Blu-Ray BD50 / 1080p / 24fps / Region ABC
RRP: £19.99
Release Date: 25 August 2025
SRBD 095
Blu-Ray |
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From the director of the beloved Three Wishes for Cinderella, Václav Vorlíček’s Who Wants to Kill Jessie? is a delightfully demented, absurdist 1966 comic fantasy that is unlike anything else in the Czech New Wave - and presages the DC and Marvel comic-book franchises by several decades.
Jessie, a comic book heroine, springs into real life after a scientist invents a serum to banish bad dreams. This inadvertent experiment unleashes chaos as Jessie and her comic book compatriots demand - in speech-bubbles - “Freedom for dreams!”.
Co-written by Miloš Macourek (Happy End), Who Wants to Kill Jessie? is a deliriously off-the-wall gem. Exploding with ingenuity and wild ideas, and intertwining real and pop-fantasy worlds, the film audaciously subverts the fledgling superhero genre into a bold piece of political satire, and a daring defence of the unfettered imagination.
Who Wants to Kill Jessie? is presented from a new HD transfer by the Czech National Film Archive. This world premiere, region-free Blu-ray edition includes Directive, a 1955 Václav Vorlíček comic short film, a new and expansive video essay by Michael Brooke on crazy Czech comedies, a Projection Booth commentary and a booklet with new writing by Czech cinema expert Jonathan Owen.
• Who Wants to Kill Jessie? (Kdo chce zabít Jessii?, 1966) presented from a new HD transfer by the Czech National Film Archive.
• Directive (Direktiva, 1955): An early comic short film by Václav Vorlíček, presented from a new HD transfer.
• Those Crazy Czechs: A new and expansive video essay by film historian Michael Brooke on crazy Czech comedies.
• A Projection Booth commentary with Mike White, Jim Laczkowski and Jonathan Owen.
• 24-page booklet with new writing on the film by author and Czech cinema expert Jonathan Owen.
• New English subtitle translation.
• Region Free (A/B/C) Blu-ray.
• World Premiere on Blu-ray.
Directed by Václav Vorlíček
Screenplay by Miloš Macourek, Václav Vorlíček
Cinematography - Jan Němeček
Music - Svatopluk Havelka
Editors - Jan Chaloupek, Jaromír Janáček
Production Design - Bohumil Pokorný
Sound design - Adolf Nacházel
Special effects - Vladimír Dvořák, Jiří Šimunek
Comic book illustrations - Kája Saudek
Main Cast
Dana Medřická - Růženka Beránková, Professor of Somnology
Jiří Sovák - Professor Jindřich Beránek
Olga Schoberová - Jessie
Juraj Višný - Superman
Karel Effa – The Gunslinger
Vladimír Menšík - Kolbaba
Jan Libíček - Prison guard
Václav Vorlíček's beloved film Three Wishes for Cinderella
and more gems of Czechoslaovak and
international cinema
are also available on Second Run
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“This film is unique and creative and utterly hilarious... unlike any film that preceded it and way ahead of many similar films that would follow in years to come... a giddy whirlwind of mayhem and bizarre hijinks.” Film Threat
“This goofy, inspired comedy from director Václav Vorlíček is a refreshing reminder that the Czech New Wave didn't necessarily have to be totally serious.”
Combustible Celluloid
“Here it is, the greatest Czech superhero comedy I've ever seen.” Letterboxd
“The film spins outlandish yet deadpan chaos from the premise of a scientific invention intended to remove bad dreams, which inadvertently unleashes a trio of archetypal comic-book characters into the real world. An early and superior example of a live-action comics pastiche and a droll intertwining of real and pop-fantasy worlds years before Who Framed Roger Rabbit? or Barbie, the film is also a bold piece of political satire and a defence of the free imagination. [...]
The film is itself a potent serum – not for removing dreams, but for stimulating the imagination, perhaps even inciting rebellious fantasies – and let’s hope its wider availability also makes it a crazy-comedy gateway drug for others, as it was for me.” Jonathan Owen
“The delightful, gentle Who Wants to Kill Jessie? is a 1966 Czech fantasy that captures a wonderful spirit of comic-book innocence... Director Václav Vorlícek finds just the right note of droll foolishness to develop a one-joke idea into a satisfying screwball comedy.” Glenn Erikson, DVD Savant