| DVDBeaver are proud to announce our voting results for Blu-ray and 4K UHD of the Year - 2023 Poll. I would like to give a very appreciative thank you to those 147 individuals who participated. Everyone's votes were counted in the totals and, like every year, we are adding occasional quote comments!
The common complaint this year was how hard it was selecting a Top Ten Blu-ray list as many of the best titles offered 4K as well. The important releases this year seemed to be boxsets - of which there are many lauded.
This year we were privileged to have notable participants such as my personal favorite Blu-ray/4K UHD commentarist Tim Lucas! (author of Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark, The Book of Renfield: A Gospel of Dracula etc.,) audio commentator, and DVD/Blu-ray extras producer Daniel Kremer, commentarist and interviewer Bill Ackerman (Supporting Characters Podcast), film historian, film critic, essayist, and audio commentator Stuart Galbraith IV (Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films: A Critical Analysis of 103 Features Released in the United States, 1950-1992), author, writer and commentarist Lee Gambin (Massacred by Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film), BBC film reviewer (40 years!) and writer Ramsey Campbell (author of Six Stooges and Counting), physical media and film reviewer Eric Cotenas (Cineventures Blog), cinema bon-vivant Bill McAlpine, documentary filmmaker and Blu-ray/DVD bonus content producer Elijah Drenner, screenwriter/non-fiction writer, film historian and commentator Gary Gerani (Fantastic Television), award-winning journalist Jeff Heinrich, globetrotting cinephile Geoff Dubois, among others. Selections this year spread to a huge diversity of genres. No one can see every release in the year and how we have 'good' opinions is to have lots of them.
In a very changing world we lost two Blu-ray
distributors in 2023;
Network
and Olive.
We thank them for their digital editions over the years - they will
both be missed. In positive news we gained, remarkable boutique
production company,
Radiance
Films - who made it into our
Top Ten labels this year,
Neon Eagle Video is looking interesting, Canadian
International Pictures (CIP) is continuing 'up the ladder' and
going
4K (East
End Hustle) -
plus there are a handful of new sub-labels;
Cult Classics
(Studio Canal,) Vinegar Syndrome Labs (The
Cat Creeps,
Curucu, Beast of the Amazon,
Flesh and Fantasy etc.) and their many partner labels, Kino Cult (Lorna
the Exorcist,
Alien Outlaw,
The Dark Power,
Sinner: The Secret Diary of a Nymphomaniac), Criterion's
Janus Contemporaries (EO,
No Bears,
L'innocent aka The Innocent,
Godland,
Tori and Lokita,
The Eight Mountains) - BFI's Flipside (Full
Circle: The Haunting of Julia) going
4K UHD, as well as
Severin Kids (Journey
to the Center of the Earth) who continue to make offerings
for their tiny sub-label... so it remains the absolute best time to maintain a physical digital library.
NOTE: Again, this year we didn't publish the vote # totals - it just
complicated our already bloated formatting and complex tabulation.
THE TOP TEN BOXSETSs OF 2023 |
| THE WINNERS - BOXSETS (boxsets contain multiple films) | |
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First place is Criterion's
Small Axe - Five Films By Steve McQueen. With the five
films that make up his Small Axe anthology (Mangrove;
Lovers Rock; Red, White and Blue; Alex Wheatle;
and Education), director Steve McQueen offers a richly
evocative panorama of West Indian life in London from the late 1960s
through the early '80s - a time defined for the community by the
terror of police violence, the empowering awakening of political
consciousness, and the ecstatic escape of a vibrant reggae scene.
