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According to Fangoria, Dark Sky Films (who recently put out the excellent re-release of Texas Chainsaw Massacre) will be releasing Mario Bava's elusive Kill, Baby, Kill on DVD on March, 27.

Extras will include:

• Audio commentary by Bava biographer Tim Lucas
• Kill, Bava, Kill! featurette with Lamberto Bava
• Still gallery
• Trailer

And it's the uncut 84-minute version. See the cover along with other future releases here.

Great news! OK cover...

Incidentally, unless there are some instances of gore which have managed to elude me across four DVDs of varying quality and one excellent VHS dupe, the phrase "Uncut" is a bit of a misnomer since every version includes all the strong stuff that was shot, which isn't much - a whipping with some thorns and a woman impaled on a fence.

The Italian version's titles play out over the spikes through her midsection. The US version cuts away after a bit to shots of the town and villa shot in "Crazy Vision" which I swear was Bava getting bored and spinning the camera randomly on a tripod. What the US version includes which the Italian version doesn't is a wonderfully spooky shot of the Ghost's feet descending a stone staircase while giggling plays on the soundtrack.

If I've made the film sound more salacious than it is, remember the thing is rated PG. It's a good scary movie tho, and I hope Lucas' commentary is a good one.

Terrific news! Wasn't this one of the titles that Anchor Bay was reputedly to release, though?

Don't forget the great edition of Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer they did a few years back.

I wasn't sure what AB was gonna do about this one. Image was supposed to release it way back in, like, 2000, but apparently Alfredo Leone withheld his print hoping for more money and Image never forked over the dough, despite the fact that Lucas signs off his Black Sunday commentary with a tag for the next release being Kill, Baby... Kill! (the correct punctuation does not appear on the DVD cover, sadly). I hazarded a guess a few years ago that AB probably did not pick up KBK from Image as Image never had KBK to begin with. So this comes as a welcome surprise!

How wonderful it is to have an excuse to get rid of the shitty VCI DVD I've had for six years.

Indeed it will, Matt. The German DVD was from a good element, but was non-anamorphic 1.85 and was dubbed in german. The Australian DVD is anamorphic, but from a terrible, washed-out print. This will be a monumental release for fans of Bava. More Bava will be released in the UK in 2007 by, I believe, Tartan or Anchor Bay UK (no confirmation yet at the ABUK forums) so keep your eyes peeled.

Gordon wrote:More Bava will be released in the UK in 2007 by, I believe, Tartan or Anchor Bay UK (no confirmation yet at the ABUK forums) so keep your eyes peeled.

Well, no confirmation has been made but nor has it been denied that AB UK will in fact release them. Take a look at this thread. Titles to look forward to include:

Baron Blood
Black Sabbath
Girl Who Knew too Much
House of Exorcism
Kill, Baby... Kill!
Lisa and the Devil
Mask of Satan

Lucas mentions the KBK release and his experiences recording commentaries in his latest blog entry.

Anyone seen Jess Franco's Dracula, starring Christopher Lee? Ive apparently received a SE review copy (long after I stopped doing that sort of thing), but really don't have time to check it out for a week or two. Should I be excited?

Any word on the release of Tobe Hooper's Eaten Alive? They pulled their edition, originally meant to coincide with the Chainsaw SE, when they found a better print. They also said they would be adding a Tobe Hooper commentary in addition to the previously mentioned extras, so I've been anxious to hear an update. Thanks.

I did not know that at all. Thanks for mentioning. Anyway, lots of review copies of that edition (the one that was supposed to come out but ultimately didn't, that is) were sent to reviewers. Here are some of them:

DVD Talk
DVD Drive-In
10K Bullets
DVD Maniacs
Mondo Digital

I just discovered that IMDB lists Dark Sky Films as the DVD distributor of Narciso Ibáñez Serrador's Who Can Kill a Child? / ¿Quién puede matar a un niño? (1976). Given the nearly perfect dvd presentations that Dark Sky offered to other cult / horror classics such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, these are exciting news. Who Can Kill a Child? is probably one the most underrated horror film of the 70s and certainly deserves an official dvd edition.

In my opinion, the film is a very interesting variation of the "malicious children" horror subgenre, done with a terrific sense of suspense and a bit of social commentary. In contrast to most horror films, usually being dark, Who Can Kill a Child? is shot and takes place almost entirely during daytime, but Serrador and his director of photography José Luis Alcaine (Erice's El Sur, Pedro Almodovar and Bigas Luna regular) exlpoit mediterranean light in a very unnerving way.

As far as I know the other existing discs of the film is a spanish Magna edition, offering only the spanish dub without any subtitles and a decent but barebones transfer from bootleg? company Alfa Digital.

I highly recommend this disturbing little gem to anyone even remotely interested in horror films, as it is better in every way from most gialli and euro horror released on dvd out there...

You can find a review of the Alfa Digital disc here.

Let's hope Dark Sky will do the film some justice and release it soon.

Serrador's previous horror feature film, La Residencia (1969) is also badly needing a beautifully transfered 2.35:1 anamorphic DVD with english subtitles. There's a Spanish disc, which is non-anamorphic and lacks subs. Who Can Kill a Child? is a masterpiece of unnerving suspense and I am stoked about the Dark Sky release.

That really is fantastic news about the Serrador. I've been wanting to see that one for years now. This is the sort of thing that Dark Sky should be doing more of in the future. And bring on La Residencia!

DVDdrive-in review the Jess Franco/Christopher Lee movie, Count Dracula.

DVDTalk reviews Kill Baby Kill.

DVDdrive-in reviews Kill, Baby... Kill!.

Dark Sky is now acknowledging that its release of KILL BABY KILL has been shelved. No word yet on why. But this is certainly disappointing.

Wait, what? As in yanked from plans to be released when folks like myself have a final, pressed review copy in their hands?

I guess something just gained in value...

I wonder if AB had a hand on this.

For more info regarding to the "cancellation" of KBK, keep your eyes on this blog.

I reported that KBK had been "shelved." Which is to say, put on the shelf. Its final disposition remains undetermined.

However, a well-connected source of mine sent me the following note, which is somewhat more revealing than Lucas' blog (even though he, like Tim, was sworn to secrecy). I feel OK about posting it here, since he also posted this to another site:

"Got the scoop a little while ago "off the record," so I can't really get into specifics. However, I think it should be okay to say that there's an unsolved issue between Anchor Bay and Dark Sky, and Dark Sky are holding off their release until it's settled. I'm not sure if Anchor Bay are doing the same."

Spider Baby special edition coming this year, evidently Jack Hill has said he's working with MPI which I assume means that Dark Sky will be putting it out:

A recently finished documentary will be included on a new DVD edition of the film which will feature Hill's preferred, Director's Cut. Besides THE HATCHING OF SPIDER BABY documentary, the disc will also include SPIDER STRAVINSKY - a featurette on SPIDER BABY composer Ronald Stein, THE MERRRYE HOUSE REVISITED - a tour with Jack Hill back to the original SPIDER BABY house used in the film; A massive photo gallery including many rare behind the scenes pictures and advertising art; A new commentary track and more!