The Right and Wrong Fortunes of War

So I've been slowly replacing some of my US DVDs of UK programs... Not all of them arbitrarily, mind you.  I've just been trying to find the ones that are actually better overseas: be it longer cuts (Masterpiece Theater had a bad habit of trimming scenes down for American television), exclusive special features or just better PAL to NTSC transfers.  The problem is, DVDCompare often helps with the extras, but otherwise there's rarely information online detailing the differences between international editions, and when there is, you wind up having to trust one random Amazon reviewer or an ancient post from the IMDB boards.  So there's a lot of rolling the dice, and so far I've been lucky.  In fact, just recently, I landed a great on one I should've bought years ago.

Fortunes of War may go down in history as the first pairing of frequent collaborators and once actually married couple Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, but it's so much more than that.  The word "epic" gets thrown around a little too often, but this 1987 series truly earns it.  It's a seven-episode adaptation of Olivia Manning's semi-autobiographical series of novels about a college professor and his wife traveling to and from the second World War.  The series is filmed in their authentic locations around Yugoslavia/ Romania, Greece and Egypt.  I couldn't help thinking about those awful shots of Branagh and co. standing around in front of phony pyramids for his latest production of Death On the Nile, while watching Ken and Emma actually climbing the very real pyramids in this.  There are truly impressive battle scenes with big explosions and lots of soldiers operating major military equipment.  But that appears quite sporadically, because Fortunes is really about a single marriage trying to survive the horrors of war, and the friends they meet and lose along the way.

This was major event programming when it aired in the 80s, with something like nine BAFTA noms and three wins (Thompson's first).  Rupert Graves gets third billing on all the packaging, and he's great, but he doesn't even turn up until episode 5.  It's Ronald Pickup who really steals the show as the expatriate Prince Yakimov, but the entire cast is spot-on with one brilliant character after another, including actor/writer Alan Bennett as the detestable Lord Pinkrose.  It has a subtle but effective little score.  And thanks both to Manning and adapter Alan Plater, it's sharply written, and apart from one trite plot device in the last act, heartfelt without being sentimental.  And in fairness to Manning, it could be what actually happened to her and her husband in real life. 

I can still remember waiting, watching websites and wondering when Fortunes of War would ever come out on DVD.  It finally did in 2005 as a flipper-disc from Warner Bros and BBC Video.  And since no one's ever seen fit to restore it to HD, that's been my copy for all these years.  But it's never been terribly satisfying.  So this winter, I got curious, and started searching for information on what they had in the UK, and come to find out in 2006, 2 Entertain released a "Collectors Edition" set of 3 dual-layered DVDs.  How much better is it?

2005 US Warner Bros/ BBC DVD top; 2006 UK 2 Entertain DVD bottom.

I was mostly just hoping the interlacing would be fixed, and yes, it is.  So many of these UK programs suffer from lazy ports that don't re-scan the original materials and so just wind up interlacing PAL material in North America, so importing is often the ideal solution, and so it is in this instance.  But I was pleasantly surprised to discover a very distinct and all-around superior transfer.  Both releases are 1.33:1, as indeed a 1987 television program should be.  But the UK edition has additional picture along all four sides.  What really sticks out, though, is the color correction.  The first thing you notice in these comparisons, especially the first set of shots, is that sickly green hue over the US image.  The UK edition looks much more natural and attractive throughout.  I mean, to give credit where it's due, in the second set of shots and other points through-out the series, Warners has boosted the contrast and saturation somewhat, which can sometimes be a little more appealing (although there probably shouldn't be any of that blue on the dog).  But overall, there's no contest, 2 Entertain is much preferable to look at.

Audio- and language-wise, there's not such a gulf.  Both releases have the original stereo track in Dolby Digital with optional English subtitles.

