Eric Rohmer's Horror Movie

Though I have not often written about him or his particular importance to me, Eric Rohmer has always been one of my favorite filmmakers. His literary, beatific films about love and communication, infatuation and miscommunication, human nature and Mother Nature have always exercised an almost unique capacity to soothe me, while at the same time sharpening me to higher wavelengths of reception. He clears away the cobwebs for me - put it that way.

It was not until I did some exploring through Potemkine's new mammoth import box set of ERIC ROHMER L'INTEGRALE ("The Complete Eric Rohmer") that I became aware that this most urbane and least haunted of directors had also made a horror film. Quite early in his career, in 1954, he did what Curtis Harrington did almost a decade before him and made a rather ambitious short film based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe; Harrington chose "The Fall of the House of Usher," but Rohmer curiously chose Poe's story of amour fou, "Berenice." It is included among the (un-subtitled) supplements of the second disc in the Blu-ray/DVD combo set, which is devoted to his early short "La Boulangère de Monceau." Like that film, "Bérénice" runs slightly more than 22 minutes. It might be a contemporary telling, but something about it is not quite contemporary, suggesting more of a temporal halfway point between Poe and Rohmer. Let me walk you through it.

The film opens with a pitch black screen, a spoken title, and a scream - years before THE TINGLER pitched a scream in the dark.

Then the story begins with a telling exterior shot of the house where our narrator lives with his cousins. It's a day shot, but strikingly in tone with what Roger Corman later did with his Poe features. "The house is the monster..."  

Rohmer himself stars as Aegeus, and also narrates the film. He lives with his two cousins, Berenice (Teresa Gratia) and a younger female, who are introduced playing outside the house, chasing each other around a table arranged for an outdoor meal with a phonograph positioned nearby.

Aegeus' inner ramblings are interrupted by the girls, rapping at the window for his attention.

After examining them first in their mirrored reflection, he turns to face them - resulting in this striking composition. (The film was photographed by Jacques Rivette, himself destined for great things as a filmmaker.) Now only he and Berenice share the frame, albeit with his own divided image.

Aegeus joins his cousins outside for a snack and, as Berenice's lips part to expose her overbite, his more-than-passing interest is confessed with a jolting close-up.

When we next see Aegeus, the narration has taken him into his study, which Rivette photographs in bold darkness; he is pressed up against a bookshelf as if both transfixed and repelled by the light emanating from a single candle.

The sequence in the study continues, beautifully photographed in light only a step or two above total darkness. We see Aegeus slumped over in a chair, smoking and filling an ashtray with butts. At one point, the camera dips down to study the detail of a Persian carpet below - and Aegeus' hand drops suddenly into the dark composition in a contortion of anguish, then rises with the camera to show him still seated at the table, lost in a dolorous haze.

Hereafter, Aegeus looks almost petrified in his poses of abstracted romantic obsession. At another picnic outside, Berenice falls to the ground in an epileptic fit. Again, her front teeth show through her parted lips as she convulses. The camera studies her body.

The child cousin races over to Aegeus and shakes him out of his deep reverie to come help. He does, but when he reaches the side of Berenice, he does something quite unexpected.

Ignorning the convulsing Berenice completely, he raises the needle of the phonograph and lowers it onto a recording.

In a manic fit, he conducts the music with macabre joy. In time, Berenice recovers from her seizure and sits up.

He recalls another encounter with Berenice, seen here sitting in a solarium, when their relationship suddenly took a bold turn.

While checking herself in the indoor mirror before going for a walk, Berenice checks her teeth in her reflection. Suddenly, her cousin can no longer contain himself and he accosts her.

She laughs, taunting him, goading him on until he lowers his mouth...

 ... to kiss her teeth.

That night in his study, Aegeus is beset with fantasy images of Berenice that come to haunt him. In a remarkable trick shot, Rivette's camera pans left to drink in the full circumference of the room with a different Berenice laughing in every corner.

But then comes the inevitable day of her premature death, and Aegeus was led to her body as it lay in state in his study. Knowing that he will never see her misshapen smile again, he takes steps to preserve it.

Tragically, this entire final sequence is too dark to be properly appreciated. As Aegeus turns away from Berenice, he virtually vanishes from view, though a flash of something silver is briefly seen in the blackness.

A male relative finds Aegeus in the study, seated and looking fixed and catatonic. When he touches him, he finds his upraised hand stained with blood.

He sees various tools, including pliers, on the table. Aegeus reaches for a small silver box on the table, turns it upside down and spills its contents like so many dice. The pulled teeth of his beloved Berenice.

Rohmer's "Bérénice" is perhaps only slightly more than juvenalia, but it confirms that this sunniest of filmmakers had a dark side that he might have explored in his films just as well. What raises it above its humble origins are Rohmer's performance, which is quite adept and stylized in the manner of a silent film performance; the daring cinematography of Rivette with its occasional stark expressionistic flourishes and its courageous attempts to engage with the story's darkness; and the sick extremity of its love story, which had precedents in the work of Evgenii Bauer and Luís Buñuel but still seems at least a decade in advance of what was then acceptable in the horror genre.

RIP Our Friend, Ann Carter (1936-2014)

I was informed this afternoon by her daughter, Carol Newton Brown, that her mother, the former child actress Ann Carter passed away on January 27 after a long battle with cancer, at the age of 77. We all loved Ann particularly for her touching performance as little Amy Reed in the Val Lewton production THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (1944), co-directed by Robert Wise and Gunther von Fritsch, but she also appeared in smaller roles in other notable fantasy films, including Rene Clair's I MARRIED A WITCH (1942, recently issued on Blu-ray by Criterion - she plays the broom-riding daughter of Veronica Lake and Fredric March), Joseph Losey's THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR (1948) and Tay Garnett's A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT. She also appeared as an interviewee in the 2007 documentary VAL LEWTON - THE MAN IN THE SHADOWS.

Donna and I got to know Ann shortly after we accepted Tom Weaver's excellent interview with her, which appeared in VIDEO WATCHDOG 137 - which we published in two versions, the second being VIDEO WATCHDOG's second (and last to date) "Signature Edition." She had been diagnosed with cancer even then, in 2008 - she discussed it in the interview and insisted we publish a photo of her as she was, minus her hair, because she had won the upper hand through chemotherapy and it represented a victory for her. She was a spirited and dear lady, very appreciative of the essay I wrote about her performance for that issue, and we so enjoyed the contact we had with her.

When I made the announcement of her death this afternoon on my Facebook page, it prompted an sudden outpouring of respect and affection for Ann, some of whom exclaimed "My friend!" - quoting one of her indelible, heart-tugging lines from the Lewton film. And so she was - not only our friend but, for many of us, our representative as an imaginative child shown coming to grips for the first time with the vagaries of a strange and secretive adult world. It's a performance that, by its very nature and her (and her directors') extraordinary sensitivity, will never lose its relevance nor admirers.   

