DVD and Blu-ray Releases: April 25, 2017
Sean Brickley
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There is a fair amount of good activity on this week’s list, friends. I can guarantee there’s something here for pretty much everybody.
So let’s get down to business and get the questionable items out of the way first. Dark Waters and The Other Hell may have already dropped on 4/11, but they both showed up this week as well, so I figured I would bring them to you again. Additionally, Frightmares will be hitting shelves a day late on the 26th.
There are quite a few heavy hitters this week, beginning with the Underworld franchise. This week sees the Blu-ray and DVD releases of this year’s Underworld: Blood Wars as well as the Blu-ray release of Underworld: The Ultimate Collection, which will also include Blood Wars. Personally, Kate Beckinsale AND vampires all in one place is a great selling point to me.
Up next is The Girl With All the Gifts. This offshoot of the zombie genre has garnered many praises and critical acclaims since its release last year. It can be picked up on DVD format as well as a Blu-ray/DVD combo.
It should be of note that Abandoned Dead not only has upcoming horror movie great Sarah Nicklin as a cast member, but also Judith O’Dea. Those of you who read this article each week for the classics will certainly recognize that name. It will be nice to see somewhat of a passing of the torch in this film.
As for classics, this week has a pretty decent selection of films from years past. Starting with a good sprinkling from the latter half of the 1950s, we have From Hell It Came, The Screaming Skull, I Bury the Living, and Caltiki: The Immortal Monster. Each of these titles will be available on Blu-ray, so if you are purchasing them for a grandparent, make sure they have the appropriate player.
1962 Delivers The Dismembered to us on Blu-ray; then we jump forward two decades for the hi-def releases of The Other Hell and Double Exposure. We round out the classics with an honorable mention to 1993’s Psycho Cop Returns Blu-ray release.
There is still a good handful of other releases listed below, so check them out. As always, pleasant viewing.
MOVIES
Abandoned Dead (2015)
Starring:
Judith O’Dea, Sarah Nicklin, Robert E. Wilhelm, Stacy Snyder
Synopsis:
Rachel, a security guard who harbors a fear of the dark, is sent on assignment to secure an abandoned medical rehab clinic. It’s a place with a supernatural history, where people have mysteriously disappeared. Alone and afraid, Rachel is tormented throughout the night by paranormal terrors, as she discovers the dead who reside here may be connected to buried secrets from her past.
Caltiki: The Immortal Monster (1959)
Starring:
John Merivale, Didi Sullivan, Giacomo Rossi Stuart
Synopsis:
Arrow Video presents a collaboration between two giants of Italian cult cinema Riccardo Freda (The Vampires, The Horrible Dr Hichcock) and Mario Bava (5 Dolls for an August Moon, Blood and Black Lace)!
A team of archaeologists led by Dr John Fielding (John Merivale, Circus of Horrors) descends on the ruins of an ancient Mayan city to investigate the mysterious disappearance of its inhabitants. However, the luckless explorers get more than they bargained for when their investigation of a sacrificial pool awakens the monster that dwells beneath its waters the fearsome and malevolent god Caltiki.
Though Riccardo Freda received sole directing credit, a significant portion of the film was in fact the work of Mario Bava, who also served as its cinematographer and was responsible its striking special effects. Drawing on a diverse array of influences, from The Quatermass Experiment to the works of HP Lovecraft, Caltiki the Immortal Monster is a unique and unforgettable sci-fi chiller which showcases these two legendary filmmakers at their most inventive. Presented here for the first time in a newly restored high definition transfer, Caltiki shines and terrifies like never before.
Dark Waters (1994)
Starring:
Louise Salter, Venera Simmons, Mariya Kapnist
Synopsis:
It has been acclaimed as “visually amazing” (Videoscope), “deeply disturbing” (BBC Radio One), “a must see for serious horror buffs” (Film Review), and compared to the works of Bergman, Bava and Argento. Now experience the modern Nunsploitation masterpiece from co-writer/director Mariano Baino as you’ve never seen or heard it before: When a young Englishwoman attempts to discover her mysterious connection to a remote island convent, she will unlock an unholy communion of torment, blasphemy and graphic demonic depravity.
Louise Salter (Interview With The Vampire) stars in this “stunning and horrifying debut” (Digitally Obsessed) filmed on location along the grim Ukraine coast now transferred in HD from the original 35mm negative and featuring over 4 hours of startling Special Features.
The Dismembered (1962)
Starring:
Frank Geraci, Tim Sheldon, Kate Shaffmaster, William Lane
Synopsis:
After a daring jewel heist, a trio of thieves hold up in an old dark house inhabited by a motley bunch of restless ghosts that only want to dispatch their new guests in the most horrible manner possible – that is if they can get to them before the spirits of an unruly group of dismembered corpses from the nearby cemetery! Shot in Philadelphia in 1962, this low-budget obscurity claws its way out of the cinematic grave to debut on home video for the very first time courtesy of a new HD Blu-ray from Garagehouse Pictures. Directed by Ralph S. Hirshorn, The Dismembered is an offbeat ghosts-and-gangsters satire that plays like a cross between Roger Corman and Casper the Friendly Ghost, and the evokes the spirit of American International Pictures and the drive-in B movie. Featuring homicidal ghosts, creeping severed limbs, cobwebbed sets, graveyard atmosphere and weird musical improvisations by the Main Street Ghouls, The Dismembered is one strange little movie with lots of ghoulish charm.
