Mondo Macabro Releasing House Of Terrors (aka Ghost Of The Hunchback)

[killer must kill again]

finally watched this! this is by no means a hidden gem, but that crazy hunchback might be one of my fav hunchbacks in any movie ever and he does exactly look like christopher lee + his curse of frankenstein wig! I can totally get why the italians grabbed this back in the day, gotta be the most gothic japanese movie I've ever seen.

[Ian Jane]

Standard edition coming soon.

[Ian Jane]

Also coming to Blu-ray this September is this WILD gothic horror from Japan! A.K.A. GHOST OF THE HUNCHBACK!

A recently widowed woman discovers that her former husband, who died in an insane asylum, owned a remote country mansion. She and a group of friends go to the villa and find a weird demonic statue in the hallway. They are joined by a hunchback caretaker who tells them of the numerous murders that have occurred there. Soon the guests begin to hear strange noises including disembodied laughter, and feel that they are being stalked by a disturbing presence that haunts the mansion.

A rare Japanese film that was heavily influenced by US and European Gothic cinema of the 1960s, such as Mario Bava’s Mask of Satan and Robert Wise’s The Haunting. Filmed in luminous black and white widescreen the film is a classic of Gothic horror with many genuinely scary scenes. Packed with bizarre characters and strange occurrences the film builds to a surprising and horrifying climax. Director Hajime Satô is best known for his 1968 film Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell.

This is the film’s first US release and a world premiere on Blu-ray.

DISC FEATURES

Region A coded US home video premiere
Japanese language track with optional English subs
82 minutes, widescreen 2.35:1, B&W
Brand new 2k restoration from the original negative
Brand new introduction to the film by Patrick Macias, author of Tokyoscope
Brand new intro to Toei horror by Patrick Macias
Brand new audio commentary by film scholar Tom Mes
Trailer

LIMITED EDITION FEATURES

Brand new cover art by Justin Coffee; 16 page booklet by Asian culture scholar Jonathan Clements; 1200 numbered copies in the usual red case

This will go on sale Thursday, September 8th at 9 AM Pacific/12 noon Eastern/11 AM Central ONLY at mondomacabro.bigcartel.com!

[AngelGuts]

Very good news about GHOST OF THE HUNCHBACK, which has been poorly distributed, except in Italy. Sequel would be good, too. But kudos to MM for getting behind this.

I often wonder if anybody will ever release THE DWARF, (Issun-boshi, '55, Shintoho), one of the strangest "weird" films I've ever seen.

From a story by Edogawa Rampo, screenplay by Kennosuke Morooka.

You a fan, Takuma?

[Takuma]

I had assumed the other film would be the sequel to Ghost of the Hunchback: Ghost of the One Eyed Man. But that announcement makes it sound like maybe it isn't that.

Haunted Turkish Bathhouse would make sense since it's available in HD. Or perhaps Torn Priestess, though I don't think Toei has done that in HD.

[BW Haggar]

This is very cool news, I've been trying to find a copy of 'Ghost of the Hunchback' to watch for a long time.

More knowledgeable forum members might be able to chime in with some suggestions, but I have no idea what the other film Mondo are releasing might be. Outside a few of the Teruo Ishii titles already released by Arrow, I've never had the impression Toei were very big on "incredibly weird" horror films... unless they're releasing that 'Haunted Turkish Bathhouse' movie or something? Eh - I'd probably buy it.

[Ian Jane]

From the newsletter than came out yesterday:

"We more than likely will have four new titles up for pre-order sometime in August! Several different projects are being juggled at the moment, but we are fairly sure that two of them will be wild Japanese horror films from Toei Studios! One of which we've previously announced, HOUSE OF TERRORS aka GHOST OF THE HUNCHBACK. The other one we'll save and announce later but expect something incredibly weird.

On top of that we'll have two more totally fab Euro films. Stay tuned for more info."