Indiegogo Campaign Ends Tonight!

Back on November 27 of last year, I announced on this blog that Donna and I were undertaking a Kickstarter campaign to raise the money we needed to finance the digitization of VIDEO WATCHDOG's entire back catalog. We made the mistake of launching this campaign during the holidays, when people are hopelessly distracted and tapped-out financially, yet we managed to obtain commitments for more than half of our original goal figure. As the hours counted down to our Christmas Eve Eve deadline, we obtained a financial commitment from what can only be called a philanthropist, who believed in our project and wanted to see it happen. With that portion of our needs covered, Donna and I determined that we should refuse to lose... and cancelled the original campaign, then immediately relocating it to Indiegogo with a more reasonable, adjusted goal. After 40 days, that campaign is drawing to a close tonight at approximately 3:00 a.m. this morning, US east coast time.

I'm mentioning this here for the sake of closure, but also to report to those of you who only get your news of us here that we have met our goal. The VIDEO WATCHDOG Digital Archive is going to happen! It will be a reality before the end of this year. However, there is still time to contribute to the campaign, which you really should consider for various reasons. Check the Perks. This is your opportunity to obtain the complete, interactive Digital Archive for less than half its eventual price. Or if you're a small business owner or advertising rep looking to target our audience economically, look into the Media Ad or Print + Media Ad perks for ways to multiply your advertising dollars. Or perhaps you're an independent filmmaker who would like to make our knowledgeable and influential readership more aware of your work - if so, take a look at our Now Showing Showcase Perk. These offers end later tonight.

If you haven't been following the campaign's updates, you've probably missed some important information - for example, that we're also going to be making THE VIDEO WATCHDOG BOOK available as a digital eBook. Finally, be aware too that if you contribute only $5 or more, your name will be forever emblazoned on our Digital Wall of Fame AND you might receive an after-campaign bonus! (There's more than 40 available)!

You know you don't care about football - head on over while you still can and check this out!

    

Something Weird's Mike Vraney (1957-2014)

Only two days into the New Year came the startling news that Mike Vraney, the founder of Something Weird Video, had died at the age of 56 after a long and private bout with lung cancer. The announcement was made on Facebook by his wife Lisa Petrucci, who has run the company with him since the mid-1990s and vows─we're glad to hear─that it will continue. Mike had only turned 56 a few days prior to his death, on December 29th─a remarkably short life for someone who made such an enormous difference.

Since founding Something Weird Video (named after Herschell Gordon Lewis' 1967 LSD movie) in 1990, Mike rescued literally hundreds of orphaned features from the brink of extinction and successfully rebranded them to make them attractive, accessible and even fashionable to new generations of fans. It might never have happened if he hadn't broken his foot while skateboarding in 1981. To help him pass the time while recuperating, he asked a friend who knew about such newfangled contraptions if he might set him up with a VHS player and some weird movies from his collection. Mike, who had been a teenage theater projectionist before managing various west coast punk bands  (including The Dead Kennedys), immersed himself in the new video subculture and, as he watched, the gears began to turn.

His first eureka was realizing that tapes could be copied and sold, which he did for awhile before incorporating. When Michael J. Weldon's book THE PSYCHOTRONIC ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM appeared in 1983, it presented him with a kind of road map, one that he was able to fine-tune with the assistance of Bill Landis' SLEAZOID EXPRESS and old copies of ADAM FILM WORLD. He was hardly alone in his interest and knew it─everyone who bought Weldon's book suddenly had 500 new films they wanted to see─but Mike didn't just want to see them; he wanted to be the guy who found and provided them. It  turned out to be a job for which he was ideally positioned.

Producer David F. Friedman─by his own admission the last of a chain of exploitation movie con men known as "The 40 Thieves"─dubbed Vraney "the 41st thief" because he had found the forgotten warehouses where orphaned 35mm prints had gone to die and, in ways best left for others to tell in detail, came into their possession. Sometimes these warehouses were literally on the eve of closure, their entire unclaimed inventory destined for incineration. True, they weren't exactly Mike's property to claim but, thanks to his efforts, they survived. Mike sometimes came into possession of multiple prints and meticulously assembled the best reels from each, adding back whenever possible the footage some projectionists of generations past had snipped out for their own personal reels. If a rightful owner's whereabouts were known, they were contacted─or they contacted him. Either way, men and women who considered themselves out of the film business for decades suddenly found themselves in league with a laid-back but tireless young business partner who made their presumed-dead product vital again. Sometimes, as a special reward, they would give him the keys to the kingdom─the personal vaults where they kept their original negatives, including the negatives of some desired titles that eluded capture elsewhere─as well as introductions to their surviving colleagues. Between this and a Midas touch at garage sales, a catalogue of more than 2,500 titles resulted. To be considered the 41st Thief was probably the greatest accolade Mike ever desired, but considering how many films he saved from extinction, it would not be overstating things to call him "the Schindler of 42nd Street."

Mike Vraney raised the dead. Because of him, a wealth of exploitation cinema mostly ranging from the 1930s through the 1970s─movies that were made to play for one or two weeks and then be forgotten─could be examined with sustained vision for the first time. He made them available to fans in search of fun, and very likely some perverts in search of kicks, but his rescues also rewrote film history. Lost films were found. Films shown only regionally within the United States suddenly became available to an international following. "Adults Only" features and featurettes made for wartime/postwar audiences now mostly dead became within reach of their children, grandchildren and sociology majors. Other labels had first introduced the likes of Herschell Gordon Lewis and Michael Findlay to home video, but Something Weird (named after one of H.G. Lewis' films) went for their deep cuts, enabling historians to look past their best-known work to research and chronicle their achievements in toto. As a result, the films tell us about more than just themselves; they tell us things about the periods in which they were made that might otherwise have been lost to posterity.

We're not just talking about SCREAM OF THE BUTTERFLY, THE FAT BLACK PUSSYCAT and PSYCHED BY THE 4-D WITCH; we're also talking about Brian De Palma's MURDER A LA MOD, Abel Gance's END OF THE WORLD, George A. Romero's THERE'S ALWAYS VANILLA, Tony Anthony's COMETOGETHER (a movie with an Apple Records soundtrack!), mondo films like ECCO and IT'S A SICK SICK SICK SICK WORLD, the latter-day smut of Edward D. Wood, Jr., the elusive English dubs of Ernst Hofbauer sex-ed movies from Munich, and the unsuspected early acting gigs of people like Rue McLanahan, Grayson Hall and Richard B. Schull.