But another reason to avoid Warner Bros' disc is that it's completely barebones, apart from an annoying BBC commercial that plays on start-up on both sides of the disc.  Meanwhile, 2 Entertain, as its Collectors Edition banner implies, has some great stuff.  There's an almost 40-minute documentary on Plater.  Fortunes itself gets very brief coverage, but you come away with a stronger appreciation for what he's done here anyway, just based on what you learn about the rest of his career.  Then, there is a series of vintage BBC television programs from '87 and '88.  One interviews Pickup and series director James Cellan Jones, and another talks to Plater.  They're a bit trivial, taking phone calls from home viewers, with one young lady asking Pickup for acting advice; but there's some good insight in there as well.  There's an interview with Emma Thompson, which is fun but very much the equivalent of a Carson or Fallon appearance.  Then there's one labeled Breakfast Time, but it's actually a pretty traditional behind-the-scenes promo featurette, with on-set interviews and B-roll footage.  And finally, there's a segment with three critics, which feels a bit silly at first, but actually, they make some good points, and have familiarity with the novels, so fans should actually get something out of it.

2 Entertain's set also comes in a more attractive slipbox... not to mention, what is going on with that awful air-brush painting of Thompson on the US DVD cover?  Neither cover design is terribly good (look how both of them slap those airplanes around the pyramid in the background), but at least you can glance at the UK edition without wincing.

So even though we're talking DVD to DVD, I'd still say this is a must-update, even more than many DVDs to BDs or BDs to UHDs have been.  If you own the US DVD, you've gotta swap it out.  I mean, unless the BBC ever sees fit to restore this classic to HD.  You'd think with its massive production values, awards, artistic qualities, critical reception, star power, etc, this would be high on the list.  But for whatever reason, studios interest in putting out these celebrated classics is very low, and the prognosis for a blu is practically nill.  In the meantime, the Hoover dam couldn't stop the flood of Jess Franco, Andy Milligan, Full Moon and Troma titles getting issued and reissued out the wazoo.  And don't get me wrong, I obviously dig my trashy cult titles as much as anyone and more than most, but come on, where are our priorities?  They should be right here.

Vestron's Silent Night, Deadly Night 3-5 Collection

The holidays may be over, but that doesn't mean we have to stop with the Christmas cheer.  Especially since Vestron has dropped this fun, little 3-disc set down our chimneys.  This is the blu-ray debut of the latter three sequels to Silent Night, Deadly Night: Better Watch Out, Initiation and The Toy Maker.  Lions Gate previously collected the three films for a DVD set back in 2009, but I didn't bother.  They were fullscreen, barebones, and while I enjoyed the whole SNDN series as a kid - and despite the involvement of some interesting creative talents - I wasn't too confident these later, direct-to-video flicks would hold up.  But when Vestron brought them back in a nice, very affordable HD special edition set, I couldn't resist.  And now I'm glad I didn't.

When I said I enjoyed the whole series as a kid, what I meant was some more than others.  And 3 was always the one I liked least, even including 2, which is like 50% recycled footage from the first one.  It was just so damn so and boring, and that hasn't really changed.  The killer no longer dresses like Santa, and spends the entire film in a literal coma, shambling around and following our heroine thanks to some under-cooked plot point about a psychic link.  I think the film is deliberately slow-paced in order to feel dreamlike, but that doesn't make it any less of an endurance test.  Fortunately, it's short, a bit silly and now that I'm older, I'm recognizing a lot of the talent involved, all of which helps buoy one's interest.

For starters, the director is Monte Hellman (Two Lane Blacktop, The Shooting).  That might come as a bit of a shock, but it makes sense when you think how he got his start making films like Beast From Haunted Cave and The Terror (which explains why we see it playing on several TVs throughout the film), and how his career had slid back down in by the late 80s.  Anyway, there's not a lot of directorial dynamism on hand here, but it's professionally made, and the film's script problems can't really be laid at Hellman's feet.  Although he does share a co-writing credit, so maybe...

