Love Is a Stranger + Love Is a Stranger Again

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This special limited edition slipcover is limited to 1,000 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them.

Saturn's Core Audio & Video is a New Jersey based home video label devoted to releasing underground oddities and shot on video cinema on VHS, and now, blu-ray discs! In partnership with OCN Distribution, Saturn's Core will exhume forgotten or under-seen genre cinema from the 80s and 90s, with an emphasis on SOV horror features. Vinegar Syndrome’s sister company, OCN Distribution, is thrilled to be representing this diverse and unique home video line!

In the mid ‘90s, prolific W.A.V.E. Productions actor Dave Castiglione set out to write and direct his own brand of auteurist, SOV productions under the banner of Sharkey Video. Utilizing contributions from many of his former W.A.V.E. cohorts, his anterior Love is a Stranger duology finds Castiglione at his most fundamental, blending slasher, erotic thriller, gothic horror, and eccentric fetish elements into a lurid pair of backyard epics that buoyantly revel in both prurient sleaze and the regional charms of their South Jersey locales.

In Love is a Stranger (1994), young Gwen Stevens attempts to escape her controlling and abusive boyfriend Craig by taking a job at the studio of a local photographer and lothario named Landon Love. Unfortunately for Gwen, many of Love’s female staff have already inexplicably disappeared, only to be found murdered at the hands of a mysterious, necktie obsessed psychopath. Broad South Jersey accents, sensual raw meat massages, and climactic mud tussling abound in Castiglione’s SOV debut which features performances by Tina Krause (Limbo), Christine Cavalier (Red Lips), and Ivory Blackwood (Bloody Creek).

In Love is a Stranger Again (1997), Gwen rekindles her relationship with Craig and returns to her job at Landon Love’s photography studio, still haunted and traumatized by the string of murders she narrowly survived. Plagued by nightmares and bouts of paranoia, she becomes convinced that her assassin is still stalking her. Could the psychotic murder Bebe still be alive? Has she returned from the grave to seek revenge? Or is it all just a figment of Gwen’s shattered psyche? Find out in the elaborate and elusive sequel which features performances by Dawn Murphy (Backwoods Marcy), Laura Giglio (Sorority Slaughter), and Dean Paul (Hayride Slaughter).

directed by: Dave Castiglione
starring: Dawn Murphy, Dave Castiglione, Christine Cavalier, Tina Krause, Ivory Blackwood, Osman Karriem, Gary Whitson, Champy Frehmel
1994-1997 / 154 min (combined) / 1.33:1 / English DTS-HD MA 2.0

Additional info:

• Region Free Blu-ray
• Newly remastered short films from the Sharkey Video archives:
  • “The Little World of Wilbur” -Dave Castiglione’s 1997 custom short starring Dawn Murphy
  • “The Last Laugh” -Dave Castiglione’s 1997 custom short starring Dawn Murphy & Debbie D.
  • “Fempyra” -Dawn Murphy’s 1999 short starring Pamela Sutch & Debbie D.
  • Bloopers & Outtakes from the short films
  • Archival Dawn Murphy “Fempyra” interview
• English SDH subtitles on both features

Love is a Stranger (1994)

• New scan from the original SVHS master tapes
• Audio commentary with writer / director Dave Castiglione moderated by Ross Snyder of Saturn’s Core
• Early alternative rough cut
• Bloopers and outtakes
• Archival cable access TV interview with director Dave Castiglione

Love is a Stranger Again (1997)

• New 2026 Director’s Cut complied under the supervision of director Dave Castiglione
• Audio commentary with writer / director Dave Castiglione moderated by Ross Snyder of Saturn’s Core
• Original VHS cut
• A Crazy Little Thing Called Love” -an interview with writer / director Dave Castiglione
• “The Stranger Beside Me” -an interview with actor Osman Karriem
• Dawn Murphy’s “Screen Test USA” audition tape
• Trailers