BFI DVD/Blu-ray releases announced for autumn 2013

Haunting rarities from the BBC archives are among the BFI’s DVD/Blu-ray releases for the autumn.

Updated:

This autumn the BFI will make available a superb collection of rare and previously unseen ghost and horror titles from the BBC archives.

Released as part of the BFI’s Gothic: The Dark Heart of Film celebrations, these long-unseen gems will delight many fans of British horror and classic TV drama. 

Highlights in October include:

  • The legendary Play for Today drama Robin Redbreast (1970) – an unsettling tale of ‘folk horror’ that’s considered a precursor to 1973’s The Wicker Man
  • The three terrifying surviving episodes of the long-unseen 1972 ghost story anthology Dead of Night
  • Classic Ghost Stories (1986), five spine-tingling tales from the pen of M.R. James, presented by Robert Powell
  • An extended six-disc repackage of the best-selling BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas

Highlights in November include:

  • A Flipside presentation of the BBC’s Schalcken the Painter (1979). This highpoint of BBC arts filmmaking will be presented in High Definition from a rare 16mm source recently discovered in the BFI National Archive
  • The 1977 BBC gothic horror anthology Supernatural starring a host of British acting legends including Billie Whitelaw, Robert Hardy, Denholm Elliot and Jeremy Brett

Other Gothic releases include:

  • A three-disc Dual Format special edition of Rupert Julian/Lon Chaney’s original The Phantom of the Opera (November 2013)
  • The BFI National Archive digital remastering of Thorold Dickinson’s dark psychological drama Gaslight (November 2013)
  • Scary Stories – a collection of creepy kids films from the Children’s Film Foundation featuring The Man from Nowhere, Haunters of the Deep and Out of the Darkness (September 2013)

October also sees the long-awaited Blu-ray premiere of Seven Samurai – presented as a steelbook exclusively at zavvi.com

Rescheduled releases for December include the Dual Format editions of Stromboli, Journey to Italy, Trans-Europ Express and Successive Slidings of Pleasure.

Titles are available to pre-order at all good internet retailers.

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