Arrow Video has announced four new titles to join their collection on Blu-Ray this November: Lake Michigan Monster (2018), Silent Running (1972), Burst City (1982) and He Came From The Swamp: The William Grefé Collection (1966). These represent a low budget love letter to sci-fi creature features, an acclaimed post apocalyptic tale, a punk-rock sci-fi musical and a great collection for a renegade filmmaker. Details on these films can be found below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDRa_KWgVdU]
Lake Michigan Monster
Street Date: November 3, 2020
Synopsis: All aboard! The combined spirits of H.P. Lovecraft, early Sam Raimi and Mystery Science Theater 3000 inhabit this action-packed tale of nautical derring-do and monster mayhem – winner of the Audience Award for Best International Feature at the 2019 Fantasia Film Festival. On the shores of Lake Michigan, the eccentric Captain Seafield (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, who also writes and directs) enlists a colourful crew of misfits in a bid to slay the hellish sea monster that prowls the murky depths. But as Seafield’s obsession with exacting revenge on the creature that killed his father threatens to consume him, can weapons expert Sean Shaughnessy (Erick West), sonar whiz Nedge Pepsi (Beulah Peters) and former N.A.V.Y. – Nautical Athletes and Adventure Yunit – officer Dick Flynn (Daniel Long) hold the show together? Shot in gloriously retro black and white on a shoestring budget, with most of the cast also performing multiple roles behind the camera, Lake Michigan Monster is an inventive, irreverent and riotously entertaining ode to the classic monster movies of yesteryear: an absurdist urban legend guaranteed to appeal to the big kid in all of us.
- High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentation
- Original lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 stereo soundtracks
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Two cast and crew audio commentaries featuring writer/director/actor Ryland Tews and actors Daniel Long, Beulah Peters, Erick West and editor Mike Cheslik – one sober, one drunk!
- Critics’ audio commentary with Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Emma Westwood
- Effects Breakdown comparison of the film’s underwater sequence, including storyboards and pre-composited footage
- Dear Old Captain Seafield – the Captain Seafield theme song, performed by the Seafield Monster Sextet
- Interview in a Cabin – interview with Ryland Tews and Daniel Long at the Fantasia International Film Festival
- Interview in a Bar – interviews with the cast and crew at the Beloit International Film Festival
- Interview by a Fire – interview with Mike Cheslik on Mark Borchardt’s Cinema Fireside radio show
- The first season and pilot episode of L.I.P.S., Ryland Tews and Mike Cheslik’s hybrid animation/live action sci-fi comedy web series
- Theatrical trailer
- Behind the scenes photos
- Reversible sleeve featuring original artwork by Jade Watring and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Barry Forshaw
Burst City
Street Date: November 10, 2020
Synopsis: Burst City is an explosive Molotov cocktail of dystopian sci-fi, Mad Max-style biker wars against yakuza gangsters and the police, and riotous performances from members of the real-life Japanese punk bands The Stalin, The Roosters, The Rockers and INU. In a derelict industrial wasteland somewhere on the outskirts of Tokyo, two rival punk bands and their unruly mobs of fans gather for a Battle of the Bands-style protest against the construction of a nuclear powerplant, bringing them head to head with the yakuza industrialists behind the development of their turf. This extraordinary celebration of Japan’s punk music scene of the early 1980s thrust Sōgo Ishii (now known by the name of Gakuryū Ishii), the underground filmmaking wunderkind behind such works as Half Human: Einstürzende Neubauten (1986), Angel Dust (1994) and Electric Dragon 80,000V (2001), to the next level and is regularly cited as an early landmark in Japanese cyberpunk cinema.
- High Definition Blu-rayTM (1080p) presentation
- Original lossless mono Japanese soundtrack
- Optional English subtitles
- Brand new audio commentary by Japanese film expert Tom Mes
- The Punk Spirit of ’82: Sōgo Ishii on Burst City, an exclusive new 56-minute interview with the director
- Bursting Out, an exclusive 27-minute interview with the academic and independent filmmaker Yoshiharu Tezuka on jishu eiga and the making of Burst City
- Original Trailer
- Image Gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Mark Player
Silent Running
Street Date: November 17, 2020
Synopsis: In 1968, visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull (The Andromeda Strain, Close Encounters of the Third Kind) contributed to the ground-breaking special photographic effects of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Four years later, he stamped his own indelible mark on the science fiction genre with his mesmerising directorial debut – Silent Running. In the not-so-distant future, Earth is barren of all flora and fauna, with what remains of the planet’s former ecosystems preserved aboard a fleet of greenhouses orbiting in space. When the crews are ordered to destroy the remaining specimens, one botanist, Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern, The ‘Burbs), rebels and flees towards Saturn in a desperate bid to preserve his own little piece of Earth that was, accompanied only by the ship’s three service robots. Featuring a captivating central performance by Dern, visual effects that rival anything in 2001 and a powerful ecological message, Silent Running is a haunting and prescient sci-fi classic that resonates even more strongly today than it did at the time of its original release.