Ranging in tone from tenderly impressionistic to devastatingly
clear-eyed, these powerfully performed portraits of Black
resistance, joy, creativity, and collective action - all sumptuously
shot by Shabier Kirchner - form a revolutionary counterhistory of
mid-twentieth-century Britain at a transformational moment. Steve McQueen's Small Axe title references a proverb - "Small axe fall big tree" or "If you are the big tree, we are the small axe". It was popularized by Bob Marley in his 1973 song "Small Axe". |
| This Criterion Blu-ray package of this anthology series is outstanding. These masterfully realized five films share common themes but are all distinctly different efforts that do not intersect. This is some of the most brilliant cinema I have seen in a long time. McQueen is best know for 12 Years a Slave (2013), Hunger (2008), and Shame (2011) was born in London to a Grenadian mother and a Trinidadian father. He draws from his experiences in schooling - marginalized being dyslexic and also wearing an eye patch because of a lazy eye. Notable are Mangrove and Lovers Rock (the latter was the top-ranked film in Sight & Sound's best films of 2020) but I also very much enjoyed Red, White and Blue, Alex Wheatle and Education. The inclusion of the three-hour documentary Uprising (2021) adds even more value to this remarkable set. I expect this to be voted on in our year-end poll. Our highest recommendation! | |
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"Not only is Steve McQueen's Small Axe series an incredible set of (mini-)features, but the extras in this release add tremendous value to the entire package. The feature-length documentary Uprising in particular is truly essential viewing." - Dan Hassler-Forest ____________________ "Two years ago, in my year end poll, in my wish list/ rant I had mentioned that the BBC only thought to release these 5 films in a bare bones DVD here in the UK, and my wish was if only Criterion would release this, along with McQueen's documentary UPRISING (which was also later broadcast on BBC that year) as a supplement. How often do wishes come true? Rarely- but this one did. Each of the 5 films is a considered work of art." - Billy Bang ____________________ "More people should watch these gems, incredible work from McQueen that ranks among his finest." - Lewis ____________________ "Five films, including the great Mangrove and Lovers Rock, made for television, but ideally should be shown on the big screen since each one was made differently - different aspect ratios, but also different film stocks and digital cameras. Amazing package which includes a feature documentary." - Peter Rist ____________________ "When Amazon signed an agreement with Criterion, it was my hope that Steve McQueen's five film anthology focused on West Indian life in London would be high on the list. All five films are incredible pieces of cinema, but Lovers Rock and Education are the two highlights for me. The set includes a couple featurettes and a conversation with McQueen, but the real highlight is the inclusion of Uprising, McQueen's three hour documentary that examines much of the same cultural and thematic terrain." - Drew Morton ____________________ "When Uprising is 'only' an extra you know you have a quality set" - Geoff Dubois ____________________ "Criterion is leading the way preserving recent streaming releases to physical media. SMALL AXE is a set I will cherish and I'm sure I will return especially to LOVERS ROCK often." - Jason Overbeck |
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| Second place from Arrow is Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest Limited Edition 4K UHD. The first two starring vehicles for Lee, The Big Boss and Fist of Fury (both directed by Lo Wei), smashed all box office records in Hong Kong and made him the most famous face on the continent. Lee asserted his artistic independence by directing, writing and starring in The Way of the Dragon, arguably his most thrilling and personal film. Tragically, on the cusp of achieving the international stardom he had long strived for, Bruce Lee died suddenly in 1973, aged only 32. Not to be outdone by the tidal wave of 'Bruceploitation' films that followed, Golden Harvest completed two posthumous films using unreleased footage, 1978's Game of Death and its 1981 sequel, as well as two official documentaries, the first of which hit cinemas only three months after Lee's death. Today, five decades since his passing, Bruce Lee continues to be the most beloved and influential martial artist in the world. |
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This definitive collection, featuring
fresh and exclusive
4K restorations by Arrow Video from the best
available film materials, hours of brand new bonus features and
previously unreleased footage - including the extended Mandarin Cut
of The Big Boss, now ten minutes longer than any version ever
released on video worldwide, and the never-before-seen 'log fight'
from the original Game of Death shoot - is the ultimate
tribute to Bruce Lee's enduring legacy and fruitful collaboration
with Golden Harvest.
