Man, I love that poster. Yeah it's Barbara. Barbara signed it at
the top, and she spelt my name wrong, like how you can spell
David wrong. I was gonna say, how do you spell David or Gregory
wrong? Yeah, she went to spell it. She said d V and
she's like, oh, I fucked up your poster. That's all right,
Barbara. So she kind of corrempted it, so it's not too bad.
But I have one autograph that has someone who did a carrot like to fix
my spelling of my name because they spelled it nice. Yeah, it's got
an amendment. It just makes it more unique. Yes, I am here
with Andrew Furtado and the David Gregory from Seven Films. Gentlemen, Thank you
for coming on. Thank you for having us. Of course I have had
people literally begging me to have Andrew back on because his first time was so
much fun, but also to bring on David because David is just so frickin'
magnetic whenever he's speaking about anything. Thanks for agreeing. This might be an
odd way to start an interview about seven Films, but I have to say
this is one of my favorite releases of the last year, and I gotta
be honest, I don't really love the movie, but David segment on here
is so damn perfect because he is just gushing about video Nasties and it makes
your personality shine so much. I've sold people on that disc primarily for that
featurette so to dive in. First of all, for the people that don't
know, what do you love about Video Nasties? Because actually before that,
is that the Vinegar Syndrome or is it it is in sight? Well,
the funny thing, I have both because I wanted to see if there's any
differences. But well, I'll tell you exactly what the differences are. The
Second Site edition has the actual correct, finished version of that feature at whereas
Vinegar Syndrome put on a fucking rough cut and so come on, amount of
time there are, this is what we're printing. Doesn't matter that it's not
finished. It's going on Jesus fucking Christ. You know. Well, there
you go buy from Second Site because they know how to wait until the finished
product is I wasn't saying that Vinego Syndrome are definitely definitely our friends. I'm
just saying, do you want to see that? If you want to see
the proper feature at you need to watch the second site edition. Absolutely.
So the big question why why video nasties? Because I grew up in the
I was in How old was I when we first got a VC I was
I think ten when we got a VCR and when we joined the video so
that was in nineteen eighty two, So the video nasties weren't a thing at
that point. It was just this new world of the video shop where you
could get all these glorious films that I'd never even heard of, that hadn't
even been covered in you know, the horror magazines and books of the day,
and so it was a whole new Aladdin's Cave of joy that me and
my best friend at the time, Carl Daft, from school. We were
the only kids in school who were really into these kinds of movies. The
goloria the better. And then all of a sudden it started popping up on
the television that they were dangerous and that they were should be banned, and
this little old lady called Mary white House was all over the papers and all
over the television about how this filth is entering our homes and needs to be
banned. And then the politicians jumped on the bandwagon, and then all of
a sudden it became law that these films, and and police started raiding the
video stores up and down the country. So this, this this beautiful brief
period was very quickly over, and the video stores got scared and started taking
stuff off their shells voluntarily before the police showed up. So all of a
sudden it was actually quite get these, you know, European and American horror
movies that had had been all over the shells before that. So all of
a sudden they became the forbidden fruit, right they were they were They were
made illegal, as as most films were then made illegal because it became law
that you had to have a rating, whereas before that you didn't have a
rating on video, only at the cinema. And so all of a sudden,
people like me up and down the country, in the UK, in
in Britain were collecting these forbidden films and so and so, I guess Severin
is kind of an extension that I started the company with that same friend Carl,
who is still the partner in the business. And essentially now we just
buy the rights to the movies instead of actually just buying the tapes. Although
I still buy the tapes. I've got an office downstairs that the wall is
covered in them. Yeah, I was surprised that you, when you were
on the call, you didn't hop in there and run down to that room.
I would have done, but the internet's playing silly buggers at the moment
in the office and was freezing up. So I've now come upstairs where it's
slightly better. A lot of stuff that of David's childhood and history can be
found in both the documentary two part series that we put out on DVD and
in the Steckler Box. On disc four Mondo Psychatronic, David talks about one
of his well he doesn't talk about he talks to one of his big influences.
Yes, Balcroche was the ran the psychotronic store in Camden Town in London
them which was a very dingy basement shop but had a back room where he
would where he would sell the illegal tapes of you know, things like Blood
Feast and Zombie and you know stuff that is laughable that it's that it was
illegal, but it was very much illegal. And but that's where people like
me would would would go and get our dodgy bootlegs of Handsome John tells a
story about when he was Lovely John back. Lovely John. He is handsome,
but very lovely He he talks about how he got locked in the back
room because the cops came and they didn't know about the back room, and
there was another dude just they were just sitting there quietly in the dark,
flicking through tapes trying to see what they were going to find. And yeah,
no, it's it's it's a right. Well, the police came in
the front, right, the police were in the front, so I actually
locked them in the back room and he was not in there with some very
dodgy geezer who was also flicking through the tapes and just drooling from the mouth
and there, and that's kind of the perfect you exposition for people that are
into this sort of thing today, to see the difference between a literal like
police sweeping across a niche and to try to pull these off the shelf and
now we're buying them on sill on Black Friday from Severn, and just the
difference in what a couple of decades can make. Uh. First of all,
I want to say, how lovely it is to follow your journey through
some of these tapes on the Severn podcasts when you announced that you've got one
on eBay for eleven hundred dollars or something. Yeah, yeah, you see.
The thing was when they were first banned and we were still in high
school, Carl and I would go round to all the video shops at Nottingham
and ask the owners, you know, do you have anything sort of in
the back room or back home that you had to withdraw from the shelves,
And more often than not they did, and there was nothing they could do
with these tapes and they were taking up space. And the only thing that's
slightly questionable is why they would then sell them to people who were, you
know, like fourteen years old. But still they did, and they didn't
care. We had money was as good as anybody else's. So that's how
the collections began. Was basically going through you know, old garages of the
of the local corner video store. That's forums we were trying to find some
video nasties, uh as research and trying to track down where some of these
films were dubbed in English or or if they were dubbed anywhere else, like
some Spanish stuff, and there were like forums dedicated to I gave my tape
to Mitch, and Mitch gave that tape to this person and then he traded
to this part. It's fucking crazy. Yeah, I know. In some
of the ones that I bought recently, they have actually the ownership the list
of ownership kind of like you get on in a in a library book,
you know, like somebody's like, where's George Ben Yeah, no, nothing
like that, but yeah, it's like it was owned by this guy who
sold it to this guy, who sold it to this guy, and now
it's it's great. I mean it's it's literal history, absolutely, except a
lot sweatier. But the library. Almost every tape has been owned by Zach
Carlson from for at one point. That's what I learned. So the big
question, how did we get from young David loving video nasties to finding several
and making it the powerhouse that it is today. Okay, the short version,
No, we dived deep. Come on right, all right? Well,
got to spare a couple of days, Yeah, no, I so
I went to I I ended up getting a job with a small budget distributor
in Nottingham, where I'm from and I got that job because, like I
did with all the video shops, I went to anyone who stopped videos,
and I went into this place, and the owner really enjoyed my passion for
movies, and so he offered me, you know, a weekend job while
I was in high school, and then it became my summer job. And
then I went away to college, came back to Nottingham and went to work
for him again. But by then he bought a bunch of video equipment,
so I started making documentaries for him. And at the same time, he
was the one who kind of taught me about buying rights, could he because
he'd kind of bought a bunch of when when the video When the video Nasties
were banned, a lot of the companies that put them out went out of
business, and so the masters master tapes for all their catalog were just floating
around and being sold onto other people who repackaged them, retitled them, gave
them you know, ridiculous. Oh my god, I might even have a
visual aid. Here, are you actually going to show the video? Yes?
On this, just just one second. There's there's an amazing called Extraterrestrial
Nasties it's it says et n when the When the Nasties came out, and
it's got the coolest cover in the world. But you you put in the
tape and it's like a nineteen fifty sci fi movie. It was such a
bummer. I saw that tape downstairs and I was like, oh my god.
It was like, you don't want to watch it? Mate? Well,
with what movie was extra nasty? I was covering the goddamn planet exactly,
so that this here is an example. This movie is called Hearsay and
it has a guy who looks like Alexander O'Neill, who released like an R
and B album called Hearsay in the in the nineties. This is actually the
movie Sea China and Die, directed by Larry Cohen. But my boss was
loved this fucking Alexander O'Neill album and was like, oh, let's just paint
a picture of him and put a woman with a gun beside it and a
dead dude underneath it. Will actually name it after the album and trick people
into thinking somehow Alexander O'Neil is in is in this movie. Yeah, So
anyway, things like that were happening. So I was like, well,
why don't we package it as see China and Die by the Larry Cohen of
God told me to him, and he's like, well, you know,
you might actually want to buy the rights for that, you know, And
so he was. He was confident because he kind of bought the masters off
the company that bought the rights, but those rights had probably expired by that
point. So anyway, that's how I kind of started learning about buying rights.
