Four Long-Unseen Visions Of Female Madness
With 13 Hours Of New Special Features
(LOS ANGELES, CA) On August 30th, Severin Films is lifting the curtain on another heartstopping box set – House of Psychotic Women: Rarities Collection. Curated and produced by acclaimed author and WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED: A HISTORY OF FOLK HORROR director Kier-La Janisse as a tie-in with the new, expanded edition of her brilliant book! Orders can be placed at www.severinfilms.com now!
“GROUNDBREAKING…House of Psychotic Women is one of the most influential pieces of film analysis of the 21st century. Kier-La Janisse is a legend in the genre community.”-Screen Anarchy
In 2012 Kier-La Janisse published House of Psychotic Women, billed as “an autobiographical topography of female neurosis in horror and exploitation films.” It soon became one of the most “vital” (Tim Lucas, Video Watchdog) and “astonishing” (Daily Grindhouse) genre tomes of all time, with beloved actress and singer Molly Ringwald saying she “devoured this compelling, surprising, and moving book.” To mark the book’s 10th anniversary, award-winning writer/programmer/filmmaker Janisse (WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED) now presents four of the strongest and strangest explorations of onscreen delirium and hysteria, all on American Blu-ray for the first time: Elizabeth Taylor stars in 1974’s IDENTIKIT (aka THE DRIVER’S SEAT) as a hostile woman who travels to Rome to find the most dangerous liaison of all. In the surreal 1986 Polish horror-comedy I LIKE BATS, a female vampire discovers that love may be the cruelest curse. Florinda Bolkan stars in the startling 1975 amnesiac giallo FOOTPRINTS from the director of THE FIFTH CORD. And British screenwriter and radical theatre icon Jane Arden directs 1972’s harrowing THE OTHER SIDE OF THE UNDERNEATH. Each film has been restored from original vault elements, with all-new introductions by the author and hours of Special Features produced exclusively for this collection.
Disc 1: IDENTIKIT
In what remains the most obscure, bizarre and wildly misunderstood film of her entire career – and perhaps even ‘70s Italian cinema – Elizabeth Taylor stars as a disturbed woman who arrives in Rome to find a city fragmented by autocratic law, leftist violence and her own increasingly unhinged mission to find the most dangerous liaison of all. Academy Award® nominee Ian Bannen (THE OFFENCE), Mona Washbourne (THE COLLECTOR) and Andy Warhol co-star in this “unique, hallucinatory neo noir” (Cult Film Freaks) – barely released in America as THE DRIVER’S SEAT – directed by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi (‘TIS PITY SHE’S A WHORE), adapted from the unnerving novella by Muriel Spark (The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie) and featuring cinematography by three-time Oscar® winner Vittorio Storaro (APOCALYPSE NOW, THE LAST EMPEROR), now restored in 4K by Cinematheque of Bologna and Severin Films.
Disc Specs:
Runtime: 102 mins
Audio: English Mono/Italian Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Closed Captions: English SDH
Region A
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Special Features:
Introduction By Kier-La Janisse, Author Of House Of Psychotic Women
Audio Commentary With TCM Underground Curator Millie De Chirico
A Lack Of Absence – Interview With Writer And Literary Historian Chandra Mayor On Muriel Spark’s The Driver’s Seat
Trailer
Disc 2: I LIKE BATS
Directed and co-written by Grzegorz Warchol – the Polish actor best known for his performance in THREE COLORS: WHITE – this 1986 Perspektywa Film Group production combines splashes of absurdist black comedy with jolts of old-school gothic horror for a slyly contemporary take on the female bloodsucker mythos. Katarzyna Walter stars as a happily single young vampire who works in her aunt’s curio shop when not feeding on various suitors and sleazebags. But when she falls for a handsome psychiatrist, she’ll discover that no affliction is more horrific than love. Co-scripted by feminist writer/activist Krystyna Kofta and featuring poet, songwriter and cabaret icon Jonasz Kofta in his sole film role, I LIKE BATS is now scanned in 2K from the only 35mm print known to exist.
Disc Specs:
Runtime: 81 mins
Audio: Polish Mono with English Subtitles
Region All
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Special Features:
Introduction By Kier-La Janisse, Author Of House Of Psychotic Women
Audio Commentary With Kamila Wielebska, Actor And Co-Editor Of A Story Of Sin: Surrealism In Polish Cinema
TV Spot
Discs 3-4: FOOTPRINTS
In the most criminally underseen giallo of the ‘70s, Florinda Bolkan (A LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN, FLAVIA THE HERETIC) stars as a freelance translator who wakes one morning missing all memory of her past three days. But will a trail of odd clues lead her to a place where perception and identity are never what they seem? Nicoletta Elmi (DEEP RED), Evelyn Stewart (THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH), Lila Kedrova (THE TENANT) and Klaus Kinski co-star in this “visually stunning gem” (Mondo Digital) – also known as FOOTPRINTS ON THE MOON – directed by Luigi Bazzoni (THE FIFTH CORD) with cinematography by three-time Oscar® winner Vittorio Storaro (THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE), now scanned in 4K from the original camera negatives.
Disc Specs:
Runtime: U.S. Cut 93 mins / Italian Cut 96 mins
Audio: English Mono/Italian Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Closed Captions: English SDH
Region A
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Special Features for US Cut:
Introduction By Kier-La Janisse, Author Of House Of Psychotic Women
To The Moon — Interview With Actress Ida Galli
Nicoletta Elmi: Italian Horror’s Imp Ascendant — Video Essay By Film Scholars Alexandra Heller-Nicholas And Craig Martin
Special Features for Italian Cut:
Audio Commentary With Film Historian Kat Ellinger
Light Of The Moon — Interview With Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro
Trailer
Disc 5: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE UNDERNEATH
It’s been called “harrowing” (The Guardian), “seriously disturbing” (Blu-ray.com) and “part documentary, part primal scream” (Screen Slate). More than half a century later, it remains all that and more: In 1972, screenwriter/feminist/radical theater icon Jane Arden adapted her own multimedia stage production “A New Communion for Freaks, Prophets and Witches” into a nightmarish exploration of reason, chaos and her own battles with mental illness unlike anything audiences have seen before or since. Sheila Allen (CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED), Ann Lynn (THE BLACK TORMENT), renowned visual artist Penny Slinger and Arden herself star in the only British feature film of the 1970s solo-directed by a woman, recently restored in 2K by the British Film Institute.
Disc Specs:
Runtime: 111 mins
Audio: English Mono
Closed Captions: English SDH
Region All
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Special Features:
Introduction By Kier-La Janisse, Author Of House Of Psychotic Women
Extended Workprint Version Of The Film
Sheila Allen Interview
Natasha Morgan Interview
Extended Sequences
Penny Slinger Live At The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies
PENNY SLINGER: OUT OF THE SHADOWS Trailer
Special Thanks to: Jacqueline Castel, Daniel Bird, Harvey Fenton , Richard Kovitch, Eddie Muller, Shelagh Rowan-Legg, Penny Slinger, Andy Starke
