From blood-soaked cinema to visceral, pulse-pounding rock `n’ roll, there’s a lot of retail goodness on hand for horror aficionadas this holiday season. Here’s Bloody-Disgusting’s list of the best gift ideas for every gore-hound on your list. For the teenage sister with a taste for the macabre, might we suggest a little True Blood action? Or perhaps grandma enjoys herself a little old-school naughtiness now and again. For her, we’ve got a sweet, cleavage-intensive William Castle box set. As for that older brother in his mid-`30s still living in your parent’s garage, Slayer‘s new album is probably the way to go. Can’t stand any of them? Buy the shit for yourself.

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The prolific director/producer produced some of the most fabulously fun and gimmicky genre films ever made, eight of which have been collected in this extensive box set centered around the films produced during his career at Columbia Pictures during the late `50s and `60s. The five-discs include everything from some of his best-known works (The Tingler, 13 Ghosts) to little-known gems (espionage thriller 13 Frightened Girls, fantasy/comedy Zotz!), but the collection doesn’t stop there. Fans are also treated to behind-the scenes documentaries of five of the films, with one of the discs devoted entirely to the 2007 documentary Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, which features interviews with notable Castle peers like John Landis and Roger Corman.

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Being released November 24th, this box set includes all three of Park’s masterfully sadistic revenge-driven thrillers – Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance. The eight-disc (that’s right, eight) set features an insane amount of extras that should please any fan of the trilogy. These extras include a feature-length commentary track from Park and others involved in the making of the films (Oldboy alone has three separate commentaries), cast and crew interviews, special celebrity essays, five behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes with commentary, storyboards, “filmographies”, film notes, and, and…fuck, this is ridiculous (believe me, that’s just the beginning. Anyway, you get the picture – for any fan of the trilogy, this set is almost embarrassing in the wealth of riches it offers.

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We all know at least one person suffering from an unhealthy obsession with this Alan Ball-created HBO series, which has become a Buffy-style cultural phenomenon of sorts. This is a great gift for addicts of the series and also serves as a great introduction for horror fans that haven’t gotten around to watching it yet. Extras include six audio commentaries with cast and crew, fake TV ads for vampire dating services, vampire hotels, et al., and a documentary about the integration of vampires into the world of humans entitled “In Focus: Vampires in America”. The Blu-ray set offers even more interactive extras that aren’t available on the DVD version, including over 70 video clips of the character Lafayette (played by Nelsan Ellis) giving insight into all the details behind the goings-on in Bon Temps, as well as animated maps where viewers can further explore the town for themselves. Phew.

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Fans of this horror/comedy gem from the mid-`80s have had to wait a long time for it to be released on DVD, but the time is finally here. This is a case of a really solid B-movie not getting the recognition it deserved until much later in its existence, but hey, it’s better late than never. Horror, sci-fi, and campy fun abound in this story of a college campus overrun with alien parasites that transform their hosts into zombies. The film has good effects and is pretty liberal with the gore, but most of all it boasts a raft of immensely quotable lines and hilarious gags that are an absolute riot. Extras include commentary with writer/director Fred Dekker and several cast members, deleted scenes, five featurettes featuring recent interviews with members of the cast and crew, and best of all the director’s cut of the film, which has a completely different ending from the theatrical/VHS version. I’ll end this with the film’s classic tagline (also a line of dialogue in the film): “The good news is your dates are here. The bad news is…they’re dead!”

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This endlessly delayed, deliciously mean-spirited horror film (it was originally scheduled for release in 2007), was finally put out on DVD and Blu-ray this year after being screwed out of the theatrical release it deserved. The film has been described as an anthology on the order of Creepshow, but that isn’t wholly accurate; while the film boasts four separate storylines, all four of them develop throughout the run of the movie rather than in separate, episodic installments. In any case, director Michael Dougherty really delivered the horror goods with this one. The Blu-ray version is the one to get for those who enjoy their extra features done large: it includes audio commentary by Dougherty, deleted scenes, a featurette on Halloween legends, and more. The DVD, sadly, only has one real extra, a feature entitled “Trick `R Treat: Seasons Greeting” with optional commentary (which is also included on the Blu-ray).

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A return to Evil Dead form for director Sam Raimi, this balls-to-the-wall, gross-out extravaganza is about a young loan officer (Alison Lohman) who makes the unfortunate mistake of turning down a loan extension for a down-on-her-luck old gypsy woman. The gypsy subsequently puts a curse on her ass (lets just say the title is extremely apt), with alternately hilarious and freaky results. The extras are a little skimpy on this one (the disc includes the unrated version complete with extra helpings of gore, as well as a behind-the-scenes production diary), but no matter: the movie itself is one of the best horror films of the year and well worth the purchase.

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The Horrors are a macabre garage/neo-psychedelic band hailing from Great Britain who released their debut LP Strange House in early 2007 to much acclaim and fanfare, particularly in their native land. This first album is filled with catchy, guttural goth/punk songs that make for the perfect soundtrack for a gloomy winter’s day, while the follow-up Primary Colours is a more experimental, shoegazer-esque departure that nevertheless manages to get under your skin. To use the proper dark analogies, House was something like an axe to the skull, while Colours is akin to a creeping poison slowly making its way through your bloodstream. Despite their differences, both albums are incredible; buy them now.

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Even those who prefer their early output have gotta give Slayer credit where credit is due: more than twenty years later, the dudes are still churning `em out. World Painted Blood, the latest album from the legendary thrash metal group, features a more song-centric feel than other more recent releases that harkens back to the album on which they made their name, the Rick Rubin-produced Reign in Blood (Rubin oversaw production by Greg Fidelman on this one). At the same time, the album retains the eclecticisms that made 2006’s Christ Illusion such a dynamic success. True to form, the lyrical imagery in World is also never less than grotesque. When all is said and done, the band gets major bonus points for keeping their sound fresh while maintaining the aesthetic that made fans fall in love with them in the first place.

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This 2 CD+1 DVD box set brings together several rare tracks and live videos by the still-going-strong hard rock group that have never been released in a proper (read: non-bootleg) collection. The first CD consists of studio tracks, some of which (“Stick Around”, “R.I.P [Rock in Peace]”) were only released on the Australian versions of their respective LPs, and others that originally appeared only on motion-picture soundtracks (the song “Big Gun” was included in the soundtrack for the crap-tastic 1994 Schwarzenegger vehicle Last Action Hero) and promo samplers. The second disc features live rarities, including some early Bon Scott performances and cuts from a Back in Black-era concert at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The third disc is a DVD featuring several post-1991 live performances from the band not included on the double-disc Family Jewels compilation from a few years back (which focused on the band’s earlier performances).

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