June Roberts - the ultimate Something Weird girl - as seen in Doris Wishman's MY BROTHER'S WIFE.

Likewise, there are literally hundreds of filmmakers who owe most or all of their contemporary audience to Something Weird Video: Michael & Roberta Findlay, José Mojica Marins, Joseph W. Sarno, Doris Wishman, William Grefé, Armando Bo, Joseph P. Mawra, José Prieto, Lee Frost, Brad F. Grinter, Byron Mabe, Sande N. Johnsen, William Rotsler, Dale Berry and Bethel Buckalew, to name a few─many of whom went on to reclaim their work and see it released on other labels here and abroad. There are also numerous actors and personalities who might have been forgotten without the renewed (or broadened) availability of their work: Audrey Campbell, Uschi Digart, Isabel Sarli, "Julian Marsh" and "Anna Riva", June Roberts, Darlene Bennett, Marsha Jordan, Stacey Walker, Sharon Kelly, Rene Bond, Artimidia Grillet, not to mention the immortal Bettie Page, whose only feature film appearances─TEASERAMA and VARIETEASE, both in color─were considered lost until they emerged through Something Weird Video.

It was Something Weird that recovered such theretofore "lost" horror films as THE HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND (and its alternate cut IT'S HOT IN PARADISE), Andy Milligan's SEEDS OF SIN, TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN (the original Swedish film that was recut into INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE here in the States), BLOODY PIT OF HORROR, the Joseph Green recut of Tetusji Takechi's 1964 version of DAYDREAM, THE BEAST THAT KILLED WOMEN, STING OF DEATH, DRACULA THE DIRTY OLD MAN, GUESS WHAT HAPPENED TO COUNT DRACULA, LOVE GODDESSES OF BLOOD ISLAND, THE CURIOUS DR. HUMPP, KISS ME QUICK, the Boris Karloff series THE VEIL, the Lon Chaney Jr. series 13 DEMON STREET, the OLGA films and Michael Findlay's FLESH trilogy. This is by no means a complete list.

Arguably, Something Weird's most important salvage has been nearly all of what is known about that group of films called "roughies," a black-and-white repository for postwar sexual aggression that, once revealed, demonstrated unsuspected ties to 1930's and '40s film serials, 1950s and '60s men's magazines, an occasional parallel to 1960s gore cinema, and a clear predecessor to the bolder horror cinema that followed in the 1970's. Likewise, their collection of "Roadshow Rarities"─vintage exploitation films posing as sex, race and drug education─offers a valuable index of provincial America's ignorance about such matters as recently as just before the arrival of television, and thanks to Vraney's excavations, a fairly complete history of Florida-based filmmaking now stands to be written. As a teens and early twenties, Vraney had worked as a drive-in and porn theater projectionist and never lost his love for the arcana of his profession; Something Weird consequently packaged more volumes of drive-in intermission and trailer arcana than any other label, something for which I remain particularly grateful.

In addition to releasing 2,500+ titles on VHS and DVD-R, Mike produced REEL WILD CINEMA with host Sandra Bernhard for cable television, documentary features (the most recent being 2013's THAT'S SEXPLOITATION, which I covered recently here), and he was also an associate producer on Lewis' one-shot return to active filmmaking, BLOOD FEAST 2: ALL U CAN EAT (2002). Image Entertainment has licensed dozens of SWV titles for release on DVD and Blu-ray and, for several years now, the cable provider Comcast offers a Something Weird On Demand channel.

I didn't know Mike well and, to be perfectly honest, our relationship was not always smooth. In the early years of VIDEO WATCHDOG, he literally overwhelmed me with product and he complained when our coverage didn't reflect this - it didn't matter to him that I had a responsibility to be fair and balanced to all our suppliers. In retrospect, I understand his intentions perfectly; he was fighting for his babies, and what he was sending out was all interesting stuff. It all deserved coverage, and I could have easily devoted an entire magazine to the wonders he was uncovering. I remember asking Mike why he kept releasing stuff in such volume, which made it impossible to keep up with; he told me that a lot of people advised him to hold some things back for a rainy day, but (he said, in that smooth and self-amused voice of his) "I figure, no... just put it all out there now" - his feeling being that he was offering a variety of things and they all had their corners of fandom to satisfy, that every title he was putting out might be somebody's holy grail and he didn't see the sense in making anyone wait for it. Their money was in hand now. Looking back, I can't say for sure that he was wrong.

The only time we met was at the 1994 Chiller Theater convention. Our in-person rapport turned out to be even more comically awkward than our long distance one - we kept bumping into each other at inconvenient moments and had a knack for saying things to each other that got misinterpreted. But whenever Mike unearthed something radically wonderful or unsuspected, I always got on the phone right away to let him know it was appreciated or, in later years - after he decided to hang back and manage his son's punk rock band - fired off an email to him via Lisa. Likewise, when he assembled that singularly wonderful, combination art object-grab bag-Halloween history lesson called MONSTERS CRASH THE PAJAMA PARTY SPOOK SHOW SPECTACULAR, we devoted a feature article and interview (written by Bill Cooke) praising it in VIDEO WATCHDOG #81. That piece seemed to smooth over all the little bumps Mike and I had over the previous years on our shared highway. I remember him telling me what a kick he got out of certain provocative things he'd said that I'd left in (like his reference to "some joker at Disney," which he said some other editors might have cut). And he was particularly pleased that we had opened the interview by showing him surrounded by cans of film. "Because that's what it's all about, those reels of film," he said. "People forget that."

But they shouldn't, and people would also do well to remember Mike Vraney, a true home video pioneer who used his homegrown business to make a real and measurable global difference in the world of cinema. Thanks to him, movie reviewers, critics and historians have much more to explore, process and write about those worlds we almost lost, and the rest of us have an almost inexhaustible wealth of twisted cinema to enjoy.    

Finally, MAN OF STEEL

Henry Cavill as the MAN OF STEEL.

I didn't care for the way it looked from afar, so I'd put off seeing Zack Snyder's MAN OF STEEL till this evening. Then it hit me: this thing's a reality, it is going to add to or detract from a history you care about; like it or not, I needed my knowledge of it.