Karl and I decided to go after Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which had been
banned in England for a number of years at that point, and by the
time the current censor became the new censor and we were ready to do the
deal, while somebody else swept in and bought those rights and made a fortune
off Texas Change for Massacre. They obviously paid a lot more for it than
we ever could have afforded, so it's not really so bad. But then
I went out and made the documentary Texas Changeaw Massacre The Shocking Truth, because
I was determined to do something with Texas Change On Massacre because it's my favorite
movie, and that led me to meeting Bill lastig No. We started a
label called Exploited at the same time in the UK and that released films like
Acts, Children Ship, Play, Dead Things, Hated GDL and The Murdered
Junkies, Deranged, Three on a Meat Hook and also Maniac and Vigilante.
William Lustig's films. Maniac got banned. A lot of the films had to
be cut because there was still strict censorship in England at the time, which
meant that doing this kind of boutique label in England was just a complete dead
loss because who wants to collect who's a hardcore collectorate? Who wants censored versions
of these movies? Anyway, I became friendly with Bill. He was also
in Texas. Change saw the shocking truth, saw that I could make documentaries,
and at the time he was producing for Anko Bay and Ankor Bay had
just picked up the Studio Canal Library and they were starting to restore the Wickerman.
So he said, can you do a documentary about the Wickerman. Of
course, I was jumped, jumped on it immediately. This was like a
dream job, actually being paid to do a documentary on the Wickerman. Fast
forward, I went and did the post production in Los Angeles here and Bill
was very happy with what we've done with the Wickerman, So I started doing
all the extras for all the featurette extras for Ankabay and so that was the
next couple of years. Then Bill formed Blue Underground. So I was with
Bill for the first four years of Blue Underground, I think, kind of
doing all the extras and producing disc for him. And then he started kind
of, let's just say, being disillusioned with having so many employees and such
a rapid release schedule, so he was keen to downsize. And at that
point me and Carl and another guy, John Kregan, who was working also
at Blue Underground, decided we'd start several films, which we started in two
thousand and six, and the first two films we released were Gwendolyn and Felicity,
and it's been after the races since then. Wow, it was a
pretty long run key road before we were able to get onto a regular schedule.
We're still not really on a on a regular schedule such that we can
tell people exactly how many movies per year we're going to put out, but
it's much more regular than it was for some of those fallow at least a
month now exactly. We know we're releasing every month you know, that's that's
something. But but sometimes during those first years, we wouldn't release for months
because for one reason or another, or the production hassles that go into doing
these things, or the extra effort and care we put into the extras.
Because of where I sort of started, I have a big, uh,
a big chip on my shoulder about the quality of extras and that's to to
this day. You know, we we and they're little productions in themselves,
you know, sometimes big productions in themselves, so you know, all that
kind of stuff can can really change your release date from from day to day.
And so so yeah, so that the thing that we're always juggling,
even though we're working on I don't know how many movies, it's ten over
one hundred movies, right Andrew that we've got one form or another of production,
and it's just which one's getting closer to the finish line. It's the
one that hard drives of things that I still need to work on more arrive
every day. Oh I just got but yeah, where's my box from yesterday?
I went to the office and I got a whole box of just more
hard drives and that was that is that all from Spain, No, no
Spain, friends and Italy. There you go. They just come in from
all over. They don't stop every time. It's just every time I go
to the office, the minute I leave, another box shows up, and
I feel like it's just never going to end. And then I hear people
talking about Blu Ray Is dying. I'm like, dude, look at my
Look at my house. It's it's cluttered with drives that I still have to
get to, Like we got so much stuff to put out. Yeah,
yeah, and it keeps expanding. Is David with his with his beautif smiling
face, goes to places like AFM and can and meets all new people,
opening new territories, Like we just started doing a whole bunch of Spain stuff,
like I think I talked about last time I was on and that hasn't
stopped. Yeah, what we now have a correspondence in Spain who just every
week is like, have you heard this movie? I'm like, no,
it sunds right up our alley. Let's get it. So with the Blue
Underground talk and Blu Rays dying, this is kind of a perfect time to
ask. And I'm sure you haven't paid attention to all of his statements.
About a month and a half ago, Bill Lustig did another show and said
he thinks all of the boutique labels are going to be dead within five years.
How do you both feel about that? I believe Joe Ruben at Vinegue
Syndrome says something similar. He said five years five years ago, I know
that for sure. When I first started working with you, he was like,
it's going to be dead. Yeah, So there is that school of
thought. I am not so I am not doomsday about that. I mean,
I don't think. I don't think this will last forever in terms of
people wanted to build up their shelves with physical discs of these movies. But
it doesn't really seem to be slowing down at this point. I mean,
it's not on rapid ascent like like it was. But but I don't know,
people still seem to be pretty interested in what we're doing. And I
think the fact that we're either picking films now that people just don't have in
their library or that haven't been available for quite some time, or doing you
know, significant upgrades of films that have already been out, I think I'd
like to think that, you know, we're providing something that the collectors actually
want, you know. Well, and the other big thing, you guys
run a company that really, at least for me, excite me every month
because of the special features that you're putting into this And when you're ran by
somebody like David who's putting his heart in some of the special features for decades
now, I could see that leading to some sort of potential pressure to keep
out shining previous ones. Is that is that clear that it's one of the
main focuses of the company for you to keep that going, Yes, for
sure, And we have we have several feature length documentaries in production, some
that have been in production for years, which have you know, because they
One of the beauties of the of of documentary production is it's not like narrative
production where it needs to all happen in one chunk. Well everybody's in town
and everybody's hired. These things can actually, you know, be dragged out
for years. The downside of that is that they can drag on for years.
So basically we've got we've got, you know, licensed a bunch of
movies associated with the documentary I started five years ago, a ton of movies
which are just kind of sitting there waiting for the documentary to be finished.
But I'm still working on exactly. We keep on getting more as well,
don't we. That's very acusing, that's going to be a ridiculous box that
I will say. I will say working with David, something that he brings
to the table that a lot of companies don't, which kind of it very
akin to what he's known for, is he brings context and that's something that
I love. Like, without Adamson, you put out like six al Adamson
movies, people go oh cool ah. But if you put out a documentary
explaining who this is, so you can fall in love with the filmmaker and
finally understand kind of who he is, what he's about, and then watch
his films. There it brings so much more than just movies. It brings
a memory. It brings something to the to the viewer. Like for me,
I'm listening to the mel Brooks book for example, and I'm watching the
movies as he tells the stories, and it's just that context brings more new
memories to the films and stuff like that. So so there is something very
special about what David has been so adamant about and other companies are finally starting
to work on like Second Sight have been putting out novelizations and and and you
know, interview in booklets and these big old fucking sets and and if they
don't stop. And I think they found what they like to add, and
David is what he likes to add, And personally, I think they're both
great. And there are more companies catching on to that as they are.
Well, yeah, I mean it's it's certainly not just us that, but
it is something that we're we're we're very conscious of. And then and then
the stuff, for example that we're doing with with Kayla, I mean,
she's she's digging into into barrels that I that I've never even heard of,
you know, and so and she brings a very kind of academic perspective to
to the kind of things that we do. Maybe it's time to talk about
this. Then yeah, well there you go. Yeah exactly that that was
that you know, was was was all her creatively, And and she did
an epic three plus hour documentary called Woodlands, Dark and Days Bewitched, a
history of folk horror, which was very well received. And the Folk Horror
Box kind of came out of that because that's started as an extra, as
quite a few of our feature documentaries do, and just ended up ballooning into
this this epic documentary, and which then ballooned into this incredible box set that
she curated, like I say, with a lot of films that I hadn't
even heard of, but she'd gone so deep into her research and was so
articulate with with with her assessment of these films and the people she was getting
to talk about them, and it was like that I put my trust into
her in terms of what what films we should license, you know, I
mean, within reason, we had to be able to get them. There
had to be elements, there had to be in a certain price range.
