Home Video
[Horror In Your House] July 9th, 2012
This week Warner Home Video decided to release or re-release a ton of sci-fi, thrillers and horror flicks into the ever-expanding ocean of Blus. While some flicks probably didn’t need another release (Blade II) others desperately did (Spawn). Either way, they are all value priced and looking for forever shelves in your pad. Outside of Warner’s contribution to the week the only other thing that caught my eye is Synapse’s release of another Hammer Horror classic, The Twins of Evil. Check out the rest of the releases below and have a great week.
ALTERED STATES (Blu-ray) – Warner Home Video
A scientist experiments unlock the horrors of his mind. Visual wizard Ken Russell directs William Hurt, Blair Brown and a mind-blowing array of special effects.
THE ASTRONAUT’S WIFE (Blu-ray) – Warner Home Video
A woman becomes embroiled in a mystery after her astronaut husband suffers an accident and retires as a hero from the space program. When he begins acting strangely, she must decide whether his odd behavior is all in her mind, or if he is no longer the man she once knew.
THE BLACK HOUSE – Tokyo Shock
Jun-oh is a geeky insurance investigator who answers a call to a family s dilapidated home, where he discovers the young son hanged in his room. Immediately following the tragedy, the boy s psychopath father begins stalking Jun-oh at all hours, demanding the insurance money. As Jun-oh investigates further, strange accidents begin to happen.
BLADE II (Blu-ray) – Warner Home Video
Get set for more action, more vampires and more Wesley Snipes in this second monster-hit installment in the Blade franchise. When the world is threatened by a new and deadlier breed of super vampires, the legendary Blade and his mentor, Whistler, must join forces with the Bloodpack, an elite team of vampire warriors.
MICAH SAYS: Guillermo del Toro’s sequel is just as good, if not better than the original. If you didn’t buy the trilogy because you hate Ryan Reynolds (pat yourself on the back), I would highly recommend grabbing the first two on Blu and forgetting about the sh*t pile that was numero tres.
BRAINSTORM – Warner Home Video
Research scientists Louise Fletcher (“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”) and Christopher Walken (“The Deer Hunter”) invent a machine that can record sensory experiences only to have devastating results when Fletcher records her own death.
CHERRY BOMB – Well Go USA
In homage to the action films of the early 1980s, the beautiful Cherry is an exotic dancer who is raped and attacked by a group of sleazy men in the club where she works. The men escape justice and she vows revenge and kills them off one by one. Things start to spiral out of control when a mysterious hit man named Bull is hired to put an end to Cherry’s bloody tirade. She soon realizes that there is more at stake than she ever imagined.
COMA (Blu-ray) – Warner Home Video
Before he created “ER” Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, Twister) adapted and directed (his debut behind the camera) this chiller from Robin Cook’s best-seller about a sinister medical conspiracy. Genevieve Bujold, Michael Douglas and Richard Widmark star as doctors caught in its web.
FREQUENCY (Blu-ray) – Warner Home Video
A phenomenon allows police officer John Sullivan (Jim Caviezel) to save the life of his long-dead father (Dennis Quaid). But changing the past leads to a string of brutal, serial homicides. Now, they both must race across time to stop the killer.
I KISSED A VAMPIRE – Monterey Video
Haunted by bizarre dreams about Goth rocker Trey Sylvania (DREW SEELEY), and experiencing a growing lust for blood, Dylan (LUCAS GRABEEL), a not-so-average teenager finds himself transforming into a vampire! It all started when he was bitten by a voracious fanged exchange student, and it’s a process he is desperate to stop – but how? His demented dentist can t do anything about Dylan’s aching teeth and emerging fangs, and the anti-bloodsucking pills he gets from his para-psychologist just give him a rash. Dylan is terrified and he doesn’t know what to do – especially about his beautiful girlfriend Sara (ADRIAN SLADE).
OUTLAND (Blu-ray) – Warner Home Video
A federal marshal on an outer-space mining colony uncovers deadly secrets, triggering a showdown. Oscar(R) winner Sean Connery lays down the law in Peter Hyams’ sci-fi sizzler.
RED EYE – Tokyo Shock
It s Mi-sun s first day as a rail attendant. Her assignment is an overnight trip through Korea, and she s understandably nervous. But it s not the motley group of passengers that has her feeling uneasy, it s the train itself. Some of the cars on the train were involved in a devastating crash 16 years earlier, in which100 people died. Now, the train is rumored to be haunted!
SPAWN (Blu-ray) – Warner Home Video
A government assassin is brought back to life as a black superhero with supernatural How can you avenge betrayal and murder? How can you fight for right in a world so steeped in evil? How can you protect those you love most from all that can do them harm? No man living – or dead – can tell you. But one trapped between both is struggling for an answer that can save the lives of his most beloved, or plunge the world into eternal darkness. The cloak and chains of Spawn explode onto the screen in a deadly tornado of untapped, unwrapped, merciless power.
MICAH SAYS: The first Spawn Blu-ray that was released in 2010 is the Canadian version, which is not even rated “R” and thus widely considered a terrible release. This is the first American release and I’m told it’s much better. PICK OF THE WEEK.