____________________ "The most complete look at the man and the myth with all the lost footage and lavishly empowered with great extras." - Moshe Black ____________________ "A remarkably exhaustive collection of extra material complement a set of hugely entertaining films."- David Brook ____________________ "Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest 4K UHD. Another extraordinary box set from the company that consistently does them best. In comparison to Criterion's Bruce Lee effort from 2020 (which sold well and received great reviews), Arrow took all the films to a whole different level. New scans, great mastering, endless supplements. Both the Blu-ray and 4K UHD box sets sold out. Price is no obstacle, if the object is so desirable." - Kevin Sunde Oppegaard |
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Third place is Severin's The Sensual World of Black Emanualle Collector's Set. She was the pleasure-seeking photojournalist - forever embodied by the exquisite Indonesian actress Laura Gemser, most frequently in collaboration with writer/director Joe D'Amato - who would uncover an increasingly lurid world of sex cults, snuff films, cannibal jungles, women's prisons, white slavers, depraved convents, and beyond to become the premier feminist icon in genre history. This landmark collection produced by award-winning writer/director Kier-La Janisse now brings together 21 BLACK EMANUELLE films, 2 adjacent titles starring EuroCult heroine Ajita Wilson, and the D'Amato documentary INFERNO ROSSO, most newly scanned, restored, and on Blu-ray for the first time in America. The journey continues with 2 soundtrack CDs curated exclusively for this release encompassing music by Nico Fidenco and more, the lavishly illustrated 356-page THE BLACK EMANUELLE BIBLE designed by Luke Insect and featuring new writings by noted film scholars and historians as well as Laura Gemser's in-depth 1996 Nocturno Magazine interview, and over 40 hours of Special Features that include alternate versions, audio commentaries, video essays, a documentary on Gemser's husband/co-star Gabriele Tinti, the '80s Gemser workout video Looking Good, and much more. |
| Comments: "Attains a new height in sheer, irresistible insanity - while at the same time looking deeper into the films and finding there considerable fertile ground for gender-related scholarship." - Tim Lucas ____________________ "After last year's All the Haunts Be Ours folk horror collection, Severin knocks it out of the park again with this lovingly curated 24-movie set documenting the notorious Italian sexploitation phenomenon. While the films are obviously all over the place in terms of quality, style, and even genre, the incredible collection of supplements from film scholars, historians, and creative contributors to the films help make this a truly adventurous odyssey through a deeply fascinating time and place in film history." - Dan Hassler-Forest ____________________ "The best box set of 2023 is undoubtedly Severin's The Sensual World of Black Emanualle. I'm not a big fan of porn, but this was a unique opportunity to watch 24 films from a series I knew nothing about. The films themselves ranged from fun to absolutely dismal, but the set and presentation were fantastic. The 300+ page book was a great read and beautifully presented. The set's many on-camera interviews were very entertaining (despite the fact that I didn't know who any of these people were!). I learned a lot about the Italian film industry from that set and it has inspired me to seek out more Italian non-arthouse films as well as Severin's previous comprehensive box sets." - Bill McAlpine ____________________ "I got the huge 'Around the World' Boxset with all the physical extras, such as boardgame, flight bag, etc. It is nice seeing unreleased Black Emanuelle films become available but also Severin updating their old DVD releases from the aughts. The Black Emanuelle book that is part of the boxset is very informative." - Nicholas Diak ____________________ "A release I admire for it's breadth but, I must confess, I haven't grabbed it yet. I'm not sure these films are my bag, so I want to try to rent a couple of them before I commit to this boxset. If it sells out I will be kicking myself, I'm sure." - Jason Overbeck |
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Fourth place is Criterion's
Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers. The world is a
carnival of criminality, corruption, and psychosexual strangeness in
the twisted pre-Code shockers of Tod Browning. Early Hollywood's
edgiest auteur, Browning drew on his experiences as a circus
performer to create subversive pulp entertainments set amid the
world of traveling sideshows, which, with their air of the exotic
and the disreputable, provided a pungent backdrop for his sordid
tales of outcasts, cons, villains, and vagabonds. Bringing together
two of his defining works (The Unknown and Freaks) and