As sometimes happens when expectations are low, I liked it more than I expected I would. An infinite improvement on the dire SUPERMAN RETURNS, appreciably more involving than the last two Reeve pictures and, in my books anyway, a cocktail-strength antidote to those things I've never liked about the first two. In some ways, MAN OF STEEL is not entirely a Superman movie because it does away with everything that has always rooted this character and his adventures in fantasy: Smallville, Metropolis, the bright costume, his automatic acceptance on planet Earth, the meaning of the S on his costume, the very makeup of his DNA, his traditional wink-wink relationship with Lois Lane - even, for a large part of the film, any utterance of his name. But all of those changes, to me, represent improvements in carpentry that's been shoddy and sentimentally forgiven for much too long. What makes a character classic is its ability to continually reflect some truth about real life, and this is the first evidence I've seen that there is something about the character of Superman that isn't hopelessly stuck in a more naïve sense of ourselves and our world. It builds upon Richard Lester's SUPERMAN II in that it's not an escapist adventure. This is also, to a degree, what's still wrong with it.

Its reach for realism extends to shakycam shots and camera flares. There is far too much "incidental damage" - I'm sickened by the way we've continued to stroke our 9/11 scars with fetishized images of toppling buildings and other urban terrors (it's what CGI is best at doing, along with accelerating actions to preposterous speeds) - but I appreciated the emotional conflicts the well-considered story by David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan heaped upon Clark, Zod, and the people of Earth as well. It may be the most agonizingly heroic of all the Superman films, by which I mean he earns his victory (no spoiler there) at great personal cost. What impressed me is that the film had the courage to say that he could only win earthly victory by committing what could be termed an Original Sin. I wouldn't feel this way unless Henry Cavill had filled his cape with flying colors.

It will be interesting to see what direction might be taken by the sequel, which is perfectly set up to bring Superman face-to-face with an equally pressing global threat: the death of print. 

Riz Ortolani (1926- 2014)

RIP to the great and prolific Italian film composer Riziero "Riz" Ortolani, who has passed away at the age of 87. Best-known for his Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated hit song "More" (written for MONDO CANE), Ortolani was also responsible for scoring such films as Dino Risi's IL SORPASSO (coming soon from Criterion); the Karl May western OLD SHATTERHAND; Antonio Margheriti's HORROR CASTLE aka THE VIRGIN OF NUREMBERG, CASTLE OF BLOOD and its remake WEB OF THE SPIDER, and SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE; Ruggero Deodato's CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST; Umberto Lenzi's SO SWEET... SO DEADLY; Cavara and Jacopetti's AFRICA ADDIO and GOODBYE UNCLE TOM; Lucio Fulci's ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER and DON'T TORTURE THE DUCKLING, and many, many more. Among his many admirers is Quentin Tarantino who sampled his music in both KILL BILL volumes as well as in DJANGO UNCHAINED. This link will lead you to one of his lushest orchestrations, worthy of Morricone.

Brian De Palma's PASSION (2012)

No, they haven't remade THE HOWLING - not yet. Noomi Rapace in De Palma's PASSION.

Finally caught up with Brian De Palma's PASSION. Say what you will, and it does look skimpily budgeted and cast with runners-up (neither Noomi Rapace nor Rachel McAdams seem ideal or complementary casting), the man knows how to direct camera movements. I consistently felt I was in the audience of a real filmmaker - a rare thing these days. At times throughout the third act, I could have sworn that filmmaker was Joe Dante and that the art director was little Anthony, wishing the characters into Cartoon Land. But when the screen split, my heart grew 10 sizes that day. He needs to work with a writer, though.

Last Year at Collinwood

Many years ago, I wrote a feature article for CINEFANTASTIQUE about the making of Oliver Stone's feature debut SEIZURE that was never published and, in the course of researching it, conducted the first interview Oliver ever granted. I thought I knew everything there was to know about that 1974 movie (even some unpublishable things) but apparently not. I believe I've just discovered evidence that SEIZURE's star Jonathan Frid had worked once before with actor Henry Baker, who played the mute Executioner in that film.

Unless I'm mistaken, I believe that's Henry (whom I was told had gifts as an opera singer) who appears in a few 1969 DS episodes as Istvan, the mute henchman of gypsy leader King Johnny Romano, In Episode 827 (aired 8/26/69), which I watched yesterday, the character appears briefly onscreen with Jonathan's Barnabas Collins, who soon sends Istvan to his doom atop Widow's Hill. Here are some grabs from that sequence:

And here they are in SEIZURE, five years later:

As a mute henchman, Henry had no lines on DARK SHADOWS, so did not receive a screen credit - but I'm pretty sure that's him! I wonder if he and Jonathan remembered this fleeting earlier collaboration?

Radio On

Donna and I are going to be the guests for the full hour, live, on Ted Coe's Freak Power Ticket webcast tomorrow - Monday, December 16 - at 2:00pm eastern/11:00am Pacific time. We'll be talking about VIDEO WATCHDOG, of course - its long history, our favorite issues, and naturally our current Kickstarter project. Since the interview will be live, Ted will be also accepting calls and questions from listeners. So tune in at KCSB-FM 91.9 (http://www.kcsb.org/webcast), call in at 805-893-2424, or email your question to freakpowerticket@gmail.com!

Alas, Peter O'Toole

"I'm WHAT?!"

I'm sad to bid thee farewell, Peter O'Toole, but the frank truth of the matter is that you were always a mystery to me. I've always liked the cut of you, enjoyed you immensely on talk shows; you were always as sharp as a stoned tack, but for some reason you had the most uncanny knack for selecting projects that weren't geared to grab me.

Forgive my candor, old bean, but it's true, lamentably true.

I put off LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, LORD JIM, BECKETT, THE LION IN WINTER and others until later in life, when I reached a point where I felt it was then or never. LAWRENCE aside (it was always your pinnacle, and it still shines brightly in HD), I found them all competent, even rewarding in fleeting moments, but they mostly left me feeling like I was sitting in a church to which I did not subscribe. You hit the ground running as King of the Roadshows, didn't you? To your credit, it was a canvas you could command - but very often these movies needed your grandeur to sell themselves.

I always thought you were best in smaller films that revealed your enormity of character. The films of yours that did attract me - WHAT'S NEW, PUSSYCAT?, THE RULING CLASS, THE STUNT MAN, CALIGULA - I saw them right away; they all had points of interest and, again, were perfectly fine... but somehow they failed to unlock my unconditional admiration, too. And something's amiss when I still can't get into WHAT'S NEW, PUSSYCAT? when it's got Françoise Hardy, Romy Schneider AND Peter Sellers in the bargain.

You did make a marvelous Quixote in MAN OF LA MANCHA, I do admit - though, again, musical theater onscreen has never been my forte. MY FAVORITE YEAR was a special film of yours, but as charmingly acted and entertaining as it was, you were cast as a jubilant car wreck - as yourself, as many noted - so I've always attended your Oscar-worthy performance with regret about all the real years and opportunities you wasted in pursuit of a good time and a bigger blast. I look over your filmography and ask myself how so much money could have been generated for what amounts, really, to so little of lasting worth. I guess therein lies the real proof of your own value.

