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 The first and most simple is that a release goes out print because it is superseded by another release.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.