Shout If You Want Roger Corman Creatures and Classic Gamera DVDs!
Shout! Factory continues to be the DVD company after the b-genre movie fans heart. As if a special edition DVD of Kingdom of the Spiders coming in January wasn’t enough, Shout! now has a quartet of Roger Corman produced aquatic creature features and old school Gamera flicks in the pipeline. How’s that for a reason to shout?
April 6th will see the launch of Shout! Factory’s “Roger Corman Cult Classics” line of DVDs presenting Roger Corman produced cult favorites from his days at New World Pictures. The first title being offered is a two-disc special edition Joe Dante’s 1978 cult classic Piranha, also available on Blu-ray. No doubt this special edition been timed to coincide with the release of Alex Aja’s 3-D remake.
The following week, April 13th, Humanoids From the Deep, the notorious 1980 creature feature about salmon gill-men on a horny rampage, will get a re-release. The same day will bring us of two more Corman water monster flicks that have never before been released on DVD: Up From the Depths and Demon of Paradise, together on one double feature DVD. Up From the Depths is a 1979 Jaws rip-off about a monster fish (rarely shown on camera) stalking the shores of a Hawaiian resort. Demon of Paradise is an underrated b-movie gem from 1987 about an ancient gill-man awakened from its slumber by dynamite fisherman that proceeds to terrorize a tropical resort.
All of the Roger Corman Cult Classics titles will boast new anamorphic transfers, though Piranha will be the only one released on Blu-ray. No word yet as to what extras will be available.
Monster Island News brings word that Shout! Factory has also announced intentions to release remastered versions of all eight original “Showa” series Gamera movies beginning with the 1965 original and culminating with the first ever American DVD (or video) release of the abysmal 1980 clip show Gamera Super Monster.
“Shout! Factory is on the lookout for a 35mm scope print of the U.S. version of Daiei’s 1965 feature Daikaiju Gamera, released here as Gammera The Invincible.
Shout! Factory has licensed this film along with the 7 other early Showa Gamera films from Kadokawa Pictures, who now owns the Gamera character. Unfortunately, Kadokawa does not own a copy of the U.S. version.
Shout! Factory plans to release these movies in HD transfer along with new subtitles and many extras.”
This will prove quite the upgrade for fans of the giant flying fire-breathing turtle; virtually every prior DVD release of the old Gamera films have boasted less-than-stellar prints and that’s putting it politely.
Just in case you doubt Shout! Factory’s committment to bringing us amazing blasts from the past that could very easily be lost to the annals of obscurity, look what notorious 1980’s TV show they’re bringing to DVD on February 16th.
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