TWINS OF EVIL (Blu-ray) – Synapse Films
Two beautiful orphaned identical twins, Maria and Frieda Gellhorn (Playboy centerfold models Mary and Madeleine Collinson), move to the village of Karnstein to live with their uncle Gustav Weil (played by Hammer horror favorite, Peter Cushing), a fanatical puritan and leader of the local witch-hunting Brotherhood. The village Count (Damien Thomas, Never Let Me Go), an evil man who secretly practices Satanism, uses black magic and transforms into a vampire. Unhappy with her new life, Frieda seeks escape and tragically falls under the spell of the Count. Now overcome with an insatiable hunger for human blood, Frieda has to hide her secret from her sister, and escape her uncle’s killing grasp! The wait is over! This Hammer horror classic is now available from Synapse Films in an all-new 1080p high definition transfer and loaded with exciting exclusive special features. Also stars Kathleen Byron (Black Narcissus), David Warbeck (Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond) and Dennis Price (Jess Franco’s Vampyros Lesbos)!
MICAH SAYS: Someday I plan to have all the Hammer horror films on Blu-ray. The British friends will be the pride of my collection. Keep ’em coming, Synapse.
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Scream Factory brought Frank LaLoggia’s 1988 Halloween movie Lady in White to Blu-ray several years back, and now Vinegar Syndrome gives the film a 4K Ultra HD upgrade.
Vinegar Syndrome’s Lady in White 4K release is available now and shipping now!
Watch the trailer below and grab your copy from Vinegar Syndrome today.
This limited edition 4-disc 4K UHD/Blu-ray x 3 set comes with a spot gloss hard slipcase + slipcover combo (designed by Dylan Haley), includes a 40-page perfect bound book and is limited to 8,000 units. It is only available on their website and at select indie retailers.
The full Special Features package includes…
- 4-disc Set: 1x 4K Ultra HD (High Bitrate BD100) / 3x Region A Blu-ray
- 4K UHD presented in Dolby Vision High-Dynamic-Range
- Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative
- Presented in three versions: 126-min Pre-Release Director’s Cut (UHD+BD), the 118-min Extended Home Video Cut (BD), and the 113-min Theatrical Cut (BD)
- New group commentary track with writer/director Frank LaLoggia, alongside actors Lukas Haas, Joelle Jacobi, and Len Cariou for the Pre-Release Director’s Cut
- New commentary track with Frank LaLoggia, moderated by Scott Neumyer for the Extended Home Video Cut
- New commentary track with authors Emma Westwood and Stephen A. Russell for the Extended Home Video Cut
- Archival commentary track with Frank LaLoggia for the Extended Home Video Cut
- “Learning How to Fly” (10 min) – an interview with actress Karen Powell
- “A Snapshot in Time” (9 min) – an interview with actress Lisa Taylor
- “Human Touches” (6 min) – an interview with actress Lucy Lee Flippin
- “Still Relevant” (16 min) – an interview with actress Rose Weaver
- “75% Listening, 25% Editing” (9 min) – an interview with editor Steve Mann
- “Welcome to Willowpoint Falls” (6 min) – a location featurette hosted by Benjamin Scrivens, founder of Fright-Rags
- “Dream Talking: Looking Back” – a visual group commentary for the Pre-Release Director’s Cut with Frank LaLoggia, and actors Lukas Haas, Joelle Jacobi, and Len Cariou (103 min)
- Deleted Scenes with introduction and optional commentary by writer/director Frank LaLoggia (36 min)
- Behind-the-scenes footage with introduction and optional commentary by writer/director Frank LaLoggia (16 min)
- Extended behind-the-scenes footage (73 min)
- Introduction from the 20th anniversary dvd release
- Promotional ‘industry sales’ trailer (7 min)
- 40-page perfect bound book with essays by film historians Molly Henery, Mark H. Harris, and Heidi Honeycutt (limited edition only)
- Multiple radio spots
- Theatrical trailer
- Multiple TV spots
- Workprint trailers (7 min)
- Still gallery
- Reversible sleeve artwork
- English SDH subtitles
1962. Nine-year-old Frankie Scarlatti enjoys a homespun childhood in a rustic Western New York town. The entire community gets into the spirit of Halloween, but then two bullies prank Frankie by locking him in his school cloakroom, leaving him trapped for the night. Alone and afraid, his slumber is interrupted when the ghost of a little girl appears, and Frankie witnesses the specter of her murder by an unseen assailant. Later, while recovering at home, the girl’s ghost appears to him again. With help from his older brother, Frankie begins investigating the circumstances of her death. He soon discovers that her murder was one of several unsolved crimes connected to a local child-killer. As the town’s bucolic veneer fades and long-buried secrets and tensions bubble to the surface, all of the clues to the mystery seem to point towards a huge mansion inhabited by a reclusive woman known as “The Lady in White.”
A nostalgia-driven ghost story wrapped within an intricate murder mystery and coming-of-age drama, writer-director-composer Frank LaLoggia’s passion project Lady in White remains one of the most beautiful and original American horror films of the 1980s. Featuring acclaimed actors Alex Rocco (The Godfather), Len Cariou (Executive Decision), and Sydney Lassick (Carrie, The Unseen), it boasts the first starring role by Lukas Haas (Mars Attacks, Inception) as well as breathtaking photography by Academy Award® winner Russell Carpenter (True Lies, The Lawnmower Man). Vinegar Syndrome is honored to bring this genre masterpiece to 4K UHD, newly restored from its original 35mm camera negative and presented in three versions: its pre-release director’s cut, its extended home-video version, and its original theatrical version, along with an abundance of both new and archival extras.
Paul Lê wrote here on Bloody Disgusting back in 2023, “Over the years, fans have described this film as gateway horror, but they liken it more to The Watcher in the Woods than, say, Hocus Pocus or Casper. There are chilling moments that warrant its PG-13 rating.”
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