Underway now through July 16, Severin Films‘ annual summer sale is the most ambitious in the company’s history. The Dario Argento’s Opera five-disc box set — which you can preview in an exclusive clip below — is the headliner, but there are nine more releases in addition to exclusive merchandise and big savings on past inventory.
Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s Severin Summer Sale…
Opera
In my eyes — held open with needles, of course — Opera is Argento’s last true masterpiece. While the Italian maestro attained fleeting moments of greatness later in his oeuvre (The Stendhal Syndrome, Two Evil Eyes, both of his Masters of Horror episodes), Opera is the last of his efforts that can hold its own alongside his earlier, career-defining work like Suspiria, Deep Red, Tenebrae, and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.
Co-written by Argento and frequent collaborator Franco Ferrini (Phenomena, Demons), the giallo stars Cristina Marsillach as Betty, a young opera singer whose big break sets off a chain of deadly events at the hands of a masked stalker. The cast includes Urbano Barberini (Demons) as the officer on the case, Ian Charleson (Chariots of Fire) as the eccentric opera director, Daria Nicolodi (Deep Red) as Betty’s agent, William McNamara (Copycat) as Betty’s boyfriend, and Argento protege Michael Soavi (Cemetery Man) as an inspector.
Lucio Fulci may be Italy’s indisputable king of ocular trauma, but Opera features a truly harrowing motif in which Betty’s eyes are held open with needles to force her to watch her friends get eviscerated by the perverse killer. A highlight of Opera — one of Argento’s most suspenseful sequences in a career full of cast-and-mouse tension — kicks off with vision-impairing eye drops and culminates with a peephole gunshot that predates similar scenes in Hard Target and Saw II.
It’s not unusual for music to be erratic or even incongruent with the visuals in an Argento film, but Opera features his most eclectic soundtrack. It combines prog rock from Goblin mastermind Claudio Simonetti (Suspiria, Dawn of the Dead), atmospheric ambience from electronic music pioneer Brian Eno and brother Roger Eno, space rock from Terry Taylor and Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, heavy metal from headbangers Steel Grave, and actual opera music.
Severin delivers the definitive release of Opera with a five-disc box set. Both the 107-minute director’s cut and the 96-minute U.S. theatrical version have been newly scanned in 4K from the original camera negatives, packaged in a webstore-exclusive slipcover alongside 12 hours (!) of special features, a soundtrack CD, and a booklet written by Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies’ Claire Donner.
Special features include: commentary by actress Cristina Marsillach; commentary by film historians Alan Jones and Kim Newman; commentary by film historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth; interviews with Argento, Ferrini, Marsillach, actors Urbano Barberini, Antonella Vitale, and Daria Nicolodi, composer Claudio Simonetti, and special effects artist Sergio Stivaletti; and more.
Dario Argento’s Deep Cuts
As if Opera wasn’t enough, Argento completists can also get their hands on Dario Argento’s Deep Cuts. The four-disc set consists of the filmmaker’s rare Italian television work, including Door Into Darkness, a 1973 four-part anthology series featuring episodes helmed by Argento and Luigi Cozzi (Starcrash), along with Dario Argento’s Nightmares, an ’80s variety/talk show, and Night Shift murder-mystery segments directed by Cozzi and Lamberto Bava (Demons).
Three of the four Door Into Darkness episodes have been sourced from the original 16mm negatives for the first time, Dario Argento’s Nightmares has been scanned from recently discovered film elements, and the Night Shift segments has been newly digitized from broadcast masters.
Among the eight hours of special features are commentaries on two Door Into Darkness episodes by film historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth; Dario Argento: My Cinema; Dario Argento: Master of Horror; and interviews with Argento, Cozzi, Bava, writer Dardano Sacchetti (The Beyond), and actress Antonella Vitale.
2020 Texas Gladiators
The worldwide success of The Road Warrior spawned a genre unto itself in Italy. 2020 Texas Gladiators is among the most unhinged of the post-apocalyptic knock-offs — just as one might expect from director Joe D’Amato (Anthropophagus, Beyond the Darkness) and frequent collaborator George Eastman.
The plot, thin yet convoluted, finds a band of warriors defending a peaceful settlement from a gang of doomsday biker neo-Nazis, yielding a high body count. The Texas setting, despite looking nothing like the Lone Star state, lends itself to the film’s Spaghetti western sensibilities. Italian exploitation regulars Al Cliver (Zombie), Sabrina Siani (Conquest), Peter Hooten (Orca), Geretta Geretta (Demons), and Donald O’Brien (Zombie Holocaust) star.
2020 Texas Gladiators has been newly scanned in 4K from the original uncut negative. The three disc set includes the film on 4K UHD and Blu-ray along with a soundtrack CD from composer Carlo Maria Cordio (Troll 2). Special features include: Shoot Me: The Real Story Of The Italian Texas Gladiators with D’Amato, Cliver, Montefiori, and assistant director Michele Soavi; an interview with Geretta; and the trailer.
The Mad Bomber
The Mad Bomber is a departure for Bert I. Gordon, the B-movie filmmaker behind the likes of Empire of the Ants, The Food of the Gods, Earth vs. the Spider, and The Amazing Colossal Man. Also known as The Police Connection and Detective Geronimo, the 1973 crime shocker is decidedly sleazier than his campy creature features for which Gordon is known.
Following in the footsteps of Dirty Harry, the film follows a frenzied detective (Vince Edwards, Return to Horror High) as he tracks down a depraved rapist (Neville Brand, The Ninth Configuration) in an effort to identify a domestic terrorist (Chuck Connors, Tourist Trap) mercilessly blowing apart Los Angeles.
The Mad Bomber has been newly scanned in 4K from the internegative for the first time. Special features include: commentary by House of Psychotic Women author Kier-La Janisse with retired bomb squad detective Mike Digby; isolated score; audio interview with Gordon; interview with actress Cynthia MacAdams; Patricia Gordon Remembers Her Father; locations featurette; TV spots, and a booklet written by Andy Turner.
Other new releases include: 1968 Brazilian underground crime thriller The Red Light Bandit; 1969 monster mashup The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals with classic horror favorite John Carradine; 1975 French adult noir Don’t Change Hands; 1977 politically-charged survival thriller A Dog Called… Vengeance starring The Exorcist‘s Jason Miller; 1977 transgressive Spanish film The Creature; and 2021 arthouse mystery Simple Like Silver starring Opera‘s Cristina Marsillach.
The sale also sees the debut of standalone versions of 1982’s The Last Horror Film, which reunites Maniac‘s Joe Spinell and Caroline Munro, and 1964 Italian gothic horror film Castle of Blood, plus limited edition bundles, new Opera and 2020 Texas Gladiators shirts, new Severin merch, 50% off most stickers, 30% off most apparel and drinkware, 25% off most enamel pins, and more.
On Saturday only, select box sets will be discounted by up to 55%, including All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, The Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection, The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee Collection, Cushing Curiosities, House of Psychotic Women Rarities Collection, Danza Macabre: The Italian Gothic Collection, Nasty Habits: The Nunsploitation Collection, and Wings of Disaster: The Birdemic Trilogy.
Shop Severin’s summer sale now. Need further convincing?
Check out this exclusive Opera clip…
The post Severin’s Summer Sale – Full Lineup of New Releases Includes Dario Argento’s ‘Opera’ & More appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
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