Anyway, just as interesting as its director is its cast.  I Spy's Robert Culp is the marquee name as the cop on the trail of the killer; but he never manages to have anything to do with the main story.  Instead, we have Twin Peaks' Richard Beymar and Eric Da Re, Mulholland Drive's Laura Harring, TCM2's Bill Mosley as Ricky (the killer from the previous film) and prize fighter Carlos Palomino.  Not that the novelty of the line-up means we're getting any great performances, and our ingénue protagonist is as stiff as they come.  The most memorable aspect of this drowsy thriller is the fact that Ricky has a blinking glass dome on his head that shows his brain at all times.  Otherwise, it's a pretty lackluster slasher with uninteresting characters and only a handful of straight-forward kills.

2022 Vestron BD.

Well, it turns out Vestron's blu-rays are full-frame, too.  Of course, that would be the OAR of a direct-to-video film from this period, but often it turns out the directors at least had aspirations of theatrical exhibition and framed for wide.  Apparently, that's not the case here, so this boxy 1.33:1 framing is as it should be.  It's a clear HD image with clearly delineated colors, attractive contrast levels and reasonable but unexceptional grain capture - in other words, about what we've come to expect from Vestron.  It's fine but nothing cutting edge.

The original mono track sounds nice and clear on this DTS-HD track, and we get optional English, English HoH and Spanish subtitles.

More exciting, we get some sweet extras.  First up is an expert audio commentary by Jarret Gahan.  It's informative, but goes off on long tangents.  When he was explaining the difference between Charles Band's Wizard Video and Full Moon companies, I asked myself, how did we get here?  I believe the only connection is that SNDN3 is also a direct-to-video title.  So you'll need a good reserve of patience, but if you can handle it, this is definitely the kind of film that calls for having its backstory explained, and the commentary does the job.  Even better, though, are the on-camera interviews.  Creative Consultant Steven Gaydos was a long-time collaborator of Hellman's, and is able to bring his perspective to the proceedings.  Mosley's is the most fun, with a bunch of personal anecdotes, and executive producer Richard Gladstein provides the first of three interviews talking us through this trilogy of films.  We also get the trailer and a stills gallery.

1990's SNDN4 is a more exciting rediscovery because it's a Brian Yuzna film.  As slow as 3 was, 4 is the one that consistently put me to sleep during sleepovers as a kid.  At least I made it to the end of 3.  Barely if at at all connected to the previous three films (I don't care what anybody says, this Ricky will always be that Ricky to me!) and not even a slasher anymore, 4 is a simplistic and heavy-handed look at feminism through the lens of a woman written by a man who gets caught up with a coven of witches.  Almost nobody gets killed, and most people just sit around yammering about office and relationship politics for most of the run time.  If an actual feminist had written this, it might've had some edge at least.

But revisiting the film now, while my criticisms still hold true, I've found some great sequences to appreciate.  It turns out, you're really rewarded if you make it to the end.  There are reliably inventive special effects sequences by Screaming Mad George and an extreme moment of coitus interruptus by Clint Howard.  Bond girl Maud Adams doesn't work up much enthusiasm for her role as the lead witch, but some of the others, including Jeanne Bates and Moonlighting's Allyce Beasley, get into the spirit of things.  Plus, Phantasm's Reggie Bannister has a neat cameo.  And there's more Christmas in this film than its critics give it credit for.  It's not Yuzna's best work, but it's not his worst.

2022 Vestron BD.

Again the film's 1.33:1, and all this spare headroom makes me think these really should be matted to 1.85:1, but these are just the masters Lions Gate had lying around.  Anyway, it's fine, and at least nice to finally see these films in crisp HD.  If anything, grain is even sparser here, but it's a clean, attractive picture.  This time the original audio is stereo, but otherwise it's the same story as last time, with a clear DTS-HD track and optional English, English HoH & Spanish subtitles.

The extras are even better this time, thanks to another excellent audio commentary by Brian Yuzna.  It's always a treat listening to his talk about his films.  We also get a forthcoming on-camera talk with screenwriter Woody Keith, a stilted look at the special effects with Screaming Mad George, and the next chapter with Richard Gladstein, who helps put these films in context.  And again, there's a stills gallery and the trailer.

