The Top 10 John Carpenter Films

by John Kenneth Muir

It’s always a difficult task to weigh a director’s career output in terms of a mere top ten list, but much more so in the case of John Carpenter.  The auteur and maverick has directed so many great films --- and in so many genres -- that often times it feels like comparing apples and oranges.  For example, how does one choose between two legitimate masterpieces like The Thing (1982) and Halloween (1978)?

Terry Gilliam fronting a Kickstarter to restore Walerian Borowczyk's 1968 film 'Goto, Island of Love'

Filmmaker Terry Gilliam is fronting a Kickstarter campaign to restore Walerian Borowczyk's classic 1968 film Goto, l'île d'amour (Goto, Island of Love).

Speaking about the Polish artist and filmmaker’s work Gilliam says: “They activate a part of my brain that very few other things do…I haven't seen any of these films in probably thirty or forty years, but they all have stuck with me. He needs to be restored and the world needs to be reminded.”

What's the transfer like? What print did they use? Talking about the technicalities of discs

We are often asked technical questions about what a film will look like on a forthcoming release. Questions that frequently arise are " Will Arrow use the same transfer as label X", or "Is it a new restoration/new print” etc. To prevent information from being misconstrued we tend to reply using standard industry terminology. However as this may not always make things clear, we thought a good way to remedy this would be to walk you through the process of how a disc is made at Arrow. 

Here’s Arrow’s technical supervisor James White on dealing with masters and restorations:

Ninjas, Space Vampires and Chainsaws.. Oh My! The Top 10 Cannon Films

Some time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

There was a production company by the name of Cannon Films. Ok, so they might not have come from an alternate galaxy, but a lot of their movies did take us to worlds beyond our own.

We love Cannon Films here at Arrow Video, and with our brand-spanking new release of Lifeforce just days away, we decided to celebrate with a rundown of the best Cannon Films output – as voted by you! So buckle up and prepare yourself for a whistle-stop tour through some of the zaniest movies in the galaxy…

Horror in the Heartland - The 'Deranged' Legacy of Ed Gein

With our Blu-ray of 1974 classic Deranged unleashed this week, we thought we'd take a closer look at the shadowy real-life figure which inspired the film - "Plainfield Ghoul" Ed Gein. 

For those not in the know, Deranged is a loose retelling of the Ed Gein story, which also served as the inspiration behind the horror classics Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Our friends over at Rue Morgue magazine (who've graciously contributed an article to booklet accompanying our release of Deranged) here present a whistle-stop tour through the legacy of Gein: murderer, grave robber, pop icon. 

How to make an Arrow Video: Acquisition

One of the aims of this blog is to provide an insight into each and every Arrow Video release, whether that be discussion around film genres, images from the films, packaging photos but also how a release is actually made…

We thought the best way to look at how an Arrow Video release is made would be to look at each stage of the processes and procedures of how a release is created from acquisition to finished product. The release we will be looking at is our 2014 release of Michael Armstrong’s 1970 film Mark of the Devil.

Fear On The Freeway - Killer Cars!

With cult classic The Car making its Blu-ray world premiere this coming Monday, we asked regular Arrow collaborator Calum Waddell to fill us in on his Top 10 Killer Car movies. He dutifully obliged....

So what are the best 'killer car' movies? I've attempted to keep this category as tight as possible (some of the films below feature violent-vehicles and a few others feature violent people in vehicles) so there is no Cars that Ate Paris or Deathrace 2000. Indeed, if writing this list has shown me anything it’s that this strange little subgenre is drastically underrepresented. Yet, with the release of The Car, perhaps some aspiring fright-maker might go back to the proverbial drawing board and squeeze a little oil into this admittedly squeaky terror-trend and bring back some of the fine-tuned frights that highlight the likes of Christine and Duel...

Out of print - what and why?

We have various releases which have gone out of print and we thought that our blog might be a good place to address what this means; how it happens and why.

A particular version of a release may go out of print for one of two reasons. The first and most simple is that a release goes out print because it is superseded by another release. This is especially true if special packaging is involved such as a SteelBook or Slipbox. Along this theme another reason might be in the case of an upgrade where an older DVD becomes redundant due to a new restoration, packaging or new special edition. This is the case with some of our releases including the first DVD of The House by the Cemetery (later re-issued from a new HD restoration), SteelBooks of Battle Royale and Zombie Flesh-Eaters as well as various Slipbox editions (all still available in the usual Arrow Video packages).

