Mondo Macabro

[Adam X]

The Who Can Kill a Child? ltd ed pre-order is now live.

[jazzo]

Not that there's anything disappointing about the disc's bonus content, but as far as I can see, the only thing separating this version from their forthcoming regular retail version are design elements/booklet...?

[tenia]

That's usually the case with MM's LE : they have a booklet, a red case and are numbered, but the on-disc content will be the same for the non-LE release.

[L.A.]

Who Can Kill a Child? @ Beaver and Mondo Digital.

[smokes]

^^ just thought i'd mention that who can kill a child is also available to stream on amazon prime in the united states. i only say that because i'm not sure about other territories.

[Lost Highway]

I watched my BD of Who Can Kill a Child ? last night. My regard for the film grows every time I watch it and even more so with the inclusion of the Island of Death cut which does away with the intro of childhood horrors of war, the film's one puzzling misstep. When I introduced a friend to the film on DVD a few years ago, I skipped the prologue.

The film itself is a sun drenched companion piece to Dont Look Now, the sense of place is established almost as well as the Venice of the Roeg movie. The two leads also bear a strong resemblance to Sutherland and Christie. Both are very good as Brits abroad even if they are saddled with some awkward dialogue in a couple of early scenes. I was particularly impressed with Prunella Ransome who I’ve never noticed in anything else. Her other notable credit was a supporting role opposite Julie Christie in Far from the Madding Crowd and otherwise she was on British TV shows. Judging from this, I think she had the looks, charisma and talent to have a far bigger career.

The film itself is an excellent slow burn with some unforgettable imagery and it succeeds where many evil kids films fail, the kids actually are scary. The trick is that they always are happy and playful, one scowling child actor working too hard to look sinister and the whole thing falls apart. It’s where remakes of The Omen and Ring failed for me.

The movie itself looks good, haven’t started on the extras yet. This will be one of my top releases of the year. The movie itself holds up remarkably well and is still underrated.

[Cash Flagg]

LEs for Fulci’s Perversion Story and for Blood Lust are available for pre-order.

[Rayon Vert]

I saw Who Killed a Child? last night, which I thought was horrible. Extremely slow, with nothing happening for so long - I was bored out of my skull. Really naïve leads, especially the woman, that I found impossible to sympathize with. The action with the kids happens only at the very end. The premise was interesting if they could have created some violent encounters with the children throughout the film. None of it is scary, and you just end up being frustrated at those people for not having the guts to confront them or the stomach to kill them (guy on the boat: don't throw away the knives, use them!!) when it's time!

[Adam X]

So Mondo have teased they'll be announcing four new titles next week. In the meantime:

The Austrian cult film THE INHERITORS! Coming to blu October 9th!

A CHILLING AND TIMELY LOOK INTO THE TWISTED WORLD OF THE EXTREME RIGHT
On his way home from school, 16 year old Thomas helps Charly, an unemployed teenager, escape from the police. Despite their differing backgrounds the boys become good friends and Charly persuades Thomas to join a neo-Nazi youth group. Intrigued and confused by his new friends Thomas, who is experiencing trouble at home and school, is drawn deeper into a web of sex and violence that leads to a tragic end.

In 1979, Austrian film director Walter Bannert was among a group of Vienna cafe patrons beaten up by a gang of young neo-Nazis who wrecked the place. Researching the burgeoning movement in West Germany and Austria for 3 years, Bannert infiltrated their private meetings by convincing party leaders that he wanted to make an objective documentary. His film The Inheritors is the result, a disturbing and timely fictional drama based entirely on real characters, events and conversations that Bannert came across in the neo-Nazi camps. The film was highly controversial on its original release and theatres screening it were threatened with violent action by neo-Nazi sympathizers. Although it is now over thirty years old, the film remains incredibly relevant as we witness, across the world, the rebirth of right wing extremism using exactly the same lies and tactics exposed so powerfully in this film.

The Inheritors was not screened in its native country for many years until it was rediscovered at the 2015 Viennale Exhibition where it was praised as a rare and powerful example of Austrian genre cinema with a strong political message.
The film was selected at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival for the prestigious Directors Fortnight section, in the same year it won a jury prize at the Montreal World Film Festival.

SPECIAL FEATURES
Brand new 2k scan from film negative
World Blu-ray premiere
Region free
Exclusive 12 page booklet with essays by Michael Gingold and film maker Paul Poet
Original theatrical trailer
English/German audio choice
Newly created subtitles

sorry, couldn't find a smaller imageShow

[Orlac]

I can't wait for the commentators on Cine Savant to combust when he reviews it...

[Finch]

I'm with LH on Who Can Kill a Child? This was a first time watch for me and it escalates the tension slowly but very effectively. Great use of silence as well, and rarely has a telephone ringing out sounded so ominous as it does here. The prologue is absolutely the worst part of it, simply because the film doesn't need it and it goes on and on and on. Keen to revisit the film at some point in the Island of Death cut.

[Adam X]

Four more wonderful films from the 1970's forthcoming from Mondo Macabro, well maybe not so much Dangerous Cargo as I'm still not sure I enjoyed Tango of Perversion and The Wife Killer a great deal, but I'm a sucker for MM's output, so this probably won't change so much for me...

Dangerous Cargo (d. Kostas Karagiannis, 1977)
La Punition (d. Pierre-Alain Jolivet, 1970)
Woman Chasing a Killer Butterfly (d. Kim Ki-Young, 1978)
Queens of Evil (d. Tonino Cervi, 1970)

[black&huge]

Dangerous Cargo (d. Kostas Karagiannis, 1977)
La Punition (d. Pierre-Alain Jolivet, 1970)
Woman Chasing a Killer Butterfly (d. Kim Ki-Young, 1978)
Queens of Evil (d. Tonino Cervi, 1970)

Queens of Evil? I never thought I'd see a blu release so soon. I am ecstatic.

