Criterion's October releases have been announced and I was very pleased to see a pair of classic Horror titles on the list. Due out October 15th is Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face, and out October 22nd is Lewis Allen's The Uninvited. Eyes was released on DVD years ago of course, but seeing as it's one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time I'm thrilled to see it finally getting the Blu-ray treatment.
Eyes without a Face
At his secluded chateau in the French countryside, a brilliant, obsessive doctor (Pierre Brasseur) attempts a radical plastic surgery to restore the beauty of his daughter's disfigured countenance—at a horrifying price. Eyes Without a Face, directed by the supremely talented Georges Franju, is rare in horror cinema for its odd mixture of the ghastly and the lyrical, and it has been a major influence on the genre in the decades since its release. There are images here—of terror, of gore, of inexplicable beauty—that once seen are never forgotten.
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Blood of the Beasts, Georges Franju's 1949 documentary about the slaughterhouses of Paris (new high-definition digital restoration on the Blu-ray edition)
- Archival interviews with Franju on horror, cinema, and the making of Blood of the Beasts
- New interview with actor Edith Scob (Blu-ray only)
- Excerpt from Les Grands-pères du crime, a 1985 documentary about Eyes Without a Face writers Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac
- Trailers
- Stills gallery of rare production photos and promotional material (DVD only)
- Plus: A booklet featuring essays by novelist Patrick McGrath and film historian David Kalat
The Uninvited
A pair of siblings (Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey) from London purchase a surprisingly affordable, lonely cliff-top house in Cornwall, only to discover that it actually carries a ghostly price; soon they're caught up in a bizarre romantic triangle from beyond the grave. Rich in atmosphere, The Uninvited, directed by Lewis Allen, was groundbreaking for the seriousness with which it treated the haunted-house genre, and it remains an elegant and eerie experience, featuring a classic score by Victor Young. A tragic family past, a mysteriously locked room, cold chills, bumps in the night—this gothic Hollywood classic has it all.
Special Features:
- New 2K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New visual essay by filmmaker Michael Almereyda
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Farran Smith Nehme
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