Clapboard Jungle | Do you have what it takes to survive the modern independent film business?

If you have ever thought about becoming an independent film-maker, then you must check this out first. Justin McConnell, who writes, directs and features, has worked as a film festival coordinator, as well as being a cinematographer and editor on heaps of featurettes you’ve probably seen as bonus content, and also directed a number of documentaries and helmed two features. But he has still yet to make his mark in this riskiest of businesses, where it has become harder and harder for independents to make a living due to media giant monopolisation and a market oversaturated with product.

Featuring interviews with a vast range of industry luminaries, Clapboard Jungle (which is available on ARROW from Monday 19 April) follows Justin’s personal journey over a five year period, exploring not only the nitty-gritty of the film business (from pitch to product) but also the physical and emotional strain that comes with it. It’s a fascinating insight and something of a survival guide for anyone brave enough to attempt themselves.

Once you have watched the documentary, I strongly urge you to check out the extended interviews which feature a roll call of some of our favourite cult heroes who all discuss their career highs and lows, and their place in the independent film world today. Poignantly, among them are Dick Miller, George Romeo and Larry Cohen, who are no longer with us – so these are very special indeed.

Clapboard Jungle is available from ARROW from Monday 19 April

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• Audio commentary with Justin McConnell
• Crew commentary: Justin McConnell, co-producer Darryl Shaw, executive producer Avi Federgreen and editor/associate producer Kevin Burke)
• Guest commentary/panel discussion: Barbara Crampton, Richard Stanley, John McNaughton, Gigi Saul Guerrero and Adam Mason
• Deleted scenes with optional commentary by Justin McConnell
• Extended interviews: Anne-Marie Gélinas, Barbara Crampton, Brian Trenchard-Smith, Brian Yuzna, Charles Band, Corey Moosa, Dean Cundey, Dick Miller, Don Mancini, Frank Henenlotter, Gary Sherman, George Romero, George Mihalka, Guillermo Del Toro, John McNaughton, Jon Reiss, Larry Cohen, Larry Fessenden, Lloyd Kaufman, Mette-Marie Kongsved, Michael Biehn, Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, Mick Garris, Paul Schrader, Richard Stanley, Sam Firstenberg, Tom Holland, Tom Savini, Vincenzo Natali
• Documentaries: Working Class Rock Star (2008) and Skull World (2013)
• 13 short films with optional commentaries and intros
• Trailers, promos, photo gallery and Easter eggs
• Artwork by Ilan Sheady
• Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by producer/director Brian Yuzna

Deranged (1974) | The true story of Wisconsin ghoul Ed Gein gets a blackly comic twist in Alan Ormsby’s cult classic

Deranged is still as effective as anything that any of its big-budget, slicker contemporaries have to offer.

THE STORY
In this darkly comic retelling of the story of real-life Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein, Roberts Blossom (of Home Alone fame) gives a career-defining performance as Ezra Cobb, a middle-aged loner who turns to grave robbing, murder and necrophilia following the death of his possessive mother, whose corpse he keeps preserved in his remote farmhouse along with his newly-acquired victims. Like Gein, Cobb gleefully boasts about his crimes, but nobody believes him, which only spells tragedy for the many young women who end up on the sharp end of his hunting knife.

THE LOWDOWN
If it weren’t for the sadistic, cannibalistic, necrophilic, skin-suit wearing, mother-obsessed psychopath Ed Gein (who was declared insane in 1957 and spent the next 27 years in a mental hospital until his death in 1984), we would never have had films like Psycho (1960) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) or popular fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter.

Gein’s transgressive, taboo-trouncing crimes inspired those horror classics, countless imitations, and this film, Deranged (1974), which has earned cult status for its blackly comic twist on Gein’s horrible life story. Filmed in 1974 by Alan Ormsby and Jeff Gillen (for just $200,000 from profits promoting Led Zepplin concerts), Deranged may not stick to the real-life facts, but it’s central theme of a necrophile who wears the flayed skin of his victims whose corpses he then uses to decorate his home stays chillingly true. And the film’s scenes involving Cobb’s final victim, Sally, draws directly from Gein’s last victim, Bernice Worden, by replicating the photos of her hung up and gutted like a deer.

Deranged could have been as vicious and visceral and as Tobe Hooper’s Chain Saw (which came out later the same year), but the film-makers tread a fine line between what is funny and what is horrible, and its Blossom’s goofy, off-kilter performance that brings it all together. As for gore factor, the infamous brain-scooping scene – a wonderful exercise in Grand Guignol excess – gets reinstated in this release. Another highlight are the mummified corpses that adorn Cobb’s farmhouse, and which are chillingly brought to life using just dowel rods, chicken wire, latex and by Tom Savini, here making his debut as chief make-up artist.

THE RELEASE
Arrow’s dual format B/2 release contains a high definition Blu-ray and standard definition DVD presentation of the unrated version, Tom Savini audio commentary and introduction, trailer and stills gallery. Three featurettes are also included, the best being The Wages of Sin, which includes some never-before-seen production footage, but I also liked Human Centipede II star Laurence R Harvey’s rather erudite analysis of Gein’s legacy. Caping off this must-have release, there’s a collector’s booklet featuring new writing from Nightmare USA’s Stephen Thrower and reversible sleeve featuring artwork from Nat Marsh.

THE VERDICT
A Must See and a Must Have for any modern classic horror collection.

[youtube:http://youtu.be/rKsoTLHCJiY%5D