As the nights draw in and the winter gets closer, it only means one thing - more time to spend watching new Arrow Video releases. October’s slate includes a thrilling new sci-fi drama, a remastered horror classic from a genre master, a nightmarish new supernatural chiller, a newly-discovered 70s grindhouse oddity, and a werewolf masterwork, just in time for Halloween. The selection of new extras and rarities, collectable booklets and stunning new sleeve artwork on each release will have film fans howling at the moon.

First off in October is Toys Are Not For Children. Psychological trauma and aberrant sexuality abound in this twisted 1972 tale of a young woman whose severe daddy issues send her on an unforgettably bleak downward spiral. Grim, quirky and strangely affecting in equal measure, Stanley H. Brasloff’s film is a truly one-of-a-kind effort from the heyday of the American exploitation independents, which builds to a haunting and devastating climax that lingers long after the credits roll.

Next in October is Aniara, a smart slice of sci-fi cinema based on the iconic poem by Swedish Nobel laureate Harry Martinson which explores the challenges faced by humankind with a deeply compassionate eye. Featuring a career-making performance from its star, Emelie Jonsson, this award-winning, provocative and intense space-travel stunner is one not to miss.

Also in October, The Dead Center, a smart supernatural thriller that explores the demons that live inside all of us. It stars Shane Carruth, the creator of Primer and Upstream Color and is directed by Billy Senese, recently hailed as a “masterful new voice in terror” (Nerdist.com) When a very dead suicide victim (Jeremy Childs – Preacher, Nashville) disappears from the morgue, it sets in motion a chain of events that has the power to immolate everything, and everyone, it touches. The release features several short films from Senese, deleted scenes and a making-of documentary.

Next in October is Nightbreed, from the mind of legendary visionary of the macabre Clive Barker (Hellraiser, Candyman). A nightmare-induced fantasy set in a world like nothing you’ve ever experienced before… Nightbreed will leave you questioning who the real monsters are. The victim of studio interference and an unrepresentative marketing campaign, Nightbreed has since undergone a radical reappraisal. Arrow Video is proud to present two versions of this depraved cult classic and an insane selection of extras that will likely never be bettered, for the ultimate nightmarish viewing experience.

Finally in October, a Halloween treat for horror fans with a splendid Blu-ray release of An American Werewolf in London. From iconic director John Landis (The Blues Brothers, Trading Places), the film was a box office smash and then a home video staple in the 1980s. Landis expertly combines macabre horror with dark humour to deliver a lycanthropic classic. Regarded as one of the most important horror films of the eighties, it is rightly lauded for its masterful set-pieces, uniquely unsettling atmosphere and Rick Bakers’ Oscar-winning special makeup effects. Now restored in 4K and presented with an abundance of extra features, this big beast of horror can be devoured as never before.

Toys Are Not For Children (1972) | Blu-ray | 7 October 2019 | £24.99

Psychological trauma and aberrant sexuality abound in this twisted 1972 tale of a young woman whose severe daddy issues send her on an unforgettably bleak downward spiral.

Yearning for the love of her absentee father, Jamie inhabits an infantilised world surrounded by toys, including those which her wayward pops bizarrely continues to send her. Unable to consummate her new marriage with dashing colleague Charlie, Jamie’s chance encounter with aging sex worker Pearl leads her into the murky world of prostitution where her most disturbing erotic fantasies begin to play out.

Grim, quirky and strangely affecting in equal measure, Stanley H. Brasloff’s Toys Are Not for Children is a truly one-of-a-kind effort from the heyday of the American exploitation independents, which builds to a haunting and devastating climax that lingers long after the credits roll.

Blu-ray Special Edition contents:

• Brand new 2K restoration from original film elements
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original uncompressed mono audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Brand new audio commentary with Kat Ellinger and Heather Drain
• Newly-filmed appreciation by Nightmare USA author Stephen Thrower
• ‘Dirty’ Dolls: Femininity, Perversion and Play – a brand new video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas 
• Original theme song Lonely Am I, newly transferred from the original 45-RPM vinyl single
• Original Trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by The Twins of Evil
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Vanity Celis
  

Aniara (2018) | Blu-ray | 21 October 2019 | £19.99

Fleeing an ecological disaster past the point of no return, what’s left of humanity must escape the hell on Earth they’ve created and fly to the stars. Giant interstellar cruise liners, outfitted with every luxury money can buy, take the human race on a three-week journey to their new home: Mars.

On one such space liner, a woman known only as Mimaroben (Emelie Jonsson) assists the passengers as they use MIMA, an advanced AI, to lose themselves in memories of a time when the earth still thrived. Days into their voyage, disaster strikes the ship; debris throws them off course, depletes their fuel and cuts their comms. As the ship floats aimlessly through space with no sign of rescue, MR holds on to hope as society crumbles around her. She looks past certain doom to find a way to help her fellow survivors live, love and do whatever is necessary to hold on to their humanity.

