Big Time Messiah

I've seen other physical media collectors discuss the subject of which movies they've bought the most copies of -- you know, upgraded from VHS to DVD to blu-ray to 4K with every weird special edition they could find. It's often movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre of the Evil Dead films -- they seem to get the most variants, because horror nerds are reliable suckers. (I speak for myself there, obviously.) Anyway I think the 1973 re-discovered horror gem Messiah of Evil (which I just wrote about for its 50th anniversary right here) might end up being my personal media burden to bear -- it's only been put out a few times in the past fifteen years but I've somehow managed to snap up every one of them!

And so the second I saw this morning that Radiance Films (a UK-based company) was putting out a new 4K restoration of the film in a fancy limited edition I bought it without even thinking. And if you've never seen the movie (and you have a region-free blu-ray player) this seems like a swell way to go! It's not out until October but the set is loaded with features, and I'll share them after the jump...

FEATURES:

• New 2023 restoration from a 4K scan of the best-surviving elements of the film from the Academy Film Archive
• Uncompressed mono PCM audio
• Audio commentary by critics and horror experts Kim Newman and Stephen Thrower
• Archival interview with co-writer-director Willard Huyck by Mike White from the Projection Booth Podcast
• A new documentary on the film with more information to be revealed
• Visual essay on the American Gothic by critic Kat Ellinger
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
  
• Limited edition 80-page booklet featuring new and archival writing
  
• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in rigid box and full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings 
• More to be confirmed!