By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The genre Blu-ray specialist has an eclectic trio of strange and scary films set for the summer.
Severin Films has announced a July 20 street date for Blu-rays of Gabe Bartalos’ SKINNED DEEP (pictured), Denis Héroux’s BORN FOR HELL (previously released in edited form as NAKED MASSACRE) and Paul Donovan and Maura O’Connell’s SIEGE. SKINNED DEEP, the writing/directing debut of makeup effects master Gabe Bartalos (BRAIN DAMAGE, FRANKENHOOKER), is about a bizarre gang of murderous freaks, featuring Warwick Davis and an appearance by Forrest J Ackerman. Scanned uncut in 2K from the original negative for the first time ever, the movie will be supplemented by the following special features:
- DEEP CUTS – A look back on SKINNED DEEP with writer/producer/director Gabe Bartalos, actors Jay Dugre and Karoline Brandt and weapons machinist Jake Lee
- Audio commentary by the cast and crew
- Archival making-of featurette
- Trailer
BORN FOR HELL was inspired by the true case of Chicago mass murderer Richard Speck, and focuses on an emotionally damaged Vietnam veteran who targets a dorm full of student nurses for slaughter. This new transfer, scanned in 2K from an uncut print unseen in America until now, will be accompanied on the Blu-ray by the NAKED MASSACRE U.S. video version, plus these extras:
- “The Other Side of the Mirror”: Interview with actor Mathieu Carriere
- “Nightmare in Chicago–Remembering the Richard Speck Crime Spree” with local filmmakers John McNaughton and Gary Sherman
- “A New Kind of Crime–The Richard Speck Story” with Once Upon a Crime podcaster Esther Ludlow
- “Bombing Here, Shooting There”: video essay by filmmaker Chris O’Neill
- Artist Joe Coleman on Speck
SIEGE, previously released Stateside as SELF DEFENSE, is a grim and harrowing story of a group of right-wing vigilantes who massacre a gay bar, then follow the one survivor to an apartment building who residents are forced to violently defend themselves. Scanned in 2K from the original negative, the uncut 93-minute version will be presented on the Blu-ray alongside the 84-minute theatrical cut, plus the trailer.
SKINNED DEEP is also available in a limited edition (2,000 units) including the first-ever CD release of David Davidson’s original soundtrack, with additional tracks by Jonathan Bepler and The Damned’s Captain Sensible, from the Severin webstore. The three movies are also being sold on DVD.
https://vimeo.com/534563114/2e36540c6d