The Blaxploitation Top 10!

Long before Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, there was Foxy Brown - the meanest chick in town! To mark our imminent Blu-ray release of the Pam Grier-starring 1974 cult classic, we decided to ask the ever-obliging (and frequent Arrow contributor) Calum Waddell to drop us a list of his Top 10 Blaxploitation films. As the author of Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, what better man for the job? So without further ado, let's get on down to our top 10.... you dig?

Spaghetti Western Top 10 + 1!

Our release of Django, Prepare a Coffin hits shelves today - so what better way then to mark the occasion than with a good ol' fashioned run-down of the best Spaghetti Westerns ever committed to celluloid? The following Top 11 (because 10 is never enough) comes courtes of Spaghetti connoisseur and Arrow contributor Howard Hughes, who was only too happy to fold a napkin under his chin and tuck in...

JESS FRANCO & THE ORLOFF CHRONICLES - Part Two

By Tim Lucas

Franco “resurrected” the Orlof character in 1964’s EL SECRETO DEL DR. ORLOFF, which was released directly to American television in 1966 as DR. ORLOFF'S MONSTER.

Melissa, an attractive Austrian college student, travels to Holfen to spend the Christmas holidays at the castle of her uncle, Dr. Conrad Fisherman—but the mood she encounters there is hardly festive.
Her uncle's behavior is cold and furtive, and her aunt Ingrid is perpetually drunk, trying to forget the night so many years ago when Conrad caught her making love with his brother Andros (Melissa's father) and murdered him. Melissa's chance discovery of a photograph of her late father, whom she never knew, awakens her curiosity about the past, just as Dr. Fisherman—a disciple of the mad Dr. Orloff—awakens the corpse of Andros as a human automoton. By night, Fisherman haunts the local nightclubs, charming strippers and prostitutes with gift necklaces that will transmit to Andros a high frequency command—to kill!

JESS FRANCO & THE ORLOFF CHRONICLES - Part One

Last month, beloved Spanish auteur Jess Franco would have reached the ripe old age of 83. What better time then to treat Arrow fans to some exclusive Franco-related content - a studious piece on the director and his Dr. Orloff films, written by Mario Bava biographer Tim Lucas. We hope you enjoy Part One, below, and remember to keep your eyes peeled for Parts Two and Three.

PLEASE NOTE - Arrow Video do not have plans to release any of the titles discussed below. This article has been published solely for the interest of Video Deck readers. Enjoy!

The director now commonly known as Jess Franco was born in Madrid on May 12, 1930. He made his directorial debut in 1959 with two minor comedies, followed by a pair of musicals starring the gypsy dancer Mikaela. These early, little-seen films had contained glimpses of the fantastic, but Franco's decision to embrace the horror genre wholeheartedly was prompted by, of all things, the tightening strictures of Spanish censorship in the early 1960s.

Top 10 Brian De Palma movies!

Do you like De Palma? Great, because we do too! So to commemorate our imminent release of the director’s superlative John Travolta-starring Blow Out, we decided to ask our nearest and dearest Arrow affiliates to list their Top 10 favourite De Palma flicks. Much like the work of the man himself, the results were intriguingly diverse and there were more than a few surprises thrown in along the way.

Cutting Moments: A Potted History of the Chainsaw in Horror Cinema

By Ewan Cant

Above all other power tools, it is surely the mighty chainsaw which reigns supreme in the world of horror cinema. Sure, the noble drill has had its moments in the sun: notably in Abel Ferrera’s 1979 troubled-artist-goes-bonkers video nasty Driller Killer; and also in Lucio Fulci’s City of the Living Dead where, in a grand guignol sequence of gore theatrics, long-suffering actor-slash-camera fodder Giovanni Lombardo Radice (aka John Morghen) gets a drill between the ears. Hell, even the common household screwdriver has had a look in; see, for example, DIY-gone-bad opus The Toolbox Murders (1978).

The Top 10 Portmanteau Films!

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, the adjective ‘portmanteau’ means something which combines “more than one use or quality”. When we talk about a ‘portmanteau’ in the context of cinema, essentially we mean a film which is comprised of several shorter, self-contained pieces or stories. 

This week sees the release of Black Sabbath, which got us thinking, is it the best portmanteau film ever made? We couldn’t decide so we polled a few of our favourite Arrow Video contributors and here’s the top 10 that we came up with.