- Brand new 2K restoration from the original camera negative, approved by director Douglas Trumbull and produced by Arrow Video exclusively for this release
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray™ presentation
- Original lossless mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary by critics Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw
- Original audio commentary by Douglas Trumbull and actor Bruce Dern
- Isolated music and effects track
- No Turning Back, a new interview with film music historian Jeff Bond on the film’s score
- First Run, a new visual essay by writer and filmmaker Jon Spira exploring the evolution of Silent Running’s screenplay
- The Making of Silent Running, an archival 1972 on-set documentary
- Silent Running by Douglas Trumbull and Douglas Trumbull: Then and Now, two archival interviews with the film’s director
- A Conversation with Bruce Dern, an archival interview with the film’s lead actor
- Theatrical trailer
- Extensive behind-the-scenes gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Arik Roper
- FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Barry Forshaw and Peter Tonguette
He Came From The Swamp: The William Grefé Collection
Street Date: November 24, 2020
Synopsis: Killer sharks and human jellyfish and living mummies, oh my! Arrow Video is proud to present the first ever collection of works by William “Wild Bill” Grefé, the maverick filmmaker who braved the deep, dark depths of the Florida everglades to deliver some of the most outrageous exploitation fare ever to go-go dance its way across drive-in screens. Bringing together seven of Grefé’s most outlandish features, all new to Blu-ray, He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection packs in a macabre menagerie of demented jellyfish men (Sting of Death), zombified witch doctors (Death Curse of Tartu), homicidal hippies (The Hooked Generation) and seductive matrons (The Naked Zoo) – not to mention the ubiquitous go-go dancing college kids – to create one of the most wildly entertaining box-sets of all time!
- Seven William Grefé films, all newly restored from the best surviving film elements: Sting of Death (1966), Death Curse of Tartu (1966), The Hooked Generation (1968), The Psychedelic Priest (1971), The Naked Zoo (1971), Mako: Jaws of Death (1976) and Whiskey Mountain.
- Brand new, extended version of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures’ definitive documentary They Came from the Swamp: The Films of William Grefé
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations on 4 Blu-ray discs
- Original uncompressed mono audio for all films
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Fully illustrated collector’s booklet featuring an extensive, never-before-published interview with William Grefé and a new foreword by the filmmaker
- Reversible poster featuring newly commissioned artwork by The Twins of Evil
- Reversible sleeves featuring newly commissioned artwork for each of the films by The Twins of Evil
- STING OF DEATH (1966) + DEATH CURSE OF TARTU (1966)
- Brand new introductions to the films by director William Grefé
- Archival audio commentaries for both films with William Grefé and filmmaker Frank Henenlotter
- Sting of Death: Beyond the Movie – Monsters a-Go Go! – a look into the history of rock ‘n’ roll monster movies with author/historian C. Courtney Joyner
- The Curious Case of Dr. Traboh: Spook Show Extraordinaire – a ghoulish look into the early spook show days with monster maker Doug Hobart
- Original Trailers
- Still and Promotion Gallery
- THE HOOKED GENERATION (1968) + THE PSYCHEDELIC PRIEST (1971)
- Archival audio commentaries for both films with director William Grefé and filmmaker Frank Henenlotter
- Hooked Generation behind-the-scenes footage
- Hooked Generation Original Trailer
- Still and Promotion Gallery
- THE NAKED ZOO (1971) + MAKO: JAWS OF DEATH (1976)
- William Grefé’s original Director’s Cut of Naked Zoo
- Alternate Barry Mahon re-release cut of Naked Zoo
- Original Mako: Jaws of Death Trailer and Promo
- Still and Promotion Gallery
- WHISKEY MOUNTAIN (1977) + THEY CAME FROM THE SWAMP: EXTENDED CUT (2020)
- Whiskey Mountain Original Trailer
- Still and Promotion Gallery
- They Came from the Swamp: The Films of William Grefé – the definitive documentary presented for the first in High-Definition and in a brand new, extended cut
- Extras subject to change

Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.