly gratifying experience... and more than makes up for my embarrassment at having to listen to my own voice being played back to me.

And my goodness, does the film look incredible.

PS. I appreciate that I've allowed this blog to fester over the past several weeks. While I realise I have a readership of about 2, that doesn't stop me feeling guilty about the fact. Once I'm a bit less busy, I plan on getting back to a semi-regular update schedule.

A bumper box of spooktacular fun

With Halloween just over a month away, I decided to treat myself and picked up Anchor Bay's recently released 15-disc deluxe HALLOWEEN: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION Blu-ray box set, containing the eight original HALLOWEEN films and the two Rob Zombie remakes. Having only ever seen the first film, HALLOWEEN H20 and the first Zombie film, this is a bit of a gamble for me, and I'm aware that, as is invariably the case with long-running series, most people are of the opinion that the law of diminishing returns kicks in pretty quickly.

That said, the HALLOWEEN series is more or less required viewing for any horror fan, and it's always been a source of mild embarrassment to me that it's taken me so long to correct this oversight. Besides, this set includes the holy grail that is the producer's cut of HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS, in addition to correcting the botch job that was done on mono audio track of the standalone release of the first film. (I sat down to watch it back in July and it would be no exaggeration at all to say that the balance between dialogue, FX and music was so bad as to render it unwatchable. I ended up watching it with the 7.1 remix selected instead.)

I'm not sure whether I'll have the time or inclination to do a write-up for each film in the series, but I'd quite like to write up my overall thoughts in the series once I've had the chance to see it from beginning to end.

Wish me luck!

In honour of Synapse Films' upcoming Blu-ray release of Suspiria...

...here's the film's co-star, Italian actress Stefania Casini.

Petition mission: Changes to the Video Recordings Act

In recent years, the UK-based "boutique" DVD and Blu-ray labels like Arrow Video, Second Sight and Masters of Cinema have enjoyed something of a golden era, putting out interesting titles passed over by the major labels and loading them chock full of informative bonus features. That they are able to do this is at least in part because, at present, it is unnecessary to have bonus materials certified by the British Board of Film Censors, provided they don't contain content that would take the age rating above that of the film itself (e.g. someone saying "fuck" in a documentary accompanying a U-rated film).

The Conservatives (who else!) have decided to amend the Video Recording Act (which, let us never forget, they initially foisted on us back in 1984) in order to require that any bonus features including content that would net anything above a Universal rating be classified by the BBFC. The effect on small independent labels would be disastrous: the BBFC charges by the minute, so the likely result is that they would simply consider it no longer cost-effective to include bonus content like documentaries, deleted scenes and the like, which often amount to several hours' worth of material per disc. These labels often struggle to make ends meet as it is. They're in the business because they love these films rather than because there's loads of money to be made in releasing them. Their job is hard enough as it is without forcing them to pay hand over fist for the privilege of giving their customers more bang for their buck.

Read film critic James Oliver's open letter to Culture Secretary Maria Miller here and then please consider signing the petition here. Let's ignore for a moment my belief that bodies like the BBFC deserve to be consigned to the trash can of history full stop -- if we can't get rid of the existing legislation entirely, the least we can do is fight to make sure it isn't made WORSE.