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Thank you for your responses, you've been very nice and we're thankful that at least we got 1 main clue besides the Newsletter. Thank you for reading.

OK let's look at our options now, 70s and above (key wording implies there's at least 1 70s picture involved), it's most likely horror based off the previous output of at least horror adjacent titles, we can also say it can't be Spain, France, Macedonia, the UK, Italy, Sweden, Germany, so our best bets are most likely Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, a Slovakian film, Switzerland, Turkey, or maybe even Yugoslavia. So do with this info what you will, me personally I'm banking on Poland or Portugal film sets, but I'd like to hear your ideas please. Thank you for reading.

A couple of films restored in partnership with Telefilm Canada/CIP:

Winter Kept Us Warm (1965, David Secter)
Tiki Tiki (1971, Gerald Potterton)

The Film Desk also has some books available for sale, which includes "Diary of a Film" by Jean Cocteau and "Facing Blackness" by Ashley Clark.

Just dreaming, obviously, but with the arrival of Matt Johnson's BLACKBERRY this week, it would quite a coup if Canadian International Pictures could finagle a deal to rescue THE DIRTIES, OPERATION AVALANCHE and NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW from their purgatory of semi-obscurity.

Full specs for A Blade In The Dark:

• 4-disc Region Free Set: 4K Ultra HD x2 / Blu-ray x2
• 4K UHD content presented in High-Dynamic-Range
• Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative
• Both versions of the feature film presented on both 4K UHD and BD
• Presented in both its Italian and English soundtracks for both the 109-minute Uncut Extended Version and the slightly cutdown Theatrical Version
• Commentary track with The Hysteria Continues for the Extended Italian TV Edit
• Commentary track with film historian and author Kat Ellinger for the Extended Italian TV Edit
• "Don't Go Down the Stairs" - an interview with director Lamberto Bava
• "House" - an interview with screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti
• "Lights in an Empty House" - an interview with cinematographer Gianlorenzo Battaglia
• "The Gothic Slashers of Lamberto Bava" - a video essay by film historian and author Samm Deighan
• "Behind the Blade" - an archival interview with Lamberto Bava and Dardano Sacchetti
• "All the Colors of Giallo" a feature-length documentary exploring Giallo films directed by Federico Caddeo
• Original theatrical trailers in Italian and English
• 40-page perfect bound book with essays by Caroline Kopko, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Dana Reinoos
• Reversible sleeve artwork
• Translated and English SDH subtitles

Even as a mere observer of the giallo series, I am very tempted to buy this set because this seems like the best non-box set release of the year outside maybe the Black Zero releases.

So I’ve been thinking that the VS Labs box set they’ve been teasing was looking more like a science fiction set, and with their latest newsletter, I think it’s possibly going to be a Piotr Szulkin box set.

If it is than I guess my guess was correct, but I thought that Radiance Films was planning on releasing it, no?

SeizureMilk wrote: Tue May 23, 2023 7:22 pm If it is than I guess my guess was correct, but I thought that Radiance Films was planning on releasing it, no?

The Radiance Fall box set is going to be UK-only, so if this is that, VS could have secured the US distribution rights

therewillbeblus wrote: Tue May 23, 2023 7:25 pm The Radiance Fall box set is going to be UK-only, so if this is that, VS could have secured the US distribution rights

Oh okay, had a suspicion but was hoping that would also be US too. Is there also a way it could be a Kromanov set or does that seem too much of a stretch? Also am I the only one who's reminded of The Hourglass Sanatorium by that design, I know it's not but doesn't it?

If both labels are releasing Piotr Szulkin boxsets, then I might have to grab the VS set over the Radiance one since the former is being advertised as a 4 film set while the latter is a trilogy.

For what it's worth, Szulkin made six theatrical features.

Saw someone mention that the image could be for a legacy slip of Buddies which does make sense considering they said they'd be doing some legacy slipcovers. That or a Bijou slip release but then that'd be stretching it a bit too far.

I failed to preview some of the titles I'm interested in before this sale (unlike last May, when two weeks of covid gave me ample time to go on a schlock marathon!) - so I'm curious what members who've seen them have to say about the following potential blind buys (or any others from the last year's slate I may be missing):

-The Iceman Cometh (or 88?)
-A New Old Play
-Ode to Nothing
-Sampo (I thought Ilya Muromets was fine, not extraordinary, but would welcome 'more of the same but better' if this is that)
-Sell Out
-The Unknown Man of Shandigor

I also know a lot of the VS and partner releases that might 'sell out' quickly will be restocked by third-parties at decent prices, so if there are any ones to keep an eye on that may actually go OOP based on patterns/history/intel, I'd greatly appreciate the notice

Shandigor is a pretty cool, unconventional take on a spy film

I watched Ilya Muromets with a lot of my family members and the experience was magical, just watching them marvel at this film from their childhoods somehow filled with joy, even better that they themselves were Soviet. And the film itself while not perfect, was certainly a good time and a beautiful example of scope (i.e. the mountain of people or the giant at the beginning). I would love there to be more Soviet kids films on Blu-Ray, my favorites in particular being Tale About the Lost Time & The Striped Trip, both wonderfully good if fairly standard comedies.

therewillbeblus wrote:I failed to preview some of the titles I'm interested in before this sale (unlike last May, when two weeks of covid gave me ample time to go on a schlock marathon!) - so I'm curious what members who've seen them have to say about the following potential blind buys (or any others from the last year's slate I may be missing):

-The Iceman Cometh (or 88?)
-A New Old Play
-Ode to Nothing
-Sampo (I thought Ilya Muromets was fine, not extraordinary, but would welcome 'more of the same but better' if this is that)
-Sell Out
-The Unknown Man of Shandigor

I also know a lot of the VS and partner releases that might 'sell out' quickly will be restocked by third-parties at decent prices, so if there are any ones to keep an eye on that may actually go OOP based on patterns/history/intel, I'd greatly appreciate the notice

Ode to Nothing is wonderful, a sad grotesque movie about loss and entrapment. Very much recommended.

Iceman Cometh has some astonishing stuntwork, even for HK, and a number of great fights, but a lot of gross juvenile humour that made me grit my teeth. It has a time travel plot, but really it’s about wuxia movie characters colliding with modern social realities. It’s alright.

Mr Sausage wrote: Thu May 25, 2023 5:17 pm Ode to Nothing is wonderful, a sad grotesque movie about loss and entrapment. Very much recommended.

Thanks for the rec - though is it something you'd revisit? I say that as someone who loves revisiting certain sad movies, while others are clearly repelling yet impressive one-offs

Is it not possible to visit the site until the sale starts?

(I was perusing a few days ago not knowing about the sale and now I'm not getting the same access.)

Correct, it's annoying. But the sale starts tonight

Use the wayback machine if you're really desperate to browse. That's always been my go to method.

A redditor was kind enough to make a spreadsheet of the inventory counts for the VS and Partner Label titles.

Thanks all.

therewillbeblus wrote:

Mr Sausage wrote: Thu May 25, 2023 5:17 pm Ode to Nothing is wonderful, a sad grotesque movie about loss and entrapment. Very much recommended.

Thanks for the rec - though is it something you'd revisit? I say that as someone who loves revisiting certain sad movies, while others are clearly repelling yet impressive one-offs

Definitely one I’d revisit. I wouldn’t call it a repelling movie. I found it moving.