A few months back I knocked the After Dark Horrorfest guys for not booking Frontiere(s) as part of their second annual sorta-festival. I quickly received a very cordial response from an AD representative who told me basically precisely this: "I'm emailing in regards to your article about "Frontiere(s)" and Horrorfest. Basically, I just wanted to let you know we absolutely are not going to cut this film up in any way. We have not accepted any rating for it so far and at this point we do not know if it's going to be released NC-17 or unrated. We haven't decided. But I promise you it will get released theatrically and in its originally intended form."

He also explained how an unrated / NC-17 film could not play as part of Horrorfest, given the existing contracts between the event and its venues. OK, fair enough. But the horror geeks are getting royally gore-teased by the Weinsteins on Inside, so when can we get a peek at this freaky Frontiere(s) flick already?

May 9, according to ShocktyDrop.com, is when Lionsgate will be releasing Xavier Gens' whacked-out horror stew in theaters. It will no doubt be a contractually-mandated very limited release pattern, but here's some strange-yet-good news: It seems that the DVD will arrive only four days later. Gee, now there's some incentive to get out to the theaters, eh?

For his part, After Dark chief Courtney Solomon says the flick will remain "uncut, unedited, and unaltered in any way to comply with a specific rating. This is a prime example of the type of film we will continue to deliver – a great horror flick that delves far deeper than most films of this genre." (Notice he said "will continue to deliver," and not "have delivered." If Frontiere(s) is the future of After Dark, and stuff like Lake Dead is the past, well damn, that's great news for everyone.) Either way, this import is easily one of After Dark's finest acquisitions*, so I wish them (and Lionsgate) good luck on the Frontiere(s) release(s).

(* Damning with faint praise? Perhaps, but Horrorfest 2 was, in my opinion, a definite improvement over year one. Not a huge improvement, but it was there.)