1991's 5 was always my favorite, and in 2022, it still is.  Yuzna let his script supervisor Martin Kitrosser direct this one, but Yuzna oversaw it as a producer and co-writer, and it still feels like a Yuzna film.  It's a completely bonkers psycho-sexual tale of a new killer Santa, this time one who kills with twisted, mechanical toys.  It's demented, fast paced, and basically one great set-piece after another.  The cast, from the knowns (including famous SNDN detractor Mickey Rooney!) to the unknowns, all do a great job here, even the kids.  This film improves on the previous two in practically every respect, and the premise is a good time waiting to be unwrapped.

2022 Vestron BD.

Again, the framing is 1.33:1, but like 4, 5 isn't as strong an image capture as 3, which itself wasn't showroom floor stuff.  Grain is barely detectable.  This certainly wasn't restored in 4k, but Vestron fans should be used to older masters by now, and it's a satisfying enough HD transfer if you go in knowing what to expect.  The stereo mix is again presented as a lossless DTS-HD track, and we get another trio of English, English HoH and Spanish subtitles.

Kitrosser does his own commentary, which is nice.  Yuzna does come back, too, this time for an on-camera interview.  Probably the best one is with actor Brian Bremer, who managed to steal the show from an exceptional cast.  We also get another one rough chat with Screaming Mad George and third chapter in our talk with Richard Gladstein.  There's one more still gallery and the trailer.  And the whole package comes in a stylish slipcover.

A lot of us have been waiting for Vestron to tackle these films, and this Christmas, they didn't let us down.  It may not be a massive restorative undertaking, but getting all three films in HD for the first time, with a bunch of truly rewarding extras, is really all you can ask for.  Especially at these prices.  Let's hope the Vestron line lives on for a long, long time.

Revisiting I Think We're Alone Now

This is one I never expected to see on blu-ray because, as we'll see, blu-ray really couldn't help this movie.  And that's not me taking a shot - this movie is great, I've been a huge fan of it since it first came out on DVD back in 2010.  But considering how this film was made, I don't think it could benefit from being in HD.  Vinegar Syndrome partner label ETR Media, however, seems to disagree.  Or at least they have some reason to reissue this on blu, so I'm hooked.  Let's see what they're bringing to the table.

If you've never heard of it, 2008's I Think We're Alone Now is a documentary that takes a very intimate look at two Tiffany (as in the 80's pop star who sang the hit record "I Think We're Alone Now") stalkers.  This is a very personal story of two very different (from each other and most anybody else) people, that certainly puts their eccentricities up for display, and is a very eye-opening look at the sort of person who almost never get spotlight.  But it's not exploitative like, say, 1998's Jefftowne.  I remember several co-workers of mine getting very excited about the Troma DVD of Jefftowne, which is also a very intimate look at, in this case, someone with Down's Syndrome, and the hook there was that he drank beer, cursed and was essentially a bad boy shit-kicker type - isn't that a funny?  And there is something very compelling about that film, too, just because the filmmakers get very close.  But I was mostly struck by how cruel the people were around him, encouraging his bad behavior for laughs and toying with him, embarrassing him by talking about his crushes and porn to the camera, even though he ostensibly didn't mind.  Thankfully, this film isn't like that.  It has all the good but none of the bad.

I mean, first of all, neither of the two characters in this film, Jeff and Kelly, have Down's Syndrome.  Jeff tells us he has Asperger's Syndrome and they're both suffering a weird an extreme fixation, but they're both have complete mental faculties and clearly know what they're getting into and sharing with us.  There are certainly humorous elements here, but we're not just being set up here to point and laugh at the weirdos.  In fact, this is can be a pretty wrenching film in terms of how much you wind up feeling for everyone involved.  You feel sorry for Tiffany, because she has had to get restraining orders and things.  This film starts out with the newspaper headlines of some of the things she's had to go through with Jeff.  These aren't just really big fans of her music; they feel they are fully, completely in love with her.  And in some way we're just sinking into their inevitable heartbreak.  But fortunately they have enough spirit to keep us from spiraling into utter depression - scenes like the one where Jeff tells his pastor, who's trying to sing a hymn, how he talked to Tiffany at a porn convention (apparently she went because she once posed for Playboy), and she was the most Christ-like person in the world put a great big smile on my face.  The movie's a roller coaster.

