Mondo Macabro Blu-ray Releases for October: MARQUIS, ASWANG, and MORBO Lead Three Deranged Cult Rediscoveries
Mondo Macabro and CAV Distributing are closing out the year with three new Mondo Macabro blu-ray releases that prove the label has no interest in playing it safe. Preorders open September 8th, with all three titles hitting shelves October 13th, and each one is exactly the kind of buried-alive cult weirdness Severed Cinema lives for. MSRP on all three is $29.99.
MARQUIS – The Bastille Has Never Looked This Deranged
Leading the charge is Marquis, Henri Xhonneux’s 1989 French freak-out loosely inspired by the life of the Marquis de Sade. Here’s the twist: every character is played by a human actor stuffed inside a life-sized animal head. The Marquis himself is a spaniel. Justine is a heifer. Juliette is a mare. The head of the Bastille is, fittingly, a rooster with a serious appetite for depravity. And if that’s not enough to process, the Marquis spends his imprisonment in running dialogue with his own oversized, talking anatomy.This isn’t animation, it isn’t a puppet show, it’s something stranger sitting in between — a fever dream about censorship, lust, and revolution wrapped in fur suits decades before that would’ve meant anything else on the internet. Mondo Macabro is giving it a new 2K restoration from the original negative, with cast and crew commentary, a making-of featurette, storyboards, an image gallery, and even a Telecat video included.
Specs: 93 minutes, French with English subtitles, 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen, region free.
ASWANG – The Film That Broke Sundance Before It Got Cut to Pieces
Next up is Aswang, a 1994 gorefest with the rare distinction of being the first horror film ever screened at Sundance, where it apparently caused enough of a stir that US distributors picked it up, retitled it The Unearthing, and gutted it down to an R rating. After a quiet theatrical run, nervous video chains wouldn’t touch it, and the film all but vanished.The plot follows a pregnant woman drawn into a pact to pose as someone else’s wife, brought to an isolated estate to give birth. Whatever happens next is exactly the kind of thing that made distributors panic in the ’90s. Mondo Macabro’s new 4K restoration comes loaded: dual commentary tracks (one with co-directors Wrye Martin and Barry Poltermann moderated by Pete Tombs, another with the executive producer and cast), a making-of documentary, three separate trailers spanning the fundraising, theatrical, and Prism VHS cuts, a lost scene narration, and two audition tapes.
Specs: 82 minutes, English, 1.33:1 full screen, Dolby Digital 5.1, region free.
MORBO – A Forgotten Spanish Nightmare Gets Dragged Back Into the Light
Rounding things out is Morbo, Gonzalo Suárez’s 1972 Spanish slow-burn about newlyweds Diego and Alicia who ignore a “no entry” sign and park their trailer in the wrong stretch of forest. What starts as honeymoon seclusion curdles into obsession, paranoia, and a house that may or may not exist. By the time Alicia goes looking for it alone, the film delivers exactly the kind of grim payoff its slow build promises.This one is been buried for decades, and Mondo Macabro’s brand new 4K restoration from the original negative gives it a real shot at rediscovery, with a choice of English or Spanish audio, a profile on star Ana Belén’s career, an interview with Sitges Film Festival director Àngel Sala, and commentary from Rod Barnett and Troy Guinn of the Naschycast.
Specs: 92 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles, 1.37:1, Dolby Digital Mono, region free.
Three restorations, three countries, three completely different flavors of unhinged. Mondo Macabro is once again doing the Lord’s work for cult and horror archaeology. Preorders go live September 8th, with all three landing October 13th.
For more info on these three new Mondo Macabro blu-ray releases visit mondomacabro.bigcartel.com and cavd.com.
