---

---

---

Tired of getting short-changed by DVD extras? So is cult film authority Xavier Mendik.

Features where everyone just grins into the camera and talks about how great the production was are superficial, he says. Moreover, they “don’t do fans justice.” What extra features do you want to see? Tell us in the comments below

Mendik, the director of Cine-Excess, an international conference and festival on cult film, is doing something about it by partnering up with distributor Nouveaux Pictures to re-master cult horror movies.

Besides giving fans a chance to see cult classics for the first time on DVD, the label – whose slogan is “Taking Trash Seriously” – sets itself apart with extra features created by academics, he says.

The label has already re-released 1980s favorite “Amsterdamned” and in January 2010 comes a remastering of “Suspiria,” Dario Argento's stomach-turning horror set in a ballet academy.

The restoration on the Blu-Ray and DVD release of "Suspiria" will include four new documentaries that examine everything from gender controversy in the film to its style and politics in Italy in the 1970s.

“It will be the ultimate DVD,” says Mendik, who says the label is responding to what fans want.

Cult devotees have more to look forward to.

Cine-Excess has been given rights to a catalog of 300 movies owned by B-movie producer director Roger Corman and is planning to release 15 films in the next 12 months with Nouveaux Pictures, says Mendik.

The label is aimed at both the everyday cult fan as well as the growing educational market that has emerged around cult, says Mendik, who teaches cult film and TV at Brunel University in the UK.

With all this in mind, we asked Mendik to list his top five horror cult movies of all time. His picks and comments are below:

1. “Suspiria” (Dario Argento, 1977): “Being in the position to re-release this film is phenomenal.”
2. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (Tobe Hooper, 1974): “It remains a profoundly shocking film.”
3. “Deranged” (Jeff Gillen and Alan Ormsby, 1974): “For its gore and gross out factor – a look at depravity with a wonderful, near hysterical performance by the central lead.”
4. “Venus in Furs” (Jesus Franco, 1969): “A psychedelic dream scene horror with a freestyle jazz structure.”
5. “Cabin Fever” (Eli Roth, 2002): “A new talent in the horror field to keep an eye on.”

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Newly-created label Cine-Excess (under the Brunel University's School of Arts Cult Film Archive, which has recently acquired rights to part of Roger Corman's film catalog), in conjunction with distributor Nouveaux Pictures, has announced the Blu-ray release of Dario Argento's giallo classic 'Suspiria' on January 18, 2010. Audio and video specifications and region coding are not known at this time.

Special features include:

* Audio commentary by leading Dario Argento experts Alan Jones and Kim Newman
* Fear At 400 Degrees: The Cine-Excess Of Suspiria: documentary featuring director Dario Argento and composer Claudio Simonetti
* Suspiria Perspectives: featuring Claudio Simonetti, Norman J. Warren and Patricia McCormack

---