But I don't think anything was licensed that. I don't think we missed out
on anything because it costs too much. I mean, it was just a
matter of doing the research and finding who owned it, and in quite a
lot of cases that old thing, sure, you know. And so but
then Eyes of Fire, even the director was like yeah, so yeah,
because he'd been out of the business for years and Eyes of Fire was kind
of the big a title in the box. It hadn't been available for a
long time. He'd been disillusioned with the business. But sometimes that's a good
thing because there he had the negative and he had not sold it to any
big studio or anything like that. He'd just kind of moved on with his
life to something else. So it was great. Yeah, this box set
is possibly. Literally last night I went on a rant, how about it
might be my favorite release of all time from any label. The documentary itself
I have watched multiple times and it's it is film school on a disc in
a way that you don't really get that often, and it is just a
gift to people that eat up things like this, and a lot of my
viewers love stuff like this. I got to ask the three and a half
hour docum or almost three and a half hour whatever, there's so many other
movies in there. Is there ever a chance that we get a volume two
to this? There is a very good chance that there'll be a volume two,
and that's all I'll say. That is one of the most exciting things
I've ever heard. This box set has changed a lot of the ways that
I look at film, and the thing that you did with it, with
the whole the Witch's Bundle, everything that came with it, just gave so
much context to everything. The map itself in particular was such a cool little
extra that you threw in. You guys have this odd personality that is not
just like in terms of what you're putting out, but the label itself has
a personality. Is that something that you guys see is important for you or
is that just it has happened along the years? Definitely, And I think
I think Andrew you sort of took that up a notch by starting the podcast,
for example, and things like the Severn Seller where we sort of made
it about you know, being part of Sebrin, I guess, and it
kind of stemmed from context, like that whole that whole thing you said it
yourself. Context That documentary brought to lights so much more about these films,
and you know, makes the person more willing to give something a shot.
So if we tell these personal stories about you know, why a film is
chosen or why someone loves a film, like the Criterion Closet is great,
but a dingy seller, you know, you're you're in there and you're you're
gonna have to say yes regardless because of the implication. Yeah, I mean,
it's much much more interesting to me and I would think a lot of
severin fans to hear people talk about all kinds of movies than than you know,
Bergman movies something like that. And that's not to say they're better or
anything like that. I just you know that we're more interested in the kinds
of films that we do and know people have definitely listened to the podcast and
been influenced into trying something that they wouldn't normally, and most of those people
hate by just Franco movies. Just despite me and as you should people that
this is this is something that really amuses us around the office, buying Jess
Franker things just to annoy Andrew. So do it more please people. The
other thing is that we is that we said sorry to interrupt, Oh you're
good. I think with in terms of like the the auterment that we that
we include with some of our releases, I think that started with the the
the hilarious gag between us that we should do a simple dwarf plushy and thinking,
you know, doing a children's toy for a film as gross and upsetting
as the simple dwarf, it's hilarious. So we went ahead and had that
made and made sure that it talked and sure and had a little commercial made
for it by Mike Eito, which which is a work of art in and
of itself, and and lo and behold it was. It was quite successful.
So then we did the anthropoplica style, and then it got people like
Jason in Our in Our who runs the warehouse in Arizona. He gets very
excited by the idea of what uh trinkets we can come up with. And
then Kayla got into it too. I mean the stuff that she commissioned for
the for the Witch's Bundle that you mentioned. It is great stuff. The
spider from Horror of Spider Island that Andrew is holding up right that and it's
it's a it's a nice little addition, you know. Uh, yeah,
we love it. The the Anthropophagist Plush and Sir Jess Franco the the Treetopper
are looking down on me right now as we speak, and they are every
single day. And I'm so grateful for both of those, Uh, Jess
Franco, Andrew Andrew Hatem. As far as I'm aware, I'm also not
a lout fan. Is that something that Severns has made a mission to be
the home of Jess Franco, because you've done so many of Franco that it
is now the go to place for anything Jess Franco. Yeah, no,
I mean Monda mccabber is still doing them when got a few, Yeah,
on the other side of the mirrorside the mirror. Yeah. So no,
we're we're definitely. He is the patron saint of several is what we call
him. And honestly it was it was when I went to first interview him
in Malaga, in Tomalinas actually in Spain for Justine Eugenny and two others that
I interviewed him for that first time with Blue Underground, where I was absolutely
sold on his I would say, his outlook on life, you know,
the fact that he was just kind of addicted to making films, and his
his clear memory of these movies that he made among two hundred movies. You
know, he made these back in the late sixties and still had very very
detailed recollections of it. And then halfway through the interview, wife Lena walks
in and I guess she wasn't his wife then, but you know, partner
of many years. Lena walked in, say anyone wants a cup of tea.
You know, that's something that's Lena remain just walked in and so I
spent the day with them in Tora Malinas, and I think from then on,
any chance I had to go and visit with with Jess and Lena and
do interviews with them with something that I found very invigorating, very inspiring,
and so just their their life being dedicated to to to making these movies.
That's that's that was their passion, and so I'd say, you just can't
fault that. That's that's you know right there is is why he's the patron
sat of Severin. I mean, we're dedicated to these kinds of films too.
So now that the beauty of it is it's a gift that keeps on
giving because he made so many movies, quite a lot of them have never
been out in a in a decent edition, and those negatives have not been
touched in decades, you know. Yeah, so sometimes they'll they'll somebody who
comes to me, what about this film? You know, I found the
owner of this film. I'm like, never heard of it. Let's that's
Stephen Thrower, and Steven would be, oh, yes, that's a good
one and then all right, that's a that's good enough for me. Now
did you coin the term uncle Jess or okay, where did that come from?
You know, I don't know, but it was in Jess Franco fan
circles. It may have been. You know. Tim Lucas was one of
the guys who popularized Jess Franco before the DVD era. In his video watched
up piece how to Read a Franco Movie, Lucas Balbo had done the book.
I think it's called Obsession, So there was already, you know,
these these these pockets of obsessive fans who who had this. I think Tim
Lucas said something along the lines of, if you can't assess the Jess Franco
movie without seeing all Jest Franco movies is impossible. So it becomes something becomes
something about quest this labyrinth that you go down and I am forced to go
down. Yeah you are. It's like Stockholm syndrome. I get invested every
once in a while and I go holy shit, Like with sex is crazy,
right, the one that's coming out at Black Friday. You were like,
well, okay, I don't make well you you can tell me what
you thought, but it wasn't anything like you expected. Hell no, no,
it's it's still to this day, I'm still confusing what the what the
hell's going on in that movie? But he found an awesome location and used
the hell out of it so good, which which we had visited with Antonio
Mins and Stephen Thrower on one of our in the Land of Franco episodes.
So when it was offered to me, I was already familiar with the movie
and the location from having been to this spaceship shaped nightclub in Benidorm, and
I was like, Wow, fuck, we're gonna get that one. I
mean, Antonio covered in silver paint and uh, I'm frolicking about in this
place, So let's do it. There's like nineteen hundred follow up questions I
want to ask, I mean the first one. There are so many Jess
Franco titles. How do you choose what to put out? Is it all
about rights or I mean, are are there still tons of elements that are
available? Or is it just these are all David's favorites. No that it's
not that these are all David's favorites, because quite often I haven't seen them
when they're proposed to me because we are, you know, going into some
obscure territory with the films that that we're going after, some of them not
some of them, you know, like Count Draculas, a pretty major a
pretty major movie in the Jess Franco, Kannon at least Vampires, Lasbus and
She Killed An Next to see mean faceless. They're kind of like the famous
ones, you know. But that is kind of exciting to me when a
Sex is Crazy or or some of the golden films that we've put out by
a Blanker and you know, House Women and stuff like that, is it's
that's interesting to me that here's a film that's just sat on the shelf for
not being not being transferred or certainly not released in the US ever in a
lot of cases, So that's that's exciting to me. Well, and you
you mentioned Stephen Thrower and earlier you mentioned Cuila Janie. They have been pretty
monumental behind the scenes of seven of the last couple of years. Can you
can you share their input on some of these releases, because it seems like
they have a lot of a lot of control over what they're putting out on
some of these discs. For you well, well, Kayla Is is part
of the severing team, so so she is she is constantly now working on
stuff. She is overseeing the Black Emmanuel Box, for example, which has
been teased but not had a date put on it yet but it's not far
off. And uh, that's a lot of stuff. But she also is
now airring for it. So she's so she's actually finding films that again probably
that I haven't heard of, but that that she thinks are important, and
so she's doing that. She's coordinating all the commentaries and featurettes and stuff like
that. I mean, I don't know if you watched like her featurette on
the kinky except the Stuveniles films. Yeah, so that again was like why
she is just a great member of the team because she made this this this
succinct but thorough documentary about the kinky genre, which is a genre I was
not familiar with when she proposed these movies, and I love them, you
know, when I watch them, I was like, these movies are fantastic
and they need to be known more. And so, you know, so
she's she almost runs her own sort of kaylor department essentially from her island where
she lives and you know, like, Okay, that's one of yours.
