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MORE OUTLETS PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO PHYSICAL
BEST BUY OFFERS DISCS VIA THIRD PARTIES
DIRECTOR WEAPONISES PHYSICAL RELEASE
CLASS ACTION SUIT TAKES ON AMAZON
ERA RECOGNISES FUTURE LEADERS…
…AND PRAISES ENTERTAINMENT CHAMPIONS…
…AS TRADE BODY WIDENS MEMBERSHIP
FRIGHTFEST: TOXIE’S A WINNER WITH FANS…
…AS SIGNATURE BRINGS THE HOME TO HOMES…
…RADIANCE RESTORATIONS SHINE AT HORROR FEST…
…STRIKE’S HALF DOZEN AT GENRE EVENT…
CRITERION PRESSES KID ’N’ PLAY
FUTURE IS 40 YEARS OLD
SEVERANCE GETS 4K UPGRADE…
…AS STEWART JOINS KFILM
POPULAR IMPRINT CALL OUT
SUPERMAN IN OCTOBER, TOMORROW IN 2027
BFU UNVEILS LFF INE-UP…
…AND CELEBRATES WISEMAN WITH SEASON AND BOX SET
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TRAILERS OF THE WEEK 
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It was a good week for… Congratulations to Rarewaves' Rudy Osorio, the Official Charts Company's Chris Austin and all ERA's Entertainment Champions and Future Leaders…
It was a bad week for… Amazon facing a US class action suit over removing films bought "to own" from consumers' libraries……
We have been watching… A wealth of titles for our revies for Film Stories magazine, racking up loads more to add to our Letterboxd diary…
As has been our wont in recent weeks, we’ll kick off proceedings with a look at the latest on the current perception of physical media, as assorted publications, both online and in the world of print, use up column inches pledging their devotion to films and TV on disc. The latest comes from culture site The Upcoming, which highlights the slow switch back to DVDs and Bu-rays and how, dissatisfied with streamers and the likelihood of titles just disappearing from platforms – even if they’ve bought them rather than merely subscribing – consumers are edging back to discs. “While physical media is far outnumbered by streaming subscriptions,” it concluded, “it hasn’t disappeared. It endures, weathering the digital shift with quiet persistence. This isn’t just a technological evolution – it’s also an emotional one, understood best by collectors. Digital may be easier, faster, and more convenient, but it will never quite match the nostalgic magic of a classic physical release, or the joy of holding a piece of cinematic history in your hands.” You can see it here.
And in another interesting development over in the US – and nothing to do with the seeming near-chaos of news bulletins from across the country and Washington DC in particular – comes from big box retailer Best Buy. The retailer's exit from physical media was widely trumpeted back in 2023 ( “To state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago,” Best Buy told Variety which broke the story. “Making this change gives us more space and opportunity to bring customers new and innovative tech for them to explore, discover and enjoy”). But now it looks like the retailer is back, albeit in a different form, as its launched an online marketplace via its website, much like Amazon, which will be selling Blu-ray and DVDs via third party retailers. Best Buy chief marketplace and eCommerce officer Frank Bedo said: "With marketplace, we're able to give them not only more of the latest technology, but a massive new collection of products outside of the tech space so we can truly offer the full experience they need.”
Much has been made over the years of how much directors, actors, writers and other creatives involved in productions love physical media themselves, and how getting their films released on disc is still the ultimate accolade. It’s interesting to see the flip side of this as director Zach Cregger, currently riding high with the global success of his hit horror Weapons, has bemoaned the lack of a physical release for his previous shocker Barbarian (backed by 20th Century Studios, now under Disney’s watchful eye). Made three years ago and still gaining critical acclaim and interest on the back of its $45 million box office earnings (it’s currently faring well on Netflix because of Weapons’ success after initially debuting via Disney +), it's still not available on disc. In an interview on Ringer Movies, Cregger noted: “I have banged the drum, made phone calls, and tried my best to get some sort of physical media [of Barbarian]. I’m not making headway, and it kind of bums me out. I love watching the Making Of, sometimes as much as watching the movie. Selfishly, I want people to watch me boss other people around and look cool. We don’t have any footage like that of Barbarian, because nobody cared enough. But we did do special features… they’re available on the iTunes purchase.”