But what a face!
What a voice!
What an amazing character you were!

And there is something you gave me...

If ever I stopped what I was doing to listen, really hard and intently, at the quiet surrounding me, at any point in my life, and I could sense a happy, gallivanting disturbance in the faraway ether, I knew it was likely you, having at it in the midst of some mad offscreen adventure. The world will seem a good deal more still and sober, now you're gone, and that's why I'm saddest to see you go.

VIDEO WATCHDOG: Our Favorite Discs of 2013

It's that time again. We don't do this every year, but I wanted to put our best foot forward this year, for several reasons. One: this was an exceptionally rich year for home video releases; two: we're behind schedule and want to get this information out to our readers to help guide their last-minute holiday purchases; three: there's never a good time to get this information into print, anyway; and four: if you feel you derived some value from this information, perhaps I could persuade you to contribute the monetary equivalent of that value to our Kickstarter campaign, which we very much want to succeed for the common good.

What we have here are 38 main selections, followed by an additional 35 notable restorations. To compile the main list, I invited our critics to submit their Top Five (5) choices only - I felt that restricting our selections to five would tighten the focus to those titles we considered absolutely indispensable, while also keeping the length of the list somewhat manageable. (Five turned out to be impossibly tight for me, so I granted myself slightly more room to allow for a few more titles I felt absolutely had to show; even so, I allowed myself no personal eurekas like TCM's REMEMBER THE NIGHT and Criterion's 3:10 TO YUMA, nor long-craved arrivals like Shout! Factory's ULTRA Q and JOHNNY SOKKO AND HIS FLYING ROBOT sets.) Only one release - the BFI's ROBIN REDBREAST (which I've not seen) - drew more than one vote. The titles appear in alphabetical order with the critic's byline at the end of each blurb. The list of notable restorations was mostly compiled by me, with additional contributions from Eric Somer.

This is not to be mistaken for a Year's Best Movies list; it's a compilation of what were, in our view, the most outstanding home video experiences on disc since December 2012. Asterisks (*) after titles in the main list denote significant digital restoration, as well. - TL 
 

ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET: RÉCITS CINÉMATOGRAPHIQUES *

1961-2006, Carlotta DVD (French Import)

This affordable box set collects almost the complete filmed works of the celebrated nouveau romaniste, with the exception of his penultimate Un bruit qui rend fou (THE BLUE VILLA, 1995). Included in newly HD-remastered transfers are L'Immortelle (THE IMMORTAL ONE, 1961), Trans-Europ-Express (TRANS-EUROPE EXPRESS, 1966), L'homme qui ment (THE MAN WHO LIES, 1970), Eden et l'après (EDEN AND AFTER, 1971) and its rarely-screened alternate cut N. a pris les dés (N. ROLLS THE DICE, 1972), Glissements progressifs du plaisir (SUCCESSIVE SLIDINGS OF PLEASURE, 1974), Le jeu avec le feu (PLAYING WITH FIRE, 1975), La belle captive (1982) and C’est Gradiva qui vous appelle (GRADIVA... IS HER NAME, 2006), as well as lengthy interviews with the director,  a 128-page full-color book, a facsimile booklet inspired by a prop from Trans-Europ-Express, and new introductions by his widow Catherine Robbe-Grillet. A marvelous, dense, playful and highly erotic body of work, beautifully packaged, impossible to access in such quality till now - unfortunately not English-friendly, but this problem will be settled when the BFI begins undertaking their release of these titles next year. - Tim Lucas

AMERICAN MARY
2012, Universal Blu-ray (UK Import)
A quantum leap over their feature debut, the $2500 miracle DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK, this stylish and darkly comic horror film by Canadian twins the Soska Sisters (Jen & Sylvia) is at once a scathing indictment of the North American academia and medical establishments, a passionate defense of individual expression through cosmetic surgery, and serves up a magnificent portrait of feminist survival in Katharine Isabelle's impeccably modulated performance. It should be seen in this import edition, which preserves the sleek gloss and candy-rich color schemes of the cinematography, which is noticeably more pallid on the domestic BD release from XLRator. - Tim Lucas

BLACK SABBATH *

1963, Arrow Films Blu-ray/DVD (UK Import)

Mario Bava's three-storied masterpiece, finally presented in its most complimentary setting (Blu-ray) and in both its Italian and English versions, the latter preserving Boris Karloff's own voice in one of his most intimidating horror performances - available on home video for the first time since a 1990s LaserDisc release. The detail and the lushness of the colors are hallucinatory, and the extras are abundant: a detailed visual account of the points of variation between the two versions, a video interview with actor Mark Damon, an introduction by Alan Jones and written contributions by David Cairns and Yours Truly, including my interview with Samuel Z. Arkoff. - Tim Lucas

BLACKFISH

2013, Magnolia Blu-ray/DVD

In a year that brought a number of significant achievements in non-fiction film to home video (i.e. A BAND CALLED DEATH, ROOM 237, MY AMITYVILLE HORROR, HAPPY PEOPLE), my favorite film of the year has the power to change human thinking regarding the captivity and training of wild animals. After seeing BLACKFISH, you will never feel the same about those family trips to the zoo--past, present or future. BLACKFISH is also notable for scoring one of the year’s best social networking marketing campaigns. - Eric Somer

BYZANTIUM 

2013, MPI Home Video Blu-ray/DVD

Director Neil Jordan and writer Moira Buffini craft an original, slinky, stylish, bloody vampire tale (never mentioning the word "vampire") about two young women who claim to be sisters in a seedy resort town. One calls herself Carmilla (wink, wink), but this is possibly the first woman-centered incarnation without a trace of lesbian vampires. I like it a little better than MIDNIGHT SON and BREAKING DAWN PART 2, and those are quite good.- Michael Barrett

CLAUSTROFOBIA

2011, Matchbox DVD-PAL
An assured horror debut from Dutch director Bobby Boermans. The film's ability to induce disquiet from a minimal cast and setting, produces a deep and lasting sense seeping unease within the viewer. - Cleaver Patterson

CLOUD ATLAS 
2013, Warner Blu-ray/DVD

Had I not read David Mitchell's novel, I mightn't have appreciated this lavish, ambitious epic from the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer, who express the recycling of souls via actors in multiple roles. The narrative skips sideways, with an image or dialogue in one timeline triggering another story of people struggling to escape from malevolent forces and finding accord with a kindred soul. If we're generous, the problematic makeup in the Korean segment of "New Seoul" demonstrates not only the "soul" conceit but the theme of repressive society forcing everyone into one artificial mold and making you masquerade as what you're not, which ripples through all the stories. - Michael Barrett