I know you'll take care of it. She'll deliver the stuff. That's great.
Stephen. We can't remember why we got him on first, but certainly
I became more and more friendly with him as we were doing more and more
interviews with him, and of course the same same thing. It's kind of
I said, I said to I sort of joked online once about the fact
that he's kind of the Brian Johnson now that Jess the Bond Scott is no
longer witness. He's not like the replacement for the real thing. But he's
a pretty fucking good follow up, you know. And I mean, obviously
his assessments are different from from Jesses, but but my god, does he
go for an incredibly entertaining, articulate, deep dive into into these movies.
It's it's phenomenal listening to him talk about, you know, these these just
Franco movies, which the casual observe. So and then I think we became
more associated because we went and did in Lando Franco. When I proposed that
to him that we should actually go to some these locations, I think he
mentioned that, you know, maybe some of the hotels that some of them
are nice five star hotels. Now that's dingey old Dracula's Castle, and I
was like, that's right up my alley. So we we we we prepared
a route through Portugal and Spain and got Antonio Mayans to come along with us
and just had an absolute blast go into these these all these different incredible play
incredible that Jess Franco was shooting these sleazy little movies in these phenomenal locations.
In port For example, there was the one in the Heart Knights of Linda.
And when we were there and we went into the we went into the
manager's office and he just had the guest book and it has Alisano was in
the guest book and he was like, oh, this will be where it
was. There was a photo of it, there was an autograph, and
then turned over to the very next page and there was Paul and Linda McCartney's
autographs because they were staying there after finishing a Wings album. And it's like,
this was a nice hotel. You know it was when they made the
fucking Hot Nights. That's pretty awesome. Okay, So the director's box sets,
that's the big thing to go in you just mentioned the Black Commanuel box
and it seems like with I mean, obviously the most recent one. Got
to pimp this out again because this is an incredibly great release that has everything
Steckler that you could ever want. Essentially, is there more pressure to ramp
up what you guys are doing for these and are there hopefully more of these
director box sets coming because they're kind of setting the pace of the best box
sets in the game. Andrew, what do you think about that? Well?
I know that there's another box set coming and similar to one I'm going
to say one. But the thing about these sets and the excitement that they
bring it fuels us to want to up our game and and find ways to
make these things more frequent. And I mean, like, I can't we
had one title. I can't talk about it too much, but this director,
we had one title that was given to us, only Element Available,
only Element in Existence, and it was rough, but the movie was awesome.
And uh and then I don't I don't even know, David, Maybe
you can explain where the hell this came from. But out of nowhere,
in a place unknown, discovered these original camera negatives and I was just like
blown away. So I'm like, now and they were, they were,
they were in Paris, even though these are American movies. They David literally
went, interest, well, we got that, so I guess now we
have to do a box And he's like, I got all these other films
in the back here, and yeah, because because as as Vinegar Syndrome does
too, like David buys elements and you know in the off chance that we'll
be able to make it happen because it's like a dream thing. And so
he's had a whole collection of this filmmaker's movies. So it's super exciting just
being able to be part of that and releasing these kind of movies out of
nowhere. And that's just one box set. There's more coming down the line.
I keep telling David, I'm like, we need to do a Jess
Franco box set, and he goes, it would never it would never come
out because it would never end. We've joked about that before that it would
just be it would have to come as a shelf that you just take,
yeah, or as I think, as a truck. Actually, it would
just be a truck that sits outside your house. The outer the outer box
has one bit open that constantly gets to grow on top of it. Yeah,
it's just yeah, it's impossible. But yeah, David said, there's
more that I don't know about, So that's good. Interesting. No,
I do know about another one. You're right, what's real close, real
close? Yeah, and then that's the one the month after that, right
and then anyway, oh yeah, god, I mean, we don't have
to be so cryptic if we don't want. Yeah, well, Waite,
I got to name a box set. I'm very excited about that. Nice.
That's that's like naming your first child. I don't Yeah, that was
easy. It's just like as as a first time father. It was just
as easy. I didn't have to sign anything for this one. But no,
it's not an actual box. It's like a it's like a four pack
of films. But I'm very proud of it. I'm very proud of that,
David. David was like, it's not going to be the name.
Six months later, that's the name, right, I guess. I guess
we got used to it. Yeah, well yeah, good, No,
you're good, keep going. I got to force the word stexpert into everyone's
life. So the box yeah, we uh, we could stay with Andrew
for a moment, How how did you develop your eye for editing and for
you know, doing what you do for all these amazing releases. Is there
something that people that might aspire to be the next Andrew what they can do
to be just like you? I need someone, so please just no.
The the thing about what I do is it it became I mean, it's
gotten better over time. Originally I got hired on to Severn just to sink
audio, and then while I'm sinking audio, I started que seeing the elements
just to see how it looked. And then David, would you know,
kind of depend on that because a lot of the films like we're just kind
of coming in so fast. He's like, I need you to just do
that. And then that became part of my job. And then you know,
I can't I can't express just how insane hard drives are in this job
where you're shifting boxes all over the place, and I'm like, there's no
organization. I don't know where anything is. So I created an organizational system
and I was like, I'll go back into the catalog and organize. And
then as soon as I started to, I said, you know what,
I'm just gonna do it going forward, because that is a whole buck of
the young I can't even get into. And and now now it's actually starting
to happen. We have a Curtis who is working for us, and now
one of his jobs is back cataloging and organizing everything. And it's just now
it's certain to feel like a thing. I mean, I knew where everything
is going from my tenure on and but the rest of the stuff, so
I guess as an example, there's a there's a stack of hard drives right
there. Yeah, but that time, that's just like seven of two hundred
that we have that have got no one has scribbled writing on them. Yeah,
they had stamps dot Com promo pack stamps that just got and then when
you run out of stamp, you just turn it over and then right on
the side, it's like that a lot of scribbled there's a second there's a
second sticker right here. It's all very it's a system. No one heard
of one of these. Wow, the label maker. That's why it was
great when Andrew came on, because all of a sudden, it's like,
oh, now we can call Andrew and we actually need to find something rather
than rummage through hundred drives with like and I've done that where David has a
nice little chair, I don't know what you'd call it, like a like
a stool, and there's drives and then the cabinet opens up and then there's
just more drives and you don't know, you know around where it's like from
because of the dust level on it. But I mean, no, David,
I've made It's not like David lives in the Hobbit hole but he doesn't.
But uh no, that it's it's like, I mean, even here,
what can I say? I I also I'm I'm victim to it tax
and drives but they're all labeled. But yeah, no, it's it's it's
not so much I I have OCD. But I also I'm I'm very passionate
about what we do. Having a love of film and film restoration and preservation.
It has definitely been the driving factor to get a lot of this stuff
done and looking great. And I mean I tweeted about it a while ago
when I was working on a Jess Franco movie of all things. I went,
oh, fuck, yeah, because we just discovered something that had not
been released ever, like in this form and and so from the original negative
and it's just like that's still even when it's a filmmaker I don't love.
I'm so excited that I get to be a part of it and I get
to put this out for people to enjoy. So if you wanted to,
you know, do something like this, you just have to love film and
love just filmmaking, I think, and then just being able to look at
the film. And I mean the Blu Ray dot com form people should all
do this job because they are very opinionated. Well, they think they can
do it. They think they can do it all. I would love to
try their Blu Ray labels. I would love to see how they definitely better
than several so we can hope they will. They will, actually, guess,
every time they start to say something nice about us, I want to
just bring it right back down because I I feel like if you're getting them
on your side, you're doing something wrong. No, it's glare. There's
a lot of a lot of like the whole company is run and driven by
people who this isn't just a job, this is what they love and that
therefore, like there's that whole saying of like do something you love and you'll
never work a day in your life, which is bullshit. You'll work harder
than everything else because you want it all to be great. David and I
text like all the time. There's no off button, and that's because not
just it's not just a job. Like I don't clock out and go hang
out with my kid. My kid goes to bed, I come back on
the computer and I get done what I was doing because I like, I
can't wait to get this out, you know. And it doesn't stop.