Based on the iconic poem by Swedish Nobel laureate Harry Martinson, Aniara explores the challenges faced by humankind with a deeply compassionate eye. Featuring a career-making star performance from Jonsson, Aniara is a “Masterful Example Of Smart, Relevant Sci-Fi Cinema” (Forbes).

Blu-ray Special Edition contents:

• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
• 5.1 DTS-HD master audio and lossless stereo audio
• Optional English subtitles
• New interview with directors Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja
• Interview with production designer Maja-Stina Åsberg
• Interview with sound designer Calle Wachtmeister
• Interview with VFX supervisor Andreas Wicklund
• The Unliving (Återfödelsen), an award-winning 30-minute short film by Lilja and Kågerman and starring Emelie Jonsson, about the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring new and original artwork
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by Anne Billson

The Dead Center (2018) | Blu-ray & DVD | 21 October | £19.99/£15.99

When a very dead suicide victim (Jeremy Childs, Preacher, Nashville) disappears from the morgue, it sets in motion a chain of events that has the power to immolate everything, and everyone, it touches.

Troubled psychiatrist Daniel Forrester (Shane Carruth, Primer, Upstream Color) is drawn to help a mysterious patient who is brought to the emergency psych ward in a catatonic state with no memory of how he reached the hospital. As if to exorcise his own demons, the doctor feverishly tries to break through to his mysterious patient. But as a spate of mysterious deaths shake the ward to its core, Forrester comes to suspect that there is more to his new ward than meets the eye. As he comes to realise what he’s unleashed, a desperate race against the forces of evil threatens to swallow him whole.

The Dead Center is a smart supernatural thriller that explores the demons that live inside all of us from writer-director Billy Senese, recently hailed as a “masterful new voice in terror”.

Blu-ray Special Edition contents:

• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
• 5.1 DTS-HD master audio and lossless stereo audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Commentary with writer-director Billy Senese, producer-actor Shane Carruth and co-star Jeremy Childs
• Commentary with writer-director Billy Senese, producers Denis Deck and Jonathan Rogers, and cinematographer Andy Duensing
• A Walk Through The Dead Center, an in-depth making-of documentary featuring new interviews with writer-director Billy Senese, producer-actor Shane Carruth, cinematographer Andy Duensing, and many others revisiting the locations and discussing the production
• Nine deleted scenes, including an alternate ending
• On-set interviews with actors Shane Carruth and Poorna Jagannathan
• Head-Casting with Jeremy Childs, a brief look at the creation of the make-up effects seen in the climax of the film
• Intruder, a short film from 2011 directed by Billy Senese and starring Jeremy Childs
• The Suicide Tapes, the original short film from 2010 directed by Senese and starring Childs that later inspired The Dead Center
• Midnight Radio Theater, six chilling radio plays (Insomnia, The Long Weekend, Disposable Life, The Suicide Tapes, The Woman In The Basement, Blood Oath, Flu) written, produced and directed by Billy Senese
• Theatrical trailer and teasers
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring new and original artwork
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jamie Graham

DVD Special Edition contents:

• Standard Definition presentation
• Original 5.1 surround sound and 2.0 stereo audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Commentary with writer-director Billy Senese, producer-actor Shane Carruth and co-star Jeremy Childs
• Commentary with writer-director Billy Senese, producers Denis Deck and Jonathan Rogers, and cinematographer Andy Duensing
• A Walk Through The Dead Center, an in-depth making-of documentary featuring new interviews with writer-director Billy Senese, producer-actor Shane Carruth, cinematographer Andy Duensing, and many others revisiting the locations and discussing the production
• Nine deleted scenes, including an alternate ending
• On-set interviews with actors Shane Carruth and Poorna Jagannathan
• Head-Casting with Jeremy Childs, a brief look at the creation of the make-up effects seen in the climax of the film
• Intruder, a short film from 2011 directed by Billy Senese and starring Jeremy Childs
• The Suicide Tapes, the original short film from 2010 directed by Senese and starring Childs that later inspired The Dead Center
• Theatrical trailer and teasers
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring new and original artwork

Nightbreed (1990) | Blu-ray | 28 October 2019 | £29.99

From the mind of writer/director Clive Barker comes Nightbreed, a nightmare-induced fantasy set in a world like nothing you’ve ever experienced before… one which will leave you questioning who the real monsters are.

By night, Aaron Boone (Craig Sheffer – Teen Wolf) dreams of Midian, a hidden subterranean world where monsters have created a haven from humanity. Under pressure from his girlfriend Lori (Anne Bobby – Born on the Fourth of July), he attends psychotherapy sessions, unaware that his shrink, Dr Decker (Videodrome director David Cronenberg), is setting him up to take the fall for a series of violent murders. Convinced he no longer belongs in the human world, Boone goes in search of Midian – not realising that the real killer has plans for both him and the colourful cast of outsiders who call it home…

The victim of studio interference and an unrepresentative marketing campaign, Nightbreed was poorly received by critics on its initial release and failed to ignite the box office, but has since undergone a radical reappraisal. Arrow Video presents two versions of this depraved cult classic: the studio-approved theatrical cut and the reconstructed, reinvigorated director’s cut, for the ultimate nightmarish viewing experience.