Meanwhile, the past week or so has seen consumers try and wrest back control from streamers and digital retailers who remove products from viewers’ libraries as and when licenses expire. For in a class action suit led by Lisa Reingold, who bought Bella and the Bulldogs — Volume 4 from Amazon in May, only to se it pulled from her library soon after. As The Hollywood Reporter, which broke the story noted, if a consumer buys a film that may disappear, “should Amazon be able to say a consumer is 'buying’ that movie? Some people don’t think so, and they’ve turned to court.” It continued: A proposed class action was filed in Washington federal court against Amazon over a 'bait and switch’ in which the company allegedly misleads consumers into believing they’ve purchased content when they’re only getting a license to watch, which can be revoked at any time. Recent legislative changes may make the lawsuit even more viable. Earlier this year, a California law went into effect barring the advertisement of a transaction as a “purchase” unless it offers unrestricted ownership of the product. Under the statute, sellers must obtain acknowledgement that buyers are aware they’re actually buying a limited license, in this case movies or TV shows, that can be revoked. Amazon ‘does not meet the standards set by the statute for a clear and conspicuous notice that the thing they are purchasing is a revocable license to access the digital good,’ writes Wright Noel, a lawyer for consumers looking to sue the company, in the complaint. ‘The warning is buried at the very bottom of the screen, in font that is considerably smaller than the other text on the screen.’”
To Eastcheap Records in the City of London – a bar that is vinyl friendly, rather than an actual record shop – for this year’s ERA summer party, where the digital services and retailer trade body, which takes in video, music and games, was naming its two Rising Stars for 2025 as well as honouring a clutch of Entertainment Champions with special awards for their work in video, music and game. For the former, the Rising Stars were Amazon Prime Video vendor manager Laura Wainwright and music partnerships manager at merchandise chip company IYK GMI Inc Morgan Coates. Wainwright was, ERA noted, "nominated for her work with a range of Amazon Prime Video’s UK studio partners from the very smallest up to international majors, collaborating with them to showcase their content to customers and drive UK transactional segment growth, while also leading the launch of the store in international territories. Recent successes included implementing new case management tooling to help smaller partners streamline operational queries, and leading Prime Video’s engagement with film education charity Into Film. Wainwright has championed the cause of smaller partners, including setting up partner interviews with Prime Video’s US-based tech teams to ensure the voices of smaller international (ex-US) partners are heard.” Coates’ work for IYK in the music sector on chip technology, securing chart listings for physical mechanises products sold, was also recognised. Both will enter ERA’s Future Leaders programme and ERA chief Kim Bayley said: “With the vital role digital services and retailers play in shaping the fortunes of the music, video and games industries, it is essential that we nurture and celebrate the executives of the future. We are delighted to hail Laura and Morgan as Rising Stars and to welcome them to the Future Leaders Programme. The Future Leaders Programme has already proven its worth both for participants and for the broader ERA membership encouraging fresh and innovative thinking on some of the industry’s most challenging topics.”
There were seven Entertainment Champions honoured, including former hmv long-term staffer and ERA co-chair Rudy Osorio, now commercial director at Rarewaves, who was honoured for what ERA said was “his wide-ranging service to the music, video and games sectors since he began his career in entertainment as a shop assistant at HMV’s legendary Oxford Street London store 35 years ago”. Osorio said he was honoured and that retail is “a hard thing” to do but advised any young retail worker to “stick with it”. The Official Charts Company’s director of operations Chris Austin was also honoured for "his contribution across the music and video sectors and his central role in the development of the Official Charts Company’s new online platform”. Other honorees included Cherry Red Records founder Iain McNay; Lou Jackson, co-owner of Bury independent record store Wax & Beans; Spotify licensing director Magali Clapier and Warner Music independent sales reps Ben Edwards and Dave Murray. ERA chair Linda Walker said: “What a fantastic night! There were tears, laughter, reminiscence and future ambition aplenty. ERA’s Entertainment Champions prove beyond doubt that just as much magic takes place behind-the-scenes in the entertainment business as front-of-house.” ERA’s Kim Bayley added: “The digital entertainment and retail sector has emerged as the biggest single driver of growth and innovation in entertainment. It is therefore appropriate that we recognise the people driving those developments. We congratulate all of our winners – and especially our Rising Stars, the champions of the future.”
The ERA summer party came after the trade organisation announced plans to open up membership beyond retailers to the wider entertainment industry, a reaction, it said, to “growing demand for its insight, analysis and event services”. It has launched a new upgraded affiliate membership tier will allow companies outside its traditional base of retailers and digital services to join. It will give access to its tracking study; its bespoke research, weekly, monthly and annual video, music and games data, its events and more. It’s open to tech companies, distributors, suppliers and content owners. ERA chief Kim Bayley said: "For more than 30 years membership of ERA has been restricted primarily to retailers and then digital services, but growing demand from outside our immediate sector means it makes sense to open things up. Historically retailers were viewed as passive outlets for entertainment, but the work of digital services in driving the streaming revolution and physical retailers in nurturing the vinyl revival means suppliers recognise the need to stay close to ERA’s members.”