a long-unavailable rarity (The Mystic), this cabinet of
curiosities reveals a master of the morbid whose ability to unsettle
is matched only by his daring compassion for society's most
downtrodden. ____________________ "All three of Tod Browning's deranged horror adjacent films have been given 2K restorations here, including the seminal Freaks (which also includes the material from the original Warner DVD release like the commentary and archival documentary). Novelist and film buff Megan Abbott provides an insightful reflection on the PCA and Browning's career. That said, the raison d'etre for me was the reconstruction/restoration of The Unknown, an incredible Browning silent with Lon Chaney and a young Joan Crawford that would make a great double with The Phantom of the Opera." - Drew Morton |
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____________________ "Criterion's editorial content have reduced over the years, but this set feels like the curatorial "film student" boxset that Criterion have been historically known for." - Remy Pignatiello ____________________ "Essential upgrade of the Horror master's films." - Moshe Black ____________________ "Freaks and Browning's less seen works get a fantastic treatment from Criterion in a dream package for horror fans." - Lewis ____________________ "Welcome package which re-releases a much banned and maligned horror classic, Freaks, paired with two little seen silent horror features. Thoughtful extras provide contextual background and intriguing back stories." - David Redfern ____________________ "Nearly 100 years on, these 'freaks' of pre-Code Hollywood still shock and awe. New 2K restorations of three films (The Mystic, The Unknown, and Freaks) on two discs, with a carnivalesque collection of extras." - Jeff Heinrich ____________________ "If this was just a Criterion release of Freaks, it would probably be on the list, but upgrading both THE UNKNOWN and THE MYSTIC in the same package really makes this one of the most essential releases put out by Criterion in some time." - Jason Overbeck ____________________ "Roll up. Roll up. For one of the best releases of the year. And possibly my favourite Criterion release ever. For years I loaned out my battered Freaks VHS to astonish friends and now we finally have this beautiful restoration that captures the horror and compassion of Tod Browning's finest work. Although it now seems very in vogue to release silent classics in boutique Blu-ray packages, I have not really jumped on board. However, I was blown away by the quality of the filmmaking in The Unknown and The Mystic. The first film because of the extraordinary physicality of Lon Chaney's performance, the latter because of the sumptuous depiction of 1920s high society seances. Loved the Dean Hurley score for The Mystic which enhanced the otherworldly atmosphere superbly. Beautifully designed package and a collection of disc extras that included alternate endings, a decent documentary and much more. Pre-code perfection." - Neil Williams |
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| Fifth place is Radiance
Film's
World Noir Vol. 1. Though widely considered an American
filmmaking style, film noir was first applied by French critics to
the visual and thematic darkness of the flood of American films in
the post-War period. Those films, often by European emigre
filmmakers, were influenced by European filmmaking modes, notably
French poetic realism and Weimar cinema. The American noirs that
flourished in the 1940s and 1950s in turn influenced cinema around
the world again. This ongoing box set series attempts to capture the
trails of the noir influence across the globe, from the pre-War
period to the emergence of neo-noir, expanding our understanding and
availability of this rich filmmaking tradition. In this first collection, World Noir Vol. 1 focuses on the 1950s with three films exhibiting noir traits while still evoking their home genre trends and quirks. The set has Koreyoshi Kurahara's I am Waiting (1957), Edouard Molinaro Witness in the City (1959) and Pietro Germi's The Facts of Murder (1959) |
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____________________ These are three excellent noir-related world cinema films. In order to compete with popular American and French "Dark Cinema" popularity Nikkatsu initiated their own wave of Japanese noir. Koreyoshi Kurahara's (also see Eclipse 28 - The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara) "I Am Waiting" was one of the Studio's early successes and the lauded director's feature debut. One late night we get invited to a Yokohama waterfront bar-cum-diner directly beside the tracks. We meet a mysterious and distraught damsel -suicidal over concerns that she has accidentally killed a man who was trying to rape her. Meeting her one late, lonely night, is an ex-boxer who once killed a man outside the ring in a bar fight, and own the diner. Both