Hitting Shelves - Tuesday, March 20th

You may have noticed some Amazon links showing up here lately. They recently started allowing North Carolina residents to participate in the affiliate program for the first time since I've lived here, so I signed up in hopes to make a tiny bit of money while here. I'm not going to be obnoxious about it and overload the site with ads and I won't I mention it constantly. But if you see something on this list you'd like to buy anyway and want to help me out a bit feel free to click on it.

Moving on, there are a ton of great releases this week; Black Scorpion, The 'Burbs, Michele Soavi's The Church, Robert Altman's excellent Images. I can't keep up, I'm going to need a third job if these boutique labels keep up this pace.

They’re big. They’re bad. They scuttle along in caverns miles beneath the Earth – until an earthquake opens paths to the surface. Now, these monsters of genus Arachnida are invading our world with deadly force! With top special effects co-designed by King Kong’s Willis O’Brien, The Black Scorpion is horror with a sting more lethal than the king-sized ants that overran Los Angeles’ sewers in the classic Them! Can humankind survive these invincible juggernauts? That fate rests on the shoulders of Hank Scott (1950s monster-movie stalwart Richard Denning) as the creatures rip a train from its track, snatch a helicopter from the sky and, in the film’s most gripping sequence, battle each other in their subterranean lair. Watch out!

Buy it on Amazon
Buy it on Diabolik

Tom Hanks stars in The 'Burbs, a comedy about a suburbanite whose plans for a peaceful vacation at home are disturbed by a creepy new family on the block. Much to the disappointment of his wife (Carrie Fisher), Ray Peterson (Hanks) and his three neighbors set out to investigate the next-door residence after they begin to observe strange happenings. Set in an average neighborhood that is anything but ordinary, The 'Burbs blends slapstick comedy and spine-thrilling mystery and is superbly directed by cult filmmaker Joe Dante (Piranha, Gremlins, Matinee, The Howling).

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• BRAND NEW 2017 2K REMASTER struck from an interpositive
• NEW Interviews With Director Joe Dante, Editor Marshall Harvey, And Director Of Photography (Additional Scenes) John Hora
• Audio Commentary With Writer Dana Olsen, Moderated By Author Callum Waddell
• There Goes The Neighborhood: The Making Of The 'Burbs – Includes Interviews With Director Joe Dante, Actors Corey Feldman, Courtney Gaines, And Wendy Schaal, Director Of Photography Robert M. Stevens, And Production Designer James H. Spencer
• Alternate Ending
• Original Workprint From Joe Dante's Archive (Includes Deleted And Extended Scenes)
• Behind-The-Scenes Still Gallery
• Stills And Posters Gallery
• Theatrical Trailer
• Optional English SDH subtitles

Buy it on Amazon
Buy it directly from Shout

In the middle of a modern city, an ancient evil is about to awaken! An elaborate cathedral that was once the site of a medieval massacre by crusading knights becomes a deadly trap for a group of visitors and staff when a sealed crypt is accidentally reopened. The laws of reality soon collapse as a nightmare takes hold and claims the lives of those within one by one, threatening to unleash a supernatural pestilence upon the world! Legendary horror maestro Dario Argento (Suspiria, Opera, Deep Red) presents this stylish shocker from director Michele Soavi (The Sect, Dellamorte Dellamore, Stagefright), featuring an avalanche of nightmarish visual effects and a powerful score by Goblin and Keith Emerson. Don't miss this baroque descent into the occult starring Tomas Arana (Gladiator, The Bodyguard, The Sect), Barbara Cupisti (Stagefright, New York Ripper), and Asia Argento (xXx, Land of the Dead), now in eye-popping, glorious HD!

Buy it on Amazon

If you're interested in the deluxe edition (which should be around $30-$35 and includes a lot of exclusive features) it will be available on Ronin Flix soon. The link says Sold Out, but that's just what Ronin puts on there until they've received stock. If you're not familiar with Ronin Flix, they sell a lot of Code Red and Scorpion titles. They've got the fastest shipping around - I've gotten packages from them less than 48 hours after placing an order. Don't hesitate to order from these guys.

The early seventies were a period of remarkable activity for Robert Altman, producing masterpiece after masterpiece. At the time he came to make Images, MASH and McCabe & Mrs. Miller were behind him, with The Long Goodbye, California Split and Nashville still to come.

Originally conceived in the mid-sixties, Images concerns a pregnant children s author (Susannah York, who won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival) whose husband (Rene Auberjonois) may or may not be having an affair. While on vacation in Ireland, her mental state becomes increasingly unstable resulting in paranoia, hallucinations and visions of a doppelgänger.

Scored by an Oscar-nominated John Williams, with sounds by Stomu Yamash'ta (The Man Who Fell to Earth), Images also boasts the remarkable cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond (Close Encounters of the Third Kind).