2010 MVD Visual DVD top; 2022 ETR Media BD bottom.

I Think We're Alone Now is another one of those early digital shot-on-SD films, and in this particular case, seems to have been shot with a mix of different consumer cameras.  So there's no additional detail to restore.  The BD is a smidgen wider, going from 1.33:1 to 1.35:1, which I suppose is a slight correction.  The DVD was interlaced, and so is the BD; again, because it's surely baked into the original footage.  I owned a couple digital cameras in those days, and unless you spent the money for serious professional cameras, this is what you've got.  The camera struggles especially in low-light, yielding almost as much digital noise as actual detail.  Putting it on a higher def disc doesn't help that.  It does look like efforts were made to color correct the film, look at the second set of shots.  Well, results vary scene by scene, but in the above shot, I think the original DVD looks more natural.  Not that I'm saying the DVD is superior than the BD, but in terms of PQ at least, it's pretty much a dead tie, with all the little variances mostly just being arbitrary and minor enough viewers wouldn't notice anyway.

And the Dolby 2.0 audio is at least lossless DTS-HD on the blu, though it's still pretty raw, low-fi stuff.  They've also added optional English subtitles.  So we start to see the BD pull ahead now.

The real reasons to double-dip are the new extras.  Not that the DVD was lacking in this department.  There are two audio commentaries: one by Jeff and one by Kelly.  Both offer fascinating additional insights into these two characters, though Kelly's track has a lot of dead-air.  So that one's a bit of a chore, but there are moments that make it worth the struggle.  Then there's a collection of deleted scenes, which are often just as compelling as the rest of the film, and given its short running time (the film is just 61 minutes long), I'm surprised they cut most of this out.  There's a great chunk on Alyssa Milano, and a fascinating look at the man who sold Jeff his "radionic, psionic, psychotronic devices" he uses to tune into Tiffany's "resonant frequencies."  There's also a music video and the trailer.

Thankfully, the BD keeps all of that wonderful stuff, except for the trailer.  And there's new stuff.  There's a new director's commentary, which is pretty interesting and insightful.  There's a short animated featurette about the origins of the film.  And best of all, there are new updates interviewing both Jeff and Kelly about where they're at now in 2022 - there are some new twists for sure, and it takes you even further along their emotional journeys.  Oh, and there's a new interview clip of Jeff explaining the surprising reason why he knows for certain how Natalie Wood was murdered.  The first 1000 copies also come in a limited edition slipcover.

So in the most direct way, the blu-ray is not an upgrade over the DVD, and could even be argued to be a slight downgrade.  You know, we're used to judging whether to replace a DVD with a BD based on picture quality, and in this column it rates a "no."  But factor in everything else and it's an absolute must double-dip.  The audio: meh, but sure.  The subtitles: handy, for some viewers more than others.  And the extras: essential.  It's like a little sequel.

The Strange Oeuvre of Coffin Joe, Part 3

Sadly, we lost Jose Mojica Marins in 2020.  But a silver lining is that there's more to his story on home video, even English-friendly home video, since the previous entries in my 'Strange Oeuvre of Coffin Joe' series.  A brand new release!  A recent discovery of an actually older, rare Brazillian disc!  And even an autobiographical documentary thought to be previously unavailable in English.  If you're ready to descend even deeper into the bizarre world of Coffin Joe, the releases are out there.

So let's start with The Black Fables.  It's a 2015 anthology horror film by writer/ director/ producer/ effects artist Rodrigo Aragao.  But he's pulled in different Brazillian filmmakers to direct each segment.  He directs the wrap-around and one segment himself, but then the other guys are Joel Caetano, Petter Baiestorf, Marcelo Castanheira and - I hope you guys are ahead of me on this reveal - Coffin Joe himself, Jose Mojica Marins!  The film maintains a very consistent tone: fast paced, colorful, and very gory with a strong emphasis on the practical special effects.  It's not exactly Shakespeare, but it's a low budget crowd pleaser that takes from Brazillian folklore.