And I know it sounds maddening, but it doesn't stop. There's just sounds
mad. It sounds mad, I've been saying. And then like yeah,
and I still try to find time to watch other companies releases and stuff to
see what they're doing, how we can improve to make our releases better.
Like you know, subtitles were not a huge priority for a lot of releases
earlier on, but that was something as a partially deaf person, I like,
I'm like, we need subtitles on every release, so that I took
that on as a part of my responsibility to make sure that we include stage
subtitles. And now, like I mean, I see people posting like new
Fathers it's a whole new market. I didn't even know cared about subtitles,
new fathers who can't hear the movie over a screaming child. They just want
to know what's happening, you know, And so like there are little things
like that that I feel like, you know, just as you can die
from a thousand cuts, you can you can heal from a thousand bandages.
And I feel like we I is now I've heard death of a thousand cuts,
but for it, yeah, I don't know, Like there is something
great about working for someone like David who just is just not, if not
more passionate than you. And he's definitely more passionate. It's but like him
being open to collaboration and understanding of how things like work and what could realistically
be done, and like, like like a good movie being made, collaboration
creates some something fantastic and I'm so happy to be like, I couldn't do
this for other companies, Like you know, I couldn't do this. When
I was working on Catfish, they were like, okay, cool, at
seven o'clock, I'm going home. I'm like cool, I'm gonna stay home,
stay here and edit and if you want to see anything. They're like,
no, I'm good, I'll see it tomorrow, I guess. But
it's like I'm in, like whatever I want to do, and like his
enthusiasm is infectious not just to me but to everyone at the office. And
that's why you wanted him on here so bad, because exactly I get it.
But yeah, so I guess. I hope that answers your question more
along the lines just it does just basically be insane and then you can have
Andrew's job. That's how this works. Collaboration is actually one of the biggest
things I wanted to ask about, and David, Andrew and I have talked
about this before. I'm sure you don't know this, but one of the
things I really try to do on this channel is to get people to be
a little less entitled and understand how much work goes into all these Could you
share, maybe on one of the more involved releases, how many hands actually
touch a disc in terms of acquisitions, sales, negotiations, subtitling, special
features, finding the elements everything. Well, I guess that outside of the
of the original feature documentaries, where that's probably the most hands because obviously there's
a big production going on in several territories. But gosh, I thing.
I know, that's an intimidating question. It is because there's all the people
here and and then all the freelance people who are essentially several employees and then
are a part of the seventeen I should say. But then there's the people
at the audio house. There's the people at the transfer house, and often
the transfers happen in a foreign country. The negatives won't be shipped out of
Rome or Paris or Madrid or wherever, So there's all the people at those
labs that actually do that. And then of course there's the person coordinating getting
the element from wherever it's stored to the lab. So then the hard drive
comes flying over to us, and then it goes to the soundhouse, it
goes to restoration and color, and it goes to subtitlings. No, not
often not the same person. And then we've got subtitling, and then we
have the person if it's a foreign language thing, then the person who's in
English speaker checking the translation of the and then of course there's all the extras
which has you know, like I say, they're all kind of small productions
in themselves and often in other territories. So yeah, I couldn't even I
couldn't even warrant a guess, but a lot of people because then well,
once that's done, and then of course the audio restorations to different different people,
and then there's all the people who there's the person who authors the disc,
there's all the we have several people who do QC on the discs,
and then and then it goes to the person who replicates the disk and bladi
bla, and then there's all the people who are involved in the actual packaging
as well. Of course there's the designers who have to do the packaging,
and then there's the people we talk to who actually collect posters around the world.
You know, we've got people in Austria, We've got people in London,
We've got people in Italy who are poster collectors so that we can try
and get the original artwork. So there's those guys as well. Yeah,
it's a lot of people. I've had people ask if some of the seven
releases have been mostly one person deals, and I always have to laugh and
say, it's impossible to do a lot of these with just one person because
of how much is affected literally on a large scale. Yes, And so
the years where it was just me, John and Carl, or me,
Carl and Nicole were there, that's where it was just a difficult thing to
manage because even though that we had, you know, we're wearing many hats
between the three of us, you then have to also, you know,
do the kind of managing of all the other people and their various jobs as
well. So that's was the periods where sometimes you would have to miss a
month or two in order to get to get a release out because it's just
so much stuff that has to come together at the same time. And you
know, as I say, that's the same for other labels too. That's
not unique to us, but it is. It is a lot of people
that are involved in the archaeology of unnething these movies. So another question that
I've not heard ask of Severn before. I don't think any any interesting stories
around negotiating something where a studio told you know, for many years and you
just kept going back to the door and finally got something. Yeah, that's
that's happened quite a lot. I mean, just recently we had one where
it actually got got snipes from under our noses by somebody else. So so
it happens in a bad way too for us. But but yeah, there's
there's there's plenty that we've been kind of on on the trail of for for
a number of years. There was I had a meeting at a FM yesterday
with one of the Italian sales agents and they were like, and I'm like,
this isn't we discovered through one of our contacts. We discovered that this
company owned this film. They didn't even know that they owned this film.
But they're still like, yeah, we're not sure we actually want to license
it to you because we have a better relationship with this other label. It's
like, you wouldn't have even known that you own owned this movie. But
I think I'm I'm hoping that I've persuaded them around that because that because the
other label isn't really bothered about this movie anyway. I'm talking in vaguaries because
obviously it hasn't happened yet. But yeah, there's plenty of situations where where
we're on the trail of a movie for years, and often it's it's because
there's no elements. I mean, for example, the movie Unhinged, the
video Nasty one of the last that hasn't had a Blu ray release is one
that we're still scouring the globe for any kind of film element, and it's
not looking good because it didn't really have a theatrical release anywhere other than England,
and in England, stupid England, it got banned. And so the
person who put it out, you know, ran scared, dumped all his
film elements because he didn't want the police to raid him and take him away.
So and then the director producer, he sold his one and only print
years ago and he doesn't remember who to, so that the only hope is
that we find that person that he solved that print to, and we've got
no clues. Yes, it's that hurt. And since I've been here too,
I've gotten to experience some very weird situations where people just don't want to
work through email or Vimeo links. They want DVD's hand delivered to their house
and the hills and and they have to have specific audio tracks and it's just
so weird. And then even still we don't hear back for months, you
know, and we just have to wait and be patient until you know,
because this is this is you know, something that we are passionate about,
but it might not be something that they're passionate about. They might not even
care about these movies, you know, And so it's just it's just crazy.
Like I know Sam Sherman. I love Sam Sherman so much. But
the best thing is he doesn't want a Blu ray player. He wants everything
on DVD for final approval. And I love that about him because you call
him and he picks up his phone and he says American Independent. He doesn't
say hello, independ Internet in dependent international, and he picks the phone and
if he's not downstairs, it doesn't get answered. I look like there's certain
people like that who I were just such characters, so great, I remember,
can I can I share one really quick side story talking about Sam Sherman.
We wanted for Midnight, the Blu Ray release of Midnight. We wanted
him on camera interview, and he's like, I don't do many interviews anymore,
Like it was showing the pandemic. So he didn't want anyone in his
house. No one was there, and so we mailed him at camera and
I had an hour and a half conversation on the phone with him, and
to explain how to use the camera. It was a point and shoot,
pick it up. But he's like, okay, I'm turning the power on,
all right, I'm hitting the button on the left to indicate that.
And it was just like those kind of moments. It was it don't happen
very often, and I got so I'm just like, I'm so happy to
be in this moment, at this very at this very you know, instant.
And then we got the bonus feature, and then he wanted it on
a DVD to review to make sure it was up to his standards, and
then he approved it and it's good to go for the disk. But just
like, there's just something magical about people like that, you know, whereas
if whereas if if we were shooting it on Super eight, he would have
had no problem because he's cameras down, he's got a wall of film and
cameras. And well, before I dive into all of the rest of mine,
can we talk about some Black Friday titles? Uh? Sex is Crazy?
Can we sell some people and sex is Crazy? I think we already
did, didn't we? I Mean basically, it's uh, it's that one
that was shot in Benadome in the UH in the in the Spaceship Nightclub.
We we didn't answer the main question though, is the sex crazy? Oh?