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

Brand-new 4K restoration from the original negative, produced by Arrow Films exclusively

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation

Original English mono audio (uncompressed LPCM) soundtracks

Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing

Audio commentary by Samm Deighan and Kat Ellinger

Scene-select commentary by writer-director Robert Altman

Interview with Robert Altman

Brand new interview with actor Cathryn Harrison

An appreciation by musician and author Stephen Thrower

Theatrical trailer

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by the Twins of Evil

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Carmen Gray and an extract from Altman on Altman

Buy it on Amazon
Buy it on Diabolik

In a brand new Jumanji adventure, four high school kids discover an old video game console and are drawn into the game's jungle setting, literally becoming the adult avatars they chose. What they discover is that you don't just play Jumanji - you must survive it. To beat the game and return to the real world, they'll have to go on the most dangerous adventure of their lives, discover what Alan Parrish left 20 years ago, and change the way they think about themselves - or they'll be stuck in the game forever.

Buy it on Amazon
4K on Amazon

When three tourists stop at a roadside diner in Canyonland, they become the unwitting victims of a lethal scientific experiment. A deranged powerbroker and his high-tech army have sealed off the town and contaminated the water supply with a deadly toxin which turns calm, normal people into raving lunatics. Joining forces with the local sheriff and his daughter, this small band of holdouts wage an explosive life-or-death battle for survival.

Directed by Nico Mastorakis (The Zero Boys) , this thriller includes a B-Movie all-star cast featuring Wings Hauser (Vice Squad), Bo Hopkins (Mutant), George Kennedy (Airport), Brion James (Blade Runner) and Kimberly Beck (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter).

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• BRAND NEW REMASTER struck from an interpositive
• Vintage featurette: The Making of Nightmare at Noon
• Original theatrical trailer
• Still Gallery
• Optional English subtitles for the main feature

Buy it on Amazon
Buy it on Diabolik

John Rudley (G. Michael Smith) is angry. When he was young, the local kids pushed him to the brink. Ten years in a sanitarium is a long time. Now he's free... free to release those savage frustrations... free to avenge himself against those responsible for his injuries... and in case anyone thought her was long gone... he can't wait to have them all wrapped up.

Buy Code Red's 4K scan Blu-ray on Amazon
88-Films also just put this out, theirs is only a 2K scan, but it does have a Hysteria Lives commentary track. Buy it if you want to spite Code Red's Bill Olsen and possibly have him refer to you as a tadpole nutsack on the utterly insane Blu-ray.com thread. Sad to say. Check out that thread here if you want to spend an evening having your mind altered.

Ralph (Dean Cameron, Summer School) is just your typical, average vampire with love in his heart, music in his veins — and a curse on his head. Every 22 years, poor Ralph is doomed to lose his soulmate, Mona, at the hands of a rhinestone-peg-legged pirate brandishing a large hambone (just go with us on this). But this time around, with the help of his newly-formed band Rockula, Ralph is determined to crush the curse once and for all — and show Mona that when you're a vampire, true love is eternal … and rock 'n' roll never dies!

Directed by Luca Bercovici (Ghoulies) and featuring an eclectic cast of co-stars, including cult favorite Susan Tyrrell (Forbidden Zone) and recording stars Thomas Dolby, Toni Basil, and Bo Diddley, Rockula is an absolutely batty, bloody bizarre comedy!

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• BRAND NEW MASTER
• NEW Audio Commentary With Director Luca Bercovici, Actress Tawny Fere, And Composer Hilary Bercovici
• NEW Interview With Director Luca Bercovici
• NEW Interview With Actor Dean Cameron
• Theatrical Trailer

Buy it on Amazon
Buy it direct from Shout

New This Week 9.23 - Shatner-Masked Slashers & 38 Hours of Elvira's Cleavage

There's some very cool stuff out there this week, here's a list of some of the horrific highlights. The week's biggest release is of course Scream Factory and Anchor Bay's collaborative release of Halloween: The Complete Collection and the pricier Halloween: The Complet-er Collection which includes the TV cuts of Halloween 1 and 2, and the sought after Producer's Cut of Halloween 6.

Halloween night - Haddonfield, IL. A young boy butchers his older sister with a kitchen knife. 15 years later, he escapes from a mental institution only to return home and terrorize the town, including babysitter Laurie Strode. Now pursued by Dr. Loomis, the doctor who tried to treat him until he realized that “what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil”. His name is Michael Myers. And so began one of the most iconic horror franchises in history, spawned 10 feature films and lasted over 35 years. Now, for the first time ever, experience the terror of every Halloween film available together in 1 set! This collection includes all 10 Halloween films: Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween H20, Halloween: Resurrection, Rob Zombie’s Halloween and Halloween II. Here it is, the one that started it all – Halloween: The Complete Collection. Amazon

