Product Description
At Last! The Video Rental Blockbuster of 1983 arrives on DVD, newly remastered from original vault elements and packed with extras! Unbeknown to the passengers on board a cruise ship in the Caribbean, a mysterious vessel is approaching - on a collision course! Despite the attempts of the crew to avert disaster, the liner is lost with all hands down, except for seven survivors. They are saved when they clamber aboard a ghostly freighter, where they discover an even worse fate. They are now prisoners on a former wartime vessel. As this ship speeds towards an unknown destination, they realise that something is intent on destroying each one of them in a grusesome and terrifying way... It's not a ship, it's a killing machine! From an original story by Hollywood legend Jack Hill (COFFY, FOXY BROWN, SWITCHBLADE SISTERS) and starring none other than George Kennedy (COOL HAND LUKE, THE DIRTY DOZEN) and Richard Crenna (RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD) comes the long-awaited UK DVD premiere of DEATH SHIP. Unseen in the UK since 1983, this deranged horror film is now widely regarded as a must-see cult classic! DVD Features & Bonus Extras: * Newly Created Widescreen (1.85:1) Presentation Enhanced for 16x9 TVs * English 2.0 (original PCM Mono) * Optional Hard of Hearing Subtitles * Audio Commentary with Director Alvin Rakoff, moderated by English Gothic author Jonathan Rigby * "From Blood Star to Death Ship" - An All-New Featurette with Director Alvin Rakoff, Writer Jack Hill and actors George Kennedy and Nick Mancuso * Theatrical Trailer (x 3) * The *uncensored" Bloody Shower Scene - darkened down in other releases * Picture Gallery (Posters, Stills, Press Books, Video Art) * Nucleus Promo Reel (at start of disc) * Trailers for 5 other Nucleus Films releases * RSDL dual layer high bit rate encode for optimum picture quality Synopsis Unbeknown to the passengers on board a cruise ship in the Caribbean, a mysterious vessel is approaching on a collision course. Despite the attempts of the crew to avert disaster, the liner is lost with all hands down, except for seven survivors. They are saved when they clamber aboard a ghostly freighter where they discover an even worse fate. They are now prisoners on a former wartime vessel. As this ship speeds towards an unknown destination, they realise that something is intent on destroying each one of them in a gruesome and terrifying way. From an original story by Hollywood legend Jack Hill (COFFY, FOXY BROWN, SWITCHBLADE SISTERS) and starring none other than George Kennedy (COOL HAND LUKE, THE DIRTY DOZEN) and Richard Crenna (FIRST BLOOD) comes the long-awaited UK DVD premiere of DEATH SHIP. Unseen in the UK since 1983, this deranged horror film is now widely regarded as a must-see cult classic!
From the Director
Alvin Rakoff (Director): Alvin Rakoff, former President of the Director's Guild of Great Britain, has directed more than 100 television dramas as well as a dozen feature films. Among other awards and nominations he twice won the coveted International Emmy Television Award. His work in theatre ranges from HAMLET at Bristol Old Vic, to a star-studded - Richard Briers, Wayne Sleep, Penelope Keith - charity performance before HM the Queen at Royal Albert Hall, and he is the first director to work with a very yound Sean Connery.
About the Actor
George Kennedy (as Ashland): WWII veteran, sandy haired, stocky actor who at one stage cornered the market at playing tough no-nonsense characters that were either quite crooked or possessed hearts of gold. Kennedy has notched up an impressive 200+ appearances in both TV & film productions, and is well respected within the Hollywood community. Started out in TV westerns in the late 1950s & early 1960s (Have Gun Will Travel, Rawhide, Maverick, Colt .45 etc ) before scoring minor roles in films including Lonely Are the Brave (1962), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965). The late 1960s was then a very busy period for Kennedy, and he was strongly in favor with casting agents appearing in Hurry Sundown (1967), The Dirty Dozen (1967) and scoring an Oscar win as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Cool Hand Luke (1967). The disaster film boom of the 1970s was kind to Kennedy too, and his talents were in demand for Airport (1970) and the three subsequent sequels, as a grizzled cop in Earthquake (1974), plus the buddy/road film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) as vicious bank robber, Red Leary.