A group of kids are playing in the forest and telling each other scary stories: a very on-the-nose allegory about a corrupt mayor who craps all over his people, until one turns into a zombie and gets payback, a period piece about a mysterious werewolf lurking around a plantation, a ghost who haunts a girls' school bathroom... And yes, at almost 80 years old, Marins wrote, directed and acted (though not as Coffin Joe) in his tale of a Saci out for revenge after a young woman and her obnoxious boyfriend disrespect an elder of the forest.  It only has one leg, so it hops around, and generally it looks a lot more like a rubber puppet than the creatures in any of the other segments, though maybe that's intentionally playing into the trickster's lighter side.  But that's an awfully generous reading.  Either way, it's fun.

Dark Swamp

The Black Fables was just released at the end of 2022 by Darkside Releasing on a double-feature BDR, paired with Dark Swamp (a.k.a. Mud Zombies), a 2008 horror flick also by Aragao.  In fact, Darkside has been releasing a bunch of his films on their label if you're interested: The Black Forest, and another double feature of Dark Sea (a.k.a. Bloodbath) and Night Of the Chupacabras.  But this is the only Marins they've got.  It is very in keeping with The Black Fables in a lot of ways (and all his other films, probably): gross but not too serious gore and creature effects, all physical, making use of great natural locations to make up for a tiny budget.  It's not something I'd buy on disc on its own, and definitely not as good as Fables; but taken as a free bonus flick, it's pretty neat.

2022 Darkside Releasing BDR.

Both features are presented in 1.78:1.  One thing you'll notice in the shot of Marins performing his exorcism is that Fables, despite being shot on digital, intermittently uses a fake film scratch effect, often as a transition between segments, but randomly at other times as well.  It doesn't make sense thematically - it's not like the characters are meant to be recalling an old film or something, and I guess it's being used to hide the digital look of the movie.  But anyway, it's not a fault of the disc, it's part of the movie.  And it's a little less certain, but you can probably say the same about a few scenes where the film displays banding or other weaknesses.  Although two features on a BDR-25 is probably squeezing a little tight.  One thing you can definitely hold against Darkside, though, is that the stereo Dolby Digital audio is lossy for both features.  But I can't say I came into this with top shelf expectations, so I'm not disappointed.

It helps that, while there aren't a lot of special features, it's not completely bereft.  First of all, it has to be said, that the closing credits of The Black Fables itself includes a compact but very informative behind-the-scenes documentary with behind the scenes footage and interviews with all the filmmakers.  This is great.  Then separately on the disc is a (very) quick behind the scenes look at the werewolf effects from one of the other Black Fables segments, trailers for both films, and a "mashup" trailer for the rest of their catalog.  It's minimal, but I appreciate that Darkside at least took an interest in adding a little extra value to their release.

Next up is a 2001 DVD-R from Fallm in Brazil of a 1997 film called Contos de Horror, or Coffin Joe Tales.  Apparently it was created as a pilot for an anthology horror series, like Tales From the Crypt but hosted by Coffin Joe instead of the Crypt Keeper.  But when it didn't get picked up, they decided to release it as a movie.  And it's... interesting.  It looks to be shot on video and made on the super cheap.  It's also not written or directed by Marins.  But he does appear sporadically in full CJ regalia to host the story, and then also shows up later on as another minor character within the story.  So Marins aficionados shouldn't feel too short changed.

This (again, the only) episode is called A Filha do Pavor, which google translates to The Daughter of Dread.  It's the story of a Satanist who was raped and murdered getting reincarnated as a housemaid and seeking revenge on the men who wronged her, or whoever else crosses her path.  And it just so happens one of the home owners is reading all about that same girl in a book he's got, written by none other than Jose Mojica Marins!  This one leans a little more into sex and nudity than horror and blood.  There's no gore; the special effects consist of little more than the occasional colored light.  A lot of the acting feels pretty amateur as well.  But it's a decent little tale, and Coffin Joe can always be counted on to spice things up. 

