STACK #194 Dec 2020

FILM FEATURE

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A more contemporary batch of cult classics, forgotten gems and crime thrillers comprise the local boutique Blu-ray label’s December range of limited editions. Words Scott Hocking NEWFROM IMPRINT FILMS

this largely forgotten ‘90s gem makes a welcome return on Blu-ray, complemented by an audio commentary by producer Lindsay Doran and screenwriter Scott Frank, plus a solo track featuring Branagh. Christopher Walken and Sean Penn are firing on all cylinders in director James Foley’s moody rural crime drama, At Close Range (1986). Walken plays a sociopath who’s intent on luring his estranged son (Penn) into a life of crime. A gritty exploration of a criminal family dynamic that’s loosely based on a true crime case

Fire in the Sky (1993)

in Pennsylvania during the ‘60s and ‘70s, the film is also

T he true story of logger Travis Walton, who claimed to have been abducted by a UFO in 1975, is dramatised in Fire in the Sky (1993). Walton disappeared after he and his team witnessed the titular phenomenon in Arizona, and his co-workers were accused of his murder. He was found five days later in a catatonic state, and the details of what he experienced make for one of the most nightmarish depictions of alien abduction on screen. Long out of print, this favourite of sci-fi and horror

The Deep (1977)

notable for its theme song by Penn’s then wife Madonna, Live to Tell . Extras include an audio commentary by James

Foley and film historian Nick Redman; interviews with composer Patrick Leonard, Foley, and true crime author Bruce Mowday; and a location video where the actual events that inspired the film took place. Finally, Glenn Ford and Stella Stevens headline the forgotten cult classic Rage (1966), which makes its physical media debut in glorious high definition. Ford plays a doctor in a dusty Mexican border town who is bitten by a rabid dog and has 72 hours to reach a city hospital… Extras include a new audio commentary by film historian Toby Roan and a visual essay on the illustrious career of Stella Stevens.

fans makes its Blu-ray debut loaded with bonus features including new interviews with stars D.B. Sweeney and Robert Patrick, composer Mark Isham, and Walton himself, along with a 2020 audio commentary by director Robert Lieberman and a look at the film’s practical effects.

Following the success of Jaws , another novel by Peter Benchley hit the screen two years later: The Deep

(1977). After discovering a sunken stash of morphine

vials in a shipwreck off the coast of Bermuda, Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset are

menaced by a local drug lord, Haitian voodoo and a voracious moray eel in this sun-kissed thriller from director Peter Yates. Extras include a vintage making-of documentary and selected scenes from the extended three- hour network TV version. Kenneth Branagh followed up his directorial debut Henry V with the noirish supernatural-thriller Dead Again (1991). He also stars as a private eye who falls for a mute amnesiac (Emma Thompson) and discovers that they share a past-life connection that now endangers them both. A gripping mystery shot with cinematic flair,

Manhattan’s Chinatown is about to explode in Year of the Dragon (1985), an energetic crime-thriller from director Michael Cimino ( The Deer Hunter ) that was staple of the VHS era. Mickey Rourke – in his superstar heyday – plays a brooding Vietnam vet turned police captain who takes on the Chinese mafia, when a new crime lord (John Lone) threatens to upset the gangland balance. Extras include audio commentaries by Cimino and film critic Peter Tonguette, a new interview with author Robert Daley, and composer David Mansfield shares his thoughts on the director in the featurette From Heaven to Chinatown .

• The Imprint December range will be available with slipcases and unique artwork for a limited time only (while stocks last) on December 30. PRE-ORDER NOW

22 DECEMBER 2020

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