Fright-Rags is re-animating the longstanding tradition of movie trading cards with their new series of HOUSE OF FRIGHT Wax Packs! Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator is the first film to get the wax pack treatment and are available now.
Each pack includes six collectible trading cards and one sticker. Cards hand-sketched by a curated selection of artists and cards autographed by actress Barbara Crampton (who plays Megan in the film) are randomly inserted.
Re-Animator trading cards are available as individual packs, factory boxes (60 base card set, 2 chase cards, 2 stickers, and 1 sketch or signature card), and sealed boxes (2 full base sets, 2 full sticker sets, 22 chase cards, 1 sketch card, and 1 signature card).
Re-Animator House of Fright wax packs can be purchased now from Fright-Rags.com. Quantities are limited as follows: 600 individual packs, 200 factory boxes, and 75 sealed boxes. Additional House of Fright sets based on more of horror's most iconic films are planned.
Fright-Rags is also taking pre-orders on a Dream Warriors shirt to celebrate the 30th anniversary of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3.
Olive Films releases Robert Altman's feature directorial debut, The Delinquents (1957)
Olive Films, a boutique theatrical and home entertainment distribution label dedicated to bringing independent, foreign, and classic films to DVD and Blu-ray, has announced that March 21st will be the Blu-ray debut of five new titles, including Robert Altman’s feature directorial debut, The Delinquents (1957).
“We’re honored to bring this important piece of independent film history to DVD and Blu-ray,” said Alex Kopecky of Olive Films. “Fans can finally appreciate this early effort from the great Robert Altman.”
Making his directorial start in his hometown of Kansas City helming industrial and educational films for the Calvin Company, Hollywood maverick Robert Altman would later find major breakout success with films like MASH (1970) and McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971). As pivotal as those films were, Altman’s feature directorial debut, The Delinquents (1957), should not be forgotten. In addition to introducing the world to Altman’s creative talents, The Delinquents is also notable for bringing two fledgling stars to audiences’ attentions. Richard Bakalyan, appearing in his first role, would later find success in numerous other troubled teen roles and eventually earned acclaim as a character actor in films such asChinatown (1972) and Von Ryan’s Express (1965). The film also marked the first starring turn for Tom Laughlin (then billed as Tommy Laughlin), who of course went on to portray the iconic Billy Jack in theBilly Jack series. The Delinquents was truly a low-budget, independent project. Elmer Rhoden Jr., Kansas City theater owner and president of the Commonwealth Theaters chain, noticed the success of the newly emerging teensploitation delinquent genre. Raising a budget of $63,000 with the help of local businesspeople, Rhoden set out to make The Delinquents with Robert Altman. Altman found himself in charge of a huge amount of the creative and producing effort, handling writing, casting, location scouting, and even transporting the equipment. As he had previously primarily made industrial and educational films for the Calvin Company, he enlisted the crew, including cinematographer Charles Paddock, from his work in that sector. This resourcefulness also emerged when they used nonprofessional locals as actors and friends’ houses and local businesses as filming locations.
A lot of this necessary resourcefulness translated into a final film that foreshadowed what Altman would accomplish with his career decades later. The realism created by the crew accustomed to working on industrial documentary projects translates in some areas as similar to the improvisational feeling his later films were known for. In fact, for a party scene in The Delinquents, he instructed the extras to simply have a real party, pretending that the film crew wasn’t there. As his crew moved through the house, many of the moments of the party captured in the film are genuine and unscripted, a precursor to his later films’ improvisations. The on-location shooting and nonprofessional actors also lent The Delinquents a sense of realism, arguably similar to the realism seen in his later films with his signature overlapping dialogue. In many ways, it could be considered the missing link in his career between industrial documentaries and his narrative works in the coming decades.
Olive Films is proud to present The Delinquents on DVD and Blu-ray available March 21st.