CRIMEWAVE

1985, Shout! Factory Blu-ray/DVD

Sam Raimi’s sophomore feature has a number of problems (many of which were studio-induced), but is filled with the director’s wonderfully maniacal creativity and ranks high amongst that decade’s Guilty Pleasures. It finally reached domestic disc, courtesy of this combo pack release which includes an amusingly candid commentary from co-star Bruce Campbell, who relates the many, many things that went wrong during production. - John Charles

THE CURTIS HARRINGTON SHORT FILM COLLECTION *
1942-2002, Flicker Alley Blu-ray/DVD
This was a great renaissance year for horror's first experimentalist, seeing the posthumous publication of his autobiography NICE GUYS DON'T WORK IN HOLLYWOOD and Kino Lorber's equally worthy Blu-ray release of his feature debut NIGHT TIDE (1961), but its crowning offering was this compilation of hard-to-see film short films, produced in parallel to those of Kenneth Anger and thus revising and rewriting what is generally known about 20th century American avant-garde cinema. Included are "Fragment of Seeking" (1946), "Picnic" (1948), "On The Edge" (1949), the Poe adaptation "The Assignation" (1953), "The Wormwood Star" (1955) and his final work "Usher" (2002), as well as two important pieces of peripheralia, his first effort (a high school-era production of "The Fall of the House of Usher" from 1942) and "The Four Elements" (1966), made for the US Information Agency. - Tim Lucas 

DAY OF THE DEAD

1985, Scream Factory Blu-ray

In the wake of a disappointing Blu-ray from Anchor Bay a few years back, George A. Romero’s underrated third chapter in his DEAD saga received a very good HD incarnation via this new edition, complimented by another fine, feature length documentary from Michael Felsher’s Red Shirt Pictures. Some have decried the disc’s lack of a stereo option; the movie was originally released in mono and I have no complains with how it is presented here. - John Charles

DRACULA *
1958, Lionsgate Blu-ray/DVD (UK Import)
Despite the message board controversies surrounding this title, there is no question that this disc -- including the 2012 Hammer and 2006 BFI restorations of Terence Fisher's classic - delivers the film we know as HORROR OF DRACULA as it was meant to be seen, as opposed to how it came to look in international distribution. Nightfall becomes a veritable subtext of the picture, making candlelight all the more pronounced an opponent against the vampire's dominion - rightly so, given the role played by candlesticks in the grand finale. But to finally see Dracula's disintegration is tantamount to seeing some footage from LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, something we didn't dare wish for and can now take for granted, and somehow all the more precious in its unrestored state - how wonderful that the original water-damaged Japanese reels were included! - Tim Lucas  

THE EDGAR WALLACE ANTHOLOGY *
1960-65, Network Video DVD
An overwhelming collection of all 47 films in the series of Wallace adaptations produced by Merton Park Studios of Great Britain during the same period as the better-known Rialto productions from West Germany. Not as garish or progressive as their German counterparts, these are very much in the tone of the English quota quickies - solid, well-crafted B-pictures featuring many beloved actors (Hazel Court, Michael Gough, Patrick Magee, Bernard Lee, Alexander Knox) and made by able directors (Clive Donner, John Moxey, Vernon Sewell and others), and VW's own trusty Kim Newman is along to annotate them in a series of booklets. The seven volumes composing this box set are also sold individually for those who prefer to test the waters first. - Tim Lucas

ÉRIC ROHMER *
1950-2009, Potemkine Films Blu-ray/DVD (French Import)
Are you sitting down? This definitive box set collects the complete works of this seminal French filmmaker on 52 discs, and the new HD transfers are not only English-friendly but blow the previous Criterion masters out of the water. The supplements and extras, including a book, do not share the features' English-accessibility, and it's regrettable that one can only obtain the Blu-rays by also paying for a balance of DVD copies we'll likely have no need to watch, but to possess this set is to feel in possession of a library devoted to youth and beauty, the art of conversation, and many elegant solutions to the most enduring of human problems. - Tim Lucas 

  
EXCISION

2012, Monster Pictures Blu-ray/DVD
Writer / director Richard Bates Jr.'s deliciously subversive, surrealistic horror is shocking and entrancing in equal measure.  Bates' razor sharp script proves that though the horror genre is often dismissed as inferior to mainstream cinema, it can be equally clever and insightful under the right guidance. - Cleaver Patterson

FANTASTIC VOYAGE

1966, 20th Century Fox Blu-ray

Featuring some of the strangest backdrops in a science fiction film, FANTASTIC VOYAGE takes us on a journey through a microscopic universe as eerie and beautiful and fraught with unknown dangers as any solar system or galaxy. The visual effects and set design are still impressive, and the Blu-ray upgrade is the next best thing to enjoying this fantastic voyage on the big screen. The extras from the former special-edition DVD are all here, including the isolation of Leonard Rosenman's important, experimental score. - Bill Cooke 

THE FLY

1958, 20th Century Fox Blu-ray

Reacquainting oneself with THE FLY on Blu-ray, one realizes how unique this film was when it premiered at the tail end of the 50s sci-fi cycle. Eschewing atomic radiation as a potential fall guy, THE FLY localizes horror in human error and scientific overreaching but takes its sweet time in playing its trump card. But what an ace it slaps down on the felt - and the power of the film's grisly finish has not diminished a jot in over fifty years. - Richard Harland Smith

FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY

2013, Dark Sky Films Blu-ray/DVD
Wacky is not a word normally associated with films from the horror genre, especially those as graphically gory as Richard Raaphorst’s totally off-the-wall trip.  However this freakish fantasy - combining both monsters and Nazis - is so unlike anything you'll ever have seen before, that it will literally blow your mind. - Cleaver Patterson

THE FROZEN DEAD

1966, Warner Archives DVD-R 
No, the restoration of its intended aspect ratio and discomfiting chromatics does not make THE FROZEN DEAD a better movie but, goll-ee, it's just a lot more fun this way. A key title for Monster Kids who came of age in the '60s, this one has only about eight minutes of good material but those eight minutes stick with you well after the final fadeout. - Richard Harland Smith

THE FURY
1978, Twilight Time Blu-ray (USA) and Arrow Films Blu-ray/DVD (UK Import)
As I mentioned in my review in VIDEO WATCHDOG 174, the experience of watching Brian De Palma's post-CARRIE telekinesis film with its career-best John Williams score isolated on Twilight Time's Blu-ray was one of the most education lessons in filmmaking I've ever gleaned from video. Just as the film itself is a marvelous index of ways to keep the eye occupied and tantalized, the audio track provides thrilling illustrations of when music is and is not necessary, how instrumentation can be used to lend coloring to light, and much more. The Arrow set adds an even greater wealth of supplementation to an essential purchase. - Tim Lucas 