2001 Fallm DVD-R.

The film is presented at 1.31:1, but as it was made for TV in the 90s, it's probably meant to be fullscreen.  Even the interlacing, which is bad - every frame is heavily combed - is probably native to the original footage.  So there's not a lot to criticize here; but it sure ain't pretty.  At least the colors are bright?

Fallm's disc is a pretty cheap release in every other respect, too.  The back cover promises an animated menu and photo gallery, but we don't even get those.  The disc doesn't even have a label.  But we do get the film with optional English (or French) subtitles, which is all that's important.

Still, it's nice to jump to a properly pressed disc for our last feature.  You may remember me writing that Cinemagia's DVD of End of Man featured a number of untranslated extras including, "a 50 minute 'autobiography' film by Marins."  Could you guess that film was today's 1987 entry Demons and Wonders, presented in 2013 with complete English (as well as French, Portuguese and Spanish) subtitles by Focus Filmes (the same label that put out The Lost Daughter) in Spain?  It's an autobiographical documentary, meaning it's a documentary about Marins by Marins.  So it's fairly self-promotional, but it's also super entertaining and chock full of stolen music.  It's also mostly done in recreation, where he re-stages the important moments in his life: losing his father, getting arrested, having a heart attack and even going to Heaven; we see it all.  So it's nothing like the documentaries on the Anchor Bay or Mondo Macabro DVDs.  It's not like any documentary, or anything you've ever seen before.  It may actually be one of his greatest achievements.

The disc's a part of a big Coffin Joe boxed set (even available in a coffin-shaped case), which basically includes all the same stuff we've seen in previously covered sets: At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul, Awakening Of the Beast, etc.  But their one exclusive is that they gave Demons and Wonders its own disc, translating it into English for the first and only time.  The English is fairly broken, but that just adds to the wildness.  And luckily, its DVD is also available separately.

2012 Cinemagia DVD top; 2013 Focus DVD bottom.

Besides being English friendly for the first time, it's also a markedly superior transfer.  Unfortunately, both are interlaced.  But the framing has been adjusted from a fullscreen 1.31:1 to an anamorphic and pillar-boxed 1.69:1.  This mattes some vertical information, but also reveals more on the sides.  And just comparing the images throughout, it's obvious the Focus framing is the right one.  Or at least, the righter of the two.  The colors have also been corrected, looking less faded and much more natural.  All in all, a happy surprise.

Focus's DVD also includes a bunch of intriguing extras, but like the Cinemagia set, nothing's English-friendly except the main feature.  So what we get, unhelpfully untranslated, is an interview with Marins about this doc, a special message from Marins to his fans, some kind of audio-only Coffin Joe production (maybe from one of his records?), two photo galleries, and Coffin Joe's Top Hat, a feature-length collection of Coffin Joe odds and ends.  It's a totally random assembly of stuff, like the complete footage of his eye surgery, television interviews, music videos he's in or directed... Again, none of it's English-friendly, but you might want to skip around through this a bit anyway.

Finally, I should also throw in the fact that there is an English-friendly DVD of a Brazillian zombie movie from 2008 called A Capital dos Mortos.  It even has some extras.  Marins did not write, direct or have anything to do with this film apart from a brief - literally, under ten seconds - cameo around the 41 minute mark where he appears as a head in the clouds for a quick gag.  It's a light-hearted, ambitious little film (they made a sequel in 2015), but Marins is only in there for a virtual flash.  Still, if you're a die-hard collector who simply must have everything, you may feel you need that, too.  So I'm letting you know.

Even if you're just a normal Coffin Joe fan, though (or as normal as one can be), you'll probably want these other three discs.  I was delighted to discover each of them.  And hopefully there will be still more in the future (Update/ Spoiler: there have been...!).