DVD and Blu-ray Releases: March 22, 2016
Sean Brickley
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Welcome to spring, folks. I had a few last minute updates that popped up over the weekend, so my forecast from last week of another short list for this week has changed a bit. We’ve got 9 releases hitting shelves this week, and that’s not bad.
Lon Chaney, Basil Rathbone and Bela Lugosi star in one of our classics this week: 1956’s The Black Sleep, which will be dropping on Blu-ray. Additionally, our other classic for the week is Donovan’s Brain, also coming at us from the 1950’s.
Disturbing Behavior is coming to Blu-ray this week. This movie was the first time I saw Katie Holmes in anything ever – and this was the pre-Tom Cruise version of Katie Holmes. Throw in the fact that this is a hi-def release, and I’m pretty much sold.
Check out our Television section this week as well. You can get information on the Special Edition of the first season of “Fear The Walking Dead” as well as Seasons 5 and 6 of “Lost Girl.”
There are a handful of other entries so keep reading below. And be sure to keep checking back here each week. We’ve got 40 releases in just the next two weeks alone, so there will be a lot to go over. Pleasant viewing.
MOVIES
All Hell Breaks Loose (2016)
Starring:
Ehren ‘Danger’ McGhehey
Synopsis:
A couple are viciously attacked on their wedding day by the Satan’s Sadists biker gang, who need to sacrifice the bride in order to appease Satan – but it’s up to her husband to fight back from the dead and save her soul before it’s too late.
Purchase:
The Black Sleep (1956)
Starring:
Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr., Akim Tamiroff, John Carradine
Synopsis:
Newly re-mastered in HD! The masters of classic horror, Basil Rathbone (Tales of Terror), Bela Lugosi (Dracula, White Zombie), Lon Chaney, Jr. (The Wolf Man) and John Carradine (House of the Long Shadows) co-star in this terrifying horror classic about a crazed brain surgeon and his unorthodox experiments at a spooky old dark house. When the wife of a lunatic surgeon (Rathbone) slips into a coma, the doctor sets out to find a donor for a highly unorthodox brain transplant. The subsequent experiments result in the creation of a number of dangerous zombies, mutants and freaks that are soon unleashed on an unsuspecting populace. The stellar cast also includes Akim Tamiroff (After the Fox) and Tor Johnson (Plan 9 From Outer Space). From Reginald Le Borg, the director of horror classics, Diary of a Madman and The Mummy’s Ghost.
Purchase:
Bunny the Killer Thing (2015)
Starring:
Hiski Hämäläinen, Enni Ojutkangas, Veera W. Vilo, Jari Manninen
Synopsis:
In this hilariously action-packed horror comedy, a group of Finnish and British people find themselves trapped in a cabin when they are viciously attacked by a mysterious half human, half rabbit creature. In Finnish with English subtitles.
Purchase:
Curse of the Poltergeist (2016)
Starring:
Simona Fusco, Donna Spangler, Nicole Holland, Arthur Richardson
Synopsis:
A group of friends move into a vacation home with a sinister past in Fall River, Massachusetts. Suspicious of the home’s owner, Taryn feels a strong connection to the house and finds herself at the center of one of the most deadly poltergeists in American history. Based on a true urban legend!
Purchase:
Disturbing Behavior (1998)
Starring:
James Marsden, Katie Holmes, Nick Stahl, Bruce Greenwood
Synopsis:
A new kid in town stumbles across something sinister about the town’s method of transforming its unruly teens into upstanding citizens.
Purchase:
Donovan’s Brain (1953)
Starring:
Lew Ayres, Gene Evans, Nancy Reagan, Steve Brodie
Synopsis:
Newly Remastered in HD! This Brain Has Some Ideas Of Its Own! Prepare to be scared senseless with this shocking horror-fest that’s bursting with startling special effects. Lew Ayers (All Quiet on the Western Front) stars with Gene Evans (The Steel Helmet), Steve Brodie (Out of the Past) and future first lady Nancy Reagan Davis (Hellcats of the Navy) in this terrifying film experience that’ll blow your brain and fry your mind. Dr. Patrick Corey (Ayres) has a hideous hobby – he keeps brains alive! So when the brain of dead murderer W.H. Donovan falls into his possession, bringing him back to life becomes his obsession. But the cunning cranium has its own agenda – to control the doctor’s mind through telepathic messages! Now, Cory’s wife (Davis) must put a stop to the devious brain before it destroys the man she loves – and her in the process! Directed by Felix E. Feist (The Big Trees) and beautifully shot in glorious black-and-white by the great Joseph F. Biroc (It’s a Wonderful Life).
