My first new piece of the year, and the first thing I've recorded new in a loooooooooooooong time. Where do the days go? It doesn't feel like a year since the album and EP, yet here we are. This track is a little different, trying to bring in a bit of a beat to work around. It comes on the 6th anniversary of a sad event, though I am not too sure how that has affected the sound itself. It certainly spurred me on to do it, and was definitely in my mind for every note recorded, but it doesn't grab me as much of a typical 'sad' song I'd do. Maybe more melancholy than massive amounts of tears. 

The Arrow Video folks have done it again. One of the few remaining distributors that actually care about putting out good home video releases have set their sights on one that it is shocking has taken this long to finally be released as a special edition in the UK/Ireland; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Though released on DVD here before, the special edition from America never made it over to us here. Until now, that is. And even better, this is going to be a beautiful Blu-Ray, and Arrow never skimp on their Blu-Rays. 3 discs. That's enough to get anyone's chainsaw revving. 

The first disc in the release seems to be pretty much a straight port of the US release and it's features, which I reviewed in depth HERE (and wasn't exactly crazy for). The main attraction with this release is the inclusion of director Tobe Hooper's first feature film, Eggshells, and a short, The Heisters, as well as some other Arrow Vid unique features. It'll be lovely to finally see Hooper's early work, and realised in such a loving manner.

Expect this one to be released in the UK/Ireland on October 14.

Here's the current list of features, as released on the Arrow Video website:

3-DISC LIMITED EDITION SET FEATURES:

-High Definition digital transfers of three Tobe Hooper films

-Original uncompressed audio tracks for all films

-Limited Edition Packaging, newly illustrated by Justin Erickson

-Individually Numbered #/10,000 Certificate

-Exclusive Limited Edition Extras

DISC 1 – THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2

-High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation from a digital transfer supervised by Director of Photography Richard Kooris

-Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

-Audio commentary with director and co-writer Tobe Hooper, moderated by David Gregory

-Audio commentary with stars Bill Moseley, Caroline Williams and special-effects legend Tom Savini, moderated by Michael Felsher

-“It Runs in the Family” – A documentary looking at the genesis, making-of and enduring appeal of Hooper’s film. With interviews including star Bill Johnson, co-writer L. M. Kit Carson, Richard Kooris, Bill Moseley, Caroline Williams, Tom Savini, Production Designer Cary White and more!

-Alternate Opening sequence with different musical score

-Deleted scenes

-“Still Feelin' the Buzz” - Interview with horror expert Stephen Thrower, author of Nightmare USA

-Original Trailer

DISC 2 [BLU-RAY] & DISC 3 [DVD] – TOBE HOOPER’S EARLY WORKS – LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE

-High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition (DVD) presentation of two of Tobe Hooper’s early works, available on home video for the first time in the world

-The Heisters (1964) Tobe Hooper’s early short film restored in HD from original elements [10 mins]

-Eggshells (1969) Tobe Hooper’s debut feature restored in HD from original elements [90 mins]

-Audio Commentary on Eggshells by Tobe Hooper

-In Conversation with Tobe Hooper - The legendary horror director speaks about his career from Eggshells to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.

-Trailer Reel of all the major works by Tobe Hooper

100-PAGE BOOK – LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE

Once again, I am a major sucker for Troma, and the always candid behind-the-scenes documentaries are always nothing short of entertaining. It's not just what goes on in a Troma documentary that is captivating, but with how open and willing Lloyd Kaufman and co are to look bad for the sake of authenticity. It can't help but make me respect Troma on another level entirely.

First up, All The Love You Cannes, where we follow the Troma team at the 2001 installment of the reputable French film festival, and the chaos and anarchy that goes on trying to market and sell their indie films when up against the likes of Warner Bros.

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Next, there is a bit of context needed. It all starts with Tales From The Crapper, a bizarre film in the Troma canon. Shot digitally, the film is notorious for producer India Allen delivering a below-par film while using all the budget and the inadequate reshoots and extended editing period that followed to try make some sense out of what was salvageable. Kaufman has been very public in his condemnation of what was initially shot, and the tie-in documentary The Thick Brown Line focuses on the reshoot from hell coupled with his own thoughts on what went wrong and where he was to blame. 