Meanwhile, the August bank holiday weekend saw the five day genre movie marathon that is FrightFest taking place in and around Leicester Square. As ever, it provided the perfect launch pad for theatrical and notably home entertainment releases, with many winding their way to both format. We’ve been catching up with a few of the films on since the event (we couldn’t make it in person), and we also had an on-the-spot source who saw many of the weekend’s highlights. Our source recommended Daughters Of Darkness (see below), the next remake of The Toxic Avenger (also see below) as well as Jimmy And Stiggs (from Eli Roth’s new company); summer camp shocker Marshmallow; homegrown Crushed from FrightFest fave Simon Rumley; Hellbender follow up Mother Of Flies from the directing team of John Adams, Zelda Adams and Toby Poser; the “undefinable” Transcending Dimensions while there was further buzz around Appofeniacs. FrightFest co-director Alan Jones told The Raygun: “FrightFest 2025 was a banner event all round. We had more star guests than ever before and the running was the smoothest in our history. The Odeon staff are an absolute joy to work with and we had capacity audiences for the entire program. Especially well received were REDUX, REDUX, BONE LAKE, INFLUENCERS, CRUSHED and THE TOXIC AVENGER, but as with any line-up as rich and diverse as ours was this year, every single film had its ardent fans.”
As mentioned here previously, Signature offered up a trio of films, including the aforementioned new outing for Troma video favourite The Toxic Avenger. Here’s the company’s Marek Pugh on the reaction to the slate and how it platformed the company’s releases: “Signature had three films at this year’s FrightFest, with opening night Pete Davidson horror The Home followed by a buzzy Friday showing of The Toxic Avenger and Sunday’s play of erotic horror-thriller Bone Lake. The Toxic Avenger is a major wide theatrical only release for Signature from Friday August 29. Entertaining care-home-horror The Home (from James DaMonaco, director of The Purge series) kicked off the festival with a packed house at Odeon Leicester Square ahead of its multi-platform release the following day and physicals in September. The Toxic Avenger festival plays kicked off with a UK Premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival closing their Midnight Madness strand (The Substance had the slot last year) on August 19. Quality talent support (Peter Dinklage, Kevin Bacon, Lloyd Kaufman, Taylour Paige and writer director Macon Blair) has led to a one-pager preview and a six-page feature special in Empire Magazine plus an online asset exclusive, print features in SFX and Starburst Magazines and quality chats for online too. FrightFest included interviews, photos and intro from British physical performer and Toxie-in-the-suit Luisa Guerriero with official Toxie mask plus a standee, a fun dress up competition Luisa hosted with 10 goodie bags, 200 barrels of Toxic Waste sweets (provided by the UK supplier) and lots of limited badges freebies for attendees. Director Macon Blair provided fun video intros for both EIFF and FrightFest too. Buzzy erotic thriller Bone Lake has it’s UK premiere at FrightFest on Sunday, with a video intro from director Mercedes Bryce Morgan. The film has several other UK festivals plays being set up ahead of its digital release in November.”
Daughters Of Darkness (mentioned above) was one of a brace of 4K restorations of classic horrors from director Harry Kümel premiering at the event, alongside Malpertuis. The FrightFest premieres of the newly spruced-up versions came ahead of planned home entertainment releases for the titles – both are due in October from Radiance Films. Both went down a storm, as website Filmhounds noted of the former: “A dreamy, politically charged spectacle of beauty and bloodshed, the new restoration of Daughters of Darkness is a must-see for newcomers to the film and fans alike.” The company’s Fran Simeoni said: “We're delighted with the response to our films at FrightFest and are very happy director Harry Kumel could attend events for both films in London and speak with journalists ahead of both films’ home entertainment releases. FrightFest is a great festival we hold dear, with a very devout following of die hard horror fans it made complete sense to premiere the films there to its knowledgeable and appreciative audience who could help spread positive word of mouth for these films. The added coverage the festival brings will be absolutely essential to give these films the platform they deserve.”