need a new start but hurdles keep blocking them... including a self-admission that he is falling in love with her. Filled with Noir conventions, I Am Waiting is a pure dark-drama treat. Witness in the City was based on a novel by the legendary Thomas Narcejac (Diabolique, Vertigo, Eyes Without a Face.) Seeking vengeance on his wife's former lover and assassin, a man, Ancelin (Lino Ventura,) sets in motion a string of killings - first as revenge and then desperately trying to cover his tracks. Almost exclusively shot in late night Paris, Witness in the City has cafe owners, prostitutes and, importantly, cab drivers directly or indirectly involved in the tense noir-level crime drama and its dramatic conclusion. The third and final film, The Facts of Murder is based on Carlo Emilio Gadda's 1957 book That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana. Many, including, Pier Paolo Pasolini, considered the source to be the great modern Italian novel. In a large apartment house in central Rome, two crimes are separately committed - a burglary and, a few days later, a murder. How they are connected initiates an old fashioned police procedural helmed by Ciccio Ingravallo (director / actor Pietro Germi) involving a group of suspicious characters with a variety of personal motives. Germi's The Facts of Murder is a complex and socially revealing crime-drama that fits comfortably in the noir mold. A brilliantly realized film. The Radiance Films Blu-ray package gets our highest marks - magnificent world cinema, with undeniable connections to Noir, and advanced a/v quality over existing digital editions plus excellent supplements from a commentary to an 80-page book. This is will certainly gets many votes in our Year End Poll. Our highest recommendation. Gold standard stuff here, folks. ____________________ "World Noir Vol. 1 (Radiance) (Late in the year box of surprising and strong international noirs, bring on Vol 2!)" - James Kemp |
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6)
Sixth place is Criterion's
Pasolini 101. One of the most original and controversial
thinkers of the twentieth century, Italian polymath Pier Paolo
Pasolini embodied a multitude of often seemingly contradictory
ideologies and identities - and he expressed them all in his
provocative, lyrical, and indelible films. Relentlessly concerned
with society's downtrodden and marginalized, he elevated pimps,
hustlers, sex workers, and vagabonds to the realm of saints, while
depicting actual saints with a radical earthiness. Traversing the
sacred and the profane, the ancient and the modern, the mythic and
the personal, the nine uncompromising, often scandal-inciting
features he made in the 1960s still stand - on this, the 101st
anniversary of his birth - as a monument to his daring vision of
cinema as a form of resistance.
The films are Accattone
(1961,) Mamma Roma (1962,) Love Meetings (1964,)
The Gospel According to Matthew (1964,) The Hawks and the
Sparrows (1966,) Oedipus Rex (1967,) Teorema
(1968,) Porcile (1969) and Medea (1969). |
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____________________ "Criterion - They have always given us great box sets, but nowadays, along with this they concentrate on the design and presentation to give us collectors beautiful objects. The Zatoichi box was one example, as was the Varda, and Bergman boxes. Not everything works of course (the Fellini, and Wong Kar Wai boxes for me were flops) but this year they gave us Pasolini 101. I display it as a work of art. Why not! It gives my eyes such pleasure to see it everyday! If only they could go back and do the Jacques Tati box set again instead of the thin board box that came with the digipacks!" - Billy Bang |
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| Seventh place is
Radiance Films'
The End of
Civilization: Three Films by Piotr Szulkin. Masquerading
as both works of science fiction and horror, Piotr Szulkin's
satirical, surrealistic apocalypse trilogy is Polish cinema's
best-kept secret. These highly imaginative works of fantasy are
bound by a preoccupation with the machinations of power and a
distinct, visual sensibility. In a radical reworking of the H.G. Wells classic, The War of the Worlds: Next Century, tells the story of Iron Idem (Roman Wilhelmi), a television host, who finds himself contending with a Martian invasion, whose takeover involves collaborating with the state and manipulating the populace through a media apparatus made up entirely of fake news... Meanwhile, in O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization, the survivors of a claustrophobic, subterranean world in ruins are pacified by Soft (Jerzy Stuhr), who engineers a mass collective dream of escape through means of a mythical vessel, The Ark... Finally, in the darkly comic Ga, Ga: Glory to the Heroes, Scope (Daniel Olbrychski) must be tried and convicted of a heinous crime for him to participate in a bloody, televised gladiator contest... Frequently butting heads with Polish authorities both before and after the collapse of Communism, writer and director Piotr Szulkin remains a unique visual stylist whose parables of power transcend easy genre pigeonholing. |
