Overview: For his final work, Godfather of Mondo Franco E. Prosperi – writer/director of MONDO CANE, AFRICA: BLOOD AND GUTS and GOODBYE UNCLE TOM – took on the Nature Strikes Back genre and delivered perhaps the most shocking movie of his controversial career, now in UHD for the first time ever.

When PCP gets into the water supply of a city zoo, the drug-crazed beasts – including tigers, lions, cheetahs, hyenas and elephants, as well as seeing eye dogs and sewer rats – go berserk and rampage through the streets of Frankfurt.

What follows is a terrifying mix of actual animal attacks (supervised by professional circus trainers) and over-the-top ‘80s Italian gore that remains the greatest eco-revenge shocker in EuroCult history (DVD Beaver).

Lorraine De Selle (CANNIBAL FEROX, HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK) and Ugo Bologna (NIGHTMARE CITY) star in “the very definition of an exploitation movie” (Daily Grindhouse), newly scanned in 4K from the original camera negative.

4K Blu-ray Review: In all truth I fecking LOVE this movie! I mean, for the most part it is what it sets out to be: a generally fun nature-run-amok genre effort that quickly becomes comfort food for the soul. I mean, who could dislike a completely OTT, fun and cheesy setup to getting the animals released in the first place!

The whole plot of the drugs getting into the water supply and contaminating it to allow the infected animals to get loose is admittedly goofy, but if you think about it, well, wouldn’t it happen just like this is PCP were to find its way into your local Zoo water supply?!

But I digress, and after some scenes of random animals going crazy and attacking even before the big escape, and which leads to the eventual rampage, coming complete with a brilliant discovery late on, everything comes together here and brings forth a great Saturday night popcorn flick.

So don’t you worry, because there is a slew of brilliant, and unrelenting chaos when the animals get freed and sent on the loose. I mean, the opening shot of the elephants breaking free from the zoo walls and sending the herd of tigers out to kill the workers itself creates a scene that is so chock full of madness that you know you’re in for a wonderful cinematic experience!

Along with that we get all manner of other variations of OTT havoc such as when the rats attack a couple in their car, police officers get ambushed by tigers when investigating the outbreak, cheetah chase cars and oh-so much more. All this combined with some excellently cheesy gore effects spread throughout – such as the flamethrowers turned on the rats and the completely overdone makeup effects of gorily mangled human victims - make this one of the best horror films of 1984. [K.G.]

Special Features:
DISC 1: 4K UHD (FILM + SPECIAL FEATURES)
• Trailer

DISC 2: BLU-RAY (FILM + SPECIAL FEATURES)
• Altered Beasts – Interview With Director Franco E. Prosperi
• Wild Tony – Interview With Actor Tony Di Leo
• Cut After Cut – Interview With Editor/Mondo Filmmaker Mario Morra
• The Circus Is In Town – Interview With Animal Wrangler Roberto Tiberti’s Son, Carlo Tiberti
• House Of Wild Beasts – A Visit To The Home Of Franco E. Prosperi
• Trailer

Disc Specs:
• Runtime: 92 mins
• Audio: English Mono, Italian Mono
• 4K Video: HDR10
• Closed Captions, English Subtitles
• 4K UHD Region Free | Blu-ray Region A
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1

• *All foreign-language featurettes are subtitled in English.

Official Purchase Link