Halloween night - Haddonfield, IL. A young boy butchers his older sister with a kitchen knife. 15 years later, he escapes from a mental institution only to return home and terrorize the town, including babysitter Laurie Strode. Now pursued by Dr. Loomis, the doctor who tried to treat him until he realized that “what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil”. His name is Michael Myers. And so began one of the most iconic horror franchises in history – what producers Moustapha Akkad and Debra Hill, writer/director John Carpenter and stars Jamie Lee Curtis & Donald Pleasence started has spawned 10 feature films and lasted over 35 years. Now, for the first time ever, experience the terror of every Halloween film available together in 1 set! This limited edition deluxe set includes 15 discs jammed with content Halloween fans will love. Brand new, never before seen bonus features including new interviews with cast and crew, commentaries, behind the scenes documentaries, and so much more. Plus, the NEVER BEFORE RELEASED Producer’s Cut of Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers! The set also features both Blu-ray versions of Halloween as well as the Network TV versions of Halloween and Halloween 2. Here it is, the one that started it all – Halloween: The Complete Collection. Amazon

The title I'm most excited about is the Blu-ray debut of Michele Soavi's excellent slasher Stagefright from Blue Underground. A movie with a guy killing people while running around wearing a big fucking owl mascot head should not have ended up being this good. It's one of my favorites, if you haven't seen it, see it.

While a group of young actors rehearse a new musical about a mass murderer, a notorious psychopath escapes from a nearby insane asylum. But when the shows director locks his cast in the theater overnight, the madman is accidentally locked inside as well. Now, a killer with acting in his blood has gone berserk for the blood of actors (including several scenes that EuroHorror fans worldwide consider to be the most violent of the decade) and the stage is set for one unforgettable evening of shock! An all-new Special Edition blu-ray!

Here it is.The scream of the crop. The scariest and most fascinating collection of movies in modern horror. At the center of these ultimate clashes between darkness and light are intrepid souls who dare to look evil in the eye and unsheathe the weapons of faith. The struggle begins with the trend-setting The Exorcist (presented it its original theatrical version and Extended Director's Cut). Exorcist II: The Heretic and The Exorcist III bring added perspectives, blood-curdling visuals and shocks to the harrowing tale. And the two prequel stories (by two different directors) of Dominion and The Beginning enrich the original by revealing the amazing genesis of the battle between Father Merrin and humanity's most insidious foe. 

Pick up the complete 6-disc anthology or pick them up individually here

From Entertainment One, we get all 26 episodes of the resurrected (but deceased yet again) Elvira's Movie Macabre encased together in a nifty coffin shaped tin. The good news is that you can get all of the shows in one box set, the bad news is that if you're like me and you've already picked up 3 or 4 of the previously released DVDs you're going to be buying stuff you already own.

As gimmicky as they are, I love big clunky box sets like this and I'll be sure to get this when the price drops a bit. Although with me preparing to move for the 3rd time in a little over a year I'm really starting to regret every single one of the many box set purchases I've made over the past dozen years.

26 horrifying films on 13 DVD's! Some just horrifyingly BAD. ...Over 38 1/2 hours of frightful fun. Elvira, the Mistress of the Dark, hosts this frightfully funny collection of B-Movie horror classics with her own unique style, all delivered in this collectible tin coffin. Amazon

Finally we have Muntantis, an homage to 70's awfulness featuring a sort of Horror Of Party Beach/Blood Freak/Lobster Man From Mars mashup monster who terrorizes hillbillies in the woods.

This homage/parody of 70's monster movies features buckets of gore, cheese, sleaze, and all the bad wigs and dubbing you've come to expect from the makers of Isle of the Damned. When an unscrupulous scientist drags his stepchildren out into the forest to use them as bait in the hopes of luring out a big foot, not even the team of hillbillies he hired can contain the horror they find: the horror of Mutantis! Only the adventurer Dr. William Fury may be able to stop the beast, but hope dwindles fast once Dr. Fury realizes that the monster is not only intent on murder but procreation as well. Could this be the end of the world as we know it? For the answer watch, Mutantis!

Adam West's Batman Series Finally Coming To DVD?

DVDs have been around for what, 18 years now, and it looks like Warner Brothers is finally, FINALLY set  to release one of the most popular superhero shows of all time. According to Warner, the Complete '66 Batman series is scheduled to be released on DVD later this year.

From TVShowsOnDVD

"Wait, WHAT? YES! We've JUST gotten off the phone with Warner Home Video, and they confirm that the Adam West version of the Batman TV show IS indeed coming to DVD - FINALLY! - sometime in 2014. They have no other info for us at this moment in time, but stay tuned of course and we'll update you as further developments occur!"

People have been selling unofficial copies on iOffer for years now, but hearing that real, legit DVDs are being produced is amazing news. Speaking of iOffer, how is this site still around after 12 years? There are thousands of bootleg DVDs on that site, that's still pretty illegal right?

