Giallo film fans should get excited, as there are two amazing special edition releases coming your way this week courtesy of Arrow Video: Death Walks at Midnight and Death Walks on High Heels. For those of you who may have missed seeing The Eyes of My Mother and Incarnate, both are making their home entertainment bows on March 7th, and Scream Factory is set to teach us all about pain with their new release, The Lesson.
Other notable titles coming home this week include Havenhurst, Bad Kids of Crestview Academy, The Shadow People, Door to the Other Side, and Slasher.com.
Death Walks at Midnight: Special Edition (Arrow Video, Blu-ray & DVD)
The second film in Luciano Ercoli’s Death Walks series (and his third directorial effort to feature his wife Nieves Navarro, aka Susan Scott), Death Walks at Midnight is arguably the director’s masterpiece aided in no small part by the screenwriting talents of Giallo master Ernesto Gastaldi (Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, Torso).
Navarro stars as Valentina, a model who, in the midst of a drug-fuelled photoshoot, witnesses a brutal murder in the apartment opposite hers. But when the authorities refuse to believe that a crime has been committed, Valentina is forced to assume the role of amateur sleuth in order to unravel the mystery.
Although Ercoli only made a small number of Giallo films during his time as director, Death Walks at Midnight (with its ultra-stylized set-pieces and grisly murder sequences) would serve to forever cement his reputation within the genre.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
Death Walks on High Heels: Special Edition (Arrow Video, Blu-ray & DVD)
Although less celebrated than some of his better known Giallo peers such as Dario Argento, Mario Bava and Sergio Martino, late producer-turned-director Luciano Ercoli contributed three hugely entertaining and memorable entries to the genre including this, his 1971 sophomore effort, Death Walks on High Heels.
Spanish-born model and actress Nieves Navarro stars as Nicole, an exotic dancer who finds herself terrorized by a black-clad assailant determined on procuring her murdered father s stolen gems. Fleeing Paris in hopes of evading her knife-wielding pursuer, Nicole arrives in England only to discover that death stalks her at every corner.
With the scene-stealing Navarro at its center, Death Walks on High Heels manages to subvert the conventions of the Giallo film by having a ballsy, well-rounded female protagonist to root for representing a welcome departure from the neurotic stereotypes found elsewhere within the genre.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
The Eyes of My Mother (Magnolia Home Entertainment, Blu-ray & DVD)
In their secluded farmhouse, a mother, formerly a surgeon, teaches her daughter, Francisca, to understand anatomy and be unfazed by death. But after a shocking event shatters their idyllic life, the young girl must cope with the nightmarish repercussions that echo into adulthood. As she matures, it becomes clear that this beautiful but dangerous young woman has some very peculiar desires.
Incarnate Unrated (Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu/DVD/Digital HD Combo & DVD)
Aaron Eckhart stars as Dr. Seth Ember, an unconventional exorcist who uses science instead of religion to tap into the minds of the possessed to remove the demon from their subconscious. When an 11-year-old boy becomes possessed by a creature of unspeakable evil, Ember enters the mind of the boy to attack the vengeful demon, but he finds himself facing the battle of his life and horrors of his own past.
ALSO AVAILABLE THIS WEEK:
Bad Kids of Crestview Academy (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, DVD)
Door to the Other Side (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, DVD)
Havenhurst (Passion River, DVD)
The Lesson (Scream Factory, Blu-ray & DVD)
Pulse (1988) (Mill Creek Entertainment, Blu-ray)
The Shadow People (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, DVD)
Slasher.com (Cinedigm, DVD)
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
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