Grindhouse Releasing has signed a new deal to distribute its acclaimed home video releases through MVD Entertainment, starting March 12 with the worldwide release of the psycho thriller Impulse, starring William Shatner.
Impulse features Shatner in the most unhinged performance of his career as homicidal maniac Matt Stone, a con artist and gigolo who preys on rich widows, viciously murdering the victims of his playboy scam when he loses control of his sick psycho-sexual urges. The supporting cast includes Ruth Roman (The Baby, Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train), Kim Nicholas, Jenifer Bishop, and James Bond villain Harold “Oddjob” Sakata (Goldfinger) as Matt’s former cellmate “Karate Pete.”
The two-disc Blu-ray set boasts a beautiful new 4K transfer of Impulse lovingly restored from archival 35mm elements, and more than 15 hours of bonus features produced with the full cooperation of the film’s legendary director William Grefé (Stanley, Death Curse of Tartu, Mako: The Jaws of Death). The extras include Kingdom of the Shatner, a 2022 live festival appearance from William Shatner in top form as he reflects on making of the movie, his memories of starring in other ‘70s cult hits like Kingdom of the Spiders and The Devil’s Rain, and his experience going into space! A must for Shatner’s fans, the set also offers a great in-depth look at the actor’s career in the ’70s from director, screenwriter, and film historian C. Courtney Joyner (The Offspring); on-camera interviews with Grefé, producer/makeup artist Doug Hobart, and art director Roger Carlton Sherman; audio commentary with Grefé; a haunting alternate French soundtrack; still galleries, trailers and hours of rare treasures from Grefé’s vaults, including two complete feature films. A full-color glossy illustrated booklet with liner notes from underground filmmaker Jacques Boyreau rounds out the package, which comes with a beautifully embossed slipcover and a collectible postcard of an original oil portrait of William Shatner, both by esteemed painter Dave LeBow.
About Grindhouse Releasing
Launched in 1996 by Sage Stallone and Bob Murawski, Grindhouse Releasing led the way to a physical media revolution as the first label to produce lavishly restored home video editions of Italian exploitation epics by Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi, and Ruggero Deodato. In the U.S., the work of these directors had formerly been hacked up, re-titled and shown only in battered prints that were put through the meat-grinder of drive-ins and inner-city theaters, and cropped, murky tape transfers. Grindhouse Releasing came to the rescue, sparing no effort or expense to restore the fully uncut and uncensored luster to such films as Fulci’s The Beyond, Lenzi’s Cannibal Ferox, and Deodato’s widely banned, still controversial Cannibal Holocaust. The company has won worldwide acclaim for its high standard of quality, producing exhaustive bonus features to make each release as complete and definitive as possible.
Grindhouse Releasing has upheld this commitment to excellence with spectacular restorations of Cat in the Brain, Pieces, I Drink Your Blood, The Tough Ones, An American Hippie in Israel, The Big Gundown, The Swimmer, Corruption, Death Game, and Duke Mitchell’s Massacre Mafia Style and Gone With the Pope. Grindhouse Releasing won the prestigious Satellite Award from the International Press Academy for Outstanding Overall Blu-Ray/DVD for its deluxe edition of The Swimmer, starring Burt Lancaster. In addition to releasing its films theatrically and on home video, the company also releases vinyl and CD soundtracks and produces merchandise including T-shirts and other memorabilia for fans.
The new deal with MVD Entertainment will bring Grindhouse Releasing’s lineup of movies to retailers and audiences around the world.
“I’ve always been a big fan of MVD and how they cater to the independent record stores,” said Murawski. “They fully understand the philosophy that our late friend Jay Douglas espoused – ‘Cult movies are the new rock ‘n’ roll’ – and are therefore the perfect fit for Grindhouse Releasing.”
MVD Director of Home Video Sales and Acquisitions Eric Wilkinson remarked, “We are happy to welcome Bob Murawski and his legendary company Grindhouse Releasing to MVD’s growing family of amazing boutique collector’s labels. Grindhouse has some exciting titles coming in the near future that fans are going to love and MVD is more than eager to get these into collector’s hands. Welcome to MVD, Bob!”
Upcoming Grindhouse Releasing titles include new restorations of three long-unavailable and overlooked cinema classics: Hollywood 90028, Scum of the Earth, and Palmer Rockey’s Love is Deep Inside. Grindhouse is currently finishing the highly anticipated 4K UHD disc editions of The Beyond and Cannibal Holocaust with more UHD titles to follow.
“A grim, unrelenting study of a psychopathic killer. Shatner is surprisingly strong in an enormously demanding role.”- Box Office Magazine
“Well-crafted and effective… flowing with Grefe’s scalpel-sharp direction.” – Alex Ben Block, The Miami News
“Shatner is incredible and frightening during his lapses into insanity. There are a number of vividly horrifying murder scenes which make even adults cringe.” – Perry Fulkerson, The Evening Independent
“William Shatner is very effective in it. It’s a performance right up there with his work in THE INTRUDER.”- Joe Leydon, Variety
“IMPULSE, with its exciting camera work, local flavor, and terrific performances, especially from Shatner as the sociopathic main character, just might be the pinnacle of Grefé’s career. It has all of the punchy, violent power of the best films by Samuel Fuller and Robert Aldrich, and Grefé shares with those artists an understanding of a specific kind of sickness in the underbelly of America that is taking its toll on mainstream society.” – Jim Healy, Wisconsin Film Festival