Blu-ray Limited Edition contents:

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations of the 120-minute director’s cut, transferred from the original camera negative, and the 102-minute theatrical cut, transferred from the original interpositive
• Lossless 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and uncompressed 2.0 PCM audio on the director’s cut
• Uncompressed 2.0 PCM audio on the theatrical cut
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• New audio commentary on the theatrical cut by critics Adrian J Smith and David Flint
• Audio commentary on the director’s cut by writer/director Clive Barker and restoration producer Mark Alan Miller
• Introduction to the director’s cut by Clive Barker and Mark Alan Miller
• Walking the Line Between Heaven and Hell, a new video interview with critic Kat Ellinger
• Speaking up for the Monsters, a new video interview with critic Kim Newman
• Tribes of the Moon: Making Nightbreed, an extensive documentary on the making of the film, featuring actors Craig Sheffer, Doug Bradley, Anne Bobby and many more
• Making Monsters, a documentary on the film’s creature designs, featuring special makeup designer Bob Keen
• Fire! Fights! Stunts!, a video interview with second unit director Andy Armstrong
• Deleted and alternate scenes
• Monster Prosthetics Masterclass
• Cutting Compromise, a video interview with editor Mark Goldblatt
• The Painted Landscape, an exploration of the work of concept artist Ralph McQuarrie
• Matte painting tests
• Makeup tests
• Lost stop motion footage
• Extended torture scene
• Rehearsal test
• Theatrical trailer
• Rare TV spots
• Multiple image galleries, including early sketches, set photos, poster and pre-production art, stills from the UK launch party at Tower Records, and more
• Original screenplay (BD-ROM content)
• Reversible sleeve feature original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
• Double-sided fold-out poster
• Limited edition 40-page booklet, featuring new writing on the film by author and critic Amy Simmons and an in-depth history of the film’s development, release and rehabilitation by Mark Salisbury, co-author of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed: The Making of the Film

An American Werewolf in London (1981) | Blu-ray | 28 October 2019 | £29.99

One of the greatest directors of the 1980s, John Landis, expertly combines macabre horror with dark humour in the lycanthropic classic, An American Werewolf in London.

American tourists David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) are savaged by an unidentified vicious animal whilst hiking on the Yorkshire Moors. David awakes in a London hospital to find his friend dead and his life in disarray. Retiring to the home of a beautiful nurse (Jenny Agutter – Walkabout) to recuperate, he soon experiences disturbing changes to his mind and body, undergoing a full-moon transformation that will unleash terror on the streets of the capital...

An American Werewolf in London had audiences howling with laughter and recoiling in terror upon its cinema release. Landis’ film has gone on to become one of the most important horror films of its decade, rightly lauded for its masterful set-pieces, uniquely unsettling atmosphere and Rick Bakers’ truly ground-breaking, Oscar-winning special makeup effects. Now restored in 4K, and presented with an abundance of extra features, this big beast of horror can be devoured as never before...

Blu-ray Limited Edition contents:

• New 2018 4K restoration from the original camera negative supervised by John Landis
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original uncompressed 1.0 mono and optional 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Optional subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• New audio commentary by Beware the Moon filmmaker Paul Davis
• Audio Commentary by actors David Naughton and Griffin Dunne
• Mark of The Beast: The Legacy of the Universal Werewolf, newly produced, feature-length documentary by filmmaker Daniel Griffith, featuring interviews with John Landis, David Naughton, Joe Dante and more
• An American Filmmaker in London, a newly filmed interview with John Landis in which he reflects on his time working in Britain and British cinema
• I Think He's a Jew: The Werewolf's Secret, new video essay by filmmaker Jon Spira (Elstree 1976) about how Landis’ film explores Jewish identity
• The Werewolf’s Call, Corin Hardy, director of The Nun, chats with writer Simon Ward about their formative experiences with Landis’ film
• Wares of the Wolf, new featurette in which SFX artist Dan Martin and Tim Lawes of The Prop Store look at some of the original costumes and special effects artefacts from the film
• Beware the Moon, Paul Davis’ acclaimed, feature-length exploration of Landis’ film which boasts extensive cast and crew interviews
• Making An American Werewolf in London, a short archival featurette on the film’s production
• An Interview with John Landis, a lengthy archival interview with the director about the film
  
• Makeup Artist Rick Baker on An American Werewolf in London, the legendary make-up artist discusses his work on the film
• I Walked with a Werewolf, an archival interview with the make-up artist about Universal horror and its legacy of Wolfman films
• Casting of the Hand, archival footage from Rick Baker's workshop as they cast David Naughton's hand
• Outtakes
• Original trailers, teasers and radio spots
• Extensive image gallery featuring over 200 stills, posters and other ephemera
• Reversible sleeve featuring original poster art and artwork by Graham Humphreys
• Double-sided fold-out poster
• Six double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproductions
• Limited 60-page booklet featuring new writing by Travis Crawford and Simon Ward, archival articles and original reviews