Other Olive Films March Titles
Blu-ray debut of Blast-Off aka Those Fantastic Flying Fools (1967); directed by Don Sharp; starring Burl Ives, Terry-Thomas, Troy Donahue, Gert Frobe, Hermione Gingold, Lionel Jeffries, and Dennis Price.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles) TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 95 mins VIDEO: 2.35:1 Aspect Ratio; COLOR AUDIO: MONO
Blu-ray debut of Phaedra(1962); directed by Jules Dassin; starring Melina Mercouri, Anthony Perkins, Raf Vallone, and Elisabeth Ercy.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles) TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 116 mins VIDEO: 1.66:1 Aspect Ratio; B&W AUDIO: MONO
Blu-ray debut of The Cardinal (1936); directed by Sinclair Hill; starring Eric Portman, June Duprez, Robert Atkins, O.B. Clarence, Douglas Jefferies, Wilfred Fletcher, Matheson Lang, and F.B.J. Sharp.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles) TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 74 mins VIDEO: 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio; B&W AUDIO: MONO
Blu-ray debut of Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976); directed by Michael Winner; starring Madeline Kahn, Bruce Dern, Art Carney, Phil Silvers, Teri Garr, and Ron Leibman.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (with optional English subtitles) TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 92 mins VIDEO: 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio; COLOR AUDIO: MONO
About Olive Films
Olive Films is a Chicago-based boutique theatrical and home entertainment distribution label dedicated to bringing independent, foreign, documentary, and classic films to life. Its catalog boasts over 500 titles ranging from Hollywood classics to contemporary titles. More information about Olive Films may be found at olivefilms.com.
ANDREW GETTY HORROR “THE EVIL WITHIN” SET FOR RELEASE TO VOD FEBRUARY 28TH AND DVD MARCH 3RD 2017 IN NORTH AMERICA
Vision Films is set to release “The Evil Within” (aka “The Storyteller”), the first and only film written and directed by the late Andrew Getty, grandson of the oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, to all major VOD platforms in North America on February 28th, and to DVD on March 3rd, 2017.
Andrew Getty was a horror film fanatic, “The Evil Within” being his passion project that took over a decade to complete. Getty and his FX team created their own complex special effects and animatronics, and shot much of the principal photography in his home.
“The Evil Within” stars Frederick Koehler (“Death Race”), Sean Patrick Flanery (“Saw 3D: The Final Chapter”), Dina Meyer (“Starship Troopers, “Saw”), Michael Berryman (“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “The Hills Have Eyes”) and Kim Darby (“True Grit”). It was produced with Robert Hickey, Kent Van Vleet and Michael Luceri.
Dennis Peterson (Koehler) is a mentally challenged teen who lives with his older brother John (Flanery). While John struggles between caring for Dennis and maintaining a relationship with his increasingly impatient girlfriend Lydia (Meyer), Dennis finds a friend in his own reflection in an antique mirror. But in reality, the reflection is soon revealed to be an Evil Entity (Berryman) who is more charming, smarter and stronger than Dennis, and instructs him to do horrific things in order to ‘fix’ his brain. Tortured and confused, Dennis embarks on a murderous rampage, collecting the bodies in his basement. A police investigation, helmed by a determined social worker (Darby), targets the Peterson’s in an attempt to uncover the truth behind the murders. With the walls rapidly closing in, Dennis makes his final play...with dire results.
Producer Michael Luceri tells us, “After Andrew died, I made it my mission to see that his film was completed. I have been on this project from the beginning. Andrew was such a perfectionist, each and every shot had to be perfect before he would move on. When he was young, Andrew told me that he would have these really powerful, twisted dreams, so scary that he didn’t want to believe they came from inside him, so he had this idea that it was this ’storyteller’ who created the dreams, and that became the genesis of the film’s story.”
Vision Films’ Managing Director/ CEO, Lise Romanoff, states, “This film is downright mesmerizing and creepy! It is such a shame that the Getty family, while blessed with such great wealth, has suffered so much tragedy. I hope we make Andrew and his family proud by releasing this incredible work of art.“