Purchase:
Rows (2016)
Starring:
Joe Basile, Nancy Murray, Lauren Lakis, Hannah Schick, Kenneth Hughes
Synopsis:
Rows is a horror/ fantasy/ thriller inspired by Grimm’s tales. Rose works for her father, Mark, who turns cornfields into subdivisions. Rose must deliver eviction papers to Haviland, a squatter in a condemned farmhouse. Haviland is an evil enchantress– she puts Rose under a spell. Rose’s friend, Greta, will also come under Haviland’s powers. They become lost in a seemingly infinite cornfield and must repeat a series of surreal or terrifying events in order to solve the mystery and break the spell. Rose and Greta (seemingly) murder Haviland, drag her into a cornfield, and bury her. But they cannot find their way out. Rose finds a portal, escapes and runs home. Inexplicably, Rose finds Greta waiting for her there. Events seem to repeat, but with shocking variations. When Rose and Greta return to the farmhouse, Haviland impales Rose with a knife. Greta and Jack (pawn of Haviland) drag Rose through the cornfield and throw her into the grave. The enchantment warps the laws of time and nature; Rose finds herself resurrected. She learns through a changeling that if the house dies, Haviland dies. Rose must fight back against Haviland and save her Father. The cycle repeats. This time however, Rose disrupts Haviland’s spell by murdering Jack. Rose attempts to set the farmhouse afire. Greta leads Rose underneath the farmhouse to a weird circular room. Rose’s father is drawn into the mystery, and Rose’s relationship with him is tested. A series of shocking reversals leads to a haunting climax: Rose finds her catatonic father. Greta, as Haviland’s mouthpiece, tells Rose that she must plunge the knife through her father’s chest, in order to break the spell. It won’t really kill him. Rose can’t make herself do it. In the end, Mark and Rose succumb to the Haviland’s powers. Rose will live as caretaker to the farmhouse, and Haviland, forever.
Purchase:
TELEVISION
“Fear the Walking Dead” Season 1 (Special Edition)
Starring:
Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Frank Dillane, Alycia Debnam Carey, Elizabeth Rodriguez
Synopsis:
Living in the same universe as “The Walking Dead”, “Fear the Walking Dead” is a gritty drama that explores the onset of the undead apocalypse through the lens of a fractured family. Set in a city where people come to escape, shield secrets, and bury their pasts, a mysterious outbreak threatens to disrupt what little stability high school guidance counselor Madison Clark and English teacher Travis Manawa have managed to assemble. The everyday pressure of blending two families while dealing with resentful, escapist, and strung out children takes a back seat when society begins to break down. A forced evolution, a necessary survival of the fittest takes hold, and our dysfunctional family must either reinvent themselves or embrace their darker histories.
Purchase:
“Lost Girl” Seasons 5 & 6
Starring:
Kris Ried-Holden, Richard Howland, Anna Silk, Zoie Palmer
Synopsis:
Bo is a gorgeous renegade. An irresistible beauty. And a deadly succubus. For years, she had no idea what she was – or why every new lover died in the throes of passion. She fled one corpse after another until a chance encounter with the puckish thief Kenzi exposed Bo’s existence to the Fae. This ancient society of supernatural beings exists outside the realm of mere mortals. Within their world, there are only two sides: Light and Dark. Each member of the Fae must choose who they will serve. But not Bo. Driven to discover who she really is, Bo vows to live on her own terms – even if it means existing in the abyss between darkness and light. With the help of the mischievous, but loyal, Kenzi, the handsome shape shifter Dyson, and the beautiful human scientist Lauren, Bo will use her powers of seduction to unravel the riddle of her mysterious past.
Purchase:
Categorized:News