  It's interesting in that it features a scene where Troma members make fun of Wes Craven for donating $100 to the production while he was in the building (which I think they are wrong to do. It's not like the guy carries wads of cash on him!):

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My latest review has gone live on Gorepress, and it is for the grandaddy of them all; CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. I have written about the infamous video nasty a few times before, but restrained myself to a hopefully articulated review for people who know nothing about the most banned film of all time. Please check it out and comment and share and the sorts. 

To try and get the last residuals of Ruggero Deodato's film from my system, I have decided to share some of the fantastic DVD cover art from around the world that I came across on my travels. There is some colourful and lovely stuff included below, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you google the film, you will find all manners of incredible poster and VHS artwork. Consider this your gateway drug.

ONCE UPON A TIME...

  The original GO Video classic cover.

  AND NOW...

Grindhouse's definitive US release 

(although it has a rubbish cover)

Siren Visual Entertainment's Australian release, pretty much 

identical to the Grindhouse release, except classier cover art.

HOLLAND

EC Entertainment bring the love to Holland with some lovely artwork,

including my favourite; the skull.

FRANCE

The Blu-Ray isn't very pretty, but the other art is interesting.

GERMANY

My first copy of Cannibal Holocaust, and still one of

the best cover arts out there.

A trio of steelbooks. Oh, the colour!

DENMARK

SPAIN

The first non-English title, and some art

that's either lovely and dark, or cheap. I can't decide.

THAILAND

Definitely cheap looking, but eye-catching.

    JAPAN or SOUTH KOREA

Not sure where this is from (someone please confirm,

if you can!), but had to include it. The art seems

to be unique to the release (and possibly not even from

Cannibal Holocaust).

GREAT BRITAIN/IRELAND

VIPCO's infamously butchered and shoddy releases, though

they get brownie points for including House on the Edge of the Park

as a bonus feature.

The current official UK release by Shameless, with reversible

artwork that harkens back to the best designs.

AND FINALLY

Some bizarre multi-disc release with soundtrack and

gorgeous figurine. Not sure where it's from or it's

availability (apparently Austria and ridiculously limited), 

but I love it. I'll take this over your

WEEEEE'RRREEEE BAAAACCKK! And this time, it is with a vengeance. A 3 hour vengeance! Yup, the new Horror Lives! podcast is up, and in this one, we hit up Pacific Rim, A Field In England and World War Z, because sometimes we are relevent. Then we go deep into the Frightfest line-up, where we give opinions (wanted or not) on EVERY film that will play, since Joey and I shall be brave adventurers and be attending the greatest horror film festival in the world. It's a long one, but by fuck is it not boring. So, CLICK HERE to check out our Podomatic page, or click the embed below, and see the links at the bottom of the page for our iTunes and Twitter etc etc.

Like what you hear? Please follow us. We're all over the gaff.

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Or plain old e-mail? [email protected]

You may not know much about this one yet. An Irish Exorcism is a found footage horror film featuring a lot of the cast and crew from my own feature (which, incidentally is taking preorders for DVDs, pimp pimp!), which IMDb summarises with: THE EXORCISM DIARY (the original title that they traded up from) is a story about an Exorcism carried out in a country house in Ireland. The tale deals with the effects of the Exorcism on the six individuals involved, two Priests, two students documenting the event, and a mother and daughter. 

Here be the trailer:

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/66176328" width="480" height="270" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/66176328">An Irish Exorcism Trailer 2</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/frameit">Frame It Productions</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Joey, Ally and myself attended the premiere in Kildare awhile ago, full cast and crew in attendance. The film stars many Irish regulars including Brian Fortune and Paddy C. Courtney (an O'Briens alum, I must shamelessly pimp again) and directed by Eric Courtney. I'm not going to say anything about the film yet, but needless to say, there is found footage and there is exorcism, there is tension, and there are jumps. 

More on this when it comes in.

Brian Fortune as Fr. Byrne

Director Eric Courtney

If you look closely, you can see Joey, 

Ally and myself here. It's like Where's Wally?

Producer Richard Kearney