GORGO *

1961, VCI Blu-ray

While it still isn't perfect, the blu-ray goes a long way toward restoring the picture quality of Eugene Lourie's final statement in the giant-creature genre. The film - about a sea monster's decimation of London while searching for its captured young - is one of the most colorful and exciting pictures of its type, unhampered by a romantic sub-plot and moving at breakneck speed toward a climax both thrilling and surprisingly emotional. VCI's new transfer of a superior film element brings a new level of excitement to the eye-popping visual effects. - Bill Cooke

HANDS OF THE RIPPER

1971, Synapse Films Blu-ray/DVD

This latter day Hammer horror seems rushed in execution but mature and forward-looking in design while serving as a linchpin between the studios' black-and-white psychothrillers of a decade earlier and the looming slasher cycle. One can even discern seeds of HALLOWEEN in this tale of Jack the Ripper's daughter cutting a bloody swath through Edwardian England. - Richard Harland Smith

 
HOUSE OF WAX

1953, Warner 3D/2D Blu-ray

One of the finest 3D movies and a horror classic in any format, Andre De Toth’s 1953 remake of MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM finally hit Blu-ray in as good a recreation of its original dual projection 3D as is technically possible at home. Both the beautifully composed sense of depth and comin’ at ya gimmickry work wonderfully and leave one hoping that Warner also plans to give semi follow-up PHANTOM OF THE RUE MORGUE (1954) the same deluxe treatment in future. - John Charles

THE IMPOSSIBLE 
2012, Summit Inc/Lionsgate Blu-ray/DVD
Director J.A. Bayona (THE ORPHANAGE) coordinated the most intelligent disaster film on record with THE IMPOSSIBLE, based on the actual tsunami that assaulted Thailand in 2004. In his feature film debut, Tom Holland delivers an amazing performance as Lucas, a boy who is unusually talented at helping others. What a shame he did not receive an Oscar nomination. Nonetheless, one can predict a bright future for him. - Eric Somer

KOMMISSAR X *

1966-69, Anolis Entertainment DVD (German Import)

Though pricey, this seven-disc set may be the most fan-friendly box set ever. It collects six of the seven Kommissar X spy thrillers starring Brad Harris and Tony Kendall - sub-Bondian movies, but no less loveable - in English-dubbed and English-subtitled German editions, with an alternate Austrian version of the second, bonus interviews, Easter egg trailers in the filmography, photo and poster galleries, and an astonishing seventh disc that chronicles a joyous 2009 reunion of the two stars and their quirky director Gianfranco Parolini, filmed only months before Kendall's tragic death from cancer. - Tim Lucas 

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ROSALIND LEIGH

2012, Image Entertainment DVD
Emphasizing style and substance over the instant gratification offered by many modern horror movies, this film by first-time writer/director Rodrigo Gudiño (the power behind Rue Morgue magazine), haunts the memory with its suggestion and subtlety - and the overriding presence of Vanessa Redgrave. - Cleaver Patterson

LIFE OF PI 
2012, 20th Century Fox Blu-ray/DVD

Which story do you want to believe? Director Ang Lee proves yet again he can handle any genre, any premise, any potential narrative problem. LIFE OF PI is the most gorgeous 3D film to date (I am commenting on the theatrical presentation here), and looks stunning in HD 2D as well. - Eric Somer

THE LOST FILMS OF HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS * 
1969/71, Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray/DVD

Say what you will about the movies in question (and really, the less said the better), this release still represented a major archeological save from a new label that offered up some of the most exciting genre titles of 2013. Not only were these long unseen features (ECSTASIES OF WOMEN, LINDA & ABILENE, and BLACK LOVE) returned to circulation, they looked fresh out of the lab. The first two, in particular, rank amongst the most gorgeous presentations of films from that era offered by any label. - John Charles

NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET

2012, Cinema Guild DVD

This was the last film of Raul Ruiz, master of self-conscious narrative games in the traditions of Borges and Robbe-Grillet. Most scenes are shot in long, insidious single takes as characters engage in baffling banter in a storyline best described as tenuous. An old man recalls his boyhood dialogues with Long John Silver and Beethoven, and he believes his impending retirement means someone will kill him. Strongly resembles a film I watched at the same time, Manoel de Oliveira's elegiac, personal, spellbinding ghost story THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELICA, but that's a 2011 release or it could have replaced the Ruiz film here.- Michael Barrett

PACIFIC RIM

2013, Warner 3D Blu-ray/2D Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy
Guillermo Del Toro’s long awaited “Robots vs. Monsters” epic felt somewhat compromised by its cost and major studio origins, but one area where the film absolutely did not disappoint was the director’s incredible sense of imagination and design. Seemingly every aspect of the production displays a remarkable, infectious sense of creativity and this deluxe multi-format release showcases the movie beautifully. It also offers up special features that genuinely enhance one’s appreciation of PACIFIC RIM’s considerable strengths. - John Charles

THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES 
2012, Universal Blu-ray/DVD
When Luke (Ryan Gosling) makes his entrance, it is clear you are in good hands with director Derek Cianfrance. Modern film noir is seldom this epic. - Eric Somer

ROBIN REDBREAST 
1970, British Film Institute DVD (UK Import) 
The vaults of the BBC remain, especially for Americans, largely undiscovered country when it comes to Gothic and ghoulish entertainment. Happily, the BFI has been returning to the light a wealth of scary teleplays, both originals and adaptations of classic works, among them this compelling rural chiller, which serves as a landmark (however obscure) between NIGHT OF THE DEMON and THE WICKER MAN. - Richard Harland Smith

A precursor to THE WICKER MAN (1973), this television drama though not exactly frightening in the traditional sense is decidedly creepy, leaving the viewer in disbelief that the practices at its core could still be taking place in a modern, civilized society.  Accompanied by an enchanting public information film AROUND THE VILLAGE GREEN (1937), which gives an insight into traditional English village life, this is the perfect example of how to produce real horror from the outwardly innocent. - Cleaver Patterson

 
SECONDS

1966, Criterion Collection, Blu-ray

Criterion upgrades this eerie cult item - one of the most interestingly photographed black-and-white films of the sixties - to high definition with stunning results. John Frankenheimer's intensely dark and disturbing tale about a middle-aged man's attempt to start life anew in a surgically transformed body stars Rock Hudson in the performance of his career. Criterion imports the great Frankenheimer commentary from the former DVD and adds a few more extras, including an appreciation from actor Alec Baldwin. - Bill Cooke