Double Exposure (1983)
Starring:
Michael Callan, Joanna Pettet, Seymour Cassel, James Stacy, Pamela Hensley
Synopsis:
Michael Callan stars as Adrian Wilde, a prolific photographer whose specialty is shooting nude models for men’s magazines. His life starts to unravel when he begins to experience strange and almost lifelike dreams in which he murders the very women he’s been photographing. What’s more is that he soon discovers that they might not be dreams after all. Has he started to lose touch with reality; is he a calculated killer attempting to create an unbelievable alibi; or is something much more sinister and deadly afoot…
Co-starring Joanna Pettet (Welcome to Arrow Beach) and Seymour Cassel (Killing of a Chinese Bookie), and featuring atmospheric, scope photography by R. Michael Stringer, DOUBLE EXPOSURE is a slick and suspenseful psychological mystery fused with slasher and giallo elements. Inspired by director William Bryon Hillman’s 1974 film, The Photographer, but taking a much darker and more violent approach, Vinegar Syndrome brings this distinctly original horror obscurity to Blu-ray, newly restored from its original 35mm camera negative.
Frightmares (1997) (April 26th)
Starring:
Todd Jason Cook, Brian Truitt
Synopsis:
3 Horror Stories from the director of Death Metal Zombies, The Dummy & Evil Night.
A college kid gives a stranger a place to sleep for the night but soon nightmares begin to take over and lead the descent into madness.
Dad left a mystery gift under the Christmas tree telling his son that he has to open it last on Christmas day. Curiosity takes over as the son struggles not to open it.
An art collector is given a bunch of mannequins that come to life at night and begin to terrorize him.
From Hell It Came (1957)
Starring:
Tod Andrews, Tina Carver, Linda Watkins, John McNamara, Gregg Palmer
Synopsis:
Beware Tabonga! On a remote South Seas island, no one is safe from this hideous…and unique…monster. Tabonga is part man, part tree, all doom. Formerly an island prince, he was unjustly put to death by a witch doctor. Now he’s returned to life with roots, branches and a vengeance. Against natives. Against visiting American scientists who investigate the tree’s radioactive green sap. Against anyone unwise enough to expect a tree to stay put. A macabre medley of creature feature, Polynesian kitsch and Atomic Age cautionary tale, From Hell It Came is the killer-tree movie you wouldn’t want to miss!
The Girl With All the Gifts (2016)
Starring:
Gemma Arterton, Glenn Close, Anamaria Marinca, Dominique Tipper, Paddy Considine
Synopsis:
Humanity has been all but destroyed by a fungal disease that eradicates free will and turns its victims into flesh-eating “hungries.” Only a small group of children seems immune to its effects. At an army base in rural England, these unique children are being studied and subjected to cruel experiments. When the base falls, one little girl escapes and must discover what she is, ultimately deciding both her own future and that of the human race.
Goregasm (2007)
Starring:
Bill Heintz, Ric Kauffman, Dana Kieferle, Steve Waltz, Doug Ryan
Synopsis:
The brutal, unstoppable CFK Killer is back for another knee-deep adventure in death, drugs, and perversion! And for video store clerk Mark and his girlfriend, the nightmare has just begun as the notoriously deformed monster begins to kill off all their friends. With the police unwilling and unable to help, it’s up to the beautiful and deadly all-girl gang C.L.A.M. to end CFK once and for all.
I Bury the Living (1958)
Starring:
Richard Boone, Theodore Bikel
Synopsis:
The chairman of a cemetery thinks a person dies when he moves their pin on a plot chart.
The Other Hell (1981)
Starring:
Franca Stoppi, Carlo De Mejo, Francesca Carmeno, Susan Forget
Synopsis:
Bruno Mattei’s Nunsploitation Classic Now Uncut & Uncensored In HD For The First Time Ever!
At the peak of his ’80s excess, Italian sleaze maestro Bruno Mattei using the alias Stefan Oblowsky stunned audiences with this Nunsploitation shocker about a series of brutal murders in a depraved convent. And while his cinematic legacy may remain controversial, Mattei delivers a surprisingly stylized yet undeniably blasphemous orgy of stabbings, stigmata, Satanism, violence and graphic savagery that ranks among his very best. Franca Stoppi (The True Story Of The Nun Of Monza), Carlo De Mejo (Women’s Prison Massacre) and Franco Garofalo (Hell Of The Living Dead) star in this nugget written by the notorious Claudio Fragasso (Rats: Night Of Terror, Troll 2) and featuring a score borrowed from Goblin, newly transferred from a 35mm print discovered behind a false wall in a Bologna nunnery!
