Monday, October 21, 2013

Vincent Price Collection - Scream Factory Blu-ray Review


Scream Factory's long-awaited Vincent Price Collection is out this week and I can't recommend it enough to fans of Price or Gothic Horror in general. It's really an amazing collection of films featuring some of Price's all-time greatest performances. Films like Pit & The Pendulum and The Fall of the House of Usher are absolute classics, but every film in the set is wonderful and well worth owning. Even the weakest film in the set The Haunted Palace is still pretty excellent and highly watchable.

I think a lot of the seasoned horror fans out there will have already seen most, if not all of these films and if you enjoy them you'll definitely want to pick this set up as the transfers are a marked improvement over the previously released DVDs. Judging by the screenshot comparisons over at the Beav  Usher's transfer is a bit better (though Scream's includes the overture which was missing from the Arrow), but overall everything here looks and sounds really great.

 The set includes the following films:

  • THE PIT & THE PENDULUM
  • THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
  • THE HAUNTED PALACE
  • THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
  • THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES
  • WITCHFINDER GENERAL

Most of the films in this set are great fun, especially The Pit & The Pendulum and The Abominable Dr. Phibes. I have to say that I didn't enjoy The Witchfinder General quite as much - not because it's bad, it's a fine film, one of the best of the set with what is possibly Price's finest (and easily his darkest) performance, but it's way more grim and upsetting than what I'm used to from Vince and it doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the set. The other films have some dark subject matter, of course, but they do maintain a sense of fun for the most part. Witchfinder General is very dark, almost oppressively so, and while it's well made I didn't find it particularly enjoyable to watch. The several scenes of torture actually got to me a bit, which I guess was the point, but I ultimately found myself feeling a little bummed out by the time the credits rolled.

The Pit & The Pendulum
Click each image for full size. Note: The posters are huge.


Director:
Writer: (screenplay)
Video: 1080p High-Definition Widescreen (2:35.1)
Audio: DTS Master Audio Mono
Year: 1961
Runtime: 80 Minutes
Bonus Features:
  • Vintage and rare Introduction and final words from Vincent Price
  • Rare Prologue
  • Audio Commentary with Roger Corman
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Still Gallery








The Masque of the Red Death


Director:
Writers: (screenplay), (screenplay)
Video: 1080p High-Definition Widescreen (2:35.1)
Audio: DTS Master Audio Mono
Year: 1964
Runtime: 88 Minutes
 

Bonus Features:
  • Vintage and rare Introduction and final words from Vincent Price
  • Audio Commentary by author Steve Haberman (Silent Screams: The History of the Silent Horror Film)
  • Interview with Roger Corman
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Still Gallery

The Haunted Palace


Director:
Writer:
Video: 1080p High-Definition Widescreen (2:35.1)
Audio: DTS Master Audio Mono
Year: 1963
Runtime: 93 Minutes 
Bonus Features:
  • Vintage and rare Introduction and final words from Vincent Price
  • Audio Commentary by author Lucy Chase Williams (The Complete Films of Vincent Price) and Richard Heft
  • Audio Commentary by author Tom Weaver
  • A Change of Poe- an interview with director Roger Corman
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Still Gallery






The Fall of the House of Usher


Director:
Writer: (screenplay)
 Video: 1080p High-Definition Widescreen (2:35.1)
Audio: DTS Master Audio Mono
Year: 1960
Runtime: 80 Minutes 
Bonus Features:
  • Vintage and rare Introduction and final words from Vincent Price
  • Audio Commentary with Roger Corman
  • Vincent Price Retrospective Commentary with author Lucy Chase Williams featuring Piotr Michael as the voice of Vincent Price
  • Audio interview with Vincent Price by historian David Del Valle
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Still Gallery
 





 

The Abominable Dr. Phibes


Director:
Writers: ,
Video: 1080p High-Definition Widescreen (1:85.1)
Audio: DTS Master Audio Mono
Year: 1971
Runtime: 93 Minutes
Bonus Features:
  • Audio Commentary with director Robert Fuest
  • Audio Commentary with author Justin Humphreys (Names You Never Remember, With Faces You Never Forget)
  • Introductory Price: Undertaking “The Vincent Price Gothic Horrors”
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Still Gallery
 





Witchfinder General
  
 
Director:
Writers: (screenplay), (screenplay)
Video: 1080p High-Definition Widescreen (1:85.1)
Audio: DTS Master Audio Mono
Year: 1968
Runtime: 87 Minutes (147 Minutes is written on the disc, this of course is a mistake)
Bonus Features:
  • Vintage and rare Introduction and final words from Vincent Price
  • Audio Commentary with producer Philip Waddilove and actor Ian Ogilvy
  • Witchfinder General: Michael Reeves’ Horror Classic
  • Vintage Interview with Vincent Price conducted by film historian David Del Valle (1987)
  • Vincent and Victoria: an Interview with Victoria Price
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Additional Vincent Price Theatrical Trailers
  • Still Gallery





 
Very Good to Excellent transfers on several of Vincent Price's very best horror films, a wealth of fascinating bonus features for each film, and a very informative 24-page booklet make Scream Factory's Vincent Price Collection one of the most essential releases of the year and Scream's overall best release to date. Pick yourself up a copy directly from Scream or Amazon. As of this writing it's actually a good $15 cheaper to buy it directly from the Shout! store.
 
I'm hopeful that this will be a big seller so they're inspired to put out a second volume. Fingers crossed for Theatre of Blood if Volume 2 happens.
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