| “This third film by Italian horror maestro Dario Argento’s most gifted acolyte, Michele Soavi, establishes him as a horror stylist in his own right.” – Time Out London
“Visual brilliance…a wonderful, surreal plot that is as deeply engaging as nightmarish.”
— Classic-Horror.com
Doppelgänger Releasing and Scorpion Releasing continue their ongoing series of lustrous restored editions of the films of legendary Italian horror auteur Dario Argento with the release of THE SECT, the 1991 chiller about an American schoolteacher in Germany who is terrorized by a murderous Satanic cult that is plotting to plunge the world into darkness.
Co-produced and co-written by Dario Argento and directed by Argento protégé Michele Soavi, THE SECT makes its US Blu-ray and DVD debut remastered in high definition with more than 45 hours of color correction that includes a new interview with actor Tomas Arana (The Church).
In THE SECT, Kelly Lee Curtis (older sister of iconic scream queen Jamie Lee) stars as Miriam, an American schoolteacher who has been relocated to what appears to be a pleasant town in Germany. One afternoon, Miriam accidentally hits an elderly pedestrian, Moebius (Herbert Lom of The Pink Panther fame) with her car, prompting her to take him back to her house to recuperate. What Miriam doesn’t know is that their meeting was no accident and that Moebius is the elder of a dangerous Satanic sect. While at Miriam’s home, Moebius secretly drugs her and then secretes a strange insect into her nostril. Moebius’s sinister plan triggers a string of bizarre and hallucinogenic events in Miriam’s life involving nightmares, a diabolical cult leader named Damon (Tomas Arana), her magic pet rabbit, a dark well filled with mystical water and a plot involving the birth of the son of Satan.
THE SECT is Michele Soavi’s third directorial effort, following 1990’s The Church (also produced by Dario Argento) and the slasher Stage Fright, his 1987 directorial debut. Prior to sitting in the director’s chair, Soavi worked an assistant director and/or 2nd unit director on Argento’s films Tenebre, Phenomena and Opera, and on such noteworthy projects as Lamberto Bava’s Demons and A Blade in the Dark and Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. With THE SECT’s rich visuals, strong set pieces, dreamlike mise-en-scene and overall creepy atmosphere, Soavi came to be considered a horror stylist in his own right, adding a distinctive voice to one of the Italian cinema’s most striking genres.
Doppelgänger Releasing and Scorpion Releasing will release THE SECT on Blu-ray and DVD for the first time in the United States on February 27, 2018 (prebook January 23, 2018). The Blu-ray and DVD, which includes an interview with actor Tomas Arana, will carry the suggested retail prices of $24.95 and $19.95, respectively.
More information on THE SECT may be found on the DOPPELGÄNGER RELEASING website at https://www.musicboxfilms.com/the-sect-movies-169.php.
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