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____________________ "A bit of a cheat as I haven't quite finished the set yet, but I'm two-thirds of the way through and I've fallen in love with the films. The extras add a lot of value too."- David Brook ____________________ "Incredible release, without doubt the highlight of the year for me across all categories. A true delight and I'm glad to see both VS and Radiance put out incredible sets which due to their individual differences make the double dip worthwhile. In another stellar year for Polish film releases, this collection of Szulkin's dark, surrealist scifi masterpieces deserve so much praise." - Lewis ____________________ "For a label's inaugural year, releasing four boxsets worthy of top spot consideration is something I can't ever remember happening - yet by all indications 2024 will be even more productive. With Polish film licensing now wide open, we got similar sets from both Radiance and Vinegar Syndrome, and even though VinSyn included a thematically similar fourth film (that Radiance missed out on as it went to Second Run in the UK) I am giving this one to Radiance, if only to reward the label's work overall... oh yeah and that crazy box art! We also get one of the stranger cross-Atlantic cross-supplement pairings with Michael Brooke recording audio commentaries for both sets (on a different film for each set). Daniel Bird lends his expert touch to both this and Eureka's Zulawski (audio commentaries and written materials). There is also a slightly different color grade in spots where Radiance felt the provided master was lacking." - Chris Browne |
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Eighth place is Indicator's
From Hollywood to Heaven: The Lost and Saved Films of the Ormond
Family 1951-1997. For almost half a century, June, Ron
and Tim Ormond, a Nashville mother-father-son trio, cranked out a
wild bunch of movies, from Lash LaRue westerns to the
stripper-gore-musical outrage The Exotic Ones, and plunged
into every area of showbiz. What's more, they did it all on a
shoestring, totally independently, with no studio to back them. At the height of their frenzied career, Ron and June experienced a spiritual awakening when their private plane crashed on the way to a premiere. From then on, they turned their back on secular show business to produce a series of shocking, surreal religious pictures, including an unbelievable trio of films for Mississippi Baptist preacher Estus Pirkle - films such as The Burning Hell, which made millions, despite never being shown in an actual movie theatre. |
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Produced by Powerhouse Films in association with NWR, and released
to coincide with FAB Press' publication of forensic biographer Jimmy
McDonough's awe-inspiring tome on the extraordinary life and work of
the Ormond Family, this strictly limited, individually numbered
Blu-ray box set
contains thirteen feature films, a host of new and archival extra
features - including five new audio commentaries and a collection of
rarely seen short films - as well as a set of art cards and a fully
illustrated 100-page book, newly written by McDonough." ____________________ "Indicator goes the whole nine yards to salvage as much as possible of a wholly unique filmmaking family business, which started off with exploitation flicks before moving on to religious films that must be seen to be believed." - Dan Hassler-Forest ____________________ "A fantastically obscure set with its own bizarre story behind the films and family. This is the sort of thing I'm grateful for NWR and Indicator for pulling out from the depths of the archives and bringing to the world in such a great set and accompanying book." - Lewis ____________________ "Michael J Murphy round 2, but in this case most of the effort sourcing materials was undertaken by NWR (to Indicator's admitted relief). Another amazing look at a filmmaker (family) in their own niche. Some of the films must be seen to be believed; I didn't know Christianity could get this hardcore - newfound respect for the charred walls of the damned!" - Chris Browne ____________________ "An absolutely fascinating living document about independent filmmaking." - Ryan Callahan |
