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While groundbreaking director Mario Bava remains the most well-known purveyor of Italian Gothic horror, many other filmmakers tried their hand at the form throughout the 1960s as part of a hugely prolific and popular cycle. Gothic Fantastico presents four off-the-beaten path titles from this classic period, all of which demonstrate Italy's ability to expand genre beyond the classic literary monsters that dominated elsewhere. Gaslighting abounds in Massimo Pupillo's Lady Morgan's Vengeance, a delicate tale of romance and mystery, with a sprinkling of sadism and the supernatural, as newlywed Sir Harold Morgan attempts to destroy his new bride with help from his sinister maid. Meanwhile, the perverse influence of Poe is used to great effect in Alberto De Martino's The Blancheville Monster, a tale of family curses and madmen in the attic, as Emilie de Blancheville returns home to her brother Rodéric and discovers her own family may be out for her blood. Mino Guerrini's The Third Eye features not only a very early role for Italian cult film icon Franco Nero, but a plot that borrows several elements from Hitchcock, layered with a whiff of necrophilia. Finally, Damiano Damiani's The Witch takes a more avant-garde approach, when a young historian is lured to work for an ageing woman, only to be held captive when he becomes obsessed with her beautiful daughter. Madness, obsession and messed up families are the order of the day in these four lesser-known monochrome gems from Italy's peak Gothic period, fully restored in 2K from their original negatives and presented alongside an array of in-depth extras.

Media

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Bonus Materials

• SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• 2K restorations from the original camera negatives of all four films
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations of each film
• Original Italian and English front and end titles on The Blancheville Monster, The Third Eye and The Witch
• Original lossless mono Italian soundtracks on all four films
• Original lossless mono English soundtracks on The Blancheville Monster, The Third Eye and The Witch
• Optional English subtitles for the Italian soundtracks
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtracks
• Video introductions to each film by Italian film devotee Mark Thompson Ashworth
• Image galleries
• Reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch
• DISC ONE: LADY MORGAN'S VENGEANCE
• Audio commentary by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
• Video essay on the film by author and producer Kat Ellinger
• Video interview with actress Erika Blanc
• Video interview with actor Paul Muller
• Audio interview with director Massimo Pupillo
• The complete original cineromanzo, published in Suspense in April 1971
• Trailer
• DISC TWO: THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER
• Audio commentary by filmmaker and film historian Paul Anthony Nelson
• Video essay on the film by writer and pop culture historian Keith Allison
• Video interview with author and filmmaker Antonio Tentori
• Opening credits for the US release of the film
• Trailer
• DISC THREE: THE THIRD EYE
• Audio commentary by author and critic Rachael Nisbet
• Video essay on the film by author and filmmaker Lindsay Hallam
• Video interview with actress Erika Blanc
• DISC FOUR: THE WITCH
• Audio commentary by author and producer Kat Ellinger
• Video essay on the film by author and academic Miranda Corcoran
• Video interview with author and filmmaker Antonio Tentori

Sales Points

• First time on Blu-ray for four highly-regarded horror films from Italy's Golden Decade
• In the tradition of Mario Bava and including adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe and Gilles de Rais

Press Quotes

Beautifully shot gothic horror

     —Geoff Rosengren, The Telltale Mind

[Damiano Damiani is] highly regarded as the director of one of the best Italian westerns of all time. Making sensation-and-suspense-filled genre pictures was Damiani's way of life.

     —Alex Cox, The Guardian

many scenes of almost full female nudity... episodes of necrophilia, close-ups of horrific scenes with blood and brutal violence, presented with real sadism and a protracted insistence which conveys a sense of complacency by part of the makers

     —Ministero della Cultura (Italy's Film Censorship B

It's the best treat to come along for fans of Italian cinema in a long time.

     —Movieline Online

The disturbing core of the film builds until the shocking ending.

     —JOE COREY, Inside Pulse

Anyone into gothic horror will enjoy going through this collection of Italian gothic cinema.

     —BRANDON A. DUHAMEL, Theater Byte

Arrow has assembled some really interesting and authoritative supplements, which, along with generally solid technical merits, make this release Recommended.

     —JEFFREY KAUFFMAN, Blu-ray.com