I’ve been enjoying so many of the Arrow Video Nico Mastorakis releases, including Bloodtide, Nightmare at Noon, .com for Murder, Death Has Blue Eyes, The Wind, The Zero Boys, Hired to Kill and Bloodstone.

Now, they’ve released a box set containing six of the director, writer and producer’s movies.

Mastorakis started as a newspaper reporter, getting an exclusive interview with the exiled Princess Soraya and posing as a member of Giannis Poulopoulos’ band to get on Aristotle Onassis’ yacht, hiding a camera behind the strings of his guitar to break the news that the Greek businessman was marrying Jackie O. He also hosted 22 different radio shows, brought The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to Greek ears, and produced the early recordings of Vangelis Papathanassiou before he would become Vangelis.

If that’s not enough, he was one of the first creators on Greek television and was forced off the air twice for speaking freely. He was also part of an infamous interview with students arrested during the Athens Polytechnic uprising that led to them being threatened if they did not comply with being presented on TV.

Unable to work in Greek television after this, he started making movies like Island of Death and The Greek Tycoon, based on his knowledge of Onassis. He’s made scores of movies since then, as well as coming back to Greece where he became involved in television and radio, just like the old days.

He’s a fascinating person. The films that he made are the perfect cable or video rental era time capsules of movies you just had to see or bring home because the descriptions were just so weird. I’m so into this box set, which has the following movies:

The Time Traveler: A widow (Adrienne Barbeau) of an astronaut and her young son come across a mysterious man (Keir Dullea) with uncanny powers on a beach in Greece.

Sky High: Three American jocks on holiday in Greece are given a tape by a mysterious figure, who begs them to not let it fall into the wrong hands before being shot by an unseen assassin.

Terminal Exposure: Two carefree beach photographers accidentally photograph a murder and immediately set after the assassin: a tall, gorgeous blonde with a rose tattoo on her behind.

Glitch!: Two bumbling burglars throw the house party of the century in the luxury home of a Hollywood producer until a group of mobsters show up determined to collect what the producer owes them – no matter what.

Ninja Academy: Take a martial arts school, throw in a snotty rich kid, a clumsy geek, a paranoid survivalist, two beach joggers, a cool secret agent and a mime…and you get this movie.

The Naked Truth: Two friends decide to pass as women and pose as makeup artists for a local beauty pageant to elude a vicious mafia boss. It seems like the perfect cover, until the mafioso gets the hots for one of them.

This Arrow Video box set includes Nico’s Self Interviews, six brand new interviews with writer, director and producer Nico Mastorakis where he looks back on how the films in this collection came to be, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and cast and crew interviews. You also get an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the career Nico Mastorakis by critic Barry Forshaw and limited edition deluxe packaging with reversible sleeves featuring newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch.

Get it from MVD.