One company making a splash there was PR agency Strike Media, representing no less than six different films, with the company also sponsoring the event in kind, making t-shirts for the volunteers staffing the event over the weekend, and also similar tees for the directors’ drinks events at the event. “We’re proud to sponsor these at FrightFest in its 26th year,” said Strike’s Wez Merchant. "We look forward to the event every year and it was great to be a part of the iconic weekend.” The half dozen films on display over the five-day event being represented by Strike included Your Host, 213 Bones, The Red Mask, The Rows, Pig Hill and Noseeums, the latter being repped by Odin’s Eye Entertainment. Most are seeking deals for UK release, with Strike working with the production companies and sales agents to help raise their profile through stories, reviews and interviews, getting interest and word of mouth from attendees out in to the wider horror community. Merchant added: “We had masks aplenty, Jackie Earle Haley, Inanna Sarkis, Ella-Rae Smith, Jamie Flatters in attendance, all creating a huge buzz for their respective films.”
There have been a few announcements since we were last here as the raft of boutique labels continue to announce details of their titles due in the winter. More on the bulk of the recent announcements next time, but in the meantime chief among the product reveals was Spirit’s news about the November titles due under the Criterion banner, and it’s hard to think of a more diverse slate of titles. Here’s John Partridge, aka JP, from Spirit on the titles: “Criterion’s November releases might call to mind the old ‘one of these kids is not the same’ game from Sesame Street. We kick off the month with Guillermo Del Toro’s masterful reworking of Nightmare Alley on 4K with a 159m black and white director’s cut to accompany the theatrical version. This is followed at the end of the month by El on 4K, one of Luis Bunel’s Mexican exile films - a domestic drama about a young woman whose new husband may not be as perfect as he seems and Hell’s Angels on 4K, a 1930’s Howard Hughes aviation epic. So far, so Criterion. The odd one out at first glance is House Party, the 1990’s teen comedy vehicle for hip-hop duo Kid ‘n’ Play. I say at first glance – look deeper and you can see that House Party is clearly a landmark film and one of the first to represent teen black American culture in a positive light. Film critic Roger Ebert gave it a glowing review on initial release calling it ‘refreshing for a change to see a story about young blacks that didn’t revolve around social problems, thriller elements, drugs or any particular form of seriousness.’ Long absent a decent release on physical, you can have a nineties nostalgia filled November when House Party releases on the 13th.”
Sticking with JP and Spirit, and Back To The Future is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year (gasp!) and Spirit, under its deal with Universal, has unveiled special Steebook editions of each of the three films charting the time-travelling adventures of Marty McFly and co. Each is limited, with the first film containing a special documentary made for the anniversary, and all three containing assorted replicas from each film. You can see them here, here and here They are all released on November 13 and JP said: “It has been quite a long journey bringing these anniversary SKUs to the UK – 40 years to be exact! But we have some really cool and immersive replica props from each film in these special edition Steelbook sets not to mention a brand new bonus disc of previously unavailable content with the first film – including a new 40 year on retrospective so it was worth the effort and for fans of the trilogy, will hopefully be worth the wait!”
Icon continues to bring some classic titles to ultra high definition, with the next in line under the banner, through parent KFILM, is Severance, a dark comedy horror starring Danny Dyer. As noted on its successful first home entertainment release almost 20 years ago, it sits somewhere between The Office and Deliverance and its highly rated by Dyer fans. The October 20 4K release comes with a raft of new extras, as well as archive additional material. Commenting on the release, the company’s Adam Sergeant said: “We’re delighted to bring the razor-sharp, Severance, to UHD for the first-time. Following in the footsteps of our previous 4K releases over the last 12 months, including Austin Powers, Point Break, The Dreamers and Malcolm X, Chris Smith’s pitch-black comedy horror is already pre-ordering fantastically and we look forward to seeing what numbers we can achieve by release on October 20. UHD is a real area of both interest and growth for Kaleidoscope and we look forward to announcing future titles in the months to come!
More from KFILM and recruitment news from the thriving indie, with the announcement that industry stalwart Tom Stewart, who boasts a lengthy career in and around the business, has been appointed director of acquisitions, while Dave Woodward has joined as head of theatrical sales. Stewart will work alongside current acquisitions lead Josh Thomashow, with the former focusing on UK, Europe and Asia and the later on the Americas and Australasia. The pair will work on acquisitions during the autumn sales season, with head of sales Daniel Cooper and KFILM CEO Spencer Pollard overseeing KFILM’s sales company Kaleidoscope Film Distribution’s business. Stewart has most recently been at Parkland and includes stints at the likes of RTM and DISC, Metrodome, High Fliers and Arrow. CEO Spencer Pollard said: “I am delighted to be welcoming both Tom and Dave to the KFILM team. They bring a huge amount of UK distribution experience and expertise with them, and it will help us continue to evolve and expand on our UK distribution and international sales reach. Tom has always been somebody I admired over the years and became friends with while Dave has been working with us for a number of years as our independent theatrical booker — so adding him to the team to strengthen our theatrical reach full time was an easy decision to make.”