I can confirm the sex is crazy. Also it's pretty crazy. Yes.
On the on the podcast, I talk about this how this film it's
so weird. I thought there was an error, but no, it's intentional
the whole movie. Like Jess Franco keeps popping up in shots directing the movie
that you're watching. But it's also a movie that they're making me. But
it's not really And I had to ask, you know, uh, I
had to ask Steven Thrower. I'm like, is this it real? And
he goes, yes, that be that what I think Next to Shining Sex,
it might be the craziest Franco film that I've seen and worked on.
Interesting. Yeah, so take that or thing. So after Shining Sex,
you guys announced your second title, which is again continuing to add onto the
video nasties list. We got to miss you Huggs and Kisses and you got
recommendation for mercy on there. Yeah, I miss I miss you. Huggs
and Kisses has been missing from distribution since the VHS era, so or or
if there's been if there was any DVD it wasn't an authorized DVD, so
it's one, it's under a different title, that's right, that's right.
And so we were, you know, in my plight to get as many
video nesties as possible. We got in touch with the Canadian Archive who had
a print and then told us who the copyright owner was, which happened to
be the Markowitz brothers, and so we got in touch with them and did
a deal with them and were able to finally get it. But they had
no clue where the negative was, which is sometimes the case with people in
these old movies. They're like, that's I lost track of the negative back
in nineteen seventy whenever it was made. But luckily, in Canada, most
films that have a release they have to deposit a print with the Canadian Archive.
That's the same in Spain, I believe as well, the Spanish productions
and France too, not Italy, but so a lot of their national archives
have at least some element on these films. It's not comprehensive, it's not
fool proof, but this was the case with I Miss You Hugs and Kisses.
Now. Of course, Kayla being Canadian, she had a personal connection
to this movie and wanted to do the extras and oversee its production. She
was the one who brought recommendation for Mercy to our attention. It just so
happens that's one of the films that didn't have a print deposited with the Canadian
Archive, so the only element we could find was a collector print of the
US theatrical version. So it's only a bonus film. We didn't release it
on its own because the print is you know, has has has been through
the projector a few times, let's say. But it's a good movie,
so which we were again able to license from the Marcus brothers and so uh
and so yeah, so it's a it's a pretty solid package. I am
excited for both. So far are we able to talk about any more that
are coming? This is being released whenever you whenever you say the word,
it will go up. I can even wait till the week prayer. Okay,
Well, I guess we can talk about all of them if it's as
long as it's as long as it's not going live until after the after the
eighteenth. Yeah, if you if you wait until the Super Shark Pop Up
Film Festival, then baby, let's talk everything this is exclusive you mom's the
word baby. I will not even tell my mom. Let's go all right
good? So okay. So we've also got The Dogs, which is a
French film stanager A Depadia and directed by Alan Jessua, who was the director
of Shock Treatment film we put out last year, which was a very a
very French horror movie set in a kind of self care center, spa center
where evil deeds are going on. And The Dogs is another kind of socio
you know, it's a it's a very it's making commentary on on on society,
but it's it's pretty disturbing, and it's a and you liking it to
White Dog, right, Andrew, Yeah, I said, it's basically like
White Dog without the racism. Dogs hate everybody in this situation. But basically,
the cool thing about this one is that it's very much what freedoms are
we giving up for the amount of protection that we want. And it's really
a really interesting thing because you have Gerard Dipardiu, who's this like renowned dog
trainer who teaches people how to have protect dogs, but they're really kind of
attack dogs, and there's a lot of a dog attack situations happening around they
the city. Uh and it's it's a doctor who's very concerned is what's going
on? And if you're a fan of The Shock Tream, in which I
know a lot of people were, I also really loved Shock Tream and that
slow grown reveal of information as the movie goes on, it's the same thing
with the dogs. So and not only that, if you were a fan
of The Shock Treatment Blue Raing, we got the composer to come back and
do a h you know seen by seeing commentary on some of his tracks.
And there's also a guy doing a whole Alan Jessois retrospect appreciation, yeah,
appreciation, and it's it's a really fun little video essay. So there's plenty
of plenty to look forward to our net release. So those retrospectives are great
that you guys do, Thank you, thank you. Then we have oh
so, the one of the uhds we're doing for Black Friday is Alex de
Laglazia's debut feature, Actual Mutante, which is serio which has never had a
US official release before. And of course we did his second and third features,
Dad of the Beast and Petita Durango. Already two of my favorites.
Yeah, and so Actual Mutante is like a very audation debut which paved the
way for the Alex to Leglazia we know in Love today. Yeah, and
it's we go into it on the podcast. So I would say, if
you want more of that information about the right situation, take a listen to
that. But the the ability to get this movie out there, and not
only in four kamp Adobe Vision. We got a new apt miss mix for
that movie, which it is insane. It's got pedro amadofarm money. So
it's a huge budget and it looks unbelievable. It's a crazy debut feature.
Like if you told me this was like his fifth movie after he had a
couple of box office smashes, I would believe you. Like it's and it
showed that Alex was a sorry ambitious, very ambitious director, very skilled director
who got nothing but better to the point where now he is still crushing it.
Yeah. Well, I mean his movies still or his HBO show even
though are still just as as wild and over the top and violent and hilarious.
This You can see that guy in this first movie, you know.
Yeah, and yeah, tons of bonus features on this one, as well,
including a commentary that hasn't been out there since the first DVD. It
didn't get poorted around new Blu Ray, didn't get poured onto other DVDs.
So we got that newly translated for the American audiences with commentary, very honest
commentary with him and a bunch of the crew talking about the making of the
movie. And I think it's that alone, I think is worth charring out.
So highly recommend that release, just for everything that's Oh we got tons
of the bonus features with behind the scenes people, including special effects people,
and that movie is super special effects heavy. So yeah, highly recommend.
I can't wait to get that one. Then we also have The Devil's Game,
which is a anthology Italian anthology horror show from the early eighties which includes
Mario Obava's last film. It's called Labnaer de Eel and it was aired after
Mario Barba died, but he co directed it with Lamberto, his son,
So I think it's Lamberto's debut, I think, but it's Mario obarba swansong
and so and it stars Darien Nickelode. So it's quite an important piece of
genre history, which is never oh ahead, I was going to say,
it's never been out before because it was only recently discovered that there was a
film element of That's what I was going to say. Yeah, yeah,
So there was a sixteen millimeter print in the Raye television archives and so we
RII scanned that for us and we're like, we were because it's just over
an hour. I think it's an hour and seven minutes or something. We
were like, are we going to just put this out on its own?
And then we looked at the other episodes and there were some good directors on,
like Julia Questi who did Death Laden Egg and Jiango Kell he did an
episode, and all the episodes were of interest as well. There were no
film elements on the other episodes though, so we had the broadcast cast masters
transferred of those and so that made it a it makes it a two disc
set. But this is you know, we like how horror anthologies. Every
territory seems to have decent horror anthologies dating back through television, and you know,
it's a format that's pretty popular and enjoyable. Well, and this one
sounds especially important. Historias Para got a lot of love just to keep you
awake, got a lot of love, and it's similar to that as far
as like the level of quality. No one seemed to complain about those broadcast
masters. So I think not only getting a nice release of the final Bava
film, getting all those other ones where the content in the quality of the
you know, story kind of shines a little bit harder, and I don't
know, I think that there and we got Lombarto, We got Lombarto Bava,
and we got a comment a couple comment commentary with Tim Lucas obviously all
the colors of the book and mister Bava. Uh, you know, it's
it's a it's gonna be a really fun release for people who like Italian cinema,
especially because there's a lot of familiar faces, familiar names, and that's
just on screen. Another one familiar face, familiar name a lot of people
might know, especially through several because we love him so much, mister Luigi
Kazzi gets a triple feature. This is the Severn exclusive. So so Luigi
is involved in the other three titles that that we're doing for Black Friday,
and he but that we're doing an inter vision release of his of his latest
movies, which are Blood on Melia's Moon, which is a highly bizarre,
semi autobiographical but fantastical and historical epic which he essentially shot with just a small
digital camera. And it has cameos by Dario. Sorry, Andrew, Oh
no, I was gonna say, you can take the filmmaker. Yeah what
your did? Your face just go confused? The cameos by Dario. Yeah,
who else isn't it? Who else is it? Dario's in it,
Manlo Gomerasca from Nocturno. That's that's that's how Manlio Lamberta is in it.
Luigi himself is starzing basically. So yeah. And oh and Barbara mcnulfy from
Suspiria and the sister of it. Yeah, no, it's so and also
the star of the film. It's a location, but it really is a
character in the movie. It's a He's shot a lot of it at his
store Pafonderoso, which for those of us who don't ever get to make it
to Italy, that's a great way just to see it. And uh yeah,
And there's a second feature on there, a movie that he made afterwards
called The Little Little Wizards of Oz, which is a series of short films
of children telling the story of the Wizard of Oz and it's mixed with a
real story. It's fucking crazy and there's it's all. It's it's animated in
the sense that it is not animated. It's cozy made it animated. And
there's a whole thing about making the movie. It's so weird I can't fully
even describe it. But so I was gonna say the real the real thing
I wanted to pimp out about that release. Uh, people who got our
House on the Edge of the Park desk got a bonus feature of a director
like documentary about Rigeridio Dato. This people who made that documentary also made one
about Katzi called Fantastic Kazzis. As David said, fantastic, fantastic Katzi.
And so that is on there as well, and it ends the end credits
role as Luigi dances in a rasta hat in profondo rosso to reggae music.
And it is worth it alone. It is beautiful. Just the man has
no shortness of joy and creativity, and what makes him happy is what he
follows in finding finding an audience for these releases of these later films. Just
it's similar to what I was saying about Alex. It's just like great watching
a filmmaker have fun and do what he loves and people finding joy in that.
So yeah, that's so that's all kind of leading to the final the
last leg. So David, I'll let you tell. So the last two
are two Dario Argento movies which have been criminally underseen in the US. And
so The Five Days is the movie he made between Fourth Flies on Gray Velvet
and Deep Red and it's and it's like a historical violent epic comedy and uh
and one that when we used to collect, when we had our Dario Argento
collection of tapes, it was always the missing piece that Fourth Flies on Gray
Velvet were always the missing pieces of the collection of Dario Argento movies. And
it's never, as far as I'm aware, has been out in a version
which is English friendly. Yes, and it was scanned from the original negative,
so we're doing a uhd of it. It's a very handsome looking movie.
It's a it's a big, big epic because Dario is quite big at
this point in his career. And so so yeah, the Five Days is
that missing piece in our Gento history, that that's that's never had a good
release here, and of course that's that also comes with a ton of extras
as well, including a new Dario interview. Luigi Cootti was the co writer,
interview a couple of the stars, the production manager Alan Jones obviously,
who's a longtime Darrio expert and biographer. So yeah, it's as We're pretty
happy to finally bring that one out because I've been I've been chasing it for
years since I was a collector of tapes, which I still am, but
since I was just a collector of tape right up to now. It's a
title that I've been after seeing in a decent edition. Yeah, and there
is one more release, but before we even go into that, I'm not
going to say it. I want David to say it because he's been working
as ass off to get this done. How many years have you been working
to get this title? Ever since when I worked back at the video distributor
in Nottingham, when I learned about buying rights, I had, you know,
we didn't have the internet back in the good old days, so I
had this director book or production company book or something that I bought from some
store in London which had addresses, and so Cedar Specta COLLI was the production
company behind Four Flies on Gray Velvet, and I was always trying to find
out who owned Four Flies on Gray Velvet. And so it's been a lot.
Right what's going on with Ryan's face right now because she doesn't know because
this is officially the first person outside of the company that we've told Look,
it's this that I just had chills literally just out finally, So it's it's
been a it's been a very long road to get here, and I know
that it's a it's a title that a lot of people want. And then
four Flies on Gray Velvet is really that absolute holy Grail missing gem, you
know, that that everybody needs in their collection, and we we got it.
We got the full chain of rights and so therefore we were able to
access the original negative in rome and and it's a two perf negative which we
had scanned and four K which looks absolutely phenomenal. We had it colored in
Dolby Vision here and and restored and it looks phenomenal for the English track,
in the original element, for the Italian there are two cuts of the film
and we're putting them both out on VHS only. Yeah, releasing the full
director's Italian cut in with both audios. But as that film, all the
releases kind of had situation where like Deep Red had this where some parts weren't
dubbed in English because they were cut. And so we've replaced those bits with
the Italian audio and gotten them, you know, newly translated, made sure
that they're all up to date and up to snuff. And then we have
the US release version as well, which is a little bit shorter and turns
down the ending and a few other bits for completists and people who that's their
version. And we wanted to make sure that this was I mean, as
David said, this is a title he's been tracking down since he got into
He was like, great, I got the job. How do we get
four flies on Gray Villain? So with that amount of pressure, we wanted
to make sure that this was the release and I am so so happy with
how it goes, just getting the original element and unearthing that and finally getting
it in my hands, because even when we were doing it, we're like,
I don't know if this is going to happen, like this could this
could fall apart at any second, and getting that and then getting it over
to illuminate who did the four K Dolby Vision color correction and restoration, and
just seeing that fight. Like when we did that review session where they invited
us in and we all just got to stare at it. I think we
just kind of just even even Joe from Vinigerson was like, I've got to
see this, you know, even he was like, this looks good.
So it was just such just a level of relief off of all of us
collectively. We all just got to breathe and uh and then we remembered we
have a ship ton of bonus features that we have to get done because this
is a four disc Four Flies release, So it's the UHD and it's two
blue rays and the soundtrack CD, the Any Mark Any Soundtrack CD, and
the two blue rays have both versions of the film as well, but also
hours of new extras, including a sea also co wrote this one. And
he bangs on for like ninety minutes or something, isn't it. It's over
an a talking about their history. I mean, he's written a book on
the history of four Flizer in Italian on four Flies and Gray Velvet, so
he pretty much tells that story in across ninety minutes we've got Dario of course,
what Claudio Argento, Bud Bud Spencer. There's a featurette with the late
Bud Spencer, who is a sporting character in this film, Alan Jones.
Again, there's a wealth of vets. Oh I did want to mention also
though, going back to the Five Days, we also have the soundtrack CD
of that, but not only their soundtrack CD. Giorgio Gaslini was the composer
for Dario Argento between Ani A Marconi and Goblin in those early years, so
it has the Five Days soundtrack, but also it's two themes from Dora Into
Darkness and then seven themes from Deep Red. So Audio Gaslini started the soundtrack
to Deep Rat. He did that La la la. He did that theme,
and he did a bunch of others before he fell out with Dario and
then Goblin came into the picture and obviously horror history was changed. Yeah.
So but yes, that's the CD with the Five Days and that you got
the autobiography coming as part of a bundle. You got that beautiful looking pin
from Pixel Elixir, which I got to say thank you so much for continuing
those. I have all of them right over my shoulder. You can't see
them there on this far wall, but I show every single one of them,
just because I think it's one of the best lines of extras for any
of these releases that people put out. I love those pins. God,
that's astonishing. Genuinely chills the moment that that came out. I'm so glad
that people can have it. Yes, And it was genuine relief, I
swear, because I was not expecting that this time. Cannot you cannot tell
a soul until It's been so hard to not say anything to anybody because I'm
looking at this amazing Dolby Vision color, like I get it on my uh,
we have a I have a four K player here and and I got
the check disc and I'm like, I've got to see how this looks on
the disc. And I'm like, oh my god, I just want to
take pictures and share it with everybody, and I can't, ah, and
I'm like, I'm making nail marks in my hands. I'm squeezing. No.
It's it was such an honor to work on this release. And yeah,
like this whole, this whole lineup, like even now we're only just
announced the first like three films and even still people are like hell yeah,
Like there the the energy is already there for the sale of people wanting.
And the best part is the last two Action Mutante and Four Flies are the
ones that were screening at the Super for Shock Pop Up Film Festival the day
before this comes out, and so people don't know because the thing we do
in la is we we have a theater, we fill it up and then
we don't tell anybody what it is. But the films playing are the ones
that are going to be released for Black Fridays. Just to getting people excited.
That's something that David wanted to start doing. And it's kind of like
our little Apple summit where we get to go and the premiere and last year
we did one and we had who who what was his name, the producer
and he was like, I haven't even seen this movie and yeah, we
had a huge crowd for that and we I think We're almost sold out for
tickets on this one. So I'm like so excited just for that second,
that second feature to come out. After watching Action Mutante, everyone's like,
what the hell is going to happen next and just seeing the lights dim and
for people just I want to hear just the applause, like that's the kind
of stuff that gets me just so and that gives me the chills, like
you know, so I'm super excited about that. And if you're hearing this
and you didn't know what happened, get ready because next year it's gonna happen
again. So yeah, yeah, it's it's a huge, huge, huge
line up for us this year, and I'm super happy with it. It
feels huge that one title alone, and actually Metante is not even one to
shy around from either that that's one that people have been wanting for a long
time, that to be treated with real respect, and theolotic Glacier is kind
of like getting a lot more do especially because of what you guys did with
the two four k's Perdida Dingo's, especially that I the moment that you guys
kind of soft teased that that was coming, I I essentially died inside and
said don't wake me until it actually releases because I did not want it took
a while because of all the problems that come along with the with the elements,
which that's say this one wasn't problem free either. But but but to
speak of Alex, I mean he's he's he's pretty famous in Spain. He's
probably I would estimate he's, if not the second most famous Spanish contemporary director,
then he's pretty close. And he's extremely prolific. I mean he produces
as well as directs, and he directs movies and directed. Somebody told me
yesterday I foundly andrew that he's good. That he's actually got a new feature
film as well, one of his one of his comedies, so it's not
just thirty coins that he's been making over the last year. So yeah,
the guy never stops, and he's and he's just gotten. He's got no
less audacious. He's just got you know, bigger budgets and a certain amount
of success behind him. So we love that people don't. Then people who
don't compromise as they as they you know, move into kind of more mainstream
areas and he's on HBO and that show is wild. Hell yeah, man,
Well, speaking of more mainstream, I got like a couple of quick
otions then we can bring it in for a landing. The the release of
Like All or Nothing kind of led to a little more art house feel from
Severn, and then of course Out of the Blue came and that sort of
gave credence to that, is that a hint of more of a broadening of
spectrums to come from spectrum from so I mean, I think, you know,
I think our spectrums as broad as we want it to be at this
point. But there are occasional passion projects and All or Nothing was definitely one
of those for me. But you could say the same about The Hairdresser's Husband,
which we released the month after The Simple Dwarf, you know, back
in the in the DVD days. So it's not it's not like a new
thing, but it's just not something we do particularly often. And but there
are, yes, there is a major art house movie is going to be
on the and the January slate as well. Nice it's got it's got slight,
it's got slightly more psychotronic elements to it. I mean, it's got
murder and sex in it, but uh, you know, it's still very
much house. What about other aspects of eurocult that maybe seven hasn't dived into
yet, like a good spaghetti western or anything. Would that ever be a
possibility? I wouldn't count it out, But there's nothing in the pipeline.
I mean, I know, I know other labels are are kind of diving
into the spaghetti westerns now as well. I think. I think Arrow has
already done a box of spaghetti westerns and I hear that worked in Silence long
ago, and there's there's a few violent ones that I could see fitting in
with Severn and kind of getting people to shake up their taste a little bit.
Yeah, I think we're more likely to do police Atteschi that in the
near future than spaghetti westerns. That makes sense, and honestly, let's kind
of do that. There's been a handful of decent releases of some of those,
but nothing like a big revival of Holy Hill. We're in the golden
age of those releases. I'd love to see that start too, because a
lot of those are amazing. Now. There are some great actors out there,
like Thomas and I think he's one of the ones that I love so
much. I mean, Grindhouse put out tough ones, you know, And
what's that guy with the mustache? What a what a charming face? Can
we just point out how you can say the guy with the mustache and David
immediately knows the name. Did I get that right? When he's a guy
with the mustache early, right, it's probably hold on, Let's look,
let's look Emily, who was kind of like took over from Franco Nio when
when people couldn't get Frank you know, he he took over a lot of
Franko Naira's or if couldn't get Frank Carniro, you got Murtz Emily. Unfortunately,
he died quite young, so he's he's not been a part of the
revival of some of his great roles in the seventies. Yeah, but look
at that mustache, you know what I mean, that's all that matters.
No, Like, there are some actors out there that are there are great,
and there's some great filmmakers who did some incredible Polissy attachee. I can't
remember. There's a box that that came out not too long ago, a
policy attache box that was that arrow. Probably they did the uh and then
Rare Waves. Has they've done the Caliber forty five box. Yeah, I
have that and the years of lead box exactly years. Yeah. Like,
yeah, there's some really fun stuff, but there's still plenty to be unearthed,
you know, so right, but I do know that that that some
of those films didn't when we were at Blue Underground, they didn't do nearly
as well as the as as the horror movie. Same with spaghetti westerns.
With the exception of Jango, the the rest of them didn't do as well,
so we tended to kind of veer away from those genres. So maybe
maybe that's the last question to lean on here then, is what, uh,
what sort of trends do you see coming for home video in the next
couple of years that potentially could you know, like Hong Kong any has been
huge over the last year and a half, there's a few eurocult has been
big for years obviously, but is there a certain genre that you think is
about to take everybody by storm once some rights maybe get worked out, and
not necessarily just from Severn, just as a whole. Well, we're certainly
we're certainly diving deeper into Spain. There's, yeah, a bunch of Hong
Kong movies we've got as well. So yeah, I don't know, I
wouldn't wanna, wouldn't wanna, wouldn't want to say, but we're definitely going
out. Uh, you know, we've got Indonesian, more Indonesian movies coming
we've got So there's you know, there's there's plenty of stuff that hasn't been
given as especial editional treatment. I think as the industry continues to continues on,
fans have been getting more concentrated and more interested and open into fighting new
stuff. And I think that's the thing that I'm most excited about with with
the future of the Blu rays and physical media is people like willing to take
that chance and go, oh, I like this label. I would love
to I'll check out that, like you're you're the ideal customer. You buy
all the trinkets we put out and all the all the bundle and you've got
children. But uh, like, I think just having that ability to garner
like brand not brand loyalty, but brand trust, knowing that if it's coming
out from a specific label or or something like that. And but then again
that that falls into the problem of everything being super condensed. I just want
you know, it's hard because there's so many different things out there. Yeah,
it's impossible to figure out what what's going to happen next. Yeah,
I mean you look, you look a question at this stuff. You look
at some of the stuff that you know, Manda Micabreo have done since the
day that they started. You know, I wouldn't necessarily say that they they
they started trends from certain territories, but they picked items from certain territories that
we all needed to see and we had no idea existed. And they're still
doing that. You know. I'm very interested in this, in this Bollywood
horror set that they've they've got coming, for example, so look, look
how cool that is. I just watched the Haunted Turkish Bathhouse this morning from
Modern Macabro. Before that, I watched The Eye the Jury, which came
out from Classic Flicks, and the next up I got Diary of a Mad
Housewife and then on the Run like it's it's every It's all every there's everything
everywhere. It doesn't there, it doesn't stop. This is just the stuff
right next to it. And then like before that, I have our snick
and old lace, like this is none of these films belong together. Nope,
you know what I mean, And like the fact that it's all ready
and available and their company is putting it out and those companies like us are
unearthing deeper and deeper cuts and deeper and deeper things like it's I mean,
I'm not saying everyone's got like a dedicated Kaila Janese kind of situation where they
are like hyper fixated. But there are people who are just obsessed with this
kind of stuff and they're finally getting those films that they saw at an early
age and fuck them up and getting it out like Peanut Butter Solution, for
example, that fucked up a lot of people, but no one had seen
it in years, you know. So it's just like there is still definitely
plenty to on earth and discover, and as the fan bases get more and
more concentrated, I think we're going to have a weird period where things kind
of go down, but just as everything, things will boost right back up
because you're gonna find, like I don't know if you're a fan of pro
wrestling, but there's always a rough patch before there's just the prem the cream
of the crop. Eventually you stumble on something great and then that leads to
a new generation. Why I chose to talk about pro wrestling in a situation,
I don't know, but I'm just saying that is a good ant like
everything. And then of course there's pandemic three. Yeah, there's that,
and I'm sure eventually there will be a four. Gentlemen, James Wynn goes
around doing this with his hand as the three. I don't know if four
works as well. It looks like you have arthritis at that point in time.
Maybe a more accurate claw though too. It's also just a bad joke.
I went for it anyways, you know. Thank you guys for all
your time. I can't wait for everybody to see this because I literally you
saw the moment there was a sheen pulled off of me and chills. This
is going to be a giant sale for you, guys. I can feel
it. I will do my best to hype up everything I can for it.
So thank you all for just constantly putting love and passion to every one
of these releases. And thanks for your time today. Thank you very much.
All right, hopefully we can talk again soon. Thank you guys.
Kill me no non