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK 
2012, Starz/Anchor Bay Blu-ray/DVD
Director David O. Russell (THREE KINGS, THE FIGHTER) returns to the quirky comic roots he established with 1994's SPANKING THE MONKEY, the indie film that put him on the map as a filmmaker to watch. SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK withstands repeat viewings with ease. - Eric Somer

THE UNINVITED

1944, Criterion Collection Blu-ray/DVD
There are a slew of Top 10 Haunted House movie lists written by fans on the IMDb and none of them include THE UNINVITED. This has less to do with philistinism than the fact that the movie was just unavailable for years. Not missing, not lost... just off the market, withheld. The Criterion Collection's inclusion of this beloved title in its estimable ranks should right that inequity. - Richard Harland Smith

 
THE VINCENT PRICE COLLECTION

1959 - 1971, Shout! Factory, Blu-ray
Six essential titles from Vincent Price's association with American International Pictures (FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, PIT & THE PENDULUM, THE HAUNTED PALACE, MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, WITCHFINDER GENERAL and THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES) are oddly presented out of order on 4 discs, but this is still nirvana to the gothic horror fan. It's especially wonderful to finally have PIT AND THE PENDULUM in anamorphic widescreen. The package includes introductions by Price himself (fragments from a vintage interview) and plentiful audio commentaries (both old and new) featuring name talent like Roger Corman, Tom Weaver, Robert Fuest, Price biographer Lucy Chase Williams and VW contributors Tom Weaver, David Del Valle and Justin Humphreys. - Bill Cooke

WAKE IN FRIGHT 
1971, Image Entertainment Blu-ray or DVD 
Ted Kotcheff's rediscovered Australian classic (released in the US as OUTBACK in 1971) is misleadingly sold as a horror movie with shades of DELIVERANCE and STRAW DOGS. Closer to WALKABOUT, it's an expressive, atmospheric, existential character study of a surly, uptight teacher (Gary Bond) who faces his demons over a long weekend with a bunch of drunken yahoos (including a wiry Donald Pleasence) in the middle of bloody nowhere. Intense, foreboding, sometimes shocking. - Michael Barrett

WARM BODIES

2013, Summit Inc/Lionsgate Blu-ray or DVD 
This is a zombie comedy told by the zombie, who forms elegant sentences in his head as his body shuffles with other zombies at the airport (social comment like the mall in DAWN OF THE DEAD). When he meets a living girl while foraging for flesh, she causes his heart to skip a beat, or beat a skip, and his impulse to kidnap and shelter her causes his regression to a state increasingly capable of speech, warmth, etc. as the love bug spreads like a virus through zombie culture. The romance and symbolism are handled with Young Adult Novel sincerity that's never undercut by the absurdity and snarky hipness.- Michael Barrett

ZATOICHI: THE BLIND SWORDSMAN 
1962 - 1973, Criterion Collection, Blu-ray/DVD
This mammoth set from Criterion features 25 films on 9 blu-ray discs, plus standard definition presentations on 18 DVDs. Produced over a decade by the Daiei Studios, this Japanese historical adventure series stars Shintaru Katsu as a blind masseur who also happens to be a master swordsman. Every story has basically the same plot: Zatoichi comes to a new village, encounters people suppressed by local gangsters or politicians (or both), and in the end he must grudgingly use his sword-fighting talents to mete out justice. What makes the stories resonate is the character's profound inner turmoil over his ability to kill, and Katsu's deeply moving and endearing portrayal. - Bill Cooke

OTHER SIGNIFICANT RESTORATIONS OF 2013 
AN AMERICAN HIPPIE IN ISRAEL (Amos Sefer, 1972; Grindhouse Releasing) 

A MAN ESCAPED (Robert Bresson, 1956; Criterion) 
A BAY OF BLOOD (Mario Bava, 1971; Kino Lorber) 
BLACK SUNDAY (Mario Bava, 1960; Arrow Films) 
THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE in MOVIES 4 YOU - MORE SCI-FI CLASSICS (Joseph Green, 1959/61; Timeless Media/Shout! Factory) - includes supplementary bonus nude footage for the 1st time! 
THE BRIDES OF DRACULA (Terence Fisher, 1960; Icon UK) 
CHINA GATE (Samuel Fuller, 1957; Olive Films) 
CINERAMA HOLIDAY (Robert L. Bendick/Philippe De Lacy, 1955; Flicker Alley) 
COHEN AND TATE (Eric Red, 1988; Shout! Factory) 
COLLEGE (James W. Horne/Buster Keaton, 1927; Kino Lorber) 
CORRUPTION (Robert Hartford-Davies, 1967; Grindhouse Releasing) 
DEMONS (Lamberto Bava, 1985; Synapse Films) 
DEMONS 2: THE NIGHTMARE RETURNS (Lamberto Bava, 1986; Synapse Films) 
THE DEVIL BAT (Jean Yarbrough, 1940; Kino Lorber) 
THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (Freddie Francis, 1964; Icon UK) 
EYES WITHOUT A FACE (Georges Franju, 1959; Criterion) 
FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON (Mario Bava, 1970; Kino Lorber) 
GATE OF HELL (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1953; Criterion) 
THE GRAPES OF DEATH (Jean Rollin, 1978; Redemption/Kino Lorber) 
THE HOT NIGHTS OF LINDA (Jesús Franco, 1973; Severin) 
HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN (Jesús Franco, 1973; Mondo Macabro) 
JUBAL (Delmer Daves, 1956; Criterion) 
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (Alfred Hitchcock, 1934; Criterion) 
THE MUMMY (Terence Fisher, 1959; Icon UK) 
NIGHT TIDE (Curtis Harrington, 1961; Kino Lorber)
NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT (Jesús Franco, 1970; Redemption/Kino Lorber) 
NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1922; Kino Lorber) 
L'ORGIE DES VAMPIRES (Renato Polselli, 1964; Artus Films France) 
THE PUPPETOON MOVIE (Arnold Leibovit, 1987; B2MP) 
ROLLING THUNDER (John Flynn, 1977;  Shout! Factory) 
SAFETY LAST (Fred C. Newmeyer/Sam Taylor, 1923; Criterion)
SEX KITTENS GO TO COLLEGE (Albert Zugsmith, 1960; Warner Archive)
SHE DEVIL (Kurt Neumann, 1957; Olive Films) 
SOUTH SEAS ADVENTURE (Carl Dudley/Richard Goldstone/Francis D. Lyon, 1958; Flicker Alley) 
A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD (Jesús Franco, 1970; Redemption/Kino Lorber) 
THE WICKER MAN - THE FINAL CUT (Robin Hardy, 1973; StudioCanal UK) 
ZOMBIE LAKE (J.R. Lazer, 1981; Redemption/Kino Lorber)