Arrow Video October Slate Has Monsters, Giallos And Fassbinder

German auteur, Japanese Monster Trilogy, low budget horror, giallo classic make up some of the delights waiting for us in Arrow Video‘s October Slate. All coming with the usual collection of extras, new cuts, exclusive artwork.

First in October, Arrow Video is proud to present He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection, the first ever box set of films by William “Wild Bill” Grefé, the maverick filmmaker who braved the deep, dark depths of the Florida everglades to deliver some of the most outrageous exploitation fare ever to go-go dance its way across drive-in screens. Bringing together seven of Grefé’s most outlandish films plus a feature length documentary on the filmmaker’s career.

Next is the release of Dementer + Jug Face, two films from acclaimed indie horror director Chad Crawford Kinkle. Dementer, a psychological horror thriller, Raw and unsettling, It’s a brave and unflinching story of lives lived on the fringes of society, and a battle with demons inside and out. Shot on real locations with many non-actors playing versions of themselves – including Kinkle’s real life sister Stephanie – this is a deeply personal genre film with an emotional punch that lingers long after the credits have rolled. The limited edition set also includes Kinkle’s earlier horror hit Jug Face, making its UK Blu-ray debut, and a collector’s booklet.

October also sees the release of the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Collection Vol. 1, bringing together a collection of the finest works from the early years of the career of the enfant terrible of the New German Cinema. He wrote, directed, produced and starred in over 40 films in his short but prolific life, before ing away of a drugs overdose in 1982 aged just 37.

Next up is the Yokai Monsters Collection: from the makers of Daimajin comes a trilogy of terror ripped from the pages of Japanese folklore – 100 Monsters, Spook Warfare and Along With Ghosts – with ghosts and monsters from ancient myths and legends brought to life through stunning special effects; alongside The Great Yokai War, an epic, big-budget reboot of the series from modern-day master of the macabre Takashi Miike – now available together on Blu-ray for the first time. The lavish 3-disc, 4 film set includes postcards, a booklet and a fold-out poster.

Next in October, From Dario Argento, maestro of the macabre and the man behind some of the greatest excursions in Italian horror (The Cat O’Nine Tales, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage), comes Deep Red – the ultimate giallo movie. Aided by a throbbing score from regular Argento collaborators Goblin, Deep Red (aka Profondo Rosso and The Hatchet Murders) is a hallucinatory fever dream of a giallo punctuated by some of the most astonishing set-pieces the sub-genre has to offer. As well as a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Limited Edition.

Lastly in October, Giallo Essentials [Red Edition]. Alongside the spaghetti western, the giallo is one of the most famous Italian export genres: films steeped in mystery and intrigue, delivered with stylised violence and unforgettable musical themes. In the first of a multi-volume series of Giallo Essentials these films feature a raft of talent in front and behind the camera with each film – The Possessed (1965), The Fifth Cord (1971) and The Pyjama Girl Case (1978).

He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection 4th October

The collection packs in seven of William Grefé’s films, including in a macabre menagerie of demented jellyfish men (Sting of Death), zombified witch doctors (Death Curse of Tartu), homicidal hippies (The Hooked Generation) and seductive matrons (The Naked Zoo), as well as the far out The Psychedelic Priest, the hillbilly mayhem of Whisky Mountain and Mako: The Jaws of Death – not to mention a feature length documentary on the filmmaker’s career.

Dementer + Jug Face 4th October

Fleeing from a cult that has left her scarred both physically and mentally, Katie (Katie Groshong, Jug Face, A Measure of the Sin) is keen to get her life together. On her path to recovery, she takes a job in a care centre ing adults with special needs, among them Stephanie (Stephanie Kinkle), a woman with Down syndrome. Convinced that the “devils” are coming for Stephanie, and tormented by flashbacks of her experience within the cult and with their leader Larry (Larry Fessenden, The Dead Don’t Die, Habit), Katie takes increasingly extreme measures to ward off the evil that is making Stephanie sick. But what if her rituals are doing more harm than good?

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Collection Volume 1 11th October

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s debut feature Love is Colder Than Death (1969) is a playful but cynical crime picture, inspired by the nouvelle vague. Katzelmacher (1969) depicts the dynamics of a group of young layabout friends, which are radically altered by the arrival of an immigrant worker in their community. Beware of a Holy Whore (1971) pulls the curtain on the backstage dramas of the cast and crew of a film shoot as they wait in a Spanish seaside hotel for the arrival of funds to continue their production. The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971) portrays the downfall of a beleaguered fruit seller in 1950s Munich as he struggles to keep his family, body and soul together. Originally written and produced as a stage play, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) focuses on the loves, losses and lamentations of the titular Petra, a successful fashion designer with two marriages behind her and an estranged daughter. The Ulli Lommel-directed Tenderness of the Wolves (1973) sees Fassbinder adopting the role of producer in a bleak tale based on the German serial killer Fritz Haarmann, memorably played by Fassbinder regular Kurt Raab, who also wrote the screenplay.

Yokai Monsters Collection 18th October

In the first film in the trilogy, 100 Monsters, a greedy slumlord’s attempts to forcefully evict his tenants invite the wrath of the titular spirits when a cleansing ritual is botched, with terrifying results. The second film, Spook Warfare, tells the tale of an evil Babylonian vampire inadvertently awoken by treasure hunters, and a brave samurai that teams with the yokai to defeat the bloodthirsty demon. In the final film, Along with Ghosts (released only 12 months after 100 Monsters), the yokai are roused to defend a young girl on the run from deadly yakuza.

Decades later, none other than Takashi Miike (Audition) helmed The Great Yokai War, a loose remake of Spook Warfare that used cutting-edge digital effects to renew the franchise for a new generation. In it, a young boy is given a grave responsibility: to band together with a group of yokai to defend humanity against a vengeful and powerful demon that has sworn retribution against modern-day Japan.

Deep Red On Limited Edition 4K UHD 25th October

One night, musician Marcus Daly (David Hemmings, Blow Up), looking up from the street below, witnesses the brutal axe murder of a woman in her apartment. Racing to the scene, Marcus just manages to miss the perpetrator… or does he? As he takes on the role of amateur sleuth, Marcus finds himself ensnared in a bizarre web of murder and mystery where nothing is what it seems…

Deep Red Arte Originale On Limited Edition 4K UHD [Arrow Store Exclusive] 25th October

One night, musician Marcus Daly (David Hemmings, Blow Up), looking up from the street below, witnesses the brutal axe murder of a woman in her apartment. Racing to the scene, Marcus just manages to miss the perpetrator… or does he? As he takes on the role of amateur sleuth, Marcus finds himself ensnared in a bizarre web of murder and mystery where nothing is what it seems…

Giallo Essentials [Red Edition] 25th October

The Possessed (1965) masterfully combines noir, mystery and giallo tropes in a proto-giallo based on one of Italy’s most notorious crimes. It tells the story of a depressed novelist (Peter Baldwin) in search of his old flame (Virna Lisi) who has disappeared under suspicious circumstances, prompting an investigation that finds him plunged into a disturbing drama of familial secrets, perversion, madness and murder. The Fifth Cord (1971) boasts a complex, Agatha Christie-esque plot of investigation into a series of brutal assaults. As the body count rises, whisky swilling journalist Andrea Bild (Franco Nero) finds himself under suspicion, making it all the more imperative he crack the case. The Pyjama Girl Case (1978), inspired by a real-life case that baffles to this day, takes us to Australia where former inspector Timpson comes out of retirement to crack the case of a young woman, found on the beach, shot in the head, burned to hide her identity and dressed in distinctive yellow pyjamas…