Mention of RTM brings us on to a reader question, as writer Matty Budrewicz, a frequent contributor to boutique Blu-rays, not least with commentaries alongside writing partner (and video rental store proprietor Dave Wain) gets in touch with a query. Does anyone, he asks, know anything about a VHS label from the 1990s called Popular Progress? Its distribution was handled by RTM, and it released among other things, Fred Olen Ray films… It’s naggingly familiar to us, but we’ve still come up blank. Get in touch with us if you can help…
It was a simple message released by Warner’s DC creative supremo James Gunn via social media (on X or, for those of us who don’t like change, Twitter): “Man of Tomorrow. In theatres July 9, 2027”, along with a comic book image of Superman and his nemesis Lex Luthor. And with that, Gunn unveiled plans for the next film that will see David Corenswet return as the Man of Steel, almost certainly alongside his arch-enemy, played by Nicholas Hoult. The film will follow two 2026 DC projects slated for release, Supergirl and Clayface, and land in cinemas ahead of autumn 2027 release, The Batman Part II. Whether it was coincidence or not, the timing was good for home entertainment – Warner had announced the film was due as a premium digital release on August 26, available to rent or buy, with a physical media release landing on October 27, the latter featuring a raft of extras and a multitude of featurettes…
With some 247 films on its announcement (another 10 were added within day of the launch), more than 40 per cent of which come from female and non-binary directors, a host of world and international premieres, talks with a raft of big names including Yorgos Lanthimos, Daniel Day-Lewis, Richard Linklater, Jafar Panahi, Lynne Ramsay, Tessa Thompson and Chloe Zhao, multiple screenings across the capital and beyond, the London Film Festival this week revealed its line-up for 2025. The event takes place form October 8 to 19 and includes a wealth of films, from big name blockbusters through to independents and shorts, all all under banners such as Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Experimenta, Family, and Shorts. There are too many to list and we’ll report more after a good trawl through the programme, but it’s interesting to note that MUBI has no less than 10 films airing during the event. Comment came from LFF director Kristy Matheson, who said: "This Autumn we invite audiences to craft their own festival journey across our programme of premiere screenings, dynamic interactive exhibitions and compelling talks programmes with some of cinemas leading practitioners. We look forward to you joining us this year to experience the incredible state of the medium in 2025 – brimming with formal innovations, provocations and essential roadmaps for navigating the world around us.” BFI chief executive Ben Roberts added “Audiences are at the heart of the LFF and the festival brings them an incredible breadth of stories from some of the most talented and creative filmmakers from the UK and across the world. Huge thanks to our Festival team for presenting a brilliant programme, American Express for its 16 years of headline partnership and all our other partners and supporters.”
The BFI has also announced that just after the LFF ends, it will kick off a three-month long retrospective looking at the works of groundbreaking documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, with the retrospective, Cinema Expanded – The Films Of Frederick Wiseman, followed by a Blu-ray box set from the BFI in January. The set will feature some of his most important works including Titicut Follies, High School, Hospital, Juvenile court and Welfare. Former LFF director Sandra Hebron, now at the head of screen arts at the National Film and Television School, who is programming the season, said: “His documentaries, shot vérité-style, are meticulously edited narratives chronicling life’s complexities through rich portraits of social and cultural institutions. Wiseman’s themes are expansive: democracy, power, inequality and community, to name a few; but his focus is compellingly specific and humane. Whether revealing shortcomings in social support or celebrating culinary excellence, he has a unique eye – and ear – for detail.”
 The Raygun, is 15 years old and continues to report on the home entertainment industry and its ever-changing face. To ensure we can continue to bring you the latest news, opinion and analysis from a business we love and care passionately about, you can support our independent journalism by donating to us via Ko-fi… Thank you.
TRAILERS OF THE WEEK
“Heathcliff, it’s me, I’m Cathy, I’ve come home”
Not that Severance…
Hold the line…
Ramsay treat…
Due from Dogwoof…
This is truly incredible…
Mine’s a pint…
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