House Of Wax 3D Blu-ray October 1st

And yet another October Horror release from Warner. A 3D Blu-ray release of Vincent Price's House of Wax is set to release October 1st. I'm a bit ashamed to say I've never seen the original film before, only the mediocre Elisha Cuthbert remake. I don't have a 3D capable TV, but I'll most likely pick this one up once the price drops a bit. Of course I'm still waiting for last year's Little Shop Of Horrors release to drop below $25, so I may be waiting a bit on House of Wax. Still very excited about this release though, check out the sell sheet below:

Special Features

House of Wax: Unlike Anything You've Ever Seen Before featurette (NEW)

Audio commentary

Newsreel

Theatrical Trailer

Mystery of the Wax Museum 1933 feature film

The Power of Christ Compels You To Check Out This Exorcist Press Release

Even more Horror from Warner this October:

"William Friedkin’s horror masterpiece The Exorcist will be released on Blu-ray in a 40th Anniversary Edition on October 8th, and the special features should have your head spinning. When The Exorcist was first released in 1973, viewers were frightened out of their wits – and literally out of their seats. Now Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE) will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Academy Award® winning director William Friedkin’s suspense masterpiece that haunted and intrigued the world with a new Blu-ray release featuring the Extended Director’s Cut and Theatrical Version with new special features and premiums ($49.99 SRP). Available October 8, just ahead of Halloween, this 40th Anniversary Edition will include two new featurettes: “Beyond Comprehension: William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist” and “Talk of the Devil,” as well as an excerpt from Friedkin’s book The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir.

A true cinema landmark, the theological thriller is one of the top ten box-office performers of all time. The Exorcist took 10 Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture, and won two Oscars® for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as winning for Best Sound. Subsequently, the film went on to become a multi-million dollar franchise. Directed by Friedkin (Oscar®-winner for The French Connection – Directing 1971) and written by William Peter Blatty, the film is based on his best-selling novel, which sold nearly 13 million copies domestically and was the #1 book on the New York Times Best Seller List for 57 weeks, 17 of them at #1.

Regarding the Extended Director’s Cut, Friedkin says, “After my initial cut, I took out 12 more minutes before we released it in theatres. Years later, Bill Blatty asked if I’d review some of that rejected footage (which he always felt should have remained) with an eye towards putting it back in a new version. In so doing I believe we strengthened the spiritual aspect of the film.”

Celebrated for his directorial role in this seminal film, Friedkin is still very much in the limelight. His new book, The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir, recently published by HarperCollins, extensively discusses the background and casting of The Exorcist. The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films will honor Friedkin this month with their Lifetime Achievement Award for his continually influential work in genre entertainment at this year’s Saturn Awards. In August Friedkin will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 70th Venice International Film Festival, where he will present the restored version of Warner Bros.’ Sorcerer. And Friedkin and author Blatty will attend a special 40th Anniversary screening of their film at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., on October 30. The film will also have an exclusive theatrical engagement October 31 through November 7th at the AMC Georgetown."


Full List of Bonus Features:

– Beyond Comprehension: William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist (NEW) 40 years after his novel was published, The Exorcist author, screenwriter and producer returns to where it all began. First stop is a cabin/guest house in the hills of Encino, California, where Blatty wrote the novel. The author visits the place for the first time in 40 years and shares not only memories of writing the book, but also discusses how it inspired him. We then meet Blatty in two key and iconic locations; Georgetown University where the film was shot, and at the now-famous Exorcist steps. Throughout, Blatty reads from his novel, including an excerpt from a chilling newly published passage.
– Talk of the Devil (NEW) – While at Georgetown University, William Peter Blatty heard about a true case of possession from Father Eugene Gallagher. At the time the film came out, the priest talked at length about exorcism, the true story and about Blatty; this footage is now available for the first time in many years. It is as revealing as it is shocking.
-Two Commentaries by William Friedkin
-Commentary by William Peter Blatty
-Introduction by William Friedkin
-1998 BBC Documentary “The Fear of God: 25 Years of the Exorcist”
-Raising Hell: Filming the Exorcist Set footage produced and photographed by Owen Roizman, camera and makeup tests, and interviews with director William Friedkin, actress Linda Blair, author/screenwriter/producer William Peter Blatty and Owen Roizman.
-The Exorcist Locations: Georgetown Then and Now — Featuring a tour of the iconic locations where the film was shot.
Faces of Evil: The Different Versions of The Exorcist — with director William Friedkin and author/screenwriter/producer William Peter Blatty discussing the different versions of the film and featuring outtakes from the film.
-Original Ending
-Interviews: The Original Cut, Stairway to Heaven, The Final Reckoning
-Sketches & Storyboards
-Radio Spots
-TV Spots
-Trailers
-Premium:Excerpt of The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir