"This is a horrible, damned house." Whoa - what do we have here?! Deaf Crocodile, Belarusfilm, & Seagull Films, in partnership with DiabolikDVD, are releasing on disc a lost Belarusian folk horror film titled The Savage Hunt of King Stakh, which originally debuted in 1980. Described as an "ultra-rare" film that is a "major rediscovery for genre fans" who might want to take a look. A mystical drama set in an out-of-the-way castle in the Belarusian woodlands at the end of the 19th century. A young ethnographer, Andrej Bielarecki, arrives at the castle to research local folk legends including the story of King Stakh. "Part folk horror, part supernatural mystery, King Stakh is a melancholy, chilling mixture of Terry Gilliam, Italian Gothic Horror, 1960s Hammer Films, and The Wicker Man." Long unavailable, the film has recently been restored from the original film elements in its extended 126-minute Director's Cut. The film stars Elena Dimitrova,...
- 5/31/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Summer time is approaching, which means it is, of course, Belarusian folk-horror season. As part of Deaf Crocodile Films’ new collaboration with DiabolikDVD, the largest independent online distributor of specialized home video releases, their first release will be Valeri Rubinchik’s ultra-rare 1980 feature The Savage Hunt of King Stakh, based on the novel by Belarusian writer Uladzimir Karatkievich. Newly restored by Craig Rogers, Deaf Crocodile Co-Founder and Head of Post-Production and Restoration, this will mark the first-ever North American Blu-ray release of the two-hour Director’s Cut version. Ahead of the July 1 release, we’re pleased to exclusively share the restoration trailer.
Here’s the synopsis: “‘We have more ghosts than live people,’ murmurs the pale, haunted mistress of the mansion of Marsh Firs (Elena Dimitrova) to a scholar of ancient folklore (Boris Plotnikov) who has arrived at her castle to research the bloody legend of King Stakh, a murdered...
Here’s the synopsis: “‘We have more ghosts than live people,’ murmurs the pale, haunted mistress of the mansion of Marsh Firs (Elena Dimitrova) to a scholar of ancient folklore (Boris Plotnikov) who has arrived at her castle to research the bloody legend of King Stakh, a murdered...
- 5/31/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The 1970s were a special time in American cinema. After the box office woes of the 1960s, bewildered studio executives were unsure of how to connect with audiences, whose tastes and impulses were shifting in the hectic milieu of that decade. The change began at the tail end of the previous decade with "The Graduate," "Bonnie and Clyde," and "Midnight Cowboy," all of which pushed boundaries regarding sex, sexuality, and violence. It was Dennis Hopper's "Easy Rider" that would set the mold of "New Hollywood," a period in which studios afforded even the most difficult directors unprecedented creative freedom.
From the summer of 1969 until some time in the early 1980s (the exact timeframe is disputed), "New Hollywood" birthed scores of classics from a generation of new talent, the most famous of which included William Friedkin, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg, to name just a few. Anyone...
From the summer of 1969 until some time in the early 1980s (the exact timeframe is disputed), "New Hollywood" birthed scores of classics from a generation of new talent, the most famous of which included William Friedkin, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg, to name just a few. Anyone...
- 12/10/2022
- by Jack Hawkins
- Slash Film
It’s nearly perfect and utterly profound, a masterpiece — Larisa Shepitko made only four theatrical features yet this Soviet movie about the Great Patriotic War earns her a firm place in film history. Moral betrayals under stress, in the face of profound evil… it’s the human condition. Astonishing for a Mosfilm production of the time, the film equates nationalistic sacrifice with Christian martyrdom. Criterion’s extras tell the impressive story behind the making of this major Soviet production.
The Ascent
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1063
1977 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 109 min. / Voskhozhdenie / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 26, 2021 / 39.95
Starring: Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Sergey Yakovlev, Lyudmila Polyakova, Viktoriya Goldentul, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Mariya Vinogradova, Nikolai Sektimenko, Sergei Kanishchev.
Cinematography: Vladimir Chukhnov, Pavel Lebeshev
Film Editor: Valeriya Belova
Original Music: A. Shnitke
Written by Yuri Klepikov, Larisa Shepitko from a novel by Vasiliy Bykov
Directed by Larisa Shepitko
A few months...
The Ascent
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1063
1977 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 109 min. / Voskhozhdenie / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 26, 2021 / 39.95
Starring: Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Sergey Yakovlev, Lyudmila Polyakova, Viktoriya Goldentul, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Mariya Vinogradova, Nikolai Sektimenko, Sergei Kanishchev.
Cinematography: Vladimir Chukhnov, Pavel Lebeshev
Film Editor: Valeriya Belova
Original Music: A. Shnitke
Written by Yuri Klepikov, Larisa Shepitko from a novel by Vasiliy Bykov
Directed by Larisa Shepitko
A few months...
- 2/27/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
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