DVD)

2021/08/10 02:10:55 +00:00 | Heather Wixson

Hello, dear readers! August 10th looks to be something of a quiet day for horror and sci-fi home media releases, but one of this writer’s favorite films of 2021 is arriving on Blu-ray and DVD this week—My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To—so that makes me incredibly happy. Cult genre fans will be excited about the opportunity to add The Frenchman’s Garden and Jess Franco’s Angel of Death to their personal media collections, and if you missed it in theaters, The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 is headed home on Blu and DVD this Tuesday as well.

Other releases for August 10th include re-releases for Friday the 13th (1980), The Haunting (1999), Disintegration, Day of the Reaper, Prison of the Psychotic Damned, and Dark Stories.

The Frenchman’s Garden (Mondo Macabro, Blu-ray)

"The Frenchman" was what locals called the man who ran the bar and restaurant in the small town of Peñaflor in rural Spain in the early part of the 20th century. But Juan Andrés Aldije Monmejá was not your usual jolly innkeeper. He ran an illegal gambling den and pimped out the waitresses who worked for him, arranging abortions for them when the inevitable happened. Even though he was married to one of the richest women in town, Juan Andrés was not averse to visiting his own bordello for late-night entertainment.

Deciding that there were easier and quicker ways to exploit his customers, The Frenchman started slaughtering them, stealing their money, and burying their corpses in the garden at the back of his inn. As his greed increased, so did the savagery of his murderous acts. It was not long before people started asking questions.

This gruesome story of one of Spain's most notorious serial killers was a very personal project for Paul Naschy, who wrote, directed, and acts in the film alongside two of the hottest female stars of the time. This macabre tale of a "black legend" from Spain's rural past was impossible to see for many years but is now available, fully uncut and restored, for the first time on US home video.

Special Features:

Brand new 4k transfer from film negative, digitally restored.
Interview with Paul Naschy.
Audio commentary from Troy Howarth, Rod Barnett, and Troy Guinn.
Optional English subtitles.
Mondo Macabro previews.

The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 (Lionsgate Home Entertainment, Blu-ray & DVD)

When best-selling author Carl Black moves his family back to his childhood home, he must team up with oddball neighbors to do battle with a pimp, who may or may not be an actual vampire.

Jess Franco’s Angel of Death (Full Moon Pictures, Blu-ray & DVD)

From the fevered mind of the notorious Jess Franco (BARBED WIRE DOLLS) comes 1987's ANGEL OF DEATH (aka COMMANDO MENGELE), a deranged free-fall into Nazisploitaion that takes its cues from the blockbuster 1978 shocker THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL and delivers the sort of delirium that fans of French genre film studio Eurocine hunger for! When an attractive pair of young Nazi hunters exploring Uruguay accidentally stumble upon the lair of the maniacal war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele, they immediately live to regret it. There, deep in the sweltering jungles, Mengele has continued his hideous human experiments, torturing, murdering, and mutilating nubile virgins in the name of creating some sort of master race. Soon, mercenaries, monstrosities, femme fatales, and vengeful concentration camp survivors face-off, with bullets and bodies flying everywhere and Mengele holding cretinous court.

Written by (under the name D. Khunn) and co-directed by Franco and completed by Italian trash movie maverick Andrea Bianchi (BURIAL GROUND: NIGHTS OF TERROR), the pair signed off on the film as Frank Drew White, apparently too nervous to take credit for making this truly daft piece of unsavory exploitation. ANGEL OF DEATH is a fast-paced slice of vintage Eurocine mayhem, with an international cast that includes Franco regulars Jack Taylor, Antonio Mayans and Howard Vernon (as Mengele) along with Robert Mitchum's son Christopher and Shirley Knight from Franco's equally insane WHITE CANNIBAL QUEEN. Jump into the jungle with Jess and get ready for some prime cinematic insanity! Get ready for ANGEL OF DEATH, presented here in a beautiful, uncut master culled from the original 35mm camera negative.

My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To (Dark Sky Films, Blu-ray & DVD)

Dwight and his sister Jessie reach a crossroads over what to do about their younger brother Thomas' mysterious illness. The increasingly dangerous task of keeping him alive weighs heavy on sensitive Dwight, and as a fiercely private and close-knit family unit, Thomas and Jessie depend on him and the rituals they've learned in order to keep their secret. Dwight yearns for another life, but Jessie will stop at nothing to keep her family together.