Horror has a home at 88 Films.
This is why we launched our ‘Slasher Classics Collection’ and our ’88 Italian’ lines – to make sure that shock-cinema buffs could anticipate some masterfully macabre motion picture pot-boilers filleting their way onto UK BluRay in genre-specific packaging. And we are thrilled, following our announcement of ZOMBI HOLOCAUST and BURIAL GROUND, to confirm that 88 Italian just gets bigger and better with the acquisition of a trio of fresh fear-flick favourites!
First up is NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS!
Originally banned in the UK as a 'video nasty', under its VHS-era title of DON'T RIDE ON LATE NIGHT TRAINS, this tense thriller is a malevolent mix of hair-raising Hitchcockian suspense and contemporary splatter movie shocks. Released in 1975 to a suitably disorientated audience, NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS tells of two young female travellers, including Irene Miracle from INFERNO, who are kidnapped and tormented by a gang of thugs (led by an older matriarch with murderous desires). Indeed, the horror and humiliation which takes place during their journey is the stuff of nightmares... but a final twist leads the criminals into the hands of one girl's pistol-packing parents! Also inspired by Wes Craven's legendary masterpiece, THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, and directed by giallo expert Aldo Lado (THE SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS), this gritty and garish stomach-churner - which includes an iconic Ennio Morricone soundtrack - is finally unleashed in the UK in all of its HD gory glory!
Also debuting on 88 Italian is an underrated outing from the ever-stylish Antonio Bido (WATCH ME WHEN I KILL) - with 1978's BLOODSTAINED SHADOW making its worldwide BluRay debut courtesy of 88 Films. Never before released in the UK, this magnificent mystery-horror stars SUSPIRIA's Stefania Casini as an unassuming, and alluring, antiques dealer who gets caught up in a series of slasher-killings that may or may not point a finger towards someone she already knows. Beautifully shot, and as colourfully produced as any of the finest examples of the genre, this cat-and-mouse creeper is an underrated Italian classic that is packed full of inventive splatter set pieces, erotic allure and atmospheric intensity. Zip up your black gloves and groove to this prime HD presentation of a seventies Euro-shock sizzler!
Finally, we give you… SPASMO! Only the legendary Umberto Lenzi (CANNIBAL FEROX/ THE MAN FROM DEEP RIVER) could have made a giallo as intriguing, and
esoteric, as this mind-boggling, avant-garde, continental curio! With a cast bursting at the seams with genre legends - including Suzy Kendall (THIS BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE/ TORSO) and the late, great Ivan Rassimov (LAST CANNIBAL WORLD) - SPASMO is an unfortunately under-seen, but nonetheless highly regarded, giallo jaunt that cranks up the psychological terror and aims for a more
sophisticated arthouse vibe. More akin to the early work of Dario Argento and Mario Bava, than Lenzi's later gut-crunching gore-fests, SPASMO contains one of Ennio
Morricone's most menacing soundtrack scores, whilst its plot - of sex, corpses and a surreal mystery involving a killer with a fetish for mannequin dolls - is the sort of
trippy-hippy brilliance that only ‘alternative’ Italian cinema in the seventies could achieve!
Making its UK bow, in a stunning BluRay remaster, SPASMO is a must-have for fans of Italian cult, and Lenzi's vast cinematic CV, alike!
All three new additions to the 88 Films family will come with their original Italian language track, English subtitles, and – of course – English language versions too! Thrilled by the new 88 Italian announcements? Spread the word and support our love for classic grindhouse greats!
Each 88 Italian title will be arriving on UK shelves in the early part of 2015!