[perkizitore]

Was it Mondo Macabro that announced two Greek 60's cult films for BD release?

[Adam X]

Probably?
They've got a double bill of The Wild Pussycat & The Deserter that's meant to be one of their next titles.

[L.A.]

Bloodlust @ Mondo Digital.

[colinr0380]

If anyone is familiar with the second volume of the Video Nasties set, Bloodlust is a Swiss film that ended up on the Section 3 list (i.e. not immediately banned, or banned then eventually dropped, but still removed from sale and could be confiscated) when it was released on video in the UK in a cinema-edited 'X' version and has been quite difficult to see since then. Of course back then on its UK video release it would only have been English dubbed.

According to Kim Newman in the introduction on that disc, it is "halfway between The Tenderness of the Wolves and Martin, and not nearly as good as either of those", but he says that it has some interesting qualities despite being a fundamentally depressing portrait of a serial killer necrophiliac with vampiric qualities!

[Cash Flagg]

LEs of The Devil's Nightmare and The Ravager/The Bushwhacker are available for pre-order.

[L.A.]

From their Facebook page:

Coming this summer we will finally unveil the world premiere Blu-ray of Kim Ki-young's utterly bizarre masterpiece WOMAN CHASING THE BUTTERFLY OF DEATH!

Like a kind of crazy cinematic ghost train ride, WOMAN CHASING THE BUTTERFLY OF DEATH takes us on a journey deep into the darkness of one man’s fears and fantasies. That man is Young-gul, a lonely and rather morbid student in late 1970’s South Korea. Narrowly surviving a murder-suicide attempt by a woman wearing a butterfly pendant, he next finds himself besieged by a seemingly insane bookseller who claims he can never die. Even after Young-gul burns the man’s body his skeleton comes back to taunt him. As if that weren’t enough, the poor student then finds himself the victim of a beautiful thousand year old woman (she looks about 25) who says she is hungry and want to eat his liver….

The director, Kim Ki-young, was one of Korea’s most successful film makers. His 1960 production THE HOUSEMAID is now a recognized classic of world cinema. With this film he goes far beyond the bounds of the real and takes us into a world where anything seems possible, a world where a kind of dream logic rules. Almost impossible to summarize, the film is nevertheless insanely enjoyable. A real one of a kind production that opens our eyes to the limitless possibilities of cinema.

The numbered Red Case Limited Edition will feature an exclusive reversible cover featuring new art by Naomi Butterfield and Mathieu St-Pierre on either side, and a booklet featuring a brand new essay on the film by writer Kelley Dong.

DISC FEATURES
Brand new 2K restoration from the original negative
Region free
Korean language track with newly translated optional English subs
Brand new audio commentary by Kenneth Brorsson and Paul Quinn of the What's Korean Cinema podcast
Brand new interview with actress Lee Hwa-si
Brand new interview with producer Jung Jin-woo
Brand new interview with cinematographer Koo Joong-mo
Brand new interview with Korean cinema expert Darcy Paquet on the career of Kim Ki-young

We are hoping to have this go on sale next month, along with THE KILLER OF DOLLS, and begin shipping in late July or early August. Stay tuned for the final date for that which will be announced soon along with the final specs for DOLLS.

[colinr0380]

Further to L.A.'s post above, there is a wonderful piece by Tony Rayns in this month's (March 2020) edition of Sight & Sound where he gives a long essay overview of Kim Ki-Young's career. Though he unfortunately seems unaware of this US Blu-ray relase by Mondo Macabro of Woman Chasing The Butterfly of Death, and even in the filmography attached to the essay translates the title as the much less poetic and far clunkier "Woman After A Killer Butterfly"!

[Adam X]

I remember when they were working on the release, I think there were 3 or 4 different titles they were trying to choose from.

[black&huge]

Didn't they announce Alucarda a couple years back for a blu release but kinda walked back on it? Also where the hell is Queens of Evil?

[tenia]

Further to L.A.'s post above, there is a wonderful piece by Tony Rayns in this month's (March 2020) edition of Sight & Sound where he gives a long essay overview of Kim Ki-Young's career.

Is he talking about The Insect Woman ? Because OMG that one was awful (and the 35mm battered copy with only spanish subs and extremely partial English subs only added another layer of laughability).

[Ashirg]

Didn't they announce Alucarda a couple years back for a blu release but kinda walked back on it? Also where the hell is Queens of Evil?

Jared posted about Alucarda on Blu-ray forum. They used the negative for DVD release.

. The negative was sent back to the lab in Mexico, who either lost it or outright destroyed it. We're not sure which.

[colinr0380]

Further to L.A.'s post above, there is a wonderful piece by Tony Rayns in this month's (March 2020) edition of Sight & Sound where he gives a long essay overview of Kim Ki-Young's career.

Is he talking about The Insect Woman ? Because OMG that one was awful (and the 35mm battered copy with only spanish subs and extremely partial English subs only added another layer of laughability).

No, that one is noted as Insect Woman (1973) and only briefly noted by Rayns in his accompanying article as being "extraordinary" and "[in title] seemingly inspired by the Imamura film of the same name but nothing like it". Woman Chasing The Butterfly of Death is from 1978 (Rayns: "a fan favourite Mario Bava-esque three-episode story about a student haunted by menacing and/or lustful ghosts. Kim's eccentricities carry through, but the underlying seriousness is gone")