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| Ninth place is Criterion's 4K UHD of Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors: Blue, White, Red. This boldly cinematic trio of stories about love and loss, from Krzysztof Kieslowski, was a defining event of the art-house boom of the 1990s. The films are named for the colors of the French flag and stand for the tenets of the French Revolution - liberty, equality, and fraternity - but that hardly begins to explain their enigmatic beauty and rich humanity. Set in Paris, Warsaw, and Geneva, and ranging from tragedy to comedy, Blue, White, and Red (Kieślowski's final film) examine with artistic clarity a group of ambiguously interconnected people experiencing profound personal disruptions. Marked by intoxicating cinematography and stirring performances by Juliette Binoche, Julie Delpy, Irene Jacob, and Jean-Louis Trintignant, Kieslowski's Three Colors is a benchmark of contemporary cinema. |
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____________________________ "Because Kieslowski. Because liberty, equality and fraternity. Because ... perfection, in 4K." - Jeff Heinrich |
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10) (tied) |
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Tied for tenth place is Indicator's
Mexico Macabre: Four Sinister Tales from the Alameda Films Vault,
1959 - 1963. Fernando Mendez's Black Pit of Dr. M
(Misterios de ultratumba) sees a doctor make a pact with his
dying colleague in order to learn the secrets of the afterlife. In
Chano Urueta's The Witch's Mirror (El espejo de la bruja),
a murderer is tormented by the ghost of his dead wife, whilst in
Urueta's The Brainiac (El baron del terror), a
nobleman executed for necromancy returns in diabolical form to
eradicate the lineage of his killers... by sucking out their brains!
Finally, in Rafael Baledon's The Curse of the Crying Woman (La
maldicion de la Llorona), a young bride visits her aunt's Gothic
mansion, where she finds that she is the descendent of one of
Mexican folklore's most terrifying figures. With their star-studded casts, beautiful photography, eerie production design, and bone-chilling atmosphere, these films have terrified audiences for decades, and are now available in this strictly limited, individually numbered Blu-ray box set, which includes an array of new extra features - including four new audio commentaries, and rare English-language dub tracks - as well as a set of art cards and a fully illustrated 100-page book." |
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____________________________ "I love classic horror (not modern blood & gore) and these movies are a treat and full of atmosphere. Great box set from Indicator as usual. Hope there are more to come." - BGM____________________________ "After a trip to Italy with Danza Macabra, what could be better than a visit to Mexico Macabre?" - Harvey Clarke |
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Tied from tenth place is Eureka's Andrzej Zulawski : Three Films; The Third Part of the Night (1971), The Devil (1972) and On the Silver Globe (1988.)
An uncompromising visionary and a true maverick of European cinema,
the Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present three films by
Andrzej Zulawski, all making their UK debuts on
Blu-ray from new
4K restorations. |
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"The 'overpowering' films at that, beautifully restored and augmented with Daniel Bird's exceptional research." - Tim Lucas __________________
"Dreams do come true. I had only seen the 2016 restoration of On the Silver Globe via the Japanese Blu-ray release as it was made clear and in no uncertain terms that Polish license holders would not budge on price. Without a path to financial feasibility any English friendly release was apparently off the table - allegedly even Criterion failed to secure the rights on a tendered offer! Well the times have changed, and thanks to more realistic expectations since 2022 the Polish floodgates have been opened. As for the content of this particular set, words fail me. It is easier to criticize the odd choices for package art given the iconic nature of the original posters (Radiance did this perfectly with their complimentary Szulkin set), and the mono / not quite mono of the first two films (On the Silver Globe was, I suspect, restored for its recent theatrical revival with surround sound by the intentions of the late director), but just having these masterpieces, jaw-dropping works of extreme art-house cinema, and in such condition! And the weighty (Brooke/Bird) supplements! It didn't matter what else was on offer for 2023, I had waited too long for this cinematic ecstasy to deny its place atop the list." - Chris Browne __________________
"A collection of bold, intensely cinematic films that have been beautifully remastered and complemented by some fine extras, including the wonderful Escape to the Silver Globe and Daniel Bird's superb commentary for On the Silver Globe."- David Brook __________________
"A fantastic release from Eureka that sold out so quickly that it shows there's a still great hunger for overlooked auteur works. So glad this set did well and was presented so comprehensively by Eureka." - Lewis __________________
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