The Portal (2017)
Starring:
Katie Silverman, Jules Bruff, Stephania Potalivo, Jason Curtis Miller, Jerod Meagher
Synopsis:
The Portal transports you through a frightening world where ghosts and paranormal creatures reign and nothing is as it seems. When a young woman disappears, the search for her whereabouts leads to a mysterious portal. What lies beyond is an unimaginable nightmare. Dare to jump into a new dimension of fear.
Psycho Cop Returns (1993)
Starring:
Robert R. Shafer, Barbara Niven, Miles Dougal, Rod Sweitzer, Nick Vallelonga
Synopsis:
Officer Joe Vickers (Robert R. Shafer) is the meanest and deadliest cop in LA, leaving behind a never-ending stream of bloodied bodies, in the name of justice. The fact that he also happens to be a Satan worshiping member of the undead doesn’t help much either. After overhearing some office workers discussing a secret drug and sex filled after-hours party they’re planning to host that night, Vickers decides to take the law into his own hands, disposing of the rebel rousers in a series of gruesome ways. Will the hapless partiers be able to outsmart and survive his brutal tactics before the night is through?
Outrageously gory, nudity filled, and bitingly funny, director Adam Rifkin’s (Detroit Rock City) no-holds-barred slasher/comedy classic, Psycho Cop Returns, moves gleefully between blood drenched killings and sex comedy antics, resulting in a 90s exploitation gem unlike any other. Only briefly available in its uncut form, Vinegar Syndrome brings this gleefully absurd sleaze masterpiece to Blu-ray in a brand new and fully uncensored director approved 2k restoration!
The Screaming Skull (1958)
Starring:
John Hudson, Peggy Webber
Synopsis:
A man tries to drive his second wife mad at his dead first wife’s Southern mansion.
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Starring:
Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien, Jeffrey Jones, Christopher Lee
Synopsis:
The headless horseman is conjured up to right the wrongs of a small village in colonial America.
Underworld: Blood Wars (2017)
Starring:
Kate Beckinsale, Theo James
Synopsis:
In the next installment of the blockbuster franchise, Vampire death dealer Selene (Kate Beckinsale) fends off brutal attacks from both the Lycan clan and the Vampire faction that betrayed her. With her only allies, David (Theo James) and his father Thomas (Charles Dance), she must stop the eternal war between Lycans and Vampires, even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice.
COLLECTIONS
True Crime Triple Feature
Starring:
Christopher Leto, Libby McDermott, Joseph DiPietro
Synopsis:
Three True Crime horror thrillers in one collection, all based on shocking real life events.
Movies:
The Housewife Slasher
A community lives in fear as a killer targets stay-at-home moms.
The Long Island Serial Killer
A psycho leaves a trail of bodies along the Gilgo Beach in New York City.
Dead Woman’s Hollow
Two female students set off for a camping trip and are stalked by a psychotic mountain man.
Underworld: The Ultimate Collection
Starring:
Kate Beckinsale, Various
Synopsis:
Experience all five films in the iconic Underworld series on Blu-Ray in the ultimate Underworld collection!
Movies:
Underworld
Underworld reimagines Vampires as a secretive clan of modern, aristocratic sophisticates whose mortal enemies are the Lycans (werewolves), a shrewd gang of street thugs who prowl the city’s underbelly. The balance of power is upset when a beautiful young Vampire and a nascent Lycan — deadly rivals for centuries — fall in love. Len Wiseman directs Kate Beckinsdale and Scott Speedman in a fast-paced, modern-day tale of deadly action, ruthless intrigue and forbidden love, all set against the backdrop of an ancient feud between the two tribes in a timeless, Gothic metropolis.
Underworld: Evolution
Kate Beckinsale is back as vampire heroine Selene in the highly anticipated sequel to Underworld. Underworld Evolution continues the saga of war between the aristocratic Death Dealers and the barbaric Lycans (werewolves).
The film traces the beginnings of the ancient feud between the two tribes as Selene (Kate Beckinsale), the vampire heroine, and her love Michael (Scott Speedman), the lycan hybrid, try to unlock the secrets of their bloodlines.
The tale of action, intrigue and forbidden love takes them into the battle to end all wars as the immortals must finally face their retribution.
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
Explores the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between the aristocratic vampires known as Death Dealers and their onetime slaves, the Lycans.
Underworld: Awakening
Kate Beckinsale, star of the first two films, returns in her lead role as the vampire warrioress Selene, who escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans, and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species.
Underworld: Blood Wars
The next installment in the blockbuster franchise follows Vampire death dealer, Selene (Kate Beckinsale) as she fends off brutal attacks from both the Lycan clan and the Vampire faction that betrayed her. With her only allies, David (Theo James) and his father Thomas (Charles Dance), she must stop the eternal war between Lycans and Vampires, even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice.
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